2024-10-20: .i am so pleased to hear of your diversionS
- Log: .i am so pleased to hear of your diversionS
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Elisa Kafim
- Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- Date: 2024-10-20
- Summary: Elisa gets back from her business trip, and Yuliana immediately stops helping Guanyu choose a wedding dress to attend to her WIFE. Isn't it so lovely how Elisa's found another little project?
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Your heart is set on blue, isn't it?" Yuliana asks, as she holds out a swatch of fabric.
"It is," Guanyu says. She's more meek, even around her bridesmaid -- because of course Yuliana is Guanyu's bridesmaid! -- but there are some things she can insist on. Like a blue wedding dress! "I just... I'm not sure of the patterning."
"Why not something like this?" Yuliana asks, holding up a length of crushed velvet, shining dark blue like the night itself. "Like some fearsome furred beast... and you don't want a dress that's too breezy, out here."
"I guess not," Guanyu sighs, before she picks up a swatch of lighter blue velvet. "But... maybe something more like this? I mean, I've never..."
"Oh, that's a ridiculous superstition," Yuliana waves a hand. "You oughtn't limit your colour choices based on that. Lettu's not about to judge you for it!"
"No... I guess not," Guanyu sighs, her tanned hands falling down to the fabric. "But... um... sometimes..."
Yuliana looks up, from where she was comparing fabrics, on the couch beside her. "Eh? What's the matter?"
"I think she does judge me... sometimes," Guanyu says, slowly. "She didn't before, but... you know what I'm saying? She... doesn't like it when I'm too soft. Yuliana, I... I'm not I..."
"Hey," Yuliana says, reaching over to put a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay. You're about to make a big commitment, so it's no wonder your mind's spinning up all these reasons why it might not work. But you love her, right?"
"More than anything," Guanyu says, reaching up to press a hand over Yuliana's. "I feel too selfish... even wondering. She came back for me... why does it bother me?"
"It's just the pressure you're under," Yuliana assures her, from the bottom of the crab's bucket. "Just the pressure."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa is not a bridesmaid. That just needs to be confirmed for the record.
But she is returning home after a business trip, and the lights flicker for an instant in the wake of her passage through the Void's edges. She is here. Not in this room, of course. That changes momentarily, as she approaches the chamber. "I am here," Elisa says, and she does not ask if she may open the door, she merely gives warning that she will do so.
'I' should be obvious.
"...That is a lovely fabric," Elisa comments to Guanyu. "The softer color suits you. You are the brilliant beacon that drew your fiancee's heart back to the world, after all."
It would've been harder, without that. Not impossible. But harder.
"I must discuss matters with my wife. You do not mind that I take her from you?"
It is not really a question.
Elisa waits.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Haa?" Yuliana is surprised, again, as the gaslamps flicker. (Did they really flicker? The servants just filled them this morning, didn't they?) Her frill rises, the snake-tendrils draped on the couch lifting their jaws as if they were heads.
Guanyu, at least, isn't surprised to feel Yuliana's hand drop away from her shoulder. Nor by the way Yuliana jumps up, though she does have to scramble to catch the fabrics she disturbs as she does so.
"Elya!" Yuliana chirps, all delight, as she bounces to her wife, leaping into her arms. She rubs her cheek against Elisa's cool cheek, embracing her fiercely. "You're back! You're back! You're back!" She missed her terribly, evidently.
"Ah... you think so?" Guanyu says, holding the light blue to her chest. "T--thank you, ma'am," because she hasn't quite figured out how to address her, now she's not one of the servantry. "I really liked this colour..."
"It's wonderful, isn't it?" Yuliana asks, as if she wasn't encouraging her not to be tied to light shades a moment prior. Why wouldn't she agree with her wife? "It really does suit you, Gunya!"
"But, you said--?" Guanyu starts, surprised, before she quiets down. "Yes... of course."
"Of course!" Yuliana chirps, still all smiles. Elisa 'asks' if she can take her, and she just nuzzles her face into her, again. "Mm-hmm, mm-hmm," she hums, happily.
"P--please, don't let me keep you," Guanyu says, feeling much like a formality. "I'm sure you both have a lot to catch up on..." It's... fine if she doesn't really talk about what she was opening up about, right? It's fine...
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Yuliana bounces towards her, and Elisa smiles at her wife. She looks over Guanyu after that, and considers. So Yuliana was suggesting something darker... Well, that's fine. Guanyu may be surprised, but Elisa isn't.
"We do," Elisa agrees with Guanyu. A kinder person might reassure her here, might say something about her obvious trouble...
But Elisa isn't that person. It is debatable if she is any person.
"Be well, Guanyu."
She offers her arm to Yuliana and starts down the corridor, towards the stairs.
"I had a most enlightening time..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Elisa doesn't have to be a person! She's Yuliana's wife.
"A-and you as well, ma'am," Guanyu offers, as they go, a far more nervous shade than Yuliana.
"Ta-ta~!" Is what she has to say, barely remembering to glance back to her poor bridesmaid before she's all wrapped up in gazing up to her wife. She curls her hands about her arm, a tentacle wrapping about her midsection as they walk, keeping close to her. Perhaps Elisa doesn't have much warmth to offer, in these cold halls, but Yuliana is still warm from sitting in front of the fireplace.
"You were gone for a whole day!" Yuliana exclaims, pouting, leaning on her wife as they walk. "I was so lonely! Oh -- Sokra, Sokra!" She calls to a suspicious green tail lurking behind a door, and out bounds their cat, Sokrova rearing up to put his paws on Elisa's shoulders. (This would crush any normal person, but see above vis-a-vis personhood.) "Wasn't I, Sokrova? Wasn't I just beside myself? Weren't we both, bootie-bootie-boo?"
Sokrova rumbles a deep noise through his deadly jaws, slurping the other side of Elisa's head with his rough tongue.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"I was," Elisa agrees, gone for a whole day. She had much to do, after all. But as Yuliana mentions her loneliness, Sokrova comes. Elisa doesn't so much as wobble as the great tiger places his paws on her shoulders. Instead, she smiles. "Hello, Sokrova," she says.
"You kept watch while I was away," she says, and it is not a question. "You are a very good boy."
Elisa pets Sokrova, and then pats his shoulder, indicating that he must now step down.
"It was a fruitful outing," Elisa says, "And not one I shall have to repeat for some time. I am not certain yet if I want to allow 'that woman' into my Castle... So you see, it was necessary to travel."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Chfffff," Sokrova rumbles, happily, ears perked up with interested delight as his eyes blink closed in his cheer.
"He is a good boy! He kept me company all day, didn't you, boy? Who's a good boy? Whossa good boy? Whoosagooboy?" Yuliana asks, scratching his ears as Elisa pets him. Sokrova is thrilled to realise that, in fact: "You are! You are!" Both Yuliana and Elisa affirm this cornerstone of the universe, so it must be true.
Of course, he hops down as soon as Elisa taps his shoulder, being intelligent enough to not only comprehend his praise but also his instructions. He pads along behind them, instead.
"Ah, yes," Yuliana says, stroking Elisa's arm, "your new friend, is it? I'm so pleased that you're connecting with this Earth, Elya. Haha, even if you can't quite trust her, yet... have you attracted someone dangerous, zhenushka?" Her endless eyes glitter with mirth, as she looks up to her dearest wife. She's not worried by the idea Elisa is keeping dangerous company, evidently.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
It is definitely true.
As they walk alongside Sokrova, Elisa listens to Yuliana's pleased tones. "There is much of interest here. Much of use, too." A pause. "...Indeed. Potentially quite so." To many people indeed. But, "But you need not worry. I have the matter under control, for now."
"Tell me," Elisa says. "Do you have any thoughts on the creatures from space that have settled here? The Vajra? The ones that the Federation was so concerned with and did so little about?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"You'd never let harm come to us," Yuliana agrees, happily. "I'm sure you'll find it very useful... very, very interesting!"
She looks up, though, blinking in surprise, when Elisa brings up the Vajra. She bids Yuliana to tell her, and at once she does, with all her initial confusion. "The Vajra? Them? So long as they attacked Spacenoids, I was never all that bothered... but I guess I was troubled by the idea they might attack Earth, too. Should we be worried about them?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Indeed." She would not. That is of course why she is concerned with safety; them. Her.
But, the surprise gets a small smile from the witch. And that witch smiles to her wife. "You need not be worried. I am performing... experiments, regarding their curious communication. The Fold crystals I used in Britannia--they seem to have some impact upon them."
"They have attacked some places on Earth," she says, "But this time in Britannia. Britannia deserves such a fate."
"So be on the lookout for them. They should be most interesting to watch..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Of course Yuliana's safety is paramount. How else would she be so safe, here?
The witch smiles, and her wife smiles in turn, relieved by her consideration. "What's with their communication?" She asks, her concern turning to curiosity as they turn down the hall. "They communicate with the Fold quartz? Then what does it say when they listen to ours?" The treated quartz which she fouls with her power, that is.
It's a paired effort, even now Shari is out of the picture.
"Britannia deserves it," she affirms, again. "A wretched place... now if only they'd attack the Republic." Evidently, Yuliana's love for the Earth is biased to the places which didn't hurt them. "I don't suppose you could tell them to do that, Elya? Since you're studying it, and all..."
... she's not only happy for them to be hurt, she wants them to be hurt.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"They seem to have a hive mind," Elisa explains. "On a similar wavelength to what the Fold quartz uses. Ordinary fold quartz has certain effects... But ours can interrupt their communications, and cause them to frenzy. You can imagine how useful this could be. I wonder, will they adapt to it as they have other forms of influence?"
"It will be fascinating to find out. Such creatures... I wonder how 'strong' they will be, in the end?"
Theirs. True.
"This could likely be arranged," Elisa comments of the Republic. "We will see. I am largely lending my expertise to the effort... But a target would be useful."
Because they should be hurt.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Drive them to a frenzy? How delightful!" Yuliana bubbles, brightly. "It sounds ever so useful, Elyul~a! And even if they adapt, they'll just become berserkers by nature, won't they?"
She thinks that's a fine way for creatures to be.
"Maybe they'll be strong enough to impress you," she says, quite pleased by the idea. "Wouldn't that be something? They might even be strong enough to be materials for your kaiju!" Is that really a good idea...? Well, Yuliana's used to her wife's sacrifices, by now. Vajra would just be a novel sacrifice, wouldn't they?
"You're such a considerate business partner," Yuliana goes on to affirm, stroking her wife's arm again, "facilitating 'that woman's' efforts this way. I'm sure she'll be able to achieve all her dreams... with your aid."
She doesn't ask who 'that woman' is, of course.
Since Elisa hasn't told her.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Hmm. That could be," Elisa remarks. "I'm rather looking forward to finding out." It is a fine way for creatures to be. "Yes... a Vajra dragon... That would be quite powerful. But I wouldn't want to use one of the little ones for that. Something... grander, would be appropriate."
It's a fine idea.
"Hmm. Perhaps I am," Elisa says. "I hope she appreciates my generosity... Though, of course, she will be giving me some things in turn, as well..."
"This Dr. Grace O'Connor."
She smiles. "But enough about work. Let us celebrate our reunion."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Far more appropriate," Yuliana agrees. "Perhaps a dragon to bring in the New Year... a little early for the Year of the Dragon, but who's counting?"
(It's presently the Year of the Tiger, of course. This is Sokrova's era!)
Yuliana smiles, leaning into her wife as they come to their room, at the top of the East Wing's tower. "I'm sure she will, and she ought," she says, and only pulls closer, when Elisa names her. "Hm? That's that Ranka's manager, wasn't it..? But..." She blinks, as she works through it. "Oh, you did go follow up, didn't you? And I suppose you found something interesting! Just as I asked!"
And now she knows, and of course her wife's secrets must be kept, as carefully as she is.
She sighs, reaching up a hand to cup her wife's cheek, smiling fondly to her. "Let's," she says, her gaze lidding with ravenous affection. "I've missed you so..."
Even a day's separation is too long.