Prompt 14 (Plight of the Penguin): Most birds migrate south for the winter. Destiny City is hardly a tourist destination for any migratory bird–much less penguins. They don’t even fly! And yet, Destiny City has a colony of roughly a thousand penguins that have decided to take a winter vacation in the metropolis. One evening, the horde of penguins waddled into town, and though they’ve broken up into smaller groups for the time being, there are still so many of them. They are friendly and they are foolish. They don't know anything about city life. They waddle into stores, hang out in the road, and stare at decorative lights. They look like they’re having the time of their life, and they are not afraid of people, at all. They will follow you home. They’ll croak at you. They’ll try to eat whatever you have in your hands. The penguins look like Adélie penguins, but they are only about a foot and a half tall and some are far more plump than others. All sorts of rumors have been going around about these penguins–they’re migrating because of climate change, they escaped the zoo and bred in the forests of Destiny City, they’re escaped from a lab attempting to create a new wave of pets, they’re aliens–to be honest, no one really seems to know. The city is corralling them and attempting to relocate them somewhere safer, but the friendly little penguins are happy to be involved for as long as they can. By the end of the season, Destiny City will have safely recovered all of these cute little birds, so they cannot be kept as a pet and will escape if you attempt to confine one, but they are mostly friendly and like to be involved in whatever you’re doing. Their calls can be either cute or creepy, and they look like funny little monsters if you manage to agitate them enough to get them chasing you. They almost always travel in small groups and always look after each other.
Pulling on a shredded piece of fabric that could just barely be considered a coat, Morgan shuffled through the snow in her docs to make her way to the 7/11. She'd been working there a bit more often since meeting Theo, hoping to see that weird cat that ate everything in sight. It would have been easier to power up and teleport but even that would be a pain since she'd still have to walk a bit to get to the store so she wasn't seen and figured out.
Fingerless gloves helped and let her still scroll through insta to look at all the weirdness happening again. It was all mundane stupid crap and apparently, the zoo had a breakout of penguins? Photos of the things were all over her local page as people swarmed to play with the things. Pushing the door open with her hip, she didn't really pay attention at first until she saw just the smallest bit of black and white out of the corner of her eye. <******** me... "Todd!" Looking up and around, she saw that there were tons of birds taking the chance to run in as she had the door open.
lizbot
Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2024 9:21 pm
For once the TV was turned off. Not because Todd had decided he no longer needed the backdrop of surreal late night television to help normalize his surreal late night job. A penguin did it.
The clerk had turned into a smiling statue of Customer Service when the first few had entered the store just as a gaggle of teens had left, one of them helpfully keeping the door open for the last straggler to waddle through. While there were a few exclamations and sighs from other customers, most just went through with their shopping. A few took pics. Todd pretended This Was Not Happening.
He refused to acknowledge the things, even as more shuffled in through the doors. Even as one helpful customer served up a few small Slurpees to a curious trio. It was fine. Sure, giving a penguin Minced Meat Pie flavored slushies was probably animal cruelty of some kind, but again: This Was Not Happening.
The store was empty of human customers by the time Morgan decided it was a work day and came in to find Todd, motionless behind the counter, a rictus smile and dead-eyed gaze meeting her own.
"Hey, Morgan."
Sara Draconia
lizbot
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Sara Draconia
Wheezing Loiterer
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Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2024 10:05 pm
Oh... that's not a good look. Morgan waved at Todd and threw her tattered-up coat behind the counter before looking around at all the penguins in the store.
They were everywhere, getting into everything, and just making an absolute mess of the place. Nothing in the training manual or stories Todd had told her prepared her for something like this.
"I... guess I'll clean up?" Nodding as she squeezed behind them to grab the mop bucket and some of the chemicals she knew she'd need to clean up the sticky slushy spots from where the birds were huddled drinking.
This was not what she had planned on dealing with today, especially with how cold it had been on her walk to the store. But she liked this job, most of the time, and wanted to try and get some of these critters out of here before they actually broke or ate something that didn't agree with them.
It was extra weird today, without the TV on with that same droning weird stuff she was used to at this point. The only sound was the few customers and those weird noises the penguins were making. They looked just like the ones in the zoo but smaller. Though she really didn't know since she had never been to the zoo here in the city, only saw photos they posted on insta.
lizbot
Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2024 5:29 pm
Morgan looked unusually cute surrounded by penguins, and Todd recalled one of his exes who insisted on pointing out the charms of a Gap. For the most part, his least reliable co-worker seemed very chill with Attitude sprinkled generously throughout every part of her being. Sometimes she looked at people like she was thinking about the viability of shoving them in an icebath and harvesting an organ or two. But that was just a thing people typically thought about after 1am, right?
One of the penguins on the counter, kept incessantly pointing toward the cigarettes. Newports, to be specific. "I ah...need an ID for those, sir. Ma'am?"
What did it say about Destiny City, and this shift in particular, that he could accept the idea of a penguin as a customer, but he couldn't bring himself to let them have cigarettes unless they were at least 18? How long do penguins even live?
"Hey, Morgan. How long do penguins live?"
Sara Draconia
lizbot
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Sara Draconia
Wheezing Loiterer
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Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2024 9:53 pm
Nudging a few of them across the floor with the mop as she cleaned, the question from Todd left her picking one up and staring. "Uh... I have no idea...? I really don't think they need newports though, ******** might go all spider man with how much slurpee slush they're just guzzling. Like this one looks like it's gonna pop from all the crap it's probably eaten."
Struggling as she lifted the thing up a bit more, it was like trying to carry around a sack of potatoes, the penguin was heavy for how small it was. After a second it wiggled out of her arms and waddled along with a few others towards the chips. "Oh no you don't!" Chasing the group along, she tried to mop them towards the door and away from the merchandise. They made more weird penguin noises, some of which sounded very disgruntled but she just stared down the one that was looking up at her with the bitchiest of faces.
At least now most of them were grouped up by the counter and the sticky mess was back to the normal amount of gross. Nothing she'd done had ever completely cleaned the spot, it was haunted to be sticky until the end of time, or at least that's what she figured.
