View source for 2022-11-26: You Waxen Wing (You Foolish Thing)

*'''Cutscene: You Waxen Wing (You Foolish Thing)'''
*'''Cast:''' [[Character :: Ennil El]]
*'''Where: In the wreckage'''
*'''Date: 0096-11-25 (Yuliana Kafim's big day!)'''
*'''Summary''': '' Surviving doesn't have to be comfortable.  Ennil sees the spider's web for what it is -- but only from the inside.''
----

[[Category:Cutscenes]]
[[Category:Phase 1, Turn 2]]
<poem>
She isn't even conscious at first.  Not really.  Like so many times before, Ennil's body chooses survival without consulting her mind or heart.  But eventually her eyes, at least, join the rest of her and focus, fading back in in speckled red bursts that slowly resolve to vision.

The tremendous breach in the Arm Slave's cockpit has twisted itself shut in a tremendous jagged spar, the beginnings of healing -- but then stopped there.  Hazily, Ennil remembers another presence tearing at the Dawn, swallowing it --

''It hurts.''

And it does.  She is intact, enough to live, but as she re-establishes awareness of herself, each pulse of her heart touches another piece of her in agony.  Ribs that were crushed to so many jagged spars are joined but the fractures remain.  Her lungs protest each time they accept oxygen.  She looks down and her dress is ruined, muddied with red and the brocade scorched to black - the tulle overskirt a melted remnant of itself.  It's a silly thing to care about while her body is shaking itself apart like this, but it makes her want to cry.  She squeezes her hands into fists, and one closes around a hard, round little pendant.

She still has it.  It's the first thing to bring her any relief right now, even though she's squeezing it so hard it hurts.  Her bag's gone - thrown from the cockpit or destroyed in the blast - so she presses it between her chest, keeping it close to her heart.

Why doesn't she feel better?  The Dawn may have retreated, but it hasn't left her.  It wouldn't abandon her.  Is it...  waiting?

She hasn't done anything wrong.  She'd fought the black beast.  All the way to her last gasp, when she'd plunged her knife into that terrible claw, heedless of the danger --

''And allowed the Unicorn to survive.''

She hadn't been fighting for the sake of that machine, though.  She'd have been fine with it getting torn apart.  It had already rejected her once!  She'd been trying to save --

''The boy who will open the Door of Possibility.''

The realization twists her guts with pain and cold.  The Dawn does not play favorites.

She doesn't get to be someone who saves people.

She looks up, to that awful, twisted horn of metal jutting from her machine.  The Dawn's light trickles in.

<span style="color:#FF8C00">She feels better.</span>

---

The messages are sent, but Ennil is sure they'll take some time to find their recipients.  The REA probably screens mail pretty aggressively, especially for someone like Yuliana Kafim and her special operations squad.  Still, she doesn't want them to have to sit with the ambiguity.

Two cards, with Lilac's soft lavender sign stenciled on the front, will find their way into the hands of Yuliana Kafim and Wen Yuan sometime soon.  The one addressed to Yuliana is simple - A heartfelt congratulations, a reminder that she's welcome to touch base any time, a small regret that her time meeting Elisa was so brief.  The couple is lovely.

The message for Wen Yuan is a little more elaborate.

<<Hey Wen!

I hope you didn't worry too much.  I bet my life on my work, and it didn't let me down.  Still means a week off my feet.  Ribs hurt like hell -- I'm sure you know, though.

But it sounds like your Captain made it out just fine, so you did a good job.  I bet you could use a chance to vent though -- so gimme a bit to patch up and swing by, okay?  I'm bummed we didn't get to enjoy the reception.

I might need to break out the hard stuff this time, though.

Ennil El>>
</poem>