The Aquarium

[Deleted]

Victoria Anderson (i am the best)

Such nice days were usually rare. The sky was the clearest it had been in weeks, the blinding sun beating down in warm rays. The air still was a bit chilled, but overall bearable and thankfully not drizzling.

Victoria wondered why she was standing inside an aquarium on such a beautiful day. She was not the most active, outdoorsy type of person who enjoyed being in nature for that particular purpose, but she certainly enjoyed good weather because of its seldom appearances. As a result, she felt herself yearning to feel the fresh air against her skin and let it move her hair as it pleased (like a cliche romance movie, she noted with slight amusement). Breezes were always pleasant in her own personal opinion; even if the air outside was already somewhat cold.

She glanced at her left hand, checking her watch with slight impatience. It was already three minutes past the arranged meeting with Lucille. Victoria was typically more easy going outside of her work, but today was slightly more stressed than usual. She liked to separate her occupation as strict, no-nonsense Victoria Anderson and the much more laid back, outgoing Victoria Anderson whenever she could, but it seemed to cross more than she would have preferred. But being a prosecuting attorney was quite difficult; work seemed to follow her around wherever she went. Either she would manage to stumble upon a lawbreaker (Victoria swore she attracted them), or a civilian would recognize her and start begging for her services (she politely requested them to ask at a more reasonable time, such as during business hours). Well, nobody ever said it was possible – or easy, for that matter. Even after all these years, she still had such a naïve longing to be able to keep her two sides of one half somehow trenchant. Honestly.

Deciding that she would much more prefer to wait outside for the younger woman rather than inside, Victoria pushed open the glass door with little enthusiasm. The cooling air was refreshing and she sighed contently. It was much better than the stuffiness of being surrounded with far too large tanks for a wide variety of fish Victoria was positive she couldn't possibly begin to name. She now stood beneath the bright, large letters of the aquarium off to the side, placated for the time being. With another quick glance at her wristwatch, Victoria brushed her fingers through the sandy blonde strands as something to do to keep her mind momentarily preoccupied.

At least it wasn't raining.

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE

[Deleted]

Lucille wasn't exactly known for her punctuality. If anything, she was instead known for her tardiness. She woke up thirty minutes later than her alarm clock, came in fifteen minutes into to her lectures, and kept her dates waiting for at least ten minutes before showing up. But she'd tried this time—really tried! After all, Victoria had invited her to nothing less than the aquarium, and Lucille had just been waiting for the perfect collision of circumstances (including sufficient money) to bring her there. She hadn't exactly thought of asking the woman, but luckily for her, Victoria seemed happy enough to take her places, which just so happened to be this one when Lucille had mentioned it in one of their passing conversations. The girl didn't seem like the thankful type, but she was immensely glad for Victoria's company anyway.

Thus, she tried to be punctual for any of their rendezvous, and her efforts were, admittedly, quite admirable. For one, she cut down Victoria's waiting time to about five minutes, and even managed to be early on a few occasions. The stars just seemed not to align on that particular day, even though she had carefully judged the moment she'd need to leave in order to be on time. Ultimately, a series of unfortunate events stalled her on the streets, including a pedestrian hit and new road construction around what looked like a meteor impact, as though London traffic weren't already hell to bike through.

Fortunately, the dome of the aquarium building was coming into view, and Lucille sped up and dodged by cars and pedestrians as she drew closer. The wind from her momentum blew her pigtails back, making her ribbons flutter behind her. There were a few disconcerted murmurs as she barely skirted by some of the less fortunate road-sharers, but the speed at which she was going was exhilarating; she rarely got a chance to go faster than the slow-moving molasses of traffic these days, and if there weren't too many sharing the street with her, she figured she may as well enjoy herself. Besides, she was in a hurry to meet with Victoria, so her haste was surely understandable.

She screeched into the parking lot, missing a red sports car by inches. The bike rack in front of the entrance had a few more occupants than usual, likely due to the weather. It was the nicest Lucille had seen during her stay in London, and she imagined it might be the nicest she'd see from the city until her dying day. She regretted that it wasn't nearly summer enough to go swimming—not that London looked like it had many promising beaches anyway.

She skidded to a halt in front of the rack, the brakes ringing loudly if it weren't for the general commotion typical of family-frequented areas. Digging into the little knapsack she'd brought with her, she took out a bike lock and secured her bike in with the rest. The second-hand artifact looked glum next to the others, its paint job slightly rusted, and handlebars a bit bent. She hadn't been able to afford a new one, and thought that her money was better spent on food anyway; after all, she wasn't very well going to carry it back to Seychelles after her four years.

Shouldering her knapsack again, she smoothed down her dress and looked towards the entrance. It didn't take her long to spot Victoria's form, and she ventured a wave as she trotted in that direction, just in case the woman had seen her. She called out the other's name once she was in range, grinning broadly. She had no reason to hide her excitement—rather, she was practically glowing with it. She'd been looking forward to the visit for the past week, ever since Victoria had offered to take her, and her poor roommate had probably been bored to tears for the regularity that Lucille had spoken of it.

She glanced around once she stood by Victoria, looking for a time-piece of some sort. "I'm not too late, am I?" she asked. She would have sounded more apologetic about the entire ordeal if she weren't in such an cheerful mood, and she wasn't going to let any tardiness nag on her mind. After all, she couldn't have been later than ten minutes or so.

[Deleted]

VICTORIA ANDERSON (I AM THE BEST)

Only a few mores minutes passed by, the damp air feeling misty at the slightest touch, when her date for the day arrived. Victoria was, to put it lightly, amused when she saw Lucille come barreling into the parking lot and screeching to a practiced clean stop, moving to park her bicycle in the rack with others of its kind. She was even wearing a dress, and Victoria could imagine people looking on in disapproval for doing such an activity with such a clothing choice, but she dismissed the thought with a small scoff. Lucille could be quite energetic when passionate about something, and clearly she was passionate about water and fish. Her love for the underwater creatures was actually quite cute, producing a blithe atmosphere for the two of them; although, Victoria herself could not see what was so endearing about them. They could be extravagant, colorful and possess beautiful fins and scales, but other than the momentary view they offered visitors, she didn't understand their apparent charm. Regardless, she wouldn't be the one to judge for personal interests and simply smiled, hearing her name called once. She looked to the origin of the voice to see Lucille excitedly coming towards her way with a wave and she waved back, pleased to see the other beaming the way she was; her previously irritable mood was dissipating with ease into the grey sky.

"I'm not too late, am I?" Lucille was brimming with genuine cheerfulness, her face lit up like a child's as if it were both Christmas and their birthday at once so they were receiving twice as many the presents, and Victoria once more thought it was adorable how the younger woman could become so childishly happy to visit a place like the aquarium. It seemed nowadays only a few people liked to visit the aquarium for occasional events or if somebody was bored with nothing to do, but perhaps she was wrong. And especially considering that it was Lucille herself, who tended to mostly care about food and not having to pay for things when Victoria treated her on their lunch or dinner dates, it was both entertaining and pleasantly nice to see the girl have a hobby she enjoyed greatly. The lawyer really didn't mind spending so much, though; in truth, she actually had quite a bit of money that she wasn't willing to spend completely on herself and preferred to use eloquently to treat certain people out.

She chuckled, her tone playfully light as she showed her her wristwatch. "Six minutes, love. However," she said, pausing for a brief moment as an emphasized effect to tease her, "I must admit, this is an improvement in comparison to our other arrangements." Victoria honestly wasn't too bothered by the tardiness; she knew Lucille wouldn't slack with something she liked, and she had clearly demonstrated her best efforts to reach her destination on time today. It just seemed she was always caught up in things that liked to prevent her from reaching the place she was supposed to be, no matter the situation. It was just another quirky (and rather unfortunate) characteristic of Lucille's that she found strangely charming, in an fondly amused way.

"So," Victoria turned to the doors and pulled the left one open to let Lucille in, "how are you this morning? I do hope the traffic wasn't too bad this time." The thought that she should give the younger woman a ride occurred to her for the nth time, and made yet another mental note to ask for their next arrangement before the end of the day.

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE

[Deleted]

As excitable as ever, Lucille was practically bouncing on her heels. However, she did stop momentarily to lean over at Victoria's cue, but she barely looked at the other's watch before she pulled back again. Victoria was always on-the-dot accurate about the time anyway, so if she said six minutes, then Lucille had little reason to contradict her.

"Oh, I'm not that bad," she pouted. She almost told Victoria that she at least wasn't the professor of her classes, otherwise the lawyer would have plenty more to complain about. That said, Lucille hoped the other wouldn't find out about her (nearly) record-breaking amount of tardies. Though they were friends in some ways, Victoria still found room in that friendship to micromanage (which might a bit of an exaggeration) Lucille's school performance.

But she didn't dwell on these thoughts. Victoria was just teasing anyway, and they had plenty more exciting things to do than speculate on the universe's apparent distaste for any attempts at punctuality she made. She entered the building, then took Victoria's hand, dragging the woman towards the ticketing counter. Along the way, she talked animatedly about her Misadventures of Biking in London (tm).

"Okay, so, I looked up the best way to get here by bike on Google Maps, right?" she began. Her typical opening to her Saga of Grievances Against London (tm) usually began with 'okay, so' and ended with 'right?' and it was precisely the saga she was about to launch into now. "And I kind of knew the path anyway, but I left ten minutes early, y'know, just in case." She shot Victoria a pointed look, because she knew the woman was rather fond of using that term, and also because 'just in case' seemed to be most cases in London.

"Anyway, it great for like, the first five minutes," she continued, "but then some lady got hit by a car!" She relinquished Victoria's hand in order to emphasize the statement with a few gestures. "I mean, I didn't actually see her get hit or anything, but it was pretty obvious, and there were a bunch of people surrounding her and it would've been totally awkward to try to push through them with a bike, because they were surrounding a lady who got hit by a car, and I couldn't act like I just didn't care, y'know? I mean, I didn't care, but I sort of did because getting hit by a car would really suck, but what did they expect me to do? Stand around and look horrified with the rest of them? I mean, that's not going to heal the chick's injuries and I'm not even a doctor or anything." She paused in her monologue to take a deep breath, then resumed without slowing. "Anyway, so that I didn't look like some heartless ass I just turned my bike around and went another direction, except that turned out to be a totally bad idea, because I'm pretty sure a meteor completely like, razed 7th Avenue or something. There was a hole in the street that was even bigger than me, so of course they had that area complete sealed off and I had to take another detour and by this time I was kind of freaking lost, but who can blame me because I'm pretty sure the guy who designed this city was a major douchenozzle and he's probably six feet under now so ha. That's what you get for designing a crappy city."

They were approaching the counter now, but Lucille continued talking, stopping between sentences only to breathe. She was determined to have her say and if the unfortunate employee at the desk had to hear parts of it, then so be it. "Okay, well, I kept trying to find the way anyway so I was biking in the general direction of the aquarium, but then I saw Three Tomatoes and I was like, 'okay, fuck yes, I actually know where I am now' and everything should've been smooth sailing—or, well, biking—from there, but that didn't really work out because I'm pretty sure someone up there hates me, maybe because I told a Mormon to fuck off once, but jeez I had a headache that day so that should probably excuse me, right? But anyway after knowing generally where the hell I was in this accursed city, I ran into some kid who was walking his turtle. Not literally, I mean, I didn't literally run into him, but he was literally walking his turtle. Just on the streets. Walking his goddamn turtle. And I couldn't run him over or anything because he was probably like, ten, and I couldn't run over his turtle either because, c'mon, that's just cruel. So I couldn't pass him and I couldn't run him over so I just walked behind this kid and his freaking turtle—it had a leash and everything—for like, two blocks before I was like 'fuck this' and turned down another road, but not before I told him that it was probably a really shitty idea to walk your turtle because it might get a bacterial infection which is totally true, by the way, but it also probably saves people the trouble of trying not to step on the poor thing." She stopped in her tirade for a moment of silence for all the maltreated pets of the world. "Aaaanyway, after that I just biked like I was Estelle and in front of me there was a hot guy dressed in nothing but a diamond worth twenty thousand pounds, except I killed less people along the way."

"So," she concluded, and grinned at Victoria. "Where do we start?"

{{Notes: Luci, shut up.

[Deleted]

VICTORIA ANDERSON (I AM THE BEST)

Victoria couldn't help but smile, pleased, as Lucille took her hand in her own following their entrance through the aquarium’s doors. It was an affectionate gesture, even if it was just tugging her along and whether her companion realized or not, it evoked a strong sense of genuine happiness within the center of her chest. It was something that wasn't completely alien to her, but unfamiliar enough to be acknowledged as a rare occasion that should be savored. Of course, Victoria thought of Lucille to be a friend – though the origins of their friendship were noticeably unusual, seeing as she had originally come to her seeking information regarding the infuriating Estelle Bonnefoy – but after the numerous meals they had eaten together and various places they had gone to meet up, there was perhaps just the slightest spark of love for the younger woman in Victoria's heart.

But she could only sigh, as she prepared herself to endure an onslaught of words and another one of Lucille's infamously long monologues when she recognized the more than familiar opening of 'okay so'. The girl possessed a strong, independent voice, and had her own lovely quirkiness. She could certainly be stubborn and refusing to budge at times, and was a firm believer in what she believed in. She had so many qualities Victoria considered cute and endearing, and she was most definitely drawn to people who spoke her mind. But for now, Victoria could only listen to Lucille continue on and on and on – she wouldn't be surprised if she had found out Lucille had talked people to death before – and it was times like this when while she respecting people speaking their minds, they could talk just a little too much.

She listened; almost going on auto-pilot, but she was too used to listening to people's lengthy stories as an attorney. She listened meticulously to every detail everybody and anybody in the courtroom had to say, and it was a skill that was permanent now – it never stopped, even if Victoria wished she could turn it temporarily off, it would be hopeless to try;mistakes are made to be learned from, after all.

(She would be lying if she said she wasn't slightly disappointed when Lucille let go of her hand.)

"Aaaanyway, after that I just biked like I was Estelle and in front of me there was a hot guy dressed in nothing but a diamond worth twenty thousand pounds, except I killed less people along the way."

It was a natural reaction for Victoria to automatically stiffen at just the mention of her name, and she forced herself to calm herself down. There was no reason to sour her mood just because she was mentioned in casual conversation. But Victoria couldn't help it – she hated, loathed, and despised her with all her being. Anything and everything that woman did pissed her off beyond levels of irritation –

"So, where do we start?"

She breathed in and out, and glanced over at her beaming companion. Today was supposed to be a casual and fun day to spend out with a friend, and Victoria was not willing to let it be ruined over something so small. She returned the smile, although a bemused one, and gestured to the desk in front of them.

“I think starting with purchasing tickets would be a good idea, first. Two adult tickets, please,” Victoria pulled out her wallet and handed the employee her credit card, and politely thanked her when returned the card and given the tickets. She set the wallet back in her purse where it belonged, and offered one of the tickets to Lucille to hold onto. “Now we can officially start. If we would like to see everything, we may as well go around each floor, one at a time. Unless,” she gave Lucille an amused look, “you want to immediately see a certain area.”

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE

[Deleted]

Lucille didn't notice the irritation her off-handed comment had caused her companion. Perhaps it was slightly thoughtless of her, since it was no secret that Estelle and Victoria hated each other with a vicious, unrelenting passion, but Lucille made a point not to get too involved in their conflicts. She would nod in a slightly bored fashion to whichever complaints came her way about one or the other, and then proceed to freeload off of the both of them equally. It was neutrality at its best, really.

She waited as Victoria purchased their tickets, rocking back and forth on her heels, feeling restless. She could hardly wait to start exploring; even though they had the entire day's time on their hands, she wanted to get to as many exhibits as possible (preferably all of them). It wasn't as though she was going to have this luxury very often, so she wanted to take full advantage of it!

She took the ticket Victoria handed her, tucking it into her pocket. (One of the reasons she liked this dress especially were its particularly handy pockets.) Then, she considered their options. It looked like Victoria was willing to let her take the lead here, which she couldn't be happier for. There was something of a problem though—namely, that with so many options, Lucille... had a difficult time deciding.

"Uh—well," she began as they moved away from the counter. "We could go see the tropical fish first maybe, since they're so beautiful and colorful and I haven't seen them in awhile... But the sharks and stingrays are so cool too! Ooh—" she glanced at Victoria excitedly. "Do you think they have jellyfish here?" she asked. Jellyfish were always very fascinating; they came in all sorts of sizes and shapes and colors and the tiny ones were positively adorable! "But I want to see if they have any shows today too! Oh man, I really can't decide—" She trailed off with a sheepish smile. "Maybe we can just start at the beginning?"

In that case, a map would come in handy. She walked over to one, which was pictured on an illuminated board on the wall, and her eyes traced the paths leading all throughout the aquarium. "Well, since we're right here..." she said, placing her finger on the depicted entrance, then traced the single track leading into the innards of the establishment. "Maybe if we follow this path, we can get to see everything before we come out! Look, there's even a food court here!"

Turning back to Victoria, she smiled brightly. "Thank you so much for bringing me," she said earnestly. "This is so exciting already—I can't wait to get started! This is going to be so fun!" She turned back to the map once again, taking note of everything laid out before them, then grabbed a pamphlet from below the plan. It had a smaller version of the map printed on it, with descriptions of the various exhibits and a chart of showtimes. Lucille folded it and tucked that into her pocket too, knowing that she'd be looking back on it.

Then, she spun to face Victoria. "Well, let's go!" she said, barely able to contain her excitement. She was bouncing on her heels again, hands clasped together in front of her chest. "You're ready, right? I'm so ready!" And she was. In fact, she looked just about ready to tear into the hallway like a hurricane—it really was in everyone's best interest not to keep her long when she happened to be enthusiastic, as the case was right now. Her parents used to call her a "little public safety hazard," and in spite of the years that had passed, that probably wasn't far from the truth.

[Deleted]

VICTORIA ANDERSON (I AM THE BEST)

Victoria couldn't help but wonder how Lucille managed to be so all over the place as she was, having so much energy, but always generating more to spend – and somehow keep her charm. It was an amazing feat, really, acting as childish as she was, and yet Victoria was most certainly attracted to her on some level; there was no denying that, and she wouldn't begin to even try. It was likely that it was because how looks could be so deceiving. Underneath her easily excitable demeanor, there was so much more to Lucille – cleverness and wit, despite how unlikely it seemed with her bubbly persona.

She followed after her companion who was heading towards a stand to pick up a map, not wanting to lose her in the already growing crowds. She hadn't expected there would be so many due to the unusually nice weather outdoors, but it seemed she had predicted wrong. Glancing out the window, she sighed. The younger girl turned back to her, beaming.

"Thank you so much for bringing me, this is so exciting already—I can't wait to get started! This is going to be so fun!"

Victoria returned the smile, and her heart fluttered, just a bit. Which wasn't a good sign – it was signaling to her that she genuinely liked Lucille, and was romantically attracted to her. It's not that she minded so much that she was, but the fact that there were so many complications that would regard their relationship; the most obvious being Estelle, for one. Victoria couldn't see that working out very well with their hostile rivalry, and she would never let herself admit she fell in love with someone she met because of that woman – as ridiculously petty as that was, her pride simply wouldn't allow her to.

”You're welcome, love,” she said, smoothly, but Lucille was already thoroughly examining her map to see where she had wanted to start. But just as quickly, she returned to look back at Victoria with shining eyes, and she couldn't suppress her rapidly picking up heartbeat. Cute. She was too cute.

"Well, let's go! You're ready, right? I'm so ready!"

”Yes, I'm ready as well. But you have to be careful not to rush,” Victoria reminded her, both worried Lucille would end up hurting herself or somebody else with her exuberance, ”remember, it's better to savor everything. We have all day; plenty of time.”

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE

[Deleted]

Lucille laughed at Victoria's kind reminder. It was such a Victoria thing to say, like 'have you done your homework yet' or 'watch where you're going' or 'please don't run over that small child right in front of us.' Victoria was one who maintained her image all right, but Lucille didn't mind that; after all, it was, probably, better that she kept someone about her who could do all that proper sort of thinking. Without some of the pressure from Ada and Victoria, lord knows she would be scraping by most of her required classes at bare minimum, perhaps even getting into other sorts of problems. It wasn't her fault that math was a boring subject. Math could be dealt with later though; she was currently much more interested in getting started with their tour.

"Okay," she said, clapping her hands together and did as Victoria had suggested. Victoria was right—they did have plenty of time. It was one of Lucille's free days anyway, and Victoria had ensured that her schedule was cleared so that they could take their time. Lucille would just have to keep her excitement in check. "Okay, I'm good. I won't run over anyone, I promise." She grinned at Victoria, then started leading the way in. A few meters in, a sign advertised that they were on their way to 'Shark Walk' in large, blue letters. She fell in step with Victoria as they continued down the hallway, the smell of seawater progressively getting stronger. She sighed, tilting her head back slightly and breathing in. It wasn't quite like home. Here, it was dampness, an absence of sun that made the salt smell dank rather than refreshing. She felt a pang of nostalgia for her Seychelles; as boring as she'd found it when she'd been stuck there, it was always home and hearth.

"Y'know, I haven't been to a place like this in over a year," she said. She usually went quite frequently back home, but there she had the added appeal of living by the sea. Being at the aquarium in London would be a different experience, however; she had never set foot in the building before (due to time and money constraints), but it already seemed much bigger with many more exhibits than the place in Seychelles. "I used to go a lot at home, especially when I was little. We only just got here, but it reminds me more of home than other places in London." She smiled, then added in an amused tone, "London is much too rainy to be like Seychelles."

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}This is short and half-assed I'M SORRY

[Deleted]

VICTORIA ANDERSON (I AM THE BEST)

She was relieved to hear her laugh. Victoria smiled again, quite pleased with how their day was going so far. There had been no trouble, and she continued to hope it would go on without any unforeseen problems. Then again, anything could happen, and she didn't want to jinx it.

"Okay," she heard Lucille say, "okay, I won't run over anyone."

"I certainly hope not," Victoria said, unable to stop herself from rolling her eyes in affection for the girl's incredible, limitless energy. She followed her as she approached a hall labelled "Shark Walk". It was an interesting name to be sure, and she found her interest just a little piqued. Sharks were animals that were always thought to be "cool" or dangerous whilst swimming in the ocean, and while Victoria herself never found herself to be too fond, she would admit they held some sort of tactic of intimidation and should be regarded cautiously.

The pungent scent of salt water began to permeate her senses, and she couldn't help but wrinkle her nose. She wasn't used to it; she hadn't actually ever been to the ocean, really. And she had never been one to visit aquariums, either; this was one of the few times she could actually say she had.

"Y'know, I haven't been to a place like this in over a year," Victoria glanced over to Lucille, curious. She didn't know too much about her personally besides that she was currently in college, she liked to bike everywhere, and she ate an incredible amount of food for a young woman. Not that Victoria blamed her at all. "I used to go a lot at home, especially when I was little. We only just got here, but it reminds me more of home than other places in London. London is much too rainy to be like Seychelles."

"That makes sense," she chuckled, sweeping her gaze back over her fondly. "It's hard to be away from home -- but especially from as far as you've come. Seychelles sounds like a beautiful place in comparison to all of the dreary rain here."

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE

[Deleted]

"Oh, Seychelles is brilliant," Lucille said, glancing around the hallway. Though her attention was enraptured by the approaching exhibit, her thoughts were caught by Victoria's comment. She'd never thought of her home as anything particularly special when she was younger—sure, the sunshine and warmth were great, but it was all normal. It was what she'd become accustomed to in all of her years living there, so as beautiful as it was, she simultaneously found it commonplace. But that didn't mean she didn't like bragging about her small island nation. She talked about it to everyone who would listen, mostly because they always seemed impressed by the description of her home. She supposed it was because it was so different from the United Kingdom, where they were used to grey skies and endless fields. It definitely was nothing like the golden beaches of Seychelles, nothing compared to the feeling of warm sand beneath her feet. She turned to Victoria and grinned widely. "You should come sometime. It's always hot and sunny there, and our beaches are the beeest." A pause as she seemed to consider something, picking up Victoria's hand and appearing to examine it. Then she turned back to the other, looking concerned. "Though you might burn up under the sun. Like, whoosh. And you'll come back all red and they'll stop you at the airport in case you had an infectious disease."

Unable to maintain the semblance of seriousness, she broke into a grin again and bounced off in the direction of the shark tanks. As she'd promised, no accidents involving children occurred, though a group of them were gathered around the display, pressing greasy fingerprints into the glass. She wandered over to the information display as she waited for Victoria, reading over the facts of the tiger sharks that were circling in the water. The motion was smooth, graceful, but perhaps many would find it predatory. "Sharks are actually really peaceful animals," she said when Victoria reached her. "For example," she continued, "did you know that cows kill more people per year than sharks?" She frowned, tapping the information placard with her finger as her eyes shifted back to the tank. "Weird animals, cows."

[Deleted]

VICTORIA ANDERSON (I AM THE BEST)

She nodded as Lucille rambled on, distractedly glancing between the tanks as they continued on. They were filled to the brim with the blue water, acting as home to a large variety of sea creatures and aquatic animals. It was pretty to observe, she thought; just lovely to see them swimming around without any cares in the world. Must be nice -- but so incredibly boring, although Victoria supposed all of the visiting people must serve as entertainment themselves to the occupants of the large tanks.

"It does sound nice," she ignored the comments of the inevitable sun burns that would happen if she went, she'd rather not think about it. Living in England for all of her life had been fine for her pale complexion, but an overdose of sun would leave her a terrible shade of red for a long amount of time. "You'll have to take me one day."

Following after Lucille as she nearly sprinted forward, they stopped in front of a shark tank. The younger woman chattered on about some fun facts of the shark, and Victoria smiled. Lucille was truly knowledgeable, but it was clear she was even more so when it was related to the ocean and its contents. Most seemed to pass her off as a ditzy girl who had far too much energy and talked much too fast for anyone to understand, but there was so much more to her.

"Hm," she mused, reading over the plaque's posted information next to her companion, "that is quite interesting. A part of me wants to not say I'm too surprised; I've heard a great deal that sharks aren't really as dangerous as they're chalked up to be." The facts were informational, regarding tiger sharks, their behavior, appetite, and general other little tidbits. "Cows are indeed strange, but they do provide us with much of our dairy input."

CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE