2024-08-18: .through tea i'll gain your sympathY
- Log: .through tea i'll gain your sympathY
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Li Yao, Emilia Eschonbach
- Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- Date: 2024-08-18
- Summary: Yuliana invites her allies in the Dawn of Fold over for tea to make amends for them getting caught up in her GOOSE CRIME. Emilia isn't terribly won over by her gift basket, but there are things about Yuliana which are much more sympathetic to her. Yao gets to be Right.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
The Prince handily -- reminded -- Yuliana of her intentions to make it up to her allies. Granted, she'd offered that to Six, but... well, she'd ought to reach out to Angelo's girl, too.
(Sigh...)
So it happens that Yuliana's beleaguered allies received an invitation to attend the Silent Castle this evening -- with Yao getting special instructions to come by the main atrium at the allotted time, instead. He's a resident of the Castle, of course, so he doesn't get the view from outside...
... of the Salamis Kyo parked in the icy docks outside the Castle...
... and the green goats which are climbing up the inner walls and the roofs of the bailey, when the guests are escorted inside.
There are four of them in total; they bleat challenge, but they're all quite occupied with what they're doing, so none of them come down to fight.
And, of course, there are geese. A servant dressed in a fur uniform chases one away from Emilia with a broom, as it tries to approach her for round two. HONK.
Once she's safely inside the grand front doors, though...
... this is definitely a Castle. It's much warmer inside, the internals lit by gas lamps and chandeliers hanging from the ceiling; the atrium features beautiful silk hangings on the walls, alongside a massive oil painting of the Mistresses in full Calling regalia, golden wings decorating Yuliana's tiara and broad horns atop Elisa's crown. Sculptures of draconic creatures decorate the hall, carved from marble and metal and stone.
"Welcome," Yuliana smiles, AN ENTIRE GREEN TIGER weaving around her neatly-robed midsection, her black bearskin cloak draping over his massive head as he peeks out from behind her. "Don't be alarmed," she adds, a hand dropping to pet his ears. "This is our dear Sokrovishche... Sokrova, for short. Unlike our geese, he's quite friendly. Very good with the children!"
Sokrova chuffs, as he ambles up to sniff the newcomer, green ears perked up and yellow eyes shining with friendly curiosity. He does not, in fact, bite her hand off.
"Would you come through?" She asks, as she turns, and gestures them in. "It's warmer by the fireplace." There's a sitting room nearby -- there's always a sitting room nearby -- and just as Yuliana promised, a fire is crackling merrily by one of the walls. There are two gift baskets, set out on tables beside the comfortable chairs. And one... rests on a folded-up set of premium blackout curtains.
"For you," she gestures Emilia to one basket. "And for you," she gestures Yao to the one with the curtains. "Tea will be in soon, but..."
The gift basket is, in fact, filled with bags of loose-leaf tea which appears to have been hand-prepared, each bag labelled thoughtfully with its mixture. There is also a lovely little old-fashioned -- but still entirely new -- teapot in each basket, the kind suited to boiling tea leaves.
(Unfortunately, Two and Six could not attend, today -- and so Yuliana's sent their gift basket of tea off to them via courier. In their card is an assurance that Yuliana will keep her word about fixing the BRC-2, whenever they've the occasion to bring it to her.)
"... well, I thought it might be nice to offer you some more tea," Yuliana concludes, smiling. "It's the least I can do, after our geese weren't willing to recognise our allies."
The Prince told Yuliana to have them over for tea, so obviously she had to one-up the suggestion.
<Pose Tracker> Li Yao has posed.
The old man, Li Yao, had dropped off geese and then had found a nice part of the frozen ocean to detonate the Arm Slave and let it sink to the bottom of the Icy Depths. He had only just got back to the castle when he was given the request for an appearance. Taking a moment to find a warmer and cleaner tang jacket. Then maybe it is the pettiness of an old man he takes one of the geese feather that he had grabbed when dumping off the cage and laces it through the jacket over the old mans heart. He was told to return the geese, not all their feathers.
As he comes downstairs towards the sitting room his eyes look at the other guest and nods a greeting towards her, before entering the sitting room and looking towards Yuliana. It is a hard, long, look as if Yao is trying to choose his words carefully before coming to a decision. His head turns to look at the tiger. "Good day to you Soki. I don't suppose I could convince you how much your darling owner needs a rather large hairball left on her pillow."
This comment was given only moments before the giving of gifts and Yao sees that a set of curtains were actually gotten for him. He is, well he is unsure what he is. Is he surprised, touched, regretting his previous action, in truth he is unsure of his own emotions about this. Finally he lets out a sigh and looks back at Sokrovishche, "A medium size hair ball will do." He looks at the gift for a moment longer before setting them aside.
Yao hears the reason for the gift and sighs, "Yuliana, why did you send geese? What in all your experience taught you that geese can distinguish one person from another? More importantly, what was the point of all of this all together? Was it simply to test some sort of magical creation? You just got bored? " Looking at Emilia for another moment he looks back at Yuliana, "Do not think having guests over will cause me to hold my tongue on the matter." Yes, Yao is still a bit annoyed.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
She had initially thought the invitation had been some kind of joke. Or perhaps an insult- maybe a threat? She had hoped to simply ignore it, but showing signs on weakness in front of their... allies wasn't exactly something she could afford to do. Arrangements were made. Travel was cleared. Backup plans were put in place. Emergency contacts were contacted.
And so, Emilia approached the Silent Castle, dressed in her casual wear, eyepatch included- with the extra layers of a heavy coat, a scarf, and a beanie- and hidden under her normal jacket, a silver bracelet with green gems secured tightly. For all that she has lots of jewellery now... sometimes you want the things that make you feel stronger.
The green goats elicit a stare as they issue challenge, and the goose wanting a rematch gets an angry glare. She will not be giving it a second change- her locket is also secured under the layers. Walking into the Castle, however, is an Aesthetic. Giant portraiture, gas lamps and chandeliers, sculptures a plenty. It did not, exactly, resemble Britannia's excess- but it certainly had a familiar feeling.
Also there is a green tiger and given her experiences with green animals so far she's glad she's armed just in case. Even if the tiger is behaving for now- and, of course, one of the ladies on the castle. Emilia looks up at the other woman as she's invited in. "Mrs K-Kafim." She stammers, her tone resolved regardless. "Th-thank you for your i-invitation." There's definitely something angry behind it.
It takes some effort not to flinch as Sokrova comes closer to inspect, but she manages it. For now, he is acting as a cat.
Emilia nods upon being asked to come through, and steps forward, careful not to agitate the tiger. She did not expect another guest, to be fair.
Which is when she is introduced to the gift basket. She stares again. A gift basket.
A Gift Basket.
"Th-th-this is why I was invited?" She says, quietly but a little harshly. "F-for gift b-baskets?" She glares up- but doesn't speak over Yao. He has many of the questions she does. It gives her time to formulate her next question. She settles on, eventually, "Wh-what are you p-playing at?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
One goose still holds the secrets of kung-fu inside its hateful little heart, and lo, the old man might never rest...
Though, for now, that feather is sign of his victory.
Sokrova, at least, senses that Emilia doesn't want cat company, and so he ambles over to Yao to give him a companionable headbump instead. 'Hoff?' He chuffs, again, looking from the old master to his Mistress.
"Sokrova would never be such a naughty boy!" Yuliana insists, wagging a finger. She talks to the tiger as if he can understand her, assuring him: "Don't worry, dear, we're not fighting. Li Shifu was just dealing with the geese."
'Hrph,' Sokrova huffs, seeming to understand perfectly. When Yuliana sits herself down on a couch, he hops up to drape over her lap... something she copes with just fine, despite him appearing to be as heavy as tigers always are.
"Ah..." Yuliana pauses, the frills behind her ears (why does she have ear frills) wilting, when she hears Emilia's scepticism. She sighs, looking down at Sokrova and petting his big soft ears, instead. "Excuse me," she says, softly. "I thought I ought to make it up to you, but I suppose that's not really sufficient, is it...?"
She's too proud to blame the Prince for giving her a bad idea; she just fumes about it inside herself.
"Our geese can tell," she insists, still not quite looking at them. "They just... didn't much care. They're still geese, after all, even with the changes. It's..." She sighs, and shakes her head. "I mean, I was bored, but that's not why I did it. I -- things were a little strained, with my wife and I, after -- well, I let myself be manipulated, I'm afraid. My Elisa... she wasn't pleased at how upset it all made me, and..." She pauses, biting the inside of her cheek. Should she really... even say something like this?
... but it's not like Emilia isn't her ally. And it's not like Yao wouldn't have... noticed that day she disappeared, either, after those especially egregarious mood swings.
"Letting the geese out to play made her laugh," Yuliana settles on, after a moment. "And things got a lot better after I decided to vent my feelings out like that. You know? It's not like I meant any harm... even if they're big, they're still just geese. It's not... a big deal. I got even, and now my wife doesn't have to worry about it, and.... it's better."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
It is not necessarily that Emilia doesn't want cat company, it's just that the cat is as big as she is and she is- to be fair- on edge. After all, she has been invited to the home of someone her commanding officer doesn't care for, her benefactor doesn't trust, and who sent a bunch of threats to Emilia's home to get revenge on Leina- via attacking Mineva. You know, attacking her family and her friends and people who saved her life and it's not like Magallanica is part of NUNE! Sure there'll have to be... changes made, conflict with Magallanica is inevitable. But...
Anyway, Emilia says none of this, because it's a closely guarded secret still. Instead she crosses her arms. "R-Really. Th-this is g-g-genuinely just... m-making amends?" She raises her visible eyebrow quizzically-
But it's... the way Yuliana's body language changes the way those fins wilt. It gives her pause, for just a second.
She listens, too, as Yuliana explains everything. There's something there that is... familiar to Emilia. Not precise, but...
After that whole explanation, Emilia lets out a beleaguered sigh and reaches for the gift basket. "F-fine. The g-gesture is... appreciated." It's not 'apology accepted' but it's not like Yuliana was apologizing, per se. Just. 'Making it up to them'. Emilia doesn't relax, exactly but she eases a little.
Her feelings swirl a little bit. 'It's better' nags at her.
"I-it would be b-b-better to g-g-give us advance warning in the f-future. S-so we can p-prepare appropriately."
Ah. Jolly cooperation.
<Pose Tracker> Li Yao has posed.
Li Yao looks at the Ice Queen for a moment as she gives her answer to his inquiry. On some level he feels a bit sheepish about calling it out now. She also is trying to apologize and make up for it, so he looks at the gift set again. That is a nice tea pot. Finally he sighs and then shakes his head, "Just, look, let's choose better animals if you need to do this next time. Dogs, for example, are great for such things."
Somewhere in the back of his head he can't help but think as well that maybe this is his failure. He was meant to protect Yuliana, and someone had manipulated Yuliana. Perhaps had he been more on top of things Yuliana wouldn't have done what she did. Now there is a question on whether he needs to find this manipulator. Yes that might be for the best.
"So whats next?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana nods, when Emilia asks whether she's making amends. It's not so incriminating just to -- agree with what someone else is saying.
She smiles, at least, looking back up to Emilia when she expresses that she appreciates the gesture. "That's great," she says, and she does sound relieved. "I really didn't mean to compromise you, you know."
There's a knock on the door, and another servant brings in a tray of piping-hot tea, passing it out to the tables nearest everyone. "Thanks, Darya," Yuliana says, to her, as she works, and she nods to her as she slips back out. She might live in the lap of opulence, but... at least she knows the servants' names...?
She reaches out -- with a tentacle, why does she have tentacles, why is she so weird, she's just as weird as her weird eldritch geese -- and grasps her own cup, bringing it up to her hands so she can sip it, thoughtfully. (The tea is good, and not evil. It's normal, high-quality tea.) "You're right," she agrees, after a moment to think. "I wasn't thinking of how I might affect you... I suppose it was rather inconsiderate. Well -- if I take them for another walk -- I'll be sure to let you all know in advance, all right?" She asks, smiling.
"Maybe next time we'll take the goats out," she proposes, to Yao, as if those goats haven't PERSONALLY tried to butt him every time he walks across the bailey. "I'm sure they'd love the exercise!"
She pauses. "Not that I expect we'd need to for a while," she adds, tilting her head acquiescently. "The whole thing got a little out of hand... it is unfortunate that I had to go that far to restore order, I suppose. But if I just... these things only happen because I insist on talking to Leina," she admits, looking down at her cup of tea and the tiger she's drinking it over. (Sokrova has full confidence she won't spill hot tea on him.) "It is a little selfish of me... I suppose it's for the best if I stop insisting. I mean... I wouldn't want her to get..."
She stops, and trails off, not realising that she's given Yao precisely the wrong name.
"... I spoke with the Prince," she says, instead, looking back up. (And of course, she's already explained their shadowy benefactor to Yao, when she introduced him to their allies.) "Everything's fine, of course... he's just asked me to lead some operations, you know, expend a little risk. It's a fair request, given I interrupted your work... I don't mind being the one to blame." She minds a lottle, but obviously she's fine with it. Elisa's fine with it!
<Pose Tracker> Li Yao has posed.
Yao finds himself a seat and sits becoming comfortable as he listens while grabbing a cup of tea. He doesn't even wait for it to cool, instead sipping on piping hot tea that his old man tongue barely registers as warm. As he sits there with his tea and watches Yuliana he sips his tea for a moment longer he can't help but soften a bit towards her. In a way she is more like a child than an adult, though if that thought ever crossed his lips he is pretty sure the castle would pay for it. Then the mention of the goats and he groans, "Not the goats. What about Soki? A large 20 meter tiger could cause more chaos then even a hundred geese."
Another sip of his tea and his manners come back to him as he looks at the guest. "My apologies, I swear any other day and I am much more cordial to be around. I promise I don't spend every day lecturing her infront of people." Setting his tea aside, he stands and gives Emilia a bow, "I am Li Yao, welcome." With his greeting given he sets back down and find the tea back in his hand. Another sip and contemplation on the words from the prince.
"Risk is a part of life. If the cost of this fowl operation is that there is more to do, so be it." Yao tosses his attempt at humor in there. This at least seems like the old days with the celestial beings, operations planned and executed. " So the fun and games are done for now and it is time to work." The old man smiles at this, finding some sense of joy in the work ahead.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Emilia furrows her brow a bit as Yao seems... to just accept the situation. And to accept more use of Animals as weapons... For a laugh, essentially.
"I w-w-was... able to salvage th-the situation." Emilia admits- which is to say having Leina and Kikka there to help manage Mineva's reaction helped. "Just..." She frowns a bit.
The tea comes in and at very least Emilia can tell Yuliana treats her servants better than her Grandfather did, at least. A low bar, to be fair. The tentacle is... distressing, a little, and Emilia tries to keep calm and normal and not intimidated. She takes a sip and it's... it's nice, but a little bitter for her without milk and sugar. ...But on the other hand, if she asks for sugar, well... the odds of being treated as a peer feel like they go down. So she simply drinks it as is.
For a second, she thinks about if it had been necessary to use animals at all- and then realizes the other option would have been, what? A kaiju? A bomb? Worse?
"...g-goats might have t-t-trouble in low gravity." Emilia says, after a moment. "B-b-but the g-geese seemed to handle it just fine."
Li introduces herself, and Emilia starts to respond with a curtsey, stops herself, and bows the way Kallen taught her instead, going no lower or higher than Yao. "I-I'm Emilia." She responds, not giving her surname. She... tends not to these days. It doesn't feel right but... she's not allowed to use the name she'd like to use instead. "A p-p-pleasure." The Britannian Society politeness is still deep ingrained.
Emilia pauses for a long moment, though, when Leina comes up. "Y-you wanted r-revenge on her, r-right? If that was the revenge y-y-you wanted, you got it. She l-lost, you w-w-won." Is that really the mode. "A-a-and Magallanica is g-g-going to smell of egg for weeks. M-m-maybe... the f-f-focus should be on targets we haven't defeated y-yet."
It's stating her mind, mainly- and she's been brought to the table for once. She may as well speak her mind, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Emilia might note that Yuliana puts sugar cubes into her tea, and there are, in fact, some on the tray. There's also a little covered tub of honey!
"Not my precious baby boy!" Yuliana exclaims, her tentacles wrapping about Sokrova to hug him tighter to her. (He isn't fazed in the slightest.) "He's a house cat! You know that!!" Despite her shock, she still doesn't spill tea on her precious baby boy.
Sokrova chuffs, quite pleased with all the attention.
"Our goats would be fine, I think," Yuliana adds, to Emilia. "The Void changes them... space is not so hostile, compared to our realm." Their... what? "That's why the geese were fine," she explains, instead of the obvious question.
She harrumphs, her frills pinning to the sides of her head as Yao talks about lecturing her. With effort, she lets him have it. She is trying to make nice, after all, and that includes him, APPARENTLY. (She'd probably be deeply cross if she knew how childish he thought she was, even if -- let's be honest -- her lack of self-control and self-centred emotions clearly show what could charitably be called impaired functioning.)
"... I guess that's it," Yuliana sighs, when Emilia asks what she wanted. Her smile is uneasy, but she'd claim up and down that it isn't. "It serves her right... she shouldn't have said those awful things. But I guess we're even now," she shrugs a shoulder, and pretends as if it doesn't sit awkwardly in her stomach. "My wife's satisfied, so I am, too. Haha... yeah, the fun's over, huh?"
It doesn't feel bad, she tells herself, again.
"We have plenty of other targets," she adds. "If we could figure out where NUNE is producing those drones... that's where I'd look first. People are rightly quite terrified of it all... even just telling my people about it, you know, there were families willing to abandon their hometowns just so hey could come here and be safe. But even a Castle this large can't house everyone... it bothers me."
<Pose Tracker> Li Yao has posed.
Yao is impressed by Emilia's response, not many these day would bow back to such an old man. The old ways weren't as prevalent in the youth these days after all. It also appears that she is a friend, or at least a deeper acquaintance of Yuliana than himself. Still the old man can't just let himself sit quietly, "Take it from someone who spent many years chasing revenge, it never makes things better in the end." Staring at the tea for the moment he has a brief flash to the fallout of his Mobile Fighter career.
Fortunately work calls and he looks up, "So let's hit some targets where we can steal the information from. A communication outpost perhaps, or perhaps a deployment site and then watch from where the shipments come from. " It is at times like these though he misses Sumeragi. " Also why do you have a castle on earth? Castles seem a little last century and colonies or outposts on the moons or whatever seem more the hip thing these days."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Emilia does in fact notice that Yuliana puts sugar into her tea. But she's started drinking it now and she'd lose face if she changed her approach now. "...M-may I ask what blend th-this is?" Okay she's curious now. She did drink a fair bit before... everything happened. Tea was pretty common in Britannia, if mostly. You know. From Areas.
She stares at the reaction to the cat. "H-he's a tiger." Emilia says, as if somehow no one else had noticed that. "He is a green t-t-tiger. C-can they even b-b-be house cats?" Okay look, Sokrova has raised many questions.
Emilia nods. "I g-guess so. B-but what would th-they even do? E-eat some NUNE dignitary's m-mailbox?" ...then again the Geese DID cause lots of problems. ...Still... "Y-your realm?" Her hand goes to where her locket sits under her clothes. Yao, meanwhile, says chasing revenge doesn't make it better. "It's n-n-not about m-making things better," Emmy says, a touch sharply. "It's about... l-letting you sl-sleep at n-night." Emmy's eye closes, and that anger seeps out of her voice. "...and th-the only way to give c-c-comfort to the lost."
Emmy shakes her head. "Th-there'll be t-t-time for fun later." Emmy says, a little too seriously. "When every o-one of those NUNE bastards is d-dead." Yuliana does move onto the next topic. "...those d-d-drones." She growls. "I b-b-bet it was the B-Britannians. It's... e-exactly their st-style. Just like in J-Japan. K-Kill p-people for j-j-just wanting something b-better, for going against th-their ideals. F-for being stupid e-enough to trust a sc-scam a decade in th-the making." Still, that may just be her prejudices speaking.
"Th-they shouldn't HAVE to abandon their h-hometowns!" Emilia suddenly shouts, her teacup hitting the saucer with too loud a clink. A nerve has been touched. "...D-damnit... if w-we had more people. Th-the ability to a-a-actually fight on equal f-footing..." She growls, shaking her head.
She stops, taking a breath and sipping her tea again. "...And i-if they g-gather all together, they j-j-j-just become a t-target, don't they."
The question of a castle in space, though... "M-Most colonies couldn't s-s-support a castle l-like this. M-maybe one of the Macross classes b-b-but... Unless y-you're going to an abandoned c-c-colony, or something... and th-that has it's own problems."
What? She did a school project on colony living before she even lived on one! She got an A despite her teacher hating it!
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Oh, this is built off of black tea from Sri Lanka and Assam, with powdered vanilla bean extract," apparently, the Castle isn't rich enough to throw real vanilla beans around, at least. "The briskness of the tea from that area is offset by the smoothness of the vanilla, so the whole thing is quite centring, really."
She looks down at Sokrova, who looks up at her, and the whole picture is almost comical. "Why, Sokrova," she remarks, "did you know you're a tiger?"
'Hoff,' Sokrova chuffs.
"A green tiger!"
'Choff,' Sokrova chuffs.
"He's Elisa's precious companion," Yuliana smiles, one hand reaching down to scratch his ears as she looks back to Emilia. "And he's always been nothing but gentle to me and mine. I could ask for no truer housecat than he."
Yuliana laughs, when Emilia suggests a goat could eat a mailbox. "Hahaha..!" OH NO, SHE LIKES THE IDEA. She's still smiling, as her frills fan out, lazily, to either side of her head. "Yes," she says, at length. "The Void is our home. Once we've defeated the Empress who Elisa came from, we'll claim it for ourselves, and leave this place for good."
Is that... good?
Is revenge any good?
"Yeah," Yuliana says, softly. "But no matter how much revenge I take, I still can't sleep through the night. Maybe the old man's right... oh, but I really shouldn't talk like that," she sighs.
She brightens, at least, when Yao brings up sabotage. "I do have Letda working on finding an 'in' there," she says, much more happily. (That's not a name, it's a military title. 'Second lieutenant', in Indonesian. It just sounds odd because it's slang -- if she were speaking like a Proper Military Woman, he really ought to be 'letnan dua'.) "Their encryption is pretty tight, but I had some of our people leave infected data sticks around -- eventually someone is bound to plug one into a connected terminal." Is... is that how hacking works?
Dear God, that's how hacking works.
"Britannia are full of bastards," Yuliana agrees with Emilia, easily. "Though the REA's no better. You know they wanted to cook my brain and keep my body alive as a breeding ground to harvest cells for their little cloning project? Talk about killing the goose who laid the golden egg," she blows air out through her teeth, clearly irate at the memory. "They can all hang. But that's why we're here, right?"
She pauses, and looks back to Yao. "Huh? Why a Castle?" She asks, tilting her head. "Haha... no one's ever asked me that!" And she sounds genuinely delighted by the question. "Actually, I love history," she says, gesturing with her free hand. "Ancient movies, and things like that... I love old architecture, too. When my Elisa and I were first seeing each other, we always used to go and visit castles and things like that... so when I said I wanted to live somewhere a bit colder, my Elisa brought this island from the Britannians and built all this, just for me. Can you believe it? I hadn't even escaped the Republic, at that point -- oh, she must have done it just because of that," Yuliana sighs, clearly lovestruck by it all. "She wanted me to have a safe place to return to, knowing what they were doing to me, and she made it in the precise image of those old things I loved... no woman is luckier than I am."
She pauses, and nods, to Emilia. "That's right," she agrees with her. "Space wouldn't have been suitable at all." Because of the space constraints and not the bigotry, obviously.
<Pose Tracker> Li Yao has posed.
The old man is impressed, he wasn't sure what to make of Emilia at first. On some level he couldn't help but remember those on the Ptolemy, but at the same time she had the feeling of being new to all this. However now there is emotion in her voice, underneath all that politeness is a very dangerous fire he thinks. He makes sure to cover his grin with his tea cup drawing out the sip as long as he can.
"Perhaps it depends on the reason behind the revenge then. Interesting, it would be worth sharing notes another time. Perhaps when we are not discussing targets." Yao listens to the conversation for a moment longer before he stands, "Well you seem to have the hard work started already . I think I should go check to make sure Yulong is ready for whatever operation is coming up. " With a small bow he excuses himself for the time, making sure to collect his gifts before he exits. It almost seems like he is just going to ignore being called right, and then he stops at the door and looks back, "Oh Yuliana, I thank you for acknowledging an old man's experience might have some weight to it. "
Chuckling to himself he walks off, his chuckles echoing down the hall as he finds it all quite humorous.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
"Ah, I s-see... Is that o-one of the ones in the basket?" ...Damnit she does want to try this one again prepared to her liking. Why is she being so stubborn about the tea!?
Emilia stares again, as Sokrova responds to the cute kitty talk. I... d-does that work with normal tigers? It probably doesn't work with normal tigers. How many times will she see a tiger... "O-oh..."
The way Yuliana laughs, seemingly earnestly is... odd compared to how she has presented most of the time. Hm. Still, the topic changes to one that Emmy just... cannot comprehend. It sounds like one of those shows that played in Japan, or maybe some sort of Kaiju nonsense. "That s-s-seems... a compli--cated situation."
She pauses as Yuliana reflects on her own revenge. "...M-Maybe you just need to find the r-r-right target." She says- a little in denial that her own revenge could end that way, in such a dissatisfying manner.
".....th-that's how that works?" Emmy says, looking kind of horrified. Hacking was never her specialty... but she could definitely imagine someone in the Black Knights shoving a random USB they pick up off an enemy KMF into a machine at the base.
Yuliana's description of her own experience is, however, abjectly horrifying to the young woman. "Th-they what...?" Her eyes go wide. That's... "...th-th-those... sick f-freaks..." She pauses briefly. "...Y-yeah. That's why w-we're here."
The talk of a castle, of buying land from the Britannians... That causes Emilia to look away. It makes her so uncomfortable, for some reason.
"G-good day, M-Mr Li." She says, deferentially. She doesn't know Chinese, but... she knows how to be polite, at least. She takes another long sip of her tea. "I sh-should pr-probably get moving soon too, Mrs Kafim. I d-don't want to miss my t-transport." Despite that anger that burns constantly, she's gotten good at covering up. Besides, she has one other question she wants to ask.
"...Before I g-go, though, m-may I... s-see if Sokrova will l-let me pet him?"
What? Emmy was never allowed pets growing up. Heck, she's still worried about the goldfish she and Tessa caught at the festival years ago. Do you think she's going to pass up the opportunity to see if a big cat likes her!?
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Why, yes!" Yuliana grins, cheerfully. "It's one of my favourites, so of course I'd share it with you! There's a mint blend in there which is delightful, too -- oh, and a lovely green tea mix made up with ginger and chamomile. They're all labelled, so do try them!" She quite likes tea, apparently.
"It is," she agrees, when Emilia calls the Void complicated.
"The right reason... the right target... I can't say you're wrong," she admits, when they speak on revenge. Which is kind of like admitting Yao is right twice! "Do take care," she smiles, to him, as he stands. "And let me know if Yulong needs any extra care." But before she can think she's gotten away with it, he pauses and thanks her for admitting he's right, and Yuliana's smile twitches.
"Of course," she says, but a touch stiffly. She is BEING NICE and LETTING HIM HAVE THIS and ELISA HAD BETTER THANK HER.
She distracts herself, quickly, by catching up to Emmy's horror. "Oh! Yes, very much so," she says, after that brief pause. "Even I can pull off a little hacking, and I was never in Intelligence -- it's ninety percent lying. By these days, computer systems are almost impossibly secure," she settles into her favourite place: black ops infodumping. "Places like NUNE almost always have AI protecting their networks, even leaving aside how powerful their base programs are... but no matter how many advances people make in computer programming, people are still people. And people are by and large quite stupid," she adds, "and vulnerable to flattery or deception. You can compromise a human agent far more easily than a computer, generally speaking."
(Yuliana doesn't know about technopaths. Thank God for that.)
She sighs, though, when her account of the REA brings Emilia such horror. "Ah... excuse me," she says, and sounds -- embarrassed? Apologetic? Regretful, "I speak too easily on unspeakable horrors. I hope you won't mind me saying such a ghastly thing. It seems more normal when it's happened, but I suppose it is quite shocking." Did she... not think that Emilia would be horrified by hearing something like that? Did she not think to keep it from her?
Well, it's true that Yuliana doesn't really think about keeping things from other people to spare their sensibilities, but she knows she ought to at least be embarrassed after the fact. Emilia 'has feelings', or something like that. See? She's respecting them. She's great at respecting people's feelings.
(An attempt was made, anyway.)
"Of course," she adds, smiling. "It can be difficult for transports, all the way out here, so I wouldn't like to keep you... but Sokrova, would you like to go over and say hello?" She asks, looking down to her tiger.
'Choff,' Sokrova chuffs, sliiiiding off her lap and ambling over to Emilia's chair. He keeps up his friendly chuffing, mouth just slightly open to accommodate the noise, ears all perked forward as he looks up to her.
"That's how tigers purr!" Yuliana translates, for him, cheerfully. "My big baby boy is built different to smaller cats, so he has to stop to breathe, but he's very happy! Aren't you, boy? Yes you are! Yes you are!"
Sokrova chuffs, ears perked up as he watches Emilia expectantly.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Emilia is a little disappointed to find out hacking is that simple. You don't need some kind of cyber expert, just the ability to con. "...I never kn-knew..." Still, she backs off on the horrors. "I-it's fine," Emmy says, even though fine is not exactly the word. She thinks about what Leina said about what happened to her, after all. "It's j-j-just... another r-reason to put down NUNE." As if she needed more.
She's still a little nervous at the closing tiger but... he seems nice? Nicer than the geese. Or the goats. But she reaches out genuinely, a little tentatively, to give Sokrova a chance to sniff and to accommodate her hand at let him make the decision on petting-
But when he does, Emmy spends a good solid minute gently and experimentally tiger petting, lighting up a little more than usual.
Maybe Yao wasn't totally off the mark. For all that anger and time spent as a terrorist... she's more than a little prone to some childish joys.
Getting to pet a big cat is one of them.