2022-07-07: Those red eyes go straight to your red heart
- Cutscene: Those red eyes go straight to your red heart
- Cast: Yuliana Dispersal, Wen Yuan
- Where: Colombo, Sri Lanka
- Date: 2022-07-07
- Summary: Yuliana speaks personally with her lieutenant about what, precisely, is wrong with her.
First Lieutenant Wen Yuan, Yuliana's pink-haired sniper, walks beside her down a coastal path by Dehiwala Beach. It's a nice, sunny day; they're not even doing anything wrong!
(Now, whether they're coming back from checking a shipment which will help them later -- that's another question.)
Yuliana spares a glance out to the sea, though. "Damn," she exclaims, quietly, "we really do get fine views around here."
"Hm? You want to sit down?" Wen gestures, to one of the park benches which dot the walkway. "We're about done, so..."
Yuliana shrugs, and heads over. "Sure, why not?" She, herself, is perfectly comfortable sprawling -- one arm to the back of the bench, her other hand pressed to the wood beside her.
Wen doesn't take up nearly as much space, hands folded neatly in her lap. But after they've watched the waves a few moments, she turns her attention to Yuliana, instead. "... actually, Captain, there's something I've been meaning to ask."
"Oh..?" Yuliana glances to her, sidelong, meeting Wen's unsettlingly red eyes with her own -- a green-eyed monster. "Take your shot." A poor choice of words to give to their crack shot, perhaps, but Yuliana is grinning anyway.
"How do I put this delicately..." Wen starts, only for her expression to rapidly shift to exasperation. (Was she really trying?) "Why are you like this?! You know the last part of our team keeps dropping out because of you, right? First Alexsey, then Brassy, and now Cascade's telling me they're trying to transfer out, too! We've worked loyally under you -- I've worked loyally under you!" She scowls; Wen isn't given to emotional outbursts, the way Yuliana is, but the situation is grave for her. "I know how much black intel we have in our situation, but... you can at least tell me why."
Yuliana sighs, fingers tapping against the wood of the bench; her grin fades, to something more serious. "All right," she says, and is quiet for long moments, afterwards, her gaze turning back to the sea.
"Captain --" Wen starts, only for Yuliana to lift a hand in a quiet bid for silence, before she drops it back to the bench.
"... a long time ago, the Republic filled me with venom," Yuliana settles on, over-long. "I became someone who could consume a particular type of poison, more pointed, a response... but I wasn't the same person, after that. I became a predator, but that toxin is still inside me. I know it's confronting... actually, I had to argue with them not to dispose of me, like the rest of my cohort." She's downcast, as she looks back to Wen.
"So, you see... I owe them. And I volunteered for this to help my country, besides. But I don't need to tell you I'm unique, Lettu," Yuliana insists, with that slang for her rank. "No one really knows what I can do, not even the Republic. That's why they keep sending sensitive people to us... it's a deliberate revolving door. And if that's what the Republic needs... we're in no position to change that." A small lie, made all in implications. Perhaps it is a kindness.
Wen -- now more upset than angry -- shakes her head. "But even if it's like that, you don't need to treat them so badly!" She insists, and she'd know; she's found Cascade crying somewhere out of the way three times this week, and she wasn't even looking.
"I do," Yuliana responds, without hesitation. "Because they are anathema to me. I look at them, and I see..." For the first time, her voice cracks and stumbles, "... I, I see... the hollowed space. What it means, for humanity... I'm not your enemy, Lettu." She shakes her head, looking over. "But if you're not comfortable, you can always transfer out. I'll put in a good word for you."
"No one said that," Wen grouses, back to frustration. "But I guess that's how you see it... geez, you're not the only hack job here, you know? Even leaving them aside, it's not like I can just leave, either. In the One Year War... I got caught in a blast," she admits, voice lowering. "I almost died. The Republic had to replace a lot of me... internally, I mean. It's not like anyone sent me a bill, but... there's a certain expectation, right..?"
"Yeah," Yuliana agrees, sotto voce. "I'm familiar."
"I don't see myself as poisonous or anything," and Wen doesn't go as far as to say that she has more self-esteem than that, because she has more kindness, too. "But it's not like I can't see where you're coming from, Captain. What happened then... it's why I stopped using my personal name, why I made mine more Western. I used to be --"
"Don't tell me," Yuliana, now Dispersal, interrupts her sharply.
Wen sighs, and tries not to sound too disappointed. "I want to understand you. I want you to understand me! But you really don't make it easy, did you know that?!"
Yuliana glares, for a moment, before she takes a deep and deliberate breath. "I... appreciate what you're trying to do here," she says, carefully. "... but someone like you could never understand me!" She can't help her voice raising, even trying to moderate her response. Perhaps she's a little too comfortable.
"That's because you won't let anyone understand you!" Wen exclaims, hands tightening in her lap. "We've worked together for years, Captain, and I've never seen you commit to anything more personal than -- than -- isolated encounters! If you weren't so much like this -- don't you even have family?!"
"Oh, somewhere, I'm sure," Yuliana replies, breezily. "But that's hardly relevant to my current life, is it?"
"It's not about being relevant! How could you even say something like that?!" It's not entirely that Wen is angry at Yuliana, though certainly that's also true.
Yuliana sighs, looking up to the blue, blue sky. "You're very sweet," she demurs, gaze lidding. "And I'm sure plenty would say it's more than I deserve. But you're of more use to me directing those caring talents to the rest of the team, Lettu. I'm not the type for personal conversations like these... I prefer eating hearts to bearing them."
"You can't scare me," Wen frowns. "Not after all the times I've come to save you."
"Hm," Yuliana grunts. "I suppose I can't argue."
They return to their base of operations soon afterwards, leaving the hanging threads where they lie.