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"Hey, OP?" Jazz said with a slight tilt of his head, his microbraids draping over his shoulder.
"Yes, Jazz?"
The two of them were standing in front of one of Iacon Central Aquarium's largest fish tanks, a magnificent tank teeming with tangerine-orange koi fish. The display was illuminated by blue light produced by millions of candles and cerilium stained glass. Every night, aquarium attendants would extinguish the candles, and each morning, they'd manually light them up again. Over and over again. Every day of the week, and every month of the year. Due to the amount of labor put into maintaining the aquarium as a whole, only the incredibly wealthy tended to visit— after all, a single entrance ticket was worth triple the average archivist's annual salary. As a reward for their research in Kaon, Alpha Trion had gifted the two entrance tickets, and Orion Pax had never been more grateful for the old official. As closing hours neared, the exhibition room emptied except for the two archivists.
"Have you ever wondered what would happen if they released these fish into the wild?"
Orion Pax furrowed his brows— his job as a data clerk was not to analyze, but still he does. Lately, Jazz has taken great enjoyment to stimulating his logical reasoning abilities. "That's quite the interesting thought."
"Would they survive or would they die?"
"I'm unsure. It really depends."
The edges of Jazz's lips quirked up in a smirk. "Tell me about it."
"Well… if their habitat permits, there is a good possibility that they can survive. If not, they perish."
"Interesting. I just so happened to stumble across a peculiar report from the Towers the other day. A child had wanted to release his pet goldfish into a nearby pond. You know what happened next? A year later, that thing grew to be almost-" Jazz held out his forearm for comparison, his nail guards glinting in the light."-this long. Almost all the native algae and fish had been eaten by this one little goldfish. Isn't that crazy?"
Orion Pax grimaced. "That's…"
"Weird? Disgusting? Inspiring?"
"What's your point, Jazz?"
"What do you think?"
Orion chewed on the inside of his mouth as he thought. "Megatronus and his gladiators add up to be about a couple thousand. However, I believe there will only be a small handful of other archivists that are willing to support us in case something occurs. The liklihood of there being moles in either group is uncomfortably high, though."
"Now we're talking. To be safe, we should only contact those we can completely trust. I believe that if we play our cards right and bide our time, we can call for reformation. I have a friend who works in communications. He's discrete, and I can talk to him about what we are doing."
"Hm. The goldfish needs to fatten up before it's 'powerful' enough to eat the other fish."
"Precisely correct," Jazz nodded sagely before grinning. "We sound corny as shit. How does Alpha Trion do this kind of stuff without sounding stupid?"
"You are the one to come up with this metaphor, Jazz. Most of it is on y—" Orion coughed as Jazz playfully elbowed him in the ribs, causing the former to nudge at him in retaliation.
The pair continued to bat at each other, which resulted in Jazz's futou being knocked askew and Orion developing a stomach cramp from trying not to laugh. Something stifling filled the silence as they settled down.
"… You're kinda red, OP."
Orion glanced back down at his best friend, who was standing rather close. Really close. Too close. The shorter scholar's silk blindfold and the warm light from the fish tank had emphasized his high cheekbones, giving him a sophisticated look. His face was flushed from laughing, and he was still attempting to catch his breath. Pressure built up in Orion's ears. "Really?"
"What's the point in me lying?" Jazz tilted his head, his face mere centimeters away. An underlining tone itched at Orion's heart. "Don't trust me? Aww, I thought you were my best friend! Honestly, I'm quite hurt."
"Apologies, old friend." Without much thought, Orion closed the gap, effectively silencing his friend. He felt Jazz jolt before hugging and clinging onto his shirt.
"Orion," Jazz, who'd turned several shades redder, gasped as they pulled away to breathe.
"Does that answer your question?" Orion's mouth felt as though he was trying to speak with a mouthful of molasses; tongue articulation proved to be difficult, and everything tasted sweet. Jazz must've had some kind of candy beforehand.
"…D-Definitely. Holy shit."
"Would you like to try that again?"
Jazz huffed, but as he leaned in again, he suddenly stopped cold. "Uh."
"… What happened? Was I being too direct? I'm terribly sor—"
"No, OP," Jazz looked more embarrassed than ever. "You're all good. It's just that... the fish are all staring at us."