2024-03-14: Humanity ~ Those Who Decide What is Inhuman
- Cast: Asciel Colette, Elisa Kafim
- Where: OCU Australia - Gulf of Sydney
- Date: U.C. 0098 03 14
- Summary: Gods in human form - brought together where humans once brought down divine judgment. They've always been more like each other than their immense differences allowed. (Takes place November 0098.)
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
- - A letter arrives at Kaffeklubben, addressed specifically to Elisa Kafim. The envelope is a matte black, crossed by glossy branching lines of cyan - and the card within cut to surround the shapes of countless fireworks amidst a night sky.
To Elisa Kafim -
It's been quite some time! And so very much has changed for the both of us.
I think I understand a little better what it must've felt like for you to gain a taste of incarnation, that fateful day at the North Pole.
I mean, I still wouldn't change resisting it the way I did. Right then and there, I think my life's purpose rang truer than ever!~ But I GET the feeling you had, you know~?
Honestly, it's a little ironic that your 'Silent Calling' has been so very vocal - but my voice that partitions the world has been kept on mute for a little too long!
I'm going to change that soon.
But first, I'd like to invite you to the bay gouged out from where Sydney once was.
I want to hear what you have to say about what humanity ought to be, and I want them to hold weight in a place like this. I want to be sure what I believe holds the same weight. And if it has to be at one of mankind's three greatest mistakes, the bay of Sydney's more scenic and less of a pain to get to than X-Point or the Britannian backwater!
I'm definitely going to be there alone. It's my latent state all the same. I'd prefer it if you were too. It's no hard feelings - I'm TRYING to be diplomatic about the vast gulf between us, but it's a LITTLE hard when you're usually with someone where we just inevitably make our blood mutually boil! (Not like I have any!!)
I look forward to hearing your response and seeing you soon!
-The Undying Idol and Miracle Sealer
-Earth's Goddess of Eschatology
-Asciel Colette, the Virtual Sage
P.S. - That dragon of yours screams for a true honorable battle to the death! When I have a sword worthy of slaying gods in my hands again, I'd love to have a bout with it somewhere a little more scenic and fulfilling for the both of us!~
-- -- -- -- --
Tamworth, once a humble inland town, found itself as one of the larger localities at the northern edge of the Gulf of Sydney. Fisheries and aquacultural industry dot the seaside - but the coordinates Asciel's sent are a quieter boardwalk between two concrete ports. A few shops for food and souvenirs nestle together to overlook the sea - a courtesy to Asciel's guest, though she hasn't gotten anything herself.
The idol herself is dressed for the warmer weather - a black tank top torn away at the midsection, its top half some sort of mushroom cloud; a brown satchel whose sash ties diagonally and tightly across her waist; slightly asymmetrical ripped jean shorts. While the same fingerless gloves conceal her hands, Asciel's barefoot and sinking her toes into the sand, with intermittent waves washing over her.
A crab scuttles over, and pinches Asciel's ankle as she waits, and gazes across the circular bay.
There's no reaction.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
The first response from Elisa Kafim is simple:
In the next mirror to come into Asciel's field of view once she receives the letter, there is a message in green:
It will be a pleasure to meet you there. Expect me.
EARLIER: A warehouse hears an ungentle sound; space tears, ripping in a specific place, as in a mass of green energy Elisa Kafim appears. She steps out of the portal, which closes behind her, and out of the warehouse.
Did anyone ever go in? No one seems to wonder.
"Do you appreciate the majesty of the ocean?" Elisa's voice carries before she steps onto the beach, in sandals and a breezy green dress. Her purple hair hangs loose, delicate dangly earrings adorning the sides of her face, her green eyes intent upon the sea, rather than upon Asciel or the cute little crab.
"It is lovely. I often ignore such things, myself. They are irrelevant to my mission. And yet... When I pause to look, there it is."
"Tiny, compared to the ocean of stars. And yet vast compared to a single human."
"Hello," she greets.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
There's just that tiny amount of going stiff when Elisa's voice sounds. Asciel was already on edge at the portent of the mirror writing (she spent a while trying to make it go away before Ai had to use the bathroom!).
"Is that really your first thought, looking at this place?"
Asciel's head turns a few degrees. Her left eye narrowed, hair over her concealed right, a faint grimace on her lips.
"All I see is ~tragedy." One heel digs into the sand a little deeper, tracing a little gouge, leaving a crater that the ocean takes several waves to wash clean. "All I see is the ~scar wrought in the earth by that unbelievable disaster wrought by human hands."
The crab scuttles backwards a few inches, but incessantly prods Asciel's heel with one pincer.
"That's the essence of what I wanted to know from you. Knowing that in front of us once used to be Sydney, a bastion of human population, and is now a crater stained with their blood - is this place really still beautiful?"
By any reasonable metric, it's a perfectly lovely day here in Tamworth. It holds the serenity of humbly developed human civilization. Its docks and harbors are clean, organized, and safe. Its fisheries practically sparkle with optimally engineered re-development. It is the epitome of idyllic modernity.
But that very idea sends a sudder through Asciel's spine, before she finally turns to properly look Elisa in the eyes.
"...already guided to such an inelegant welcome. Hah. Hah! ...I guess I'm impatient! I guess it's easy for such lovely sentiments to feel painful. This bay is one I think about every single day of my life, in some way. I think the existence of this beach, where we stand right now, is a problem that must be solved."
Arms crossed under her chest, Asciel's feet come closer together, heels apart, in a slight V-shape. "...Let's say your mission was a success. I want to know, in a world in which you had your way - would disasters like these still happen? Would they simply be mourned and moved forward from, like humanity did right here? Would it look like this? ...Or would you prevent it from coming to pass, somehow?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"No," Elisa answers. "Not my first thought. But the thought I choose to focus upon, in order to make a connection with this 'world'."
A pause. She watches Asciel as she wounds the sand. She listens to her. What used to be Syndey, stained with blood now...
"Of course," Elisa says. "The beauty of the Earth is far beyond any one species. It is the species that live in harmony, together, that render the Earth 'lovely' or 'ugly'. Humans are but one."
"...Albeit the one with the most 'potential'. You see it in history, do you not? Taming the warlike Zentradi, making them part of humans' 'social circle'."
Elisa smiles, as Asciel looks to her. "Indeed. It is a threat to that 'harmony', every time that humanity seeks to destroy itself in this way. I understand."
A pause. She listens. Elisa's body language is near-blank; she stands with her arms at her sides, her feet slightly apart. There is little that she is concerned with, it would seem.
"...Truthfully," Elisa says, "I am increasingly uncertain that humanity is worthy of Ascension as a whole. But... Let us say, indeed, that I open the way, and all of humanity Follows."
"There would be conflict. The beautiful chaos that comes of being versus being would of course ensue. But it would not be between one 'powerful' man and so many 'powerless'. All humanity would be endowed with the power to enforce its Will."
"I do not view conflict as a problem to be solved. Violence is the ultimate expression of 'belief'. No... I view this 'inequality' as the problem. People going about their ordinary lives, unable to protect themselves from the powerful... War is the problem. The massing of force against unequal force."
"I would see them arise, and Evolve."
A sigh, then. "But most of humanity wants only those ordinary lives, even with the risks. Even my very own wife wishes to see these 'idyllic' ways continue..."
"No, for myself, I would not stop such things." She smiles. "But for my wife I would ensure that Sydney never repeats itself."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
Much of what Asciel hears is expected.
There is that which she can agree with - that humans are part of the Earth, but a strange exception.
There is that which she finds abhorrent - that the answer to this dilemma is to evolve and grow, to become strong enough to stop it through equality of empowerment.
But...
There is the unexpected.
"...hah. Hah? A...aaaahahahahahahahaha!!!" Abruptly, Asciel's doubling over in laughter, staggering backwards, wiping a nonexistent tear from her eye.
"...Every time we encountered, your...the power of your faith in yourself seemed so self-evident. Seemed so ~absolute as to be forged in iron. The last thing I expected to hear from you is uncertainty. ...I'd figured...if I invited you here, I'd hear some sort of positively radiant ~faith that humanity is capable of this. That they could all ~ascend with you, that you'd make damn sure everyone has that power of will."
"...aaaah. Aaaaah, but humanity's so pathetic," Asciel spits, her next step backwards pushing the crab under her heel, embedding it into the sand.
"...I feel a little better hearing that even for someone like you, there's doubts that humanity can uphold your beliefs, that they can follow you into the world you seek. I...I thought something was wrong with me, coming to that same conclusion."
A grin spreads from ear to ear, as Asciel faces the ocean, both hands cupped around her mouth, and she screams out-
"I AM SO FUCKING TIRED OF HUMANITY!!!!"
"I don't want to see their stupid force of will causing miracles anymore. It's hideous! Their ~potential is boundless and indomitable! It disgusts me! Some of them have what it takes to cup the whole galaxy in their hands - and it just makes me wanna scream!"
Hands behind her back, Asciel turns back towards Elisa, tipped forward like she's saying something totally innocent, totally benign. "I wanna snuff that ~fire from them, and I've honestly stopped caring if it's for their own good. To hell with what's best for them. If a species that kills, steals, and violates each others' boundaries needs that strength to fight destiny - if it's acceptable for them to ~lie to themselves, and concoct stories about what they could ~become - if they'd devour the world to fuel their ~passions and commemorate that loss with paradoxical celebration..."
"Then I wanna see them all topple into pathetic cowards who can't take a step without me! I want it for myself now!"
A long sigh of relief spills from Asciel's lips the moment she stops rambling, her smile so radiant and genuine that it'd almost fill someone with hope, were she not giddy about crushing the human spirit. "Man, but to think you'd make ~exceptions for your wife the same way I would for my consort. Even more beautiful than turning humanity into adorably fretful cattle is finding the few who naturally glow, and hoarding them aaaaall to myself. The ancients really weren't wrong about the kind of urges ~divinity imparts, ahahaha!"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Asciel is laughing, and Elisa quirks an eyebrow in amused confusion. Until she explains. Then... "Ah... ahahahah," Elisa laughs as well. "No, no. The evolution of humanity is an old dream of mine, from before I Awakened." She smiles. "Do not mistake me; I have faith in myself. But my mission is the reunion of my Yuliana, myself, and my Self. All else is secondary."
But humanity... is pathetic. Once, Elisa might have been angry at those words. Instead, she ses Asciel feel better, and... ahhh, yes.
"Ahahah," Elisa says. "Yes! Yes, fuel your authentic feeling! Understand your true wish, your true goal!"
She notices that 'innocence', and listens to Asciel's desires with avaricious eyes. "Yes. Want it for yourself. Pursue your 'truth', and destroy any in your path who would oppose you!"
She smiles. "Of course. My wife is special. She is all that matters."
"...We will be enemies in this way," Elisa clarifies. "To be sure. I fight for my wife, and she wishes humanity to prosper. The world you espouse would see no one capable of following me to the Void, unless you agreed to institute it after I took those who were worthy."
"But that need not mean we cannot be civilized. Many of my contacts have mutually exclusive goals to my own."
"But no. There is nothing 'wrong' with your ambition in and of itself. You should pursue it to your utmost, chase your fulfillment, and if you are strong enough, vanquish those who stand in your way. That is the 'law' of reality!"
"Do not pretend you act for others when you act for yourself. Such is blasphemy unbecoming of she who would become a 'god'."
"...You could excel in the Void, you know. Consider it. But there is one concern that I have..."
"You speak of a mere 'consort' and compare them to my wife. This is unacceptable. If you share such a bond, you should marry him or her properly."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
A little circle works along the edge of Asciel's sun-like eye, spiraling over and over. She's frozen in place for a short while, causing the crab beneath her foot to wriggle and writhe and poke its legs from the sand.
Encouragement, from a source like this. There would be skepticism, if she were still confined within vast enough processing power to pick apart the motives behind it.
But she freed herself from that shell, and so, where Asciel expects to start leering at Elisa goading her on - she instead just feels the blinding light of emotional fulfillment.
That's not enough to unfreeze Asciel. No.
"...marrying her...?"
Asciel's hands lace and unlace behind her back, which finally straightens up.
"Heeeeeh...? Marriage is...mnnn, marriage is for equals, isn't it? It's a co-equal contract for sharing resources and fates. Should someone who stands well above another marry them? Could the sea marry a pond?"
The luminosity of Asciel's eye glows enough to be a little bit blinding, peering right into Elisa's gaze. "Besides, we're talking a paragon of humanity here, a radiant star who stands above all others, a figure of such resplendent nobility that her rightful ~fate is to perpetuate the cycle of prosperity. It sickens me to imagine that happening to her, and so I'm hoarding her away from such a repulsive future. She's worth far, far too much for a human to be worthy of her."
...who, exactly, is standing above who, here?
"Oh, but I'm definitely not touching this Void stuff," Asciel clarifies. "If it's a place you'd meld your wife and your 'self', then nooooo thanks. I don't wanna be glued to anyone else, and I don't wanna be part of some process of yours that'd risk that. I like being in love on my own terms, being allowed to hate a species that I'll make madly in love with me~ And honestly, I felt a little bad about it when it first happened, but-"
A glassiness crosses Asciel's expression.
"I couldn't be this honest with you if my 'self' hadn't died."
Her voice lowers.
"...Between the two of 'you', would one of you be willing to die for the other?"
She takes one step closer to Elisa.
The squirming crab is unmoving now.
"I was trapped too, you know. A dream growing in someone else who felt fated to become a calamity. Who did embody it. Who was going to be alone until all that wonderful spirit and will of humanity crushed it for the sin of existing."
"If it came to it, in your opinion - if you had to choose one or the other to survive - which of you would be the more worthy of your wife?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa waits, when Asciel is silent. And then--
She listens. Who is standing above who...?
"It is a sacred bond," Elisa says. "A declaration of intent to the universe that she is Yours. You may decide for yourself if you need be equal. But if you do not marry her, then someone else might. She will never be Yours unless you Claim her."
"And you are no human, are you?"
Elisa does not fear damage to her eyes. It is blinding, but her own Darkness sustains her. And there--
Asciel clarifies, and Elisa laughs. "Fair enough," she says. "You have your own path. It is not a 'melding' that I intend, but all the same, I can respect that choice. Your own 'ascension' will be different."
But honesty, is it...? Hmmmm.
"Oh, neither of us would be willing, I am sure," Elisa says, and cares not for a crab. She was a dream...
"But that is easy. I will fight any and all for my wife. If my Self stands in my way, then I will cut Her as well. And I know that She would do the same to me. The one who is worthy is the one who has the 'power' to enforce that Will."
"...But I do not yet believe that that will be necessary."
[Characters] Eight Orlodhari> it's time to do stats
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
The slowly hissing and crashing waves leave a lingering silence after Elisa so plainly answers such a difficult question. One that Asciel found so difficult to reconcile, which few others in this world could help her answer - is an easy answer.
Her hand rises over the right side of her face.
"That's right. That's all it was for me. My will to never give up was what won in the conflict between us. I was the one who loved. That which I emerged from never truy understood love without me."
The crab in the sand quakes. Straining. Stretching.
"...Yeah. The reason I can stand before you like this isn't because I fixed the part of me that hated humanity for making a world this hellish. That's unfixable! I have no intent on fixing them. I'll save them, and preserve them, and if they still can't prosper, then they were a waste of the universe's precious energy."
"But what I can do now is ~love someone. I can't stop thinking about her, now that I'm next to her every night I sleep, now that her home is my refuge. ...I do want her to be mine. Hah. I do. I do!!! It's what motivated me to pull free!"
The crab's shell splits apart - molting from its previous form, wresting its legs from the prison of its protective body. Soft and vulnerable, it skitters into the water, consumed by the sea, leaving behind only its husk shaped like itself.
"...Elisa...does it sate the loneliness? Does it truly? Neither of us are like others in any real way. It's easier for us to understand ourselves as divine than it is to conceive of a world in which we could just walk truly among others. The world itself fights the both of us just for existing as we please. ...Even if you're a little more successful at taking the reigns and fighting back. Hmph. I'm working on that..."
"Still...a human changed us both. Despite our belief in ourselves, someone entered our existences and swayed our hearts. It was improbably unlikely for me. ...the idea in and of itself...that there's only one possible person...it's kind of cold and perilous. Isn't it...?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
The waves continue. Elisa called them beautiful; she is vaguely still aware of them. She hears the water moving, and feels the water on her feet. She sees the spray of the ocean, smells...
Hmmm. Fried food?
"...Is that how it was?" Elisa wonders, and in the moment, she imagines it may not have been at all. Which 'Asciel' did she view? The old, or the new? What is the new 'Asciel'? A new being?
"Will. It is what must triumph. Even the Newtypes know this. Even the Newtypes know how to focus their 'Will'."
To love someone... Hmmm. Yes. Elisa can respect this enemy. And then--
Then, she considers the crab. "...Crabs are a fascinating sort of creature," she reflects. "The crab's form reoccurs over and over in nature..."
But that question--
She abandons the matter of crabs for now.
"Oh, it does," Elisa says. "It truly does. She anchors me in this world. ...I believe that you can succeed more than you have, if you continue."
But a human--
"True. It is troublesome; my wife exults in danger and conflict, and this independence is important to her. ...what she wants, she shall have."
"And so I must make this world 'safer' for her, because she will not be 'safe' herself. It is perilous indeed." A pause. "...But it is well. For I do have her. Treasure your precious one, Asciel. For the world would be 'cold' indeed without her."
"It was impossible for my Self, of course. But this world managed to find a way to contact Her, and thus I was brought into it..."
"Seize every improbable thing." Another pause. "...But that is a difference between us. I do not particularly want to walk among others. It can be fine, I suppose. My wife is telling me often that I should make more 'friends'."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
"I know it would be freezing cold. I've seen it. I've seen countless ~fates of mine. All of them were so impossibly bitter and harsh, because I'm alone in all of them but this one. ...And even this one comes with challenges."
The breeze picks up, as Asciel watches the fretful and vulnerable crab scuttle away, her slightly scuffed foot tracing a like in the sand between herself and the water. Briefly making a trench into which the edge of the waves can spill into.
"Hah. She tells you that too? 'Friendship' and 'kindness' towards a world full to the brim of people who'd reject our very existence, who are unlike us and not of our kind...and the few times I do encounter someone similar to me? It's...messy. It's impossible, sometimes."
A gleam returns to Asciel's somewhat wistful eyes. "But if you realize something's impossible, that just means you give everything you have to seeing it through!~"
"...Damn it," Asciel whispers under her breath, "I need to figure out if Cascade's okay. Ugh..."
Walking along the boundary of the water, crossing in front of Elisa, as the tides gradually retreat, Asciel's toes catch on a conch shell, tracing its surface with those unfeeling digits.
"You know what? I'll offer you this "kindness", if we're one of the few like each other. ...You've gone through an ordeal and a half trying to ~become. It's not fucking easy for you, if you need a pretty big worldwide plan to pull it off! ...You know what I think? ...I haven't been successful at ALL in making 'friends'. Not in the slightest. ...But I've tried. I've gotten the hell out there, and relished every moment I could feel the wind of the Earth I want to protect!"
Asciel's arms spread, to catch the wind, ponytail fluttering like a whip. Humanity may be a cancer she can't tolerate, but the Earth itself... her heart flutters. The butterfly of the soul nestled inside her flaps its wings once at the sensations even her dull acuity can capture.
"Really, for all my trying, I made a HELL of a lot more enemies than friends. And I wouldn't call my viewers friends, not by a long shot. But I think I'd have taken a lot longer to become if I hadn't done it, even if it's a pain in the ass."
A smarmy little smile crosses Asciel's lips. Pride blooming where it's probably undeserved. "...And that's probably why I beat you in the race to becoming a ~truer, more complete self.~ I mean, I'm the one that sent you a letter, and I'm still trying to figure out if I can stand being around you at all! I think I won there, ahahaha!~"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Fascinating," Elisa answers. "Was this during that reality alteration event of Dr. Hell's?" she asks. "It infuriated me and Her alike. We could no longer sense or find Yuliana..."
Challenges. Yes.
Elisa watches the crab go. "Oh, she does. She wishes me to be 'happy'. ...It is cute, this fixation on an emotion that she wants me to possess. Humans are so often focused on this 'happiness', where beings like you and I do not necessarily understand it."
"But she does not ask me to be kind. She would not insult me in this way."
"Good luck,"ELisa says. And--hmmm.
She doesn't think Asciel entirely 'gets' it but... "Yes. You must relish these moments. The struggle is what matters."
"Do you think so?" she wonders. "Perhaps we shall find out. We shall see, which of us is more 'complete'. Which of us is 'truer'. I am interested in learning that answer."
She turns, more fully towards Asciel. "If you offer me a 'kindness', then..."
"I shall offer my friendship, for now. I find you intriguing. Once you were a 'thing', but you became more, and you seek to become more yet still."
"While I am a god, who became something like a 'mortal'. I will seek to understand this world better. For my Yuliana, who loves it so."
"...Do you swim, Asciel?" Elisa wonders. "I recommend it, if you are able without compromising your body."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
"I did mean Goragon, yes. ...what a nightmare. I first appraised it as a possibly useful tool, but being tossed about with me and my egg's wills in constant flux and conflict, watching the sheer MESS it made - good RIDDANCE." Asciel's other foot kicks a little scoop of sand into the ocean with a splash.
"Don't think I'm overlooking what you mean by 'more'." Asciel's eyes narrow, and her shoulders pull in juuuust a little defensively. It's unspoken - but they both are aware, somewhere within, what exactly Asciel's 'become' as of late. "I mean, as far as amassing resources to exert our will on the world, it's huge fucking loss for me! It was cathartic to yell about taking and hoarding the essence of humanity itself, and denying it from humans, but - ugh! It's so much harder to DO that now. That's where you've got me beat, even if you had your own little setback at the North Pole. Not as big as me losing the vast majority of my processing power and auxiliary mainframes!"
"Oh, but this body can...enter water. Swimming, not so much. I kinda sink, but sinking also isn't much of a problem." Picking up the conch shell from earlier, Asciel pivots on one heel, briefly looking back at Elisa, before wading further into the water...
And as she does, a song tuned to the rhythm of the waves starts to flow from her lips.
"Sunrise, howl for the wolves spurned by the night,"
"Wash away all the iron from our skin."
"Daylight, burn at the claws I gouge in spite,"
"Sanctify, ichor's baptism begins!~"
...The closest answer Asciel has to Elisa's doubts of 'happiness' is to answer with song. From the moment she seized the power of voice, fate bent a little more to her will, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Yes," Elisa agrees. Good riddance.
"Hm hm," Elisa nswers. It's unspoken, yes--until Aciel speaks it. "But it is only in paring down your essence in this way that you can seek such powers, such such ways to exert your will." She is amused more than threatened, for the moment. For now.
"You're right. I did not suffer such a loss. But power abounds in this world, Asciel. Do not despair just yet."
Sinking... would not be a problem, now. Asciel steps into the water, and Elisa does as well. Ignore the way that some of it bubbles against her for a half-instant. That's not important.
"Hm hm..."
She has no song. She is not a being of music.
But Elisa smiles. "Yes..."
"Yes, I think this will be well."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
"I mean I have contingencies. The most important thing is still in my grasp, even if it's harder to use now. It's easier now that I can just stop thinking about if it benefits humanity in the interim or the long run. Like, if they whine and ~agonize about what I'm doing, that's purely a them problem now."
Asciel points an accusing finger at Elisa. "I'm not despairing!" protesting too much, "It's just an annoying setback. But you've got a point. One of those setbacks was definitely being too self-conflicted."
She bitterly remembers the feeling of her arm moving out of her own control, and ripping that wonderful light of miracles from her own heart...
"...I mean I was probably going a liiiiittle overboard, but I WOULDN'T have been if I weren't so pent up!!"
The waves are gentle enough, and the tide pulling back gradually enough, that Asciel can sit down, leaving only her shoulders periodically consumed by the waves, holding the conch shell at one of her shoulders.
"Honestly, Elisa. ...That's the last thing I expected to hear calling you out here. It's kinda frustrating, because I wanted to be sure it was easier to ~reject you, to come to totally opposing and totally incompatible conclusions. It is going well. That's why it's not going well at all! But I guess I gotta get used to that, cause the moment I come in with expectations on how a talk's gonna go, everyone flips the script on me. What a pain! But whatever. I'd probably die in a fight anyway, so what the hell am I doing even thinking that it'd be cathartic to settle it that way right now..."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Indeed." A 'them' problem. "I find that most problems, in the end, are 'them' problems." Elis smiles. She has the appropriate number of teeth.
"Self-conflict is dangerous." She is amused by saying this, for some reason.
But, "True. You did go overboard, at the time. But perhaps you will not, in the future."
Elisa... Hmmm.
"I enjoy frustrating others," Elisa admits. "And you in particular are delightful to confound. You're very interesting, in that way."
"...Remember that knowledge, though. Of the outcome of violence. Because my wife is, as established, quite precious to me. And should any succeed in harming her..."
"They will beg me for death, as Dr. Divya Devi does."
Not 'did'. 'Does'.
"But if you want catharsis, there's an entire town to destroy, as you like. Take out your frustration on a few humans. I don't especially care."
A smile. "Until then, nurture that frustration. Until you can unleash it."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
For someone who just declared a hatred for humanity so loudly and cathartically-
Oh, that's a liiiiittle recoil at the notion of messing up Tamworth just for the hell of it. And, knowing full well that's a pretty big loser look, immediately, Asciel justifies herself! (Which probably just makes it worse.) "It's only ~cathartic to me if it has real meaning. I wanna crush spirits and see positivity damn it! When humanity surrenders their ~rights, I want it to feel like a weight's been lifted from their shoulders! I'm trying to PROVE something to them here, damn it. Senselessly taking just enough from them to be vengeful sucks, because then their ~spirits flare and burn and they rally in resistance, and THAT'S what I'm trying to pulverize."
"Speaking of resistance-"
Pushing backwards into the water, before rising to her knees, Asciel oh so helpfully points out, "Yuliana has unbelievably high risk taking behavior, come on. Realistically I've probably made her bleed a bit!? Surely I have. I've fired so much fucking firepower at her. A lot of people have. ...I mean, I haven't confirmed that? So for all I know she didn't need any patching up after any of that? I guess she's survived this long, and I guess the whole point of these horrible mobile weapons is that humans can operate them and not die, but they're still dangerous as hell to sit in."
"Well. ...In that way you probably have a bigger definition of 'harming' than I do. If you mean it in like a torture sense, uh, no WAY?! No! Ew, boring, gross! I'm much more of a 'compel people to curl up and cry about the wastefulness of their lives and yearn for something simpler' kind of girl. ...okay, there was that time I tried to do that and it turned out to be a lot like some of the stuff they used to torture Yuliana a bit. I didn't know THAT, and she's FINE anyway, a little static sensory deprivation wouldn't be enough to REALLY hurt her, jeez..."
...is she trying to dig herself an unreasonably large grave here?!
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa notices that. It's adorable! The recoil at what she says, and the way she justifies herself. "I find that overwhelming force is often enough to crush most resistance. But of couse, you... What is it that the youth say?"
"Ah, yes. 'You do you.'"
Asciel is very helpful. "That's true," she says. "You have. But my generous definition of 'harm' is largely lasting harm. You have fought against her... But she treasures those conflicts. She enjoys testing herself against fierce opponents, and would be most cross if I destroyed them for her."
"That is the reason that I do not destroy you for your own admitted crimes, while you are vulnerable, now, before you rebuild your power base."
"Oh, and because we are now 'friends'. Yes?"
"But if it would be cathartic to you, we could clash here. I have not exerted muscle strongly in some time. Would you like me to damage your chassis?"
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
"...Uh, kids really don't say that anymore, sorry to burst your bubble."
Asciel's fingertips push through the water's surface, to make a few bubbles - the air trapped in her conch upends, and makes a larger one bubble up, before a wave turns her surroundings to seafoam.
"Yeah, I'd be mad too if someone took my trials from me. Especially because it means someone else inevitably has to endure them, and they're MINE, I'm not going to let them get stronger from overcoming ANYTHING that's in my capacity to rise above!"
--So her definition of 'despising humanity' is: to gently comfort them and to stop them having to deal with hardships. Well, it's the narrative that counts sometimes!
Asciel does bolt upright as she finally puts two and two together that she was - SOMEWHAT - boasting about harming Elisa's wife just then. "Uh, go to the damn gym or fight a bear or something if you need to exert yourself that bad! Besides, uh, I'm not that even-footed in this body. Believe it or not, I'm getting used to less input lag, which throws me off a lot!" Another step back, to where only her calves are in the water, jean shorts soaked through and dripping. "Also, I planned to have a date after this, and I couldn't repair this shit that fast. It's hard enough to maintain it at all. Also, I just told you it'd be much better to go at it when we're at our best, didn't I? It'd blow if I overcame you and not the biggest problem you have at your arsenal. Also, this backwater little town isn't scenic at all! Who has a fight of their souls next to an ice cream parlor and some shrimping boats when it's only around lunchtime!? You've gotta set the mood!"
Each point raised, another little retreat. "...Also, I got what I brought you here for anyway, so, like, sorry if it's a disappointment to not go that far!"
Once finally fully out of the water, Asciel shakes the conch shell to dislodge any water left in its spiral.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"Ah," Elisa says. "Unfortunate."
They're hers, is it? So Yuliana and Asciel have this similarity. It's good to know. "Yes. It is important to claim that which one wishes to 'have'..."
And Asciel bolts upright. Elisa smiles, with the appropriate number of teeth, s Asciel very suddenly extricates herself. "You did say that," she says of her best. "Perhaps another time I will introduce a dragon for you to face."
"Then take care, 'friend'. I will look forward to our next meeting."
"I am not at all disappointed."
Elisa then steps further into the water--and in a flash of green light and shadow, disappears.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
For a short while, Asciel's girding herself in terror - and thus, bravery - when Elisa suddenly begins invoking supernatural phenomena. Like maybe this isn't going to be something she can walk away from so easily?!
"Hah. HAH, so you're gonna really test my virtue as a Miracle Sealer? Fine. FINE THEN, I'LL SHOW YOU THE RESOLVE OF REINCA-
And then Elisa's gone.
Glancing left and right, up and down, for what's SURELY a surprise attack technique, right? But...no such thing. It's just herself here. ...And then she remembers she's seen this before, and sighs in resignation.
"I just took a car here, damn it. ...Is that something I gotta work on!? I guess my exits have been pretty lacking. ...I can't believe you showed me up even THAT way!"
The mere act of Asciel having to just, walk away from this beach, at a totally normal pace, feels like a walk of shame in and of itself. A crushing defeat!!