2022-07-28: The villains propose, and nobody dies
- Log: The villains propose, and nobody dies
- Cast: Yuliana Dispersal, Elisa Kafim
- Where: Palais Garnier, France
- Date: 2022-07-28
- Summary: Elisa takes Yuliana to the opera to celebrate her birthday. Before the aria ends, she has a very important proposal to make -- a marriage proposal.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Yuliana reaches out to Elisa more and more to spend time with her, of late; incidental meetings, mostly, even if sometimes she has to pretend that she just happened to be in the area. (It helps when she has the clearance to travel on short notice to basically anywhere.) Tonight, however, is special... because it's her birthday! Elisa is the only one she's told; meanwhile, her squad have been trying to figure this mystery out for years without success.
She typically celebrates alone. Calls her parents. You know, normal things for a normal person who doesn't really have any real connection to anyone around her, except for how she does have one, now.
And they're going to the opera, because of course they are.
The opera -- La Divisione della Luna -- tells an ill-fated love story of the First Lunar Independence War. While the female lead is convinced to join the reconciliation movement by her father, her family secretly doesn't approve of her relationship, and so her lover is spurred by them to continue fighting. The work's most memorable aria features the Lunarian lady finally accepting that her lover died on his journey to flee the moon, impressing upon the listeners that their bond was inviolable and she should have realised the pressures he felt. She shames her family for their secret devotion to conflict, and is implied, in the ending, to turn her attention towards peace for all people.
It was written in South Africa near the beginning of the Universal Century, as the conflict spurred by AEU arms manufacturers spurred up anxieties over wars settled and past. Despite being 75 years old, the opera remains popular today for its nuanced consideration of peace and what hope it ultimately represents -- helped by its brilliant technical composition. It is a modern classical opera, and for this reason has frequent billing in the finest opera houses --
Such as the Palais Garnier, a venerable building in Paris, France which has stood for centuries as a site of opera and ballet. (With... some reconstruction and restoration given the wars over the years.) Showings at the venue are quite prohibitive for the common man, but neither woman here is particularly common, which is why they've secured private seating in the auditorium instead.
Yuliana wears a long, green gown, layered and frilled with sheer fabric; green lace dominates the upper portion of the dress, creating the illusion of a neckline not quite as outrageous as it would otherwise appear. The delicate vine detailing crosses over her collarbone and her shoulders, ending at an empress' waist. She wore a matching green shawl on the way in, which handily hid the precious chain featured around her neck; that draping is folded off to one side, now they're alone.
She reaches over to the seating beside her, to try and find Elisa's fingers with her own. "This is wonderful," she asides, quietly, over the soprano part of the lead.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Birthdays are perfectly normal human things that of course Elisa pays attention to. Obviously. ...But if she didn't, she would pay attention to Yuliana's in particular, mark that specific passage of time, that individual milestone of the world. And the world is so much wider than it once was! Some would say that makes these things matter less... But not Elisa. Elisa would not say this thing.
She has long enjoyed the arts. That's a true statement, isn't it? It certainly appears true.
Here, and now, Yuliana is likewise in a long green gown, much simpler and less ruffled; the smooth lines of her dress hug closely to her form except where they flare out for a more dramatic silhouette. And obviously, in green. She has jewelry, gold with crystals, and she does not hide her own.
It is easy to find her hand. Elisa's fingers curl, inviting Yuliana's to curl around them. She smiles.
Is it a different smile?
"It is," she agrees, and indeed--she has been listening quite well...
But her gaze continues to rest on Yuliana, for some reason.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Yuliana takes that invitation decisively, lacing her long and undecorated fingers between Elisa's, curling her hand into hers.
Her smile is, in fact, a different smile, warmer and more affectionate for Elisa alone. Yuliana wears so many different smiles, so many variations on friendliness or amusement or approachability; this is not so easily described as being put on.
(She said she was embarrassed to be seen without her makeup, but perhaps Elisa's gotten close enough for it not to matter quite so much.)
It's a wonderful piece of music, soulful and considerate, but Yuliana finds her gaze drawn away from the theatre down below -- back to the woman beside her. She squeezes her hand, lightly.
"... and you are wonderful," Yuliana adds, entirely fond. "My dear Elisa... I'm so glad you're here with me."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa is more than capable of recognizing this difference; only Yuliana is likely to recognize the difference in her smiles, meanwhile. To most accounts Elisa only has the one, after all. Pleasant, not quite bland. But this is different, too. This is not quite hunger, though it is reminiscent. It is not quite anything other than perhaps love. She watches her, vulnerable, and it is a wonderful piece of music that plays over her as she watches. The acting is nothing to sneeze at either. But up here, rather than below...
"Hm hm. You bring out my better sides, I think."
"You are wonderful yourself, my darling Yuliana."
She has a purse with her today--not a tiny clutch, but a proper if delicate and expensive purse, for keeping things in.
"...a beautiful location, for beauty itself."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Yuliana's cheeks colour, just so, a delighted little laugh slipping from her lips. (This time, she does not cover them.) "Haha... I wouldn't expect to be so taken! You've really made a fool of me," she smiles, warm and open, her gaze lidding with that comfortable affection. "... oh, I could hang on your words forever."
She's really startlingly comfortable, given they only really began seeing each other three months ago. (Exactly three months to the day, in fact.) Those are questions she might have asked, not too long ago, with all the perspective of the world. But how can something like time account for perfection? Every dinner she shares with Elisa only further cements her esteem. All of those incidental little meetings have only established just how much, just how fiercely she loves her.
"You know... I hadn't told anyone about this for the longest time," Yuliana shares, with a brief glance down to the opera floor; a touch shy, perhaps. "I just didn't feel close enough to anyone to want to share... so I kept it to myself. But..."
Her head tilts, neck exposed, as she looks to Elisa again. "... I want you to know about me," she offers, softly. "I want to give this to you, too... not just my power." And it is, yes, vulnerability, to offer her private existence -- her hidden angles -- her heart. Even sure as she is that Elisa would not reject her... it's difficult, after all, to admit that someone feared and hated by so many has something as normal as a birthday. It is so much easier if she is untouchable, immutable, obscure.
But she is a woman, just the same -- a woman holding Elisa's hand.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"And you've given me such motivation to give you words," Elisa answers. A laugh, musical. "I could watch you for as long."
Time is a lie regardless. Space is a fiction. There is only what is, and Elisa has shared what she feels about that. But Yuliana.... She wants to know. She wants her to know. And that is so lovely. Perhaps there is a bit of shyness there, and Elisa continues to smile through it. She is attentive; her expressions change slightly, instead of being the same over and over.
"And yet you have told me. This makes me very happy, Yuliana. I am touched that you would share such a thing."
She reaches out, and places her other hand on Yuliana's. Someone feared, someone hated, and yet--
"I will take all you offer, and gladly. I wish to know you. You are more than a partner. You are..."
She considers, for a moment, and smiles mysteriously. "...I believe the song will end soon. Perhaps there is something I must say now, rather than later..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Oh..." Yuliana sighs, because Elisa is touched, and so is Yuliana -- by that hand, laying over hers, and...
She sees the way Elisa's expression shifts, in those minute little ways. She sees Elisa is really happy, by those attentive little changes. It is easy for people like them to say they are happy; harder still to feign the joy in Yuliana's eyes, just the same.
(More pronounced, perhaps, but she has always been louder in her expression.)
Yuliana finds herself dangling from her final words, again -- curiosity bringing those teal lashes of hers over her envy-green eyes, in long blinks, as she leans closer. "What is it, darling?" She presses, fingers curling in Elisa's grasp. "You can tell me."
A beat, and she adds: "You can tell me anything." It's a line which tastes so sinister, served to anyone else. Here... it's much more genuine.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
It would be hard indeed to feign such joy. It is more pronounced than Elisa's, but then, Elisa's emotions always trend smaller. These little changes, though... And ah, yes--
She savors the curiosity, the way that Yuliana leans closer. Perhaps Yuliana's emotions are the only real feeling in her world. ...Aside from her own, of course. Obviously.
"I know," Elisa says, and smiles. And then... Yes. The music starts to swell and come to an end over their quiet speech; no one looks to them.
"...But while I enjoy my words," she says, "Sometimes... I think actions speak more loudly, yes?"
She squeezes Yuliana's hand, and takes one hand back, to reach into her purse--and pull a small box, which she extends to Yuliana.
"Stay with me, Yuliana. Let us be together. ...Always."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
And Yuliana has so many emotions to offer Elisa.
"Ah...?" She asks, looking to their hands as one of Elisa's moves to grasp something else -- something other than words. A small box... her eyes widen, lips parting to draw in a gasp. Is that --
She releases Elisa's hand, but only to take the box in hers; she opens it, gently, and her smile opens over her face just the same. Her fingers tremble, just so, as she looks over the engagement band -- a three-stone ring, diamonds flanking a shining emerald, all set in rich gold -- and at once she finds herself bereft of words entirely, moved to tears by the emotion of the moment. "Oh...!!"
To be accepted -- to be understood -- to be together, with her, the one woman who looks at her attentively enough to see --
"Oh, Elya...!" Yuliana finds her voice, all choked by her happiness, looking from the ring to her lover again. "You -- you really want to make a real, honest woman of me...? Oh, I--I -- yes, yes! A thousand times, yes!" She is overjoyed, and in this moment there is no viciousness to her at all.
It was prescient, perhaps, that they did get private seating here. She's certainly not able to hush her voice, at present.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
It is what it looks like. It is an engagement ring, and it is understanding, and it is many things. Yuliana finds her voice, and Elisa's smile is not nearly so important as her intent look, as the way she has eyes only for Yuliana's expression and response in the moment. "I do," Elisa answers her, a minor echo of a word she will one day say it would seem. But they did get private seating... Whose idea was that? Hmmm. Regardless, Elisa takes the ring from its box and sets it on Yuliana's finger as she agrees.
"Then it will be so, darling. For always."
The smile is there. But it is less important than the sheer seeing of Elisa's gaze. Of Yuliana's whole person.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Hmm!
Yuliana doesn't think about the cleverness of their seating, though; her whole self is entirely occupied with the feeling of Elisa taking her hand, slipping that ring over her finger. She gasps, again, as if she can scarcely believe such a perfect thing could happen.
"Oh, Elya," Yuliana croons, forgetting for the moment that they're still nominally in a public place as she holds her hand up to the theatre lights, "this is what I always wanted..!" Perhaps it wasn't so difficult to tell, given the language she used. (The language, of course, was Zaftran.) "It's perfect! I'm so happy..!"
She leans over, to grasp Elisa's hands anew. "We'll have to plan!" She declares, with excitement, eyes shining. "We'll keep the reception small, I think -- if someone interrupts this I can't be held responsible for the consequences -- but we'll need -- oh! -- I must bring you to meet my parents!" Yuliana is shortly distracted from villains (victims) taking advantage of their wedding by a much more important thought, at least for weddings in the Republic. "Oh, I'm sure they'll love you just as much as I do!"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
And that whole self is what occupies Elisa, just now. A perfect thing...
It was not so difficult to tell, no. But Elisa does this for more than because she knows Yuliana wants it. How much more? What else? Why... who would ask such a thing?
"Wonderful," Elisa says, and it sounds sincere and heartfelt and real, as she says it. But when Yuliana's eyes shine, and she talks of planning--
"Oh yes. Small is best. And protected. I would not wish to see such interruption."
That important thought...
"I already love them," she says, "Because of you."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Because Elisa wants her -- is the answer Yuliana would give to a question like that. Not that she's particularly inclined to ask a lot of questions, right now. She can be suspicious of the rest of the world, but with Elisa..?
... Elisa is the one person Yuliana can really trust.
Her fingers lace between Elisa's; she puts herself in her hands, in every sense of the word. "Good," she smiles, relieved, warmth in her eyes and her voice and her fingertips. (Which is more a comment on her health, than anything, because that warmth is a sign of good perfusion. The Institute is keeping her stable, just as Elisa demanded.) "I'm so happy..."
It's not so strange, to Yuliana, to be more occupied with Elisa's opinion of her parents than of her parents' opinion of Elisa. They are elements of her background, after all; Elisa is so much more vibrant, so much more important, so much more. This is not to say she isn't fond of them, even loves them -- but even so, she doesn't frequently involve them in her life.
She simply has to involve them in this, though. It's tradition. And they do so love tradition...
"Ah, zhenit'sya," she murmurs -- in one Zaftran word, she's marrying a girl! -- squeezing Elisa's hands, briefly. "I love you..! We can sort out the particulars later... but we'll get much, much closer, I'm sure. We could find some nice little lair, or... oh, anything will be fine, so long as it's with you."
Even if Elisa wanted to leave the Republic for foreign shores... wouldn't that be fine..?