[video]

[zippity]

How's it so many of you are runnin' about and not bringin' back any stories with you? Some of us could use it you know! Instead of havin' 'em all dumped out when they drop those spots on the news, anyway.

[Ahem.

Tracer is broadcasting from the monitor room, where she's clearly been serving out her duties with as much patience as she can muster (read: not a lot). Even with all of the activity, Tracer can't deal with the tedium. She's rigged up a way to continuously spin herself in a chair while she spends time dispatching Legionnaires as is expected of her. Even with that, she's incredibly restless, and has herself perched in the window, lounging on the sill in a manner that probably would be considered unsafe if she weren't capable of rewinding time around her.

Overwatch's systems were mostly automated. When a warning went out, the Strike Team left -- and that was the end of it. This dispatching nonsense makes her thankful that it never got quite as large, but also makes her nostalgic.

That's not the only thing, but. Well, its a big part of it. And while she's trying to think of a way to bring up that first thing without outing herself, she can be seen tapping her fingers nervously on the big glowing machine on her chest.]

...speakin' of stories. How many of you lot got families back where you came from? Maybe a better half...

[She pauses here -- not too long though. Don't want to be suspicious.]

...do you think they're still lookin' for you? It's been a tick, hasn't it?

Comments

voice;

[zippity]

[YUP KILLING THE VIDEO FEED FOR THIS REPLY. She chuckles, a sound that she mostly tries to use to mask any nervous instinct.]

'Nah' to what, love?

[vata]

'Nah' to anyone looking for me. [As offhanded as discussing the weather; she could be filing her nails at this point, concerned as she sounds.]

My family is dead.

[zippity]

[Long pause of dead air. Great, now she feels even worse.]

...I'm sorry. I didn't know.

[Another pause.]

Was it the Crisis?

[vata]

You couldn't know: I never told you. [One of those moments where apologies mean so, so little— but maybe not for the reasons Lena might think.]

But you got it in one. [A beat, the line completely quiet aside from a contemplative hum.]

La Medianoche.

[zippity]

I was just a wee thing, couldn't even hold me head up -- I don't even remember any of it. Not really.

[But she knew the effects of it.]

[vata]

Hey, that makes two of us. [And honestly, it's not like she harbors any residual grudges. No bitter memories, no flashes of trauma or sadness. One of the benefits of being a literal baby during the Crisis: her mind kept none of it.

Including the faces of the family she lost.

Their faces, their names— who they really were or what they could've been. The kind of things you can't look up in any database, no matter how good you are.]

The upside is that I can stay here forever if I want to.

[zippity]

...would you really be ok with that?

[For some reason that surprises her??]

[vata]

This universe is a nice place. [A big place. The kind someone could get lost in for as long as they like. And while Earth (their Earth) had its mysteries, there are only so many places left for them to hide; here, there's always something new to be discovered, dragged kicking and screaming out into the light. How could she not love that?

How could she possibly leave it behind?]

I have fans, I have friends— people who need me— adventures everywhere I look.

Maybe the Devorador de Tiempo did me a favor.

[zippity]

Maybe. I guess if you don't have any attachments left home, there's no real reason.

[Judging by the way she replies, that kind of thing is totally out of the question for her.]

For what its worth, love, your talents would've suited Overwatch...you know, if it was still around. Which it definitely isn't.

[She's not broadcasting, but she is smirking.]

[vata]

[This time, there's no response. Not right away, at least— just the soft huff of a laugh that's entirely under her breath.]

You know, if somebody told me that years ago, I might not be sitting here right now, considering anything else.

[zippity]

Too bad it totally doesn't exist anymore and you in no way could check me--all of us--out back home.

[She's not subtle. Also might be omitting the fact that the Recall didn't really Work. Reaper and Widowmaker don't need to know that.]

[vata]

First you tell me you're not ready, now you're asking me to follow you home.

[Lena, for shame. Tsk tsk.]

text

[mylawn]

I pegged you a few years younger.

[vata]

Can't help it that I've got a cara de niña, Dígitos.

[thank the game developers for that one.

Still, same as with Tracer, she handles the subject without sensitivity or softness; simple as talking about the weather.]

Don't worry, I'm not holding any grudges. We don't live in that kind of world anymore.

[mylawn]

Still.

[Makes him think about whether he did enough. How much more he could have done.]

Hindsight's 20-20, I guess.

[vata]

You remember it better than I do. [Which is to say not at all. But even without the luxury of hearing his voice or seeing his face, she knows he's confessing some amount of responsibility. Or assumed responsibility, maybe.

He wouldn't be talking to her if he didn't care.]

I'll take your word for it.

[Which is about the point where it's nice to know he can't see her face, either - when her tone stays even, but there's no real humor to be found.]

[mylawn]

I remember it better than most people do. [Because, you know.] It's for the best that you don't.

w e l p

[vata]

[There's a little scoff that carries over the feed. Thin.] No, what I remember is what came after the fighting stopped.

All the destruction that was left behind. How many people never really recovered. [And oh, the ones who did. Who stepped on the starving hands of every single person beneath them and decided what was best for Mexico— she remembers them.

Maybe it wasn't personal: she didn't care about the family she lost, she never knew them well enough, and empathy— as just another no-one living on spared funding and her own decisiveness— was never bled into her. But she'd picked up Los Muertos' fire as quick as anything when the opportunity was there, and she cut her teeth on the scandal that shook LumériCo to its core. It was fun. It was dangerous.

It felt like fighting back.]

It was a different kind of war when the Crisis ended.

[mylawn]

I fought in that war, too.

[No matter his feelings about the things she's saying, he can't deny that Overwatch's role in the recovery effort was integral. Still, they were all only human, with only so many resources, and in the years following they were strained. Everyone was. He doesn't have to imagine what the recovery was like for the people Overwatch couldn't reach, or couldn't reach well enough. Jack can admit that, at least, even if he knows how much good they did.]

But I know it's not quite the same thing.

[vata]

Didn't see you there.

[It's mild, but firm: comes from a place too grounded to brush off.

He isn't lying, she knows that much from all the little aftershocks that'd rippled through wherever he set foot. That doesn't mean she isn't curious in that typical, self-destructive way. An addiction she can't shake, even if they're closing in on territory that's too close to home.

To her.

She wants to know. She wants to know everything— and she'll push as far as she needs to if it means hearing it straight from his mouth.]

combo inc - video

[muroieda]

Still una chica ta me!!

[Junkrat, for the love of God, read the mood.]

[muroieda]

Wait.

[muroieda]

La Medianoche.

[muroieda]

[click]

[muroieda]

Igottagobye!!!

[Feed ends.]