Change Isn't Always Easy (Taori)

Living in a giant castle at the center of the Saiyan Capital was an... Adjustment, to say the least. Taori had never felt particularly at home among the higher ups and bureaucrats of Saiyan society, yet here he had placed himself as the highest up bureaucrat. Too late to go back now, though. There was a lot more busywork involved in being King than he'd thought there would be, though he supposed it made sense there was so much to look after. Luckily, Rosemary had left things in relatively stable condition, so there wasn't too much trouble setting up the transfer of power. And Alpinia had taken decently well to her new position as well - she looked right at home as a Saiyan Queen.

Surprisingly, there hadn't been all too many visitors yet. Ward had just sort of peaced out when it was clear no challenger would be arriving to contest Taori's rule, and the other two that had been present at the event had both swiftly left. And with all the work Taori had had to do over the last week or so, he hadn't even had time to go talk to Vocado, who had no doubt heard about the change in leadership by this point. He ought to pay him a visit sometime soon, Taori thought.

As he signed his name off one last document, Taori yawned something fierce, and then dropped his pen on the table. "I am going to take a break from this maddeningly monotonous work," he declared to Alpinia, who had been doing some of her own work at the desk next to him. She glanced up at him, then down at her own stack of sheets, and replied, "Well, I guess some fresh air could do us good. I'm only about sixty percent sure I'm actually filling out these forms right..." "That's fifty nine percent more sure than I am," Taori joked back as he got up out of his seat and stretched.

It didn't take too long for them to work their way out to the front, where there seemed to be some sort of ruckus going on. Taori raised an eyebrow as he heard a guard tell a visitor that something wasn't meant for 'their king.' He was pretty sure racism wasn't one of their protocols... 

"Something the matter, boys?" Taori loudly and firmly asked as he approached them from behind. He glanced at the visitor, who, while unfamiliar, was certainly demon-like in appearance. "I sure hope I didn't just hear you trying to dismiss someone based on their species alone, did I?" He crossed his arms and frowned at the guard as he awaited a response, while Alpinia sent the guard a similarly displeased look.

It was, admittedly, rather funny to see the two guards scramble to cover their own asses as the King and Queen themselves arrived to chew them out for their conduct. Taori wouldn't fire them or anything, though he sure as hell hoped they'd take this as a sign to not be belligerent towards non-Saiyans at the front gate. He didn't want to have to lead some sort of diversity awareness training seminar. Taori didn't get much of a chance to lecture them any further, though, before the Demon they'd been accosting brushed right past them and walked up to him and Alpinia.

He didn't recognize her from anywhere, though she certainly seemed aware of him and his wife. ...Which, now that he remembered he was probably the most well-known figure in Vegeta now, made sense. "That'd be me," he replied, and Alpinia giggled at being called 'my Queen.' "Just Alpinia is fine," she insisted, "Though, Queen Alpinia is acceptable if you're not comfortable avoiding titles." Weirdly, a lot of the soldiers had trouble not addressing the King and Queen with their full titles. Force of habit, Taori supposed.

So, what did this girl want? Well, it seemed she wanted what just about everyone wanted lately. The girl very up-frontly asked what he planned to do. And she also wanted to know what happened to Rosemary. Taori had an answer for one of those, at least.

"Ah, well," he began, "I don't have the slightest clue where Rosemary is, firstly. I openly challenged her for her position, and she did not answer, so... She could be anywhere." It confused him, too. It was as if she'd simply vanished overnight. It had made ascending the throne easier for him at least, so... He supposed he shouldn't look the gift horse in the mouth? It was all just a strange situation.

"As for what I plan to do, I can't say I'm aware of to what extent Rosemary had carried out peace talks with the Tuffles. What I can say is that I want to bring things to an end as swiftly as possible. I know the Tuffles are currently figuring out what to do leadership-wise, so once that all gets sorted, I was hoping I might meet with their leader." He paused, then glanced back at Alpinia, who gave him a subtle thumbs up and a grin as if to say he had handled the question well.

Hopefully that was what this girl was looking for?

This girl was a bit of a character, huh? Taori wore an amused expression as she floundered along, trying and somewhat failing to figure out how she was meant to be addressing Alpinia, not to mention her overall quite flustered behavior. And it was fair enough, Taori supposed - he was the King, now. Anyone who hadn't met him before was likely going to be approaching him with a certain level of nervousness, even if he didn't quite feel like he had really settled into the position, yet. In his mind, he was still just a Saiyan soldier who had already outlived his glory days. 

"Sorry I couldn't be of more help," he offered as the girl deflatedly stated she'd just have to go and find Rosemary herself. He honestly hadn't any clue where the woman was, though as far as he was concerned, the Saiyans were better off if she just never returned. Not that he'd be saying that to this girl - she seemed to have some fondness for the former Queen. 

That wasn't the end of it, though. Apparently not, anyway. The girl quickly seemed to get more comfortable with the King and Queen, and got up much closer with her arms crossed and her demeanor far more relaxed than it had been just a moment earlier. She started talking about Rosemary's booze stash, and how the former Queen would allow the girl to drink up as she pleased whenever she came around. This prompted Taori and Alpinia to exchange a brief glance with each other, followed by Alpinia speaking up. "Erm, how old are you, dear?" she asked.

Saiyans were, obviously, a bit more lax about what age one could start drinking at, though this girl seemed a bit... Too young for that. Taori had to say though, that it certainly didn't seem out of character for Rosemary to go offering up alcohol to minors. "Well, I can't say for sure if we've found a hidden booze stash anywhere," Taori added, "Though, uh, if you're just here to ask for free alcohol, I'm going to have to turn you away. We do have quite a bit we still need to work on." And one of his first ever acts as King being giving alcohol to a random child didn't seem like a great standard to be setting for his rule.

Seventeen? Taori's eyes drifted off towards the upper left and his brows furrowed as he tried to remember how old one was supposed to be to start consuming alcohol. He'd started when he was... Sixteen? Seventeen? Er, was it eighteen? Maybe he ought to field this one to Alpinia. He glanced down at his wife, who already seemed to be on the job. "Well, if you can get permission from your parents or whoever takes care of you, then I suppose seventeen is close enough to eighteen," she stated, and Taori silently nodded to himself as he tried to commit to memory that the drinking age was, indeed, eighteen.

Although, when the girl asked if she'd be allowed to crash in the palace from time to time, Alpinia grew a bit concerned about this one's home life. "Er, you do have parents who can look after you, right?" she asked, tilting her head to the side and frowning.

If she didn't, then Alpinia supposed that sort of changed things. The girl did look a bit... Ragged, after all. Not homeless, but not especially well taken after. Maybe things weren't so great back at home for her. And if Rosemary of all people had been kind enough to lend a hand on that front, Alpinia supposed they could at least do as much as extend that same olive branch out to the girl. "Well... I suppose it's a large palace, so it wouldn't hurt to open the floor for her to stay if she has nowhere else to go?" Alpinia suddenly asked Taori as she looked up at him with that expression she knew full well he had a hard time saying no to.

"Huh?" Taori blinked down at Alpinia as he realized he'd been letting his mind wander and hadn't fully processed what was happening in this conversation. Was she asking to adopt this kid? ...Er, no, she was just asking if the kid could stay in the palace sometimes. Well... "Uh, yeah, I guess that's uh, fine," he mumbled back. "Er, what's your name, kid?" he asked the young Saiyan as he flusteredly looked away from Alpinia's puppy dog stare.