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 Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2024 8:02 pm
Quote: 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.
He graduated with straight A’s, which he convinced himself was just luck and not in any way worth attributing to his diligent study habits. He’d been so happy that he cried about that, too. Next semester was going to be harder, most certainly, so he was trying to relax and enjoy this break.
…Even though he’d already gotten his text books so he could start studying. He didn’t want to let Orien down, even though he seemed to have boundless support and faith in him.
So, they were celebrating. It was a good time to celebrate! They’d stashed a decent amount of money away this year, and while it wasn’t ‘enough,’ it was more than Kaelan thought. Orien had worked extra hours, they’d done their own little hustles. Kaelan liked finding good deals and budgeting, and when he made a game out of it, it almost didn’t even feel like they were just scrimping by.
And, they had each other.
And, two meals from a restaurant that wasn’t just fast food. He had a buy-one-get-one coupon so even if it was splurging, it was still on a budget! And, they had some dessert for later, and a milkshake to split. The milkshake sat between them on the bench, but the sweets were packed up safely in his backpack. They were dressed warmly, but it wasn’t cold enough that they couldn’t appreciate a little bit of winter. It was a grey, cloudy day so there weren't too many people out. Which was perfect. It let them eat in peace and enjoy being together.
Kaelan’s gloves were atop his bag and he had his jacket hood pulled up over his ears, and he was resting his shoulder against Orien’s as he ate.
His ankles were crossed beneath the bench, and he assumed that’s where Orien’s were too when he felt something nudging against his ankle. He nudged back gently, assuming they were just going to play footsies. Then, it stopped. And then it felt like Orien was trying to stick his foot up Kaelan’s pants. Kaelan let him for a moment, but Orien’s leg didn’t even look like it was moving.
He spoke around his mouthful of food. “...How are you doing that?”
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Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2024 9:49 am
Orien had just taken a bite of his food as well, but took a sip of their shared milkshake to quickly wash it down, and then flash a charming smile at Kaelan.
“What? Stay in your head rent free? I’m probably just that amazing and great in be--”
But then something bumped against his leg and he definitely knew it wasn’t Kaelan’s doing. He hadn’t even known what Kaelan was really asking about, anyway, but the touch startled him, and he quickly looked around to try and see what it was. Maybe a stick got pushed under the bench or maybe it was a rat or something equally gross.
Not that he and Kaelan hadn’t lived in worse conditions, but…
“The <********> is that?” he snarled as he practically jumped to his feet and spun around to see what was crawling under the bench. It was a rat! --
Wait… no… rats didn’t look like that.
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Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2024 10:25 am
When Orien jumped up, Kaelan did too. He clutched his styrofoam container close to him but made sure not to tip it. They’d spent a lot on this food, he wasn’t going to risk dropping it! His heart had lurched when Orien moved, when he saw something, and for all the dread that flooded Kaelan–
It melted away when he saw a penguin.
It was fat and squirming, laying on its stomach and kicking its feet, flapping its wings but not going anywhere. It looked like it was pretending to swim at first, until it wriggled from under the bench to stand before them. It stared up at them, and then let out a soft, sweet little coo.
The penguin opened its mouth expectantly as it stood on its tiptoes and flapped its wings again.
Not a youma. Definitely not a youma, it was too cute.
“–Penguins don’t…I mean–I know I was gone for a while, but penguins don’t live in the…” His voice trailed off. “That’s not normal, right?”
He didn’t take his eyes off of it, but he did take a step closer to Orien.
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Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2024 6:08 pm
“A penguin?” Orien growled, although the noise was more out of nervous caution than aggression. “That’s not a penguin… is it?”
Suddenly, Orien wasn’t sure he even knew what a penguin looked like. They were black and white, sure. But, well, it had been a while since he’d seen a picture of any. And he’d certainly never seen one in person. Or that close.
“Careful it might attack you,” he warned and reached out to place his arm in front of Kaelan, although he was careful not to knock the food from his hands.
Sure, it wasn’t very big, but they might be vicious! He didn’t know! Weren’t they territorial? Didn’t they have venomous teeth? Was he thinking about something else? He wasn’t exactly an expert in animals. Didn’t really have time to learn about them.
“Maybe it escaped from the zoo.” Was there a zoo around there?
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Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2024 6:47 pm
That looked like a penguin.
Kaelan stared at it and willed his brain to come up with an explanation for anything. He let Orien raise his hand, but he just placed one hand on his arm as if to reassure him. He was still holding his container of food close, and the penguin was looking at him expectantly.
It didn’t seem to think of Orien as a threat.
It waddled closer, just a few steps, and cocked its head to the side as much as it could without a neck. It flapped its wings slightly at its side but it didn’t seem like it wanted to go anywhere.
“There’s a zoo,” Kaelan answered cautiously, because he’d signed them up for tickets to go visit through the library and he was waiting for their spot in line to open up so they could go. “But I don’t think–”
Well, animals could escape, but…
He didn’t think they fed penguins potato wedges. Slowly, he picked on up and took a bite out of it before he tossed it over Orien’s arm.
The penguin ran towards it like it was–
Kaelan didn’t know what penguins were supposed to eat, but it practically threw itself on the ground to nibble at it.
He squeezed Orien’s arm as he watched, slowly inching up towards his shoulder. He stopped at his bicep. “You’re really attractive when you’re protecting me, you know.” Even if it was from a tiny little bird. “Do you think he’s someone’s pet? Look how friendly he is.”
Flopping on the ground, staring down a stick now. It was either struggling to get up or trying to wriggle closer to Orien’s shoe.
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2024 10:48 am
Orien scowled at the creature. He didn’t know what it was capable of doing. Maybe it had rabies. Maybe it had the bird flu. That was a thing, right? Maybe it could attack them and leave them with gashes in their legs or something.
He watched as Kaelan tossed a piece of potato wedge to the penguin, and then growled lowly as the creature dove for it to gobble it up but then--
Oh. Kaelan’s hand was on his bicep-- which of course he had to flex for him. And he said he was really attractive when he was protecting him? Oh.
Orien puffed out his chest a bit, clearly ticked with delight, even if there was a strange creature that could try and attack them. It moved closer and, well, if Kaelan was attracted to Orien protecting him then of course he was going to show off by turning so he could scoop him up into his arms and away from the dangers of having their foot pecked off by some wild bird.
“Might have some kind of disease,” he growled, although the low warning noise from the back of his throat was clearly for the penguin and not Kaelan. He took a step back just to be sure it wouldn’t launch itself at them.
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Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2024 9:07 am
Kaelan loved Orien. Immeasurably. He’d had to press his lips together to keep the smile from forming when he felt Orien, predictably, show off for him. He wasn’t complaining, he loved it–even if he had to quickly maneuver the food so none of it was spilled.
“Do you think? But it’s so cute…”
Oh, but you weren’t supposed to touch wild animals…
He tossed another potato wedge and the penguin scurried after it.
“...We should look up the number to animal control. If he’s lost, they’ll know what to do. Orien, you are really strong. What has Jett had you moving?” He briefly tore his eyes away from the penguin to admire Orien’s face, planted a kiss on his cheek, and then held up a potato wedge for him.
The penguin still didn’t look dangerous–and it was infinitely more interested in the food than it was attacking them.
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Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2024 8:29 am
Orien, of course, puffed up again from the compliment. He didn’t have anything impressive to share about what he was moving in Jett’s store and storage units. Mostly large boxes of books. Things that wouldn’t break if dropped. Large boxes of vinyl records. Maybe heavy wooden furniture.
He eyed the penguin again, but accepted the potato wedge, scoffing around it in his mouth. He was polite enough to keep his mouth mostly closed but wasn’t exactly raised on proper manners. Survival was more important.
“I love that you have such a good heart,” he huffed, making sure to keep chewing so he could swallow and not choke. “I guess if you want to, we could keep an eye on it until someone shows up. As long as it doesn’t do anything to attack us! Otherwise, we’ll be seeing a penguin that can actually fly.”
Was he really going to kick a penguin? Yes. If it attacked Kaelan, absolutely. He didn’t know how dangerous they were!! And who knows what it would do once they ran out of food to give it!
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Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2024 8:21 am
In many ways, Orien was perfectly predictable. There were days when he was completely unpredictable–or predictably unpredictable–but right now, he was reacting in exactly the way Kaelan hoped he would. He loved the way Orien seemed to perk up with compliments, just as much as he loved the way Orien said such kind things about him.
Kaelan looked at him with such soft fondness, like he couldn’t imagine anyone else so perfect in his life. If he was ignoring the part about kicking the little penguin, at least.
“No,” he chastised, but peppered Orien’s face with kisses.
The penguin stared at them for a moment. Calculating.
The sound of chirping carried on the wind and its head jerked–just in time to see three other small penguins running together. The penguin flapped its wings and ran in a circle–and then bolted after them.
“Orien!” Kaelan blurted, but he didn’t struggle in his arms. He tried to point at the group of penguins, but by the time their group of three became four, they were already disappearing around the corner.
“If we chase them we could have four,” he pointed out, phone in hand. He hadn’t had time to pull up the number for animal control, much less call them. “I should have taken a picture. No one’s going to believe we saw a penguin out here.”
He almost didn’t even believe it. Maybe he wasn’t sleeping enough. Maybe neither of them were.
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Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2024 7:25 pm
Orien clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth, not at all interested in collecting any of the weird little birds to keep.
Oh, but Kaelan was so cute. How could he deny him? If he just wanted a picture then… maybe that was the least he could do for such a kind and caring and wonderful boyfriend.
“Alright, get your camera ready,” he warned, tightened his arms around Kaelan, and took off after the flightless birds. “You want a picture, I’ll get you in range for a picture.”
Besides, he had to show off how strong he was, especially if Kaelan was going to be giving him kisses for doing nothing but carrying him!
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