001 - First Flower

[holyfight]

[There are little doodles in the margins of this post - robots and flowers and flying tigers and dinosaurs! It's clear that Orihime has been using her book as a sketch book in addition to its intended use]

Does this really show up to everyone else if I write in it? Can anyone else see this? If you're the owner of this book, I'm really sorry for writing in it! But I can't think of any other way to find you!

Hi! I'm Inoue Orihime! From what I can gather, I'm supposed to be a Flower-Queen's Daughter. But I don't know any queens, so I think there's been a mistake! If anyone knows who that is, please let me know! I'd like to return her book to her!

Comments

[holyfight]

Frilly aprons are cute! If I can find some thread and a needle and some cloth, I'll make you one sometime!

Umm... I guess we could just ask around...

[espigeonage]

Ah, thank you! [he plucks at the new dove-cloak with his beak.] Perhaps there is a cafe or the like around here which needs maids. [In his part of future!Japan it's very common for young male birds to dress femme at work.] If there is, a human shape might make that easier. I expect if clothing scales down it scales up, as well. There's just the one way to find out!

Hah, there is that! I may be too eager to complicate matters, when they are complex enough as it is.

[holyfight]

Do you work as a maid? Ne, maybe we'll wind up working together!

It's alright! We should try whatever we can, right?

[espigeonage]

Hah, perhaps so! And I have dabbled in that profession before. Part-time only. Very part-time.

Yes, yes. I expect it might prove interesting.

[holyfight]

I've never been a maid, but I've been a baker before! I'm going to try to get a job doing that here! All sorts of fairy tales happen in bakeries, right?

[espigeonage]

I think so! It's appropriately humble-yet-appealing, after all. Hah, you could bake the buns while I waited on the customers.

[holyfight]

Yes! We'll take over the town with our delicious baked goods and excellent customer service!

[espigeonage]

They'll never see it coming! [He makes a low cooing dove-laugh.] Now we just need to find a bakery-cafe sort of place that needs the help.

[holyfight]

Exactly! I might wait a day or two to get settled in before looking for a job, though.

Have you been here long?

[espigeonage]

A few days. Hardly enough time to overcome jetlag! Fortunately in this my proper form I am inured a bit to the cold and can sleep with little fear. And you, Orihime-chan?

[holyfight]

Oh! Because of the air pockets between your feathers, right?

I've only been here a few hours now!

[espigeonage]

Yes! [He puffs up again.] We doves do better in the cold than heat. Go on and touch me, if your hands are cold.

Ah, we will have to find you a place to stay, is it not so? Unless the mantle of princess also comes with a palace close enough to walk to.

[holyfight]

[She pokes him!]

Oh! You are pretty warm! That must be nice! I kind of wish I had feathers now!

If I have a palace somewhere, no one told me about it!

[espigeonage]

[His feathers are very soft.]

Heh, you'd make a pretty dove, mon amie.

A sorry world where princesses must scramble for lodging, isn't it? No matter.

[holyfight]

Oh! Are you French, too?

Eh heh, it's alright! They can't fend for everyone, right?

[espigeonage]

I'm from many places! But I am a child of France just as much as Japan.

[holyfight]

That's wonderful, though! What's France like where you're from? I've always wanted to go!

[espigeonage]

Hah. Well, as a country it's certainly larger than Japan! It would not take so long to fly across. Of course it's heavily varied from site to site, and there is a great deal of history there. Humans are farther removed from city life than in Japan, by and large.

[holyfight]

So there are a lot of farmers! Or at least countryfolk! That sounds really quiet and nice...