Caretaker of Madagascar: Harvest Moon

Be Our Guest

Patiently impatiently tapping her foot on the office's floor, Bridget tiredly sighs as she awaits the older zookeeper to get the last section of the officially hired zookeeper session.

Due to going home early after her zookeeper training, she wasn't able to get this part done. Luckily she decided today was the day to get back to work, and she can finish this nonsense for good...

If only the minutes she was experiencing at the moment weren't so tediously grueling.

"Here's the zookeeper schedule, all vet appointments and shipments are listed and updated—" Alice's monotonous voice rings in the ginger's ears like non-stop sirens.

Biting her lip, Bridget huffs. She knows she should be paying attention, but this was too painful to endure. She kinda wished maybe something would happen. Anything more than this.

Then something miraculous happened. She was saved from this monotone lecture by none other than Alice's phone ringing.

"Ugh, for crying out loud." The older redhead whines, grumbling as she takes out the phone. "Hold on, I got to take this," and answers the phone grumpily.

Oh what a blessing from the heavens...that's more of a curse now. Because with Alice on a call, she's just stuck in her office longer. Great.

'Fuckin hell, why not. Let's not make this shit go longer. While we're at it, the fellas wanna join in for a nice cha—'

Four little penguins then dropped down from the vent and onto her desk.

"Rico, Private, secure the perimeter. Kowalski, get the intel." Skipper orders and they break their landing formation.

'...Wait no, I was bein sarcastic. They don't have ta be here'

Bridget blinks at the arrival of her feathery companions. Squinting at them, she silently stares at them, studying what on earth they're doing.

Kowalski waddles over to the computer and starts typing on the keyboard before taking out his phone and snapping pictures of the screen.

"Sir—" Private clears his throat and points at Bridget.

Skipper shrugs. "She didn't see anything." He says before making the motion over towards her.

Kowalski then looks back at the others with a nod. Skipper nods back and the four bounce off various objects and back up into the vent, closing it behind themselves.

'...Woah'

At the exact same time, coincidentally, Alice's call ends with an irritated groan. "Ugh, anyways. Here, zookeeper keys." The head zookeeper then dangles the keys in front of her.

Bridget stops staring where the penguins disappeared, blinking at the motions, her head up at the keys, and gingerly snatches them.

"Ah... thanks."

00000000

As the usual routine, Bridget skates up to the penguin habitat with a bucket of fish. She wears her gloves still, as well as her watch and newly gifted friendship bracelet. Despite it being bright pink, she still likes her gift.

The penguins are in their habitat, playing cute and cuddly for some of the visitors of the zoo. Almost as though they had never left.

However, their caretaker can see well past their acts, passively waiting for them to as she observes them. There's something very coordinated about their cute antic, as though it has largely been rehearsed.