fandomhigh | Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part II

If anyone asked (and he really hoped they wouldn't), Prompto thought he was doing an excellent job at pretending to be okay and putting on the happy, excited face for the newbie picnic. It helped, though, that he was spending a good portion of the time behind a camera, trying to snag some great candids and maybe trying to see if anyone in particular might seem comfortable with a few more posed shots.

And he was taking a lot of pictures of the food, too, because that was always a good highlight, and he might have been a particular dork by favoring some burgers in that respect, because, hey, come on, it was at this picnic his first semester piling a plate with burgers that he'd met Yang. Kind of brought back some awesome memmories, okay? And he wanted to infuse his day with all the good stuff he possibly could.

And eventually he'd get to eating some of them, too, but he knew once he got started, he'd be hard pressed to really stop.

She saw the boy with the camera and he looked a little like her roommate without looking a single thing like Norman at all. Something about him spoke to her in a whisper of her sister and that was the thing that was sort of the same.

He was new and he was a people-shaped person and not ladybugs or a pile of swishy leaves or any of those sorts of people so she was a little hesitant walking over to him. Barnabas followed.

She wasn't sure what to say. There were so many words all at once and all at the same time but most people didn't talk that way and she didn't sometimes know how to talk the way they did so.. she.. simply said.. "Hi?"

And waited to see if that was enough.

A simple hi was always enough, especially when you were a new student that was kind of hard not to notice from someone with an eye for particular aesthetics, as well as accompanied by a dog. Prompto had actually been thinking of introducing himself, really, but he just hadn't had the chance to work up to it. He was still having some trouble getting his brain really into the moment, despite his best efforts.

"Hey," he said; his brain might be having trouble, but his smile came easily enough. "You're probably one of the new students, right? I'm Prompto."

He then held up his camera. "Mind if I get a picture? Maybe one with your dog, too?"

And definitely a smile for the dog, because hiiiiii doggooooooo! What a good boy! He could totally already tell.

Troubled brains were kind of her stock in trade, really.

She smiled back and nodded. That was easier than words. She had some words, she'd learned these words just for this school occasion. "I'm Delirium and this is Barnabas."

"Hello," Barnabas greeted, "It's nice to meet you, Prompto." He gave a doggy sort of grin and then gave Prompto a good Kodak moment by getting in Delirium's face and licking her cheek to make her giggle.

A good Kodak moment that was completely wasted because the photographer was a little distracted at just that moment.

"Oh, shit, you talk!"

Look, in all his time with puppers, he still hadn't really come across one that talked yet. He couldn't even talk when he was a dog. So he was still allowed to be a little thrown off by that.

And then instantly stoked.

"Ohmygod, that is so cool!"

And now he was sneaking in at least a few pictures before he got himself distracted by holy shit cool looking girl with a talking dog all over again.

Delirium giggled and made little pleh pleh pleh noises when Barnabas caught her in the face with his tongue.

"All dogs talk," Del said, "Everything talks. It's just not always so people can understand. I always do for all the everything. Sometimes it's very loud in the world."

She looked up at Prompto suddenly, "Would you like to understand dogs when they speak Dog?"

Careful how you answer, Prompto - she can make that happen. And she would if you wanted it, because you seemed sad and she had, after all, once been Delight.

On the one hand, Prompto was sort of in a place right now where he was still self-flaggelating big time on making rash and sudden impulses that seemed like pretty good ideas at the time.

On the other hand, though, there was a pretty girl with seriously the coolest eyes looking at him and asking him if he wanted to understand what dogs were saying all the time.

It was putting him in a very awkward spot, really, and what better way to deal with awkward spots than just sort of laughing at them and trying not to start fidgeting?

"Well, I mean, duh, yeah, of course I would," he said. "That sounds amazing. I work with all the puppies down at the puppy shelter, and, I mean, I like to think I kind of already understand them pretty well as it is; I even got to be a puppy for a while, and, oh, man, that was kind of the best thing ever, but do you mean, like, understanding them so they'd all talk like Barnabas," and when he said his name, a big grin broke out on his face and his attention went solely on the dog for a moment, because HIIIII BARNABAS YOU GOOD BOY YOU, "or would it, I don't know, be different? Because, like, understanding them like that would be cool, but I think I'd kind of miss all the cute little barks and whimpers and howls and stuff, unless it would be both. If it was both, then that would work."

And then a sudden, terrible, amazing thought hit him.

"Wait. Could you understand chocobos, too? You said you always do for everything, so that would include chocobos, too, right? Do you know what those are?"

"I understand everything," Delirium said simply, "I don't know chocobos. I don't think there are any in my realm right now."

Beat.

"Not like Barnabas. He speaks people. I wouldn't make the puppies speak people because puppies should learn to speak dog because if they speak people then they might forget how to speak dog and that would be sad. Barnabas can speak people and dog because he's not a puppy no more. He's always spoken people." She looked around with a tiny frown, "There are no puppies here so maybe not now to make you understand them since there's none here for you to listen to? I could wait until there are puppies."

Prompto's shoulders slumped a little bit in disappointment about the chocobos; guess it was just still him and Zack on that one, but that was fine. He still had his chocobestie, and that would have been almost too amazing to handle, really.

But puuuuuppiiieeesss....

"There's always puppies at the shelter," he offered with a small smile to counteract that tiny frown. "And they love meeting new people. And new dogs! I'm there most Fridays for work, but we could easily go in at another time if you wanted. I'm sure you've got a ton of stuff to do with getting settled in and everything, but...I think...I think they'd like you, Delirium. And I think you'll really like them, too."

Because who didn't like puppies?

Not someone Prompto's want to know, that was for sure.

Delirium watched him slump and fidgeted from foot to foot. "Do you have a chocobo? I don't have one. They don't live in my realm I don't think but I could always go to the where that they are if you have one? I just.. I just don't have any. I'm sorry?"

Beat.

"When's Friday?"

Barnabas chuffed and bumped her with his nose. "I'll tell you when it's Friday, Delirium. It's days and days away."

"I could make it be Friday now?"

"No," Barnabas said automatically.

"Yeah, man," Prompto said, grinning crookedly at that quick response from Barnabas and being maybe just a little reminded of Ignis, which was kind of great in his book. "You don't want to make it Friday now, then we'll miss all the days in between, and that's a whole week of stuff. A lot of really cool stuff could happen in a week.

"And don't worry about the chocobo stuff, either. I've actually only met one other person who has them in their realm like we've got in mine, and I don't even have one myself, anyway. I'd like one, but, you know." He shrugged. "Maybe one day. Plenty of other awesome animals to keep me company in the meantime."

Delirium scrunched her mouth first to one side and then the other while she considered that. "Like what?"

She was still considering the chocobo problem. "I could try to have some chocobos if you can tell me what they are and how they look and stuff?"

"No, Delirium," Barnabas said gently, "The chocobos should stay where they're currently at. We can perhaps visit them where they live instead, sometime."

She seemed to accept this, with a small resigned sigh.

Whatever it was that Delirium and Barnabas had kind of adorable, really, and while he definitely agreed with Barnabas's doling out of common sense, his heart went out to Delirium a little, who so clearly wanted to help even if it wasn't a great idea or was honestly probably a little impossible.

"And you could miss all the first day of your classes and a lot of opportunities to make new friends," he offered. "And even if we don't bring any chocobos here, I can at least show you what they look like. Here."

He pulled out his phone and scrolled through his gallery a bit...and then some more...and then some more...look, Prompto took a lot of pictures...until he came up with the set of selfies and choco-shots he'd gotten from that one time Zack had them for his animal class, then shifted over Delirium so he could show her and scroll through them a little.

"See? They're the super adorable feathered dudes there. And that's me with one. And another one. Ohmygod, they were super soft, Delirium. This right here's one of the best days of my whole life."

One of them.

He actually had a lot of them, if he thought about it.

And if he thought about it more, he'd probably convince himself he didn't deserve any of them, but it was kind of nice to take the little trip down memory lane just then.

Re: General Mingling [Summer 2019]

following_my_fishie - 2019-05-05 02:57 (UTC) - Expand

"Have you thoroughly documented the incoming class yet?" Lana asked, smiling.

"Not completely," said Prompto, with a faint grin back, "but I'm slowly working on it. I should be able to catch anyone I miss by the time next week's finished. Buuuuut..."

He danced his camera a little in the air a moment before getting behind it to focus it on Lana for a moment.

"How about an oldie but goodie for the file, huh?"

Lana rolled her eyes. "If you insist. Shall I do anything, or simply stand here?"

No sympathy, Lana! No matter how much you rolled your eyes! You sould know by now that talking to Prompto when he had his camera out was a direct line to some photo-taking.

"It's your time to shine, Lana," he said, lifting the camera and taking a moment to focus the lens on her. "Seize it as you will!"

Lana grinned. "I can seize it and shine if you like." She held her hands up as if she were holding something, and they started to glow, lightning sparks flitting between them.

"Niiiice!" said Prompto, chuckling a little into his grin as he quickly snapped a couple of pictures, shifting a little for a slight variance in angles before lowering the camera again and hitting her with his grin full-force. He bowed his head a little. "Thank you, Lana; you're an excellent model. I always appreciate how much energy you bring to a shoot."

Lana bowed back, dropping the lightning. "Much obliged, sir. I always like to do my part."

Prompto chuckled a little, just sort of enjoying a nice little bit of normalcy without any baggage or anything attached to it, and it was nice.

"So," he said, "you get a chance to scope out any of the newbs yet yourself? Any siblings or anything? I was a little worried they might stick one in my room with me, since Jason moved out last semester, but, nope. Looks like I'm still the King of 303!"

"Congratulations on your continued regency, your majesty. I have a sibling, but they don't appear to be here yet," Lana said. "I'm still rooming with Nell. None of the new students appear to be from my galaxy, but otherwise I'm not sure. You?"

"New sibling," Prompto said with a nod. "Name's Owen, and he seems really cool. Like, very cool, actually, and I think he's going to do well here once he kind of gets used to it. Sounds like he wanted to sort of get away for a while, set a course for random, and wound up here. Which, you know, far as places to randomly wind up at, it could be worse."

"Definitely," Lana agreed. "Sounds like he'll do well, though. I hope mine is as agreeable. What classes will you be taking this summer?"

"Well," said Prompto, "I've got...let's see..." He took a moment to think, listing them off with his fingers. "Philosophy of Food," and he grinned a little, because that was one hundred percent Ignis. "How not to be an Asshole," with a roll of his eyes, definitely Gladio there. "And the one about gadgets," which got the biggest grin of all, because that was clearly Noctis throwing him a nice little bone. Maybe one of these semesters, they'll actualy let him pick his own classes, but they hadnt' done too bad this time around.

"How about you? What've you got to look forward to?"