Wavering

Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

There's Jazz!

Jazz is presently on the marina, sitting on the edge of a deck, legs hanging over the water.

She's staring down at the ocean thoughtfully. On occasiona, she waves her hand and gathers a pillar of water, making it rise before she waves her hand, dissipating the magical effect.

... she's making waves with... waves.
Atif
Carmina Gadelica Marina


    It's the kind of display that inevitably attracts some attention.

    "Jazu-san?"

    The voice comes from just a couple paces besides the Undine, where a red-scaled and red-haired Salamander has, of all things, appeared with barely a sound prior, crouched atop one of the supporting pillars of the deck.

    Atif's head cocks sideways in a canine manner while green eyes consider Jazz, and then the waves her workings of water magic cause.

    "Are you practicing, or...?"
Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

"GAH," yelps Jazz when Fren Lzrd arrives so suddenly!

She flails, water pillar dissolving and splooshing back into the ocean loudly.

"...augggh! I guess. I was more just thinking than anything else."

She turns back towards him, now, her almost-lambent eyes squinting at him.
Atif
Carmina Gadelica Marina


    "GAH!" yelps Fren Lzrd likewise when... Jazz yelps, jumping lightly in place and nearly losing his palance on top of the thin pillar. Somehow he still doesn't seem to understand why this keeps happening when he makes his Stealth Hellos.

    "Oh, well..."

    Still seeming unaware of any reason she has for giving a squint to him, he bounces up and off of the pillar, landing just by the edge of the deck instead.

    "Do you mind if I sit with you?" He asks once there, giving a bright smile over to the Undine.
Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

SHe flinches when he lands on the deck, of course, but it's simply like the impact did it to her, even if it wasn't to her or near enough for her to even feel it. She shrugs her shoulders and gestures near enough to her. "Be my guest, I suppose." She sorts through her menu again. Where was she... .

Ah, another spray of water to rise in the air.
Atif
Carmina Gadelica Marina


    "Alright!" With a firm, cheerful nod, Atif lowers himself down to sitting besides her, scaled feet hung down towards the water. Giving each of them a couple playful swings before settling in properly.

    He's content enough to sit there in silence with her for a moment. Just staring off towards the horizon, tail occasionally giving a little flick behind him.

    "So," he says eventually, still, to break the silence, even if he doesn't look to her. "What were you thinking about?"
Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

"Stars. Oceans. The existence of nautical toilets." Jazz's tone is dry. "Indoor plumbing."

She waves a hand. The water collapses back into the ocean again.

"Randomness. Being trapped. The impact of isolation, since we're all isolated together." She drums her fingers onm her knee.
Atif
Carmina Gadelica Marina


    "I see..." A low sigh from the Salamander. His lips purse, in that kind of expression that speaks of empathy -- but also uncertainty of what to say. What could one say, exactly, to make something like that better?

    "Well... At least there's people aroudn we can share this isolation from the real world with, if nothing else," he ends up murmuring, softly. "But..." Scarlet brows knit together, briefly, before he peeks sidelong to the girl besides him.

    "You miss someone from... the outside?"
Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

"Of course I do. Don't we all? Anyone who tells you otherwise is either unstable or lying," she replies.

Jazz drums her fingers on her knee casually. "We can't really share the isolation. The burdens we bear are all going to be different enough that we'll ... probably be talking past each other. The frames of reference we have won't be the same, really." She snorts.
Atif
Carmina Gadelica Marina


    "You're probably right abotu that," admits Atif, when his gaze moves back towards the horizon beyond the seemingly-endless ocean.

    "But, you know, Jazu-san. That doesn't mean we can't try to understand the people around us. No matter how different the circumstances are, there's nothing wrong with caring for the pain of another. It's the same in the outside world too, isn't it?"

    Reptilian feet lift upwards slightly, just to tap their heels against each other. "Well, you don't really have to listen to me at all, or even say anything to me. You don't know me at all, afterall, so I'm probably not worth all that much to you either. But... If it's okay, I'm going to sit here for a while anyway. Especialy here, no one should be without at least some company."
Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

"Fine by me," answers Jazz with a loose roll of her shoulders. She brings up another column of water, letting it twist in front of her as she holds it there before letting it splash back into the water harmlessly.

"Empathy is well and good but, it's like Wittgenstein says, 'The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.'."
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Atif
Carmina Gadelica Marina


    "I don't think I am familiar with that one," notes Atif. His head turns, now, to give a more direct look to Jazz, considering her.

    "A poet or book writer?" He asks of her then. Maybe he's just trying to distract her with some other topic, now, but... "WHat'd they write?"
Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

"A philosopher. He wrote about the relationship of language to reality, and how the limits of our reality are defined by our ability to speak of them. A facet of reality that can not be related through wwords can not be described. Where of one can not speak, thereof one must be silent."

Jazz splashes more water idly.

"I wonder what he'd think if *he* were contained to a figurative world, one made of ones and zeroes. He'd find it fascinating, no doubt."
Atif
Carmina Gadelica Marina


    "Ah. Soudns like his texts would have been real interesting to read, too..." Atif says, ruefull, rolling one broad shoulder around, slowly. "Mmm... Binary is a language to, isn't it? I guess he would start thinking abotu the whole concept of language as a world in a more literal sense, wouldn't he?"

    He scoots back a bit, lifting one knee up to let him wrap an arm around the leg. "But, you know. Speaking of language... everyone here speaks the same one, right? The tech's been wired so that we understand each other no matter what. Wonder what a philosopher like that would think of that... the normal boudnaries of language being lost altogether."
Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

"To you, I'm speaking Japanese. To me, I may not be speaking Japanese. And the full conveyance of what we mean, subtelties and references and puns, may still be lost."

Jazz points out, "Of course, I am speaking Japanese, but accent is diminished. I still have one," and the tweest Undine certainly *does* have a light accent that speaks of her foreign roots, "but..." She puts her hands oiut, "that simply means we the reality we share is not exactly the same. How we perceive of things, such as how we think about the future, can still be defined by the language we ourselves use."
Atif
Carmina Gadelica Marina


    "Hoo... There are things that are specific to certain languages afterall, huh?" Atif rumbles up, propping his chin down onto that raised knee now, tail thumping once, twice, against the ground behind him. "I guess that explains why I've heard a couple people say some weird things, sometimes. Well, unless they are just straight up weird, too, themselves... Hum."

    His head turns, cheek ending up resting on his knee instead, so that he can look to the Undine. "Do you think, maybe our subjective realities are a little different regardless? Even if you ignore the whole language thing. Like... Maybe some esoteric things are entirely dependent on how we, as inviduals view them?"
Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

"That *is* what subjective means," points out Jazz to Atif, dryly, splashing a bit more water.
Atif
Carmina Gadelica Marina


    "...M-...maybe so," Atif says, stumbling over his words with the realization. "... Well, the fact that you're saying that already kind of answers the question I meant with that, anyway." He lets out a sigh, and gives a peek to the horizon.

    "...Hey, do you want some food?" He asks, suddenly, and before really waiting for an answer, he holds out his hand to bring up the menu, and scroll through it-- and just like that, a small bento box appears in his hands.

    "It's one of Hifumi's," he offers, in pre-emptive assurance of it tasting like something other than wet cardboard, holding the box to her. "I can heat it up, if you like."
Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

"I'm not hungry," admits Jazz, leaning back on her hands now after her latest dissipation of waters. But then, well, there's a bento box and she finally reaches out for it after a moment. "No, no. It's fine. Bento can be eaten cold, after all." She hasn't had a chance to try Hifumi's food, after all, so she might asw well accept the friendly offer.
Atif
Carmina Gadelica Marina


    "Sure, but I know a lot of people like their food warm," points out Atif, and he doesn't quite draw his hand fully away even after the box has been taken. "I know I do. And besides, it wouldn't be any problem. Salamander, remember?" He snaps his fingers, and a little flame flickers up in the air over them briefly, while he gives a toothy grin. "Not that I would actually flame it up. But I can heat up the air over it. Next best thing to a microwave."
Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

"Yeah, sure. I guess," replies Jazz, staring at him for a long moment unblinkingly. Her tentacles twitch. She has them. It makes her adorable.

"I don't thnk you'll set it on fire, at least."
Atif
Carmina Gadelica Marina


    "It'd be a huge waste, right?" Atif chuckles quietly with this, and then scoots a bit closer, so he can reach over and pop the bento box's top open. It's filled with rice, glazed chicken and some vegetables. Pretty simple affair, but something easy to take out and eat later, at least.

    "I actually learned this when I took a dip in the ocean and someone dried me up after," he confesses, while he brings one hand up to be held besides the bento box, slightly lower from it. The hand covered up in red scales gets a faint glow to it, first, before ethereal flames cover it up -- and a different working of magic guides the air into a concentrated flow past the hand and towards the bento. "I don't think I can personally manage it with that kind of scale, but for heating up food, sure."

    A peek up over to the Undine's face, in the meantime. "Have you had properly-made food yet, here?"
Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

"It seems natural," says Jazz, "but I guess a lot of people haven't figured out prqactical uses for thei talents yet." She shrugs her shoulders, waiting. Tentacles twitch a bit more. More water up. Splash. Up. Splash.
Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

Hey, she only has two tentacles, but definitely a lotof hair.

She takes it, and the chopsticks, and wields 'em like a pro. She quietly eats the offered meal without saying anything or stopping to engage in conversation. She never loses a distantly thoughtful lookl.
Atif
Carmina Gadelica Marina


    With his hands freed up, Atif settles his hands on top of his knees, tail flicking idly while he watches the Undine eating up.

    "Good, right?" He rumbles, smile faint but sincere in spite of it. "I hear Gwen's managed to put together a burger joint, too. I don't think I'd had a burger for a few years even before all this... Be interesting to taste that."
Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

"...how American," mutters Jazz, dryly. She of the light, foreign accent heself.

Still, she makes no comment on the quality of the food beyond a general, "Yeah, it's not bad."

Hifume would porobably clutch their heart at that.
Atif
Carmina Gadelica Marina


    "Heehee, I think it might say something about where Gwen's from, doesn't it?" Points out Atif with a playful little laugh. "Well. It's fun to try new foods too, isnt it?"

    His head nods rapidly at her assessment on the food, and his tail thumps a few times against the ground, too. Apparently, as far as Jazz goes, that seems like high praise. Even if he isn't the one who made the food. "Right, right? Maybe it just tastes so good because we've had nothing but cardboard for things to taste up 'till now, but it's damned good to have it now. Yeah?"
Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

"Yeah," says Jazz, "Fun." She gives a nod.

"The crackers didn't really bother me, I guess. Just something that wasn't programmed that we were gonna have to get used to, but then... this." She looks down at the food. "It doesn't make sense," she adds. "But then, I guess nothing else will for a long time."
Atif
Carmina Gadelica Marina


    "I think it's still something that helps a lot with out situation," notes Atif, with a slight flick of his tail now. "It makes things... more comfortable. Easier to handle."

    He lets out a low sigh, then. "... Makes the whole concept of 'one day at a time' something more like what it was back outside."
Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

"If you say so," says Jazz, not looking entirely convinced by it. "It tasting real doesn't *make* it real. We're still trapped here. I don't really find that it does anything for me, per say, but if it makqes things a little easier for anyone elser, I'm hardly one to judge. It's a nice change of pace some times, anyway." She shrugs her shoulders.
Atif
Carmina Gadelica Marina


    "I suppose it doesn't..." Atif sighs-- apparently Jazz's mood is affecting even him a little. But, after a moment of pursed lips, he still makes an effort in maintaining at least an idle smile. "...And maybe I have no right in talking about trying to live just one day at a time, and trying to make the best of it. Since... I don't have anything waiting for me outside. Kind of pathetic, right?"
Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

"Is that why all the big smiles and energy?" asks Jazz of Atif, giving him a tilt of the head. "You know, a lot of people say that. They say 'I had nothing left in that world, so I'm gonna dive into this one face first!'. That's not reality, of course. That's ... /coping/. It's a little lie we tell ourselves so we can get through tomorrow." She looks sympathetic, of course. "I can get it." She looks away from him, now, back over the open water.

"But it's still a lie. You might not think you've had much to look forward to or that anyone would miss you or that maybe your life didn't seem to matter or that that the future that laid ahead of you was just one long stretch of, what, mediocrity? Futility? Loneliness? I don't know what your personal deal was, but the best advice I can give you, or anyone for that matter, isn't to think that this is 'better' because you might have the chance to be better or matter in ways you didn't. It won't be like that and it won't help."
Atif
Carmina Gadelica Marina


    There's a long moment of silence on the part of the Red Salamander. Contemplative stare sent off far into the distance along the ocean, while the Undine speaks. And then, a few moments longer once she's done talking.

    "...Maybe so," he admits then, quietly, with another sigh.

    "But."

    Suddenly, he leans his weight back hard enough to send his back right down onto the ground, and then further over into a roll that ends, finally, in him bouncing up onto his feet.

    "Hup! I don't want to let myself get lost in that despari either. Don't get me wrong, I don't like the idea of the choice being taken away from people, either. I *want* everyone to be able to go back to what they call 'home'. But for the time being, you know..."

    Just like that, the bright smile returns. "I want to believe everythin will be okay. One way or another. So I choose to blaze forward one step at a time. And you know..."

    His hands clasp together behind his back, and he leans over slightly, to bring his face more in level with the sitting Undine again. "You kind of said it too, right? That at least on some levels, we have our own subjective realities here. Then that means those realities our ours to shape, too."
Atif
Carmina Gadelica Marina


    There's a long moment of silence on the part of the Red Salamander. Contemplative stare sent off far into the distance along the ocean, while the Undine speaks. And then, a few moments longer once she's done talking.

    "...Maybe so," he admits then, quietly, with another sigh.

    "But."

    Suddenly, he leans his weight back hard enough to send his back right down onto the ground, and then further over into a roll that ends, finally, in him bouncing up onto his feet.

    "Hup! I don't want to let myself get lost in that despari either. Don't get me wrong, I don't like the idea of the choice being taken away from people, either. I *want* everyone to be able to go back to what they call 'home'. But for the time being, you know..."

    Just like that, the bright smile returns. "I want to believe everythin will be okay. One way or another. So I choose to blaze forward one step at a time. And you know..."

    His hands clasp together behind his back, and he leans over slightly, to bring his face more in level with the sitting Undine again. "You kind of said it too, right? That at least on some levels, we have our own subjective realities here. Then that means those realities are ours to shape, too."
Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

"What despair?" asks Jazz, giving him a weird look.

Then back to the ocean. "That's not despair. That's just ... philosophy," she adds. "Do your thing," she adds, wiggling her fingers towards the ocean i na more vague and nebulous way. "Just don't lose sight of what you can and can't know ... and don't presume to think that your destined for some kind of greatness here. Whole lotta terrible things got brought on by that siren song of 'opportunity to be better', you know. Can't help but think about what happened a group of people with a significant technological edge arrived in a world that was ill prepared to handle it."

She gives him a wan smile.
Atif
Carmina Gadelica Marina


    "Well, about that...." Atif gives a brief, akward little sound of laughter. "I don't really care about achieving greatness for myself or anything like that."

    His tail swishes to one side before curling up behind him, and he straightens up from his lean.

    "I think we're going to be fine, is all I am saying. But, I should go deal with some things. ... See you sometime else, though?" His smile isn't quite as energetic now, but it's sincere in it's warmth, regardless. "Maybe I'll get you some more food."
Jazuhanzu
Carmina Gadelica Marina

"Sure," says Jazz.

"I'm not really going anywhere."

Then it's time to stare at the ocean some more. Maybe she thinks it'll deliver some answers.