Logs:Impossible Women

Impossible Women
Dramatis Personae Guimei, Inanea	15 December, 1854 "Do you believe in destiny?"
Location Kaneana Cave - Mākua Valley - O'ahu - Kingdom of Hawai'i
The hike out here is short but tricky, footing precarious on the loose and slippery rocks. The cave tucked along the uncertain path is a small and unassuming one, a low mouth that looks out over the ocean. The woman sitting at the mouth of the cave is anything but unassuming, striking red hair tumbling down around striking blue skin. She is barefoot, tan vest hugging curves that are accentuated by the frills of her ruffle blouse, the feminine top a noted contrast to the decided masculine tailoring of the trousers it is tucked into. Beneath the brim of her expertly woven lauhala hat her yellow eyes seem to glow faintly in the reddish sunset reflecting off of the ocean, lending a faintly baleful air to an expression that is otherwise mostly stuck in a deep morose contemplation of the rising tide. The approaching footfalls are quiet but not wholly silent, so while it may not be surprising to see the person they carry appear up over the rocky ledge, it might be surprising to find that person dressed in a fancy riding habit of sky blue silk, the gauzy white frills of her blouse spilling from its low cut collar concealing the scandalous absence of a corset, her similarly gauzy underskirts also scandalously hiked up to reveal black leather lace-up boots with fine broguing and heels that somehow do not impede her graceful progress over the uncertain footing. Though her dress is English the diminutive woman is not, her oval face and gleaming black hair distinctly Chinese. She pauses and turns toward the woman she's intruding on, though her dark, dark eyes do not track quite right and seem to see right past her. She rotates the long walking stick parasol braced jauntily on her shoulder, the evening sun and its reflection glittering through the intricate white lace to make her silhouette that much more striking. "I was looking for you," she says without preamble in heavily Mandarin-accented English, her voice soft but not the least demure. The younger woman turns her head, just enough to cast a sidelong glance towards the approaching figure from beneath the brim of her hat. Her eyes stay unblinking on the other woman for a time before she gives a very soft chuff, turning her gaze back to the sunset. "Were you looking for the god or the monster? In this place you might find either." The Chinese woman smiles, as if the question somehow delights her, and there's also a hint of incongruous delight in her answer: "I don't know." She furls her parasol, wrapping its lacy folds neat and tight. "Perhaps both. Perhaps neither. I know many things, but I think that question is for you to answer." She picks her way to the opposite side of the ledge, avoiding loose stones with seemingly effortless intuition, not looking where she treads. "I know that you are beautiful, and passionate, and strong. I know that we are going to change the world together." She indicates with her decorative walking stick -- again, without so much as looking -- a naupaka shrub growing out of the cliffside. At first glance, it looks just like any of the thousand others blanketing the hills upland and the dunes below, but upon closer examination each of its modest little flowers have a full circle of white petals instead of only half. "I know that you will understand what it means when I say we are like this flower, you and I." The blue woman is still looking out towards the ocean, though the gloom over her expression has eased off into a quieter consideration at the other woman's flattery. It isn't until the mutant naupaka is indicated, though, that she actually turns -- towards the shrub, with a sharply spiking curiosity that has shifted swift into amazement as she looks to the tiny white flowers. "He aka -- that's not possible --" She reaches out, one fingertip tracing delicately against the edge of the petals. She tips her head up, hand dropping back to her knee. "Then you've come here to defy fate." There's a low amusement in her resonant voice, and her words sound definitively approving. The Chinese woman tilts her head and pivots slightly, listening for something -- the distant crunch of heavy shoes on the treacherous path below. "Most would say it is not possible for one woman to wear ten thousand faces, or for a blind woman to see. And yet, here we are." It's the naupaka that she indicates again, with a graceful tip of her hand. "We have changed what is possible. Whether that is defiance, well...English is tricky, isn't it?" The question is likely rhetorical, from one non-native speaker to another. "'Fate' comes from a word, in one of their dead languages, that means 'to speak' -- to foretell what is to befall you. But the future isn't a book you can read from. I prefer 'destiny', 'to establish' -- to decide where it is you are going." Her smile pulls very slightly to one side, mysterious and knowing. The footsteps are growing louder, along with the curses of the Englishmen scrambling their way up with far more force than finesse. "The future also isn't a map you can follow, but I am a kind of navigator. Do you," she wants to know, "believe in destiny? Or fate, or providence, however you think of it?" The younger woman's yellow eyes only barely cut to the side, flicking in the direction of those footsteps. As they grow louder it's that mysterious smile she's fixing on, though, giving the question a careful consideration. "I believe in choosing my own." She gets fluid and unhurried to her feet, looking past the other woman to the cave behind them, and then back. "You know, we say the world was born here, once. Maybe it's a fitting place to start establishing a new one." Her head tilts just slightly to one side, the beginnings of a smile pulling at her lips. "But what kind of future do you want to make together?" "See, I didn't know that." There's a note of wonder in her voice as the -- apparently -- blind woman tilts her head toward the cave and taps her walking stick on the ground once, sharply. "You do not realize how extraordinary that is. Not yet. Whether you are a god, or a monster, or change itself, my entire life up until now has been a means to finding you." Even as she speaks, two drunken English sailors are lumbering into view from behind her. The larger man opens his mouth but does not get even a single word out before catching the end of a sturdy parasol to his solar plexus. The Chinese woman whirls and snaps her versatile accessory up to strike the man in the chin even as she kicks his companion in the gut and sends him staggering backward. She keeps turning, her movement dancelike, and whips the stick around to tap the backs of the first man's knees. It doesn't look like a devastating blow, but his legs buckle and spill him back down the slope, as well. She winds up facing the blue woman again, as unruffled as if she'd twirled a full circle for her own caprice and only incidentally sent two strong men fleeing in humiliation. "But I see the way clearly now. We will make the future whatever we want." She steps closer, and the light of the slanting sun gleams fiery red in her strange black eyes. "Forever."