[SYNOPSIS: Gnome and Engineer are going out on one of their dates at the zoo, and during their tour they stop at a concession stand for a quick snack. It's all fine, dandy and delicious...but it turns out they aren't the only ones who could go for some Cracker Jack.]

[Location: The regional zoo]

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"...You see anything, Engie?"

"This is the spot, according to the map," the purple crewmate replied, looking down at his pamphlet. "They are nocturnal, though, so it's possible they're asleep at this hour. Maybe we can come back here on our way out and see if-"

"Wait, look...!"

Gnome pointed towards one of the bot huts towards the top of the enclosure, and her boyfriend looked up just in time to see a fluffy russet and white-furred face peek out, the rest of its body emerging behind it until the animal's banded tail was fully visible...Gnome held back a squeal; as much as she was ADORED by the sight of a red panda close up, she didn't want to alarm it.

They watched intently as it expertly balanced itself along the suspended wooden beam and over to a puzzle feeder, meticulously pulling out a pawful of bamboo shoots and biscuits.

"Isn't it cute...!"

"Heh, yeah! It looks a bit like a raccoon, but less...uh..."

"...Dirty and nasty?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

The two of them watched again as the red panda retreated back to its hiding space with its food, and they could hear it start to munch from inside its hut.

"Welp, guess we should let it eat now," Engineer remarked. "Anywhere you wanna stop next, Gnomey?"

"Let me see what's nearby."

He handed her the map, and she scanned it for a few seconds, then looked up at the road ahead...There was a fork in the dirt path; the left path would take them to the Madagascar exhibits and the reptile house, and the right path would take them to the Africa section. THAT was where all of the zoo staples were; the BIG animals.

"Let's go right!" she immediately decided as she looked back down at the map. "OOH, and there's a snack bar there, too! Y'know, just in case we get hungry."

"I could go for something to tide me over till dinner," Engineer figured. "Alrighty, then. Lead the way, Gnome."

With a spring in her step, the lime crewmate lead her sweetheart along the pathway...The bright late afternoon sun tried to beat down on the two of them, but the trees lining the pathway shielded them with their shade, only beginning to part as they drew closer to their destination.

"That looks like the snack bar up ahead," Engineer pointed out. "Let's see what they've got...I just hope it's not five bucks for a bag of chips."

"Yeah, food at places like this can kinda rip you off sometimes," the lime crewmate agreed. "...If that's the case, you wanna go Dutch?"

"Heh! If you insist, babe!"

They made their way over to the stand side by side, where they were met with a young green-clad crewmate manning the counter.

"Hey, welcome to the Snack Shack. Can I help you with anything?"

"Nah, we're good. Thanks, though," Gnome replied, scanning the shelves and displays for anything that might seem good...The options were actually a little cheaper than she'd expected, so she was glad of that.

"Hmmmm..."

She wasn't in the mood for chocolate...for some  reason. But she did want something sweet. Something crunchy, nutty...

...Then she saw it. Two bags of Cracker Jack, sitting side by side just behind the counter. The lime crewmate beamed at the sight of them.

"I take a Cracker Jack, please."

"Huh. Haven't had one of those in a while myself," Engineer mused. "I'll take the second one myself."

The vendor nodded, then handed them each a bag.

"Here you go. That'll be $5.50."

The couple split the cost halfway, each handing the green-clad vendor a crisp two dollars plus a quarter.

"Alright, have a great rest of the day, you two."

"You too, thanks!" Gnome grinned. "Say Engie, you wanna find a place to sit down?"

"Oh, you read my mind," he chuffed as the two left the stand. "I usually don't give my legs this much of a workout...I just hope I'm not slowing you down, Gnome."

"What? No! Don't worry about it Engineer, we can sit down somewhere for a bit and enjoy our food...In fact, I think I see a bench up ahead!"

"You do? Ah...Alright, good. Let's head on over there and have a seat."

Gnome walked a bit less briskly this time and stayed beside Engineer; he wasn't quite as active as she was, given that he spent most of his time standing in one place working on something in his lab or sitting at a computer looking over data logs and test results. Sometimes she forgot about that and wore him out, but he never complained about it. Maybe if was because he figured he needed the workout? Gnome wasn't sure, but she reminded herself that next time they had a date to plan she would suggest a place like the library.

Finally, they made it to the bench...It was a nice, light-colored wooden bench, and the outer frames on either side merged with its legs to form the shape of a giraffe. Engineer plopped right down and let out a content sigh.

"Phew...Just in time, ey Gnomey?"

"Yeah...I'll say. You know, I didn't notice until now, but...I think I'm a little worn out myself."

"Guess we picked a good time for a snack break then, huh?" the purple crewmate grinned as the two of them pulled out their bags of nutty caramel corn goodness and popped them open.

"Here's to a day chock-full of exercise and zoology," Engineer toasted, raising his bag.

"And may the rest of it be just as fun once we recharge!" Gnome replied.

With that, each of them took out a handful and dug right in.

"Hmm...Say Engineer. When exactly was  the last time you ate this stuff?"

"Oh, it's been a long time. I was...eight, I think?"

"What!?  Really, it's been that long??"

"Yeah, my dad took me to my first baseball game, and they were passing these out in the stands!" he told her, voice slightly muffled as he chewed it. "...Unfortunately, that was also the last one I ever went to, because when one of the batters got a home run the ball ended up slamming right into my stomach."

"Ooooh, ouch...!"

"And all of the Cracker Jack I'd eaten beforehand ended up coming right back out."

"Oh, yikes...That doesn't sound fun."

"It wasn't. Good news is, next week my dad signed me up for a chess club to try and make up for that incident. That was a lot more up my alley...Although he and I still joke about that day from time to time. And it was the first thing I thought of when you suggested it over at the concession stand."

"Well, I guess it's a good thing there aren't any baseballs around-"

Tap tap tap

"Huh?"

Gnome felt what she thought to be a finger tapping against her right "shoulder," and she turned her head in that direction...But there was no one standing there.

"What was that?"

"Uhhh...Gnome?" Engineer said to her, eyes somewhat wide. "...Behind you."

"What-AH!!"

She turned to look behind the bench they were seated in and was immediately met with a massive, wrinkly grey face staring right back at her, just barely over an invisible arm's reach away from behind the low stone wall and the shallow moat inside the enclosure...It took Gnome a moment to recognize the animal in her state of shock, but when she did she heaved out a sigh.

"Agh...Jeez...I forgot the elephant exhibit was up ahead."

"That's what I call a close encounter," Engineer chortled. "...In fact, I'm not so sure it's safe for guests to be this close to-Ack!"

He stopped when the elephant reached out again and poked his side next, a bit more assertively than he had Gnome.

"Case in point..."

As he looked back up at the massive creature, he watched as it made its way over to just past his side of the bench, pointing down at what looked like a sign not far from them. The two crewmates got up to take a look at it, and read the following:

________________________________
|                                                                               |
                  |                                  DON'T ғᴏʀɢᴇᴛ ᴛᴏ         |                  
 |                  FEED THE ELEPHANT                | 
| _______________________________ |

"Huh. I knew some places let you feed the ducks and petting zoo animals, but not the ones like this!" Gnome smiled.

"Yeah," Engineer agreed. "That...is a little out of the ordinary."

"You hungry, big guy?" the lime crewmate asked, to which the elephant...seemed to nod in response to.

"Okay! I just gotta find one of those pellet dispensers around here somewhere. They're normally along the railing, like-Huh?"

She never got the chance to look for a pellet dispenser. She didn't need to...Instead of eating any pellets, the elephant reached out yet again and helped itself to a small "handful" from Gnome's Cracker Jack bag with the end of its trunk.

"Oh...or...that works, I guess," she shrugged, watching as the animal savored the treat. "Wow...you look like you really like that stuff, huh?"

"Well, it's made of corn and peanuts, which I imagine they like," Engineer remarked. "Not to mention the caramel..."

As he spoke, the purple crewmate took another gander at the sign...He swore the words "forget too" reflected just a bit more sunlight than the rest of the red-printed text. And even more so, why weren't the words properly aligned?

"...Somethin's kinda bothering me about this sign, Gnome."

"What do you mean?" she asked him, handing the behemoth another small handful to grab. "It says 'don't forget to feed the elephant,' so why would we have to worry about anything?"

"I don't know-"

He stopped when he felt something begin to rummage into his OWN bag of caramel corn, and he looked up from the sign to find that the elephant was now targeting HIS...Once the elephant had stuffed its mouth again, it reached out with its trunk once more to give Engineer a pat atop the head as though to praise him.

"Erm...thank you..." the purple crewmate replied to it. "But...As I was saying, Gnome, it almost looks like someone added to the-"

"Hey, hey, what're you two doing over there!?"

The voice came from up the sidewalk ahead. A blue crewmate in a beige zookeeper's uniform came jogging down towards them with a frantic look on his face, skidding to a halt barely a meter in front of them, eyes all over the place as he tried to access the situation.

"You guys aren't allowed to..."

He trailed off before very long, because his attention fell onto the sign just a moment later.

"Wha...? Oh, NO, not again," he moaned, turning towards the elephant still standing there chewing on Cracker Jack. "Claudius, we talked about this!"

The elephant pointed his trunk out and blew a puff of warm, rather moist air in the keeper's face in response to his reprimand. He did his best to ignore the smell of it as he took a peek at what the elephant had been helping itself to from the two visitors, and he let out a small sigh of relief once he realized it was nothing dangerous.

"Just Cracker Jack? Ah, okay...Hah...I, uh...I'm sorry, you two," the blue crewmate said to the couple, now in a much calmer tone. "...But would you be so kind as to ignore the sign and keep your snacks at bay? It seems as though the display has been...tampered  with again."

The keeper stepped up to the sign, then rubbed his hand across the words "forget to". The writing smeared easily, and Engineer was quick to notice the ink's scent once it was meddled with.

"Ah-HA. I thought it looked wet," he remarked.

"So, wait," Gnome asked. "Is that...fresh paint?"

"Yeah, it is," the keeper confirmed. "Ever since he first picked up a paintbrush, Claud's figured out how to use it for all kinds of things...besides  painting on a canvas. One time, he even painted a spider on one of the inner walls and scared the bejeebers outta one of my colleagues for a minute."

"Wow, really?" the lime crewmate asked him.

"Sure did...And recently, he's figured out how to edit the sign here and take advantage of the unsuspecting passerby."

As though to confirm what the keeper said was true, the elephant standing behind him reached down towards the ground and picked up what at first looked like a stick. But it didn't take long for the three of them to notice the bristles at one end, which just so happened to also  be caked with red paint.

"Wow," Engineer marveled. "I knew elephants were intelligent creatures, but...that's beyond anything I've ever heard of!"

"Yes, I have to admit he's gifted. Not only that, but usually he's also quite well-mannered...Usually. The only things he really ever does to cause mischief are messing with patrons like this and having...very loud 'arguments' with the African wild asses across the sidewalk."

"Uh...the whats?" Gnome asked, raising an eyebrow.

In response, the keeper motioned for them to follow him over to the neighboring exhibit on the other side of the walkway, and the three of them looked out into a large, flat area of dry grass, shrubs and sparsely placed trees. Grazing in a herd towards the left end of the enclosure stood four distinctly equine animals with long ears, pale grey coats and and prominent black stripes on their white legs, which were somewhat reminiscent of a zebra.

"Oh. So they're like wild donkeys?" Gnome realized. "Heh. I wonder why they don't get along?"

"I can think of a few  reasons..." Engineer muttered under his breath before turning to face the keeper again.

"I, uh...I'd like to apologize for what happened," the purple crewmate continued. "I had a feeling something was off in the beginning, but I didn't really act on my suspicions soon enough."

"Hm. Well, I can't say it's your fault. You aren't exactly the first people Claudius has been able to swindle. I'll just let you two off with a warning since you know what's up now, alright?"

"Thanks a WHOLE bunch, sir. It won't happen again, we promise," Gnome gushed.

"I'll take your word for it. A little bit of caramel corn and peanuts won't hurt him, anyways," the keeper nodded, turning back to the elephant behind them.

"YOU however, mister, just lost out on any peanut butter crackers you might've gotten after closing. You've already had your treat for the day."

Thoroughly offended by the zookeeper's reprimand, Claudius trumpeted in indignation, stomped over to his food trough, pulled out an apple and chucked it right at him!

Fortunately for the keeper, the elephant's aim was a bit off. It whizzed right past his head, grazed Gnome's hand...

...And then BRUTALLY connected with an unexpecting Engineer's stomach.

"Gurgh-!"

"Engie, are you okay!?"

He wretched and doubled over before he could give any response, and all Gnome and the zookeeper could do was watch in horror and disgust at what happened next.

"Uh-oh...uh, sorry about that, Mr. Keeper, sir."

"Eh, well...I've seen worse. I'll go get the hose."