2022-12-01: Welcome to the Nega Force, Rusalka
- Log: Welcome to the Nega Force, Rusalka
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Alma Stirner, The Nega Force
- Where: Colombo, Sri Lanka
- Date: 2022-12-01
- Summary: Yuliana welcomes a new Londo Bell attaché to the Nega Force. Alma is all too eager to fit in.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Elisa goes to prepare the way; meanwhile, Yuliana takes Alma, in her arm, to deliver her from Zaftra. (It's fine, she assures her, with regards to her latching onto her, because she's a friend of the family. She doesn't mention that Alma couldn't possibly threaten Elisa when Elisa has her hand about Alma's throat; that's just implicit.)
On the plane trip over, she remembers, apropos of nothing, that she'd bought gifts for her to thank her for her help in Torrington. A little obsidian box which contains a green crystal on a deceptively sturdy choker, and two green studs for her ears; they're elegant and understated, shining darkly, the sorts of accessories which accentuate an outfit without calling too much attention to themselves.
"You look lovely," Yuliana assures her, smiling. "I know Dr. Kafim would agree." It's some form of address for her mysterious wife, surely -- given Yuliana is Mrs. Kafim, now. Her first name? Never mind about that. When a woman works hard enough to become a doctor, she'd like to be called that, surely.
And so, to Colombo --
Sri Lanka is generally a hot country, but thankfully, the temperatures won't be pushing thirty degrees Celsius yet. It's gotten through life better than the neighbouring India, but some of its buildings are still worn and weathered; funding for infrastructure has been a touch uneven here, which isn't helped by its struggling and compromised democracy. (Something of a black sheep system, in the REA.) The roads, on the other hand, are fine, without many potholes to speak of; the Daughter of Bridges, young engineering genius Gayatri D'Cruze, oversaw much of the repaving of Colombo.
Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte -- or, colloquially, 'Kotte' -- is the legislative centre of the city and the country, and it's in this portion of Colombo that government buildings live. Besides the imposing and anonymous Institute for Continuing Study is a smaller suite of offices and hangar: the base of the Nega Force.
Or, according to the front of the building: 4th Office, 15th Lane.
The entrance is unassuming, just like any government building; there's a buzzer to ask for help, and keycard entry. (Yuliana lets Alma in.) In through the spartan and little-used foyer, through another keycard swipe, and the first room at the front-left is Major Pham's office. It has an excellent one-way window view.
"Let me introduce you," she offers, orders, in a low voice, before she pushes the door open with a loose wrist.
"Major~! I've returned!" Yuliana announces, brightly, sauntering in with a loose salute. She gestures to Alma, touching her shoulder lightly, as she does. "And for my first action, I've determined I'm requisitioning a lost soldier! I'd like to immediately request the reallocation of Lieutenant Stirner to our team as a Londo Bell attache."
Major Pham watches this circus, and takes a deep breath. He swung his chair about to face them rather than his computer when they entered; he didn't blink throughout the entire sequence. "I see your honeymoon has left you in high spirits, Captain," he says, dryly. "Is this, perhaps, one of your jokes?" He doesn't look like someone who has an ounce of humour in his body, a man in his sixties who fails to smile as he says it; he must have recognised the shape of a joke through a three-week seminar.
"No, sir," Yuliana says, and says that smartly enough, at least. "Think about it -- we know that Zeonic remnants are putting pressure on the Earth Sphere, so it only makes sense to rehome someone from Londo Bell here to help us react with sufficient agility." It's a very reasonable explanation. It is also a lie.
"And you've chosen..." He turns back to his computer for a moment, types something into the terminal, and falls silent for a moment. "... a woman this close to the former Captain Lilith Aiden for this little project of yours? Captain, I hope I don't have to remind you that she tried to kill you just a week prior."
Yuliana sighs, a hand to her temple. "I know, I know! But don't you think that's an even better reason to keep a close eye on her? Besides, she's a close personal friend! She wasn't party to Aiden's assassination attempt in the slightest. Don't you think you'd have remembered a face like this if she were at the ceremony?" She pats Alma's head, in demonstration, still entirely too casual for the conversation.
"She is very distinctive," Pham allows, frowning. His severe, brown-eyed gaze falls on Alma, now. "And what do you have to say about this, Lieutenant?" He issues, sharply. "I understand you're without a unit after your former Captain's... shortsighted actions, but it's highly irregular for a member of special operations to requisition a soldier from outside our military." Taking on talented soldiers from within the rank and file of the REA, on the other hand, is a touch more common; it's a great way to move on from wave tactics into a part of the military with a higher survivability rate.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
Gifts! Yuliana gives Alma gifts, after how cruel it had been of Alma to suspect her, and Alma feels that curious mix of guilt and warmth. Or something like it, in any case. "I'd love to try them on!" she says, as she gets rid of her jacket -- much too hot for where they're going. (She treats it with care, though. After all, Dr. Kafim had loved it.)
She feels, strangely, just a little more stable as she puts them on. She'd felt a little weird before, but now it's just... comfortable. Like this was the way she was supposed to be, like things are changing for the better and not the worse.
She strides along just behind Yuliana -- then up to her side, letting herself be touched on the shoulder. A grin splits her face as she the Major in the eye, with those eyes that are just a little too green and a little too far away. She lets Yuliana do the talking, though; in the end, she's here to support Mrs. Kafim.
When she's finally addressed, though --
"Aah, you don't need to worry, Major! I know my circumstances are a little weird, but this isn't even the first time they've been weird! I know my ex-partner," THERE'S a statement, "caused a lot of trouble for you and the REA as a whole, and I'm really sorry about that. I want to help -- I feel responsible for what she's done. I know I'm already here on the Federation's sufferance, a bit! There aren't a lot of Zeon soldiers who make the effort to work outside of civil defense!"
Her head inclines slightly. She can tell the sort of person Pham is, and in truth, there's some genuine fondness in her for that kind of person. (She misses... ah, surely it can't be important.) "Isn't the Federation a lot bigger than one person...? If your operations are struggling because of someone I was connected with, it's better that I make that right than someone else."
She's lying through her teeth. She knows exactly what an REA Major would want to hear (the needs of the many), and knows what she actually wants (to be there for Yuliana, as she's supposed to -- as that gentle pressure on her head reminds her). If doing the former makes him happy, and gets him out of the way of her happiness (wait, which her --) then so much the better.
"Besides! I think autonomous forces get a little too much autonomy," she opines, all chipper. "After things like the Titans, we should be serving you, not standing apart."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Ah; she's grinning, too. The Captain has brought home like for like, Major Pham thinks, on sufferance.
And certainly, both he and Yuliana hear the statement of 'ex-partner'.
Alma gives him an awful lot of information for free, though; certainly he could have dug through her files to find all of it, but her honesty paints her as a certain kind of person, to him. That she wants to help does, too.
And, of course, she says all the right things to a patriot.
"Hmm..." He considers, folding his hands on his desk. "So you're also motivated to be here," and this much he can say is true, even if he'll need to look into the specifics; he's been at this for a long time. He looks from Alma to Yuliana, stern, and his gaze settles on the latter. "... all right. I'll humour this new... what do you call them, Captain? 'Dalliances'? You will, of course, be responsible for her."
"That's why I'm the Captain, sir," Yuliana responds, but a little of the humour saps from her own voice in the face of his judgement. She's almost appropriate as she goes on: "Thank you, sir. Shall I get situated?"
"You'd best," he replies, and Yuliana salutes.
"Sir."
She takes Alma out of Pham's office, and down the hall, towards the back half of the block. They pass an armory on the way. And, more importantly, a break room!
"He's pretty stern," Yuliana explains, on the way, "but don't worry, you won't be dealing with him much. Ah, and here's everyone!" She declares, as they reach the end of the hall --
The back offices are an open-room plan, with desks arranged about the place. A couple of them are unoccupied, but four distinctly are: there's one which has at least eight cute little figurines scattered between the hole-punch and the keyboard, one with a clearly customised keyboard and four monitors set up about the space, and one whose 'IN' box of paper files has a little line of paper teeth taped to the edge of it. A fourth desk has no lasting decoration to speak of, but there is a cardigan, on the back of its chair.
Tragically, that toothy inbox is also positively overflowing with paperwork at this point, because the desk along the back wall is Yuliana's desk. She keeps her space mixed in with everyone else's, but it's no coincidence that she can watch everyone, from where she's sitting.
At that many-monitored desk is a tall Indian man with an absolute mane of orange hair (it can't rightly be called red -- it's ORANGE); the particularly cute desk belongs to a Chinese woman with curly, short pink hair and unnaturally cybernetic red eyes. That desk which has given up on decoration belongs to a blunette currently dressed in a light purple suit, all brought together with a grey tie, clearly making an effort to make their appearance neutral.
"I'm back~!" Yuliana chirps, to them, brightly. "And I found a lost puppy that wandered in from Londo Bell! We'll be taking Lieutenant Alma Stirner on as an attache to deal with these problems we've been having."
Parminder Chaudhri raises a brow, and notes, without looking anything up: "Wow, you stole Aiden's girlfriend, huh?" His easy grin doesn't suggest he thinks that's a problem. "Talk about spiteful."
"Whaaat?!" Wen Yuan gasps, spinning around to gape at him, and then back at Alma. "Seriously?!"
"So you've brought in a walking security breach," Cascade Wattana notes, dour. "Great work, Captain," said with all the same tone as 'idiot'.
Yuliana leans back, a hand on her hip, and glances to Alma to see how she'll take it.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
Alma doesn't blink at saying the right things. It's easy, when you can sense something like the emotional tenor of a place. (That that's... not quite open to her, and yet not quite closed, even around Yuliana, now -- that doesn't register as strange. That there's something like warmth at her neck, at the sides of her head; that, too, is surely fine.)
"Thank you!" she says, with a delighted expression on her face, before going off, practically hanging off of Yuliana again. She's quite happy to get away from him successfully.
She follows along with her, ultimately coming to a stop with... what she supposes will be her new colleagues! She looks between the three of them, and lets them offer their comments on the situation between her and their Captain.
"Ah, I think it's ex-girlfriend," Alma says. "The going behind my back to try to kill one of my friends is kind of a lot..." There's a grimace, there. Is it sincere...? ... it's hard to tell. Taking a moment to fuss with her hair again -- it's so long since she's worn it up in any kind of sustained way -- she turns to Wen, agreeing, "Seriously! There was a lot going on, but... it was all over me, so it's kind of my responsibility."
(Those who knew her during the One Year War would recognize this as the backslide it is. But who is left to recognize Alma Stirner, in all her nuance?)
The sarcasm from Cascade gets a startled -- almost wounded -- look. Right, this is the young person who seemed so unhappy with... right. Right! It's at this point she jogs up to them, and without waiting, clasps her hands a little bit over Cascade's.
"You don't need to be like that!" she says, and she's just a little too enthused, a little too happy. "Listen -- I know autonomous corps have a bad rap... and I'm not exactly better, because I'm from Zeon on top of that. But like I just got done telling the Major -- autonomous corps should serve the blocs, not the other way around! I can help you. I know you've been struggling in this unit -- it was like that when we met, right? It's okay. You don't need to say anything." Alma smiles that mood-maker smile that became her hallmark as part of Noisy Fairy.
"Trust me."
She lingers just a little too long, just a little overfamiliar with Cascade, moving her hands from over Cascade's to putting an arm around them. "If the rest of you want to say anything, that's fine -- but I promise," she affirms, "I'm here for you."
And if her nails dig in just a little too hard at the shoulder, that, too, can be fine.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Ex, huh? Yeah, I get you. Sucks she turned out to be the worst kind of wedding crasher." Parminder shrugs, accepting it easily enough. He seems like a pretty laid-back kind of guy.
Wen winces, though, when she says it's her responsibility. "Ah, yeah... I get you, too," she follows on Parminder's statement, but it really seems like she's taking it a little more personally. "Of course, you're welcome to be here... the Captain's brought you in, and all. That's... what you want to do, too, right..?" She remembers Alma, from that one meeting; there's a good reason why she might be a little cautious, about it.
Cascade isn't nearly so delicate. Their purple eyes widen, when Alma claps her hands over theirs -- and then they narrow. "Listen to me," they hiss, voice lowered to a whisper. "This place is not a place of honour --"
Her nails dig into Cascade's shoulder, and they grimace, their own fingers tightening. "No," they insist, voice still very, very quiet. "You need to leave, don't you understand me? You're in danger!" Desperation raises their voice, a little, as they feel horror welling in their throat.
"I hope," Yuliana calls over, a hand resting loosely at her hip, "you're not already trying to undermine our attache, Canary. Don't mind them, dear," she asides, to Alma, "our officer cadet has always been a quarrelsome sort. Now!" She looks over to her team, "I'm sure you can all hear how genuine she is," is she, really?, "so I'm certain you'll try and get along with her."
"Aye, aye," Parminder waves a hand, before he spins around, to continue whatever work requires so many screens.
"Do you want some help finding a place to work?" Wen offers, kindly.
"Sure," Cascade grumbles, their voice a shade pained. "Just remember to mention we're killing our own people in the orientation."
And Yuliana could get out in front of that, but it's much funnier to see how Alma integrates it.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
"Huh? Why wouldn't I be doing exactly what I want to do?" Alma asks Wen. She is so singularly guileless, in that way -- those wide green eyes widening with a shock that's almost-but-not reproachful. "I'm happy to help."
When Cascade hisses at her, Alma's -- still surprised, but it's a different sort of surprise. She's being so nice -- trying to share in their feelings, and mirror something positive back! And to get that concern -- and so negative, toward Yuliana! This is what's allowed in the Nega Force?
Alma paces past Cascade as she acknowledges Yuliana, with a, "Oh, don't worry! Every unit has some growing pains, especially when you pick up new members or attaches!" she says. And there's something that happens, as she gets just a few more feet of separation between herself, Yuliana, and Cascade. A familiar feeling -- and not the warm light of Alma's heart, from their first meeting, at all.
It passes in an instant, as Alma's shaky orbit stabilizes around Yuliana again. She favors Parminder with a smile. "You're an agreeable kind of person! I like that -- I'm looking forward to making friends," she says to him.
Wen's question gets a nod. "Don't worry -- I'll make myself available however you need, so long as Yuliana's happy." A first name basis, it seems.
And then Cascade throws the real curveball... and Alma shrugs it off. "Even during the One Year War, I had to fight Zeon -- these things are more about the kind of person you want to be, right?" Fighting her fellow soldiers during the One Year War was because they were under duress from a Federation squad, of course, and she was too paralyzed to pull the trigger even with a gun pointed at her when she had to put someone down outside of a high-tension combat situation, of course.
But never mind all that.
Moving back to Yuliana and placing both hands on her shoulder, hanging off her like an insistently cute barnacle, she announces, "I'm happy to get to work!"
Looking between Parminder and Wen, she affirms, "Wherever you need me is fine! The Gwennangorn's already caused a lot of trouble. I bet you have something I can do on all those screens!"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Sure," Wen smiles, to her. "Welcome aboard, then!" She's not the sort of person who asks too many questions, but she does worry, sometimes.
Yuliana smiles to her, too. "Not to worry, Atase," the Indonesian word for attache, because Yuliana is nothing if not consistent with her crew. "I'm sure they'll fix their attitude any day now."
Cascade frowns, to Alma, and -- if they could communicate just how serious they are with a look -- they'd certainly want to try. But Alma has a strange hush about her heart which makes Cascade think of that one burger chain they stopped in at, during their last mission to Pendrago; they don't like it in the slightest.
(They don't think about a certain shadow of a woman they met, months ago, because they don't have to dwell on that at all.)
"Oh, I bet you are," Parminder laughs, to himself, as he types. "Hey, Wen, thanks for that."
"For what?" Wen asks, looking over.
"The trick to dealing with your kind of person," he answers, without looking up.
Cascade doesn't involve themself in their banter, though; they're still busy frowning at Alma. Trying to warn her. "What happened to you?" They issue, directly, and in their pain they forget to whisper quietly enough --
And, "That's quite enough, Kadet," Yuliana issues, firmly. "I understand why you might be feeling jealous... I'm sure someone like you can sense why Rusalka here is special. But if I wanted to replace you, I assure you you'd have been reassigned yesterday." There's something imbalanced, to the way she criticises them, compared to their own acid tongue -- or perhaps it's the sheer level of disdain in her voice when she addresses them.
Yuliana smiles, laying a hand over both of Alma's as she focuses back in on her, and she doesn't even have to feign her delight. "You're such a good girl," she praises her, with a veiled gaze. "Let's get you caught up, shall we..?"
She'll even help Alma personally familiarise herself with their systems and procedures.
That this helps distract her from her mountain of paperwork a little longer is surely inconsequential to her overflowing... kindness.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
Alma giggles back at Parminder, giving like for like. It's nice to have someone who's comfortable in himself around. She doesn't think about Wen overmuch, any longer. Cascade seems to be her primary concern, given how aggressive they are in caring for her.
"Ah?" Alma slips a hand away from Yuliana's, for a moment -- but it's only to scratch her cheek, clearly simply mystified. "Nothing! Nothing at all," says the woman whose world has not stopped spinning in over a week.
Perhaps nothing happened to her, though.
Yuliana suggests a task, and Alma seems quite pleased. "Ah, that'd be great!" And surely the attention she's about to receive is just a sign of how well things are about to go here.