2024-01-12: Koji Kabuto Gets Lectured By An Evil Housewife
- Log: Koji Kabuto Gets Lectured By An Evil Housewife
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Koji Kabuto
- Where: The Photon Power Labs
- Date: 2024-01-12 (ICly late February 0098)
- Summary: But before that, he reaches out to Yuliana about how Sayaka's investigations are going, and talks to her about her tentacles, her wives, and her desire for direction from a higher power.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
This is Yuliana's second visit to the Photon Power Labs in February. She was let out earlier in the month, after medical imaging scans and some targeted therapy to try and help her in the here and now; after spending some much-needed time with her wife, though, she's consented to return for further investigations.
(By now, it's clear that breaking up their scientific inquiry to make sure that Yuliana can go back to her wife regularly is an important part of the process. Yuliana gets... antsy, when she's away from Elisa for too long. She's much more compliant and pleasant to deal with -- relatively speaking -- when she knows it won't be long before she's back home again.)
Though, really, these are things which it would be easier to do in a block. The initial imaging results confirmed that the Orchid Cells which move through Yuliana's cerebrospinal fluid are integrated with her central nervous system; her brain shows several structural changes from human standard, and the changes evidently occurred in adulthood. (Or, in plain text: she's partially alien on the inside, too.) This knowledge informs further investigations -- and further investigations require Yuliana back again.
It's clear that these alien cells are what allow Yuliana to act as a bridge between worlds -- but the strangest thing is that the structural changes in her brain don't appear to be designed for anything as drastic as tearing reality down around them. Of course, it's difficult to say without getting her to revolutionalise the world with sensors attached, but... those changes just appear to be a different way of approaching sentient existence.
Though it must involve her strange powers, somewhere. It's just not obvious, in these pictures taken at rest.
Yuliana isn't being bothered by medical imaging machines now, though. She's grabbed a drink from the drinks machine -- some kind of lemon soda -- and is having a rest in a break room, one leg folded over the other, arm extended out over the back of the couch...
... and tentacles folded neatly on her lap.
She's stopped hiding them, recently, and they're out there as casually as her pink t-shirt with an obnoxiously sparkly dragon emblazoned on the front or her faded jeans.
(Her frills, at least, are still folded behind her ears. Fully outstretched, her aura is large enough to consume her Castle even at this size; it's a concession to the PPL's mixed hiring strategy that she's keeping herself to herself, so that Newtypes on the other side of the Laboratory won't be put off their lunch.)
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
The PPL's concern for Yuliana's condition means Koji has been receiving reports of their continuing research into said condition, but he hasn't yet had time to touch base with Sayaka's team and get involved personally - he's been tied up for a while with Experimental Development's work with the engineering challenges left behind now that Infinity has been banished to wherever it came from.
(It's still going to take a long time to even come close to what that Magine was made of, but they're learning new things even now.)
Now, though, he's dropping into the break room where Yuliana is resting, grabbing his own beverage before turning to look around for other occupants. Noticing the be-tentacled woman there, he pauses for a moment - a mental brace - before approaching her. "You mind if I join you, Yuliana?" His grey eyes flick down to the tentacles in her lap - inquisitive, but trying his best to not stare.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana has, reportedly, been -- well, more-or-less compliant with all their requests. She may have, quote-unquote, threatened to rip people limb from limb a couple of times, but she hasn't ACTUALLY removed anyone's pea-brained heads from their misshapen bodies. (Again: direct quote.) Apparently, going through medical tests is pretty hard on her, which may well be understandable given her extensive history.
But Leina trusts Sayaka, so Yuliana's trusting her, too. She promised Elisa she'd trust them, after all, for her sake.
... as much as it feels strange to be in the care of their enemies, now. Strange as it is, though, she's been forthcoming with all the information they need -- with one specific exemption; any questions about Voidframe she refers back to Elisa. They'll have to ask Dr. Kafim for those details.
(Dr. Kafim hasn't been visiting the labs with Yuliana, but, naturally, the Photon Power Labs have been provided with a phone number they may use to directly reach her for any matters regarding her wife.)
But Yuliana doesn't know much the other work of the PPL, herself -- she's been polite enough not to ask, so no one has to give her an evasive answer. Sometimes it's busy, and she just finds a place to sequester herself so she doesn't get underfoot. Like now!
On hearing someone enter the Sequestering Zone, Yuliana looks up. She straightens up a little on the couch, hands dropping down to her lap, so it looks a little less like she owns the place. See? Who ever said she couldn't be considerate. "Go ahead," she gestures, with her hand holding the can of soda. "I'm the one joining you, after all." It is, more or less, his house.
... well, it's Sayaka's house. But they'll figure that out eventually, probably. Surely it won't take that much longer for them to set a date.
One of those tentacles rises up to regard Koji -- in some fashion, at least, because there are no eyes on it. It has something like jaws or claws, and a crest made of three solid petals which rises and falls against it, but no eyes. A moment later, it settles down, again. "... are you afraid?" She asks, and her pupiless eyes don't leave him, but she can see where he's looking. "They don't bite unless I want them to, most of the time."
Implying there are some times they do?!
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji promptly flops gracelessly into the couch with a little distance between himself and Yuliana, cracking open his ice tea.
'are you afraid?'
He chuckles a little bit. "Which answer would be more comfortable to you? Not really, honestly - they're just... part of you, right?" He waves a hand, vaguely - though he does note that Yuliana's suggesting the orchidesque tentacles have a sort of instinct of their own. "They're a little weird, but no stranger than Ashura or Brocken."
He's always had a tendency to roll with the punches when it comes to somebody's physical appearance.
"I hope the latest tests haven't been too hard on you," he says carefully. "How are you holding up?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"That's right," Yuliana nods, when Koji asks if those strange snakes are part of her. (They are, now.) She chuckles, shaking her head, and adds: "... though that's hardly a flattering comparison."
Don't think too hard about how Yuliana has the same kind of monstrous additions to her appearance as the big villains. It's not a pattern.
She unfolds and re-folds her legs, so that she can angle her body towards Koji, conversationally, in a non-verbal indication of willingness to speak. "It's not so bad, really," she says, glancing away. "That sort of thing makes me anxious... but it's not as if it's invasive, and I don't suppose the people here would apply the REA's methodology, not really."
Yuliana frowns, sipping her drink, before she takes a breath and sighs. "... I do wonder if all this investigation will do anything, though," she says, and sounds bothered. "I suppose it's true that the Orchid Cells are the source of everything, but my dreams are no better for all the research. All this theorising... is it really going to help, Koji?"
And they can't very well get her any distance from the Void without understanding her connection to it, but Yuliana's never been terribly good at delayed gratification.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Maybe not," Koji admits, "but in fairness, your circumstances are very different, and thee are... well, they're a lot cooler than 'spending the rest of your existence decapitated'."
He shakes his head in agreement when Yuliana points out the people here are unlikely to apply the REA's methodology, and then, when she complains about theorising and investigating... he laughs, warmly and genuinely.
"You know I had to retire from piloting and go study at the outbreak of the Mycenaean War, right, Because they totaled Mazinger Z? It took a year to make enough repairs and upgrades that it could actually take on Warrior Beasts. If I hadn't had classes, I would have gone mad, waiting to be able to get back in the fight. I'm pretty sure I wore several holes in our apartment floor as it was."
"What I'm saying is - I get it. It sucks having to wait for any sign of progress, but..." he pauses to think. "Making and testing hypotheses are how we learn, and your connection to the Empress is... an almost totally-unknown phenomenon. What we learn from our theories... it might lead us to a way to appease Her, or to make your connection with her less... painful, for you and those around you."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana has to smile, at that. "They are cooler," she agrees, her free hand coming down to lay on one of those snakes. "You know, without them, I wouldn't even be able to pilot Da Xukong 0? Eight legs on a manually-controlled machine is obviously too much for one pair of hands, but it's perfectly manageable with two." Which explains just how that machine works.
Presumably, Emptear's serpents would be similarly difficult to control without her extra pair of limbs, but she doesn't mention that part.
She tilts her head, though, when Koji laughs, and listens to him talk about taking a back seat. "Mm," she hums confirmation, but she doesn't interrupt him. It sucks...
"Well..." Yuliana sighs, rapping her fingers against the can. "... if you think it will work, I suppose I can bear with the lack of results a while longer. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little curious, too... since if I knew all this, I would have just told you." And she very well might have; she's been quite forthcoming.
She looks down, at her wedding ring. "It's not that I don't love my wife, of course," she adds, frowning. "It just... hurts. Judau assured me it wasn't so bad to want a little space... I suppose I'm very entangled with Her. But She's happy with that situation... and She's terribly anxious about my cooperation, here. I try to assure Her I'm still Her wife, but She's grown quite demanding... and a God has little need to listen." Yuliana grows quiet, for a moment, lashes veiling her downcast eyes. "I'd think I was in the wrong, really... if my Elisa didn't believe She was being too rash. Is that strange? I don't think I was so uncertain, a few years ago... I didn't always question myself this much. At least, I don't think so... though I suppose I must have been reliant on other people's opinions, even when I thought I was being quite firm." She shakes her head, and assures herself: "It's nothing."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Seeing a smile extracted from Yuliana helps a lot - Koji relaxes a little more. She can see him thinking over the logistics of piloting a machine like Da Xukong 0. "Y'know, I always wondered how you were handling that," he muses. "I figured it was some kind of auto-balancing system for each pair of legs, married to terrain-mapping so it could always stay upright on uneven ground, but that kind of custom engineering seemed... unlikely, for a wanzer-based platform. 'Extra limbs' makes way more sense. It must be... hmm." He thinks. "Extremely mentally engaging?" He's clearly extrapolating from the process of operating Mazinger Z.
"Curiosity is part of where all this is coming from," he agrees. "But... if we rush things? If we're not extremely careful, we just dive in, greedy for the answers? There is a very real risk of us just being like Murasame, or the REA's Institute, or..." He shakes his head. "Even if it's slow, we're gonna do this the right way."
He looks down at the wedding ring, frowning as he works his head around this. "Obviously, I'm no expert on... being bonded to an otherworldly Entity, but..." He pauses again. "I distinctly remember your vows being made with Elisa, not the Empress. The fact that the one, the... emanation? can disagree with the other, the origin... I don't know what to make of it, but I think that's important."
He considers again. There's some obvious marks of Yuliana's conditioning in the way she talks, on top of the referring to the Empress as her wife. "It must be... difficult, to not have that top-down reassurance on who you're supposed to be, to fall back on."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Oh, no, I couldn't bear to bring auto-balancing into it," Yuliana's smile broadens, speaking of the machinery. "It's a perfectly valid control system, I suppose, but doing things manually gives you so much more precision. And it is engaging! I love being in the cockpit, you know -- even just moving from place to place, I'm never bored." A manual control scheme would be terribly enriching for a certain type of person, and Yuliana, apparently, is that person.
She hums, with consideration, when Koji points out the dangers of rushing things. "I suppose they were greedy..." And while Yuliana doesn't see anything wrong with her greed, the greed of others for her flesh is another matter entirely. "Mm... but is it really so easy for an operation like this to become like Dr. Devi's...? ... maybe this is a bad idea..."
And how strange it is to hear Yuliana sounding vulnerable, after some of the stances she's taken.
Yuliana lifts her other hand, to press at her ring, and feels the impact of the can on the other side. "I did," she confirms, gently. "I gave myself to Elisa. Elisa's the woman I chose. I don't... entirely know what to make of this, either," she shakes her head. "I never knew why She loved me so, not until we realised the truth. I always told myself I wasn't unfaithful, because my devotion to God can of course exist alongside my devotion to my wife... but now I'm the wife of God, I feel there's some tension to the arrangement."
She blinks, overlong, quiet for a moment. "... but I'd choose Elisa," she says, at length. "Even if they're the same person, the part of that person She sent to me is the part of Her which holds me with compassion. I'd like for Elisa to be able to teach Her of these things... but I love the wife I offered myself to freely. I'm fortunate I don't have to imagine a world without my Elisa... no salvation would be complete without her." And she smiles, again, speaking of her wife; even just thinking of Elisa puts her at ease.
They love each other very much, even if their marriage might look complicated from the outside.
"Though," Yuliana takes a breath, looking back to Koji, again. "I wonder if that might be it. Ah -- what you said about the reassurance, I mean," she adds, waving a hand. "I think my perspective on Her shifted, after I escaped the Republic... I don't know, maybe it was comforting to still receive Her wisdom, even after I escaped Major Pham's control. It's not the sort of wisdom which welcomes too much questioning, after all... well, not from me, anyway. I know my Elisa did have to interrogate it all to try and figure out what I was saying... but I just accepted the ways in which She moved through me."
Her smile jags up, into something more of a sneer. "Hearing something so piteous... are you looking down on me?" She asks, sharper. "You must think I'm pathetic -- looking for direction right after I escaped it. I just wasted everyone's efforts, didn't I? They may as well have left me there, I'm clearly made for it --"
-- only for the building acid in her accusations to be interrupted by her own hand, as she buries her face in it. "No, I -- I didn't mean to -- excuse me," she mumbles, into her palm, and behind it her cheeks burn with embarrassment.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Judging by the way Koji grins when Yuliana talks about how engaging it is to pilot her eight-legged wanzer, he's the same kind of person. "It took me ages to reconfigure the Pilder away from grandfather's original design into something more suited to me. I actually have a new design I'm going over for a more... nimble update on the control vehicle."
It feels strange to talk about this with someone who is technically an enemy - but the threat the Empress poses is an existential one that Yuliana herself is only a vessel for, and his father's dying wish is, as ever, lingering in his mind. Besides - this is something they have in common, and it's a joy to indulge in it. "If you want to take a look, I'd be happy to show you the prototype designs."
He sighs as Yuliana asks him if things would so easily change. "Something struck me, during the fight over Infinity - Hell's desire, to use Goragon to remake the world in an image that wouldn't... displease him... it's not so different from what I want, to use Photon Power to build a more peaceful world - and I know that, like him, I'm not happy with the world as it is." He clicks his tongue. "One of the most fundamental equations of science, Einstein's correlation of energy and mass, has given rise to both terrible weapons and a revolution of power generation through the development of nuclear fission reactors. Photon Power offers the next level of revolution and terrible weapons development alike. The 'god' and the 'devil', wrapped up in one." He offers a wry smile. "It's something I think about a lot."
Then he listens as Yuliana talks about her relationship, and who she would choose, if it came to that, nodding quietly through her explanation. As her ranting becomes acerbic - as she lashes out, accusing him of looking down on her - he winces, but that is in part what he braced for when he decided to enter this conversation.
"It's okay," he says, waiting for Yuliana to stabilise. "... I reckon it's normal, to seek direction," he continues. "When I was young I never imagined I'd be a scientist, my own education was furthest from my mind - all I cared about was making sure Shiro was okay. Even with a career, though, I kept looking around, trying to figure out what was missing." He chuckles. "Deciding for yourself what you want from life is maybe one of the scariest things of all."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"I'd love to!" Yuliana says, and she's honestly enthusiastic about Koji's Pilder's control schema. "It does take quite some work to adjust an existing design, doesn't it? Annihilation was a different beast to most Tiandong 3s in many ways, by the time I was through with it." Oh, right. She called her custom wanzer Annihilation.
She's a certain type of woman, all right.
"Then I suppose we're alike," it's Yuliana's turn to sigh, when Koji starts talking about revolutionalising the world. "Because I'm not happy with the state of the world, either." Is that really the kind of comparison Koji wants?! It's the comparison Koji gets.
But the thing which is difficult for Yuliana to admit, in her destabilisation, is that it's not Koji saying those things to her...
... rather, the things she accuses him of believing are the same things she's telling herself.
If it's obvious to her, everyone must be thinking it, and it's easier to attack everyone aside from her.
"I decided to join the military when I was young," she reflects, "because mobile suits stepped in to save us when the floods came. The same waves which exhausted me and my mama didn't faze them at all... they just walked right through them. I thought they must be invincible... of course that wasn't true, but I was only twelve, at the time." Yuliana shakes her head, fingers rapping on her soda can. "My father wouldn't let me enlist until I was eighteen, of course. But I suppose I wouldn't have nursed the idea for so long if he weren't a Major himself... I wanted to impress him, since there's no impressing my mother. Ah -- not that that's entirely true, but -- it's how it looked, back then." A sharp wit tends to look a certain way, to a child.
"Then I went through the military trying to impress my handlers... since they made it quite clear what would happen if I failed to perform." Yuliana sighs, and takes another drink. She pauses to consider the taste; she's trying to practice Rain's suggestions. "I had a dozen side-projects going on, bribes and friends outside the military, but I never stuck with anything for long. I just lost interest, I guess... but that's when I met my Elisa. She had such a magnificent vision, I couldn't help but fall for her..." Yuliana smiles, foolishly, mood brightened from the dour subject. "Ever since then, she's kept me focused."
Yuliana pauses, and tilts her can towards Koji. "It's just like Sayaka keeps you focused, isn't that right?" She turns on a conversational dime, swinging everything back towards him. "I don't expect you'd tell someone like me the good news unprovoked, but I do expect you'll be able to assure me you've a date and a venue secured by now."
She's talking about marriage, Koji.
M-A-R-R-I-A-G-E.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Yuliana's life path makes sense - it seems almost as though everything was laid out for her, much as how once Koji stumbled upon his grandfather's project everything flowed from there. Again, the scientistengineerpilot considers their similarities, another wry smile on his face.
And then - the conversation pivots towards Sayaka, and his expression softens into a foolish smile of his own. "Honestly, the most amazing part of her is how she still puts up with me," he says, dreamily - and then blinks. "I swear, if this keeps up I'll be getting lectured by Cathedra operatives I've never met before, or - I don't know - BioNet science criminals I'm trying to stop." He laughs. "I'm... I'm working on it. I've got the ring, at least."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"I'll tell Julia to get on that right away," Yuliana remarks, blithely, when Koji wonders who's going to lecture him on marriage next. Rather than stopping to clarify whether that's a Cathedra operative or a BioNet criminal, she points her can at Koji. "Now, have you given it to her, yet?"
Yuliana takes a long sip of her drink and doesn't break eye contact ONCE. She is judging him.
"When my Elisa proposed to me, it was during a lovely celebration on my birthday -- private boxes at the opera. But I'd have gladly said yes had she proposed on the subway on a Wednesday afternoon." A beat, "Not that my Elisa is one to take the subway. Or care much for the work week, really." Her wife is very rich. That's just what happens when you gather Olympian fame and turn it to scientific research, apparently.
Apparently.
"The point is," Yuliana says, her leg bobbing as she bounces it on her knee, "how long are you planning on making that poor woman wait? You're clearly mad about each other, so after a certain point, the dilly-dallying is just an insult. Go! Hop to it, right now!" She waves at him, as if she could dismiss him to run off and go propose to Sayaka that very minute. ... she thinks it's a reasonable result to expect, anyway.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"Look, I'll - !" Koji gets heated, for a moment, then cuts himself off, listening. His brow furrows for a moment as Yuliana describes the circumstances of Elisa's proposal, mentally filing that away.
Then: "You're right."
wait what
"I hadn't... considered that it could be an insult to her, to - be indecisive about it, and keep her waiting. She definitely doesn't deserve that."
He lets out a breath, looking away. "It doesn't have to be perfect," he reminds himself, then looks back over to Yuliana. "Thanks." He leans in - hesitantly, at first, in case she lashes out - to hug Yuliana.
"I've got a plan," he says, with a slightly cocky grin. "I just have to hope it goes well."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana just nods, as if it were entirely clear she's right, but she listens to just why Koji's realised that anyway. "Mm-hmm!" She hums encouraging agreement, when he concludes that it doesn't have to be perfect.
And it's a sound which kind of gets interrupted by -- "Eeeh?" -- when he leans forward instead. But he's evidently not moving to attack her, and after a moment's surprise she gets the idea, and opens her arms to give him a light squeeze.
(Just a light one. She's really quite strong, even if she's nice to hug. ... and he might notice that her tentacles, which also get in on the hug, are much colder than the rest of her.)
"Good," she smiles, when she leans back and releases him, with a friendly slap-pat on the shoulder. "Now don't worry too much about hopes and thoughts and all those things which get you stuck in your own head, and just go and make her happy."
They might have their disagreements, but Yuliana still thinks they deserve a happy marriage. They're obviously perfect for each other, even if that perfection is written in the way they both have a terrible habit of foiling her and her wife.