nysalogs | ( open ) you, strange as angels

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( open ) you, strange as angels

Who: Angela "Mercy" Ziegler (

cadeuces) & YOU!
What: Introducing your newest doctor! The calm (intro) before the storm (event), a chance at starting CR before things get Bananas, and exploring the area
When: All January
Where: Thesa Station & Nadril mainly, a bit of Olympia on the side
Warning(s): Possible mentions of the trauma/sickness from the cryo pod ejections on arrival

█ thesa station

( Their arrivals hadn't been easy, with the state of emergency and alarms blaring to bring them to consciousness, bleary and nauseous. But Angela has never been one to let that stop her. Instinct kicks in and she's quick to go to others and help where she can, trying to rouse anyone else unceremoniously dumped on the floors and setting to righting those who simply weren't ready to wake in the least, ensuring they're hooked back up to the vital monitors before resealing the pods.

Whether you're also recently waking or you're around trying to secure people back in place as well, Angela almost looks like she knows exactly what she's doing even with the advanced technology.

There's only so many places a heart can be, after all, so the sensors are easy to apply again. The rest... well, guesswork and waiting for "green" responses. That seems to be quite universal in all interfaces.

Once she's done as much as she can in that regard, she settles for wandering the station and exploring every inch she can (which is not very many inches in the end, beyond mess hall and the observation deck), ultimately settling wherever she can find a decent cup of coffee and wishing desperately for cream.

Let the combat medic help you get your space legs, or join another weary soul and lament the coffee, or hear a new neighbor slumping into one of the starter cabins just to catch a break. (Or maybe it wasn't as unoccupied as it seemed at first glance, and you find a nice Swiss doctor in your bed— a modern day Goldilocks. Oops.) )

█ nadril

( It's after her romp through the simulations (and boy, was that a doozy) that she actually gets the chance to explore Nadril properly. There is a sense of tension in the air but this is far more familiar to her than anything else she's seen— Angela's from Switzerland. If there's anything in her blood, it's winter.

There's ice skating (tempting, but she's too rusty) and plenty of shops to browse, and she enjoys the will of the people here. She hasn't seen a single person not busy at work with some task or another, making those from outside the city stick out like a sore thumb in their meager clothes and their lack of purpose. Still, it's finally the air of Nadril that invigorates her again and finally makes her feel awake.

Anyone exiting the simulations with her or recognizable from the station will have her sticking around to ensure they're all right for some time, to continue chatting, before they ultimately decide to return to the station. Eventually they wear out their welcome even having attempted (and partially succeeded) to help solve the mysteries in those recollection-simulations, and there is nowhere for them to stay here. It's just as well; they can only stay in the cold for so long without the appropriate attire. Her appreciation is openly offered for the company, both in-sim and out, and she's clearly glad to have made some new friends in this place. They all had to look out for each other, don't they? )

Shall we get something hot to drink before we go?

█ olympia

( This is where they were to stay, is it...? Angela is mostly found wandering the market district and checking the boards for anything she may be able to accomplish, but it seems with the worry looming overhead in the darkening night skies, no one is particularly looking to hire so much as bunk down and ride out the storm.

It's a touch problematic for someone that needs to earn some measure of money to get herself started. She's been comfortable for so long even while stranded in the middle of a desert or a remote jungle or wherever her work may have taken her back home that she doesn't recall what it's like to start from scratch. To not have money in hand to buy a few spare pieces of clothing, or a better meal. She can't even buy some street cart meal for those around her, if she happens to spot someone hungry and homeless, or a young child eyeing sweets without any parents visible nearby.

It's beautiful in a way that nowhere in 2076 could be. Everywhere she looks is the sign of age and warmth, older construction techniques she's only ever seen the likes of in historical photos or renderings of the past. She's a bit taken with it, to be honest.

She scopes out different areas and vacancies, trying to see if she can't find a place to rest her head so she isn't taking up any of the limited spaces aboard the station, but she doesn't want to be so far from those she already knew here and she doesn't know where anyone happens to be. She may just have to keep imposing, and tell herself she's best put to use monitoring those in cryo. At least it's easier to find her on Thesa should anyone need her.

...Oh, dear. It seems she's quite lost. )

Excuse me— do you know the way back to the plaza? I think I ended up a bit turned around.

█ wildcard

( Feel free to hit me with anything in the area! I'm new and not too familiar with the setting or its current state yet so I'm Doing My Best but I'm very open to any alternate scenarios / approaches / locations! )

( ooc: her test drive thread was here, her permissions/info post is here, and her CR meme thread is here for more information!

I can be reached via PM, private plurk @

clegane, or on disco @ 🍑milkies#5968 (in the game server as "Jamie! | Mercy" in green). I'm very open/comfortable with chatting so please don't feel shy if you wanted to prod or had any questions! )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I don't mind it.

[Sure, born and raised in a warmer climate, but Gabriel's spent more time traveling the world at this point than he has in Los Angeles. He might not prefer the cold, but he can weather it, especially if it means spending time around real technology.

He files the things she's saying about the station away for later--can't hurt to get back up there and check on the pods. Make sure Ana and McCree and the others are okay.]

If you want to keep an eye on Jack, then Wyver's your best bet.

[He doesn't mention that Jack is technically not allowed in Olympia.]

Otherwise, it's Olympia. Not a jungle--it has that going for it.

It is easier to warm up than it is to cool down, of course.

( Which is to say, she's right there with him. His mention of Wyver has her sighing with some measure of disappointment, because she'd already heard about the climate (and also the dragons??? what the fuck you guys). )

I may be put to better use monitoring the pods on the station, instead of trying to find somewhere to settle for now. Should I have reason to want to keep an eye on Jack, though?

( It's a curious thing to offer out of the blue. Was something wrong? )

[Gabriel manages a little laugh, and raises an eyebrow in Angela's direction.]

Because he's Jack.

[Sure, she never knew Morrison in the worst of the crisis, but Gabriel still thinks there's nothing to elaborate on in that department. It's also nicer to talk about Jack than it is to fully elaborate on how he's been doing. Gabriel still wants to play that close to the chest.]

He gets in trouble.

That... is fair enough. Still much the same as his heyday, then.

( She's had a difficult time figuring him out; they didn't exactly speak, much, and it will take time to open up more. For the both of them, certainly. (For all three of them.) )

Has he been in much trouble, here, already?

He got lost in the woods about a month ago.

[He turned into a wolf, too, but Gabriel isn't sure how he's going to explain that to Angela. He's still trying to wrap his mind around it, too.]

I had to drag him back kicking and screaming.

[And barking.]

Wait, is he all right...? After the explosion.

( As in, subtly, asking if all his mental faculties are. Firing correctly... because PHRASING™, Gabriel. Now she's just worried!!! How does Jack Morrison get lost in the woods and then why would he complain about being brought back!!!

Way to go, dingus.

Just tell her he was a dog and she'll accept it easier than thinking he's been injured in a way they can't reach. )

[Gabriel frowns a little, perhaps betraying that he's only sort of joking around. She's speaking in reference to Jack getting lost in the woods, but Gabriel is now thinking in more general terms. The Jack that's here is different from the person he once knew in many ways.]

He's lost a lot.

[That should say enough--he imagines Angela knows how it feels. Gabriel knows he's not being entirely truthful about the whole situation, but it can't hurt to keep Angela sympathetic to him.]

Treated me like an enemy, when I first showed up.

( The frown doesn't escape her, though his ulterior motive certainly does. He's different from the Jack she'd known, as well, and she's still trying to map out just how that could be, short of a hair change and a few extra scars, melancholy at his shoulders and distrust rife with a familiar but now deeper-rooted paranoia.

The answer Gabriel eventually gives her is an obvious one, so she only hums under her breath to acknowledge it, remembering that his time was different from hers and Jack's. )

Did he ever tell you about what had happened? After.

( She doesn't know if he wants to even know what the future may hold, but she bumps against his side on one off step and they careen together, using it to shoulder against him an extra moment longer. Empathetic as ever. )

I know that I'm supposed to be dead.

[Of course Angela woudln't say anything about it to him, likely for his own comfort.]

Weaseled that out of him eventually.

[Implying that Jack had been less-than-forthcoming with the information. Gabriel sounds fairly casual about his own death, mostly because he knows that, in the future, he's not really dead. ]

( Her brows furrow to it, but she nods an acknowledgement with a soft "mm", confirming that much at least. He phrases everything so particularly that he conveys exactly what degree of information he's received, how difficult it was to get it, and debates how best to proceed and how to word it in turn. )

You both are. Though I suspect if one of you survived with a few extra scars, you should have, as well. The smartest thing to do would have been to go underground. It was six years ago, for me, and I hadn't seen hide nor hair of either of you. No one surmised otherwise.

You and Jack both have empty coffins interred at Arlington. It was the last time any of us saw the other agents together. The UN dismantled Overwatch and forbade us from contacting one another or continuing any activities.

I still hear from Genji sometimes. The Lindholms, of course, and Reinhardt through them. Brigitte is off about the countryside with him, helping tend to his armor— do you remember her? Torbjorn's youngest, the one always smeared in grease.

( It was a fond recollection of pictures they'd all seen, at least. He'd been so proud of her. The only one to follow in his footsteps, after all. But her smile falls again, exhaling a breath that fogs before her in the cold. )

There had been some raids on past bases; I presume that was you or Jack, now. But six years... It's hard to say how either of you have been. What you've been through since. No one had heard from either of you.

( Which is the roundabout way of agreeing that yes, Jack has lost a lot. And that she thinks it's well within reason for him, and that she worries. Six years of absence isn't easy to bridge when she's the one reaching out. )

It may not be much, but I will always be here. For the both of you. And I'll do what I can to help.

Well, apparently I didn't.

[If Jack is to be believed, then Reyes' future involves a strange undead state, something he's not sure he wants to think about--either way, it's best to squash Angela's notion that he might have survived the blast the way Jack did. It might afford him some flexibility in the future, if they find their way out of this and all things come to pass.

Hearing that Angela has done her best to keep in touch with the fragmented ex-Overwatch doesn't surprise him in the least. She's sentimental in a way he's not, as evidenced by the fact that he glosses over most of what she says, especially with regards to her devotion to the both of them.

The raids on past bases are easy to guess at.]

Sounds like Jack. If I was breaking into old bases, no one would know.

And was he so certain of that?

( She never received the details of the undead portion, either. Forgive her the optimism in light of that. He only told her he was here and he was from before Overwatch fell.

Besides, it isn't as though they're returning home. Earth is gone. All iterations of it, she supposes. There is nothing she can return to and affect with the knowledge either way. He ignores a portion of what she'd mentioned, not deigning to answer it, and she supposes that's answer enough even if he hadn't used his words. )

That was half of it. But there were deaths, too. He wouldn't have gone so far. Not the way they had been killed.

( Withered husks, and all that. He had ignored her reassurance as well, which only has her tone dropping off, closing off. Shifting toward business rather than the friendliness of before, if that's what he prefers.

It certainly isn't what she'd prefer, which he well knows. )

Seemed pretty certain.

[Here, he'll capitalize on the fact that Jack isn't very good at subtlety and is even worse at lying. Sure, this will all fall apart if she questions Jack directly, but Gabriel likes to think he's not so willing to share the details of what he's been up to for the last six years.

At the assertion that Jack wouldn't kill anyone, Gabriel can only snort.]

You don't think Jack would kill anyone?

( That isn't what she said, dingus!! )

Not the way those men had died, no. He isn't capable of that. They were husks, Gabriel. As if the life had been sucked out of them.

It was an ugly way to go for people just doing their job.

( Of course Jack had the capability; but he wasn't cruel or unusual. If he didn't stop at simply disabling them, he'd put a bullet between the eyes and be done with it. Her brows are furrowed when she turns to look at him, trying to gauge if he thought Jack was capable of something like that. )

[What she's describing sounds more like Moira than anything else, and the thought unsettles him a little. Not something he's going to tell Angela, though he imagines she could make some educated guesses.]

Yeah, maybe not Jack.

[They can agree that something like that is beyond both his ability and his morals, even if the latter has changed over the years.]

Who do you think it is, then?

( Even Angela hasn't seen Moira suck the life out of anyone; but he agrees with her assessment, which has her nodding slowly, murmuring a soft assent of her own. A little mm that says "I didn't think you'd answer otherwise", though the relief in the set of her shoulders seems to counteract his lack of it.

At least they can still find common ground in something. )

I wish I knew. I couldn't even begin to hazard a guess, I'm afraid. Certainly someone who must know the layouts and security points of the watchpoints, yet...

Jesse is off somewhere in the Southwest with a bounty on his head, Genji in Nepal with the Shambali monks, Lena is still safe in London, Winston hides out... at Gibraltar, I believe. Where he had landed. Torbjorn in Sweden. Reinhardt and Brigitte still in the German countryside, last I'd heard.

( Besides themselves, that's all they have left. )

I don't see why it would be anyone we know.

[Not on the Overwatch side, at least. He's still entertaining his thoughts of Moira, but it unsettles him a little that she recounts ex-Overwatch agents as if they would be responsible for killing people in such a way.

He reminds himself that it's not out of the question someone from the outside could easily familiarize themselves with the Watchpoints.]

Overwatch's secrets were never airtight.

[And if it eventually falls, Gabriel wouldn't be surprised if the tech was sold to the highest bidder.]

More that they're far off and spread out enough that no one could have compromised them.

( She hopes, at least. The fact that they're all still actively moving and she does her best to keep track of their whereabouts and updates, as she's sure they all try to do for one another, means they've not been taken. Interrogated. Do you think she has such a low opinion of her fellow (ex-)agents?

Angela cares deeply for them all; it was something she'd held in common with Jack, when all other venues came to butted heads and locked horns. They could always count on the fact that the other cared and would do right by the rest. Insofar as they were capable. )

Athena must still be active, you know. Off the grid, certainly, but I doubt anyone would get away with much without her say so.

( If Winston was still holed up in Gibraltar, there's no way he would have let go of a valuable resource and companion like Athena. )

—Regardless, that's all the information I have. I was in Iraq before waking up here, some day or so ago. Have you been here long?

Edited (gently gets it back on track oops) 2019-02-04 13:26 (UTC)

Eh. The UN was never on our side.

[Implying it most certainly could have been them. This has given Gabriel a bit to think about, but of course he's still six years behind and for all he knows, their world is lost. It's a moot point.

Angela seems to realize that too, moving on from the conversation, though the comment about Athena is intriguing.]

About half a year, give or take. The last thing I remember is the uprising in King's Row.

Right, the Null Sector uprising... that was nearly seven years ago for me. It was about a year before Overwatch fell.

( It's still difficult for her to speak of, but he deserves to know what she knows, insofar as she can tell him. Try to establish a baseline between them where he knows her, again, and where she's coming from. That she's hardly changed.

Some of the shine has worn off on her idealism, slightly less enthusiastic about the good of the world around them, but her base nature will never change. She'll always believe in it, and hope for it.

She's been burned, as well. )

Do you remember a time before, here? or did you know of me when I had been awake before? I can't remember.

I don’t, no.

[Though Jack had spoken to him about being awake before, and all caught up where the timeline was concerned. It’s an uncomfortable thought, and not something he wants to dwell on. Angela, however, speaks to a very similar scenario.]

Jack mentioned you’d been awake before, with McCree and Oxton. Doesn’t surprise me that you don’t remember.

[He doesn’t put it past the Natha to have screwed around with the refugees’ brains.]

My best assumption is that it's a side effect of the cryo process and the way they attempt to integrate knowledge of what we wake to, here. Whatever it is they'd communicated to me had been cut short with the emergency ejections, I believe, or I would say it was likely helpful. It lessens the panic.

( Theoretically, of course. For most. Another point where his paranoia butts up against her logic, and the belief that not everything in the world is malicious.

Sorry, Gabriel. They keeping to this, don't they? She stops beside a frozen lake, leaning on the wooden rail about it, looking a tad wistful.

Everyone here was so serious, there isn't even anyone on the ice. But there's skate trails in the surface, telling her that someone, eventually, does come out to play. )

Yeah, it's all a little above my pay grade.

[Overwatch had a science department for a reason. Gabriel does, at least, understand some of what she's saying, enough to further his own paranoia about the Orbiters. One way or another, they're messing with people, and that doesn't sit well with Gabriel.

He comes to a stop next to her, and sighs, managing to sound a little sympathetic.]

It's a lot to take in, I know.

It's well within mine, at least. We're still covered.

( Offered a bit lightly, because she'd just admitted it was only an assumption, but it's still a fairly educated guess. She chooses to believe the better inclinations in others, though she realizes on the same hand she isn't exactly in inclusive company for that sentiment.

Oh well. He'll just have to take her dose of optimism with a spoonful of vinegar to balance it out.

She appreciates the sympathy when he offers it, though it's accepted with a little shrug and turning to look up at him. )

C'est la vie. It's the hand we've been dealt. Surviving is better than the alternative, at the very least. Were you ever able to find any Omnics who survived, here? Even in stasis?

( She hadn't seen any, but she had had a lot of chambers to look through and only managed a few before she had to accept that she couldn't do them all. Each one housed hundreds of pods, and it seemed to go on forever. )

For now.

[Who knows what kind of ridiculous challenge this place will throw at them next? He's been lucky, so far, to avoid most of this planet's worst affects. Despite his confidence in the matter when it comes to needling Jack, he knows he can't avoid everything forever, as much as he would like to.]

I haven't seen any omnics, no. They might be keeping them somewhere else.

[Then again, he certainly hasn't been able to inspect every single one of those tanks.]

( open ) you, strange as angels

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