[Adelie]

Art forgives mistakes - in fact, she could argue that the nature of art is mistakes. Flaws lend a personal touch - a narrative, a humanity - to artistry; what begins as an error leads to creative breakthrough and innovation.

As such, there is no shame in admitting imperfection. It is the failure to move past a mistake, the inability to reinvent it as its own work, that must be addressed - and yet, looking at her phone, Kae finds herself hard-pressed to improvise her way out of this situation.

OOPSIE WHOOPSIE! w-we couwdn't connyect your dewice to our serwers! pwease try again later uwu

Sitting on the steps of Nu'san Temple, surrounded by barely-charted rainforest, listening to the quiet that marks a spiritual refuge from the trappings of modern society - it seems no surprise, now, that she would not find mobile service.

[Indigo]

Well...this was probably the right place. The GPS on his phone had conked out a few miles back, and he didn't have the best sense of direction, and he had become a tad concerned when he noticed he was driving through dense rainforest and not any sort of coastal habitat, but Isaac had faith in Ale's judgment and so he had persevered. Now he pulled up in front of a temple that matched the pictures from the email, as far as he could tell, although you never knew—some temples were replicas of other temples, apparently, although he didn't know exactly why because that was about where he'd stopped listening to Mikhail the last time they discussed their work.

No fish were in evidence from his current perspective, nor even a body of water that might contain them, but what was he if not an optimist? Failing to find a real parking lot, he left his Jeep in the shadiest corner he could locate and went around to the front of the temple. Someone inside would surely know where he should be going. Maybe there was an ornamental pond? Those were somewhat less exciting than natural ones, but on the other hand in a place like this something rare or undiscovered might easily sneak in when no one was paying attention.

There was someone in an elaborate costume sitting on the temple steps; from this angle, and since it was distorted by the seated position, he couldn't identify what it was. He waved to get their attention. "Excuse me! Do you know where there might be a river or lake or sea or something around here?"

[Adelie]

When she'd first posited this as a theme for a livestream - or as she preferred to think of it, as an exhibition of performance art - it had been in terms of juxtaposition.

Consider - the sea! Birthplace of the primordial soup from which all life had spread, representative of both the most intimate origins of sentience itself and yet the greatest unknown and unexplored depths; vast, open, and unfathomable.

And then - the rainforest! Home to some of the greatest species diversity and most rapid change the planet had to offer, yet constrained by the growing encroachment of civilization and increasingly well-charted by intrepid explorers; self-contained, dense, and equally unfathomable without a map. Which, by the way, she didn't have.

Upon this stage, she would appear - a beautiful tropical fish, resplendent in sequins and flowing chiffon drapes, joining the ocean and the forest. The symbolism of it all, the triumphant metaphor!

It was all so obvious. Such a pity, then, that her plans had been ruined by a meager lack of cell-phone service. She'd even asked the temple monks for help - but who would've guessed that monks in seclusion didn't even have a wifi network set up?

Perhaps, though, fate had something else in store for her. As she sat on the temple steps, commiserating with her own misery, a man - a potential audience, to put it correctly - appeared out of the forest to ask her a question that she just happened to be able to answer.

'A sea?' she responded, in perfect seriousness. 'I am the sea.'

okay this ended up way longer than anticipated because i had too many words
please do not feel obligated to write a really long response because then i will feel obligated to write a really long response as well LOL