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 Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 3:06 pm
 
This is a PRP between Van [[Kurama no Koishi]] and Yue Lao [[Face Your Demons]].
Setting:
Yue and Van make sexy, sexy captains. But they didn't know they had both been promoted! Also Yue needs to figure out this... being pretty thing. How does it work?? Van, help!
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 3:23 pm
As per her Fighter stage, Yue Lao as a Captain had still taken to loitering and being lazy in her later years. She didn't, on the outside, appear to be a very efficient Captain: she always seemed to be climbing on things, sitting on walls, calling things out at anyone training inside the Legion grounds. She didn't do it because she wanted to be an a**, though; well, not the latter part. She had taken to trying to observe from high on. These troops needed to be flawless, or they would be dead, that was all it came down to. Not that she, herself, was flawless, but.. As a captain, didn't you have to be? Did she not have to make them believe that she was up to this task, that she was in some way invincible? She could not let them think, even for a moment, that defeat was on her mind.
But, lately, it seemed to be rather often. As a Fighter, it was pretty easy to keep up her easy-going nature. She had lost a lot, but gained a new life... and that was it. All she had to do was, selfishly, consider her own needs. Yet again, Yue Lao was having to learn how to think about others. Not even just friends, or her love, any more, but all of those who would serve under her. Even though during the day she looked lazy, at night she would waste sleepless hours studying charts, books, maps. Yue Lao had never really enjoyed reading, not even a little, so it was a task and a trial to focus on tedious documents of strategy and landscape.
Landscape, she was learning, had a huge effect on combat strategy, so it would do well to know as much about Lunaria's land as she could. As tricky as it was becoming. In the end, she needed... to get away, for a while. She couldn't train, in this environment. She needed to fix her weapon projection magic, she needed to clear her thoughts, to focus, to fight purely again. This time, however, she was wandering through the streets of the city, just trying to plan her escape, when she thought she spied someone: A dear friend of Sara's, and a woman who had kept her company at her wedding, made being a chick a little easier to take. But... she looked older? Different. Yue tried to catch up to the Lunarian. Was it possible it was really Van?
"Pssst... Hey, sweet thing, I like your style," she cat-called, whistling at Van, to try to get her to turn so that Yue could check if it was, indeed, the Lunarian she had been familiar with.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2012 9:44 pm
It wasn’t uncommon to find Van running around the streets of the city, darting from shop to shop in order to fulfill her lifelong need to buy all the things. Today wasn’t one of those days, though—it was obvious from the way the woman carried herself, cutting decisively through the crowds with a determined look on her face. She was on a mission. Well, it wasn’t a mission in the strictest sense of the word, since she delegated them to her subordinates more than executing them herself, but there were a lot of errands to run before night fell, when the Legion would need her again. Until then, Van’s task for the day was to deliver new ciphers to the Legion outposts in the city.
It was no wonder that she never ran into Yue Lao, a woman who, unbeknownst to Van, had also recently been promoted to captain rank. Their jurisdictions didn’t exactly overlap, with Yue commanding the front lines while Van holed up in her office by day, and Van leading covert operations while the other Legionnaire worked, by night. The Legion had assigned them to the areas where their strengths were needed, as was expected of any efficient military force.
Van’s mind was not on these things at this particular moment. She was happy enough with her work—she’d always been better at striking in the middle of the night, undercover, and more often than not, alone. It wasn’t as glorious as fighting the war with an army at one’s command, at least not until the Legion had begun to diverge into nightly prison and safehouse invasions. That was right up Van’s alley, and though she’d probably never be a two, three, or four-star general like the men in her military family, she did her part.
The woman ignored the whistle that followed her now; she was used to such sounds and catcalls regardless of where she was, and they were rarely ever worth her time. It wasn’t until a few paces later that Van realized the voice belonged to a woman, and that it was, for some reason, strangely familiar. Turning around in the middle of the street, Van saw one Yue Lao trotting up behind her, and she couldn’t help but allow a rare grin to cross her face.
“Yue,” she said, a soft laugh in her tone as she allowed the other woman to catch up to her, “Looking ravishing, yourself. Where have you been all my life?” It had, indeed, been a while.
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Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 9:26 am
No one would have ever considered sending Yue to an office, or asking her to relay ciphers. Yue Lao barely liked writing her own name on documents. Recently, she had written a detailed letter to Sara, and that had taken her the better part of two days just to get down, and then polish. She had tried really hard, too. It wasn't that she was too stupid to write, she really just got so bored by it that her attention wandered, making it impossible to continue. Yue Lao was a woman of action, but it took both types to run the Legion; without Van behind the scenes, Yue's post would be scattered and ineffective. So they both fought for their side, but in different ways.
Apart from Yowai, Yue Lao had no military background. She had only her very firm upbringing by the woman who wielded a glaive, offset by the loving and gentle care of Chichi. Yue Lao was already having enough trouble with her current level of responsibility; she didn't intend to make herself exceptional any time soon. Not openly, anyway. Really, she was reliable in combat, steadfast until faced with magic (which was a significant problem she was trying to confront). As a result, Yue was making a very conscious effort to appear useless in her spare time, lest anyone took her too seriously. Yue Lao, by her own opinion, was not someone who should be taken seriously. So far... it was going okay. There was a fine line between being competent enough to be a captain, and lazy enough to avoid detection. In her spare time, though, she studied nearly religiously... unheard of from someone like Yue Lao.
"Took you long enough to turn around," she accused, with a wolfish grin across her face. "Probably on the battlefield," she lamented, without real sincerity, "What about you, where've you been hiding out?" Yue Lao paused, looked Van once over.
"You look different." Very observant, Yue Lao. Very observant.
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Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 5:31 pm
Van could probably learn a thing or two from the magenta-haired woman standing in front of her now, as far as becoming invisible in plain sight. Her face was too well-known among the villagers now, especially since she could no longer go undercover. She tended to stick out during the daytime; whether this was because of her haute couture sense of style or simply the way she carried herself, it wasn’t something she could tone down without conscious effort. These weren’t things she saw in the other woman right now, though. Van had always been a solitary sort, but she was pleased to see Yue, if only because she was a familiar face in a sea of strangers.
“Sorry, I mistook you for a creeper,” she said, the smile playing at her lips suggesting that she was teasing. Slowing to a more relaxed pace, Van merely nodded at the mention of the war. That was where everyone ended up these days, one way or another. Even she ended up there from time to time, though less as a grunt and more as a tactician, and in rather roundabout ways that she wasn’t about to disclose in public. “I’m stuck doing paperwork right now,” she shook the shopping bag in her hand, revealing that it held not clothes, but classified material, “Killing time before night missions.”
The captain didn’t get a ton of sleep as a result of having work both day and night, and so when Yue mentioned that she looked different from before, Van took it differently from what was probably intended. “If by different you mean tired,” she wrinkled her nose a bit, “Yeah... I’ve been promoted.”
Was it really that obvious? Van wondered with a bit of dismay. She’d never been the sort to seem too harried at anything, and regardless of her state of mind in the mornings she always covered her near-perpetual dark circles. Even busy, it was just like the purple-clad captain to find time to worry about her appearance.
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Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 8:17 pm
It was perhaps her glaring lack of style that contributed to Yue's ability to avoid detection. And the way she carried herself was always more like a drunkard than a woman of any kind of office or status, so it wasn't hard to mistake her for any other midday alcoholic. She still tended to sway slightly and look at everyone through half-lidded eyes, contributing to the notion that she was either very relaxed or very, very drunk. Her clothing still smelled of alcohol rather often, because the brewery was the only place she got to see her Othermother now that she had moved out.
And in with her husband, which was not a bad thing at all. She remembered how helpful Van had been with the dress. Yue had since developed at least a little style, and she wasn't wearing her normal Captain outfit for battle as she was out for her own personal purposes. She had become very fond of a gift she had received: a pale cheongsam with slightly darker grey embroidery in a pleasant if simple pattern, and a small cloak with a fur ruff around the top edge, held over her shoulders by a long gold clasp and chain. Her hair had grown significantly, too, the braid coiled up to keep it off the ground. "Hmm, that sounds about right, though," she admitted, with a grin. Creeper she often was, really. Van was as gorgeous and elegant as ever, Yue's polar opposite in so many ways. Still, they were a formidable sight walking together.
Unlike Van, discretion was not Yue's strongest point. That was probably why no one ever asked her to keep secrets. She had mentioned her position on the battlefield, but that was where her discussion on her own employment ended. She did, however, afford Van's statement a gag: "Paperwork? Ugh. I'd probably end up setting fire to something, or sleeping on mounds of important documents." If it came to that, perhaps Hime-san could become a paperwork monkey instead of a battle monkey.
"Promoted! Hah, you and me both," Yue said. "Tired? Nah, you just looked ... older? No, I mean--" Yue could not win this. She simply had no idea how to talk to women. Or any Lunarian not in regards to the war, really. Socializing had become somewhat painful since she was promoted; her already sketchy socialization skills had become downright abhorrent. "You just look like you're ready to kick some a**," she ammended. She did trail off, however, and add, "Or take a long nap."
For that latter part, she was eying Van with a wild grin again, her half-lidded eyes practically glowing in pleasure, as far as regular eyes could appear to do so.
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Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 2:37 am
Professional, purposeful, and sharp, like a blade. Van’s aura was a sharp contrast with that of the magenta-haired captain, but not one that made her particularly noteworthy. On a typical day, she was able to cut through the crowds easily, disappearing before anyone could steal a second glance at the purple Lunarian. At night? One could say she cut through people then, too. Though neither captain might have drawn too many eyes on their own, it was perhaps the coming together of two very different women that caused surrounding Lunarians to stare upon them now.
It wasn’t ideal, but no one in their right mind was going to cross their path. Van shifted the bag on her shoulder, shooting Yue an amused glance even as her eyes darted around the midday crowd around them. “You know, some of this stuff could use some burning anyway.” She shrugged once, bringing to light the very pertinent fact that everything simply could not fall into the wrong hands. Still, there was no denying that the office part of her new job left much to be desired. If Yue could torch the place and call it an accident... “I wish I could.”
Yue’s next words were more interesting to Van, and the violet-eyed captain turned to face her comrade, her face reflecting pleasant surprise. “Yeah? What division? I’m guessing not Special Ops or Office Slave, since I never see you around.” The shift in Van’s attitude was subtle, but positive, enough that she simply smiled through the rest of the other captain’s mutterings. Some of her compatriots had also been promoted similarly, but she had yet to run into a familiar face within her own rank. It was a welcome change.
This new common ground made them bros, anyway, as much as two women like them could be. They were no longer grunts; they wouldn’t suffer through training exercises together like their men now did, but it was the title of Captain that made everything just that different. “Let me guess, front lines?” It would be just like Yue to veer a straight path into the war.
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Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 11:29 pm
Yue Lao was mostly immune to the staring, but eventually it became hard not to stare back. In fact, it began to make her skin feel itchy. "I don't think I've ever felt so much in the center of attention in my entire life," Yue admitted, under her breath, as an aside to the lovely Captain with whom she now walked. Her eyes lit up again and she clapped her hands together in delight, however, at Van's admission that the paperwork could occasionally use fire. "If you ever need your world set ablaze, then, you should definitely let me know," she offered, earnestly and grinning. Perpetually smiling. She must have the toughest facial muscles of any Captain, by now.
"Well, I've got a few loyal individuals who'd be happy to help you out with your, uh, flammable dilemma at any time," she finished, looking off into the crowds again, maintaining her swagger. It was half unintentional, half purposeful; devil-may-care attitude helped her escape the formality and pressure of her promotion. It might cause her trouble later (and probably caused her trouble now, for that matter) but it was hardly something she was willing to reconsider, not this late in the game.
Yue Lao started to really laugh when Van even mentioned special ops and office duties. "I don't think a date with the Emperor himself could have made me read that much paperwork, sweetheart," she said, shaking her head. "And special ops? You guessed it, though. As far as I'm concerned, they barely even let me into the front lines this way. And only then because I think..." she leaned in conspiratorially, "I think they are fairly certain I'm insane." She flashed Van another wide smile. By this way she meant with her very specific stance on life, comportment and just general leadership.
In battle it was always a different story, but that Yue Lao was not the Yue Lao she needed to keep her sanity intact. Yue might be a bit outgoing and a bit weird, but who wasn't very weird by the time they had to lead? At least she was consistent. Consistently crazy. "Do you ever miss being a student? Sometimes I do," she admitted, suddenly, "and then I remember that I used to hit myself in the face with my own weapon, and I stop missing it."
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Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 9:32 am
For all of the staring that Van was used to getting when she wasn’t trying to be stealthy, it was peculiar that it made her uncomfortable now. This could be attributed to the fact that she was carrying classified documents, though, and if things suddenly got out of hand she would probably need to take up Yue on that offer of fire sooner rather than later. This didn’t stop her from smiling slightly at the other captain’s words when she heard them. Trite coming from bawdy old men, they were very nearly charming coming from Yue. “Alright. The next time I need someone to set my world on fire, I’ll only have eyes for you, darling.”
A moment passed and even Van giggled quietly, finding Yue’s temperament contagious. “Ew? Rumor has it he’s sort of gross. Probably balding with 10-inch nails and everything.” Clearly Van didn’t appreciate the other woman’s expression for what it was, but it was understandable coming from her. Looks were important to her!
These thoughts were pushed out of her head when Yue continued, and Van’s smile faded a little. The subject of her work was always sensitive; even as an open secret, most didn’t deign to discuss it in the open air. “Let’s just say... in protecting intelligence, we often have to ‘take care of’ deserters.” Special, in this case, meant black ops, and it was implicit enough in the way she hesitated before speaking. There were a number of names on the hit list that made the job very personal for her, but in some ways, that also made her better at what she did.
Relieved to move on from the subject, she was more than eager to supply her opinion of Yue’s questionable sanity. “I think it takes a bit of insanity to willingly do the things we have to do. That, or—” she shot the woman a knowing look, “A lot of alcohol.” Not that she was judging. Sometimes drink was the only thing keeping her from jumping off a cliff, which was why she was inclined to agree with Yue’s next sentiment.
“Often,” she admitted, ready to elaborate until Yue mentioned hitting herself in the face. “What?! Woman, are you insane—” Van leaned over to examine the other woman’s face for signs of meteor hammer-induced trauma. Finding none, she straightened back to her usual posture, clearing her throat. “Well! I’ve had experience covering facial scarring if it ever comes to that.” And she did, in the form of their mutual friend, Sara.
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Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 7:56 am
Yue Lao laughed. "I look forward to it," she reassured the Captain. Oblivious to the fact that Van could or would be carrying confidential documents, Yue Lao would nevertheless naturally rise to defend the other Captain and the papers in a pinch. For all her silliness, Yue Lao was not slow to act.
"Rumours are nasty anyway," Yue said, grimacing, "maybe he has a refined look to him!" she defended the Emperor, with a half-smile. Although Yue Lao had developed at least slightly better taste, it hadn't been until Van and Sara convinced her to. Appearance was usually her last concern. Mostly because she had other things on her mind.
Yue Lao whistled faintly in disbelief, thinking about what Van meant by take care of deserters. Distressing. Yue couldn't handle that kind of thing. She wouldn't understand the intricacies, and...well, if someone wanted to leave the Legion, she wasn't particularly troubled by that; she'd lose no sleep. Perhaps if they were trading information, however, she could understand, but essentially Yue would never be the person for that job. She merely thought that it was a good thing that there were personalities of all types amongst the captains, because certain tasks suited each one of them.
"Precisely that!" Yue Lao agreed. "Insanity, or drink," her face flushed, and she grinned wider. Yue didn't drink very much, actually; it had always been an affect. She loved brewing, but after all, half the reason she had always dragged others back to the Ichi Koi was to test her concoctions for her. She'd subjected her husband to a fairly young wine that way, once.
"Would it make it better or worse if I said it was accidental?" Yue tried, laughing in embarrassment. "It was just a rope monkey-fist, back then! No scars, just ... probably a lot of mental instability," she added, hastily, as Van eyed her face closely. The only noticeable scars the magenta-haired Lunarian had were across her palms from... an incident. "Oh? Covering temporarily, or permanently?"
Yue Lao thought of her husband, the scar across his face, his blind eye: and she thought of how she would change none of it, even given a chance.
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Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 4:04 pm
Van had nearly snorted in response to Yue's honest-hearted response. Refined, or mature, was a very polite way of saying old. Although she was a captain now, that didn't necessitate having a good opinion of their Emperor, wherever he was now. This wasn't about his looks at all; these days, it seemed that more got done in the hands of the Generals than the hands of their missing monarch. For her part, she did what she did at the command of her division general, and less so because of any imperial obligation she might have had.
“One of these days, we'll sit down to a drink together. You might be insane, but I think I'm too sane.” She didn't know that Yue wasn't much of a heavy drinker—probably, she didn't need to be. On the other hand, Van drank frequently in the privacy of her own home, or whenever time allowed for it. It wasn't alcoholism; it was simply necessary, considering the many stresses of her work life. Her home life was already tenuous, and dealing with a Noble tenryujin every time she did decide to crash at the ger was not her idea of a good night's sleep.
The woman was exhausted—it was a small wonder that her long dark hair hadn't started to streak gray yet. “Better back then than now, I suppose,” she answered, shaking her head. The majority of Van's scars hadn't occurred until after she'd graduated, and not because she was less careful—life since then had just become much more dangerous. She lifted her right hand to show the other captain the Lichtenberg pattern that began from her palm and crept up the inside of her arm. The scar was white and faded with age, but visible if one looked for it. “I got this from trying lightning magic. It's... not as bad as other scars, but I wish I didn't have it.”
Yue's question startled a small bout of laughter out of Van. “Temporary, of course. If I knew of a way to be permanently rid of scars, I'd quit my job and become a millionaire!”
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