2024-01-09: A Surprise Meeting! Void and Warmth!
- Log: 2024-01-09
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Boss
- Where: Photon Power Labs, Fujinomiya City
- OOC - IC Date: February 0098
- Summary: After long enough with no sign of contact, Boss decides to head back to the Photon Power Labs to ask Sayaka about Yuliana. Who should he find instead but Yuliana herself? She tells him about her motivations during Goragon, and the changes to her body. Boss makes it clear that he refuses to think any less of her for them.'
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
It's February, now, and Yuliana has come to visit the Photon Power Labs again. They've finished their initial analysis of the Orchid Cells which Elisa sent to them -- and their Photon Printer has managed to replicate them, though their scientists can tell why it was impossible to clone the cells through conventional methods.
(They're alien, and all the Earth biology in the world won't save them.)
Now they want to see just how those cells interact with Yuliana's body, so they've asked her to participate in some medical imaging, using the advanced principles of Photon Power. When they explained the procedure -- that it wouldn't hurt, no one would actually be touching her, and they were just effectively taking a complicated photo of her brain -- she was willing to go along with it. But when she's inside the machine...
"Just stay still a little longer," the attendant encourages her, calmly.
Far less calm, Yuliana snaps, inside the machine: "You'd like that, wouldn't you?! I am THIS CLOSE to breaking out of this fucking nightmare and PRYING your pea-brained head off of your misshapen body!"
The attendant takes a breath. "I know it's claustrophobic in there, but if you keep jerking around..."
"Rrrgh-- I know, all right?! Just shut up!" Everyone was quiet until her fidgeting got to be too obvious. But somehow, she manages to calm down enough to stay still for the machine's scans to finish.
The attendant gets her out of the machine, and says, before she can wheel around and say anything: "I can see this is hard on you. Do you want to take a break?"
"I--!!" Yuliana starts, curling her hand to a fist, before she sags and rubs at her opposite arm. She folds her tentacles back in behind her ears, where she'd unfurled them for the tests, and glowers at the floor. "... yeah. Yeah, sure. I'll do that."
She proceeds to wheel out of the room, stomp down the hall, and hop up onto a windowsill to look at everything going on down below instead. Her clothing is appropriate to Japan's weather, so she's dressed warm, but not Arctic-warm; a green cardigan closed over a grey t-shirt displaying some old rock band's logo (SNAFU Zaku!) and dark slacks, counterpointed by a bright pink-and-blue scarf tucked about her neck.
Luckily, Photon Power imaging is advanced enough that she didn't have to take out her gold earrings.
<Pose Tracker> Boss has posed.
It's been a while since Boss has heard some details about Yuliana's present situation, and he's begun to suspect that she won't actually be showing up to Boss Ramen for a chat, at least not the way things are right now. What specifically the problem is, he's not so sure. To find out, he's back at the PPL, here to ask Sayaka what he should do next. He's prepared to hear that the answer is just that he needs to wait, and he'll accept that if he hears it, but Boss isn't fond of sitting on his hands. Better to make sure he's doing everything he can.
So, here he is! He's expecting to find Sayaka, and ask for some more details on whether it's still a good idea to set up a talk. He hasn't seen any more news about Yuliana doing anything criminal, so he figures that's probably a good sign of some sort about her stay at the PPL. He's headed in the general direction of Sayaka's office, although he's at least looking in most rooms he passes - He knows full well that she doesn't spend all her time behind any one desk. (Most of the staff recognize him through one means or another, and he offers friendly waves to any he sees as he passes by.) Instead of finding who he's looking for, though, he hears another familiar voice...
"Yuliana!" He heads immediately for the sound and wastes no time in catching her attention. His greeting is a little lower in volume than usual (he did hear sounds that implies she's not likely to respond well to Full Volume) but despite everything, it still carries Boss's usual jovial tone. He's happy to see his old friend again, and he's determined to do his part in helping her. "I'd heard you were in the area, but I didn't think I'd just stumble across you. How've you been?" An open-ended question, which Boss knows might not get much of a response, but he wants to afford her that option. The fact that they're talking is enough, as a start.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana presses her forehead to the cool glass; her fingers flex, and grasp, and release. She remembers to breathe. It goes like this, in, and out...
"Hrn," she grunts, interrupted in her focus by her name. She looks up, straightening up off of the windowsill and turning to see -- "Boss?" Yuliana frowns, her hands falling back to press against the windowsill.
He seems... pleased to see her, and she's nervous, at once. Why would he want to see her, after what Alma did?! (With the powers she got from the Kafims, fine, yes, that's also true.) Her gaze is suspicious, but she doesn't stop him from getting closer, either.
"Boss," she recognises him, cautiously.
And, strangely, getting into conversational distance will reveal something strange: her eyes are different, now. There's no black to them, any more; her pupils have faded or disappeared, which makes it, if anything, a little harder to see where she's looking.
(She's definitely looking at Boss, though. He's the biggest thing in the hall -- not that she's terribly small, herself.)
"... I've been better," she says, carefully, brushing her bangs behind an ear. (She's not hiding that scar down the left side of her face behind them, like she was last time she saw him.) "I didn't expect to see you here... though I suppose it's no surprise." Her finger twitches, as she frowns, aside, looking at her hand. It has a rich rose-gold wedding ring, all set with emeralds and onyx and diamonds -- and a purple bracelet is visible, under her cardigan. "Where are the others?" She asks, without looking at him. "Nuke and Mucha."
<Pose Tracker> Boss has posed.
Boss, of course, can tell that Yuliana's on edge. The effect of her aura may stop some more supernatural means of sensing emotions, but Boss has picked up some knowledge of the old-fashioned skill of understanding body language. Not that he doesn't feel something strange upon walking closer, for as miniscule as the effect on him may be, but it hardly registers to him. He's got more important things to focus on right now.
He's not grinning ear to ear - he is, in his heart - still worried for Yuliana's sake - but Boss still effortlessly wears a warm smile. He's a sentimental type, and no amount of evil void ice will make him forget their camaraderie during the Mycenae war. He also hasn't forgotten the incident with Alma at Boss Ramen, but that danger has passed by now, and he's not the grudge-holding type. (Not these days, anyway.)
He notices the eyes right away, and the scar after a moment. They both seem like they might indicate problems, especially since he already knows she's had things Done To Her both recently and longer ago, but he can't say for sure. Besides, he's found commenting on someone's physical appearance right away doesn't always work out. (Who says he didn't learn anything from his younger years?) Instead, he responds to her words - "'better' is always good to hear. Not that I'm an expert on what 'worse' was, but it's good to hear the PPL is treating you well." He's got a lot of gratitude to them, himself, so he's confident they've been doing everything they can. His faith isn't easily shaken!
"I'm not actually here as much as I used to, but I still swing by every so often. Easier to visit than the Science Fortress, that's for sure." Boss is tempted to launch into reminiscing about all the times they used to have, but he reminds himself he's here for a reason. "They're both running the shop", he says on the topic of Nuke and Mucha. "I used to tell them they could close up for a bit if things got too much, but I'd always come back to find them at the top of their game anyways. Eventually I decided I'd trust them to know their own limits."
Boss, of course, does not have the knowledge necessary to compare and contrast with any other relevant situations regarding trust and limits.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Well, he might not be grinning as wide as he could be, but Boss is still... smiling. Yuliana notices that, and what he focuses on, and...
... after a moment, she hops back up onto the windowsill. It's like having a seat, and is anyone going to tell her not to sit there? Clearly not. One ankle hooks around another, as she settles down a little. She still wears a fearsome set of boots.
"They're all right," she says, of the PPL's treatment, which -- well, if it sounds like faint praise, that's just because it's hard for her to remember that they're not trying to hurt her in finding a solution to her problems. (In her eyes, she's being remarkably fair not yelling at them for... her own claustrophobia.)
But she tilts her head, with a look of recognition, when he mentions the Science Fortress. She doesn't interrupt any more, letting him get to his friends -- and when he mentions their efforts, she nods. "It's unsurprising. They're good at what they do, really. It's important to have reliable people with you."
Yuliana folds her arms in her lap -- and if her cardigan looks a little bunched, about the waist, surely it's just her belly and nothing hidden underneath. "We were staying at the Science Fortress ourselves a while," she explains that look in her eyes, finally. "Well -- not me, too much, but -- Rita and Zoltan, and I suppose Shelby and Michele sometimes, too." She frowns, looking down at her hands, where her finger plays at her ring. "Not that all of us were friends, you understand, but there were certain matters which compelled us to work together at the time. Those issues with the Helium-3 tanks -- you might have heard." There was coverage of the Narrative Gundam's attack on the Helium-3 field, and the ghosts of Denver Colony which were woken by the threat to the world. "Back then... well, I suppose they were largely helping Rita, but it's still true the PPL offered us aid at that time."
Yuliana frowns at her hands, her heels impacting the wall, lightly, swinging back and forth. "That's... part of why I was there," she says, "for Goragon. It was stupid. I shouldn't have stuck my neck out when everyone wanted to chop it off. But... I just had some debts to pay off. With you, too, right?" Her fingers tap on the back of her hand, drumming one-two-three. "So we're even," she adds, sourly.
<Pose Tracker> Boss has posed.
All right..? Boss briefly considers to what extent Yuliana's apprehension is coming from her compared to how much the PPL might actually giving her trouble, but he decides it's better to leave it be for now. If Yuliana really does have problems with how they're treating her, he'll wait until she says so outright.
"Nothing more true that!" he says of 'reliable people', and for the first time he's got a full-scale Boss smile on. "I say it all the time, but I wouldn't be anywhere without the two of them. There's a whole bunch of people I wouldn't be where I am without, honestly, but there's no shame in that. Means I love giving back to them that much more!" Yuliana is of course included in this group. How many times she's helped the Borot trio, it's hard to say, but Boss isn't keeping score.
Okay, he might've been keeping score at the time, but it was friendly. RIGHT NOW he isn't keeping score.
He waits for Yuliana to finish everything she says regarding the Science Fortress before he speaks again. "The Fortress is back?? Well, now I want to go see it again... ah, but it's probably all secretive just like it used to be. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a 'Don't Let Boss Leak Our Coordinates' poster on the wall", he says with a chuckle. "I've got an idea of the stuff with the Helium-3. I'm sure it's hard to work with people you don't like, but sometimes there are things bigger than that." Which leads him to...
"Well, no one did chop your neck off, did they? I won't say that means you're all best pals, but I think that's got to count for something." Boss thinks over the idea of bringing out Borot again to be "paying a debt" for a moment. "Well, in a way, you could say that... I care a lot about what Koji's done for me, and there's a lot I'd do if the only reason was 'cause he asked. But I don't think I'd have said no if it was someone else asking. I mean, can you imagine? 'No, I don't really care about whatever Dr. Hell's up to. He can do whatever he wants to the world.'" Here Boss gives a little shrug. "I did it because it was something I care about. I wanna exist! And I want everyone else I care about to exist! I don't want to deal with..." he remembers that what Sayaka told him about Goragon is a trusted secret, and he doesn't know for sure that Yuliana went through it too, even if it's a safe-ish guess. "...universe weirdness," he concludes. "So I don't think of it as getting even. I'm guessing you want to exist, too," (he VERY much hopes she does) "and that you've got people you wanted to protect from Dr. Hell's schemes. If you what you thought was right, I think it's a good thing you risked the danger, and I'm proud of you for doing it. I mean, you were getting in scrapes all the time in the Mycenae war, and you didn't see me telling you off for trying!" That situation... might be a little different, but the spirit of the idea holds.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"You didn't know?" Yuliana looks surprised to hear that, but she waves a hand, and insists: "Then you didn't hear it from me." It's a very lazy way of keeping secrecy, but it's hard to catch Zaftran Window Disease with these windows which don't actually open, and she'd rather Boss not fall ill with such a thing in any case.
She at least doesn't get any further into it, though, which is like minding her manners.
Yuliana tilts her head, as she listens to when Boss has to say about Goragon. She's quiet, for a moment, as she thinks. "I do," she says, finally. "... want to exist. Though, really, I don't suppose Dr. Hell's schemes would have stopped that, just..." She sighs, shaking her head. "... I'd have been different. And... I might have left my wife behind, in the process."
She pauses, for a beat. "Not, um -- not Elisa -- it's complicated," she frowns. "I'm married to a God who carved a piece of Herself and sent it to Earth, and that's Elisa, but my wife is also the Empress At The End Of All Things, and She doesn't live in this reality. So -- you know -- changing reality -- it's complicated," she says, again, a shade haplessly.
"Well," Yuliana sighs, "obviously, it was about revenge, too, and perhaps some stupid sentimentality." She breezes right past that to focus on the revenge, relating it all in a low tone. "If I'd never gone to fight in the Mycenae War, the Republic might never have put me on the front lines, and..." She trails off, her hands clasping at something under her cardigan. (Is the fabric shifting? No, surely not.) "I suppose it's pointless to say something like it might have been better," she says. "If anything, it might have advanced the clock on their attempts to make me into a harvestable vegetable, if I wasn't one of their ace pilots. Being useful."
Yuliana is quiet, for a moment longer.
"... oh," she adds, shrugging, and glancing aside. "I was going through medical tortures all that time. The REA conditioned me into keeping it all quiet, but that's why I never wanted much medical attention. Surprise." The droll tone she uses doesn't convey much surprise.
<Pose Tracker> Boss has posed.
"Fair enough. I'll keep quiet." Boss is just a touch melancholic that he can't actually go back and revisit the Fortress, but he keeps it off his face.
Boss did have thoughts about Goragon not causing Yuliana's existence to end - he briefly considers whether or not to tell her what Sayaka told him about the specifics of Goragon. Ultimately, though, she quickly moves on to explaining what "her wife" entails - at least, as best she can. Boss has also heard some of this from Sayaka, but he keeps that to himself. He won't lie to Yuliana about not knowing, but if he's not pressed on it, he thinks it's best to leave her in control of the explanation. He hasn't heard that particular title for the Empress, though... "The End Of All Things?" This is, admittedly, starting to sound kind of world-end-y, but Boss isn't sure whether or not to press that point right now. Realizing that he doesn't have the time to sort it out immediately, he simply responds with "certainly sounds complicated." He might feel a little shame that he wasn't sure what to do right away, but he resolves to give it time and think it over.
Boss doesn't fully understand the reason Yuliana wants revenge until she clarifies, but once she does, he can't help taking on a somber expression. "I doubt anyone could blame you for being angry about that." He has to take a second to process what he's just heard, but once he does he offers his own thoughts. "Being honest, I've never been much of a revenge person. Which means I don't really know what it's like. But is it really that different from sentimentality? It's not like you were taking revenge on someone innocent who just annoyed you one day. They deserved to be stopped, and the reason you wanted to stop them was because of bad things they did." He pauses, briefly. He doesn't want to end up encouraging any messages he doesn't mean. "I'm not saying revenge is always a good thing. But I am saying you shouldn't deny yourself any credit just because you had feelings about it. Doing the right thing because you wanted to do it is good enough, I think."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"It's metaphorical," Yuliana informs Boss, matter-of-fact, when he zeroes in on the Empress's title. "The Void is a place of nothing, and this is Her domain."
That's one explanation, anyway.
She frowns, though, as Boss questions the difference between revenge and sentimentality. Is it different?, she asks herself, inside herself; is wanting to strike out and do good in the world so much different to wresting her vengeance from it?
She is distracted from that thought soon enough by the next, as Boss talks about vengeance against the innocent, and Yuliana thinks of...
... Ranka Lee, whose only crime was singing whilst Newtype.
... Shelby Korts, as Yuliana grabs her wrist and drags her in while she was busy trying to work.
... Sayla Mass, who Yuliana kept entangled with her through the bribes she had to make.
... Banagher Links, running from Yuliana's Tiandong 3 on foot as she assaulted their secret base to capture him.
... Athrusa Hsieh, the surgeon who made sure Yuliana kept her left eye despite that fearsome scar, who Yuliana condemned to both Celestial Being and the REA for a betrayal she never wished to do.
... Rita Bernal, who never used Yuliana as a bullet shield in their experiments the way Yuliana used her.
... Alma Stirner, her will crushed by whim and petty venom, forced to loyalty for the crime of being just a little too open.
... Lilith Aiden, a soldier in the Mycenae Wars who once saved Yuliana's life, only to try to take it at Yuliana's wedding to save Alma's soul.
... Leina Ashta, denying her efforts to save her in the throes of brainwashing, only for Yuliana to tell her it's just what she deserves.
... Anita Rosetta, as Yuliana tries to degenerate her support network and plant doubt in the people she's allied with.
... Shiho Hahnenfuss, who only decided to try to kill her after she tore down her psyche.
... Cascade Wattana, the last in a long line of sacrificial lambs whose employment Yuliana made hell.
... Eight Orlodhari, whose people Yuliana tore to shreds.
... Rena Lancaster, the shredded woman, staring gutted as Yuliana left her with the cruel revelations of her heritage, holding it over her head as blackmail until they both left the Federation.
... Naoko Suzuki, the victim of Her implacable rage -- now witless to the net which shadows her, waiting for the capture.
... Soma Peries, whose only crime was having a superior in the REA who cared.
... Kamille Bidan, admitting he knew the emptiness, only for Yuliana to turn on him with a terrifying hunger.
... Puru 2, who collapsed like a bird to a closed window on stepping into her aura, only for Yuliana to keep her there with honeyed words and veiled threats.
... and every other Newtype she's closed into the space of, just to make them uncomfortable.
She thinks of them, and she says, petulant: "I wouldn't be so petty."
She'd like to think she isn't lying.
When she took revenge on innocent people who annoyed her, she had a good reason. Bad things were happening to her, or bad things had happened to her, or bad things might happen to her. Her actions aren't just cruel, in her mind: they're justifiable.
She scowls, though, thinking of what he says last. "Who says it's just what I wanted to do?" She asks, sharply, though there's truth to it. But she seems to realise she's boxing at shadows, shoulders sinking a moment later. For better or for worse, Boss knows her better than that. (Or, perhaps, the phrase is that he knew her earlier than that.) "... no," she shakes her head, defeating herself, "it was. Back then... in the eighties, I wasn't this... of course, I still want to help the world, but I wasn't so burdened with the weight of its methods." And if she stares at her hands, as she says it, don't imagine what's on her palms. Think very carefully of anything but how black they are with blood. "... but I suppose some part of me wanted it back," she says, after a moment's silence, as she doesn't think of it. "How it felt before I became the creature I am."
Not that she's plagued by any of the names and faces which just flashed through her mind, of course. Don't think about the fact that she remembers them all, either.
"But it's gone now," she says, quietly, distantly.
"Even Dr. Hell only wished to warn others about me."
And even as she relates it all, it's all, notably... about her. It's nothing particularly strange; even in the eighties, Yuliana was a self-centred woman. She did care about other people, but she spent quite a lot of time talking about herself. Apparently, that hasn't changed.
<Pose Tracker> Boss has posed.
It's a good thing, presumably, that the Empress's title doesn't mean she's actively trying to end all things. At least, as far as Boss is aware. Still, he doesn't fully understand Her situation (or even come close to understanding, perhaps), but he lets it pass without further comment.
There's a pause before Yuliana claims she's above vengeance for its own sake. It's obvious enough that Yuliana has thoughts somewhat more complex than she's letting on out loud, but it's hard to say exactly what. If he were offering advice to a customer at Boss Ramen, Boss might question them on that... but this is not an ordinary customer, and he finds he has trouble with saying it. Yuliana is his friend, and he can't quite get himself to press her on what she's saying as much as he perhaps should. In his heart he knows he should be more proactive in asking about the other things she's done; he hasn't forgotten the North Pole, and even he figures Yuliana probably didn't have particularly altruistic reasons for doing it. His memories of Private Dispersal weigh too heavily on him, though, and he hesitates. For now, he only nods, with a short "hmm." that suggests understanding.
When he hears Yuliana ask "Who says it's just what I wanted to do?", Boss has a terrible realization for a moment - didn't Sayaka say Yuliana was being forced to do things by the Empress? Did he fail to consider something important when he assumed Yuliana made the choice freely? Before he can start to re-think through all the implications of that, though, it becomes clear that that isn't what Yuliana meant. He opts to let her finish before he says anything further.
"Hey, now, you can't listen to what Dr. Hell has to say. Dude's as big a villain as they come." Was he...? He's the worst Boss has ever personally had to tangle with, probably. "But I hear you. I don't know about you being a 'creature', but the weight of the world's pretty heavy. I think it's perfectly human to be upset with what it's made you go through." He thinks to Koji and Tetsuya, and even little Shiro, forced into their own battles from a tragedy instead of just because they wanted to. (And if that's an excessively generous comparison with Yuliana's own reasonings, well, Boss doesn't seem to realize it.) His voice quiets a little, not quite matching Yuliana's, but it's still noticable. "Fighting might not always mean you can get back what you've lost. But what you can do is protect what you have. If you can do that, I think you can do better than whatever Dr. Old News might think."
For all his strengths, it isn't easy for Boss to make the conversation not about Yuliana. He's good at cheering people up, helping them work through emotions, getting them on their feet. He's less practiced at asking about Crimes and Horrors... especially when it might involve making one of his dear friends feel worse right in front of him. Still, he thinks to himself, he'll be happy if he gets her to feel better... right?
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
There are things Yuliana is compelled to do; saving the world isn't really one of them. That's something she does for free. Complicated as she might be, though, she at least listens to Boss when he responds.
"Mm," Yuliana hums vague agreement, when Boss calls Dr. Hell a villain. He is, at that. (Unlike Yuliana, who has never done anything wrong, ever, in her life. What North Pole? The North Pole probably isn't even real.) She frowns, hands clutching about her belly when he questions her being a creature; her face flushes with something like shame or embarrassment, but she doesn't interrupt him, at least.
She nods, instead. That much... is human. Maybe it's all human, really. Except...
"I'm trying to protect everyone," Yuliana sighs, "but it keeps getting... confused. I was going to save the world, you know... but it all got too violent. Maybe I just don't understand what humans want, any more."
She blinks, heavily, and her eyes scrunch up. There it is; the alienation. It tumbles out of a crack, and then the crack yawns open. "Would you be saying all of these things if you knew? You wouldn't, would you?!" And it's not immediately obvious just why her voice is raising, as she pushes herself off the windowsill and undoes her cardigan --
-- only for the tentacles nesting in pockets stitched into the inside to slither out and orient on him.
They're a little like snakes, blackened and toothy. They're a little like hands, if a hand had two thumbs and three fingers. They're a little like jaws, because there aren't claws sheathed at the ends of them, but teeth. Three crests rise from what must be their necks, like the petals of a flower, and they rattle against each other to create an insectoid hissing noise; it can't come from their throats, because neither has one. Nor do they have eyes, though they both seem perfectly aware of where Boss is in space.
And there are frills, fanning out behind her ears, black tentacles joined with green webbing in a strange draconic display.
"See?!" Yuliana demands, sharply. "I lived long enough to become the monster, Boss! Don't I look like those things we were killing, back then?! Don't I?! So what," she gestures out to those tentacles coming from her back, "what now, you gonna come give me a big hug? Or is it different now?! Go on!"
She doesn't know, really, why it upsets her so much to talk to an old friend like this. She couldn't rightly say why she's trying to sabotage herself so blatantly. But he's being so nice, and if he knew what she was really like --
-- it's better if she's the one who gets angry first, right? At least then, she's the one acting. And it's always better to act on someone else than to be acted upon, you know; the short end of the stick is far less comfortable.
<Pose Tracker> Boss has posed.
Boss regrets his wording slightly when he sees Yuliana's reaction to hearing "creature" out of a mouth that isn't hers - he'd meant to imply she isn't one, but perhaps it wasn't wise to repeat her wording directly. He's got more to say, though, so he continues.
Boss... still hasn't actually gotten much of a sense of what Yuliana's been up to, honestly, so he can't say for sure whether she does understand what other people want. He does immediately catch on to "humans", though, but before he can say anything about it-
Boss had hoped to avoid getting Yuliana upset, but he'd been prepared for the possibility. What he wasn't expecting is how drastically her appearance changes in short order. Even Boss is startled to see the tentacles suddenly appear in his field of vision - but he fights the instinctual urge to take a step back, and once his conscious train of thought catches up, he's glad he didn't. Yuliana isn't done, though - she makes it clear that this is the dividing line that she sees between herself and "humanity", and she doesn't think even someone she's known as long as Boss could bridge a gap like that.
By the time Yuliana falls silent, Boss is decidedly worried, but not for fear of his own safety. Rather, part of him is concerned for the potential threat to Yuliana's well-being, and he also knows that this could go very badly for her if he doesn't respond well. He takes a moment to collect his thoughts, hoping that his momentary pause didn't send the message that he was rejecting her, and he begins.
"I'll be honest; I don't really understand the void. I don't know how it's changed your life. But I know that it's still you, Yuli." Boss uses his old nickname for her from when they first knew each other, to emphasize the point. "And I don't think looking like our old enemies makes you one of them."
A memory flashes in his mind.
"Actually... I don't think you were there for this, but one time there was a Battle Beast that was different from most. Went by the name of Kelvinius. He looked a lot like the rest, but he talked to us. We didn't understand that he was any different at first, so we fought... but afterwards, he told Tetsuya and Jun that he was an old prince of Mycenae. The Emperor of Darkness told him he'd restore Mycenae if he could beat Great Mazinger." Boss shakes his head sadly. "After the others told him it wasn't going to happen, he gave his life to get back at Mikelos. By the time I was back, he was gone."
He looks back up, and makes eye contact with Yuliana, missing pupils be damned. "He shouldn't have had to die for it, but he fought back against the people who hurt him. His past didn't stop him, and neither did being considered a 'Battle Beast.' So I don't see any reason why you should say you can't understand what's good for the world." He takes a small step towards her. "And I don't see any reason I shouldn't treat you just the same as I always have."
He opens his arms out wide to offer a hug. He won't force her - he's left enough room between them that she can either stay in place or move to the side if she refuses. If she accepts, though, it'll only take her one step.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana has always gotten upset easily. She's... sensitive. She's so sensitive to rejection that she'll react to rejections all made up in her mind, without any real input from reality. It makes more sense in context, but it's still frightening, and the very fearsome nature of it just escalates the whole process.
Unfortunately, Boss is familiar with all of that, because he saw it before she'd learned a pile of behaviours to cover it up.
"But I'm--!!" She starts to protest, when Boss says it's still her, but she cuts herself off rather than keep cutting him off. He tells her about the Battle Beast who talked to them, seeking to restore his reign...
... and she thinks of Cypripedioidea, granting Siti Dian those strange powers.
(What kingdom, then, does she owe this to?)
Unfortunately for Yuliana, her strange eyes are still prone to tearing up easily -- and she's still the type to stubbornly ignore the fact they are. "What are you doing?" She insists, sharply, when he steps forward. "You're saying it doesn't matter what I am? Just like that?!"
Yuliana looks like she's just swallowed a stoat -- wait, no, she's just choking up.
"Y--you're really stupid, you know that?!" She all but wails, but she stumbles forward to latch her arms around him, anyway. And her tentacles, at that. They're deathly cold, but as it happens, they can sheathe their teeth, so it's not damaging.
Her frills fold back behind her ears as she sniffles and mutters, "stupid... or I'm stupid, I don't know. I was scared you'd hate me... I was just scared you'd hate me. It's stupid..."
... after all, even Yuliana knows Boss isn't really one for hating people.
But it's hard for a hug from Boss not to make anyone feel better. Even Yuliana.