Pingu in the Prison

[Jilly]

There was one penguin in the enclosure that followed a specific routine every few minutes. He would preen himself, waddle over to the water pool, dive-bomb and swim around in the water, slide back out, and gossiped with the other inmates before cleaning himself once more. Rinse and repeat. Kayla was able to time it down to a good seven minutes for each cycle, give or take a couple of seconds. It was mesmerizing to watch, though, even if the little gentoo would do the same thing over and over again with no variation.

But there was another thing on her mind as Kayla checked her phone again: where the fuck did her brother go?

((G067 Kayla Harris - Pregame Start))

Kayla should've known better. "They reopened the penguin exhibits last week at the aquarium; do you wanna come check them out Saturday?" he said. "It'll be fun!" he said. "Hey, I'm gonna use the bathroom real quick," he said.

That was 34 minutes ago.

Left on read 13 minutes ago.

No answer when she called him 6 minutes ago.

If there was one thing Kayla absolutely hated on this bitch of an earth, it was people who you know are ignoring you. Ya know, the people who you know totally know you're trying to reach them, but they decide to ghost you back? Octavius better either be getting kidnapped or shitting out a lung right now if he knew what was good for him.

Kayla tried ringing him one more time; this time it went for one ring before going to voicemail. She fought the urge to launch her phone into orbit before stashing it away in her pants pocket. She considered doing a search and rescue mission... though, in situations like this she heard it was better to stay put in case they show up on their own. She grumbled, leaned back on the bench, and rested her head on her hand while watching her buddy play around once more. At least there weren't too many people swarming around right now; you could still get a good view while sitting down.

She mulled around on what she could name her little gentoo. "Mark" would be good.

[Jilly]

Another 15 minutes passed, and Kayla was about to pop an aneurysm. Her leg idly bouncing picked up in tempo and became restless as she scanned her area of vision looking for her brother.

She was about to succomb to despair when suddenly he appeared like a phantom outside of her right peripherals.

"Hey, s-sorry... sorry it took so long," said Octavius with a sheepish grin, rubbing his left arm with his other hand.

Kayla slightly frowned and raised an eyebrow. "You ok? Did you fall in again?"

"No, I... uh..." Beat. "...I got lost."

"Lost?"

"Yep! Just lost."

Kayla grumbled to herself. "...Was it a girl?"

"N-no." Octavius's eyes darted around.

Hah. Got 'em. "...Was it a girl, Octavius?" she said, making a conscious effort to properly inflect her annoyance with his name.

"...Maybe," he finally relented. "I passed by the ctenospheres on my way back and there was a girl hanging out by herself so-"

Kayla rose up off of the bench and lightly jabbed her bro's stomach. "Boy you gotta turn off your read tags or reply to me or something. I was getting worried about you, like I was aboutta send these penguins out on a search party."

"Yeah, yeah, I know... Sorry. If it makes you feel better I met her boyfriend too."

Kayla chuckled. "Yeah? How was he?"

"He seemed nice." Beat. "Anyway, wanna check out the rock hoppers?" Octavius started walking to Kayla's other side, beckoning her like a spirit guide.

"Hmm... I guess," she said, stepping to follow along before stopping herself, turning around to get one last look at her new friend.

This time there was a little deviation to his ritual; he was asleep. Possibly dead but probably not.

"Goodbye, Mark," Kayla whispered with a slight raise of her hand.

"D-did you just call it 'Mark'?" Kayla whipped back around to see her brother standing 2 feet away with a look of bewilderment.

"Y-yeah, and?" she retorted, trying her best to recover. "Doesn't he look like a 'Mark'?"

"Is he your boyfriend?"

"At least I got a boyfriend."

Octavius just gave up and continued walking. Kayla followed behind with a smirk. Being able to tease her bro was the best part of spending the day with him.

((Kayla Harris continued in It's All Good Man))