New Rules [Yulia's RK Intro]

Yulia had always worked well under authority. First a warmonger for her nation, then for herself. One had been more successful, the other left her a fugitive. Freedom did not exist, such that every person chained themselves to a cause or was left with the burden of fighting only for themselves. She had never been one to demand individuality. No, that was a fool’s errand. Especially now, after being stripped of her powers as the price she had paid for taking the wrong side in a twenty year war. Now nothing more than a refugee, she had found herself here, desperate but stone faced. If she was to suffer for a cause, it might as well this time be the correct one. A ‘good’ one, may the devil forbid that existed.

In long strides Yulia approached the Rune Knights’ headquarters. While she was the same person as a year ago, things were dramatically different. Her circumstances were drastically different. Perhaps it would be a nice change of pace, working against what she had always considered to be her inner nature rather than succumbing to it. The results of such an experiment hopefully would beg to differ from her constant assumption that she was lost as a person. Making this trek up the plateau to the altogether too visibly proud Rune Knights’ base had left Yulia in an odd mental state. She felt calm and at peace with herself but also anxious to understand what would happen next.

Passing through the doorway into what looked to be a reception area, her eyes moved quickly over her surroundings until they returned to the individual sitting behind a central desk. “Excuse me, I would like to join the Rune Knights.” She kept it short and simple, in the hopes that the person would either be able to help her out themselves or direct her to someone else capable of addressing or handling the situation. Should she end up not qualified enough to join, that was fine. Hitting a snag in the first step was to be expected when the hardest obstacles to overcome in a journey often were at the beginning. Yulia was an unknown factor here in Fiore and should be unrecognizable in Era especially. She was nothing more than a civilian, really. But one could never know for sure, living in a magical realm of possibility, if they could somehow see the horrors and crimes of her past.

Although Yulia noted the entry of what looked to be a pair of anthropomorphic bunny twins with white hair and pinkish red eyes- (Did they have albinism? Yulia was vaguely intruiged) -she did not verbally acknowledge them as soon as they came into sight as doing so would also require her to acknowledge the shorter haired twin's comment. Which she would much prefer to staunchly ignore for now, thank the skies above very much. Regardless of whether they would go about pretending Yulia knew nothing of the existence of these so called 'mommy vibes,' she smiled as warmly as possible at the longer haired twin who was now approaching her. "You overheard correctly. I do indeed want to join the Rune Knights," Yulia spoke quietly but clearly and would leave it at that. Unless these girls wanted to direct her to one such general, she didn't intend on asking them first for help with that.

In what seemed to be the move of a vibrantly social opportunist, the first twin jumped into the conversation. Both of them seemed to be no more than children, or perhaps teenagers, and Yulia contemplated the pair with a light eye as she listened. "I'm well, thank you," Yulia responded as politely as she could. "And how are you little one? Miss Amber, rather," now that she knew the girls' names, she might as well use them. Amber and Sapphire, huh? Clearly either the parents had a fondness for precious stones or there was some other hidden mechanic of the related naming conventions that resulted in the two twins being named for gems.

"And Miss Sapphire? As for what you could help me with," after asking the initial question to one twin, she switched back to addressing Amber again. "There appears to be nothing at the moment." Truly, Yulia had no concerns or questions she needed answering. Perhaps it would be polite of her to inquire more about this pair's background or what they were doing here at the Rune Knights' headquarters. Possibly visiting, or it was possible they were enlisted, themselves. Inwardly, Yulia at least partially hoped it was not the latter. She had seen terrible, terrible things, but children were too young for war. The heavens forbid she judge a book- (or rather a couple books) -by their covers, but the horrors of battle were nothing she wished to subject young minds to. This perspective was a recently learned one, but Yulia still supported it as wholeheartedly as she could manage.

Sapphire appeared to be hesitant about approaching Yulia at all. To be utterly honest, Yulia felt ambivalent to it all. As cold and imposing as she could be at times, she wasn't entirely obsessed with efficiency, and she wasn't on duty yet. A little chatter with younglings couldn't be a bad thing. Her conscience was a newfound, rather iffy itch, but its currently sporadic nature meant her guilt did not weigh heavily enough on her to make daily interactions consumed with bitterness and self loathing. Had that been the case, Yulia was sure she would feel like these lighthearted interactions were either undeserved, distracting, or dangerous in some way. How did she know this? She had been there before and would probably reach that mental head space again some time within the next few weeks. Occupational hazard, she supposed, when one was trying to pursue a life of goodness. New habits to break.

Chores were over, and it was play time now, that was great. Yulia would smile back as friendly as she could manage when Amber mentioned staying back to help her out. Far be it for her to inconvenience someone else on her behalf... oh wait, that was perfectly in character for her. As a person with an apparently newfound sense of righteousness, though, she could tell something was a bit wrong with the situation. Making children, or even teenagers, wait up to help her out struck her as a situation most adults with a clear conscience wouldn't be caught dead in. Unless they were truly dying or such a situation. Age made all the difference in some cases, and it was not a good look to rely on kids and put them in danger. Again, though, what was the danger here? Yulia suddenly glanced towards Amber's way again as a strange noise came, almost like the flexing of rock or wood. When she observed the pair of twins, Sapphire seemed to be poking at her sister and rebuking her. Although her voice was a tad bit lowered, it was still audible through her dismay.

She could not claim to understand what they were talking about. Weight control implied the attempt at a mastery over either a very large weight or a series of weights, which neither necessarily possessed upon face value. As Yulia had learned many times, face value was hardly to be trusted wholly. She would reserve judgement for now, as the conversation topic moved back to her presence here at the Rune Knights' facility. "A tour would be lovely," she answered easily, deciding that there was a bit more to the twins than met the eye. A part of her wished to tack on something about so long as it did not inconvenience the pair, assuming that was what people did to be polite. Never one for politeness, her fingers twitched slightly before she added, "My luck has never been all that splendid, but with you two leading the way how would we ever not render a result?" Slightly awkwardly, Yulia tucked her hair a bit more firmly under her hat and then waited for either twin, or both, to go on.