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“Yo, JC, check this one out!”
Slayer was always amused by the strangers who came to see him from the other side of the magic wall. They came in such a fascinating variety of shapes and designs. While they largely lacked fins, he found their propensity for self-decoration incredibly charming. All of them draped their bodies in a variety of colors, sometimes even adorned with shiny stones in their bodies. He wondered what it would be like to possess such ornaments.
“Woah, wicked! Look at those teeth!”
He noticed that a significant amount of the strangers who came to visit him liked to dress similarly. While others enjoyed wearing every color of the rainbow, these ones preferred black and red- definitely a good choice, in his opinion, however biased it was. They were bigger than the smallest but smaller than the biggest- juveniles, perhaps? Certainly younger-looking than he was. Some were very pale and quiet, while others had wild, spiked hair and liked making noise. They all seemed fond of metal decorations in their skin, just about everywhere they could possibly manage. Slayer could only assume they had to be the same breed, despite the slight differences.
“Hold the camera, Snake! I wanna get a photo!
Slayer had been swimming back and forth up until then, but he decided to swim closer to the magic wall. One stranger broke off from their group and approached him. They seemed an interesting fellow, with pitch-black lips and several metal decorations in their nose and ears.
They seemed happy that he was interested in them. “Check it out! Think it likes me?”
“Pfft. No way, man. Probably just likes your studs. Fish are supposed to like shiny things right?”
“It’s a lamprey, dumbass.” The one by the wall pointed a finger at the plaque. “See? ‘European River Lamprey’”
Another one rolled their eyes. “A lamprey is a kind of fish, dumbass.”
“Maaan, whatever. Just take the picture!”
Slayer watched them make a peculiar gesture with both hands, curling them into fists before straightening out their pinkies and index fingers. They raised both hands towards the rest of their group and thrust their tongue out. “Oh yeah! Check me out! Do I look cool?”
He was used to watching strangers pose by his space, though he was never sure if he was supposed to do anything about it. Most of them seemed perfectly happy with him swimming by or simply watching, but if the black-and-white strangers were a different breed than the rest, did they have different customs?
How curious. One of their group raised a flashbox (also black, naturally) and pointed at the two of them. Yet another odd habit of the strangers, flashing lights at him. He didn’t understand the concept behind it. But humoring them seemed polite. Everyone else was grinning, so he bared his razor-sharp teeth, too.
“Wo-ho-hoah!!” The group immediately burst into wider grins and an assortment of laughter. “Check out those fuckin’ fangs, man!”
“Wicked!”
The one by him eased his posing momentarily to look over his shoulder, then turned back to strike an even more enthusiastic pose. “Hell yeah! Snake, take the pic!”
The flashes soon followed, as expected. They immediately ran back to their group, which clustered around the one with the flashbox to chatter and whoop among themselves. “That is so friggin cool!” They said, beaming almost as brightly as their metal decorations. “Text it to me! I can’t wait to show my mama!”
Slayer merely watched in amusement. He never understood the strangers’ bizarre customs, but he always enjoyed amusing them so.