everything you ever did is coming back around

[doxing]

WHO: sombra and reaper, the overwatch edgelords.
WHERE: sombra's apartment on the residential floors.
WHEN: 02/01, after she contacts him post-oros mission
WHAT: patch-ups and a long, stabilizing recap of events
WARNINGS: blood, probably more blood, and swearing

They're testing me... I know they're testing me, so why the fuck should I? No quiero abrirlo...

(opening this will spell disaster, there's no doubt about it. after what she did on oros, how she caused a nuclear holocaust from taking down one complex defence array for a facility she didn't even understand and causing the near-extinction of two separate species, how the hell could a present be warranted? it feels like an open invitation, this stubborn cube — complete the impossible test and uncover something delightful, join the ranks. but if she leaves it alone and refuses to try, then what is she missing out on?

they know the curiosity will force her hand. they know...

what a goddamn mess this is.

when reaper arrives, the unsolved puzzle cube is set aside with a reach back. she doesn't get up to greet him, having left the door open with the knowledge that he'd come to her aid despite the lack of trust she has in everything but her hands. rather can't with the state her leg is in, plasma burns extensive, slumped against the desk with half of her clothes lying in scattered, bloody deposits on the floor. they create a haphazard path from the doorway, leading into a bunk lit only by the glow from the seams of a mini fridge and the ominous holographic box she can't crack. casts a light over the moment, washing the room in an eerie blue.

at the forefront of her mind is a question sombra doesn't want to air, but the look seems to ask it well enough on its own: have i become a machine like them? and what a nightmare, turning into something that's only ever caused harm to so many; an omnic.)

Comments

[hellshot]

I'm coming in. [A single sentence he uses as warning as he very much does enter the room that's left open. Left open. Sombra never leaves her door unlocked, and it's likely a number of minutes Reaper usually has to spend at her door, fumbling with a coded lock she'll make him figure out before inviting him inside.

That's worrisome alone. His gut clenches a little with discomfort at how bad a place Sombra had to be in to leave her goddamn door open. Under his arm is a first aid kit he pulled from one of the walls on his way here, and in the hand opposite was a brown paper bag and a pretty sizeable bottle of tequila. He closes the door behind himself, taking a minute to make sure it was locked behind him before he makes his way over to her.

Setting the first aid kit down on the desk next to her, on the lee of the weird cube, he hesitates a moment before pulling his mask off.
The smell of blood was apparent, even if Sombra might have tried to fix her wounds herself. But he had a feeling she'd be like this.]

That bad? [The question is curt, as he's wont to, but it doesn't lack any inflection. Are you okay, as he sets the bottle of tequila near her head.]

[doxing]

(she knows every sane human being on the planet would be terrified to see a wraith like reaper walk into their room, even announced. but instead of feeling cornered, sombra finds tenser muscles relax a little into the desk behind her. none of the rescued trilks or feks will be able to get past him for some due revenge. god, what's she so on edge about?

immediately, her hand finds the bottle of tequila, ripping the brown bag away and letting it fall to the side. after a few seconds of fumbling with the screw-off cap, fingers stained a dry, flaking red, sombra takes a mouthful of it and squints through the burn.)

Yeah. Why, do I look good to you? (a bite of a response, before calming down enough to smile wryly at him — because if he's taken his mask off, it wouldn't be fair for her to keep her own on.) That's it, do you see it up there? The holographic puzzle box. I've been trying since I got back...

[hellshot]

No. You look like absolute shit. [Honestly, she does. The woman prides herself in being one step above the rest, and here she was. Knocked down on her face and looking like she was trampled by aforementioned Trilks and Feks.

He watches her tear into the alcohol and he takes that moment to pull his hood down to settle it over his shoulders. Gloves off, tossing them down onto the counter as he busies himself getting some clean water and a cloth to clean the mess off of her before he assesses exactly how wounded she is.]

I see it. Doesn't mean I understand it worth a damn. That's your division.

[He circles back, putting a bowl of water next to her.] Hands up. Show me where you got hit. [As he grabs her other hand, working the cloth against blood-caked fingers.] Get 'anywhere' with it since you got back?

[doxing]

(the honesty is refreshing and, comically, it reassures her. even if everything's not alright, it'll clean up and — eventually — be fine. like everything in her life she's suffered through. human beings have a very scary elasticity when it comes to hell and bouncing back from the deepest, darkest pits of it.

gabe knows that better than anyone.

sombra does what she's told and pries a hand off of the tequila bottle, motioning to her leg. and then to her side that looks glanced with some kind of blade. finally, to the myriad scrapes that seem more and more like a nonissue. she'll help where she can, but he's the one with training for patch-ups on the battlefield.)

No, I've never seen anything like it before, but I— (hesitating, before making the easier switch to spanish, lowering her voice in case of — what, someone listening?) I took down the planet's defences and let it get firebombed, Gabe, and they gave me it like it was some kinda prize.

(it's all a matter of perspective, but this is hers.)

Would you open something like that? For curiosity's sake? It's like some kind of test, you feel me?

[hellshot]

[Glow-red eyes make a mental note of every wound, what needs to be just cleaned and sanitized, and what sort of patching up he's going to have to do on her so she won't have to be sent to med bay. Stitches are a given for her side and leg--but at least no minor surgery to remove any metal debris was necessary. The burns from the energy-based weapons would need extra taking care of.

First thing's first, getting the wounds cleaned. None of his on-field medical know-how would be useful if the wounds got infected after he patched and closed them up. So for now, he continues dragging that cloth over blooded skin to make sure there was no dirt in any of them--even if she winced or hissed in pain.

At least he'd save her leg--the worst of it--for last.]

Sounds sketchy if you ask me. [Switching to Spanish just as easily:] Almost like they were expecting someone from the fleet to drop the shields and you just happened to be Prize Hacker Number One to Get The Job Done.

[He doesn't trust the government, he doesn't trust any sort of 'official'--which means he doesn't trust whomever sent Sombra and the rest down there in the first place.]

No. I wouldn't open it. I'd pitch it into the nearest fire for being screwed around with after causing shit you had no place causing. [He doesn't blame her--he blames the idiots who went around giving out puzzleboxes to people who made genocidal mistakes.] For all you know? It's a bomb that'll detonate when you open it. Congratulations, here's your reward.

[doxing]

(eyes closing tightly with a jerk of her shoulders, sombra does hiss at him. not for long; she's felt worse pain. her body mods were an operation that required local anaesthetic, installed without so much as a word of complaint. worser still was monumental loss.

another raise of her tequila, breathing heavily against the lip of the bottle.)

Maybe we've been doing selfish things for too long. (almost said like it's a joke, hardly believing herself when it comes to right and wrong,) "Let the punishment fit the crime," or whatever those law shows always say. What a bunch of bullshit. We both know I'll open it, so here's my last will and testament.

(raising the drink with a drop of her head back against the desk, feeling too warm even in this state of undress. someone's a bit delirious with the blood loss and soon-to-be liquor buzz. sombra couldn't give less of a shit.)

I'll give everything to you, Gabe. All my information, all my tech, all my energy drinks...

[hellshot]

[Here's my last will and testament. He can feel his jaw settling in place as she raises her glass. Somehow he has a feeling he's not going to like what she says next, and if he had a heart that actually did any beating within the cage of his chest, he's sure she would have made it skip a few worried beats.

I leave everything to you. He can feel something coiling in him, forcing its way between his teeth in a way that makes him grind them closer together. His grip on her leg--where he's currently cleaning dirt and dried blood away from the larger wound away--tightens without any real thinking about it.

Part of him wants to be touched, but the other part of him...

He raises his free hand and gives the inside of her calf a hard smack.]

You're drinking too fast, can you even hear yourself. [His voice comes out as growl, almost irritated, but for reasons that aren't related to his words.] You're not allowed to die yet. And you're not allowed to die before me, either. Get your head out of the mud.

Did one mission on a shitty planet far from home really mess up Sombra so much that she's willing to die?

[doxing]

(wincing at the tightening grip and brutal smack to her leg, pain from the jostled wound radiating up her thigh, sombra stifles the urge to shout and shove and spit at him. to tell him to leave after all, get the fuck away from her, let this fester while she drinks herself into a stupor, but—

god, she's too tired. she's too goddamn tired.)

One mission? That wasn't a mission... (said low, albeit far from a pitiable tone,) That, that was genocide. It was genocide.

(she's never faced this before, except on the receiving end and maybe that's why it's holding her down under the mud reaper's talking about, the sludge and watered down dirt closing her eyes, plugging her nose, making her choke on a mouthful. the irritating emotion stings her eyes and she realizes that yes, she still is human. but how could she be any better that omnium who killed her family, her people, so close to killing her species. it's the same thing and now they're housing refugees from oros on board this ship, where she can come into contact with them and have them scorn her, beat her, try to kill her for reparation.

it's frightful, the thought that through one mistake, one accident, something this grave could happen. and it fucks her up, despite reaper's desire to talk sense into her; she's not listening at all.)

God, I've— (clutching her arms, her head bows and her teeth clench and her eyes close tightly against a wave of nausea.) I fucked up, Gabe. I fucked up real bad.

[hellshot]

[He had expected his--albeit rude--speech to knock her head around at least some. But if anything, it seemed to have made things almost worse. He lifts his head, looking at her with a nearly perplexed expression.

It wasn't just her bloodloss and the mix of alcohol in it, then, that was causing this heavy atmosphere hanging over his head. Sombra, World-Infamous Hacker, most powerful woman with all machines at her fingertips... was emotionally scarred by what had happened down on the planet below.

It wasn't that he could blame her for letting the possible genocide of an entire species get her down, but the fact that it was... was a powerful thing. He watches her bow her head and settle down in her own arms.

He lets a sigh escape from between his teeth, a whisp of black, burning smoke escaping along with it.]

You fucked up. [He'll give her that. She did. He once fought against shit like this, even if that person was long gone. A moment, and he reaches up a hand to settle it against the side of her head, pulling her head in a bit into the most awkward hug she can imagine from where he's sitting on the floor. Corpse-cold fingers settling just above her ear.]

But it was thanks to these Eluvio fuckers that you even went down there in the first place.

You finish that puzzle box if you want to, chica. I'll be looking for a way to dig my claws into those who gave it to you in the first place.

[doxing]

(a sharp sniff is all that gets out in the way of lament, before jerking at the cool touch against her mods. this is something she never could have anticipated, back curving into the awkward thing, forehead pressing against the collar of his uniform. if she'd been given a chance to crack his intentions to hug her, even with her eyes wide and staring at him, even if he'd announced it in a decrypted, open reply, sombra never would have believed him.

she doesn't know what to do, forced to listen to reaper's — gabriel's — heart despite the impossibility of hearing one beating inside of his chest. it's in his words and it's her own pounding loudly in her ears. too stunned to choke on a sob, the touch against shaved hair makes her shiver and clutch the bottle of tequila with a vice grip.

god, she didn't want this. she can't handle this on top of everything else.)

Gabe, you... (the small, quiet reply even she doesn't trust that betrays the chill of the next.)

Leave. Leave all of this with me, I'll be taking care of it myself.

(sombra leans away from the embrace, turning her head out of reaper's touch. one hundred and eighty degrees frostier, eyes averting so they can't give her away despite the obvious mental shove out the door she's trying to give him; she can almost feel the firewalls rebuilding themselves, losing the focus in the stare she's aimed sightlessly out of the porthole window, shutting her in, shutting him out, and locking the rest of who she can't be anymore tightly behind them.

stupid, it was a stupid, childish decision to ask him to come here like they could be friends when this was the very thing that burned every single one of her bridges so long ago.)

I'll be in contact, Reaper.

(they both know she won't be.)

[hellshot]

[It was a hug that could almost barely be called one, a loose grip on the side of Sombra's head with cool, almost corpselike fingers--why he did it wasn't a mystery to him, but not with a reason he would speak, let alone consciously think about. He knew the reason, and that's really all that mattered between the two of them right now.

Not that he thought that Sombra would ask. No, what he expects is close enough to what happens that he almost wants to kick himself for thinking she'd respond even remotely positive to the alien show of emotion from the man who was supposed to be a shell, a ghost. A man who did a job and thought nothing else on the matter.

He hangs onto that momentary mention of his name--and the icy reply that follows... he can feel the holes in his face burning a little more as he grits his teeth behind them, smoke leaking up as they crumble just a little bit more.

He moves to stand, without an argument to her request. Leave. He can do that. He doesn't want to--but he can do that. He pulls up his gloves as he moves, dropping the cloth into the bowl of water. Her wounds are completely clean, now, and they just need to be wrapped and:]

The wound on your leg is going to need stitches. Clean needle, crossover pattern. At least four.

[He moves to pull his mask off of the desk, the metal underside purposefully making a loud scrape against the top of it before he clips it back in place.

He takes a moment to take one last look down at her, all tense and made of ice before he turns to take his leave. First aid kit, tequila, she could keep it all.]

Of course you will.
I'll be by to pick up your things if you blow yourself up.

[doxing]

(it aches and she's not sure why.

maybe because every action following her order, from the man she's scorned for trying to help — the only help he's tried to give in such a long, lonely time — is a purposeful, personal dig meant to get under her skin. he may not even realize it himself, but sombra knows more about lying to yourself than most people. is that why they get along so well, despite all of her efforts to keep him at arm's distance? through all of her attempts to divide them with stupid pranks and sabotaged missions and constant "failures"?

she doesn't look up when reaper stops to stare down at her, his acerbic words dripping and burning; she's not afraid of him. she should be, but it grows more comfortable every single day and that, that sentiment is what frightens her into thrashing away. closeness. friendship.)

Perdóname... (said to no one after the door shuts and she's left in the dark.

it'll be a long hour of thought and drink before sombra even gets around to trying her hand at the stitches. crude, crude stitches in a poor crossover pattern, exactly four, each dip and pull of needle and thread a reminder of her mistake — but also a purpose. hers; what she's been planning from the start. worrying over gabe's reaction and the comforting, almost careful touch of his hand only gives her dangerous ideas that creep up the back of her neck to lay their nails and cling.

the man isn't as dead as everyone thinks he is, isn't as destructive and mindlessly chaotic as they say he is. that half-corroded heart of his just needs a little work.

maybe by the time she gathers the scattered pieces of her own off of the floor, they'll cobble together a whole one they can make some real changes with.)