2017-04-16: Yuri Shall Conquer the Earth for Us
- Log: Yuri Shall Conquer the Earth for Us
- Cast: Riesenlied, Noeline
- Where: Dragon's Roost, Photosphere
- Date: 499 PC
- Summary: Riesenlied turns from her shame into work, but Noeline has other ideas. Poor Riese only gets more confused by the end!!
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riese has... elected to react to what went down the other day at the saloon like how Noeline knows she normally deals with such things: throwing herself headlong into a lot of work.
The leader of the Tainted can be found in her Roost, a rather impressive outcropping overlooking a low view of the Photosphere's lower quarters, where many dragons are curled up and resting, ready for deployment. Several of the Ebony Wings are training at the moment, the clash of spears and swords audible. Riesenlied herself is sitting at her office, quietly working at her desk and plugging away at her terminal.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"Really, now..." sighs a familiar voice from nearby. Who knows when she actually got there, but sat on the edge of the outcropping - near enough to be audible, far enough away to be almost offering some space - is Noeline, one leg dangling off the edge and the other drawn up to her chin as she watches the clash of blades below. Her stealth is all the more impressive given how hard she clashes with Photosphere's dull tones, a burst of colour in the midst of it.
"I should have known you'd head back here and bash your head against work for a bit. Really, I don't know how you manage to take your mind off things with something as mundane as that," she puffs, hands linked around her lifted leg.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"... it might be mundane for you, but it is important to me," Riesenlied rather halfheartedly answers. She flips through several screens to say, "After all, we were not even allowed this much, once upon a time. It has special meaning to me... and for those children out there." One of the dragons pulls its head up and lets out a little mewl at her.
She mutters, "Why are you here?"
[GRID] Maya Schrodinger has joined Riesenlied!
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline offers a glance back over one shoulder, at least; her brow is ever so slightly furrowed as she frowns. "Can I not be /concerned/?" she challenges with a huff, before looking back down at the sight below, taking in the whole of the view of the lower chambers. "Besides, I meant Photosphere as a whole, not your small part of it. I suppose, in that respect, I should say I'm quite impressed."
The spy lets that hang in the air for a long moment, then slips up to her feet, one hand raking her hair. "... I suppose I should also say /thank you/," she grumbles, despite not exactly sounding appreciative at that moment. "As far as people I would like to have attempt to do that to me, poor Zed ranks rather low."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied blinks once to say, "... I am surprised you have a list," with a bit of a huff at the end. Flip, flip, tap tap tap. "You do not exactly see the young demons here ever think about -- who would run and jump onto each other, and who would kiss each other on the lips, after all."
She sags, and her wings drop to the ground afterwards. "If you have time for concern, you clearly have time for an assignment too?"
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"I'm not exactly a 'young demon'," Noeline huffs again as she steps towards the other demon's desk, her arms folded as she takes the distance in short steps. "Besides, it isn't as if I'm particularly /romantically inclined/ myself. I simply have an interest in such things, after all." Perhaps it's kind of a bare-faced lie, or perhaps Noeline really hasn't examined her own feelings terribly closely; either way, she smirks to herself. "Can you really say you'd want his lips on you, whether romantic or not?"
She's shaken the thought away the next moment as she crosses the rest of the space between them, casually leaning on the commander's desk as if it weren't rather a violation of rank. "I suppose I should not have incited him," she admits coolly, not meeting Riese's expression. "But, by the same token, neither should you and he have met up with that witch without some-- protection from her tricks. I'd already told you to be cautious, and surely that goes double for Zed of all people."
A beat, as Noeline realizes she's started grumping again. "... in any case," she adds, but doesn't seem to have anything to follow it.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"Yes, well," Riese mumbles rather bluntly, "She will be working with us. So perhaps I should ask you to protect yourself doubly," she bites at her lip. "... she spoke of a malevolence. How it washes over us harmlessly... likely due to how our bodies lack spirits. But you..."
She pauses, and has her own bare-faced lie. "Well, not that I am concerned about anything." She taps at her desk again, with her pen. "... emotions are a burden, are they not?"
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline's hum in response is very non-committal, though already an amused smile is starting to build on the girl's face. "I'd say there's a difference between 'having a spirit' and 'being spirited', wouldn't you?" she shoots back with a smirk, her eyes suddenly alive with-- something. Not that the Crimson Faker believes that Riesenlied has picked out (one of) her secrets, but Noeline can't help find the dance around it to be gleeful.
Abruptly lifting up from Riesenlied's desk, the demon takes a couple of dancing steps, before whirling on the blonde with a hum, one arm propped under her chest and the other tapping at her lips. "Frankly, I'd be suspicious of her no matter what. A creature of man, cooperating with Metal Demons? Why, we can hardly do that /ourselves/," she adds, too flippant all of a sudden. "A trickster can spot a trickster a mile off, especially when they kiss the least romantic creature on Filgaia."
Another pause, and Noeline seems almost to cool off, watching the other woman with mischief. "They certainly /can/ be. But they can be a source of strength, as well. Or painful. Or healing. Or, of course, complete /nonsense/," Noeline finishes too-brightly, having been counting on her fingers - but now leaning on Riese's desk to peer at her. "More importantly... would you even be asking me that, if you thought it for real? Would mighty Riesenlied have such a fondness for treats, or get embarrassed over a kiss she started?"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied wouldn't be Riesenlied without thinking and knowing something happened to Noeline, but what it is... she doesn't know yet. "... I never subscribe to my own rumors, and you know that," she responds with a rather hard lean on her own desk, elbows on the surface.
"But Zed's confusion just reminds me that..." A pause. "Maybe I am alone in that regard. Perhaps I am unable to simply glance at them as you do..." she brushes a lock of hair aside, as she watches Odjn finally bobble into sight, harrassing some of the younger recruits by dancing about their swings. "... ah, what am I saying, really? What a foolish notion, for a Hyadean."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Whatever Noeline might have been expecting, Riesenlied's uncertain response isn't it - she hesitates, then flicks out some of her hair to immediately snag the end of one twintail, bringing it in front of her to twirl the end through her fingers. "... is it, really?" she wonders aloud. "It isn't like we're immune to such things, as a race. Of course, the scales are usually shifted to one end of the spectrum - but pride and anger are emotions in their own right, and many here have those in spades."
She turns in the direction of Riese's gaze, snorting softly at the sight. "Would you consider Odjn weak or burdened?" she presses, though this time the way she says it is ever-so-slightly gentle, if you knew Noeline enough to watch out for it. "I've never seen anyone wear their emotions so fully on their sleeve, and it hardly seems to stop /her/."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"No..." Riesenlied walks towards the windowpane and presses her gloved hand against it. "If anything, I think she is-- vibrant. And shining." She smiles weakly, saying, "And I want to ensure that she can enjoy this world, free from any chains that may fetter her."
Her wings lift up again slowly. "As for what happened..." She pauses, in hesitation, and then she says, "Then maybe it was just a fancy... it is not as if anything could come out of it." She hides her placing her fingers to her lips, though it's reflected on the window. "We have much to do. Such distractions are... dangerous."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Speaking of dangerous distractions - a hand falls on Riesenlied's back all of a sudden, just beneath the start of her wings, as the spy leans around the commander in a grinning attempt to take a peek at her face. "You know, speaking of fancies... you /could/ have just left me to get my lips stolen," she hums richly as she points the fact out. "But-- the dashing heroine, jumping in to save the poor embittered maiden... well, it's a good look, I suppose."
Noeline pauses, glancing out the window herself as she makes a half-hearted attempt to hide her face. "... it is not as if I /disliked/ it," she mumbles after a long moment, grumbling the sentence to herself quietly but not inaudibly. "You could at least have /asked/, I suppose, but given the situation... I'll allow it."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"A dashing heroine...? Hardly," Riesenlied murmurs, showing no attempt to hide the rueful confusion on her face. "I did not act with certainty or conviction..." she feels a little off, as she trembles just a little under Noeline's touch on her back -- which, by nature of her shape, has to be a little revealed, to let the root of her wings come out. "... it is a strange and unusual time for me. I feel as if I am walking on a knife's edge, lately..."
She puts a hand to her forehead. "Then again, it shouldn't be a surprise for a Tainted demon, to allow themselves to be taken in by such strange fancies..."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"Oh, for Filgaia's sake," Noeline heaves out an annoyed breath all of a sudden, sweeping in-between Riese and the window she's staring out of to better trap her attention, an over-confident grin bursting onto her face. "Really, /someone/ has to talk to you about that incessant habit of thinking much too hard." At some point, her arms have come up around the other demon's shoulders, inviting an embrace.
For all that Noeline would normally be embarrassed in a situation like this, sheer exhilaration seems to be pushing her on this time; she hums again, leaning in a little closer. "Whatever does it matter if an impulse seems strange, so long as it's an earnest one? More importantly, /don't/ think I'd forgive you if you ran away and left me to enjoy myself on my own."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riese blinks a few times as Noeline traps and pushes her backwards, with a little startle. "... thinking is what led me this far, I'm afraid," she chuckles faintly at Noeline, gazing towards her eyes in return. "And if I cannot think efficiently, then the only alternative is to think long and hard, is it not?"
She lowers her head. "Maybe I find it strange because I have not come to accept emotion as a native thing for us..." though her tone seems to be regretful of that, like she wants it to be normal. "Have you read much of human literature? They speak so much of philosophy and modes of thinking... it is much richer and deeper than anything available to us here. It makes me wonder if our ancestors were similarly learned, or if we have truly lost that much..."
A pause. "And yet, despite that, I still cannot comprehend them. They're a paradox to me, Noeline... most Hyadeans here are confused because they know nothing, but I feel I've learnt so much, yet I still know nothing." She reaches her hands to Noeline's shoulders very gently as she lowers her head. "... it's enough to make one feel lost, sometimes."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
The smile playing at Noeline's lips has at least turned genuine somewhere in the midst of Riesenlied's explanation; a little soft, perhaps, and a little fond, but at the same time exasperated. "Excuse /me/," she huffs pridefully, challenging Riese's gaze with her own upbeat one. "Who /exactly/ do you think you're talking to? I've spent more time than /anyone/ here trying to understand them, and I certainly don't know the first damn thing about how they work either," she proclaims grandly, as if it were a great truth only now revealed.
She pauses, and then sighs as she leans into the other woman's touch ever so slightly, offering something akin to comfort. "... whyever do you think I've ended up this way? I know well myself well enough to say I've learnt that the easiest way to be around them is just-- to be ready to bend however you need to. They're infuriating, most of the time--" she hesitates for an instant, gauging the other woman's expression as she admits: "--and still, I can't help but be a /little/ fond of their ways by now."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied is silent for a while longer. "... perhaps we've come to the same conclusion after so long. I've pored into so much literature, attempted to shroud myself in their ways, and come to no conclusion, and you are no closer. Is understanding a mere illusion...?"
A pause, as she shakes her head. "What... am I saying? Look at us speak like this. We will become liabilities to the cause if we err for much longer." She clings a little tighter to Noeline to say, "... I would rather not see them treat you as such..." Riese's expression certainly is a little more vulnerable and lost than she usually wears, gently assertive and imperious as she wears in front of others.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
With a quiet snort, Noeline shakes her head. "... who can say? It isn't like we've the luxury of that question, right now. Not with Arctica a smoking crater," she mutters almost to herself, her brow knitted before she lets it go with a sigh. "But-- well. Who knows what the future holds? I've found it best to simply see where it guides me before I say anything for sure."
It's almost wistful, the way she says it - but when she turns her gaze back to Riesenlied's, it's solemn and sharp. "However-- as far as that line of thinking is concerned, you have my support. No, more than that - you would not be the commander of the Tainted without it. You would not have brought them up from where they are, and earned my respect, without that sort of hope in you," she announces, head held high. "Do not lose it."
The moment holds - and then breaks abruptly, as the vividly-dressed demon breaks into a sniggering laugh. "Oh, /really/, as if I'm not a liability already as far as some are concerned. The insane girl who thinks herself a Crimson Noble, the impossible-to-work-with loner who acts without sense. ... I'm more worried about you," she admits quietly. "Politics makes people look up, not down."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied has a rather sad smile, as she says, "... oh, I do know. Why do you think the elder demons speak in such hushed whispers? They know that striking at deviancies from the standard are how they get ahead. But ultimately, they are not the ones on the ground, not in Ignas."
She sighs faintly. "Once we find that Teardrop... ...I wish to believe that Mother will lead us to a bright future, but my heart is clutched tensely." A pause. She's lowered her head fully at this point. "If the day ever comes when we do become the enemy of the world... stand by my side. That would... comfort me."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline's answering smirk seems almost lazy, though her eyebrows betray her surprise. "... look at you," she breathes, her voice filled with both awe and pride at the idea of Riesenlied's /doubt/, of all things; her eyes have lit up with a mixture of amazement and curiosity at the sheer thought of it, and there's no doubt that her mind's spooling through the possibilities-- but there's also a visible moment where she shelves that line of thought for later, returning to the present to bring her gaze back up to Riesenlied's.
"Didn't I already tell you? Now, and onwards, you have my support," she states clearly, though can't help but offer a playful grin as she starts to step up towards an acted-out sort of pompous. "The Dark Angel needs a Crimson Noble as an ally, after all. In the meantime, allow my abilities to be the shield for your prestige. Oh, and--"
And, just like that, Noeline's obviously decided it's her turn to kiss Riese rather than vice versa. At least it's more tender, without the panic of the situation in the tavern - though before Riese can really get her bearings, the spy has broken off and danced back a couple of steps with an enormous grin and a slight colour to her cheeks. "--call it payback. That, and I suppose I shall pay for our next meal," she decides imperiously.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied certainly didn't look like she was expecting that -- and the reaction that Noeline gets from her seems no less priceless than the first time. In the first instance, it felt innocent and naive; this time, there's a little less of that... and more of-- something, some seedling, some small candlelight of a flickering feeling that has not yet been evoked, that has not yet been dared to be named.
"A-ah--"
She places her hand to her lips again as Noeline wanders off. There's a confused, wandering flit of her eyes as she tries to cast her gaze aside-- "I--I should finish up here--" she swallows a bit harder. Oh dear, someone's starting to short circuit a little. "Do let me... process this for a time..."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline does at least halt at the door, pausing and looking back over at Riesenlied as the demon kind of slumps at her desk. However embarrassed the faux vampire might be feeling right now, it certainly looks like she considers it made up for with poor Riese's lost expression, and Noeline practically emits a musical note at the sight of it.
"... of course," she graciously notes, much too polite. "But I shan't wait too long. Or else you'll just start worrying all over again. ... remember what I said - your leadership is not based simply on power, and that isn't a bad thing. I'll be waiting~," she adds, serious for only a moment before she flits back to her usual mode of speech - and right out the office.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riese sighs when the demon leaves, mumbling, "... a-at least, maybe I can get some work down now--"
Odjn wanders in from the opposite entrance at that point, sing-songly going, "Riiiiiese~ Give~ Odjn~ a~ chuuuuuuu~! Right on the smacker!"
Or not.........