#✦𓂅 while the fuse is lit and there's no turning back ⠀ ⠀ ��� ⠀ ⠀ roleplay

[sworn-in-blood]

@pretty-isnt-pretty-enough [leandro] to ALONZO OLIVEIRA.

❝ Meet me at midnight . ❞

The quiet words from Leandro had been largely unexpected by the mercenary , especially here , inside Jill's workshop . Alonzo had a tendency to not exactly drive his truck where he was supposed to - and it had culminated into having to take it here , to their collective hideout so the other could fix it up. Underneath his truck , the ex-agent wouldn't have heard their conversation or seen the usual tells that belonged to either of them .

"Something you want to tell me , Leandro ?" The question came , underlined with a playful tease and smile that Alonzo was so well known for. It was still several hours til midnight - the sun was still out , even if it hung low , but the crux of the night was not such a strange time . An amused breath as he spoke again , meeting his gaze . "I'll come ."

[sworn-in-blood]

@pretty-isnt-pretty-enough [leandro] to ALONZO OLIVEIRA .

“I meant well. Well, look at what well-meant did.”.

Situations falling apart was not a stranger to the revolutionary . He had seen many of his men fall , seen many atrocities that he couldn't bear repeat in the counsel of others. His camps had been raided before , temporarily captured strongholds laid waste - and for what ? A few extra pesos , a few extra sols? No matter how many times he endured such a thing , Alonzo would never quite get used to it. He still hadn't , one could argue - but that was not something that many saw .

No , when people looked towards Alonzo they saw that great revolutionary fighter that the people needed , a man that would fight tooth and nail for his people, who held no hesitation against the fear swept in by the cartels in his homeland . A lot can happen behind closed doors - and for him ? Nobody would watch him mourn , and nobody would watch him carefully pick out bouquets of flowers to lay over those lost.

They did not know the same of Leandro - but he had not known him for long . The two had clicked pretty quickly , once they met , and despite such a short length of time - Alonzo had considered Leandro a fellow brother , even if only in arms . He did the same for all of those who fought with him - if you had bled alongside the revolutionary , you were bonded by that same spilled blood .

"Sometimes well-meant is the only thing a lutador has , besides the clothes on his back . We do what we can , and we can only hope that it is enough . Your heart was in the right place , and for that - it cannot be a fault ."

[sworn-in-blood]

@pretty-isnt-pretty-enough [leandro] to ALONZO OLIVEIRA.

“Remind me why Cata is making us dress up again?”

"She's taking us to some or other play , last I heard . Something about a dress code . Think it's a bit overboard , but she won't let any of us argue ."

A slight shrug and an amused breath , adjusting the cuffs of his suit jacket . A dark green one , Alonzo technically hadn't worn this one before - similar to Leandro , he also wasn't always one for dressing up . Never really had an interest in it, unlike the three women the both of them were closest to . No, all three of them could probably put them both to shame on any given day , had they the opportunity . Catalina and Jess could handle their appearances on their own well enough, but the spy's girlfriend was practically a whole different story .

"I'd say we're lucky . Haven't heard from Jill the whole day ."

[sworn-in-blood]

"Because he doesn't think its his story to tell ." It wasn't a story Alonzo himself told frequently either - even around the fire , his stories were more along the things that he considered worthy to tell . The honorable stories , the ones where he had won against impossible odds - the ones that were left in the dark , the true pieces of his history - those weren't for such casual conversation . It wasn't something that belonged to anybody else to share , it was his and his alone , even here so far away from where they had been .

"You already do , from everything I've heard . You should hear what he tells me - that man is head over heels for you . No other girl has caught his eye quite like you have , and I've been suffering through his company for years ."

He could tell that Catalina had trouble believing his words, from what she had said. Every single one of them was true - he'd have believed that the two were wed the way his brother spoke about her.

"I've never seen him look at someone the way he looks at you ."

“Luis is a close friend of ours. I work for Umbrella in Spain, and that’s how I met him,” Catalina explained. The way she phrased those sentences fit with her persona. Of course Catalina Cisneros had a multitude of friends. Of course Catalina Cisneros lived in Spain. Of course Catalina met him and not the other way around.

Catalina wondered if Carlos’ newfound mystery was something he’d learned from her. She was the one who’d insisted upon keeping their relationship secret, and he understood her reasoning for doing so. Catalina didn’t want to keep performing once the only light left onstage was the ghostlight, and being private about this protected her from doing just that.

“Carlos never says much about your past.”

Catalina didn’t know why that was, but she could make a few guesses. In her experience, the past held painful memories. It was easier to move on — easier to leave that part of yourself behind. Umbrella had shaped them both into new people, for better or for worse. Every time Carlos called her Cata or kissed her fervently, she thought of a poetry quote. ‘There are countries, there are rivers in your eyes, my homeland is in your eyes, I walk through them…’

Catalina beamed, and she wanted to give a little spin. She wanted to lie down in the middle of the street and cry tears of joy. She wanted to find Carlos in a crowd and kiss him with a passion that seemed impossibly human. She usually didn’t let her mask drop for even a moment, but she couldn’t contain herself here.

Carlos loved Catalina. He loved her enough that he never shut up about her. He loved her enough that he knew she preferred to be called Cata. He loved her enough to take her to the ballet even though she’d never mentioned her affection for it. He loved her enough not to run away when he realized what she was.

God, how did she even end up with someone like him? Catalina Cisneros would never be pretty enough. She’d never look like the girls in the posters on the wall or the stack of magazines by her bedside. Sure, she could cut her hair and buy new lipstick, but nothing would ever change. Carlos still wanted her, though, and that’s where she was confused.

“I’m still trying to deserve him,” she confessed, vulnerable as it was.

[sworn-in-blood]

There was that cue to tell the story he'd been itching to , and a grin of his own rested on his expression . The truck he'd taken to use definitely hadn't liked the path he'd taken it on , and frankly, neither had Jill . Leandro should have seen the choice words he'd gotten as soon as he rolled into the garage, and he'd made a mental note to pay attention to half of the ex-agent's speech.

"Went offroad . Found out that forest doesn't mix well with truck suspensions. Barbed wire makes it worse ."

Alonzo could practically hear Jill's eyes rolling underneath the car as a branch came skittering out from where she was.

"Hey , I mean . Technically , not my fault the guy wanted to run through private property."

Leandro himself wasn't great at spying. He did okay at it, sure, but he was nowhere near his best friend's level, and he was great at his particular skillset. It was why the allyship of Jill, Catalina, Leandro, Alonzo, Jess, and a few select others worked so well - their skills all created a near perfect team. It helped that they got along well. (What Leandro felt towards the other man was far more than that of a simple ally.)

"Go on," he encouraged, nodding a little. "I doubt that was Jill's fault, and I think we can all tell you're just dying to share."

[sworn-in-blood]

The smile from the other came , and Alonzo's own grew just that little more . He knew how to defuse tension , and did it well - it was clearly evident here . Catalina mentioned Luis then , and the revolutionary raised a brow . "I think it'd be easier if you made me list what he has told me . All this time away from home and Carlos seems to have forgotten how to tell stories !"

Alonzo was evidently pleasantly surprised by Catalina's willingness to hear him out on his stories - and not one moment did he hesitate before launching into them . "Early morning , down deep in the jungles of Peru . Scouting them for a while , all I had with me was the clothes on my back and the rifle in my hands ." He accompanied the story with hand gestures , dramatifying it as best he could . "I could almost feel the air sticking to me myself . I walked for hours through the brush , clearing my path as I came to the outskirts - all you could hear was the birds and the insects . Everything went quiet - then out of nowhere , you could hear helicopter rotors - approaching from the west . I did what any man would do - I lay down , in the shallows . Put my rifle down on the ground , put my eye on the scope - pulled the trigger and boom ! - shot him clean out of the sky through the windshield ."

He tilted his head slightly as he recalled the story - embellished or not , Catalina wouldn't know . "Carlos wouldn't even dare come close to me until the stench of river-mud left me . Took four days to get rid of it all ."

Alonzo let out a light chuckle at the last question . "Your lover is a romantic , hermosa . Just like all the famous love stories - I've heard more about you than I've heard about him ."

Catalina smiled and shook her head at Alonzo's theatrics. He reminded her a lot of Luis, what with the dramatics, the cocky confidence, and the jokes. That was one of the highest compliments Catalina could give. She didn't have many friends, and those who held the title meant the world to her. The few people who fell under her protection considered themselves lucky, and she in turn. While the pair didn't know each other very well yet, anyone who meant something to Carlos meant something to her, save for Jill Valentine (though it could be argued her hatred for the other woman was meaningful in its own way).

"Has Carlos told you about Luis yet?" Catalina asked. Her boyfriend knew that her alliances and secrets were kept under lock and key, so she couldn't be sure what he would've shared. She was grateful to him for that. She was grateful to him for a lot of things, actually. Carlos made her feel like a person, and for someone as enigmatic and vague as Catalina Cisneros was, that meant everything. "You remind me of him in some ways."

A laugh followed as he referenced his stories. Catalina had plenty of stories, sure, but she didn't consider them to be her own. Not when all of them occurred under a different name or a different hair color or a different personality entirely. If asked about her scars, she would've said as much. The stories of a city blown to bits and an American agent and the president's daughter would eventually belong to her with scars to boot, but none of that had happened yet.

"Tell me."

Any of the tension that had existed only moments before evaporated with those two words, and while Catalina's mask wasn't cast aside entirely, it was loosened. She only removed it when she was alone, when she was with Carlos, and when she was with Luis, but this was a start. She allowed Alonzo to see a trace of the wearer for the rest of this conversation, and that was a rare thing.

"Does he ever… talk about me?" The answer, of course, was yes. Catalina knew how much their relationship meant to her, but she couldn't fathom how much it meant to her boyfriend. In her eyes, Catalina embodied every terrible rumor and her horrible reputation that had been created by the public. She didn't understand how or why he liked her for who she was, but she wasn't going to shove Carlos away.

[sworn-in-blood]

"I'm not asking you to pretend , Leandro ." Alonzo was quick to respond - he could see the conflict within the other , they had seen it in so many others . A mistake , a nightmare - those were things that could devour a man from the inside no matter how strong he was , but they weren't weaknesses . "Neither of us are innocent . Nobody is, not here ."

The mercenary himself was far from the term , just like Leandro . Both of them had committed acts that they couldn't speak of - especially when it came to him - and yet both of them still had a drive to protect . If they couldn't protect , then they couldn't do anything , if they were not protectors then they were nothing . He could recognize the same in the other , in a way that was oddly similar to his own .

Alonzo's own grief had spurred him on to join Leandro in his mission now - he had heard about the destruction of the city only mere days after his brother had told him he was being deployed again . It had been such a sudden shock - that was the one thing that he had always never wanted to hear - his brother had always been a survivor, but he had heard nothing after the report . No anonymous phone call , no message, it had all been dead silent in a way that he hated . He might not have known the extent of what it all was , might not have fully grasped the idea of the dead returning to life , but he knew there had been someone responsible , and by the gods he was going to make them pay for it .

His gaze flicked over the blueprints that the other displayed to him , committing what he could to memory . Leandro's next words came to , and his gaze moved to meet his own .

"You think I'm going to stay behind and let you take all the credit? Desculpe , Leandro , but you're stuck with me for a while yet ."

“But it was still my choice,” Leandro said. The confidence that had been emanating from him for the entirety of their mission vanished with those six words, and he couldn’t bring himself to say more. Leandro owned it the same way Catalina did: his choice, his actions, his life, his fault. “My intentions didn’t matter. It wasn’t… I can’t pretend like I’m innocent in this because I was well-intentioned.”

Leandro didn’t know that Carlos was still alive. He didn’t know that they both harbored that guilt in their own ways. He didn’t know that what happened in Raccoon was far beyond anything in his control. The nightmares still haunted him, and Alonzo witnessed him in the aftermath of one now.

“I’m not leaving until I destroy that lab.” The blueprints of it were burned into his brain, but he pulled it up on his wrist computer for the other to see anyway. No good deed went unpunished, he’d learned, but he would never stop trying. If Leandro could save even one person, then it all would be worth it. Alonzo bled the same blood, he was certain, both literally and metaphorically. Destroying Umbrella’s building would be for the betterment of everyone here, and he’d done his best to inform himself of the situation. “I don’t care if you come with me or not, but I have to do this.”