2023-03-09: .territorieS

• Log: .territorieS
• Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Alexis Kerib
• Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
• Date: 2023-03-09
• Summary: Two old friends reconnect and re-establish their boundaries. Yuliana claims the Unicorn line as hers -- while Alexis is feeling much more generous with sharing his project, now Akane's left his care.

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<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        The Silent Castle stands as stony monument atop Kaffeklubben Island, pylons and towers carving through its eternal dawn. (Days are measured in months, this close to the North Pole; the last night stretched across the whole of Winter.) It is Silent in name and in deed: while that zone of exclusion waxes and wanes, frequently the entire Castle is obscured from heightened cognition.

        Frequently, but not constantly.

        The gates are closed, but that doesn't necessarily matter. The servants, eyes green and void of light, will receive a guest regardless. Into that welcoming hall, they offer welcome.

        (So long as the Mistresses are pleased to receive them.)

        It is the gentler of the two who Alexis is led to -- and indeed he must be led; the emptiness denies his usual passage, deeper into the Castle. Yuliana opts to see him in the closer intimacy of a sitting room, rather than their stately audience hall. He is, after all...

        "Our dear friend," Yuliana welcomes him, and smiles.

        She is dressed all in black and green, her teal hair growing out again. A black ruff obscuring her neck hangs down to a warming cape, tumbling beside her lap and billowing skirts on the lounge; a halter top may well expose her back. This reasonable assumption can be traced to the snakes which curl out from either side of her, black as the abyss, with green hints and markings to show just which abyss.

        Snake is, of course, only the first approximation of those tentacles; their jaws on closer examination are grasping claws, and the frills about their necks could be draconic or floral, all depending on interpretation. Though there are dangerous green markings on those displays, none of them can rightly be called eyes.

        They match the tendrils, lowered and relaxed, behind her ears. Between each is webbing, like fins or like frills or like wings. Black and green... black and green.

        And purple. The bracelet at her right wrist is a particular shade of violet, kept close to her rich gold wedding bands all set with diamonds and emeralds and onyx. (They're on her right ring finger as a matter of Zaftran tradition, not that the meaning behind it has much relevance to the Kafims.)

        Perhaps that's why she says 'our', rather than hers.

        "Come, come," she gestures to him, her arm bare and scarred aside from its jewellery. "Sit, if you like. How wonderful to see you, dear. It's been quite some time! We were beginning to think you had something against us!"

        This is half a lie... but only because Yuliana hasn't heard Elisa think of Alexis in the slightest. That's fine, Yuliana thinks. Her darling wife can share her opinion. What's hers is Elisa's, after all.

        "Would you like something? Tea, biscuits? No, I don't suppose you would," Yuliana smiles, all too amused. "That's fine. We've plenty of suppression and evisceration to spare, of course. How is that little project of yours, by the way?" One of those dull-eyed servants brings her a cup of tea, anyway; they set it down on the table beside the lounge, without a word of interruption. Yuliana picks it up, and sips; evidently she still eats the normal way. "Last I heard, your little haven of transgressions found a place in the real world... off in the colonies? Fitting, really." Her grin turns sharp, for a moment. "Such a miserable existence could only belong in space."

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

If he's so bored, he ought to get out into the world and start poking at things, hm? Well, Yuliana and Elisa would -- strictly speaking be the second such round of poking he did. (The first was a happy accident that he was all too happy to start exploring in earnest.)

Unfortunately, while it's now quite easy to find them, it's much less easy to meet them. The best he can do is park himself outside and then begin sliding through reality at a decidedly more sedate pace -- and yes, in the end, he must be led.

There is something less ethereal about the way he moves in this space -- he still seems to translate through reality as if dragged along by an invisible cursor, yet if you watch closely, you can indeed see knees and elbows against the edge of the cloak. Alexis can endure this, for the moment; it is, after all, when he calls upon someone that he's most inclined to move this way.

The change in Yuliana catches him by surprise, though nothing about his cloak or mask betrays this. The wedding band is of less interest. "Yuliana Dispersal -- or am I to understand it's Kafim, now? You have been making the news, lately," Alexis answers her, moving sure enough to take a seat. "And no -- events have simply kept me quite busy. The young lady was... insistent on carving pieces out of her friends." In more ways than one.

"No, I'll be quite fine," he says, waving off the food. He does decide to dig into Akane-kun's (still Akane-kun's!) latest proceedings, though. "She has, for the moment, been -- removed, from my taking-care, and yes, her city" (always her city) "is in the process of being relocated to the Frontier Side," he answers, slightly sheepish, as if 3G were simply Child Protective Services.

"I'm actually quite proud of her! She's taken up with the Gutsy... Whatever-It-Is-This-Week Guard, I'm made to understand," he offers, with a small shrug. "I suppose she's developed a sense of invulnerability, having fallen from such great heights and still been caught..."

... this meeting was about broadening his horizons, though. "What of your own activities? It seems things have," a momentary darkening of all those teal panels across his face as he considers his word choice, "progressed for you."

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        "Kafim, yes," Yuliana confirms, with a wide smile, flaring her fingers to display those rings. "My darling Elisa and I were married!" A light pause, and she adds: "... oh, I'm sure we have."

        Made the news, that is. Yuliana isn't about to share how much that bothers her with their dear friend.

        But she's carving out pieces of her friends, huh...

        If she were a better person, Yuliana might be worried about that. Is she worried about that?

        Now, why would she be worried about a Newtype boiling in her own fire?

        "You think?" Yuliana laughs, lightly, fingers covering her lips. "If she's surrounding herself with her friends, I'd think the opposite were true. Surely she's vulnerable enough to need to flock with GGG, now?"

        Her eyelids lower, though her smile doesn't. "I'm sure your pride warms her heart." Cooks it, maybe.

        Yuliana's hand lifts, to smooth over the tendrils behind her ear, and perhaps Alexis can feel it -- the way her imposition on reality wanes as they're pressed down, and waxes as they lift back up. "Progressed...? Yes, I suppose so," she smiles, hands settling on her lap, and snake-jaws settling on her hands. "Unfortunately, the Republic betrayed me... She in the Void gave me these gifts as the veil weakened, to protect me from their perfidy. My Elisa saved me -- assisted by some other people, I suppose. I understand they levelled the Institute quite thoroughly."

        She lifts one of her hands, to pet the frill-display of one of those things like flowers or snakes or hands. "Well, before now, tearing through the veil of existence was quite hard on me... but perhaps it will be easier, now. My Elisa is preparing protection for me, as well." Her eyes narrow, just so. "Our efforts will not be disrupted by my mortality again."

        Her mortality, and not Elisa's. Obviously.

        "For now, I've set myself to recovering," Yuliana explains, smiling again. "Particularly given how... interested the Federation is in finding me, even leaving the REA aside, you can imagine I've had to lay low a while." She sighs, with a little shrug of a shoulder. "At least for a while..." ... Yuliana doesn't shelter in place easily, but this is not about that.

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

"Hm. I suppose it's both, in its way," Alexis muses, on the question of Akane's vulnerability. If he had a brow, he might furrow it a bit; as it is, he only settles slightly back into his seat, allowing himself time to think -- and notice the way Yuliana's pressure on their space ebbs and flows with the rubbing of those protrusions behind her ear.

Alexis elects to have an unexpressed thought about She in the Void. Who would know, in this silent space, if either of them were expressing anything or not?

"Ah, your government has thrown you to the side in favor of... winning in the court of public opinion, I suppose." Alexis reads the newspaper. He's data-hungry, as a rule. "A pity. Though it seems it has had several positive outcomes, in its way -- even if your convalescence does seem quite boring, I'm sure you'll be able to attack the world-as-it-is with great enthusiasm once you finish." She'll be more interesting if she's on task, he decides -- before breezing along.

"Ah, tell me -- have you cut all your ties with Federation affiliates, or are you simply on the lam from the Republic?" comes a relaxed follow-up question. "I'm sure you've heard this or that by now about the... terribly convenient attack on Tokyo's railway by one of Akane-kun's former kaiju."

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        Perhaps it's better to be quiet.

        "Oh, you think?" Yuliana laughs, leaning back against her lounge. "Bold of you to assume I'll go right on the attack... or were you hoping to see some more violence, I wonder?"

        She grins, a gash along her face. "Maybe I've retired. You don't know!" She hasn't, of course, but it's funnier if he has to come out and say it.

        "Regarding the Federation, though..." Yuliana inspects her nails (short and unpainted) for a moment, before she settles her hand back on the armrest. "I do still hear things," is what she settles on. She, too, reads the news. On her device, not as a paper. She's not that old. "Though I do have to wonder why you're directing Akane's things to the PPL, when it's the Guard who's taken her from your tender care. I'd never accuse you of being imprecise!"

        She would accuse him of being the one behind the attack, though.

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

Alexis has a second unexpressed thought at the notion of Yuliana's retirement. He settles for, instead, "You seem the restless type."

"Well! I can't say I'm opposed," Alexis offers, giving Yuliana a conversational sweep of the hand. If he must be forced to exist just a little more physically, he may as well accept it and play along.

When he's prompted, he just laughs. Still -- he's not above exposition. Indeed, when his hand is forced in all other arenas, it's one of his go-tos! "That evolutionary mobile weapon is of some interest to me -- it wouldn't do to see it fully overwhelmed by opposition," he says, and his tone is remarkably bright about the whole thing. "As are its siblings, actually. I have a certain fondness for scavenger hunts and those who would pursue them."

The smugness oozes out of his voice as he finishes, "I do thrive a little more with a second project. Though the orbits have approached each other... well, we haven't yet seen them crash into one another. The old guard and their charges do have a tendency to talk." He muses on that, ultimately countering with, "I suppose attacking one of them will mean attacking all of them, so I expect to see the Guard at my door eventually."

He realizes he's been misdirected... but decides to let it happen, for now. This is as fine a topic as any.

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        "Maybe so," Yuliana allows that much, on the subject of her retirement.

        (As if she'd ever.)

        But Alexis exposits, and Yuliana listens, propping her cheek up on the knuckles of that hand on the armrest. "Oh...?" She asks, all rising-tone escalation, as he talks about his fondnesses.

        She keeps giving him rope, with a little nod, to indicate he should rather keep going.

        "They are all rather chatty, aren't they?" Yuliana asks, as if she weren't a veteran of the Mycenae wars herself. "And I suppose from her perspective, Akane would find much commonality with a woman forced to war. Perhaps it's inevitable... and that's all well and good."

        Her eyebrows raise, and her smile drops, for a moment. "But understand that those triad of Unicorns are my territory, dear," Yuliana stipulates, and her voice doesn't sound any less friendly or familiar. "And I expect the same respect from you as I have shown your little project. Unless you would like to introduce such an uncouth concept as impoliteness to our friendship?"

        She never did return to Tsutsujidai, after Alexis asked her to keep her distance.

        Who knew she was keeping it in her pocket?

        "In particular... I'll have stern words for you if you meddle overlong in the Phenex's business, old friend. She's mine. I do hope you'll keep that in mind."

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

"Ah, quite true. That seems to be the basis for a number of her new bonds, actually -- though whether that will form the basis of yet more if Dr. and Captain Kabuto drag her into the mire of that weapon's malice... well, that does remain to be seen." That's all he spares on the notion of the Banshee and the ghost that yet haunts it -- there's something more pressing in what Yuliana says, at any rate.

"Ah -- apologies, apologies! No, rest assured, I won't be unraveling your favorite threads," Alexis agrees, raising both hands in an appeasing gesture but remaining affable. "I'm actually allowing myself to -- hm -- take requests, in this matter, from someone already pursuing the beasts. Rest assured no threat from Akane-kun's kaiju will come from my own interest in interfering..."

The territoriality about the Phenex catches his attention -- but at the same time, he feels no great desire to expand his new partners' interest outward. "And -- certainly. I'll do my best to keep my efforts contained to its siblings. Far be it from me to violate the great berth you've given me to work!"

... though...

Every teal panel lights up in a quite-literally bright smile. "Though you're free to involve yourself in Akane-kun's life now that she's left her city behind, of course."

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        "Requests, is it? Well, I would hardly impose upon you," Yuliana assures him, smiling again. "And I suppose you can't very well help the imposition of others, now, can you?"

        It's very convenient, how it's what someone else wants.

        She leans back on the lounge, folding her arms, loosely; one comes up, to curl at her chin. "Has the Luio girl come asking for help, I wonder?" A wild guess, thrown into the aether. "The alcoholic wouldn't have authority, I'm sure... or are you occupied with the other one? That boy who's a Key of his own... in that case, you'll have made friends with the Vists, haven't you?"

        They're educated wild guesses, of course. Yuliana does collect information in her own time.

        "Understand that I am, of course, also invested in the Unicorn itself," Yuliana explains, surely for Alexis's benefit. "And its boy, by this point, I suppose. The NT-D system is, mm... of great interest to me. I'm sure you can imagine why?"

        ... something to do with the hollow space around her, destroying the hopes of all Newtypes within.

        "But as for the Phenex... I consider it a personal matter. Yes, in this matter, I'm most territorial of all..." Her eyelids lower, as she fixes Alexis with an appraising look. "... how interesting, though, that you'd loosen your own territorial feelings. Am I to take your wording to mean you'd still rather I not visit the city itself?"

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

"Quite so," Alexis agrees, on those impositions. It is so much easier for him to move when there's not a single bit of his own feelings in the matter -- simply a request and a fulfillment. Why, it's exactly what would have happened anyway, just with Jegans instead of kaiju!

"Now, now. I wouldn't betray a client to casual guessing," Alexis chides Yuliana, still all masked smiles. "But yes, it's the horned one that has my eye." Confirmation, however oblique, nevertheless. Alexis does enjoy playing the game.

"And -- hm! I suppose I can see that, yes. I suppose if the specifications came into my line of sight, I'd be happy to lose sight of them again somewhere more convenient for you." Yuliana, for all the impositions she makes on Alexis and his engagement with the world, is interesting -- and Alexis does love the stimulation.

Alexis makes note of Yuliana's relationship with the Phenex in greater detail, but speaks on the other matter. "Oh, no, any way you choose to move is fine, so long as you don't just put a boring end to her story or its," he encourages. "If she chooses this world over her city, who am I to say either of them ought to be exempt from interacting with anything in it?"

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        "I'd never question your confidentiality, of course." Yuliana would. And she has!

        And since Alexis never told her, she can't be said to have promised to keep any secrets.

        Not that'd betray him, naturally. They're friends!

        (It is a fun game, isn't it.)

        "Wonderful," she encourages him, oblique, when he muses about the NT-D's specifications. And -- well, given Alexis moves on to Akane, Yuliana assumes she's just given him input which interests him more.

        She's not a mind-reader. That's, like, her ENTIRE malfunction?

        "And unfortunately, I am still a being of this world, for now," Yuliana sighs, a hand reaching up to rub at her upper arm. "It clings to me so... it's been quite the trouble, I assure you." Yes... it's the world, clutching Yuliana too tightly, which causes her all this pain.

        Elisa assured her of that.

        "In any case, we're of a mind when it comes to interesting stories," she assures Alexis, smiling. "Why, even I've found myself entertained by some of these twisted narratives... did you know," she remarks, lightly, and with the surprise of someone who recently learned a matter of trivia, "that they're real, as this world makes them? Their stories persist even beyond how they service the readers! It was quite a shock, but you know, doesn't that explain how intricate some of their responses can be?"

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

Ah, yes, the clinging nature of the past and present -- for a moment, the golden diamonds behind Alexis's visor seem to deform just slightly, as if concerned for Yuliana as she clutches at her arm, rubbing it in pantomime of the world's own clutching.

"Hm? Oh, my, yes. That's half of the fun," Alexis enthuses as Yuliana asserts the reality of stories other than her own. (Other than their own, perhaps. They do move through the world so similarly, even as they move through the world quite differently.) "Now, granted, some stories are more real than others -- but sorting that out, too, makes for a fun side project."

The intricacy of the responses, though -- that gets Alexis to pause, leaning forward toward Yuliana as if he's about to let her in on something. "Still, don't forget how much of it is hollow, shallow, and superficial! You can't have fun with it if you're sorting too much out, you know. It's nice to keep things small."

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        Once upon a time, Yuliana offered Alexis nothing.

        Now, she has nothing more to give.

        Even so... doesn't that imply a certain level of reality, on his part?

        She heaves a sigh, looking down to the snakes in her lap. "Would that it were more hollow!" She bemoans, a mood passing over her. "If this world were empty, it wouldn't wound me so. It wouldn't ache..."

        And Yuliana is sad, as she closes her eyes, briefly. When she opens them, she's smiling again. "No matter. We will save this world... and you will have new puzzles to unravel. Rejoice, dear friend." As if she's doing him a favour.

        "Of course... those I have chosen for my own are few amongst the many of the world. You're quite right... quite right." Yuliana smiles, but it is more wan, now. "But I find myself wearying," she sighs, again -- regretful, this time. "I fear our audience may soon be coming to an end. How wonderful you've found our demense, though... it was rather hard to say hello when we simply had to chance upon each other, wasn't it?"

        Yuliana spreads a hand, and something which isn't a hand. "You simply must visit more often. I'm sure my Elisa would be pleased to see you, just the same!"

<Pose Tracker> Alexis Kerib has posed.

Yuliana gives Alexis a bit more of her ache, and he sits there, panels off, considering it.

"I suppose I shall!" he agrees, nodding. "And -- quite. I don't mind giving you the space; certainly I have other spaces to be!" Collecting himself, Alexis takes a step back from Yuliana. "You're right, though -- the silence around you is now far greater than can be explained by any other means. It does make things slightly inconvenient for me, but by the same token, it's a novel sort of inconvenience! I appreciate the gouge you carve in the world we have the pleasure of sharing."

And it is a pleasure. ... just, perhaps, an inconvenient one.

Alexis starts to walk -- yes, walk -- away from Yuliana, then, allowing her to be as weary as she pleases. He's sure he can find some other thread to pull, once he extracts himself from this messy little knot in the world.

"Give the good Doctor my regards," he adds, on his way out.