2023-01-11: She watches me
- Log: She watches me
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Elisa Kafim
- Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- Date: 2023-01-11
- Summary: Yuliana offers fuel for Elisa's kaiju, and Elisa reveals how close the next one is to manifesting. The Kafims reflect on their failure at Frontier, and decide that their next attempt to rend the veil of the world will be at JOSH-A -- a battle which almost killed Yuliana. And Yuliana betrays the Federation's movements, sure that She will require sacrifice. It's not a revelation she can come back from, but she'd offer Elisa anything, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
The Silent Castle, at the northmost island of the world, stands in the darkness of polar night. The servants attend it, inside, without complaint. And in one of those cloistered rooms of stone --
There are no windows, in this room; no place for the soul to escape. Steps lead to a lifted dais, surrounded by lit candles which barely reveal deep red markings on the stone around it. They show more of the crystal ball enshrined on an altar, in the middle of the room; the green stone shines with a dozen unfathomable shades. A broad and generous green-upholstered throne is tucked in by it, all the better to scry its depths.
Yuliana steps up to the altar, with familiar motions. She is dressed warmly, but her neck is bare, and the crystal necklace which hangs there unhidden. She places her hand upon the crystal orb, and a shudder rolls through her body, eyes flickering closed, as she feels the magic reach out to grasp her. That she's done it before -- that she's used to it -- makes it no less powerful.
But she's here because she wants to be here.
"I offer you all that I am," she incants, opening herself, "warding Lock and turning Key. I am the Gate, offered freely, and without reservation." And indeed she holds nothing back, as that dark magic weaves through her life, her beliefs, her experience.
Her eyes open, gazing upon those colours out of space, and her own eyes shine with a strange and awful light. "Know me," she bids it, "as I know the Void."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
The Silent Castle is not so silent, in the moment, because Yuliana Kafim is there. So is Elisa... but Elisa does not break the silence so often as her wife. Now, however, she steps in quiet through the halls, towards the room where she senses the crystal in use. Of course, it's not as if she's surprised; Yuliana tells her her movements. Still, she feels that it is active now...
"I do," Elisa answers Yuliana softly.
Then she steps up, forward, ready to catch Yuliana when she is done. After all, it can be a tiring process.
Elisa is dressed in black, a black floor-length dress and a black cloak. And her arms are open, as she approaches.
"You are hard at work..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yes. There is no one who knows Yuliana better than her dearest wife. Whether she hears her, as she allows the crystal to mirror her existence, is another matter entirely.
With a rasping gasp, her hand pulls back from the crystal, strands of darkness flecking out from its innards to her palm. Something in her brain skips a beat as the connection breaks, and her eyes flutter again, as she swoons back from the altar.
"Oh," Yuliana sighs, as she slips -- but she needn't worry. Elisa saves her, as she always does. She is captured. She is safe from harm.
There's a hunger in her eyes as she comes back to herself, joined with the loving gaze she always has, for Elisa. "Yes." She murmurs, gaze lidding. "... I'm all right," Yuliana thinks to assure her, a shade breathlessly, reaching up with a hand to brush her wife's cheek. "Just a little dizzy..." She always is, after these offerings.
Yuliana gets her feet back under herself, steadying herself with her hands at Elisa's shoulders as she lifts herself up onto her toes, considering the height of Elisa's heels. Her lips part; her invitation is clear. Her head tilts, accommodatingly, as she kisses her -- offering upon offering -- and when she lowers herself back down, she gazes gentled to her. "Perhaps I ought to trip more often," Yuliana purrs, cheeks flush with affection. Newlyweds..!
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
It's hard to hear when one is so focused! But Yuliana does not have to hear, because Elisa is there.
Elisa catches Yuliana like she is a feather, but holds her like she is gold. Gently, so as not to bend or break, and carefully, for she is precious. Yuliana assures her, and Elisa smiles at her, until Yuliana makes that invitation. Elisa kisses Yuliana in turn, and it is a long moment wherein little else is important. Yuliana reflects, and...
"Oh no," Elisa says. "While I would always catch you... I do not wish you to risk yourself just for that!"
She picks Yuliana up, princess-carry, and strides from the room, towards a nearby more comfortable lounge where she can set her down on the couch.
"Yes. You need only ask, if you wish. Here..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
She is so, so precious, held in Elisa's arms. There is no question of Yuliana's value, of her importance, held safely here.
Yuliana laughs, light and charming, as Elisa insists. "Ah!" She gasps, and rests her head greedily on Elisa's shoulder as her arm wraps loosely about her neck. "Haha... oh, Elya..!" She is delighted to be picked up and taken away.
(By Elisa, anyway. But then, it's only Elisa who could do it so effortlessly.)
She reaches up to tug Elisa down, just the same, and it's clear she'll be nestling beside her. "I always want to be close to you," Yuliana sighs, happily. "I can feel your heart beating..." Given how grievously she's been blinded, is it any wonder she values physical contact so highly?
Wanting to feel anything at all.
"It's been a while," she muses, at a pleasant murmur, "so I thought I should attend to it again... you're always so creative, so I'm glad to help you with your clever little creatures." She smiles, warm, and adds: "You've set up such nice rooms for your habits, darling."
Yuliana, evidently, isn't bothered by the blood eternally etched into the walls.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
No question at all.
It is effortless; Elisa could carry Yuliana forever, it would seem. But she doesn't, this time; she sets her down, and then tumbles in with her, at Yuliana's happy sigh. She smiles back. "Ah, yes..." Her heart. She remembers it, sometimes. The way it seems to exist independent of Yuliana even though that is surely untrue. "It beats for you."
But it's been a while. Yes, that is true...
"I appreciate it," Elisa says. "The next will manifest soon. It is nearly prepared, in the space beyond space."
Nice rooms...
"It is so good to have a dedicated space, now, instead of having to improvise."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana tucks herself in, arm curling about Elisa's chest, and her eyes lid with fell affection. "Yes," she breathes, squeezing Elisa in a one-armed embrace. "Mine."
Her other hand curls into the fabric of Elisa's expansive dress, trapped between the two of them, and perhaps it is a comment on their grasps. She smiles up to Elisa, cheek resting at her shoulder, as she speaks of the manifestation. "Good," she says, voice still low.
"You found such brilliant solutions for your impermanence," Yuliana says, praising her wife in her gaze and her tone, "but we are here, now. You'll have everything you need..."
Except, of course, for Yuliana, who keeps leaving for her work. She does visit frequently these days, of course -- particularly recently, Major Pham has been remarkably lenient about her leave requests -- but she doesn't live here.
Not yet, anyway.
"But the next one..." Yuliana tilts her head, as concern slips momentarily into her gaze. "Macross failed us, Elya. How shall we tear the veil?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Yes..."
Elisa smiles again, at that low voice. At the praise from her wife. But she considers. "Nearly everything," she agrees. After all, she is thinking the same. Yuliana keeps leaving! It is truly terrible. But of course, she treasures her work so, and that is important...
"They allowed me to best determine what I needed here," she says. And then--
"We shall not rely on their outdated Fold engines," Elisa decides. "That was our mistake before. We shall use... the energy at JOSH-A. The residue, the wound in the world set by that terrible weapon, by Britannia's perfidy... It will serve us well. It will provide the stage, for there, She stirred seeing the danger you were in."
"The veil is thin there, now. There shall we tear it."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
It's on Yuliana's mind, certainly.
But she can't just leave the Republic.
Elisa speaks of wounds in the world, and her world-wound hums interest through her lips, as her fingers idly brush down the black fabric on her wife's arm. "... yes," Yuliana reflects, consideration in her eyes. "She was... deeply angered by what almost happened to me, in that place. The resonance... do you think it will work?"
She's quiet, for a moment -- thoughtful. Give her a shred of credit: she hesitates.
But not for long.
"The Federation will send people there, tomorrow, to investigate the site," and they're military secrets, of course, but Yuliana's long past caring. And it might sound like she's warning Elisa when to avoid the explosion site -- except --
"She hungers so terribly..."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
She can't! ...Can she?
Her personal wound in the world is interested. Of course. But Elisa answers, "I do. I believe it can work. All is in readiness. Her anger will be met."
Of course Yuliana hesitates. She is such a kind, thoughtful woman. Elisa knows this, and loves her.
"Then tomorrow will be perfect," Elisa says. "She hungers. She will be watching..."
It is not a warning to Elisa, after all.
"Yes. It will work."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Elisa believes; Elisa calls the timing perfect; Elisa says it will work.
Elisa is so certain, and Yuliana sighs, sinking into her.
"We must not fail," she insists, and closes her eyes against the concern. "They will... know me, now, with no excuse to blind them." Their assault of Frontier had a veneer of deniability about it -- but the only people at JOSH-A tomorrow will be soldiers and their attaches.
But she can't leave Elisa to do this alone. She is lock, key, and gate, all superimposed, all together. The way cannot open without her.
(Cannot close, without her.)
Her fingers curl, "I will do this for you, boyevaya podruga. For us... for our future." In a way, it is frightening; change always is. But Elisa is so certain.
"I trust you... so, by my power... open the way, Elya."