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.
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.
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 Ladder". The Ladder is the complicated archive of C-Virus's previous infected organisms, whose gene expressions have been permanently added to "The Ladder", 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.
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. ”
“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.
“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.
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!"
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?"
