[ti]open[/ti]carriage is what brings us together

Momo frowned at the scroll, wondering if it was some kind of special item, and quickly sat down back in her seat. She stole a look at the older man, then quickly looked down at her hands. She looked back up when addressed, secretly relieved at the chance to do a self-introduction. "Ah!" she echoed. "It's okay. My name is Momo. I'm a high school student. My hobby is practicing aikido. Nice to meet you." There was an awkward pause.

...She had no idea how to interact with people in a game.

In real life, everyone's roles were predetermined. Upperclassmen and juniors. Club and dojo members. Those outside. Competitors. Sales staff. There was a dialogue for each of them. Not that she cared for such things, not exactly, but...

Getting trapped in a horse-drawn carriage with a random stranger was like suddenly being talked to by a foreigner on the train. Fortunately, Momo was better prepared than most for such a situation. Her family dojo had always hosted promising aikido students from overseas, and she'd picked up conversational fluency in English as a result.

Then again, she'd never spoken to someone clearly so much older than her. She would proceed cautiously and politely.

I suppose I should be happy it's not someone closer to my age. They might have judged me... Her game avatar gave off a very different vibe than she did in real life, after all. For no real reason. Nothing she wanted to think about, anyway.

"So," she finally said shortly, crossing her arms. For such a small, cute teen girl, her posture was stiff as a crowbar. "It's my first time to visit Briarbane. How about you?"

At that moment, a blinking red square appeared on her minimap.

Momo was on her feet as the older man leaned out the carriage door, looking out into the forest.

As he did, she saw his ears. Elf ears. She didn't know why, but it took her aback. She'd forgotten they were playing in a kind of fantasy game for a moment. Until a Pokemon appeared, it was all too easy to pretend this was just some little-known quadrant of the real world. There had been things like that in character creation, now that she thought about it- demon horns, cat ears, vampire teeth. Perhaps it was because she didn't spend much time interacting with other players, but Momo had simply never seen it in action before.

Up in the treetops, some birds were making a racket. Momo wasn't in the habit of paying attention to wildlife- ordinarily she would have ignored the alarm cries, but as Tiernan Oaktread pointed up into the branches, she found herself following his line of sight. Perhaps it was a social effect.

"Ah," she said, finally spotting the Talonflame circling overhead. It reminded her of the black kites in her hometown - you had to be careful, or they'd swoop down and steal your oysters. She'd heard in Kyoto they threw squares of fried tofu to them and they'd catch it out of the air. "A... hawk Pokemon. It is probably hungry." Ah, but she didn't have any tofu. She had a little plain omelet from the Giant Omelet on the Surge Steppes, though. She took it out.

How do I know if it's even interested? She'd have to test it.

She held the piece of Giant Omelet out the window, waving it a little to catch the bird's attention. It did nothing to quiet down the terrified Pidgey, but she thought she saw the Talonflame's head cock as it zoomed in on the meal in her hands. She pulled it back in. "Hmm. Maybe it will work?"

"If it is okay, you can throw food to it, like this." Momo mimed an underhand pitch, glancing at Tiernan as the carriage continued to bump along. She broke the Plain Omelet slice in half with her hands and offered him a piece. "Probably, we will not get in trouble for littering."