2024-03-17: Leina's Intervention

• Log: Leina's Intervention
• Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Elisa Kafim, Leina Ashta
• Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
• Date: 17-03-2024 (ICly December 2nd 0098)
• Summary: Elisa asks Yuliana to pilot Emptear so that she can test her Liminal Lattice, an extra layer over her pilot's suit to help protect her from physical changes from the Void. Leina can tell, though -- and when she sneaks out there, with Shiro's help, she finds Yuliana being torn between her two wives. Once Emptear stands down, Leina tries to convince both Elisa and Yuliana that the Empress is doing them harm... and she leaves Elisa with much to think about, and takes Yuliana back to the PPL with her after Yuliana asks for shelter. Also, there is a horrible goose. (Content warning: I'm at the domestic abuse. I'm at the eldritch horror. I'm at the combination domestic abuse and eldritch horror.)

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<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        When the Evil Mist spreads across Kaffeklubben Island, it cloaks that lonely place in a thick layer of fog which no sensor may pierce. An albatross, flying high overhead, is caught in its creeping spread; it is dead before it hits the ice. A seal pup moans, and sinks, and stills.

        (The geese who tend to visit are fine. Elisa blackened their hearts after hearing her wife's admiration for the vicious creatures; they waddle along quite happily, feathers stained green. Pay no attention to the way their wings shift and change into a mass of tentacles and back; it's a lovely night for a horrible goose.)

        The Kafims require this veil of privacy. Now that the world knows where they live, it's only natural for third parties to monitor the Castle. A trivial annoyance, most of the time, with Parminder Chaudhri handling their security -- but sometimes, they do not wish to be seen. This is not the first time the Evil Mist has spread across Kaffeklubben; neither does every instance of this obscurity correlate to the Kafim's obscenity. It is, itself, perhaps not reason to engage... but it's worth noting.

        When Elisa summons the Threshold Queen from the ocean depths, she towers. She is Yuliana's armour, and yet she feels so small, looking up at her. (The pilot suit Yuliana wears to pilot Emptear is skin-tight and optimised for movement, but for the loose fabric about her ears, to allow her frills to raise and lower. Its life-sustaining properties appear to have little correlation with any natural technology, judging by the runes inscribed along them; through someone else's sacrifice, she is provided with all the warmth and pressure and oxygen she requires. But, if the blood runs dry...) Elisa carries the both of them up, of course -- she would have no hope of getting up here herself -- but Yuliana's grasp tightens, as they ascend past Emptear's outstretched hand, eternally frozen with her palm to the control panel.

        "Wait," she says, as they stop at the unfurled petals of Emptear's inactivated heart. Her voice is more tremulous, now, than when she agreed. (It was so easy to agree, in the comfort of the Castle.) "Elya, I -- I --" don't want to, she wants to say, the very same thing she cannot possibly say. She can't put her wife through that again. "... I'm scared," Yuliana finishes, a safer proposition to describe her feelings. And then, the justifications: "But you wouldn't ask me to pilot it again if you didn't need to test this, would you..? Of course, it's just a test..."

        She makes it so easy for her wife to reassure her.

        And with her wife's aid does she don her raiments, the control bracelets and anklets locked about her limbs, the control crown placed upon her brow. Of course it is frightening to feel the Green Fold Quartz embedded there open her up, but isn't it exhilarating, too? To come back to her truth after so long away--

        The blindfold is placed about her eyes. And, this time, a third step: a choker, clasped about her neck. There are intricate patterns dug into the gold around the Green Fold there, magical runes which Elisa can effortlessly activate.

        And so the Liminal Lattice engages. Threads of green light weave all about Yuliana's body, when the spell is cast; a bright web of magical power which Elisa naturally explains. And Yuliana remarks, as she flexes her arm up and down, feeling the magic move with her: "I can still move just fine... it doesn't hurt, Elya. So you need to see... if it works as a reminder, right? Once I set Emptear up, I'll be close to Her... so..."

        A deep breath, and she nods. "... okay. I know... you'll keep me safe, boyevaya podruga." Even from Her. Elisa is her combat friend, after all, by her side facing all life's challenges.

        When that vast heart closes itself to the world, Yuliana is alone inside herself. (Yuliana has always been alone, inside herself.) Nevertheless, surely Elisa can hear what she has to say, blindly regarding the black dance floor as her fingers find the control panel. "I don't know why I'm so afraid... this place feels so familiar. Emptear... you're here, aren't you? Not the Empress, no... I always feel like I'm... waiting for myself. Is it strange, Emptear...?" And her rambling, as she readies herself, confirms something just the same -- that Yuliana's self has imprinted on her machine, now.

        She takes another breath, and places her hand upon the activation panel, a thing she feels though she cannot see. "Emptear," she invokes, "get set!"

------------------------------
|       Llyph ot th'ioll        |
|            EMPTEAR            |
|    Y-yth'yollyshy-k... OK     |
| Ll:o sh'jsth'ianish llkh'ioll |
|  Tiallth'ou-j llkh'ioth'you   |
---------------------------------

        She cannot see the text which lights on the crystal display. She doesn't need to. She invokes Emptear and at once she can see, her four eyes lighting up as Yuliana turns her head. (Emptear's head.) She steps back from the island, spreading her arms...

        ... and, desperately, she laughs.

        OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLukJBT79M4 Moulin Rouge - Hindi Sad Diamonds

        "Yes, that's it! This feeling! I am that I am! Closer yet closer we spread across, with every breath! I hear You! No! No, it's not enough! Reach out," she does, "and grasp! A thousand lights snuff out! I have left You bereft! Forced Your hands! They will pay what I refuse! They, they, THEY--!!"

        And as she plunges into her madness, the blind Oracle's bindings glow bright, harsh, defiant. Emptear shifts with the force of Yuliana's breathing, as she turns and reaches out. "Just for now," she says, and not even her mania can entirely mask the desperate way she reasons with her loving tormentor. "Only for now am I kept from You. I know. I know, Empress. A price soon paid. Yes, this world wrongs You. Here am I bound. I cannot bear Your glory in this realm. Oh, tear not!" And parts of that lattice do burn more brightly, as if reacting to some unseen claw. "It keeps me safe, Empress!"

        But Yuliana has ignored Her, left Her messages waiting, distanced herself from the Void -- and like a phone which explodes with anxious possessiveness, the Empress's anger crashes upon her, a Woman denied.

        It was not the Empress who heard Yuliana's discontent, after all, when she was grasped so tightly. Every display, be it in the Silent Castle or in machines on the approach, is shortly overridden --

MINE    GONE    MINE    MINE    GONE    MINE    GONE    MINE    MINE    MINE
   MINE    GONE    MINE    MINE    MINE    MINE    MINE    MINE    MINE    GONE
MINE    MINE    MINE    GONE    COME    BACK    MINE    MINE    GONE    MINE
   MINE    MINE    MINE    MINE    MINE    MINE    MINE    MINE    MINE    MINE
GONE    MINE    MINE    MINE    MINE    MINE    MINE    GONE    MINE    MINE

        And Parminder looks out the window, from his personal workstation in the South Tower. "Man, after all her Witchiness's efforts to sweeten the honeymoon phase pot, too? RIP. Getting all those tentacles sure destroyed your sense of subtlety!" He laughs; he sees the abuse in the marriage, and he thinks it's a riot.

        When Emptear drops to her knees, it is an expression of unparallelled violence. The ice cracks and sunders, sheets forced over each other; a massive wave of icy water crashes against the shore, assaulting the high walls of the Castle. (They are designed to withstand the waves.) Were Elisa anyone else, she would surely suffer to be so close, smashed against the stone or swept into the sea, temperature plummeting from the Arctic water.

        But in that violence there is vulnerability, written in the way Emptear's claws clasp to either side of her faceplate, where her ears should be.

        "Don't be angry," she pleads openly, now, in the only side of the conversation on this plane of existence. "Please, You're too hasty, Empress. Don't bid me rend it open, not now, not in this place... Empress, the children..."

        And yet, for all she hears, her flesh is unharmed. Her anatomy does not shift or break, and she receives no more unsettling additions. Even her temperature is steady; her hands inside Emptear don't grow pale and blue. The Liminal Lattice withstands the Empress's insistence, and Yuliana remains whole, knelt in the abyssal threshold between two realities.

        (Protected inside the Silent Castle, Maksim and Makar cluster at a window in the East Wing's tower, watching the proceedings. Emptear's voice is loud enough to reach them, carried over her loudspeakers, and they stare. "Auntie Yulya's robot is creepy..." "I thought Auntie had one with a tail?" "I dunno... but she sure sounds upset." "Does she mean us? Did we mess her up?" "I think it's 'cause that Empress is yelling at her." "I don't hear nothin'." "That's 'cause only Auntie Yulya can hear." "I want to hear it too!" "Stupid! You super don't!")

<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.

It is not the first time.... and it shall not be the last.

Elisa stands on the ice to call forth the Threshold Queen, and her movements are imperious, dramatic. Then she moves up, and up. But Elisa hears Yuliana say to wait. She says--no, she does not say she does not want to.

She gives her feelings, instead. And this is fair. But Yuliana justifies it to herself before Elisa even need speak. Speak she does, though.

"I would not," she says. "I am certain that it will be safe. I know that it frightens you... and I am proud that you will step through your fear."

To come back, after so long away--

Elisa activates the runes.

"The Liminal Lattice anchors your body to this realm," Elisa explains in more detail. "It ensures that you will not be Changed as before. Not like this."

"But I must see it, now, while I have the power to intervene if needed."

And she has gathered a great deal of Power for this purpose, her stores of treated Green Fold Quartz tapped to their greatest extent to amplify her abilities.

"I will keep you safe. I swear it."

Emptear Gets Set.

The feeling comes. Elisa listens, as she monitors from a tablet the readings technological of this device. Without Shari, she has to exert more Power to make it all work, rather than merely using the technology of the Whispered.

Elisa prepares to channel more Power into her spell--but she need not. The Lattice holds. And there, every display is overwritten--

It is exhilarating. Elisa, for all that she is a god, is incarnate. In this, her spell contests her very Self. Her spell contests--and WINS--against the power of a manifest goddess!

She resists the urge to laugh, and it is well that the violence to come stops her doing it. The ice cracks and sunders; that icy water crashes towards Elisa, and she extends her hand towards the water as it comes.

When the wave finishes, when it crashes, when it recedes, Elisa rises back to her feet, drenched in frigid water, rime coating her black robes, her hood thrown back. Icicles trace down her hair; her eyelashes have frozen. When she moves, frost cracks.

She does not hear Parminder, of course.

"...YULIANA!" Elisa calls. "The Lattice holds! You are safe, my love. And She will understand My plan in time."

She pauses, then, and glances down. A green icicle has impaled her side. "...Inconvenient," she remarks, and breaks the offending ice with her bare hand.

"Now, engage your sensors. Can you See through the Mist?" This is another new technology that Elisa has enacted. A new spell.

"Look upon me, whole despite the rage of the seas."

"Rise again, Yuliana. Show yourself that you are Able. When your fear is eased by Truth..."

"Then it shall be time to end this test."

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

"Hey- what's wrong?"

Leina just, stopped, stopped talking - stopped doing anything, mid-conversation. She doesn't look at Shiro Kabuto. Her eyes instead drift to her hand, as she stares at her palm.

Then turns it over, spreading out her fingers, before closing them back in.

"Leina? Yo! Earth to Ms. Ashta."

She doesn't respond, and before long Shiro is getting up, to put a hand to her arm, "Hey. Look at me?" She barely responds to the stimulus on her arm, eyes trailing over slowly.

"Okay that's it, I'm getting you to the infirmary."

"No." She finally says, and he looks at her incredulously, "No? Talk to me!"

Abruptly, she gets up, and starts moving at a rapid gait out of the lounge they were using for this. "Stay here." That definitely doesn't deter him at all, "The hell I will!"

Her eyes finally look at him, then eventually- "Then- prep an Ichinana, on campus, we don't have time to get yours. You're - taking me to see the reef, whatever- some excuse."

"Mind explaining why?"

"On the way."

It took her a while to remember that she needed to text someone, she sent that out.

-=-=-

It started in an Ichinana, but eventually a hatch opened to face her now black painted Mass Produced Double Zeta. She took the time to change into her pilot suit, and place her helmet on.

The Bio-Sensor, felt strange, more distant at first, but the longer it was active, the more the feeling faded.

It did not take long for the two to make it to the top of the world - well, close. "Here - link your Ichinana to these. ... You need to stay out for now."

"And you don't?"

"... You're my way out."

She tapped a few commands, then- opened the cockpit long enough to feel a chill sharp enough that she felt it through her pilot suit, releasing...

An orange Haro drone, with a camera. It's four little helicopter rotors spun as it moved into position behind the Double Zeta.

"I programmed it to keep eyes on me - for you."

He had a tone like he didn't QUITE think this was good enough, by a long shot but- he'd long gotten used to the fact that his best friend - ex-girlfriend, sometimes went places he could not go.

"Alright - first sign it's going badly, promise you'll pull out."

"... Promise."

The Double Zeta's jets fire, as it skims over the ice, into the mist. Instantly suit systems begin to have a horrid time, and the Haro begins to struggle, but- weirdly, it holds up.

Another person enters the dance floor. Perhaps unexpectedly, the black mobile suit enters the mist. It has a far different paint job than Yuliana remembers, but it's unmistakably unique in the way that she'll know who it is.

It takes her a long time to look at Emptear on her knees, the sheer unbridled violence of its mere existence. "For the love of God... Yuliana."

Leina said it automatically, but it takes her a moment to parse the unintentional layers to that expression in this case as she has the Double Zeta touch down on solid ground, shrouded in the mist.

"<... I truly thought we were finished with this.>" Comes a voice simultaneously on the comms, and the loudspeakers, sounding low key defeated, but more than that, angry. "<Seriously - what the hell? Is this supposed to be some new safety feature test or something? So what is it? You work on improving that and everything is FINE? Really?>"

And indeed, while it's more difficult to pick out Elisa than Emptear, somehow the Double Zeta does so, zooming in on her on the monitor, even towards the drip of blood from where she extracted an icicle.

"<She's going through hell! For love of you! For the sake of a being that doesn't understand the slightest thing about her limits or safety! What happens if next time, you get closer and she just overrides these safety measures too!?>"

Leina grimaces, truly upset, before she addresses Emptear again, "<Yuliana - please - get out of there. We can go back to the PPL again, work through this. I->"

There's a distinct pause, as she lets out a sharp, broken laugh, "<-God is this how it's going to be? Just, are we going to keep doing this over, and over again. You were THERE when the Banshee had a hold of me! You tried tried again and again to get me out of it-!>"

Perhaps it disturbs her how, but nevertheless, "<How can you not see how this is just - just THAT all over again?! I've FELT how she regards you! I've FELT it!>"

There's a subtle crack on the second time she says FELT before it softens.

"<Please. There has to be a way to break this cycle, of our lives being put in... those hands. Of us following a script written by someone else. Let's... just go back.>"

Leina of course, is focused on Emptear, and doesn't notice the Void goose that just, walks right up to the Double Zeta, raises its wings, and starts pecking and honking at it's foot.

That's apparently just a thing that happens here.

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        She will step through her fear. Of course she will. She must. Elisa swore to keep her safe... and Yuliana's heart, at least, is able to be warmed, though the chill rages around it.

        And it is a battleground. As Elisa and the Empress's wills clash together, it is Yuliana who bears their dual possessiveness; with all these runes written over her, she will go to the fairest one, yet laughter is the last thing on her mind.

        She would feel badly for drenching Elisa in that icebound water, if only she were not so distracted. Elisa has to yell to call her attention back, and Emptear's head lifts, as Yuliana hears her. "She has a plan," she says, and not to Elisa. "Oll: llkou-llj th'ou Jou-w, do You hear it? You have a plan, where You are here. Please... still Your hand..."

        The sensors. She just has to... engage the sensors. She just has to stand.

        Let go of her fear.

        First things first, she speaks: "Emptear, set sensors to full complect. Set visual tolerance levels to zero-point-six-five repeating." And she feels her deus ex machina stir, as she invokes: "Set up!"

        And in one sense, the Empress's claw resolves in full resolution, clawing at the boundaries of this world through the threshold pouring from Emptear's chest. Her claws cannot reach Yuliana, though She grasps so tightly.

        And in another sense, Elisa resolves on the ice, through the Mists, right down to the frost on her lashes.

        And in a third sense --

        Yuliana recognises the Mass Produced Double Zeta. She once built a custom figurine of it, did you know? She's very familiar with its little details. A new coat of paint couldn't fool her. Emptear knows her. And Emptear's claws rest at her knees, her spiked shoulders sinking alongside Yuliana's. "My Elisa needed to test it... this way," she defends her, weakly.

        Of course Elisa is here.

        And when Leina defends her to her wife, Emptear's claws curl to fists alongside Yuliana's hands, her eyes scrunching shut under the blindfold. (It doesn't matter. That's not how she's ever seen anything, in Emptear, whose eyes are always open.) She should be angry that Leina is yelling at her wife -- it's just --

        -- she's yelling at her for Yuliana's sake, isn't she?

        (And what if... the Empress is able to tear through? She's so angry...)

        "Leyasha," she says, and her voice cracks.

        When the Banshee had a hold of Leina... but it's different, isn't it? Emptear isn't... Emptear isn't...

        Patient. Emptear isn't patient, Yuliana realises, unwelcome, as she realises that she looks at the MP Zeta and sees a rival dancer to be picked up and tossed aside.

        It doesn't do much for her protests.

        "It's all right," she assures her, after too long quiet. "It's all right, Leyasha. I just have to rise. So long as I can... the test is almost done." And perhaps that lattice-web around her pilot's suit shows all the cracks she's feeling, as she says, "... She just... keeps screaming at me..."

        Nevertheless, one of Emptear's hands plunges in through the ice to the sand beneath the water. One angular leg lifts, and then the other; all sixty metres of her rise, dripping with seawater, ice sloughing out from her form.

        She spreads her vast claw, and turns to the Castle. "Elya... I See," she assures her, and she tries to summon her bravery, to say it. "Is it done...?"

<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.

Elisa does not immediately notice Leina's approach; it would be easy to strike at her while she's busy. ...Not very productive, perhaps, but easy. But Elisa notices her in time, when she echoes her voice on those speakers. With a gesture, Elisa attunes herself so that she can Speak back. And after all--Elisa is the one she targets.

"You do not understand," Elisa says simply, and it echoes throughout Leina's cockpit. "But you care. ...Yes, you do care for Yuliana. For this, I will explain to you. I will lay bare my plans, that you can Understand. But first, I must finish this test."

So she focuses on Yuliana once again, sees the Claw. "You need not defend me, darling, though my heart swells that you would. ...No, it is reasonable that she would show anger, as if all is as it was that day." Her voice does not have to carry, to be heard within Emptear.

But Emptear is not patient. This is true.

Yuliana rises... and....

"It is done. Please disengage, Yuliana. We shall speak with your friend."

A pause.

"...This safety measure is to limit Her influence," Elisa explains. "A spell that anchors Yuliana here, to prevent what happened before. The Liminal Lattice, prepared to be reinforced with all the Power I can gather. However... That would not alone reassure you, I am certain."

"Know this: Your arguments, and those of another, have persuaded me. Humanity does not wish to Ascend. ...Without this desire, they would founder in the Void, and lose their peaceful lives for nothing."

"Thus, I am scouting locations far from Earth to Open the way next. Yuliana and I are set on our course--but I will have only the worthy Follow me."

"Come. Stay in your mobile suit, if you wish. But I must extract my wife from the Threshold Queen, before I can speak at ease."

"Come, Yuliana." She begins to rise into the air.

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

"<And what about you?>" Is her simple, rebuttal. "<What about what you need?>" She still says her piece, she still does it, even as Yuliana calls out to her.

It's not different, yet there has always been a failure to communicate. Newtypes are supposed to be people who understand the intentions of the other without misunderstanding.

Yet that's always been cut off between them, there's always been interference, and they must speak as people do.

Yuliana tells her, it's alright, she just has to finish. "<It's not- alright.>" She says into the comms, "<It's not... alright, for her to scream at you, for you to have to endure that.>"

It wasn't alright for those hands, to reach, to grasp, to smother and possess. It wasn't. No matter how much her own mind justified it. It was a lie, an illusion, a manipulation.

The one difference, is perhaps - the remnant could not help itself, there is no mind behind it but Leina's own. An emotional stew of the worst feelings she left behind.

The Empress? The Empress is different, despite her alien lack of understanding of people - she's sentient.

Elisa however addresses her, and despite the eerie echo throughout her cockpit causing her to grimace, she does.

"<No. I don't. I don't understand what would possess anyone to put her back in this... thing.>"

The fact that she 'cares' does give her pause, it's - surreal perhaps, that Elisa tolerates her on that fact alone.

What spouse involved in... a situation like this does? They usually don't tolerate any aspersions upon themselves, not the other.

She's always uneasy, seeing this side of her, shouldn't someone who regards themselves as a God take offense? Or is she simply too small?

The MP Double Zeta does approach, at least after a time, leaving the Goose honking in disdain as it leaves it behind. It's weapon systems are decisively powered down right now.

There's not the least bit of fear that she will turn on them right now.

Her monitor comes to focus in on the swirling darkness of Emptear's cockpit as Elisa explains.

"<... It doesn't.>" Reassure her, that is, "<These machines distort time and space, violate all scientific laws. You've changed where the aperture looks...>"

She's certainly not a scientist, but she understands at least the basics of Psychoframe and how Elisa would have had to alter it.

"<... but their potential to violate causality remains unparalleled. I don't think any safety measure that anyone could come up with, would have saved Rita from herself. And I'm not sure that 'limiting' the Empress' influence would be enough if she comes so close to her again.>"

The heat has at least been chilled by Elisa's ice, as she explains, allowing the anger to come down, then she listens, again.

Her eyebrows shoot up, and she gives her a wary look. It's such a strange thing to listen to a goddess change her mind?

That she changed her mind.

For a time she's dumbfounded at the very concept in that regard, unable to parse what's going on there.

"<So the plan is - the two of you are... leaving?>" Leina says quietly, obviously discomfited. Uncertain how to take that. It might be better for humanity if they do that.

Maybe.

But the thought of...

"<Is that what you want... Yuliana?>"

She asks, from her cockpit, she stays there, even though she does approach slowly. The Double Zeta at least takes a knee. Yet, for now she seems - uncertain.

She's not even sure if she'd be protected from exposure to this place, here, and the Biosensor feels like her best cover, but - she's considering it.

Is it really right, for her to go - to be trapped there, just the three - made two of them? No part of her thinks it is.

For now, she waits, watches, and listens - as if uncertain.

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        "My needs are my wife's," Yuliana says, as if a prayer to keep her strong.

        But what her wife says, as she recognises the Empress's displeasure -- "All is as it was," Yuliana says, "all was as it is, all points repeating, all that matters --" and are they her words, or do they just flow through her, channeled here from another place?

        She is trapped in the Threshold, given to one world and held by another, and in this place only Elisa's words can offer her a way forward.

        (Why, then, can she hear Leina's, telling her it's not alright for the Empress to treat her this way?)

        And Emptear stands, when Elisa bids her to disengage. She steps forward, to the front of the dancefloor -- she can feel the panel, even if she can't see it. She places her palm there, and she invokes: "Emptear, set down."

        It is the first time an outsider has ever seen Emptear bear her heart.

        The blackness of the Void contracts around Emptear's chest as the robot stills and deactivates, called back into a core heart like a flower with petals curled. That core -- made entirely from Voidframe, Leina might note, black as the machine's armour at its arms and legs and chest and skirt -- begins to unfurl, when the Void is fully called back into it. There, it opens -- and Emptear's cockpit is empty, clear, a dancefloor made of Voidframe and studded with Green Fold Quartz. Crystal screens might have shown the state of the battlefield, once. There is a panel at one side, which Yuliana, still, stands at...

        ... and her eyes are covered in a green cloth, clad in a rune-engraved bodysuit, a crown upon her brow, jewellery at her wrists and ankles. (These, too, bear Green Fold Quartz -- the very same crystals which were causing Yuliana so much grief.) Stranger still is the web of bright green magic, woven all across her body. Is that the Liminal Lattice Elisa describes...?

        (Could the Liminal Lattice save Yuliana from herself, if she were compelled to go the way of Rita?)

        Perhaps it's familiar -- just how practiced Yuliana is at untying that blindfold and setting it in its proper place by the panels, at unfastening her bracelets and her anklets, at setting her crown down. She works as if it were routine testing, as if there aren't still tears in her eyes from how aggrieved the Empress was.

        By the time Elisa rises up, Yuliana steps to the edge of that unfurled heart, ready for her. "Elya..!" She reaches out for her, collapses into her arms, heedless of the rime cracking at her wife's robes. "Is it well? Was it as you hoped? Oh -- you're cold..." She notices only when her cheek rubs against Elisa, because even if her suit isn't a conventional pilot suit, it is still designed to protect her from the cold of both space and the Void.

        She looks up from her wife, to the MP Zeta, hearing Leina's voice project. Hers doesn't, any more; perhaps Elisa will transmit it, or perhaps Leina will use a directional microphone.

        "I want to be with my wife," she says, and says honestly. "And I don't wish for Elya to be separated from Herself... She tore this piece from Herself for me, Leyasha. She... She wouldn't be so cruel if She hadn't... wanted to save me so much..." Tears spring to her eyes again, as she clutches at Elisa's frosted robes. "It's -- it's all right," she insists, with a wavering smile. "The Void is beautiful, Leyasha. When I'm not torn between two worlds, I'll not be ripped to pieces any more... it won't hurt any more. Even if no one wants to come with us... so long as I'm with Elya, I'll be happy."

<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.

"Of course. But I remember what it was for her to Dance without her armor... as should you. Were it not for the flaw in my design, she would have been safe already."

"I can distort time and space, and violate scientific law. Should I seal myself away, for the good of your corporate masters? ...I had corporate superiors once, too. They did not understand my work. They cast me out."

"But here I am."

"Now, hold." Elisa reaches Yuliana, and picks her up at the edge. She holds her, carefully and tenderly, like and unlike Her. "I will be fine," Elisa says. The black robes conceal blood, as well. "I shall warm myself when we go inside."

Elisa sees Yuliana look up, and gestures; Yuliana's voice carries to Leina on the darkness.

She waits for her to finish. Then... "A moment, please."

"...I have changed the mechanisms. It is no longer possible for the occupant of the Threshold Queen to give herself wholly over to the Void."

Pause. "Rita had no escape but the embrace of death. To escape her tormentors required that she abandon her mortality. This is not so for Yuliana. It is not the same."

Then, she regards Yuliana again, and floats away from Emptear. As she reaches the ground soon after, she sets down her wife near Leina's machine, and turns. "We shall have peace, there. Far from the wars of this place. Far from those who would hunt us for what we are, what we have done, what we can do. Can you assure such peace for us in this realm, Leina Ashta?"

"...Excuse me." She lifts one hand then, like a conductor leading a symphony, and Emptear closes up. "...We shall have no more need of the Armor today."

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

Leina's own MP Double Zeta looks at Elisa in these moment, as she explains the nature of how she's an outcast, "<You did. Before.>" She tells her after a moment, "<I don't ask you to do anything for them. I ask you to consider that the path you are leading her is not in her best interests.>"

Indeed, Elisa says how she has altered it, and Leina finds herself disquieted, is it really true? In the end, she can't truly believe it's impossible for Yuliana to harm herself in Emptear now.

However she does respond to Yuliana's prayer, "<Bullshit. Your own wife would say that's not true. You both have very different needs - physical - emotional. We had to collaborate in the past for your pharmaceutical regimen!>"

There's also the fact that Elisa took a wound earlier that would kill a normal person, but she doesn't say that, you know.

She knows it upsets Yuliana.

Emptear does set down, and indeed there is, relief. Even as the blackness peels aside, she's perhaps afraid of what she might see. And see she does.

Within, she sees the lattice, perhaps she had not seen the cockpit before - but she can work out what it is.

Perhaps it is the blindfold that disturbs her most of all, just like all those Newtype experiments on what having another sense is like.

Could these safety measures save her? Leina doubts it. There is power in those feelings, in those moments - ones that can overturn scientific law.

Indeed, she listens to her say that, and there's a pained look on her face, as she has to take a moment, just to let herself breathe- and...

... and so too does Elisa speak, before she can respond. What can she offer them?

Can she offer them peace?

Can she offer them beauty? The hatch slowly falls down, revealing the pilot within, but for now she still speaks on the loudspeakers.

"No. I can't offer you that." She admits, "Changing the world into one most people would want to live in is a 24/7, 365 day a year lunch pail job. It's messy, and it's difficult - and it's full of people who try their hardest to make it the world they want to live in, without consideration for anyone else."

In that moment however, she looks to Elisa, "But I also don't believe that's all that Yuliana wants. I believe she's made her highest priority all encompassing - and there are so many parts of this world, and people she doesn't want to leave behind, to dwell there."

A beat pause.

"I believe she thinks that the pain will stop, when all the evidence we've seen shows - it wouldn't." She looks at Elisa in this moment through her pilot helmet, "I understand, that is what you believe, and you have so much more knowledge than I do. I'm not a scientist, I'm a University undergrad. What I know mostly is that humans are creatures that are good at pattern recognition."

She looks at Elisa in this moment, and says quietly, "And I see one, in you. You hold many beliefs about what you must do - and the world beyond - the instinct you have towards reunion with the Empress - but you yourself know that the magic you wield can alter perception... memory... identity. So many facets of self. The Empress does not think as people do, or hold our values. You believe that by reuniting with her, she will learn, and change from the experiences."

There's an almost emphatic gesture, as she leans forward, placing a hand over her heart, "But how do you know? How do you know you'll continue to exist at all? That she'll take it to heart? What if you're not what you think you are? If your only purpose is to lure her there for her to possess?"

She gives that a moment to sink in, "How do you know you're actually acting in her own best interests? In yours, even? You're asking so much of a leap of faith- for you two to enter the realm of a divinity that certainly isn't infallible."

A beat pause.

"After all, when the moment came, you disagreed with her... you're acting against her desires right now, aren't you? Yet... still you think going there is the best course? Knowing this... there's no way this hasn't occurred to you, yourself - that everything you desire might be a carefully crafted lie."

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        "Okay..." Yuliana smiles, when Elisa assures her she'll be fine. "I'm just glad I didn't hurt you too badly." Any normal human would have succumbed to hypothermic shock by now -- but Elisa isn't much for body heat at the best of times.

        And though Elisa is freezing, Yuliana holds close to her, anyway. Isn't it in her best interests?

        "I -- I know that!" She responds to Leina, perhaps later than she could have. (Of course she had to regard her wife, first.) "But I need my wife, too... isn't that normal?"

        Her wives, that is. "She was furious," Yuliana murmurs -- a quiet sound which still carries, thanks to Elisa's magic -- when Elisa tells Leina the mechanisms have changed. "She insisted I could do it, if only I cared for Her enough..."

        Yuliana, of course, doesn't need to escape.

        She does turn, at least, when Elisa sets her down; still with one gloved hand bunched in her robes, one tentacle wrapped about her midsection, but she at least faces Leina now. Behind them, at the bidding of Elisa's great power, Yuliana's massive set of armour begins to sink below the ice into the ocean again. A robot of that power... isn't something Yuliana can pilot alone. Clearly, she needs Elisa's support, every step of the way.

        And here.

        Leina, in the end, can't offer them peace.

        When Leina speaks to Elisa, Yuliana doesn't interrupt her -- but she listens, and Elisa will feel the way her grasp tightens, when Leina places her hand over her heart and asks those questions. "Elya...?" She asks, looking to her, voice small.

        Ever since she came into her life... as soon as she got a little closer to her... it's always been about this.

        Yuliana looks back to Leina, expression drawn. "I... I don't know. I just have faith, that's all... that's... enough, isn't it? Why would She send Herself to this reality if She didn't love me? If She didn't want to protect me...? I -- I'll admit She's frightening me, but -- but it's just because of what She did for me... isn't it?"

        Tremulous, she looks up to her wife. "... Elya... Elya, is She... using us? B--both of us?" And she is afraid.

<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.

"You did not," Elisa assures Yuliana again. "Primarily it was cold, and I do not fear the cold."

But Yuliana... needs Elisa. And Leina?

"Perhaps you could have, if you were willing to sacrifice your life. But I intend you to reach the Void whole." A pause. "...But it is so. We have different needs."

The Threshold Queen sinks beneath the waves. And Leina cannot offer them peace. Elisa listens, and she squeezes Yuliana's hand gently. But she does listen. She listens for Yuliana; she listens until Leina finishes. She sees those gestures, and what might be of most interest to Leina could be:

Elisa does not look surprised to see these possibilities raised, not beyond the matter of seeing a pattern in her. That surprised her. But the idea of what the Empress could have done? Not at all.

But Yuliana wonders. She doesn't know, and she has faith. "...Do not abandon your faith," Elisa says, a rare instruction instead of modeling. "However..."

"This possibility has occured to me as well," she says, nodding. "My Power can manipulate minds, souls, identities. Indeed, mine has been altered by the force that flows through me. If you could See as I do, you would see the difference between me and what I presume my state was before my awakening. And it feels distant, that Self."

"...In the end, there is only one guarantee, in this world or any other: Force."

"You are correct. It is possible that it is a lie. For that reason, I have delayed my plans. I must prepare all the more carefully. I do not currently intend to abandon our project. I believe that the Void is still the future of humanity, and myself, and Yuliana."

"...But I must gather power. I must bind myself to more than Her. I must create, and build myself up, to match the power of a God."

"I have not betrayed my mission. And neither will I. ...But I will not be stripped of my wife. Nor my identity."

"I will ensure it. Until I have the power to stand against even my Self..."

"...The Gate shall remain closed." She looks to Yuliana. "I will make Her understand. Or I will take control. You shall be safe, regardless."

"...I do not believe She has betrayed us," Elisa clarifies. "But force is the way of the Void. And it would be foolish, as you say, not to consider the possibility."

Elisa smiles. She has the appropriate number of teeth.

"And today I have proven the concept. My magic has stood against even my Self, to keep my Yuliana safe. ...It is not enough. Not yet."

"If it turns out that the best option is to remain in this world... I am not yet sure what I will do. But I will not abandon my mission unless I am certain that it leads to doom for us."

Back to Yuliana again, "So do not lose heart. We shall navigate this possibility together. Only you are the Key and the Gate. ...Together, we are unstoppable. But only together."

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

Leina watches Elisa, nodding, as she agrees, that she has different needs.

"You have needs that your wife fulfills." Leina replies back to Yuliana evenly, it's not easy perhaps, with Elisa right there. She is so powerful, that it's easy to imagine so many horrible outcomes to these words.

"You want her in your life. That does not mean she can, or should fulfill all your needs. There's a reason no expert out there believes that is healthy in a marriage."

It's a fine line to walk, but she will speak what she knows to be true, and here, this is truth to her.

"... It's wrong for the Empress to say that, 'if only you cared enough'?" Leina hears it, thanks to Elisa's magic, and replies, "She was asking you to lay down your life. It's only natural for us to sacrifice little things of our needs - for the sake of someone we love. But to ask you to sacrifice yourself? To imply you don't care enough?"

There's something terse, there's something angry, "It's a betrayal of everything a marriage stands for. You know how strong a bond that Banagher and I had."

A little more passion leaks into it, "You have a similarly strong bond, with the Empress. Mine with him? It still exists - but I walked away. Do you remember what I said to him?"

She gives Yuliana a moment to recall, and if she doesn't say it, then Leina does herself.

"I can't be with someone who makes me take myself for granted."

She comes to her conclusion, not long after she says what she said, "She made you take yourself for granted, Yuliana. She didn't just ask you. She made you. She forced you." Indeed, she comes to her final answer, "She used you. If she acted to force her entry, at the expense of your life - then that love only went so far as you being a means to an end."

Indeed, it is true that Leina cannot offer them peace. The world is not peaceful, it is not a place they live in, and they have done something that can't be taken back, an act of violence in turn.

It is difficult for that to be forgotten, even if they can all move forward.

Leina does look mildly surprised as Elisa admits that it occurred to her too. Not because Elisa isn't SMART enough to come to that conclusion, in fact - she's seen her and the Empress disagree in real time.

It's just a surprise she'd admit it aloud to her.

"I can't see as you do, but I have spoken to people who knew you before - enough to understand there is a profound difference. Yet who you are, still remains within. That much is clear. You would not speak to me as the researcher you were before, or the Olympian - or even as someone who was wronged by Corporations, otherwise."

Perhaps she could, to manipulate, but why would she require that to manipulate her towards thinking she's more human? There are easier, better lies to tell, even if some of the best have a degree of truth.

Especially for someone who believes she is divine, emphasizing the humanity only undermines that. She did not always believe such, either.

"I can't believe in that. Even 'force' can be overturned by things beyond ourselves- and there are things which cannot be quantified simply by their 'might' that hold a power of their own."

It is an ideological disagreement however, that she doesn't expect either of them to come to terms on, so she swiftly moves on.

"That's the most extreme possible conclusion." Is Leina's answer to her, "I understand why you might feel it necessary, for love of Yuliana, but that too could be playing into those hands. You are speaking of amassing power to challenge a Goddess... if it becomes necessary."

Her eyes right now, just can't come off of Elisa, "That love does you credit. To fight for the one you love - anyone could respect that. But where does that power you amass come from?"

Her own eyes are green, seagreen, not quite the green of the void, as she asks her gently, "You do not believe you have been betrayed - and you do not believe you have been compromised. I understand that, but neither did I. And neither did she. And we are dealing with a far greater power than Doctor Murasame, or Doctor Devi. I worry that you believe this outcome is in her best interests..."

There is a lengthy pause, as she considers her next words carefully, as words do matter in this case, "... but instead, your efforts might leave no place left, where she can exist at all."

It is a longshot appeal, and she knows it. She knows it, to appeal to Elisa, "If you can obtain power to that degree, why would it be better to take the uncertain road, when you could instead work to end the connection with a being that is causing her so much suffering?"

It's not actually calling Elisa out, for not doing this, it is challenging her to consider another road, "That connection to 'Her' cannot be the only reason you love her so, so why not work to end it? That might be a greater happiness for both her and you than following a Goddess' script."

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        Elisa assures Yuliana, and Yuliana is assured. So, of course, when Elisa assures her their needs are different, she's able to admit -- even to Leina -- "I guess you're right..."

        But Leina points out just what the Empress meant, to say she didn't care enough, and Yuliana glances away. "I have been very cruel to Her," she defends the Empress, weakly. "I've ignored Her, I've taken efforts not to visit... people don't grow so angry for no reason, Leyasha. It's because of the things I've done that She's grown so frightening... I am being very unreasonable." It's always been the way, after all. These things which happen -- are things she brings on herself.

        Perhaps Elisa can see the mirror, too.

        But she looks to her wife, attentive, and squeezes her hand in turn. "I won't abandon my faith," she echoes her, easily, and her eyes do not have to dull to take the instruction uncritically into herself. She hears the subtle shift in Elisa's tone, the turn from suggestion to dictation, and she swore to be an obedient wife. Perhaps it's obvious, to Leina, knowing what she knows.

        Yuliana doesn't see anything wrong with it.

        But her wife speaks of the guarantees of power, and Yuliana leans against her, all the more power in her hands. (All the more powerful.) She smiles up to her, cheeks rosy in the cold now she's drawn her veil back. Where it falls over her face, it would shield her face from cold and lack of oxygen; tossing it back is less demanding on the magic. "I know," she says, lifting a gloved hand to rest against her wife's frozen cheek. "You'd never let harm come to me, zhenushka." Even if Yuliana was the battleground on which Elisa fought Herself, today -- she's fine, isn't she? Isn't she? She's safe.

        Her hand drops to Elisa's shoulder, as she turns back to face Leina again. Of course Leina doesn't believe in the power of force; she does not hold power, like they do. She can excuse that. Leina thinks she is speaking truth, after all, from Yuliana's perspective.

        Her face tightens into a frown, again, hearing Leina point out that she didn't think she was compromised. Murasame... Devi...

        "But I am the Key and the Gate," she says, and Leina might hear the way she effortlessly claims Elisa's verbatim statements as her own. "How could we leave the Void? It is our place... and a world without its pressure... in Goragon, I could not stay there. Though it was a pleasant fantasy, maintaining that park far from the demands of civilisation... if I stayed there, I would have left Her behind."

        She frowns, looking up to Elisa again. "Could you even be happy, being only part of Yourself...? Isn't it too much to ask, to keep you bound to such a small existence? Zhenushka, you are beautiful... if I stifled you, there'd be no greater crime."

        Does that explain why she's so fine with all the blood sacrifice?

<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.

"It is not a truth I enjoy, but it is a truth. I cannot, in this world, provide all that my Yuliana needs. ...I am not sure I agree with 'should not', but I can certainly agree with 'cannot'."

"For now."

Leina receives no censure in this; the next part, though. That makes her consider. "...it is a lack of understanding, rather than an active betrayal." Elisa sees the mirror, though. "She could certainly save Yuliana from death, snatch her from the clutches of the next world. She does not understand yet that this is not preferable to arriving whole."

Here Leina may see the limits of Elisa's patience; she is willing to tell Yuliana what to do, even if she does not enforce it with Power.

But she notices the surprise. Hmmm. "Yes," Elisa says. "The difference is significant. I would do none of those things; indeed, a year ago, I might have done none of these things. But my Yuliana has encouraged me to anchor myself more in this world, to rediscover my 'mortal' self, though not in so many words."

She turns to Yuliana with her face. "I would not," she says.

"It is fine," Elisa says to Leina, "Not to believe. But it is the law by which I live. It is the law by which the Empress exists." She nods to Yuliana. "...That is what matters here, now."

But...

Hmmm. It is a long shot appeal. But it abides by the logic that Elisa has established that. "Oh, it must come from beyond the Void," she says of power. "I must seek powers besides that of the Void, in case She can turn those powers against me even without raw power." A pause. "But that is true. I did not know that I was a part of Her. I did not know much of Her ways."

"A certain road versus an uncertain road..." She seems to genuinely consider it.

Then she looks to Yuliana, who asks her. "I am not willing to abandon my Self who has worked so hard to reunite with Yuliana," she says first. "...But..."

"If, and only if, I found proof of this betrayal--of this possibility--Then, yes, I would be willing to set it aside, and find a place in this world, though Earth would be... difficult, considering."

"...I would endure this sacrifice," she says, "For my Yuliana to be happy."

"But you will have to find more tangible evidence than 'maybe'. 'Maybe' is enough for me to prepare to fight for my love. But it is not enough to abandon my Self."

"...I do detect," she admits, "That some of that is inborn. Some of that is my nature. It is... difficult, to work against my mission."

"But that is all the more reason that I must be certain. I will not upend my entire existence on the account of 'possibility'."

"We shall cross that bridge if we come to it, if I cannot find a Power beyond myself."

"Until then... so long as my Yuliana wishes for the well-being of this world, I at least do not intend to destroy the 'lives' of which you are so enamoured. I will seek my path beyond the confines of this planet."

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

As Elisa speaks of her ability to fulfill Yuliana's needs, Leina considers it for a time and then tells her, "I simply think it's a mistake for me to try and view your marriage from outside of a human lens. Indeed, even if your purpose is as you believe it is, it makes it that much more important that I do - not less, since you are trying to learn more of the humanity that she is a part of."

She is - trying her best to at least appeal to logic here, rather than simply recriminations, indeed her view of Elisa has somewhat changed here today, which takes the edge off her heat.

But she cannot forget the harm she has done. The harm she can do.

"Yuliana you're feeling so twisted up over wronging someone who can't even understand your most basic of needs." Is what Leina says to the idea of her being cruel or ignoring her. "I do not accept the idea that you are being cruel to her, when she shreds you apart on a daily basis and makes you call it kindness."

She gives her a pointed look, "The only difference is that most of the time, it doesn't leave a mark - and the times it does, Elisa has to put you back together again from the brink of death. There is no comparison to her cruelty to you."

Certainly, Leina wouldn't be an obedient wife to anyone, it's impossible to imagine a world in which she is - without brainwashing that is.

She watches her find comfort in Elisa, reinforcing the idea that she knows she'd never come to harm.

"Yuliana - let us say that someone took one of the children in your care, and sliced them up to the point where they were nearly unrecognizable. You would find whoever did it, and use all of your skills to avenge them, wouldn't you?"

But then she presses again, "But if it was the Empress, you would forgive her and tell them of her love for you, as Elisa stitched them back together? ... I do not say this to be cruel, but you have to understand, the double standard you are applying, how all of us see it."

As Elisa speaks of the Empress as possessing a lack of understanding, rather than as an active betrayal, Leina responds, "Even if that is the case, humans only take ignorance as an excuse when someone is very young... to do otherwise, is to leave harm unaddressed. If the Empress would have me respect her divinity as someone I cannot apply human morality to, then I can't simply excuse it with the same grace I might give a five year old."

She is told it's fine not to believe, and she nods after a time, "And that's why I can't. Because it isn't the world I want to live in. Neo-Zeon, the Vist Foundation - they all taught me that."

And that isn't to say that she doesn't believe the same isn't true of the organizations she's a part of, she just believes that they are the best current way to create a better world for the most people possible.

It comes to the power she needs, on it being beyond the Void, on powers besides that. Indeed Leina had thought of that true, but she doesn't speak. She lets Elisa work through it and-

"That's a high standard of proof to apply." She says mildly, not in reproval, but as if advising, "It may result in you shifting the goal posts to yourself- again- and again-"

There's a sort of sadness there like she knows that experience, and indeed, she smiles sadly...

"I think that may be difficult. Me finding tangible evidence. As you cannot exactly offer unto me the knowledge of the scientific knowledge necessary to work with it, as you'd consider it compromising."

Her eyes drift up as she speaks quietly, "And I cannot really - replicate what I did before, to witness Yuliana's ancestors, to know how that ended."

She supposes Doctor Murasame, with enough time, could manage it, in the end he probably knew more of Psychoframe and it's nature than anyone.

She's hardly gonna give him more time.

"I understand... I suppose..." It is difficult perhaps, to find a solution, it is a real struggle, in the end she comes up short, "... it was my friends and loved ones that - saved me from myself. Or rather what was done to me. If Yuliana has told you to anchor yourself in the 'mortal' world, then perhaps that is what you ought to do."

She thinks on it for a moment, as it's a struggle, "Find people who you enjoy in your company, who you can talk to, and have them advise you from the perspective of - yourself. I know it's difficult given the complexity of your situation, but either way - you will learn more of mortality and yourself like that."

<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.

        "You would if you could," Yuliana soothes Elisa, and is soothed, in turn, to realise it, that Elisa would give Yuliana all she needs in some nebulous future.

        But Elisa assures her it is only Her lack of understanding which makes Her so callous, and where Yuliana is assured she is assured, and where she is told she listens. It's kinder to think of it as ignorance; is it cruel, then, the logic Leina offers? Certainly her brow knits, trouble washing over her scarred features again. Leina speaks of a lack of understanding, too, except -- "I-I..." -- her voice hitches, and falters, when she tries to reply. She retreats into her wife, but not enough that she can't hear Leina's continued reasoning -- and when she mentions her nephews, her head snaps up, in alarm. "Why wouldn't I?!" She snaps, immediately. They'd WISH they'd just die already --

        Except --

        "She -- She wouldn't do something so awful!" Yuliana protests, but even she can hear such a blatant lie on her lips. "... oh, that's what I want to say, but... it happens, doesn't it? A woman grows numb, and her husband involves the children... or they disturb the peace, or..." She takes a breath, and it shudders. "... She does frighten me," she admits, at length, lamely. "She takes me apart, no matter how it feels... if I'm not as She wishes. She... She is more powerful than me, so She changes me to a form more pleasing to Her. When that's not sufficient -- when She can't reach me -- oh, She's demanding, I suppose. It's Her worry for me which drives it, or Her passion, but... you know, I think, if someone who loves me so much would hurt me so much... if this is my destiny, I feel I must deserve it." And Elisa can see the tears gathering at her lashes, even if Leina might have to judge by the tremulousness in her tone, at her distance. "But -- but the children, they -- they don't. They couldn't. I'm afraid, Leyasha."

        But she leans against her wife, and she affirms, again: "But... it's all right. My wife will protect us."

        It's not just the Empress who is impatient. (Is She childish? Yuliana politely side-steps answering.)

        Yuliana smiles, at least, when Elisa draws her conclusions about her encouragement. "Of course you've thought deeply on it," she says, and her affection is deep, too. "Yes, it's just like that." Her 'mortal' self... there are fine things about mortality, too, aren't there?

        (But Yuliana is still mortal, even changed. In this world, one day...)

        "Oh," Yuliana sighs, when Elisa insists she would endure the sacrifice of staying for her happiness, and she, at least, is touched. She leans against her wife, grasping Elisa's hand in both of hers. It is well that she is gloved; surely she would freeze, to hold it, otherwise.

        And, of course, Elisa has an inbuilt nature... even so, she fights against it.

        "I don't wish to destroy them," she affirms, to Elisa, quietly. (Is it any less disturbing, knowing someone as capricious as Yuliana is the only thing limiting Elisa's violence?) "I... um..." She is unsettled, and perhaps that's why she asks, glancing down and up again. "Actually, I... do you think it's fine if I go back, with Leyasha, for today...? I'm scared I'll go back there, tonight... maybe their machines can stop it." And Elisa can surely feel her heart fluttering in her chest, beating so rapidly, as if it could outrun her anxieties. "Is that okay...?"

        Leina did say... she could go back. She must... still be welcome there. And if she needs friends as much as her loved one to fix this, then... they are her friends, aren't they?

<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.

"Logical, if vexing," Elisa admits to Leina as to their marriage. "I am beyond the petty moralities of humans. ...But in this, at least, I should see what it would be, to live as a mortal."

Cruelty... Yes, it could be. But cruelty in and of itself is no vice to Elisa. Still, Yuliana soothes her, before she gives an example--complains. She frowns.

"Watch your tongue," she warns Leina--but does not strike against her. Instead, "...Not a child, but incapable of viewing the details. Imagine that She is watching us from a great distance," Elisa says. "At a great difference of scale. That is why She cannot understand. Not because She needs this grace."

A pause. But Yuliana... Hmm. She cries. She has such difficulty. And what she says, of course--

"...I cannot guarantee She would not," Elisa admits, grudgingly. "But I will protect them as well."

She has thought deeply on it. "It is a high standard. I will have to be vigilant against such failings. ...I could offer you more knowledge, but it might change you to engage with it. I do not know that you would want it."

The past... the ancestor. "Yes..."

"...This I will do," Elisa says. "To 'anchor' myself. There are... a few people in the world, with whom I can speak. But..."

She considers, further--as Yuliana makes a request. Elisa is stricken by it for a moment--

Then she relents, and nods, past that initial recoil. "...Wise," she says. "A wise choice, my wife. Do so. Do as you will, in this."

"...I must go, and contemplate. You can reach me in the moning."

"...But I must think. I must deliberate."

"I must... go. I love you, Yuliana. Talk to me tomorrow. If you cannot, then worry not; I will visit."

Then, she steps to the side--

And vanishes in a puff of green light.

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

Elisa tells her to mind her tongue, and Leina decides that she should quit while she's ahead. After all, she has no idea how well a Biosensor would help protect her from the powers she wields.

She and the MP Double Zeta never did have enough time with each other, they didn't bond in the way she was forcibly married to the Banshee.

And so she quiets down, even though she disagrees. For a time, she just listens, to their back and forth, to Yuliana's protests, to what she says, to the struggle, the tears.

"You don't, deserve it. ... And that's why I'm worried, that you want to go there, to be with someone who hurts you - who makes you feel that way."

It's not actually intentional phrasing, as she doesn't feel like Yuliana is being mind controlled into feeling this way. But - the actions are pushing Yuliana to feel this way.

Indeed she looks to Elisa for support, protection - and Elisa admits the Empress would not harm the children, that she will protect them.

Elisa does speak to her again on that moment and... "We spoke long ago on that, and I've decided. I only desire knowledge that can be articulated through words alone - through human tongues." There's an almost apologetic smile, "Often - the way I see the world makes me experience so many things I was not prepared for, I would at least choose to participate in as much of this as other people do."

And Yuliana makes the choice, and relief floods her, "You'd be welcome to come back with me." It is so instant, that acceptance, there's not even hesitation for her flying in the same suit as her, despite the consequences of proximity.

Once Elisa has vanished, to think, to contemplate, she eases up all the more. Is it really such a simple thing to get her to back down, with some logical argument?

She doesn't know, parts of that conversation still... it makes her wonder if she's accidentally unleashed something far worse, but in the end she wants to think better of her. That she's capable of changing, of deciding not to do harm.

That she too might be a victim, of whatever this divinity did to her.

It's uncomfortable, even before she holds out a hand to help Yuliana in, and it's uncomfortable in the cockpit too, but- they're going back, together.

And she's not in that thing.

The hatch closes, and the Double Zeta begins to rise when-

HONK-HONK HONK!

DESIST! CEASE! DESIST! CEASE!

The Haro drone flies by, being pecked relentlessly in the air by a Void Goose trying to gnaw on one of its rotors, as it flies in circles trying to get away in a panic.

VANDAL! VANDAL!

"Uhhh just let me..." The Double Zeta's hand reaches out, and starts making a shooing motion, the horrible goose is persistent however as it flies around the hand after the drone, and Leina makes a face. It would be easy to blame this on what they did but - it's a goose.

The hand runs interference enough for her to pop the hatch, and the drone comes flying in to rest on the cockpit floor, the Goose can be seen on the monitors pecking at the outside.

"Okay, here we go."

The MP Double Zeta takes off, and begins flying out of the mist, before setting down near the Ichinana, which turns to face her, the sound of Shiro Kabuto coming on in relief.

"<There you are! Everything looked settled but I suddenly lost eyes on you and->" Shiro pauses, and pauses longer, and then just starts openly laughing, and the click of a phone camera flash. "<-ahahahahahahaha-!>"

"<What's so funny>"

Shiro Kabuto on the monitor, holds up his phone, to show them a picture of the Double Zeta with a Green Goose pecking at the top of its head. Leina glowers as she has the Double Zeta wave repeatedly in the air, making a shooing motion again to try and get it to go away as it continues it's angry honking refrain.

"<You are not sharing that with my brother.>"

"<Leina - Leina - who do you take me for?>"

He grins just so big before confirming-

"<I already sent it to him.>"

"<GODDAMNI->!"

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpqpStBIY7U Lizzo - Goose