legionworld | [OPEN] You were lying on your back in the grass, counting backward from a thousand

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[OPEN] You were lying on your back in the grass, counting backward from a thousand

Who| Azúcar (Sombra) and you!
What| Hangin' out on the beach, getting drunk, being miserable and coping like an adult
Where| Sombra's section of the Habitat Deck
When| after the events of Silent Horizon
Warnings/Notes| possible talk about body horror and/or death, depending on the conversation

PROMPT A

Azúcar is harder to spot these days, following the events of the Silent Horizon. Most of her time— nearly all of it, in fact— is spent in the relative safety of her biome: a quiet shoreline, warmed by salted breezes even at night, when the lights of a nearby city's somewhat distant buildings cast a golden glow along breaking waves.

Before she'd left, she kept to the ruined industrial building hidden away behind foliage on the cliffs above the beach - that seemingly abandoned safehouse the only reason she'd constructed this illusion in the first place. Practicality over sentimentality. Now she wanders closer to the edges of the city limits where the sand bleeds off into stone and dated cement: each time she crosses the threshold, passing out of bounds for the plot given to her by the Legion, the mirage fades. It didn't used to be that this place was Dorado, the city she left behind. She thought she was immune to missing the familiar, that she was better than everyone else somehow. Less prone to that kind of vulnerability. Now she just thinks she wants to buy out someone else's biome. Expand her own with the closest Legionnaire's and get lost in the old city streets.

Ah well.

Barefoot, sporting a cutoff shirt from New Vegas and a pair of weathered, second-hand shorts, pulling a long, long drink from the bottle of tequila in hand, Sombra's perched on a rock near the city's edge, staring up into the warm glow of lit windows with a look that's entirely impossible to read. Longing, maybe.

How miserably fallible.

And so for that fact alone, every few minutes or so, she picks up another shell, another pebble, another cork from another opened bottle, and throws it out of bounds, watching it vanish from sight with a little virtual hiss.

PROMPT B

Most of her injuries have already been taken care of. No scars, no lingering damage; the Legion was thorough enough with their checkups once they peeled off the shuttle for all the follow-ups and debriefings. It's her cybernetics she was touchier about, quicker to hide: and aside from looking obviously damaged to anyone with a pair of eyes, the full depth of what that means for her is a problem too easily overlooked for the average medic, too easily (stubbornly) ignored by Sombra herself, when all she wants to do is coil around the idea of control over her own space, her own assets and resources for better— and in this case, albeit temporarily— for worse.

The skin around her spinal implants and ports is scorched from heat, reddened and raw from impact, though it's harder to notice in comparison to burned out circuitry and dulled metal.

She waits until the tide's in (all artificial programming), when it's quiet and she's alone, to slink down into the water and soak— sinking in up to her neck beneath the waves. Eyes shut, hair loose and coiled around her shoulders to light the water immediately around her, turning it a pale, luminescent blue. It's a small comfort for that incessant ache, but it's hers.

That said, the water's nice. The beach is warm, set up with a few crates full of beer and tequila and a lone parasol surrounded by laid out towels. No one would blame you for diving in with her— or maybe just setting up camp in the sand.

WILDCARD

[Want something more specific? Need a reason to sit by the ocean and chill, want to snoop around the outskirts of that ugly old industrial building instead of the very brilliant, beautiful shoreline? Feel free to run with whatever works best if you've got an idea in mind, or hit me up at ladyavali!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"What--"

It takes him off guard for a second -- he said he'd grown up in Texas, he shouldn't be that surprised -- both the Spanish and the fact that Taylor now suddenly had his head pressed to Locus's chest.

He goes very still for a moment before his eyes narrow.

"What are you doing?"

"Shhh!" He holds a finger up and closes both eyes, brow furrowed in concentration. "I'm listening for you."

Duh. Get with the program.

"It says it's safe to learn. So. Go dance with Azucar."

"You are ridiculous."

But his eyes still redirect towards Sombra where she stands, bright as the moon, and he's never felt more acutely aware of his own inadequacies in his life. Which is another solid reason to stay exactly where he is, as far as he's concerned.

"Nah, come on, no judgement zone here." He gives Locus another nudge, slipping to stand behind with a hand flat on his back. "It's ok."

This time it's Sombra that decides to close the distance, wrapping her small fingers firmly around Locus' heavy hand, dragging against the grain of his stubborn, fixed posture.

"No ones here but us, mijo." Patient pressure: pulling, pulling— stepping back with her left foot.

"Just follow my lead."

And with that gentle pressure from behind and in front of him, Locus surrenders. He does so with a faintly disgruntled sigh, but he does so regardless, eyes closing briefly before he follows her out.

Alright. Following her lead. What now? Hands go somewhere, he's fairly certain.

"On her hip, like this-" Taylor, without anywhere else to be, falls in step behind. Sets one hand on Locus' hip and the other on his shoulder, more or less an echo of what Locus ought to do. "Yeah?"

They got him. That makes it okay.

"Don't worry too much about your hands." A common pitfall is that stern stiffness that comes from focusing on what goes where and when and why, or how much is too much and whether or not sweaty palms matter when the whole point is to sweat. And while the argument that dancing is like sex is so painfully cliche (a waltz barely qualifies as a dance, much less an attractive one) a good partner will make you forget that there's ever been a dividing line between the two.

"It's all in the hips. Your legs." And as an example, she takes another step backwards, slowly dropping the line of her own as an example. "Where they go, your body will follow. Same as if you're fighting."

Hands go here...no, wait, don't worry about the hands, worry about the legs. No, that's not quite right, it feels too rigid, but that's also possibly because he hasn't been drinking the way they have. He's still a little tense, a little wound tight.

Still. He's giving it his best shot. Frowning, he shifts his weight in his stance, attempting to follow the motion of her hip that she's just demonstrated.

"Loosen up." It's easier with liquor, honestly, but he's making an attempt. Using fighting as a frame for it probably isn't how York would do things but if it works? He's not gonna say shit. "Light on your feet."

The hand on Locus' shoulder drops to rest on his other hip, light as anything, as he helps adjust the line. He'd been almost there on his own so, good! a little nudge is all he needs. "If your'e too tense you can't move, yeah?"

For anyone that's seen Sombra fight...well, the line is easily drawn. Even Gabriel holds his posture in a fight when he dips back into dodges, rolls away from thrown shots - and Amélie puts them both to shame in her own right. But at the moment it's not important, and Sombra keeps moving so that Locus doesn't have a chance to settle into his own stiffness: the more he learns the rhythm of her movements, the repetition, the easier it'll be to follow than to count out every little step.

"Better." Whether or not he actually is adjusting is irrelevant; she draws in closer, slides her fingers up his arm so that she's keeping contact with them both at once. "It's not so bad is it?"

"No."

The answer is immediate, and he's almost steadfastly keeping eye contact with her. As if any drift away towards anything else will be seen as weakness or some kind of surrender. He just tries to follow her movements, and occasionally Taylor behind him nudges him in one direction or another, and...

It's so ridiculous, but it's not so bad at all. The tension bleeds out of him a bit at a time, until his shoulders finally sink to a reasonable level.

Taylor chuckles softly behind Locus, leaning around enough to meet Azucar's eyes. This is good, this is- they're making progress, Locus is relaxing, it's chill and normal and better than he'd expected. He'd hoped, sure, but- this a good start. He turns up the music on his holographic player, that twangy line lilting through the air.

"You got it."

They go on like that for a little while, the three of them and that steady beat. And then on one of the forward steps, she uses the momentum to lean in— up— setting a single kiss to the underside of Locus' jaw, draws back away from them both with a reassuring scuff of her fingertips over Taylor's own.

"Take over for me for a second would you?" She inhales slow and steady, sitting down on the sand and drawing her legs up so that she can fold her arms over them. "My feet are killing me— remind me to never bother with heels again."

She'll leave those to Amélie.

His eyes go a little wider at the kiss -- they're both drunk, he realizes this -- and it results in him going still for a moment as she pulls away.

Which leaves with Taylor, behind him. There's a moment where he glances back, eyebrow lifting.

Not really sure what to make of any of this, but...it's pleasant enough.

"Take over which part?" Faintly puzzled but not so much as to be unable to slip back around and take up Azucar's position in front of Locus, Taylor keeps right on with the slow step and cant of hips and legs in time with the music. That's probably what she meant, right? Right.

Just to be safe he leans up to mirror the kiss because- that's also what she meant, yeah? Yeah. It makes sense to his tequila filled mind.

It starts as a snort when Taylor leans in to also kiss Locus, but given the flush to her cheeks from too much tequila, barely a second in and Sombra's genuinely rolling with laughter curled up in the sand. He's just so earnest like this.

Well— he's always earnest it seems, but with Taylor's brain in a thick fog and his spirits already high (and Locus' determinedly stilled expression), it all delves into entirely unthinking levels of sincerity.

What.

Is going on.

Locus doesn't blush. It's not a thing that happens, and maybe he's just physically incapable of it. But being flustered certainly is a possibility, and there are tell-tale signs. The quick dart away of his eyes, the way he appears to hunch ever so slightly, like he's trying to retreat from sight.

He could. He's got the power to. But it's a bit of an overreaction, isn't it? They're likely just having a laugh at his expense-- and right on cue, he hears Sombra collapse into giggles. The startled look is quickly replaced by annoyance, and his next huff of breath flares his nostrils.

"Very funny." And he eyes Taylor in reprimand.

"Did I do it wrong?" Still moving, still dancing he twists enough to peer at Azucar. "What was I supposed to do."

Instructions unclear, caught dignity in fan.

Still there's that hunch, that quick aside glance and oh- that's. Kind of adorable and kind of sad how it immediately shifts to annoyance. He thinks they're making fun of him. After their talk earlier? Taylor cannot have that, oh no. "I am, on occasion, hilarious- but no that was. Yanno."

An inarticulate little twirl of his fingers. "Affection? I think. I was following instructions. Azucar, what was I supposed to do? Be specific."

"You did everything perfectly, mijo." Said while still chuckling softly, dipping her chin down into the curve of her own arm.

"And you should definitely finish what you started." What she started, if he's so keen to take everything at face value, drunk and steeped in affection, with his arms so tightly wrapped around Locus. Which— come to think of it— it occurs to her then that she can use this newfound power to her advantage. "Just make out with him already, está bien."

Sombra gives it fifty-fifty odds that he actually will— or won't.

Locus, meanwhile, looks towards Sombra with a snap of his head, as though she'd just betrayed him entirely. Now he knows he's being made fun of, and there's an acute wash of discomfort at the entire situation. Followed by the overwhelming urge to go back to his biome.

"Do not," he grunts, before allowing his hands to drop away from Taylor entirely.

"Obviously, you've had your fun. I should return."

"Uh-" he's drunk, sure, but not Casbah drunk. "I don't think we're the kinda friends that kiss for one, and for two..."

Taylor doesn't move away from Locus, but he doesn't push further into his space either. "It's not really my thing to make out with the uncomfortable or unwilling."

Right now? Locus is both and it kinda twists in his gut that he's played a part in making him feel that way. That was the opposite of what this was for. "Unless he's willing and comfortable, not gonna do that."

A beat.

"You shouldn't either."

Her eyes roll back as she's chided (too much Sombra, not enough Azúcar), too slow to realize she's being unkind to them both until a few moments later when she plucks up the bottle from the sand beside her. "Relax, I was only joking around."

Another pull, head swimming with heat from it before she tips it out towards the both of them. "Here." An offering— a peace offering— meant to put a little more Sugar back into her figurative stride. "Take it. I'm not trying to upset you, mijo."

Whether Locus or York decide to take the bottle, she leans back into the sand, crossing her legs. "I wouldn't have kissed you if I didn't I want to."

Sombra gets a good deal of side-eye, though it does honestly seem like they're both a little more contrite about the whole thing. York's remarks in particular put him a little more at ease.

He shouldn't think poorly on this. They're drunk, obviously having a good time, and he's souring the mood significantly, isn't he?

Only one thing to do, then. Eyes flicker between her and the bottle, before taking hold of the peace offering with a nod and taking a swift swig for himself.

All forgiven.

As the tension dies down and things become ok again, Taylor relaxes enough to lean against Locus properly, all head on shoulder and eyes half closed in languid focus. Something in Azucar skidded sideways there. He saw the blip in the pattern but couldn't put a name to it. Couldn't make it make sense- but they're all good now. Locus drinking, music playing, the breeze blowing off the ocean.

"Me either, bud." Not a thing he does, putting his mouth of people if he doesn't want to.

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