2024-08-15: Bestial Communion
- Log: Bestial Communion
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Elisa Kafim
- Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- Date: 2024-08-15
- Summary: Yuliana finds Elisa as she finishes her ritual work on her newest invention, the Voidframe Crown. When Yuliana places it upon her head, she finds herself able to commune with the Void-touched creatures of the Castle... though the geese have far too much chaos and strife in their hearts to be controlled. They're model Void citizens! Elisa supports Yuliana through the madness which the Voidframe elicits from her, ever a loving, affectionate wife... now that Yuliana is doing as Elisa wishes. Wasn't it always this way?
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"El~yul~aaaaAAAAAA,"
A whining voice, cutting through the dark of Elisa's ritual-room. One dark hand lifts up, to turn the knob of the gas-lamp and bring light to the arena; it illuminates the way Yuliana drapes over the doorway, oozing into the cold stone wall.
(Surely there's no light from outside to illuminate things, in a room like this.)
"What on Earth are you still doing in here?" Yuliana pouts, all but climbing up the wall. "You've been gone all day! I'm lonely," she whines, and she is blatant. "What are you doing, Elyaaa? Surely it's not more important than me!"
Of course, in her petulance over being neglected for a whole entire day, she's forgotten just what Elisa's task was.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
The room is dark, lit only by green flame and glowing runes.
...But, as it happens, the darkness is not a requirement. Yuliana has the chance to see Elisa's hands shaping the air around a crown, black and golden and inlaid with gems, and working the arcane flows within without having to touch crude matter. The runes, in the light, are lined in blood. There is a circle around the crown, which hovers, and the runes lay out in a circle all around, with more still on the walls to prepare the space.
Elisa pauses, when the door opens and the knob of the gas-lamp is turned. She brings out her hand to point to the crown--and lets it hover to the altar where it rests.
"I was preparing your new entertainment," Elisa says smoothly. "It is done. Your timing is..."
Premature? Risky?
"Ideal."
Don't worry about where the blood came from. This is not about that.
The crown rises from some strange ash(?) towards Yuliana. "Regard it."
The gold melts around the voidframe's hexagons; the gems at precisely determined points channel yet more power. It is a wonder.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
As Yuliana's hand slides down the wall, it smears one of those runes down the stone. She feels the blood on her palm and the pads of her fingertips; she knows, even before she turns her hand to see, that it is stained.
It's not surprising. They always have been.
She turns her attention back to Elisa, and that crown she's working so hard to make. She smiles, when Elisa says she was working on something for her, and when she says that it is done she of course steps into the circle, towards her.
"Oh..?" She asks, as she reaches for the crown. As she holds it in her hand, stroking its stark curves, she finds that the blood she stole from Elisa's rune seeps from her hand into those lines of gold. They limn the edges of the Voidframe, some strange marriage of magic and engineering.
Yuliana wonders if it's more of Elisa's protection, made to leash the harsh realities of Voidframe for her sake. She wonders quietly, hushed, as she turns it over in her hands. Certainly she feels its power; her fingers tremble, just slightly, to trace its edges.
"It's beautiful," she says, quietly.
"Shall I... put it on...?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Yuliana steps into the circle, but it is already fading; green light becomes drying red stains. And Yuliana reaches for the crown, it is cold. The Voidframe is there, ready. And...
"It is for you, after all," Elisa says of its beauty. "By all means. It will afford you influence over things of the Void. ...Not that such creatures are here in my chambers, of course. Most of them are outside. But you can acclimate yourself to the 'feeling' of it before you try it out."
She smiles. "It will not overtax you."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana smiles, gently, when Elisa assures her just why it's so beautiful. It really is flattering...
"I know," she says, to Elisa's assurance. Her voice is gentle, too. "I trust you, zhenushka."
A thing she shows with her deeds as much as her words, as she slips the crown onto her head.
Her endless eyes widen, as the Voidframe makes more sustained contact with her. The gold on its frame is made all the more obvious, as the black Voidframe is lit by sick green light, activated by her presence. She sees -- she Sees --
"They would go to war," she gasps, looking past Elisa. "There is chaos in their hearts, Elya. To war and to war, they prevail in each conflict of their daily life. Towards this, their fulfillment, overjoyed! They bathe in that chaos, dress themselves in that havoc! To claim new foes...!"
She is bathed in that sudden connection, understanding these quarrelsome creatures Elisa loves so. Just as her wife promised, she is not overtaxed -- she does not come apart at the seams, torn and bleeding. If it's still taxing... this much is a tax Yuliana can stand to pay, with her strange, unique gifts.
Still, she stumbles, as she takes a step towards Elisa only to miscalculate where her body is in this world.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa is pleased. It is going well.
And those endless eyes... Elisa watches as Yuliana lights the crown herself with her own aura, and she gasps. She sees it--she feels it. Yes...
"Yes," Elisa says. "I could tell that it was their way. It is what drew me to them in the first place... Their very manner exudes this... this glorious chaos."
A stumble is fine; Elisa steps forward to catch Yuliana gently without complaint. She smiles at her wife again.
"You need not keep it on for now; best to save your focus for when it shall be useful. But you see, yes? Such creatures will..."
She considers. "They are willful. 'Obey' is perhaps a strong word. 'Follow' is better."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Oh!" Yuliana gasps, as she feels her wife's arms around her. Her tentacles wrap around Elisa in turn, as she clutches at the front of her robes. She turns her face up to her wife, still not, entirely, seeing Elisa's own eyes. "Glory... o, glory..."
It suffuses her. She feels their intent, too. Perhaps they improve each other.
"I See," she murmurs, gathering herself in her wife's arms. "I know them, zhenushka. Though they be other creatures...!" It takes her a moment longer for her mind to catch up with Elisa's suggestion; only then do her hands reach up, to free her brow from that symbol of her rulership.
Her weight sinks in, against Elisa's chest, as she cradles the now-inert crown in her hands. "Elya," she says, still hushed, "oh, I feel so unsteady. The Voidframe, it brings me to madness..." And she does not think, as she admits it, of how beautiful that madness must be. "You'll be with me, won't you? You'll stay with me? Catch me? Just like this..."
She lays her head on Elisa's shoulder, rubbing her cheek against her robes.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Glory.
An improvement is always welcome.
"Yes," Elisa says, and she knows that Yuliana hates to be Alone. But in this way... Yes. "They are Other, but they are the Same, as well. They are like us."
Elisa holds Yuliana as Yuliana holds the crown, but infinitely more tenderly. She hears that hush in her voice, "You will grow accustomed to it," she assures her. "It is a new sensation, and difficult to master at first. ...But yes," she says, "I will be with you. I shall be there to care for you, and to... facilitate."
"I will catch you, should you fall. ...And should you not, I shall catch you anyway."
She strokes Yuliana's face.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Like us..." Yuliana echoes, softly, even after the crown's safely removed. "They're like us... so it's fine. It's fine, right..?"
(It's not a transgression... if they're all one with the Void, is it...? ... surely it's fine for her to do these things, even if it's unreasonable on the part of Newtypes. Surely!, she assures herself, as she justifies her own hypocrisy, applying rules to them which she annuls for herself.)
Her cheeks colour, rosy in the chill of the ritual chamber, as she immerses herself in her wife's tenderness. She lifts her face to regard her, doe-eyed; she trembles, and cannot think of why, why she would be so hungry for Elisa's love and comfort and affection. Only that it is better, this way; only that she needs it.
She nuzzles her cheek into Elisa's palm, sighing, softly, in her gratitude. "You'll keep me safe," she murmurs, quietly. "You'll make sure I don't fall... so I won't go too far... it's so hard to control myself in there, Elya. I am unleashed... I'm so powerful. But I lose track of myself... I need you, zhenushka," she says it out loud, that thing trapped in her heart.
"That sensation... it's so strange," she sighs, looking up to her. "Is that... how they always feel...? With everyone, and everyone... how are they themselves? I felt I might lose myself... to the beast..."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa knows of Yuliana's philosophies. It is all too easy to help her justify this to herself. ...Elisa has never particularly felt one way or the other about it, except for her sake. "That is insightful," Elisa says to Yuliana. "You are so often so."
Elisa is tender, and she does not bring up how she has withheld such affection of late, nor why; this should be the key to the Yuliana she wants to see again. And...
"I will," Elisa agrees. "You will not fall, and you will not lose yourself. You shall have me, with you."
The sensation... "It could be," Elisa says. "Perhaps that is why they are such... moralists. Because they cannot sustain their own Selves, they must think only of others first."
She wrinkles her nose. "Terrible."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Elisa praises her insight, and Yuliana smiles, assured in her justifications. Her cooling heart is warmed by Elisa's generosity; of course she is hungry for it. If being like this makes her wife happy... if accepting her gifts rewards her with so much care...
"Oh, Elya," Yuliana smiles, hugging herself to her wife. "I'm happy. So long as you're with me... I'm so much stronger with you, boyevaya podruga," she praises the woman by her side in every battle she's faced. Her eyes close, as she admits, "... when the Voidframe consumes me, it's so... lonely..." ... and is that really her complaint, when she's surronded by it? It's not the only complaint she's voiced, but... it's the only one she recognises as a complaint. "But when I put that on, I felt them all, zhenushka... I felt them all, then there you were."
She blinks, overlong. "So strange," she murmurs, quietly.
Is that... really how Leina lives...?
"I'll have to fight... I'll have to fight, too," she supposes, her fingers curling into Elisa's robes. "To keep my Self, so I'm not lost... in their quarrelsome nature. It's just hard, Elya, since... I understand it. I do so love causing trouble, just the same..."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa slides sideways, gently tugging Yuliana out of the ritual space without letting her go. It is best not to have such positive feelings lingering in this place. Still... So long as Elisa is with her, "We are stronger together," she agrees. "We can do so much more." A pause. The Voidframe, and... Hmm.
"I see... Then all the more important to ensure you are not alone, then."
Strange indeed.
"Yes. We must always fight for our Selves. That is the way of existence. You are like them, but also unlike them. You can use the commonalities... while keeping in reserve your own distinction."
"Let yourself enjoy the trouble they will cause. And return to me."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana is easily led from the ritual-room, grasping Elisa's arm as she moves, trusting her to take her away. As they pass the threshold, one of her tentacles reaches up to turn the knob of the gaslamp until it shuts off, thoughtfully.
"Together," she echoes her wife, as she goes.
"You are with me..."
And if Elisa is with her, of course she isn't alone.
The cold halls of the North Wing are indomitable; Yuliana draws closer to her wife, when they step outside the chamber. (Elisa is not warm, but she's her source of comfort, anyway.) "That is our way," she affirms, furthering Elisa's truths. "Our strife and struggle..."
She sinks into her wife, sighing, and promises again: "I will always return to you... my beloved wife." Her eyelashes flutter, as her heart beats so much faster than Elisa's, pressed against her. "Always."
Yuliana reaches up, with a hand, to cup her wife's cheek; she lifts herself onto her toes, to match Elisa's stunning heels, so that she may press her lips to hers. And in her lips are all her wanting, desperate to stand beside her wife, lonely even when she leaves for but a day.
"But this time," she says, softly, "this time, couldn't I stay with you? I felt them, after all, even in the courtyard... Elya, do I have to go? Couldn't someone else escort them...?"
She wants... to stay beside her wife.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
It is cold, but Yuliana and her tentacles are thoughtful in this.
"I am with you," she repeats. And then they are there; she is the comfort, and Elisa hears Yuliana affirm their truths. She begins to lead her out of the North Wing, though it will take some walking. She holds her, though she does not carry her in this moment; it is important to let Yuliana do her part in walking, in this. That is the point, after all; Elisa will see her strong again.
But then Yuliana kisses her, and Elisa sighs, smiling when Yuliana pulls back. She was lonely, and yet...
Elisa knows loneliness, too.
"You can. I would have it no other way; while your mind is occupied directing them, I shall guard you. And I shall enjoy watching you."
"We shall have someone else escort them directly to their site, perhaps Yao. You and I will watch from a distance."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana can walk with her own two feet. That she is walking where Elisa leads them... is surely inconsequential to the fact.
Her feelings for her wife will never be inconsequential, though. Elisa's affection offers Yuliana the space to be more affectionate, too; they are stronger together, when they're able to move together, like this.
(She always feels so pitiful, when she's trying to do it on her own.)
"Together," she says, as she grasps Elisa's hand, and leans into her embrace, and keeps walking. Going through the walkways of the walls is the long way around, but it's also the warmer path... for what that's worth.
They're at least protected from the elements, in here.
"I'll be safe with you," Yuliana smiles, looking to her wife. Oh, she adores her! "I shall have to put on a grand showing for you, zhenushka... I am so glad to bring you joy. Yes... yes, Yao will be able to keep our lovely little babies safe, don't you think? Haha, not that they'll need protection... I know you've already hatched a plan to shield them."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Never, ever inconsequential. ...Unlike the matter of Elisa leading Yuliana. She leads her where she should surely want to go.
Nevermind that feeling of pitifulness. It need not be felt ever again... If Yuliana will only stay with her wife.
There is a little more warmth this way, or at least, a little less cold, depending on one's perspective. Elisa moves at a quick pace, just not so quick that Yuliana will struggle.
The snow outside is falling.
She smiles at Yuliana, and kisses the top of her head. "Yes," she says. "I look forward to it. It will be..."
"'Fun'."
A pause. "I do. The magic that will increase their powers will also shield them; they will not be harmed so long as it persists... and should some try to harm them after that, then I shall intervene directly. But it should be unnecessary; they are as resilient as any."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snILjFUkk_A Depeche Mode - Never Let Me Down Again (Remastered)
Elisa is so thoughtful, taking Yuliana where she wants to go.
She never wants to feel that way again... how wonderful that the solution is so easy. She easily keeps pace with her wife, too; she still has a soldier's endurance, and the only thing which would cause her to struggle is the way she keeps herself so wrapped up in her wife.
Where she wants to be.
"Mm!" She hums, her smile brightening, as Elisa smooches her brow. She is overjoyed, just the same. (And how wonderful that it's getting warmer, as they move to the more hospitable end of the Castle.) "It'll be a blast!"
(That's fun. Explosions are fun.)
"Oh, Elya," Yuliana sighs, stroking her wife's arm, lovingly. "You really do think of everything... I'm so glad you're taking care of it all. And the geese will have such a grand time! They love causing trouble, I felt it!" Her eyes shine, looking up to Elisa, as they step into the lived-in space of the East Wing.
"No wonder you adore them so... they're such lovely little things. Really, they're quite admirable..."
And how lovely that Yuliana can admire their bloodlust so easily.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa is thoughtful.
Elisa is also used to walking while entangled with Yuliana. It's a good thing for both of them. But Elisa watches Yuliana's joy, even as the warmth increases; she feels it, as a cold-blooded creature might. The explosions will be fun. "Yes," Elisa agrees. "A 'blast' indeed."
Elisa curls her fingers about Yuliana's, possessively, lovingly. "They will," Elisa agrees. "And it's for and because of you. You are giving them this grand time. We shall cause much of this... trouble."
"It shall all be well."
Elisa is pleased, indeed.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Possessiveness and love... aren't they one in the same? Certainly Yuliana feels her heart quicken with the force of her love, feeling Elisa's fingers trapping hers against her skin. She knows she is at the centre of Elisa's attention; she is drunk on it, completely oriented on the feeling of her wife's cold fingers and her loving gaze, and so Elisa sits at the centre of her own universe.
For her, and because of her --
Oh, the world revolves around them.
"I will offer them my grandest generosity," Yuliana promises, and her eyes don't leave Elisa's, trusted to her path. "They'll have a wonderful time... as we will, Elya." For surely it's not just Elisa who is overjoyed, at this trouble.
All will be --
It shall all be well, and Yuliana stumbles, just slightly, leaning more heavily on her wife.
"It shall all be well," she echoes her, as if she'd never expected anything else.