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[laviny]

OOC
Name: Jess
Contact: etceteras
Other characters: N/A

IC
Name: Yelena Belova
Canon: MCU
Canon point: Around the time of the post-credit scene in Black Widow.
Age: Late 20s~early 30s. We don’t have confirmation about whether or not she was blipped which makes her exact age hard to pin down. My current headcanon is that she was blipped, but I’m keeping it vague just in case I get Jossed later.

History: A handy wiki link

Personality:

+ DIRECT + For someone who was trained as a spy and an assassin Yelena is not afraid to tell people exactly what she thinks. She doesn’t really bother to waste time being vague or cagey. She has a sharp wit and she doesn’t hold back from calling people out. If something upsets her, she will say it, though it might take her some time to find the right words, as it did when she confronted Melina, Alexei and Natasha regarding the time they spent as a family and what it meant to her. In general, though, people will know exactly where they stand with her.

+ TENACIOUS + Yelena is a determined individual. We see this in her even as a child when she stubbornly challenges Natasha to see who can hold a back bend the longest. Even as she’s about to fall over she insists she can hold it just a little longer. We see it again when she’s an adult, fighting Natasha and she’s told to stay down. She refuses, and persists, showing a willingness to fight dirty in order to keep going. She exhibits it in other ways, too. It’s in her determination to hold on to her newly found freedom, and in the way she clings to the concept of her family even once she’s aware that it was all a ruse. If something means something to her, she holds on tight and doesn’t give up.

+ ENTHUSIASTIC + In spite of her general cynicism, Yelena is actually very eager and open minded about trying new things. She has her personhood and autonomy back for the first time since she was a child and she wants to discover herself. This is stated plainly in the movie when she says “I’ve never had control over my own life before, and now I do. I want to try things.” Due to her lack of normal life experiences, she can be rather child-like in her enthusiasm when she finds something she likes and enjoys, as witnessed when she expresses her excitement about her vest with lots of pockets.

- CYNICAL - Yelena grew up not only seeing the worst of the world, but being used and abused by it. She was trafficked as a child and forced into a program that stole her autonomy and turned her into a living weapon. She knows intimately how ugly the world can be and as a result she’s not especially inclined toward optimism in general. We see this quite clearly when she tells Natasha that “pain and suffering are everyday.” Yelena doesn’t have much faith in altruism or heroes, and even when her own actions could be seen as heroic she wouldn't see them that way, herself. She sees herself as a trained killer, not a hero.

- DISREGARD FOR HER OWN SAFETY - Likely due to her deep seated trauma and only recently being able to think of herself as a person, Yelena exhibits a rather unhealthy indifference to her own safety. We see this at least three times. Once, when she triggers an avalanche and her only reaction is a chuckle and the comment “this would be a cool way to die.” Later when she’s about to be cut open by Red Room surgeons her response is to mutter that it’s a “less cool way to die.” She’s also absolutely willing to die to make sure Dreykov died. While she does complain to Natasha when she’s hurt in a car crash, it seemed more like an inconvenience than an actual concern.

- MORALLY GRAY - Yelena was, apparently, a prolific child assassin. She was known, according to Alexei, for being efficient and ruthless. This kind of childhood doesn’t leave a lot of room for normal moral ways of thinking. Yelena does have a basic understanding of right and wrong, but when she’s in action that understanding isn’t what motivates her decisions. Instead she’s driven by what’s most efficient for her current goal. Such as, for example, not thinking twice about stealing a car to escape the Taskmaster, even when Natasha reprimands her. She might have regained her personhood, but she still thinks like an assassin, which means her moral compass is a little broken.


Powers/Abilities:
Yelena has no super powers to speak of, but she does have a number of skills thanks to her Red Room training:

‣ skilled in martial arts, hand-to-hand combat and knife fighting
‣ Trained marksman and sniper
‣ Familiar with a number of different weapons and how to use them
‣ Trained in spycraft and assassination
‣ skilled in acrobatics and parkour
‣ trained pilot
‣ multilingual

She is also immune, or at least resistant, to chemical mind control thanks to being exposed to the Red Dust. She is still vulnerable to magical kinds of mind control.

Regret: Killing the Widow that freed her from mind control. With a life like Yelena's, she probably has a lot of regrets, but I think this one might rankle her a bit. Helping the Widows is important to her and it probably hurts that the one that helped her is dead. It can also be assumed that she knew the Widow in question, since she calls her by name (Oksana). It's likely the first kill she was actively felt some regret about.


Inventory:
‣ the clothes on her back
‣ Chunky combat boots
‣ Earrings
‣ Rings on almost every finger
‣ Small concealed knife, because she probably always has at least one weapon on her

Sample: TDM toplevel and this thread with Tony