feathermage fortress

Chapter 6 of Lay me Down in your Ocean is out! This took a while, but it was a very important and intimate chapter and it was, as always, a pleasure trying to bring @imperfectkreis ‘s words to life! 

Mind the tags for this chapter! 

Handing over the reigns once in a while must feel great. <3

Well I’m going to start by just saying how does “angsty samurai and smooth talking chill cowboy” not sound like the setup for a damn fine romance novel. There isn’t any character interactions connecting these two at the moment, but their personalities and stories really make them fit like puzzles pieces. 

They have similar experiences in their pasts that are vital to their characters. Both have criminal backgrounds that they’ve had to face the emotional consequences of. Hanzo was the heir to a criminal empire that traded in arms and other illegal items. The politics of the organization lead him to kill his brother which made him leave everything behind to become a lost drifter haunted by guilt for what he did for the sake of his family’s legacy. Meanwhile in his younger days, McCree was a part of a gang that also traded arms illegally. After being taken in by Blackwatch he turned a new leaf and wanted to make up for the damage he was a part of. After having a falling out with Blackwatch and their own corruption, he became a drifter again in a world that still believes him to be a criminal. 

Their personalities are opposites, but in ways that complement each other. McCree is chill and takes everything in stride and while Hanzo is a calm person for the most part, he can be emotional and standoffish. They’d relax by enjoying their company together telling stories and bonding over alcohol. If Hanzo becomes temperamental about something, Jesse would stay collected and ease him into calming down. Hanzo still struggles with himself, and McCree has been there and would understand.

Their combat styles even balance well. Hanzo is a mid-range sniper  while McCree often tends to be a up close.

They’re an East meets West trope that’s cute as Hell. A stereotypical Southwestern Cowboy and Samurai.  Age wise they’re in the same territory, McCree is 37 and Hanzo 38. 

And I’ll be honest, these two are visually gorgeous together. Hanzo’s more elegant appearance contrasted against McCree’s rugged and dirty aesthetic.  Hanzo being a chunk shorter is pretty dang adorable too. Interestingly enough their designs also reflect each other in that McCree’s right arm and upper body is covered by his sarape, while that exact territory is completely exposed on Hanzo. 

I genuinely believe that these two would appreciate each other in ways that others wouldn’t get. They’d bond over their troubles, enjoy the company and comfort of each other, and find themselves closer than with anyone else they’ve met. Two men that were guilt ridden drifters finding comfort in each other.

What if the UN made clones of Jack when he was leading Overwatch? He’d get killed or mortally wounded on a mission and they’d just thaw one out, tweak it’s memories, and send it out there believing it was the real one and nobody is aware. Sometimes Morrison comes back fatally injured and they know he can’t be healed or that the wounds would leave him permanently out of action so they quietly kill the clone and replace it with a new one to keep their pretty little poster boy in top shape.

Gabe has no idea until a joint mission between OW and BW where he is so certain that he just watched Jack die. Jack is full of holes and Gabe holds him in his arms as he’s choking and drowning in his own blood, and he’s begging Jack to hold on and screaming for the medics to arrive as Jack weakly mumbles apologies for everything leading to this point. He knows he saw the light leave Jack’s eyes and he’ll never get the sound of that last dying breath out of his mind. The medics arrive too late and take Jack’s body away.

But then they get back to base and there’s no talk of Jack’s death. No memorial, no funeral. Nobody promoted in his place. If he brings it up he just gets blank looks like he’s lost his mind. Then a few weeks later he sees Jack wandering the halls and Gabe drags him somewhere private, running his hands over Jack’s chest that he KNOWS was riddled with bullets before. He’s rattling of question after question. How are you here? How did you survive? He saw Jack die and while he’s happy that Jack is here he knows that he shouldn’t be.

Jack just stares at him hopelessly confused, asking Gabe what the hell he’s talking about. Gabe tells him about Jack dying in his arms and Jack reveals that he doesn’t remember much of anything from the end of the mission. He remembers getting shot, then waking up in the infirmary. He doesn’t remember Gabe’s panicked screaming or his own whispered apologies. He doesn’t remember the tears on his former lover’s face. They part ways after that, their minds burning with questions and no answers.

Jack spends hours staring at himself in the mirror that night. As great as Mercy’s healing tech is it isn’t perfect. Something like that should have left scars.

the deeper Gabriel gets into the UN conspiracy, the further Reaper tears it apart, the more and more he understands– it wasn’t about them. he wonders, desperate; when did they first replace him? when did Jack stop being his Jack, when did they take some stranger and put it in his place, a copy so perfect they both thought it was the same? would they have fallen apart, if it wasn’t a clone? what strings were they even pulling?

Like what if they have the original kept on ice somewhere. Sometime, not long after Jack was promoted, they snatched him right out from under everyone’s noses and replaced him with the first clone of many. The real Jack is still there, locked away and not aging, as the world goes on and then things start to fall apart.

Jack and all of the clones are fitted with a sort of implant that transfers the memories of the original and compiles those of the clones so that each new one is kept up-to-date as they are awakened. The UN can alter those memories as they see fit, but not completely erase them. Some of the clones have nightmares about their past deaths. Some of them start to question things. Those are always terminated early. The clone Gabe brought his suspicions to is killed a few days after that tense conversation and this time Gabe knows for certain something is messed up because Jack acts as if it never happened.

76 is the first clone to become fully aware of what’s going on and it’s only after the explosion at the Swiss HQ, after he’s lost half his face and the use of his eyes. The UN ceases their cloning program for a while but keep Jack on ice, looking into ways to make him their perfect little soldier, waiting until the world is begging for a hero. 76 makes it his mission to find the real Morrison and break him out. He doesn’t know that Reaper is after the same thing, that the agents Reaper killed were all involved in it. Gabe lead the revolt at the Swiss HQ because he was enraged at what he’d discovered. He’d learned they were somehow programming Jack but he hadn’t discovered anything about the clones until afterwards.

After a few initial clashes and 76 discovering Reaper’s identity, they start grudgingly working together to find the real Jack Morrison. Neither of them wants to get too close to the other. They don’t want to get too attached; Reaper because he knows 76 isn’t the real Jack, 76 because he knows that whatever feelings he has for Gabe aren’t really his and that Reaper wouldn’t want to have anything to do with him after finding the real Morrison. Reaper keeps telling himself that he’ll kill 76 when it’s all over so that there are no more traces of the horrors that the UN inflicted on them. But as they get close to finally finding him, Gabe can’t bring himself to do it. 76 is as much a person as the real Jack. He might be a clone, a copy, but deep down he’s still Jack.

And there are nights when it all gets too much and Gabe and 76 fall into bed together, working out their frustration in the only way they can think of. And it’s not the same yet it is at the same time and Gabe hates it. Because he wants Jack, but he’s starting to want 76 too. And 76 is bitter because he knows that between the two of them, Gabe will pick the real Jack.

And then they find him. They fight their way to the heart of a heavily defended base and they free the real Jack from the cryo chamber he’s been locked in. He’s shivering and naked and looks the same as he did back then, mostly unmarred skin and bright blond hair without a hint of gray. And he knows what 76 has been thinking because the implant is still there, and they were still linked even after the collapse of Overwatch. And he understands. 76 thought Jack would hate him, but all he sees in Jack’s eyes is sympathy.

They try to escape as quickly as possible but it’s hard when Jack hasn’t moved in years. Gabe and 76 have to take turns supporting him and it really slows them down. They nearly go down at one point as 76 grabs Jack and pulls him behind cover, shoving his small sidearm into Jack’s hand. His aim is a bit off but he’s able to help them at least.

And then 76 sees it. The small red dot of a laser sight between Jack’s shoulder blades as he leans heavily against Reaper’s shoulder. He doesn’t think, just acts. He dives forward, a hand on each of their shoulders as he shoves hard. They go sprawling to the floor as the shot rings out. Reaper shoves 76 off and starts to yell at him for knocking him down when he sees the blood and freezes. Jack is already moving, frantically pressing his hands to the hole punched through 76′s breast. Gabe is reminded all too clearly of a similar scene from years ago, screaming as Jack as he was dying in his arms. And it’s happening again with 76.

He pries off the mask to see 76 smiling up at them both, his clouded eyes showing no signs of fear. He pulls Gabe down for one last kiss, messy and bloody and over too quickly. Then he tells Jack to take care of Gabe, to do things better this time, to not lose sight of what’s really important to him. He dies in that base knowing that Jack Morrison is free to finally love Gabe as he should and knowing through their link that Jack wont fail this time.

Their stories: Amazing grammar, soaring vocabulary, beautiful imagery and prose which flows like a river.