2023-02-24: !don't say we walk separate paths, captaiN
- Cutscene: !don't say we walk separate paths, captaiN
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim and her once-Lieutenant Wen Yuan
- Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- Date: 2023-02-24
- Summary: Yuliana and Wen take a break together, and get to talking. They rehash old arguments, and start some new ones, but they end up knowing each other better than they did before. Even though Yuliana offers to help Wen start a new life far from her ambitions, Wen isn't going to give up on Yuliana that easily.
The mistresses of the Silent Castle are frequently together. Yuliana is undergoing treatment to address the indoctrination the REA put her through, years of mental pressure both overt and covert to ensure her fiercest loyalty. Even if she wasn't undergoing that process of recovery, the gentle and exalted ladies of this domain are infamously difficult to separate. They are madly, truly in love... and the Castle's residents know better than to interrupt.
There are still times, even so, that they are apart. There is much Elisa still sees to, during Yuliana's convalescence. She is grateful to her for her hard work, of course, though she always misses her terribly.
Luckily, as it happens, she's not the only one recovering... though the once-Lieutenant Wen Yuan, perhaps thankfully, isn't being treated by Elisa herself. Parminder Chaudhri -- also a Lieutenant, once, second rather than first rank like Wen -- has taken on the challenge.
He is also, mysteriously, missing. Yuliana knows Elisa addresses him on this subject, at times, so perhaps she's speaking to him again... or perhaps he's just gotten into trouble.
Again.
He's really quite lucky she's fond of him.
Wen and Yuliana are together, at least, taking tea in one of the comfortable south wing sitting rooms. Yuliana's hair is beginning to regrow, thanks to Elisa's medicines; by now, at least, it's difficult to see the surgical scars. They both enjoy green tea, though Yuliana is fond of adding ginger, while Wen doesn't bother with extra flavour.
"... but the lamp is definitely helping, Captain," Wen assures Yuliana, some prior arrangement or another. "Though I wonder what it will be like when the sun never sets, instead..."
Yuliana drums her fingertips on the side of her teacup, and puts it to one side, so she can push herself up. "You know," she sighs, walking to one of those fortified windows with no view but the drab polar grey dawn, "I'm your Captain no longer, Wen. No, perhaps I never was..." Her hands settle on the windowsill, as those snakelike appendages from her spine fan out behind her. (Her top artfully exposes her back, to prevent any struggle.) "It was all a fabrication -- just a means to position me for the kill. I had no real power. I was simply allowed to play at Captaincy... since it suited the Republic." Her lips curl up with her derision, revealing that sharp fang to the right of her jaw. She has one too many teeth.
"I don't care about that!" Wen exclaims, putting her own cup aside. When she pushes herself up, she's shorter than Yuliana, though she has more hair with greater volume. It's very pink. "Okay, sure, yeah, sometimes I really had to babysit you out there, you know?" Yuliana turns to glare at her, halfway to snapping, but Wen puts her hands on her hips. "We both know it's true, and we both knew how weird it was. But the Major kept trying to transfer me out for my own command, and you know what? I never went! Because, you -- you're special, Captain! Being around you... I don't know, I guess I felt special, too." Her hands lift to grasp her upper arms; one of those gestures of insecurity they were taught to make so deliberate. "Like maybe this all meant something more than some stupid grunt's revenge killing... look, it's stupid, and I guess I was selfish, but..."
Yuliana frowns, looking back to the window. She takes a breath to calm herself. "... no," she cuts in, quietly. "It's clearly important to you... Lettu. Don't put yourself down so easily. The Republic is blind, but that doesn't mean you were wrong. This does mean something more. You're welcome to stay and bear witness, if you like." She takes another breath, long, and hopes Wen cannot hear it trembling. "Or you can leave once you're well. I'll have our accountant set you up with a new bank, since our assets have been seized... new papers as well, of course. I can promise you nothing, out there... they're hunting us on multiple fronts. But I don't have to give you nothing, either. Call it my duty as Captain, if you like."
It's a choice between two options, and Wen doesn't appreciate the nuance, but she understands enough. "I don't want to leave," she insists, stepping up to the grey dawn of the window. The light of the fireplace still overwhelms anything outside... for now. "You really -- need a friend, did you know that, Captain? Since you were such a loner, the only people you spoke your mind to were the team... oh, don't deny it," she all but huffs, seeing the look on Yuliana's face as she turns to her. "We were together for almost three years, and until you started dating, you never once called out sick to go shopping, or hang out, or..."
"That's none of your business," Yuliana scowls over her self-consciousness.
"See? Look! You're doing it again! Don't you think it's my business, now I can't even go home again?!" Wen folds her arms, a frown over her own features. "... it's not all about you, you know."
"I've already extended you consideration--" Yuliana starts in frustration, before she cuts herself off, running a hand over the boneless frills behind her ears. "No... no, you're not entirely wrong. It's true you've also been hurt by this. ... by your association with me. I just..." Her hand stills, by the side of her head, and she glances sidelong to the violet bracelet at her wrist. Her eyelids lower with new melancholy, soft and understated. "I told you before... I'm venomous. I use people up... I'm a demanding women. Most people can't withstand that... since I valued your work, and Letda's, I didn't wish to get too close to you. It's better if..."
It's Wen who cuts Yuliana off, now. "If no one gets close to you, is that it?! But you changed when you started dating! You were happier! And I'm telling you, you'd be even happier if you trusted more people instead of just playing games and being all haughty, too! Don't you ever want to -- to even try to rely on someone?!"
"Of course I do!" Yuliana snaps, and finds the question more threatening than she'd like. "You have no idea how miserably lonely this all is! No idea what it's like!"
"I would if you'd just tell me!" Wen yells, in turn. "That's what we do when we don't have weird psychic brains, we talk! With our human mouths! You still have one of those, right?" Wen points at Yuliana's dangerous grimace, fearlessly. "And I'm telling you with my words that I'm not giving up on you just because you think you're sooo toxic or whatever! Didn't you just tell me not to put myself down so easily?!"
"You're misremembering the context," Yuliana mutters, clearly wounded.
"If you're going to gaslight me, Captain," Wen's hand settles on her hip, "I'd like you to try a little harder than that." They're both familiar with psychological methods, after all.
"Tch... I'm saying it was a low blow. Calling me psychic... they pit me against them, you know?" Yuliana scowls, tightening in around herself, her own arms folding tightly. "Because I'm not! I -- I can't be, that was the whole design..."
"I guess... I thought being a Cyber-Newtype was different even if they made you weird," and Wen is quite fearless, but she's not without care, either.
"I'm not," Yuliana insists, hissing through one too many teeth. "I... I mean... yes, that's what they set out to make from my tattered shell, but... I'm different," she says, a desperate thread to the screws which tighten and fix her thinking in place.
"You're special," Wen sighs, leaning against the windowsill. "You had to believe that, too... no," she shakes her head, correcting herself, "the stakes must have been even higher for you. But I'm saying I kind of get it, anyway. Yeah?"
"... yeah," Yuliana cedes, quietly, looking away. She wins.
"It wasn't the nicest way to make my point," Wen admits, gentler. "But... I do kinda know what it's like. And -- and you know what it's like, Captain," she says, with a shade more vulnerability. "You know, I... I love socialising, but... when people found out about my job, they were always so mad. They said it was different when we were killing them personally... I'd get called secret police, or an assassin... my boyfriend even left me."
"That... sucks," Yuliana supposes, in the way of a soldier instead of a visionary, all awkwardly hitched in the middle.
"Sure does," Wen says. "I had a lot of friends, but no one who really got it... I'm a nice person, you know? It was just my job!" That momentary frustration with everyone's ethical qualms has Yuliana nodding in clear sympathy, humming along with her point. They both think they're not the problem. "I guess I kind of felt like a fraud... but at least you guys knew what it was like. That's why I always wanted us to rely on each other more..."
"A thing I made quite difficult," Yuliana concludes, fingers drumming on her arm. "And which I have made even more so, now you're here. I know there are... few who appreciate our vision, as yet."
"And now you're talking like you're gonna start a cult," Wen sighs, clearly exasperated.
"Maybe so," Yuliana agrees, mildly. "Is that a problem, Lettu?"
"I...!" Wen sighs, again, sinking her weight into the wall. "... I don't know. But if I leave, you'll do all this anyway, won't you?"
Yuliana shrugs, humming through her lips. "... I will. But it doesn't have to involve you. You can... go. Make as many friends as you like, now you're not military. Get a waitressing job somewhere chic... you'll meet plenty of people. And as for what happened, you needn't even speak of it. Throw a rock in Dubai, and you'll hit an ex-soldier with a painful past... it won't arouse suspicion." She's melancholy, as she looks away. "Go! Be happy!"
"I wouldn't be happy if I just left you here, Captain," Wen says, firm. "Why -- why are you so afraid of trusting me?"
"I can't rely on anyone," Yuliana's voice at a whisper, now. Tears dampen her teal lashes, but she has enough self-control not to let them flow so freely. "It even took me so long to... really trust my Elisa, though she's always been good to me... I am afraid, Lettu. People don't understand me, and I don't understand them, either... everyone's so fake, but I'm the one who keeps having to act... even though he was my superior officer, the Major really hated me. When I begged him to help me, he slapped me... I just kept thinking, I should have known. I should have known..."
She's been that person to at least three people, after all, with just that shade of betrayal. The way the world works --
"That's horrible," Wen says, a different character to her firmness as she interrupts that traumatic logic. She's lost for words, for a moment, before she reaches out a hesitant hand "... do you... want a hug?"
"..." Yuliana elides, lips parting, before she nods. Wen spreads her arms, and Yuliana collapses into them, wrapping her own arms tightly about her chest. So too do those strange snakelike tendrils curl about her midsection, and Wen chuffs out a chuckle, as she rubs her back.
"Those weird-ass things had better not bite me," she says, with clear humour.
"So don't be annoying, then," Yuliana mumbles, into her shoulder, all muddled by tears.
"I'm never annoying," Wen insists, and quiets, for a moment, holding her still. She hates feeling how hard Yuliana's heart is hammering in her chest, that sign of her distress she can't quite paint over. She breathes slow and even, and Yuliana isn't so far gone not to mirror her, eventually.
Eventually, Wen pulls back, hands to Yuliana's shoulders, though her strange red eyes are still gentle. "It's okay," she tells her. "We got out. We're safe now. Your wife does kind of freak me out, but -- but she really does love you, Captain," she insists, before Yuliana can get angry again. "Dr. Kafim would never let anyone from the Republic come here and hurt you. It's really... not life or death any more, you know?"
Yuliana frowns, confused. "I don't know in the slightest," she snaps, after a moment, to cover up her bafflement. "Explain yourself clearly, Lettu."
Wen sighs, with a wan smile. "You and the Cyber-Newtypes, I mean. I just wonder if... putting so much pressure on yourself to be unique might be hurting you. Being different like that... and from everyone, too. Or maybe I'm just jealous... I don't know."
After a moment, Yuliana breaks her anger with a smile.
"... well, if you are, you're in good company."
They continue to take tea together, and Yuliana doesn't try to convince Wen to leave again.