open

[heavyhead]

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!]

Comments

[heavyhead]

[Kids these days!! Just kidding, he's probably pickier, but come on. Sushi!]

You can get some without the seaweed.

[supersweet]

Sooo. There are other kinds of sushi?

[heavyhead]

Sure. Plenty. [But some of them have vegetables and he's not about that life, so.] Some are just rice and fish.

[supersweet]

I guess that doesn't sound too bad. . . I don't think I've ever had rice before.

[heavyhead]

Seriously? Don't they grow food on farms?

[supersweet]

Sure, but we don't grow rice. We grow corn and maize.

[heavyhead]

[rethink that farm strategy and grow rice just to have sushi, duh.]

I thought corn and maize were the same thing. [There's more than one type???]

[supersweet]

They are pretty similar, but we put them into different fields so we know which to harvest at certain times.

[heavyhead]

[He knows even less about farming than previously thought? Holy shit.]

Huh. Yeah, the most farming experience I have is picking peppers in random fields. Not farm fields.

[supersweet]

[ Jon beams. It's not often that he feels he's good at something. ]

I can even drive a tractor.

[heavyhead]

[Yeah well Noctis can drive a car at night!!]

No kidding? Aren't you a little short for that?

[supersweet]

No, I'm not! I'm pretty tall for my age.

[ Well. He has long legs at least. ]

[heavyhead]

[Ah yes, this is how you talk to kids....]

Sure. Is it fun?

[supersweet]

Yeah! Driving's always fun.

[ Even if Jon is much faster than any car, he enjoys the experience. ]

[heavyhead]

[Also fun: naps. To wit:]

I usually let my friends drive. Cars, though, not tractors.

[supersweet]

Don't they let you drive too?

[heavyhead]

Sure, but it's pretty boring.

[supersweet]

[ Jon doesn't see how but he could picture it for himself. After all, his dad can fly and Jon can make it halfway across Riverview in a matter of seconds. ]

I guess it can take a lot of time.

[heavyhead]

[And Noctis likes to nap in the back seat, which is way more exciting.]

Right. And someone's always complaining about what's on the radio.

[supersweet]

Do they also listen to really old music?

[ Jon is still waiting for his dad to realize the century has turned. ]

[heavyhead]

More like the same music. One song, over and over again, for hours.

[supersweet]

[ That's true pain. Jon winces. His sensitive hearing wouldn't be able to take that kind of abuse. ]

That's awful. Why would anyone do that?

[heavyhead]

Torture.

[He nods, seriously. This is the first and only reason to commit such a crime.]

[supersweet]

Maybe you just need new friends.

[heavyhead]

Hah, maybe you've got a point. They're usually okay, but sometimes...