dualislogs | [Open] He didn't ask for this

WHO: Squall + you?
WHAT: There's a little bird named Boko. Also setting up for Premium Foods drama.
WHERE: Dorms + Premium Foods
WHEN: August 2 onward
WARNINGS: Shady and terrible retail working conditions?

A) Chasing after a bird (Dorms - August 2 and the week following that)
After the confusion that is waking up to a tiny chocobo delivery at his door and discovering Nida's aversion to chocobos in general, Squall is now having a wonderful time trying to figure out what to do with a chicobo.

Spoilers: He has no freaking clue.

Fun fact 1: Boko does not like being indoors.
Fun fact 2: He is very good at escaping.

So there is a barely knee-high yellow bird stalking you today, pecking at your shins, jumping onto the communal kitchen counter, blocking your view of the TV, being cute and making noises along the lines of 'wark' and 'kweh'. Quickly followed by a tall exasperated teenager rushing in to snatch up the bird, muttering something along the lines of "No!" or "Sorry." and awkwardly holding the struggling bird.

Sometimes Boko just breaks free or dodges and there's a chase scene. Squall is not having a good start to the month.

B) Premium Foods is evil (Aug 2) - Setting up! Feel free to skip to the tag options.
Thanks to Boko's surprise appearance, Squall is late for work for the first time that month. An action that will prove to be a bigger problem than expected as his supervisor walks up to him while he's working on cashier lane 5. The conversation is quiet but there's a sense of growing annoyance from the way Squall frowns at him.

Squall shoves the cashier box shut with a satisfying whoosh of rattling coins and metal.

"I quit." His contract is up tomorrow anyway.

"If that's how you feel, we'll be in touch with our lawyers." The supervisor continues to look smug. The explanation that follows along the lines of Squall violating the contract by being late, Premium Foods requiring compensation for the alleged loss of revenue in that time, and the stupid amount they could sue Squall for over it.

Squall goes deathly quiet and turns off the light to his counter to close the lane. "I'm going to count the stock," he announces and walks off, ignoring the passive aggressive complaints from the customers who are waiting.

B1) Angry stocking
Squall can be found in one of the aisles moving items around, squeezing them too tightly, and slamming them down with way more force than necessary. He's lost in his thoughts until a particularly hard slam of a bottle sends ketchup flying everywhere.

Hopefully no one's nearby to catch that.

B2) Angry trashing
Clean up, throwing out expired stock... They're an occasional part of his duties. It's while he's hauling the last giant bag of trash into the dumpster on the far side of the store that the bag rips.

Squall just stares at the mess by his feet and very pointedly kicks the dumpster hard enough to leave a slight dent. He seriously just wants to go home, and he's not talking about the dorms.

((OOC: I forgot to add but Premium Foods is basically a high-end grocery chain that's about as snobbish as it gets.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[What is Squall even looking at right now? It's ridiculously endearing even for someone as closed off as him. He squashes that thought down because he doesn't actually want to grow attached to the little bird, cute as he is right now.

How is Cloud even keeping a straight face through this? Has Squall met his match or something? While he's still not very expressive, there are varying degrees of surprise and confusion and intrigued flashing across his face.]

I think he made the choice for us. I can take him sometimes- [The traitor-bird makes a well-timed distressed kweh, getting Squall to give him a withering look.] when you're busy. Nida doesn't like chocobos so you're doing me a favor. I've been looking for a place to keep him until I build him a shelter.

[The cuteness? It's all Boko. And you should be proud of your son, Squall. He's adorable. Even if his obsession with his earring is already starting to hurt. Regardless, he moves his hand to his chest to support the bird underneath his jumper, blinking at Squall's statement.

...He's just inherited a son, hasn't he.]

Okay. But you should take him when you want. And I'll help you with the pen. Where're you thinking of building it?

[Squall is going to resist liking this bird for as long as he can, dammit. But he'll take responsibility for him too. He doesn't know if he will take Boko that often (he will) but he agrees anyway, nodding.]

There's space on the roof and the guy at the lobby said it's okay to build something there. [There's a pause before he adds reluctantly, sounding relieved too.] ... I'll need the help. I don't know how to build a chocobo pen.

Can't be that hard. A fence, some wire. A run for him to stretch his legs and some shelter for at night.

[He's hardly a construction expert himself, but it sounds doable. Can't be that hard, right? Little does he know about Boko being a master escape artist.]

Probably gonna have to find some straw, too. Things like that.

[Chocobos aren't widely domesticated back home. He would have tried to build Boko a horse stable and just leave the poor thing in there all day.]

Right. Oh. I can look it up online. [The way he phrases it. He's still not used to the convenience of the internet. Hell, he forgets about his phone sometimes. He's used to a closed self-maintained network. Not a wide network with near-infinite searches.]

Do you want to go look for supplies?

[He's taking out his phone to start tapping up some searches, looking for pen designs and shelters and other relevant things.]

[He's not used to it either, so he looks a little perplexed as Squall mentions it. Then- oh. Yeah. That's right. Internet.]

Yeah. We can probably go to the forge. Last I saw, Seifer had a lot of wood lying around. C'mon.

[It's probably best to go to the roof, actually. Get some measurements. He walks toward the elevator, holding it for Squall when it arrives. And when they're on the roof...]

Alright. So it's got a fence around it, so he can't fall. That's good. But we're gonna have to build another one around his enclosure. So... shelter to sleep in, somewhere for him to walk, somewhere for him to eat, and then a fence around that. Probably gonna need half the roofspace.

[That's... a lot of wood.

Sound good?

[Making time to go to the forge at the last minute is going to be a pain. But he can't exactly shirk responsibility on Boko. He follows Cloud up there and listens while he looks around, trying to picture what Cloud is describing.

He nods. Sounds as good as anything he could come up with and it matches some of the animal housing designs he found on the way up here.]

Sounds fine. As long as we make it big enough for when he's full grown too.

[The idea of a chocobo living on the roof is... weird.]

[It is, but at the very least, there's the bus service that'll shave off a few hours from the trip. ...Hopefully. If nothing goes wrong. It's still a big ask though. Maybe they can kill two birds and pick up something for Seifer to eat on the way too. Might even help him part with his wood.]

Yeah. You're going to have to use the elevators to get him up and down when he's grown.

[He'd have to go out for runs, after all. And the mental picture of someone having to share a lift with a fully-grown chocobo and Squall is ...interesting.]

Between the two of us, it'll probably take a while. [Good thing they had a while until he grew. But.] ...It's your decision, but I wouldn't leave such a young one up here overnight. It'll get cold.

[Food is a good plan. They should be able to convince him if it's for a chicobo too. He sighs at the odd thought of a chocobo in an elevator.]

We can worry about that when he grows bigger.

[He folds his arms, eyeing the young bird in Cloud's shirt who's peeking around the new area.]

We can leave him blankets when the shelter's done. But you're right we shouldn't leave him up here right now. I'm... trying not to kick Nida out of the room. He won't stay if Boko's around.

[That's weird. He blinks at the revelation about Nida, then looks down to Boko. Who is still peeking, and still being very cute. He brings his hand to the side of Boko's head, the chicobo nudging and moving his head against the side of it.

He then raises his eyes toward him.]

I guess I could take him at nights when you're with Nida. You take him in the day when you're not.

[Oh. That's a better solution than he could hope for. He nods.]

That's a big help. Thanks.

[It takes care of Boko and Nida. What a relief.]

Oh. He's kind of a GF. He helps us in battles sometimes. He can cast fireball and meteor. He didn't do anything when I fed him greens earlier. I'm guessing his abilities are blocked off but it can't hurt to be careful until we know for sure.

[A GF? Thankfully, he's not exactly that familiar with netspeak. Otherwise, he'd have some questions about that. Far beyond the inquisitive raise of the eyebrow he's presently offering. When Squall elaborates though, he nods.

Fire and meteors. The latter, of course, makes him examine the bird more closely. He couldn't mean that, he's sure. ...Is he?

Well.]

Got it.

[He then extracts the bird from his jumper, (carefully. And not without its own problems, because Boko's indeed found that he enjoys this place, and he's not willing to give it up without a fight.) before handing him over to Squall once more.]

Here. See you later this evening.

Guardian Forces. A summon.

[Squall explains as he holds out his hands to take the kicking bird. He'll have to make sure Boko doesn't get under his clothes without better training. He doesn't need more scars. He smooths a hand over the chicobo's neck to try and soothe it.]

See you then.

[He doesn't need more things to worry about but Boko is his now. And at least there's Cloud to share the burden.]

[Open] He didn't ask for this

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