A Little Place Called 'Home' (Mataoka)

Ah... she'd already been caught, so to speak, had she?

Well... but she couldn't exactly have been surprised. Except such times when she was distracted -- which was not terribly uncommon on its own -- it wouldn't exactly be difficult to catch the distinctive sound of wingbeats in the open air. So of course she'd been found out early.

"A-ah, yes... morning!" Letia somewhat awkwardly chirped as she came to similarly hover just a short way off. A nervous click of her beak, however, was soon to follow, her eyes drifting off to the side at nothing in particular. "I-I didn't, well... think up anything further than this..." she hummed. Right... she'd have to come up with something quickly enough, she knew, else she was just wasting some stranger's time. With a slight sigh, then, her eyes flicked briefly over the distinctly white-feathered rito, pausing, at least momentarily, at the symbol on his chest. A guard, she recognized it as... so...

"...I take it you're... out on patrol, then, or perhaps just headed somewhere?" she asked, her eyes flicking back in the direction of her tiny little encampment. How tempting it was to just escape and leave it... but she couldn't just do that now. "Sorry for being odd, but... may I join you for a little, at least to collect my thoughts? If anything happens to be around, well... I can at least handle myself in the meanwhile," she suggested, even giving a small nod to the thin sword sheathed at her waist... just as much so as any variety of tools on the very same belt.

@mataoka

Hmm. Well, so he said... but if it was up to her, really, she wasn't a stranger to getting involved in whatever was in front of her. For better or for worse sometimes, certainly, but... never mind that. Still, to the little motion of his head, she herself gave a small nod, shifting herself a little in the air before starting along on following after him. At a somewhat easier pace he seemed to be taking when she first spotted him, she vaguely noted, but she could leave that as well for now.

"Ah, yes... I'm Letia. A... mm... crafter of some sort, I guess you'd probably call it? I guess I've never really thought about that much..." she trailed off with a little hum, before slightly shrugging it off -- as much as she could while still keeping her wings moving properly. "Well, besides that! I guess most others'd say I'm just an oddball bird living off on her own with dreams of anything she can think of, like getting others flying, and starting a town, and... ah..." she once again trailed off, finding herself clicking her beak nervously for not the first time.

Well, never mind that Mataoka had probably been looking for no more than her name... it wasn't exactly beyond her to simply information dump anything and everything of any note about herself. Whether others might want to hear it or not. 'Oddball' was hardly far from the truth, she could herself admit.

"B-besides that... are you from around the Rito Village? I don't think I'd seen you around there before, but I can't pretend to know everyone," she curiously asked. A bit of deflection from her rambling, perhaps... but she was still curious besides.

@mataoka

Did she, now? It wasn't... particularly often that she heard that. Mostly, she seemed to exhaust others; not that she could blame them. Someone like her, bouncing around from one thing to the next practically on whim... well, if she wasn't living it, if it wasn't her, perhaps it would be exhausting. At the least, though, besides the little expression on her face that might as well have been construed as a blush -- were such a thing to show through her light-colored feathers -- she could be somewhat glad the rambling wasn't fixed on.

"Ah... so it's that. I do recall hearing at least a few things about that, but I'd always been busy with, well... everything else to ever see much of it," she mused. Then, though... back to her, perhaps rather inevitably. For a few moments, at least, she was silent -- perhaps gathering her thoughts, as she'd suggested previously, or perhaps just to stop herself from rattling off anything and everything, even if he seemed to take it fine. Allowing herself a thoughtful little hum in turn, she flicked a wing lightly to let herself drift over so that she was facing upward, her gaze directed skyward. Not exactly something she'd commonly seen others do, but for her, it was practically a trivial matter to shift her wings the right way, making certain to keep herself going just fine even without facing the normal way.

"Up to the sky... up to anywhere someone might want to go. Kind of like what you said for helping other Rito that have a hard time flying, but for people that would never be able to fly without some help from something else," Letia began to reply, a slight grin at least managing to form in spite of the lingering nerves. "I dunno how well the other Rito would take it... but that's why I want to make a place of my own, anyway. Somewhere anyone can come if they want to stay up in the sky. Though for now, it's just a tent that I keep having to go and retrieve when it gets loose," she added.

"Basically... something that'd take a lot of help, a lot of work. Way more than a bird like me can handle on her own... but that's why I'm off looking, occasionally," she hummed, before turning her eyes back to Mataoka. "But, well... I can go on and on about myself any day. What about you? I'm sure there's gotta be some sort of reason you take the ones a lot of Rito probably wouldn't take, if I'm allowed to ask?"

@mataoka

The tent, even... she'd certainly appreciate that much. It hadn't exactly been much of a learned skill, and her makeshift at it was... not doing great. To that, then, she gave a slight nod for now, her thoughts still drifting as they may. Just as well, Letia listened intently, in spite of her... unusual position in the air, another little click of her beak not long to follow hearing what had apparently happened to the hawk. Though, well... issues focusing, she could at least relate to. Perhaps that was already made rather obvious, though.

"Then be stubborn. Well... coming from me, at least. It sounds like you're going to keep up that way anyway," she suggested, putting on a little grin, though her eyes did flick once more back in the direction of the island she'd claimed, where her tent and things were... hopefully remaining. At least for now.

"Though I guess I should say... would you want to, then?" she asked, exhaling a little hum just after as she realized how perfectly vague the question was. "That is... make a change. Start fresh, almost. Set a roost somewhere new, even if it'll take a bunch of work... not too far away that you wouldn't still be able to take care of all of them, if they might not want to come along as well," she rather openly suggested, her gaze flicking back to Mataoka himself.

"And I will say, if it helps at all! I'm not just some oddball with some lofty dream. I've got plans, diagrams. Did my scouting work for a nice-sized island where more than just trees should be able to grow. I, well... don't really have anything to offer besides a bunch of work to be done and somewhere a lot quieter and calmer... but I can at least try and get you to consider it, right?" she suggested with a slight, somewhat awkward grin. That much, some sort of incentive for putting in work someplace brand new that, for all she knew, might not even come... well, she'd missed thinking of that, it now rather harshly occurred to her.

@mataoka

"W-well... yes. That's basically it. Though not just for me, of course; for anyone who might want to come and live there," Letia affirmed, making sure to make something of a point of that last part. Certainly, yes, it was her dream, her ambition... but it wasn't her that she intended to benefit from it. Not as such.

"It'd take builders, it'd take farmers... once some other things start to go better than they are right now, it'd be able to take way more than Rito. Though I guess I kind of... said that already, didn't I?" she thoughtfully hummed, her gaze turning back skyward as she seemed to consider things further. There was still quite a bit to think about, even just on her own end... but it was never going to be simple.

"But... I guess I should probably at least show you first, once you're done with patrol here. There isn't really anything there just yet, of course... but still to know what I'm working with and all, so you can make your own decision knowing everything you might need to," she suggested, idly letting her eyes even wander a little... though she saw no signs of any monsters, at least for now.

@mataoka

Ah... a 'changing of the guard', wasn't it? Or would that be the right expression? Well... an idle thought, anyway, for something that wasn't that consequential to her. For now, though, she merely watched on in curious silence. Blunt... perhaps to be considered harsh, but it wasn't something she'd choose to comment on. It was clear enough, at least, that Mataoka was dedicated to the protection of this space, and she supposed guard duty probably consisted of many such short messages to make sure things got done.

Easily enough, then, she came to a pause to follow -- if only after flicking her wings back over to help right herself, rather than spend much longer flying upside-down.

"It's off this way. Just a little out of the way, but easy enough to get to," Letia replied with a little grin, before starting to shift her wings a little in the air. A minor dive, of a sort, only for the momentum to start carrying her forward at a nice, comfortable pace for her... though making sure to at least glance over and make sure the other Rito was following. Onward past a sparse few smaller islands spread here or there... to a decent-sized one, just as she'd said, that would quite easily fit a small town in spite of a small, rocky mountain taking up a small chunk of it. Forested almost fully throughout besides, with just a small clearing down in the center that had been where she'd set her own things up, for now.

It was her, then, that pointedly dove down first. Quickly enough alighting herself on grassy ground, making sure her small, hastily-tied tent was still where she left it -- for now -- before moving to rummage through any number of things left here or there in the small clearing. Small scorch marks left behind on the ground, several mechanical apparati that had broken or failed in one way or another... and just as she'd suggested, no shortage of diagrams that she started to spread out on the ground and hold in place with some small rocks for now. For a town layout, for odd winged vehicles, for at least one building. Products of who knew how much time, planning, and study that she'd drawn up for herself.

"Right... that should do it," she spoke up with a small, satisfactory hum once everything was laid out... never minding the disorganized mess that lay elsewhere. "The center square, so to speak, for about here... then houses, and farmland, and... well, plenty of space besides, if I've got everything right so far. At least, it wouldn't be too different from other villages I've looked over from above," she added, allowing herself a momentary little stretch of her wings to follow.

"There's still a lot of things I have to look into, or haven't actually completed," she added after that moment, glancing down notably to one of her diagrams for a possible flying vehicle that was covered in what appeared to be unintelligible scribbles and edits, "but feel free to look around at whatever you want! You would, well... actually be the first, so far," she hummed, glancing somewhat awkwardly off to the side.

Well... it wasn't fully her fault that she had a lot of plans often without the dedication to really stick to one, or the courage to suggest someone uproot their entire home. Maybe.

@mataoka