Nokamata: "Maybe I'm doing this all wrong?" (Flashback)

[01:42] Selena winces.
(Selena Nokamata)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[01:42] Selena Nokamata says, "That's a bright light."
[01:42] Jotsumi says, "It is dark."
[01:43] Selena Nokamata says, "The stars are bright enough."
[01:43] Jotsumi says, "....."
[01:44] Jotsumi says, "Not really."
[01:47] Jotsumi says, "Not bright enough for me."
[01:47] Selena Nokamata says, "Well, that might be why you don't notice the stars above. I can't see how with all the torchlight."
[01:48] Selena Nokamata says, "... Bah. It's whatever..."
[01:48] Selena Nokamata asks, "What brings you way the hell out here, kid?"
[01:48] Jotsumi says, "...."
[01:48] Selena Nokamata asks, "... What?"
[01:49] Jotsumi just sat in the sand and did not answer that question. He pushed his torch into the ground to look out towards the sea. The waves were hitting his shoes as he sat there.

"Nothing."
(Jotsumi)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[01:50] Selena Nokamata says, "<*slow inhale*> ... <*slow exhale*> ... You don't have to say it. I won't push you about it."
[01:51] Selena Nokamata says, "Places like this are always a nice getaway, for when you need to take a break."
[01:54] Jotsumi's tail waved in the wind while he looked over the ocean as the waves crashed on the beach. He still did not say anything to her not wanting to say much. He would slowly grab his armor on the sides pulling it slightly and letting it fall to the ground. He would stab up and just walk into the water pulling up his pants.

He put his hands on his head stretching as he looked up to the sky. He still did not see the stars she saw in the sky before turning to her. Jotsumi tail would be big enough to cover his back and the back of his head but from the side she could see a slight muscular physique, it was all the ore he collected and carried. Jotsumi nodded before turning away back to the water letting the mist spray on his body slightly.
(Jotsumi)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[01:59] Still nothing? Perhaps, the kid had quite the rough day. She didn't prod any further, taking to herself.
She sat down, legs splayed out in front of her with her arms to support her upper-body in an upright position, eyes peering over the horizon.
Each rolling wave was observed - taken in for its natural beauty. The malleability, followed by the raw force it held to crash through the rocky shores nearby.

The mist it sprayed across them nipped at the skin with the likeness of an arctic breeze, though the general heat seem to equal it out. A sigh, and the woman laid back, eyes scanning the clouded skies above, looking so desperately for a moon hiding behind the clouds.

"So, you learn anything more about your idol?" she prodded, attempting to incite -something- out of Jotsumi. Truly, the ambience was bothering her to some degree.
(Selena Nokamata)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[02:04] Jotsumi was still quiet not wanting to break the silence. He was ignored by someone else and maybe that stirred the silence within him. Jotsumi was at a boiling point with his breath letting out a small fire. He still did not speak as the embers danced around his lips. He wanted so much to let the fire out and burn through the ocean itself, but deep down he knew his strength matched no one in the city, hell on this beach.

He was on a spiral downward, the waves hit him pushing him back slapping him into reality as the mist landed on his face. This initially dropped one of his eye lids as he raised it to whip the mist from his face. There was nothing but the waves crashing to make the silence suffer some type of attack of noise.

Again no response.
(Jotsumi)
[15:53]
The boy kept to that same silence, and quite frankly? Selena did not know what to say to help him. Perhaps, there was something rather distinct troubling them. Whilst others would offer bits of advice, or attempt to comfort those succumbing to overwhelming influences? Selena sought to do the opposite of that.

She had never had someone to really help her through that sort of thing. In fact, she still didn't know how to get through that very instance. In a way, her and Jotsumi were actually in the same boat. Thus, her ruby eyes went back for the ocean's horizon, narrowing them only to keep the salty mist from assaulting her eyes.

A sigh, and she'd lie down, back in the sand and eyes to the stars...
As though to find the constellations themselves. Though, she never cared about something so cosmetic - no, what she wondered, moreso resided in the mystery of the stars themselves.

What were their secrets -- what truly lied up there? One could only wonder, especially without any of the resources. Surely, there were some claiming instances within the tomes of Osrona, but... That was now under the claim of Barsburg. Perhaps, Starfall? Did she care enough to really go that far?

No. The mind sought to use them as a gateway to descend into a half-conscious meditation... Or was this, reflection.
Not a peep... Not another glance...
Nothing, but the washing of the sea.
(Selena Nokamata)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[16:13] Jotsumi sat there for a moment not knowing what to even say to her or anyone. He had been stuck between not wanting to do this anymore and just wanting to be washed away from this island. He started to move into the cool water as it reached his waist while he sat there looking up at the stars for some sort of help. He did not move silent about his steps into the water as the waves crashed into his chest pulling him in. He started to float on the water just doing the same thing she was with the same glazed over gaze.
(Jotsumi)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[22:52] The woman laid there, truly lost for anything to contribute.

At least, to the boy looming nearby. All she could really think about, was just how periless her life had become. How simplistic and petty it had managed to descend towards... As though, despite all of her efforts to grow and climb the metaphorical ladder of prominence, that she'd find herself deprived of it entirely.

Would the answer lie therein with her own ability?
Was it simply her own lack of capability? -- not being good enough ?

Her mind fell from the stars above, for the circuitry within, attempting to identify one's thoughts from their own delusion. One's delusion from proven studied fact. A sigh came from her person, and she picked herself up and walked for the horizon.

That was it... The horizon itself: A representation of her dream.
Vastly out of reach and out of touch...
A step closer... And the mist came to badger her façade once more.

Yet, despite it she kept going... Feeling soaked sand oozing around her shoes, soon weighed down by the aquatic element that beckoned her body further. It was as though it emphasized her situation perfectly... The nirvana in sight's reach? Would drown her before she'd ever see it...
Those ruby eyes of hers shined their crimson, spited of this metaphor to cast upon herself further delusions of grandeur.

Until now, it had only bent at her very vision... At others' vision, their perceptions... But, there was one greater. Amongst the metaphysical, there laid a perception that transcended the common minds of man and creature. As though, reaching beyond that veil, she strained... Her circuitry flexed, and body pulsated of an eerie sapphire gleam. All the while, she continue to walk forward, allowing the rolling waves of oceans to climb her.

The water seemingly waded in reverence... No, this was naught but another delusion put upfor show... Right? It weighed back into her, crashing into her body to slow her walk, briefly taking her whole before retreating from its catch. Water dripped from her physique, now solemn and determined to defy nature's limitation.

Though, the natural order of things could only be defiled for so long, before its wrath would take hold. The waters parted in her walk, roaring their hissing fit as they rushed in constant barrage, climbing vertically before crashing backwards, forging a ring of space between itself and the adamant mage. The wet sand below was her passage... But as potent as she may've been... As grand as she may've striven to be, not even the most powerful of aqua magi, could part the sea.

And thus... Several feet of ocean water would topple over, crashing down over her: submerging her within the depths. For her... She could finally experience solitude, in the night sea.

Darkness...
Cold...
And the aquatic ambience that muted out her ears.
If anything, it empowered her introspection... Leaving nothing but her glowing circuitry within, triggered and attempting to evolve beyond its rather simplistic paradigms.

The grounds of metaphysicality were being tested; for Illusion, would be defined no longer as a single tree, but in theory, a part of something grander. The next level? Surely, it was not the key to the questions she battled, but perhaps... It was another step forward.
Closed eyes and limp bodied - Selena allowed the waters ebb and flow to take and push her closer to the sinking sandfloor.

Until...

For Jotsumi, he'd only hear the murmur of bass rattled in the undertone, transcending the matter that proceeded him -- water and earth? They were physical, naught but instruments, to that which transcended them both. Grains of sand levitated to the air around him... No, Even further... All the way to the waters themselves that came to still.

Was this just a delusion? Surely, this would depict her as an illusionist. Though, illusions could be directly resisted. To refute this, would equate to nothing... So, what was it?
The glow of vermillion soon took the general region Selena succumbed her body to, leaving waters to wade in a centralized location. Slowly, she ascended through the depths, surfacing with water dripping from her body. Shining and drenched, she persisted the walking motion, soon making her steps through the water, as though submerged measily foot in, despite having made several feet of progress.

Continuing onward, she only got higher, until she... Managed to take steps on the water's surface. Surely, a mere parlor trick for the common magi, but for her, both an achievement and symbolic for something greater.
No longer was she bending perception of others, but the perception of reality's interpretation of its natural rules.

Her body swayed and waded, weighing water down and lightening her own body to give her the capable to stand upon it -- yet, failing to stabilize the surface for a steady walk.

"... Maybe
(Selena Nokamata)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- I've been doing this all wrong."
Her voice was warped, filled with gravel yet granted depth with bass. Something that would declare further depict her as a practitioner of the illusionary arts.

Had something begun to click to her? Surely, it seemed as though she believed it so.

(Selena Nokamata)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------