Katie idly scrolls through her phone as she sits at the bus stop. Hunger gnaws at her stomach. She internally debates whether to shell out for takeout or save money and heat up something from the freezer. Her bones feel like they're made of lead. She wants to lay down, but knows the bus will just arrive as soon as she does.
God these things are adorable. She wishes she had some kind of buoyant throwable object to play catch with.
She swims back to shore and asks the monitoring goon for the time every so often.
She waves goodbye to the belugas, takes the elevator back down, and towels off in her bedroom.
She's wearing the bubble-fabric shirtdress. Coming in a swimsuit might be a little spicy, but Mo keeps it cold in here and it's not even that revealing of a swimsuit.
"I'm so glad. The feeling is mutual. Do you have any tennis balls or something I can play catch with next time? Those float in seawater, right?"
"I don't think I currently have tennis balls but you can ask one of the animal-maintenance goons what they've got or ask them to get you tennis balls."
The first course arrives. It's crostinis dripping with olive oil and topped with roasted garlic and herbs.
She snaps a photo for her friends to drool at later and then immediately gobbles them up. Mmmmmmm crunchycrunchycrunchygarlicsaltgarlicsaltpepperoregano mmmmm.
"Indeed it does. 12 courses again today?" In between bites, Katie scans the room for any obvious differences from her own other than color.
"Actually just six but one of them is a whole turkey."
Monoceros's room is more lived-in, but the goons keep it clean. There's two books open on her desk, she's got a funky hanging narwhal-shaped lamp, there's pictures of her in various scenic locations on the walls in between a stolen Renoir and a calligraphy of selected Evil Overlord List items (#2, #11, #56, and #85).
Katie breathes a sigh of relief, steels her stomach, and on the side makes a mental note not to try escaping through the ventilation ducts, even though pretty soon that's gonna be impossible even if she was imprisoned by an evil overlord who hadn't read The List.
"You a white meat person or a dark meat person?" Monoceros asks, as the goons take the crostini platter and bring in a salmon Caesar salad.
"White." Katie approves greatly of how garlic-heavy this meal seems to be.
"Oh, convenient, I like both but nothing quite hits like sinking my teeth into a thigh."
"Try not to bite too hard. Tissue damage and blood loss waste valuable calories, y'know."
"What, are you British now? Gonna be feeding me bangers and mash? Toad in the hole, perhaps? Smack barm pey wet?"