2023-06-06: .the villains go ice skating, and nobody dieS
- Log: .the villains go ice skating, and nobody dieS
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Elisa Kafim
- Where: Outside the Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- Date: 2023-06-06
- Summary: Yuliana grows restless, sheltering inside the Silent Castle after their recent crimes -- so Elisa decides to take her out on the ice for some skating. While they're there, they talk about Yuliana's recent encounters with Sayla, Koji, and Sayaka -- and Elisa assures Yuliana that their future will be beautiful, and they'll achieve it together.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana's restless, pacing the halls and shoving the help. She's been obliging enough to stay in her Castle after their ill-fated attempt to open the gate, save for specific missions -- but she does get agitated, sitting around, particularly given how some of those missions have gone.
She is a woman who demands a certain measure of novelty. And so --
"Ice skating?" Yuliana asks, a shade sceptical, as she follows Elisa outside the castle's walls. Her hands are buried in a black handwarmer, and furs warm her against the deep chill of the Arctic. (Even in summer, out here, it's quite cold. Sometimes it gets a few degrees above freezing, in the middle of the day... but it only gets colder from there.) "Elya, you know I've no trust of the water," her nose wrinkles, looking out over the jagged ice on the water. "Are you quite sure it's... safe?"
It is important to note that the snakes wriggling out from under her coat have little fur caps all tied to their hands. They don't need them; they lack any warmth at all. But they're very cute, aren't they?
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Novelty is something that Elisa can provide, as it happens. This was never her Sport, never a pastime that particularly mattered in Orb... but it is one she knows nevertheless. And so she leads Yuliana on "Oh yes," she says. "It is quite freeing. You turn the ice from a slick, dangerous foe into a friend that glides with you..."
Elisa pauses, and turns towards Yuliana for a moment, with a mysterious look. "Yes," she says. "But let us be absolutely sure." She reaches out her hand--and draws the life, draws the heat from the ice. If it takes on a faintly greenish cast that must surely be a trick of the light. If the water is now unwholesome to drink then no one was going to drink it anyway.
This isn't about that.
"There. Now, I shall show you."
She strides onto the ice, walking some distance before she taps her foot there--and it doesn't break.
"Now," she says, "Come." She comes back over, and takes a seat, to remove the covers from her skates and allow the blades to be free.
Naturally she will offer her hand once Yuliana has done the same.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Oh, ice has never been the form of water I'm opposed to," Yuliana grumbles. "But it has a terrible tendency to crack." Ice isn't a large factor in Orb -- but it is a factor in Yuliana's life, given she spent most of her teenage years in the distant reaches of chill Zaftra. No wonder Elisa's familiar!
Elisa makes sure it won't, though. Yuliana gasps with delight, bringing her hands up in her muff to wave about her chest. "Ah! Elya, you're magnificent..!" And yes, one mustn't drink salt water. It saps the life right from your cells, so they say. Now, is green salt water worse? Surely no one would test that.
Yuliana smiles, cheeks glowing from more than the chill as Elisa takes care to assuage her fears. (She'd have taken her word in an instant, of course, but Elisa is so kind in the face of her worries.) "I see," she says, and the cold can't quite sap away the warmth in her voice. "You're wonderful, Elya."
Yuliana takes a seat herself, to slip those covers off -- and, naturally, skates into Elisa's arms. She's a little wobbly, though not entirely unfamiliar, as she enthuses: "Oh, I've not done this since I was young! How did you know?"
Sashenka, let's note, does ring Elisa on occasion, separately to ringing her daughter. She likes to check in on the head of the household, too. Just to make sure her daughter's being taken care of properly.
(They're doing well, which is to say, they haven't yet suffered any enforced holidays or accidents on account of their daughter's betrayal. Much of this has to do with the agents Elisa sent to keep their homestead safe.)
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Grumble grumble. All these worries! But of course Elisa is familiar with anything of Yuliana's, and indeed, has heard many things from Sashenka. She continues to hear such things on a regular basis, and is pleased that they have not suffered anything of the sort. ...the agents will continue to be allocated there.
And it is so nice to hear from her, of course.
As Yuliana enthuses, Elisa does not quite preen, but she does stand up that little bit straighter on her skates. "For you."
Then Yuliana skates into her arms, and Elisa holds her as easily as she could hold a snowflake, as preciously as a diamond. "Hm hm. And yet you have not forgotten." How did she know? Ah, a mystery! But one that is perhaps easy to guess at. "It has been a while for me, as well.."
"But there is no one I'd choose to take to the ice with above you."
Skate...!
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Sashenka does so love speaking with other women of her ilk. She thinks it's terribly forward-thinking of Elisa to marry another woman, in fact. This way, she doesn't have to juggle the man expecting to be in charge at all! It's all said with, let's say, the exoticism of someone who has never engaged well with diversity... but there's some level of effort there.
(Not that little Yuliya doesn't think she's the boss of everything, regardless of her gender, of course. She always did take after her father, even if her mother was able to teach her some sense.)
It's Yuliana held so carefully in Elisa's arms, though, and her hand -- now freed from her handwarmer, left hanging by its cord -- reaches up, to cup her wife's cheek. "Hahaha... there's no way I'd forget! But I'm surprised you skate, zhenushka... though," she says, with a sly smile, "I'm pleased you do."
She giggles, all too delighted, when Elisa declares her first amongst the world. And she clearly admires Elisa's movements, on the ice -- she'd insist she can tell she's a peak gymnast, even with a different measure of grace like this. (Ask Yuliana how talented her wife is. Go on. Reserve a few hours.) But Yuliana's never been athletic for show, and her teenage memories of ice skating don't offer her much in the way of elevating the art.
Still -- she enjoys skating with Elisa. She laughs, often.
And it's when she comes back into Elisa's arms, after a curve about the ice, that she sighs. "Ahh, Elya, this is wonderful...! You know, after running into Koji and Sayaka," she looked up what Sayaka was a Doctor of, and it's not anything that needs a warning label, unlike, "and that business with Dr. Mass, I was terribly stressed... but you always know just what to do for me!"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
It's effort! And if it would be insufficient for some, Elisa makes no trouble of it. She is pleased to be interacting with Yuliana's mother to hear her tell it, and why, she rather agrees, it's convenient not to have a man to insist he should be doing things his way.
Elisa is terribly happy with Yuliana.
As she reaches up to cup Elisa's cheek, Elisa looks back down at her, and smiles back. "Ahh, of course." Then, a pleased look, "I had the opportunity, among athletes. There are many who combine the disciplines, though I did not."
Elisa is happy to make those movements, to bask in Yuliana's admiration for the moment. There is no need to 'elevate' the art; Yuliana could perform for hours under Elisa's gaze, and Elisa would call it time well-spent. She seems to enjoy it as much.
But then... Hmm. "I am glad," she says of it being wonderful, and then considers.
"Well, I can see when you are stressed. Would it make you feel better to tell me of what happened?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Why, Elisa's part of the family, now!
Not to say she didn't have her own family, before this.
But this is Yuliana's family.
"Oh, of course!" Yuliana exclaims, brightly. "You've always been so clever with your athletics... no wonder you'd pick something like this up." She imagines Elisa going ice skating on an Olympic rink, when the lights are down. It's terribly charming.
And Yuliana would perform, for hours, under Elisa's encompassing gaze. She has. On the ballroom, of course, rather than the ice, but surely it's much the same.
She leans back, against Elisa, stretching her arms up to brush at the back of her wife's head. It's a position which puts some of her balance in Elisa's hands, but Yuliana has no fear of that. "You've always been able to see right through me," she sighs, all too fond. "I'm so blessed to have such an attentive wife."
Her neck arches up, and she smiles. "Yes," she breathes, and Elisa needs no command to tear it from her. She has always cared so much about her feelings...
"I told you that Dr. Mass wanted help with Leyasha, of course," because Yuliana tells her wife everything. Why wouldn't she? "But it was... so humiliating to have to admit I couldn't hunt Dr. Murasame down. How could that wretched man do that to me?!" Give her some credit: she doesn't skip a slide as she spits out invectives. "After all this, the Newtypes get credit, anyway... asking her not to fail was a burden, on me." Yuliana pouts, and goes on: "But I suppose I can say one thing for Dr. Mass. She's more respectful. I sent her to set the record straight -- since she didn't feel the need to insult you."
Under her woolen hood, her frills flare, as she scowls. "Not like Koji and Sayaka. You know he said that I should reach out if something wasn't right?!" That is not, precisely, what he said. "And Sayaka -- well -- well, I suppose she didn't really say much wrong, that time, I'll grant you, she acknowledged that if I really was happy there was no need to pry into my personal life, just, what's with if I'm happy?! Is she trying to confuse me?!" And that is likely not what she meant.
Yuliana might just be sensitised to being confused, these days. She does get confused a lot.
She spins, on the ice, so she can face Elisa again. "Plus... there's something that man said that's really getting under my skin," Yuliana frowns. "He thinks it would be an intrusion, for all humanity to join the Void. And he thinks they'll all be left behind, since She is... mm, a vengeful woman. And Sayaka insisted we were assuming what was best -- as if we don't know -- and we were taking away their opportunities!"
Yuliana frowns. "I mean, She's... never liked Newtypes," which is to say, Yuliana feels Her hatred when she glimpses the Void through the cracks those people leave in reality, "but, Elya, do you really think... all humanity...?" For all the wicked Yuliana has done, she isn't omnicidal. She wants to make the world better.
Her version of 'better', that is.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa's other family certainly exists!
It's a visual that may even be true. And indeed, ballroom or ice, it has much in common with the other.
Elisa keeps Yuliana's balance, lets her drape about her while supporting her. "Hm hm. And I a wife so delightful to see..."
She does of course care. That should be more than obvious. And so she listens... They skate, they glide, and she listens. "Yes, that must have been difficult." But Yuliana goes on... and Elisa smiles. "How nice."
Unlike them. Reach out... "What 'if'?" Elisa wonders, and shakes her head. "The mere thought of such a trouble disturbs me," she says. "You would of course tell me first if anything like that were on your mind, yes? Because of course I wish my darling to be happy."
Yuliana spins, and Elisa faces her. An intrusion, to....
"Hmmm."
"Even the Newtypes will be changed, to prepare. ...Darling, of course She was angry; you had been taken away from Her, and these people, unprepared, entered into Her sight. Stomping into Her domain like children with muddy shoes--of course She would be bothered! No, they shall have to be made ready, and when we open the Gate and the Void comes, it shall make them ready. Only then will Her sight fall upon them again, and She will be pleased."
"Humanity will flourish. And it will be beautiful."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana's cheeks are already rosy, given what passes for balmy summer here -- and they're given more colour still, at Elisa's compliments. "Ahh, you flatterer! Is that why you don't sleep at night, El~yul~a?" She's even more saccharine than usual, with her own delighted teasing. She gives her a break in her next breath: "Mm, but it's so nice you'll keep watch for me... I feel so much safer, beside you."
It's not an empty compliment; Elisa surely remembers the tension Yuliana carried in herself, when they began sleeping together. She'd feign sleep even after she woke, assessing the state of the room; she didn't cry out, even when she had terrible nightmares. She was too easy to rouse, and too slow to slumber. ... and she was more comfortable initiating intimacy than going to sleep with her, at the beginning. It was so difficult for her to be vulnerable to another person... at least until Elisa proved her care, by infiltrating the Institute to save her.
Before then, she was working with Elisa -- with some benefits, of course. It was only after her rescue that Yuliana really began trusting her.
Now, of course, she is Elisa's, in every sense of the word. And so she exclaims, when Elisa learns of those Photonic transgressions: "I knew they'd upset you, saying such awful things!" She pouts, quite visually upset, as if to translate Elisa's subtle expression. "But I offered my heart to you, and it's you who took what I offered. My feelings will always be yours, before they reach any other. You've always defended my happiness..."
With a light, loving sigh, a hand comes up to rest at her chest for a moment. "Ah, one day I dreamt your fingers cradled my heart entirely... they were Hers, of course, but I fancied they had your consideration." When her life hung by Elisa's threads, after their second failure to open the Gate, Elisa bid her to sleep so she could save her life. Evidently, such a command didn't entirely preclude... dreaming.
But her voice is fond, to say it, and when she whirls to face Elisa, the trouble in her eyes is all their fault. She draws closer, hand to Elisa's shoulders, the sleeve of her furs brushing at her dress. Those snakes slither from her coats to curl, at her hip. "Oh, Elya," she sighs, looking to her -- only to her. "You're right, of course... they were so rude! She was so upset, zhenushka, She couldn't keep Her hands from me through weeks of communion." How many hands? As many as it took to grasp her firmly. Surely Elisa remembers those nightmares -- the madness which followed them.
The way will open, Elisa the opener. Four seats of power, South Southeast Northeast North, the roots are tangling, strangling. West of devastation. Without a Lock, a Gate is a scar...
"When we open the Gate," the Key and the Gate echoes her, breathy, taking Elisa's logic so easily into herself. "Then... I will prepare them. Of course... who but me knows how to walk the limitless black?" Yuliana pauses, and frowns, breaking her gaze from Elisa to glance down. Her own skating stills, at the same time.
"Though... it is difficult to tread, at times. Elya... is it me? Am I still not made perfect -- am I not beautiful enough?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Why would I sleep when I could see you?" Elisa answers almost warmly, and Yuliana feels safer and the witch is satisfied with that, an expression denoting such remembered on her face.
Elisa does remember those things. She remembers them well. And she remembers what their relationship was, and how it changed...
"And I will continue to defend you," Elisa assures Yuliana. "This is what I have promised. This is what I shall do."
Of course it did not preclude dreaming. The thought of her consideration in such things brings an actual smile to her face, and then suddenly--
Yuliana is closer. The snakes curl. "Yes. It is so, is it not? You can feel it yourself."
The way will open... The madness. Yes. The madness that was once a vague consideration but that Elisa realized is so, so vital to so much.
"Who but you, indeed?" Elisa whirls about Yuliana, and reaches out her hand.
"You are treading it from such a distance; you have a connection, the connection, but you are still anchored in this world. Of course it is difficult to be in two places at once. It is nothing like insufficiency. You are perfect, my darling. The most beautiful."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana is still entirely warm, hearing Elisa's praise and her promises. "I could ask for no more stalwart a protector," she smiles -- and certainly she feels her happiness is secure, in Elisa's hands.
"It is so," she says, on the breath of a prayer, closer and closer.
Elisa whirls, and Yuliana's gaze lifts to follow her, her movements and her grace. She reaches out her hand, and of course Yuliana takes it, her fine glove fitting perfectly against Elisa's palm.
Through Elisa, she is whirling. The explanations, too.
"Yes," she agrees, and she is comforted, to say it. "Always She is reaching for me, but I'm so far away... oh, I'm still here." She reflects on the feeling of warmth where those furs trap the wan heat of her body; the moments of chill where they shift and her skin gets closer to the cold air. Those gliding movements, Elisa's grasp...
With that mindfulness in mind, she looks to Elisa, and asks: "Elya, does it really just hurt because I'm torn between these realms? Is it just... that I'm still connected, to this Earth? Oh, if it was that easy, I could just... but it's hard," she insists, trouble across her eyes. "It's hard, to give it all up."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa closes her fingers about Yuliana's hand, and she watches her once again. Always. Elisa notices that reflection; she cannot know for sure what Yuliana is feeling, of course. They do not have that perversion. But she can guess, when she says it. And that question...
"Oh, but it is not. ...You could never leave everyone behind," Elisa says. "You are too kind, too giving for that. That is why we continue to struggle." She smiles. "I know it feels difficult. The things of this world... there is much to appeal. But we can bring the best of it with us. Bring the realms together."
"Think not what you give up. ...Think what everyone will gain. True equality... Peace. The frontiers ahead of us..."
"It was comfortable, before man chose to leave his caves. But how much he discovered!"
Her eyes do not sparkle, but one could imagine that they do.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Because of her kindness -- her generous heart -- they're struggling. Because she couldn't leave them behind...
"Mm," Yuliana hums, glancing aside, for a moment, before her fingers squeeze Elisa's hand. "We can bring them together... and this world does so cry out, for equality. For some measure of peace, escaping this endless war. Oh, they wish for a calm..."
She looks up, to her, and skates in closer, pressing herself to Elisa. "There is much we must discover," she agrees. "Much that will come. I know, Elya. And my anger has not faded, though I'll grant it's more complex than I'd taken it." She has more to be angry at, now, learning now Devi engineered her hatred to centre on Newtypes. How could she do that, to her?
(There's a lot riding in that complexity, of course. There are some Newtypes she's grown quite fond of -- or realised she might have been, if not for Medical's meddling. She'll grant it might not always... entirely... be their fault. They may well be the victims of greater crimes, on occasion.
But they have something she'll never have.
She is, as ever, a green-eyed monster.)
"The best of this world... yes, it appeals to me," Yuliana admits, and surely Elisa can see the way her frills lower, beneath her fur hat. They're subtle motions, but she's a subtle woman. "I'm the only one who can, so of course I have a responsibility to them... but Elya, I've always been so selfish. I don't think you're wrong, nothing you've said, but part of me still stubbornly insists... 'I don't want to!' I'm afraid... I'm afraid that the pain won't fade, Elya," she says, and she is in many ways larger than Elisa at this scale, but she feels smaller, looking to her. "I see too much, I can't... I don't have your clarity, boyevaya podruga. Please, I need your help. I can't do what we must do, alone."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"It does," Elisa agrees. "They yearn for it, though they do not know what it is."
Much to discover... yes. Elisa always did enjoy her discovery, didn't she? Yes, she is a pioneer... "Yes, it is complex. But it still exists."
Elisa's green-eyed monster.
Elisa sees the subtlety. She sees Yuliana insist that she is selfish. Hm... How best to address it...?
"Of course. You are generous, but you must also be generous to yourself. It is all right. Trust in me," she says. "Trust, and wait. I will help you, always."
Clarity...
"Yes, rely on me. We will do this together. And you will never have to be alone. This I swear."
Elisa reaches out, to take Yuliana's cheek in her hand. "Yes... Together, with me."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"They must be led to prosperity," Yuliana agrees, without blinking. "That's always been the way of things..." She may be an Enemy Of The State, these days, but she is still a woman of the REA. The logic didn't leave, when she did.
"Yes. They mock me," Yuliana grumbles, darkly, scowling as she thinks of the Newtype's crimes, and yes -- she is Elisa's monster, as that free tentacle snaps at empty air. Perhaps she was always Elisa's monster, all in all.
But -- she must be generous to herself, Elisa explains, Elisa excuses her. And Yuliana is eased, as her wife invites her trust, a little dip of her head in a nod.
Yuliana sighs, nestling her cheek into Elisa's cradling hand, with a little affectionate rub-rub-rub. Her eyes flutter closed, for a blissful, trusting moment. "Thank you, my darling," she purrs, the burden lifting from her voice. "You've always been so reliable... I'm so lucky to have you. Together... oh, there's nothing I love more than being together with you."
And there's always time to address those other things she loves, so long as Elisa is first in her heart.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Indeed. It is still the way of things." Elisa is not a creature of the REA, but seems to share enough in common for this purpose. But then, Orb would know much of prosperity and its ways...
"Yes," Elisa says of this mockery, narrowing her eyes. "It is not to be borne. But..."
But Elisa explains, excuses, eases Yuliana, and that is what matters for now. Elisa's thumb strokes Yuliana's cheek as she listens. "Of course," she says. "I would do no other. ...I love you. And there is nothing more vital to me."
Other things, yes. But here, and now...
"Come. Let us enjoy this moment. And think more on such things soon."