2023-11-11: .oh, zhenushka, i weep that you know Her embracE
- Log: .oh, zhenushka, i weep that you know Her embracE
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Elisa Kafim
- Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- Date: 2023-11-11
- Summary: Elisa teleports through the use of green portals, not inky shadows. It becomes clear when she returns home that this was Her doing -- and Yuliana is horrified to realise that Elisa's received Her consideration, too. It's her turn to help her wife.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Please, send for me as soon as the Witchcraft Type reappears," Yuliana asks Jin Guanyu, one of those maids with emerald trim about her shoulders. Not teal; she's not a donor match. She is just privileged to work with the women directly.
"Sure thing," Guanyu agrees, smiling. She is well-paid; stars still shine in her eyes. "Will there be anything else, Mistress?"
"No, that will be all," Yuliana excuses her, as she reaches over to sip her tea.
"Thanks!" Wendy adds, with a little wave, as she leaves.
And it's a pleasant enough conversation they have, waiting for Elisa to return. Of course Yuliana is attended by her Court; Wendy would never come out and say that Elisa implied she really ought to stay back with her, but certainly she remembers the conversation. Until someone does come into the sitting room to say that the Spinatia's reappeared --
-- at which point, naturally, Yuliana rushes out to the stables to greet her wife, all rosy-cheeked by the time she gets back inside from having run through the below-freezing courtyard. (Her fur hat and hand-warmers are of course protecting her, just the same as her black cloaks, but it's still a nippy trip.)
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
The Witchcraft Type reappears, but not in a way that anyone expected. The shadows coalesce into the Witchcraft Type and Elisa herself. The Spinatia is intact--far moreso than it was at the end of the battle. But it is a little strange, its black metal faintly green in undertone in a way that it wasn't before.
Elisa is on the ground, reclined, in a ruined flight suit. It's black, but there are bloodstains all over it; tattered about her arm, one boot destroyed, Elisa's long hair left loose with the helmet off.
But she is completely unharmed. Thanks to the means by which she appeared...
Elisa has risen by the time that Yuliana rushes out to the stables. She is walking from the stables when Yuliana reaches her. It is a nippy trip; despite exposed skin, Elisa barely seems to notice.
Instead she comments, "It is... disorienting, Her touch," Elisa allows.
But she seems a little stiff.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
One of the mechanics will give Yuliana a report, later. A machine which melted from the shadows; the Strong Mistress draped on the earth. But for now --
"Elya!" Yuliana exclaims, rushing to her wife. She embraces her, fiercely, before she wraps an arm and a tentacle about her midsection to lead her back inside. "Oh, what did they do to you?! Those wretched fools!" That tattered flight suit, and --
Yuliana slows, perceptibly, as it hits her. "Oh, Elya," she says, with deepest concern, as she keeps guiding her in towards heat and safety. (The two things are linked.) "I am so... ah, I wish you had not felt such a thing. Does it still hurt...?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
For now...
"Ah, Yuliana," Elisa says, and she actually smiles, though only briefly. It is a distant thing; she said she was disoriented, in a way, and so she appears to be. She is led inside...
"It was necessary," Elisa says first. "The destruction was not sufficient at first. It was necessary that I, also, face some destruction. But less than I expected, it would appear. She saw to that."
A pause, and the things are linked, but, "No," Elisa says. "...It is fine. It helps me to understand you better."
"What you have felt..."
"It is difficult to describe. But I was repaired. Taken apart in places, and put back together. I feel... strong."
Pain has never been something Elisa was very concerned with.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
But Yuliana has always been concerned with pain -- even Elisa's, though she is undying and unfazed by injury.
Especially Elisa's, perhaps.
If Elisa won't worry about herself, it falls to Yuliana.
"At times is She merciful," Yuliana agrees, but the words are stilted by what is proper, in the face of Her influence. "Still, I..."
Yuliana's hand curls, about Elisa's arm. "... I would have been happy... if you didn't understand this particular thing. It's... all right, Elya. It's all right if it's difficult. It's all right if you need to cry, too..." Much as she has, waking up, some nights.
She leads her to some comfortable seating, in the foyer; she sits Elisa down, and sits down, beside her, holding her close with that tentacle wrapped about her midsection. "It does make you stronger," she says. "Always, the unmaking is for a purpose. She seeks to better us." And is it a comfort, knowing that...?
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Yuliana is very concerned. It falls to her...
"At times," Elisa agrees, but even so--even so, Yuliana is worried. Elisa looks to Yuliana as they walk; she is not so much taller than she is, half-barefoot and without her heels. "I do not," Elisa says of crying. "...There are no tears in me for this."
She is held close, and takes her seat, leaning lightly on Yuliana. "Those parts that were damaged, She removed, replaced. She infused me with energy. ...My own abilities could do much of it, with the power that She gave me, but even so She ensured it was all done." She is chilly, but that was already true; is it moreso? Is it just the cold she was in?
"It was a fascinating feeling, to be moved. Not since Pham have I felt what it is to be inside-out." Pause. "Oh, I am sorry to mention him. But I showed him the darkness. I showed him a glimpse of what it was... To force him to obey."
"But it did not work. Sheer force was not enough."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Of course," Yuliana allows, and she will grieve in her own heart for the tears which don't grace Elisa's face. They are almost equal, without Elisa's trappings and decorations; certainly, Yuliana could scoop her up and carry her.
But she just supports her to the lounge, instead. And she feels Elisa's chill, and she wraps her cloak around the both of them, hooking her legs over Elisa's legs. She is cooler than she was, herself, but she still has some base warmth -- it's necessary for her to maintain it, necessary for her to live as a mortal woman. Vainly she tries to warm Elisa with what little heat she has left to her, all wrapped in thick furs.
"Ah... you were... turned inside-out? What a wretched man... I'm glad Ritechka and the others killed him." Yuliana glowers, briefly, thinking of Pham Van Vinh. And if she remarks on the darkness being inside Elisa -- of her being turned inside-out being something which could force him to heel --
"It is..." She starts, and stops, reaching up to free a hand from her furs so she can press it to Elisa's cold cheek instead. "It is strange, isn't it? The feeling. Are you not a passenger inside yourself, under Her will? It demands surrender." And perhaps, with a feeling like that -- it's no wonder Elisa would have done such a thing to break Pham. "Though, She has already gifted you the power to repair yourself... so perhaps it's different, for you."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa is not so heavy, to someone of Yuliana's strength. That it is the other way around is not necessity of personal power. But Elisa walks under her own power, albeit with Yuliana's guidance, and feels that warmth from Yuliana distantly. "You are taking your medicine, yes?" she remarks, considering the data before her.
Then, "I did it myself," she explains. "But it was not enough, in the end. Yes. It is well that he is destroyed."
Then, she considers Yuliana. The feeling...
"No," Elisa says, with a shake of her head. "Instead, it felt as if I was watching my own body be changed. I felt it, of course. But at the same time I was able to observe."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Every day, zhenushka," Yuliana promises her, but the medicine is fighting against a greater power.
And she laughs, faint and wan. "Haha... oh, my darling, of course you did it to yourself. You have always grasped potential with both hands." It is... reassuring? Reassuring, to know she did it herself.
She strokes Elisa's cheek, gazing to her with clear concern. "That's right," she confirms. "... I don't always look. I've not the strength, sometimes. But it's all so, clinical... removing myself from myself. I wonder how She knows which parts to keep and which to cast away..."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Good," Elisa says. "Very good."
Then, she smiles. To grasp potential... It is her way. Yes. Clearly.
But Elisa looks back at Yuliana still, and lifts her hand, haltingly, to touch her wife's cheek too. "That is well," Elisa says. "You need not. It is I who must shape, and plan. Not you. You must listen, and guard yourself."
A pause. "She loves you," Elisa reflects. "So she must know you well enough to know what is essential, I suppose. Though..." She reflects. "Well," Elisa says. "I can account for matters."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
And Yuliana is pleased, to please her wife so. She doesn't enjoy the medications, but Elisa assures her she takes only what is necessary, and so she takes them. It's an unfortunate fact of her existence, so scarred by the Republic.
She is pleased, as well, to feel Elisa's finger's on her cheek -- "oh," she sighs, sotto voce, as she nuzzles her face into her fingertips. It's such a relieved sound. She always worries, when Elisa is hurt, that she'll...
No. She came back. She came back to her.
And it is Elisa who must plan... and hers to listen.
"She loves me," Yuliana echoes -- or is she confirming it for her? "She always has. And I am sure Her actions are clear, with Her wisdom... though I am not always blessed to understand." She sighs, again, shoulders lifting and falling with an uneasy smile. "... but I need not," she echoes Elisa, again. "I am grateful that you have taken this burden, Elya. It is no simple task."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa knows what Yuliana needs. She is sure of that. Certainly physically. And now...
She did come back.
"Yes," Elisa says. "Understanding is... difficult. We must study your own wisdom, to guess at Hers. But we shall. We shall understand much. And soon, it will be time."
She smiles. "I will take it. I will take all, for you. I love you, my darling."
Elisa leans forward, to embrace Yuliana, and sighs, sagging against her.
"But for now, I tire."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Yes... very soon." And if Yuliana is troubled about that...
... it's fine.
Yuliana embraces Elisa, gladly sinking into her, under her cloak. "Oh, Elya," she murmurs, stroking the back of her head. "I love you, zhenushka..." And she names her wife so warmly, all tangled up with her.
"Come," she murmurs, into Elisa's pointed ear. "Let us get you to bed, my darling. Even you must rest, sometimes." She'll make sure that Elisa gets out of that ragged pilot's suit and into more comfortable bedclothes, and of course she will stay with her, all the while.
It's the least she can do... when Elisa has protected her against Her affection for so long.