2023-06-25: .the silence called to wen as welL
- Cutscene: .the silence called to wen as welL
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Wen Yuan
- Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- Date: 2023-06-25
- Summary: Wen and Yuliana discuss the Silent Calling, Wen's motivations, and how Leina Ashta factors into the cult Yuliana has started.
The Silent Calling has an internet presence, of course -- they're modern enough for that. Before Emptear's battle, their webcasts spoke of doing great things to honour their faith; afterwards, they talked about how those who weren't ready interrupted proceedings.
Their Oracle bids them to be patient, with these people, to understand their fear and their hesitance. They need not be their enemies, these people who do not yet see. (As we do.) She warns that there are those who would misrepresent her, as well -- but subtly, all slid between her encouragement, poison slipped in the ear.
She says... it would have been beautiful.
"I will not give up," she says, smiling into a camera, that distinctive winged tiara clasped about her head. This recording is one of many, in all her attempts to reach them; this message, sent to the truly faithful, not merely those curious. (Though they, too, have received gentle reassurance.) "I will do all I can for you, who offered me your believing hearts. I offer myself, in turn, to the altar of our future. I will see you all again, soon..."
Wen Yuan leans around her camera, offering a hearty peace sign. She isn't dressed in the Calling's robes -- she's the cameraman. "That's a cut! Great work, Captain!"
"Not good enough," Yuliana moans, sliding her face down onto the mahogany desk. Her arms drape out in front of her, and her dozen bangles jingle. (One, on her right wrist, is purple.) "We lost too many to that little misunderstanding. You know some people think we hit that mine site on purpose? It just got in the way!"
Wen finishes up with the camera, and slips around, to hop up on the edge of the desk. "Be fair," she says, legs swinging off the side. "It's pretty unbelievable, as escalations go. Like, how is a dark spot in reality connected to empowering people?"
"I told you, it's--" Yuliana starts, tilting her head to glare balefully through one scarred eye.
"Ah-ah-ah!" Wen wags a finger, tut-tutting. "We're not talking about me! We're talking about them. Look, I know you've said you're serious about this one," she leans back, on her wrists, looking down to the draped Yuliana, "but I really think you need to start thinking like it's a job. When it comes down to it, you've gotta sell your story either way, right?"
"It's not like no one's bought it," Yuliana grumbles.
"Hey, you brought it up! No anxiety takebacksies. Besides, you heard how there's one born every minute, right?" Luckily, with Yuliana rolling her face on the desk, she misses Wen's cheeky smile.
"One what?" Yuliana complains, into the desk. A lot of things fly over one's head, when it's down like that.
"Ask Parminder," Wen condemns Yuliana to death, cheerfully. "Anyway, if you want to keep your crowd, you gotta reassure them this isn't Dr. Hell territory." She reaches over and pushes Yuliana's head, when she looks up to yell at her again, and adds: "Not everyone's got your full service record on hand."
Yuliana's ceremonial tiara clatters to the other side of the desk, freeing her frills from their hollow wings. "Why won't they just trust me?" She says, still scowling. "Don't tell me they like the world as it is! The world as it is made us!" One of her hand lifts, half a fumble, half a flail, to gesture into Wen's knee. (She's wearing woollen tights, under her pink skirt. It's quite cold.)
Wen frees one of her hands, from behind her, to pat Yuliana's. (She's more than strong enough to support her weight on one arm.) "I mean, yeah, it's weird," she agrees, with a light sigh. "We cyborgs didn't cop it nearly as bad as you guys did," Medical's Cyber-Newtypes, that is, "but once I got my head on straight about the Institute... like, anyone would be mad, right?"
"Chyeah," Yuliana blows air through her lips, like the world's most disgruntled warhorse. "Anyone. If they really got it, there's no way they'd want things to continue as they are." Now it's her turn to sigh, pulling herself up just enough to lace her hands under her chin, looking up to Wen. (Her crown clatters to the ground.) "That's... what convinced you, isn't it?"
"So we are talking about me, now?" Wen grins, before her expression dims to a light frown. "I guess... yeah, pretty much. I never thought of myself as a bad person, just, you know, a good person doing bad things... but if good things are supposed to happen to good people, how come we got our heads done in by next door?" She sighs, swinging her legs, as she looks over to one of the Silent Castle's countless crackling fireplaces. "I never thought of myself as... someone who was being controlled. I mean, I knew the terms were rough, but -- someone tried to ask us about this shit, before it all went south. And I just... shut down." Her tone grows distant, drawn into the flames. "I put my head down on the table, and I barely said a word... Parminder's the one who did all the talking."
"That's bleak," Yuliana comments, because the one person chattier than Parminder is Wen. She doesn't go out of her way to interrupt, though. It's Wen's turn to talk about her own experiences; Yuliana can offer her that much.
"Yeah. So that's the Federation we were fighting for..." Wen sighs, as her legs still. "... don't get me wrong, Captain. I'm not an idiot. I know your wife's controlling people, too... that's why Alma ditched Londo Bell for our team. Right?" She looks down to Yuliana, who offers a half-shrug and nod of vague assent.
"Right," Wen goes on. "But if that's the way the world just -- works, the least it can do is let me choose where I'm landing. I'm sure those squeaky-clean organisations are just hiding shit in the closet instead. At least here, I... look, you haven't always shared your life with me, Captain, but you've always been straight with me." She smiles, though it's wan. "Back then, when you all but told me to leave, when you said you'd finance a new life for me and I could just forget about you... I knew you were being sincere about it. You were making an effort... that's why I can stay by your side."
Yuliana straightens up, to fix Wen with a quizzical expression. "What, because I gave a shit one time?"
"Because you give a shit," Wen repeats, emphasises, clarifies. "Like I said, it'd be easier to treat this like a con game... but you're trying to do something to fix the damn world, instead. Is your world better? I don't know... I can't see what you see. But I know something has to change, Captain. And I think... if you're going to change it for the better, you're gonna need friends."
Yuliana laughs, shaking her head. "Wow, you really thought this through, huh?" She smiles, her frill fanning down a little, as she adds: "... but I guess that was always your thing. I've always acted in the moment, and Letda..."
"Oh, he's just here because it's funny," is Wen's practical assessment of Parminder.
"Definitely just here because it's funny," Yuliana agrees, and doesn't fault him for it.
They laugh about it. They can still laugh about things, for all that's happened. Yuliana pauses, though, as she pulls her phone from her pocket. A brief frown -- and then a look of relief floods her face, as she acknowledges the message and slips her phone back into her robes.
The message Wen spies from Sayla Mass, with her eagle-eyes, goes something like this: 'Leina's safe. Thank you.'
"She's okay," Yuliana explains, seeing Wen's curiosity. "Leyasha, she's safe. I guess they pried her away from Dr. Murasame, finally... she did say those people were building a force to confront him."
"Ah... yeah, Elisa told you not to mess with him again, right...?" Wen asks, reaching out, a hand resting supportively on her shoulder. "I admit I still don't really get what's going on, here, but... it's hard not to get involved, I bet."
"What's there to get? She's one of the good ones, so it makes sense to throw out some scrap of concern!" Yuliana snaps, but she reaches up to lay a hand over Wen's, anyway. "You know -- I kept it quiet, but I offered her a hand long before they thought to. She should have taken it..." Her own fingers tighten, around Wen's too-pale digits. "No, I should have made her take it." And in all her regret and spiteful envy, she doesn't look directly at Elisa telling her not to go after Dr. Murasame again. Not at all.
Wen, luckily, has a reinforced skeleton, so it doesn't hurt too badly. "Were you worried about her all that time, Captain..?"
"No!" Yuliana snaps, and startles, just so, as she realises how tightly she's grasping. She loosens her grip, deliberately, as she looks askance at her fallen tiara. "Yes. Maybe. I don't know... I guess I just put it aside." It's not Yuliana who redirected herself away from Leina. Again, she lays no blame at Elisa's feet. Instead, she says: "It's normal for me to get bored and lose interest, you know."
"Did you?" Wen asks, with a light frown.
"... no," Yuliana admits, scowling just the same. "She's mine, so I couldn't stand the idea some damn lab got its hooks in her. I... I wanted to help her. But I -- no, the whole thing was fucked up -- I didn't see a way out," she whispers, a shade hoarse. "Elya said we couldn't trust them, and Leyasha wouldn't trust me..." And she is close -- so CLOSE -- to a revelation.
Wen frowns, and squeezes her shoulder. "What did you do about it, Captain?" She asks, because she knows the end of this story -- laughed about the infiltration with her, before it happened.
Too close. Yuliana sighs, and stands, one horrible black tendril ducking low to grasp her tiara in its jaws or its claws to deliver it back to her hands. One sweeps back over her ear, fitting her frill into the gold dragon's wing, before she seats the other side on her head just the same.
"This," she says, as she sweeps her arms wide, her black robes voluminous over her arms.
"All this, the Silent Calling... it began when I couldn't help one girl. If I couldn't save Leyasha, I thought -- I'd simply save this world entire."
Wen is a little shocked to hear such a sharp escalation, even having known her for years. "Um..." She starts, and frowns, before she lifts a finger to start again. "So what happens now they've saved her?"
"They have saved her," Yuliana says, and the tone's all changed, now. "I have not. My salvation is yet to come to pass... and Leyasha will be well, as shall we all. Come," she curls her fingers, gesturing to her, with a beatific smile. "We must finish our missives."
Wen knows better than to argue with the Captain, when her mind glances off of something so harshly.
And she knows not to look directly at it.
She makes a fine friend, for Yuliana, given all that.