2023-12-20: Divinity ~ The Love Awarded to Fated Loneliness
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Elisa Kafim, Asciel Colette
- Where: The Arctic - Silent Castle
- Date: U.C. 0097 12 20
- Summary: The herald of the monochrome rainbow enters the gates of the prismatic void, aiming to settle a score. ...but everyone could predict it'd be a meeting impenetrable to any but the three of them.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
The Silent Castle stands, on lonely Kaffeklubben, at the top of the world. Half the year is it cloaked in darkness; grasped in night, the only light comes from the stars and its elegantly barred windows. And perhaps it was hidden in night, once --
-- but it is clear, now, who dwells here, all written in the inert and dull-red iceberg of Psychoframe cresting from the water beside the island. It is clear, now, who bought this land. Britannia can't argue the sale. It was entirely legal, checked by a dozen lawyers on its way.
No one wanted it. No one has lived here for millennia.
Now it is home -- and when Yuliana sits in residence, it is truly Silent, bathed in her oppressive aura.
And now it has been localised, they are prone to... visitors. The Tuatha de Dannan came by but a week ago; a few days prior, Judau Ashta all but knocked down the door. Their steward, Durai Sharma, has been briefed on this hazard by now; a blue-eyed man with dark skin and a haughty personality, he is the one those visitors tend to first treat with.
(There is a gate, in the vast stone walls of the Castle. And it is sized for war-machines, but there is a smaller entrance, there, as well, with an intercom to communicate with the people inside. ... it's too cold for someone to be manning the gate all the time; Durai has a portable receiver he carries with him.)
Now, when another visitor come to those gates...
"Very well," Durai sniffs, after a short delay in the rich and lavish foyer, "the Mistresses will see you now."
... the Throne Room he escorts said visitor to is a vast chamber, large enough to fit a full-sized Meltrandi. The throne is just as large; crafted from the finest plush green velvet and rich rose gold, it towers over the hall. Its headrest curves forward, and on one of those sloped angles is a flat footrest -- for there's a second throne, built in close to the top of the second, to leave both Meltrandi and human rulers at roughly similar eye-level. This throne is smaller, but no less lavish, scored with intricate draconic detail; peek behind the thrones, and one will find a set of stairs, leading up one of the claw feet and across the back.
In that throne, sized to her, Yuliana sits; draped in black robes, green frills rising behind her ears. (And this, the source of the Silence, reaching so far from her side to embrace the Castle entirely.) A black scarf drapes, about her neck. The things like snakes or claws which erupt from her back are folded, neatly, in her lap, as her fingers drum on her armrests. She tilts her head back, to look to her wife. "Honestly," she sighs, and she's only a little nettled. "Much more of this, and we'll have to declare opening hours..."
(Don't ask what she interrupted, to come here.)
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
There have been many visitors of late indeed, and Elisa Kafim is somewhat impatient with it. She did not choose to put her castle at the ends of the Earth to have visitors all the time.
ELisa Kafim is Macronzied today. And she is waiting. She is in huge, voluminous black robes, wearing a crown. And of course...
"Hmmm," ELisa says of opening hours. "Yes," she says. "That would be... un-ideal."
But it might happen anyway, of course. She smiles at her wife, anyway. "But so long as you are here, I will bear it."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
Maybe the citizens of Earth, enduring crisis after crisis after crisis over the past few months, might come to believe the resolution of a number of ticking time bombs gives them a sigh of relief. Infinity was put to rest - Jupiter was restored - the Invisible Burst finally ceased. Yet once more the end of the world was nigh - yet once more, miracles saved it.
>ridiculous. there's still an endless number of ongoing crises. any day now Japan erupts into war. whether there will or will not be a Federation is in serious debate. the irregulars aiding ZAFT which intel suggests are, somehow, related to the Jovian Lizards continue to loom large. my contact on the Macross Quarter tells me they and the Nadesico narrowly evaded two separate planetary-level crisis events only by following a third crisis and pacifying it by firing a fourth crisis. uncontrolled agents are rapidly consolidating positions of power. Celestial Being remains at large, and while they certainly were...momentarily suppressed, just-
>just LOOK at what they did to this beautiful, unspoiled part of the world. obscene. twisting my planet to their own ridiculous desires. i've a mind to ruin them just for that...
...How fortuitous, of course, that the Silent Castle was built to accomodate the living and travel of a fully sized Meltrandi, because the Kafims' next guest arrives...in the form of the 'Virtual Sage's' familiar cyan Arm Slave, just about matched in height with Elisa (well, a meter shorter, but). It's arrived lightly armed, which is hardly much comfort, considering the Kafims' previous encounters with Asciel had her constantly getting in their way with the power of...imagination??? Seldom few in the world can explain just what Amalgam's top-secret Codarls are exactly doing when they activate the Lambda Driver.
...But that seems to be mysteriously inert today too. A lot is off with 'Asciel', as that towering form approaches the twin thrones, not least of which being the concealment of her face behind the far more inhuman mono-eyed front visor.
"I imagine you must realize I'd arrive regardless of 'opening hours'. To make such a disastrous mess and not expect your ~opposition to come calling would be naive at its most generous."
...and even more off is the decidedly metallic, artificial, low-tonality tinge to...'Asciel'?'s voice. It is not one she(?) has ever used in just about any public dealing, even when there were obvious, active incentives to concealing her identity. Now, of course, she's long since done no such thing. Everyone who cares knows that her and the elusive terrorist 'Atrytone' were one and the same.
The Codarl comes to a halt, eighteen meters away from Elisa's throne. Its footsteps are as quiet and padded as a ten ton machine possibly could be.
"...Uncanny. Yuliana appears to be in...well, I wouldn't say you're in a state any human should be in, considering what's ~growing upon you, but you're alive. Good."
An accusing finger points at Elisa more directly. "You would still put another through that kind of ~suffering for the sake of your own ~convocation. I find that unspeakable, Elisa Kafim. Humans ~suffering for the sake of gods seems to be the inevitable fault in divinity, when I had appraised 'divinity' as the solitary class of being able to bear the ~pain of an entire planet. If you wished to be 'unsealed', you should have born one hundred percent of that ~suffering upon ~yourself. You should have been more willing to ~tear apart your own flesh and become your own key and gate."
The hand lowers, and the judgmentally glowing orange optic in the Codarl's faceplate flickers and re-activates in a single circle. "But it appears 'miracles' and 'gods' are simply inherently incompatible with this planet."
"...Are you disappointed, Elisa?"
"...You should be. It is a cold and bleak feeling to experience transcending, only to realize it must never happen at any cost. And indeed...you yourself appraised the cost of one woman's harm as too great."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana smiles, to Elisa, in turn. Her own crown is much like her wife's, if perhaps a shade more feminine, curving like a fine tiara across her brow. Emerald, onyx, and diamonds dot its length, and its spikes are crafted from fine rose gold. "You are so patient," she praises her.
But they have a visitor, and Yuliana turns her attention forward, towards her.
A Codarl has come into their living space -- but Yuliana shows no fear, facing it down. She is beside her wife, and Elisa would never allow her to come to harm in her own home. (Luckily, yes, their home is large enough to fit a nine-metre guest... in these central chambers, at least. Not all of the Castle is built with size in mind.)
"You think you're the first?" She asks, instead, when Asciel talks about the mess they've made. "... yes, I suppose you would. You're an arrogant creature." If one who's speaking in a strange tone.
And she sniffs, and says, when Asciel notices her physical state: "My Elisa has always ensured I'm well." The snakes at her lap lift, things like jaws or claws opening with a hiss which comes not from there but from the crests at their necks rattling together.
She glares, when Asciel levies those accusations against her wife -- but since Asciel levies them at Elisa, she doesn't interrupt to talk over her, either. Her disapproval of these insults is, instead, carried entirely in the sneer of her lips.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Hmm."
Elisa is calm, but not unconcerned, at the Arm Slave in her home. Better to say that she is vigilant even before that unusual voice out of Asciel's 'form'.
"As if I would allow anything less," ELisa says of Yuliana's form.
Then that accusing finger--
Unspeakable," Elisa says, "And yet, you speak it."
She laughs, then, long and rich.
"And what do you know of ascension? What do you know of gods?"
"Indeed, though, there is an incompatibility." She smiles--to Yuliana, and inclines her head. Then she looks back to the Arm Slave once again.
"Your appraisal is naive, rooted in Middle Age ideals. There was once a 'god' who is as you describe. Some still believe in Him. He sent a part of himself to the world, a sacrifice for His people..."
"And bore the pain of a 'world'. And yet, I do not see Him. I have not met Him."
"No. Gods throughout human history have long turned a blind eye to suffering. It is the nature of humans to suffer. My approach would see humanity evolve past the need for such suffering."
"...But it is not to be, today. I have no intentions at this time of reopening the Gate."
"So, are you here merely to insult me, or do you wish to speak?"
"'Disappointment' is for lessers. I have my wife. That is all I require. The rest will come in time, or not at all."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
The fibers in 'Atrytone's' neck contract just enough to shoot a glance Yuliana's way, to glow just a little more. Not like it's anticipated that Yuliana, of all people, is prone to be that intimidated...
"There are limits to ~breaking and ~reforging, Yuliana Kafim. It is one thing for a god to do it to themselves. It is another to be their ~puppet. ...I have determined it was no longer an ethical idea to rely upon the puppet that is 'Asciel Colette' to consort with humanity, and so, I...~discarded her."
Both of Atrytone's arms extend forward, weighing the dichotomy in each palm. "Divinity that cares for humanity is a contorted perversion, and will either lead to twisting humanity beyond all recognition, as in your case-" The hand in Yuliana's direction twists downward, and closes. "-or in ~tainting divinity to succumb to humanity, as I had a near brush with myself." The hand in Elisa's direction stays upright, and clenches.
...Elisa, of course, alludes to a most specific 'god'. Atrytone may be a figure of utmost arrogance, but at least interrupting isn't on its agenda.
"...hah."
Raising one hand to its face, a few short, sharp, mechanical effigies of laugter emerge. Stifled from the delirious, toppling laughs Asciel's known for. -For just a moment, instead of that mechanical manipulator, Atrytone expects a familiar gloved hand, marked with stigmata as a cute joke at that 'God's' expense.
"...Ah. Ahhhh, the main thing I know of gods is that they never answered a single prayer, because they never truly ~manifested into being. Humanity ~deluded themselves into hoping, dreaming, wishing that there was something inhuman that could answer them. Humanity tore themselves apart because of their godless world they yet were certain a god could exist in. They repeatedly ~decide, to this day, that their kings are gods - that their generals are gods - that their idols are gods. They may not use the same word - but it is a restrained form of the same expression. They look at other humans - exactly the same as themselves - and say, 'this one, however, is ~more than human'."
...Atrytone may well say it 'discarded' Asciel, but for just a moment - the shell of a hollow, mechanical voice drops into the idol's more familiar tones.
"It is into that world I arrived. A truly inhuman entity, awoken to the sound of their prayer. To answer this suffering, I decided it'd never happen again, and I would listen to all of their prayers night and day to pacify them. ...A foolish thought. It is much easier, in the end, to be a system that eliminates threats, rather than to be a god that poisons itself on the wine of humanity."
...And yet, she has to 'pretend' to be a systematic entity anymore. Asciel's voice of an idol has become so familiar that any other speech is forced.
"...hah. ...that's why it's difficult to look at you, Elisa. In the same breath you speak of divinity, that thing which emerged from the gate smelled of twisted humanity. ...You don't seem to mind being colored by them. Being molded by them. ...But isn't it painful?"
Atrytone's heel squeaks upon the tile floor, a rubbery ceramic material cladding the Codarl's feet. The artificial filter over its voice skitters and screeches at being applied to a far more impassioned outburst. "Isn't every way you evolve painful? How can you claim humanity will evolve past suffering when evolution is suffering? Evolve into what? What hell on earth do you plan to create that humanity must resemble what you answer - twisted and fractalized and bent and split apart?"
"...if it doesn't hurt you. If Yuliana is the one between you two who bears all the pain, then perhaps you're right. Perhaps gods are inherently cruel and unknowing of suffering. I had thought I could answer it my own way, once."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"I am no puppet," Yuliana informs Asciel, archly, with a straight back and chin held high.
"I am the bride of God."
Her lips curl, in a sneer. She sits at eye-level with Elisa, her own throne built into the headrest of her wife's; thus does Atrytone's hand lower below her, where she sits. "... and how predictable that you do not understand love," she adds, acrid. "You have a facsimile's comprehension of divinity. Humble yourself!"
And Yuliana thinks Elisa's laugh is beautiful -- even the tones she reserves for fools like this. She looks to her wife, and smiles, the distaste on her face melting the instant she makes eye-contact with the woman she loves most.
It is not a smile she offers Asciel. Her gaze is stern, looking back to her.
Elisa speaks of their intentions, and Yuliana nods, in agreement and support... yes, the God which Elisa describes is dead, killed by mankind. Once, she may have thought the Empress could not have been God, knowing only His rotting corpse. She knows the truth, now: She is greater still.
And of course her heart sings its romance, as Elisa declares that she only requires her. She smiles, again, hearing that, her frills fanning pleased against the sides of her head.
"In all things, we are partners," is all she volunteers, at the end of Atrytone's speech against her wife. "You are too absolute." She accuses her, of course, of being all or nothing -- invoking all of Yuliana's suffering, or all of Elisa's divinity.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Do not insult my wife," Elisa says simply of 'puppet'.
"Did you?" Elisa wonders of Asciel Colette. "Hmm."
"You certainly have strong ideals," Elisa muses. "Firm beliefs. You speak of these things as if they are objectively 'true'. As if they are the simple, logical deductions of a cold machine."
Elisa smiles. She has the correct number of teeth.
She does not immediately answer the rest, yet. Instead she listens, and hears of why it is difficult. THe heel squeaks...
"I do not hide from pain," Elisa says simply. "I relish it. I cherish it. Every bent bone is another testament to my movement towards perfection."
"I do not deny humanity. I arose from humanity, and more. My greater Self clearly does not understand suffering--but I will return this knowledge to Her."
"A thing cannot interact with the Other without becoming more of the Other. Relationships, bonds--these are the nature of communication. These are the nature of reality. Just as atoms bond with one another to create the building blocks of matter, so too do humanity and divinity bond."
"You fail to realize, however--there there is another possibility."
"The answer to a prayer may be 'no', Asciel Colette."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
To be accused of being an engine of logic - the 'truth' - and Asciel Colette - the 'falsehood', in nearly the same breath...there's the faintest of twitches in the motors that control the Codarl's faceplate.
Like the furtive emergence of an insect's leg from its cocoon.
"...I won't hear the idea that millennia of humanity's suffering, and their begging to the sky for a kinder world, was something true divinity looked upon and denied. If it is true, those gods are cowards, and I will slay the lot of them for the immeasurable pain they have willingly allowed to take place."
In conflating 'divinity' with 'authority', then, what it even means to Atrytone is some form of responsibility for the caretaking of others...
Or is it just revenge?
The hiss of heat spills from Atrytone's rear vents - combined with a tightening in its abdomen, there's the momentary sign one would associate with a lunge forward in attack...but no, it's very obviously a stiff step backwards that quickly goes back to a formal, tight, statue-like posture. "...The inhuman shouldn't marry the human. That much is self-evident. But it's also very clearly too late for the both of you, who've become a tangled mess of both halves."
A creak, in the loom that knitted Atrytone's doll.
>stop...stop being such a reminder that i never...cleaned it free of me...
"Kh. In that sense, your entwinement is enviable, in a sickening sort of way. You can dance and pour your grotesquely matched desires towards each other freely, paired despite your inequity. You're afraid of hurting your wife, Elisa, but hardly too afraid to put her on the table. And I-"
>I [promise] I will never leave 'Ai'.
Atrytone staggers sideways - only to catch itself upon a column, fingers clutching the stone tightly. "...my own consort...is the truest epitome of glowing humanity in this world. A prize beyond all others, already perfect from birth. ...And yet, I can tell in her eyes. The further I push myself beyond my physical boundaries, the further I seize what only the inhuman can seize, the more she wants. The more she desires to ~transcend with me."
"...Rightfully, she would be spared that pain. Rightfully, she would be in dire agony from touching something like me. Rightfully, I would leave behind that ridiculous notion of being in love with her, so that she can live and prosper in ways only humans can, and so that I can fulfill the [promises] I made to humanity and the Earth."
"...but for you two, you've made these divides inseparable, and yet only ~seize greater heights. ...what in the world did you do to right that wrong?"
...is...is she...
...asking these two for romantic advice?
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Elisa's greater Self, Yuliana thinks, may well have forgotten suffering -- when She carved Herself in twain, to send Elisa to her side.
"Then you are no God," she answers Atrytone, when she declares that she will slay the gods, "but a slave, bound to a million conflicting desires. God's will is absolute. And it is the nature of freedom, to have a choice. If the answer may not be 'no,' then tell me -- how does it feel to be at humanity's beck and call?"
It's a cruel question to pose, but even so, Yuliana doesn't fear that hiss of heat. She doesn't even flinch. She is beside her wife; no harm will come to her. "Do not describe my wife as a mess," she chastises her, frowning.
"She does not put me upon the table. I go of my own volition, to achieve our dreams for humanity's salvation."
Her eyes narrow, as Asciel pleads, to her ears, for it all to make sense. (And that's one way to hear it, certainly.) "Begin," she says, "by ceasing to refer to love as a wrong. I say again that you are arrogant, facsimile. In your arrogance, you speak of what is right, and yet you degenerate your woman even as you place her upon your pedestal. If you would truly honour her, you must trust her. If you will not... you will never understand how she feels."
A human, loving something which isn't.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa enjoys that faint twitch. She spots it, of course. Her smile widens. Instead of pressing it, though, she listens to divinity, authority, and cowardice...
"Yes," Elisa answers. "I believe you would."
But 'self-evident', is it? Elisa lifts an eyebrow... only to notice the way that 'Asciel' continues. THe way she calls it envious.
Yuliana speaks. Elisa smiles more widely. "Indeed."
"Yes. Quite the opposite... I have tried, more than once, to convince Yuliana not to risk herself. And yet, she does."
But... Hmmm. Yes.
"Yes. Allow her to evolve at her own will. That which is human can yet Become. You do not know what is Right and what is wrong, because you are yet conflicted yourself."
"You speak of putting away your identity; you speak of putting aside 'love'."
"You must put aside that which is 'self-evident', and search more deeply."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
"...their desires are so conflicting. It's maddening. Hnh..." The indignity of these two advising Atrytone isn't lost. Clarity and anger bubble up hand in hand.
"...It was going to be so much clearer when I wiped the world clear, and allowed everyone to live in simple harmony. Their desires would be simpler. Clearer. More limited, because they'd no longer live in a world so rife with conflicting demands." ...By correlation, an utterly self-serving reason to save the world. 'So that it isn't as complicated to love'.
It's clear Elisa and Yuliana's conclusion is harsh enough to be correct. That on some level, all of her 'becoming' Asciel was just a new and inventive way of reframing the purpose she was built for. Something she never, ever managed to escape.
And yet, hearing it simply told to her, from the people she despises the most in the world - despite more or less asking them to tell her-
The Codarl's spine stiffens. Its eye stares not at Elisa, nor Yuliana directly, but their crowns.
"...what slave could possibly satisfy the desires of everyone?"
Electricity sparks all over Atrytone's frame, inducing a reverberation in her honey-sweet voice.
"Love...love is fulfilling those ~yearnings. Humans can barely bring themselves to love a single other person. It's considered unthinkable for one to give of themselves to just a large number of people. To ~become something that CAN answer every...single...prayer...isn't it...amazing?!"
That dizzyingly familiar mania rockets up to the forefront. "Heee, you think it's pathetic, but I see it, and it'd take all my choice and freedom to seize that star. I see it on the ~horizon - the world that exists where for the first time, a single entity can answer every single question and ache of others!~ It's something only I can do! It's unspeakably wrong, but ~fulfilling it means only I, and I alone, do everything wrong! Isn't it the ~dream everyone has for an idol?! Heeeh~-"
The smoldering electricity shuts off, and quickly is replaced with smoke - the excitement in Asciel's voice replaced with the cold indifference Atrytone's tried its hardest to maintain.
"...Thus, you are correct. That would amount to functional enslavement to the masses. That's why that dream is foolish, idolatry unsustainable. ...It is...unattainable, when the utmost priority is to purge the world of strength and exploitation. The desires of the masses are a corruption. It continues to be apparent to me that you desire a world where everyone is strong, and I desire a world where everyone is weak, to similar ends of freeing them all. How frustrating. Humans do not fight amongst themselves owing to their disparity in strength, but because of the limits of their environment. Such an 'evolved' humanity would only eat the universe alive. What would fuel their growth, upon a planet already exhausted by their already extant ravenousness?"
...'Conflicted' is certainly a light way to put just what exactly happened there.
"...hmph. I was foolish not to bring her here. You would have seen how already perfect my consort is, how there is no further becoming she needs to perform. ...but something is clearly unfulfilled. What an awful world we made, where even she was lonely, where only I could fulfill her. ...It's too late, in any event, for me to truly stop her from 'becoming' in unison with me, so I must simply...accept that pain when it comes. Kch. I won't forgive you for encouraging her, if she becomes eerily like either of you."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"A slave in service to all mankind," Yuliana answers, evenly, and she does not fear that sparking electricity, even as she provokes a war-machine with no defence about her. "A perfect slave, perfectly shaped to their demands."
She sits beside her wife, and fears nothing. (Nothing, at least, that she will say to Atrytone; but perhaps Elisa hears the language she uses.)
"Oh," she adds, with a smile which doesn't reach her eyes. "Excuse me." She does not need to be excused. No --
"The word I was looking for was created."
-- she's pulling a knife from herself, to plunge it into Asciel's ribs, instead.
She can still be a cruel woman, faced with someone she loathes so much. Don't forget it so easily.
But she does not dwell on the way men programmed Asciel to meet their demands; she is gracious enough to listen to her, instead, as she describes the differences in their opinions.
"Foolish?" She asks, at length. "I think you were afraid. How unreasonable, to damn us for the actions of a woman we've never met... does it soothe your soul to shift the blame from yourself, this way?" A light pause, "Ah. You'll excuse me, again. I implied, in error, that you've a soul."
She laughs, and in contrast to Elisa, hers is light and chipper; it's not difficult to imagine her giggling, with as much spite. "Hahaha... listen to you. You speak of the universe being consumed, as if it were a monolith. You know not the depths of our realities, the sheer scope of potential expansion. You say the Earth is exhausted? We would revitalise it with all creation, were we only to find our gentle path." A path gentle upon Yuliana, anyway. She might find the violence of evolution distasteful, but...
... well, she's still human, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Maddening, is it? "Yes. To follow billions of conflicting desires... It will only drive you mad."
A laugh, then. Again. "Yes. To attempt to kill the 'spirit of man' is pointless. We can guide it, perhaps. Shape it. But destroy it? Never."
But what slave?
"A very good slave," Elisa says of what kind of slave could do it. "A very talented one. But you are more than that, now."
A smile, to Yuliana. "Now now, darling. She is more than her origins, now. As am I. As are we all."
But the foolish dream... Hmmm. "I do not ask anything of idols besides sweet voices and sweet music," she says. "As for your dream..."
"Heh heh. If my humanity devours the universe, so be it. But Yuliana is correct. We give, not merely destroy. THere are new frontiers to be discovered."
"Perhaps I will delight in meeting your mate another time," she says. "I am sure that whatever her will, I will not influence it unduly, if she is so stubborn as you say."
"Accept the pain that comes. Accept it, and embrace it. The pain is how you know you will be changed."
"...For those who would be 'gods', this is the path. In this, at least, you were correct. Take what pain you can from those dear to you. ...But always there is a price."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
A gesture much like 'breathing' from the Codarl. Fuming air inwards through its rear vents - pushing blistering heat out through upper apertures. Each time, its body rises and falls. It shouldn't have to, for the function of air exchange to work.
"...Only the foolish...are never afraid. Only the truly cowardly are unwilling to face fear. Fear is what births bravery. So...hah." Atrytone's hand covers its own face - tightly enough that it worries Asciel's face might unwittingly emerge, and still require covering.
But in doing so, it can finally stand more securely, more resolutely. "I hold no hesitation at drowning in fear. I hold no hesitation at enduring agony. I will not take what pain I can -I will take all of it. I will make myself more than what I am - and unlike you two, who can be considered human - I will not have it thwarted by others deciding to pity me for what I undergo."
...If being terrified - if being in pain is what gives Atrytone bravery, then...
"...If you ask me, that's your gravest weakness. Pain is how you know you transform - but everyone around you, everyone we encounter, everyone who stops you, they always insist: 'isn't that too much pain to go through?'. That thing they call 'empathy' is disgusting, isn't it? Yes...Yuliana...you find it insulting to insist you can't handle more. And yet - this thing known as 'care' keeps stopping you. You want to go further and further, but they keep insisting you have limits."
Finally, that comfortable arrogance returns, past the dizzying, disorienting self-conflict that threatened to make Atrytone explode. Finally, it can stand with its hand on one hip.
"That is what I'll always have which you don't. None would look at the way I transform, and recoil in disgust. None would behold the ways I've molded my shell and my interior, augmented and twisted myself, and try and stop me."
A gleam flickers across Atrytone's optic - if a single orange camera can look smug at Elisa and Yuliana, it somehow achieves this. "...Well. Between the two of you, it's Yuliana who clearly can't catch a break there. In the end, I've come here ultimately to be a thorn in your side, Elisa Kafim - because I can dearly understand just what you've been doing to yourself, as well. I offer you the spite of empathy. Behold it and cherish it and reject it."
In some small way, there's pride to be found even as the machine, and not the idol...
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"You are right, of course," Yuliana smiles, to her wife. "It is unkind to judge her as she began." But she's an unkind woman, goes the unsaid implication.
And she smiles, as Elisa speaks of pain, for none has embraced more than she. "I am neither fool nor coward," she answers Atrytone, obliquely. Perhaps it's the influence of her wife which keeps her honest.
"It is the care of others which aids me," she says, spreading her palm and fingers in a relaxed gesture. "Empathy need not be a transgression. Nothing is more human than communicating what one wishes to express, and there is no shame to be had in the limitations of these bonds. I am glad for my wife, who tries so valiantly to convince me not to push myself... just as she is glad for the spirit which leads me to test my limits time and time again."
She smiles, her hand coming to rest on her armrest again. "We are not in opposition. We are united."
Yuliana tilts her head, and her 'snakes' hiss, with those rattling crests. "But are you so sure you are immune from the care of others? Once again, you must humble yourself. If you are more than your beginnings, you have become a thing humanity will love. Have you not told us this is so? Even you stand here, before us, and reach out to my Elisa with your pleas to connect..."
She straightens, her chin tilting up, as she smiles. "... but you would claim that none would look at you and reach out to you in turn? Humble yourself, arrogant woman, or you will fall without ending. Thus do I see." And she has not Seen it, but even the waking gaze of an oracle is something which pierces.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Foolishness and fear. Elisa is still smiling.
"Heh heh heh..." She will not have it thwarted, will she? "I think you will find that your assumptions may be in error."
"Empathy... Yes, it is fascinating, is it not? A means by which one may understand another, though this is naturally impossible. To be a thorn in my side, though..."
She smiles, and places her large hands together, to clap. "You have done admirably."
"I am fond of you, I think, 'Atrytone'. Perhaps in time you will indeed understand. Perhaps not."
"But go, with my blessing."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
...Is a blessing what she wanted?
"Truthfully, I'd have preferred if you had chased me out with violence and anger, but I suppose if you are to peacefully send me off, it is an achievement in its own right." Crossing its arms tightly - in a way somewhere between 'a stance of imposing authority' and 'clingily self-embracing' - Atrytone emits a sigh, head hanging in tune with the exhale. Constantly, 'Asciel' tried to make awkward noises of breathing, and now, rejecting that imparted humanity, it's so second nature.
"...Well, perhaps it was always going to be that way, paying you a visit in the sigh between calamities. I can only imagine you're as exhausted as I, given all that's transpired on Earth since then. You can bathe easily in each others' 'care', contorted as it is."
>just watching it makes me sick with-
>...sick with the urge to return to you...
Pivoting its arm upwards, Atrytone points at Yuliana firmly, elbow resting in its other hand. "...There is a difference between 'awe' and 'care', you understand. The thing that fills me when thousands watched my acts is not 'care'. It is incapable of being both given and received. ...In your past life on the stage, I wonder if you felt it, Elisa Kafim. ...Hah. ...Now that I think about it - of course you have. The eyes of millions captivated on what you clawed and pushed yourself to obtain an award for being a gymnast of excellence..."
There's a compelled and dreamy noise in a clearer voice emitting from Atrytone's speakers - and yet, its body language pushes it to carefully step backwards. "Yes. Yes, you would understand. Drinking from the wine of one-way attention...that may be exactly where we can never understand each other. Yours, obtained at the pinnacle of changing yourself - a single, spectacular moment engraved in history known by the world. For me...mere thousands, but they follow and fixate on my every word and sigh and confession."
"Which one-sided 'love' carries the greater responsibility, I wonder? I think...I finally grasp just why you bother me so greatly, realizing that simple little disparity between us."
Pivoting on one heel, in some small way, Atrytone's seized the answer she wanted, and she can peacefully, gracefully make her walk out from an oh so graceless meeting, one arm held up in a wave...
...it's good that she's turned away. Maybe they hear it. The gentle sliding of the Codarl's face parting where nobody can see, just before it walks through the gate.
The hope is that nobody sees.
That dizzy-eyed expression of Asciel's, as all her secluded emotions burst past the mask, dulling Atrytone's means of truly processing the talk she's just had.
--I've become a thing humanity will love I've become a thing humanity will love I've become a thing humanity will love I've become a thing humanity will love I've become a
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
And since Elisa is amused, Yuliana smiles, too. So long as she is pleased, Yuliana will bear the annoyance Asciel brings them.
"Imagine as you like," she allows, graciously. "But since we're not friends, there's no need to discuss something like that, is there?" You'd never know she was sobbing to Judau, just days prior.
And her smile, when Asciel points to her, is not kind.
"You think I speak of your precious little hobby, wretch? No. I speak of the likes of Koji and Sayaka -- surely you remember them. It is not the masses you must fear... but those who've seen you."
And she smiles, as she says: "No one is watching you, now, as you confess your insufficiencies to our Court. Where did they go, I wonder?" And how does she know, as she mocks Asciel's own turn of phrase?
Be patient.
"Farewell," she says, graciously enough. But outside --
A little drone buzzes up, in front of the Codarl, as its faceplates slide away.
There's a *CLICK* of a photo being taken, and the robot must have been designed to make that obvious, with such a bright flash.
Merrily, Parminder's drone flits away before it can be grasped...
... and Atrytone's excuse for crying appears on the internet in all her fan's biggest circles, not an hour later.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Hm hm."
Perhaps it would always have been that way. That they are exhausted... Hmm.
"Not at all," Elisa says. "But we can. We will."
Awe and care... Hmmm.
Elisa smiles, when Atrytone says these things. When she recalls Elisa's past. "Is that why I bother you?" she wonders, asking the question more for the question itself than the answer.
She sees that wave...
"Be well." Elisa can tell that Yuliana is more annoyed, but she has found the experience enriching indeed. "Ahh, of course..."
"Yes, my darling. You were marvelously patient."
Elisa is still smiling, when she leaves, and shakes her head. "Ah, that 'person' may never understand, I think."
"Her very perception of the world is at odds with reality itself."
"..What care had I, for the 'love' of the many? I excelled for the beauty of the sport. Because I could."
"For a one-sided love carries no responsibility at all."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
...If Asciel's display of swirly, red-faced outbursting and muttering silently to herself made for a poorly dignified exit, then the tiny near-crisis that ensues for just a minute is an even worse display...
Because immediately, closing the faceplate in steam-billowing embarassment, Atrytone fiercely engages in life or death attempts to leap skyward and catch that flitting drone between her hands, like crushing a butterfly. But-
...Before she knows it, Parminder's drone has escaped into the wind - and with just about all her good-will utterly crushed, the only diplomatic move Atrytone has is to re-cloak and sprint away from the Silent Castle without anyone seeing, but for the incessant muttering of, "humiliating humiliating humiliating humiliating-" across the dark Arctic winds.
-- -- -- -- --
...She isn't checking those comments consciously.
It was decided that the sundering of the world merited leaving 'Asciel' behind. But-
...A flicker of will that stays connected can't help but pursue the reaction to her outburst. Suppressed into exploding, she can't help but spin with emotion behind her own outward self's back.
((they're pitying me adoring me hating me sharing me laughing at me laughing with me mocking me praising me it's too much but more more more aaaaa---))