#sighes

Xenia sighed after the tale had wrapped up. “It ends there. I like the Quarskal version better, personally. It ends less abruptly, y’know? And it doesn’t have the weird poem.” she asked, blinking when he stood up abruptly and started walking across the hall, “Where are you going?”

“There’s a moonstone hidden in here, somewhere.” he replied, feeling along the wall behind the dais at the end of the hall. “It has to be here.”

She stood up and joined him, “Your family’s treasure, you mean?” she asked, tilting her head to the side, “It’s a moonstone?”

“My wha—oh! Yes. That’s my family treasure!”

She gave him a suspicious look, but she shrugged his tone off as weird foreign prince nonsense, “Why do you think it’s here?” she asked, pressing her own palm to the wall.

“It’s where—um, I read, in another, uh, more detailed legend, that the noble family used to keep their coffers behind—“ he paused, looking at her hand. It was quickly growing brighter and brighter, and, much to his alarm, it appeared to be adhered to the wall. “Why are you glowing?”

She blinked up at him owlishly, “I’m…?” she paused, turning to her own hand, “Oh, goddesses, I’m glowing. Why am I glowing?”

“I just asked you that! Why would I know?”

“I don’t…I’m—it’s pulling me!” she shrieked, desperately trying to tug herself away from the wall. It didn’t work. Soon her arms were buried up to her elbows in the charred wood paneling, and then the rest of her body followed.

She gasped, falling back onto nothing in a plain, white space. The only things in the area were herself and a glittering gemstone that broke apart the bright light of the strange room, casting dazzling prismatic shadows along the faraway walls. The center of the huge gemstone had turned an unhealthy, ashen grey that let no light escape. She knew what it was immediately, and it certainly wasn’t a ‘family gemstone’.

This was a dragonlight, a concentrated vessel for draconic power only rumored to exist. It was a vessel imbued with dragonfire and ancient magic, but something was wrong with it. It was weakening, somehow. She didn’t understand how she even knew that, but she did understand that if she managed to bring this back to the university, she could write a few dozen theses. She could maybe even get a tenured position. She reached out for it, wrapping both hands around the gem, turned around to find herself back in the castle ruins. The smoke that clouded the rock’s interior nearly covered the entire surface now. She tapped it, feeling none of the warmth it carried moments earlier. Still, though, it was once a vessel. And that should be enough.

“Cass! Cassius, I found the relic! It’s a dragonlight! This could potentially be proof that some draconic beings do hold the spark of sentience, isn’t that exciting?”

A booming chuckle forced the childish sense of hopefulness from her mind, nearly sending her to her knees from its sheer magnitude alone. She heard words after the laugh but her brain was so muddled that she failed to understand them. The next thing she knew, a clawed hand the size of a cottage came crashing through one of the shattered bay windows. It sent broken glass flying across the entire hall as it began feeling around for something. Maybe her? It was entirely possible that poor Cassius was already in the beast’s grip, or worse.

All thoughts of the scholarly acclaim she’d receive from finding the dragonlight vanished in that moment.

They need to retcon basically-adult Mercy knowing Fareeha when she was only a kid ASAP, it makes my skin crawl.

For those that don't know: This pic is up on Pharah's bio to this day, and Mercy was a uni student at the time of this pic (17). This means Angela was very smart and mature for her age, thus why I argue she was basically an adult figure to child/tween Fareeha(12) when Fareeha was growing up surrounded by Overwatch agents. Mercy may have not been a constant presence in OW then, but she definitely watched Fareeha grow up through the years by these accounts, and I presume Fareeha joined the army at 18.

If they still go for the weird age gap thing and end up pulling a "Fareeha has a one sided crush" then it feels pretty pointless to do from a writing standard, Farreeha doesn't need any more heartbreak/melodrama in her life.

Having Pharah pine for someone unhealthy for her/someone she will never have doesn't add or push development to her character. Fareeha has the stereotypical "stoic soldier with badass armor" exterior but what I love is that her animations and jokes shows she is fun loving (air guitar!) and a strong joyful soul underneath all that rigid armor. I wish she would have more joy in her stories, instead of sadness/angst. The name Fareeha means happy/joyful. She deserves some happiness after all she's been through.

And frankly, writing wise, Fareeha deserves a healthy stable relationship with a loving GF after all the rocky troubles she's had in her life. Between family and friends leaving/presumed dead (Father, Mother, Cole, OW agents, etc) only to later return, I am sure she has abandonment issues and trust issues. :( Girlie needs a break. Having an arc where she learns to trust again/gains the courage to trust again would be great for her character, and would be a very healing story. (Let her have a lesbian happily ever after!!! Just not with Angela as of current lore, please writers retcon the pic or give Fareeha a different gf.)

From what I know the first omnic crisis happened around 25-30 years ago, and if Gabe is 58(wiki), Gabe would be anywhere between 33-28 by the time he did all that? Early 30s seems perfectly reasonable for his career in a world full of super powered superheroes tbf.