Memory #20: Confronting Blacklight
Oct. 19th, 2013 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunny_earsMemory form is a packet of jello mix! You'll have to make it at your cabin and wait for it to set . . . or, just lick the sugar. Do what you want. I'm a cat, not a cop.
She's outside, in costume on a Portland rooftop at night, waiting for someone important. She's just about to disappointedly leave when that someone shows up -- a woman in black with a full face mask. Vel is a roil of emotions and isn't sure what to say... so she asks the woman to come beat up muggers with her. Great superhero ice-breaker!
They find some robotic bank robbers, which Vel likes -- anything with a face is something she has power over, and she always finds a straight fight cathartic. The woman -- who flies and shoots light beams -- says that she forgot how versatile Velveteen can be. Velma asks the other woman to fudge the truth to the cops, saying they can't file the paperwork because they are pursuit of another incident, and asks her to follow.
They head to another rooftop, one with a giant pink donut. Briefly they discuss culinary-themed villains and heroes, as Blacklight queries if the donut has anything to do with anything besides being a landmark. And neutral ground: even super villains respect delicious pastries and coffee.
Vel takes off her mask and apologizes to Yelena. The woman feigns confusion, and Vel points out that she has known Yelena for years and a different costume and voice modification isn't enough to fool her, especially in a fight. Yelena is about to leave, and Velma blurts out the only think she can think of to say: "Marketing lied to you."
Apparently Marketing had told Yelena that Velma was going to take some secret of hers to the tabloids; a secret Vel (at the time) didn't even know. Vel won't tell Yelena what the secret was until she takes the mask off -- if Velma is wrong about the woman's identity, she's sure not going to rat Yelena out now. Vel also explains that Marketing lied to her, telling Vel that Aaron had been cheating on her with Yelena, which was why she didn't question Yelena's behavior and just... left.
Velma confesses she was jealous -- at the time, she'd been told she was a second-stringer, and her friends were stars, and she wanted to believe her friend was secretly a bad person, because she didn't want to be a bad person for being jealous of her best friend.
Yelena finally breaks the act, takes off her mask, and tells Velma that she was never a bad person: after all, Yelena was the one who started a fight when she'd thought Velma had betrayed her, while Vel had just left. (There's also a brief aside when Vel asks how Yelena got her hair under that mask: it turns out having gadgeteers who don't ask questions like 'why do you want this' is handy occasionally.)
Yelena finally asks Vel to confirm she knows the secret: Vel tells her that it was that Yelena was gay (insert joke about a rainbow-themed superhero being in the closet here). And that she found out via an alternate universe where Yelena was the one who left. By meeting alternate!Yelena's girlfriend, and pointing out that she'd never seen Yelena act totally twitterpated around Aaron, the way alternate!Yelena acted around her girlfriend.
Yelena fills in the details -- she'd been given to the Super Patriots at age 11 not because her parents were scared of her powers but because The Super Patriots had promised to cure her homosexuality. Aaron had been a beard; a guy who didn't mind that their relationship (at least the kissy bits) was only for the cameras. And, as long as Yelena thought Vel had tried to out her, it didn't hurt that it would hurt Vel.
Vel says that once she realized how utterly they'd been played, she couldn't hate Yelena (even for hurting her), but she sure could hate the ones who had torn their friendship apart, because they had taken years of being best friends and allies from them. Yelena said that she could have believed Vel was a bitch, but not a supervillain, which was why she'd started helping Vel in secret.
They both reveal that they think Marketing is doing something to everyone's heads, and have a hug and a cry and Vel reassures Yelena that she couldn't care less that Yelena was gay. Velma pointed out that Marketing screwed the pooch when they tried to split her and Yelena up, because they ended up with two very pissed off superheroes out for blood. They could have had Velma and Aaron as their adorable celebrity couple AND Yelena, but apparently the world isn't ready for a lesbian superhero.
Then Yelena catches a spy from Marketing. Yelena now can't go back without risking everything. Well, fuck that.
What Joy Learned:
* Suddenly everything makes a lot more sense.
* Also, all the feels. Both in canon and Aather, Vel is a 'you do not mess with my friends' type of person. Somehow playing both her and her best friend to make them hate each other is even worse than the other things, perhaps because it caused a lot of actual pain. Plus... well, a lot of Joy's memories of Yelena at this point were of her as a kid, when she was pretty timid.
She's outside, in costume on a Portland rooftop at night, waiting for someone important. She's just about to disappointedly leave when that someone shows up -- a woman in black with a full face mask. Vel is a roil of emotions and isn't sure what to say... so she asks the woman to come beat up muggers with her. Great superhero ice-breaker!
They find some robotic bank robbers, which Vel likes -- anything with a face is something she has power over, and she always finds a straight fight cathartic. The woman -- who flies and shoots light beams -- says that she forgot how versatile Velveteen can be. Velma asks the other woman to fudge the truth to the cops, saying they can't file the paperwork because they are pursuit of another incident, and asks her to follow.
They head to another rooftop, one with a giant pink donut. Briefly they discuss culinary-themed villains and heroes, as Blacklight queries if the donut has anything to do with anything besides being a landmark. And neutral ground: even super villains respect delicious pastries and coffee.
Vel takes off her mask and apologizes to Yelena. The woman feigns confusion, and Vel points out that she has known Yelena for years and a different costume and voice modification isn't enough to fool her, especially in a fight. Yelena is about to leave, and Velma blurts out the only think she can think of to say: "Marketing lied to you."
Apparently Marketing had told Yelena that Velma was going to take some secret of hers to the tabloids; a secret Vel (at the time) didn't even know. Vel won't tell Yelena what the secret was until she takes the mask off -- if Velma is wrong about the woman's identity, she's sure not going to rat Yelena out now. Vel also explains that Marketing lied to her, telling Vel that Aaron had been cheating on her with Yelena, which was why she didn't question Yelena's behavior and just... left.
Velma confesses she was jealous -- at the time, she'd been told she was a second-stringer, and her friends were stars, and she wanted to believe her friend was secretly a bad person, because she didn't want to be a bad person for being jealous of her best friend.
Yelena finally breaks the act, takes off her mask, and tells Velma that she was never a bad person: after all, Yelena was the one who started a fight when she'd thought Velma had betrayed her, while Vel had just left. (There's also a brief aside when Vel asks how Yelena got her hair under that mask: it turns out having gadgeteers who don't ask questions like 'why do you want this' is handy occasionally.)
Yelena finally asks Vel to confirm she knows the secret: Vel tells her that it was that Yelena was gay (insert joke about a rainbow-themed superhero being in the closet here). And that she found out via an alternate universe where Yelena was the one who left. By meeting alternate!Yelena's girlfriend, and pointing out that she'd never seen Yelena act totally twitterpated around Aaron, the way alternate!Yelena acted around her girlfriend.
Yelena fills in the details -- she'd been given to the Super Patriots at age 11 not because her parents were scared of her powers but because The Super Patriots had promised to cure her homosexuality. Aaron had been a beard; a guy who didn't mind that their relationship (at least the kissy bits) was only for the cameras. And, as long as Yelena thought Vel had tried to out her, it didn't hurt that it would hurt Vel.
Vel says that once she realized how utterly they'd been played, she couldn't hate Yelena (even for hurting her), but she sure could hate the ones who had torn their friendship apart, because they had taken years of being best friends and allies from them. Yelena said that she could have believed Vel was a bitch, but not a supervillain, which was why she'd started helping Vel in secret.
They both reveal that they think Marketing is doing something to everyone's heads, and have a hug and a cry and Vel reassures Yelena that she couldn't care less that Yelena was gay. Velma pointed out that Marketing screwed the pooch when they tried to split her and Yelena up, because they ended up with two very pissed off superheroes out for blood. They could have had Velma and Aaron as their adorable celebrity couple AND Yelena, but apparently the world isn't ready for a lesbian superhero.
Then Yelena catches a spy from Marketing. Yelena now can't go back without risking everything. Well, fuck that.
What Joy Learned:
* Suddenly everything makes a lot more sense.
* Also, all the feels. Both in canon and Aather, Vel is a 'you do not mess with my friends' type of person. Somehow playing both her and her best friend to make them hate each other is even worse than the other things, perhaps because it caused a lot of actual pain. Plus... well, a lot of Joy's memories of Yelena at this point were of her as a kid, when she was pretty timid.