Octonauts - A New Generation
Chapter 13
A day in the life of a Vegimal
Tunip
Tunip hates seeing other’s sad. Over the many years that he has been with the Octonauts, he has figured out ways to turn their frown upside down. The language barrier was a problem at first, but soon enough, all of the Octonauts learned how to understand Vegimalese. With the Junior Octo-agents around for a while, Tunip has to deal with the language barrier once again as he tries to learn more about the kids.
Tunip walks down the hallway with a notebook and a pen. It was easy finding out what makes Pinto happy. Next is Koshi. Koshi and Dashi seem to have a lot alike. Perhaps they also both enjoy eating strawberries. Tunip runs to the kitchen and puts a fresh clean batch of strawberries in a bowl, before rushing to the girl’s room with them. He puts the bowl right in front of her on her desk.
“Strawberries? Are these meant for Dashi?”, Koshi asks.
Tunip shakes his head and points at her.
“For me?”, Koshi asks puzzled.
Does she not like strawberries?, Tunip asks himself.
“Thank you”, Koshi says while smiling.
This does not satisfy Tunip. He takes out his notebook, turns to a blank page and draws a bowl filled with different fruits and a question mark besides it.
“You want to know what my favorite fruit is?”, Koshi asks.
Tunip eagerly nods his head, causing Koshi to chuckle.
“I love mandarins”, Koshi answers with a bright smile.
Tunip gives a short nod before rushing off with the bowl of strawberries. A few minutes later, he returns with a bowl of mandarins.
“You already pealed them?”, Koshi widens her eyes, “Thank you so much!”
She gives Tunip a tight hug to show her gratitude. Tunip chirps excitedly, deciding to settle for this as of now.
Next on the list is Orson. Tunip goes over to the boys room, but Orson isn’t there. He then runs to the game pod, remembering that Kwazii takes care of the polar bear cub. As predicted, Tunip finds the two of them playing ping-pong. Tunip patiently waits for one of them to score a point before interacting with Kwazii.
“Kwazii, may I talk to Orson please?”, he asks.
“Sure thing me hearty”, Kwazii replies as he twirls his racket.
“Would it also be possible for you to help out with the language barrier?”, Tunip asks.
Kwazii laughs: “I’ll try my best.”
Tunip jumps up and down in excitement. Orson peeks over to them in confusion.
“Orson, Tunip would like to talk to you”, Kwazii says as he gestures towards the Vegimal.
“About what?”, Orson wonders, skepticism taking over his voice.
“About you”, Tunip says. He waits patiently as Kwazii repeats what he said.
“Uhhh…”, Orson mumbles, clearly still puzzled.
“What’s your favorite fruit?”, Tunip says. Orson switches his gaze from the Vegimal to the cat as Kwazii translates.
“Blueberries”, Orson answers.
“Okay. What do you like to do in your free time?”, Tunip asks as he takes out his notebook.
After Kwazii translates, Orson takes a while to think about his answer.
“Well…I usually hang out with Ursa”, he shyly says, “What’s with all of these questions?”
“I just want to get to know you more”, Tunip says. He thinks of what to ask next as Kwazii translates.
“What brings you joy?”, Tunip asks, deciding to get straight to the point.
“My family being happy”, Orson replies after Kwazii translates.
This will be harder than I thought, Tunip thinks to himself, I guess that I’ll try again later, after I have had the time to think of what questions I should ask.
“Thank you for your time”, Tunip happily chirps.
He decides to go see if he’ll have any luck with Ursa.
Tunip hops through the Octo-shoot into the HQ and finds Ursa excitedly talking to captain Barnacles.
“So, in order to raise my chances of becoming the captain, I will now be stalking you”, Ursa happily announces as Tunip walks towards them.
“Uhm… As much as I support you and your dream of becoming the captain, I don’t think that stalking me is the best way of achieving that”, captain Barnacles says while trying to hide his nervousness.
“Did I say ‘stalking you’? I mean ‘watching and learning’. It’s the best way to learn anything and everything. Trust me! I have had a lot of experience”, Ursa says.
Captain Barnacles sighs. Tunip wonders how long this conversation has been going on, before captain Barnacles interrupts his thought process.
“Tunip? When did you get in here?”, the captain asks.
“Not too long ago captain”, Tunip answers.
“Alright. So what can I do for you?”, the captain ponders.
“I would like to ask Ursa a few questions”, Tunip replies.
“I see”, the captain says.
“Ursa, what’s your favorite fruit?”, Tunip asks. Without needing to say anything else, captain Barnacles already translates it for Ursa.
“Raspberries”, Ursa says. She keeps a close eye on the Vegimal as he writes it down.
“Orson’s favorite fruit is blueberries? He always said that it’s raspberries”, Ursa mumbles.
“Really?”, Tunip asks. He thinks back to Orson’s behavior that he had been observing, before quickly writing something down.
“What do you like doing in your free time?”, Tunip asks.
“Snowball fight with the other kids and Orson”, Ursa replies without much thought.
“What brings you joy?”, Tunip asks.
Captain Barnacles seemed a little surprised of this question, same goes for Ursa. Is this not an appropriate question?, Tunip wonders.
“Well…teasing my brother, I guess. He’s reaction is just so awesome!”, Ursa explains while laughing.
“Okay”, Tunip says while writing more notes down for Orson, “Thank you for your time.”
Seems like he sees his sister as his role model, Tunip thinks to himself as he makes his way to the lab.
“Hello Shellington, hello Periwinkle”, Tunip greets them upon arriving into the lab.
“Hello Tunip. What brings you here?”, Shellington asks. Both sea otters are at Shellington’s desk, sitting right in front of a microscope.
“I would like to ask Periwinkle a few questions”, Tunip says as he waddles towards them.
“Alright. Peri, Tunip would like to ask you some questions”, Shellington turns back to Periwinkle.
“Okay. Ask away”, Periwinkle gives a shy smile.
“Thank you”, Tunip says, giving himself a little bit more time to prepare his questions for the young sea otter.
Grouber
Grouber enters the kitchen for the sixth time today, with the hope that no one is inside this time. After finally finding the kitchen empty, he quickly scans the surrounding hallway before dashing inside to grab himself a snack or two…or five? With two flippers full of snacks, Grouber runs back into the Vegimals’ bedroom. Codish and Tominnow greet the light purple Vegimal upon his arrival.
“How do you keep getting passed Tunip?”, Codish answers curiously.
“I have my ways”, Grouber answers.
“You sure are determined, I’ll give you that”, Cornin‘s voice suddenly chirps from the other side of the room. Grouber chokes on the kelp cake that he was eating.
“Are you okay big bro?”, Tominnow asks worryingly.
“I’m fine Tom”, Grouber answers before turning his attention back to Cornin. “What will it take for you to not tell Tunip about this?”
“I’m not sure. It will be a hefty price though. Watching Tunip teach you a lesson is quite entertaining. One tends to forget that you’re the oldest with how immature you act”, Cornin states, refusing the take his eyes off of his book as he does so. Grouber growls.
“Please don’t start fighting”, Tominnow pleads. Using his youngest-and-cutest-brother powers, he puts an immediate end to the discussion before it had the chance to get too heated.
“Alright, fine. I won’t tell Tunip. You got lucky this time brother”, Cornin gets up and walks out of the room with his book. Before he gets the chance to walk through the door, Grouber yells: “Jealousy doesn’t look good on you baby brother!”
“Shut up!”, Cornin yells back.
“Was that really necessary?”, Codish asks.
“What? I’m just stating facts”, Grouber tries to act innocent.
“I don’t like it when the two of you fight”, Tominnow says sorrowfully.
Grouber sighs. “I know. One day, when you’re older, you’ll understand why we fight”, Grouber puts his flipper on the shoulder of the young red Vegimal.
“In a more lighthearted and present event, what do you guys wanna do today?”, Grouber asks in an attempt to lighten the mood.
“Character study?”, Codish slowly says.
“As expected”, Grouber says with a grin. Codish chuckles sheepishly as Tominnow sighs.
“Let me guess, you’re too tired to do anything else?”, Tominnow mumbles.
“W-Well, we are naturally curious creatures, so it’s only natural for that to be the only thing that I can put energy into”, Codish stares at the ground while explaining himself.
“That and cooking of course. We’re also naturally helpful”, Grouber says with pride.
“Alright. Who’s character are we studying today?”, Tominnow steps in front of Codish.
“I can’t decide. I’m curious about professor Inkling’s nephew, as well as professor Natquik’s niece”, Codish raises his head.
“Targeting the relatives of the professors now, ay?”, Grouber teases.
“N-No! I-It’s just a crazy coincidence! We barely know them, that’s all. Pinto comes here once every month, Koshi and the twins come here often too. Not to mention Periwinkle. That would only leave the relatives of the professors”, Codish rapidly explains.
“Chill out bro. I was just teasing ya. You should be used to it by now”, Grouber tries his best to stop himself from rolling his eyes at his brother’s nervous rant.
“C’mon, let’s go see which one of the two is available”, Tominnow suggests.
Codish and Tominnow
Something about studying a person’s character has always been intriguing for Codish. He loves the satisfaction he gets from knowing a person well and possibly being able to connect with them. He takes a lot of pride in this hobby, despite it being weird for others. Before heading out to find one of the two kids, Codish quickly runs over to his bed and grabs his notebook from under his pillow. He quickly catches up with his brothers and together, they go searching for the relatives of the professors.
After walking around the Octopod for some time, the trio finally find the young pup in the launchbay. Only to find Tunip interrogating her.
“Tunip, buddy, I know that you just want to be ready to comfort her when needed, but you’re clearly scaring the poor kid”, Grouber says.
“He’s not scaring her, but you make a good point”, Tweak says while bitting into a carrot.
“I don’t mind, I just…wasn’t expecting this. I feel like I’ve been put on the spot”, Stella explains, nervousness taking over her facial features.
“Anyway. Since you’re busy with her, we’ll go get the other one”, Grouber makes a 180 turn and starts waddling away.
“Wait, what? What do you mean?”, Tunip’s voice fills with worry and panic.
“Don’t worry about it, we’re just going through a phase where we like talking to people that are related to professors”, Tominnow says in an attempt to cover up Codish’s intentions.
“So, Codish wants to study their characters?”, Tunip bluntly replies.
“Oh man. Was I that obvious?”, Tominnow frowns.
“Just try not too weird them out”, Tunip says with a sigh.
“You mean like you’re doing?”, Grouber says, now standing right besides the Octo-shoot.
“Whatever Grouber. Take care of the kids and do not be a bad influence on them”, Tunip turns his focus back to the little pup.
“Come on kids”, Grouber says teasingly.
“You’re only 8 years older than me”, Codish exclaims.
“8 years is a lot”, Grouber says, “Now come on, we don’t have all day.”
The three Vegimals head for the library next. Upon their arrival, they’re greeted by professor Inkling. After walking deeper into the library, they finally find the young octopus. Talking to Cornin.
“Hello brothers. What are you doing here?”, Cornin calmly asks, “I thought that you’re allergic to books Grouber.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. We wanted to talk to the octopus”, Grouber rolls his eyes.
“His name is Squirt and he is currently being tutored”, Cornin tries to hide how annoyed he got just because of Grouber rolling his eyes.
“Which subject?”, Tominnow asks with general curiosity.
Cornin immediately calms down and loosens up at the sight of Tominnow’s wholesomeness.
“Vegimalese”, Cornin answers, “Shellington is teaching them, and Squirt is struggling a little bit.”
“It’s so nice of you to help him out”, Tominnow chirps.
“Mhm”, Codish agrees.
“Thanks”, Corning blushes, “I try my best.”
“If only you could do the same for your beloved oldest brother”, Grouber says with a sarcastic disappointed head shake.
“I’m sorry. It’s just so hard to be nice to you. In fact, you clearly make yourself unbearable on purpose”, Cornin answers while trying to remain clam.
“I only understood half of what you said”, Squirt suddenly says, “But it seems like the two of you have beef with each other.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’re handling it”, Cornin says while englishafying his Vegimalese.
“We are?”, Grouber asks sarcastically.
“Grouber, why don’t you take Tom and Codish somewhere else?”, Cornin tries his best to remain clam.
“Why should I?”, Grouber teases.
“Because you’re allergic to books”, Cornin’s patients quickly runs dry.
“Alright. Come on you two. I’m sure that we can find someone else to bother”, Grouber slowly heads towards the library’s exit. Tominnow quickly runs after the older brother. Codish drags himself along, mumbling in disappointment at both failed attempts.
Charchard and Albachoy
Charchard taps the table impatiently with his pen as he tries to think of what theme he should pick to celebrate the kids joining the Junior-Octo-Agents-in-training program. Albachoy hastily whipes his flippers while he glares at Charchard.
“Fine! Spill the beans! What’s bothering you Char?”, he says with annoyance.
Charchard glances in his direction with confusion. “What do you mean? Nothing is bothering me”, he slowly says.
“Then stop trying to poke holes in the table!”, Albachoy yells.
“Sorry”, Charchard mumbles. After a while of twisting the pen with his flipper, he finally says: “Actually, I do need your help with something.”
“If it gets you to leave me alone”, Albachoy grumbles as he takes a seat next to his twin brother.
“Thank you Choy”, Charchard says with a smile.
Albachoy rolls his eyes before taking Charchard’s notebook.
“You’re planning a party for the kids?”, Albachoy raises an eyebrow.
“Yeah!”, Charchard says, “But I can’t decide what theme it should be.”
“Keep it simple. You can make a big party once this thing becomes official”, Albachoy crosses out some of the options Charchard had written down.
“There you go. Let me know once you’ve made up your mind. I need to know what cake I’m making”, Albachoy tries to get up, but is immediately captured in a warm embrace.
“Thank you so much Choy!”, Charchard chirps.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anything to get you to leave me alone”, Albachoy mumbles as he tries to free himself from the embrace.
Barrot
Barrot runs around the whole Octopod looking for someone to play with him. He eventually ends up back in the HQ without finding a single person that’s not occupied with something else. He slumps down in defeat in the middle of the room and lets out a big sigh. Dashi finishes sorting out the recent pictures that she took, before turning around to address Barrot.
“What’s wrong Barrot?”, Dashi asks calmly.
“I’m booored!”, Barrot complains.
He quickly jumps up and stares at Dashi with wide eyes, “Will you play with me?”
“Well, I did just finish my work for the afternoon… Sure, why not?”, Dashi smiles as Barrot jumps up and down with excitement. Barrot drags Dashi with him to the game pod. The two crew mates push the ping pong table aside and set up the volleyball net. Barrot notices a spark in Dashi’s eyes when he first grabed the volleyball net. Is volleyball her favorite sport? She is doing a surprisingly good job at keeping her expression neutral. Barrot excitedly runs around as Dashi finishes setting up the net. The two of them play together for about an hour. A first, Dashi was holding back, by the end of their play session, both of them were going all out. Barrot enjoyed every second of it. Seeing this new side of Dashi has been amazing. Hopefully he’ll be able to play with her again.
Barrot smiles fondly at the recent memory of what happened during the afternoon. His brothers eye him suspiciously every now and then.
“Alright Barrot, spill the tea. You’re never happy while doing the dishes”, Grouber says while crossing his arms.
“Yeah, what are you up to?”, Tunip asks while putting a cup in the cupboard.
“What do you mean? I’m always happy”, Barrot says with a smile.
“Sure. Even when you are happy, you never do the dishes properly”, Grouber mumbles.
“I guess you have a point. I’m just in a good mood I guess”, Barrot starts humming while he cleans a plate.
“You should be in a good mood more often”, Grouber nudges Barrot, “That way I no longer need to do double the work.”
Barrot chuckles, “Thank you for helping me out with my chores bro.”
“Could all of you please shut up?”, Albachoy asks with annoyance.
The brothers continue working in silence.
Barrot jumps on his bed with excitement as he waits for his other brothers to get in bed. Cornin is the last to enter, as always, since he always insists on bringing professor Inkling’s tea to the library.
“Stop jumping!”, Albachoy growls.
“Sorry”, Barrot murmurs.
“Seriously though, what has got you so exited?”, Grouber asks while he tucks Tominnow and Codish in bed.
“Did you find someone fun to play with?”, Tunip asks, remembering how Barrot had asked him to play with him.
“Super fun!”, Barrot answers.
“Please stop screaming”, Charchard sleepily says.
“Sorry”, Barrot lies down as Grouber approaches his bed.
“And who is the lucky person that managed to make you so happy?”, Grouber asks with a smirk.
“Are you jealous?”, Barrot teases.
“Maybe a little”, Grouber gives Barrot a kiss on the forehead.
“I played volleyball with Dashi. It was very fun. She’s incredibly good at it”, Barrot yawns, “Hopefully we can play again soon.”
Barrot’s eyelids start getting heavy.
“I’m sure that you’ll have the chance to play again with her soon. She loves playing volleyball”, Grouber speaks gently while tucking Barrot in bed.
“Really? How come I didn’t know?”, Barrot struggles to stay awake. Noticing this, Grouber gently chuckles.
“We can talk about it more in the morning”, Grouber gives him another kiss, before getting into his bed.
“Good night brothers”, Tunip says with a smile. After they’ve all said their good nights, Tunip switches off the lights.
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