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Entry tags:

open

who: Noctis and open
what: various open prompts including baby animals at the petting zoo
when: throughout May??
where: the zoo, other miscellaneous places
warnings: nothing

A. zoo/this is technically 2 prompts

[For someone who's only ever held down one job (and not for long), Noctis is doing pretty well at this petting zoo attendant thing. He gets to sit around and pet cute animals for most of his shifts? What's not to love? It almost makes up for having to clean up after them at the end of the day.

He has zero complaints about the uniform, complete with nametag, either. Actually this is probably the best part of this job.

What's not so great is how many people he has to talk to and supposedly educate, because damn, he is not great at that. The little kids are easily entertained enough, aside from the precocious ones who keep trying to correct his Animal Facts(tm), but it's a lot harder to remember everything he has to say about the various animals in the petting zoo area when there are actual adults around... He has petting zoo stage fright.

But he tries. Mostly, to varying degrees.

If you come by the petting zoo in the morning, when he's giving it his best shot, you'll probably catch him holding, at the same time, a bunny and a rough-looking, folded-and-unfolded-too-much piece of paper. The bunny is quite literally tucked into the crook of his arm, while he frowns at the paper and flounders.]

Okay, so this type of bunny— rabbit, this type of rabbit usually lives in, uh... [please save him, ask a question or something.]

[ORRRR if you come by later in the day, when he's just tired and wants to clock out and go, he'll hold up what looks mostly like a baby alligator, but for some reason, orange, and sigh.] You want to hold a lizard?

[professional.]

B. not the zoo

[When he's not at work, Noctis can be found loitering in public spaces like shopping centers and food courts, minding his own business and playing on his phone... or buying too many fishing lures at a time, or actually standing around looking like he might want to talk to someone.

The thing is: he had shit to do at home and it was pretty dang important, and now he's here and as much as he'd like to stay in his room and sleep all the time, there are people there and so he needs something else to keep busy. Which is dreadful in and of itself, but finding something to do besides mobile games? Even worse. He's compromised and gone back to the only thing he knows how to do: favors for other people. So while he loiters, there's a little sign set next to him that just says 'ODD JOBS' on it in marker. Hire him to pick vegetables or something.

He's still wearing the lion hat.]

C. etc?!

[plotting available @melodrama!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Otabek decides to go to the petting zoo on a whim. He normally wouldn't spend time there, but he had down time, and didn't have any work to do at home, so he figured he'd check out some of the places to see around the city. He sees the interesting looking lizard(?) and when the question is asked if he wants to hold it, he extends his hand. ]

Alright.

[ Why not, after all? ]

Two hands. [Gotta follow lizard protocol, here. Once he gets two hands ready for lizard deposit he hands the little guy over, helpfully showing how to hold the head and tail... Finally, something is going right in his day.

At least until the lizard's bright orange skin starts mottling purple. Uh.]

I— I think that's okay, that it's doing that. I don't know why.

[ He's holding out both of his hands and then.

Oh my god. It's molting. He looks up towards Noctis, one eyebrow raising. ]

Are you sure?

[ Because he doesn't sound sure. And he certainly isn't sure if it is normal. He's curious, and he leans to get a slightly better look at the creature in his hands. ]

Uh- [No, for real, he is handling this adroitly and professionally, if either of those things meant staring at the lizard and glancing around for someone who's worked here more than a week to save his ass.

But then, this guy-] Seriously? Don't stick your face in it!

[ He's staring straight up at Noctis, raising an eyebrow. Again. He's pretty comfortable with the creature in his hands. ]

I'm not.

[ He already has the impression that this guy doesn't really know much about what's going on. ]

It seems alright. What type of lizard is it?

[ Shrugs. ]

[He knows this lizard is changing colors for no discernible reason, which is a start.]

Orange. Or it used to be. Give it back before my boss sees it doing that.

[ He seems mildly amused with Noctis' reaction. He gets the feeling that the other is new. He holds out his hands and offers the lizard back to Noctis. He seems indifferent. ]

Is it not supposed to?

[ Otabek just kind of figures if it is doing a thing, it's probably supposed to do it. After all, animals didn't just do things for the sake of doing them. ]

Not while you're holding it.

[Well, this lizard doesn't care at all what's happening around it when it does what it naturally does, but Noctis is getting antsy here. He takes the lizard back and sort of- tilts it, like looking at its stomach will help him figure out why it's suddenly doing this now.]

Do you want to hold the other lizards?

Ah.

[ Interesting. The creatures here were different from what he's used to encountering at home. And he's not really interacted with lizards much anyway. He looks up towards Noctis, and nods. ]

Alright.

[ The other seems baffled by the lizard he's holding, but Otabek is still willing to follow his lead despite it. ]

[He's handling the situation expertly, for sure. Noctis leads the way over to the lizard tanks, depositing the misbehaving one back where it belongs before he reaches into one of the other tanks and scoops up a much smaller red lizard that notably does not start changing colors the moment he touches it.

So it's going great.] Here—this one's normal.

[...normal,] I mean, it's okay to hold this one.

[ The slightest hint of amusement at Noctis' choice in words initially. He can't help himself. The lizards are pretty curious. He holds out both of his hands to accept him. ]

Maybe the other was sick of being touched.

[ Shrug. He empathized. The one that Noctis picked up seemed okay. And he was interested in it. ]

[It's a lizard, it just sits there all day... He passes over the little red one, watching it warily. It seems fine...]

Yeah, we're all waiting for the day to end, even the lizards. [jokes!! ha ha? bury him.]

[ He observes the red lizard for a moment, it seems rather chilled out. It's not reacting like the previous one at least. He looks up towards Noctis. He shrugs. ]

Imagine if people were poking or staring at you all day.

It just sits there anyway. [Defensive of his job, a little...] I guess I can get the staring thing.

No one likes being stared at.

[ In his experience, anyway. He's sure maybe there's a few that don't mind it. Like, he didn't mind when performing, but mostly - he just liked to be left alone. It kind of confounds him that that's the one that Noctis understands, and not the poking. ]

It's a lizard. I don't think they're supposed to do much.

[ Except well... look kind of cool. ]

[He gets stared at more than he gets poked, to be fair. Sort of. He wouldn't like either, but never mind.]

They... eat. [dot dot dot....] Want to feed it?

[ He wouldn't even dream of passing this up. He eyes the lizard, then Noctis for a moment, then his eyes fall on the creature in his hands. Otabek likes it, of course. So -- ]

Yes.

[ There's a level of enthusiasm which is just barely noticeable. ]

[Nah, he feels it, barely there enthusiasm is how he lives his life. So-]

Wait here... just a second. [He needs to duck into the employees only zoo shack for just a second, before he comes back with a literal tupperware. It is full of crickets.

This is the worst part of his job so guess who gets to stick his hand in the Cricket Cube??] I'll hold it open just a little and you get to grab one. Cool?

[ Otabek waits, observing the lizard there. There's something particularly cute about it. He looks up when Noctis returns with the tupperware of crickets. ]

Alright.

[ Reaches in and grips one of the crickets tightly, which he pulls out and offers to the lizard. he doesn't flinch or hesitate for a moment.]

[What the hell, how does he do that. How does he just- touch bugs-!!! Even holding this tupperware is giving Noctis the creeps.]

You wanna come back and feed them every day? [Just take his whole job, it'll be fine.]

[ They're just crickets, Noctis. Otabek brushes his knuckle over the lizard's head. His response is... deadpan. ]

Isn't that your job?

[They're little devils with too many legs. Look at them.]

You got me. I hate bugs.

It's just crickets.

[ He's so unimpressed, Noctis. Like, crickets are completely harmless. He'd understand if it was something big and poisonous or something... ]

Maybe someone else should take care of the lizards.

You're telling me. [Someone else should do this, since Noctis is a huge baby about it. He doesn't even like holding this tupperware.]

Have you seen how many legs they have? And how they move? It's not right.

They're harmless, though.

[ Blinks. He reaches in, snags another cricket to feed it, and offers it to the lizard. ]

And they're eaten within seconds.

[ Unimpressed. ]

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