2023-10-28: ...crystallise my feelingS
- Log: ...crystallise my feelingS
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Shari Loom
- Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- Date: 2023-10-28
- Summary: Yuliana is permitted to meet with Shari more in the wake of her strange visions -- and so the girl brings the next delivery of treated Fold straight to her, in their isolated Castle. From discussing those strange crystals, Shari comes to know more about how Yuliana views her relationships and the world. She is also tragically told what aromanticism is by her aunt, which is just the worst thing to ever happen. (Or is Yuliana speaking fondly Shari's friends the worst thing?)
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssXA2nve5Sw Ego Likeness - Drown Like You
"Half-light the treason dawns breaks cuts the feet and trails. She is mine, grasp and tighten. Carry now my gaze through all pretence, her veils cast away. Lose this gempast transgressor at your peril!"
So goes the wisdom; so is the wisdom known. So does Elisa know enough, meditating on this --
-- to send Shari to deliver the next lot of prepared fold crystals straight to Yuliana.
She's in the gym, right now; they've since repaired it, from when Hurricane Kafim passed through. For some bizarre reason she trusts Parminder to spot her... though it's not quite as bizarre for someone who used to work with him. (Yuliana knows that Parminder's weak little nerd schtick is entirely a facade. You know! The murders.) Even so, he looks pretty sceptical, watching her push some weights up over her body.
"Shit, what is that, like a hundred reps at this point?" He puts his hand on his hip, gesturing to them. "You done yet?"
"Fuck you, now we're sitting in for, another hundred," Yuliana grits out, pushing them back up.
"Oh, sure," Parminder waves a hand, "you say that, but it's not your ass getting roasted if you drop three hundred kilograms on yourself."
"Not a big deal," Yuliana snaps back.
"Maybe not for you, but some of us aren't lab-tuned superhumans over here!"
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
Shari of course makes a lot of these crystals; she makes enough that she's even started keeping a few for herself over time, to make pretty jewelry. But the main use she has for them remains 'giving them to Elisa', and so she made a bunch for Elisa and...
Ended up being asked(-ish) to deliver them personally this time, which is a little weird but why not. They are on simple mountings, to be turned into more ornate jewelry later, perhaps, once they're charged.
She doesn't know the Wisdom, but she does know she's got some stuff for Yuliana, and that Yuliana is in the gym, and...
Shari is not uncomfortable in a gym. She glances around, and makes her way to the source of the noise, where Yuliana has a ridiculous amount of weight. "Hey," Shari says, waving to both of them, the box in her hand. "Hate to interrupt your bitching, but Elisa sent me with a present."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Shari is here, and Yuliana knows before she speaks up. It's impossible not to know. She's the most powerful Newtype she's ever met; and really, thinking about it, she was the first evidence that Yuliana could make peace with those people. Because Shari is perfectly useful, and a lovely young woman.
One with an attitude, though.
"Look at this, brave little thing, sassing me when I'm holding this," Yuliana grunts, as she finishes pushing the bar up and locks it into place overhead. She does not, in fact, throw the weights at Shari. She never would!
"(Oh, thank God,)" Parminder drolls, parenthetically, seeing that he doesn't have to do anything. His laziness is soon cut short by her reaching up to get a hand up, and he SIIIGHS, clapping his hand into hers to hoist her up. Strangely, despite all her weight -- weight which is more plain here than it is when she's out and about, because she's wearing nothing which compresses her -- he's able to get her upright without any difficulties. The soul-darkened green gems at her necklace swing, with the motion.
Maybe don't think about that too hard.
"All right, come on," she gestures to Shari, before she starts trundling off towards the resting area, grabbing a towel on the way.
Parminder, meanwhile, shrugs and goes off to the dumbbells. "Yeah, you guys have fun," he abandons Shari to Yuliana, because he has shit to get done at the gym too. "Try not to total the place again, aight? HUGE pain in the ass going all the way down to the mainland to find a gym."
Kaffeklubben Island is the island closest to Heaven, and it hasn't been occupied since prehistoric times; Parminder isn't wrong to say it's difficult to find a nearby city, because all the cities in Area 9 tend to be on the southern end of the landmass, where it's slightly more hospitable to life. Here at the Northmost end, they don't really have neighbours, strictly speaking.
The Kafims prefer it that way.
Yuliana grabs a bottle of water and sits herself down on a bench, chugging half of it before she caps it and puts it aside. She's tired, but she manages a smile for Shari, anyway. "What has Elya sent you with, dear?" She asks, a far cry from trying to eat her.
These days.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
She does have an attitude. That's true. But how can she not, in company like this?
"Heheh." Shari doesn't expect it! But, Parminder is there for now, and she watches Parminder and Yuliana for a moment. Parminder she knows is stronger than he looks, anyway. She's figured that out. She's pretty smart!
"Super fun," Shari says, waving at Parminder. Then she glances around. "Yeah... I don't want to be here to smash this place up."
But Shari walks around with Yuliana anyway, on the way to the bench. She waits for her to finish the water, and actually smiles back. It's nice, when Yuliana's nice. It's been that way for a while now...
She hasn't forgotten when it wasn't like that, of course. But it's easy to put it aside.
Shari hands over the box. "New gems," she explains. "Elisa already treated these, so they're ready for you. I put them in a basic setting so they won't be too obtrusive under your scarves."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Shari is pretty smart, and Parminder waves to her, in turn, as he abandons her.
"It was askin' for it," Yuliana assures her, which is apparently all the explanation she's getting for how this place ended up being a warzone at one point. This is what Parminder abandoned her to!
She's less out of breath once she actually gets some water into her, at least. (She's probably been here all morning. She does tend to wear herself out in here, given how difficult it is to go run around outside these days.) And so she takes the box, and... new gems!
"Oh! Wonderful!" Yuliana smiles, as she retrieves her necklace from around her neck -- it rarely leaves her person -- to unscrew the charged crystals, and fit in the newly-made ones, instead. "They fit perfectly -- thank you, dear." She leaves one blackened crystal in the middle, though, framed by the two Shari's now brought her. She's arranged them that way ever since she last got into so much trouble, because she knows that her wife is able to use the power of the charged crystal to find her.
She holds one of the blackened green crystals in her palm, for a long moment, gazing down to it. "How strange," she says, a touch distantly. "No other manner of quartz or diamond does this... only these, with the proper preparations. You know... once I woke and thought, they must be driving me mad...?"
Yuliana laughs, tucking the charged crystal into the empty spaces of the box where the uncharged ones lived prior. "Silly, isn't it?" She asks, as she puts the box aside.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
That is enough explanation for Shari not to ask any further, anyway. But she doesn't get to the gym so much; she doesn't stay here long enough to be in the mood to exercise, as a rule, and they have gym equipment back at Ashford Academy.
"Yeah!" Shari answers. She waits for Yuliana to make the switch, noticing the way she leaves one in the middle--and remembering why. She looks down at it, too, when Yuliana speaks about it. "It's pretty cool," she agrees. Then--driving her mad, huh...?
"Yeah, like I'd make something that'd drive you crazy," Shari answers with a laugh. It doesn't even sound nervous! "It is interesting though--I can make them, but I'm not sure what Elisa does with them to make them absorb your... stuff. I kinda wonder sometimes."
"...Anyway um, how're you doing?" Shari, for her part--has been in a great mood lately. But Yuliana...
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
The Silent Castle's gymnasium is extensive. But then again, the Castle is a small community unto itself: because the nearest city is so far away, they have to be extremely self-sufficient. One could live here their whole life and not suffer a bit...
... for one's physical needs, at least.
"Oh, I wasn't accusing you," Yuliana assures her, looking back to Shari. "Don't worry at all. But her rituals are so impressive, aren't they?" She sighs, more lovesick than the type of sickness one might expect a reasonable person to feel about Elisa's magic. "She makes them receptive to me... and she's able to use that power so effectively. Sometimes I wonder what she could do, if she drew on me, directly... but she'd never do such a thing," Yuliana shakes her head. "She's never done anything which could lead me to harm. She promised to protect me, you know."
Yuliana clasps her necklace to her chest, pressed against her skin; with the tanktop she's wearing to the gym, there's plenty of room. (She's in her house, amongst 'family', so she's not worried about covering herself with the appropriate modesty. A tanktop and shorts are fine in this situation. She even has, gasp!, a sports bra underneath it.) "I'm still a little shaken," she confesses, "though Elya escorted me to a meeting, the other day, and no one interrupted the congregation this time... as I understand it, the security forces caught them. They got sloppy, I suppose. And... of course there was that destruction for our mutual friends, that mission was a success." The destruction of the Gryps-II laser that was in the news. "Once again, destroying... well," she adds, a shade melancholic, "I can't complain about getting out, I suppose."
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
That's the trick..
"They are," Shari agrees, impressive. She doesn't quite go in as hard on them as Yuliana does, but she has to admit that much. Or well, it's healthy to admit that much. Something like that. "Yeah... It's definitely more than just that dimension's energy, too," she reflects. Then she grimaces a little, at the idea of Elisa drawing on Yuliana directly. "Yeah," she says. "I can't see her doing that either."
"She looks out for both of us, huh? I mean, you more than me, obviously. You're her wife. But still me some, too."
Shari's wearing a hoodie and long pants; it's cold up here. But as an athlete she's not even vaguely scandalized by workout gear. Still...
"That's fair," Shari says. "It was scary stuff." No one interrupted... "Yeah, I went snooping around but I think they'd already caught them by then." Pause. "...You make stuff too though. Like your models. Those are really cool."
"I'm glad you took that thing out, anyway. Super dangerous... I don't like thinking about that kind of thing too much."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"This is what I give to this world," Yuliana reflects, thinking of those dark crystals. "This is... what I can bring to..." But there's something about that which almost doesn't feel like a good thing, and Yuliana trails off and shakes her head.
"Elya is a protector," Yuliana smiles, instead, to think of her wife. "A provider. She will not let you come to harm." Yuliana could never let Shari come to harm, either, at least not now. She doesn't realise the way that only supports her claim. "You are one of us, Sharochka, though you've such an unfortunate affliction. My zhenushka will be there for you, whenever you have need. Did she not rescue you from Ambon?" After she rescued Yuliana, of course, but never mind that.
Luckily, the gymnasium is warm -- and Yuliana is warmer, having just worked out so much. She won't want to leave without putting her cloak on, though.
"Ah, you did?" Yuliana smiles, hearing that Shari went snooping. "You're a good girl. You didn't get into any trouble on my account, I hope?" She doubts it; Shari's a clever little infiltrator. But she cares enough to ask, now.
She sighs, rubbing her darkened crystal between her fingers. "I'm... used to it," she chooses her words delicately. "We were saboteurs, in the REA. We delivered death and destruction, and infrequently laid any claim to it. But... you're right, of course. Destroying that laser was only a good thing. I do not like to think of it, in the Federation's hands." Yuliana closes her eyes, briefly, as she takes a breath in. "I suppose I do make things," she allows, "but I didn't even think of building houses... I looked so foolish. Really, I can't stand it."
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
What she gives to the world. Shari... hasn't seen most of what the Activated crystals can do. But she does notice that Yuliana has mixed feelings, and she watches her Aunt for a moment.
They talk about Elisa instead. That's probably better. "Yeah," Shari agrees. She is those things. And she's...
She's one of them.
"Yeah, I am." A pause. "She did." Shari puts her hands in her hoodie's pockets, looking down.
A good girl. That's... nice. "Nah, no trouble. I was fine." She did ask, though!
But, "Right. The Federation... Britannia." She looks distant, as she considers those. But anyway--
"You do," Shari says encouragingly, and then--"Eh. What are you, a civil engineer?" she counters. "You're a pilot and a mechanical engineer. Of course you don't think about stuff like that. It'd be like me thinking of all the religious stuff you guys figure out. Not your field."
Shari steps around to have a seat on the bench. "I don't think there's a lot of people stupid enough to call you foolish, anyway."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Good," Yuliana affirms, when Shari says she was fine. "I'd hate for you to run into any troubles on my account." Who knows what's out there? The REA could be hiding behind any corner, and there might even be other, non-REA threats out there. Like those horrible wounds in the world who She wants her to capture and not just murder. How fortunate that Shari isn't such a threat!
And she is trying to be supportive, Shari.
"Hardly," Yuliana snorts, shaking her head, when Shari asks if she's a civil engineer. It turns out to just prove Shari's point, and Yuliana blinks, looking back over to her with those endless green eyes. "Oh, I suppose that's right," she accepts it, slowly. It isn't her field.
Yuliana smiles, turning her body towards Shari when she sits, a non-verbal indication that she's listening. "Hahaha... you'd be surprised," she laughs, gesturing with a hand. "Leyasha is a fearless girl, but it's hardly a trait limited to those who've earned any consideration. The amount of people who would insult me to my face is really quite distressingly high!" Yuliana's smile turns to a scowl, as she pouts, and adds: "Or who would insult my wife, to my face. That's just as bothersome, you know. Saying it's not fair for me, like she's doing something wrong... really, people don't understand a thing!"
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
On Yuliana's account. Shari laughs a little, in that friendly and sometimes nervous way of hers. "Right," she says. "Nah, it's cool. I was fine! Barely ran into anybody."
Except Naoko, of course.
Yuliana snorts, and Shari gets to be right. She looks back at her, gray and with the usual pupils to green and endless. "Yep," Shari says. Of course she's right!
"Hmmm..." Leina. "Oh, right," she says, "You've got some kind of relationship with her, huh?" She remembers the way they talked at the battle, if she thinks about it. "Rude," she says of insulting her, and then, "Stupid," of insulting her wife. "I dunno what's unfair," Shari admits. "You get a whole castle and to be the head most important person of an entire religion and all the models you can make and pretty much everything else you want," Shari points out.
Well, except for going out in public without being kidnap-attempted. That's a thing she wants and doesn't get. Shari decides not to say this.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"That's good," Yuliana says, again, smiling. She doesn't know about Naoko, of course.
And Shari gets to be right! Don't say Yuliana never did anything for her.
"Oh?" She asks, though, when Shari asks about Leina. "Yes, I suppose I do. We're..." But she pauses, and she hesitates, her hand dropping to fiddle with her wedding ring. After that silence, she sighs. "... I'd like to say we're friends, but... I'm not always a positive force, in her life. I kept lashing out at her, you see... even after I could make my peace with making peace, when I tried to help her, I really couldn't. I just lashed out at her again, when that time, it really wasn't her fault... and Elya said we couldn't trust anyone, you know? Her family was unreliable. They'd make things worse. So I didn't say anything... it wasn't until I realised I might still be able to reach her that I tried again. Even then, it didn't matter. Oh, though I suppose I did get information which helped," she sighs, looking up at the stone ceiling. The Castle has high ceilings, despite the troubles with heating it. "She helped me, in Magallanica. I don't understand it at all. Particularly now, we should be enemies... but I want to see her again."
She frowns, clasping her hands together, looking down at them again. "I don't know. One of those wretched women on the Ra Mari II, she was talking about having a support network, and I thought it was just, utter nonsense... if you rely on all those people, of course someone is going to betray you, isn't it so? But if I think about it... Leyasha makes things easier for me. Not -- not that I can really trust her, but -- but she's never done wrong by me, either. I feel like I can trust her... more than some people out there. It's just... I've not treated her well, for all she's done, Sharochka. One day -- one day she'll figure it out, and she'll abandon me, and --"
she'll deserve it?
Yuliana's hands tremble, and she bites at her lip, and doesn't finish her sentence. The words hurt more than her teeth, even talking in an environment like this.
"It's not unfair," she focuses on her wife, instead. "Elya has given me all I could desire. And -- and, you know, I spoke with her, after that, about having to check in so often. I told her it was difficult for me, how anxious she got when I didn't report where I was so frequently, and she listened to me and it changed! Is that not how it's meant to be? She wasn't unreasonable, not at all. Everything she does, it's for my happiness, for my safety. Really, if anyone's unreasonable, it's me! But she's always been so patient. So considerate. If I say I cannot stand the procedure today, she lets me do it tomorrow... it's not her fault if I make a fuss, then." What should have been a simple process of giving Yuliana her flu shot became a multi-day affair. Delicate equipment was thrown across the room, but eventually, Elisa did manage to calm Yuliana down enough to accept a single needle. How brave she must be to suggest getting a tattoo under those conditions!
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
Shari thinks it's best to just not talk about some things.
But Leina... Hmm. Shari has already implied she knows Leina, by using her first name--how much can she say? How much should she say? Thinking about it means she misses a little of the subtlety of what Yuliana says, even though she decides to try to focus on her. "Must be hard," she settles on instead. Then... 'they should be enemies'. "Yeah," Shari says. "People like that are weird."
"...Hope you get the chance."
Then, Yuliana talks about support networks, and Shari tilts her head. "Huh. I mean, that's true. It's not like you can trust everybody. But it's nice to have people you can." She considers. "I... I think--"
They'll figure it out, and she'll abandon her.
Maybe she should.
Shari wonders. "Right. Elisa's like that. She cares about you more than anything. Everybody who's here can see that." Pause. She listened.
She's not gonna say Yuliana's unreasonable, obviously.
"She really cares about you."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yes, some things it's best not to talk about. Isn't it embarrassing, admitting she's done wrong by Leina, here? Surely this feeling is embarrassment.
"Yes," Yuliana agrees, instead, fingers resting against her ring again. "More than anything. She would rend the very heavens to reach me. Always, she is with me. Boyevaya podruga, we say in the Motherland, this is -- literally it is 'combat friend', but it means that your partner stands with you against any challenge you may face. I need not even think of being without her! She'll never leave me." And she smiles, again, thinking of her wife. "You know, she is the only one I can really trust. She told me, Sharochka. Ah, but one day you will have a partnership like this, as well... with the one person who will never betray you." One day, she says, as if it's a hypothetical.
Which means Parminder must not have immediately turned around and spilled the beans.
"So of course, I can't trust anyone else... I swore to be faithful, you know. Don't you think it's unfaithful to rely too much on other people when you're married?" Yuliana frowns, gaze tracking to the darkness outside the windows. "Once, I asked an old friend for advice because I didn't want to burden her... oh, Elya was furious, then. It's my fault, really -- I should have known not to discuss Emptear with outsiders -- but it's really because I tried to rely on someone else she was so hurt, I'm sure. Never mind that she filled my head with all manner of nonsense, and -- and Elya had already been working on a solution to help me, anyway..."
She sighs, shaking her head, and her shoulders droop. Really, it's miserable. What can she grasp on to --
"... what was it that you were thinking, dear?" Yuliana asks, out of nowhere, recalling Shari's halting words before Yuliana grew convinced abandonment was right around the corner.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
The very heavens, is it? Shari could see that happening. She is dimly aware that it's not a pleasant reaction. In any case, "Boyevava podruga," Shari repeats, with surprisingly little accent. Or maybe not that surprising, considering. "That's... Sweet?" Combative, maybe. But, "You think so?" Shari asks.
Parminder didn't spill the beans. "...That'd be nice," she says. "But I can't really imagine it."
Is that unfaithful? "I never thought of it that way," she admits. "But I've never been married, so..." It shouldn't sound like she's contradicting her, that way. Hopefully. Hearing about Elisa's fury is never comforting, of course. "It's--"
What was she thinking? "Uhhhh."
"Ha ha I don't remember! Um." She actually doesn't remember, she got wrapped up in what Yuliana was saying instead. But she has to come up with something, so, "I, uh..."
Blurt, "I find it hard to think of relationships and stuff in more complicated terms than somebody to have sex with, though." Good work, Shari. "I mean, for me." Pause. "...Britannian boys are hard to trust," she finishes, lamely.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"It is," Yuliana confirms for Shari. Sweet, that is. And, entirely hypothetically, she tells her: "One day, you will not have to imagine. I am sure you will find a fine man. Or woman!" And it's telling, perhaps, that she defaults to heterosexuality even though she's only ever dated women. Even though she's married to a woman! "Or even someone else," she adds, a moment later. "You know, there are some people who forsake the concept of being a 'man' or a 'woman' altogether. Or who embrace them both! It's perfectly valid."
Oh no. It's the Gender Talk. Doesn't Yuliana know Parminder already gave Shari that.
Yuliana smiles, though it's a little wavering. "You'll understand when you've married," she assures her, on what precisely is unfaithful. (It is unfaithful, isn't it? ... maybe she should check with her wife.)
She tilts her head, when Shari laughs off her question. "Oh, is that so?" She asks, and it makes sense, to her; she was clearly just embarrassed. She's nice enough to look away from the girl, as she answers. "The word for that is 'aromantic'. You've heard of asexuality, I hope? Classmates with no interest in spinning bottles?" Do kids still spin bottles in this day and age?! Probably. Anyway. "Aromanticism is that way, but for people with no interest in romance, instead. Though... it is possible you will have more interest in romance when you aren't surrounded by Britannians. No?"
Not only the Gender Talk, but the Sexuality Talk. This is truly the worst.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
Hypothetically... Shari does notice the way Yuliana defaults to a man for her, even though she's a lesbian. Is it because she knows Shari's not, or because that's just how things are in her mind? Shari could be paranoid about it and wonder. She almost does. Except, Yuliana starts to talk about gender in general... "Oh, uh." Pause. "Yeah?" Shari asks, though she's dying inside a little to have Yuliana explain this to her. "That's... cool!"
But Yuliana's smile wavers, and Shari decides not to push anyway. Still, "Hopefully," Shari says about when she gets married, which reminds her that her parents could pull a Milly and start bothering her to get married anytime soon. She's almost eighteen.
She is embarrassed... now. "Oh." Pause. "I have," she answers about asexuality at least, "Huh, did they have that game when you were--" Pause. She shouldn't say Yuliana's old. "My age?" she finishes.
"Hmmm... I dunno if I'm that," she admits, "But I might be. It's... Yeah. That's possible."
Nobody here likes Britannia that much.
"Not that my parents might not pick me somebody anyway," she admits. "But that's probably not stuff you wanna hear. ...A-anyway, I hope the crystals are... good. I do my best with those."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Isn't it?" Yuliana asks, on the matter of gender being cool. Tragically, she doesn't immediately drop it. "Some people like that are horrendous," Cascade Wattana, for one, "but it's just like some men and women are. There's nothing wrong with it, per se." And for all Yuliana hated Cascade, she hated them with the right gender signifiers they were using that day. Give her that much credit.
Let's not dwell on whether the Kafims would step in if Shari's parents actually tried parenting her for once in their lives.
But Yuliana actually bursts out laughing, when Shari stumbles over saying Yuliana is, like, SO OLD. "Hahaha..! Sometimes I forget how it must seem, to you. It's no good to say I'm 'just thirty' when thirty feels impossibly old, no?" At least she seems amused by the implications instead of offended. "But no -- no, we had all manner of debauchery, in the '80s. I missed rather a lot of it, since I never rejoined highschool when we moved to Chukotka, but even then there were girls in town... no one was particularly serious, of course. In this day and age, it's rare to find anything permanent as a teenager -- and it's better that way, really. You're still learning, right now. It's better not to put yourself under too much pressure."
She pauses.
"... but do let us know if your parents pressure you anyway," she says. "I'm -- aware of the Britannian custom, but you needn't worry about anything like that. I may only be able to suggest to Milly that she's options beyond the men her mother brings her, but you are an entirely different matter, dear. Remember you've our protection."
She shakes her head, and looks down, cupping her necklace in a hand to examine the crystals again. "They're lovely, Sharochka," she assures her. "Even now, they welcome me. They thirst. At least... I am able to nurture something like this," she assures herself, her smile thin.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
It's... like being cool about gender, Shari supposes. It definitely resembles it. 'Nothing wrong with it' is close enough. "Yeah, that's true," she says.
Yuliana laughs, and Shari is pretty surprised by this. "Eh, heheh..." It does feel pretty old to Shari. It's sort of embarrassing even so, but, "Ahhh yeah? Well, I'm in high school now..." Pause. Girls in town. Yuliana definitely had a lot of casual sex, didn't she?
Shari didn't need to know that. She already knows more than she wants to about Yuliana's marriage.
"...I think so too," she says at least of pressure. But--
"Wait, really?" Shari asks. "Milly," she repeats, and then, "Huh. Well, that's... good to know," she says. "Thanks."
It might be because they'd stab her parents, but is that so bad? No. Bad, Shari. Think about crystals instead.
"G-good," Shari says, only a lot creeped out by that 'they thirst' and 'i can nurture something like this'. "...Well," she says, "That was what I was supposed to do, so..." She starts to stand up, "I should be getting back before people notice I left..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana has had SO much casual sex. Really, all the sex was casual, right up until she got married. For some reason, girls just never wanted to date her for very long?
Weird. The whole world has terrible taste. At least Elisa was receptive to her.
At least -- at bare, minimum least -- she doesn't get into the details with Shari.
Rather, she moves on to Milly: "Oh, yes. She's a lesbian, you see -- it's really quite blindingly obvious -- but her mother keeps forcing her into extremely heterosexual marriage interviews. Unfortunately, Britannia can be as hostile as the REA to this sort of thing, no?" Yuliana sighs, shaking her head. "But I should think that even if you do prefer the company of men, you'd prefer one you've chosen yourself, dear."
Yuliana, apparently ignorant to how frightening her attitude to those crystals is, looks up to Shari and smiles. "Oh -- of course. It's quite a trip back, isn't it? Do take care, Sharochka. It was lovely to see you again. Perhaps we'll speak another time?" If Elisa sent Shari with a delivery, then surely it's fine to see her again.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
Shari appreciates the minimum in this case. She really does.
"Oh..." Shari knew she was into women at least, but doesn't betray that particular confidence today. Instead, "She used to be our student council president, you know." But Britannia... "Yeah, they can." And... "Yeah, I would," Shari agrees. "That's kind of a big sticking point."
Shari smiles back. It only takes a little effort, because she does like Yuliana these days despite her... occasional weirdness. "Well, I don't want to keep Elisa waiting sending me back," she says. It is quite the trip, but not so much for its length...
"But, sure. That'd be nice," she says, of speaking another time. "Enjoy your workout, Yuliana." The pinkhair waves, and starts to go.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"She's quite talented, isn't she? Britannia truly doesn't deserve her." Yuliana at least seems to have warm things to say, about Milly. More or less. Adjusting for her bigotry towards the country.
(Yuliana really needs to be graded on a curve with this sort of thing.)
"But you will have this choice," she assures her. "Don't hesitate to reach out, dear." Would they stab her parents? Well, Yuliana might. Elisa has... other methods.
Stabbing might be nicer.
Yuliana can be quite strange, but of course she understands not keeping her wife waiting. "Of course, of course," she smiles, gesturing her on. "Good luck." Shari knows exactly why she's wishing her luck getting back, of course. "And thank you! I will." Yuliana waves to her, as well, and then reaches over to uncap her bottle of water and drain the rest of it.
She won't be done here for another hour or two, of course. It takes a surprising amount of effort to push her body, given the enhancements. If she wants to work out these frustrations, she really has to work at it.
Luckily, she has nothing but time, here at the Silent Castle.