[closed] kweh

[crosslaced]

Who: Laurent, Prompto, and maybe Prompto’s housemates.
What: Coco the Chocobo is old enough to be ridden! Some training is needed first, though, and guess who lives nearby and trains horses.
When: Early Jan
Where: Housing Islet #1
Warnings: None expected.

[closed to prompto]
It’s a fine warm evening in January when Laurent and notices something interesting in the neighbouring yard. It would be unremarkable to anyone else, but the blonde happens to have a lot of Opinions about training horses- and that seems to be what Prompto is doing with his grown Chocobo, though not very well.

Laurent hasn’t stopped at the FFXV hut in awhile. But today he does, leaning over a fencepost curiously.

“Training your Chocobo?”

[chocobo training: closed to housemates]
[So for a period, Laurent can be found dropping in on Prompto and Coco’s training sessions.

Drop me and Prompto-mun a line and let us know if you want just a 2-way thread with Laurent or a 3-way with Laurent and Prompto! Usually, both are with Coco.]

Comments

[crosslaced]

“Mhm. Hello, sweetheart.” He directed his second sentence at Coco; Laurent was focusing his attentions on letting the Chocobo sniff his hand. After that he stretched out a hand to pat Coco on the shoulder, moving with the directness of one fully at ease with large animals. “You look like you’re doing well today. Let’s see what we’ve got here, shall we?”

The code-switch as he accepted Prompto’s bridle was evident. The blonde simply nodded in acknowledgement, then very bluntly commented: “there are far too many straps. You should be starting the animal on just a halter.” At the very least, you were familiar enough with him by now to know that this is just his Usual Voice. Still, it might be a little alarming to see Laurent get to work immediately deconstructing the bridle- he knew what he was doing, though, and was in fact unbuckling only the reins and extraneous straps from the harness. If nothing else, he had the courtesy to hang the extra straps over a nearby fencepost instead of just dropping it onto the ground.

“Introduce the bells and whistles after he’s comfortable with the basic set,” As he was talking Laurent held the bare-bones bridle out, showing it to Coco. “Coco, what do you think about this?”

[want_to_belong]

As weird as it was hearing Laurent say "sweetheart," he backed off to watch.

Being a bird without a strong sense of smell, Coco bumped his beak against Laurent's hand instead. For a bird, chocobos were reasonably intelligent, able to be trained and learn some basic problem-solving. He curiously shuffled around to watch Laurent, letting out an excited 'kweh' with a ruffle of his feathers. Of course, he had no particular reason to be suspicious or scared of people.

"What do you do with just a halter?"

[crosslaced]

“Get him used to wearing it. Or has he learned already?”

Regardless of the answer, Laurent was about to find out. He patted Coco’s beak twice, then in one smooth movement slid the halter over the Chocobo’s head. “Easy now, easy. Nothing to be afraid of.” In seconds he had it adjusted to be comfortable, and watched for Coco's reaction.

[want_to_belong]

"I led him around with a rope before. Never tried to pull it hard or anything, didn't want to hurt him. That's about it."

Perhaps Laurent had seen it. Most likely, considering their close housing arrangements. Using Coco as a pack animal had become a habit in recent weeks and it was easy to understand why. The bird had grown large and strong and was extremely useful for moving more weight around.

And the bird was tame enough that he mostly responded with curiosity. His head moved back slightly as it was lifted towards him, but he didn't make any move to escape and adjusted readily once it was on.

[crosslaced]

Laurent took a small step back and waited two counts expectantly.

When Coco didn’t do anything, he reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a piece of fruit. “ Good boy,” as he offered the treat to Coco, “you’re doing so well- he takes fruit, doesn’t he?” Again, the last part was a throwaway comment to Prompto, though the blonde did look to get an affirmative before letting the Chocobo get at his treat.

“Ah- right. You’re not starting from scratch. Did you teach him how to take rein cues?” He let Coco finish, gave the bird a pat on the shoulder, then tugged experimentally on one side of the halter to see if the bird would turn.

[want_to_belong]

The answer came quickly when Coco was quick to snap up the fruit, hard beak sweeping over Laurent's skin. Thankfully, Prompto didn't look too worried.

"Usually eats greens, but we've made do with what we have available." He stepped forward to lightly place a hand on Coco's neck. With chocobo gear needing less parts than horse gear, it did seem a lot more comfortable than the bridles he'd seen for Laurent's horses. "Uhhh... Well, sorta? I mean, I led him? I didn't really pull his head in any direction though, he was just kinda following me."

Coco turned at the tug and seemed slightly perplexed, turning his head back the other direction.

cw: incorrect horse training advice

[crosslaced]

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Laurent, stopping an annoying act immediately? And apologising? Unbelievable. But then again, he was talking to a Chocobo and Chocobos deserved it.

“Okay. I think he could take a rider- if you can get on him without problems, teach him the cues to walk forward first, and to stop. Turning might be for later.” He gave Coco a good patting in apology, then stepped back and let Prompto be close to his bird. Starting right now wasn't exactly on the plan- training animals are complicated, let alone when involving an equally green owner. “I should bring my girls down to give him a model. You know how to cue a horse to go, right?”

Ignore the mistaken reference to a horse- he’s too used to his four-legged Chocobos.

[want_to_belong]

"Not a horse, but I've ridden chocobos before." So, at least, he had some experience.

Now it was his turn to dote. Throwing his arms around Coco, he spoke in an all too sweet voice, "Coco, you're a good boy, right?"

Not that he could ever believe differently. Not even if Coco immediately threw him off. He moved next to the bird and carefully hopped on. It was a little bit easier than climbing on a horse without any help, but the amount of space on his back was clearly much smaller.

The chocobo shifted his weight a bit, but was clearly able to handle the amount of weight. Prompto quickly stroked the feathers on his neck. "How do you teach him that it means to go forward?"

[crosslaced]

Laurent bit back a swear when Prompto just climbed on, taking another step back in case Coco freaked out. Thankfully the Chocobo was a calm one- “I hope you’re not flinging yourself onto any other bird.”

It was an overreaction, probably. He’d remember later that he’d seen Coco carry loads around before, so it wasn’t an unreasonable transition to try. But Laurent had grown up around Auguste and the royal stables, and he knew that a horse’s hooves could shatter bone. Horses were lovely but they were not harmless animals and the Lucians’ weird birds were no smaller. The blonde grumbles- “Give me a warning next time,” but it was clear that for a moment he’d been genuinely concerned.

“Put pressure on his flank, ease up when he moves. He'll figure it out eventually.”

[want_to_belong]

"I thought you said to get on him!"

Which was a little awkward. No proper gear yet, and Coco didn't have the training that the chocobos from the stables did. But he had no particular reason to panic. Coco wasn't frightened and was in familiar company, and the feeling of something on his back wasn't completely new.

"Umm, okay... The flank..." he leaned over looking down. He hadn't really studied up on the morphology of birds, but he figured it had to be under the wing area somewhere. He shifted his weight around, trying to position his legs. "Here?"

[crosslaced]

“I didn’t mean now.” He snapped back, and then ruffled Coco’s feathers to maintain the signal that he was Calm, everything was Alright.

“Stop moving around so much, you’ll confuse him. I thought you knew how to ride?” Laurent moved over to point out the spot- Prompto was pretty close, and the blonde calmly pushed his leg away to give the signal himself.

“Coco!” Laurent clicked his tongue twice, and started tapping against the Chocobo’s side with the flat of his palm. Much like trying to get a dog to sit, the signal was meant to gently poke Coco in the intended direction until he got irritated enough and moved to get away from it.

[want_to_belong]

"How was I supposed to know?"

He couldn't read minds, Laurent! "The chocobos I've ridden before had saddles and were trained and everything. I haven't, like, barebacked before."

And he was honestly nervous about doing the wrong thing. Coco meant a lot to him, and he didn't want to do anything that might hurt him, and it made him hesitant to do anything without double checking.

He dug his fingers into some of the feathers on Coco's neck when the bird took a few steps forward, turning to 'kweh' at Laurent for pushing on him. And that was it. He settled back down, obviously getting over the 'offense' quite quickly.

[crosslaced]

The moment Coco shifted his weight forwards, Laurent took his hand away. “Good job,” he said in his Animal Voice, which was not too different from his normal one except it was obvious that he was approving. “You're a smart boy.”

To Prompto- “Yes, so this is absolutely inappropriate, and you're lucky your bird is so well socialised. But since we’re here- you can try cuing him again. Then you should probably get off.”