2022-05-09: When she reaches the world it will sunder
- Log: When she reaches the world it will sunder
- Cast: Elisa Kafim, Yuliana Dispersal
- Where: Mountain Safehouse (Japan)
- Date: 2022-05-09 (0096)
- Summary: Elisa retrieves Yuliana after her unsuccessful operation to capture Athrusa, and pushes her to look into something -- SOMEONE -- unfathomable. She finds Yuliana preoccupied with her mortal fate, and makes a promise.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
The forests on the mountain are beautiful. They also have a perfect hiding place for a hangar and a safehouse, which is where Elisa is at the moment, reading over some reports as she sips tea. She is dressed in labcoat and suit, having been working on an experiment earlier before she came to sit down. ...Yes, this tea table is right in the corner of the hangar, amidst machinery. A girl with pink hair and a school uniform is also there, likewise sipping tea and working on... something. Maybe it's her homework. It's fine.
The point is, the open maw of the hangar is among the trees, and there is room for another great machine within. Currently there is only Elisa's here, the Spinatia looming gold and green.
What day is it? Who cares! It's nice here. And Elisa... is waiting. As she agreed.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
SUDDENLY: DANGER APPROACHES!
Well, danger for anyone else, anyway.
There are many words one could use, really, to describe the wanzer tromping up through the woods. 'Pockmarked' is a good one; so is 'beaten up'. Let's go with -- totalled. Oh, it isn't imminently about to explode, or anything like that; Yuliana is quite good at pushing her machines to the threshold of their breaking point, without quite toppling over into oblivion. Maybe it would have been kinder if she'd gone all the way and just blown it up; this is going to be SUCH a pain to fix.
(Yuliana knows that, of course. That's half the joy in it.)
Once the Desmatz N is safely settled down in the hangar, Yuliana pops the cockpit -- she made sure those mechanisms weren't hit. Pressing one hand to the side, she vaults herself down. Why she'd dismount lopsidedly may be immediately apparent, given her bloody knuckles. The rest of her seems to be unharmed, despite the near-total disabling of her ride.
"Elya, darling! And little Sharochka! I brought your machine back for you, dear~!" Yuliana adds, to the poor girl just trying to do her homework, with a broad grin as she gestures back towards the wanzer. Her hand's a little messed up, but never mind that.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Shari looks up. She looks up in dismay. It is terrible!! The machine--it's--it's--
"What did you DO to it!?" she half-wails as Yuliana vaults herself down, throwing down her homework to stand up and look around the side of the wanzer. "You wrecked it! It's missing a LEG! Do you have any idea how--"
"Darling," Elisa says, "Our Yuliana is also quite hurt."
"Eh? Oh, wow, shit, your hands are fucked. But you look fine! C'mon, you know how bad these things are to repair..."
Elisa stands up and sweeps her way over, her labcoat trailing like the hem of a greatcoat from a general. "Yuliana, Yuliana, darling Yuliana. How did it go?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"What DIDN'T I do to it?" Yuliana volleys back to Shari, cheerfully. "But the story with the leg is easy -- you know what happens when a Gundam tries to catch a ride on a wanzer?"
The answer to that riddle is going to have to go unanswered, because Elisa calls their attention back to her. "Oh, don't worry about that," she brushes off the concern, easily. "One of the monitors was just having an opinion." So she... punched it?! Is that her solution to all her problems?! "But I'm sure you can fix it, Shari, dear! You're ever so talented!"
No, no, don't expect Yuliana to help. It's not like she spent most of her training fixing up wanzers or anything.
Yuliana steps over to Elisa, as she approaches -- in her usual dark suit, she can't exactly sweep, but there's a certain amount of elegance to the fascinator over her eyes. (The tiara pins her hair back, which means that scar over the left side of her face is visible, now.) Her unmauled hand comes up to rest on the white coat of Elisa's shoulder; without a single care for Shari being right there, she leans up to give her a kiss in greeting.
This is apparently just how relationships look, Shari. Don't worry about it, it's fine.
"The objective was a total wash," Yuliana admits, when she pulls back. "Baihe got a couple of knights in shining armour coming to investigate along with her, you see. But, hey!" Her head cants, with a cheerful grin. "I blew up a Newtype, so how bad could it be, really? Tragically, I had to leave a doctor right there with her, so she might have survived... but her Gundam sure didn't."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"BRING IT BACK IN ONE PIECE!" Shari complains about what Yuliana didn't do to it. But she does not wait for the answr to the riddle. Instead she continues examining the wanzer. She barely pays attention to the Relationship Business occuring, though she does look up to Frown at the matter of the monitor. "Not even the inside's safe from you... Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh."
Smooch! Elisa smiles. It's very fine. "Unfortunate!" Elisa says about the objective without much feeling. It's almost like she doesn't care that much about the objective! Almost. Couldn't be that.
"Hmmmm, is that so? Ah, the way knights clang and clatter..." A beat, "Did you now? Delightful! Well, if she's still alive she'll probably be very upset about it, so that's a win, isn't it?" A laugh. "Ah, that aggression... Very delightful."
"Come, let's get those knuckles looked at, hmmm?"
She waves her hand vaguely. "There will be time to get the good doctor, I'm sure."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
It sounds like Shari is having a great day. Wonderful!
Yuliana isn't going to belabour Elisa not caring about the objective -- it's her mission, anyway. But the affection Elisa professes for Yuliana's violence is positively heartwarming; laughter begets laughter, and that might have been warm, too, in any other situation.
"All right, all right," she cedes, easily, following Elisa away to go and see to her health, not that it's much of a priority as far as she's concerned.
"I guess you're right... it isn't as if it's hard to lure her out. Granted," Yuliana shrugs, "it's easier for me." Because she's just that good? Or...
... whatever's preyed on Doctor Baihe's memory wasn't effective enough to keep her from remembering enough to be drawn to Yuliana. Maybe that's why she has retrieval demands coming down from both sides. Pity, that.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Oh yeah. Shari's going to have a great time with this. "Messing with old crappy tech in terrible shape is my favorite," she mutters under her breath, and keeps up her analysis.
Elisa does appreciate the aggression! Most of the time, anyway. And when she doesn't, Yuliana doesn't need to remember it.
"Quite!" Elisa agrees. What does she agree with? It's hard to say exactly what she agrees with in the moment because she doesn't linger on it!
Just the next room over is a small office where Elisa fetches a few things to clean the wound with from her trusty medical kit. Which she brings with her many, many places indeed. "You have many talents," she segues into instead. "So who were your white knights with? Do we have a new enemy to play with?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"You're welcome~!" Yuliana shoots over her shoulder to Shari, as she leaves. Did she... hear that?! God, special operatives are the worst.
(Sometimes it's not about hearing the substance of a word as much as its tone.)
As far as Yuliana is concerned, Elisa always appreciates her violence -- and it's so nice to be appreciated. Imagine being good at something and surrounded by people who didn't appreciate it? Now that's true horror.
She sits herself down, and holds her hand out; it's sustained all the usual violence one can expect from putting one's fist through a monitor to shut it up, and it's really a wonder she didn't electrocute herself in the process. (Okay, it's not much of a wonder. Yuliana's put enough of them together to know just how deep the speakers live under those screens.)
"Oh, I shouldn't think so," Yuliana remarks, lightly, on the enemies they've gathered. "These were Londo Bell -- with an entire thesis on how they could choose to be kind and merciful and save people who needed help and talk things out. It's not a threat, it just makes me sick!" Her breezy tone shifts through her irritated emphasis to a scowling exclamation -- though, give her some credit, she doesn't move her hand.
"Granted, I'm sure I'm not popular with them, now I've blown up their little psychic. And wouldn't you know it, Doctor Baihe can just invade electronics without a care for whether I've opened my visual feed... so she knows who I am." A stormcloud settles over Yuliana's expression, perturbed. "She's easily-led enough that she may just decide I've changed my name just the same... but it's certainly a rogue element."
Her frown deepens, briefly, and she glances away. Why would she open up to Elisa about that, given everything she was worried about..?
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Grumble grumble. Shari will be busy for a while.
Elisa doesn't really have to focus very hard to treat an injury like this; the cleaning of the wound will probably sting, but when has a little pain stopped Yuliana? Especially when she's so careful about her violence to monitors.
"Ahhhh, Londo Bell," Elisa answers. "Largely occupied in space, I would expect. But they want to help people, do they? Ahahahaha." She shakes her head. "I'm sure their superiors will handle that soon enough without my intervention. The nature of the world always does come down in the end, doesn't it?"
A beat, "Though I think it would be fun to 'talk' to some of them for me..." Talk is a euphemism for mind control.
"Then we'll just have to arm you better next time. Poor Shari does her best, but I think I might be able to contribute a little something myself..." She considers, though. Doctor Baihe... Invading electronics. That's a concern, considering how many electronics she uses.
"Ah, so?" Elisa asks of her identity. "Perhaps that's all. A rogue element... Yes."
She could invite Yuliana to talk about it. To share her tragic past. Could do any number of kind things.
"I'm sure you can handle it."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
It certainly stings, but if Yuliana couldn't withstand painful medical procedures, she would have gone mad long ago. Besides, Elisa is so careful about repairing her violence.
"Oh, I'm sure you could have quite a lot of fun," Yuliana agrees, easily. "But you know, I don't begrudge Londo Bell, really. Their methods are nonsense, but throwing more resources at those unruly colonials is hardly a waste of our time. Leave those people to their own devices, and they'll be dropping another of their cities on us, just you wait!"
There's a lot to unpack there! Why don't we just throw out the whole suitcase, right into the Sydney basin.
Yuliana laughs, clearly amused. "Frankly, the Desmatz N did fine under those conditions. Throwing an untuned unit into a three-on-one fight is never going to end without a scratch, even leaving aside playing against type." She occupies ranged units for deniability, after all -- but she's most comfortable in melee, where she can use her gifts to their full potential.
"But you're quite right," she goes on, "something like this isn't going to phase me!" She can handle it...
That's what she said, to her mysterious handler, when they sent that message.
But Elisa couldn't know that, so surely it's a coincidence.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Clean clean clean. Bandage bandage. All very simple, and definitely not a complex operation that required a lot of schooling to learn! That's how Elisa makes it look, anyway. Caaarefully.
"Hm hm~" Elisa comments to the matter that should be left to the suitcase. It's a whole-ass thing, and she's half a woman from space! And yet, she doesn't seem to care! "So we'll let them be for now," she decides. "For now." Unless they decide to make more trouble. Then... Elisa may have to intervene.
She does not mind space.
A laugh back. "True. But we can complement your skills a little better, mm?" Playing against type... It's very true. The fact that Yuliana did as well as she did three-on-one is quite significant. "Perhaps I'll get to watch one of these times... I do so like seeing you in action."
Coincidence! Surely it's a coincidence. That's all it could be, even if there are rather a lot of coincidences around Elisa sometimes.
She finishes with the bandaging however, and, "There you go. All done."
And, it seems, without the need for... other procedures. This time.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"For now," Yuliana agrees. It's fine! Elisa isn't one of those spacenoids, like the Sleeves who insist on fighting for Zeon despite all sense and decency. Those are Yuliana's thoughts on the situation, which are, being fair, entirely unkind.
(Though it's notable here that quite a lot of her activity in the military involves fighting ZAFT out of their strongholds in Asia, which doesn't much involve the Sleeves at all. The degree to which she mixes old and new causes through the medium of her scars is... certainly an open question. But surely it isn't relevant here!)
She looks down at her hand, all bandaged and repaired, with an ease and simplicity which belies just how complex it is. (Yuliana, an engineer, doesn't really appreciate just how complicated human hands are, the way she appreciates how a wanzer's displays are organised.) "Oh, you take such good care of me, dearest," she croons, the fingers of her other hand brushing over the bandage. "Where would I be without you?"
Being seen to by any number of other doctors, probably. But if she went back to Medical like this, they'd ask questions. Then again, without Elisa, would Yuliana have a hobby like this in the first place..? She's where all these coincidences lead.
"As for seeing me in action... I'm sure we can arrange something," Yuliana assures her, smiling. "Why, catch me in my day job, and you'll even really be able to see me work!" Some of her activities aren't even classified! She's an upstanding member of the Federation, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Surely!!!
"Of course," she replies simply, and then, "And perish the thought! We hardly need explore such a desolate world, hm?" Probably being seen to by other doctors, and getting up to entirely different kinds of trouble. It's surely fine. She smiles at Yuliana even, "Oh, that sounds lovely." To arrange something... hmmm. The day job, yes...
"Bravely fighting for the Federation and all that," Elisa agrees. "Yes, that might be ideal one of these days. But perhaps not today. Today, we have other things to go over, hm?"
A little laugh, "And that mecha to repair."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
It would be a terribly desolate world were they not together, wouldn't it? Yuliana smiles to Elisa, in turn. The crystal at the crown of her tiara thrums, dark, dark green.
"I'm quite the hero myself, you know," she laughs, as if the whole thing's a joke. It is, of course. A world which can saved by one person's strength...
It's ridiculous, isn't it?
"Oh, I'm sure Shari will do just fine with the puzzle I've given her," she assures Elisa, breezily. "But what of this other business, mm..?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Of course it's a joke. What else would it be? But the crystal, ah, that isn't a joke. Not in the least.
Elisa laughs along, playfully brushing Yuliana's hand, and then inclines her head. "Yes, I'm sure she will. But as for the other business..."
"I do think that crystal is right about ready," she says. "And we'll need the energy in it. I'll be expanding our operations, soon. Something relatively local, even."
She reaches into a pocket, and pulls a small box, which she slides across the table to Yuliana. It of course contains another crystal.
For her, she has things to do, now; seeking out this Doctor Baihe, for one...
"Our business ventures are paying off nicely."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Quite a clever twist, gathering from operations with our mutual friends," Yuliana says, as she lifts her unbandaged hand, to slide her mask from her face. Hair swept back, for a moment, she is unveiled; there's that scar down her face, but her left eye still works just fine, and she still has quite good muscular control. Whoever saw to that operation must have had talent.
(If she knew Elisa was going to visit the good Doctor...)
"I admit," she goes on, as she turns the fascinator about and flicks a golden clasp, freeing the crystal to her bandaged palm, "I wasn't entirely sure it would take, given the distance clemency I keep in those fights." Indeed, most of the crystals she charges for Elisa are hidden in pendants, instead; most of the time, she's wearing those bright scarves which easily obscure another decoration about her neck. "But really -- I never should have doubted you!"
Or maybe absorbing empathic fields isn't nearly as important to the process as simply being beside Yuliana, and the wound she carves into the world.
She hands over the crystal, gently, and takes the fresh one from its casing to seat it inside the tiara instead. "So, where shall we put the next..? Korea might be a nice target -- terribly vulnerable convenient to a lot of places." ... her concepts are cluttering over each other, again.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Efficiency is so important," Elisa answers pleasantly, and regards Yuliana with another smile as she handles the crystal. She is familiar with the scar by now, familiar with the fact that both eyes work. Yes, it was quite a good job... Perhaps that will count for something. Maybe it won't.
There are some things that just don't need to be said.
"Yes, that is a concern, isn't it? And yet it took just fine. All's well." Elisa is not inclined to get into details about 'what is necessary for the crystals' and 'exactly what she's getting out of this arrangement'. It's fine. Super fine.
"Korea would be good, indeed." Elisa has noticed the concepts cluttering over. Hmmm. Maybe she needs a rest. "I'm thinking Area 11 for this one. It lets me keep an eye on a number of things while expanding my power base in Britannia. And it is where dear Shari goes to school."
"...Then, Korea. Then perhaps something in Europe..."
"Hmmm. What do you see today, Yuliana?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
All's well, yes.
"Area 11, hmm? So predictable tragic what happened to them," Yuliana says, with mock sympathy. "A marvellous idea, really!"
She pauses, though, as Elisa asks that question; her gaze drops down to the darkened crystal. In many ways, a part of her, swimming in the Fold. Another layer of skin coaxed away to debride the glass beneath.
What she knows and what she is.
And what does she see?
"Closer yet closer," she says, voice dropping like a stone. "The energy comes from a -- the place is with me. The access is through me. The grasp is --" Yuliana draws in a sharp breath, and reaches out to grasp Elisa's hand, instead. She looks to her, brow knit in consternation, teeth resting on her lip. "You take sorceries to control men and apply them to someother! To the left of what we meant this bare truth unveils the poison of their crimes! Now a weapon? You are arming her!"
Her..? Yuliana's never spoken of such a thing, in such strained and harried tones.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Predictable tragic. Concepts layer on one another, nestling up close where they can confuse and illuminate both. Of course it's a marvellous idea, though. Of course.
"The inevitable result." Of what? It doesn't matter. But the crystal, the crystal in Elisa's hand, that she regards again, looks over before she looks up to a voice dropping like stone.
The stone of this world that will give way to...
Closer. Elisa regards Yuliana entirely, her eyes latched onto the other woman. The access. The place. The grasp.
Elisa's hand curls under Yuliana's, but she does not smile. She only watches, and listens. Yes, yes, on the cusp of... something...
"Yes," she says. "Tell me of her."
She has never spoken of this. Elisa will know what she knows.
She does not deny what she is applying, or where. She has long said that man and this world are only a beginning.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Yuliana's breath shallows, in her chest; she holds tight to Elisa's hand, as if she might fall into the ever-after at the end of the storybook, that very same one with which she torments the world. Green eyes on green, she is torn open, a wound.
"Beside behind between me, there is -- she is -- I can't reach. I can't hear. I know! There, in my darkness! Oblivion is not empty you don't understand it is not unfilled it is, cannot be filled, another -- this world is superficial and it is trite! Who is with me, but she is not with me, through the bleeding edges... not untouched. Not unsettled. Nothing is not nothing, Elya! This nothing which adores me so -- no tongue fit to speak of it!"
Is that why her speech breaks down, the way it does? All confused, all jumbled up, reduplicating over itself..?
"Would I tear it open," she says, shallowed, "nothing after nothing would pour out. You would be consumed, all the same. But -- but, I..!" She blinks, heavily; bites down, on her lip. She fights out some semblance of sense. "Just using you to rip and tear until you're torn apart... my heart can't bear a story which ends that way."
Everyone uses everyone, Yuliana said.
But...
But, being entirely honest...
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa does not mind if Yuliana holds on tightly. She does not mind if she breaks that hand, so long as she speaks--so long as she speaks of this ever-after, and tears open what must be torn. She must say it--she must reveal what she knows. Elisa must know what she sees, and she will, she will--
It is like music, these disjointed words of the void. It is not empty. Yes; yes, this is the truth Elisa was seeking, and she stares at Yuliana in rapt attention, entirely focused on her. Should Shari walk into the room right now, she would not notice her.
But Shari knows better than to walk into the room right now, while the whispers of the void are so LOUD in her mind, cause her to stop and huddle up with her wrench beside the robot, she cannot block them out--
But she's not here. The clanking in the other room is irrelevant.
"Yes," Elisa says again. "The nothing that is not nothing. You see it. You feel it. You know of the one who must be." She says it breathlessly, a small smile appearing on her face for half an instant, just the ghost of an expression.
Then a real smile, as she reaches out her other hand, to stroke Yuliana's holding hers. "Ah, darling..."
That is enough. She knows. It is sufficient for now. "We will come to destiny together, do not worry. It will not finish today."
The void that is her destiny. Yes...
"We shall see it together."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Yuliana could break Elisa's hand, certainly; the pressure is definitely strong. But the positioning is all wrong to shatter bones -- she'd use a different grasp entirely for that. No, this grasp is... something which could only scream for reassurance.
"Like me, unlike this world, we are -- shape and form, the world fears me but I can be seen, touched, bled! Would that they saw the storm beneath my skin! Their coming retribution a blow with no barrier to hold! And they deserve it," she adds, venom on her lips for that dark moment. She's not nearly as harsh, as her brow arcs, gazing over to Elisa. "But... you..."
(Is it really just Elisa she's worried about?)
She draws in a ragged breath, tears springing to her eyes, as she feels Elisa's fingers over her hand. "Don't leave me," she murmurs, all choked up; her head bows forward, and finally her hair sweeps back forward with the motion, to fall in that familiar pattern over her face. "Please, you mustn't leave me. I can't bear to be apart from you... things make sense around you. No matter what, you'll come back to me, won't you?"
Her voice is thin as a thread, as she repeats: "Won't you?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Reassurance... This is something Elisa can grant, and, for once, is willing to grant fully. Not a hollow, easy 'that's all right' but something deeper, because she knows this. Because she has seen what she must see. And so has she.
Shape and form... For now. Yes, for now.
"I will be with you," Elisa answers, and she answers both the spoken word and that murmur. "And I will stay with you, and I will return to you. I will, as surely as the dark that comes will come."
She is leaning forward by this point, still stroking Yuliana's hand, and when she could see Yuliana's eyes she was looking through them. Now she looks into her all the same. That thin thread of a voice... yes.
"As surely as that."
Elisa has spoken this never, but knows it as if she has said it a hundred times. Yes... This is what she seeks. This is the evidence of the gate.
"I will."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Yuliana is human; she has both shape and form, a wartorn past which cries out for vengeance, innumerable obscured sins. What else could she be?
(It is because she is human that her chassis shakes so violently; because she is human she can scarcely hold what she holds. She was not designed for this method of operation, entirely foreign to her mind. She ought have broken, like the rest. But...)
Her gaze tilts up, with those comforting words; somehow, they feel familiar, hearing them for the first time. (Given voice, given shape, given form.) "Oh, Elya..." Yuliana's expression gentles; her lockjaw grip does, too, though she in no way lets go.
"You will, won't you...? You really will..." When so much feels fake and unreal, around Yuliana, it is so difficult for her to trust what anyone has to say. Elisa has a strange ability to look through that scepticism, and find the beating heart beneath. She says she will, and -- Yuliana believes her.
"Destiny... oh, when I look at you, I can think such a thing exists. If that's what you want... maybe one person can have the power to change the world, after all." Not, strictly speaking, save it. "This hunger... harness it, Elisa. With your experience, the powers you wield... perhaps it always had to be you, you alone." With her life magic, which can change the hearts of men...
Yuliana doesn't realise how right she is; doesn't realise how open her heart is, isolated from every other heart in the world.
"I'm yours," she promises, in turn. "So long as we're together, I can offer you this." Nothing. Everything.
Power.