You know you can't quit until it's won

[photoshooter]

Who: Prompto Argentum and open!
Where: i. Bluohaus, ii. variously around Chroma, iii. heading into the forest, iv. Flavo
When: First half of June
What: Punishments, presents, positivity, and pquests!
Warnings: Illusory animal injury, will warn for FFXV spoilers and additional warning-worthy content in threads as necessary.

i. Bluohaus, beginning of punishment week

[It's a new day. The house is full, no one is missing, friends and lovers have been reunited, and a distressed wail breaks the quiet of the morning.]

Oh no!

[Some more dismayed noises and a couple stumbles later, the door to the Eos boys' room slams open. A bedheaded, barefoot, blatantly distressed Prompto stands in the threshold with a chicken-sized, confused and sleepily cheeping baby bird in his arms.]

Ignis! I need all our potions, stat!

ii. Out and about Chroma, punishment week

[Now aware that his favorite not-really-housepets are not, in fact, bleeding and dying everywhere, Prompto's just trying to go about some chores and further familiarize himself with the city to get his mind off it. It's hard, though, when he keeps flinching and closing his eyes whenever he sees an animal.

Oooooor maybe he'll just whimper, cover his face, and press his forehead against a wall. That's fine and normal, right?]

iii. Edge of town, post-punishment, ShEEEEEEEEEPPPPPP

[And now, for something completely different.

After advertising his availability as a yellow for the invisisheep quest, Prompto can be found between the town and the forest, gathering dust up into little cloth bundles and disappearing them into some space unseen.]

Too bad Gladio isn't here. I bet he knows how to track a sheep from its, uh. Tracks.

iv. Flavo

[It's a new day. The house is--well, as empty or full as it should be, you know your living situation better than I do. Friends and lovers are doing what friends and lovers do, no animals appear to be under undue stress, and there's no reason for any wailing to cut through the morning peace--]

Oh no! Aw, crap!

[A window in an abandoned Flavo cottage slams open. Prompto leans out of it, coughing and waving smoke out through it, then reaches down, deposits his fluffy chocobo baby carefully outside, and withdraws to take care of whatever's burning in there.]

Don't worry, baby, I got it! Just wait out there for Daddy Prompto to put out the bad fire, okay?

[So, that's happening. The little thing kwehs high and loud as single father Prompto tries to save his bacon.]

Comments

( i ), obviously

[unfatalist]

[It's a credit to the absolute Mom-ocity of Ignis Scientia that he's literally drawn a potion out of the armiger before it's even occurred to him why he's being called or what the urgency is. Granted, he was probably getting some Actual Sleep For Once™ that has now been disturbed in favor of...whatever the problem is, but who needs sleep when there is, apparently, a problem worthy of screaming bloody murder over.

Blearily, he scrubs at his eyes with the hand that isn't holding the potion, propping himself up and squinting through his blurry still-half-asleep vision at...

...Okay, you know what, Prompto is up there in his list of Top Three Favorite People and yes, it is an admittedly very cute chocobo, but for gods' sake, he was sleeping. For once.]

...Is that a chocobo?

[photoshooter]

Yeah! But Iggy, it's hurt!

[Prompto powerslides on his knees to Ignis's side, the baffled chick cradled oh-so-gently in his arms. It's still kwehing in its itty baby voice, but it doesn't actually seem, you know. Injured.]

We gotta help it...!

[unfatalist]

[Yeah, that is...not at all the face of a chocobo in dire need of immediate medical attention. Hmm.]

Prompto...

[Count to ten, Iggy, find your Patient Voice™.]

Potions are a far rarer commodity here than they are at home, as I'm sure you're aware. We shouldn't be hasty with their use.

[He peers at the chick, rubbing sleep out of his eyes again.]

Would you mind elaborating for me on why exactly your little friend requires such...assistance?

iv

[scooptimistic]

[ Flavo is a nice, peaceful place with adorable cottages and surely nothing is on fire.

Except Maya, who by now is so used to things catching on fire (usually while she's still inside of them), catches a whiff of smoke, turns on a heel like a heroic journalist would, and rushes in that direction.

There's a strangely big baby bird chilling there (loudly), and Maya hesitates to look it over before she-- sticks her head through that open window??

SURE WHY NOT. ]

Hey!! Are you okay in there?!

[photoshooter]

Yeah--cough, cough--I'm fine! Everything's fine!

[Maya, what are you doing, there's smoke coming out of that window? Within, there's even more smoke filling the kitchen, though nothing appears to be actively on fire. There's just Prompto, frantically swatting at something that's gone completely black and dead in a pan.]

[scooptimistic]

[ Maya Amano knows no fear, Maya Amano will (probably) not die from smoke inhalation today!! ]

Hold on, I'm-- [ okay, she's not immune to coughing, though. ] -- coming!

[ ... well. He'd opened the window and not the door, she may actually be attempting to enter via that. If doable. Sorry, Prompto. ]

iii.

[moonlitknight]

[ He doesn't know Gladio but he seems to be a better choice than this guy. How did he end up agreeing to this? Zero ignores him and crouches down in front of the tracks to study them. He's silent for a full minute before rising to his feet and pointing east. ]

It's this way.

[photoshooter]

What? Really? Dude, you're fast!

[He stops whatever he was doing to zip over to Zero's side.]

Do you think you can find it with that?

[moonlitknight]

They're recent tracks. Easy to follow.

[ He leads him down a hill to an open meadow at the edge of the forest. ]

It's down there.

[ He can smell it, not that he'll be sharing that. ]

ii

[shotlocking]

Prompto?

[ Her reply comes as soon as she sees him hunker down, and immediately, she's concerned. Quickly, she hurries over, and presses a gentle hand to his shoulder. ]

Prompto, what's wrong?

[photoshooter]

Oh, Aqua, I--I'm okay. I just--something's playing tricks on me again. Probably.

[He turns to face her, though he doesn't uncover his eyes.]

...You don't see any hurt animals, do you?

( ii )

[whichcraft]

[It's almost funny, how they keep running into each other in moments like this. Maybe that's just the way things go, like because of destiny or some dumb bullshit like that — the town acts, everybody ends up miserable, and they gravitate toward each other because of it.

Or, y'know, maybe it's just that there's a whopping sixty whole people in this godforsaken town so it's not like it's all that hard to trip over each other, all things considered.

Regardless, Prompto's not the only one who looks like he's having a rough time today; Summer is, too, and she looks the part when she eventually happens across him. She's wearing her odd hard-to-look-at cloak today, as she often does, but today her attire underneath is different than usual; she's donned some sort of leather armor (that looks vaguely like this), which...admittedly looks like it was crafted by someone who had no idea what they were doing, because instead of smooth dark brown leather with elaborate or even simple adornments, it's leather with odd jagged strips of something that vaguely resembles white marble set into it, haphazardly here and there in long thin patches that sort of look like claw marks. It's armor, unmistakably, but it's...weird, to say the least.

Suffice to say, between that and her boots and her cloak, she looks a little bit like she swan dove into a high fantasy prop closet and rolled back out in everything she touched first.

But none of that really seems to faze her as she spots him and makes a beeline over, keeping her hands and arms tucked underneath the dangling folds of her cloak.]

You look like shit.

[I mean, that's one way to say hello. Probably.]

...Hey. You okay?

[photoshooter]

[Prompto jumps and turns away from the wall, but he's not so bad off he can't offer his friend a smile when he sees her, eyes crinkling tiredly but warmly at the corners.]

I bet you say that to all the boys.

[He leans back against the wall, rubbing the heels of his hands against his eyes, and sighs.]

I'm okay. I mean, I'm more okay than other times I wasn't okay. We haven't even been here a month, have we? Man.

[As if to knock the sight of things that aren't really there out of his eyes, Prompto shakes his head and runs both his hands up through his hair. After a beat, he picks his head up again.]

How about you? You... doing okay?

iv. Dammit Prompto!

[sirnyxalot]

[Morning's a good time to sit in a chosen vantage point and just scout out the district before beginning the day's patrol. He doesn't even have to be out walking the streets every day, but there's little else to do beyond mapping out the buildings and figuring out which ones are habitable and which ones have salvageable supplies. It's become a daily routine to memorize the city.

So it's quite obvious when a cloud of black smoke bursts out one of the cottage windows out where he knows there's no one currently living.

Nyx rolls to his feet and takes to the streets, warping where necessary to find the source of the fire, and makes it just in time to watch Prompto head back inside the cloud of rolling smoke.]

What the hell?

[photoshooter]

I got it! Sorry, I got it!

[Coughing and hacking, Prompto doesn't even turn to the window to see who it is, too busy trying his darnedest to fix his mistake.]

ii!

[batsuits]

[ What probably doesn't help is the sudden approach of a very nice german shepherd approaching Prompto when he whimpers and curls up. The dog just begins to sniff him, licking at his hand in his clear sadness as it attempts to soothe him. It's a very sweet dog but, hey, that probably doesn't help!

Bruce will approach a moment later, following behind Ace and giving a curious look to Prompto, who looks in a clear amount of pain. Huh. Odd. Immediately, he's wondering if he's sick or if the town is doing something to him. If he's sick, well, they don't really have access to any good medications here so he's going to hope that's not the case. The town would be a bummer but still easier to deal with. ]

Are you alright?

[photoshooter]

[Prompto lets out kind of a groaning, helpless laugh as he does his best to pet Ace without actually looking at him.]

I'm fine, I'm fine, I just--this is such a good dog, I wish I could see it and tell it how good it's being! But the weird quest gods of this place are punishing me for sucking so much or something.

[He kneels, right there in the road, so he can give Ace scritchies with both hands, eyes squeezed shut.]

Is this your dog?

iv

[queenofminiskirts]

[Kaoru is in Flavo because she's on her way to visit Shiho. When suddenly--oh.

She's walking over to the window.]

Is everything all right? [Because uh. That sure is a lot of smoke.

....also that bird is so cute!?]

[photoshooter]

I'm fine! It's fine! Just... technical difficulties!

[He kind of gives up and throws the pan in the sink to drown his poor smoking bacon in water.]

iv.

[nascere]

[ guess who's coming to scoop up the little chocobo as he eyeballs the smoke coming from inside the house -- he smells bacon! that's definitely bacon! don't worry, sparky, cool uncle noctis to the rescue!

gathering the baby up, he calls out: ]

Prompto, buddy, are you trying to burn the house down?

[photoshooter]

Ugh--yeah! And I'm doing a great job of it, too! If only our home ec teacher could see me now!

[Well, there's no saving this. Once he's smothered the flames, he sets the pan on the windowsill and waves the smoke away into the open air with a dish towel.]

Here, dude, stand back. Or go around, I gotta air this whole house out now, probably. Man...

iv

[athenite]

[ well. as a maybe-neighbor, annabeth comes to see what's burning and sees prompto put the fluffy baby bird down - ]

Need a babysitter?

[ or a firefighter...which is more important. ]

[photoshooter]

Yeah, can you watch him a sec? He's good, he won't peck you or anything!

[Sorry, but the safety of his sweet baby bird child is a waaaaay higher priority than the kitchen fire he fucking started. At least he's frantically working at putting it out. And at least it's not spreading.]

iii

[missingache]

[Roxas was expecting something to show where the sheep were. But they truly are invisible... Yet that doesn't discourage him at all! Plus, he sees someone he knows here. Who happens to be the color needed to complete this quest!]

Are you looking for sheep, Prompto?

[And who is Gladio?]

[photoshooter]

Oh, hey, Roxas!

[Prompto straightens and waves merrily.]

Yeah, I'm trying to come up with a way to make 'em seeable, at least enough to catch them. I'm a yellow, you know? And I wanna do as much as I can to help figure this town out so we can go home. What're you up to?