buying yourself a birthday gift

[unshelledbullet]

Who: Squall Leonhart and anyone who is out and about
Where: Nostalgia Nook
When: August 14th, afternoon
Style: Opening with prose, feel free to change
Status: Open like his heart

It's not every day a big round sphere threatens the lives of yourself and those around you. And after everything that's happened, Squall doing something he doesn't do very often: taking a break. Unless it's an emergency, he's not handling any Defense Force stuff today. Instead, he's in the Nostalgia Nook. The twenty-third is coming up soon, and he's going to get himself something while he has time.

He's studying their fine selection of Triple Triad cards. Pretty closely.

And maybe he's glancing at some cards from other worlds as well.

Comments

[lucentpalisade]

Tiger Festival is totally chilling too, his little paws patting at the coat. Weeeiirrd. Sophie nods once to Squall, though she's still watching him curiously. "His name is Tiger Festival. I found him." Pause. No, she should amend that. "He found me."

[unshelledbullet]

Animals in Vatheon are apparently quite pushy. With the seemingly high rate in which animals "adopt" owners, he is not at all surprised to hear that. He looks down at Tiger Festival. He can see why someone would name their cat Tiger, but he's confused on where the Festival part comes in.

"Why that name?"

[lucentpalisade]

Extremely pushy, yes. But Squall's question confuses Sophie in turn - Tiger Festival was a great name! She blinks precisely once, and tilts her head to the side.

"Because he's Tiger Festival." Pause. "Is it a bad name?"

[unshelledbullet]

He shakes his head. He probably should have expected that kind of answer. After all, it seems like this girl is a little on the loopy side.

"No, it's a good name. I was just wondering if there was a Tiger Festival where you come from."

[lucentpalisade]

Sophie thought about it for a second. "Asbel was going to call me Tiger Festival when he found me, but Cheria said it wasn't a good name for a girl. And when Richard was hiding with us in public, he needed a good name, like Tiger Festival. But Cheria didn't like it. But he," she points at the cat. "Has stripes like a tiger, so it's okay." Plus it's the best name EVER.

[unshelledbullet]

Squall blinks.

And then he blinks again. That mostly went completely over his head. The only thing he really understood was the cat has stripes. He holds the kitten out to his owner, she probably wants him back now.

"I see. What's your name anyway?"

[lucentpalisade]

Sophie reached up to take Tiger Festival back, completely unaware that her careful explanation went WAY over Squall's head. Hey it made perfect sense to her!

"My name is Sophie. What's yours?" Tiger Festival, content to be back in his owners arms, clambers up onto her shoulder and sprawls.

[unshelledbullet]

"Squall Leonhart." He's careful in handing Tiger Festival back - he might be a grumpy teenager who spent most of his life in a military school, but he could be gentle when he wanted to. "So you like cats?"

[lucentpalisade]

She smiles at that. You're a pretty nice guy Squall! "I like cats. I like dogs too, and other things. But I like cats especially. They're soft, and when they make that happy noise, it's relaxing."

Said kitteh is making that happy noise himself right now. She tilts her head, "Do you like cats too?"

[unshelledbullet]

"I do," he answers, reaching over to scratch Tiger Festival behind the ears. "My favorite animal is the lion." Here, let him show you his necklace, Sophie. He could wax poetic about how great lions are.

[lucentpalisade]

Sophie smiles as Tiger Festival purrs at the scratching. Heee. "Lion?" Oooh, the REALLY big kitties. She leans closer to inspect the necklace, which apparently meets with her approval.

"Do you have a pet lion at home?" She is a learning sponge! Wax poetic about the lions, Squall~!

[unshelledbullet]

A pet lion would be really cool to have. Really dangerous, unrealistic, and irresponsible, but it would be really cool. Squall shakes his head. As much as he loves lions, he would not want one as a pet.

"No. I don't think lions would make very good pets."

[lucentpalisade]

Hrm. "Oh -- Because it's a big, wild animal and can't fit inside a house?" It really really would be cool to have a lion for a pet. She's happy with Tiger Festival though, even if the cat won't get very big.

"And I guess a lion can't sit in your lap either." Well...not without crushing you.

[unshelledbullet]

...close enough.

"Right. A lion wouldn't be happy living like that," he said. He's not the sentimental bleeding heart type, but he doesn't think you should be keeping dangerous animals as pets. Leave them be or stuff them in your training center for students to practice their battling on, but don't keep them as pets.

He thinks they've sufficiently established the unsuitability of lions as human companions. "Are you here to get something?"

[lucentpalisade]

Sophie shook her head, "I came to get Tiger Festival, because he ran in here. I found seeds here once, but I don't have any money to get more." She paused thoughtfully. "I think I have to get a job. You can't fight monsters or find money on the ground here like you can back home."

And working in a flower shop - the idea made her restless.

[unshelledbullet]

Squall has never really given much thought to plants. Even if things in his life seemed to be themed around them. He was a SeeD, the place he grew up in was called Garden.

He didn't feel very plant like.

"I never really understood why monsters would have money on them."

[lucentpalisade]

Hm... that is an excellent point. "Maybe they like that money is shiney." Sophie mused. "Or it's monster snacks." Actually no, she doesn't know why either. "People drop money when monsters chase them. I don't think it takes very good though." Not for humans anyway. Or whatever she is.