2025-01-14: Your Own Power
- Log: Your Own Power
- Cast: Lucine Azul, Liam 7-020, Elisa Kafim
- Where: Fujinomiya City, OCU, Earth
- OOC - IC Date: January 14, 100
- Summary: Liam and Lucine agree to a meeting with an old enemy.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Perhaps it was no coincidence that Elisa reached out to them not too long after Lucine and Liam had that pleasant afternoon visiting with Yuliana.
In fact, it was likely the reason.
"It feels weird, I admit," Lucine says to Liam, as they walk. She adjusts the scarf around her neck as she moves; it's long and cyan, with a white snowflake pattern and fringe on the ends. Thank god for gift shops. "But, I feel like I should thank her too, you know...? She was essentially fighting another reality's version of herself... I wonder what that's like...." The circumstances that make an Empress and an Elisa are different, yes, but does Eisa wonder if the same things that made the Empress are still present in her?
Maybe it's better to never know.
The sky is overcast, as opposed to the mild winter sun that warmed the grounds yesterday. There's been the threat of some drizzle later in the day, but so far, the weather's held off. With a windbreaker or hoodie, it's still rather pleasant. Sparrows hop energetically in the bare trees above, unbothered by the two giants walking below them. Why would they? They're used to the sight of so much bigger.
"I think it's that gazebo over there that we were going to meet up with her." She looks to Liam. "We got here a few minutes early, so... if you need some time to prepare, I can stay here."
There's no reason for Elisa to try anything.
And there's no reason for Lucine to hold her responsible for anything she's done. That's... not her call.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam has mixed feelings about Elisa, and is more relieved than sad at the thought of her leaving for the Void. He voiced them earlier, after they got her message, but he didn't object to the meeting. He's going to hold Elisa to her word, and if she breaks it, he has his knife under his jacket, just in case.
"...Mm," he says, and he squeezes Lucine's hand. "Sometimes I think you're too understanding, Lu." His voice is soft, thoughtful but not chastening. He's felt the same way about himself. "Found out in the worst way possible," he adds, on the subject of Elisa's origins.
The gazebo is right there. No backing out, now. "I'm ready," Liam says. He gives Lucine's hand another squeeze.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
"Let's go see a witch."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Indeed, there is no reason for Elisa to 'try' anything at all. She demonstrated once that she could reach them. So why, then, has she chosen to meet them on their terms, instead of her own? It's hard to say.
Regardless, when they come to the gazebo where she agreed to meet them, Elisa is there, and she rises to her feet to greet them. "Good day, Lucine and Liam," she says, and this time, she knows their names. It may or may not be reassuring.
She does not mind the chill.
"...I am aware that you have every reason to avoid meeting with me. Therefore, I will... thank you, for the opportunity."
"You have done much to help me understand humanity. ...And I, in turn, have helped you to understand cruelty and strength."
"I believe that I have had the better end of this deal, therefore..."
"Please, sit if you are willing. I have brought a traditional offering, that you might partake of hospitality and know that you are safe."
She gestures to a box of... onigiri. It's traditional enough for the area.
"You are aware that I have had certain matters of perspective illuminated lately. ...But it is very near time for my departure from this plane of existence. And thus, i wished to speak with the two of you, together, one last time."
"...Your love is young yet, but it is strong. It is worth commemorating."
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
".... Perhaps," Lucine concedes. "At the same time... they're essentially banishing themselves to the Void. Whether they welcome it or not, to be forced there is..."
She sees Elisa's outline and trails off, her fingers squeezing around Liam's.
Lucine isn't scared, but she is... not entirely enthused. .... That would be a better way of putting it.
However, Elisa was the one who extended the olive branch. All Lucine needs to do is approach and meet her halfway-- in this case, literally. "Elisa... thank you for reaching out. You... likely have a lot on your plate to sort through, so I appreciate you taking the time." Lucine isn't exactly lying, either, when she says that.
Resolution is its own reward.
Though Elisa's words feel terrible now in another way: _she's praising them_, for something *Lucine doesn't feel she could take credit for*. Horrors upon horrors! It's Lucine's weakness!
"A-ah, w-ell... I'm... glad," she says, dipping her chin in a shallow nod. "... To help." She sits at the picnic table and examines the onigiri, and recognizes it. "... Ah... I've seen these! I've always wanted to try some..." Does Lucine mean onigiri, or the varieties enclosed within? .... You can never tell, with a Martian.
The teal blue haired woman hesitates, remembering Yuliana's words, yesterday. That's right; they're going to a place beyond. Every experience they have in these scant few days before their departure may be the last they'll ever have of anything unique to this reality.
"... Have you ever had some, Elisa? I realize this is a gift, but... I doubt they will have onigiri like this in the Void... at least, initially."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
"...Yeah," Liam says. It's not a fate he'd wish on just anyone, especially now that he knows how Elisa-that-was became the Empress. That's all he gets out before he notices the figure in the gazebo. He holds Lucine's hand tightly as they approach, together.
The cyborg meets Elisa's gaze with flinty eyes. His face starts to soften, little by little, as Elisa explains why she reached out. He wasn't expecting praise any more than Lucine was. As with Yuliana, he's so used to dealing with an aura of implied menace that just isn't there right now. In its place is understanding. Liam stares for a moment before seating himself, and only now does he let go of Lucine's hand. "Thank you," he says. He glances between Elisa and Lucine. "...Yeah. Do you want one, too?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Lucine thanks her, and Elisa lifts an eyebrow. "I would think that my invitation was unwelcome, given our previous encounters. Perhaps I have miscalculated." She probably hasn't, but the fact that she's willing to admit the possibility may say something. A pause. "But I have allocated time for this meeting, in that busy schedule, because it is... important."
Glad to help. That's nice. But, "Did you? Then the choice was adequate." A pause. "I have," Elisa says of the onigiri. "...But if it is acceptable to you, I will take one," she agrees after a moment. "For indeed we will not have such things. It is my hope that we can create enough 'matter' to begin making things in the way of these... Instead of only by abstraction. The simple truth is that I do not know the exact form our lives will take, only that I have no intention of breaking myself against the Void as she did."
Elisa waits, for onigiri to be parcelled out.
"...But I have had them before. At least, I did in my previous life. Not since. I do not require 'food' any longer. I eat it because it is pleasing to my wife, and because I have come to appreciate taste."
"...You have been good to Yuliana though we have not been good to you. But before I address that..."
"If you could change this world," Elisa asks, "In what way would you change it? ...Would you change it at all? Or would you focus upon the relationships you have forged with one another?"
"...I will not offer you 'power'. It would drain away what happiness you have found as surely as it would let you oppose your enemies. ...But I..."
"Well. I get ahead of myself. Please, try your food."
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
".... You also put your life on the line in fighting the Empress, and... you are willingly placing yourself in a world beyond." Lucine's gaze and tone is solemn. "It would be a disservice to the both of us, to refuse." Would she have agreed if she had come alone? .... Probably not, so there's that.
Would Liam have done the same? Lucines's fingers give Liam's a final squeeze before she lets them go.
When Liam and Elisa agree, Lucine opens the package and divides the onigiri up, giving one to Elisa, one for Liam, and one for herself. The extras are there in the box, just in case people are feeling hungry for more.
"... The Empress was also by herself," she says, softly. "I had hoped that this move might make the Empress remember her love instead of her jealousy, but Yuliana told me that the Empress is... far beyond that. But... I'm glad my other theory was correct, and that the world there is more malleable than here."
'You have been good to Yuliana though we have not been good to you.' Has Lucine? She ponders this, as she bites into her onigiri. She's not sure she could say that. She does, however, stay quiet on this, as Elisa shifts to her next topic.
"I...." Lucine's eyelids lower. "To change things... is scary as the things I'd be tempted to fix. Nothing comes without a cost. The Empress shows that much. To have something granted to you by a boon..." At least, that's what Lucine is assuming Elisa is getting at. "Would it be worse, than having something achieved by your own? I... could wish my dad being here, but he... wouldn't be the dad I remember. I've changed, my mom's changed, and he would inevitably be changed, no matter what. Would I be asking for my dad, or just... to somehow both be in the memory of my dad, and still be here? And that... is just an example of something on a smaller level. If I... wished for the Jovians to have their own place, where they would stop attacking Mars, what would that do to everyone's lives being changed? What about retribution? ... I just..... I don't know if I'd have an answer."
This would be where Elisa explains she wasn't meaning this at all, wouldn't it?
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam's brow arches, ever-so-slightly. Elisa, admit to a possible mistake?
"Go ahead," he adds. He plucks one of the onigiri out of the box, and takes an experimental bite. The now-familiar tang of pickled plum blends with the more neutral rice and saltier seaweed. He nods in approval. "This is good," he says, once he's swallowed. It's a luxury Elisa and Yuliana won't have, in the Void. "Do you wish you'd experienced more of this world?" His voice grows soft, as it did with Yuliana, yesterday.
Elisa offers him a familiar hypothetical. Liam listens while Lucine speaks, and nods in sympathy. He knows that fear. His arm loops around Lucine's waist, and squeezes.
"I'd want people to break the cycle," he says, a little hesitantly. It feels like a pat summary of a complex problem. "I mean... I still miss Mom and Dad, and everyone. I wish that everyone who died in the drops were still alive, and that they never happened. But more than that, I..."
"I wish it wouldn't ever happen, ever again."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"I do that for myself and my wife," Elisa says. "...But I will accept it, if you wish in this way to acknowledge that it helps you as well. Humans are... interconnected, in this way. So I have come to understand."
Only now that she's preparing to leave them behind does she really come to 'understand' humans and others like them again.
The Empress... Elisa shakes her head. "No. She is lost to rage. If she were different, perhaps things would be different. But it is not so." A pause. A malleable world... "Yes. We shall have room to create new domains. We, and those of the Calling who have chosen to accompany us. Those who do not... I have heard that my Yuliana has made arrangements for them in the Earth Sphere."
She takes the onigiri, and bites into it. She tastes rice, and seaweed, and pickled plum, too. She attempts to savor those tastes, memorize them, and only after she chews does she answer Liam. "It is," she agrees with Liam. "...And I do. Or that I could remember all of the experiences I had as 'Elisa Kafim', before I became the shard of a goddess. In time, I may be able to recall more... But I will not look back on my decision with regret, even so. I shall make worthy experiences for my wife in the Void. And we shall protect the planet she loves and I have come to... appreciate."
Lucine speaks. She speaks of reasons not to be handed things, of what she would really want. "You say that you do not know, but your ignorance shows wisdom in admitting the same. It is true. I could not restore your father to you. I could not stop the Jovians from fighting except by extermination. And even if I did, it would have immesurable impacts upon the rest of humanity."
A look to Liam. "...yes," she says. "This cycle of war and conflict... once, I thought evolution was the key--kaiju, a new way forward by embracing the monstrous creatures of this world."
"...I cannot grant your wish, Liam. But perhaps you shall yet, with your own hands. But I can ensure that the Empress will not trouble you."
"...Go to young Shari," she advises. "See if you can aid her, and she can aid you in turn."
"I have no boons to offer you, now. What you achieve will be with your own strength. ...And while I may not see it from the Void, I urge you to take that which you desire for yourselves, even if it be 'peace'."
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
It is the double-edged sword of moving on: by gaining happiness that is dependent on the present, it means that hypothetical 'return' to the happiness of the past will always be tainted by the knowledge. By every step you take forward, you are a different person.
Liam and Lucine can never be the people they were, when they lost so much. But, they can be the people they are now, enjoying the love they've found for one another.
Liam loops that arm around Lucine's waist, and Lucine relaxes into it, leaning against the soft warmth of his shoulder.
His answer... it was not the one she came up with, but one feels so much a reason why she fell in love with Liam. Lost in the moment, she beams up at him. "... That's why I love you, Liam..."
Perhaps if this was a normal situation, she wouldn't be this overt in her display of affection, but this... is not a mundane meeting right from the start.
Elisa speaks, and Lucine straightens, her cheeks pink as she takes another bite of her onigiri . "A-ah, right, it was a hypothetical..." Why did she assume otherwise?! "... But yes."
Go to young Shari. See if you can aid her. Lucine takes another bite. "Of course. I'm sure she wouldn't help some extra help."
"As for boons..... if your plan succeeds, it will mean the Empress will not trouble our world, or yours, anymore, as well as keep the two worlds from hurting one another. I would say.... that is... a rather large boon, in of itself."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
"Yuliana's done her best to keep them safe," Liam says. "And we'll be here, too."
Elisa's lost a lot. She's had whole swathes of herself overwritten by part of an alien god. Liam's not sure he can ever really forgive her, even now, but he can honor sincere change. "That's not a bad attitude," he says. "You're going to need each other. I told Yuliana that your bonds might make all the difference, and I meant it."
Lucine beams up at him, and now it's Liam's turn to blush, and smile. "I... I know," he says, to Elisa, a moment later. "Just wanted to say how I felt. What I'd do." And what he can do, too. "Shari's got to finish this. And we'll be there for her when she does."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa, too, cannot become who she once was. She cannot remain the same that she was a day ago. ...Once, it was possible for her to be static and unchanging. But not now. Not since...
"Good," Elisa says of keeping them safe. And Lucine says that she loves Liam, and inclines her head at that. It is something else she wished to see. And what they need...
"It was," Elisa says. "My power would not avail you against the problems you face. You will have to rely on your own power."
Elisa neither asks for nor expects forgiveness; she will acknowledge that she has hurt others, but only looks forward, still too inhuman for something quite like 'repentance'. However...
"Reasonable," Elisa says. "It is important to speak one's intent. ...And yes, good. I told her she could conquer much if she only wished... But she does not. For what the Empress did to her, I wish to see her thrive."
A pause. "Let us finish our... snack, and then I shall depart. It was... good, to see you. And your love."
"I will remember it, when Time no longer matters."
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
What sort of person was Elisa, or would Elisa have been, if she hadn't been changed back then? They'll never know, and likely, if it never had happened, maybe their paths never would have crossed in the first place.
"You gave us onigiri, shared it with us, and talked with us." These three things Lucine didn't think could happen. "So, in a sense, you did impart a part of your power, Elisa. It's just... on the same level we've done to you. That is... the more... positive parts."
Destroying Void dragons with giant robots is something on another level.
..... But still, Lucine has to ponder on how surreal this all is. Maybe she's unconscious on a hospital bed somewhere, and these are all dreams?
.... No, it doesn't work that way. Besides, this mixture of mundane and safe with someone beyond either of those things is... not something Lucine could imagine her mind would retreat to, even if she's enjoying Liam's company, and Elisa is... relatively nice to chat with.
She bites down on the last of her onigiri and nods, as Elisa announces the end of their snack. Is it... strange, to say, that a part of Lucine is a little sad to see it end?
".... Elisa."
Lucine considers, as she wipes the last bits of the onigiri on her pants. "... Someday, if this can even translate well to where you are going... you should surprise Yuliana one day, with... forget-me-nots. Or, that is, if you're able to make them. ... I'll be growing some myself, at Yuliana's request. In the Void, it sounds like you have the advantage to not have to wait for plants to grow, or flowers to bloom... I feel she may appreciate it, all the same."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Their own power. 'What power?' Liam might have replied, in the weeks after the world broke, again. It feels a little easier to have hope, now--moreso after two of his worst enemies had a change of heart. He pops the rest of the onigiri into his mouth, chews, and swallows.
"Yeah," Liam says. Lucine has a good point. And Elisa is coming forward with earnest wishes of her own. "Remember she's her own person, and so are you. You're not always going to agree, and you're not always going to have the same priorities. Understanding someone who's different from you takes work, but you never shied away from work, right?"
Liam glances at Lucine, and nods. "I think she'd like that, too."