2024-06-22: .your pride spurs on my prejudicE
- Log: .your pride spurs on my prejudicE
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Elisa Kafim
- Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- Date: 2024-06-22 (ICly 0099-06-21)
- Summary: Yuliana returns home following the Dawn of Fold's mission to gainsay Mobile Doll production, and Elisa praises her victory. (CW: Coercive control)
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
The Shandor did collect all the elements of DoF who didn't wish to be picked up by the Gwasha -- despite Sally's misgivings over Yuliana's reliability. (And one of her men is of interest to the operator, one of the very few people on the bridge of that tentacle-sodden machine. "Jin, huh? Weird. No -- like, I work with a Jin. Looks just like you, too...") Once everyone has been dropped off at their various safehouses and secure points, though, it's time to go back to the Arctic -- and when the Da Xukong 0 is unloaded from it, to trudge in through the main gates to the stables, it's predictably ruined.
Both its arms are inoperable; its tail is a mauled mess, as if it caught the business end of a sword. (Because it caught the business end of a sword, and didn't manage to pull it off.) Its leg-parts, thankfully, are still operational, so it's able to get back into the stable without help.
Yuliana opens up the cockpit, and frees herself of her helmet, reaching behind her seat to grab her heavy Arctic cloak instead. She secures it around her pilot suit as she stands, pulling up the hood to protect her head and ears against the cold.
Her wife would want her to be careful, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa Kafim is out of her scrying chamber before Yuliana arrives at home. She had been watching the battle, of course. And she will be reviewing the recordings of the voice communications she was unable to hear at the time.
But that is for later. For now, Elisa watches at the stables for Yuliana to come out of her robot under her own power. Since she does, she moderates the level of worry she should feel and show. Of course, she often feels more or less than she shows...
But the cockpit opens, and Elisa, in her heavy dark cloak and robes, floats up to her wife and offers her a hand out. "My darling," she says. "You were glorious. Your mission's success speaks well to your skill."
Of course it was a success. Elisa said so.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana slips her hand into her wife's darker palm, and naturally takes her assistance hopping out of the cockpit; she doesn't need the help, but it's nice, isn't it? It means she can immediately sink in against her wife's chest, embracing her fiercely. (Her efforts are stymied, slightly, by the body armour across her chest -- but only slightly.) "Oh," she sighs, clutching her arms about her, "Elya...!"
Elisa says it was a success, and surely it was. "We weren't able to shut down the base," Yuliana pouts, "that Rena and a new girl got in my way before I could finish blowing it up! But -- but we extracted the prisoners, so they'll not be able to do more work for a while. But they beat up my poor Da Xukong, Elya! Look at it...!"
Beneath her hood, her frill wilts as she looks back over her shoulder at her poor, messed-up wanzer, which really doesn't look all that different to how it comes back after any engagement involving Yuliana.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa floats back down with Yuliana against her, and she keeps her arms about her wife. She listens, of course. "Rena... Yes, she is out again." She's of interest to them; Murasaki does not garner as much of the witch's attention yet. "The prisoners--and the message of our arrival--was most important. ...But they did. It's in terrible shape."
Much like always.
"But I treasure each impact into its armor as proof that it was good enough to protect my wife," Elisa says. "...It will be fun to repair and improve it, yes? You love your machines so."
She reaches out to pat the Da Xukong.
"I saw the battle. It was quite intense..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Of course Yuliana is safe to float through the air, with her wife's arms around her. Why wouldn't she be? "Her funnels were too familiar," Yuliana grouses, thinking of Rena. How could she employ the Void against her?!
She cheers, at least, when Elisa compliments her wanzer, smiling at her encouragement. "It will be!" She chirps, a hand resting on Elisa's arm as she reaches out, as if the touch of her fingertips could travel through her wife to pat her machine. "I've been thinking of rewiring the arms anyway..."
Yuliana sighs, resting her cheek against her wife's shoulder. "It was," she says, hand curling up to rest at her opposite shoulder again. "I almost managed to total both their machines so I could get back to what I was doing, but that new girl pulled out an anti-ship sword, and that's leaving aside Rena's funnels... ugh, I hate funnels!" Of course she would; they're the symbol of the Newtype.
"And -- and they were so disappointed," Yuliana whines, hugging herself a little closer to her wife. "Not just that Rena, but Leyasha, too... she was so disappointed," Yuliana's whining grows a little more pointed, and she's clearly bothered by disappointing her.
Imagine being bothered by disappointing someone other than her wife.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Hmmm... Yes, I did sense something strange," Elisa agrees. "Something not entirely expected."
She was already thinking of rewiring the arms!
"I do not like funnels either," Elisa agrees. "And an anti-ship sword was clearly unfair," she agrees. But--disappointment. Disappointment draws Elisa's expression into a thoughtful frown, as she regards Yuliana. Perhaps Yuliana will see it, but probably not, hugged this close.
"You hoped that things could go on peacefully. So did they. But they cannot change you into someone who does not care for the plight of the world. They cannot defang you so easily."
"I am proud. For even in the face of such disapprobation, you continued on with your mission."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana is quite buried, hiding against her wife from the inequities of the world; she can't see her expression so clearly, nosing her face into her neck.
(It's strange... she ought to be able to feel her wife's heart, but her pulse is far slower than it ought to be, like some distant ritual drum. Thump, two, three, four; thump, two, three, four... yes, there, pulsing on the count of four.)
And as she focuses her attention on her wife's pulse, beating in her neck, she lets her explanation wash over her too. They can't change her... or defang her.
Against her neck, Yuliana's smile may well be more felt than seen, when Elisa insists on her pride.
"I'm glad," she sighs, and her eyes have drifted closed. "Of course I'd fight, Elya... I wouldn't let you down. I had to represent our interests, after all... they needed to realise they could count on us. Even if that wretched Angelo insisted on undercutting me," she adds, with a light pout.
"I just..." Yuliana's face shifts, nuzzling in against her wife. "I wish we could have kept our peace, Elya. Those peaceful days..." Her fingers curl, into her wife's robes, as her weight sinks, and her voice mourns. "... I'll miss them."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Four...
Elissa smiles, and she does feel a smile of Yuliana's. She says, "I know. You would never." She strokes Yuliana's hair. "Hmph. That man... He will be proven irrelevant eventually. His cause is dead and dying; he has only ghosts to fuel him."
A pause, and Yuliana will miss those days. "...Yes," Elisa agrees. "If the world had allowed it, perhaps we could have. It is the nature of peace to be ephemeral. And to be missed."
She lets that hang.
"...But come. You have your family to see. The children will be glad to see your safe return, as well."
"...Let us focus on those who matter most."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Mm... he doesn't matter," Yuliana agrees, easily, humming contentment at the feeling of her wife's fingers through her hair.
She doesn't even feel that bad about throwing him under the bus; he's earned no special treatment, the way certain Spacenoids have.
It's the world that won't let them know peace, isn't it? NUNE won't let them live peacefully. She sighs, and her breath is warm, against Elisa's cool skin. "I suppose... it was inevitable," she says, sadly.
Perhaps her wife can tell how much it saddens her, though -- because she urges her to remember her family. Yuliana lifts her head to show her smile to her wife, drawing her fingers through her hair. "You're right, zhenushka," she says, as natural as breathing is to her. "Let us get out of this cold, and go see the boys!"
Her family matters more to her than her friends, after all... and Elisa, most of all.