December Shenanigans :: Open

[laviny]

CHARACTERS: Yelena Belova & you!
LOCATION: All around the station (particularly the lab, the common room and the sunlight room)
DATE: Throughout December
CONTENT: December catch-all
WARNINGS: None at the moment, but will update as needed



Upgrades and Caroling

[For the first week or so of the month Yelena spends a lot time hanging out in and around the lab while she makes sure Redwing gets repaired and upgraded after its run in with the orb on the last mission. Since Sam is asleep and she was there when Redwing took damage, taking care of the drone seems like a good use of her time.

Plus there are some ideas for upgrades to discuss. Excellent, festive ideas that no one could possibly object to.

She definitely ropes Tony Stark into helping, but if other tech-savvy types take an interest, she'll talk to them, though she'll be particular about who gets to actually work on Redwing. She's basically just babysitting and trying to do what Sam would want for his drone.

Once the work is done, eventually, there will come a day when Yelena can be found sitting in the common room testing out the aforementioned upgrades. Sam has given her limited access to Redwing’s features and she has his goggles and wrist controls which she is currently using to fly Redwing around the common room.

Once she gets the hang of it…well, that’s when the drone starts chirping Christmas carols.

Soon Redwing can be found havoring in various parts of the station chirping such classics as: "Carol of the Bells," "We Wish You A Merry Christmas," "O Christmas Tree," "Filiz Navidad," "Jingle Bells," and "Rudolf The Red Nosed Reindeer," among others.

And in the sunlight room specifically Yelena will make sure to always have Redwing sing snow related songs. Anyone building snowmen or making snow angels can enjoy a drone serenading them with "Winter Wonderland," "White Christmas" and "Let it Snow."

The only place spared Redwing’s holiday cheer is the training room. Yelena will let people train in peace.]

Hard Mode Mistletoe

[In general Yelena is enthusiastic about holiday traditions. Her opportunities to really celebrate the holidays have been pretty limited for most of her life, so she’s ready to embrace a lot of different kinds of festivities.

Except the mistletoe. That one is a little weird. She has nothing against it being used as a decoration, but she has little interest in entertaining the tradition surrounding it. Kissing random people because of a plant seems silly and awkward.

So if anyone happens to catch her under some mistletoe she will look at them and then at the mistletoe and sigh, exasperated.]

You know, it can be translated to "poop on a stick."

[That’s not very festive or sexy, is it?]

Snow Days

[The population of Ximilia doesn’t have to worry too much. Yelena doesn’t spend all her time terrorizing the station with Redwing’s Christmas caroling. She actually spend a good portion of her spare time in the Sunlight Room, enjoying the snow and the chill. Although if you were to ask her she would say it could be a little colder. The room’s climate control might work a little too well for her taste.

Anyway, her favorite activity is probably ice skating. It’s a fun way to exercise on days that she takes a break from training. But she can also be found attempting to make snow angels and snowmen. She might be better at snow angels than snowmen, honestly. The snowmen end up a little lopsided.

She’s also open to snowball fights, but, be warned, she’s willing to use all her skills as a Russian assassin to win, so challenge her at your own risk.]

Wildcard, notes, etc

[All these prompts are open to anyone and everyone, but if you want something specific, feel free to hit me up at etceteras or PM me to plot and I can give you closed prompt in the comments. Or you can just toss a wildcard at me, that's cool too.

For the mistletoe prompt, kissing is not guaranteed, as she is more likely to sass than kiss, but I am open to people trying to convince her. I think it's a fun springboard for meetings and conversation, though, so if you want to, feel free to hit it up whether you (or your character) are interested in smooches or not!

I am also willing to match style if you prefer prose.]

Comments

[peasant]

You'll have to show me some of your other tricks. I could use your wisdom.

[ and though her smile tilts, dimpling warmly, it's a sincere invitation. rhys has his own methods of training, hardened by the brute lessons of an illyrian warrior, but — yelena's bold efficiency is an impressive sight to behold. unapologetic, in its existence. unapologetic about her own existence — a trait alina envies and admires, in equal measure. ]

I haven't celebrated any Christmases. [ or many holidays, for that matter, always on the outside looking in. the unwanted orphan, forced to watch from keramzin's outskirts as families feasted in their homes for sankt nikolai's day, content and cozy while wrapped in that blanket of love she and mal had been denied. the life she might have lived, if not for the fold's ruthlessness, engulfing her chance at that happiness. alina's smile flickers only for a moment, like a flame trying to stubbornly persist even as the wind threatens to extinguish it. ] It looks like you and I will be celebrating something new together again.

[ like halloween, though this holiday feels ... more wistful, for her. more centered on families and traditions she doesn't have, outside of mal, his absence at her side aching like an open sore. yelena's companionship helps, for now, to ease that void.

her lips slant a little impishly as she peeks up at the mistletoe again, before her eyes fall back to yelena. ] I was hoping you wouldn't. Feel awkward, I mean.

So does that mean you're going to kiss me now, or are you going to be a coward about it?

[ it's as much a joke as it isn't, but ... what matters most is that it's easy to play off as a playful challenge, for the sake of her own self-consciousness, if yelena blanches. ]

[laviny]

[Huh. Yelena wasn’t expecting that. Though maybe she should have, given the topic of conversation. She doesn’t blanche, though she appears vaguely startled for a moment. She doesn’t take the challenge especially seriously, either. She just takes a moment to ponder it.]

Okay. I will kiss you, but you have to let me braid your hair.

[peasant]

[ a sudden spike of hesitation spears her insides, watching the shock flash across yelena's expression like a thunderbolt through clear skies. for the sake of sparing herself from rejection, she gives a quick thought to retreating away from the line she's so clearly toed across, a boundary she's pushed —

until yelena's agreement pops through that bubble of insecurity. alina's eyelashes flicker with a dumbstruck blink, a mirror of yelena's previous surprise — a clear sign that alina is unused to wielding her own boldness. something like relief overtakes her mouth, snapping shut from where it had fallen slightly agape, as a nervous giggle fizzes out of her mouth.

wisely, she doesn't say that's it? truthfully, she would let yelena braid her hair at any time, but — ]

Alright. [ she doesn't take the first step into yelena's space, doesn't barrel across that threshold, letting yelena come to her in her own time. the invitation is still there like an open door between them, regardless; alina's fingers fiddle with the end of yelena's braid before they find their way to other woman's face, tucking a stray strand of blonde behind her ear. with an endeared twitch of her nose, she teases: ] But your kiss better be as good as your braidwork.

[laviny]

[She laughs at that.]

Oh, no. The braids will be much better. I have much more experience with those.

[There's no shame in her words. It's just matter of fact. Her life has been a strange one. There wasn't a lot of room for romance or experimentation in the Red Room, especially once they instituted the mind control. They weren't allowed to be people. Not really.

Once she was free she had other things on her mind, Widows to find and free. And of course, then she was yeeted out of existence for five years. And once she returned she had to readjust to life again, this time without her sister. There just hasn't been a lot of room for kissing.

Still, she doesn't hesitate as she leans in and gives Alina a light kiss on the corner of her mouth.]

[peasant]

[ she doesn't press further, stealing away secrets yelena isn't prepared to share. much of her life is still a shrouded mystery, a curtain alina feels she's gradually pulled back to shed light on it — but she can piece together hazy fragments, the faint impressions of a painful past. if kirigan can do no worse to her than what's already been done, then ... alina's certain the skeletons yelena has shoved into her closet aren't easy to stomach, aren't pretty to examine.

and there are things of much greater importance to invest her energy in, anyway. the future ahead of them. yelena's closeness, dipping into the small space between them, and the soft feathering of her lips at the corners of alina's. alina's head tips, a fond brush of her nose nuzzled to yelena's, as dimples round out the appled corners of alina's cheeks.

slowly, she dips up, a gentle glide of her mouth like soft satin along yelena's own. chaste, patient — not demanding beyond that, as she mumbles, ]

I'll be the judge of that.

[ and her judgment is this: yelena's kiss is soft, in contrast to all the ruthless grace alina has witnessed from her, and warm — delightfully delicate, somehow, in contrast to the power alina knows lurks within her. ]

See? [ she dots a kiss on the tip of the other woman's nose, an affectionate parting gift, as she draws back — though her shoulders haven't moved, from where they've fluttered down to perch on yelena's shoulders. ] Some traditions aren't so silly, with the right person.

[laviny]

[It is, in fact, quite a pleasant experience. There's a sort of tenderness to it that Yelena hasn't had much of in her life. It's nice. Maybe nicer than she expected it to be, though she didn't necessarily have any solid expectations of kissing Alina specifically. She just thought kissing a rando under a plant seemed potentially awkward and a strange way to celebrate a holiday. Alina's not just some random person, though. She's a friend.

Yelena scrunches her nose up a bit at the kiss Alina plants there. Not in distaste, but because it tickles a little.]

Okay, it's not so weird with you. It would be with some random stranger, though. I stand by that.

[peasant]

Such glowing praise.

[ not so weird. sarcasm drips from every syllable of alina's response, honeyed with the sound of her unoffended laugh. it might as well be praise to alina's ears, playfulness aside; any compliment sounds sweet to someone that has so often braced themselves for the sourness of an insult, the bitterness of a taunt.

her hands squeeze yelena's shoulders before slowly sliding away and down to alina's sides, in her reluctance to radiate any clinginess. with a sideways, shifty glance at the mistletoe overheard, she slylys offers, ]

I could burn the decorations? So you won't be trapped with any pushy strangers the next time you're wandering the halls.

[laviny]

[Ok so maybe that wasn’t the best choice of words, but Yelena doesn’t have a lot of experience with this. She does, however, snort a laugh at Alina’s offer to burn the mistletoe.]

No, that’s not fair to the people who enjoy it. I wouldn’t want anyone to damage Redwing just because they don’t get excited about random Christmas carols.

[Yelena is perfectly willing to let people celebrate however they please, really. If they respect her way of being festive she can do the same.]

Besides, I am telling you, kicking pushy strangers is very effective.