2024-11-26: .a welcome guest to offer succouR
- Log: .a welcome guest to offer succouR
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Violet Miyazaki
- Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- Date: 2024-11-26
- Summary: Violet visits the Silent Castle to offer support to Yuliana, after the events of Devi's Due, and Yuliana shares her plans with her. Violet has a few plans of her own -- which of course Yuliana encourages.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
The Silent Castle stands, tall and stately; it looks to be an ancient thing, though it's not even a decade old. So, too, with the Empress: a woman much like Elisa, warped by Power more than time.
She turned it backwards, to save Yuliana -- but She doomed her in the same breath. And now She will have her, alongside Her retribution.
Or so Her anger goes. Yuliana tries to shut it out; she knows a conversation would go nowhere.
The Castle gladly receives guests who have been properly welcomed; it can easily hit -30C in the constant Arctic darkness outside, illuminated by glowing green palings atop the walls, but guests are quickly ushered into the main hall before the geese can emerge from the shadows. From there, Violet is shown to a sitting-room, a bookshelf holding old-fashioned entertainment as a fireplace by the wall heats the room. The light thrown off by the fire is supported by the flickering gaslamp by the door, giving this room -- unlike the darkness outside -- plentiful illumination.
A maid brings in a tray of tea and biscuits, laden with milk and honey for those with a sweeter tooth. Yuliana, who has one too many teeth, enters not long afterwards, wearing her typical black robes and her bearskin cloak designed to resemble a dragon's wings with its defurred portions. "Be welcome, Violet. I hope the trip was not unpleasant," she smiles, to her, as she takes a seat on one of the comfortable couches these rooms are famed for. "I know it can get rather chilly, up here..."
That's an understatement, but she's trying to offer small talk, clearly.
She leans forward, to pour herself a cup of nice Chamomile tea -- and will even do the same for Violet, if she hasn't yet, checking what she'd like included in the process. Yuliana, for her part, mixes in honey and a little milk, with no shame over her too many sweet teeth.
"What brings you to the Castle?" She asks, because it might not be the obvious. Her allies in the Dawn of Fold have plenty of reasons to seek her out. She's trying her best not to assume.
<Pose Tracker> Violet Miyazaki has posed.
Again, the Arctic; again, the Silent Castle; standing proud in the inhospitable land around it. Violet almost takes a second to stop and appreciate it... but 30 degrees below freezing is 30 degrees before freezing, no matter how far you take the sacrament of artificial evolution. The doctor will have to settle for looking it over while hurrying into the castle.
And so, she now sits across from Yuliana, in her usual "formal" outfit (the white jacket, the short black cloak over it) - minus the mask, of course. Yuliana knows who she is, now. Violet is fine with that.
"It does get cold, up at the roof of the world, but the end of the journey makes up for it, I think." She smiles back, leaning into the couch she now occupies.
Violet thanks the departing maid. She takes her tea about the same as Yuliana does. Yes milk, yes honey, no shame.
Violet listens to Yuliana's question as she starts drinking her tea slowly. No rush. Savor the taste while it lasts. "I wished to offer my support in these trying times. Considering the recent business." She takes a sip, making a little slurping noise as she does so. "If my support would be helpful, that is." No guarantee it will be, but to Miyazaki's understanding, this is how people support their friends.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"It is warm in here, at least," Yuliana says -- and it is. Provided one doesn't stray into the North Wing, at the other end of the Castle grounds, the rest of the Castle is well-heated. All these fireplaces send their heat through vents which run through the walls, keeping the rest of the place warm, too. And even the North Wing is not deadly in its chill -- though one would not want to sleep there without a fire -- due to the magic of insulation.
The Castle might look a thousand years old, but it does have some modern tricks.
"Ah," she sighs, her frills deflating with her lungs. "The... recent business." After Eight, she at least doesn't accuse Violet of coming to put a bullet in her, at least. "I take it you heard, then? Or... saw. I..."
She pauses, and then laughs, a touch awkwardly. "It's a little strange, you know? That someone would come all this way just to offer, of their own free will. But -- I'm grateful, really. I..." Another pause, as she pokes at her tea with a spoon, stirring it even more and more unnecessarily. "I thought surely Dr. Devi's gambit would work, and everyone would see me for who I really was. I was disturbed by it, too... but my Elisa pointed out that those people aren't us. They were just... wearing our faces. I guess some other people figured that out, too..."
<Pose Tracker> Violet Miyazaki has posed.
"It's downright cozy. To think that people have built a place like this in the Arctic... or conjured it, but same thing really." The magic of insulation is a power at least equal to the magic of creation.
Not that insulation helps against the Void, but Violet has never really found that chill disturbing. She swirls a biscuit in her tea, before it loses about a third of its mass in her mouth, and she returns words into the world. "Well, I do like to think I decide my own choices."
"Who you really are? Who is that? I only know the woman in front of me, not the one in that picture book. Elisa has it right, I think." Violet nods approvingly. "Your lives may have begun on the same path, but they've diverged since then. The fact this world is even still here is proof of that. You've grown, in the same way you always have."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Oh, no, my Elisa built this place from stone and steel," Yuliana shakes her head, "though it is of course a potent home for her magics. I've never... enquired too deeply into the labour she used, mind you," she adds, delicately. "To have this place ready in such a short amount of time... well, it was surely a great effort."
There are bodies buried in the foundations.
"We often do," she murmurs, when Violet says what she does about her choices. Deliberately, she takes a biscuit of her own to dip in her tea, mirroring Violet's actions.
And once her own biscuit is nibbled right through, she takes a sip of tea. It's nice and calming, because Parminder didn't swap her chamomile out for black tea and speed today.
(That was yesterday, and according to him, it was hilarious.)
"They diverged... quite heavily," Yuliana agrees, her frills flapping, idly, to either side of her head. "When Leina used the Psycho-Jammer on me, I felt that same crushing nihilism that woman must have felt... feeling as if there was no one there. But the Empress has always been there for me to reach out to, even if She was an eldritch woman... so I didn't foster that hatred for existence in my heart, I suppose. It's funny, I'm told my wife had to erase my memory over and over, when she first tried to move our relationship into something more serious, because I kept denying her plans to destroy the world... she told me about how she did that too, after all that. It was the Empress's will. Haa... but then, as now, I do not wish to see this world destroyed. That is why we will kill the Empress, before She can knock down the walls of reality and tear through."
<Pose Tracker> Violet Miyazaki has posed.
Violet observes Yuliana emoting with her frills. Fascinatiing. She definitely wasn't born with them, but they've become a natural enough part of her that she emotes with them like she's always had them.
More stirring, more sipping. "To kill and usurp a god..." She hums thoughtfully. "I don't wish to see this world destroyed either... and I also want to see you succeed in your goal there in general. I'm not the most knowledgable about Void-related topics, but I do have a lot of expertise elsewhere." Mechanical. Physics...ical. Newtypical. She rolls her neck. "It'd be my pleasure to help, if there was something I could help with."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
They're very handy for expressing her emotions! Of course, when they're displayed like this, her suppressive powers are also far more widespread, so she occasionally has to hide them out of politeness.
Sitting on her hands is its own kind of emoting, though, technically speaking.
"We would be pleased to accept your aid," Yuliana smiles, to Violet. "My wife can share more of the scientific side of things, of course... though in truth, neither of us have much experience with killing a God. I wonder if I could open Her heart, as I open the Way... but it is just a thing I wonder, right now."
She pauses, tilting her head. "I wonder if you would be able to work with my Elisa," she ventures, "to utilise the iceberg outside? The red one -- it's Psychoframe. It was inert, but after all that's happened... I wonder if it might be of some use. You may have some ideas for such a thing, no?"
<Pose Tracker> Violet Miyazaki has posed.
"Perhaps that would work. If you can open the way to the Void... maybe the way to the Empress is another way. Or maybe she'd open it for you, if she wants to grasp you so badly. That would have its risks, though..." She hums, and looks upwards.
Yuliana invokes psychoframe, and Violet smiles. "Yes, I think I would. I haven't worked much with Psychoframe specifically, but I think I can make something of it, with Elisa's help. I have some ideas for the green ice, too, depending on how much of the Void's properties it retains..." Ideas are already floating in Violet's head, behind her eyes. Erica brought the ice up before, actually. Maybe there IS something there.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"If I could weaken Her..." Yuliana starts, and trails off. "Though, it would be quite dangerous. But I am in danger regardless. She is furious with me for forsaking 'myself', but She insists She will fix me. She is still singularly intent on claiming me... and punishing me, now." Her frills wilt, again, as she adds: "That is why I fear for existence so."
The Empress has never respected her as a full person with her own wishes; She is angry that Her possessions act against her. It's a deeply unsettling truth.
"The ice at the North Pole is infused with the power of the Void," Yuliana says, gesturing outwards with a palm. "The veil is still thin, there, and what spilled out was not entirely pushed back. You will have to sneak past NERV and Cathedra's blockades, of course -- but I doubt that will be much trouble."
They're terrorists, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Violet Miyazaki has posed.
"Then, danger aside, there's no choice but to try for it. The Empress is intent on making this an issue; we're simply the ones picking up her gauntlet, so to speak." Violet stares into her tea. "'Forsaking yourself'. What a delusional god..." Violet, too, has participated in that kind of possessive delusion. The Newtype labs were full of it. She's moved past that, now.
Violet smirks mirthfully. "No, it won't be much of a problem. I think I'm going to enjoy tinkering with the void ice... and I have the perfect target for a test in mind." She abruptly 'changes the subject' (not really). "How do you feel about Britannia? Not much has been going on in occupied Japan lately, it seems."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"She has been mad for some time, I suppose," Yuliana sighs.
But, Britannia...
"I don't care for them," Yuliana wrinkles her nose. "And my wife can't stand the place. When they used MIDAS on JOSH-A, they almost killed me! And many others, at that." In that order of importance. "And yes, they still occupy much of the world. Here, as well -- they call Greenland Area 9, one in a long line of colonisers." She describes them the same way she might a particularly unpleasant bug.
<Pose Tracker> Violet Miyazaki has posed.
Violet listens to Yuliana's complaints. Silently, at first.
Then... she laughs. She throws her head back and laughs gleefully. Once she recovers her composure, wiping her eye with one finger, she explains. "I'm no patriot. Not usually. But whenever I see that eyesore of a country... I can't help but remember that I'm Dr. Miyazaki. The OCU side of the border is known for kaiju attacks and kaiju defences... I think it's time to test the other side's readiness." Another smirk, and a malicious gleam in her eye.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Haa?" Yuliana asks, tilting her head. "Far be it from me to discourage your revenge. I suppose it might make some people angry, but if you've come to a reasoned conclusion, they'll just have to argue you out of it. The Areas are really far too neglected, I think." Siiip.
"Just take care that your anger will not come down hardest on the people you mean to protect," she says, a touch distantly. "That sort of thing... can easily happen, I know."
She does regret that normal citizens were killed, when she attacked Sri Lanka.
<Pose Tracker> Violet Miyazaki has posed.
Siiip. Munch. "I pity whoever tries to talk me out of this, honestly. My conclusions are eminently sensible. Britannia delenda est." Siiip. "I will choose my targets carefully. The only things squashed will be the mansions and bases of the Britannian dogs." Munch. Siiip. Clink! "Let's see how hard those dogs can whine. Look forwards to it!"