Furnado Animal Shelter; Wednesday [07/24].

[hashtag_chocobro]

You know, Prompto was mostly still helping out and volunteering at the animal shelter out of nostalgia for all the good memories here in his youth and to help carry on the tradition that Sidon continued while Prompto was back home, but there were days where he was starting to think that doing so was very detrimental.

Mostly to his wallet.

Because new cat beds had come in that morning, and now he desperately needed one for Rain.

And he couldn't even talk himself out of it, because as soon as she saw them, Noctra's eyes lit up and she pointed and cried out "Okobo!" and then decided she was going to drag one around with her wherever she went today, and it had been a near disaster when she found out she was too big to fit into it herself.

Prompto was, however, pretty proud of himself for thinking of cutting out the bottom of one so he could just put it on top of her walking bugging, which meant she was eventually scooting around the store clucking and warking and kweh-ing to her little heart's content.

And, of course, singing along with Dad.

Furnado is open!

Comments

[deathsmajesty]

You know what hadn't happened in awhile? A Liliana sweeping in with a "Hello the shop!"

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto looked up from where he was helpfully helping a cat up on one of the climbing platforms against one of the walls to put it out of the relentless path of a toddler having her own personal chocobo race around the front of the store.

"Oh, hey, Liliana. How's it going?"

And, from somewhere beneath the chicken-head cat bed on top of the walker that presumably held a Noctra, there was a happily chirping greeting of "Kweh! Kweh!"

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana had to stop and blink at the...whatever this was in front of her, before looking up at Prompto with a raised eyebrow, a silent question in her expression. She had no idea what she was seeing but it sure was...happening.

Her expression, while being quite dubious at chicken-headed cat bed, gave no hint to the Noted as she filed away his response to her greeting.

"Hello, Noctra," she said, patting the top of the...chicken...since that seemed to be the best way to handle the kweh-ing child and stepped around to the counter where Prompto usually hung out when he wasn't rescuing cats or searching for missing children. "Hello, Prompto. I have several things that might be of interest to you. However, the first is contraband, I'm afraid."

So saying, she took out a container of six cupcakes from the cupcake shop in Baltimore that Prompto had gotten her cupcakes from once in a panic of 'Oh no I think I did something wrong, I have to say sorry!' One was mint chocolate chip, since she remembered those were Liz's favorite, one was lemon raspberry since she knew Prompto liked fruit and that was her favorite, and the rest were moddable chosen at random by the assistant at the shop. "I'm not sure if you want that one to be seen by little eyes, so..."

Little did she know that as a completely off-hand, no reason behind it or thought put into it, absolutely random gesture, what it had in sentiment and callback was perhaps utterly ruined by ignorance of past trauma. Whoops.

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Oooh," Prompto's eyes lit up eagerly at the sight of cupcakes, and, with Liliana's reasons for her discretion, couldn't help but chuckle a little as he nodded and subtly shifted them behind a few things on the counter for now. "Good call. I don't think I can convince her that no, no, chocobos clearly can't have cupcakes, and therefor, these are all for not-chocobos. But...thanks."

His smile was a soft and grateful one, although a little bit of a wary one. Curious, but cautious, since Liliana bringing him cupcakes out of the blue did seem to have a little bit of an ulterior motive feel to them. Although, considering everything that had been going on, at least according to what Igs had shared with them, maybe it really was just cupcakes after all, in that subtle way, like how Liliana really did not need to go that hard for Christmas, and yet...

"What's some of the other things of interest?"

[deathsmajesty]

Christmas was for presents! She'd just been following Earth customs!

And who wasn't to say that it didn't have ulterior motives. Because it did, thank you. They were just subtle. Everyone knew that you didn't immediately follow up the bait with the hook. Except if you were fishing. For real fish. Or something. Look, never mind.

"Well, the next thing is an invitation," she said carelessly. "My alma mater does a midsummer concert every year - a blending of music and performance and elemental magic put on by Prismari College. Ignis said you enjoyed music. I wished to see if you would enjoy a trip. It is a family friendly affair, so Noctra would be welcome to attend, too. Though we would have to go via portal to Arcavios." Her expression was soft, focused a little inwards. "It is a beautiful campus, actually. I had some very happy times there, at a time when I hadn't thought it was possible for me to ever be happy again."

[hashtag_chocobro]

Look, narrative, don't talk to Prompto about fishing, then we were going to get into the real trauma!

There was a little extra brightening to his soft smile as he listened to Liliana and she got to the point where Ignis had apparently mentioned something about him, a pleased little flicker that he really couldn't help, but the smile did falter significantly at the mention of a portal to a different plane, and then it made another resurgence at the end there, with a great deal of empathy in that last iteration of his smile, because, hey. They'd all been there, right?

His attention shifted a little over to Noctra, in a way that had nothing to do with checking up on her to make sure she wasn't careening into any walls or unsuspecting animals in her current chocomobile.

"Will you and Ignis be going, too?" he asked. "Maybe Nell and Gladio? And you said you went to school there, too?"

The idea of getting locked behind a portal again was much easier to swallow when you were with the people you wouldn't want to be cut off from and the place wasn't, you know, a war-torn apocalypse without sunlight.

[deathsmajesty]

"It would be very hard for me to bring you and not go myself," Liliana said with a soft laugh. "And yes, Ignis seemed to be quite pleased by the idea, and I see no reason for Nell and Gladio to not come along as well, although someone might have to staple his shirt to him." Her smile went crooked for a second there, though was replaced by a fonder one a moment later. "Yes, though I belonged to the College of Witherbloom, not Prismari - though I took several classes at Silverquill as well."

She considered him. "You would have been Prismari, I think. Ignis, too. Gladio, Lorehold. In fact, we might lose him to Lorehold anyway if we don't keep an eye on him in between the musical numbers."

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Lorehold?" Prompto asked, because there were quite a few words in there that he wanted to explore more. "Is that a shirtless college, then, or just the one with Cup Noodles^TM? And what's Witherbloom and Silverquill? I'd think maybe Witherbloom for Nell if it weren't for the Wither part, and Silverquill just makes me think, like, pretty poetry and writing and things like that..."

Prismari, he was trying to work out a little bit more, because, beyond music, he couldn't really think of anything that would put him and Ignis into the same class.

(Ignoring, blatantly, that the two of them very much were in exactly the same class as both Kingsglaive and Hunters).

"It sounds nice, though," he admitted, a bit wistfully, and with another glance over toward Noctra's idle scooting (she seemed to be momentarily distracted by petting a kitty through the mouth of the chicken head. "I'll ask Liz if she's interested in going, but I really don't see her not wanting to."

[deathsmajesty]

"Lorehold is the College that focuses on historical battles," Liliana said with a smile. "They excavate old battlefields and raise ghosts to talk to the classes so they get to hear what the battles were truly like, discuss what they saw as the underlying reasons for going to war, how the cultures they were from influenced how the war was fought, different weaponry and magics that were used..." She laughed. "All of the Colleges had their own dining halls that made delicious food, but, if I remember correctly, Lorehold did end up with its own fair share of shirtless students. Usually the ones about to fling themselves off of something high to prove that they...could? I suppose? Witherbloom is, among other things, the College of healers, so our House of Healing saw a number of Loreholders end up there."

Strixhaven: where even the jocks are nerds.

"All the Colleges are founded on opposing principles, so Witherbloom is the College that examines the duality of life and death. I followed the Principle of Decay, she would follow the Principle of Growth and we'd argue in the cafeteria about this obscure theorem or that one. And you're correct about Silverquill," she said, giving him the smile she favored upon students who had answered questions exactly correct, no notes. "It focuses on communication, written and verbal, and the role it plays in society. Is it meant to uplift, bringing out the best in people? Or is it meant to cast down, expose bitter truths, remind everyone that even the strongest leaders can be brought low. Prismari is the College for the visual and performing arts. Its duality is expressed in the true purpose of art. Is it to make you think? Or make you feel?"

Quandrix was also there, she guessed.