2022-07-20: I am the gate you shall throw open to decimate this world
- Log: I am the gate you shall throw open to decimate this world
- Cast: Yuliana Dispersal, Elisa Kafim
- Where: A Hotel in Moralia
- Date: 2022-07-20
- Summary: Elisa asks Yuliana about her strange dreams, and Yuliana shares what she has seen. They affirm their dedication to each other and the world they will create.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Eyes in the darkness. No -- the concept of being watched. No -- more an ##### of lurking. No --
It opens concentric around her, through her, the lines carved ####### her flesh. No -- the word is tearing, the word is tearing and she the knife, #### in some unknown hand. World ripped apart, there is nothing to hold her, nothing to catch her; in just this way she is caught.
She is beloved by the emptiness, and she is #######. What is opened in time closes, she knows, she knows, she knows. Fragile linearity tears at the edges of them, rends them to bits. ### is too fragile, just the same. Why? Why? Why...?
She knows the lady of the darkness, and it is a horrific experience; no woman was meant to be open to this. There is surely nothing close to humanity in the void, Yuliana thinks, as she grasps her fingers together so tightly against the glass shards of reality. That she understands such a thing... what, then, does it say about her?
She wakes with a start, sweat through her satin sheets. She breathes, uneven, as she opens her eyes to the dark of her room, the black glow of green fold made dark and darker. Her heart pounds staccato, as she reaches in the darkness for the false panel on her bedside table to pull out her burner phone.
The query she sends about where Elisa's travelling next is perfectly casual;
and sent at three in the morning, local time.
She doesn't realise how incoherent it is, at the time.
> Hollow space is occupied at the seven cardinal directions coming inward towards thirteen
> Where will you be? Where could I be?
...---...
She figures out she sent those messages when she wakes up properly. She asks herself what on Earth she was thinking -- but she may have been talking about the way she fell asleep with her phone in her hands. Quite stupid, really. Anyone could have broken in and found the compromising data there. She's... distracted.
That's how she justifies it, as she fixes those crystals back onto her chain, slips that necklace back about her neck. She wraps a shawl around it as her final gesture towards getting ready; it both neatly veils her neck, and adds a pop of latticed green colour to her typical dark suit.
She's able to figure out they arranged a meeting, at least, which means her project for the day turns into figuring out how to slip out of the office. She gives Parminder more work investigating Captain Castellan -- call it professional curiosity -- and pairs Wen and Cascade up to take care of a little problem they've heard about with a ZAFT safehouse further east. When Wen asks why she isn't coming, she assures her that she has a sensitive assignment of her own.
And, you know. They only pretend to be on the level to get better access to the world. When your black ops captain suggests she can't tell you, you stop asking questions. It's better for everyone's health.
Once that's all taken care of -- and Yuliana gets on a plane, and finds her way to the appointed place -- night has fallen over Moralia. Of course, that hardly matters, in their typical fancy hotels.
Knock, knock. Yuliana calls out, chipper and helpful: "I'm here!"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
How fascinating. Hollow space, occupied... seven and six and thirteen. Where? Where?
Naturally, Elisa set up a meeting.
What has Elisa been up to today, though...? Her hotel room is scattered with candles. Candles, arranged in strange circles and shapes and patterns, with intricate runes spread into each--sometimes the space between is scratched out and scrabbled. Sometimes there are burn marks on the table. Wax has dripped to the carpets. There is something she has been doing and she has been doing rather a lot of it, searching for the ways between, for the cracks in space, for the rents in existence. Their world is merging with another... Where will it be? What will it be?
Does it have anything to do with what Yuliana has seen?
But Elisa opens the door, and her eyes are bright. Her hair is down; she is dressed in a long black robe, possibly silk. She smiles, widely. "Yuliana!" she greets. "How good to see you! Please, come in, come in!"
There are clear seats; there is tea. There is a bed. These places are untouched.
...But the room is filled with green and black.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
The door opening to something like this is hardly unexpected. Yuliana is, after all, dating an honest-to-goodness(?) witch; sometimes Elisa engages in strange rituals, and while Yuliana doesn't much understand the details of those runes, she doesn't mind. She wouldn't expect Elisa to understand her day job, either.
Besides, Elisa would never hurt Yuliana. And anyone else doesn't much matter, do they?
Yuliana steps inside, with a warm smile. As soon as the door clicks shut again, she reaches up to untie the shawl from her neck, unveiling it -- so that she can take that green fabric and sweep it around the back of Elisa's shoulders instead, tugging her in. She doesn't have to lean up too much to kiss her today, which is nice.
"Elya," she purrs, all affection, all tender regard. "I missed you so."
Using her shawl for such flagrant purposes exposes her neck, of course, which she doesn't much mind doing for Elisa. The necklace, hanging there... four gems, shining darkly, full of nothing at all.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Honest to something, anyway.
Elisa leans in as she's pulled forward, shifting down to be kissed. She doesn't pull back from there far, opening her eyes again and letting them gleam at Yuliana. "And I you," she answers. "Work has kept us terribly busy and far away, yes? Now we can dispense with that difficulty for a moment."
Four gems, shining darkly. Elisa notes them. But she does not move to take them, yet. She focuses for now on Yuliana herself, reaching up to her hands to pull her further into the room. "Come, come."
"How was your journey? This is such a quaint location, isn't it? A lie wrapped in a lie. More honest than many places in this world, yes?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Yuliana gazes at Elisa, in turn -- two green-eyed monsters, and one, at least, captivated with the other. "Oh, it has," she laments, still with that fool's smile. "But we have this moment." It's a shade bittersweet, that they are consigned to capturing moments in time, but... work does keep them.
"Of course," she takes Elisa's hands, and allows herself to be led; her shawl she leaves over Elisa's shoulders, for the moment. Green suits her.
She laughs, softly, as they go. "It was fine enough," she agrees, agreeable; "no major interruptions, in any case. I am rather fond of this little fiction... there's really quite a lot of talent here. Killing their fellow man has brought out such creativity in these people!" Yuliana sounds delighted about their dedication to usurping the rules -- even given the subject matter, given the subjects don't even matter.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Captivated with, fixated on... there are many phrases that are in the right region. Which in particular? That's a secret!
"This one. One day, more than moments." She is... attached, today. Elisa keeps the shawl for the moment, and starts to pour tea from the pot as she reaches that table, ignoring the runes and curtains and carvings. She smiles, instead. "Good, good." She sounds pleased, as well, and then she extends a cup of tea to Yuliana.
"So your messages were terribly interesting," Elisa says. "You must tell me about what you've seen!"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"That would be wonderful," Yuliana sighs, fond -- and still a shade wistful, because she can't imagine how she would bring Elisa into her life in a way which wouldn't compromise either one of them. She has a bevy of enemies who would delight in knowing Yuliana was so fond of someone, and even if they amount to so many snacks, the disappearances would eventually raise... questions.
(She has grown more attached, of late, with these incidental meetings and outings... did she have concerns? They hardly seem relevant, with how charming Elisa is.)
Yuliana seats herself down, and accepts the tea, smiling still. She sips, and murmurs, "delightful," teal lashes veiling her eyes as she looks down to the cup.
Down to the crystals, shining at her neck.
The shift in her expression as her eyes catch them -- focus on them, inevitably, wolf to wound -- is subtle, but entirely present. Her lips part, breath dragged in over her teeth; her gaze grows vague, looking past, looking through. Her expression remains gentle, though her smile fades.
She blinks, heavily, and with some effort returns her gaze to Elisa. "Ah..." She starts, and smiles again -- smaller, more fragile. "I... have strange dreams, sometimes. They come and go in waves, I suppose..." That coming and going may well be related to each time Yuliana hands those crystals over, and receives a fresh batch to fill with the torment of the sensitive. Yuliana... doesn't quite manage to associate her building strangeness with the filling of the fold.
If she realised they were the source of her fey turns, she might leave them at home to preserve her own aims, after all.
"... but... of late, they've been quite severe vivid," Yuliana admits, words tumbling over each other as her hands curl around her cup. She sips her tea, again. Perhaps she hopes it will calm her.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
The tea is of course delightful! Where did it come from? It doesn't matter. It's tea from Elisa, that's what counts. As for their lives together... Elisa does not yet reveal her plans for that purpose. It is simply the case that she has them.
Down, to the crystals... Yes, Elisa notices that. She sees the vagueness, notices her smile fade. it is unfortunate that Elisa must do away with Yuliana's more pleasant mood, but she must hear, she must see. The words tumble together...
Elisa's eyes are intent, green, utterly focused on Yuliana. The tea is lavender. Perhaps it will be calming. It is meant to be soothing, after all. A small kindness, in return for a greater unkindness. To do what is best for both of them...
"Have a seat," Elisa invites, "And tell me of them."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Yuliana sees -- and this, in fact, is her entire problem.
She settles in her seat. She clasps the tea in her hands. Her own green eyes drift shut, as she breathes it in. Lavender... it's thoughtful, she thinks. Yuliana does enjoy that flower. Of course she enjoys flowers. She's not a monster.
Not that kind of monster, anyway.
"Everything... breaks, around me," she says, quietly, a hint of a waver to her voice as she sinks into the memories of the night. Dreams ought to be forgotten by the next day; she has forgotten none of them.
"Shattering, rent... weapons turned to this world and through by me they breach. It's under my skin, it's, it cracks, it, opens... I tear, I am tearing, I am a wound torn from this world to another. A crack, a crack in the world, it isn't enough..."
"Key and lock... temporal delineation. Concepts, conceptual, associated by, with..."
"Linearity rips me to bits, crueler still than its inversion."
"I am... surrounded... caught... the emptiness consumes all to nothing. I, I know her. Know, she is waiting. A place I cannot know. It is prepared, welcome, wanting."
Her eyes squeeze shut, tightly, as her breath catches in her throat. Less trancelike, her voice slips from her, in a vulnerable little whine: "... Elya..."
Her hands tremble, just so.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
The sight is not kind.
The memories sink... Yuliana sinks. Elisa listens, teasing meaning out of each syllable; the shattering, the weapons turned here and by. Under the skin, she tears... she is a wound--a crack. No..
An opening.
Elisa sees a thread, she sees a pattern amidst the wounds. Key and lock, yes--but concepts... and--
"Linearity," she repeats, intently, intensely, and she sees it in her mind; the opening, what needs to be slain in order to make that opening happen. In order to save Yuliana and open the gate, they must break causality, causality that is holding the lock shut even though key is right there.
'She' is waiting. A place welcome, a place wanting--
"Yes," Elisa breathes, and reaches out to take Yuliana's hands in her own. "That is enough," she says. "I understand now."
And she does, she thinks. She sees it...
"I see what I must do for you. Now shhh. Relax. Listen to my voice. Recall that I am here."
"We will destroy this cruelty. We will find that which must be."
"And you and I, Yuliana darling--we are what must be."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Elisa's hands cover Yuliana's; she shudders, released from her obligation to translate the feelings of something so alien. She releases her breath. Her own grip releases, just the same, and what remains of that lavender crashes to the ground. The fine china breaks to a dozen-dozen shards, a metaphor strewn over those shined floorboards.
Yuliana barely even blinks.
"... for... me..?" She murmurs, as she looks up, to Elisa, unveils her gaze; she places herself in her hands, with her expression as much as the way she is held.
She is soothed, as her attention drags itself back to reality, back to the woman in front of her, speaking to her with words she can comprehend. She relaxes; she listens; hungrily, she absorbs Elisa's conclusions into her heart.
"Yes," Yuliana breathes, eyes on hers.
Silence hangs, for a moment, before she pleads: "Elya... Elya, come here. Please... I need you. I can't bear this alone." And this much, at least, is a fact; the truth of Yuliana's predation is something she has not looked directly at for a decade.
No, not until they met...
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
The teacup matters less than nothing. Its carried liquid spills onto the floorboards, touches against Elisa's bare foot. She notices less than she cares, and watches Yuliana still. She holds her there, and her expression remains the same, just as intent on Yuliana as before; it is not mild, not passively pleasant as ever, but focused. It is a reassurance by way of stability.
"Yes," Elisa answers, and steps forward, wrapping her arms about Yuliana when she asks, taking the seat beside her and then with her. She says she cannot bear it alone, but Elisa has no intention of making her do so.
No, she is here, and will be here; the truth...
The truth is...
"I am with you."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Elisa doesn't have nearly as wide a range of emotional expression as Yuliana does, as far as she's ever seen -- but really, that just means she recognises the significance of her shift to intensity.
The teacup might not matter, but she feels like she does.
And with that request -- that reminder of the world -- her wishes are fulfilled. Yuliana sinks into Elisa's side, face burying against her neck; her ankles hook around hers, just as her hands bury into the black silk at her chest. "Yes," she affirms, in turn, entangled.
"Elya... I'm afraid," Yuliana admits, in just the way she never could to the world. "The gate you shall open... it's..."
She couldn't understand the cries of the void, strange and alien and unsuited to her ears. Those emotions, too, were never meant to fit inside a human heart. Even so, she sees them, written. Even so, she knows --
"... it's me, isn't it..?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa makes no move to disentangle, no move to shift back or away. She holds onto Yuliana with a firm grip. Not hard enough to hurt, but certainly enough to feel.... secure. Yes, secure. That is the word.
Yuliana admits she is afraid. "It is all right," Elisa answers.
But Yuliana... she sees. She knows.
"Yes," she says. "But you cannot be opened until we break this fallen world. Only then can the gate safely be traversed. Only then can we be together, in the darkness to come."
"I will break this world to make this come true. I will break causality itself. That which tears..."
"It will be the fabric of this place."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Yuliana couldn't get away, but neither does she want to. All the tension leaks from her muscles, held in Elisa's security. Welcome, safe and sound...
It's all right, Elisa says, and Yuliana believes her.
She assures her she'll break the world around them -- and Yuliana, so afraid of being broken, sighs in relief. "It's all right," she repeats, in quiet murmur. "Gate, key, and lock... they're all connected." If the gate cannot be opened... surely she can keep it closed, just the same.
(That she is arbiter of the threshold, lock as much as key, may make it quite... convenient, that Yuliana presses herself so closely to Elisa.)
"You'd... you'd really break the whole world to keep me safe, wouldn't you..? Oh, Elya..." Yuliana sighs, again -- with affection, with warmth, with devotion. Not a tool to be used, but a partner to be cherished and protected... no wonder her heart is already set. "Boyevaya podruga, darling... let us be together forever."
(That Zaftran phrase, again; the sort of thing a wife says, to suggest she'll be at her partner's side throughout any situation they might face.)
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Neither does Elisa wish her to slip away. It is all right, she says, and she indeed will break that which stands in their way. Gate, key, and lock...
"They are connected. We are connected. All will be well."
Elisa, the witch, listens as Yuliana sighs with devotion, and she does not smile--perhaps that is the sign that she is actually pleased, that she still has not put on that generic demeanor of hers yet. Instead... She listens, and she understands.
"I would. I will. We shall break this false world into pieces, and allow the true to rise up within it. And we shall see it together."
A Zaftran phrase.. It makes Elisa think.
"Yes," she says. "Forever."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Yes," Yuliana agrees, again, to their connection -- and she's happy about it.
She is smiling -- but it isn't something sly, or sharp, or manufactured with sympathy. It is gentle, loving, grateful, unveiled... honest, in the way her emotions can't be, when she's moving through a world of fake people.
If they could shatter this false world... perhaps she could be so much more honest, too, in just the way her cheeks flush with affection as Elisa affirms her desires. "Elya," she murmurs, and her heart is full.
"I'll be with you in the dark," she promises, fingers lifting to curl and rest at the crook of Elisa's neck, opposite her face. "And in the ill-conceived light of this world... in time, this too will be ours, and shine with a greater shade."
Perhaps she really will eat the sun, just so Elisa doesn't have to stand for such a wretched thing in their universe.