2025-01-13: .forget me not as i take my place as guardiaN
- Log: .forget me not as i take my place as guardiaN
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Liam 7-020, Lucine Azul
- Where: The Photon Power Labs, Fujinomiya City
- Date: 2025-01-13
- Summary: Yuliana touches grass, and has a pleasant conversation with Liam and Lucine.
[[Category:Phase 2, Turn 2]
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
There's a park outside the Photon Power Labs, with nice, green grass. Even though it's Winter, it's quite nice, out here, in the middle of the afternoon -- a whole 14 degrees Celcius, or 57 degrees, measured the Britannian way.
And there's a woman lying there on a grassy hillock, all sprawled out in the grass. She has some measure of disguise on, of course; a lilac hijab, and a bomber jacket which is a little too pudgy in the middle if one were to scrutinise it closely. She's just wearing jeans, though, despite the winter chill... because Fujinomiya's winters are positively balmy compared to what's back home.
She is, in fact, touching grass.
(Of course, the mystery of this woman is dispelled quite easily with anyone who has the psychic capabilities to recognise the void around Yuliana.)
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
It's been a rough twenty-four hours.
Liam received treatment at a hospital in Magellanica, and did his best to keep a low profile. As he implied during the fight, Lucine was the one with more public ties to Magellanica and Admiral York. That said, he's been at her side ever since, and now is no exception. The flight back home to Orb had an unexpected layover in Japan, and the two of them had some time to spend in Fujinomiya.
Liam strides down the sidewalk, duffel bag slung over his shoulder. He's wearing a hoodie and jeans, and his hair has started to grow out again, just a little. There's a pressure bandage on his cheek, covering the slash made by the Solenopsis' psychic storm. He glances over at the woman on the hill, frowning slightly, and glances again.
"Is that...?" he asks Lucine, trailing off.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
They had scarcely finished medical treatment in Magellanica before the two of them had to jump right back into the sliced up Dianthus to get it the mech version of the same. They could have done the same at the Nadesico, but in terms of distance and Earth orbit, the PPL happened to be just a little bit closer. Lucine didn't want to gamble on the Dianthus being air-tight any longer than necessary, even if she was confident that it was.
Lucine likewise looks like she's just survived a duel with a giant blender, with some pressure bandages covering one side of her head. Her hair wasn't as lucky; some of its length is haphazardly cut on the outer bits of hair, as if a five year old was given free reign with a pair of safety scissors.
Hair can grow and skin can heal; they're lucky it wasn't even worse.
Dressed in a jacket, pants, and t-shirt (which bears the PPL logo, likely a leftover from some morale-training seminar), Lucine walks with Liam, saying nothing, just enjoying the air on her face and the peaceful surroundings.
Also the strange 'absence' that signals that Yuliana is nearby--
"Yes." Lucine looks up and blinks. "Yuliana. Should we... I don't know know if it'd be kinder for us to not bother her or to thank her..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana rolls onto her back, holding up a little four-leaf clover she plucked from the ground, and it's hard to imagine her having ever threatened reality itself right now. She's just having a good time in the grass!!
But she can feel when something should be there, and isn't, so of course she puts an elbow under herself to prop herself up and glance down at the path. There, she sees --
She blinks, pushing herself up sitting so that she can lean forward and peer at the two injured youth. "What's that? Liam? Lucine?" She calls to them, waving a hand, up and down at the wrist as is the local custom.
"Are you -- well?" She asks, if they elect to approach. "Did you lose a fight..?"
She hasn't been fighting -- all her energy has been going towards her upcoming battle -- but she can see the injuries, clear as day.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam's face tightens. The bandage on his cheek crinkles a little, following the play of his jaw. His feelings on Yuliana are still complicated, to say the least, but he never got the chance to talk to her after the last dragon. "If you're okay with it?" he asks Lucine. She's the one who'd be willingly stepping into the emptiness.
Yuliana recognizes them. Liam returns her wave in kind, and steps forward, onto the grass. "Caught in a terrorist action," he says. "It could've been much worse. How about you? You look... calm." Genuinely calm, which is notable because it's so rare.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
"I'd say we leave it up to her." Yuliana's already noticed them, after all, and she seems cordial.
It was the kind of battle Yuliana's powers may have been able to affect, if hers carried across the lines into the Psychodriver realm.
Perhaps.
Or maybe, just maybe, these are all battles that shouldn't be solved with the use of one person that has to go through hell, each and every time.
"We drove them off," Lucine answers, almost seeming proud of that fact. "But the Dianthus has seen better days."
Yuliana *does* look calm.
".... Thank you, Yuliana. For what you did, that last battle." Maybe Yuliana will decide differently, next time, but Lucine's gratitude towards her is in this moment, for what she did. "Is that--"
She tilts her head, stepping forward a few steps. "Ah, a four leaf clover! That's a symbol of good luck, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Ah," Yuliana frowns, and actually sounds concerned. "That's too bad... but I'm pleased you're all right. Though," she pauses, for a moment, before she decides to add, "it would be best if you were to repair the Dianthus quickly, I think."
She smiles, patting a hand to the grass and the clover. "I'm making peace with it," she says, gently. "I'll be leaving soon... and our home is far too cold for grass like this to grow. Ah, you saw?" She adds, lifting the four-leaf clover up for them to see. "It is. Most clover has three leaves, but this one... put a little more effort in, didn't it?"
She pauses, and says: "Here," reaching out to hand the clover to Liam.
"As for that... you're welcome," she says, settling back on the grass. "Though we were the ones to affect the North Pole that way to begin with... I suppose it's good we were able to set it to rights, instead of leaving it for you to deal with. Those realms shouldn't be so close to each other... after all."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
"That's why we're here," Liam says. "The PPL is taking care of it." Once the emergency repairs were done, of course, and they were able to head back to Earth under their own power.
Leaving...?
Twin, contradictory impulses twist in Liam's heart. The first is relief, for he realizes where Yuliana and Elisa must be leaving to. The second is fear. Will the Void change them, like it did Elisa-that-was? How could they even live there?
Yuliana holds up the clover. "Yeah, it did." Or more likely, it was just lucky enough to have the right genes, or to grow in the right circumstances. Fitting, right? Liam looks at it, and then at Yuliana, and takes the clover between thumb and forefinger. "Thank you," he says.
"...You're leaving for the Void," Liam says. "Right? I didn't know that was even possible. And what are you going to do about the Empress?"
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Lucine nods. "It's being repaired as we speak. We just got back from the bay. I think the estimate was... a day or two, depending. Possibly less, if I didn't mind some scratches." She tugs at some parts of her rudely chopped hair. ".... It's a good time to get a haircut." Compared to the size of mechs they usually deal with, the Dianthus is miniscle.
It gives them time to relax, and adjust. Catch up on things, and people.
Like Yuliana, who will be leaving soon.
"The void..." She looks down. "I wonder if Elisa still has that spacecraft with all the plants...." Will time move slowly there? Will it seem like forever for them, or the same amount of time?
Will it be forever?
"... I still remember my old home. When I close my eyes... sometimes, I can revisit it, in my mind. Perhaps... you have those places too, Yuliana."
The Empress is still a threat, however. Lucine eyes the four leaf clover Yuliana gives Liam with a smile. ".... I still remember... Liam telling me the time you helped him. Gave him advice."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"That's good," Yuliana says, of the Dianthus. "They are... very helpful, here. Ah, I did wish to be helpful, myself... though I did not always succeed." She did want to help Liam, huh...?
She smiles, to Lucine. "We have a greenhouse, at the Castle. We import much of our food, but fresh vegetables are terribly difficult... so we grow a little of our own, instead." With a sigh, she looks up at the blue sky, a few clouds drifting along. "I do wonder what will happen to the Castle... but I'm sure it will be fine."
Yuliana leans back, on her wrists, looking up at that endless blue. "We will kill the Empress," she says, quietly. "She has forced the issue... She would destroy this world for slighting Her, before She moved to the next. So we will slay God... and then, Elya and I will cross over, into the Void. There, we will ensure that She does not return."
She closes her eyes, lowering her head as she shakes it back and forth. "The veil must not be so thin," she says. "You saw the effects of that, at the North Pole... but I am a walking wound, bringing another reality to this place. Even if I could mitigate myself, the way between worlds must be shut tightly -- and with no eyes on the abyss, She may restore Herself, somehow, someday. There must be someone on the other side... to ensure She does not."
Yuliana opens her endless eyes, looking back to Liam and Lucine. "Even knowing that Magallanica has offered our people refuge and protection from NUNE, and even knowing there is no way home, some Callers wish to go to that place... so it will not just be the two of us. I believe... we will make a better place of it, when it is not shaped by one Woman's grief and wrath. The Void is not an evil realm, after all. It is just... different."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
That's the way of it, then. They have to kill the Empress before she kills this world, and then stay there, an eternal guard, to prevent her rebirth. Liam's eyes focus on Yuliana's, sorrow in them as well as understanding. Perhaps it's for the best. There's too much bad blood between Yuliana and Elisa and the people of this world, and it didn't come from nowhere.
Perhaps it's for the best, but he's still not sure how to feel.
"What if it changes you?" Liam asks. "You saw what it did to... the last Elisa. Do you have a way to stop that?" He glances sidelong at Lucine, and his free hand reaches out to clasp hers. "But... I'm glad you did that for the Callers. Still think this world is worth saving."
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
".... That... makes two of us," Lucine admits, remembering how she tried to help Yuliana that one time, when she came across Yuliana crying in her room.
".... Are there any Callers that could live there? Ones that may not have any other place to go, but don't want to be on Magallanica. NUNE may realize they have better things to occupy their time..." '.... once you are gone' was going to be the end of that sentence, with it serving as a neutral statement.
Even that feels too cruel, if Elisa and Yuliana are going to the Void as a sort of sacrifice. It wouldn't matter if it was the Void, the moon, or the North Pole.
".... She'd even deny the happiness of the people she looked for... but maybe it's easy for us to judge her for that, having not walked down that road ourselves." Her eyes stray towards Liam; she can't help it, considering what it would be like, to search realities for another trace of him...
and then, to find him in the arms of another Lucine, still human and whole, while she's been warped and changed by her journey.
Would she not feel jealousy, in the parts of her that would still be human? Is it the Empress's remaining strands of humanity that make her so dangerous?
".... A walking wound..." Lucine's eyelids lower. "I have a hard time thinking of you that way, Yuliana. Perhaps... we were just visitors, in each other's stories. Making our marks, before opening the next chapter..."
It doesn't erase what Yuliana meant, cruel as her words may have been in their bluntness.
LIam's hand clasps around hers, and Lucine's fingers readily weaving into his.
"Maybe... if the Empress could remember what it did to her... she'd see this as her chance to protect that happiness." They're both flawed people, though. Could Elisa and Yuliana survive, alone like that, even if the Void doesn't change them?
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"It may," Yuliana says, quite serious. "After all... it already has." Even with her frills and tentacles hidden away, there are still no pupils, in her eyes... and they can imagine her adornments, surely. "But the Empress shattered Herself in Her thrashing grief, upon the walls of the Void. She chose to become something else, with no one there to ground Her. So..." She pauses, leaning forward again, reaching over to rub a stem of grass between her thumb and forefinger. "Even if we change," she settles on, "I will make sure we retain a humanoid form. And in doing so, I believe we will remember our humanity, as well. It is precious to me." She blinks, long and slow, stroking the grass. "I have never loathed this Earth. I always wanted... to save it."
And perhaps now, as the guardian at the Gate, she can. In a way.
"Ah... if they wish to live there, they are welcome to it, of course," Yuliana says, of the Castle. She shakes her head, a rueful edge to her smile. "I did not wish for my people to feel they had to follow me, to find their absolution. If all they wish is to be safe from NUNE... they will find their refuge in Magallanica. But there are some people who listened to my prophecies because they were unhappy with this existence, I suppose... and if they're really sure, I should not be such a tyrant as to demand they stay behind. I have insisted that others do as I will very much, in my life... I suppose I was trying to grasp what power I could from a powerless existence, but that is a cold comfort to those strangled." She does... seem reflective about it all.
"Haha... you're a kind girl, Lucine," Yuliana smiles, to her. "A long time ago, I thought of myself that way, you know... a reader on the outside, witnessing stories from a book. It was easier for me to think this world wasn't real... though it is, and you are." She shakes her head, though, smoothing her fingers against the grass. "But the Empress will not remember. She is a creature of grief and wrath, alien to thoughts of reconsideration or compassion. What She 'remembers' is simply the woman She lost -- Her memories devoted solely to carving whomstever looks like her into her shape. You will not befriend Her. There is no 'happy ending' where I remain here... though it is nice that you would think so."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam gives Lucine's hand a gentle little squeeze. His other hand holds the clover between thumb and forefinger, and when he gets the chance--he thinks--he'll press it and preserve it. It would be nice to have a memento of all this that isn't scars and guilt and existential horror.
"...Maybe that's what it takes," he says. "The Empress was alone. You won't be." Maybe it's only fitting that something that smothers bonds will be changed by bonds that it cannot suppress. "Yeah. You two, and all the people going with you... you can do something no one else can."
There's a brief hitch of surprise in Liam's heart and eyes as Yuliana compliments Lucine. But then he smiles, warm and bright. "That's part of why I fell in love with her," Liam says, taking a halfstep closer. His expression grows more sober at the subject at hand. "I believe you." One does not declare war on a god lightly. "It's release for her, too, isn't it? She's spent eons trapped there, and she can't change. It's horrible, but this has to end."
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
"Yuliana..." Perhaps, the exposure to the Void lent Yuliana some calmness and confidence about her duty. Lucine can only hope. "I imagine... time will be a different concept, there. Even when we're gone... it'll be all our children you'll be protecting, Yuliana. And then, in time, their children. Some of them will stumble, some of them will be in pain... but their futures, and their ability to have one... you'll be protecting that. So... perhaps, I need to thank you again, in advance."
She may be thinking too much about this, as she tries to wrap her mind around it all, inevitably putting herself in that other Elisa's shoes.
To be in Yuliana's shoes... for some reason, it feels harder. Perhaps, it's because Yuliana may arguably have the hardest role of all in all of this?
"... I'm glad to have gotten to know you better, even if our meetings haven't all been easy." Liam compliments her, and Lucine's cheeks redden as she smiles. "... You realize it was easier for me to try to imagine what it was like to be the Empress's place, right? But..." Her hand squeezes Liam's. "I much prefer being this Lucine. And..."
Her gaze, eagle hold, settles back on Yuliana. "I hope... you feel the same, about yourself, Yuliana. We're no longer visitors, but allies, in this moment. Let's get the happy ending the two of you deserve... and give the Empress the rest she's denied herself."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Something no one else can...? Yes... you're right. Yes... I can protect those children... and through the touch of the Void, perhaps I'll even have my own." She smiles, though her smile falters, a moment later. "Though... there are some youth I do regret leaving in this world. Avrorka... I found her, again, not long ago. She is still trapped in that world I escaped from. I wish I had more time to..." She bites her lip, worrying at it, showing that single fang on the right side of her face. "... should you meet her, treat her kindly, won't you? I had no choice but to teach her the things I did... but she learned wetwork too young. I worry for her..."
It's hard to leave behind a life of connections and meaning -- to go somewhere alien -- even if someone must.
"It's strange, isn't it?" Yuliana laughs, lightly, a hand lifting to brush at the folds of her hijab. "Our paths were always parallel, and never quite touching... though it's inarguable you've been affected by us, as well. Well..." She tilts her head, looking between Lucine and Liam. "Perhaps it's natural you'd place yourself in Her shoes, or Elya's," she thinks. "Since you're also dating a man who was scarred by those laboratories... I suppose I'd be in his position, in your head?" She's trying to see her point of view, anyway.
"Haa... rest? Mercy? ... I suppose that's right," Yuliana looks up at the sky again. "I admit, mercy's not quite on my mind... but in a way, it must be. But... I am glad you are our allies in this," she adds, smiling to them. "It really is surprising to me... how many are willing to aid us, though we've wreaked so much havoc on this world. But... it's nice, you know? It's nice."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Their children. Somehow, it doesn't seem quite like a hypothetical, when Lucine puts it like that. Liam's smile returns, and he leans in to plant a tender kiss atop her head--indulging in a moment of unguarded affection. In front of Yuliana, no less. The Empress' wrath has wrought yet another dark miracle.
"Thank you," Liam says, echoing Lucine's words.
'Avrorka'. Liam's eyes tighten at the edges. He doesn't need to think too hard to realize who that is. The tightness spreads into his hands and throat, and he has to consciously relax before he squeezes Lucine's hand. "I will," he says. "She--was in my lab for a while, too." And if she's still trapped in that horrible world, he will save her.
Liam pauses a beat. He has to agree. "It is nice," he says.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
The Void isn't the place Lucine is tempted to think of it as. "... Perhaps you'll be building a world of your own, over there..."
As for the 'children' Yuliana'll be leaving behind?
"She won't be alone. You're doing your own part in saving her, by doing this. We'll take over from there." Lucine offers Yuliana a soft smile. "We know better."
Is it strange? Lucine's head tilts, owl-like. "It'd be difficult not to be, in terms of influence. When I judged you, it was the people you helped who told me about the other sides to you. In a sense... I learned through them."
And Yuliana, by quirk of her own path in life, often pointed out things Lucine never considered. There is a definite parallel, there...
"That may be it." It doesn't matter that Liam is the more capable one, physically, though perhaps that is another parallel. Maybe, she just doesn't like to think of Liam distorting himself over something that brings him so much joy.
And joy to her, too, which Yuliana glimpses, when Lucine closed her eyes, leaning against that kiss of Liam's on her forehead moments earlier, momentairely lost in the bliss of it, and not letting herself be shy about it, in front of Yuliana. There's no reason to be shy, right now. They each have their lucky clover.
"... It's a complex world... but a full one. Perhaps, it's better than you know it, so that you know what you want in the world you create yourself. It's... a 'world where flowers bloom', after all, as I say. What will the flowers look like, when you create a world that is yours, Yuliana...?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana smiles, when Liam gives Lucine that smooch. She won't press them on their children... but of course she's glad they have such a warm relationship.
Perhaps her own warmth will endure, in the Void.
"Ah, you will? That's a relief... though, haa, I wish I could be surprised she was in your lab as well, Liam," she adds, turning her attention from Lucine to Liam again. "The poor girl was passed around so many, wasn't she...? It's not fair!" Her hand curls to a fist, banging on the grass, before she takes a shakey breath inward and holds it. (And Liam might be able to imagine the way she's counting back from ten, even if Lucine can't possibly read her mind.) Breathe out, and... her fingers uncurl.
"Excuse me," she murmurs, glancing down. "I am still given to my passions." It's not so easy to escape the kind of lability the REA enforced on her, though she's clearly steadier, now. Liam might remember the way she used to have to swallow a palmful of pills, to calm herself down, years ago.
"Ah, but... you said that it was the accounts of others who convinced you, didn't you? That is... the connections I found with others. It took me very long to realise I had them... I was convinced such a thing wasn't for me, I suppose."
She looks down, at the grass, running her fingers through it. "The flowers..." She wonders, thoughtfully. "They said I was an orchid, but I'd rather grow forget-me-nots. I hear some people call them scorpion grasses, after all!" She laughs, smiling, as she looks up to Lucine again. "Perhaps you can grow some for me, on this side, too," she suggests, softly. "The Gate must close, but those memories will remain."
Yuliana puts her hands down on the ground, pushing herself up, finally -- and brushing herself off, because she's rather covered in grass. "Ah, but I've spent enough time rolling about out here," she decides, turning back to them. "Though I daresay it's about time for afternoon tea -- would you like to come get some with me? The Photon Power Labs have an excellent mess hall..."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam nods, somberly. Aurora's fate seems to be the fate of many Newtypes, artificial or otherwise, who've survived long enough in the military's clutches. His eyes widen a little at Yuliana's outburst, but the surprise fades as she calms herself. Liam nods again.
"Forget-me-nots it is, then," he says. And afternoon tea. Liam brightens again, and looks down at Lucine. "I'm game if you are," he says. As unexpected as this all is, he wants to hang on to this moment a little longer.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
"It isn't fair. You're right. ... When she's ready to break away, we'll be there. She knows that this is a path she can take." Lucine has already clued in who this person is, even if she wishes it wasn't the case.
Even if Lucine can't feel Yuliana's emotions due to Yuliana's latent abilities, she definitely doesn't need to in order to guess at what Yuliana is feeling.
But the surprise still comes when Yuliana quells it in her own way. It's a welcome one, like a ray of sun on a winter day.
Yuliana's developed her own strength over these months.
"Myosotis..." Lucine knows the genus. She nods. "I definitely will. Perhaps, you'll grow some too, for us? When you find a way to."
Yuliana may be done with her nature walk, but that means they can do afternoon tea, next.
"If you don't mind the company...." Lucine looks back at Liam and smiles. "There's definitely no rush. We have all the time in the world."
It may not be true, but there's definitely no reason to rush past a chance at a pleasant day.