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Shrimpo was having a perfectly normal day. Which, for a toon like Shrimpo—which, there was none—consisted of yelling at and about inanimate objects and passerbys. He stomped around like the floor had personally offended him. Which, in his head, it had. The dirt was too crunchy. The sky was too sky-like. Everything was wrong, therefore, it deserved to be yelled at.
“Stupid pebble,” he muttered under his breath, kicking one aggressively.
The pebble did nothing to deserve it. But that was the pebble’s problem.
Shrimpo continued on his way, arms crossed, brow furrowed, radiating an extreme sense of annoyance that the other toons were aware and mindful of.
He didn’t have anywhere important to be. He never did. But walking angrily was still better than standing still, because standing still meant thinking, and thinking lead to noticing things, and noticing things led to more things to be annoyed about.
Perfect life, perfect system, perfect-
“Shrimpo! My best bud, I’ve got the news for you!”
Shrimpo froze.
He recognized that voice all too well. That squeaky, energetic, and joyful sound that cracked a fish pun every second.
Finn skedaddled into view like he had been summoned by the embodiment of happiness itself, smiling brightly as always. His fishbowl gleamed under the light, little bubbles drifting inside it as he tilted in his head. His purple fish toy was swimming around the enclosed space inside the water, lightly bumping into the side of the bowl as Finn’s head leaned toward his left shoulder.
“I just found the craziest most COOLEST thing in Gardenview,” Finn said. “Wanna take a look?”
“No,” Shrimpo replied almost immediately.
“Okay!” Finn replied.
Shrimpo blinked as Finn stood firm in front of him. The fish bowl held his ground despite Shrimpo’s opposition.
“What are you still doing here?!” Shrimpo demanded.
“Oh! I thought you meant ‘no’ as in ‘no, I’m not ready to hear about that awesome discovery you made,’” Finn said thoughtfully. (Or rather, without thought.) “So I waited.”
“No… I meant LEAVE. I want you out of my sight, nowhere near me.”
“Ooooh, got it!” Finn nodded, stretching out the O for emphasis. “…anyway- I learned about a type of deep sea fish that can survive extreme pressure by—“
“SHUT UP! I HATE YOUR FACTS, AND I HATE YOU!” Shrimpo yelled.
Finn, unbothered by Shrimpo’s usual shenanigans, kept talking, not without a short pause after Shrimpo had snapped in protest. “—by having flexible bone structures and a gelatin like body composition, which is really interesting because-“
Shrimpo had turned sharply and began walking his way out of the one-sided conversation.
Finn followed.
Shrimpo noticed.
Shrimpo began walking faster.
Finn matched him.
Shrimpo stopped suddenly.
Finn stopped too, although nearly bumping into him.
“STOP FOLLOWING ME!” Shrimpo shouted.
“Oh, somewhere important?” Finn asked. “I can walk on the way with you.”
“I’M TRYING TO ESCAPE YOU!”
Finn paused for half a second, then, smiled again. “Oh! Okay. I can talk while you escape! No biggie!”
Shrimpo made a noise that sounded like it came from the deepest part of his soul.
Somehow, they had ended up sitting on the plank seats on the aquatic floor later. He didn’t remember verbally agreeing to it. He didn’t remember choosing one or the other. In fact, he was fairly certain he had been trying to not end up with the most annoying part of his day. One moment he was walking away from the problem, the next, it had successfully relocated him. Finn’s legs swung lightly as he talked, akin to his giddy demeanor.
Gardenview’s aquarium was nothing special. In fact, it was a bit bland. A massive glass structure was built into the environment with water shimmering under the lights in the large tank. Benches were placed about near the viewing glass for people to sit and gaze upon the fish.
“And starfish aren’t actually fish or stars!” Finn said enthusiastically. “They’re echinoderms, which means they’re more closely related to sea urchins! And sea urchins-“
“I. DON’T. CARE.” Shrimpo interrupted.
Finn nodded like that was fair. “Yeah… most people don’t care too much about marine life at first.”
“And I don’t either!”
“Oh, don’t say that!” Finn said, head turning to face Shrimpo. “That’ll mean you don’t care about yourself, since you’re a swimming crustacean, and crustaceans are apart of marine life.”
Shrimpo stared blankly at him.
Finn smiled back at him.
Shrimpo looked away immediately. “Shut it with your illogical nonsense…”
“I think it’s logical,” Finn said. “It’s just… emotionally logical. Which is still logic. Probably.”
“That doesn’t even mean anything!”
“It might if you think about it long enough!”
There was a quiet pause, one that Finn filled with more fish facts.
It should’ve been unbearable, and yet, Shrimpo stayed.
Finn kept talking about sea urchins and their relation to starfish. Something stupid, Shrimpo thought.
“You’re annoying.” Shrimpo muttered eventually. The words came out quieter than his earlier outbursts. He didn’t even look at Finn when he said it. Instead, he kept his gaze fixed on the water, whose thin layers of holographic projection shimmered through the water.
The world reminded them of Earth’s constant motion once the radiance of the sun started to fade into a shade of red, orange, and a smidgen of purple. Finn finally leaned back, slightly stretching, just enough to straighten his back.
The movement was easy and unbothered, like he had all the time in the world and no reason to rush anything.
“I had fun today,” he said simply.
Shrimpo scoffed. “I didn’t.”
Finn nodded, “Ah, that’s alright. Whadd’re you gonna do.”
Shrimpo paused.
“You’re not gonna argue?” He said with an unvarying pitch and tone.
“Nope,” Finn said. “You can feel however you want bud!”
A silence dawned between the two, absorbing the atmosphere around them. It wasn’t tense, but a pleasant, peaceful silence. The two, despite not vocally stating it, were simply basking in each other’s presence. Enjoying it, which was, again, unusual for Shrimpo.
“You’re weird,” Shrimpo grumbled. He stood up, brushing off his posture.
“And don’t follow me back!” He added, his eyes narrowed and finger pointed aggressively at Finn.
Finn stood as well. “Okay!” Finn unfaithfully promised.
Shrimpo turned away, stomping off like he always did.
Finn watched him go.
Then, softly, like it was obvious:
“See you tomorrow Shrimpo!”
Shrimpo didn’t respond, but he didn’t correct him either.