2024-03-05: Two People Who Need Therapy
- Cast: Liam 7-020, Lucine Azul
- Where: Liam's Apartment, Tokyo-3, Japan
- Date: U.C. 0098 03 05
- Summary: Liam and Lucine talk about apartment-hunting, credit, and Lucine's meeting with a new friend. A note Liam left himself results in an awkward conversational turn, and some grim revelations about the Kafims. Their relationship is nowhere near as extreme, but there are uncomfortable parallels.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Apartment-hunting is so much more complicated than Liam thought. He knew rent and utilities were a factor--he remembers his parents talking about rent and bills, all sad and worried--but there's so much else. There's credit scores, and renter's insurance, and what kind of lease do they want, and do they want preinstalled furniture or on-site parking? (Neither of them have a driver's license, ironically enough. But do they need a car? Do they want a car?)
Liam sits at the little dining-room table, wearing a grey t-shirt, and black cargo shorts. As an experiment, he didn't shave his jawline, and there's stubble there, as well as atop his head. He sips a cup of strong, sugared tea, and scrolls through something on his tablet. 'How to get a credit score if you've never had one!' Paid for, he notices, by an international realty company with holdings across the OCU and part of western Britannia.
The Tokyo-3 apartment is as it has always been: small, efficient, and made into a home through the slow accumulation of objects of material and sentimental value.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Lucine isn't that much better in terms of knowing what to do.
It's moments like this that they feel like two children trying to figure out how the boring parts of the adult world works, with little in the way of ideas. A few calls to her mom has helped, but she's a little hesitant to ask anyone on the Nadesico for advice. Despite the entire crew knowing their relationship as well as any other relationship going on (there is no discrimination here, all is fair in love and gossip) the news of two pilots getting an apartment together is just the right level of titillating without it advancing into the sphere of positively scandalous. Sort of like having a polite snack before diving into the state of Minato and Goat's relationship.
Still, would it be worth it to ask Mr. Prospector for advice? Or would that be too embarrassing? It feels like all this stuff is things she should already know.
Walking out of the shower, now dressed in a plain t-shirt and drawstring pants, Lucine pulls the towel from her head, letting her damp hair fall flat against her shoulders. Spotting Liam at the dining room table, she feels a bit of inspiration. Walking up, her slippers audible against the flooring, Lucine gently wraps her arms over Liam's shoulders, rubbing her chin against the fuzz of his head. "... Is anything making sense yet?"
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam's head tilts in the direction of the bathroom door. Despite being seemingly absorbed in a complex financial topic, his senses are keen. As Lucine embraces him from behind, he rolls his shoulders against her, clasps her hand, and nuzzles her back.
"We need to learn how good our credit is," Liam says. "That's whether or not they trust us to pay back a loan we take out, or a credit card we use. Like yours. You pay yours off, the company sees it can trust you not to overspend." The cyborg pauses, eyes narrowing as he stares down at the tablet. "Sounds messed up when I put it like that. Like they don't trust us to pay for a home."
Without looking, he reaches up with his free hand, and strokes the side of Lucine's face. "I forgot to ask. How did the meeting with Lua go?"
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
".... So to get good credit, we... need to get credit." A huff of breath falls against Liam's scalp. "... Being two pilots doesn't exactly inspire confidence in our spending habits." She lays her chin to rest on Liam's head, giggling as Liam nuzzles her back. "... Are you... going to try to grow a beard?" His chin *does* feel prickly. "I wonder what you'll look like."
Oh, right. Credit. "... Dad would sometimes talk about how hard it was sometimes to get any sort of credit company willing to deal with cowboys... but that's probably a little different..."
Feeling Liam's hand, Lucine grins, her eyes fluttering closed as she rests her cheek against Liam's hand. "It went very good. I didn't realize she was helping us with that Vajra nest incident in Australia. .... But it was for a good reason."
There's a small frown as she reflects over it, and her words. "We talked about a lot of things. She's.. had a very complex past. I wonder if I would've ever guessed just looking at her..."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
"Yeah, that's just it," Liam says, gesturing with the hand still holding the tablet. "You have to take out a loan or get a credit card or something to even get credit, and I... have the apartment?" He's never made payments on it because NERV treats it like it's pilot lodging. He's never had to worry about paying bills, but...
"We make enough put together to get a decent apartment, but... it's proving we can to these people."
Is he going to try and grow a beard? "...Maybe," Liam says. "Feels weirder than having hair. But I wanted to try." His dad had a beard, on and off, and Liam remembers how it felt when he kissed him good-night.
"She was Myrmidon. I... probably should've asked Leina the first time I ran into her, but I was worried. You know she didn't want me rushing in to try and fix a complicated situation, right? Her mom is rich and famous, and so is she, and she's piloting that prototype for her family."
Liam put that much together from the ad pieces Foresight put out after the attack on Augmented Shibuya. Watching them made him feel as nauseous--if not more so--than watching Coco get eaten alive.
"I... probably should've known," Liam confesses. "But I was less than three months out of the refugee camp when I ran into her. I didn't know anything about what was happening, beyond what they told me."
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
"Maybe NERV or Nergal could help. I don't want to go to Cap. Misamaru directly... I'm a little afraid of what she might do." Not entirely; her boss has been very levelheaded in many fields. However, when it comes to romance, the captain never abstains from a little inspiration. But maybe that's what makes Yurika the captain she is, embodying the romanticism of the old and the pragmatism of the new.
"Maybe if we go in together," Lucine says, her eyelids lowering slightly. "Maybe I can use my senses to... ah... well, see if they're nervous, or... inspired. I can't do that over the phone, so..." Damn overreliance on non-face to face technology! 'Newtypes are the future' her ass.
"It's worth a try." On the topic of a beard. "If it doesn't look good, you can always shave it off, right?" She's still liking the way Liam's head hair prickles against her cheek and chin. "... Maybe I could try to grow my hair longer. ... We'll experiment together."
"Asked Leina? Why for?" Gold eyes blink. What is there to fi-- oh. ".... I'm... not sure there's anything you can fix, aside from being her friend. If... you're talking about her piloting that prototype. Her life's complicated, but... I think she's still understanding how she has a right to feel... sad, angry... bitter. Even if there's many things she enjoys about her life, that doesn't take away from the things that are wrong."
Maybe there's something she's missing, here. ".... Can you tell me what you're specifically concerned about? Just... so I know I'm on the right page."
Somehow, Lucine didn't realize that it was that soon into Liam's arrival at the Crudible that they had met. "She was surprised you were so big now. ... Like, you were a big old teddy bear back then. But deluxe size, now, compared to how skinny you were back then." It'd be good for Liam to hear that, maybe, to get a sense of a way that 'big' didn't mean 'monstrious' like he sometimes felt. "She sounded a little guilty that she didn't know everything that was happening to you."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
"Mm," Liam says, his lips twisting a little. "I... don't want this riding on NERV. Or Nergal. What if they don't exist six months from now?" About a year ago, that might've seemed ridiculous, but the Earth Sphere has become a very different place in just twelve months. Is NUNE going to be a different beast than its predecessor, or is it just going to be more of the same? There's still so much up in the air.
"That might be an idea. But... we'd need to leverage that. Knowing how they feel is one thing, but acting on it..." Liam trails off. Lucine is nuzzling him, and it feels good. "You'd look cute with longer hair," he says. "Maybe braid it."
Liam lets Lucine speak her mind before he shares his own thoughts. "I guess Leina was worried I'd assume Lua was another experiment, or that she wasn't, when she was." And that he'd run off, half-cocked, into a politically-charged situation, and create a huge headache. "I still am. She seems to have latitude, but there's lots of ways you can keep a person captive. You noticed those bodyguards, right?"
Liam laughs, a little bitterly. "Yeah. I hadn't eaten regularly since Dublin. There were the handouts at first, but those came less and less, and the Britannians didn't want to help us..." His eyes close. "Some days it was so bad I couldn't sleep. The older refugees gave me what they could, when they could, but..." But he was just a little kid, alone in the world, relying on NGO handouts in a host country that honestly felt he was a mouth they didn't need to feed.
"But I... get what she was saying, yeah. A teddy bear, really?"
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
'What if they don't exist six months from now?'
With three sentences, Liam lays it out cleanly. Lucine blinks, shocked she never saw it herself. Maybe, because the prospect seems rather... scary, in a way. "... NERV or Nergal not existing..." No Nergal would definitely mean no Nadesico, despite how independent the ship sometimes acts. ".... Maybe we should put some of our money away, just in case that happens... maybe in separate accounts for me and you, just in case. If one account gets locked out, we'll still have the other."
Wait, why is she acting like it'd come to that? "... Sorry, my mind immediately went to the worst possible outcome. I've been trying to stop doing that."
There's room inbetween the worst and best outcomes.
"Maybe a French braid?" The topic swings to something more light-hearted, and Lucine chuckles. "I put my hair up in a half crown braid, but... a French braid would look very cute, I think... very ease to put up for a helmet, too."
Liam talks about Lua, and Lucine nods, her motion translated through her chin's movement against Liam's head. "I did. She... had to let me know they were with her. I was paranoid there, for a second..." She pauses, and thinks, leaning against the back of Liam's chair. "I don't know what the answer is... but the cage she's in... I'd imagine people think well of her family. Even if you came to her window and offered your hand, she'd have to worry about you getting locked in a cage of your own just for believing her. With Crucible, it didn't take much for any of us to get people to help rescue you. Leina's right to worry; I'd worry too."
Is this a sign she's eased into her identity as an Earthnoid? Or is she simply associating her own ignorance with an identity that doesn't exist?
The Syndicate only seemed like a fairy tale because Lucine lived in a bubble. It might as well been a part of another world.
"... You are very fun to cuddle, though." Lucine squeezes her arms against Liam's shoulders slightly, secretly to soothe her own thoughts. "I'm glad she was able to see a little bit of what you were like back then." Maybe this is why he feels such responsibility towards Lua.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
"I think that's a wise idea," Liam says, reaching up to put his hand atop Lucine's again. "It's best to be safe. I've been working with some people from the Yumi Foundation to... get my identity back." It's something he needs to do, if he's going to exist as a legal entity outside of NERV. But it's not comfortable, precisely. He's a Britannian citizen. He still doesn't feel like his full name is his, after years of bearing a number--and even if it did, he wouldn't want to give the number up entirely. It means something to him.
A cage. That about sums it up. Liam nods, and sets the tablet down. "I'm glad, too," he says. He scoots the chair out a little, and pats his thigh. "Want to cuddle your teddy bear some more?" he asks.
Wait, that came out way thirstier than he intended.
"I didn't mean, ah, sexy things, just... hugs? Maybe sexy things later, if you want, but now..." He looks down at his tablet, at a sticky note that pops up as he minimizes the browser window--the color is a brilliant grass-green that should be a marker of life, and is instead a reminder of something darker. It reads:
"Talk w/Lu about Them"
"I... shit." He's been putting this off because he didn't want to dig through Lucine's trauma some more, but he can't do it any more. "I ran into Yuliana the other day," Liam says. "I learned some things. Do you want to hear them?"
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
"Your... identity." Of course. In a way, it's something he has to legally reclaim, on top of mentally. "... How will that work with... everything that's going on, over there?" Britiannia. She means Britiannia. "... They won't... try to force you to... do anything, right?"
Still, there'll be some benefits. Lucine's demeanor warms back up. ".... When you do... I'd... love to know your full name." She kisses his head. "But, when you're ready. Liam's as fine a name as any. And... if you need my last name for anything... you can use it." She'll have to think about what she'll do when--
when---
-cuddle your teddy bear-
_Lua, this is all your fault._
Lucine's face reddens too, and she stifles her laughter against Liam's scalp. "Well, sure. We can always figure out this stuff later--"
'Talk w/Lu about Them'
"... Them?" There's no way this is something lighthearted, from the emotional signals she feels from Liam. So who--
Yuliana's name is like a shock of ice water on whatever passion Lucine feels, at that moment.
"....." She has been in battles where Yuliana has been present since That Day. Lucine has got along with the idea that she could ignore her. Every time Yuliana comes it, it's been something that's made her seem more human, like a victim. Liam made a note specifically to tell her, so it must be something more than just about Yuliana.
"... Alright," she finally says. ".... If you feel it's important to tell me, I trust you."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
"I hope not," Liam says. "But Emperor Charles is of NERV's biggest funders, so... maybe I'm somewhere convenient for the apparatus, anyway." A brief pause, as Lucine speaks about his name. "I will. I promise."
Would she like to take it, as well as know it? His mother didn't.
Liam's touch goes from 'yearning and affectionate' to 'painstakingly gentle' in an instant. He turns, wraps Lucine in his arms, and--if she'll allow--gently sweeps her into his lap, where he can cradle her. He nods once, and lets her tuck herself against him. "Don't tell this to anyone, but she's getting therapy at the PPL. We ran into each other. She told me she's been doing better, but that Elisa... isn't wholly on-board with her treatment." Liam takes a breath. There's no gentle way to say what he has to. "You remember Ra-Shalom, right?" How could Lucine forget? (It's possible. It's possible she dissociated so hard she can't remember the critical part.) "That... angry woman in the Void, the one who keeps doing things to Yuliana... Elisa's a part of her. The woman fell in love with Yuliana, and cut off parts of her, and sent them here, and those parts became Elisa."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
"I hope not," Liam says. "But Emperor Charles is of NERV's biggest funders, so... maybe I'm somewhere convenient for the apparatus, anyway." A brief pause, as Lucine speaks about his name. "I will. I promise."
Would she like to take it, as well as know it? His mother didn't.
Liam's touch goes from 'yearning and affectionate' to 'painstakingly gentle' in an instant. He turns, wraps Lucine in his arms, and--if she'll allow--gently sweeps her into his lap, where he can cradle her. He nods once, and lets her tuck herself against him.
"Don't tell this to anyone, but she's getting therapy at the PPL. We ran into each other. She told me she's been doing better, but that Elisa... isn't wholly on-board with her treatment." Liam takes a breath. There's no gentle way to say what he has to. "You remember Ra-Shalom, right?" How could Lucine forget? (It's possible. It's possible she dissociated so hard she can't remember the critical part.) "That... angry woman in the Void, the one who keeps doing things to Yuliana... Elisa's a part of her. The woman fell in love with Yuliana, and cut off parts of her, and sent them here, and those parts became Elisa."
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
In that moment, when Liam turns, he'll feel how unaware Lucine is in that moment, almost startling when she realizes that Liam's facing her, and reaching to her in a silent offer.
She definitely wouldn't mind the contact. She curls up against Liam as she's swept into his lap.
Liam begins, and Lucine... immediately feels like she's maybe overblown the issue by a mile or two. "... She's getting therapy?" It sparks a thread of warmth and empathy in her voice. "But Elisa's... against it. .... I wouldn't put it past her."
What a toxic relationship, those two--
"Ra-Shalom." She frowns. Part of her knows it was something that happened, and she *should* know. Liam fussed all over her, and she(?) was concerned over Liam, and the Ra-Mari's network of people flowed around them, being reaffirming just by existing around her.
And before that, there was... disjointed imagery, something discordant.
".... You will... have to explain. I'm sorry." No, she shouldn't apologize; but it feels like a confession of being too fragile. "... Elisa is a part of... that. Maybe, that's why Elisa decided to target me for a while, because I drew a connection between her and Yuliana."
She breaths out a sigh. ".... Why... did she want me to tend to those plants, anyhow?"
Plants, that ate life.
"..... I could've ended up being devoured." Her statement is flat, like a tongue, cautiously testing a cavity, knowing that pain would arrive. "... Back then. I would have tried to please her more in our interview."
Ada Legatum Luckwright teleports out.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam kisses Lucine on the forehead, like she did for him. "Don't know if it's working," he says, "or if it's even a good idea. But they wouldn't make her do it against her will, and she deserves it, same as anybody else. Doesn't change a damn thing she's done, but..."
Yeah. Lucine gets it. Liam nods. "It's this thing called codependency, I think. They both need each other emotionally as well as for their void witchcraft, and since they're both... awful, in their own ways, the relationship gets awful, too. It happens even to decent people." And Lucine is scared. That's sensible.
"There was a Psychoframe reaction. Leina, in the Banshee, with... whatever the hell machine Yuliana was in. I remember..." Pause, breathe. "Looking at the Dianthus and seeing this void in the world. And I realize, looking back, that's how she saw Newtypes all along. She even told me, when we met. And this woman, the Empress, reached out, and tried to remake me because I wasn't HER, I wasn't HER YULIANA."
Liam holds Lucine tight against him. "Do you remember any of that? I don't--I don't know how what they did to us fits into anything. But... like you said a while back, maybe being small and unremarkable is a good thing...?"
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
"Therapy's the best weapon," Lucine says, after Liam finishes. "That will be my take. To destroy the parts that are hurting Yuliana, and keeping her from getting better. Elisa can be against it, or she can understand that this is what Yuliana needs." Her eyes open, looking off at the space over Liam's shoulder. "Elisa will have to decide... whether she loves Yuliana, or just loves *parts* of Yuliana. Accepting the whole of Yuliana... I wonder if Elisa can do it."
Codependency. "That's a good word for it. If I... think about us, in comparison..." She moves her head back, to look up at Liam. "I love you, but... I don't need a Liam to be Lucine. And... I hope you don't need a Lucine to be a Liam." It's not the same, either-- the versions Yuliana and Elisa need in each other in order to just *be* are toxic.
It's probably dismissive to even think of her and Liam as somehow being immune.
Or that she, Lucine, herself, is immune at all.
"So that's what happened. The Banshee reacted with Yuliana's unit. And since Yuliana's abilities require her to be the 'anti' of a Newtype..."
And it stretched out, even beyond what happened to Lucine herself. Of course... that was why Lucine was concerned. ... It makes sense, now, in retrospect.
".... I was the Dianthus." It sounds ridiculous, and it's an oversimplification of what happened. "..... I remember that I couldn't exist, so I had to be something else."
For a moment, Lucine isn't sure which incident Liam is referring to-- that time before, when they were first getting to know each other, or the time where everyone was forced to hold onto their identities for dear life.
".... It doesn't, probably. Maybe, if they remember it, it might be like it's from another life. Back then... no one knew about Elisa or Yuliana. While I haven't forgiven them for taking the Dianthus from me... I'm not going to act on that specifically, either. ... there's nothing that'll make that attendent's life come back. That part..." She frowns. "... It was a dark time."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
That's a tall order. Most people--Liam included, sometimes--find it hard to accept and adapt to their partners. There's been times when he's noticed Lucine trying to appease him, and wondered if he's done something wrong, and then grown frustrated because of that. And that's a behavior pattern they both know about, and are working on with their therapists.
"I hope she can," Liam says, "but... I wouldn't bet on it. They're both really sad people. I realized it when Yuliana was telling me about Elisa. She didn't just pop into existence fully-formed. She had a childhood, and a birth family. She just... didn't connect with any of them, and didn't know why she felt that way. When she found Yuliana, she'd found the one, and nothing else mattered. And now she finally knows. And Yuliana... what happened to her was horrific, but you know what she said to me? She said she was flattered the Empress was able to able to find her, because..."
Shit, this is going to require him to explain causality. That's one thing he knows more about thanks to his caregiver's genuine but perhaps over-ambitious curriculum.
"The Empress doesn't experience time like we do. Elisa existed all along because the Empress was able to put part of herself into time as we know it. Does that make sense?"
Liam hasn't forgotten how scared Lucine felt, or how guilty she felt over the attendant's death. He holds her tightly. "So that was what happened. It was like a paradox. But me, it was like... it was violation. It was like being in the lab again, except worse. I don't know how Yuliana is able to just--to just excuse it, because you know the part of the Empress that could relate to her? That understood she had limits? That part's Elisa now. The Empress can't do that anymore.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
It's telling that it's Liam that had to suggest to Lucine, and even *encourage* her to get therapy. It wasn't even that it was some struggle; she just... never did it.
It was easier to say it was something she'd eventually do, then never do, than to go out and actually do it. There's a lot of things to humanity that don't make sense.
And then there's.... Elisa.
"... Wait," Lucine starts, already confused as her upper half straightens up.. "She's the parts of Ra-Salom, but she also had a childhood..." Pause. "Or is that just part of the voidmagic, to make us think she has a childhood?"
Or, well, causality, which the Daedalus program never quite got to explaining, and *certainly* was never geared towards building an understanding of something to the level of what created Elisa.
".... Because the Empress willed it, that mean that Elisa existed..." Lucine's face screws up as she murmurs through the words. "But... if that's so, why didn't the Empress... will Yuliana to be with her? Or was that in order to be with Yuliana, or... to draw Yuliana in? Or is it... because, 'time as we know it', that 'we' would include Yuliana as well, maybe..." Lucine is trying! "... I... think it does. I don't like the implications that the Empress could will things into place..."
Liam holds Lucine tightly, as she recalls those events-- she holds him back, selfishly drawing in her head to take in the heat of his body, and holds herself there, for a moment. ".... It's okay," she says. "... I just wanted to make sure I didn't forget that part. I can move on, but if I 'move on' from that, I'll repeat that mistake."
And now, she holds onto Liam, imparting some of her warmth back to him, as he recalls what went through him, at that moment. ".... The danger exists in that the Empress doesn't have the limits she did before. If it were to come down to it, I wonder... if Elisa reunited with the Empress tomorrow, how would Yuliana see that? ... Or, what if the two 'parts' of the Empress begin to see themselves are separate? It feels like something that's meant to fracture." She's really, really trying to wrap her mind around the casuality part. ".... Maybe I'm not understanding this just yet..."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam gives Lucine the room she needs to straighten up, and the space she needs to try and process this. "I don't think Yuliana would lie about that," he says. "She's lied about a lot, but why that? And... there's records of an Elisa Kafim existing before the REA broke Yuliana's brain. She was an olympic gymnast, she lived in Orb and was on their team." Liam lets out a sharp breath. "I know that doesn't... really refute the possibility of 'void magic', but..."
But Lucine is coming to a conclusion, and it's a big one. "Because Yuliana can't be with her, as she is," Liam says. "It would kill her. She doesn't want to die." He places a hand on her forehead, and strokes her hair. "And I don't think Elisa wants that, either." Lucine brings up a damn good point, though, and it's one Liam can't answer definitively. "If Yuliana died, Elisa would be alone. Maybe the Empress would claim Yuliana's soul or whatever, but Elisa, that severed fragment of her, would still be in this world. There are reasons for them to fight over Yuliana despite originally being the same entity."
As macabre as this all is, Liam is... alert. Engaged. Like he gets when the two are putting a jigsaw puzzle together, or when he's getting really into that little wooden sand-garden he got a couple days ago. But he still holds Lucine. He's still a warm, stable presence. "It's okay if you don't understand."
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
"Yeah, I don't... see her lying that way. Lying about a person... implies that there's something about them you need to cover up. I don't get that sense, from Yuliana." Liam also reveals the other, more concrete reasons. "... It's hard to wrap my head around. But I don't doubt you, either. There's a lot of things I don't understand that still exist."
At least this doesn't feel *scary*, in the same way facing the void directly did. it's more like a twisted brain teaser, or a plot to a dark movie.
"Which her is this? The Empress, or Elisa? Which her would be killed, and which part doesn't want to die?" Now these questions are more to clarify, but Lucine also sees them as definitions. Which part is mortal, and which part is afraid of death? As Liam's hand strokes her hair, Lucine's head rests against his chest. The Empress must be all three, if he says that _Elisa_ agrees.
"... And if Yuliana were to die from being with the Empress, you mean... She'd be alone. I can't help but feel sorry for her, then..."
Her eyes close. "So they already see each other as different... That is, the Empress and Elisa. It... would be romantic, in some ways. If an an... well, a heavenly being," she corrects, midsentence, "if they were to split a part of themselves in order to be with someone they love, we'd call it a love story. ... But... how would that relationship be any better, or have a more stable future, when it's already built on a foundation of sacrifice? The Empress has lost her abilty to... hold back, but she also... can't have what she wants without dying... And Elisa..."
She finally laughs. "... I don't mind talking about it." Her breathing relaxes; she sighs contentedly. "... Thank you, for talking about it with me. I... think I understand a little. Why it's not simple as who's 'bad' or 'good'. If people's lives weren't tied to them, they'd just be... anybody else. Two people who really, really need therapy." Pause. "... And a jealous Empress who needs to accept that she's in the audience, for now..."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Liam nods, gently. He doesn't want Lucine to feel stupid because she doesn't understand all this--even if he feels a little twinge of frustration as she expresses her confusion. He takes a breath, and answers her questions. "The Empress lives in the Void. That's the place the Kafims summon their dragon kaiju from. Elisa is a fragment of the Empress, sent to this world because the Empress can't go herself. Yuliana can't go be with the Empress in the Void because it would kill her. Yuliana doesn't want to die, and since Yuliana dying would leave Elisa alone, I don't think Elisa wants that, either." Laying it out like this is helping him, too, now that he thinks of it. "Which means the Empress and Elisa, despite originally being one, have reason to act at cross purposes."
Is it romantic? In a warped way, yes, it absolutely is. Liam's ancestors believed in a God who loved the world, and had a Son who was both fully human and fully divine. If that story were one of romantic love, and not...
Ugh, he's not going to take that thought any further, it feels disrespectful just to entertain it.
"Hephaestus told me a lot of bad things," Liam says, once Lucine's given him her thanks. "But he told me some true things, too. Like how you need to know what your enemy's fighting for, and why, even if you disagree. Even if they're horrible. People don't do things for no reason."
"...Yeah. They both need therapy, factual statement." Liam nuzzles his cheek against Lucine's brow. "Do you still want to hug your teddy bear?"