Next question: How should one drink soup?

*watches as the transmuation is completed. things turned out just as planned from the looks of it. starts clapping*

very good... you just learned six months worth of alchemal training in an hour. that is the end of the lessons for today. tomarrow we will be learning the basics of energy manipulation.

*disappears briefly and reappears with a stack of books*

be sure you understand these concepts by tomarrow.... well skim them at least....

*turns to armstrong. pull out a giant floor plan and takes off his philosopher's stone necklace, hands both to armstrong.*

here are the plans for the forbidden city and the means for you to make it... i expect you to be done within the hour.

*walks back into the throne room*

*snaps fingers* Ah, away from the bowl, and on the side of the spoon...

*shrugs* Unless, of course, you're in down-town Yokohama, in a ramen-bar, where you slurp at the side of the bowl...

*red light glows blah blah blah you know the rest-- now a whole persimmon/orange/apple/peach orchard with 30 foot tall trees is outside the castle*

Woo.. I did it.. *falls over* That's tiring.

Quite impressive, dear Apprentice!

Princess, please describe it a little more, in terms of formal dining.

*throat dries up...* Oh... my...

Okay, *sits up straight* You take the spoon like so... dip it in as noislessly as possible... bring it away from you... then up... sip quietly from the side... then you replace it on the right/left side of the bowl...

*stops and notices that she has fallen over*

hmmm.... conservation of energy....

*places his hands on her and replenishes her energy with his own*

that should do....

*continues back on his way to the throne room*

Only if you are given a bouillon cup (or anything with two handles) would you place the spoon onto the saucer after finishing the soup.

Next: Why must the spoon be tilted away from you?

*notices that her energy has replenished* Ah, thank you, renkinsensei.

I wonder what nee-san is up to.

*walks into the castle, pulls up a chair and starts observing her sister's etiquette lessons* Hah. *gigglesnort*

Would you like to join us, deshi? You're more than welcome.

*walks back into the throne room. starts to speak a very strange language comprised of sounds that a human is not supposed to be able to make. the fairies start to get excited and glow brighter. as soon as his speech is completed the fairies fly out to the new orchard as one large swarm and start to nest within the trees*

well that takes care of the housing issue....

*turns his attention to etiquette lesson*

Oh no thank you, watching is good enough for me. It's amusing to see nee-san freak out over where to place a salad fork.

I feel mean. xD

Wow. What did you do?

*sees that the Princess has left, and stands up from the chair, smooths out her gown*

Well, I suppose that's quite enough for today. The Princess shall continue her lessons at a later time then. But everyone is welcome to join the lessons, by all means.

I'm feeling rather spent myself, and it would be wise for me to retire.

*gives to a small bow to all those present*

Have a good night.

i just spoke to them in fey... its the language they created long ago, it also the basis of all magical study. every wizard or mage knows fey, to some extent.

well goodnight quis. i hope you don't mind if i sleep under the stars tonight, i just have too many question i have to ask the fairies....

*walks back out to the orchard, whistling*

[night guys, i'm gonna crash too]

*returns to the throne room* Ah, the spoon is tilted away from you because... *thinks a minute* Because it's more polite and uhhh... cuz... ummmm... it doesn't make you look ravenous?

On the most part, it prevents the dripping of the soup onto your fine dining attire, and it is supposedly visually more pleasing to people who are watching you drink your soup.

Ah, I see, Mommy... *nods head*

*walks into the room and sits down at the table. pulls out a newspaper and starts to read*

so what are we gonna do about the persimmon lands?

*pours himself some coffee and returns his attention to the newspaper*

We will likely have to check on it every once so often, to make sure that the dwarves do not sneak back. Other than that, I suppose you can do whatever you want to/with it. You conquered it, after all.

Anything interesting in the newspaper today?

What is my next lesson, Mommy?

*looks up from his paper*

nothing much, something a peasant seeing about small men fall from the sky or something....

but we do have to find someone to run the persimmon lands, its too far away for us to directly run from here. even with the use of teleportation, we'd still be running back and forth all the time.

defanition of parsimmons please.

I'd run away, if I were you...

Do you have any good candidates for running the Persimmon Lands in our absence? If not, I would like to nominate Exorcist tokage, as she seems to have come from a land with plentiful harvests of persimmons, and would know at least a thing or two regarding the upkeep of the magical fruit.

And Princess Angel, lessons are postponed today, as your mother has much to do. Go outside and enjoy yourself if you'd like. The weather is quite pleasant today.

*throws a dictionary at alchemist x*
USE IT.

*skips out the moat* Thanks, Mom!

*slowlys walks up to the thorne room, stopping at the doorway. Propping an arm against the doorframe, he quietly watches the royal couple and the princess converse.*

*stops in the middle of her skip... sees the Prince and runs to him* Darling, welcome home!!! *gives him a kiss*

*happily returns the princess' kiss, then holds her*
Thanks love..it's good to be home...
*whispers in her ear* It's also good to see your parents back home. I think we all missed them...
*smiles once more* You know hon, we do need to start planning for the wedding, correct?

*hugs the Prince happily*... ^^... Yeah, I'm so glad they're back...

*throat goes dry...* Riiight, our wedding... >_6 We'll have to ask my parents for the date...

tokage running the persimmon lands...

excellent idea but i kinda relish the idea of having the exorcist on hand in our court. if she became the administrator of the persimmon lands most of her time would be spent there....

maybe i'll ask the fairies... they are as old as time itself, they should be pretty wise....

I leave for two days and 20 pages pop up... man...

*a hole appears on the other side of the planet and a handsome white haired man walks out* Hmm... where is he? Current alias is falling man... *looks at gps system* I'm on the other side? This could be bad... *sees airship fleet in the distance* Maybe I can hitch a ride with them....

[back in the north] *swings swords in a stylish fashion, the troops follow almost flawlessly* That's good for today. *walks to tent* I go here to fight a battle and I get put on clean-up crew... all thanks to the court exocist in the royal gundam.

*sees the factory smoke stacks in the distance and gets up. calls commanding officer* Continue with training and clean up ops. I... need to go free ninjas...
*flies off toward factory*

[At the factory prison] Ninja 1: Man, can't belive they haven't saved us yet.
Ninja 2: They even came in the royal gundam...
Ninja 1: ROYAL GUNDAM!?!

*a blue flash followed by explosions and cries occurs down the hall. falling cuts off the locks from the jail* You guys look decent for ninjas in the slammer. *drops a bag of provisions and weapons* Get going. *ninjas file out with stuff*

Now then... *turns to enemy soldiers filling up the hallway and commences to chop them all up* Who's next? *cuts down next unfortunate peon* I hope I'm doing them a favor... *charges beam and blasts a platoon plus a hole in the wall*

That's my Gundam!!!

*pats bling on the head*

not yet it isn't.....

this one would be more than happy to assist in the maintenence of the persimmons... this one is quite adept at multitasking (having two tails as well as arms helps in this area...), and assures their highnesses that her services in the court should not be greatly impacted. especially if the fairies are willing and able to help out as well. whetever their majesties feel is best, this one is sure will be most acceptable. XD

((RATS! i thought i had signed in! sorry, guys, ^ that was me... ¬ __¬))

What's not? The Gundam? *weeps* But it's pink!!!

few others type in green.

PINK?! i leave for my honeymoon and you paint MY gundam pink?!!

fine... you keep that one then, i'll just have to make a new one i guess...

*wipes eyes* Look! It's pink! And it's got ribbon and lace in the cockpit!

this one likes to be different. even if she IS part chameleon... XD *nonconforms*

lace? that wasn't in the plans...

*sighs. pulls out a large piece of paper and a pen*

well at least this gives me an excuse to make another gundam....

*starts to jot down ideas and a rough schematic*

Yay! Can I paint it fuschia?

*blinks at the princess* You lined your gundam's cockpit with lace?

the captain would like to helpfully point out that a fuschia gundam is highly unpractical for battle purposes.

perhaps not, captain...but it's very chic...

fuschia?! whatever... its your gundam now, do whatever you want with it. hell you can draw unicorns on it if you want...

though yes fuschia is quite impractical. i highly doubt there will be any fuschia battlefields...

but isn't the princess referring to the new gundam you're going to build as the one she wants to paint fuschia?

Ahh, enlisting the help of the fairies is also an excellent suggestion. They have been around that mystical persimmon tree for a long while . . .

she better not be....

But what if she painted it a very dark shade of fuschia? Woudl that be acceptable?