awashlogs | (no subject)

WHO: Estelle, Joshua, and YOU?
WHERE: Outside the Bluobros house
WHEN: Julyish
WHAT: Building a better ~~mousetrap~~ chicken coop! In preparation for breeding more chickens, naturally.
WARNINGS: Probably not unless you bring them yourselves, u sinners.

[ If you hang around Bluo much, you’ve probably seen that one yard with the fence and the chickens (and chocobos) running around outside - but today, it’s bustling with activity of a different sort!

Joshua and Estelle are hard at work, surrounded by an assortment of lumber gathered from the more dilapidated buildings in town, and toiling away on a half-finished...something? It looks rather like it could be a chicken coop, if you’re familiar with what those look like, but it’s definitely got room for more than the five that are helpfully wandering around the yard and in and out of the way.

It’s coming along well! Mostly. ]

Estelle...you realize you’ve got that board upside-down, right?

....It has sides?

[She turns the board this way and that, frowning slightly as she examines it.

Things are definitely Going at least. At least this particular project doesn’t involve glue.]

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[ joshua, you look so confident, but estelle might be the problem here… ]

…

[ dextera sets leliel down and she immediately tries to flap her way back into the fenced-off area because that’s where she wants to be, so he scoops her up again. maybe it’s inside time. ]

Do you want water?

...actually, that would be great, if you're not busy.

[ Proper hydration is the foundation to a successful construction project!

Or perhaps not really, but nobody in this yard is going to faint if he has anything to say about it, regardless. ]

Heh.

[ dextera shakes his head, hefting leliel slightly as if to say do i look busy?, but the point anyway is that he isn’t. right now, his job is to just keep all the birds out of trouble, and if he gets a little deviation to bring josh a glass of water, it means leliel can go inside for a bit.

a moment later, dextera returns with… okay, god bless him, a bucket of water and two old cups, because this seemed like the most efficient way to help. ]

[ That is perfect, and Joshua visibly brightens at the sight of the bucket. It's hot out, okay. ]

Thank you.

[ oh! it’s not that dextera isn’t used to seeing joshua smile, but it reminds him now in one little instant that he and joshua should do mindless fun things together more often. it’s all well and good to be quiet and thoughtful together… but joshua has a nice smile.

he scoops out some of the water, and hands it over the fence to joshua like the most earnest farmhand there ever was. ]

What’s the plan? [ once joshua has something to drink. ]

[ There's a pause while he gulps that down, and then - ]

We've almost got the basic frame up, so then we can add the sides and get a roof on it. The inside can come after that. Once it's done, I think we'll want to give them a little longer to get settled, but then...

[ Then...MORE CHICKENS. ]

[ there’s only one thing that all this could mean, yes. more chickens, except that dextera wants to make sure leliel stays a wholesome, untouched maiden for the rest of her chicken life. ]

How many?

[ how many chickens can it hold? how many chickens do they want? ]

[ They're thinking big for the construction, but he knows better than to try to ramp up the numbers all at once. ]

I figure we can add a couple, wait a bit and see how that goes, then a couple more...and see how many we can handle. With the number of people living here, I don't know if there's such a thing as too many.

[ Two or three dozen eggs a week is fine for just a household, but the rest of town deserves nice things too. ]

[ dextera nods. imagining little chicks running around… it’s exciting, isn’t it? he only knows what these chickens look like, but logic tells him that baby chickens are going to be as cute and small as any other baby animals, and he’d like to see that.

but, not leliel. leliel is not going to become a mother. ]

Everyone likes eggs.

And they're good nutritionally. Our food is limited to what we can find or produce here and limited again by what actually has enough color to choke down, so it's harder to put together a good diet.

[ Everyone needs to get their protein in. ]

…

[ something occurs to him, and he’s not sure if anyone has asked this before, but if anyone would know, it would be joshua, wouldn’t it? he has this kind of thing figured out. ]

Do grey foods… have nutritional value?

[ he has to go out of the way to spell “nutritional” because he doesn’t know it, but the question is a valid one, he thinks. ]

I don't actually know.

[ That...actually is something he's curious about, but testing it is complicated somewhat by the circumstances. ]

But considering the taste, I don't think anyone would want to live on it if they can avoid it.

It’s not that bad.

[ and if joshua was ever wondering why their kitchen has persistently remain stocked with an assortment of grey things that someone was clearly eating, now he knows. ]

You're still eating it?

[ It...isn't that surprising, in retrospect, given the kinds of things Dex was already eating, but...there are so many better options. Please love yourself. ]

…

[ a nod. is he embarrassed? maybe just a little, to be called out on it. ]

[ oh god dex don't be embarrassed. ]

You know we can always make you something better, right...?

[ Joshua will cook for you. Love yourself? ]

[ dextera has not yet mastered the art of “asking for things,” so it’s not as easy as that! usually, if he wants something, he just hovers in the kitchen when someone else is there and hopes that they’ll share. it’s worked so far. ]

I need… to learn.

I'm no master chef, but the basics aren't too complicated. I can show you how to make a few things.

[ "It's not too complicated," Joshua says, as Estelle sets the kitchen on fire. ]

[ dextera nods, quietly grateful for joshua’s patience as always. it would be fun, wouldn’t it? ]

…please.

[ and then, a shy smile. ]

After we're done here, you can help me with dinner. Sound good?

[ FUN WILL BE HAD. ]

[ joshua, bless you. dextera nods. ]

Good luck.

[ with… everything going on here. the ladies need it, and with any luck, there will be even more ladies to use it in the future. ]