2022-11-21: Sharks create orcas
- Log: Sharks create orcas
- Cast: Yuliana Dispersal, Lilith Aiden
- Where: Gulf of Sydney, Australia
- Date: 2022-11-21
- Summary: Yuliana notices someone sniffing about her personal information. Lilith confirms her suspicions.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"... queries through backwater Federation channels. She doesn't particularly want to be sourced with them, but that's not a problem for me."
"Nice work, Letda. And you said she's stationed Australia-side? Go ahead and send her an invitation."
"By the Gulf, yeah. You're sure you want to handle this alone?"
"I don't anticipate any problems."
Click.
...---...
Captain Yuliana Dispersal is not in Australia for work, this time, though she's had some fantastic success causing problems in Darwin. Right now she's further south, at the edge of the Gulf of Sydney -- and don't call it a misnomer, that massive scar of a bay.
By the year 0079, Greater Sydney probably DID stretch all the way out here.
Another Captain receives a message on her work phone -- and the credentials have been stripped out, but it's on the back of a Federation message, so it must be an internal memo. A rendezvous, a location, and a time, leaving no point of contact for follow-up questions.
It's not a beach, that place where rock ends and water begins. Nevertheless, out here in the middle of nowhere...
... there is a beach chair, and an umbrella, and a woman all stretched out.
Yuliana's swimsuit is all curled and coiled and bunched fabric at the neck, but it shows her belly just fine, with all those old scars along her body. The fabric loops like a skirt about her waist, and her eyes are shaded by dark sunglasses.
She's not working right now; she can relax.
Tellingly, it's difficult to tell where she might be hiding a gun, skin uncovered like that.
<Pose Tracker> Lilith Aiden has posed.
It's almost Summer in Australia, and Lilith Aiden has started digging. Who is Yuliana Dispersal? How can she deal with her, find out if her suspicions are true? Because it's summer, that means the winter coat has been ditched for a lighter jacket (to holster her gun, since this is a rendezvous) and light jeans. Sneakers.
Her hair is up, for now. Lilac locks are held back, revealing the large burn scar across her forehead. She steps onto the beach, eyes quizzical at the chair, but it occurs as soon as she approaches close enough for recognition range.
The void. It's here. Which means she's doing this solely off her head and gut, and she's doing this with one of two women she didn't want to be alerted to her investigation.
"Captain Yuliana Dispersal. It seems I didn't cover my tracks well enough." She admits her loss on that, as Lilith looks out to the rocks. "Grim place to be relaxing. Let's start this out, then. Are you going to start nice or with REA threats? I'd like to know where we stand."
She's giving Yuliana one light chance to prove the rumors about her, the story from Rena, is false. A tense situation doesn't mean anything. She *did* snoop into a saboteur.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
The name 'Yuliana Dispersal' begins in 0087, with the commencement of her service record as an REA mechanic.
As if she was never a child.
(A name is also an allegiance, a purpose, intent.)
Unfortunately, Yuliana's hair is out of her face, too, with the way her bangs were clipped back to get at her injuries after Torrington -- so that scar down the left side of her face is perfectly visible, now. And when Yuliana grins, there's something strange about her teeth, too, a single sharp fang at her right side.
"Personally, I'd have chosen somewhere else, but this is your current assignment. Isn't it?" She asks, one leg drawing up to steady herself, as she straightens against the propped head of the beach chair and lowers her glasses down to peek at Lilith. "It would be terribly inconvenient to you to call you away for what is surely personal business."
As if it's a favour to Lilith. It's not even impossible to believe, given the structure of the military.
She lifts her glasses, tucking them atop her head, and presses her hand to her chest. "Captain, I don't know why you're expecting me to threaten you," she says, and she certainly sounds confused, certainly wears the crease on her brow. "I feel as if I ought to be the one asking you that question, given all this interrogation into myself! It's useless to ask whether you trust me, I suppose -- unfortunately, I'm aware rumours do tend to influence people, and I'll grant you there are enough about the Republic you might have been taken in -- but I just don't see why you're so interested, all a sudden."
She knows very well, of course, why someone from Londo Bell might suddenly take an interest. But Yuliana is good at acting nonplussed.
<Pose Tracker> Lilith Aiden has posed.
Lilith is sown doubt. She needs to play this cool, as she IS on assignment here. Her heart tells her Rena was telling the truth, but Yuliana...seems confused?
"There's plenty of rumors on the grapevine." She makes a thought about how clear she should be.
"There's rumors out there. That besides Zeon - you hate Coordinators, Newtypes, Spacenoids in general. Operate against them. Is this true?" Two of those are fabrications she just made up. She's wondering if Yuliana will blanket deny it...Lilith walks up the beach and turns to face Yuliana after saying it.
"If you were one of those radicalists, it'd be very difficult to have any sort of working relationship with you. You understand."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
Yuliana tilts her head, as Lilith lists all those people. She blinks thoses jealous eyes, once, twice. "I don't hate Coordinators," she says, first, and this much she can say honestly. "Gene therapy began as an effort to cure diseases which we couldn't solve in adulthood... I really see no reason why I should object to someone wishing to have a child who operates at peak human capacity. Now, those laboratories who take the concept and design soldiers before they've even had a chance to grow up are something I've more a problem with -- but I hope you wouldn't begrudge me for having a problem with how the world treats children in this day and age."
She lifts a hand, to press against her cheek. "And, well, you don't need to break into my psychological evaluation records to realise I'm negatively inclined towards space, but..." That hand gestures out, towards the Gulf. "... I'd say I have reason enough to be wary of anyone who might be associated with Zeon. Surely you can understand my caution, particularly given... the rhetoric. I don't so much hate space," and this is a lie, though she's still convincing enough, "insomuch as I am deeply adverse to Zeon's reach."
Yuliana looks to Lilith, and asks: "As for hating Newtypes -- I do hope I've never given you the impression I dislike you, Captain."
But are Lilith's own abilities listed in her personnel files..?
<Pose Tracker> Lilith Aiden has posed.
Yuliana answers the questions, and Lilith replies calmly. "I understand. Except...you dodged the question there. I never thought you hated me personally - as odd as it is you remember I'm a Newtype from being drugged up so hard. I'm not even sure if I said it aloud."
Lilith, however, slips up. Her wording choice is peculiar, and easy to pick apart, because she's not operating at full emotional capacity. "I thought you hated Newtypes. Worked against them, doing everything you can to abuse them." She hasn't realized her information gaff whatsoever.
"I hope that's not the case, Captain."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Oh?" Yuliana asks, raising a brow. "A lucky guess, then."
She's not guessing. The lack around Lilith is obnoxiously present.
Yuliana frowns, though, as Lilith goes on to talk about what she's heard. She looks bothered; she looks concerned. The corner of her lip twitches, just the once. "Captain," she says, calmly, "if I were doing everything I could to abuse Newtypes, why would I be Alma's friend?" A pause, and she adds: "It's quite obvious she's a sensitive soul." As if that explains how she knows, again.
It's a little crass to say it so directly, but really -- Yuliana isn't frightened of Lilith talking circles around her. She can afford to be a little outrageous, she thinks.
It is, after all, very funny.
<Pose Tracker> Lilith Aiden has posed.
Lilith thought she had it under control. But that twitch of the lip. The way she says Alma's name...
"It'd make her...happy. To be your friend. Wouldn't it?" A pause, after accentuating 'happy'. "Or to throw herself in the line of fire, when that's a habit she tried her hardest to kick."
"She's not a sensitive soul." Lilith snaps out. "She's as strong as hell. She's doing everything she can to fulfill her promise."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"It would, wouldn't it?" Yuliana wonders, turning Lilith's question into another question. "She's definitely a people-pleaser. I don't know where she gets it!" She does know.
She smiles, and it has the surface appearance of warmth. "She certainly will do everything she can," Yuliana agrees, too easily. "Without failure or hesitation... she's such a good girl."
Yuliana props a hand up on the side of the beach chair, gesturing, with the other, to Lilith. "And you think I hate her? Captain... it would be a terrible thing, if I were to hate such a loyal friend. It would break her heart, don't you think?" Her smile can be called sympathetic. Beneath her lip, a fang flashes.
"For her sake, if nothing else, I really think you ought to abandon this outrageous investigation."
<Pose Tracker> Lilith Aiden has posed.
Lilith's frustration boils over. A threat. A clear and obvious threat, hidden by polite speak.
"Stay away from her. If you hurt her, like everyone else, I swear to God..."
"I'll destroy you." Lilith says. She considers leaving, slowly, not trusting her own instincts to not deal with Yuliana right now (though, she wouldn't, honestly. Not yet). But there's enough time for Yuliana to stop her as she mulls it over, and drink the knife in.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Dispersal has posed.
"Hurt her, like everyone else..? Oh, Captain,"
0088 UC, Mycenae War Front Lines
"Why did you pull me out of there?! I could have scored the kill--!!" The girl yelling is younger -- new to her twenties -- and her face is not yet scarred, but Yuliana Dispersal remains distinct, regardless. "That thing's gonna trash the whole village! All those people... I'm not about to just let them lose everything like this! Even if they survive, having to relocate over and over...! It's too much! So why'd you stop me?!" The blood on her, her own blood, is distinctive too.
If only for the way she ignores it.
The pale-haired soldier who faces her is already hardened by battles, and it's clear only one of them is. "You would have died, Private," Lilith frowns, in concern. "No victory is worth your life. You're not the only one here to defend them... don't sacrifice yourself so easily."
Private Dispersal slams a fist into the wall, and it shudders. "Who cares?!" She yells, and she is all emotion, every colour mixing to black. "If I can't get out of the fire, I deserved it anyway! I'm just like everyone else! I don't need special treatment! I'm just as good as my comrades, damn it..!!" She blinks at her tears, and doesn't dignify them with attention. "I didn't go through so much just to be stuck on the back lines in a junkyard! Let me back out there!" She's an REA soldier through and through, judging by her estimation of her individual life; even so, there's sincerity shaking her voice, desperation fueled by adrenaline. "Please, I can still fight! One person really can change the world... and these people, their world's right here..!!"
But in its current state, her wanzer wouldn't last ten minutes, and neither would she.
0096 UC, Alongside Old Scars
"I have always been fighting to save everyone else."
Her smile is a razor's edge, delight bleeding in through her thespian mask, but her statement can't just be a lie. For all Yuliana is a saboteur...
It's incorrect to say she doesn't care.
About some people, anyway.
"And if I must employ instruments to achieve absolute equality... who are you to stop me?" Yuliana laughs, and there is no warmth, behind it. "Captain, these days, you've no power over me!"
Without any visible sidearm, she smiles: "You should have killed me when you had the chance. You'll not be given another."
She gives her too much, certainly.
But Yuliana has ever been hungry for their discontent, without regard for what it costs her.
<Pose Tracker> Lilith Aiden has posed.
A thread snaps. Lilith should draw her gun right now. Pull the trigger and end the nightmare.
But there's one reason, and one reason alone she cannot - she doesn't have the power to protect Alma. To duck the consequences that'll blow back on her from the Federation.
"Goddamn you, Dispersal! I won't let you hurt her. I promise you that...!"
Lilith moves to leave. Yuliana won't shoot her if she's even armed somehow - she's too busy being a shark.
So Lilith needs to become as strong as an orca.