2024-07-05: Complications! Can Sayaka Keep The Lines Of Communication Open!?
- Log: Complications! Can Sayaka Keep The Lines Of Communication Open!?
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Sayaka Yumi
- Where: The Silent Castle / Fujinomiya (Video Call)
- Date: 2024-07-05
- Summary: Yuliana rings Sayaka, still bitter over Leina's desperation and anger. Things rapidly get worse when she learns that the OCU has found them out -- and Yuliana decides it's best if she doesn't visit any more. Throughout the conversation, Sayaka has plenty to be concerned about with the Kafims' marriage, but Yuliana is more open to the idea of contacting her with more concerns than she is to the idea of leaving for good. For better or for worse, the wheels of fate are turning. (CW: Coercive control)
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana Kafim spends much of her time with her wife, lately. But there are some things Elisa must take care of alone, and while Yuliana can fill an awful lot of time with taking care of the children...
... sometimes, the boys are at school, and don't want to be crowded by their nosy Aunt.
Accordingly, she has hit the Silent Gym, where she can -- unlike the restrictive concerns of the PPL -- really push her limits. Three-hundred kilograms of weight is too much for almost any Natural, but Yuliana's long past that, isn't she? She should have a spotter, she supposes, but her tentacles are fine enough spotters for her. She hefts the great weights, and works through her wordless anxieties until she can't very well think of them at all.
"Hhfff," she grunts, at length, as she puts the weights back in their resting-place and slips out from under them. She goes to the bench, where she uncaps a bottle of water and downs the whole damn thing; a towel slung about her neck, she leans back, against the cool stone of the Castle walls.
"Is it really... all or nothing? Leyasha... you don't understand."
She fishes her phone from the folds of her cloak, folded on the bench, and stares down at it. For a long moment -- until... "I guess there's no point."
Her gaze lids. "You won't listen, anyway."
There's no point, she tells herself, and she is comforted in the telling.
But...
Even if Leina has abandoned her, by her view, it's not just Leina who cares. Is it? Yuliana considers that, and then tucks her towel around her neck more like a scarf than a towel, to retain the appropriate modesty.
She glances at the time on her phone; it's still morning, which means it would be somewhere around dinnertime, in Japan. See? She's considerate. Not so considerate that she texts ahead, though; ring, ring, she dials in Sayaka's number, because she doesn't feel like letting them make her wait for hours like Leina did last time.
"Yaka," she greets her, smiling. Her hair is damp with sweat, and the towel about her neck and the tank-top exposing her arms beneath suggest clearly why; she's just been exercising, clearly. "Can we talk?"
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Today was... a difficult day at work for Director Sayaka Yumi of the Photon Power Labs. She enjoys a close working relationship with the OCU's top brass, not least due to her father's position as Japan's Prime Minister. That doesn't make them immune to scrutiny, though, and it's difficult to answer such concerns with 'we were trying to get the reality criminal therapy'.
That said, the OCU isn't NUNE, and while they have as much a vested concern with reality crimes as anyone else, they aren't actually so inclined to hand over Yuliana Kafim to one of their greatest rivals, the REA. They're actually more likely to believe the 'therapy' angle... though Yuliana remains a 'sortie and shoot on sight' level threat. If the Ghost is spotted on the Photon Power Labs' grounds again, it won't look good.
On a personal level, while Yuliana really did seem to be improving in the Photon Power Labs... Elisa's influence can't be ignored, and Sayaka's not sure what to make of this 'Dawn of Fold' the Kafims have aligned themselves with, either. She's worried for Yuliana, certainly, but... on top of their work with Satellicon, the Photon Power Labs might just not be able to handle this delicate balancing act anymore.
By the time she's finished for dinner, Sayaka's just about ready to slump on the couch and put on some trash TV before retiring for an early night. Her cellphone rings, though - and while it's safer not to save Yuliana as a contact. the caller ID is from the Arctic, so she already knows who it is.
"Hello? Yuliana?" Sayaka picks up, straightening up her posture and making herself presentable. "Yeah. We can talk, all right. I've been talking about you all day, you know." She answers, tone serious, though she doesn't look mad... just concerned. "I'll let you go first. How have things been... at home?" She asks, though it's difficult to mask that her question centers around how Elisa has been treating her.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Haa... Leina's already gotten to you, has she?" Yuliana scowls, as she shifts the grip on her phone from a hand to a tentacle so that she can fold her arms while still keeping Sayaka in view. "I'm telling you -- she doesn't understand the situation at all."
Yuliana doesn't know who else is talking about her. But why would she?
"Things have been wonderful here," she insists, with a hint of a pout. "Ever since I got back, my Elisa's been particularly loving, you know. Always sweeping me off my feet! She makes so much time for me, and she's so pleased with my efforts. She's been very understanding, too... very understanding," Yuliana repeats, again, and surely she's convincing Sayaka. "She's assured me she'll judge my actions, not my feelings. And she took out the chip when I told her I didn't want it, you know. All I had to do was talk to her."
Her fingers drum, on her arm. "My wife has been an extremely reasonable woman, in the face of all I've done. Very measured. She's been more than fair. It's that Leina who's being unreasonable!" That Leina, she snaps, anger stabbing into her voice.
Oh, no.
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Leina has gotten to her, Yuliana immediately accuses Sayaka of, and already, this conversation feels like it's gone off on the wrong foot. Sayaka gives a confused glance at the screen at Yuliana's scowl. "Leina? No... no, we haven't, but now that you mention it, I probably should hear out what she thinks." Bringing Yuliana to the Photon Power Labs, after all, was Leina's idea in the first place.
"But that's not what I'm talking about," Sayaka then interjects, crossing her arms. "It's the OCU. They caught wind of your shuttle and figured out it was you." Sayaka tells her, very matter-of-factly. "So I want to figure out how to move forward. Our team... we still don't want to give up on you." Sayaka's expression softens. On the other hand, she's not sure how she can provide it if Yuliana keeps refusing to leave Elisa.
And from the way she's talking right now, it doesn't sound like that's even remotely Yuliana's intent. "Haven't we talked about what that means, Yuliana?" Sayaka cuts in. "If she's suddenly giving all this you care and attention she wasn't before... don't you think she's doing it for a reason? Especially after she convinced you to start fighting again?" She asks, even as Yuliana repeats how well Elisa's been treating her. "God. She's love bombing you, Yuliana." Sayaka shakes her head.
That anger in Yuliana's voice... Sayaka can't say she isn't worried. But she's not afraid to disparage Elisa on the line with the Silent Castle. "Is that what Leina told you, too?" She follows up. "Are you upset with her because... she doesn't trust your wife one bit?" Sayaka clasps her hands. She genuinely can't tell right now if these are... Yuliana's true feelings or if Elisa is overhearing her every word - or both at the same time.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"She's sick of me," Yuliana mutters, dark and bitter, informing Sayaka just what Leina thinks.
Well, it's what Yuliana THINKS Leina thinks, anyway.
Her expression tightens in alarm, though, when Sayaka tells her why she was talking about her. "Shit," she says, eloquently. And she might say more about it, except --
Her wife comes first. "No -- it's not... it's the amount of attention she always gives me," she insists, her frill wilting, behind her ears. (She evidently doesn't keep her aura in check at home, and those winglike tentacles are such a useful barometer for her emotions.) "I mean -- she does like it when I fight, but -- it's not love-bombing to be glad your wife has returned to you." She could have raised her voice about that, but something steals the volume from her throat.
(Because even she must realise the similarities.)
Yuliana glances away from the camera, down to the ring on her finger. "She... she said such awful things, Yaka. That I had to leave my wife -- for my own good -- and for the good of the world. She blamed me for not -- immediately violating all my vows to -- to abandon my security and go chase uncertainty instead?!" Her voice does raise, as she shakes her head, wildly. "She wasn't even speaking sense! Elisa told me, you know, when I told her -- she said I wasn't the source of all her Power, just the reason for it! And she already has the strength to do as she pleases! That stupid girl, Leina was talking like -- like if I left my wife she'd be powerless -- as if it's my fault if she has the power to do as she wishes! And saying all these things about how, how my Elisa using me as her weapon, and -- and that's not true! I fight because I want to fight! My Elisa would rather I be safe, she just doesn't want to put my fire out, either!"
She lifts a hand to her mouth, curled, as her shoulders lift and fall under their towel in a deep, strangled sigh. "But... but I am, I am a little at fault for... not being sufficiently cautious... I suppose. I'm... I hope you'll excuse me for that. I was... I was too busy thinking about my wife's messages, too hasty... I wasn't careful enough. That's put you in a bad position, hasn't it...?"
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
"What makes you think she's not just worried about you?" Sayaka asks, of Yuliana's harsh bitterness towards Leina. She always seems to expect the worst of anyone... anyone except for Elisa. "Hasn't she been putting herself on the line for you this whole entire time?"
Sayaka does nod, sagely, at Yuliana's 'shit' at the mention of her being caught. She expects Yuliana to say more, and waits for it, but her wife comes first.
"That's not the part I'm concerned about," Sayaka shakes her head, when Yuliana admits that Elisa likes to watch her fight. "It's also that... remember when we found out she was tracking you, and suddenly you couldn't get a response from her?" Sayaka reminds her, with some strain. "I'm worried it might be the opposite of that. I know you were able to talk it out... but the fact is, she's probably aware it wasn't right in the first place." Sayaka frowns. "And now she's trying to make up for it."
Sayaka focuses then on the supposedly 'awful' things Leina had to say. "I'm not sure I'd call your new allies in the Dawn of Fold 'secure'," Sayaka points out. "I told you that I wouldn't stop you from fighting from whatever cause you wanted, but you know, you're painting a huge target on yourself by taking such a loud approach, right?" It sucks, because using the Dawn of Fold as a shield is strategically sound for Satellicon, but she doesn't want to use Yuliana as a shield.
As much as Sayaka agrees that leaving Elisa is what's best for Yuliana, though... she's not sure it's as easy as it sounds, either. "Leina is right that the two of you wield so much more power together than you do apart. But... no, that doesn't make you responsible for Elisa doing as she pleases." Sayaka half-agrees. "Nor do I think Elisa wouldn't chase you across the ends of the Earth with all her power to find you if you left. But you can't find that romantic, can you? It's terrifying!" She argues, pointing a finger for emphasis.
"And I think that's what Leina was trying to help you understand. That you need to find safety in sources other than your wife. That's important in any marriage. That's why we've been sheltering you this whole time." Sayaka concludes, though Yuliana mentions how that sheltering has put them in a difficult position. "It was a risk we took as long as we were sheltering you." Sayaka shakes her head. "But... even if it's too dangerous for you to enter OCU airspace from here, I'd like to keep in contact."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Mm..." Yuliana scowls, faltering, when Sayaka asks after Leina's motives. Her teeth -- one too many, unlike Elisa's normal amount -- worry over her bottom lip, fang pressing into the scar tissue there. "I guess it's been hard for her, too... but her ultimatums were impossible. She doesn't understand anything!"
But... did Elisa know it was wrong in the first place? "Whenever I ask her to stop," Yuliana says, seemingly not quite answering the same statement, "she always stops. She respects strength, Yaka -- it's actions which matter to her. Whether it's 'right' or 'wrong'... she told me she doesn't care about this world, either way. It was my compassion for it which drew her in and convinced her to engage. She's stewarding this world because of my wishes... fulfilling my dreams, so long as I honour my vows. I join her to this world, to its conceits." She falls quiet, for a moment. "... my wife doesn't care for the morality of mortals, not really. All that matters to her is me. I don't know if she was aware it was wrong or not... but what's wrong to the world doesn't matter to her. It's if I protest... that's what she's interested in."
She looks away, as well, thinking about her allies. "Leina wasn't pleased with the Dawn of Fold," she sighs. "She was completely disconnected from reality, yelling about how I was Neo-Zeon now, how I'd joined Neo-Zeon... I tried to tell her that Angelo's people were just one faction of many who joined together, but she wouldn't listen. She wouldn't listen! She said I was working with Neo-Zeon!" Her eyes scrunch shut, as her lips twist up in a grimace. "But I wasn't thinking about her at all, I guess... it's my Elisa who pointed out that she'd be upset on account of her past. I wasn't considerate of that." She might have realised her error if she'd been left to think about it with another conversationalist... but since Elisa informed her of Leina's perspective, she's left realising that she just wasn't thinking of her younger friend at all. (That she wouldn't have thought of her feelings, without someone else to guide her.) "Well, I might not have chosen their approach, but... but the things I'm asked to do, I'm good at them. And my Elisa wants to get closer to them, so... it's still better than turning to BioNet."
But it's hardly ideal, she leaves to implication.
She hugs her arms to herself, really, more than she folds them. "I was very uncharitable," she says, frill wilting again. "I guess I told Leina I was worried my Elisa might turn on the world, if I left her... but Elisa even asked, you know, when I told her." Because of course she tells her wife everything. "She asked why she should harm the Earth... she said she had no reason to, right now. Actually, she feels she has to strengthen it! I just said all those awful things... because I'd let myself be swayed by everyone saying such awful things about my wife. It's true that she wants me -- that I'm what matters to her -- but I don't even have to think about what would happen if I didn't have her beside me." Another lesson Elisa imparted, long ago. "It doesn't matter if it's romantic or terrifying... it couldn't ever happen." She doesn't, strictly speaking, say it wouldn't be terrifying. (If she looks a little ashen, a little frightened, well -- at least she hasn't spoken sacrilege.)
"I... liked visiting you," she admits, a hand lifting to cover her face. "It wasn't always easy... sometimes it was very frustrating, really... but I thought things were changing. I was figuring out more of why I did things, how I could fix them... a -- a lot of people wanted to help me. And not just briefly before they realised I was bad and abandoned me, but for a long time! It meant very much to me!" And her hand is lifting her face because she's crying, and it's still kind of embarrassing, really. "But I can't come back," she sniffs, her fingers clutching her face tightly. "My wife was right. My friends might accept me, but the world never will! They'll judge you too harshly... your life would be much more difficult. And being watched so closely, challenged so often, you -- your own projects would be compromised, with all the attention I'd bring on you." She doesn't name Satellicon; she just has to hope Sayaka knows that she knows. "E--even if the OCU didn't hand me over to a NUNE tribunal. They'd still watch, they'd still complain, they'd still start something... ohhh," she moans, turning her head in her palm. "I--I'm sorry, I'm carrying on terribly much, aren't I...? I just... I thought maybe I could make Leina happy if I came back, if I at least came back sometimes, but... but I messed it all up. I messed it all up..."
... and Elisa didn't have to do a thing.
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Unfortunately, Yuliana might be right when she says that Leina's ultimatums are impossible. The control Elisa has over her is just... too great, judging from this conversation. Sayaka doesn't say that. "Maybe, but I'm sure she's trying to understand. Leina's been a really stubborn girl as long as I've known her, but... I can't see her not wanting what's best for you."
She moves on from Leina, then, when Yuliana talks about how Elisa doesn't truly care about the rules and morality of this world - only Yuliana. It's... fraught. "I see where you're coming from. She's certainly... changed, since the two of you married." What worries Sayaka is that it's the only reason she's changed. "Still, if the only thing that will get her to stop is if you tell her, to... and she doesn't care otherwise, what will you do if there's something you can't tell her?" Sayaka frowns, the horror of Elisa's mindset creeping in.
The Dawn of Fold... Sayaka can imagine why Leina wouldn't be fond of them. Many of her own people in Satellicon, Spacenoids crushed by Neo Zeon empires of the past, or even the Principality itself, certainly aren't. Her first instinct is to explain to her that of course Leina has a problem, because she was traumatized by Neo Zeon's reign... but apparently Elisa had that one covered already. "Sure, it's not just Neo Zeon you're working with. But you can't tell me you're fine with putting yourself in that much danger just because you're good at it." Perhaps it's better than BioNet, but why should she be forced to choose between them?
'Right now', Elisa has no reason to harm the Earth, Yuliana says. Somehow, Sayaka doesn't look too convinced. "Right," Sayaka says, "But even in the best of marriages, you shouldn't feel like you have no means of leaving. That's not..." The idea that Yuliana can't leave Elisa comes from her own lips, and yet... "It couldn't ever happen? What do you mean?" Sayaka asks, her voice's tone dropping, seeing what almost looks like fear in Yuliana's visage through the camera.
"I'm glad you liked visiting... that you were able to find happiness here, even through the frustration." Sayaka smiles warmly, when Yuliana admits that. "They still do want to help you," She clarifies, too, and then she realizes that Yuliana is... crying. "Hey, it's okay..." Sayaka tilts her head. "It'll be okay. Even if you can't visit anymore, I hope you'll remember what you learned here, that you'll still be able to put it to good use."
But the world will never accept Yuliana, according to Elisa. "I don't agree with that. Because the world I'm fighting for, I want it to become a kinder place. One where anyone can have hope to change." Sayaka says firmly. "But I understand what you mean. It's not just me who's been watched... they're going to be keeping a closer eye out for you in the OCU, too. And I don't want to put that risk on you." Sayaka sighs.
She straightens up then. "Listen. Even if you think you messed up, I don't want you to think you made a mistake for trying to reach out and improve as a person. Everyone deserves that chance." She says, unmoving. "It's not even about whether Leina's happy... it's about whether you're happy. I hope you'll... be able to think about what that means, even if you must stay at the Silent Castle full time."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"She's... never tried to harm me," Yuliana admits, on Leina's motivations. "Not on purpose, anyway... she realised I needed help before a lot of people did." A light pause, "... before I did."
And does she realise she needs help now?
It's harder to ignore, at least -- the demands her marriage places on her. Sayaka asks a prescient question, and Yuliana's gaze lowers, so as not to anger the divine. "Then I will bear it," she says, quietly, lowering her hand to curl at her chest, "until I am strong enough to speak. That's my duty as a wife... even mama said I must make peace in my heart."
... her mother knows, and she made it Yuliana's responsibility, too?
Perhaps it's no wonder... she saw Leina's desperation the way she did.
"... I enjoy fighting," she says, again, still looking down at her hand. "All that danger, it's proof I'm alive. Proof I'm stronger than my enemies... worthy to live. I was made for it, after all, even if I really am just a defective Cyber-Newtype whose only bond is written in blood and the scorn of this world. I wouldn't have minded fighting for something else... but no one would wish to work with us, after what we've done."
She still can't manage to meet Sayaka's eyes, through the camera. "I don't have to find out what would happen, if I were without her," she says, and still sounds so defeated about it all. "I couldn't handle life on my own, and... I just... I can't imagine it. Breaking my vows. I -- I just think -- it would devastate her if I hurt her feelings that much. I couldn't do that to her. And I don't... I just... I think even if I did, I'd change my mind," she grows all the more uncomfortable, as she tries to talk around the point. "I'd think better of it. I wouldn't get very far. It's not -- she can't control me, not like that, it's my decision -- it's just how I feel. I'm devoted to my wife. Of course I'll return to her... I'll always return to her. Leina insisted I do the right thing, but the right thing is to honour the rites of my marriage." She's never able to just say --
-- that even if she isn't being magically compelled, she doesn't have a real choice in the matter.
(She can't describe something she can't see. She feels discomfort, with no reason to feel that way. Something is wrong, but nothing is wrong. Elisa has always offered her a choice; she just chooses correctly, every time.)
She sniffs, wiping at her eyes with the corner of her towel. "Thank you," she says, and means it. "I do still have the exercises... I'll try to keep doing them. Do... do apologise to my team for me, won't you...? I... wasn't able to live up to their hopes, after all." She says she'll try to keep working on herself -- but she has such a pessimistic view.
Her wife prefers her fire, after all.
"You don't wish to risk me, either... you're a kind soul, Yaka," Yuliana sniffles, again, dabbing at her face some more. "I'm happy here -- really, I am -- it's just..."
She shakes her head. "... well," she says, instead, the word a touch strangled, "I'd like it if I could still call you, sometimes. Surely that's all right... my Elisa was even fine with me having a phone of my own, when I had to tell her what I'd done. She trusts me, after all..."
(Yuliana, here, has made a vital linguistic slip; surely she meant to say she'd told Elisa, of her own volition, without any pressure at all. ... it must be easy to trust someone, grasping them so tightly.)
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Sayaka nods, when Yuliana says that Leina has never intentionally tried to harm her, and that she was one of the first people to realize how much Yuliana needed help.
And in a way, Yuliana reinforces that need for help through her answer to Sayaka's question. "You shouldn't have to," Sayaka replies, as firm as ever, keeping her own voice lower. "No one should have to." She reinforces, even as Yuliana invokes her own mother.
"Just because it's what you were 'made' to do, doesn't mean it's what's best for you," Sayaka interjects, when Yuliana brings up her fate as a Cyber Newtype. "But I can't really tell you that you're wrong for liking to fight," Sayaka has to admit, though. "I enjoy it, too. It's hard not... to get that rush out of overcoming danger." And sometimes it's easy to forget, during those retirement years of preaching peace, that Sayaka learned to fight when she was thirteen going on fourteen. That she was the one who taught Koji how to fight - not vice versa.
But right now, she's focused on Yuliana, and what fighting means to her. "And in this era, there's plenty of reasons to want to keep fighting. So if you absolutely must fight alongside those people... I hope you'll at least be able to do some good in the process." The Mobile Dolls are one thing, but Sayaka has also caught wind of how Dawn of Fold and Satellicon's second joint operation went. If they weren't there, then...
Sayaka listens as Yuliana explains her feelings of being without Elisa, why she's making the choice to revoke her own choice in the matter. If Leina couldn't change her mind, Sayaka can't take that approach, so what does she even say? "No one can live alone, that much is true," Sayaka nods, slowly. "But you wouldn't be alone, even if you made that decision." She offers, but leaves it there, seeing Yuliana's discomfort.
"I'll be sure to let them know," Sayaka nods, when Yuliana asks Sayaka to carry on her apologies. "I believe they still wish the best for you, no matter what happens. So don't worry about them too much." What she doesn't say is their opinion on Elisa, and her threat not just to Yuliana's mental state, but the entire world.
Sayaka smiles, when Yuliana calls her kind, though she tilts her head back down when Yuliana says she really is happy at the Silent Castle. "Of course you can. I'd be happy to keep in touch," Sayaka agrees, when Yuliana asks if they can still call, though she notes the 'had to' tell. "...If there's ever anything you're worried about, you can talk to me about it." Sayaka promises, for better or for worse.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
No one... should have to? But her mother said she must, and Yuliana respects the authority of her parents, even now. She doesn't want to berate Sayaka, though, so she doesn't press the point; doesn't give her a chance to say something offensive.
(She thinks she's doing her a favour.)
"My Elisa knows what's best for me," Yuliana insists. "And she sees a path forward through our battles, with the Dawn of Fold... I've trusted myself to her. But she's assured me I may hold mercy in one hand and destruction in the other... our new friends don't really ask me to handle evacuations either, when I'm so good at the other thing, but I am able to save a few people. Sometimes. Like when the Gaia Sabers released their automatons to mow down the prisoners... it was an unelegant solution, but I stepped on the damn robots," she admits, with the ghost of a smile as she remembers her efforts. "There weren't too many survivors, but... I suppose a few people escaped to the Toy Box. A couple."
Is she undercounting, or is that an accurate assessment of just how much difference she made? Perhaps Tessa would know.
She tilts her head, as Sayaka says she wouldn't be alone. "Mm," she hums acknowledgement. She definitely heard it; it's in her head, where her wife should be. She just... can't reply.
She doesn't want to betray her wife, thinking she could --
But her treatment team wish her well... she can believe that much, and she nods, hearing that. "Trosha did tell me I should have other people I can speak with," she says, which means she's recalled something from Alectros's therapy, at least. "The whole -- that emotional safety thing. I don't feel unsafe, but -- but I'm glad I could speak with you about that kind of thing, too." 'Too', of course, because the first person she should bring her worries to is her wife.
Maybe she can speak to other people, though. In addition.
"But... perhaps I had better let you go, for now," she adds, softly, looking to her camera again. "My wife will be worried if I'm crying over a phone call again... and I'm sure she'll be finished with her business soon. But -- but I was glad to speak with you, Yaka. I... was afraid everyone would be done with me, since I'll not betray my wife. Please, excuse my dour introduction... it's, it's like what Dr. Kimura was saying, I suppose, about how I get to thinking I'll be abandoned and rush to abandon everyone else first. That wasn't really fair... you've been a good friend to me."
She smiles, and says: "Take care... and all my best to Koyan and little Lisichka, too. I will miss seeing you all, here and there."
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
"Mercy and destruction," Sayaka repeats, it's really not that different from the Photon Power League's own mantra, is it? "It's... bleak to think about. But if you really were able to save even one person, then that's something to be proud of." If she can't prevent the Dawn of Fold's destructive tendencies, then the least she can do is encourage its merciful tendencies, right?
Sayaka notes Yuliana's relative silence, when she assures her that she won't be alone, even when apart from Elisa. There's that acknowledgement though, and in Yuliana's situation... maybe even that is a small step.
Sayaka nods too, when Yuliana brings up how she learned she should have people to talk to other than her partner. "Yeah. It's not that your own feelings aren't important, but when you're unsure, it's always good to get someone else's perspective." She agrees. "If you ever need me to get you in touch with other people, too, I can see what I can do." She offers, as well.
"Alright. It's been a long day, so honestly, I should probably get some rest myself..." Sayaka nods, when Yuliana says she must go, despite her reasons. "But I'm glad we could talk like this, too, even if we started off on the wrong foot today." Things can always take a turn for the better.
"I'll be sure to let them know. Oh, and give little Makar and Maksim, and the rest of your family my best, too." She smiles, moving to click the end call button on her cell. "All right, I'm hanging up now. Take care, Yuliana!"