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

[mylawn]

"Could be. Don't have enough intel, unfortunately."

Too many missing pieces in the puzzle. He's working on it, but he's only one person, and the whole world is out to get him, quite literally. Chasing ghosts he isn't sure even exist.

"Trying, though. This goes deep."

[frostedplum]

"I'd imagine so." She frowns and looks back at the rocks. Suddenly they don't seem as interesting anymore. Not in light of all this.

"How did you get involved in all this?" Because that's the part that doesn't add up. Sure, the UN being involved seems crazy, but it also seems plausible, since Overwatch had become pretty big and powerful.

[mylawn]

Here it is—the right opportunity for him to come clean, but it still takes him a moment to build up the resolve. 76 takes a breath, on that raises and lowers his shoulders in the process. Then, slowly, he brings his hands up to his mask and unfastens it, pulling it away.

“Had a front row seat.”

[frostedplum]

Mei only has a moment to register that he's taking off his mask before the deed is done and she's staring into the worn, scarred face of Strike Commander Morrison. Which -- like so many other things -- should be impossible. But that's the funny thing: nothing seems quite so impossible anymore. The fact that they're here on another planet outside their own solar system is proof of that.

But all right, so the impossible is possible and he's alive. Is it really so surprising when she takes into account that he was one of the American super soldiers? Winston had told her all he knew about the explosion at Swiss headquarters, but she had taken his word for it and hadn't considered that a man like Jack Morrison could actually survive such a blast. With a few scars, it seems.

She's almost nervous now, staring up into the face of Overwatch. They were never close, but she worked under him and was proud of the work Overwatch was doing with him in command. She always believed no task would be too dangerous for her as long as she had a soldier like him watching her back.

The nerves have her tucking a loose tendril of hair behind her ear and blushing. It's silly; she knows that. Overwatch is gone and he's been gone and she's been gone while in cryo and-- it's just silly, isn't it? To look at the Commander and feel like she has to do something impressive or hand him a report with her findings. These aren't the old days anymore.

"Commander?" she says tentatively, a shy smile coming to her face. "It's very good to see you. I'm glad you're alive."

[mylawn]

"Didn't mean to keep up the act for so long."

He sounds a little contrite, shoulders sagging.

"Was trying to find a good way to tell you."

But it's out now, which means things are going to get a little easier. Jack watches Mei for a long moment, taking in her reaction--he doesn't expect the waterworks he got from Angela and Lena, but then again, he'd never been particularly close to the scientists in the Ecopoints. An Overwatch initiative that he'd had a hand in launching, but otherwise let them operate fairly independently. A necessity, given how remote some of the stations were.

That doesn't mean he hadn't been proud of the work they were doing. He finds himself wishing he'd let them know that more.

"I really am sorry about what happened."

They all deserved better than that.

[frostedplum]

"I appreciate you telling me," she says, knowing that since she wasn't in any search and rescue or special ops divisions that she's at more of a distance than some of the others here in Thisavrou are. They all worked together often on missions and she was just one of the many faces passing by in white coats that were there one day and gone the next on scientific expeditions.

"It's okay. You've been through a lot too." Though that does beg the question of where he's been since Overwatch fell. "What have you been doing these last few years?"

[mylawn]

"Laying low, mostly."

Regrouping. Digging. Thinking about what he was going to do next and how to go about it. Uncovering a great deal of things that went on right under his nose.

"Then I started hitting old Overwatch bases. Needed equipment."

[frostedplum]

"Equipment?" she asks, before it clicks and she goes, "Oh, weapons?" Like that fancy gun he has, right? But everything he's doing is of interest to her, because she too wants to know what happened to Overwatch. She wants to know who to blame for getting left behind.

"I suppose there's nothing you can do here to look into what happened; only go over the information you already have. But if you want any help, you can count on me!"

[mylawn]

He offers her a smile that's meant to be reassuring, but it seems more exhausted than anything else. It's kind of her to offer, but the sentiment is misplaced. This is something he has to do on his own, and he needs to keep the rest of them out of the crossfire.

"Thanks, but--

Hopefully she won't take this as poorly as some of the others, but what else can he say, really?

"--this is my fight."

[frostedplum]

She blinks owlishly at him behind her thick frames before a frown settles on her lips. She might not take this as poorly as others, but they were both a part of Overwatch, and that means she doesn't like him claiming this one for his own. Not after what happened to her as a result of the organization going under.

"Is it? Because I recall being abandoned and forgotten down at the bottom of the world while my colleagues' cryo tubes all failed and killed them, so I have some interest in who tore Overwatch apart that led to us being left behind."

It's not meant as a dig at him, especially since she does understand he was laying low so people thought he was still dead. He couldn't just launch a rescue operation, even if he had remembered her team was down there.

[mylawn]

He gets it, of course. Knows what Mei has lost and knows she wants answer as badly as he does.

"I know you do."

But he'll blame himself--he always does, and part of his revenge quest is atoning for the many, many mistakes he made over the course of twenty years that cost them all so much.

"I'm gonna find the answer, but it's not a road I want the rest of you walking down."

Because he's already compromised so much of himself in the process, and he knows where this ends. It's not anything good.

[frostedplum]

Mei's eyes narrow behind her glasses and frown lines appear on either side of her mouth, but she takes a moment to consider him. He's probably forgotten what it feels like to have a whole host of people ready and willing to help him for a cause greater than themselves.

"You don't have to do it alone just because it's dangerous. Besides, without someone to run things by, you might overlook something."

[mylawn]

"I have some help."

The only help he'd accept in a situation like this, of course. Ana has a full understanding of what she's getting into, and Jack had been so lost without her that he'll selfishly drag her along either way. It's flattering, perhaps, to know that his people still want to be part of this, but Jack will be adamant that they deserve much better than any of this.

"You don't need to worry about me."

[frostedplum]

"I don't need to, sure," she begins, a hand moving close to touch the sleeve of his jacket. "But I probably will anyway." Because he's Strike Commander Jack Morrison, even if he's Soldier: 76 now. He's a good man who always tried to do the right thing, and someone tried to have him taken out for it.

"When we get home, what will happen when you find out what you need to know?"

[mylawn]

He tries to smile for her as she reaches for his sleeve, but it comes out a little strained. All he wants to do is keep them out of the line of fire, but they can't even let them have that.

"Depends on what I find."

On how deep it goes. If the UN really is all tangled up in it, revealing the truth could have dangerous repercussions that might shake the very foundation of international relations across the board. On the other hand, it's something Jack has to do, even if it means taking it all down. He owes his people that much.

[frostedplum]

"Well, I would at least like you to tell me what you find out." Mei thinks she deserves that. And really, anyone in Overwatch should be allowed to know what happened, but they might try to take matters into their own hands, and she already knows Jack doesn't want anyone else involved.

[mylawn]

"When I find out, you'll know."

He can promise that much, even if he's not sure whether or not he'll be able to deliver the information himself. It'll all get out somehow--Jack will make sure of it.

"Not making a whole lot of progress stuck here, though."

For obvious reasons.

[frostedplum]

"Okay." She supposes that's better than nothing. It's what she can get, so she'll take it.

"That's true. Everything we were doing is stuck on pause while we're here. It's frustrating, but what can we do? Just have to wait it out, I guess." Her eyes lower to the rocks she'd been handling, and she releases a sigh before looking back up with her patented Mei-smile. "And get back to collecting rocks, right?"

[mylawn]

"That's what I'm here for."

To help her with the rocks. He offers her the best smile he can, but it's still a little strained. Mundane as it is, talking about the rocks again is sort of a relief--Jack isn't so good at going on about his mission. He's well aware he sounds like a crazy conspiracy theorist.

"What else do you need to get?"

[frostedplum]

"Actually, this is it and we can head back." Mei hurries to get these new rocks into their bags, handing them over to him once they're sealed shut and labeled.

"What should I call you now that I know who you are?"

[mylawn]

Ah. Well, that was easy—barring the part where he confessed to being the dead ex-boss who let her entire team die in Antarctica. He vaguely realizes that he’s made the rounds. Everyone here from his world knows who he is, now.

It should be a little freeing. Perhaps it’ll hit him later.

He’s not going to ask Mei to call him by a number, nor does he expect her to address him as Commander. Neither would be right, so it leaves only one option.

“Just Jack, Mei.”

[frostedplum]

There are few things that will set Mei off, and even this situation is one where she managed to stay relatively level headed. So yes, it was easy in the end. No fits thrown or tears shed.

"Jack. Okay, I can do that." It will feel a little strange not being a bit more formal with him, but she'll get over it quickly. "Let's go. Thank you for the help today."