2022-06-12: An Adult Conversation
- Log: 2022-06-12- An Adult Conversation
- Cast: Milly Ashford, Yuliana Dispersal
- Where: Area 11 - Kyoto Samurai & Ninja Museum
- OOC - IC Date: 0096-06-12
- Summary: Milly gets ready for marriage interview #33. Yuliana visits Area 11. They talk about equality.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
Next week: Marriage interview #33. Milly continues to loathe these, but not in a way where she has anything she can really do about it; it's just a question of running the clock. ... Really, most of her personal problems are about running the clock.
(Running it until... what, exactly? Britannia becomes a full meritocracy? The Earth Federation collapses?)
Well, at any rate, these things tend to go pleasantly enough. Milly has dinner with her mother (or, this time, stays the weekend), Milly muddles her way through not objecting, Milly gets a functionally blank check to go buy new clothes, Milly makes the best of it. She's decided to turn this into a full-on day trip, heading out of Nagoya to Kyoto, where she's presently headed out of... the Kyoto Samurai & Ninja Museum, with a mid-size bag from the gift shop and several unrelated bags.
... She did not plan this trip in a very reasonable or precise order, but at least she's getting a decent workout, and not just from the actual interactive experience part of the museum visit. "Hmmm. Decent date location, solid fundamentals, interesting to an earl's son with a mostly irrelevant military commission..." she muses aloud as she exits. "He's... shorter than me, right?" Check phone... swipe... swipe... "... I can *definitely* ruin this one. Perfect."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Orders are orders! Sometimes, those orders come straight from the brass, and send you travelling off to possibly the most annoying place to visit in Japan. Yuliana Dispersal has several things to say about the entry process of Area 11, even given her particular capacity to navigate the system. Really! It's like they think she's here to do something nefarious!
(And, well -- she probably is, but THEY don't know that.)
Now she's not meeting with her boss's bosses, Yuliana's shucked her uniform for her typical plains-clothes dark suits; today's scarf is a light affair, aquamarine blue and deepest indigo. A pair of dark sunglasses rests on her face; her bangs are swept away a little to accommodate them. She's seen to the business she said she was here to do -- and yet, she's still here; sightseeing while she has the opportunity to be in the area, surely.
(Burning a bit of time. Never mind until what.)
She's wandering quite pleasantly, in fact, when she happens to spy a familiar face amongst this sea of wretched Britannians. Alter her course a little, annnd...
"Ah! The young Ashford, if I remember right..?" Yuliana asks, and flicks her sunglasses off her face, tucking them into a crook of her scarf in a smooth motion. "I wouldn't have taken you for a swordswoman," she points out, with a shade of conspiratorial slyness, as she glances back to the museum.
"In any case, it seems like that many bags is getting awkward for you -- need some help?" Yuliana is an expert in offering warmth while holding malice in her heart, but, well -- she doesn't actually hate Milly a considerable amount. (Some pesky Britannian values, but she can hardly be blamed for a little brainwashing.) In this situation, she has, in fact, just identified a person she recognises struggling with a task and is offering assistance.
She can do that! Who's going to stop her?
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
Milly is actively negotiating that system *constantly* thanks to the GUTS initiative. She's had the support of many wonderful, experienced people who have considerable talent at doing exactly this, but she's also acutely aware that if someone abuses their incredibly limited freedom to travel to other schools, it's going to probably fall on Ashford Academy and it's going to suck for everyone involved.
Never mind all that, though! Someone Yuliana knows is here! "Oh -- Ms. Dispersal," Milly says, adjusting her bags. "Hmmm... well, I wouldn't mind that. I'm not sure how long it's going to take me to get to the train, and this is ..." She gives a not-quite-hapless, but still perfectly disarming, smile. "... about my limit on bags."
She bought a sword. It's strictly a souvenir, but it is, in fact, very cool.
She shuffles two of her six bags off of her fingers, getting them either handed off or set down on the ground depending on how aggressive Yuliana is going to be in offering help. "I'm actually looking for a good date location," for a given value of good, of course. "... Marriage interview #33, soon." Yuliana already saw #32, so it's not like she needs to hide *that*.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Well, it's no shame to be aware of one's limits," Yuliana points out, smiling. "Particularly when you don't have to handle it alone, mm?" Yuliana is, in fact, happy to let Milly set the speed on the bag handover. She happens to be familiar with how territorial people can get about their things. It's flattering!
Up they go, hup; Yuliana is unbothered by the weight of day-on-the-town shopping bags. That's the power of being a soldier. Even if she does most of her fair fighting in a wanzer, manual control systems require a certain amount of strength at times, just to make sure the clutch engages properly instead of sticking like it always does.
"Thirty-three!" Yuliana exclaims, and Milly is saved from her typical gesturing because -- bags. "I'm afraid I'm not very familiar -- is that a normal amount? It really sounds a touch excessive." This is something of a lie; Yuliana isn't quite as ignorant as she says she is about Britannian customs. It's also not exactly a lie, because she doesn't know Milly's marriage-proposal normal.
"I'm not too familiar with the area," she goes on, with a hapless little shrug as she glances across to Milly. "It's something of a challenge to visit casually, isn't it? Still... what are you looking for, for this scenario?"
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
Yuliana is... not, perhaps, the most reassuring presence -- but on the other hand, Milly has had only pleasant exposure to her thus far and she seems like a responsible enough adult to have casual conversation with.
"Well! It's surprising, and yet, it kind of isn't?" Milly answers, quite honestly. This is all public record, so she doesn't feel much need to dress it up. It makes her look a little weak inside Ashford's walls, but with an adult, it's just sort of a fact of life. "My mother... insists I marry above our current station, but finding someone qualifying who's interested in a petty noble for a wife is... it's surprising she's managed to find 33, but unsurprising that none of them are prime cuts."
Which leads, of course, to the ultimate question. "Sabotage!" she answers, delightedly. "The Samurai and Ninja Museum has participatory demonstrations; I'm five inches taller than he is and twelve years younger, which means if I don't hold back I'll humiliate him in public, if I put any effort in. If he's a decent catch, he'll be gracious about it!"
He will not.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Not the most reassuring presence, huh? Perhaps Yuliana would praise Milly's intuition if she knew... except she doesn't particularly view intuition as worth praising.
(It would be a shame to ruin a promising young woman with the betrayal of the modern age.)
Yuliana laughs, easily. "You know," she says, "where I grew up, people don't ask if you're married, they ask if you're married yet. The fact that I'm almost thirty and still without a husband is considered rather selfish, and -- well, let's just say I don't care terribly much about disabusing another of the assumptions tied to that," she adds, with a conspiratorial type of cheer.
(They think she's gay. They're correct!)
Something like that might explain why Yuliana has a certain sympathy for Milly's plight, though. Indonesian marriage expectations are... also a lot, as it happens.
She grins, sharkish. "So really, if you'd like to sabotage the whole thing... you'll want a place with a floor which has poor grip. Your standard off-cut noble will be worrying more about his appearance than practicalities, so if you were to wear the proper footwear, you could have him fall on his face with little effort at all." And she just -- span that off the cuff of her sleeve?
Well, at least she's not telling Milly she shouldn't humilitate the older men trying to marry her.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
Milly thinks about this. This definitely isn't the first time Ms. Dispersal has had to humiliate someone physically in public, she realizes, from the suggestion; indeed, it suggests a sort of awareness of the small physical things of the world that Milly wouldn't expect from someone who, to the best of her memory, is part of the military.
"Oh I *should* get new shoes, definitely -- I don't own any wet traction shoes or anything," Milly realizes, at this. "I was going to do it in heels to prove the point, but I probably shouldn't make it pointlessly difficult..." An idea starts to occur to her. She doesn't need to voice it, though.
Instead, she asks, "Really? It's like that in the REA, too? I was under the impression Britannia was the only place that was still like that..." It's not a total surprise, but it's a bit of one. "The game of cat and mouse is fun, but I think I'm going to have to give up sooner or later. There's no way to advance in Britannia for a petty noble except strategic marriage or luck." ... Not great to admit, but, as Milly continues walking with Yuliana, she feels like she's at least with a co-conspirator.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Yuliana has great situational awareness. What's up with that? Probably nothing bad.
"Heels are all well and good for intimidation," Yuliana agrees, "but you don't strike me as a swordswoman -- if you're already trying something you don't do on an average day, it's best to give yourself every advantage." Definitely nothing bad about this advice. "As you say, why make it more difficult for yourself? You know the point you'd like to make, so you should set yourself up to make it. Save fighting in something you're not suited for until you're an expert, mm?"
Like going out in ranged units as a melee specialist? Anyway.
"And oh, don't get me wrong -- arranged marriages are quite uncommon in the modern day, at least in my homeland of Indonesia," Yuliana adds, with a cant of her head to fill in for one of gestures she still can't make because she never stopped carrying bags or anything. "But marriage is considered a rite of passage in quite a few areas of the world... and the Republic is expansive, comprising a great many places. Not that Britannia doesn't have impressive holdings as well, of course -- but your country does tend to make the places they occupy theirs in quite striking ways, mm?"
For all the REA's crimes, they didn't demand Zaftra rename itself to an Area. It's still Zaftra. And the people of Zaftra are allowed to have whatever opinions they like about it!
Within reason. Within implications. Within harmony.
And the people of their darling Republic who happen to push a little too hard -- whether they've left or not -- well, they get a visit from someone like Yuliana, don't they? Just to apply a little gentle correction, you understand.
Yuliana shakes her head, with a rueful grin. "But of course -- I'm not here to criticise Britannia," she assures her, to get ahead of any wounded responses. (Population control through shared pledging, she reflects and reminds herself, to justify the advance effort. It's a neat trick, really, from one authoritarian regime to another.) "Though I can certainly understand your frustration at such an oblique method of advancement." She's being nice, so she doesn't even point out how Britannia sells itself on anyone being able to do anything based on merit.
"... do you consider yourself particularly unlucky, then?"
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
"I tried the fencing team as a first-year!" Milly says, brightly, before clarifying, "That's a no, of course. There's a reason I switched to the Fantasy Seduction Club." It does not sound like she's making up clubs.
"Though really, Student Council is the best fit I've found yet." She's fairly certain Yuliana already knew that part from last time, but it's the natural place to go, anyway. "I like to have a top-down view of the school, and I find it's easier to make people more honest this way." She does not elaborate on what she means, but she doesn't *seem* like the type of person to just ask questions and assume the answer is honest, so maybe she means something else.
The international politics topic is more interesting, anyway; Milly has had some trouble figuring out what she actually believes *herself* on that front lately, so this might be a good place to think about it! She passes by a decidedly Britannian storefront selling goods semi-related to the Samurai and Ninja Museum at a reduced price, and it... gives her some things to think about regarding Britannia and the ways in which it makes its holdings theirs.
"That's true," she reflects. "If I'm honest, though, I think that's Britannia's biggest weakness. Areas just become more Britannia within about three generations... I think Britannia's greatest strength comes from its inequality." A little strange as a thing to say -- and Milly knows it, which means she elaborates. (She likes the challenge of talking politics.) "More complex political arrangements with more competing needs tend to lead to better policy than assuming everyone gets served by the same basic policies... really, even the Honorary Britannian system has a lot of holes in it, if you look at something like Area 11 vs. Taribia. ... or is it officially Area 12 again, now?"
She scoots on from that one; she realizes she's a little out of her depth, and doesn't want to sound like she doesn't know what she's talking about. Besides: she has a question to attend to.
"... The Ashford family's luck hasn't been good." No sense in dressing up something you could find with a basic Web search. "Things have always been their best for us when we move carefully and don't leave much to chance."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Ah, yes! I remember," Yuliana confirms her position on the Student Council, but for the most part, she lets her talk. (It gives Yuliana a chance to go, internally: fantasy seduction club??? what are the youth DOING these days???? ... luckily, Yuliana is very practiced at keeping inconvenient emotions off of her face, so she still looks engaged and not baffled.)
Having given Milly the space she needs to not have to defend herself, though, it seems she's perfectly happy to come to Yuliana on the subject of politics -- which suits her perfectly fine. Well, it's not surprising to Yuliana that Milly would think inequality is strength, given what she's eating every evening.
"You're right -- it's worth thinking about," she encourages her, with an engaged tone; she's not unkind, but she's not trying to talk down to Milly, either. "But something strikes me about the way you describe it, Milly." Oh, are they on a first-name basis, now? She manages to make it sound perfectly natural. "... are you sure you're talking about inequality? Or are you talking about individuality?"
Disentangling Britannian propaganda isn't her job here, but a woman's got to have hobbies. Well, not that individuality is particularly a virtue of her homeland, either -- but Yuliana thinks it a more comfortable zone for a young Britannian woman to move into.
Believe it or not, she actually is, in fact, trying to help Milly out here. She thinks Milly has great potential; it would be a shame for it be squandered in a place like this.
Yuliana chuckles, though, after Milly describes how the Ashfords move. "Hohohoh... oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not amused at your plight," she assures her, with a shrug of a shoulder. "But you know -- a skillset like that can be remarkably transferrable. Moving carefully, with forethought and preparation... if you're capable of such a thing, do you really need a marriage certificate in order to take action?"
Her gaze lids, as her smile widens. There is something a touch unsettling to Yuliana's pride.
"... why, no one need realise you've taken action at all."
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
It's exactly what it sounds like, and yet, not exactly what it sounds like at all! There's much more academic study of seduction and kink than there is dressing up in outfits, even if. ... there is still definitely that second thing. Milly Ashford doesn't fund garbage, after all; clubs have to be *something* besides self-indulgence.
Individuality or inequality... hm. That one is, in turn, a little difficult to untangle. Milly turns a bend, and at last their walk takes them out of the museum's radius of 'things being about samurai.' She brings a finger to her chin, tapping -- a somewhat difficult proposition with shopping bags in it, but she manages. "... I'm going to need some time to think about your first point," she says, "so let's start with the second one instead, okay?"
The question of 'inequality or individuality' can wait. "Transferrable to *where*, exactly?" comes the logical question. "It's not as though my grandfather is a bad engineer, or anything... we lost our patron and collapsed. Sometimes it really is just bad luck."
That converges, in the back of Milly's head, with the other point, by way of a particular death and its wide-ranging fallout.
It also leads her to her answer. "It's sort of both. Differences in capability highlight points of failure, and addressing them makes for stronger final products. If everyone had total equality of capability, that might be a weak kind of fairness without a lot of innovation."
Yuliana seems like a practical person, so Milly goes to a practical example. "Ashford Academy wasn't wheelchair-accessible until the year before I entered high school. Getting it to that point was something I didn't even think about because it was never a problem, but now that it's addressed it's also a lot easier to haul equipment around quickly and quietly."
A sharp smile crosses Milly's lips, as she says conspiratorially, "I get a lot of mileage out of that, on the 'action without people realizing' front."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Okay," Yuliana agrees. She'll hear her out. It's important for people her age to be heard. She asks a question, but Yuliana waits for her to finish her point, first.
And -- she sighs, when Milly supposes it's a weak type of fairness. Just what about that is disappointing...?
Still, she can hardly lambast Milly too much for such a thing; she is, after all, still young, and steeped in Britannia besides. Oh, she's destroyed people for less, to be sure -- but Milly has one very important advantage over anyone she's casually crushed for speaking against her: she isn't a Newtype. It's astounding how much social capital that buys, in Yuliana's vicinity.
(You've gotta have a purpose, and hers is working for the benefit of people like Milly, as far as Yuliana is concerned.)
"To answer your first question," she says, head canting to a side, "indirect movement is something which suits individuals, rather than a large group. Acting as an Ashford may not entirely suit your talents... though of course, if you're dedicated to rebuilding your reputation, you may need to keep counting. Up to the forties, perhaps?" Yuliana asks, with a sort of rueful casualness.
She hums, thoughtfully, looking forward as they walk. "I wonder if innovation is worth leaving people behind..? Not every place has as thoughtful a steward as you. Wouldn't it be more prudent to regulate and mandate accessibility, rather than relying on the kindness of those with power?"
Yuliana takes a breath.
"Ah... all that besides, I wonder if it isn't kinder to ensure that disabilities like these aren't corrected, so that people can access this world like everyone else." Her tone's dropped a notch, to something a shade quieter, a shade more reflective; it's cost her nothing to have this conversation, up until now, but Yuliana doesn't suppose she can explain her perspective with words alone.
Does she care enough to put her neck out...?
A moment's pause, and she glances back, to Milly. "I don't suppose you can keep a secret, can you?"
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
Acting as 'Milly Ashford,' versus acting as 'Milly'... it's something Milly hasn't given a lot of thought to. It's a little strange, though, that she hasn't... after all -- she knows about Lelouch and Nunnally Lamperouge, and Kallen Stadtfeld. But by the same token -- those are ways in which the world has acted on *them*, rather than, necessarily, choices in their own right.
... But then -- isn't she shackled to the ball and chain of 'Ashford' for the same reason Lelouch shucked it and became 'Lamperouge'?
"Can everything really be corrected?" Milly asks, with some seriousness. "Even some Coordinators are blind, I think. You can't control every variable or know every truth." She has to think about where that ultimately goes, though, for her -- it's a tricky bit.
"If you could give every person in the world an identical body and mind... I think that'd get boring. No one would change. Difficulty makes for miracles, and miracles bear witness to truth." ... okay, those words are definitely borrowed, but Milly's permitted to quote for her purposes.
This... is a genuinely challenging conversation, though, so maybe even if we don't believe in quotes without attribution, we might forgive Milly the transgression. This back and forth is -- 'adult,' 'real' in a way that Milly isn't... quite sure she's ready for. She's not even 20 yet, after all.
... That only gets a little more apparent as Yuliana asks if Milly can keep a secret. "... I assure you," she says, finally moving back to that in-control, playful little smile, "I've got plenty of secrets. I can hold on to a few more."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Not everything," Yuliana admits, "but many things -- and more still can be treated."
She shakes her head, with a rueful smile. "Oh, don't get me wrong... that's not what I'm advocating for. Why... there will be much, much difficulty, in the time to come." A beat: "... given the current geopolitical climate, of course."
Given the encroaching darkness, all-consuming, inevitable.
But Milly is far too young to worry herself about that.
Well, not that Yuliana isn't giving her an awful lot to think about. She can tell that Milly's drive here is something personal -- she knows someone, judging by her comments -- which is why she entertains the option she does. Someone like this is convinced not with ideals, but with relationships.
It's telling that Yuliana considers the practical ramifications, and doesn't think terribly much about the emotional ones. The truth is, emotionally, it doesn't really matter to her how Milly takes it; she'll be interesting, either way.
Her smile tugs, sharkish, for a moment, in response to Milly's own. "Very good," she agrees, and shifts her bags to one hand. (It's not really a problem; they're not that heavy, to her.) With her free hand, Yuliana reaches inside her pocket, and pulls out a bottle of pills, showing it to Milly.
"Without treatment, I'm a terribly frightful person," Yuliana explains, in a low tone. She tucks the bottle back into her pocket. "I would have been about your age, when life changed for me... unfortunately, when I'm grasped by something I can't quite explain to you, I've very little control over myself. It's not precisely what you're thinking, but... this world was not designed for me, either."
Yuliana glances away, her now-free hand brushing through her bangs. "The tranquilisers numb me out... I'm able to push through and act as a normal person. But in order to exist in this world... I have to correct myself. Perhaps I will have this world accommodate me instead, sometime. But..."
But I am not from this fake and scripted world, and when I break the sky to fit my heart, your world will change forever.
When your world becomes mine, you will be saved, and I am sure you will not thank me.
You, who agonises --
Yuliana shakes her head, and shrugs, to Milly, with a small smile. "Right now, that isn't possible," she settles on, instead.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
It's that beat -- that tiny micro-beat -- that Milly focuses on, much more than the content of what Yuliana says. It's not that she misses all of that, of course; she certainly hears the words Yuliana puts out, sees the pill bottle. Listens to her story.
Milly is inconsistently-read; this plays to Yuliana's advantage, here. She truly has no idea how things could have changed. ... then again, a lot of things happened during the Gryps Conflict. Milly doesn't actually know a lot about the fine points of that, because for *her* the change in the mobile weapon landscape is the immediately-relevant element.
"... I see," she says, at first. But what she sees isn't that Yuliana is letting her in on a secret, or the fine points of Yuliana's frightfulness.
What she sees is that Yuliana means difficulties greater than the political climate. That hitch, that beat -- that *act of shifting tracks*, and then *unshifting them* -- is a void that stands to consume the world around it.
... Milly can play along, for now, of course. People can say anything, omit anything; that cuts both ways.
"That does give me a lot to think about... maybe there are some places 'inequality' comes up short." Milly glances down to the bags, then over to the relatively nearby train station. "It was good to see you again, Ms. Dispersal, but for now I think I need to go shoe-shopping. I finished my physical education credits in my first year... I don't have good shoes for your strategy, and I'm not going to bore you with shoe shopping."
... she does owe Yuliana this much, though, as she moves to take her own bags back: "I appreciate you letting me in on your secret. Maybe I'll let you in on one of mine, some time."
That empty movement sticks with Milly for a good, long time.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Do you..?" Yuliana wonders, as Milly says she sees.
It's an interesting lack of a response, for someone who has been so eager to talk. There are a great many reasons why Milly might balk, of course; including, tragically, the obvious misinterpretation.
But given her attitude towards her unnamed friend... Yuliana doubts that's quite the case.
She isn't angry. She's excited. Yuliana sees great things in Milly, so if she's heard something in her speech which is putting her off-balance, it's bound to be fascinating.
"Ah -- of course," she agrees, too easily, as she rests Milly's bags down so she can gather them up herself again. "I'm sure you can find something which will suit your strategy."
Yuliana smiles, gaze lidding, as her finger comes to rest at the side of her cheek. "I truly do wish for your success," she tells her, with that same unsettling sense that she really does approve. "Show me what you're capable of, won't you..?"
With that, she turns, and starts walking for the train station, lifting a hand in a lazy wave.
She'll take her pills when she's out of sight, thank you.