365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Aquarium Entrance

11/9/19

"This place is a lot bigger than I was expecting for some reason..." Yusei mused, looking up at the very large building that held the city's aquarium inside. It was one of the larger buildings in the city, if he had to guess, and he was pretty excited to see what was in store.

Yusei liked the sea, as he'd once stated before. He grew up right next to it, with that salty sea air littering the Satellite with its scent, and it was something that'd been a constant throughout his life that never, ever changed - it didn't matter that years had passed, he could still wake up in the morning or go out at night and see the same waters lit up and contrasted by both the city and the sun. It was part of the reason he almost never objected to going to the little viewpoint of the bridge whenever Judai felt like going out to it, as going there always ended up being relaxing in the end, looking out at the ocean and the waves as they crashed into the shoreline and bridge supports.

He'd never really explored the side of the sea filled with wildlife, though. There were a few occasions that he'd seen seals and once even the water spout from a whale from one day during his teen years, when he'd happened to see it by luck one morning when he'd gone out to get some air after being stuck in a stuffy, worn-down building for too long, but otherwise he hadn't encountered many at all. The waters around the city and the Satellite weren't the cleanest waters ever; even with the improvements that'd been done in recent years, it was still garbage-ridden and overall not the first thing you'd want to go swimming even, let alone try to live in if you were an animal.

Certain sections were cleared out of filth, though, and were safe to inhabit. Considering the aquarium was located basically right on the shore, much further down the line than the dock that held the amusement park for perspective, he wouldn't be surprised if one such area was cleared out right along the side of the building - then it could be used to hold animals and other various things if need be.

"I haven't been to an aquarium in years," Judai admitted, looking even more excited than he'd been before they stood directly in front of the building, "and definitely not to one that was this big. And from what I saw online, they've got this huge outside area for people to interact with, so it just makes it even bigger."

Guess the city really wanted to make sure its commodities were up to snuff - they had to keep morale and local opinion of its government positive in some way or another, especially when the merge started happening, so having places for people to go to like the zoo or aquarium was a good way to divert their attention elsewhere. Honestly, it was one of the few decisions by the higher-ups that made that Yusei fully supported since it fueled a lot of good research and was done in a way that ensured the animals were happy and healthy.

"Well, no time to waste then if we want to cover as much ground as possible," Yusei smiled, threading their hands together and leaning down to peck him on the forehead, "Lead the way, Kuriboh. You're the one with our tickets."

"Oh ho, you just reminded me about how your hair is shaped like a crab, and guess what we'll get to see at some point?" Judai laughed, earning himself an exasperated look from him.

"I'll just have to figure out what animal or plant your hair looks like from here, too," Yusei retorted, holding back the urge to just... reach up and ruffle that fluffy hair on his head. It was just begging to be fluffed up even more and he so badly wanted to give into the temptation, but he didn't for Judai's sake since they were in public, even if they were being ignored for the most part thanks to Judai's shadows. They could still show up in the backgrounds of photos, after all.

"Good luck with that one, if you do find something similar then I'll be amazed," Judai challenged, letting go of his hand and motioning for him to turn around so he could dig through the backpack he was wearing, "Also, in case you forgot, you're the one with our tickets. I put them in the bag so we couldn't forget to bring them, remember?"

"Ah... right, my bad," Yusei replied sheepishly, standing patiently while Judai rustled through the backpack for a minute or two before finally emerging victorious with the printed papers containing their tickets, zipping up the bag very quickly afterwards, "Okay, now we can go, right?"

"Yup! We're all good, let's go!" Judai cheered, taking his hand once again and this time dragging him along for a few steps before Yusei caught his balance and strode next to him.

They got through the ticket area easily enough, getting the map from the entrance and entering into a large, open room that was only sparsely filled with people since it was still only about twenty minutes since the aquarium had opened. Both of them looked up only to see a huge, life-sized replica of a blue whale hanging above what seemed to be the entrance's food court, and they knew that it was going to be one hell of a day.