2024-09-29: By My Grace
- Log: By My Grace
- Cast: Elisa Kafim, Yuliana Kafim
- Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- Date: 2024-09-29
- Summary: The Kafims work out in the Castle's gym, but even a Gold-Medal Witch needs a break now and then... if only to bask in her wife's attention. They discuss Rena, Leila's kaiju, and their own plans -- most importantly, their evil plot to go out and get gelato. Elisa's lavishing so much attention on her wife after her reality was upset, and surely it has nothing to do with her running into other people.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Raw strength. Raw power. Elisa Kafim has these in spades now. Even more than she once did. So simply using menial force is not enough to keep her attention. And she has much that requires meditative focus that is not, literally, meditation.
So she goes back to her parallel bars, to her balance beam, to her rings. At the moment she is at the balance beam. Dressed in a simple black leotard, Elisa dives forward and handsprings, keeping herself perfectly balanced on her hands as she moves forward across the beam. A stretch out, as she brings one hand to the side, balancing on only the first; then she springs up from that hand, somersaulting backwards and catching herself on one foot.
It's been a while. She is showing no signs of stopping, though she has switched between the bars, the beam, and the rings already.
The gym's air vents keeps it sufficiently warm; her eyes are distant, on nothing in particular, as she focuses on her body more than on her surroundings.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Raw strength and power is plenty meditative for Yuliana, dressed in her gym tank and shorts; a towel is draped around her neck, which is scandalously uncovered, but it's fine.
She's only here with Elisa, after all, and no one would dare interrupt them. Plus, the air vents keep things plenty warm, in here; the heat of the various fireplaces burning in the Silent Castle are carried around the fortifications through those vents, ensuring a nice, even distribution of heat everywhere where plenty of fires are burning.
(Which is to say, everywhere but the North Wing.)
Yuliana has taken a break from her own weightlifting to admire Elisa -- well, that's one word for her attention -- as she flows between beam, bars and rings. "Oh!" She gasps, where she's sitting on the bench, lying over it with her legs waving in the air and her chin propped up on one hand. A water bottle dangles from the other; the jaws of her tentacles gape open so they can clap together above her back, in particularly fangy claw-pplause. "Wonderful...!!"
In a word, she's captivated.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
The warmth is important, more for Yuliana than for Elisa, but still important. And the warmth gives Elisa more energy besides, the heat of the fires infusing her skin. ...She does not generate much of her own heat anymore, though she is not icy cold as she was just after the fall of Junius Seven.
Elisa notices Yuliana, of course. She always notices Yuliana. And so after a time, what was merely meditative becomes a conversation between wives. Elisa flows back to the bars, flipping upward towards the upper bar where she hangs and twirls. Eventually, however, after another shot at the rings...
Elisa somersaults down, and lands perfectly before her wife. "Yuliana," she says. She is not sweating.
"...My Yuliana. It would seem that we have decided upon a break."
A small smile. "I am pleased that you enjoy my efforts."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Perfection!" Yuliana declares, as Elisa somersaults to a landing. "Absolute perfection!" She is the Gold-Medal Witch, after all.
Her tentacles slither down, to push her up from her bench; she stands, and steps into her wife, those grasping claws snaking around Elisa's midsection. "Time for a break," she agrees, smiling sly. She bites her lip, and a bead of red blossoms, there, as her extra fang bites too deeply into them -- as it always has. "You must be thirsty after all that, right..? Drink deeply."
Yuliana proceeds to take a drink from her water bottle herself -- and lean up on her tippy-toes, a hand on Elisa's shoulder to steady herself, as she kisses her and passes the liquid in her cheeks along. The blood from that little nick in her lip colours the tasteless liquid, just slightly.
Oh. That kind of thirst.
"Hehehe...!" Elisa's wife giggles, when she pulls away. She passes her water bottle to a tentacle to put it down, so that she can embrace her wife properly. "El~yul~aaa! You're amazing! There's never been a woman more graceful than you!" Her frills fan out to either side of her head, lazily, clearly content.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
The gold medal Elisa is interested in today is the gold medal of her wife's affections... which is seems she has won handily. "That is true," Elisa answers, once she has seen what Yuliana intends. ...After all, the regular kind of thirst rarely plagues her anymore.
She drinks. A little thick red; a bit of water. And Yuliana's nature, nourishing as any ambrosia could be.
Elisa smiles. "How pleasing," she muses.
Then, "That may be true as well," Elisa answers, preening somewhat under the praise. It's understated--but she doesn't understate it so much this time.
"And I have such good motivation to show that grace in you..."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Affection flushes over Yuliana's cheeks, hearing Elisa's musings. "It's certainly true!" She chirps, all warmth despite the coolness of Elisa's skin.
Her smile only widens, hearing how she is Elisa's motivation, hugging herself snug to her wife. She tilts her head forward, resting her forehead to hers, and her eyes close in a catlike smile. "That's right!" She says, cheerfully. "It's all for me! Haha...!" She's evidently delighted, rubbing her cheek against Elisa's cheek.
"Oh, Elya, it's been wonderful... we've been doing so much, ever since I went out to secure that aid from Zilkhstan, right?" Where she met Rena, and got distracted doing fun activities with her. "We even went on a lovely date... oh, I feel so much better!"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa holds Yuliana, giving her a squeeze before she opens her eyes again to watch Yuliana's, closed. It is for her, she confirms, and Elisa is still smiling in her small way. "Yes," she says. "All for you."
A pause. Since she went out...
"Yes," Elisa agrees. "We have had much to do. I enjoyed our date as well..."
"Though," she says, "You have not been with only me. How is our dear... sister?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana's own smile is completely content, close as she is. Even the tentacles of her frill, trapped between her face and Elisa's, curl around her wife's head; the ones which aren't so stuck, on her other side, wriggle with glee.
"We even got to see that girl's kaiju!" Yuliana chirps, brightly. "That new Alexis is irritating, but isn't it nice to see artwork made for us like that? Oh, we'll have to craft a dragon of our own, sometime...! We've not made one for too long, don't you think?"
She pauses in her excitement, though, to tilt her face towards her wife. "Haa," she sighs, evidently reluctant for her attention to be called away from Elisa and her works. "That's right, that's right... I happened to meet Reka, along the way." Rena has a nickname now, if one which is familiar enough to communicate scorn as well as warmth. "She completely messed up our attempts to get out of that puzzle room, you know!" Yuliana pouts, and adds: "Though it wasn't a very well designed one, I suppose. I was going to register my displeasure, but she pointed out how young the boy was... so we went to get gelato, instead."
Yuliana wrinkles up her nose. "Though, I think she was distressed we were thinking along the same lines, back there. She still has so long to go! I at least educated her on the art of poisoning, but I really couldn't tell you how appreciative she was of my hard work. V sem'ye ne bez duraka," there is no family without a fool, "our sister is very stubborn!" And Rena, with all her pesky 'morals', is clearly the black sheep.
(Not like Yuliana. When has Yuliana ever had a single ethic?)
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Glee! It is good. Elisa is pleased, as she said. However... it is hard to be completely pleased, given how much time Yuliana has been spending with others. At least Rena is relevant to them. At least Rena is like them.
But, for kaiju, "That was enjoyable," she says of the kaiju. "I'm quite interested in that girl. ...I care less for her Alexis, of course. But indeed... We shall have to make a new dragon soon. It will be... good, to stretch my creativity once again."
Yuliana speaks. Reka, of course, a nickname. "I see... How unfortunate, that she would hinder an attempt at egress. You should ensure she does not." ...Elisa probably remembers what a puzzle room is. Probably. Escape?
"Ahh, youth. It is well enough, to forgive the youth their transgressions," she agrees. "Gelato..."
"I desire gelato..."
A pause.
"Hmm. She does have much to learn. But you shall teach her. And in time, perhaps I shall teach her, as well."
"...Even if she is a bit of a fool, now. We all once had to learn."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"You're so creative," Yuliana lavishes attention upon her wife, all glowing with affection. "Make it really punchy this time, okay?" What extra malice could Elisa add to her dragons, to make them even punchier...?
It's a mystery, but Yuliana believes in her.
Yuliana pouts. "I tried," she huffs, "but she was just like, 'oh god, no, no, this isn't who I am!'" She affects a high, mocking voice to relate Rena's distress. "As if getting angry is so wrong! Tchah... the point was to escape the room, but I got stuck thinking one of the puzzles was more complicated than it was. It was stupid." And doesn't reflect her actual life in the slightest, of course.
But it's well enough, and Yuliana nods. "Elyaaa~," she lilts, "let's go out and get some gelato!" That's only a trip halfway down the world, no big deal. "Passionfruit gelato!" It's her favourite flavour of her favourite snack, after all.
"It's easier to bear a fool's education with a good snack," Yuliana points out, brightly. "Even if she didn't appreciate my help as much as she should have, at least I had gelato! Haa... Elya, you could teach her so much," she adds, nuzzling her cheek against her wife again. "I just want her to appreciate you... you work so hard, you know!"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Punchy..." Elisa considers. That small smile spreads on her face again, but it is less pleasant this time. She has the correct number of teeth. "I have just the thing. Yes... You shall see."
She tried. The mockery of Rena's distress wins a sigh from Elisa. "Yes, she has much to learn. It is important to understand one's anger. To accept it." A pause. "Well, that's hardly your failing," she agrees.
Gelato...
"Yes," she agrees. "Let's. We shall arrange it as soon as possible. And we shall have our gelato."
It is true. A fool's education... "I could," Elisa says. "Indeed, I could. And I do."
"One day, they will appreciate me. She, and more. One day."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana tilts her head back, but it's just to lay a kiss on Elisa's cheek. "I'll look forward to it," she smiles, and there's an edge to her affection which might unsettle someone else.
"The room was poorly-designed!" Yuliana huffs, in full agreement. "Besides, she should really try harder to learn from me... I'm much better at embracing my anger. Aren't I, zhenushka?" Well, most of the time...
And when Elisa declares that they shall have their gelato, Yuliana squeaks in delight: "Eee!" It might have been unpleasant for a normal person to have her squeal right by her ear, but since it's Yuliana's happiness, surely it's fine. "Another date! I'm truly blessed...!"
She lifts one of her hands, to cradle Elisa's opposite cheek, smiling warmly. "As they should," she says, full of admiration. "But none as much as I."
It's so nice when Yuliana actually appreciates her wife, isn't it?
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa appreciates that edge, instead. As much as the kiss on her cheek.
"You are," Elisa agrees smoothly. "Much better than her and most of them."
Elisa does not mind the squeal. It's just fine. It's pleasant, even. ...But then, Elisa has not minded pain much for some time. It's simply another form of stimulus...
"A date," she agrees. "It will be..."
"'Fun'."
A smile, then, as Elisa pulls Yuliana closer. "None as much as you," she agrees.
It's better this way.