Feeling caught in his exaggeration, he dialed it back a little. “Well, fine, it wasn’t that big of a turtle, but it was still pretty big, and had sharp little teeth, which is the moral here,” He laughed with a shrug. “No turtles. Seahorses, maybe, but turtles? Hard pass.”
They were moving again, and Jaime wiggled his fingers up against the glass of a jelly fish exhibit, trying to follow the movement of the creature and it’s flowing tendrils as it floated upwards. “I’d love to tattoo this,” He mused quietly, already coming up with a concept in his mind, something for the shin or forearm, with lots of color. As Arianna spoke, Jaime almost forgot to pull himself out of the idea to listen. He couldn’t help but relate to her story. “Actually, it was the same for me. I wasn’t allowed to get any pets growing up-” Mostly because he barely could keep himself and his mother alive, much less anyone else. “But I would have chosen fish, or aquatic animals of some sort, if I could have. Don’t those carnival fish just die all the time, really easily, or something? That was my mom’s excuse for that, anyway.”
Once she stopped, all but allowing Jaime to crash into her, he leaned in with a low whisper, as if telling her a secret between them. “I don’t want to excite you too much, but they have shark petting, too. Just tiny wee little ones, totally harmless, but apparently they’re soft. Like velvet,” He mumbled, smile on his features, before turning his attention to the shallow stingray pool. It was cool, seeing the creatures here, after always having to be so cautious about them whenever he was surfing or enjoying the ocean. “They look… so sweet, like really cute.”
After hearing the comparison of the sea creatures to art that Jaime wanted to create, Arianna couldn’t stop seeing it everywhere she looked. The artistic way with which they all moved, like they weren’t just going from one point to another with a specific goal in the mind the way that humans did. Instead they flowed easily, carefully, slowly. They experienced themselves and their surroundings differently than she’d ever thought about, and that bloomed its own kind of inspiration inside of her. “That would make a gorgeous tattoo,” she agreed, watching the jelly fish with a soft expression of awe. “You should sketch it later. I’d love to see that process.”
Over at the stingray exhibit, Arianna found an open space for them at the edge of the shallow pool. She glanced back at Jaime, her mouth forming a small o-shape at his revelation. “I am both terrified and excited.” She admitted, the corner of her mouth quirking up into a half smirk. Arianna leaned over and held out her hand, carefully lowering her hand down into the water. Beneath her fingers, a stingray glided by smoothly. “Oh my god, look at their little faces.” She gushed, looking over each stingray as they swam by. There was something so special about being this close to them and knowing that they were accustomed to this kind of interaction.
“You’ve seen Moana, right?” She narrowed her eyes at him, finding it unthinkable that he could’ve not seen it. “This just reminded me of Gramma Tala with her sick manta ray back tattoo. She is goals. Which means exactly what it sounds like. I want to be the village crazy lady.” Arianna laughed, still running her fingers lightly over the rays. She pursed her lips as a curious thought occurred to her. “Which animal would you want to be reincarnated as?”
