2024-07-12: To Make With One's Hands
- Log: To Make With One's Hands
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Elisa Kafim
- Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- OOC - IC Date: 0099 07 12
- Summary: Yuliana has something to show Elisa! Elisa has thought long and hard on the subject...
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana's carved out a place for herself, in the Silent Castle, where she does her carvings. The boys aren't allowed inside her model room unaccompanied; she's chased her parents out, too, even though Tri Darma has his own interest in model trains. (He has his own model room for that.) Sokrova knows very well he's a naughty cat if he goes in there, with how easy it is for his tail to knock things from shelves. The servants aren't even allowed in, except on a strict schedule for cleaning and maintenance.
... she never told Elisa she couldn't enter, but surely she understood her preferences.
Alectros told her to find a safer place for herself, to sort out her own feelings. And she did try having some feelings in privacy -- she did. She just told her wife most of it, anyway. Maybe one or two things she didn't mention... but nothing too important. Little things. It's fine to have some little things to herself.
She did try calling Alectros, once. They were glad to hear from her, but she ended the conversation with heat and fire. She couldn't stand how critical they were being of her wife, just because she was kind of confused! Just everything was going so well, now, and for some reason she was unsettled! Her wife didn't do anything wrong, and she was so upset that even when Elisa was being such a considerate and attentive wife they'd still blame her for so much. She wanted Alectros to tell her what was wrong with her! ... in the end, she just told them the whole thing was a bad idea, and she wouldn't be calling them again.
Maybe... maybe she can still call Sayaka, but that's different. She wasn't really part of her treatment team, she's just her friend.
But it doesn't feel right, keeping herself away, not from her wife. It doesn't feel right, especially after a call like that -- so one day, when she's finished with a model, she rings a bronze bell to call a servant to her. They're nervous, opening the door, but she bids them to go and fetch her wife. She has something to show her.
A completed, completely unique Muse Malu 4 sits on the table, 1/48th scale, each of its parts custom-printed. It has been painted in its fearsome green colours, and each of its 48 legs moves on three joints. Thanks to the ball-bearings installed inside it, it can even /turn,/ bending on both axes.
It's as much engineering as it is modelling, really, particularly when one considers the LEDs which give it more presence.
(Off to the side of the table, one of Leina's Wanzer-of-the-Month builds lies half-done, abandoned in the heat of a new idea which could honour their works.)
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa indeed does not venture uninvited into Yuliana's private room. Once, she would have done so on principle, but Yuliana has made clear her needs on that front... And Elisa is willing to give her that space, should she require it.
She can always scry on the room if she's concerned. That doesn't count as entering.
A few things to herself are fine. Yuliana can have those. But Elisa wishes all that she will give and more.
When called, however, she does not have to be called twice to see this special space of Yuliana's. Elisa listens to the servant who wishes to bring her and nods. "For this," Elisa says to the servant, "I shall grant you a boon. Your bonus will be incresed this pay period."
It's fine if they're nervous. Positive reinforcement works!
Elisa stes into the room when invited, knocking first, and then looks--
"My darling," she says first. "I am pleased to see what you wished--"
"Ahhhh," shhe says, "How marvelous! This is what you wished to show me?" she asks. She glances over att the Wanzer of the Month. She smiles. It is unfinished.
Good.
But Elisa goes towards the Muse Malu 4 instead, tilting her head this wway and that to get better angles. "Such expert painting.... And intricate sculpting! How very fearsome indeed!"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Thank you, Mistress," the poor hapless maidservant says, brightening when they hear her generosity. Positive reinforcement does, in fact, work, and the team will soon hear that they're encouraged to come when Yuliana calls, even if she's told them to stay away in the first place.
Knock, knock, and Yuliana rises from her chair, pushing it away to stand and reach out to her wife. "Elya!" She chirps, brightly. A hand at her wife's waist, her other gestures to the table, to the Muse Malu 4. "Isn't he just a dear?" She asks, as Elisa examines it; the model bends, as she tilts it, showing its articulation.
She notices, at the edge of her consciousness, the smile which flashes over Elisa's face when she sees which projects she has finished and which are yet undone. What she knows is that Elisa is so pleased to see the Muse Malu 4, of course. "It's far more complex than some of my projects," she says, quite pleased with herself. "You can imagine no one's built casts for our dashing fellows, so of course I had to print everything off myself, with all those itty-bitty little screws..." That's not the technical name for them, but Elisa isn't an engineer, so she's translating.
"Isn't he ferocious?" She adds, bubbly and cheerful. Whatever she was up to here today -- whatever little secrets she was greedily squirreling away for herself -- they evidently haven't upset her.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa is pleased.
Elisa watches Yuliana show off the articulation of the model, regarding it and not commenting on which modell is more deserving of work. "So I see," she says of complexity. "Even if they did make casts of our fine machines, this one would have been difficult to produce. You are so very talented!" Litle screws... "Yes," shee says. "It must have come with great effort."
"Ferocious indeed," Elisa agrees. "...I think to create with one's hands is a find thing, my Yuliana. It is shown clearly in your hard work here! Shall we display it somewhere prominent?" she offers.
"A jeweled shelf, to set off the greens..."
Elisa even shared something about her own values there!
"He is frightening to behold. I adore him."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Quite so," Yuliana agrees, happily, and she places the model carefully back down so that she can slip her arms around her wife instead. "Hmm, hmm~", she hums, happily, rocking them slightly back and forth from the heels to the balls of her feet as she embraces her.
"... let's do it," she smiles, looking up to her wife. "If you wish to always look upon him, who am I to deny my dearest queen? We shall place him in the entrance hall, so that all must behold him. Yes, a lovely jewelled shelf... wonderful!"
Her hand slips forward, past Elisa's midsection, to reach out to her wife's palm and slip her fingers through hers. "It is a fine thing," she agrees, her thumb running along the side of her darker fingers, "to forge strength with your own two hands. Even if they're decorations like these..."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa brings up her hands to place over Yuliana's arms, holding hher in turn. Elisa is of course in heels, taller than Yuliana now, but she is happy to rock with her. And when Yuliana smiles, Elisa smiles more wiiely. "I do," she says. "A fine location, then. We shall have a shelf made to size."
She curls her fingers with Yuliana's, and inclines her head, stroking her arm with he free hand. "It is. Decorations can be important; to claim one's space can be to place things one likes within it. Besides, the microcosm can help us to understand the macrocosm."
"...Indeed, even I have taken to attempting to craft such things with my hands. I lack your expertise in engineering, but clay and stone will suit well enough."
"Dear Kaworu has encouraged me."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"And we must claim our spaces," Yuliana sighs, sinking happily into her wife, her cheek resting on her shoulder. She watches their hands, luxuriating in the feeling of her fingertips along her arm. "It's important for me to work it out... I'm always seeking understanding, working with these little things. It's meditative, isn't it?"
She sighs, tilting her head to gaze up into her wife's eyes, again, instead. "Oh, Elya, you're such an artist... what have you made, of late?" Her endless eyes glitter, green, green, green... "Will you show me, zhenushka?"
Of course she ought to ask, when she's been so finicky about people coming in here.
(Never mind that Elisa more or less has the whole North Wing to herself...)
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Meditative... Yes. This is a good way to develop understanding. I think it is well."
Bu Elisa looks down at thosse glittering, glittering eyes, and she considers for a moment. "Yes," Elisa says as if she did not bring it up in hopes of showing Yuliana her work. "I shall."
She looks first to the model of the Muse Malu 4 again. "...Keep this one well. I will have the shelf made for it soon. Perhaps we can display more of your models..."
Then, she goes for the door. "This way," she says. "It is not far." Not the North Wing.
Who would want to go to the North Wing, anyway? It's normal not to go somewhere that is so unpleasant, so difficult. It's fine.
"Though I do my work in the North Wing, I have brought a few things to a chamber here, to get my old creations out of my way..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Of course Yuliana must wait for a moment, before Elisa agrees, as if she's really weighing it. It must be so important to her, and Yuliana smiles, when at last she agrees to let her see. "Wonderful," she says.
(At least her wife understands the way she tries to figure things out, in here. ... at least she's understanding.)
"I shall keep him safe," she promises Elisa, as her hands curl about her wife's arm to walk with her down the hall. "And yes, the others... I made a lovely Da Xukong 0 a while back!" She doesn't think of invoking the stock wanzers, first.
Maybe later.
They're not going to the North Wing, at least; it's so terribly cold, up there. "Things do tend to clutter up, don't they?" Yuliana sighs, looking to her wife as they walk. (Elisa will make sure they don't run into anyone.) "How long ago were these, my darling...?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
She did weigh it. It was something she thought carefully about. It's just that shhe did so before she brought the choice to Yuliana, of course. Why should she offer her something she isn't sure to give her?
Indeed, Elisa does have a greater understanding, now. In her wayy.
"Wonderful," she says. "You did," she says. "Very good." Elisa would even accept the stock wanzers. But it is best that first are Yuliana's original works. Not the ones gifted to her, but...
"They do," Elisa agrees. "...This one is two weeks old," she says. "I have been unsatisfied with most. But this one I hink is worth showing."
"There are others that are older."
Elisa opens the door to her showing-room, escorting Yuliana inside. hey do not run into anyone.
In the room are an array of sculptures; some are simple, a basic spire stretching a meter tall. A chair. A sphere. Basic three-dimensional shapes, in various configrations. But at the center on a smmall table is...
A tree. One can look closely, and its trunk and branches are all made of hands. At the trunk, these hands are largely 'ordinary' human hands, gray stone and clay. But they darken to the color of obsidian at the branches, showing more and more and longer fingers, until they flower and fruit; individual fingers hanging as if they could be plucked.
It is a large thing, a meter wide at its height, and taller.
"...The sensation of grasping," she explains. "The nature of holding. How to take a thing expands and extends..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Everything carefully weighed and measured before it reaches her at all...
"It can be frustrating," Yuliana agrees, stroking her wife's arm as they walk, "to make something, only to find it doesn't reflect your vision as it ought. I faced it many times, altering my machines... of course I spoke as if my improvements were effortless, but there were still failures, in the background." She sighs, her frill wilting a little at the memory.
It's terribly vulnerable to admit that her works aren't always perfect, of course; she just said she'd prefer no one know how hard it could be. But if it's her wife, Elisa can surely know about her weaknesses. It's difficult, but of course she'd share anything with her wife! Wouldn't she?
There's no one in the showing-room, and Yuliana follows her wife in. She looks to each, as her wife directs her. A spire, a sphere, a chair, a...
"Oh!"
Yuliana gasps, pulling back closer to her wife, when she sees just what that tree is made of. For a moment, a terribly human fear flashes over her face -- before she takes a breath, and sighs, her shock fading to a warm smile. "It startled me," is her kinder explanation, as she reaches out to run her fingers over the finger-bark of the trunk. "After all those basic shapes, I didn't expect..." She looks up, taking a step forward to better examine those fruit.
"I wonder... what they're holding?" She asks, her voice growing a shade distant and contemplative, all enmeshed in admiring her wife's work. Her fingers come to rest at the arms which are its roots, trailing up the trunk, reaching above her head to its branches. "And for a long, long time..."
If she pulled one of those too-jointed fingers from its palm, as if a bundle of bananas on the tree, could she eat it whole?
"It's beautiful," she says, quietly.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Of course," Elisa says. "Progress iterates. We want only to show our ideal work, that of which we are proud... But those hesitant steps that lead us to greater confidence are important as well."
Elisa accepts that vulnerability as is her due--but she does think she understands this much at least. Yuliana looks, though, and--
For a moment, Elisa is quiet, questioning wheher she shoulld open herself up in this way. If it might not frighten Yuliana further. And yet, she has done so. ...She holds fast for now. "It is all right," she says, "To be startled. I practiced the shapes in order to better understand the mechanisms; now that I have acquired the basic skills, I seek... to express."
Elisa looks to Yuliana, and smiles at her question. "Only themselves," she explains. "They want far more, but the desire itself has overtaken them. To desire of desire, to desire to desire... This is what I wished to express."
She might be able to. One day.
"...I am not done with representative art, of course," she says. "But I thought I would try it this way, as well. I am thinking next of trying a likenesss of Sokrova..."
"Thank you," she says then. "I am pleased to show you this."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Yes," Yuliana agrees. "The work on the way forward... it's fine if you see it, Elya. Of course you know it's not yet done..." It's a little frightening to expose her imperfections, but if it's with her wife, isn't it fine?
Her wife wishes for everything...
And she is startled, seeing Elisa's feelings, all wrapped up in this strange, eldritch tree. She is... still human, after all. But after that moment's surprise -- wasn't she just surprised? -- she lays her fingers against those fingers, and she cares for them, in her way.
"Desire..." She echoes, again, looking up to those branches, before she turns back to her wife, steps in close and reaches a palm up to her cheek. Her tentacles wrap about her, as she looks up to her wife. "Are these the feelings overwhelming you, zhenushka? That you wish for me, more and more...?"
She strokes her cheek, and says, "Ah, Elyula... I am glad to see it. I wish to see you, too... I love your steady heart most of all."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"...But it is frightening to expose such a vulnerability to others, isn't it? You and I can know each other, but to spread such things... it is natural to be afraid."
Surprise. That's all. Of course hat's all.
Elisa looks down at Yuliana and leans her head into her darling's hand. She feels the tentacless wrap about her, and smiles.
"Yes. I wish for you... and I wish to wish it more. There is so much to be had, so much to know and see... and you are the center."
"Then I shall share more with you," Elisa says. "...It was Kaworu, who encouraged me to take up art. You have encouragedd me to find 'friends.'"
"While you will always come first... I believe I have found at least one, now. Thanks to you."
"That heart beats only for you."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"It is," Yuliana agrees, "but I'm safe with you, zhenushka." She pauses, and adds, a breath later, "... and your feelings are safe with me. Rather than transgressing my fellow man, I feel the Void's desires... I can understand, zhenushka. Perhaps not without effort... but I was prepared for you."
It's not her first instinct, to think that her wife might need to be safe with her; but she can imagine how fragile the sharing is, and if it's her wife, it's worth the effort.
"You deserve so much, zhenushka," Yuliana murmurs, stroking her wife's cheek. "All this world, and more... and I'm so pleased you're reaching out, from where I centre you. Kaworu is a good boy," she smiles, and she is still human enough to think of him as young. "He shall be a good friend, to you, and only the first."
Her other hand trails down, to rest at Elisa's chest, feeling those slow beats, one... two... three... four. She steadies herself, there, as she raises up onto her tip-toes to offer her lips to her wife, kissing her with all the care and desire she's yearning for. "But some desires," she murmurs, close to her, "are mine alone..."
Elisa isn't the only one who can get possessive, here.