a buddy of mine said that he saw jack morrison take his shirt off in the shower

[mylawn]

Who: Angela Ziegler, Soldier: 76, special guest Solid Snake, extra special guests Reinhardt and Reaper and Mei
When: Early February
Where: The Ingress entrance to Eosoros and then some other places maybe
What: Basically the part of Undercover Boss where the boss stops being undercover, except with fewer monetary gifts
Warnings: Blood, medical business, an angry old man

[76 arrives on Thisavrou very, very angry.

He’s usually angry, but generally speaking, he manages to keep said anger to a low simmer if only to function on a day-to-day basis. Arriving on this new planet after the ordeal at the Midway Hub, finding that all he can really do is sit and wait for his number to be called means that anger gets the better of him, even as he attempts to settle in (but 'settling in' is for other people). 76 takes one of the security gigs on Eosoros in a bid to do something productive, and that's sort of when things come to a head.

He’s angry, and he screws up.

It’s not really his fault, he thinks. It’s easy to blame the client (too reckless, an idiot, doesn’t listen to him, gets them both in a bad situation), but probably 76 could have handled this better. He should have bailed when things started to go south or ditched the client entirely or not taken the job in the first place—the money for a security detail wasn’t worth any of that, but he’s still boiling over with ire about the whole situation and that’s enough to make him do very stupid things, like throwing himself down in order to save both their asses when the client proves too incompetent to make it through the stupid torture gauntlet.

Hindsight, however, is twenty-twenty, and he’s not exactly coherent as he drags them both back through the Ingress and is immediately sidelined for medical attention. 76, too angry to care about decorum or not making a scene, immediately makes a scene. Someone is trying to hold him down, if only to keep him from getting blood everywhere before a medic arrives. The Savrii, however, are hard-pressed to subdue an enhanced human like him, especially when he’s in absolutely no mood to listen to reason.

Under duress, 76 becomes all but feral, hissing and spitting and doing everything in his power to get out and away, even if that means ignoring the fact that he's wounded and throwing all his self preservation out the window (said like he had any to begin with). It’s only the nature of his injury that keeps him from making an effective escape, though that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to try.]

Comments

reaper

[mylawn]

[Ana's number comes up, and Jack isn't going to be the one to make her stay on this planet for his sake. They talk it over and agree that she should take the chance, especially given the fact that he has no idea if or when it'll be his turn. To say that letting her go was difficult would be an understatement, but at the same time he knows it's time to stop being selfish. She can hold down the fort back home, and he'll catch up with her later.

That's what they told themselves, anyway.

It leaves Jack mostly alone in a house that's too big for him, on a plot of land that's also too big for him, but he tries to turn the quiet into something productive. It's almost laughable the way he's gone full circle, even if this particular farm is on an alien planet.

Things might be peaceful, even, if not for the fact that Jack is often in a state of hyper-vigilance, moreso when he can't sleep (which is often). Something is out in the barn, he's sure of that, and his own paranoia won't let him rest until he finds out what it is. Given that they're on an alien planet, he's not about to discount anything, so he puts on his gear and heads outside, gun raised and at the ready, trying not to give himself away. If something's snooping around here, Jack wants to be able to sneak up on it.]

[tinkerhell]

[By the time Jack gives into his paranoia, the creature he'd begun to track was already well set in. Every lantern has been extinguished, leaving the light of the sky as the only source of vision -- so long as you're not Reaper. From the window, he spots Soldier: 76 and disappears in a wisp of smoke to retreat back inside.

Environmental scanners will tell him that he's around regardless, so he doesn't bother to make a spectacle of himself. After all, Jack wasn't the only one who had spotted Ana's disappearance -- though, admittedly, he hadn't figured it out until he arrived on the scene. His feelings are mixed; there was no real reason for him to miss her, or even be angry about her departure.

And yet...

Without his vantage, he can't discern whether or not Jack had opted to leave Reaper at rest on his property, or whether he was still approaching. So he sits high in storage, listening with all of his might for the crunch of boots on blades of grass. He can't say he's yet in the mood to deal wit him, but he wasn't unarmed anymore.

So sure. Let him try and pick a fight.]

[mylawn]

[He's expecting some kind of alien creature, to be honest--something poking around the farm to see if there's anything interesting, so Jack is really only prepared for a show-down with some kind of extraterrestrial menace looking to harass the bees, or something. Doesn't mean he isn't coming into this unprepared, though he might be underestimating what's really hanging around his barn.

The wooden door creaks open and 76 enters gun first, visor activated and scanning.

Something is off. That much is evident right away, because 76 is pretty sure the animal would have made itself known by now (if they act like animals on Earth, at any rate), especially because he's made light and noise by opening the barn door. The intruder pings up in the rafters, and he's reasonably certain based on the size and stillness of it that it's not an animal.]

I know you're there.

[He isn't sure whether or not he expects his bluff to be called--he hopes there's no real response, or just the sound of the intruder making a break for it, but Jack's instincts have always been good. He won't be that lucky.]

[tinkerhell]

[Reaper stays perfectly still and lets 76 lurk in silence, regardless of the fact that he can spot the red light of his visor shining off the wall nearest him. Yeah, something was there -- but until he shot or came up there, he wouldn't know what or who. For all of Reaper's relative stillness, someone could have left a dead body in the barn.

He still isn't entirely sure why he'd come, and he isn't entirely sure why he isn't shooting at him now, while he has the advantage of surprise.]

I bet you do.

[The faint buzzing of bees makes him sound twice as gravely.]

You're trying too hard, Jack.

[mylawn]

[Hearing Reaper’s voice elicits something of a groan from him, more exasperated than anything else, even though Jack knows he should be incredibly wary that his place of residence is compromised. Reyes could be here for any number of reasons—though it immediately occurs to him that perhaps he’s making himself known because Ana is gone. One-on-one is much easier, or maybe he’s just here to cause property damage. Sabotage his new livelihood, such as it is.]

I get that a lot.

[Always trying, usually at the expense of something else. Too hard. He doesn’t lower his gun (because he can’t discount the possibility that Reaper isn’t armed, but he makes no move to aim it. The roll of his eyes is practically audible.]

How long have you been up there?

[tinkerhell]

Long enough to know Delta Hive finally started giving you product the other day. I was taking bets to see if you'd have enough to keep the place through the season.

[Which of course also means: long enough to see that Ana was gone. Reaper disappears in favor of smoking his way down to re-materialize in front of Jack, sans guns. With the reassurance that he'd held his fire when he had a kill shot, and the knowledge that he could still wraith away if he suddenly grew a pair, there was no reason to stay hidden.]

How long are you gonna play this game, Morrison? Owning property. Raising livestock.

[mylawn]

[Jack laughs, but it's an unpleasant sound. That tells him all he needs to know, all right, not that he's going to be happy about it. Reaper's been lurking around his property and spying and snooping but not actually sabotaging him, which he feels would be the obvious choice if he's given up on the whole murder thing.

He doesn't think that's happened either, but he notes the lack of guns when Reaper coalesces in front of him. He doesn't flinch, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing him intimidated.]

You act like I want to be playing it.

[Like he wants to be doing this. Sitting around and waiting and taking security contracts that barely push the limits of his abilities. Like he wants to be managing a homestead while his mission goes unfulfilled. The only satisfaction he gets is that Reaper is stuck here, too. What's he doing? Haunting the barn? They're both stuck, unable to make any real progress on their respective tasks unless they want to try and kill each other again.

Which might happen, still. Jack isn't discounting it.]

You're stuck here, too.

[tinkerhell]

No? Chasing retirement looks good on you.

[Sarcasm? Taunting? A mixture of both? Either way, Reaper is clearly not interested in hearing Jack's protests. With Angela focused on building her life and clientele here, he could in turn focus on keeping Soldier: 76 on his toes where he belonged.

And then, one day, a grave.]

I could think of a few alternatives.

[He crosses over to the hive nearest him, folding his arms high across his chest.]

[mylawn]

Maybe another life.

[If things were different. Jack would be lying if he said he didn't sometimes imagine some kind of life like this, not too many years from now. Those thoughts, however, exist in a time before Overwatch crumbled the way it did--and even if it hadn't, he's more than self-aware enough to know that he wouldn't be able to stand a quiet, idyllic life.

There's still work to do, and the fact that he's being kept from it chafes. He doesn't know what he's going to do if Reaper's number comes up before his.

He's going to think what he likes either way, but Jack can't help but take a few steps to keep him in arms reach as he inspects the hive (because hiding in the barn wasn't good enough, apparently). Jack imagines that there are other, better things Reaper can do to actually hurt him than something as petty as kill some bees, but he can't help but hover anyway, prepared to strike out if he so much as tries to touch the wood structures.]

What do you want, Reyes?

[Get to the point. If they're going to fight, they might as well get started.]

[tinkerhell]

You want to know what I want?

[He does not get to the point -- after all, Ana already left him, and that would have been the easiest way to tear him down before getting rid of him too. He'd had plans, as he always did, but none of them were panning out.

Jack isn't the only one who's frustrated with life in its current state of being. Rather than acknowledge the fact that Jack was going to stop him from touching the hives, he lifts his claws to reach for them anyway -- like he's deep in thought.]

You know, Amari was smart to leave you behind here. If she hadn't, I would have taken her other eye, before I killed her in front of you.

[mylawn]

I ain't in the mood to play games.

[Meaning that Reaper should probably just say what he wants, even though Jack knows it won't ever be that easy, just like he's never in the mood to play games. If he's going to trash the barn, he might as well do it already.

It doesn't surprise him that he knows about Ana--or rather, the absence of her. Jack shouldn't let this bother him but it does anyway, most likely because it's Reyes who's saying it. He tries to swallow down the anger that threatens to rise in his throat, trying not to give Reaper any satisfaction.]

Missed your shot, I guess.