2023-09-23: Their Trickery, Our Offerings
- Log: Their Trickery, Our Offerings
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Elisa Kafim
- Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- Date: 2023-09-23
- Summary: Elisa explains what the REA did, to Yuliana, when she attacked Sri Lanka; Yuliana expresses her wish to spare innocents, in their work going forward. But when Elisa explains the shape of their work -- the sacrifices they must make of their homelands -- Yuliana struggles to embrace the offerings gladly. Regardless, Her will must be done. And so long as they have each other... (CW: Gaslighting)
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana was TERRIBLY upset, when Parminder brought them back from the REA. Her machine will need extensive repairs -- and the Deadeye's damaged, too; not only that, they lost their entire squad of Altos, with the Protivisny inside.
Apparently, the mission was an abject failure.
Except... they know more about the REA's defences, now. They know that they haven't devoted great military forces to defending their living spaces; they know that they WILL show up in force, once they're angered. They know the REA is willing to ask for help as a stopgap measure, too. And now, with the news coming out after the Shandor left, they know that they've begun military law; this, perhaps, is an excuse to devote more of those military forces to their internal borders.
(Parminder at least left Elisa with advice to hire a bigger team of tech nerds before he left -- so their communications might not have gone down even though he took a break to go fly a ship. Now they have proper international interest, they need a team of sysadmins to preserve their uptime. Well, that or they accept a dozen worms through all their digital works. Either-or, really.)
As an exploratory mission, they could even call it a success.
But Yuliana was hurt.
Not physically -- no one was particularly aiming to kill her, despite her beliefs (her fears), so she isn't sporting any deep war-wounds coming out of her protective cockpit. But emotionally she is damaged, all told in the way her weight sags. She is ashamed.
And she is exhausted; she manages to get through a bath, and get to bed, but she doesn't have much coherent to say on the battle when she first returns. Wendy -- she's going by Wendy now -- fills Elisa in, instead, while her wife is soaking. (Presuming, of course, that Elisa simply doesn't have the Da Xukong 0 set to record its radio and cockpit audio. ... it would have been difficult to acquire during the battle, though, given the electromagnetic interference the world's going through.)
The next day rolls around, and...
Even after she mumbles almost incoherently about her dreams, Yuliana's disinclined to get out of bed. "Mmnnn," she groans, flopped bonelessly under the furs. "Nuh. I'm tired..." She slept all night!
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Failure... Yes, it was a failure. There are many silver linings, of course, but even so. Elisa has had to contemplate the results of this mission. She ahd the opportunity to do so, of course. And their sysadmins (she hired some) are doing well.
But Elisa took t he information she could get. Wendy filled her in, even though yes of course Elisa would review the recordings later. Elisa is thoughtful, as she does. She says nothing untoward to Wendy that evening, only assures her that she will take care of Yuliana.
So the next day comes, and Elisa waits until Yuliana wakes up. She gives her a sympathetic look, as she doesn't want to get out of bed. "Understandable," she says. "After we were tricked so cruelly..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"That's good. I mean... she's not doing great, after that," Wendy frowned, concerned, once she was done filling Elisa in. "I should've said something when she told us what we were doing..." Well, it's fine if she blames herself a little. The important thing is that she's leaving Yuliana to Elisa, as God intended.
That Wendy still just goes along with the flow, even when the flow is so dire, doesn't really matter.
What matters is that the next day, Yuliana shifts under the covers, only to curl herself about her wife and latch on tight. She buries her face against Elisa, with a disconcerted noise. "I... I did..." She starts, and stumbles; 'something wrong,' she means to say, except she can't say it, throat clutched in fear.
"... Elya, it was, a mistake," she chokes out, instead. "I... it wasn't satisfying at all, I feel wretched!" She volunteers the information as freely as she can; she is still so afraid, being anything less than perfect.
Failures are terminated. She can't forget so easily.
She looks up, brow creased. "We were... tricked...?" She asks; she grasps for meaning.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Yes, it's fine if Wendy blames herself a little. Elisa even made a point of looking sympathetic. It's so hard to question, isn't it?
No, it doesn't matter.
Yuliana starts to say she had done something wrong, and Elisa does not have to be psychic to know what she's thinking. Especially because she says it; as free as she can say it...
"Yes," Elisa says. "I understand." A pause. Yuliana grasps for meeting, and Elisa nods. "Yes, we were. Tricked, provoked, into ignoring your principles. I should have anticipated such a thing; as your wife, it is my responsibility."
"The REA has used this excuse to further their control of the area; their perfidy knows no bounds, that they would leave their populace vulnerable to attack in this way. Yes... They provoked us, but we will not give up."
"Next time, we will focus on the target."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
It is hard. Anyway.
Yuliana lifts herself enough, at least, to drape her arms and tendrils about her wife and hug herself to her properly. It might be a good sign. "We were tricked," she echoes, again, but less haltingly. She looks, if anything, relieved to hear Elisa claim responsibility for predicting it. Fondly, she murmurs, "Elya..."
She was tricked; she couldn't have forseen the consequences, anyway.
It wasn't her fault.
(But why does her heart still feel disquiet, even reassuring herself of that?)
"Mm... they did provoke us, didn't they?" Yuliana presses, scowling as she thinks of the REA. "Locking you in negotiations for so long... they knew what I'd think! They knew I'd grow upset! Even though you tried so hard to protect me from them... it's cruel, Elya!" Never mind that the REA were only one party concerned by what Yuliana did, at Denver; never mind that Yuliana's paranoia wasn't even all that supported by what they supposedly said.
She was sure of what they meant. She doesn't need to read minds to know how they think of her. How they spoke to Elisa of her...
"Those people... they were right," she sniffles, lip wobbling. "The REA used us... they used me again, Elya. And... and, we..." Killed innocent people; she can't quite choke that one out, either.
She swallows, instead. "Next time -- next time, let's not involve the Republic's civilians, Elya. I don't... I don't really hate the people who just get fooled by it all... even if I'm no longer a woman of the Republic, I know what life was like, for them. For the people under the DHZ..."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa will accept it as a good sign. She holds her wife. She listens...
"They did," Elisa says. "And it was. They were trying my patience, as well..." It doesn't matter if they didn't quite say all the things Yuliana imagines. It will do, for this. Besides...
"Yes," Elisa says. "We must be doubly careful not to fall for the poisoned words of others, now. Only you and I can truly trust one another. Only then can we ensure that we enact our retribution against the proper targets."
Next time...
"Yes," Elisa says. "The ordinary people for whom we labor... They will see the glory of the Void, and it will lift them from their powerless state. We must not unduly harm them before they have this chance."
"You are so compassionate, my darling. Yes, we can avoid harming them."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"I couldn't bear it," Yuliana says, looking to her wife from the curve of their pillows. "They asked too much of you...!"
And whose words shall she doubt, invited only to trust Elisa? The REA's, surely, but she feels the questions settle over Kikka's missives, just the same. And the others -- like Sophia's, and Leina's... oh, and Leina's. But Leina wouldn't poison her, would she?
"I trust you completely, zhenushka," Yuliana murmurs, pulling her face in to nuzzle at Elisa's neck. "I'm glad... I'm so glad we have each other. I couldn't do this alone..."
She sighs, into her skin. "I never wanted to hurt normal people," she says, without fabrication. "I'm glad... we can avoid it, Elya. I'm glad." Yes... she's a compassionate woman.
But, the proper targets... the proper targets.
"... what are... our proper targets?" Yuliana asks, slowly; she tilts her head back enough to see Elisa's eyes again, but this close, she sees nothing but her eyes. "Four... four of them, isn't that right? What are we to do?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Oh, the others might have things to say, but the final truths must reside with the two of them, mustn't they?
"Nor I," Elisa says to Yuliana, and strokes Yuliana's cheek. A pause. "...Yes. When it is not necessary to put them at risk... there is no reason to do so."
The proper targets? "Ahhh, yes..."
"Four seats of power. Indonesia, Zaftra, Orb, and the North Pole. We must strike at each, must claim this power, in order that we might continue our great work."
"I will handle Orb. Together, we will handle our own home."
"...And I shall strike at Britannia, as well. It is nearly time."
"Her will shall be done."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
They are the arbiters.
Yuliana tilts her cheek into Elisa's fingers, taking comfort in her cool hand. "Mmm..." She hums grateful affirmation, eyelids fluttering. She's always been someone who can do what is necessary, of course; but isn't it nice, to think it isn't always so?
She does bathe in her wife's logic, this way, as surely as she soaks in a tub.
Yuliana's eyes widen with realisation, though, gaze all captured with Elisa's. "Oh," she breathes, because she didn't know. "Oh, of course... Orb's to the South, Indonesia, South-East... oh, Elya, you're the only one who can make sense of me."
She manages to clutch herself closer to Elisa, all curled and coiled, a snake or a dragon wrapped about her. Behind her ears, her fins wilt. "Elya, our homes..." She starts, downcast, as if she could grasp some alternate path.
There is none. "... Her will be done," Yuliana agrees, obeisant in the face of Her, eyelids falling across her eyes like a veil in a long blink before she looks to her wife again.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
And it must be so.
But Yuliana's realization is pleasing to Elisa. "I do try," she says. "It is my duty to interpret, to understand. I am always listening, my darling. Always."
Elisa holds Yuliana there, and shakes her head at the matter of their homes. "A sacrifice only has power if it has meaning, my Yuliana. Surely this is Her intent. These places have power to us; this is the way in which we can gain the necessary might."
"Her will be done," Elisa agrees, and smiles. "...Now, come. We need not rise just yet. Stay with me a while longer."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"My love," Yuliana breathes, when Elisa assures her she's listening. Nothing is more reassuring than knowing that Elisa is here, ready to make sense of the roaring noise of her mind.
Elisa reassures her, too, on the necessity of their sacrifices -- and didn't Yuliana say as much, to Leina, not long ago? That she couldn't comprehend the sacrifices Yuliana gladly makes..? "We must... offer our sacrifices to Her," she agrees, but slowly. "We do what we must, to see this world's salvation. Oh, Elya, they won't appreciate all we do in the slightest, will they...?"
She is upset, clearly, at the thought of consecrating her homelands this way; but she knows, she knows, it's the very trembling of her gaze which lends it power. There are things she cannot avoid knowing, loving a woman like Elisa. She understands the anatomy of a sacrifice.
But she swallows, and she smiles, and she tells Elisa and she tells herself: "It will be beautiful." Just as Elisa told her. Her interpretations are written in her bones.
"As you are..." She echoes, hand to her wife's cheek, all lost in the perfection of her face.
She is with her.