riverviewlogs

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

[Don't make him smack you, Eichi... He sighs and goes to get yet another wrinkly folded paper out of his pocket. This one has his schedule printed on it. He needs this in his phone calendar or it means nothing to him??]

Could always just pick the later one to be safe... [nag] Looks like it's four.

It wouldn't make any sense to leave you waiting for an hour, Noct-kun.

[Don't be such a whiner.] I'll come by at four, then. I plan on doing some shopping before then, so is there anything you needed for the apartment? [Trashbags, maybe??]

[The cleaning guy takes care of that. And he wouldn't mind an hour break before socializing, so it looks like he played himself, in the end...]

Nope, I'm good. I'll see you then?

Okay. Good luck with your next group. ♪

[Since they seem to be loudly rounding the corner right now! That's Eichi's cue to leave, and he waves a little before heading off. He's going to pet some other animals and then be on his way, of course.

And he'll be right back to wait outside of the gates for Noct a little before 4. No breaks before socializing at all.]

[By 4, Noctis is Exhausted, more than usual since he has to socialize now. It's not that he minds hanging out with Eichi, just - he really could have used that break. So when he finally gets to clock out and leave the animals behind, he meets Eichi at the entrance with his hat tucked under his arm and his phone out, like he has more than 3 friends who might have texted him.

The real reason he should be allowed the break: Eichi has to go out with him wearing this lion sweatshirt now.]

Hey.

Hello~.

[He raises a hand to wave at Noct, smiling calmly like he always does. He actually loves that lion sweatshirt. It's endearing in a certain way he can't put his finger on... He's not ashamed to be seen by someone with it on at all.]

How was the rest of your day, Noct-kun? Not too overwhelming, I hope.

[Eichi is so weird...!! Noctis brushes off the last bits of hay stuck to him from wrangling goats as he comes up beside Eichi and nods for him to lead the way to wherever they're going. If he stops moving he will fall asleep, no doubt about it, let's go.]

Wouldn't say that... I learned baby goats are a lot stronger than I thought they were.

Oh, so it wasn't just the rabbits you worked with? Fufu, baby goats are called "kids," aren't they? From what I've heard, they can be quite feisty, jumping around and headbutting whatever they'd like.

[Sounds like a fun time, Noct... He feels a little bad, but that image is also a little funny. He's leading the way, though, casually pulling out his phone along the way to check a few things before he slides it back into his pocket.]

But if they suggested this job to you, it must be that your skillset lines up with it perfectly. Did you have a similar job at home?

[Goat trivia... spare him. He hums, grim, which is proof enough that, yes, they do headbutt whatever they want. It's like he has a whole family of annoying babies that are all his responsibility now. Yay.]

My skillset, right. [Liking animals is not a skillset, but okay. Here's yet another opportunity to come clean about being royalty, and-] But no, only sometimes? I mean, people asked me to help find their lost animals if I had nothing better to do. And we usually didn't.

That's not really a job, then, is it?

[Is he jobless... What a strange way to answer. Sometimes he helps people because he has nothing better to do?? Eichi still doesn't seem to judge this, just glancing forward at the shops they're approaching, remembering the directions to this food place.]

By the way, I've reached level 40 in King's Fight. ♪ For my first mobile game like this, that isn't so bad, right? [He's so proud of himself for reaching level 40 with his busy job and schedule.]

So I guess I don't really have a job.

[This is the most blatant lie by omission yet... He has a bet to win. Thankfully, King's Fight, while lame and not even close to King's Knight, is a much more interesting topic.]

Level 40's pretty good... for a beginner. Don't worry, you'll get up to the good levels one day.

[Eichi doesn't comment any further on the job thing, not even giving a judging glance or anything like that. It makes sense for someone his age to not have a solid job just yet, right? Eichi would probably be in the same spot if he weren't working on such a shortened timeline, trying desperately to fit his own goals into it.

Besides, he's more caught off guard by the response to his level.]

Beginner? But the game calls my level "advanced." Doesn't "beginner" end at level 20? [He leveled up two whole rank titles from "beginner"! Did the game lie?] What level can you possibly be?

[This poor innocent boy... He's so untouched by the cruel world of Real Gaming. On cell phones, whatever. Noctis doesn't outright laugh at him, but he has to look away to hide his smirk.]

Have you checked the leaderboards? It's no King's Knight, but the best of the best have to be past level 100, at least.

100...! How can that be? It takes so long to level up after you've reached 20. Doesn't it take more and more points each time, even though the enemies barely give any additional experience points?

[He's learning about this gaming world and just suffering. Ahh... He is literally going to be up all night trying to get better. Right now, he just sort of frowns at himself like he's disappointed.]

I'll have to keep trying, I suppose.

If you're dedicated, you'll get there in no time. Well... [Here, have a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, and everything. Welcome to git gud, Eichi.] Maybe some time.

[don't die leveling up]

You don't hold back at all, do you, Noct-kun?

[Brat!! Ugh, he's so annoyed, he's seriously going to try so hard. But he can't do that while walking, and so right now they are heading for Food.] Then it seems I'm but a fleck of salt in the ocean until I've reached that point. Wait for me, and I'll make an impressive showing, I promise it.

Though it does make me curious... What level are you?

It's just a game. You can relax a little, you know. [Seriously, what's with all this fleck in the ocean stuff? Take a deep breath and chill out, buddy.

Buuuut.] I'm, uh, almost level 60. But I already knew how to play, so it's not really the same...?

60...

[What the fuck, what the fuck, he needs to catch up.] I'm completely relaxed, for the record. I've never been able to stop and enjoy games like these, so doesn't it make sense that I'd give it my all? That's all it is.

[Genuinely, that's all it is, but boy does giving it his all mean going hard. It kind of has to when he could die any day or month or year...]

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