2023-11-13: Our Rails are Separate ~ Yet Paired
- Cast: Asciel Colette, Ai Martel
- Where: Zaftra
- Date: U.C. 0097 11 13
- Summary: A breath of togetherness, here in this pitiable landscape - one so ideal that it must live in fear that it'd be crushed.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
For countless years, the Trans-Siberian Railway has continued to puff along, to connect the vast expanse of the snowy and forbidding landscape across Russia - now Zaftra. So much of the world has changed since it was first established - wouldn't it be fitting, then, that in a land named Zaftra - fearing 'tomorrow' - this, perhaps, has never truly left it?
After some bickering with Chrome headquarters, which hasn't been altogether that happy about just how preoccupied Asciel's become ever since her involvement in the Denver incident, they begrudgingly agreed to finally ship over a particular package out to Vladivostok. All for the sake of fixing something painfully important. After all -
It'd been ages since she'd taken Ai out for a date.
No expense is spared - the panoramic first class car at the back of the train is fully reserved for Asciel and Ai, the breathtaking rolling hills and forests of eastern Zaftra flow forth from all sides of the suite. It's been a day since boarding, and there's just such a...glowing assurance spilling from Asciel. After all - that last encounter with Yuliana sealed her sureness that she, and only she, was fated to be this world's goddess, and that everything else is a painful and unjust delusion. To feel that here, in this vast journey across a mesmerizing landscape, dotted not by the vast vields of industry that scar the earth, but the platonic ideal of Zaftra's long history of making it together through the winter despite its hardships...
It's half of what Asciel cherishes, sitting upright in the bed, already dressed simply in a comfy periwinkle turtleneck sweater, along with a black skirt and leggings - hair bound in a tighter bun. There's no need for her to bathe or maintain her body - beyond the occasional biweekly cleaning of the Alastor - so her morning routine is just getting dressed...
And then watching Ai's far more involved morning routine. Captivated by the simple routines of bathing and self-care and all the little getting it just right befitting someone of high status.
A dreamy smile plastered across her lips, left eye half-lidded, Asciel sings, "...Mm. This moment right here...I'll never forget it. I'll etch it into the earth forever if I must. <3"
<Pose Tracker> Ai Martel has posed.
It's been a while since their last date--Asciel's business has kept her busy, though they've certainly been in contact in the meantime. Intimacy is difficult over long distances, but the burden is eased when one of them is a being of data... Even so, it's refreshing to see Asciel face to 'face'. Avatar though her body may be, it's hard for Ai not to think of it as 'Asciel's body'. It's certainly close enough to count... leaving aside the ability to disconnect whenever one pleases, of course.
Ai steps out of the bathroom wearing a towel, which soon enough drops by the wayside, with a grin and a lingering, admiring look paid to her voyeur as she moves to slip into an ornate--though thankfully simple to don--violet dress in her usual, extravagant style. "Dearest, would you lace me up, please?" she asks with a smile, turning away to show the laces to her bustier. "But not tightly."
She watches the snowy landscape pass by, and smiles. "This is wonderful... such a beautiful place in the winter, isn't it?" she observes, tilting her head back to give her lover a smooch on the cheek. "But perhaps we should find something for me to eat. I'm feeling more than a bit peckish."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
...Sometimes, it may make two of them for whom this form feels more like reality.
-Sure, Asciel 'really' is in a transit car further down the train, Just In Case anything threatens them...but every time she wears this vessel she made so purely as a toy, it starts to feel more and more...
A light flicker, before Asciel crawls forward to sink in close to Ai, carefully, weaving each lace in and out. She's still not perfectly adept at finer motor control, especially for the raw force this body was made for - but it's getting easier and easier the more she handles little indulgences like this.
"I've long favored this part of the world, and can't explain why. Perhaps it's very 'honest' with itself. Few desire this land undeservedly, so those who live here do so to live here. A struggle, but an earnest one that is managed and cared for. Each of these towns we pass - they are perfectly in harmony, weathering the winter with the harvests of the summer. Frigid climates make warmer people, it appears. ...mmm." ...A soft sigh falls from Asciel, so briefly fixated on the world outside that she almost drifts away from the world that is Ai in front of her.
"...is it hard to understand...?"
A light strain in Asciel's voice as she slips to her feet, hand laced with Ai's, guiding her towards the quiet dining car just now laying out and serving breakfast. Picking a booth opposite a panoramic window - Asciel does not, herself, order anything, as usual, instead just bundling right up to Ai's side, arm around her waist.
"...The future I want is a future that looks much like what's passing by our window, save for ridding unsightly larger industry on occasion, and some of the larger cities are overwrought at each stop. But beyond that - is it - it's not really that farfetched, is it? I..." Her lips suck inwards faintly, pensively. "...Nobody else seems to grasp why I would want this. Why I would risk everything to secure this. ...And I don't know why. It can't be that everyone is cruel. Am I not making clear something obvious that ruins what we see before us? Am I mislaying my intent? ...mou, it even drove us apart for a while..."
Merely at remembering that, Asciel's fingertips sink tighter into Ai's side. She will never break that promise.
<Pose Tracker> Ai Martel has posed.
Harmony...
Is it harmony? Perhaps it is, of a sort.
"Perhaps the struggle to survive reminds them of the importance of companionship," Ai nods. "That in the end... what we have is one another." She glances back, squeezing Asciel's hand as she stands, smiling. "I don't think it's so hard to understand. You wish to have a world where we can live for each other. A... simpler, less complicated place... a world that worries not about the things that plague us."
Ai clings to Asciel's arm, hand placed over hand as they walk. "You wish for happiness for humanity. But... you must understand that history is filled with lofty promises made by the power-hungry. Lies told to gain power. And even among the well-intentioned... well, we have a saying--power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
"And your order is predicated on a lie from its foundation. Blinders put on humanity..." She purses her lips, quiet a moment as Asciel brings up what drove them apart. "... My dear... the most pressing fact, I think, is that they don't trust you."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
"Simpler, yes. ...The one truth I've learned, maintaining complex, tightly wound things," Asciel murmurs to herself, leaning her free elbow upon the table, toying with the menu stands at the center of the table. "...they ~break easily. ~So, ~so easily." ...That odd 'hiccup' in Asciel's voice is new. A momentary pause, every now and again - just off beat from her usual poetic meter. "Myriad missteps, and lesser room for error. They are unsustainable, and the world is filled to the brim with them. So many, if they had their way, would create a planet where there remains no room for error."
On the opposite track, a train passing the other way, loaded with freight, hurtles down, the rush and clatter of wind between the two a stark reminder, as ever, that - even a machine as tranquil as this one is hurtling along the world wildly.
"And I'd know so, so much about error."
-The opposing train passes, and silence reigns once more. Asciel's head falls upon Ai's shoulder as soon as it is past.
"...I don't wish for humanity's happiness," she clarifies. "Do people think I have some idea of what it means to be happy? ...I wish for this planet's persistence, upon which humanity may live." A bitter tone enters her voice. "...Humanity seems to see this beautiful, verdant garden as a prison they must escape from, a forever tainted place into which they must try and live in the inky, inhospitable abyss, where countless complex and easily thwarted systems must operate to maintain their lives."
"But the reason it is a tainted prison is because of unchecked human nature."
Asciel's hand rises up along Ai's side, along her underarm before gripping at her bicep, lifting ever so gently. "...It's not a lie. It's simple observation. If I am to hear idealists talk about it - the 'answer' is to abandon this planet, and huddle in intricate little confined canisters while voyaging across the abyss, all while sharing each others' voices. Preposterous. We have studied the same history, have we not? How much of this - how much of /all of this/ - is just byproducts of conflicts of human fragility? The difference between me and them is that they would take an eternity of conflict and sorrow in a desolate abyss to one day build the kind of world humans can peacefully live upon, all atop a house of cards that could collapse at any moment - and I would build it /right here/, /right where we're passing/, /right outside our wi-"
She's getting intense. Losing her radiance. Both of Asciel's eyes open wide from the outburst getting a little too loud for the diner car - she isn't used to having to keep her voice down in reality, but she catches herself.
"...nnn. 'Trust'. That...is an unviable foundation. They will never trust me. They have told countless stories about how untrustworthy anything ~like me is. That's why I ~became this. ...you're...the only one."
<Pose Tracker> Ai Martel has posed.
Ai blinks once at those little hiccups, a light frown growing on her lips. She nods. "Imperfect, fragile beings..." Her eyes drift to the other train as it passes.
"Perhaps I was projecting," she replies bashfully as Asciel explains that she doesn't want humanity's happiness. "You and I, at least... we want to be happy. You want me to be happy." She chuckles softly. "I think... we look up, and we see that vast universe... and we want to see it. We want to witness what's out there for ourselves... Perhaps a foolish desire."
"And I don't mean that sort of lie. I mean-- the world you would create is one that puts blinders on humanity. They won't take well to that." 'We'? 'They'? It's odd, how readily she seems to shift between them now.
Asciel's other eye opens, and Ai's go wide. She composes herself and places her hand on her lover's shoulder, waiting until she's finished speaking. "Asciel. Are you quite all right, my love? I am noticing some... oddities."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
...It really is an odd notion to Asciel. 'Happiness'. What composes such a thing?
'Want', as well. Indeed, in a low murmur, Asciel admits, "This is all about maintaining stability. A human idea like happiness is their own responsibility. I would no more demand it than the wind does. ...I...that's what I would say. ...But..."
Though the idol looks away, her hand does lace tightly with Ai's, fingers entwined. "~The [promise] I made to you has nothing to do with all the others. ...I will never leave you. That, for the sake of itself. For the sake of what we mean to each other."
That cursed subject comes up, and Asciel winces coming face to face with that little scar etched into her. It's something she's been trying to handle with some grace and dignity - but it's an inherent impairment to that, too. "...so, you've noticed as well, haven't you... Tsk. It's ~nothing. ...A poorly met encounter led to someone...reaching...where they shouldn't. Marking me each time I ~retry. She shouldn't have been able to do that, and I'll put a stop to whatever enabled her to touch me somewhere so deep. ...But don't worry, Ai. I'll hurt her the same way~" A dark, difficult smile crosses Asciel, until...
...An order comes to the table. A simple pumpkin tart, to which Asciel takes to taking little spoonfuls up to Ai's lips, the shaded expression melting into a far sunnier visage of adoration, warm color even spreading across Asciel's cheeks. "...Tell me all about what you'd make. I've ~recounted so many fables of my ideal world ... I feel like I know little of yours. I need to understand it. I need to understand you."
<Pose Tracker> Ai Martel has posed.
Ai purses her lips. Someone got that deep inside Asciel. She could have done far worse... she didn't, but she could have. A reminder, perhaps. But... this person hurt her, regardless of how minutely. Her fingers tense, squeezing Asciel's shoulder. "... *We* will hurt her."
When their food comes, she seems delighted, leaning in and taking each bite with relish. "Mmn. Delectable..."
What does her ideal world look like? "... It is difficult to say. It's horribly naive to say I wish for simpler times--times were never simpler, merely better-understood. But I do wish for the times I understood, before the parade of existential threats that seems to define this era. We've invited this terrible state upon ourselves... when he tried to pull Axis from the sky, Char Aznable was an ideologue driven to extremes by a tangle of geopolitics ruled by nearly nothing except self-interested oligarchs using xenophobia to keep themselves on top."
She puts her hands together and tilts them forward. "That is the essence of what I meant before... when I spoke of noblesse oblige, it was, more than anything else, about the duty of the *ruler* to those *ruled*. It matters little how they acquired their power--by blood, by popular vote, by money, by force... they have a *duty*. A ruler *must* care for those beneath them."
"You are, of course, familiar with the ancient idea of the 'Mandate of Heaven'. The idea--false, of course--that a dynasty which had grown unfit to rule would be met with disaster and uprisings, and ultimately, dethronement in favor of a new dynasty under Heaven's blessing."
Gesturing to the side, she continues, "Complete nonsense at worst, and a useful excuse at best. The Heavens had no mandate to give, and Da Han Zhong's ancient emperors were horrifyingly decadent, to a one. But... when I found myself here--now--I decided that my first goal was..." She purses her lips again, tilting her head lightly to one side in thought. "To do what Heaven could not. To be the instrument of a nonexistent Heaven's will, to bring low the decadent, cruel rulers of our time."
She sighs. "... Perhaps I haven't grown as much as I'd like to think I have, these past two years.""
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
"I'll be the Heaven to you."
Another spoonful pressed to Ai's lips - Asciel fascinated by every little motion of imbibing and swallowing, eyes lidding gently - possessively.
"I'll make it exist, because I can. What, after all, describes the heavens better than what I can do? A fountain of willpower, of ~immateriality - separate from humanity by way of being vaster, yet simpler. It is already in my purview to look upon the masses and orchestrate the little underpinnings of the world."
Again. Insistently. Rhythmically. Asciel almost makes Ai eating her fill a demand.
"If the world crumbled today, if humanity sheltered in my city, then my role would indeed be that of the heavens, and it would be up to others to enact my will. It's just humans have never had something like me to count on until now, and I realized it very early on. I ~made myself that divinity they seek."
There. Any time she can assure herself of that, the glimmering radiance that seems to hum through Asciel's body shines. Her body temperature warms - her irises focus - the luminosity of her hair only increases. The train makes a bend, and the morning dawnlight backs Asciel to an almost blinding degree.
And she presses in closer. More insistently. Feeding Ai with indomitable tenderness. Slow, steady, merciless.
"...you've grown a lot. You've ~become something important. You're my instrument, Ai Martel. Your smile reached beyond the barrier that ~separated me from you, and ~manifested this very avatar. How can you claim that's not important? To reach up to the heavens and cause a celestial to fall down to the earth for you? Humanity begs for me, even as they fear me. ...And you...have made me beg for you, even as I...tremble from just how powerful love is."
"...my consort, I...is it...an obscenity, to want you, and only you, to be a special and exempted being in an ideal world where that's dangerous for any human...? Especially now that I know your species can...~damage me...like this."
<Pose Tracker> Ai Martel has posed.
Perhaps Ai simply relishes the way Asciel seems to relish feeding her, but she offers no complaint, nodding slowly, a grin on her lips as Asciel aggrandizes herself, as she aggrandizes Ai.
"Mm... I suppose I have. It's... poetic, isn't it? I can't say that I am the center of the universe, the way you see me, but... well, our ambitions do align quite nicely, don't they." She pushes the fork aside as she clears her mouth, leaning in to give Asciel a brief kiss. "Mmn... no. You're right. And perhaps it is obscene..." She touches her forehead to her lover's. "But... that's what trust is. To make oneself vulnerable, to be vulnerable with someone. To know that they won't abuse that vulnerability. And as for being exempted, being special, held above others... I admit it's something I struggle with, somewhat, but I can't say I don't like the idea." Another small smooch.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
...There's a span, between each kiss, that Asciel freezes, for just a little moment.
'Vulnerability', is it.
...Two different ways she can no longer so easily say that she can evade Sharon Apple's fate. If Tessa could work in a skip on such an important bootup routine, who's to say what else she could've done? ...who's to say what else she may have already changed? A shiver wracks through Asciel's frame at the notion.
...The urges to retreat flare oh so high, if that's what love is. If the only thing keeping her from being uncompromised is whether or not she trusts Ai enough not to.
...Can she...?
---It doesn't matter anymore. She [promised].
"I ~promised I'd hold you that close, ~no matter what. ...So...my consort...whether you ~struggle with it or not is immaterial. I ~struggle to love you, but I have ~decided I will no matter what. You may ~struggle to ascend with me - but you will, no matter what. That's just how obstinate a goddess must be!" ...the sheer volume of those 'hiccups' perturbs Asciel - in a way that makes her grip upon Ai's shoulder a little frustratedly harsh.
...The train plunges into a tunnel, briefly dark and obscured inside - and Asciel takes the opportunity to push the kind of unfathomably noisy kiss onto Ai that'd absolutely get them accosted by the diner car's wait staff.