2022-12-07: All Is Yours
- Log: All Is Yours
- Cast: Elisa Kafim and Major Pham, discussing Yuliana Kafim
- Where: Colombo, Sri Lanka
- Date: 2022-12-07
- Summary: Elisa comes to Major Pham to offer friendship, but Pham, observing how Yuliana has been slipping away from him, is too angry at finding the source to accept her kindness. His temerity is too much, and Elisa establishes just what sort of game she's playing. (Content warning: body horror, torture)
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dPaVk4G1jg Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Collective Consciousness
The Nega Force's office, in the shadow of the Institute for Continuing Study, is another unassuming government building amongst many here in the Kotte district of Colombo. Officially, mailing-address wise, it's the 4th Office of 15th Lane.
It's keycard entry, like all the best shadowy government buildings, but Cascade Wattana has one.
There is a foyer, with an administrative assistant in residence; his job is to ask as few questions as possible, so he might not even look up, depending on how the door opens. He knows who works here. He'd rather not know anything else. It's healthier, you know.
The hallway into the building proper has another swipe entry, and turning left, the very first office belongs to one Major Pham Van Vinh, veteran of the REA. New to his sixties, balding and severe, his office is relatively spartan -- the chairs are comfortable enough, but the bookcase is full of remarkably dry reading material, the medals on display don't call attention to themselves, and the desk is wide, a deep mahogany. Two monitors. A picture of a big, happy family on the desk -- looks like at least three generations clustered together.
The windows are open, but their dark tint makes it a one-way view.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Dr. Elisa Kafim does not have an appointment today.
She could've passed on word that she was coming, but that was practically an invitation to trouble; if she'd had to harm members of the REA trying to capture her it would've been dreadfully inconvenient. As it stands, she walks in, and looks quite official in her dress and labcoat, smiling blankly at the receptionist who indeed probably doesn't even look up. Cascada Wattana has a keycard, and Elisa can use it.
So it is that she is suddenly Present in the doorway of the office, from where the eye had simply failed to settle on her much before.
"Good day, Major," Elisa greets pleasantly.
She steps inside, and closes the door.
"I wanted to say how lovely it was that you attended the wedding. I do so love when my Yuliana's work shows interest in her personal life. It really shows that she's a valued member of the team, doesn't it?"
A beat, "Despite the... unpleasantness."
She notices the photos. She notices the desk. She notices the medals. She comments on none.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Ah." The Major -- give him credit -- doesn't jump when Elisa appears and greets him. He is unflappable enough to take her capabilities in stride, as he lifts a hand, gesturing to the chair in front of the desk. "Dr. Elisa Devrana Kafim, I presume. Take a seat." As if she had an appointment.
He's done his research, of course. A gold medalist is hardly someone entirely outside the public eye, for all she's obscured these days.
"Yes," he agrees, without smiling, "it was quite unfortunate what happened. My Captain deserves better than assassination in broad daylight... ah, but that's a military matter. Rest assured it's being handled." He is the sort of person to speak deliberately, but not necessarily plainly.
He meets her eyes, and he is steady.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa notices this. She is noticing many things today. She's paying special attention to her Yuliana's workplace. ...It is a little different from experiencing it properly, but it is close enough.
"Indeed!" she replies pleasantly. "Thank you." Elisa steps over, in heels that accentuate her height, and takes a seat very politely. She had to be a little rude to arrange the meeting, but that's no reason to be unpleasant about it!
'My Captain', he says, and she considers that. But Yuliana wishes to remain a part of these... people, and so she does not challenge the temerity.
Her eyes are distant. Distant as the stars. She isn't entirely 'here'. And yet, they focus, and there is the sense of something very large looking upon Major Pham. "I am glad that you are handling the matter," she says. "I will indeed rest quite assured."
"Her career is quite important to her," Elisa says then. "She very much wishes to continue to serve her nation. It is quite admirable, in fact. I have far less connection to my home in the Orb Union... I suppose I already did my part for them, yes?"
As an Olympic gymnast.
"I wished to discuss the things that you have seen. And assure you in turn... that they need not change that relationship."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Temerity, by one view; kindness, by another.
Major Pham is being quite, quite considerate of the fiction, from where he's sitting.
"Of course," Pham agrees, and perhaps he's agreeing that Elisa has already served her country, and not stating that Yuliana's loyalty is inevitable.
Perhaps.
"Captain... Kafim," a light pause, and emphasis, "has a long and distinguished service record. She's been serving the Republic since she was eighteen, so it's only natural her career would be so important to her. Really, I'm more surprised she found someone personal... she's never been the type to settle down."
A light pause, "... and with someone so distinct, at that," he concludes, looking to her. "You are quite the unique woman, Dr. Kafim. A gold medalist, and a xenoneurologist... and yet the powers you display belong neither to athleticism nor science."
He pulls out a drawer on his side of the desk -- there are many. He pulls out a paper file from that drawer -- and again, there are many.
This one is still labelled 'Dispersal'. They haven't updated their paperwork.
Opening it, he flicks through, and slides over a photograph of a darkening green crystal, taken by the Institute. "Dr. Kafim," he issues her, calmly, "do you recognise this crystal?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa is willing to play along with the games at first. The fictions involved are very polite. And a light emphasis there...
"And yet she has," Elisa says. "I am so terribly pleased to be with her."
Someone... distinct. Hmmm.
"Oh, any phenomenon can be science, if your science is sufficiently advanced," she replies pleasantly. "And my science is... quite advanced."
The drawer--hmm. Dispersal... and he slides over a photograph. This is the point at which Elisa grows tired of the game. She sighs, once. "I come here to parley, and you simply seek information. How sad."
Elisa slides the photograph back over. "Of course I recognize my property," she says simply. "You are welcome to report that to... whoever you like. I can tell you numerous applications of the same, some of which your people might be able to use as weapons. That does sound nice, doesn't it?"
"You may ask me questions but do me the courtesy of asking them as real questions, not hiding behind pretenses about them."
"I am here, after all, to reassure you."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"As you wish," he says, tucking the photograph away, closing the file. Click.
His hands fold, on his desk. His posture is nothing to sneeze at. He is silent, for one moment, and another.
"I am aware that you have been subverting my personnel for some months now. Let me make it clear that I do not appreciate the way you have complicated my position, Dr. Kafim... though you may care more about the fact that your wife doesn't appreciate the tension, either. Do remember you're a visitor to this space... and try to respect classified material."
His eyes narrow. "I'm sure you're very used to getting what you want, but this is a military installation, Doctor. Your scientific prowess does not earn you the right, here."
One beat. Another.
"Divya is a personal friend of mine," he reveals, finally. (Dr. Devi, the head of the Institute next door.) "She's been acting quite strange, since we uncovered a third party meddling with our assets. Quite... secretive. Unusually invested in her secondary projects, as well, in a way which has left the Captain strangely untouched for some time. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you, Dr. Kafim?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa smiles, when Major Pham indicates 'as you wish.' Then, he is more direct with her. Elisa continues to smile, in that distant, placid way of hers, even as he mentions what he does not appreciate. She listens, entirely up front about that fact, as he indicates what it is that he has to say. Right through his indication of what does not earn her rights, right to the mention of Divya...
Hmmmm.
"Since you have been so plain with me, allow me to be plain with you in turn," the Doctor says. "First..."
"The only one of your 'assets' that interests me is my wife. And she interests me very, very much. I could not have her being harmed unduly. Yes, yes, war is risk. You need not handle her with the child gloves," she says, waving distantly, "But neither will I have her sacrificed."
Then, she inclines her head. "I know your Dr. Devi well," she says, using her title politely instead of her given name. "If she is acting strange, I am sure it is primarily that her brilliance is demanding expression. She is a very talented scientist, as you know, and I have provided her with research material that is greatly of interest--to her, and likely to your REA."
"I can provide more. Provided that my claim to Yuliana Kafim," she says her name fully, "Is respected, then I can provide a great deal more... such as the young Miss Stirner."
"Your secrets do not interest me, in general. They are irrelevant. However, my Yuliana is deeply, deeply loyal to her nation... and thus, your nation's well-being also matters to me."
"We do not have to be rivals, Major. We can be allies."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Elisa is a very smiley woman! Pham is not.
"I'm aware of Ms. Stirner's desire to assist us," Major Pham says, meeting her eyes. "And of her sudden personality shift from her prior documentation. But perhaps you don't fully comprehend your wife's position, Doctor." And illuminating that is no kindness.
"That thing is a tool the Republic created -- a unique weapon to fight the wars of the future. I am tasked with its care and control. And it is too valuable to release to some dregs of Jama," a reasonable guess from a man of his age, "simply on the basis of a fool affection. I will not stand by and create a weapon for a witch's use."
He taps his finger, just the once. "Of course, I'll maintain the illusion she's a person for you, Dr. Kafim. I'm not an unreasonable man." He lies very easily. "And if you are willing to respect the Republic's ownership of its property, then yes, I imagine we may be able to get somewhere together -- provided you cease all these fitful attempts to alienate her from the country you've stated she loves so much. The Captain does so long to be a woman again..."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa listens to Major Pham, as he meets her eyes. They continue to look distant, for the moment; he might recognize the signs of someone not really 'here'. At first, that is. But Major Pham is very good at his work, and very good at what he does. He is capable of drawing attention from the flightiest of beings... and from certain others. No, perhaps it is no kindness.
He mentions what he thinks of Yuliana; that 'thing'. He offers a compromise of his own. Of what he wants, of what Yuliana wants... Elisa looks down at the desk, and she might seem that she is about to be emotional. He has seen such things many times, it is sure. But...
"Ahahahahah...."
She looks up, and she does not look 'distant' anymore. Her full attention falls upon him. "The Republic has no idea what it has touched, Major. Its pathetic attempts to engage the future only grasp at the feet of the giants before you. But I--I alone--am capable of guiding you in this realm. I alone am capable of giving you the secrets that will lead to the true future. And here, you sit, and you tell me you will 'maintain an illusion.'"
"You think you know of what I am capable. You do not."
"You perhaps think that you will make me emotional. You will not."
"But I am generous. I will offer you this single warning."
Elisa stands, then, pushes out her chair, and walks to the door. She opens it.
"Do come in. The Major needs to see you."
She waits, as the receptionist steps away from his desk and comes to the room. He salutes smartly. "You wanted to see me, sir?"
Elisa does not wait. She closes the door behind him. "Pull your sidearm and shoot yourself in the left kneecap."
The gunshot an instant later is accompanied by a scream. By the glow at the door, neither will be heard by others.
"You will cooperate," Elisa says coolly, "Or you will be replaced by someone who will."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Elisa orients on Major Pham, and he has always given her his full attention, but he notices the shift.
And the light stays in his eyes, even as she warns him, tells him she will guide them. He is a proud man; more than that, he has a wife himself, at home. Children, and grandchildren. Friends in the Republic. Friends who aren't associated with the Republic's crimes, even.
He maintains his composure, even as she stands. He watches, unmoved, as the receptionist collapses. The young man screams, and keeps screaming. Call it background music.
Major Pham is quite skilled at making himself heard over the sounds of pain.
"My dear," he tells her, all too mildly, "if you were under my command, I'd knock you down from lieutenancy back to cadetship for such a shallow and stereotypical display. I expected better of you, for all those powers you displayed, on your special day. But to shoot my subordinate and tell me it will be me if I don't cooperate..?"
He raises a brow. "You'll forgive me if I don't laugh. It's just a very tired joke, Doctor."
He does not bother drawing his own gun.
"I'll thank you for demonstrating just how you've infiltrated us, though -- and demonstrating that you can't simply do such a thing to me, or else I'm sure you would have already. No doubt it's how you've taken my Captain from me, as well... though you really ought to thank us for that." He is cruel, to mention: "Since it was the Republic who taught such an unruly creature obedience." The Major still views her as a woman; he still thinks she could grow emotional, with the right pressure.
His eyes narrow. "And nothing you could do to me would be worse than my losing our saboteur, when Command entrusted her keeping to me." Yuliana did say he was a jealous man. Perhaps she underplayed how jealous. "You will not steal my last chance from my hands!"
There, finally, his voice raises, and his fingers tighten, against the desk. There, finally, is some evidence that he feels the pressure of this woman with unthinkable powers, though he has stood silent through so many tortures.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
He maintains his composure, though the receptionist does not. Oh, the receptionist definitely does not. Elisa is all smooth smiles as it goes on--until, of course, Major Pham's mild statement gets through to her, and then she smiles.
"You misunderstand my message," she assures him. "But alas, it is true. A tired, tired display. It's really rather pointless." A pause, and she looks down. "Stop sniveling," she instructs the soldier on the ground, and indeed he quiets. Mostly.
But she smiles again, and it is more sincere, when he demonstrates his cruelty. "Ah, you do enjoy living on the edge, I see. I underestimated how important she was to you, I admit. I thought this was merely a matter of duty, but you have demonstrated to me that it is very personal indeed."
"I will have to reconsider my approach. It would appear that petty parlor tricks will be insufficient."
"...You are welcome to assume yourself beyond my power. It may even be true; some are. But that is but one of the things I can show you. And I assure you... There are far, far worse things I could do than to take her away from you. Just as there are many ways in which I could punish you for these... 'lessons' the Republic has given her."
"Luckily for you, that isn't my goal. Keep hold of her, by all means. All I ask is that you not sacrifice her. Feel absolutely free to continue giving her orders. Use her as you need. She welcomes it. Simply do not discard her."
"But I was unclear. I did not say that I will kill you. I have indeed promised my Yuliana that I would not. So my hands are quite tied. I am obligated to treat with you." She spaces out her hands, as if to say, 'what can you do?' "The things we do for love."
"However..."
She kneels down, and gently cradles the soldier, as he whimpers. He looks up at her, and she regards him beatifically. With a flood of green light, his wound knits, and he is healed. The blood is gone, as if eaten by the green energy that suffused him. There will be side-effects. "There you are, darling. I should be kinder to my Yuliana's countrymen."
"Then let us see. My offers of help have been spurned; my open threats have been laughed at. So where does that leave me, a poor witch, all on her own in apparently 'enemy' territory...?"
"I suppose I have but one recourse. To throw myself on your sentiment. To show you..."
Elisa reaches to her chest and suddenly her fingers dig there into the flesh, blood splurting in all directions. "My heart."
As she opens her ribcage, a green light is visible there, an unfathomable void that grows, expanding to a space about a yard across, a circle of nothingness in which something stirs. Something, deep within, though the human eye recoils at seeing it. An eye opens, and shimmers, splitting as if by mitosis. The two eyes split into four; four become eight. All are open, all staring at the Major, as they continue to divide and grow expontentially. And then they quake and quail, as something deep within answers, and close as fast as they can, trying to flee. The room quakes with the force of Its notice.
Elisa closes the portal, and when she does, there is still blood and a tear in her dress, but the wound is gone. The room no longer shakes. But the receptionist's eyes are bleeding.
"...You may not be convinced," she allows, as if sad. "...But you can ensure that you are the only one to whom I show this truth today."
"Though it will not spare you punishment."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
More demonstrations, Pham thinks, as Elisa -- successfully -- commands the receptionist to quiet.
More threats.
He meets her eyes, still and even, as she supposes there are worse things in the world. Her motivation... he is still so sceptical. "A doctor, in love with an experiment," he clicks his tongue, against his teeth. "What has the world come to..? Your existences are far too different."
Elisa is trapped enough to be forced to rely on Pham's sentiment, though, and for a moment he almost considers laughing. (He did, once. He practically chortled.) But then she grasps at her own chest, and --
Well, Pham saw her get up after being shot in the heart. Even if his stomach turns to see her mutilate herself, he isn't shocked. It's a known quantity.
(And it's precisely because he can't kill her that he's relying on such risky mental plays.)
But there, an eye -- another -- another --
The Major pales; he is strong, because the Republic is strong, but every part of him grows sickened and desperate to see those eyes, that empty space. Something notices,
and he shuts his eyes, tightly, and looks away.
He keeps them shut for long moments, and as logic returns to him he realises his eyes ache; he tells himself he is being careful.
"You..." Pham tests his voice, holds tight to his steadiness, as he looks to her again. "You aren't really from the Emirates, are you? Tell me. Where did you come from, witch?"
He pauses, a moment longer, and takesa another steadying breath.
"No... rather, I should ask..."
Pham leans forward, and his stern expression is drawn.
"When did you come from?"
... the Orchid Cells were preserved a long time ago. That's why they don't have any left.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
More and more and more. Elisa no longer thinks the threats will be sufficient, except for one, which she has kept in reserve. That one might. But it is best not to use it. Instead...
"Ahhh," Elisa says to Pham, "But she is not my experiment. I concern myself with the results."
It might have been better if he had laughed.
The Major is strong. That much is true. Elisa cannot simply deal with him as a trifle, and so she does not.
He holds to his steadiness, and he asks his question. She smiles more widely, with the correct number of teeth.
"You begin to ask questions. Pertinent questions. That is good."
He knows much. He knows a great deal, in fact--perhaps, in some respects, more even than Elisa herself. She considers that.
"You operate under a misapprehension. Yuliana, indeed, is a person. She is 'real'. She is a woman, though you do not wish to see her in this way, no mere experiment but perhaps the most 'real' being in the entire universe."
"I? I am not. I am not a 'who', Major. I am a 'what'."
"You will never uncover the secrets for which you shaped Yuliana without me. 'I' am the answer to the question your scientists posed through her. That answer has come knocking, Major. And it will not be denied."
"I strongly advise that you let Dr. Devi to her research. She will find all that she hoped for, and more, if you do. She is on the verge of the secrets you seek."
"But if you truly, truly wish to see where, and when, I have come from..."
"Then go against my will, and I will show you. Oh, 'my dear'--I will show you."
"But I suggest that instead you tell me that the Republic will still be well-served by Yuliana's life. Because, my good Major... I only have one thing to lose. And you hold her in the palm of your hand."
"I do not believe you wish to see what happens should I lose it."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Major Pham has many misapprehensions, but few could blame him.
Since he's looking at something which cannot be apprehended.
He recognises a leading tone, of course; he ought to, when he uses it so often. Elisa tells him who is real, and who is not, and his eyes narrow.
"Is that so," he echoes, mildly. That she will not be denied. That she is the answer.
He is quiet, for a moment.
"So... you do love her," he concludes, at length. "Or, if what you say is true... perhaps you could do nothing but love her. The reason why the Captain became like this..." Yes, Pham was briefed on everything, when he joined this project.
"Dr. Kafim, the greatest threat to 'your' Yuliana's life at present is the lack of forward progress on her condition combined with her recent transgressions making it so much more difficult to justify her running amok -- and that was fueled by your own hand, I'm sure." He spreads a hand, lifting it from his desk. "Come to us," he invites her, mildly, and perhaps his tutelage can be seen in Yuliana's own easy allure. "Submit to the Institute's investigations. If you are the answer to these questions -- allow us to grasp them. Pain clearly doesn't frighten you... and as you say, you've only the one thing to lose."
She says she's a 'what'; Pham will quite happily believe her.
And treat her that way.
"I would hate for you to lose... someone so important to you, after all."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Oh, Yuliana wouldn't like to hear it. Elisa could spin it, probably. But she does not 'feel' real in the same sense, though she is connected to that which is Real. This world is such a pale imitation of reality that merely being part of it is... trouble.
His eyes narrow, and he concludes one truth. One truth, but...
"Ah," Elisa says. "Even now, you seek advantage. I should not be surprised. I suppose I am not surprised. What you offer is so very... kind, isn't it?"
"To you."
"No, the greatest threat to Yuliana's life is that you foolish mortals have no idea what you possess. You think her a simple tool. And you think that you have room to negotiate."
"Pain will not be instructive for you," she decides. "But you shall have it regardless. You are beginning to wear on my patience."
Elisa steps forward, towards the chair, again. She sets it gently to the side.
"Perhaps you are, indeed, willing to burn everything you have to the ground for the sake of this 'chance'. This last chance. This attempt at a legacy."
"I would have been willing to give you so much," she laments. "Tools, ready for your use. The opportunity to prove yourself in ways they could never have imagined. But no, you have to insist upon your 'patriotism', this foolish notion that man has dominion over anything."
She makes a sour face.
"Ah, well. I tried."
Elisa lifts a hand and black lightning leaps from her fingertips towards Pham.
Mildly she continues, as the lightning courses through him, cold as death, "I suppose I'll just have to make my offer to your superiors, and cut you out of the glory."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"This is not a negotiation," Major Pham corrects her.
If only he realised how right he was.
His eyes narrow, as Elisa steps forward, sets the chair aside. "I've been a prisoner of war enough times for that threat to be meaningless, Doctor," he warns her, but there's a little twitch of his eyelid, a little tension at his lip.
His very first conflict was against the Zentradi, you know. As a young private in the REA, he had no idea what he'd signed up for. Even so, he survived.
He hears the manipulations of her lament, and perhaps this is what doomed him so surely; that he hears, that he knows, that he could not bring himself to submit to the same tools he employs. Not for an outsider. He is a jealous man, and not without pride.
"Man will always triumph," he hisses, unrepentant.
Until the lightning hits him, anyway.
Give him credit: he does not, immediately, cry out. His wasn't an empty boast, and this isn't the first time electricity has coursed through his veins. But this isn't electricity, is it? Oh, it LOOKS like lightning, certainly -- to an extent even FEELS like electricity -- but where it touches it feels as if his skin will invert, unwelcome in this world, all the horrific pain of a reality he has never known.
He jerks, first, though his teeth grit. At first subtly, and then violently, until his chair topples back and he crashes to the floor. "Haaaarghhhh--!!" He groans, finally, his volume spiking upwards as he clutches himself to himself. "No... no! What is this?! It cannot be! Rrrgh-- is this-- what she feels?! What she knows?! D--damn you...!!"
His stomach roils; he has little enough sense to be concerned with it, coughing and moaning.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Yes, yes, I'm sure," Elisa says, but she didn't intend it as a threat regardless. Simply a statement of fact. A threat implies there was any chance that she would not do what she intended.
He says that man will always triumph. Elisa looks at him like she's looking at a bug.
BGM: End of the Line - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FVrH_zp30c
It is not electricity. It is like it. But it is different. The truth is that it is not of this world, is not 'natural' like electromagnetism, and that feeling he has is just accurate. He jerks. His teeth grit. He topples.
"It can," Elisa says. "It is."
"It is what she feels. It is what she knows. And she will continue to know it. Death would not free her, Major. Death would condemn her to more of the same, on and on."
"But I will free her, Major. I will see her freed of the torment of two realities with my own two hands. And it does not matter to me who I destroy in the process."
"You cannot damn me in any way that matters, human."
She continues to project the lightning for a few more moments, before she pauses. She considers.
"I was wrong, though. Pain has proven instructive to you. Perhaps I should employ more of it. You wouldn't happen to be hiding some sympathy for what you've put your test subject through now, would you?"
"I imagine not. Oh, well."
She stops the lightning, then, and smiles.
"Oh, hmm. I appear to be all out of lightning. How sad. You'll just have to take up your firearm, and attempt to stop me, as a hero of humanity! As a great defender of all that is good and just, of your Republic! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA."
She's already blotted out communications from this room. There will be no help coming.
"Go ahead! It's your only chance! Turn your weapon upon me! Strike in anger! Or submit, and know forever that man's will is as nothing."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
There's one thing Pham Van Vinh and Yuliana Kafim have in common.
He hates that he's sobbing. This torment of two realities --
If it were lightning, perhaps he could endure it, but it ISN'T lightning, in just the way that he's certain Elisa isn't half-Meltrandi, not really; they might both look that way, but they don't feel that way, not on the inside.
Would sympathy stop this?
Could anything stop this?
In that moment he'd say anything, but he can scarcely force his breath through his throat. He beholds Elisa with wide, terrified eyes -- oh, yes, he can feel. He is not the type of monster she is.
"please," he rasps out, and does not grasp his gun. "please -- please -- it's nothing, it's all as nothing, oh, God!" Finally he cringes -- finally he humbles himself; sodden-faced and trembling, like so many of the wretches he's handled for the REA. "F--forgive me, forgive my arrogance, I'm begging you, I was too cruel...! Take her, take her! She's yours, she was always yours! All is yours! Oh, God, no, no more nothing..."
... even Divya took the shot. Humans have such strange reactions, don't they?
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa considers his fear. She does not particularly seem to feel a way about it; she simply regards him, like one might a particularly interesting cloud. That is what he resembles. But he doesn't grasp his gun. He cringes, he humbles himself...
Forgive him?
It's very curious, how he reacts. He was so powerful and sure, just moments ago. And now...
"You begin to speak sense," she allows, and stops the torment. She looks at him a little longer.
"I have no reason to trust you," she admits. "But for the fact that I could continue this at any moment. You cannot hide from me, Pham Van Vinh."
"You will, instead, continue serving as you have before. By all means, work to find her potential. She wishes to be useful to her nation, Major. All I ask is that she remain useful to her nation, rather than being sacrificed for so much temporary gain."
"Hmmm."
The truth, however, is that while Elisa is a fine manipulator... she is distant, so distant, from human concerns at this point.
"Hmmm. And I didn't even get to the part where I can do this to your family without even needing keycards," she comments thoughtfully. "But I did promise."
"So I will offer you an alternative. You can, instead of dying... Forget. Forget that we had this conversation.."
Will it work? Maybe. For a while. For long enough.
"And do make it convincing, yes?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"I'll protect her! I-I'll protect her, I swear! I swear to you, Queen of the abyss..!" Something inside him shattered; the human psyche simply can't cope with so much of the beyond, delivered so violently. If he had any sense about him, he'd be disgusted.
He is not granted sense; only a horrible, desperate relief that Elisa is talking, rather than acting.
His eyes widen, and he gasps, in blanch horror, when she invokes his own wife. (His children. His children's children.) It is horror upon horror, and forcing such a powerful burden upon someone's psyche...
Spirit broken, the light in his eyes does dim, at her merciful suggestion. Make it convincing...
Silently he picks himself up; he rights his chair, and sits in it again. He regards Elisa with that same stern expression he wore before, and does not seem to comprehend the blood and tears and bile on his face.
"Dr. Elisa Devrana Kafim, I presume," he greets her, as if she's just walked in the door. He gestures, to the chair she set aside, and does not question its shift in location. "Take a seat."
Their second conversation will go much, much more smoothly.