Day 3 - Forgiveness

Day 3 - Forgiveness

After five years of radio silence, MyungJin finds the courage to seek forgiveness from their boyfriends. Thankfully, both do want MyungJin back, but each SO has different ideas on how to allow their girlfriend back in their lives.

And Bidan's not kidding: he's an expensive boyfriend.

Day 7 - Happy Birthday

The heat of the combat test had worn off, and left the two thoroughly punished teens leaning against each other as they waited for results, or dismissal, or... anything. In the brief lull, Darr finally mumbled what he'd been debating over all day - no one else would say it to the boarding school's cold-hearted queen bee, so he should.

"... Happy Birthday, Cee."

Cecilia startled faintly against Darr's back. He felt her crane her neck toward him, taking some pride in the fact that it probably ached to do so.

"You remembered." It was hard to tell if she was glad or annoyed.

"Sure."

"You did this on purpose, didn't you?" She elbowed him - right in the ribs where she'd clawed into him earlier. "Got in trouble so Dr. W would put you in this test with me."

"Nobody should be alone with Sr. Rayos on their birthday." He shrugged against her.

Her uncomfortable pause said enough. Even she didn't want to be tested against Vidal Rayos, the school's hulking disciplinarian, and her only choice of opponent if another student hadn't gotten himself in hot water just in time.

"God, you're stupid. But... thanks."

Day 1 - Tender

When I go to sleep at night Eight legged dreams arise Cobwebs in my eyes Never, never gonna wake up -- "8 Legged Dreams" by Unlike Pluto

(Ismaire here:) ~6 hr speed-paint, + 1.5 hrs to tweak for the second version.

I love Resident Evil. I won't go through my whole personal fan history or journey, but it's my favorite franchise. I've loved the Resi Remakes too. And like it seems a lot of people did, I absolutely loved the new Separate Ways.

And this is just a personal opinion, I'm not saying that anyone needs to agree - but I adore Lily Gao as Ada Wong.

Every actress who portrayed Ada before has their place in Resi history and I'm grateful for the work they did in the franchise, but I think Lily Gao did such a perfect, snappy, subtly multi-layered version of the mysterious mercenary I was familiar with.

I always loved Ada, so I say this with love and appreciation:

She's taken Ada from femme fatale spy stereotype to a fleshed-out individual, from an archetype to a complex woman who has her own ideals, feelings and struggles, and has to juggle them with the decisions that got her where she is now. Obviously the writing was great too, which played a huge part in setting up Lily Gao's acting to absolutely sing (at least to me).

She's a different Ada, for sure. Was I caught off-guard by her voice at first? You bet. She doesn't have the airy, playful, motherly (sometimes kind of condescending?) tone about her anymore - she's got things to do. She's as sharp and cunning as she is quietly compassionate. She's willing to cut off Albert Wesker mid-sentence, but she's just as willing to call Leon and tell him where to find Ashley. She feels like a merc who's had it rough and made her way by sheer hard work, not a model who gets out of bad spots by blowing kisses and tossing a perfectly timed grenade.

Now, I love over the top badassery, and I love how that was rehashed and still fit back into Ada's character. But she felt like a human first, and like those "glorious moments of awesome" came out of painstakingly honed skill, not absurdly sturdy plot armor.

What I stated here applies to a lot of things about the Resi remakes, of course - not just Ada. So much has been tweaked, amped, remixed, and so on. Ada is just maybe one of the most prominent parts of the remakes that made me really pause and go "oh my God, I can't believe how much I love this!"

I don't have a problem with the originals - I loved them (camp and all), grew up with them, etc. As a whole package, the series is just my jam and it would be hard to lose me as a fan. I even got used to first-person play so I could enjoy 7 and Village - they were awesome. (Bless you who already love first-person games. I... don't, haha.)

But back to Ada - I just thought this was the most well-rounded performance her character has ever gotten. Anyone else can read her any way they want to. She's fictional, let's all remember. But Lily Gao is not, and she now has my heart and my vote as a fan!

Day 8 - Morning Routine

If an evil villainess wants to get anything done, she's GOT to have a morning routine~

Day 4 - Secret

This character won't appear in Sweet Nightmares for a while, but she's very important.

Both of them.