2024-10-04: Witch Witness
- Log: Witch Witness
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Elisa Kafim, Ranka Lee
- Where: Frontier Colony Ship
- Date: 2024-10-04
- Summary: Yuliana and Elisa go on a date to the scene of their crime, only to run into one of Yuliana's old crimes: Ranka Lee! Yuliana barely remembers her, despite Ranka's confusion over how she apparently threatened her life. It's a real puzzle, but thankfully, Elisa volunteers to accept Grace's number and sort it all out. At least Elisa isn't as cruel to Ranka as Yuliana is, right?
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana was glad to see her friends... and more glad to come home and see her wife. Of course she wanted to spend more time with her, and so...
... Masami and Aoi Kubo are here on a vacation to Frontier. As wealthy OCU nationals, they're able to travel -- and they have plenty of reasons to leave Nouvelle Tokyo, with a kaiju on the streets now.
Well, that's their alibi, anyway. The woman in her lavender headscarf and green dress hanging off her wife's arm is, in fact, not Masami Kubo: it's Yuliana Kafim. One might only recognise that, though, getting close to her -- because she even has makeup concealing that ugly scar over her left eye.
"This was where we tried for the very first time," Yuliana sighs, walking gently alongside her wife. "Do you remember, Elya..? Oh, we were glorious..."
Normal reminiscing, surely.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Aoi Kubo is also here! ...But she's secretly Elisa Kafim. She doesn't find Yuliana's scar ugly at all, but she doesn't draw attention to the makeup now. She's a tall woman in heels, in a lovely green dress too. And she is supporting her wife. And where they tried...
"I remember," Elisa says. "Almost, almost. But it was still a step."
"A step on the road we now walk..."
Surely.
<Pose Tracker> Ranka Lee has posed.
At a certain point in the past, Ranka Lee was secretly brought from the PLANTs to the Frontier Fleet, due to safety concerns.
The problem is that she was also someone actively trying to keep the populace calm. Thus, she still did interviews on the PLANTs, and on occasion did livestreams with a backdrop of her being on the PLANTs - but on the PLANTs? She was not.
It made her uncomfortable, deceiving the people, being safe while she was in danger, but... at the same time, she couldn't fault them for wanting their 'Anti-Vajra Songstress of Hope' to be secure.
In order to prevent accidents though, that meant her phone was taken - and that meant between interviews, she was COOPED UP!
BUT...
Today that was not the case-! Because she'd snuck out! Wearing a pair of Red Overall Shorts over a ringed strapless blouse, floppy blue boots.
On her head was a hat, and sunglasses...
"Stop following me around!"
Ranka announced, to the figure behind her, Major Brera Sterne, who was also sporting sunglasses.
"I'm here for your protection." Balling up her fists, she turned around to complain, "But I was snuck out! You weren't supposed to know!"
The man paused as he regarded her and stated bluntly, "You are not very good at it."
Ranka made a noise of frustration, before crossing her arms, "At least follow further back, I feel like I'm being smothered."
The cyborg stared at her for five full seconds, before taking a singular step back. "Further!"
He took another.
This continued for a bit.
Once adequate distance was put between them. Ranka stepped forward, before blinking at the sight of someone across the street, as she moved behind a planter and some Bushes, lowering her sunglasses as she observed them.
"It couldn't... be..."
There's some familiarity to the other woman with her, but in that disguise not so much. "Could it?" Suddenly a thought occurred to her...
"Oh wait, she can sense me right?"
Ranka Lee ducks down a little lower, as if that would help.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Almost!" Yuliana sighs, leaning more heavily on her wife in a dramatic gesture. "Even so, it was the first... haa, and if we'd won, we couldn't come visit, I suppose. It is a nice enough place, for one hanging in open space... well, at least it's considerate to your size, isn't it?" There are, in fact, many macronised Zentradi walking around the streets here.
And micronised Zentradi, of course.
Yuliana blinks, her head rising from her wife's arm to look about. She can tell her wife can tell something, surely; and if she can detect something invisible to the eye, it must only be one thing. A vast chasm...
"Huh?" She asks, as she looks straight at the planter and their bushes. "Hrn," she scowls, muscles stiffening, just so -- and she unwraps herself from her wife's arm, stalking straight across that street, one hand grasping the hem of her dress in preparation to hoist it up and grab the gun she habitually keeps strapped to her thigh.
But as she gets closer, she sees the shades of green at that planter, and drops her dress back down over her knee, instead just reaching out with her bare hand to grab Ranka by a puppy-tail and yoink her up. Just like pulling a carrot out of the earth! Yoink!
"Hey, kid!" She barks, scowling to Ranka. (It's been a few years. She can't recall her name offhand.) "Why are you lurking around spying on us?!"
OH NO, IS THAT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"It is," Elisa says. "It is an enjoyable place, as such things go. Perhaps I shall return macronized, another day."
Yes, Yuliana can tell something. But Elisa can also tell something, from a different angle. She sees Ranka ducking down. So it is that she can look and see what Yuliana points out. Yuliana stalks, and...
"Oh, it is little Ranka," Elisa says as she walks over, and smiles.
"A talented musician. I suppose she must think she can gain inspiration from us... How flattering."
<Pose Tracker> Ranka Lee has posed.
Ranka tries to follow her with her eyes but eventually loses sight of her, as she leans out again, "Huh? Where'd they-"
Suddenly one of her puppy tails is grabbed, and Ranka is hauled up as she shrieks, "AAAA LEMME GO! BRERA! HELP!"
Brea however, does not respond, despite however much he wants to as he locks up...
... instead his eyes glow faintly gold. And from a distance, he looks straight at Elisa Kafim.
"SHE'S GONNA KILL ME! HELP!" As she wriggles and writhes uselessly in her grip, recognizing only who it is now that she's up close, as she speaks and-
"Doctor Kafim! Help! HELP!"
-totally misses the 'us'.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Ugh! You're a loud one, aren't you?! Calm down, stop making such a scene, or I will!" Kill her, that is. She lets go of Ranka's hair, at least, but her unpleasant expression bodes no better for Ranka's health...
... especially when she shoves her towards Elisa, instead. "Hmph! Hear that? She's calling for your aid! Impudent girl, go on! Beseech her as you will!" Aww, look! Yuliana got her wife a present!
Yuliana pouts, a hand coming to her hip, now behind Ranka. (The least safe place for her to be.) "Ranka, Ran... riiight, Ran-ka," her other hand snaps its fingers, pointing to her. "Talented, is she, darling? Last I saw her, she was still singing commercial jingles. Unless you like that?" She asks, looking to her wife. "Shall we get her to sing that thing about the... what was it you were singing, girl? About coffee? Or was it carrots?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Brera's eyes glow, and Elisa tilts her head thoughtfully. Eventually, she looks back at Ranka, and has a reptilian cast to that gaze as she does. Then she smiles, and all that terrible look is gone!
Instead, she is pleased. "I hear her," Elisa says. "I met her once. I found her... charming."
"Much as I'd enjoy seeing you indulge yourself," she says, "I think it would be fun to see what she's been up to. Don't you?"
"...She has potential," Elisa says, and smiles more widely. "That's what I thought, when I met her. We can forgive her certain... transgressions, in the face of that."
A pause. "You've grown more famous than jingles, haven't you Ranka dear?"
<Pose Tracker> Ranka Lee has posed.
Ranka despite being reassured gets reassured in the sense of the murderer saying 'Shhh shhh I'm not gonna hurt you!' before snapping their neck in one of a million movies.
But eventually she settles into a whimper as Brera does NOT appear to save her. As she looks towards Elisa, and 'I met her once, I found her... charming.'
Why does that sound so much more serpent like than before?
Ranka however doesn't look a gift compliment in the mouth when you're facing down sudden death.
"Eh?" She looks over to Yuliana, blinking her eyes together as if in disbelief, after all - that can't be right?
"It was that... model shop in the OCU." Ranka indicates, years ago, before Doctor Kafim suggests she has potential - and has grown more famous than jingles.
"Um. I-" She looks at Yuliana, then back towards Elisa Kafim. "-I'm... well, I'd say I've done pretty well."
As she momentarily bites her lip anxiously, "All my albums have been number one."
Ranka Lee raises a hand in a posture of less aggression and accusation but, timid insecurity as she points at Elisa, then that fingertip, bent arm slowly moves towards Yuliana.
"You two... know each other?" Before those words run together a bit as she says more quietly to Yuliana, "They said you were a terrorist now."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana sighs, deeply, rubbing at the fabric at the side of her head. There's a wedding ring on that hand, rich rose gold laden with diamonds and emeralds and onyx. "All right, zhenushka, if you say so... if she amuses you, I guess I don't have to rough her up too much." Ranka won't die today! Isn't that great?!
(If Ranka happens to speak Zaftran, she may note the affectionate way Yuliana calls Elisa her wife.)
"Eh?" Yuliana wonders, when Ranka insists her albums are number one. "Is that so...?" She pulls out her phone, does a quick search, and -- "Well, damn!" Yuliana exclaims, with surprise which sounds honest, as she pulls up all those results and turns her phone around so that Elisa (and Ranka) can see the fan club page that comes up. "This isn't really my type of music, so I guess I just never cared to keep up! How about that? Hahahaha... congratulations, jingle belle," and her smile still isn't particularly pleasant.
But if she never knew... how did she try to attack their concert...?
She laughs, again, as she steps past Ranka to slip an arm around Elisa's waist. Leaning into her, she says, "haven't you heard? I married my Elisa... I'm Missus Kafim, now. Tsk, tsk, and yet you're just listening to all those rumours..." Yuliana shakes her head, sadly. "Of course they say I'm a terrorist. They don't understand. Do they, darling?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa is not so nice as she once was. She has changed, over time. ...And she wasn't always 'nice' in the first place.
But it's fine. She looks at Yuliana and smiles. "She does," Elisa says.
A look to Ranka, then. The model shop, and... "Yes," Elisa says. "I knew when I met you that you had talent. And it is well to see that you have made good on that talent. I am proud to have known you even a little bit."
They...
She looks to Yuliana, "Yes? I enjoy it. It is... cute," she says. "Different from her predecessor, but still a talent. My mother often enjoyed music..." She remembers, now.
"Yes," Elisa says. "We are married. And they do say that we are terrorists. They do not understand my work. ...Now, I seek to bring those who wish to join us to a higher realm of existence. But only those who answer the call."
"Please, relax. We will not harm you. No matter what 'they' say of us, I am fond of you still."
<Pose Tracker> Ranka Lee has posed.
Won't rough her up too much? "Oh um, well... thank you?" Ranka sounds just confused at this turn of events, "I appreciate it."
Elisa however notes she has talent and Ranka tries to engage with it as if meeting a fan from even before she hit it big, "I- thank you for support, Doctor Kafim. I'm glad to know you were a fan of mine even back then."
Ranka looks even more confused as Yuliana looks her up, "I- there was that ball... and that time you were acting strangely too, when that Kaiju attacked?" She makes a distressed noise, "You kind of pulled me in to dance..."
Yuliana does comment it's not her type of music, "Oh um - you might enjoy Sheryl's then more?" She suggests, since usually a lot of people define themselves by hers or Sheryl's, but Ranka doesn't really see it as a binary choice.
Indeed Elisa likes it!?
"I'm glad you do!" She perks up, more enthusiastic, before Elisa... clarifies, "You are!?" Ranka doesn't understand what someone nice like Doctor Kafim sees in Yuliana, but as she looks between them, she tells them sincerely, "Congratulations to you both. I didn't realize."
It's only courteous isn't it? Even if she has mixed feelings, you wouldn't TELL someone that, you'd be polite.
She does relax though as Elisa bids her, "I... appreciate that, I was just worried, I..." She looks towards Yuliana again, "My security team said you'd made... a credible threat on my life?" Ranka explains, still confused, "But it doesn't sound like... it could have been you?"
Maybe it was just a faked threat? Those happen, it's just... did they really make a mistake like that?
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Oh, yes! You were there! I knew someone was!" Yuliana exclaims, recognition flooding back to her. "You and Sheryl Nome, wasn't it? Ah, it all got a little blurry for me..." She blinks, tapping her finger to her chin. "Say, didn't you take my jewellery, back then? Whatever happened to it?" To the Green Fold Quartz, that is.
"But right, right, if you're friends with Sheryl it's no wonder you've broken into the pop scene," she goes on, effortlessly cutting Ranka down by implying it was just who she knew. "I'm really more of a punk-rock woman, perhaps some thrash or metal too... ah, that's not to say pop music is unpleasant, of course." Because her wife likes it!
She leans on her wife, with open affection, smiling widely as Ranka congratulates them. "Why, thank you!" She chirps, all a-sparkle. But then --
Yuliana tilts her head against her wife's shoulder, eyes squinting in confusion. "I think I'd remember all the death threats I've made," she says, even though she just said her recollection of a past event was flawed. "Wouldn't I, zhenushka? I didn't ever say I was out to kill Ranka here, did I?" ... and she checks it with her wife, a totally normal thing to do.
She scowls, petulant, looking up to her wife. "Is someone going around trying to kill people in my name?! That's so rude! They can't do that to me!" As opposed to her doing that to other people, which she both has done and is fine, actually.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Of course," Elisa says pleasantly. And then Yuliana recognizes her from there... yes, the two of them. The jewelry. An interesting question. Elisa, of course, is not ignorant of the matter.
"My darling is a woman of many passions," Elisa explains of her strange behavior. Then, "I do enjoy it," of pop music.
But Elisa supports Yuliana. "Thank you," she says of the congratulations. And then--
"No, you haven't made any threats against her," Elisa confirms. "It would seem that someone has engaged in a false flag operation on your behalf..."
A look to Ranka, and a shake of her head. "I promise you this, young Ranka: I have no plans, past or present, to harm you, and I would step in to protect you if I saw such harm planned in my sight. You have my protection for now. If I withdraw it, I will tell you so."
She nods, firmly. That is solemn for her--and she must really like Ranka's music.
"...But I would like to investigate this falsehood. It would be troublesome for us, and is already troublesome for you."
<Pose Tracker> Ranka Lee has posed.
"You... don't remember that much?" Ranka again just looks SO confused, but as she asks about the necklace, she explains, "Oh. I felt it and... it felt like... it was hurting you, so I tore it off." Ranka tells her honestly, "But then, it made me so nauseous I threw up."
There's a distinct pause as she considers what was done with it, "I think... the Frontier Government has it? They sent a Hazmat team when I mentioned how much it hurt to get near it."
As Yuliana mentions that she broke into the pop scene only due to Sheryl, there's this tiny spike of pride there, "It wasn't! She kept offering to help me but - I wanted to do it myself. That's why I was having to do all those working idol gigs."
Still that old doubt DOES creep back in at that... but she quickly looks at Elisa as she indicates Yuliana is a woman of many passions, and so she answers Yuliana, "Oh like my Brother?" She indicates, "You might be more of a Fire Bomber fan then. They're more Pop Rock but- he likes them, despite being a big fan of old school punk and metal."
Is this some opposite dimension that Yuliana is talking pleasantly!? She used to glare at her across the room like she wanted to devour her whole!
"Um." She's not quite sure how to answer that, trying to recount her memory, "It was... I remember, it was right before... everything on the news about Dawn of Fold?"
Ranka rubs her opposite arm, uncomfortable, "They upped the security at one of my concerts in the OCU, because of it - and I didn't realize? I got, unreasonably upset at my manager, Grace, about it - but she explained my security team was just trying to protect me as they were acting on a credible threat from... you."
She searches her expression, confused, especially since she gets no sense so whatsoever of this woman's intent, "And after they found out you were a member of Dawn of Fold... they tightened it even further because, they thought you might act on... anti-Spacenoid sentiment? Or a grudge against me?"
She scratches her chin nervously, "I really don't much else, I let my security team handle it because, I don't know much about that kind of thing."
Her security team? Wait where is Brera anyway? ... She didn't lose him right? He didn't back up so far that... but a quick glance reveals to Ranka no sign of him.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana blinks, surprise entering her gaze again. "Eh? All the way back then... you could tell?" Unlike Elisa, there's a lot she doesn't know. That's why she has her wife, after all, and it's to her wife she looks in the wake of Ranka's confusion. And she said something about the government, and she remembers to ask, though she's still off-balance: "Uh, that is... should they have that?"
Her fingers curl, against Elisa's dress. She has many passions; some consume her.
"Ah -- well -- I'm sure you did it all on your own," she focuses back on Ranka, shaking her head. If she sounds dismissive, it might not entirely be because she's dissing her. (Entirely.) "But... Fire Bomber, was it? Oh, yes, I know them. They've got some good music!"
She wrinkles her nose, as she puzzles over what Ranka's telling her. Yes, indeed... a strange universe, where Yuliana isn't trying to eat her whole. (Aside from that aura of hers, still awful.) "Tch," she says, because no one told her, "sounds like that Grace of yours just wanted an excuse to up security. Though I've no idea why she'd blame me! I haven't so much as thought of you for years! Tcha, if it was even before we announced ourselves as Dawn of Fold... boyevaya podruga," she looks up to her ally in all battles, "have you heard anything?" Surely Elisa has a good explanation!
(Yuliana is apparently discounting 'turning the North Pole green' as a reason to blame her entirely. She stopped encroaching the Void on the world, and even kind of fixed it a little, so why should anyone be upset? Honestly!)
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"When she dances, my wife sometimes forgets things," Elisa explains. "It is nothing to concern yourself over."
A hazmat team. Yes, that sounds right. Elisa considers, and looks to Yuliana. "It is no matter," Elisa says. "If it were a problem, I would have reclaimed it."
And she would've.
"Fire Bomber... yes, that seems more your style, dear."
A strange universe indeed. But no one told her, of course. An excuse for security... Hmmm.
"Hmmm. If your manager said it, I'm sure she had a reason to believe it was us." 'Us', now, not 'Yuliana'. "I would like to find out what it was. ...Perhaps I shall have that opportunity sometime." She smiles. She has the correct number of teeth.
"But no, I have not heard as yet."
"Still," Elisa says. "While I am pleased to have seen you again, I suppose we should let you back to said security team, yes? Please do not mention to anyone but your manager that you have met us. ...If you mention it to her, tell her that Dr. Kafim is interested in speaking with her."
A smile. "Shall we continue our tour, darling?"
<Pose Tracker> Ranka Lee has posed.
"R-Really? That sounds serious." Ranka says to the assertion that when Yuliana dances she sometimes forgets things, but if it's nothing to concern yourself over, Ranka nods, "Well okay... it just seems concerning?"
It's not like she's trying to contradict Elisa there in a sense, just to say 'you say that but - it really sounds like I should be concerned.'
She doesn't weigh on reclaiming it, other than, "I'm not sure why you would want it anyway..."
Thankfully the subject of Fire Bomber is more comfortable, "Yeah! They're really inspiring actually, Basara Nekki is a musician I really admire."
The idea that Grace is the one who used it as an excuse though? Ranka gives Yuliana a baffled look, "Grace? No, that doesn't sound right. Grace gave Sheryl so much freedom - she's just looking out for me, because things are so dangerous right now."
She smiles at them both, "I really don't think Grace would lie to me like that." After all, she always has such a good excuse whenever Ranka confronts her for these misunderstandings.
It makes her feel stupid and silly for ever thinking ill of her at all.
Ranka considers the idea but then...
"Do you have a number I can give her? If you'd like to talk to her... and clear up this misunderstanding, I could have her call you."
Ranka still isn't certain she trusts this Yuliana right here? After all Yuliana despised her! She's feeling thoroughly gaslit right now, but... she does trust her impression of Doctor Kafim who's been nice to her, and told Yuliana not to hurt her.
So when she gives her that direction, "Oh sure, it was- nice seeing you again." As she pauses before adding with a bow of her head, "I'm very sorry for the mixup!"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"But... she knew?" Yuliana asks Elisa, more uncertain, more vulnerable. "I..." She forgets things. She thought she was just acting back then, but the boundaries must have been more blurred than she thought, not entirely factitious in her unreality. Wasn't she in control? ... and is it serious if she wasn't? "... I hadn't really thought about it," she admits, to Ranka.
Elisa says it's no matter, though, and Yuliana smiles again. "Of course," she assures herself. "It was a long time ago... I'm sure you've long since handled it." A light pause, and she adds, to Ranka: "We're just concerned for their safety, after all. That jewellery... can be a little troubling if it isn't handled properly." Is that why they want it? It must be.
Her smile grows wider when Elisa recognises her musical tastes. "Mm-hmm! It is, isn't it?" She asks, brightly. And when Ranka describes Grace, Yuliana's head cants to the side, like some confused fey creature...
... before she laughs, and tugs on Elisa's arm. "Haha, shall I call you my manager now, darling?" It's a funny joke, that passing similarity. Isn't it a funny joke?
Elisa assures her she'll find out, though, and Yuliana smiles to her. "Ah, you want to...? Then please, take care of it. I'm always happy to see you investigating this world, zhenushka!" Yuliana could look into it on her own -- she has that training, and more to the point, she can delegate it to Parminder -- but if Elisa is interested in doing it, of course she'll happily cede the puzzle to her.
She wants her wife to get more entangled with creation.
Elisa starts to move them on, though, and Yuliana wraps her hands around her arm dutifully again -- only to pause, when Ranka offers her wife Grace's number. "It is more polite than a mirror, darling," she reminds her, gently.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
It's fine. Don't worry about it!
"You are sweet to worry so."
"Indeed," Elisa says of how she might not even want it anyway, from Ranka's perspective. She instead answers Yuliana, "Quite. It can be dangerous. I am glad that you did not keep it."
Fire Bomber! Of course Elisa knows Yuliana's likes. How could she not?
"Hmmm. That depends," Elisa says. "Would you like to pursue a career in music?" She smiles.
But Grace wouldn't lie to her... "Hmm. Yes, that is fair. It is good, to have someone you trust so. I am sure then that it is a misunderstanding."
She will indeed find out... and--Well.
"Hmmm, yes," she says. "Here." Elisa gives a phone number that is workable, "That would be quite fine. Do take care, Ranka."
She goes off with her wife! To... not appear in Grace's mirror, this time...