Work Text:
Sunday, August 21st, 2022
11:00 am
Today was a sunny, cloudless day in the hidden town of Oracle City.
In an uncommon occurrence, the sixteen members of the town’s moving program were brought to the meeting hall across from their living quarters, only for their host Abell to give them a relatively tame activity for the day: recreational fishing.
They were given around twelve fishing rods, a box containing any other fishing equipment they would need, a few too many cups of live worms, and a red bag filled with other activities they could do if they didn’t want to fish, then sent them all on their way to nearby Rose Lake. At least two hours had passed since they got to said lake, some of them swapping their rods for whatever was in the red bag when they needed a break or someone else wanted to try their hand at fishing.
Right now, Proto Marine was teaching Molly M. how to fish properly, guiding her hands to cast the line out. Captain Palm was trying to banter with Rainy, who was bantering with Pincer Leeson as she and him waited for a bite on their lines. Snap-Jaw had apparently brought a small fish net with him and was perched on a rock along the shore so he could catch tadpoles and ‘get a do over on his school project’… whatever that meant.
Dr. Chemical had been fishing with the others for at least an hour, but stopped when he caught a decently long Pike that ended up smacking him right in the face while he was celebrating. So, out of embarrassment, he resigned to take Bun-Bun’s place and joined his friend Kennedy C.Cobra in a game of Go Fish.
Funnily enough the card set Abell had put in the bag was fish-themed instead of a normal black and red pack of cards. Which meant instead of asking for numbers, the two of them had to ask each other if they had cards of a certain fish species.
Currently, the game is going pretty well. Dr. Chemical had 4 cards while Kennedy had 7 or 8. It was hard to tell due to the combination of some cards being more visible than others and the fact that Kennedy was holding onto the cards with the tips of her fingers, the only way she could hold them without them falling out.
The two were engrossed in their game, too much to notice Captain Palm yell out “Hey GUYS!” to them, and start making his way to them.
Palm’s exclamation really should have turned their attention to him earlier. Because the moment he got to their bench, he slammed a small brown fish right in the middle of the two, splashing a bit of water on the bench, as he smiled giddily.
“...Can we help you, Mr. Palm?” Dr. Chemical responded, looking up from his card set.
The smile on Captain Palm's face had yet to falter as he answered, “I bet you can! Do you know what this cool looking fish is supposed to be?”
“You came to interrupt our card game… just so you can ask us to identify a fish ?”
“YEP!” Palm affirmed, “I showed it to Rainy, she didn’t know. Then I showed it to Molly and Marine, they didn’t know either. And then I showed it to Toss, he didn’t know, but then he said I should show it to you two and get your help.”
Kennedy groaned to herself and set down her set of cards, before reaching into her bag and pulling out her little tablet. Sure, she had a phone, but she preferred the tablet because in her words, “Working the tablet is way easier, there’s more sssspace to be precise than the phone, especially with the size of my fingers.”
At the same time that Kennedy was away on her tablet looking up the answer to Plam’s question, Dr. Chemical lowered his head close to the fish, narrowing his eyes at the creature.
“Certainly doesn’t look like any fish I’m familiar with…” He mutters. “Are you sure you caught this from the lake?”
“I’m sure of it! I would never josh you into looking at a fish I didn’t know about!”
Kennedy sees this as a good time to interject, “ I found it!”
The two turn to her attention as she starts.
“Thissss fish is the Round Goby , very common in lakes and rivers such as where we are now. However, the thing isssss…” She covered her mouth with her hand before continuing, trying her hardest not to burst into hysterics.
“It’s an invasive species. Palm, you just caught an invasive sssspecies.”
Captain Palm's smile is wiped from his face and is replaced with a mixture of denial and shock.
“ Deadass ?” He sputters out.
“Deadass.” She returns with a deadpan tone.
The denial in Palm takes over as he tries to retort her answer. “W-well, I don’t know where you're getting that from. Who is claiming my fish is an invasive species?”
“The government.” Kennedy asserts as she turns her tablet to show him the screen, a page about the round goby from the Ontario Government website.
Dr. Chemical struggles to hold back his laughter at the back-and-forth between Kennedy and Palm that the latter was very much losing. Captain Palm pauses, clearly defeated as he responds.
“So… what do I do with the fish now?”
“Page ssssays that it should be destroyed.”
With that, he brightens back up again. “ALRIGHT!! An excuse to do some DAMAGE!”
Palm swipes the fish from off the bench and walks a few steps away from the two before he once again slams it into the ground.
Then, he proceeds to step on it… repeatedly.
The two look upon the sight in horror, Kennedy’s hood spreads itself outwards a little and Dr. Chemical places his hand on the side of his face to block his sight of what Palm was doing.
They go back to their unfinished game of Go Fish, albeit shaken up from the event. Finished with ‘destroying’ the goby, Captain Palm wipes the remains off of his boot via a plant, then saunters off to go back to fishing and trying to strike up conversation with his fellow Orange Team members.
Well, if today’s fishing activity wasn’t eventful for Dr. Chemical and Kennedy C. Cobra, it sure was now.