2023-12-08: ... and so, holding hope and love in my handS
- Log: ... and so, holding hope and love in my handS
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Elisa Kafim, Parminder Chaudhri
- Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- Date: 2023-12-05 (ICly 2023-12-08)
- Summary: Yuliana shows Elisa photos from her childhood, sharing her stories with her to help ground her wife in this world. Their conversation turns to Shari, and Yuliana encourages her wife's decision to let the girl leave and decide her own fate -- only for them to be interrupted by Parminder, bringing breaking news of what's going on in Fujinomiya. Yuliana explains why she has to go to her wife, and leaves, with her blessing, to grasp hope in her hands once more.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
It has been almost a week since the Gate failed to open -- and true to her word, Yuliana's stayed home. She's occupied her time alone with things like building model kits or gossiping with Wendy and Parminder; more often, though, she's been glued to Elisa's side.
So is she, now, all curled up in her wife's arms in one of their many sitting rooms. They were taking morning tea, in here, but the servants have long since taken the cakes so they're not in their way. The Mistresses are, frequently, occupied with each other.
She holds her phone up for them both to see with one of her tentacles, scrolling through photos with her other tentacle's claws. This, conveniently, leaves her hands free to hug her wife. (And of course her phone is tough enough to handle being used with claw-jaws. They learned that lesson ages ago.) "And here's the beach... see?" She's showing her photos of her home, when she was a child. Sashenka gave them to her recently, of course; it's not like she was keeping these around for so many years. (Her mother did.) "Haa... you know, when I was a small child, I actually liked to swim. We all learned early, by the shore as we were... better that than your child drowning because you look away a moment." Yuliana's smile grows a touch more threadbare, as she says: "But that was a long time ago..."
Before the floods, that is. Floods plural.
But even if it's a little melancholy, Yuliana's been trying to involve Elisa more in the world around her, lately. Even if they have to do it inside the Castle, safe from any women with executioner's blades.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa has been brooding when she's not with Yuliana, and sometimes when she is. Her frustration, while not directed at Yuliana, is still significant. Nevertheless, Yuliana's efforts have borne fruit; involving Elisa in her life is bringing her out of that distant place and more focused on the moment. ...That does mean she feels her frustration more than would otherwise be the case, but that's not all she feels.
Right now there is hug. Elisa appreciates these photographs. She does! "I believe I also enjoyed swimming," she says. "...But I enjoyed most athletic pursuits."
A long time ago, indeed...
"It is a lovely beach in any case. I have seen many beaches, of course. But this one is special, for it was yours."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
And Yuliana, now, feels that frustration, relayed through Her connection via those filaments at Elisa's ears. She almost wishes she didn't, sometimes. It's... overwhelming, being this connected to her wife. She knows it's not so different from her kinship with the Void, but...
But Elisa is here, with her, in the flesh.
She really is that thing she hated, isn't she...?
Her own anxiety, then, has been simmering beneath the surface -- but she is soothed by the presence of her wife, even given her worries. She appreciates Elisa. "Perhaps you still enjoy it," Yuliana suggests, kindly. "Have you tried?"
She smiles, head resting on Elisa's shoulder. "I used to get in a lot of trouble," she says, "because we'd steal the nets from the fishing-boats and string them up in the trees -- me and Rahma. We thought it was so funny watching the men trying to scale the trees, falling on their asses... of course, there's no way they could get up those paperbarks at their size. They'd get so mad!" She laughs, and her frills fan out behind her ears, happily.
Just don't ask where Rahma is now. She's one of the many who didn't make it.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa is not really accustomed to feeling someone else's anxiety either, even her wife's. But it is easy to separate it from her own feelings, in part because 'anxiety' is something that manifests quite differently in her.
"I have not," Elisa muses. "Perhaps I will." Not up here, naturally. In a proper pool.
Yuliana would worry if she swam in the ocean up here.
"My. How troublesome," Elisa says, but she is smiling. "It is an amusing image, to be sure. Clever even as a child..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
It's true that nothing is broken, in the sitting room, so Elisa probably isn't the anxious one. (Well, that's how Yuliana's always observed her expressing her anxiety, anyway.)
"You should," Yuliana encourages her, which is strange, because she's encouraging her to do something Yuliana won't do. But not in the ocean here, of course. The water here will literally kill you. Even Elisa would have to expend effort on keeping herself together in those temperatures. She's right to think Yuliana would worry!
(There are heated pools in the Castle, of course, but given one of them is Sokrova's, Elisa may wish to find an alternative. Unless she likes swimming with tigers. Tigers do like swimming an awful lot, unlike Yuliana, who is petrified of the idea.)
"Wasn't it?" Yuliana smiles, leaning on her wife's side. "We were absolute terrors, back then... well, that's the privilege of the young." She's even softhearted about the child she was, apparently. She does have an affection for children.
... where is their teenager, anyway? Yuliana hasn't said anything...
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Foibles!
"Yes, I believe I will. I will have to consider how to put this plan into action..." Elisa schemes, of course. But this time, for recreation. Indeed the ocean here is impractical...
But children, "Ha. Yes," she says. "It is." Yuliana's affection for children is plain. Even a certain child who she was not always so affectionate about.
"That reminds me," she says. "Did you see young Shari leave?"
A pause. "I am not angry with her. But she has certainly left the Castle, and without the item I gave her for protection."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Haha," Yuliana laughs, pleased, hearing Elisa scheming. She finds Elisa's schemes delightful, generally speaking.
She sinks into Elisa, quite relaxed -- until her next question makes her heart skip a beat. Elisa hardly needs those filaments at her ears to translate Yuliana's alarm from the Void; she's not subtle.
"Ah..." But Elisa isn't angry with her, and that, at least, soothes her heart. She tilts her head to look up to her wife, and says, now she's asked her so directly: "She left a few days ago, zhenushka. She's of the age to run away... and I suppose she's going through quite a bit, given what Britannia did the day before we acted. I do believe her school was the site of that..."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa is good at schemes.
No, though--she is not subtle, Elisa's wife. She assumed there would be some anxiety there, which is why she made a point of expressing her (lack of) feeling about it.
"I see," Elisa says. "She is of that age. And it is true. The massacre in Nagoya... It was notable."
She is going through a lot. And, well...
"But I do not believe she will return to us."
She considers that. "...We no longer have need of her services. I believe I will let this stand. If she wishes to stand on her own..."
"So be it. But she will be without our protection, now."
Elisa has mixed feelings on the matter; she has known Shari for some time. But she is not hurt by her departure. No, it's... different from that.
And partially she favors it out of sheer stubbornness, at the moment.
"Not that I can track her so easily now in any case. Good luck to her, I suppose."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"No," Yuliana agrees with Elisa's assessment on how permanent that departure is, a little more downcast, "I suppose not." She is sad to see Shari go, at least.
At least under her present circumstances.
"It is good of you to let her go," she says, gaze veiled by teal lashes. "She's trying to find herself, I suppose, and the help of adults is rarely appreciated in such matters. I did assure her she would have a place here if she wished to return, but..."
Yuliana sighs. "... perhaps I was too hard on her..."
She doesn't remember just how hard, of course; she's thinking of all those times she brought her back ruined machines and told her, cheerfully, to get on fixing them.
But she can sense Elisa's mixed feelings, and she reaches up a hand, to press against her wife's cheek. "Elya," she asks, gently, "are you all right...?" She's concerned for her, in all this.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa does not do 'sad' in quite the same way as others tend to; it is a complex feeling that perhaps she will manage better in time... but for now it is 'thoughtful' more.
"Hmm." Good of her. Maybe. "This is true. I would not appreciate it, if I were in her position. And I suppose I do see something of myself in her..."
She shakes her head. "No," Elisa says. "You were not."
Mostly because Elisa didn't allow her to be. But this is not about that.
"If she returns, she returns." She looks down to Yuliana, and inclines her head. "I am fine," she says. "I suppose it is..."
"Perhaps it is reasonable, for someone She hates not to serve Her. For now. Perhaps Shari can redeem herself in time, but not now."
"I suppose it is just that I do not blame her for leaving. We gave her difficult work, and perhaps she wishes to have her own life. Perhaps we should allow that, for a time."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"There's nothing wrong with that," Yuliana says, of Elisa seeing herself in Shari. "She does have fine qualities." Because, of course, anything of Elisa in Shari is a good thing, according to Yuliana.
And she's relieved, at least, to hear Elisa say she wasn't too harsh on the girl. Why isn't a question she thinks to ask.
Of course, it's a matter of Shari redeeming herself; She does hate her. Yuliana is relieved to hear that Elisa doesn't blame her, though she can see it's a difficult feeling, for her, in the lengths it takes her to explore it.
"We should," she affirms. "It costs us little, and she has worked hard for us, after all. We can permit her to find herself, Elya."
She strokes Elisa's cheek, and smiles, sadly. "But it is a little melancholy, isn't it? Seeing the girl go..."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"She does," Elisa agrees. "In this I mean her inquisitiveness, largely. She does not have my discipline, but she could learn it, given the inclination."
But, indeed--Elisa blames neither Yuliana nor Shari for this. Instead, "Very well. Then that is what we shall do. Wherever she goes from here, it is up to her. I shall wait to hear of the things she accomplishes." A pause. "...I have enough green fold, now, to maintain our operations for some time."
But she did work hard...
"Yes," Elisa says. "It turns a corner. ...There is much that is different, now. And we shall see this world..."
"But one of those differences is my commitment to better understanding this world."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"She is yet young," Yuliana agrees, on her lack of discipline. "Your finest qualities are not easy to cultivate, sputnica zhizni... it is a thing to be proud of, that you have mastered it."
And she smiles, reaching down to place fingers upon her necklace. "Of course, I will be happy to charge any dwindling fold," she assures her. "I would never leave you, zhenushka. We are united."
But it's different, now.
Yuliana reaches her hand up, to steady herself on Elisa's shoulder, as she lifts her face to kiss her wife. "You are already doing so well," she praises her. "And you will know more and more, as time passes. I shall --"
This is the exact moment when Yuliana's phone chimes an alert. A message:
> MrsMercedes: yo lmao check this shit out
> MrsMercedes: oh lol im on this account? fuckin a
> MrsMercedes: neway fujinomiyas poppin
> sunshine0076: I am WITH my WIFE
Yuliana's immediate message -- sent from one sockpuppet to another, because naturally Parminder knows all her fake accounts -- is as predictable as it is snappish, as she's forced to stop gazing lovingly at Elisa to look at her screen again. But the data he sends through makes it immediately clear that Dr. Hell is on the move.
"Shit," Yuliana says.
> sunshine0076: Shit
Like that.
Her heart quickens, as she looks from her screen to her wife. "Elya --" Yuliana starts, her fingers tightening, at her shoulder. "I know I said I'd stay here, but... you know why I want to go, don't you? If it wasn't for him... they might never have realised my use as a soldier." It was Yuliana defying orders, stealing a Tendus and leaping into the front lines which demonstrated that she could fight, after all. After that... after that, they put her to work as a pilot.
"I..." She starts, and her brow knits.
It's not just that she hates Dr. Hell, of course. She owes the Photon Power League -- and, separately, Boss.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"...That is true."
Elisa smiles. "Always, we are united."
Elisa leans against Yuliana for a few moments longer than strictly she needs to, and she is praised. "Yuliana..."
Pause.
'Shit', Yuliana says.
Elisa can 'feel' how important it is to Yuliana, of course. Their bond is grown in that respect. And of course, she knows what it is to her...
"I do," Elisa says, reserving judgement for long moments as she mulls over the matter. And...
Yes, of course.
"...I would not stop you from something as important as this," Elisa says. "I only urge you to be careful. Doubly careful."
A pause. "...And I would like you to tell me why it is so important to you. I believe I am aware..."
"But when it is this important, I wish it to be open, between us."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
It's a very happy moment, until it's interrupted, PARMINDER.
"I will," Yuliana says. "I'll take the Masquerion -- it's not even in our colours. They'll not know it's me." They fit their machines with voice-changers as a matter of fact, after all.
But Elisa bids she tell her, and Yuliana can't deny that. "It's... more than one reason," she says, with her own pause as she collects her thoughts.
(Beep!)
(> MrsMercedes: soooo u goin or)
(> sunshine0076: IM BUSY)
(> sunshine0076: Yes now stop buggimg ne)
She doesn't look away from Elisa for long. (And her time spent typing is brief enough that she doesn't even notice her spellchecker trying to correct her last two words. More's the pity.) "It's true that I hate Dr. Hell," she says, frowning. "But in that war, a lot of people were watching my back. One of them -- Boss -- he saved my life, with Nuke and Mucha. And he'll be out there fighting, now. Probably still in Boss Borot, too..."
Yuliana sighs. "And... it's true that the Photon Power League helped Ritechka and I, not long ago. They gave the criminals a place to hide away... it's possible those Helium-3 tanks might have done more damage, if they hadn't given them a place to rest and plan. Of course, they're our enemies, but... they did help us, then." Because, of course, helping Yuliana is helping Elisa. They're a united pair! "But most of the people involved in that incident are occupied... or gone to elsewhere. I'm probably the only one left who can settle that debt."
She pauses.
"... and... I want to do something to help, Elya," she adds, more shy. "If we're going to live in this world... we've made a lot of trouble, lately. If I just stand by and let Dr. Hell do as he likes to the Earth... how can I say I want to improve this world? I fought in the Mycenae War because it was the right thing to do," and there's something despairing, about that. "I feel like... I lost that, as the years went on... and the Republic made their weapon of me."
Something as vulnerable as that -- she could never say to anyone else.
But she'll say it to Elisa.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Very well."
Elisa is patient, in this. She waits. She does not, as it happens, have to wait very long. Yuliana explains, vulnerability and all, and Elisa listens to her, her green eyes grave on her wife as she listens to such an important story.
"I see... So, a debt, to start. And another."
They did help; Elisa sees the obvious logic that helping the one helps the other, of course. Even if they are enemies now, a debt is a debt. "Yes, that is true. Many are elsewhere now, as Dr. Hell threatens the world..."
But Yuliana simply wants to help. If Elisa were most devoted to Her, she might be inclined to quash this desire. Once, perhaps she would have redirected it. But now...
"While I do not believe we have a debt to repay as regards the North Pole," Elisa says carefully, "...I support your desire. I will support you in this. Dr. Hell's vision must not be allowed to come to pass. For the sake of this world, and for the sake of the world we intend to bring about, both."
"...But above all," Elisa says, "For you. For that thing that you have lost."
"Go, and reclaim it, my darling. I..."
"I sense that should his machinations begin, I may be unable to intervene. So you must promise me to prioritize yourself above all else. Find this thing you have lost..."
"Find it, and return to me with it."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana nods, when Elisa says they have no debt to settle for the North Pole; her own heart is more uneasy, but it's easier to accept that kind of logic from her wife. And she smiles, when Elisa speaks of her support, her understanding of why.
"Elya," she murmurs, her cheeks colouring with affection. For her! Of course Elisa would understand something so important! There is no greater joy, for her.
"I promise," she assures her. "I will take no more than I can handle. And of course I welcome you to watch me... though you are right to suspect Dr. Hell may well do something to thwart intervention." Yuliana sighs, with a little tilt of her head, sympathetic to her wife's position at home. "But I will come home, zhenushka. I will bring this thing back to you..."
The evil locked deep within a canopic jar,
"... this 'hope'."