2022-08-31: I see the anger this world has inflicted on you
- Log: I see the anger this world has inflicted on you
- Cast: Yuliana Dispersal, Elisa Kafim
- Where: A Remote Chinese Jungle
- Date: 2022-08-31
- Summary: Yuliana takes care of her fiancee after their bitter defeat. Elisa adopts a new pet.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
The People's Republic of Da Han Zhong is a vast, fascinating place...
... with an astounding amount of unsurveilled land, especially given the proclivities of the state.
This inability to keep an eye on everything makes China a prime location for ZAFT's activities in Asia; the Bloody Valentine conflict is an unfortunate fact of modern life. Reports of ZAFT activity, in turn, have brought extra military presence to the Rapid-Reaction Force, the teams best informed on the remote reaches of the DHZ.
No one is particularly pleased with this situation -- neither invaders nor the invaded -- but they coexist, uneasily. Captain Yuliana Dispersal, one of the uncomfortable additions, flicks through a hand of cards. "I'll raise you fifty gilla," she remarks, disaffected, to the RRF soldier across from her, as Lieutenant Parminder Chaudhri flicks through his own hand.
"Weak," she replies.
"What," Yuliana scowls, over her cards, "you want to escalate?"
"Oh, no. Don't." Parminder says, deadpan, and utterly uninvested in stopping them.
The soldier rolls her eyes. "Sure. I'll raise you --"
"Hold on a sec," the communications officer raises a finger, as he adjusts a dial. "I'm getting... something? I think?" He frowns, inputting some commands to try and make sense of what's feeding into his headphones. Dead silence reigns in the truck for a good twenty seconds. "No... maybe it's nothing."
"What's going on, Gao?" The soldier opposite Yuliana presses, straightening up. "It's not like you to jump at shadows."
The communications officer -- Gao -- shakes his head. "I don't know, Lieutenant Liang. There are certain vibration peaks here which are indicative of movement. Except -- the rest of the profile's normal." He sighs. "Maybe my equipment's just busted again. You remember when those Hua Lian fighters shot our ride? This stuff is sensitive."
Parminder gets up -- ducking under some more equipment, given how tall he is, relative to everyone else -- to have a look at the screen. "Could be," he suggests. "But I don't think you'd see this refractory signal if it was random noise."
"Hey, man, I don't need you to tell me what my gear does," Gao frowns.
"So you think it is noise?" Parminder presses him. "Whatever. No skin off my back."
Yuliana throws her cards down. "Oh, stop it," she snaps, to them, irate. "I'll just go and look, all right?"
"I'm not sending anyone to investigate faulty equipment," Liang insists. "So unless you're going to lord over my whole operation more than you already have --"
"Cool it," Yuliana scowls. "We're not here to step on your precious little toes. I'll handle this on my own."
"The Major won't like that," Parminder warns her, breezily. "Maybe you ought to call Wen and Cascade up on this one." The rest of the Nega Force is on the case too, of course -- but since there's so much ground to cover out here, the squad's split into two groups.
"The Major's not here," Yuliana shoots back. "Unless you'd like to tell him this, too?"
Parminder raises his hands, palm up. "Hey, hey. You're the one wearing your ring so brazenly, Captain. He asked me, and you never asked me to lie. Think ahead next time if it bothers you."
Yuliana puffs up her cheeks, only to blow the air from her lips. "Fine. Fine! Don't tell him about this, then, since there's no need to call everyone here for a milk run. Help this poor little gopher with his toys, if he'll let you," she gestures to Gao, as she stands, and pulls on her pilot's gloves. "I'll be back."
She climbs into her wanzer, collects the sensor data, and heads out into the jungles of Da Han Zhong. The custom green of her Tiandong 3 blends in nicely with the greens of the vibrant wildlife, sprawling across the side of a mountain slope. It's a beautiful sunny day, though little light escapes unfiltered through the canopy.
It's also the perfect place for an ambush, but she's in entirely the right mood to murder someone, so that suits her just fine.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
The cries of birds are the first thing the wanzer's systems pick up. Lots of them--flocks just fleeing from something unseen, of a sudden. Then the sign of jungle creatures likewise running, some of which flee almost into the mecha. The vibrant wildlife is especially vibrant today!
...But the vibrant jungle is less so. The closer Yuliana gets to the center of the disturbance, the worse the smell outside. The leaves on many of the trees have gone black; the water has spoiled. And there, at the center of the disturbance, is a set of ruined trees, some of which have been ripped and rent out of the ground completely. And at the very center...
Elisa Kafim is staring into a tiger's eyes. The tiger kneels before her now, adopting a submissive stance, a beautiful creature with eyes that glow faintly green for the moment.
Elisa herself is in black, in a nice suit. There is bark on her hands, splinters on her jacket.
It's fine.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"What the --" Yuliana exclaims, as a beautiful parrot all but SLAMS INTO THE FRONT OF ANNIHILATION. From behind her helmet, she gives it the queerest look.
Birds aren't usually that stupid. (Or desperate.)
Give her credit: she doesn't deliberately step on a single fleeing python. She does keep making her way forward, though, through what is absolutely something. The leaves blacken, the water fouls...
And there --
Yuliana gasps, and the first thing she does is shut off her radio -- the recording devices -- and the wanzer crouches, arm reaching diagonally to the ground. Yuliana opens the cockpit of her machine, her harnesses -- sheds her helmet, takes off her pilot's gloves -- and vaults herself out of the seating, to climb hand under hand down to the ground.
She's in her pilot's suit, REA green; her hair is disturbed from having just had a helmet across it. (There is the hint of a bruise, at the edge of her wrist, mostly obscured by her sleeve.) "Dearest," she calls, reaching out to her with her left hand, "it's me." She pauses, she affirms: "Your Yuliana." For everyone who's ever claimed her, there's only one person she's offered herself to, after all.
She sees the bark -- the splinters... those trees, ripped from the ground...
The concern in her eyes isn't about Elisa and her newest pet, though -- it's concern for Elisa. "Oh, darling..." Yuliana murmurs, full of compassion for just one woman in all the world.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
The animals are very pretty! Most of them.
Elisa seems to finish whatever she is doing with her gaze at the tiger, and the tiger in fact wanders forward to curl up at her feet as she rises to her full (micronized) height once again. Her green eyes look to the Annihilation, and she immediately recognizes it. Thus, Yuliana can see the moment her expression shifts from generally out of sorts and irritable to pleased and pleasant once again. "Yuliana, darling," Elisa says.
She is here; she is oriented; she has.. concern? Hm.
"Oh, it's been the most dreadful few days," she says. "You weren't there at all, and I was so very angry..."
"Oh, but not at you, darling. Naturally."
She looks around, thoughtful. "Hm. Well, this is interesting."
She reaches out to a remaining tree, and places her hand on it. It withers visibly.
"Mm, that's a bit better. Much more acceptable."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Most of them. And that tree, withering to something Elisa can accept...
Yuliana closes the distance between them, her left hand -- with that glittering gold band -- reaching up, to cup her cheek, gently. "It's been hard for you, hasn't it..?" Gently, gently. She has spite for all the world, but not here. "It must have been so painful for you, too... to have it all slam shut in our face." Is that what hurt? It's what she's decided.
"Even there on that fake shore, I heard your anger! Oh, this world is such a horrid thing, to incite you so. Darling, I don't blame you at all for exacting your retribution... you've more restraint than I've had, sometimes, to come all the way out here." She pauses, and frowns, in concern. "But with a spread this wide... it began to show up, on our sensors. They think it a fault of their technology, right now, but... well, for now, I'm the one investigating." Oh, yes -- the DHZ is part of her home, geographically speaking, isn't it? As opposed to other land, which isn't associated.
"Forgive me for leaving you at such an awful time," she presses, gently, fingers stroking Elisa's cheek. "There were some questions I couldn't so easily walk away from..." there, again, her wrist, moving in those motions; she makes no comment on it. "Of course, it's been handled, but I wish you hadn't been left to such bitterness alone."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa looks surprised by the physical contact, but not in a bad way; after all, she does not do anything untoward. Instead, she looks up at Yuliana from where she'd looked down, and then leans into that hand. "It did," Elisa complains. "I could feel the gate...! But it was not enough. Perhaps I calculated the necessary forces incorrectly..."
"And my darling dragon didn't even kill them! It was very disappointing. Though it was beautiful, wasn't it? Wasn't it a beautiful dragon, Yuliana?"
Her anger... Yes. It would've been heard. "Yes," Elisa answers. "I could not destroy something more useful, but I needed to replenish my energies. And look, I have made a little friend. It will be useful, I think."
"A hardened killer, a predator. Yes... very useful."
Then she considers. "Their technology cannot comprehend what has happened here. Which is surprising, really. She must be less talented than I imagined... or more secretive? Heh heh heh..."
But Yuliana presses and, she notices the wrist. "Oh I am not angry with you, darling. But I will forgive your countrymen for keeping you. I suppose that they thought it was very important."
Handled... "Mm... I still feel anger," she considers thoughtfully. "It is uncomfortable. We were so terribly close, and this world now it... chafes, so. It is so loud, and messy, and bright. How I hate it."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Yuliana has no fear whatsoever that Elisa would harm her, for all she has destroyed and subjugated the landscape. The difference between her and this world they're trapped in is immeasurable, after all.
"No, darling, no," she assures her, soothing. "You worked so hard! I saw the efforts you threw into drafting your approach, the blood and the tears..." Yuliana does not specify whose blood, whose tears. "Oh, no one could have done it better than you, Elya. It was the engines which failed you, I'm sure. We should never have trusted spacenoids to have sufficient power!"
She smiles, fond, and agrees: "It was so, so beautiful. You crafted such a magnificent creature... they were unforgivably impolite not to die to such a lovely thing." She does not think much of her countrymen, in the face of reassuring her fiancee.
She smiles, down, to the tiger. "This, too, is a lovely thing. What shall you make of it?"
Yuliana laughs, briefly, and -- there, the way she deflects blame from her people, the way Elisa redirects it back to them. "The Major was concerned about me," she says, a little more downcast. "He doesn't suspect I was part of the attack, of course -- but he's decided someone's targeting me, given our performance. Though, if I'd not acted the part, he'd know for certain I was party to the attack... lesser evils, I suppose," she sighs.
Her hand drops down, but it's just so Yuliana can step in, wrapping Elisa in a tight hug to drown out the world around them with the world seeping from her cracks. "I know, darling, I know," she murmurs, hand burying in the other woman's ponytail. "It's cruel... even now I see the possibilities, when I dream." Which is notable, really, given how the last message Yuliana got to Elisa before she was detained was about how the children who intefered with her stole her necklace, and its treated Fold. "Only to wake to this world... oh, Elya, I know there's no comfort for us here."
She turns her head against her, and insists: "But I'm here for you, Elya. You are not alone, in this wretched place. I see how it roils at you... you deserve so much better, dearest."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Immeasurable indeed!
Whose blood, whose tears? Well, this isn't about them. "It was, wasn't it?" Elisa agrees with herself, and with Yuliana. "I can bring it back again now that I've brought it forth. Perhaps they will die next time. I think I can enhance its power..." They were very impolite indeed! "Rude," she agrees. And then--
"I am unsure as yet," she says of the tiger. "But something of this scale could be useful... or at least pretty. I could give it a bit of power. See what happens. Isn't that right?" She pets the tiger pleasantly.
Then, back to Yuliana. The Major... "Hmmmm," she says. "Well, it is good that he is concerned, I suppose. That shows that he has some care! Unlike those dreadful scientists were. I think it will not be necessary to visit him just yet. But do tell me if you feel the need, yes?"
Lesser evils... "I could always bring him into our little circle. We shall see, hm?"
But Yuliana steps in, and Elisa finds the rest of the world is drowned out very well, the comforting void all around her now. Elisa sighs, audibly, and wraps her arms about Yuliana in turn. "Yes," she says. "You have, hm...?" She does note that. "Yes. This world has so little to offer us. Passing amusements, perhaps. But nothing real."
Here...
"Yes," Elisa says. "You are the only one who understands me, darling. The only one I can trust in this world."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"You can," Yuliana assures her, with full confidence. "And I will do my best to weaken the walls for you, darling."
(When the key turns, the gate opens. She was always set to dance.)
"That's right," she assures her, just the same, as she looks down to the tiger. Pretty... yes, it is, isn't it?
But Elisa doesn't find it necessary to visit the Major, and -- "I will," Yuliana nods, tells her she'll tell her. Delicately, she goes on: "Though... I don't know that the Major is the sort of person to... appreciate our efforts here. He is more, let's say, old-fashioned than my team... still trying to make up for his failures, so many years on." Which might explain why he's so willing to have his team take up distasteful acts, for the Republic.
It might also make him unwilling to consider a bold new future. Terribly unfortunate.
Yuliana embraces Elisa and holds her firm, invited into the extrasensory deprivation tank of her existence. She's glad to feel Elisa hug her, just the same; she's able to respond to her, she isn't so far gone. (And unable to reach the hearts of the world, all Yuliana has is this physical contact, really.)
"It's not real," she affirms, softly, fingers through her hair. "Pleasant little diversions... but you're all that really matters here, Elya. Trust in me, as I trust in you... we'll survive this bitter existence together. I know we can..."
She breathes in, breathes out, exists with Elisa for a moment -- after the week she's had -- she needs her, too. "Are you still hungry, darling?" Yuliana presses, finally. "There are always Hua Lian rebels lurking around here, and few would miss them... and we've heard ZAFT activity hereabouts. No one has to know." That she's encouraging her in something horrific doesn't seem to phase Yuliana in the slightest; Elisa matters, the way these facsimiles scarcely do.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Yes, you really will, won't you?" Elisa asks, and smiles for a moment. It is pleasant. Perhaps it is more real.
"Yes." Yuliana will tell her. Until then, Elisa for now at least is content to leave things in her hands. Though as she delicately continues, Elisa considers the matter thoughtfully. "Fixated on the past... Yes, I understand. Well, we shall see what happens if it becomes necessary. If not, then he can continue his old-fashioned ways, provided he isn't too hard on you."
Elisa can, she thinks, feel that presence; warm, solid. Slightly rough because of the uniform. Yes, she is sure of it; she is 'here' in the moment, most likely.
Elisa sighs. "...Yes," she says. "I will. And we will. Soon, very soon..."
Existing. But is she hungry?
"Oh," Elisa says, "That does sound lovely. I could certainly eat more."
"Rrr..."
"And so could my new friend."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"I would do anything for you," Yuliana smiles, in turn. "For us."
But, provided he isn't too hard on her... there's a difference, Yuliana hears, between the worries. Major Pham might be concerned about her -- but Elisa is concerned for her, for her life and her happiness within it.
Yuliana is here, and surely that means Elisa is here, too.
"Mm," she hums assent, eyes drifting closed for a moment. "You will open the gate... I'm in your hands, darling." She trusts Elisa to succeed; she trusts Elisa when she says they must succeed.
She believes.
Yuliana pulls back -- but not far; a hand resting at Elisa's shoulder, with a warm smile. "Then I shall fetch you something, darling," she promises, with a permissive little glance to her brand new pet, silent inclusion. "Just wait right here..."
...---...
The Annihilation tromps back to the armored carrier, later than expected; a few blast marks, but nothing out of the ordinary.
When Yuliana comes back into the truck, she asks: "So, did you ever figure out the gadgets?"
"Nah," Parminder shrugs. "We're pretty sure it was just damaged. But it looks like you found something?"
"Not where you sent me," she shrugs, peeling off her gloves, "but I did happen to run into some rebels."
"That's our bag!" Lieutenant Liang protests, scowling. "Well -- did you at least bring them in?"
"Blew them the fuck up," Yuliana responds, all too casually.
"Of course you did," Liang grumbles, sinking back into her chair. "Goddamn spec ops, barging in here and ruining our entire approach... don't even bring me anything to interrogate..."
"You're welcome," Yuliana volleys back.
As it happens, the skirmish hit her recording data, so she doesn't have any record of the fights -- but she has no reason to lie, surely.
And there certainly is an exploded machine or three out there in the wilderness...
... though none of them have corpses inside.