2024-07-13: Power and Prowess

From Super Robot Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search 


<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        As soon as the Kafims were done celebrating Elisa's artwork, Yuliana, energised, had a great idea: she'd show Elisa how the real thing operated, since she enjoyed Yuliana's model of it so much. (Of course she wanted to favour Elisa with that delight, too.) Parminder started up the Shandor and escorted her out to find a battle, and...

        ... it's not so long before it reappears, that tentacle-prow ship sinking back into the ice at their docks, and the Muse Malu 4 skittering out of the loading bay and back into the stables. Under its own power, even -- though it has sustained some notable structural damage, as if it were physically picked up and thrown up into the air like a ball.

        (And if Elisa was watching -- and surely Elisa was watching -- she'd know there's no 'as if' about it.)

        ... the Second-Generation Engine has received and sent out an offering, too. The crystal set up to intercept them is no longer so empty, any more.

        Empty, instead, is the cockpit, as Yuliana cracks open the door and climbs out onto the myriapod's back. Her helmet's been discarded in favour of a cloak she secures about her shoulders, hood raised over her head to keep her ears from frosting over.

<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.

All is well. Yuliana went to battle and returned, and Elisa got to see her machine in action! Sure, it was to 'protect people' from 'a kaiju' but someone else's kaiju is a sacrifice Elisa is willing to make.

Elisa is waiting in the stables before Yuliana appears, floating towards her wife. "My darling," she says.

She does not bring the crystal. It remains safe in the North Wing.

"It was a treasure to see your work in action."

"Are you well? That was a nasty throw..."

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        Yuliana reaches a hand up to her wife, to take her assistance stepping up onto the walkway. She doesn't need it, but it's the symbol of the thing. "Elya," she smiles, her cheeks aglow again, as she presses her other hand to her wife's cheek and kisses her other side. "Did you see? Wasn't he just wonderful?"

        She saw! And Yuliana laughs, her tentacles wrapping about her wife. "Wasn't it?" She asks, but she's in good humour. "That thing, that -- Bullton, was it? -- it inverted gravity! All a sudden my poor Muse Malu 4 was in the air and hurtling down! But it was quite a clever little thing, Elya. Only half-moored to reality, so it was able to manuever between the two to get around... I had Letda take plenty of scans for you, in case it might help."

        Help Elisa make her own horrific kaiju, that is.

        "But generally speaking, the alacrity of forty-eight legs simply can't be beat," she adds, smiling. "I was able to evade most of the damage... though I did have to demand a little more of the engine to destroy the damn thing, by the end. Because, you know -- that Alexis made it! But not our Alexis, not the one I wanted to yell at, apparently he has a brother, can you believe that? 'Crisis Alexis', he's calling himself! Says he's in love with a teenager!"

<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.

Elisa smiles at Yuliana, glad to help her. "I did," she says. "And he was! Very dashing."

Elisa wraps arms about her wife, and looks into her eyes. "Oh?" she asks. "How fascinating... so that's how it accomplished it. Yes, these readings will be most helpful, I'm sure. For many purposes!"

Her Kaiju... but also other matters, too. Important matters. Don't worry about it.

"True," Elisa says. "I should include more legs on my next creation..." A pause. Yes, she did demand more--Elisa recalls that. "That is..." She frowns. "So it is true... another Alexis. Hmm... That is one thing, of course, but..."

Elisa turns up her nose and sniffs. "Teenagers," she says as if the word is something she found on her shoe in the stables.

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        Yuliana gazes into her wife's eyes, and she could lose herself, there, in the green. "I'm so glad," she sighs, her smile warm and fond, and she doesn't worry about it at all.

        Elisa would tell her if she had to worry.

        "It's always good to have some extra legs," Yuliana agrees. But, Alexis --

        "Oh, teenagers aren't so bad," she soothes her wife, stroking at her cheek. "Be nice to them! They're just figuring out their way in the world, zhenushka... they just need a little more help. But adult men coming and wooing them with promises of importance and power -- tchah!" That's what bothers her. "Both Alexises must be weak men, if they need to target children to win. Are they so incompetent they can't get one over someone who knows better?"

        She's not going to examine the way Alexis Kerib got one over on her despite Yuliana being well and truly an adult by now. If she asked those questions, she'd have to confront her own emotional immaturity and impairments. She'll do that... never.

        "Well, we got one over on him today," Yuliana pouts, grumpy at the implications she is steadfastly not looking directly at. "Even if some of those awful people would have rather I was attacking the city, too... I said I was there to help, and one of them accused me of having the gall to do so! They called me a hypocrite! Ugh, I guess most of them were grateful, and I got to see dear little Kaworu, that was nice, but... but I guess you're right, Elya," Yuliana sighs, sinking into her wife's chest.

        "... this world won't accept me. They don't want me to try and help them... they just want me to be the bad guy. They'd rather attack me for showing up, even when a kaiju's rampaging through the city... I can't go back, Elya." She sighs, downcast, hiding her face against her neck. "I can't ever go back, can I...?"

<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.

Perhaps Elisa has found herself instead, in Yuliana's eyes.

Elisa considers Yuliana's defense of teenagers, and makes a 'well, all right' gesture with her hand held flat before her, waving it slightly. "True," she says of adult men. "I suppose they must be weak, in that case. One must challenge oneself, not only take the easiest means to the goal."

Yuliana doesn't hear Elisa bring up those implications! Because she doesn't. Instead, she frowns as Yuliana mentions what that person accused. "It is good to see Kaworu," she agrees, "But..."

"This is true," she says. "The only way to return safely is in conquest. They will not understand unless they are forced to understand."

Elisa strokes Yuliana's back. "...But that is not the path you've chosen. In your kindness, you allow them to think as they will, instead, apart from you."

"We shall take the best of this world, though. Your Callers will be your people, now."

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        Find something, lose something...

        "Precisely!" Yuliana insists, on the topic of preying on the young, and no one has to bring up any implications at all.

        She takes a deep breath, and sighs, sinking deeper into her wife's robes. They won't understand...

        Her eyes flutter closed, as she nestles in against her chest, focusing on the feeling of her fingertips against her pilot's suit. (The body armour at her chest is something of a barrier, between them; she'll shed it soon enough.) "Mm," she hums, and supposes it must be her kindness, that she allows them to think such awful things.

        And she wonders, for a moment, how much that kindness is worth -- when it just ends up hurting her. But she chose to do it this way... so.

        They're apart from her... so it doesn't really matter, she assures herself, again.

        "I must invite them here," she murmurs, against her wife, when Elisa invokes their Callers. "All our preparations are ready... aren't they, zhenushka?"

<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.

Elisa does not have many moral objections to Alexis (original flavor)'s choice of targets, but she does believe as she said--that a challenge is more worthwhile. The creativity of children can be useful, but is far too unreliable for Elisa. She would prefer to deal with adults.

Like Yuliana!

But what else would it be but kindness? Kindness, which is so fraught...

Elisa considers, and then says, "I shall take you into the warmth," and picks Yuliana up princess-style to float down from the platform toward the threshold of the Castle proper.

"Yes," she says. "that is a fine idea. Our preparations are indeed ready; when you are ready, we can begin bringing people here."

Float float.

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        Let's not explore the implications of Elisa preferring to deal with Yuliana, where Alexis Kerib liked to deal with Akane. It's completely different, clearly.

        And even more completely different, now this Crisis Alexis is proclaiming such love and affection for Leila.

        ... the Kafims are married, after all.

        Kindness is fraught, and perhaps it's not even worth it, but it's what Yuliana insisted on doing. Elisa's kindness has no such tangles, though, and she gasps with delight as she's swept up into her wife's arms. "Elya!" She chirps, as she wraps her arms about her neck, tentacles trailing around her, and rubs her cheek against her wife's shoulder.

        "Oh, Elya, you've worked so hard," she sighs, trusting her wife to take her to safety, though they're not even touching the floor. "Thank you, my darling... I'll begin recording tomorrow."

<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.

Definitely, it's best not to go there. The Kafims are married! And of comparable ages! More or less.

Elisa smiles at Yuliana, and her feet touch on the ground not long after she stepped off of the platform. "Yes, my Yuliana. There is no need to make you wait. I shall welcome you back properly."

Yuliana trusts her, of course.

"I do my best," Elisa says. "...As do you."

"Together, we shall have all that we desire."

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        More or less.

        When they reach a nice, warm sitting-room, Yuliana sighs, and reaches up to touch Elisa's cheek again. "That's much better," she murmurs, and her smile is as loving as her voice. "Together... stay with me, Elya. Now I've shown you the might of the real thing..."

        She hums through her lips, gazing up to her wife. "Ah... Elya, that offering... did you receive it?" She asks, and perhaps that explains why she wants to perform for her people tomorrow. "I know we changed our plans... a little..."

        ... it was supposed to go to the Empress, before they betrayed Her.

<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.

Elisa reaches in turn to stroke Yuliana's hand, when they are sitting down. "I will stay," she agrees. "I am pleased to have seen his might. I will be reminded of your prowess whenever I see the model, now."

But?

"Yes," she confirms, "I did. All worked exactly as intended. The offerings shall flow..."

"And I shall make use of this energy to invest in this world. That we might stay as long as necessary, that we might bring Earth's power to bear, when it is time to fight Her."

It goes to Elisa, now. To a receptacle that she has prepared.

That's fine.

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        Yuliana smiles, clearly pleased, when her wife praises her prowess. "Wonderful," she says, dreamily.

        The offerings shall flow... and not just from Yuliana, though surely it is taken from her, as well. The First-Generation Abyss Engine, after all, generates power from battle -- but what generates that power is the woman in the cockpit, her blood boiling over, screaming defiance into the Earth.

        (Just as Yuliana thought she needed to assault Newtypes to charge the Green Fold Crystals Elisa gave her, when they first began dating -- when the thing which darkened them was instead just exposure to Yuliana. It is not other people who give Elisa her greatest strengths; that privilege belongs to her wife.)

        But Yuliana needs not state her intent to sacrifice to her machine, when she steps into Da Xukong 0. It's all spelled out in its initialisation, that it is the generation platform, that it creates their destruction. That's the strength of the first Engine, a strength she could not replicate without Shari's strange powers behind her.

        Da Xukong 0 serves to empower the Threshold Queen, but these copycat engines -- well, their power goes to the Queen of the Castle, instead.

        "Yes," she agrees, with a long, slow blink. "This world will steady you, Elya. And we will enforce our will upon the Void."

        She embraces her wife -- only for her expression to scrunch up, when she realises that thick, heavy body armour is still in the way. "A moment," she says, as she pulls back a little, undoing buckles in the front of it. "Elya, can you...?"

        There are ones on the back, too.

<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.

Elisa knows these things, and has for some time. She knows far more than she once did of the crystals and of the Void. ...Even in the beginning she could use its power, but now she has become the master.

Elisa Kafim shall rise to greater heights yet. And with her, her Yuliana.

"Indeed," Elisa says to that long and slow blink. "...It is a good reason to keep this world etched in my mind."

The Void...

"Yes," Elisa agrees. "But not today." She reaches behind Yuliana's back, and undoes the buckles with all her great dexterity.

"Today, I shall show you have much I appreciate seeing your prowess..."

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        How much Yuliana knows is, perhaps, a shade more questionable -- but she has never been master of these powers which move her, channeling them through her flesh and her psyche, losing herself to their strength. She moves intuitively through their sick creation, unmoored and unstable, and it is Elisa who orders the confusion in her mind.

If Elisa will rise up, Yuliana will, too.

        "Yes," she murmurs, when Elisa gives the world that value. She leans, to give Elisa access to those buckles, and when she discards her body armour from her pilot's suit it clatters to the ground with a heavy, heavy thud.

        (She started wearing it because her wife was so worried for her -- especially if she ever got out of her machine. It would fatigue a normal soldier within hours, but she can stand it far more easily.)

        And she laughs, sweeping her cloak forward, to cover them both. "Hahaha... oh, Elya," she beams, entirely happy about it. "You're so good to me...!"

        How could anyone say she's in danger, here, when her wife is so caring and considerate?

        She loves coming home to Elisa most of all.

Retrieved from "https://srtmoo.net/mediawiki/index.php?title=2024-07-13:_Power_and_Prowess&oldid=10129"