2022-07-18: The youth talk more and smile less
- Log: The youth talk more and smile less
- Cast: Leina Ashta, Yuliana Dispersal
- Where: Colombo, Sri Lanka
- Date: 2022-07-24 (ICly: 0096-07-18; scene is backdated for flow)
- Summary: Leina comes across Yuliana at a coffee shop, but she doesn't feel like eating. Yuliana doesn't feel like telling Leina how she views the world, either. If someone won't accept help, there's no helping them.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
It's a lovely summer day in Sri Lanka. Hot certainly, but not sweltering, the thoroughfares are lined with colorful apartments - albeit in disrepair, while at street level there are numerous cafes, street vendors, and small businesses that are alive with traffic.
If one were so inclined, it'd be a perfect day for shopping, or just lounging at a cafe and letting the hours pass one by as one enjoys the atmosphere. And indeed, three girls sit at a cafe doing just that. Three girls right now are taking a rest from their charity work. All three of them from the same high school, and became friends within the context of that and their drama club.
The Neo-Coffee House is a vegan cafe in Sri Lanka where three high school girls are resting after their volunteer work. The three girls are arrayed at a table out front over an overhang lined with so much ivy and greenery. Tastefully hidden fans just turn languidly in a way to disperse the worst of the heat even within the shade. One Leina Ashta is seated with a latte, complete with latte art of the telltale symbols of the sock and buskin. She hasn't touched that one yet.
There's also a bagel with tofu, avocado, cherry tomatoes and cashews stacked inside on a plate that she's taken a few bites of. Leina herself isn't a Vegan, but Isabel, one of her high school friends here is. Isabel and Elena are talking to her excitedly in Spanish. The first with green eyes and dark finger waves of hair, a gauzy blouse and a skirt, the other with brown eyes and two neat brown plaits that weave over the ears, with a summer dress.
Leina herself has short, curly and fluffy brown hair. Right now she's got a beaded barrette afixed to the left side. She's definitely the more relaxed of the three in dress. A pair of Denim shorts, a black T-shirt that has printed on it 'I just really like musicals.' and a pair of comfy sandal flats.
"Are you excited to go back after so many years?" "You've been gone so long after all. I bet it's nothing like how you left it." Leina considers it for a moment, then answers honestly, "I think I'm apprehensive that it'll be exactly like how I left it."
"Really? You don't think anything has gotten better? Where's that sense of optimism, enthusiasm that made us all declare - there - that's our Viola!"
Leina giggles, and smiles at her, "I think you'll find that your 'Viola' is just trying to be as pragmatic and down to earth as the character herself. Things only change when an effort is made towards it and often is that effort not rewarded. It doesn't just happen in a vacuum." She winks at them, "And space is the biggest vacuum there is."
Those with a certain attunement to alien realms might feel the interference they're causing to certain individuals. As a result, the girl is like a void spot to her senses, a smear due to the connection that should exist... but doesn't. That girl right over there, has no idea what's approaching.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Sri Lanka also happens to be the home posting of one Captain Yuliana Dispersal -- the woman who just so happens to make sure that charity work around here goes smoothly. There are so many forms to approve, but there are also... certain methods of expedition available to enterprising souls.
That's surely not relevant to the situation, though. The current situation is much less nefarious: Yuliana's on break and has wandered out of her government building (not advertised as such), past her shady laboratory (also not advertised as such), and down into Colombo's city streets. Dressed in a dark Republic-typical suit, with a light, breezy white-and-pink scarf slung about her neck and a pair of aviator sunglasses disturbing her teal bangs, she doesn't look much like an officer. That's the point of plain clothes operation.
The target is obvious: Neo-Coffee House, duh. They do amazing dal vada -- patties of husked, split chickpeas, for the tourists. Yuliana has naturally picked some up, alongside a cup of coffee black as sin.
Her gaze casts over the cafe -- and her eyes narrow, as she sights the empty place where information ought to go. Those girls...
Yuliana casually passes the table, at an easygoing pace, as she heads for her own. Green as jealousy, her gaze slips sidelong, to glance at them as she passes.
There is no sound.
(Neither to alert her, nor ambiently; as that Indonesian woman passes by, the room slips from twilight to SILENCE, total and crushingly absolute.)
And away -- she leaves, and the emotional information of the room reasserts itself, uneasily at first. Yuliana takes a seat at an empty table set with two chairs; she places her dal vada and her coffee on the table, nibble, nibble. She happens to sit in the chair facing those theatre kids. It's difficult to tell if she's looking at them, given her sunglasses.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Elena and Isabel keep talking excitedly in support of her trip to space. It's just, the words fade to this sort of hum, this buzz. Reality feels less real for a moment. The senses she's had for the past eight year are abruptly smothered into extinction. The girl, Leina feels her pulse pound into her ears, unpleasantly. As the sensory input of the world just distorts. Leina puts a hand to her forehead... and just tries to ride it out.
And then it's all back in a second. "-okay? Leina, do you need a Midol?"
The girl gives this shake of her head, as the presence of so many people around her just return. Her pressure spreading out almost uncontrollably, as she loses her handle on keeping it concealed.
"Oh."
Which brings her to the realization of why that just happened. It's not the same as sensing an Oldtype, one so closed off that she just has difficulty reading them. It's like trying to relate a crevasse that causes the world to bleed into it.
She's looking right at Yuliana.
"No. No. It's not that." Leina replies. "What's going on?" Leina glances towards the other two, abstracted. "... Special Foundation Business."
The two girls look at each other, and understand implicitly what that phrase means. One of them flags over a waiter, who starts setting towards getting everything hastily set up in To-Go containers. "One phone call away."
"I remember." Leina smiles at them both apologetically, glad they're being understanding. She notably doesn't pick up her own Latte or Bagel, just putting down a few Gilla and a sizable tip for the check.
Leina then stands up and approaches Yuliana's table, One step. Two steps. Three steps. She waits until the precise moment that feeling happens again.
"Yuliana Disperal, I presume? My name is Leina Ashta." Leina tries to ask as neutrally as possible, trying to compensate for her disorientation, as she pulls the back of a chair out just far enough away that she can sit precisely just out of the range of that effect. "Would you mind some company?" However, she does not, in fact, sit down, or say it's nice to meet you.
That would be impolite, until she's given leave or before Yuliana confirms her name. For now, she stays standing just half a pace out of that void space, waiting to see how she responds.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Yuliana inclines her head, two fingers coming up to press, lightly, against the hinge of her glasses. They slide down her nose, a little; enough that she can glance over them, to the girl looking at her.
A silent invitation.
The children scuttle away, like ants when the rain comes down on their anthill, and Yuliana calmly continues eating her dal vada. Once she's finished off that patty, she reaches over to sip at her coffee, instead. Leina steps up so very, very cautiously...
It's plain to see who was bothering her, of the matched set.
"Hmm..?" Yuliana asks, head tilting to the side and away, as Leina already knows her. She smiles, warm and welcoming. (And if it wasn't, who could tell?) "Yes, yes. Do sit down," she gestures to the chair, and nudges her plate of chickpea snacks closer to the centre of the table. Moving, immediately, to a first-name basis: "Leina, was it? I can't say I've made your acquaintance of yet. Would you like something to eat?"
An invitation which coincidentally invites Leina to sit close enough to be bothered.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"It's nice to meet you."
Leina does in fact, sit down, just outside of her range. That makes it so the chair is a bit far back than normal from the table, but not so far back that people will be confused by it. It's just a bit odd.
Leina can't read her, but that doesn't mean she's no student of human nature. It doesn't mean she wasn't already a pragmatic, down to Earth individual who knew all about the human condition long before she develops Newtype senses. She can sense at least the predatory air to that invitation.
As she nudges the snacks over, Leina actually laughs lightly as she answers her honestly, "Thank you very much, but I don't think I could manage to eat anything if I accepted. I'm not trying to be rude. It's just a fact."
Putting her bag down, she then asks, "Unless you're able to control that? Then I'd be happy to sit closer and partake of your hospitality."
It might be strange perhaps in how honest she is, how she isn't dancing around the issue at all. That she's a Newtype, and whatever Yuliana is - is uncomfortable to her existence past a certain range.
Draping her arm over the back of her chair so she can lean back a bit further she regards her with a fascinated look, "Would you mind if I had a chat with you about it? I admit I'm pretty curious. Though I'll understand if you turn me down."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Yuliana's smile flashes teeth, just so-- a little curl of her upper lip, a little tug wider along her face. "Hooh..?" She asks, all rising tone. When her hand comes up to slide her sunglasses off of her head and hook them onto the edge of her scarf, that little knife-edge is gone, as if it never existed.
"... control what, dear?"
She sounds confused, curiosity glittering in those envy-green eyes.
Yuliana reaches over and takes another dal vada between her long fingers, nibble, nibble, munch.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Leina for her part meets Yuliana's eyes without any real sense of fear. Certainly if she was sitting a pace closer, she'd be unable to hide her discomfort but outside of it, she seems fine. Even as she hooks her sunglasses off the side of her face.
Leina in comparison to Sayla just seems so casual, in the way she dresses. Almost a bit childish, even though she's nearly twenty. Like she just doesn't accept adulthood, or view it in the same way as most women.
"I don't know." She answers frankly. "I'd been told that there was this-" She gesticulates with a hand as if she were drawing it, "-space about you, that would shut a part of me off. And I don't know if it's something you can control, or not."
Leina eventually drops her hands, and flashes her a smile, "It would make it easier share your Dal Vada if you could even draw it back a bit closer to yourself. Though if you can't, it's definitely not a dealbreaker for me."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
There's a little twitch-narrowing of Yuliana's eyes, as Leina wonders if she can control it. As if it were something she could! How convenient would it be if she could simply decline to exist as she does!
It lasts only a moment.
"Think about what you're saying," Yuliana reasons with Leina, gesturing with a hand towards her. "A space that silences shuts part of a person off..? Certainly I've heard some ugly rumours passed around regarding me, and perhaps that could cause some people discomfort, but... you do realise you're proposing something rather impossible, no?"
Yuliana's hand drops to her coffee cup; she sips. "After all, a young woman of your pedigree ought to know there's already the opposite number of a newtype, out there -- the oldtype, mm?" She inclines her head, in a nod, and says very little and very much all at once. "If you were proposing an entirely new classification... I would hope you would look for more evidence than one unsettling encounter."
She pauses, and laughs, lightly. "Oh, don't worry," she assures her, a needle to the balloon of tension she's thrown over. "I don't take it personally. I know it can be quite intimidating to deal with people like me, in a business like yours." She has a very familiar style of speech, as if they're already friends. Aren't they?
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
If Leina notices the twitch she doesn't say.
She does however listen to Yuliana as she does what Leina believes is 'spinning a yarn.' The smile fading gradually as she hears her speak further and further on the subject. As she dismisses everything she says before then taking a needle to that balloon of tension. And Leina just takes her arm off the back of her chair and straightens up...
... and doesn't allow the deescalation to occur...
"And I would tell you that you're equally aware that to this day that noone in the mainstream scientific community can even agree on what a 'Newtype' is, much less develop a scientifically accepted test in order to discern whether that classification exists. That the Federation in fact actively suppresses research into the field because the idea that Newtypes exist is at best an inconvenient fact politically to their officials that they would prefer fade away. Which is why no actual published research exists on the books. Only unethical closed door experimentation."
Leina meets her gaze just as evenly, "Whether you're a new classification or not, I don't know. I'm not suggesting I have evidence more than what my own senses tell me. Whether the subject is simply classified within the REA and you're not allowed to speak on your nature - I also don't know."
Leina's eyes seem to start tracing the proximity of it, like she's trying to get a sense of it simply by the fact she can't sense people on the other side of it. "Or whether you're just ignorant of it - I don't know that either." After doing that for a time her gaze recenters upon her, "Or of course, there's just the idea that you're lying because you enjoy messing with me."
Yuliana may get the impression she's only not outright accusing her of lying because she understands state secrets exist.
"Either way, I won't take it personally either." Leina actually winks at her, as if indeed they're friends - however, if so she's certainly one scrappy friend, isn't she? "Unless of course you decided to clarify which it is."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Leina keeps talking, and Yuliana's smile grows a little... more... fixed.
(How dare she? How DARE --)
"You're evidently a bold smart girl," Yuliana concludes, picking up one of her dal vada and gesturing to Leina with it. Once again, her words cluster over each other, as if she were trying to express two divergent thoughts and never quite managed to decide between them. "... so you should know how serious throwing accusations like these around can be. One might even get the impression," she pops the snack into her mouth, munch, munch, swallow -- "... that you were being impolite."
She's silent for a good fifteen seconds, as she takes another sip of her coffee. Her eyes don't leave Leina, the whole time. (Eye, rather; half her face is obscured by her bangs, the longest hair on her face.)
"But I'm certain you don't mean to be so rude," Yuliana speaks for her, finally, with a wide smile. "I'm sure you have an excellent reason for speaking so plainly about your wild theories, mm? I'm sure you wouldn't simply say the first thing which came to mind... regardless of the status quo everyone has worked so hard to establish."
Or, more plainly: is she willing to jeopardise a good thing just for the sake of her curiosity?
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Leina stares down the hand gesturing with the Dal Vada. However, she hears her, she can't feel her, but she can read between the lines...
There's no smile there, as Yuliana drinks her coffee, keeping eye contact.
"Already a warning? And here I thought we could enjoy speaking plainly, woman to woman."
Leina slowly reaches into her bag and takes out her phone, tapping a text into it. "Smiling as someone says something I don't agree with. Laughing without feeling it. Lying just to keep the peace. I've known that's not the kind of adult I've wanted to be since I was eleven years old."
With that done, she just keeps her phone on her lap, and turns it back over upside down.
Rather than address her 'wild theories' - knowing that in fact she's pushing into territory that's illegal for the REA. She shifts to a different point of focus in what Yuliana stated, "The status quo is terrible." Leina offers bluntly after a moment, "I'm not going to pretend otherwise to show deference to something I don't believe in."
Putting her hands together in her lap, lacing them over her phone, "Federation officials thought the Colony Drop in Dublin was a good thing for the status quo. That the concession of Side 3 to Haman Karn - regardless that they believed they'd be facing a second One Year War soon after - was good for the status quo. Are you telling me that you'd grin and bear those as well because 'it's polite'?"
She meets that gaze head on, "Or were you seething with rage as well - beneath that smile of yours?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Oh," Yuliana assures her, with a veiled smile, "you are welcome to speak as plainly as you please." Here, she says, with her tone if not her words -- take this shovel. It will be quicker to dig your own grave with the proper tools.
She laughs softly, behind a hand, as she watches Leina cry for help. (There's no doubt in her mind just what she's texting.) Does she feel it? Hard to say. "Oh, really? I didn't come to a decision until I was twelve, myself," she says, conversationally, as if they're having a pleasant conversation.
Yuliana lifts her coffee, and sips, quite calm, as she listens to Leina rail against the status quo. Her eyes drift shut, for a moment. Siiip.
She looks to Leina, as she puts her cup back down. "Our coffee really is the finest in the world," Yuliana says, smiling, sedate. "You really should try some while you're here, darling."
Yuliana certainly doesn't sound angry. She has quite a lot of experience putting on the expression she needs to interact with the story she's reading, after all.
Her elbow comes to rest on the table; her chin comes to rest on the heel of her hand. "I'm saying you're inexperienced," she speaks plainly, index finger lifting and tapping against the harsh line of her jaw. "The most convenient fiction of piloting is that all problems can be solved with brash directness. But the fact of the matter is, dear -- military decisions care little for your personal feelings. Quite a many factors go into political resolutions," she ties the two together so effortlessly, with all the ease of the authoritarian, "and for every one influenced by a youth's burning candour, five more undermine it."
Yuliana closes her eyes, eyebrows raising in tensed contemplation. "Now, if you were to ask me what I thought of dropping colonies..? Speaking personally, I'm against it." Her one visible eye cracks open, to glance at Leina. "It is personal, mind, so do mind your manners." Her aside is entirely casual; it doesn't sound like a threat. "And if it were me making those decisions -- speaking personally -- I would have given Haman Karn nothing at all."
Yuliana straightens up -- a little further out of Leina's space, coincidentally.
"... regardless, there is much one can achieve by saying less and smiling more." Yuliana, of course, is smiling. "Real change does not happen outside the system... unless you enjoy change which kills and devastates countless innocent people. Revolutions, my dear, are unkind to the vulnerable and the infirm. Such a thing hardly speaks to the equality humanity can achieve, were its citizens only to put in a little... more... effort."
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"Am I?" Leina asks rhetorically, to the idea she's welcome to speak as plainly as she pleases, "I don't feel very welcome."
Leina for the record, did not call for help, though it's understandable that Yuliana might think that. She just knows Isabel and Elena worry whenever something like this happens. However, unexpectedly, she asks her perhaps, "What happened when you were twelve?" Without telling her what happened when she was eleven, as Yuliana didn't ask.
Re: Having more coffee. "I've had it before, thank you. I'd love to have more, but it's difficult with the occasional nausea spell."
Leina though doesn't say anything at being inexperienced, simply leaning back a bit further as Yuliana leans forward, but... she actually... starts to giggle as Yuliana speaks of piloting, 'all problems can be solved with brash directness' And she actually has to cover her mouth to muffle a snerk.
'Military decisions care little for your personal feelings.'
Leina actually looks like she might start crying from laughter, she's trying to hold it in. And Yuliana might understand now, she only laughs when she means it. She holds up a finger, like she's asking her to give her a moment. And then she sits up straight, reaches down and grabs a tissue, wiping her eyes, "Sorry, sorry! That was impolite of me. I'm okay."
Leina is composed again though as she says Colony drops are personal. And sympathy does show in her eyes, "I'd never dream of challenging you on that." What a change, from that laughter, to that shift. And then...
"I respect that. I'm glad that you wouldn't - personally - make that decision if you had the authority."
However, she does listen to her statements at the end, and on this she does speak up. "I can't say I disagree that history proves that's true. History shows that time, and time again. Attempts to overthrow the Federation through war, hurt civilians trying to live their lives more than it did anyone in power. Any source of violent change that would have a chance of reforming the system; the cost is too high - Axis might have caused instant change, but it would have killed ten billion people. I can think of no more horrible cost of change than that."
So what, then, does she agree with her on all points?
"However I choose to believe that humanity can be better than this. In the possibility, and potential for change that can happen through non-violent reform. I understand that the odds are increasingly stacked against it. And that you will think I'm a naive idealist for saying so. However, my feet are firmly planted on the ground - because I understand how impossible it is... and still think we're capable of it."
Leina then raises up a hand, as if to ask her for just a moment, "I'm sorry if I seemed rude earlier, laughing. It's just - I don't think you actually understand all that I've been through, or where I came from - just as I don't understand the same of you. The First Neo-Zeon war isn't remembered well, because it's convenient for it not to be."
The look in her eyes is sedate, "My big brother is a reckless, brash Ace Pilot... you've probably never heard of him, but he defeated Haman Karn. I can't speak for his feelings... but I don't think he'd say that he felt as if he solved anything that way. I certainly never want to become a pilot. That responsibility, that power is something I'd never want after the things I've seen."
Her fingers lace together, "I was an unofficial member of the AEUG when I was ten. And a hostage of Neo-Zeon for over a year, which forced me into the orbit of the highest officials on both sides." There's something acidic in her tone, "I'm well aware that military decisions don't care about my feelings - or my brother's feelings based on all I saw back then. As for what factors go into political resolutions-"
Leina looks someone who told her that she'd give Haman Karn nothing in the eye, "-personal power of those involved. That's all. And the highest officials from your bloc - every bloc knelt and kissed her ring after rolling out the red carpet for her in Dakar because they believed she could grant them even one iota more to wield. If that's what saying less and smiling more achieves - then I'll always choose to say more and smile less."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Oh, that was a long time ago," Yuliana says, vaguely, on what happened when she was twelve. "Zero-zero-seven-nine, or thereabouts... ancient history, mm?"
She leaves the events of 0079 -- the One Year War -- entirely to implication, and she smiles.
(Is it unkind, to throw out bait like that, to someone living under Sayla Mass's own protection..? Oh, certainly so.)
Her smile -- appears sympathetic, at least, when Leina mentions her nausea. "How terrible," Yuliana asides, and doesn't offer any help.
It grows a shade tense, again, as Leina laughs at what is excellent advice, and her mind goes immediately to pearls and swine. Give her credit: she doesn't miss her beat, as she talks. And as Leina shifts to talking, her smile grows far more... satisfied? No, surely the word is understanding.
Yes -- surely she is understanding where Leina is coming from.
(And it is so, so deeply convenient when someone just tells her these things. It makes it so much easier to justify her knowledge, later, if it comes straight from the source.)
Where was Yuliana, zero-zero-eight-eight..? What concerned her? Ah, that's ancient history. Who can really tell?
She inclines her head, as Leina presumes to tell her about politics, and can't quite keep all the amusement from her eyes. Oh, it's not that she's entirely incorrect -- but Yuliana thinks it quite obvious her conclusions are those of a wounded child.
"Hmm... I believe you believe that," she concludes, at length.
About what, exactly? She smiles, and doesn't say.
"I wonder if you really have the stomach to change the prevailing status quo of humanity... but never mind that," Yuliana assures her, warmly. "You've plenty of time to learn what must be done for the sake of them all." And there is a fullness to those four words -- what must be done -- rich and considered, which speaks to their portent. Words worn to a groove. Words she's said before.
"Sometimes you have to play the game to help people, Leina, dear," Yuliana explains, gesturing, open palmed, to her. "And I have been playing the game for rather a long time. So let me be kind enough to ask you outright: what on Earth do you hope to achieve, coming to a relative stranger and saying so much?"
She lifts her coffee to her lips, to take another sip. "... don't get me wrong," she assures her, casually. "I scarcely mind." She minds very much. "I'm just looking out for you, mm..?" As if she wants Leina not to get in any trouble.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Leina has studied the One Year War forward and backwards, there are many aspects she knows about it better than most, simply because she's Sayla's ward. However, she doesn't presume to guess out loud though what event exactly shaped Yuliana Dispersal. There's so many to choose from. Given the side of the world though, and her personal hatred of Colony drops...
... she'd guess Sydney, and the fallout thereof.
There is some sadness in her eyes as she considers that. Leina doesn't seem to be affected by how tense Yuliana grows from that moment.
However... Yuliana assesses that Leina's conclusions come from a wounded child. She's not wrong in many respects. It's just that Leina cannot properly convey what she felt in the hearts of the Federation officials at the top, the sheer overwhelming negative energy of living as they do.
She does listen to her speak of how she has plenty of time to learn what must be done for the sake of them all.
Leina doesn't smile. "I believe you believe that." She echoes back, tone far more chilly, her words from not long ago when it comes to 'what must be done'. As she's certainly read enough history to understand how petty tyrants use those words to justify all kinds of things.
And then she asks her outright, what does she hope to achieve, coming to a stranger and saying so much.
"Honestly I thought you were offering meaningful looks my way because you wanted to send some message to my guardian."
Which certainly implies that Leina knows that Yuliana takes bribes, and also more reasonable bribes than the rest of the REA. "I was waiting to see if you'd bring it up. Since you haven't, it seems like I was wrong."
Leina actually does flash her a smile on being wrong. Because in this sense she did defy her expectations. "Until you did, I was simply curious about you. If you'd allowed me, I would have wanted to ask you numerous questions about how you perceive the world, Newtypes and more besides... and I don't mean on how such shapes your political views."
Her tone however shifts to a note of disappointment, "But instead you were focused on the 'sanctity' of the status quo. And as you might now understand, that's something I'm rather passionate about; being a part of 'the change'."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"My dear," Yuliana inclines her head, with a smile, "if I wished to treat with your mother, I'd treat with your mother. You were never a factor in our... friendship." The word lingers at the doorway, lashes veiling her eye in that moment. "Why, I daresay the darling Doctor would take much exception to adding you to our equation!"
Yuliana laughs, fingers splayed over her lips. "No, no -- I was entertained curious about you, you see," she gestures, with a hand, to Leina. "I wondered if you were ready to join the world of forward movement, now you've up and grown. But you come to me with so many assumptions... dearie me, you are quite useless without your standard ethical violations, aren't you?"
Her smile widens, just so.
What Yuliana has seen in the hearts of men...
"But you're still quite young, I see," Yuliana says, still entirely conversational, still entirely wrong. She reaches over to her cup of coffee, and sips, again. Far too relaxed: "Tell me -- do you often succeed at getting people executed on the first date?"
Her gaze veils; she looks far, far too amused.
"If that's a winning strategy, why, perhaps I ought to hire you."
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"She's my Guardian." Leina corrects, without scolding her on that point, because it's understandable that one might think that. "And she would." Leina offers this sort of half shrug, "I just don't think that would stop you."
Whereas Leina does blink when she notes that she's useless without your standard ethical violations- "Oh is - that how you regard it?" Strangely, Leina doesn't actually seem offended by this point, she seems thoughtful, "It makes sense that someone would believe that. I think you're misunderstanding what our experiences are actually like though."
She does not in fact go into it more though, because she just assumes that Yuliana either won't care. If she asks, she can address it then.
Then she smiles at her that wolfen smile, and Leina gives her this strange look. Peering at her as she asks if she often succeeds at getting people executed on the first date. "Well, my ex is still alive." She quips her way, as she gives her a surprised look "My~ If I realized you thought I was asking you out, I would have kept away from the politics."
There's a tease there, and Yuliana might believe she doesn't actually get it. "A shame. I'm certainly not trying to get you in trouble." Leina actually gives her a wink with a singular blue eye, "I feel like you'd never need my help for that anyway."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Ah, 'guardian'? Yes, yes, my mistake," Yuliana waves a hand, vaguely. "I admit your family tree is hardly my first priority." It's not her last priority, either, but she doesn't mind coming off as careless about the details.
She does mind something, though. "I am not." Yuliana says, closed statement, when Leina says she might be misunderstanding them. The difference between that tone and her open, invitational patter is striking -- all the warmth and contractions drop from her tone, and for the first time it might be possible to believe she is a captain of the REA, with a steely gaze like that.
It drops from her face a moment later; she keeps pattering, as if it never happened. Perhaps the real theatre was here, after all.
She even laughs, again, when Leina wonders about the message she was sending. "Oh, you're a little too young for me!" She assures her, as companionable as ever. "It was a figure of speech, dear."
(No protest on the gender.)
"Mm..?" She asks, raising her brows, as Leina winks. "You could have fooled me. Perhaps you ought to think a little more before you speak." Yuliana reaches up to brush a hand through her bangs; briefly, between the strands, there's a glimpse of the scar over her eye her bangs are hiding. "I certainly hope you don't think me some wretched waif in need of rescue. I have no comment on any of this... but I'll have you know I am and have ever been capable of making my own choices." And if her smile is a little stiff, insisting on that, surely it's a coincidence.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"I wouldn't think it is."
When she offers that steely gaze and the closed statement of 'I am not.' Leina's expression becomes livid. Yuliana might wonder in fact if she's going to challenge her on this point, however, she does have some well honed survivor instincts after all.
Yuliana herself might guess it. A hostage of Neo-Zeon means that her life was in the hands of people like her, every single day for some time.
However, for all that she remains silent on this point, she does not smile. Even if it might be smarter to.
As it drops from her face, that angry, defiant expression remains on Leina's for a while longer.
"I'm aware." Leina lilts, on it being a figure of speech... before...
"And if you think I don't." Again she offers her own quip, "I certainly knew better than to respond to me being too young for you."
As what would that imply Yuliana is in relation to Leina?
One might think that Leina has turned to giving this conversation an entirely unserious slant now. However, Yuliana points out that she hopes she doesn't think she's some wretched waif in need of rescue. And there's a glimpse of a scar.
Yuliana might see it. That slow blink of her eyes. "I don't think you are..." Before Leina actually leans forward, right into it. That zone she's been avoiding this time. It's an awful sensation, but she bears it.
Gripping the edge of her shirt, she pulls it up just slightly, and Yuliana will see it, the ugly scar of an obvious bullet wound on the right side of her abdomen. It's not a cleanly healed one, the margins are uneven - so wide. It's obvious there was an infection there. A long recovery time. After a moment, she simply lets it fall.
"... any more than I am."
As she then leans backwards out of it again, and opens her eyes again to look at her. Leina at this point, picks her bag back up, and slips her phone into it, shouldering it. "Was there anything else...?" It's a strange question perhaps, Leina was the one who engaged her. However...
... Yuliana is capable of making her own choices, isn't she?
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Oh, Yuliana would be livid herself, if she knew she was being compared to any shred of Zeon. She doesn't, though, so she's left with the anger she has.
She laughs, at least, to Leina's quip about her age. She has a sense of humour about it; she'll be thirty next week, and many of the pilots she engages haven't yet turned eighteen. She's more than aware that she could easily be considered 'past it'.
Yuliana zeroes in on Leina, as she comes forward of her own volition; intent just the way a shark grows intent, with blood in the water. That the blood was ages past -- that the blood was healed -- fails to dispel the feeling that she might lunge forward, grasp Leina, and bodily pull her into an unending abyss.
Her hate is an eminently focused thing.
"We're nothing alike," she tells her, sinking back just so into her chair. She's still frowning, as her hands wrap about her cup, instead.
"You... could never understand what I see... what I must be. You wretched little..."
Her anger is quiet; so is her pain, stabbing into the words, and something of betrayal. She has never spoken to Leina before. Even so, for once, her tone is entirely honest.
She breathes in, a deliberate gesture of control, as she waves Leina away. "Oh, off with you," she says, more mildly, "let's not have you cause an incident, mm? Best of luck with your..."
Yuliana gestures, vaguely, to all of Leina. "... whatever this is." She shrugs, lightly, and sips her coffee.
As if Leina is already dismissed.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
On them being nothing alike. Leina says nothing, she doesn't seem intimidated by the hateful change in her tone. It's quite possible that Yuliana is correct in that.
However, she does respond after Yuliana speaks of 'You... could never understand what I see... what I must be. You wretched little...' In any other setting, she might challenge her, yell at her, meet her volume for volume in creating an incident, however, just like before she understands the position they're both in. Those blue eyes just match hers, not with placidity, but but a note of anger, and perhaps disappointment that does not reach her tone. She does not smile at her. There is no sense of smug satisfaction in this moment. "You're right. I can't."
A beat.
"Because you don't want me to."
She doesn't argue on the point of whether she's capable or not. Just that she won't be able to find out.
"Apparently I've been poor company for you." Leina slowly stands, and actually pushes the chair into the void zone without moving into it herself. "I hope your day improves from this moment on."
And with that, she turns and walks out of the cafe, presuming Yuliana makes no attempt to stop her.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"You're damn right I don't," Yuliana spits -- too honest, despite herself. She'd restrain herself before she got to this point, in most situations, but...
... there's something under her scarf which is only increasing the pressure of, on her.
And if she's being entirely honest with her thoughts, a Newtype's charity... it makes her sick.
"We can only hope," Yuliana remarks, drily, on the topic of her day improving.
... this time, she isn't going to trap the sensitive in her sphere of influence.
She finishes off her coffee, instead, and when she returns to the office she's even more of a nightmare than when she left.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Leina enters the hostel the three had been staying at a short walk later. Sayla would pay for a hotel without her asking, but Leina's always tried to live modestly, especially during volunteer work. As she arrives, Elena hands her the coffee in a To-Go cup and her Bagel in a napkin. "Freshly microwaved for you."
"Elena, you're an angel." Leina takes both in her hands and immediately takes a sip of coffee, as she sighs, "I absolutely needed that."
"How'd it go?" Isabel asks from a couch in an otherwise empty common room, as Leina shrugs, "Could have gone worse."
"Wasn't it... you know - Foundation business?" Leina's eyes dart to the side, and she takes a bite of her bagel, before sinking down onto the couch beside Isabel. "Kind of? But also not really."
"Well that clears it up." Elena says sardonically.
Leina just takes another sip of coffee.
"It's someone I wish we could help."
However, Leina continues to sip her coffee - as she mulls over how Judau, Roux, and Elle must have felt coming off the Neo-Zeon war. How many people did they connect with? How many people did they feel for?
... How many did they end up saving?
"It'd be nice if she'd let us... but life doesn't always work out that way."