Hours of the Night :: Nighttime [Selenus]

After his two peculiar encounters that night in the camping grounds, Selenus wondered if he would ever get to have the alone time he so desperately wanted out in these woods. Meeting up with one old acquaintance and one new acquaintance, while not usually something the robot wolf would complain about, was not what he had planned when he made this outing; as a matter of fact, it was begginning to become detrimental. Selenus needed to find any set of conditions in which he could comfortably relax, or he would definitely be driven mad. Selenus wandered around the woods in circles, eventually re-visiting the small lake where he'd met Ashure. He circled around the lake, taking in its natural beauty before he stepped on something squishy. It was a marshmellow, most likely left behind by Ashure when she was running away from wolves and whatnot. He wiped off the remnants of the sugary treat from his paw on the dirt below before proceeding with his walk, eventually deciding to sit down in front of the lake to better take in its beauty. The lake itself was quite vividly decorated with lily pads and fish, which only added to Selenus's awe.

Selenus took a glance at the water directly below his snout, and was surprised to see the reflection of not himself, but a human. It was a handsome male adult, possessing gloomy eyes and short black hair with white streaks. Every move Selenus made, the man in the lake imitated without fail. Was his mind playing tricks on him? Selenus reached out with his paw and touched the water that cast the unfamiliar reflection, sending tiny ripples throughout the lake. Once the ripples had gone from the spot that cast the reflection, the human was gone, and only Selenus remained. The robot wolf heard his alter ego exhale deeply from within the depths of his mind. It would appear that Fenrir was trying to cheer Selenus up through visual illusions. Needless to say, it only worked to further sadden Selenus.

The robot took his leave from the lake and continued to wander aimlessly around the camping grounds, one single thought resonating in his mind the whole time: "It's not fair."

Eventually, Selenus spotted somebody else in the distance. A young girl that appeared to be eating a few snacks, to be more precise. Selenus tried to change direction before she noticed him so that he could have his alone time, but in doing so he accidentally stepped on a branch, creating a very loud *CRUNCH*.

Selenus let out a heavy sigh inside of his mind. It seemed that he would have to deal with yet another person. Again, he hadn't minded, didn't mind and would never mind making new friends, for he was an incredibly lonely individual, but he just didn't want to let his emotions loose while anybody else was around. This was his burden to deal with and his burden alone, and he didn' want other people to worry about him. Regardless, he'd now startled the poor girl quite a bit, if her facial expressions were any indication, so he decided that he'd just tough the urge to sulk out and be as polite as possible to her. He owed her that much for startling her, he felt.

Selenus retook motion of his body once more, now that staying still served practically no purpose. He turned around to face the girl, who, upon closer inspection, seemed vaguely familiar, but Selenus had no concrete memory that he could pull up to recall her face from. He could have scanned the entirety of his memory drive, but that would've taken a long while and he would've been unable to say anything while he did so, leaving the girl without an answer. "...Hello..." He said in a tired, melancholic voice. Just because he wished to tough out the tiredness and sadness didn't mean that he could fully conceal either of them.

He gently approached the girl, making sure not to make any movements that were too fast, as she was sure to be cautious of him. He wouldn't blame her either, he knew he wasn't exactly the most friendly-looking thing to ever greet someone's eyes (Well, with the strange exception of children, but that's neither here nor there.).

More than capable of defending herself? Now, Selenus was skeptical of this claim, but not for reasons one might expect. While, unfortunately, most in his situation would've underestimated her because of her gender and age, selenus was sceptical because no regular human could be "more than capable of defending themself" from wild animals and the myriad demons that were sure to roam the darkest place of Endymion at night. She had no weapon on her either, so Selenus could only conclude she was either bluffing or she had some ulterior form of self-defense. Yes, Selenus was thinking of that form of self-defense, but he wouldn't say it, because though he suspected it the chances were actually largely low, and if he asked and it turned out not to be that way, he could possibly get himself reported and rehabilitated. "Alright, if you say you are." Selenus wouldn't chase that topic further unless it was brought up again by the girl herself.

What was he doing here? "Just trying to get some peace and quiet, that's all..."

Schoolwork? So she was indeed yet a student, like Selenus suspected. Ironically enough, most noteworthy people in the city of Endymion were teenagers or younger (excluding celebrities and the such). Not to say there weren't also noteworthy adults or non-humans, but you get the point. "Schoolwork, huh?" He chuckled "With all due respect, if that's all that's ailing you, I envy you." That came out sounding a little rude... not what he was intending at all.

"..." Selenus was hesitant to give Batilde his name in return to her own. He wanted to, oh how he wanted to... but he questioned whether or not it was a good idea. He had promised to himself that he'd stay out of the spotlight, but he found himself constantly meeting new people. It was almost instinctive too, he even went out of his way to meet new people when he had the choice not to because... the loneliness he felt... it was absolutely crushing. Yet at the same time, if Newman spent the rest of his life stuck in a cell just because Selenus couldn't just call up one of his already existing, trustworthy friends...

"...Selenus." He said, but his voice betrayed the enthusiasm of meeting somebody new. It wasn't unlike the tone of voice of someone letting out on a secret that they promised their best friend they would take to the grave, while said best friend waved cheerfully at them from across the room, completely oblivious to the betrayal. "That's my name."

Now, Selenus wasn’t complaining, but it did feel weird that this Batilde was so open to the idea of something like him. Yes, of course everyone who he is now friends with had met him at some point and clearly been able to accept the idea of him, otherwise hey wouldn’t be friends, but… they all had shown at least some degree of confusion or unfamiliarity. While Batilde had shown surprise (expected, of course, since Selenus had startled her) she seemed to be accepting the concept of his existence much faster than most. He supposed she was simply accustomed to utilizing suspension of disbelief; things hadn’t exactly been what people would call boring daily life for the past five or so years to begin with. Her smile showed this fact.

With nothing much better to do and not wanting to refuse a friendly invitation, Selenus hopped on the bench and sat next to Batilde. He noticed the light layer of fluster Batiled had begun displaying when the subject of a friend of hers whom she misses came up, which led Selenus to believe that this “friend” carried romantic or at least sexual connotations. “Hm? What was her name? Maybe I know her.” Selenus joked and chuckled; he doubted he actually knew who she was referring to, but it was a nice conversation starter.

To be completely frank, the shyness displayed by the girl before him was somewhat endearing. Though he couldn’t relate to being in love quite yet or even to feeling physical attraction for others, he could certainly understand and comprehend the idea of wanting to spend the rest of your life with someone else. As far as he understood, the complimentary addition of sexual desire to existing sentimental desire was really the only thing that differentiated romantic love from the kind of love he felt for Trinity or Douglas. Selenus would simply stare in amusement until Batilde spoke the name of the girl in question. It was at that point that Selenus’s stare turned from one of amusement and whimsy to one of deep concern.

“Miyuki? Miyuki Walker?” The girl who he’d met on the riverbed? They’d only met twice, but in those two brief interactions Selenus could’ve sworn that they were parallels of each other. They were cut from the same cloth, positioned at the same point in space and time to witness the same life-changing event, and grew to be variants of the same lamenting person. This all made Selenus feel of Miyuki as a kindred spirit, and one to be protected at all costs. Despite this, after his run-in with her in the alleyways, he hadn’t seen her again or been able to contact her. “Y-you said you hadn’t seen her in a while, right? That you missed her?” Selenus asked frantically, desperate for answers. “Do you know what happened to her? Is she alright?” Selenus couldn’t just ignore the fact that after he’d decided to reveal himself as a terrorist to the girl, she’d suddenly gone missing. There was one logical conclusion that he could draw from all this, but his mind refused to accept it. The moment the idea surfaced, it was just as quickly deleted by its conceptor.

NononononononononononononononononnononononononononononononoNOOOOOO! So she really was missing?! God fucking dammit, this was all his fault wasn’t it? This was all because he revealed himself as a psyche terrorist to her so soon! For fuck’s sake Selenus, what the hell were you thinking? You weren’t! You weren’t thinking, that’s what! What had they done to her?! Had the government caught wind of her and rehabilitated her? Did they torture her for information? Did she talk?! Maybe they didn’t even need to get her to talk; maybe the government could just pull out her memories the same way they hand out personas to their cadets. Damn it all!!!


Selenus rebooted his emotion drive, causing him to be forced into an efficient (alebit temporary) state of calm, hopefully enough for him to reason with himself. He hadn’t noticed how he’d been basically frantically fumbling in place as he panicked internally. He was overreact; it was likely that maybe she’d just been laying low for now due to the info she’d learned, or maybe she’d just had a common reason to stay inside and not answer the phone. Maybe she was sick and just didn’t WANT to answer the phone… that sounded like a Miyuki thing to do.

“I… apologize.” Selenus would say, silently embarrassed. “I have a bad tendency to jump to the worst conclusions. Maybe she’s just staying home sick…” And now suddenly things were awkward… maybe he should continue the conversation so as to save face “S-So, how do you know Miyuki?”