2024-04-10: .see now the scars our Republic laid unto mE
- Cutscene: .see now the scars our Republic laid unto mE
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Tri Darma Dian
- Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- Date: 2024-04-10 (ICly March 0099)
- Summary: Yuliana ends up tripping into a serious discussion with her father over tea. He oversaw his own human experiments, back in the day -- and he grieves to see her acting the same way.
Yuliana takes tea with her father, as the midday twilight filters through the windows. Tri Darma takes his black; Yuliana likes honey, in hers.
"Why would you ask the maid about your subordinate?" He asks, reflecting on Yuliana's teasing of Jin Guanyu.
"Oh, she and Lettu have been seeing each other for months," Yuliana grins like a knife, beside him. "They think they're keeping it under wraps... adorable!"
"You could just tell your Letnan Satu you know," he points out, dryly. (Unlike Yuliana, he doesn't refer to her first lieutenant with slang.)
"Yeah," Yuliana shrugs a shoulder, "but she already knows we know."
"We?" Tri Darma asks, raising a brow.
"Oh, Letda figured it out first, obviously," Yuliana admits, when pressed. "He was Intelligence before he came to us, you know."
"So you've said," Tri Darma says. "But I wonder, putriku," and the way he addresses her as daughter is quite formal, all things considered. "It's obvious Ms. Yuan is cybernetic -- you know, the eyes... but what did they do to Mr. Chaudhri? So far as I can tell, his only habit is irritating my nerves."
"Oh, he's all Natural, believe it or not. Refused to set foot in the labs... I guess he figured it out early." Yuliana sighs, gazing down at her tea. "Nah, it was just me and Lettu going in there... and our fourth, I guess. They kept sending me Cyber-Newtypes to devastate... that last one escaped, but don't ask me what happened to them after that."
"Putriku... the laboratories," Tri Darma starts, a shade awkwardly. "I didn't realise how much they'd beat you down... no, I suppose I just hoped you were an exception." He sighs, himself, glancing away. "But I did see it. Just as it was forty years ago... the experiments --"
"Don't!" Yuliana cries, as she flings her mug to the far wall, and it shatters against the stone. She claps her hands over her ears, pinning her frills tightly to her head. "Don't think of me as an experiment! I don't want you to know that! Stop it, stop it, stop it--!!"
"Putriku!" The alarm in Tri Darma's eyes and tone grows stern, as he barks: "Stop this tantrum at once!"
And Yuliana wails, but soon enough she does quiet, under his withering gaze, hugging her arms about herself. "Sorry," she sniffs, blinking dampness from her eyes, "sorry, ayah." It's hardly the first time he's been stern with her; they're both quite used to it.
"You've got to calm down," he says, taking a breath of his own. "Breathe. Count to ten. You didn't let me finish... of course I don't think of you that way. I'm angry it's how you were treated. My only daughter!" And emotion creeps into his voice, at that, cracking at the edges. "No, I'm angry at myself... for allowing these things to happen to other men's daughters. If I'd known they'd do the same to you --" He shakes his head, and takes another breath. "I should never have allowed it," he says. "I should never have allowed it."
"You couldn't know, ayah," Yuliana says, frowning with concern. "And I did want to do it."
Tri Darma's brow knits. "When they'd perform my physicals, they always asked about my family... I should have known. I had a responsibility to you... I just thought, you know, you'd told us you had no interest in a husband, a military career would be an honourable profession, but you'd not have wanted it if not for me!" And it's quite the emotional outburst, by his standards. Yuliana doesn't mention it, even though he just yelled at her for hers.
"No, ayah tersayangku, not just that," Yuliana says, reaching over to take his hand, the one not still holding his own mug. And here she addresses him as her loving father, though still she uses a formal address with him, too. "I was defying mama, taking such a patriotic profession. I thought I must surely be able to do good there, and she was simply jaded... I guess it's true I thought of it as nobler because of you, but it wasn't just you. Even old Voyevoda -- remember her?" Tri Darma nods, and Yuliana goes on. "She'd tell me stories about how much she learned as a military mechanic before she retired... so I thought it must be good. Our country loved those institutions... I'd not escape it, even if you were a baker."
"Of course... of course," he breathes out, turning his hand to squeeze hers. "Excuse me, putriku. I let my own temper get away from me. I just realised... what they might have done to you. It was quite challenging."
"I was scared you'd think less of me," Yuliana says, her voice small. "Since I'm one of those freaks... like you always talked about. I thought you'd think less of me if you saw me like that..."
"No, putriku, no," he insists, squeezing her hand. "You're not like them. You're my precious daughter... nothing will change that, even if you grow ten more of those." And he's looking at her tentacles, as he says it, though he generally avoids acknowledging them.
"Mm..." Yuliana hums, her frills lowering, as she looks at their hands. "The uncertainty... hurts you, doesn't it, ayah?"
"It was difficult to guess," he admits.
"Is it worse... than knowing how bad it was?" She asks, still uncertain.
"There are many things I can imagine," he says.
"Then... I will tell you," she says, and more haltingly than him. "Only, you must be patient, ayah, because it is a long story, and a painful one. You see, when they recruited us into that project, they..."
... she talks for a long time.