bakerstreet | and since we've no place to go

and since we've no place to go

❄ it's quiet
and the snow's beautiful tonight

snowfall;

stage i; none, streets are already blanketed in white.
stage ii; very light and intermittent.
stage iii; light - moderate. lasts longer periods.
stage iv; continuous, heavy snowfall.
stage v; the hardest of cores - blizzards, snowstorms, you name it.

scenarios;

① fuck the police, this is the best time for a walk. hope you've got a nice thick coat on.
② stranded in the buttcrack of nowheresville? weren't you watching the time? now you've gone and missed that last bus out of there. or maybe you're lost, somehow. what do?
③ literally chilling, in this weather, is quite easy to do. sitting around relaxing in it is a wee more difficult, but sometimes much more enjoyable, especially if shelter can be found. the snow is beautiful to watch, after all.
④ the weather's not going to stop you. your snow fort's packed full of ammo and ready to go. those aren't snow angels over there; they mark where the poor souls you've downed have fallen. be careful with that snowman's head!!
⑤ you're about fifty miles from civilization but there's a roof over your head, so never mind the chilly draught, right? right. you mightn't be the only one lucky enough to stumble upon this little shelter, though. remember to share the blanket.
⑥ everyone stuck outside should be jelly. you've got a fireplace and hot cocoa and damn if it isn't awesome. a heater's not quite so romantic, but it'd do. there'd better be a backup generator in case the power trips.
⑦ mix and match, or make up your own.

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[Does anyone know how to pronounce ‘Torbjörn’, really? 76 bets not, though her attempt gets a bit of a laugh out of him.]

He tells everyone that.

[Best not betray any more familiarity with the founders of Overwatch than he really needs to. Luckily, Torbjörn feels strongly enough about that particular subject that he probably does tell everyone. 76 offers a shrug.]

But he is right.

[That’s all the concession he’ll offer.]

[ Johnny Cruz sure doesn't.

Hana isn't sure how to take him laughing at her. It's not her fault his name is hard to say with her accent. She should just stick to The Mechanic. Or Wrenchy. That hand.

But she's never heard 76 laugh at all. Not like that. Maybe derisive laughter. In fact, she wasn't sure if he could laugh genuinely. Her shoulders slack. ]

Yeah, well, he's still not allowed to touch Meka. Ever.

[ The snow falls so quietly and Hana looks down at the jacket she's wearing again. ]

My old CO used to say stuff like "information is power" a lot, too. He'd drill us with specs on the omnics all the time. Know your enemy, which was the same mindset I had playing PvP. But, like, a lot of the omnics aren't our enemy anymore.

Hey, you're old. [ WH ] Do you know why the big ones aren't more peaceful like the little ones?

Noted.

[76 doesn’t think Hana needs his help with that—she’s certainly a force to reckon with on her own, and he’s more than confident in her ability to keep Torbjörn’s hands off MEKA. The thought pulls a wry grin out of him, and even if she can’t see it, it’s fairly evident in his voice.

It’s short-lived, however, as she takes the conversation in a more sobering direction. Jack spends a lot of time thinking about the new generation, the one that hasn’t lived through the Crisis but exists in its shadow anyway. At the rate the world rebuilt (thanks in part to Overwatch) rebuilt, it’s all resigned to the history books. She still fights Omnics, but she’ll never know what it’s like to face down an entire legion of bastion units, standing on the precipice of complete annihilation.

Then again, he’s never gone head-to-head with the South Korean Omnic in something like MEKA. They probably have a lot they can tell each other, and it has him thoughtful to the point where he doesn’t even object to being called old. ]

Well, you had the god programs, right?

[Quarantined by Overwatch during the Crisis.]

They were the ones that did it. Put all the other units under their control. They didn’t know what they were doing.

[ STOP LAUGHING AT HER. SHE'LL SHOW HIM JUST HOW MUCH OF A FORCE SHE IS.

Hana isn't really one for serious conversations and heavy topics. She's as much as a dangerous force as she is a positive one. The one she shows the world, anyway. If 76 is going to genuinely laugh and show her a side not many people see (one she doesn't think he shows to many people) then it's only fair he gets a glimpse of the person inside the sassy, ornery D.Va.

Someone more human. Someone who's more than video games, pink robots, or junk food. ]

Yeah, I know that. [ Her arms cross and she leans her back against that same pink robot. A foot starts kicking idly at the snow, her toes numbing in her boots. ]

So, what? You're saying the big guys are actually peaceful too, but they don't know any better? [ All the destruction of her home was done by brainwashed omnics? ] Sounds like zombies.

... You think they'd be nice if we took control back? [ Right after she's said it, she grips her own head and sinks down into a crouch. ]

Ugh! It's never like that in zombie games!

I think so. We can't be sure.

[Because that's what happened, really--the Omnics attacked, and no one really knew why. Overwatch in its earliest days functioned through asymmetrical warfare. They weren't breaking into Omniums to negotiate with the god programs. They were there to quarantine and shut them down.

The public was surprised when it came out that famous war hero Jack Morrison held no real ill-will towards post-crisis Omnics and did, in fact, advocate for their rights in later years. Then again, few people understood what it meant to fight against them like he did. Now the pendulum has swung back in the other direction. Mondatta is dead. Progress is being undone. 76 wishes he had the answers.]

Very few things are ever like video games.

[But he doesn't need to tell her that.]

[ Her hands lower but she doesn't stand. The comeback is quick on her tongue. ]

Everything is a game.

[ No. Really. Just like Life.

Nobody could tell her differently, anyway. Not only did it make it easier to handle situations, but if she looked at everything like a game then it could be analyzed. It could be beaten, she could win. Would win. She could come at it with everything she had and still laugh at the end of the day.

Still look for answers that elude the best of them. ]

Perimeter checks are really common in games. Usually I'm the one sneaking in, though. [ Hana gestures around them. ] Weather just like this is perfect because it's hard to detect anyone until it's too late.

[ Is she teasing? When is she not? ]

Not everything.

[76 fires that back quickly enough. He's not going to try and convince her, because he knows this is just something that comes with experience--or maybe he's just that serious. Still, he can't deny that there are certain advantages to that kind of thinking, in very specific situations.

Hana might be teasing, but 76 is as deadpan as ever. Maybe he's taking her seriously on this.]

If something breached the perimeter, Winston would've alerted us by now.

[ He won't convince her.

ll she does is narrow her eyes at him, though. As much as he knows he won't convince her, she knows Soldier: 76 is way too serious to think everything is a game like she does. Whether she means literally, it's a game, or that everything in life is a game. ]

If the spy was any good, Winston couldn't know. Maybe they have, like, thermoptic camo.

[ Her hand does the motion of covering her face in a sweeping gesture. ]

Or maybe they're too fast to even be detected.

[ She poses. like this. His jacket hangs on her like a curtain. ]

[She’s right—he’s way too serious, but the pose does pull another genuine laugh out of him. It’s not at her by any means, but perhaps at the situation in general. Not that he’s discounting spies with thermoptic camo (and Reaper has broken into Gibraltar before), but it seems unlikely to happen at this moment in time.

Snow is not very friendly for sneaking.]

We’d see their footprints.

[He points behind them, making note of the trail they’ve left on their own.]

[ Huh. He laughs more when there aren't that many people around. Is he shy? Haha, that's cute.

Hana looks over her shoulder at the gesture, spotting her mecha's footprints, her own much smaller ones scattered around, and Soldier's. The steady fall of snow hasn't covered anything up yet. Incluuuding, ]

Oh! What's that?

[ They're not the footprints of a person. Too small for that. There are another set of something that breaks off into the trees. ]

I'm gonna find out!

[ Scrambling under the coat, she pulls out her small pistol and starts jogging (SLOWLY WITH HER KNEES HIGH) through the snow and into the treeline, hair bouncing. Her whole body bouncing, like a rabbit. ]

[He watches her make the realization and look around them, seemingly taking stock of the footprints--but then seeing something else. 76 doesn't expect her to break their patrol in pursuit of something, and his own paranoia has him running after her.]

Song, wait.

[Because the last thing he needs is for her to wander off when he's theoretically supposed to be keeping them both safe (or maybe that's just a self-imposed responsibility).]

Probably just an animal.

[ Does she wait?

Nope.

The treeline has a lot more cover than the slightly open area they were hanging around in. It's not long before she's disappeared behind the dark silhouette of a pine tree and it's low hanging branches in her search for said animal. ]

Or an animal spy!

[ Do those exist? Probably. We're talking about a game where the developer thought about including a cat hero. There's already a talking gorilla! ]

Maybe we can convince him to join our side. Star Wars style. You be Palpatine. You're gray enough. I dunno about wrinkles, though. [ PAUSES. Then, looks over her shoulder for Soldier: 76. ]

You have seen Star Wars, right? Wasn't it made in your time?

Hana--

[But she's already gone and 76 is already stomping off after her, gun at the ready, even if he's pretty sure they're not going to find anything overtly threatening. Maybe an animal, but definitely not an animal spy.]

I'm not Palpatine.

[He's seen Star Wars, sure, even though it was all sort of an old classic when he was growing up. What he's sure of is that he's definitely on the side of good and doesn't seem very pleased with being equated to the Emperor. If she wants to play this game, she has a better idea.]

Obi-Wan.

[Seems appropriate.]

[ He doesn't know what they'll find. It will probably just be a normal, run of the mill animal though. That doesn't stop her from hoping to find more talking animals.

Side of good? Okay, vigilante that refuses to show his face. She already tried to go the superhero route with him earlier but he dodged it. This time, when she relates him to a bad guy, he wants to be the good one.

She can't win. Or can she? ]

... You mean A New Hope Obi-Wan or Phantom Menace Obi-Wan?

[ At this point, she has stopped her search and rests her pistol on her shoulder, the other hand on her hip. ]

I'm old. Take a guess.

[76 doesn't seem to want to entertain the conversation further, even if he knows he'll have to. He's stomping through the snow in an apparent attempt to determine what they may or may not be dealing with.]

Lost the tracks.

[Maybe she can see better than he can, but he's fairly certain the rest of the trail has been wiped away in the snow.]

[ Her smile curls a bit wider. ]

Hah, you admitted it.

[ WHY WOULDN'T HE? Now she just has to find a way for him to take off his visor. He may have thought she had let that go, but she hasn't.

For the tracks, either. Scoffing, she taps the barrel of her gun against her neck. ]

You give up too easily. Pay attention my old Padawan, your master D.Va will show you how it's done.

[ By crouching and sneaking around a tree. Most of her body is covered by snow as she shuffles through. This kind of sneaking works in video games, okay. ]

[Look, Hana, 80% of what he does is complain about being old. None of this is a secret.]

I'm just stating the obvious.

[He's also pretty sure this is not how Star Wars works, but it's been kind of a while since he's seen the movies, and he doesn't want to start an argument about padawans, or whatever. 76 isn't nearly as stealthy as she is, trudging after her and looking decidedly unamused.

Maybe a little cold, even.]

This is how it's done?

[ Neither with her calling him old man. Still, as the little shit she is, she is compelled to point out that he admitted he's old. Maybe the reason she calls him old so much is because he mentions it himself. ]

Has your old age affected your memory?

[ Before he can answer, she holds up her hand in the universal signal to stop. Hana herself has stopped in her tracks and is staring ahead.

Possibly about thirty feet ahead of them is a rabbit. Its winter coat is just setting in so it's a feat to Hana's eyesight and how much she pays attention that she was even able to spot it. Without a special visor.

Her voice drops down to a whisper, ]

It's so cute.

[ But manages to sound as bright and enthusiastic if she had been shouting it aloud. ]

[76 lets out a long-suffering sigh and continues to follow her to the culprit, if only because it's increasingly white out and he doesn't want either of them to get lost. What she finds is, of course, predictable, and he comes to a stop, folding his arms.]

Doesn't look like a spy to me.

[His voice is lowered, too, but still as gravely as ever. Unamused.]

You're gonna scare it away.

[ He can speak for himself, D.Va doesn't get lost!!! ]

No, I won't.

[ Her mascot is a rabbit. Essentially, she's one of them. If Bastion can have a little animal friend, then why can't she?

Hana starts creeping closer, making the least amount of noise as possible while putting her pistol back in its holster. ]

If anybody is gonna scare it away, it's gonna be you. You would look more friendly if you took off your visor.

[He's aware that he's the one more likely to scare it away, so he hangs back as Hana keeps getting closer. 76, despite his objections, will even speak a little quieter, just in case.]

I'm not takin' it off.

[Not even for cute little bunny rabbits.]

[ He's a big ol' (as they say online) "Tsundere"

Her plan is foiled again. ]

Come on!

[ Whisper yells. A bit too loudly. The rabbit stops cleaning its little face and lifts its head, ear twitching towards them. Hana curses under her breath, Korean, and goes completely still.

It's the end of their Rabbit Befriending Journey. Seeing the two of them and the glaring red light from 76's visor, it turns and hops off deeper into the forest. ]

Wait, no! [ There are too lunging steps of Hana's long legs before her small body is no match for the thickly packed snow and she

faceplants. With a shout. ] Waugh!

[ Snow flutters around her. ]

No.

[Well, now that she's scared off the rabbit, 76 doesn't have to worry about being quiet or treading lightly. He's not sure what Hana expected out of this, but this seems like an entirely predictable outcome from where he's standing, and he watches the chaos unfold with his arms crossed.

But he's not a monster. As soon as she goes over, 76 is there to lift her up by the collar, setting her back down on her feet with one hand and surprising ease. He'll even dust the snow off the sleeves of her jacket.]

Come on. Our patrol's probably over by now.

[And Winston is going to wonder where they got to.]

[ Being lifted from the collar isn't that pleasant. Okay, not pleasant at all. Hana doesn't being made to feel like a child, and the way 76 treats her when she's done nothing but BE COOL (no, she hasn't) is unfair.

Coupled with the snow on her face, it's no wonder she's scowling at 76. One hand wipes down from her forehead to her chin and, feeling ornery, flicks it at his chest to repay him dusting the snow off her person. ]

It was over forever ago. Seriously, I doubt anything is gonna get through Winston's alarm system, Torbleborble's defense turrets, or your wall hax visor. [ She taps her temple. ] And I have new games to play.

[ Always the games. ]

Then let’s go in.

[If 76 feels at all sorry for manhandling her in such a way, he doesn’t show it—though it is difficult to tell with the mask he wears. No matter how he feels, he’s not going to budge, not even in the face of her scowl. Now that they’ve determined their shift is over, he’ll be the first to trudge back towards the base.

And he knows he might regret asking, but—]

What games?

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screams..........

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i die and come back to life every 2 weeks

i will wait 4 u

u have been, bless ur sweet soul

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seductively slides into your inbox

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