2023-01-11: That I deny you from this mission, Rusalka, is a kindness
- Log: That I deny you from this mission, Rusalka, is a kindness
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Alma Stirner
- Where: Colombo, Sri Lanka
- Date: 2023-01-11
- Summary: Yuliana takes Parminder's JOSH-A assignment from him, and tasks the Nega Force with strict office work tomorrow. She doesn't go so far as to tell them what she has planned, but Alma's still concerned -- about her mission, the drugs she's taking, and what food she would like her to bake.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana was out, today. Day leave to go visit her wife. Major Pham has been remarkably generous about that, ever since Yuliana disappeared for a few days back in December.
She's returned to the office this afternoon, though -- not to worry, she has drugs for jet lag, too. (Yuliana has drugs for everything! So many drugs! ... so many drugs.) Wen and Cascade are out on a mission, because the Nega Force is independent enough that they don't all need to be working on the same thing.
Parminder is great company, though. Funny guy. He seems even more amused about Alma the last few days, but he hasn't said why. He's generous with his cooking, though, just like Alma! Today's cooking offering from him is laksa, which tastes way better than the muffins he brought in a couple of days ago.
Old mate can't bake for shit, but his meals are fine.
Yuliana, of course, bursts into the room the way she always does: bull, china shop. "Letda," she wheels on Parminder, immediately, "you're on the JOSH-A taskforce, aren't you?"
"Huh? That thing? Yeah, that's why I'm tied up tomorrow," Parminder shrugs, turning from what he was typing up. "Don't reckon we'll pick up anything useful after all this time, but hey -- it's a hobby."
"I'm cutting your ropes," she issues, as she swans over to sit at her desk. "I'm going, instead."
"Uh... you know this is a bunch of boring nerd shit, right," Parminder frowns, in mild confusion, as he scratches at an ear. (He first has to find his ear within his mane of orange hair. It's in there somewhere. Someone had to find it to pierce it, once upon a time.)
"HUA," Yuliana responds, absently, as she enters her own password. (Heard, understood, acknowledged.) "You're on desk duty tomorrow."
"Permission to speak freely, ma'am?" Parminder issues, which must mean he's about to say something outrageous, because he scarcely minds his tongue as it is.
Yuliana, who has never failed to walk directly into a rake, answers without looking up: "Go ahead."
"Did your wife fuck you stupid," Parminder points to her, "or did you just walk into a pole on your way back?"
Yuliana stops entering her terminal to swing her chair around and issue Parminder with an extremely unimpressed expression. "You have ten seconds to elaborate, soldier."
Parminder shrugs, leaning back in his chair and glancing aside as he scratches at his scruffy chin. "I'm just saying, it's weird you're being so pushy about going on a milk run which you'd make someone else go on any other day of the week. The only way this could matter less is if we were literally being sent after a snipe!" He looks over to Alma, and drags her into it: "Come on, help me out here..!"
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
Oh, the meals are excellent. Alma has always been the one to activate on food, and while she's more used to sweets than this sort of heavy food -- this is really good too. She's digging in in earnest -- enough that when Yuliana busts in, Alma's got an enormous mouthful of food and has to look up. "Huh?" she starts, but it's really more like, "Hrouwf?"
Letting Yuliana and Parminder talk, she sees Yuliana is pulling rank on going on a mission -- alone, from the sound of it. Alma has never minded this kind of thing, except insofar as she worries about Yuliana. The back and forth makes her withdraw -- at first. It's never clear what's just friendly ribbing and what's a serious transgression in this unit -- at least until Parminder goes straight to the worst option. Alma calmly finishes her current bite of food, fixing Parminder with a stare -- and then he asks her for help.
"Huh? Oh, you know, I'm new to the unit, but," she starts -- and she's all smiles about it! She must just have needed a second. "Your captain is always making the best decisions for the unit. I got bounced around between Fairy Leader and Fairy 2 a lot, and it taught me a lot! I was a way better leader after I spent some time following. This isn't quite the same thing, but you really don't think you know better than your superior officer."
It's a statement, not a question, because if it were a question, why, she'd have reason to be upset!
"I think ten seconds was actually really generous!" she enthuses. "I would have given you one, 'cuz 'Never mind' is pretty quick! But I guess you are pretty chatty."
Back to eating.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Parminder looks at Alma in silence for a second.
And then he bursts out laughing.
"Hahaha... holy shit, for real..!!" He exclaims, slapping a knee. "Hahaha...! Okay, okay! I get it, I got it! Whatever you're up to, you go ahead!"
Yuliana sighs, a finger to her temple. "What am I going to do with you, Letda," she mutters, but in the same resigned way one scolds a puppy for chewing up its sixth pair of sneakers.
"Well," she huffs, shifting her gaze to Alma. "I'm sure you won't complain about staying in tomorrow, will you, Atase?" She's calling her their attache -- in Indonesian. "You've always been so good about getting everything filed." She doesn't even scold her for eating in the main office! Well, not that Yuliana doesn't do that all the time anyway. But rules for thee, and all.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
Alma looks to Yuliana. Then back to Parminder. Then to Yuliana again. Her eyes open wide for a moment, and she blinks with total guilelessness.
"... Is this a joke? I feel like there's something I'm not in on here," she remarks, and she really does seem pretty good-natured about it. Whatever it is is clearly funny to them, or at least tolerated, which means it's fine.
Rubbing at the back of her head, she says, "I can't say it's what I expected out of this role, but I don't mind it at all!" with a big smile. "To tell you the truth, I think this kind of work is great for me! I love journaling, and this is pretty much the same thing!" ... She does need to finally put pen to paper about the Nega Force, come to think. It's about that time in the assignment...
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Lieutenant Chaudhri is clinically incapable of not making a joke," Yuliana observes, dryly. "Frankly, it's terrible for my image, given how much effort I put into being the irresponsibly casual one."
"So what you're saying," Parminder grins, "is I make you look good."
"I'm quite sure I never said that," Yuliana says.
(They're just like this.)
"But I'm so glad you're such a diligent worker," Yuliana smiles, to Alma, and -- she's been nicer, the past couple of days, which may or may not logically line up with how much more amused Parminder's seemed. Well, 'nicer', anyway. 'Less openly cruel and hazardous'.
"Anyway," she jerks a thumb at Alma's snacks, but she's talking to Parminder, "you did save me some of that, didn't you?"
"Sure, sure, it's in the fridge," Parminder gestures off that way.
"Good," Yuliana says, and gives up on accessing her terminal to go access some snacks instead. The break room is just down the hall a bit, and it has all the amenities a group of hungry assassins need to keep working late into the night.
Speaking of which: it's a bit past 2pm, which means that Yuliana's due for her middle dose of the medications she has to take three times a day.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
Alma -- still irresponsibly eating in the main office! -- agrees, "He does do that," at the idea of Parminder making Yuliana look good. "And thanks! Really, the last little while, I was starting to feel like I wasn't doing enough for you..." ... because of the whole, 'had to tie you up' thing, though she isn't saying that, "so to hear that from you... haaah, it means a lot, Captain!"
Yuliana leaves, and Alma turns to Parminder...
... except her PDA buzzes in her pocket. She pulls out her phone and -- oh, 2:10pm?
"Excuse me!" she says, standing up. "I need to catch up with the captain -- and if she's about to eat, it's..."
She sprints after the Captain, and it's a ridiculous anime girl sprint, a bit; fortunately, she's quite fit, so this isn't too bad. "Haaa -- Captain...!" she calls. "It's time for your midday meds! I think the food should be fine for them..." Food-drug interactions are important to monitor! "Everything's okay, right? I still don't really get the joke..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana smiles, to Alma. "Oh, no, you're very useful," she assures her, which is surely assuring.
She doesn't linger on her discomfort long, though.
Parminder can be seen snickering to himself, in the background, as Alma anime-girl-sprints off. He's fine? He's probably fine. Don't worry about it.
Meanwhile: Alma catches Yuliana as she's opening the fridge. "Hoh?" She asks, as she reaches for a tub of delicious, homemade laksa. (She would eat Cascade's lunch, except Cascade is out, so they haven't put lunch in here today.) A moment later: "Oh!" As she shuts the fridge -- it needs to be slammed a little on account of getting slammed a lot in the past, by a certain teal-haired Captain no one here would possibly dare to name -- and turns to pop it in the microwave instead. "Right, right... yeah, they're fine with this. I know how Letda makes this stuff." Obviously, she's had it before.
Beep, beep, BROOP, the microwave starts spinning. The REA fashioned all their offices with 800kWh microwaves because the excesses of capitalism have blinded the rest of the world, which, of course, means more waiting. Yuliana leans on the counter, folding her arms, loosely, head canting to one side.
"Don't worry about it," she says, casually. "Letda's got a bad sense of humour, but he's a talented guy. I'm not going to expect a scorpion not to sting." A grin tugs up her lips, eyes veiling, just so. "Really, that's excellent life advice in general, Rusalka."
No one said she was suddenly going to become a nice person.
She sighs, though, fingers drumming on her arms. "And... everything's fine," she settles on, after a moment. "But I don't want you involved in events tomorrow. Trust me when I say you'd rather stay in the office." Her gaze tracks to the window, and she wonders, silently, if that's really going to save any of them.
Then again, once Her hunger is sated, it's up to the world to be ready for those gifts... or not.
(Of course, she forgot to actually take her meds in between answering Alma and prepping her mid-afternoon snack.)
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
Alma nods to Yuliana, agreeing, "It sounds like it! Sometimes the sort of thing you want to do is just... part of who you are," and again it's totally guileless, totally coming from a sense that she's just hearing Yuliana say something that will help her later. It's the sort of management she expects from a unit captain.
It's hard to miss Yuliana's shift in stance, though -- the preference that she stay inside the office comes with a noticeable downtick in enthusiasm, but...
... it's not really her place to question why Yuliana's asking what she is, is it? It's better if she thinks no disloyal thought and simply nods along. Besides -- she has more important things to worry about.
"I really like holding down the fort with the rest of the team. It's not Tir na nOg, but that's kind of the best part?" She glances at the microwave, and thinks about what she's trying to say. "When I was younger, I started journaling because it felt like every day had something new. For a little while I lost track of it because it felt like things were slowing down, but..." Here, she's got a big smile. "I don't feel that way at all here! The REA is a lot like what I'm used to, but the ways it's different are really good to see, too..."
She opens her mouth to say something else, maybe finding her nerve to loop back to questioning Yuliana about why she wants in on this operation --
"Ah, Captain! You still haven't taken them..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"It is," Yuliana agrees, reinforces, and doesn't consider the future consequences of at all.
Rakes. Steppin' on them. Constantly!
Yuliana tilts her head, though, raising her brow. "Journaling? I've never really thought much about it," Yuliana doesn't enjoy writing, all told, "but I suppose I can see how you'd enjoy such a thing."
The microwave is still microwaving. These things are s l o w.
"I'm so happy to hear you've been settling in well," which isn't exactly what Alma said, but never mind that, Yuliana sounds happy about it. "The Republic..." has a lot to offer, is the standard propaganda line she meant to feed her, except Yuliana starts to speak and finds her heart just isn't in it. "... well, I'm sure it must feel familiar," she settles on, and it's not directly negative.
Directly.
She blinks though, as Alma brings up her afternoon meds. "Oh," she says, and reaches into her pocket, to pull out a pill bottle. And then another one. And another one! She checks the labels, slaps them into her hand, and swallows far too many pills dry. Gulp.
They go into a different pocket than the meds she takes to calm herself down in the moment. She learned THAT lesson years ago.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
"You should give it a try, Yulie!" Alma enthuses -- and it's Yulie, now that it's mostly just the two of them. Even if other people aren't that far away.
"It does definitely feel familiar, though... I really like to go to the hangars and see the Tierens, sometimes. It's really obvious how they updated from the Anf with lessons learned from the Zaku, to get there -- it makes me feel... like Earthnoids and spacenoids aren't that different. A good idea's just a good idea, no matter what... isn't it?"
She watches Yuliana dry-swallow so many pills -- enough that it makes her blanch. "Oh -- that reminds me," she says, when that's done. "I... your pain pills are a little much for me. I'm not ungrateful for what your wife prescribed, but it really knocks me out... you're in a lot of pain, day to day, aren't you?"
Alma sounds sad to think about that. "... There should be more I can do for you," she murmurs.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana does model using nicknames in various contexts. Elya, Elisa, Dr. Kafim...
She frowns, when Alma talks about Earthnoids and spacenoids not being so different -- there's a league of difference between them! -- but she sighs, and shrugs. "That much is true," she allows, of the universality of good ideas.
Yuliana's idea of trying to be gentler to a Newtype is not taking every single attack vector she sees as obviously as she could. Anyway.
"Tch... too much for you? Then don't take it!" All that said, she still snaps about that, but -- well, it's an exposed nerve. She scowls, fingers brushing her pockets. All those bottles...
She doesn't like taking them around other people.
They wouldn't understand.
Yuliana grasps at her opposite arm with her hand, scowling at a roughly kettle-shaped dent in the wall. (They still haven't plastered it properly.) She's not... really around other people, right now, she assures herself. Alma was prepared for her. It's fine. "... it hurts," she murmurs, more quietly. "Sometimes my head just starts pounding, and I can see the sounds rattling about... it's nauseating. Sometimes it's a sharp, pulsing pain... sometimes it's like something is trying to bore its way out of my skull from the inside. And my back's always killing me... but they can't fix it. They put it inside me. The drugs always stop working, in the end, so they just up the dosage... and give me more drugs on top of it, so those ones don't stop me..."
Did you hear the one about the woman who swallowed a spider to catch a fly?
Yuliana's pretty far along in that poem by now.
Beep! Beep! BEEP! Yells the microwave, at the very worst moment, and Yuliana can be seen to subtly but visibly startle at the intrusion. She turns to retrieve her laksa without drawing attention to it, and goes to sit at the table to eat. "Well... Letda's a pretty good cook, anyway," she says, snapping some chopsticks.
"Wretched baker, though."
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
"I -- I'm mostly fine now. Just a little bruising, that's all..." Alma starts, recoiling a little from Yuliana as she's told not to take it if she can't handle it. She does listen, though, when she starts talking about the pain.
"That's really horrible... they should have treated you better." Alma looks genuinely torn up -- her lips part just slightly, and she turns away, bringing a hand to her mouth.
... there's nothing she can really do for Yuliana, though. Everything about Yuliana is a fact of life, like the sun rising. The food talk is easier, at least. "I think I'll have a talk with him about handling cooking duties soon, then. I really want to get back to baking a little more -- and not just dessert stuff! Bread, pizza... I don't really know much local food but I'd be excited to learn about that, too!"
Thinking on that, actually -- "If you're going on that mission alone, is there anything you'd want when you get back? I can take a crack at it for you, Yulie!"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Yes," Yuliana chokes out, when Alma reaches such a torn-up conclusion, but it's a word she has to force through her throat.
They should... have treated her better.
She does not at all see the irony, between the monster the REA is creating and the woman she's snapping at now. She does not care to see; she hates the mirror.
Parminder, at least, is a safer subject. "There's quite a lot to learn about baked goods around here," Yuliana smiles, to her. "Butter cake is particularly popular -- or you could try roast paan, flatbread, if you'd like something more savory. Hepala is a coconut dish steamed on kanda leaves, and papadam is a dough dish which can be made from anything from flour to lentils to rice..."
As it happens, Yuliana is actually a wellspring of food facts. Oh, she's not a chef or anything. She just loves eating food! From all over the world! She's eaten just about everything once. (Though, she does tend to avoid things with pork most of the time. That's just how she grew up.)
She smiles, to Alma, and reflects that it really is charming. "If such a thing is possible," she allows, given the state the world will be in when she returns, "I'd be delighted to see your take on surul appam. It's a folded omelette with a green colour from the leaves it's cooked with -- we have it back home, too, but we call it dadar gulung. It's very sweet... I'm quite fond of it, really."
She takes a bite of the laksa, and considers, for a moment.
"... if you're still hurting, just go to the pharmacy. They sell pain medication over the counter which isn't nearly as strong as what I take." She's being too generous, Yuliana thinks, but if Alma can't think for herself to the point that something like this is too much for her...
Well, at this point, she's honouring Elisa's agreement too. She's honouring Elisa's agreement, so she's not doing anything inexplicable.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
"Surul appam. Got it." Alma nods once, firmly -- and then she agrees, "I'll make something from home, too! Maybe one of the dishes I learned from one of the old guys at the Zeon VFW..." Alma doesn't remember everything about that period in her life fondly -- but she does remember that fondly.
That's why it's important to write these things down -- so the good memories don't get swallowed up by the bad ones... right?
The advice on the pharmacy gets a nod from her. "It's really not that big a deal, but I'll see if there's something about right... I guess I did leave my ibuprofen back on the Gwennangorn. Thanks for the tip!"
... she decides to go do just that, then, with a final, "I hope your mission goes well!" as she skips off to do precisely that.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"I'll try anything once," Yuliana supposes. Even if it's from space.
The rat burgers really weren't that bad, objectively speaking. It was real rat!
"It will," Yuliana assures Alma, as she leaves. Once she's gone, Yuliana is left with her laksa and her secrets.
She wonders, watching the door, whether she's made the wisest decision. Alma would have -- must have -- defended her, from the Federation seeking to stifle their aims. She throws aside a valuable shield, in telling Alma to stay home.
But Elisa assured Leina that Alma would not be killed, when she advised Yuliana to avoid it, and Yuliana will not make a liar of her wife.
... besides, Alma has been loyal enough.
And she already has certain gifts, from reality.
Yes... here, Yuliana assures herself, Alma will be safe enough when the truth is unveiled.
She has ensured her people will not be at the breaching point, when She tears through.
She's their Captain, so she should do that much.