#pretty-isnt-pretty-enough

[tarnishedxknight]

Silent Morning || closed with pretty-isnt-pretty-enough

{ @pretty-isnt-pretty-enough, cont'd from here. }

Ashelia gasped a little and turned when she heard the voice, blinking at the man for a moment. If she'd seen him around before, she hadn't really gotten to know him at all. he knew her name, though, and so she supposed that he was someone who either lived or worked in the compound. "Yes," she confirmed with a little nod. His question stopped her for a moment. The president's daughter, not the king's. His wording had almost made her stop and think, but no... no, that was not what he meant. "Oh um... no... no relation," she awkwardly replied. She wondered why he had asked.

His invitation was very sweet, and for a moment Ashelia wanted to simply accept, but... she wondered if she would be intruding upon a closely-knit group of friends and their holiday traditions with her oddball Ivalician self. "That is very kind of you, but I would not wish to impose. And... I've no gifts to bring. I would not even know where to begin with acquiring the proper offerings for such an occasion."

When he said it sucked to be alone for the holidays, she shook her head, "Oh, no, I've... I do have Basch. I am just not certain where he is, at the moment." And so therefore, at present, she was alone, whether she wanted to admit that to herself or not. "Besides, I do not celebrate the holidays of this time. I am afraid I do not even know what or why we are all supposed to be celebrating." She felt so awkward as she said it, for it illustrated just how out-of-place she truly was in this time period.

Maybe she should make an attempt, though? He would not offer if he did not want her to come, would he? But what about Catalina? "If... you are certain it is alright..." she said tentatively. "Have you asked Catalina if she is alright with my attendance?" As long as no one would feel she's intruding, Ashe could maybe feel comfortable in going.

[thiscrimsonsoul]

Finding Light in the Darkness || closed with pretty-isnt-pretty-enough

{ @pretty-isnt-pretty-enough, cont'd from here. }

Wanda actually managed a small, awkward smile - the first she'd made in a long time - as Sheva asked her question at the same time she asked hers. Her eyes were drawn to the glint of the Star of David pendant around Sheva's neck and... for a brief moment, Wanda felt such a wave of relief wash over her. So she wasn't the only Jew here after all. Just knowing that provided her with an immeasurable amount of comfort.

"Yeah, I... I didn't either," Wanda admitted. "Everyone here seems to celebrate Christmas. Religiously or... just... for the gift-giving side of it..." She hadn't meant it to be an attack on anyone in particular, but it did seem like the Avengers leaned into the capitalism side of things a little hard. Having come from a disadvantaged and war-torn community, Wanda and capitalism didn't really get along that much.

"Your um... Your necklace is really beautiful," she said, pointing to the Star. "I had one myself when I was very young, but the chain broke and I didn't realize until it was lost." That had been while she and Pietro had been living on the street. He'd stolen a ring for her, a silver one of a bird claw, to cheer her up some time later. She at least still had and wore that ring, even if she'd lost the Star of David she'd gotten from her parents.

"Well, you're doing better than I am," Wanda said, still feeling so awkward as she ran her fingers through her long hair. "I don't have a menorah or candles. I was going to see if I could find candles and just... stand them up on a shelf." Not the same thing, but it was something, at least. "But yes, I know where they keep the olive oil in the common kitchen. I can show you."

That got her thinking, though. She hadn't cooked or baked a single thing this year. Wanda didn't have much of an appetite lately. This was her first Hanukkah without Pietro, and it hurt badly. Cooking and baking had always been something she enjoyed, but half the fun of it was watching Pietro consume the result so happily each time. Without him, Wanda hadn't thought there was much of a point. But if there was someone else here who celebrated... "Are you going to cook something?" she asked, feeling a little embarrassed that just that simple question should cause her eyes to flood with tears.

"I usually cook and bake all sorts of things... but um..." she said, her voice starting to tremble, "I don't have my brother here... to eat it... anymore... so..." The wave of sadness hit her so unexpectedly that all she could do was cover her face until it passed. It was still so raw, losing Pietro, and feeling left out of the holidays wasn't making it any easier to deal with. Realizing that Sheva shared her beliefs, it was hard for Wanda not to just latch right onto her.

"I'm sorry..." she said, quickly wiping her tears and trying to reel in her emotion once again. The last thing she wanted was to scare Sheva away with her negativity. "I lost my twin brother recently, and this is my first Hanukka without him," she explained. "But if you... want... Do you want... some help... with what you're making?" she asked shyly. It would be nice to share that with someone again, she thought.

[ladysmaid]

        the intensity of this woman's eyes, they're piercing, threatening. it's refreshing. she's become accustomed to the doe eyes of young women scurrying about the castle, carrying out their tasks as if their lives depended on it ( because they did ). it's not often she runs across someone with more than a shred of nerve. a shame they must meet under such unfriendly circumstances. 

        a sigh and a shake of her head. “ you are going to be disappointed, girl. ” meets her eyes and holds her stare. her tone is casual. she has nothing to offer this woman's crusade. “ i know as little of miranda as you do. my focus on my job, nothing more. whatever this miranda is doing is beyond my concern. ”

from here

[wanderingaroundwithmysoul]

“Rain… J.D. never left you,” Ailani murmured, voice barely above a whisper. This was why she hated telling people about her powers, aside from the fact she’d probably be called insane. The heartache her powers brought. The pain Ailani created. “He’s been haunting you since the Hive incident.”

((I’m not really sure what verse this would be in, but Lani gets to see and possibly interact with both Rain and J.D.’s ghost!))

If Rain didn't have to, she didn't discuss her time in the U.S.S. She didn't bring up the people she cared about back then. Most of them were dead. And if they weren't, she'd lost contact with them following the Hive Incident. Nowadays, if somebody knew the name J.D. in relation to her, it was because of the dog tags she ripped off him after being forced to put a bullet in his forehead, which she was rarely seen without in her civilian clothes.

The words stole her breath away the same way his glassy eyes slack corpse face had in those dank tunnels.

If not for that and the fact that she didn't peg Lani as the type to make such a supremely fucked up joke, Rain would have thought she was being messed with.

"What did you just say to me?" she asked as if she could have possibly misheard, but there was no denying the utterance of "J.D." and "Hive" despite Lani's quiet tone. She had told her once she was in Raccoon when it went up in flames. That was all. She closed her fingers around the tags dangling over the table like she was trying to conceal the open pages of a diary.

[mettamorph]

👀 for Sherry!

some hcs

Sherry was never Simmons's personal secret service adjacent agent. After she proved to be completely incompatible to his vision, Derek was intent on using her as a long term asset after that, but Carla (as Ada), was beginning her own personal vision of the future. Derek, at "Ada's" request, pushed Sherry into becoming an agent, but was largely uninterested in monitoring her personally. Carla saw her chance to "capture Simmons's pawn" and took over Sherry's orders, pretending to be Derek Simmons the entire time. Every single time that we see Sherry pick up the phone to contact "Simmons"? It's Carla pretending to be Derek. Derek had no idea what the fuck was going on with Sherry for the majority of the time. He took control of Sherry's orders for some of her missions, but never was her point of contact. That was Carla. He thought Carla sent Sherry to help him in Lanshiang. Nope!

Carla tested Sherry quite a bit in Lanshiang. She was able to extract current samples of G-Virus, or, G-13 as she called the strain, and incorporate aspects of the virus into what she calls "The Staircase". The Staircase is the complicated archive of C-Virus's previous infected organisms, whose gene expressions have been permanently added to "The Staircase", to be randomized and expressed later.

Carla did not talk to Sherry at all when she was held in Simmons's Manse in Lanshiang. She talked to Jake though. A lot.

[thenexusofsouls]

I totally understand what you must be feeling right now.

((Sheva for Raiden!))

"No... you don't," Raiden rasped. It wasn't meant to be mean, it was only that... well, Sheva hadn't been through half of the things Raiden had, and they were things that he figured someone could only understand if they'd happened to them personally. However... "But you're trying to. And I appreciate that. Most people just... wanna look the other way. They don't wanna see what I am, or think that it could happen to them, or think that evil like this exists in the world. You don't shy away from it, and you're trying to fight against it. I really admire you for that."

[pink-strawberry-kissess]

The Party Goes With You from the musical 35mm is Aeon coded from Leon’s pov!

We don't speak of names and faces Why should we? We don't speak of husbands or homes Or work or wives and happy lives All we've got are lips on faces Moving flawlessly Holding secrets in our clothes

On the nights I catch you standing Are you waiting for me? At the counter of this bar Speakeasy, hole in the wall We minuet to cigarette and brandy Your favorite Arminiac Prohibition but there's no harm

But when you strike your goodbye pose Everybody knows, everybody knows The party, well, it goes too And damn it all, darling The party goes with you And I'm left with all the messes Da, da, da Cleaning up for vows in gold Our fraught affair turned solitaire Wishing to take back Merely one of my yeses Aching to be yours And have my story all retold

But when you strike your goodbye pose Everybody knows, everybody knows The party, well, it goes too And damn it all, darling The party goes with you

And when we're dancing nose to nose Darling do you suppose? Oh, darling do you suppose This party could be just us two And I your wife? Oh, oh, the gayest party, sad but true It's true

The party goes with you The party goes with you The life of the party And the party of my life

[missin-you-already]

13, 15, 16, 19 for RE meme

Thanks for the ask :)))

13. Favorite & least favorite character in Retribution?

This the hardest film for me to choose :'( Definitely predictable coming from me, but I'm gonna say Bad Rain is my favorite. I do really, really love Good Rain too, though. And Becky. And Luther. And Jill. And Ad—you get the point.

Sure, Bad Rain is supposedly just an evil Umbrella drone, but I'm charmed by the toothy grins she flashes. She's looking all self-satisfied when she cracks Alice's ribcage with that open palm strike, cocky when she kicks her across the snow and declares she can't kill her, and weirdly amused in the Control Room when observing how Ada killed everyone assassination style. She is simply a bastard <3 I am mad at her for killing Luther, though.

My least favorite? Leon. Did you know that in the original draft for Retribution, Leon was an original character? Should've kept it that way imo. I'm not mad that he isn't like his game counterpart (who I do like), I just cannot find it in me to care about him. Maybe if he was established in an earlier film I would? He and Alice has this weird thing where they clearly dislike each other in a way that feels like they met before, but we never get to see that so it's kinda out of nowhere. I care about Tony more than Leon in Retribution.

15. Unpopular opinion?

If I have any, I'm not entirely sure what they are...

I do see a lot of people call Retribution the worst film, but it's my favorite after the first one. The fight scenes are fun, I love seeing the clones (I would've killed for Martin Crewes and Pasquale Aleardi to return, too), I love nearly all the characters, the Las Plagas Undead are silly, it's all ridiculous, it's fun.

16. An underrated character?

I'll pick Betty this time. Of course the character with medical expertise has to die the minute things get serious in a movie like this (RIP Olga. I like her too), but she does has a good death. She locked herself in the bus with those crows so other survivors could get to safety! She took out as many as she could before they killed her! Plus, she's a sweetheart. I wanna see her in more Extinction stuff.

19. Pairings you dislike?

While I'm not opposed to writing Rain as having some level of interest in men, I can never ship her and J.D. romantically. They are best friends to me. I also feel like Rain has a past of being one of/the only woman in her teams and getting shit for it. She'd be underestimated, called a bitch for responding negatively/rudely when receiving unwanted comments about her appearance, etc. Then she met J.D. J.D. was a cocky asshat at first and they didn't like each other much. He said he doubted some of her skills, but he was that with everybody, and when Rain put him in his place, he sucked it up and admitted she was better with a gun.

J.D. is competitive with her in a way she likes. He teases her in a way she might still roll her eyes at but doesn't find genuinely annoying. He's the first person she's gotten close enough with to consider a best friend. That's it.

I also can't see Rain and Matt together. There's the start of a friendship there by the end of RE, but I don't think it'd go past that. I don't think Rain would be into... dorky guys, I guess? She'd roughhouse him around for being that, too.

Alice and Spence aren't cute to me. Plus, he's a traitorous douchebag whose head she cut off, but I wasn't there for it before he remembered he was a bad dude, either. I think their whole thing is an interesting and important part of Alice's past, though, so it's fun exploring in that sense.

Doc and Claire have the same thing going on, but I like Doc even less. He is the film equivalent of Neil Fisher from Revelations 2 (derogatory).

Nobody talks about it much anymore, but I can't see Luther and Leon. I imagine Luther is straight Movie!Leon is as well.

[spideystark]

❛ take me with you. ❜

((from K-Mart!))

“I don't - ” He didn't know if he could, honestly didn't know if he should. Traveling between universes was dangerous even when you prepared for it, which was evident by the fact that he was here when he had been trying to get to Peter 2's world. But she had helped him and now she was asking for his help, he couldn't just say no when someone asked him for help.

“I can't promise it'll be safe, it's not like I was trying to get here and I don't have a suit for you. I might be able to come up with one, but it'd take time and we would have to find the equipment for it.” That was the main issue, finding the materials. Maybe if they could get to Houston they could find what they needed at NASA's headquarters? He didn't know if Stark Industries even existed in this world.

[problematicbastards]

“Do you have a second to talk?”

((for Bucky from Catalina))

@pretty-isnt-pretty-enough

“That depends entirely on what it is you wanna talk about.”

[youmissedone]

K-Mart was forever grateful that the Arcadia and Alaska had turned out to be real, but she knew Carlos was still struggling to adjust to this new version of their life. If she was honest with herself, adjusting wasn’t the easiest thing for her to do, either. Her frequent nightmares and insomnia didn’t exactly make living a normal life easy, but with support from the surviving members of the convoy and her father, she was beginning to feel at home. Still, she’d be lying if she said that there weren’t any elements of her old life she missed. Everything here was so stale and banal, and though K-Mart had squealed the first time she saw snow, it had lost all appeal to her.

Catalina had grown tired of chasing defectors across the country on Umbrella’s behalf. As soon as she’d gotten close to Alaska, she dug the tracker out of her skin and continued on towards Alaska. She’d never been the most hopeful person, but what the hell did she have left to lose? It wasn’t like she had someone in her life who loved and cared for her anymore, not since she’d lost Carlos.

“Oh, hi!” K-Mart called the moment she spotted someone on the horizon. She lifted her camera to snap a picture. That was her responsibility, after all — reporting any visitors to the mayor. She grinned at the older woman, slipping off a bracelet from her wrist and offering it to Catalina. “I’m K-Mart! Are you here to meet the mayor, or…?”

Catalina winced at the flash and at the teenager’s peppy attitude. Catalina… looked almost nothing like her old self. She’d swapped the revealing dresses, heavy makeup, and high heels for cardigans, a neutral look, and sneakers. Though high fashion was one of her vices, what she wore now connected much more with the person behind the persona. She’d straightened her hair, and Catalina seemed a bit more reserved than the woman Carlos knew, and she put her hands in her pockets, shifting uncomfortably.

“I’ve heard that it’s safe here. Is that true?”

“Yeah. Sorta. I think my dad would say that, but he’s not all that happy here, so I guess it depends on what safety means to you. For me, it’s a little bit boring, but I can manage,” she rambled on. She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly after realizing that she might’ve offended Catalina. “Oh! Not that, like, it’s bad or anything, it’s just… I know we have a lot of privilege here, I do. My dad and I used to live in this convoy, and it’s nice to have an actual house. But Dad’s always telling all these stories about when he worked for Umbrella, and —”

“Did you just say your father worked for Umbrella?” No. It couldn’t be. Carlos was dead — Umbrella had told her that he died in action on that dreadful night. Of course, Catalina shouldn’t have believed a damn thing they told her after everything she’d dug up on them. She wouldn’t allow herself to get her hopes up. “You wouldn’t happen to speak Spanish, would you?”

“I know a little bit. Mostly swear words, but my dad didn’t teach me those. I know how to say my name and how to ask how are you, if that’s worth anything? But yeah, he used to work for Umbrella. He’s a good guy, though, I promise! I can introduce you guys if you want!”

“No, that’s okay, I—” Catalina thoroughly shook her head. She didn’t seem to notice Carlos approaching them… “I don’t need to speak with him.”

Carlos was glad for the others that Alaska had been the safe haven they'd hoped it would be. With so many lives lost and all the stress and terror of living day to day in Nevada, it was no wonder everyone had been willing to make the dangerous and arduous trek to Alaska. Carlos didn't get a lot of sleep during that time, for fear that when they got there... there'd be nothing. Or worse, that it'd be some kind of trap set by Umbrella. But no, it was real, and safe as long as they were diligent about maintaining the defenses and surveillance outside the community, just in case.

It was a difficult adjustment, and one that most didn't understand. Why wasn't he happy? Why couldn't he relax? Carlos didn't really understand it himself either, except to say that being a soldier was all he'd known since he was around fourteen. From the time he first joined his father and uncle to fight in a resistance militia in Brazil, Carlos' life had involved soldiering in some way. Guns, explosives, knives... bravery, selflessness, gusto... it was who he was. For so many years, that was all he was. With all that had happened in the past five years, Carlos just couldn't settle down quietly anymore. At least not right now.

Scouting, scavenging, and helping to keep the community safe helped him a little. It didn't really cure his restlessness or feed his wandering soul, but at least he felt useful. And since everyone else seemed to be so happy in Alaska, he very often kept his feelings to himself. He didn't want to bring everyone around him down, after all. It really was wonderful that a place like this even still existed in this world, and he was truly happy for everyone, even if he found the transition personally jarring.

As part of the scouting and surveillance force for the community, Carlos had become aware of a sighting of someone headed for the area. He wasn't too concerned, since human undead never really made it this far. They starved and were frozen into the landscape before they could make it to the sanctuary's remote location. There was a bit of a problem with larger creatures that could move more quickly over land and with those that could fly, but human undead on foot was not a huge threat. He did wonder who it could be, though, and so he made his way out there, only to see that K-Mart had gotten there first. Carlos had to smile at the way she took her welcoming responsibilities so seriously.

He made his way over to K-Mart and this new person, always armed anywhere he went, just in case. But as far as he knew, this was simply someone in need of help and a safe place to stay, so his demeanor was casual enough, for now. "Hello," he called to get the person's attention. "I see you've already met our welcoming committee," he said with a smile, referring to K-Mart. But as the woman turned to look at him, the smile left his face and a look of utter shock replaced it.

"Catalina...?" Carlos had assumed her dead, because after the Raccoon City Incident, he never saw her again. Five years, it had been, and no sighting or word of her. Yet now here she was, right in front of him...

[thiscrimsonsoul]

sometimes life has a way of telling you where you belong.

((From Sam!))

"Yeah, well... life seems to feel that I belong in hell, so... I've never really been impressed by life's little ways," Wanda said rather cynically. "What about you?"

[checkxmaster]

“You know my moms, right?”

((From Elena!))

"I-... I know one of them, yes. I used to work with Catalina. Sort of. I'm not as familiar with Jill." He'd only met Jill once or twice, and she seemed alright, but he didn't really know her at all. "Why do you ask?" Did they say something about him? Had he done something wrong? Chad's anxiety immediately began swirling various insecurities around in his head.

[wanderingaroundwithmysoul]

sender restrains receiver, trying to calm them down

((From Catalina))

It was plainly obvious to anyone who knew Rain that she was about to start swinging before she did. She had straightened up further as the angry tension in her body made her go rigid. With a set of squared shoulders, some tightly clenched fists, a glare that could've melted nails, and a few more infuriating words from the person in front of her, Rain's feet were carrying her forward with the intent of wiping the look right off his irritating face.

Except she never made any contact. She never even got to reach her target because Catalina grabbed her. "Let go'a me!" Rain's attempts to squirm and pull free from the taller woman weren't yielding much success at all.

If they weren't ignored, insults or generally disrespectful remarks to Rain herself were typically dealt with nothing but words. Maybe a simple flipped bird. However, when those sorts of things were aimed at the people she genuinely cared about, that was when her anger issues really flared and she had the potential to get physical. "I'm gonna knock you right on your ass, man!"

[mettamorph]

What type of music does Carla listen to/like?

Beltway/Hector has introduced her to hip-hop and latinx bops and she gravitates towards it now. Invite her to the cookout she'll fight with everyone's girlfriend. Simmons fucking inundated her with classic waspy rich boy tastes and she hated it.

[armed-and-alxne]

tell me. you don't have to tell Leandro. just tell me.

((From Catalina!))

"Tell you what?" Luther asked. Somethin' was up with these two. First Leandro strikes up a conversation with him out of nowhere and then he meets Catalina and she's... well, she wanted something. Luther could tell. He just didn't know what. "If you got somethin' to ask me, then just ask. I'm done playin' games. That part of my life's over."