#trashbot

working on refs for artfight

[ids in img desc]

I’m soo, soo late but if you’ve followed my blog, with good reason!  So, with being a month late, here is the Christmas Special, I hope you enjoy!

The snow was falling quietly that night, as it had for many nights before then.  The peace and  quiet, however, was ruined by the sound of clanging metal off in the distance.  The darkness of night did nothing to hide the location of the racket, but rather made it stand out far more for the small shack-like house was lit up like a multi-colored spotlight.  Inside the small house was a familiar criminal duo, relaxed as usually and even a bit cheerful, well at least one of them was.

Junkrat sat on the dirtied carpet as he face a fire that was roaring in the fireplace before him.  He was humming a tune, one common to Americans during the holiday season but it was hard to really figure out what song it was with how offkey and tone deaf the singed man was.  Every so often though, he would seem to recall some of the words, though his singing was even worse than his humming.  “Ruddy the red-nosed reindeer, bugger had a shiny nose~”

There was a loud ‘thump’ noise from behind the male, though he seemed to pay little attention to that or the hate-filled glare he was getting from his usually silent partner.  “Jamison,” the low voice rumbled threateningly, “enough.”

The much smaller male still didn’t seem affected in the slightest.  “Ey, Roadie, wha-doya think of this?”  He asked as he half turned himself to show off his latest creation-in-the-works.  There were a few moments of silence before Mako sighed, holding the book he had been reading between his legs as he leaned forward in his worn chair to examine the thing.

Even with his usual hog-shaped mask removed, it was still impossible to read the man’s face.  Dull, bored eyes stared at the thing, and that was really all he could make out of it: a thing.  “What is it?”  He finally asked, his gaze falling to the blonde, who’s excitement seemed to extinguish slightly at the question.

He pursed his lips in annoyance as he pulled his current work back in front of him, he back to Roadhog once again.  “It’s a present, oooobviously,” he said, his tone clearly not holding back any annoyance.  Mako didn’t move for a little while after that as he watched the other go back to work, his offkey humming much quieter this time.  It wasn’t uncommon for Junkrat to do something like this, though his presents were usually handled in secret, the pattern was off for--

The larger man leaned back into his chair once again as he pulled up the book he had been reading, opening it again.  This was a special gift, it was for her, a small smirk graced the scared features of the usually emotionless man, missed by all as it hid behind a book and the only other person there was too busy to notice.

Not too far away was a larger house, much like the smaller shack it was tucked into the woods and was also glowing with Christmas light, though not quite as bright be seen from space.  Christmas music could be heard humming through the windows as the rest of the Overwatch team bustled about the house.  

In the living room, Jack was going through one of the bags of Christmas items they had purchased recently; as they were away from HQ, the team had decided they still wanted to do something and bought the festive decorations.  Lucio was decorating the Christmas tree with Lena’s assistance, she had been kicked out of the kitchen when one of her blink attempts led to cookie-component catastrophe.  Others were helping out in the living room or finishing up the lights outside while leaving Angela and Fareeha to deal with making cookies with Hana and Ana.  One would normally think that, such a situation wouldn’t be so bad, Ana is a mother so Hana should have been no problem.  That would have been the case if the older woman hadn’t taken up the notion of being the favorite Grandmother that loved to spoil her ‘Grandchildren’.  This had led to Hana eating way more cookie dough than she probably needed as well as the near destruction of the tree when the sugar kicked in worse than with any other child even Ana had ever seen.

So, with many of the Overwatch team re-decorating the tree, cleaning up other messes made during the sugar high, or just avoiding it all by taking care of the outdoor decoration, the night continued on with Ana not allowed to give sugar to the ‘Gremlin’ some, such as Jack were referring to the girl as after that episode.  After nearly an hour, the smell of sugar cookies began to fill the house.  Lucio, having finished with the tree made his way over and leaned on a clean edge of the kitchen counter.

“So, we going out to look at presents tomorrow?”  He asked the women as it had really been their (mainly Angela and Ana’s) idea in the first place.

“Absolutely,” it was Ana that had replied.  “We need a break after all the work we just went through.”  No one made it too obvious, but quite a few members tossed a glance to their Korean teammate whom had gotten herself into trouble and the group ended up having a couple of Australian criminals following them for some reason.

The excitement continued on for a little while until everyone decided to call it a night.

The group got up early the next morning, partly in hopes to avoiding a certain duo but it seemed like by the time the crew finished getting ready and had the two rented vehicles warmed up, Jamison and Mako just seemed to know that it was time to go.  Someone else thought it would be a good idea to stick those two, Hana, Lucio and Lena in Jack’s vehicle; the man clearly wasn’t impressed and the larger, silent and a bit more smelly male in the passenger seat wasn’t trying to calm him either as he sat silently, just watching.

If the initial excited chatter didn’t get to Jack, the explosion of excitement when they got to the city really did, though the only thing that kept him from acting out about it was the large silent man next to him.  Even before the car was shut off, Hana, Jamison and Lucio were out of the car and nearly vanished from sight.

“HEY!  DON’T WANDER OFF!”  Jack yelled through the window, something snapping at how they bolted like toddlers in a toy store.  There was a low rumble of a laugh from inside the vehicle that caused the man to freeze, looking back inside, there was only one person left, Mako.  The white haired male blinked at the impossible to read male (even without his mask); had he really laughed?

A pair of slender arms slid into the window as a much cuter giggle broke through the awkward stares.  “We don’t want to get left behind Jack,” Angela smiled at the man before turning to Jesse.  “Could you corral them back?”  There was a look in Jesse’s eyes, something questioning and not really wanting to do the task but he said nothing before tipping his hat and running off.

Several hours later, the group had been walking around for quite sometime.  The “kids” didn’t seem to tire and of course, Ana and Reinhardt were loving having them around and seemed to take over watching them, much to Jesse’s pleasure.

“Oh!  Look at that!”  Hana announced before dipping through the crowd to a store front.  Partly surprising the group, it wasn’t anything gaming related that drew the girl’s attention, but rather it was clothing.  Bags in hand, the group looked at the window, the women moving closer as the men kept their distance.  Jamison watched, confused more than anything.  His eyes fell to the brunette, her hair starting to grow out since she cut it after they had met.  While she still had the clothing he and Mako had gotten her, her usual suit was found its place back in her mech suit.

“They really have a lot of energy to keep going this late,” a chipper voice came from beside him.  Looking down towards the source, the much taller male spotted Lucio, one of the people in Overwatch that didn’t seem to push he and Mako away and was always up for fun.  He didn’t respond right away, though the confusion still written on his face made the other laugh and earned him a slap on the back.  “Them,” he said gesturing towards the girls that were chatting and pointing at various things in the window.  “We’ve been out for hours and they could probably go on for another few days.”  With another laugh he shook his head before opening one of the bags he carried.  “Hana should be excited about this,” he said showing the box to the other male.

Jamison recognized the headset; it had been something Hana had been eyeing for awhile but since they had been busy with work, she hadn’t had time for gaming let alone buying stuff for it.  A perplexed look crossed the male’s face for a moment before his emotions seemed to shut down, leaving a grumpy Jamison for the others to see.  She would like it.  His gaze fell to the others, what did they get her?  He thought about what he had been working on her back home, looked back at Lucio’s bag and suddenly felt his gift inferior.  Why would she like his more than that headset she had been wanting, or whatever everyone else got her?

Someone was tugging on his arm a moment later, blinking a few times, his gaze locked on the brunette in question, her smile beaming up at him.  “Come oooon Jamison, they’re going to light the tree!”  She moved her hand from his arm to his hand and was soon pulling the lankier male through the crowd, whether he wanted to go or not.

Even with dragging someone else behind her, Hana was good at navigating through the growing crowds in the street.  Before them was a massive tree that towered high above them, though unlike the rest of the lit street, in its current state, it looked dull and boring.  There was feedback through the speakers that surrounded the crowd, silencing them instantly before a voice came over saying, “From our family to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!”  The tree before them then burst into an array of multi colored lights that illuminated the carefully place ornaments on its boughs.

Hana’s arm flew up, pointing at the lights in excitement as she turned to look at Jamison to make sure he was watching.  He was, just not what she was watching.  He chuckled at the smaller woman, she was cute and showing a far less aggressive side than her usual self.  He also chuckled at himself for worrying about what she would think of his gift.  Letting go of her hand, he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her back to his chest as he slouched, allowing him to rest his chin on the top of her head watching the tree together.  Oh, how that confidence would so soon be gone within a few days.

It was Christmas and the house that the Overwatch team was using was bustling with excitement.  The group was exchanging presents and watching Hana react to the gifts the others had gotten her, Jamison took his haphazardly wrapped gift and tucked it behind him.  The way her face lit up to the headset, not to mention the embrace Lucio got.  She got other gaming items from some of the other guys, some clothes and jewelry from the girls.  He had noticed a couple of things though, first she was surprised when others were giving her stuff and also, she hadn’t passed any gifts out which seemed odd for the holiday.

As the party was winding down, Jamison stood up and looked to his larger partner, whom seemed quite content with the plate of cookies he had in one hand.  “Ey Roadie, let’s get outta here,” he said though the other didn’t seem like he was getting ready to go anywhere yet.  Even though Mako’s eyes were locked on the slender male’s face, Jamison could just feel him look at his arm tucked behind his back, hiding the gift he had been working on.

“What?”  Hana’s voice almost sounded panicked.  “You’re leaving already?!”

Lucio who had been sitting next to her chuckled and said, “What, you sad to see your boyfriend go already?”  The petite girl sent a swift punch to the male’s arm and though it didn’t hurt him, he was sure to at least act as if she had wounded him.  She then scrambled to her feet before stepping over some of the others that were seated on the ground before grabbing Jamison’s free hand and pulling him towards a darker hallway where the rooms were.

“Wait here,” she said letting go of his hand at the opening of the hallway before briefly returning from the darkness of one of the rooms.  There was a neatly wrapped gift in her hand that she offered out to him, with a simple, “Here.”

Her large eyes rolled up to watch him as he took the gift in his free hand.  He went to open it, but he was in a bit of a bind; the gift for Hana.  The confliction crossed across his face for a moment before he held the gift out to her.  Her eyes locked on it for a moment before a smile crossed her features as she asked, “Really?”

A moody Jamison gave a snappy, “If ya want it, take it.”  Though Hana didn’t even need that much before she took the gift.  The male looked down at the gift in his own hands before opening it and the box that shielded the item inside.  When he pulled it out, it was a smooth sphere, a sea-blue color and it seemed to glow and pulse.

“Aie, girl, what you givin’ him that for?!”  An annoyed, dwarven voice erupted from the group.  Tension had clearly gone up when the sphere emerged.  Hana looked more than pleased with herself as she still clutched the wrapped gift in her hands.

“It’s one of my old mech cores.  It will still blow up, just not as delicate as the newer ones,” she said, the tone in her voice clearly proud of her gift.  She then laughed before casting him a challenging look, “So you won’t have as big of an explosion as I do, but you can at least try to enter the running now.”

For the first time that night, Jamison let out a cackle of a laugh as he leaned in closer to the woman.  “Is that a challenge, mate?”

Hana narrowed her eyes before saying, “You better believe it.”  She then dropped her eyes to the gift she held before saying, “Now it’s my turn!”  The gift wasn’t all that big, but it was definitely heavy.  The wrapping was easy to get through and the weight was soon explained; wrapped within the poorly wrapped paper was a bunny, but not any bunny; it was a metal rabbit that had been made of some of the remains of the mech suit that they had worked on together when they first met.

“I LOVE IT!”  She exclaimed before throwing her arms around the hunched over male, nearly sending the blue orb to the ground, which stripped a few years off the lives of everyone else in the room.  Her lips fell against his and he froze for a moment as she pulled away, her face glowing.

“Not that I’m complainin’ but a simple ‘thank ya’ woulda’ worked too,” he said as he wrapped his free arm around her waist.

Hana rolled her eyes as she pointed up to a particular plant hanging above them.  “It’s mistletoe, Angela hung the stuff all over the place for some reason.”  When the group looked at the woman sidled up against Jack, she just seemed to not notice their glances as she smiled at the young couple before them, a pink hue gracing her cheeks as she leaned against the white haired male more.

A devious look came to Jamison’s face as he pulled the other woman closer.  “Well then, we can’t let the poor woman down, now can we,” he whispered teasingly before pressing his lips against hers, not in the chaste way her lips had fallen upon his, no, Jamison’s kiss was far more passionate.  Hana was quick to follow his lead, but of course it was short lasted as a box bounced off the male’s shoulder.

“Break it up you two,” an angry Soldier stood, glaring at the two; he had been opposed to the two new comers tagging along with them the whole time.  Angela placed a hand on his arm and while she wasn’t fond of criminals joining their ranks, she said,

“Relax Jack, it’s only the holidays.”  He looked down to the smaller woman before pointing a finger towards Jamison saying,

“Only the holidays.”  Before sitting with a slight huff as Angela tended to him.

“Sounds like we got permission,” Jamison said kissing Hana on the nose.  She smiled up at him and said,

“Merry Chirstmas Jamison.”  He smiled back at her, resting his forehead on hers,

more artfight refs! skitt (they/them) also from trashbot

[id in alt]

Ok, so crazy apologizes to those of you that follow me for my ‘All Heroes Fall Sometimes’ story >.<  I was running out of ideas for upcoming chapters among other things, but I do hope to continue the story along!

In the meantime, I’m working on a (late) Christmas story for this destructive duo!  Please forgive me as I share with you a bit of a teaser!

The snow was falling quietly that night, as it had for many nights before then.  The peace and  quiet, however, was ruined by the sound of clanging metal off in the distance.  The darkness of night did nothing to hide the location of the racket, but rather made it stand out far more for the small shack-like house was lit up like a multi-colored spotlight.  Inside the small house was a familiar criminal duo, relaxed as usually and even a bit cheerful, well at least one of them was.

Junkrat sat on the dirtied carpet as he face a fire that was roaring in the fireplace before him.  He was humming a tune, one common to Americans during the holiday season but it was hard to really figure out what song it was with how offkey and tone deaf the singed man was.  Every so often though, he would seem to recall some of the words, though his singing was even worse than his humming.  “Ruddy the red-nosed reindeer, bugger had a shiny nose~”

There was a loud ‘thump’ noise from behind the male, though he seemed to pay little attention to that or the hate-filled glare he was getting from his usually silent partner.  “Jamison,” the low voice rumbled threateningly, “enough.”

The much smaller male still didn’t seem affected in the slightest.  “Ey, Roadie, wha-doya think of this?”  He asked as he half turned himself to show off his latest creation-in-the-works.  There were a few moments of silence before Mako sighed, holding the book he had been reading between his legs as he leaned forward in his worn chair to examine the thing.

Even with his usual hog-shaped mask removed, it was still impossible to read the man’s face.  Dull, bored eyes stared at the thing, and that was really all he could make out of it: a thing.  “What is it?”  He finally asked, his gaze falling to the blonde, who’s excitement seemed to extinguish slightly at the question.

He pursed his lips in annoyance as he pulled his current work back in front of him, he back to Roadhog once again.  “It’s a present, oooobviously,” he said, his tone clearly not holding back any annoyance.  Mako didn’t move for a little while after that as he watched the other go back to work, his offkey humming much quieter this time.  It wasn’t uncommon for Junkrat to do something like this, though his presents were usually handled in secret, the pattern was off for--

from the pov of trashbot

the text (written by chatterbox) reads 'pesky flora' - (far left) 'check the hollow' - (top center) 'drop item' - (middle center) 'useless scrap' - (bottom center) 'view trashbot' - (bottom left corner' 'region two the forest' - (top right corner)

(version without overlay under the cut)

a concept piece for the prompt 'villains' for trashbot

while there are no real antagonists in the game, the closest would be chatterbox, and its barriers and illusions and lies.

the walls serve to moderate player progression and close up the open world during the first half of the game, but also to serve as a visual and physical reminder of chatterbox's control over trashbot's perception and agency.