2023-07-26: .machines know neither love nor beautY
- Log: .machines know neither love nor beautY
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Elisa Kafim
- Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- Date: 2023-07-26
- Summary: Yuliana finishes work on Milly's Desmatz refit, just in time, and of course with her wife's blessing. While she's working on making the onboard computer accept her modifications, she tells Elisa about another computer she met -- the AI, Asciel. Yuliana and Elisa affirm their loving bonds, in spite of what Asciel has said.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana came to Elisa with a request, almost two months back, now -- to refit a Desmatz. "It's not for me, you understand -- I'd not be caught dead autobalancing a good wanzer -- no, you know that Britannian girl I'm working on? The Ashford heir? She's exploring crime. It's delightful!" And with the key fact that she's not designing weapons for her own use (and, naturally, her wife's blessing), Yuliana occupied herself with drawing up schematics and notes.
She had to wait for Shari to... procure a Knightmare cockpit, of course. (That's work for the intern -- the sort of thing she can do after school.) And, of course, there's been a lot of work since then, fitting everything together. Work which has -- admittedly -- been sporadic, given Yuliana's... distractions. Her distractions, her need to bolster Elisa... and, most importantly, her Work. But it's been an entertaining diversion, and now, it's near completion.
Naturally, she's invited Elisa along to the stables. Perhaps she's worried that her wife will worry. But surely there's nothing to worry about, here -- the way her face lights up in response to such a challenging physical puzzle must be obvious, by now. "Six spanner," she requests, hand out, half-buried in the space between the Desmatz and the cockpit she's almost done installing. And, once the #6 spanner is in her hand: "Great!" It was evidently the right spanner. "Ahh, Elya, it's so fortunate you speak this language too! Do we have a spot welder over there? These junctures were never designed to talk to each other..."
There's a flash of light and heat, from inside the wanzer, as Yuliana convinces them to get on speaking terms anyway. She sighs, when it's done, a great, satisfied "haa!" -- and slides herself out, to look up at Elisa. Quite literally up -- she had to lie on her back, to get that part done. But she doesn't stay that way, lifting a hand invitingly to her wife, in a silent request to help her up. Once she is, she leans on Elisa; and no doubt she gets oil all over her, where it's dotting her green overalls, but that's fine.
"You know, I understand the need to control my occupations," Yuliana smiles, a pretty picture of obedience. She isn't making some subtle jabbing comment -- she accepts it, and she's saying it honestly. It's written in her light, rueful sigh: "It mustn't be easy to keep someone like me safe... even so, I'm happy I'm able to work on this with you, now. Thank you, Elya." Generally speaking, Yuliana oughtn't lower herself in such a way as to thank people -- but Elisa's an exception. She may express her gratitude to her wife without hesitation or reticence or shame. Elisa is the one who elevates her to such grand heights, after all.
And perhaps that's the key -- that she's happy to work on this machine with Elisa. Mechanics was one of the few areas of Yuliana's life which Elisa rarely touched; she was independent in her engineering, capable of acting on the world on her own terms. Through that independence, she was terribly hurt... and now, here she is, offering this part of her life to Elisa.
Like all the others.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
A Desmatz for a young girl exploring crime...
Yes, this is a fine activity. Nevermind that Shari complained about acquiring the cockpit, she still did it. And now, Elisa is here, handing spanners to Yuliana. "Of course," Elisa says when it is fortunate. "Yes, we do have such a thing," Elisa also says of the spot welder, and hands it to Yuliana. There is a lot of safe equipment that one should be using here that Elisa isn't. It's fine.
Elisa helps her wife up, and smiles. Yuliana even seems to understand!
"It is worthwhile," Elisa says, rather than reassuring that it is easy or no trouble at all. "I am also glad. You are quite welcome. It's so interesting to see your technical side. You're quite skilled."
Generally speaking, all those rules apply to other people, not to Elisa. It's fine.
"Is there more to do, you think?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Shari complains about everything. It hardly means she's being harmed. Yuliana wouldn't really hurt her, after all.
(Oh, she couldn't bring herself to do such a thing.)
And Elisa isn't using the safety equipment, but why would she? Yuliana might need it! Yes, of course she wore a mask while welding those bits together. She wouldn't want her wife to worry, no matter how much she finds it all a bit unnecessary. (Habits from the REA.)
She's shed it now, though, all the better to look into her eyes. Her own smile is warm as the sun isn't, out there, always shining and never quite hot. "I'm so glad you think so," she says, and with a hand to steady herself against Elisa's shoulder she lifts herself up to press her lips to hers. Her smile is sly, as her heels come down again: "I do so love impressing you..."
She looks back to the cockpit, though, and her eyes widen as she realises -- "Oh! Yes, actually," and scampers off from her wife's side to clamber inside the cockpit, with a start-up sequence which she doesn't bother strapping in for. "I have to check the onboard computers," she explains, over her shoulder. "You never know when the final connections might mess the whole thing up..."
Rummage rummage, she flicks a series of switches and twiddles a dial, and here and there disappears underneath the console to check some wiring. "Well, it's a good thing the computers on these machines are basic," she says, head buried under there. "You know, I ran into one of those advanced AI a few days ago, while I was fetching you that darling little necklace -- you know, the ones in Sharon Apple's ilk? The, ahhh.. Asciel, that's it! She calls herself Asciel. We met her when you were pretending to be our atase," her attache, "during a military conflict last year?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa insists upon proper safety equipment for her very, very mortal wife. And since she's paid attention to such things, she knows what said equipment requires! ...Just like she knows what Shari actually requires.
Elisa is not warm, as a rule, but she is a cool, endless abyss of affection for Yuliana, and her wife can easily sink into her arms as she holds her. "You do it so well."
But there is more--a start-up sequence for--"Ahhh," she says. "Yes, they can be finicky things." She's dealt with many a supercomputer back when she was dealing with research more conventional than her current.
Not that these are super.
"Asciel," Elisa reflects. She doesn't recall the name immediately but then, "Oh, yes." A smile. "A lovely necklace," she says. "Yes... Those are quite fascinating in theory. I recall that we did not get along so well with that one, though."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana is so distressingly mortal. She only has five litres of blood inside her! Five! And even if she loses half of that...!
Yuliana's not the sort to think about that, but she is the sort to think about Elisa's worries, so she wears the proper equipment. And she's so happy, to sink into Elisa's arms, enough warmth from her for both of them.
(For now. Her temperature dropped, when she grew closer to the Void, though she's still leagues warmer than Elisa. One day, she might...)
"They're absolute monsters," Yuliana huffs, and of course she's put on gloves before messing with the wiring. Elisa would worry! "Always throwing up errors, ungrateful little..." Mutter mutter mutter mutter.
Yuliana pops her head up, though, having sorted through the wires. "Oh, no," she agrees. "We didn't at all, my darling. You know, she showed up on a billboard wanting to re-evalulate me? As if I were some damn experiment of hers! And then wanting to know if I could be saved, talking all high and mighty about how she's removing all responsibility on Earth and and replacing the urge to to take action with simple harmony..." She twiddles another dial, and punches something into the console. "Honestly, she'd fit in just fine with the Republic!" It's not a compliment.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
It's terrible.
If she grows cold, then Elisa will love the cold. ...So long as she lives. That is all that matters there.
Elisa is amused, by the way Yuliana interacts with the computers. Ungrateful things, she says. "Hm hm. They should treat you better, I think." As if they can control these things.
But they didn't... Yes, that does remind her. Elisa lifts an eyebrow. "To re-evaluate you?" She does not approve of that at all. Moreover...
"What a presumptuous creature," Elisa reflects. "Removing responsibility on Earth... No, no, that's just the opposite of what we need, I think."
"'Harmony'. It is in conflict, in contest, that people grow. Such harmony would only lead to stagnation."
"Yes, she rather would. So what came of the meeting?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
So long as she lives... but so frequently she's almost died.
"They should!" Yuliana huffs, as she kicks the console. "Stupid layabout! Why aren't you--?!" She pauses, and twiddles another knob. "Oh," and she doesn't verbalise at all that she'd forgotten to actually tell the computer it was connected to its final mobility systems.
It's the Desmatz's fault for being so demanding about its systems, probably. The finicky little thing is used to all this disruption tech --
Yuliana huffs, as she plugs in some more settings. "It's not as if I ever wanted to steal everyone's freedom. I'm not a tyrant," she is, but this is not about that. "Anyway, she's intending to remove all military bases, industrial facilities, mining quarries, transit... every means to wage war, she said, but I don't think she's one of our mutual friends." A member of Celestial Being, she means. They remain their 'mutual friends', even now Yuliana doesn't really have any others. "But she hates our abyss, zhenushka. She had the temerity to ask -- and say it wasn't unreasonable for her to ask! -- that I abandon the means to make miracles happen! She said, with her own words, that she wants to close that door forever!"
Yuliana's scowling, now, and not because of the frustrations of the onboard computer. "As if the Gate is a door. Insulting, really. At the very least, she recognised that one's emotions should stay private inside them, but... she means to make the worst impulses of humanity verboten. Impossible. She'd destroy so much beauty just to stop human progress..."
Twiddle, twiddle. Bang. (That's her hand slamming against the console to get the damn thing to accept the connection she's just tried to make, as if Yuliana could ever make one.) "She seemed to think that if humans were simple and stupefied they would escape needing our Void, as if it were a punishment to be ducked! I told her how fool she was, of course. In darkness is freedom, the salvation of this world. She even tried to tell me that I'd be happy if she unchained me from the whims of whoever's strongest... as if love did not embrace me." She is bitter, of course, as she works on the machine.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
So, so frequently.
Elisa smiles at Yuliana's anger to the console. It's so very charming.
"Of course," Elisa accepts the obvious untruth. It's not as if Yuliana is a tyrant to her in any case. "Hmmm... An ambitious plan," she reflects. "Terribly wrongheaded, of course. To take away humanity's urges is to take away its soul. It is not in simple stupefaction that the Zentradi chose to embrace humanity, after all."
She hates the abyss... "She would not understand. Though she would not have to adapt much physically, to the Void, I suspect. She could be made to understand in time. But if she wishes otherwise..."
She considers. "Yes. We cannot have her destroying the beauty of man."
Bang! "It is possible that you could be 'happy' in such a world," Elisa allows. "But happiness alone is fleeting. There is so much more, such richer happiness that can be had, in the full flowering of man's potential."
"And love does so embrace you, my darling."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"It reminds me of home," Yuliana grouses. "Where everything was always fine, so long as the war didn't come to your backyard. We always had food, and equipment, and entertainment... the average citizen never went much deeper than that. I thought it was my duty to protect them! But now -- I spent years protecting them, and they all think I'm a traitor, now! It's rotten indoctrination," she's irritated at the Republic, and it's entirely because it's affecting her negatively, now.
(Oh, be fair. Elisa undoing years of brainwashing certainly helped. But would she be so cross, if it wasn't so personal?)
"Though you know," Yuliana pouts, looking back to Elisa, "that Asciel does put on performances. Apparently she's still trying to learn more with them all. Though I've listened to her music, and it's all dreadfully electronic. Hardly the sort of voice the Zentradi would have rallied around!" Not that Yuliana hasn't been cruel to girls with voices who would rally the Zentradi, but this is not about that, either.
She twiddles a few more knobs, only for her expression to brighten when a screen finally lights up. She turns back, and takes a step to fall into Elisa's arms again, embracing her just as she says. "If I am chained, there is nothing greater than these bindings," she insists, all sweetness despite her earlier sour insults. "Don't ever let go, zhenushka..."
More vulnerable, she admits: "... I need you."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa is pleased to hear Yuliana decry the Republic, naturally. It shows good progress and is not at all also a benefit because the Republic was a threat to Yuliana's whole heart belonging to Elisa. Regardless, "They do not understand, cannot understand, for their senses are dulled and their minds enshrouded by the work of the Republic. It is the same that that Asciel wishes to perpetuate."
"Hmmmm, does she? Perhaps I will listen. To learn of her, in turn." Elisa does like music. Even electronic music! "But I will temper my expectations... as you say, she does not seem to understand the heart of what was meant there." This is definitely not about that.
But a screen lights up! And Elisa catches Yuliana happily, holding her close. "Ah..."
She smiles warmly, with the correct number of teeth. "I will never let you go. Not in this world or the next."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana's so frosty, about her old nation, these days. No, not even frosty -- being cold is a good quality. She's angry at them, for what they have done, and one day they will know reckoning.
"They've drunk poison," Yuliana mutters, "and Asciel would serve the same damnable drink."
She sighs, and admits: "There is worse music out there, I suppose. But do temper your expectations, darling. I hate seeing you disappointed!" Some disappointments, being fair, are worse to see than others. Let us avoid them, now.
Yuliana's able to smile, at least, sinking into her wife again. Her tentacles wrap about her midsection, as her hands clasp at her shoulders. "I love being held by you," she murmurs, loving and relieved, nuzzling her face into Elisa's neck. "Please, don't ever let go..."
Asciel tried to talk about being bound as if it were a bad thing, but what kind of monster would try and unbind her from the woman she loves and the Void which loves her?
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Yes. It is a good, healthy anger. One that Elisa will stoke. They will see that reckoning.
"Indeed. Perhaps I will have to speak with her..." She could make a powerful ally, if they could change her mind--and if not, it is all the more important to know such a foe. Yes...
"I will do that. You are kind to look after my heart in this way, dear wife." Yes, Yuliana is also one who gives care! That's definitely the case. We can avoid those... other things.
Elisa pats a tentacle and smiles. "Ah, Yuliana..."
A terrible, terrible monster.
"Always."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Anger, like so many negative forces, is beautiful.
"Will you trouble yourself with her, sputnica zhizni?" Yuliana asks, of her life's companion, breath all brushing against her skin. Hers, at least, is warm. "She didn't seem entirely forsaken, recognising the threat of Newtypes left to run rampant, but... she's terribly stubborn. I hope she won't just frustrate you..."
Yuliana smiles, reaching up, with a hand, to cup Elisa's cheek. "I don't wish for you to have any cause to frown," she underlines, for she does so care for Elisa. (And she does. It's just... hard, for her.)
Her gaze softens further, delighted, feeling Elisa's fingertips on something like her jaws or her claws. "Always," she echoes her, as always she echoes her.
Even if the world doesn't realise her citations for what they are.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"I will," Elisa decides. "If nothing else, it will be an interesting experience. I need not establish so many hopes that will frustrate me, simply in an exploratory capacity." She smiles, and leans into Yuliana's hand. "I appreciate that," she says. "I know it to be true."
Always, they say. And the world, well...
There are many, many things the world does not yet realize.