¿Mmm qué dices?

[vata]

Who| Sombra, Widowmaker, and a spooky, spooky ghost
What| sometimes you assume your best friend has no heart, and then you're wrong, so you have to apologize....sort of
Where| Talon Beach House™
When| post movie-night
Warnings/Notes|NA

She didn't know.

Or maybe she did— maybe she'd always suspected that Widowmaker carried more of Amélie Lacroix under her skin than she ever let on— picking at healed scars with curiosity in her every movement, eager to see if they'd bleed again. Sometimes even Sombra can't tell where her hunger for knowledge ends and the rest of her begins. She was shaped by it, lived by it, survived because of it...and nearly lost her neck for it, too.

Like Gabriel's starved hatred and Amélie's crippling programming, the truth of it is, she's as fragmented as the rest of them.

But she's also decidedly more grounded. Less scarred for her flaws, and she can tell when she's crossed the line as far as her partners are concerned: that the vulnerability and emotion she'd somehow stirred needs appeasing. They're not enemies, after all.

So Sombra turns up a little later, after having said goodnight to Lena and triple checking her defenses, slipping in through the back entrance with a small gift in hand from the Legion World cafeteria— boxed and wrapped with a holographic sticker of the Eiffel Tower. She'd have gone for ballet slippers but it seemed a little offensive considering the circumstances, and they don't make sniper rifle stickers, apparently.

What a waste.

"Ya llegué~." Called out as she toes the door shut behind her, listening in for any telltale signs of life as she makes her way through narrow halls towards the common room.

Comments

Before Sombra reaches Amélie

[fantasmaniac]

Reaper arrives after Sombra. Taking different routes to the base is difficult, but necessary, especially after attending such a social gathering with a high turnout. Meandering about in a seemingly random fashion, he took the long way around came in through the back.

He isn't 100% sure what'd gone down between Sombra and Widowmaker during the short span of a Movie Night, nor does he care, but them butting heads is less than ideal. They just don't have that sort of luxury anymore. That being said, instead of shutting himself up in his room like usual, he heads for the common area. Passing the open door of Widowmaker's room, he ignores it and moves on. He's mostly aiming to intercept Sombra first.

[vata]

It's not hard: the corridor leading in is purposefully narrow (part of her contingency plan, just in case someone ever manages to find their way inside), and his width takes up the near entirety of the exit leading out into the common room. A grim, heavy barricade against what's left of Sombra's crucial mission.

Which means he gets a pointed look, the back of Sombra's tongue clicking against her teeth as she shifts her weight impatiently.

"Don't tell me she's got you running interference."

[fantasmaniac]

There's no visible ticks of annoyance, just a steady looming presence as he eyes the box in her hands. A present, no doubt.

"You already know that's not her style..."

Now that he's got her attention, he moves a little from the hallway entrance. She can either be completely rude by side-stepping him to avoid this conversation, or not. He'll give her that option, but he'll find a way to keep himself informed whether they like it or not. Issues that come up due to mission complications is one thing, but personal conflicts are things he tries to make his business. Or at least be aware about them.

"...and that won't be enough."

Said while staring pointedly at the box.

[vata]

"And if I didn't know any better, I'd almost think you didn't trust me." More precisely her judgment. She shakes her head, sidestepping only as far as she needs to to sit down across the back of the couch, little box resting gently atop the armrest beside her.

"She tell you what happened?"

[fantasmaniac]

Excuse you, his trust in you is not the thing in question! So the remark is deftly ignored and only when she asks does he react with a shake of his head.

"Only that she was 'done with you for the night'."

A bit unusual for Widowmaker, if he was reading the tone of a text as well as he could.

[vata]

Don't worry so much, Gabe, she always has a contingency plan

"I might have said something about Gérard Lacroix." Something small, inconsequential...and wholly insulting.

She tips her head back as she says it, humming as if it's not half as big a deal as all the hoops she seems to be jumping through to fix it would imply. A sure sign she's downplaying the entire thing.

"You know, underneath all that ice? I think she still cares about him."

[fantasmaniac]

He almost seems to deflate at the shoulders, like he can't believe how stupid she was (not that he thought so, but it was comical enough to seem so). But in all honesty, he doesn't fully know the extent of her brainwashing either. Where does her emotional threshold start and end? Only Widowmaker knows.

"Neural conditioning is still more an art than a science, it seems."

If she is truly miffed at a remark made by Sombra, he can only assume Sombra said something very insensitive and scathing on purpose (doubtful) or it was just so flippant in itself to be insulting.

"What's in the box?"

Part curiosity, part checking-to-see-if-it's-tactful.

[vata]

She lifts the little box up, carefully sliding one nail beneath the sticker keeping it closed to peel it upwards so that he can see the confection for himself, attentive enough— even as she asks a beat later, mildly:

"Does it bother you?"

The reconditioning. The process of pouring out what Amélie LaCroix had been into what she is now.

[fantasmaniac]

He doesn't make a show of looking into the box, the mask barely tilting down before he's looking away again to mull over the question.

"No."

It might be too callous to admit that her brainwashed state makes her easier to work beside, but aside from it sounding uncomfortable, it wasn't necessarily true, either. Talon also has their own agenda, just like he has his own, and who knows what other orders Widowmaker may have?

"But sometimes... hm."

[vata]

Her eyes, half-lidded from glancing downwards at the intricately designed cupcake in its box (starting to reseal the lid again once he's clearly noticed it) flick upwards with razor-sharp clarity: a predatory sort of hunger at that glimpse beneath his figurative skin.

But otherwise it's all casual. Relaxed. They might as well be chatting about the weather.

"Does it remind you of what you used to be?"

[fantasmaniac]

It could've been a scathing glare, or a solemn thoughtful one. Hard to say when he barely glances over at her, not saying anything but keeping the mask's hollow stare trained on her.

He can already see how she got to Widowmaker, if she says such things in such a manner. It doesn't bother him so much anymore, least of all from Sombra. He already knows to treat most of her so-called 'casual' conversations as an attempt to draw more from him. From the most banal to the most incriminating, her thirst for uncovering half-truths is something he's well-acquainted with. After a long, dramatic pause, he grunts.

"Lots of things remind me of what I used to be." His very mission, the people it revolves around...

Sometimes, he's a little envious of Widowmaker. It would be much easier if he just couldn't feel any emotion at all.

[vata]

"Like Morrison." Is the response that offhandedly slips out while she finishes resealing the sticker, as if she isn't here because of her habit of pressing where she should know better. As if she isn't treating Gabriel with the exact same care she'd shown Amélie at the time, albeit with less cutting humor.

[fantasmaniac]

The sound that follows is a half growl, half humming sound that might taper off into a wry sort of laugh. It's sounds just as confused (and accurate) as it should when it comes to Reyes's feelings about Morrison. Her stark observation isn't enough to anger him like it did with Widowmaker, fortunately.

Yeah, like Morrison— his silence seems to say. It's no secret.

"That same lack of tact that got you into this situation in the first place. You two better watch it."

The words sound like they could be sharp, but the warning in his tone is about as casual and offhand as Sombra's. At least, by this point, Reaper is more or less fine with letting this conversation die out and let her be on her way.

[vata]

"I'm pointing out the truth." Sombra argues in return, as though that makes a difference. Her fingers curl over the lid of the box, weight shifting more comfortably to settle down across the sofa's arm rest: he might be done, but she isn't.

There's an itch along her mechanical spine— something nagging, something narrow— and a beat later, she acts on it.

"Talon isn't here, you know."

They're free agents, held together by goals, by wants, by needs and the shadows of who they could have been.

[fantasmaniac]

There's a pointed silence, the buzzing in his ears growing noisier as he watches Sombra with a sort of intensity like he's trying to solve a puzzle just by staring at it. He thinks he knows what she's getting at, and he's pretty sure he doesn't like it.

"Talon has barely anything to do with it."

Her words ring with some truth, about them being free from Talon's agenda, but Reaper never saw his work as being a part of Talon's. He saw Talon as another tool, another Blackwatch that was better developed and literally overstepped protocol for whatever they needed to get down (AKA terrorism). It's an extreme that Reyes would've been reluctant to resort to, but obviously nothing was too extreme for Reaper.

That being said, none of that was here. All he had here was a punching bag by the name of Jack, and a few scattered agents that meant little in the long run. It's been a long few years, biding his time and sticking with Talon, but it's only starting to dawn on him now the implications of their situation right now.

He'll...have to sleep on it. Figuratively, anyway.

[vata]

"Doesn't it?"

Talon wasn't the catalyst, but instead the enabler: they gave Gabriel a reason to keep going, a mission plan to follow when his own thirst for vengeance might have run thin. Without them here...

"I should get going. Wouldn't want to keep Widowmaker waiting."

Standing up, she tips her chin casually downwards, shrugging out the world's most relaxed farewell. "Not like she isn't mad enough at me already."

[fantasmaniac]

There's no stunning revelation, just a cold(er) creeping sensation of realization that what he'd wanted might just be another form of brainwashing. Perhaps not as absolute as Widowmaker's conditioning, but one of his own volition, so convinced that it was the only way for him. Feels kinda bad, man.

At least he has the time to mull over it now, if anything. He doesn't respond, or react in any visible form as she chats with him. Again, like someone just talking about the weather... it seems he just attracts that sort of company. People talking about serious things like they're not serious at all.

It's only when she's actually inside Widowmaker's room that he leaves the common area and back to his own room, waiting for an opportunity to engage Widowmaker in a brief conversation...