THINK THRICE !

i don't start fights, but i always finish them.

[cheersloves]

#CHEERSLOVES !! THE CAVALRY'S HERE !! 18+, low activity, highly selective. ft tracer from overwatch

rules | bio | starters | credit (☆ / ☆ / ☆ / ☆ / ☆)

[cheersloves]

[ x - @lcafman ]

Ironman's dressed like me, love, we coordinate.

awwh, why not? I've never met a snail before! well, not proper-like, anyhow, pick 'em up off the pavement all the time though. but I can be perfectly polite company, I swear it!

[cheersloves]

LOOK OUT WORLD , TRACER'S HERE !!

[cheersloves]

...guess that does make it a bit hard for anything down here to compare, doesn't it? best we've got is looking up the other way. but i bet you can't see the stars half as well from earth.

you know you can take a trip whenever you like, yeah? we can hold the fort down alright. know it's not the same as being back, but got to be better than just wishing for it.

[cheersloves]

If your team was theoretically in a team-based shooter video game, and you theoretically got the power to Nerf one of them, theoretically, who would it be?

"Oh, that's easy. Genji. Got a little too close to beating me in training one too many times."

[cheersloves]

...really. none? you're sure? you can't think of a single more scenic view. cos i've seen photos of the moon, and it's,

[cheersloves]

you ever thought about a nice condo in the keys instead

[cheersloves]

Best city to commit a hit and run in?

"People'll try and tell you it's New York, but it's not. It's London."

[cheersloves]

can't believe you'd get him started on this again

[starswears]

HE CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS THE FIRST IMPRESSION HE'S MADE. If he wasn't busy trying to get out of here - it's bad enough he ruined his chances, but now he's stuck here - he'd probably be in the process of shunning himself from society completely. He's not sure if what happened with Athena counts as attempted murder, but it sure feels that way. He'd made an active effort into keeping his hands to himself this whole time, but one brief brush from his fingers on the console was enough to shut the whole system down.

"I DIDN'T MEAN TO! I promise, I can just.. not touch anything. Really. You guys aren't mad, right? You're definitely letting me out of here soon? Usually it's fine if I just keep my hands to myself, I just slipped up for a moment there. Is.. Athena okay? She's not dead right?"

[cheersloves]

Blimey, but he does look pathetic in there, doesn't he? Like a kicked dog.

"And I do believe you," as much as she can reasonably believe a complete stranger, but if this is an act it's an astonishingly convincing one. "But it's a matter of security, y'see, plus there's an awful lot of delicate techy-bits lying around," more so than usual, even. Just because he may not have touched anything on purpose doesn't mean he'll have an easy go of keeping out of the way of everything else, once he's back out.

"Don't think anybody's mad, just - well, um, Winston's a very careful person," she begins, at once not wanting to make him feel the full severity of the fright he'd given everyone and yet still not conceding to his release. "She's not dead, no! Of course not, she'll be right as rain soon enough, I swear it. Bigger threats than you have done worse to her before and she always bounces back. Win just needs time, I think, to get her up and running again, and then figure out a safeguard. But he's a miracle worker, he is, we'll have you out soon enough. Til then you've got me for company, and that's not so bad, is it?"

They'd be having a much better conversation if he'd stop just sort of looking pathetically at her, but worry not, she is indeed going to chip away at that particular problem.

"...Wonder if we ought to make you gloves?" She muses aloud.

[feeling-of-deja-vu]

Lena- The original Lena?

'That's a bit presumptuous innit?'

She looked between the two of them, they were indeed exact copies.

"Probably for the best we leave it alone until we can figure out what the hell happened..."

After a moment of trying to shake off her disbelief, she grabbed her cell, and switched to speakerphone

"Athena? You still there?"

"Indeed, Agent Oxton."

"Do Winstons notes day anything about, uh, multiplying myself?"

There was a short pause as Athena ran through the documents.

"'In the event of a duplication paradox, it's unlikely for the anomaly to cause any notable or significant damage to the subject or its surroundings, however resolution of this issue is currently theoretical, and would need extensive testing to be properly understood.' Does that answer your query, Agent Oxton?" Lena froze a bit as Athena explained the situation. "That... Yeah... I think I've got it from here, thanks love." Click.

She ran her hands across her face as the reality of the situation began to set in. How was she going to explain this to Winston? To Emily? Oh god, Emily. "...Shit."

[cheersloves]

"Great minds," she jests, a little more faintly than she'd like, but yes, that's roundabout what she was thinking. She's fidgeted with it before, obviously she'd been given enough instruction to patch it up - temporarily, mind, Winston's always emphasizing that part - if she had to stabilize herself in a pinch, but certainly the complexities of the accelerator's inner workings are beyond her. Beyond anyone who didn't have a couple advanced degrees in physics under their belt, if she were to guess.

Lena paces a bit as she - er, Lena 2, or... Lena 1, maybe, or... hm, if this is going to stick they'll have to do something about that for the sake of saving everyone, including themselves, a headache - phones Athena, biting her lip with a bounce of her heels. She lets the quiet sit for only a moment, after, thinking. She reckons they both are. It's not the sort of thing you have to expect to process, is it? Even by her standards, this is uncharted territory.

"That's good though, isn't it? No risk of tearing a hole in spacetime, yeah?" A careful smile. Unlikely, was all Athena had said, but Lena has always opted to hope for the best as hard as she could manage... with maybe just a little bit of preparing for the worst on the side. "Not a big one, anyway."

But it does sound like she - they - are in for a lot of testing. She's not missed that. Not at all. She'd gotten so used to the accelerator being relatively stable, somewhat predictable, and now here they are again. Still, there are worse fates - far worse fates; that, they are both keenly aware of - and she's all the faith in the world that whatever they've mucked up can be undone. There's always a fix to be found... eventually.

"Uncharted territory might as well be our middle name, if it weren't such a mouthful. We'll come out the other side alright. Just a bit of a mess til then," she nods resolutely. "...Might have to start buying two of everything, for starters. Make some calls, for another," though she somehow doubts Em will have any complaints, but that's not at all what she ought to be focusing on at the moment. "But, hey, we can multitask beautifully now!"

[warwaited]

Despite herself, the young upstart's face scrunches up. Like she needed any more indication that her explanation wasn't exactly airtight... "I dunno... fighting guys? I mean- you're also a fighting guy. Obviously- fighting lady- but, uh. I mean..."

Xue blows air out through pursed lips and puffed cheeks. Behind her, a bot peels off the wall and clatters to the ground as if to underscore the difficulty she's having coming up with a plausible explanation. "You wanted me to "show you what I got", right? Besides... you've got plenty of stuff you can do that I couldn't, right? Don't worry about not being able to..."

She is rapidly piecing together that this is less about the nineteen-foot vertical leap and more about... everything else.

"..."

She grimaces. "I could show you sometime, maybe. I promise it's not a big deal. Uh... do we have a... anywhere I could get something to drink?"

[cheersloves]

"I must not be a very good fighting guy, then," she giggles, then echoes the correction, "fighting lady!"

It isn't as though Lena's putting her under too much scrutiny - none of her business, she figures, and besides that she seems awfully nervous being put on the spot like this - but it is neat, and she is a tad bit jealous. That and sorry for whoever is responsible for putting the bots back together again.

"And show me you have! I'm impressed, love. Not quite sure it's the same, though, on account of this old thing," she knocks her knuckles lightly against the accelerator on her chest. "Afraid me jumping through time's got nothing to do with talent."

Not getting nauseous while doing it, now that takes talent. But that's neither here nor there.

"Might take you up on that. Later! I'm keen for a break." Sounds like they're in agreement, there, and she's fine enough to usher them both away from what seems to be an uncomfortable topic (though she's got no idea why, she was being very serious, she's quite impressed; but then perhaps that's not her business to know about, either). "I've got just the spot, if you can keep up."

[angelicguy]

*wakes up* oh fuck i need to protect women *runs out into heavy traffic*

[cheersloves]

@kaiigen said — 28

"All that effort," she's gearing up to complain, just a little, it's clear enough in her tone even through a mouthful of admittedly mid-tier pizza. It was on the house, though, on account of saving the city and all, and you can't argue much with free food. "And they didn't even bother to put anything good on it! Where's the pineapple?"

[simianscience]

Winston can tell that Tracer’s getting antsy, the way she blinks from one side of the hole to the other, doing laps around the point just waiting for the next wave of attacks to roll in. While she’s always been restless, and sometimes can be impulsive as a result, he never thought she would go that far. But Lena always finds new ways to surprise him.

He knows she’s not gone. She would never let that happen. But the shock alone is enough to freeze him in place. When she reappears next to him as if nothing had happened, he jumps, a hand resting on his chest in fright. He almost, almost, lets his fear turn into anger. “How could you-“ Be so reckless? Scare me half to death? But instead, he stops himself and takes a deep breath. It’s been such a nice day. The last thing he wants to do is ruin it by taking things to heart.

Still, he can’t shake the dreadful feeling that watching her fall gave him.

He looks at her silently, trying to think of something better to say. “I’m fine.” He finally settles on, nodding to himself and taking another deep breath. Just like Dr. Ziegler instructed him to. But they both know that’s not true, and he lowers his voice to admit, “That… just scared me a little.” The understatement of a century. “That’s all.”

[cheersloves]

It isn't as though she ever really forgets, even as brave as she thinks him to be, that Winston is a gentle person by nature and therefore incredibly prone to worry. He makes it difficult to forget: he's always worrying. But she does forget sometimes that people can be prone to worry about her; Lena has spent nearly all her years in the company of those who flirt with death on the daily, who have never seen her face the prospect of her own demise with anything less than a stiff upper lip. She prefers it that way, mostly. She chafes under the scrutiny of being doubted and has snapped at those she felt were overprotecting her before— even Winston, though only as much as he's ever snapped at her for, as he puts it, being so flippant with her life.

She's not, though. She knows her limits, and this hadn't even been close to pushing the limits of either herself or the accelerator. Even if it had been, pushing limits is in her blood. Has to be, or else she'd never have stepped into the Slipstream's cockpit.

"Have you ever known me to do any different?" She returns his look with a smile, albeit a gentle one, because contrary to commonly-held belief she does know when not to push his buttons and rile him up. Although she'll never apologize for who she is, and never intends to change, she does at least know better than to pull such exploits in front of him, even if he already already knows how common they are for her. "I'm sorry, love, didn't mean to give you a fright. 's just the Oxton way, I'm afraid, and you're such an Oxton in my head that I forget otherwise every now and again." She puts a hand on his arm.

"You'd hate my cousin Terry. They're into free climbing at the mo', and they've not even an accelerator to bring along."

[cheersloves]

@warwaited said — “What do you mean, “how’d you do that”. It was… normal, anyone could do it if they practiced.” They definitely couldn’t, and from the sound of Xue’s rebuttal, she’s fully aware of that… but trying to play it off like it’s no big deal. “Don’t act like you’ve never seen people do crazy looking stuff on TV! It’s just practice. Don’t worry about it.”

"Who's anyone?" The question is laced with just as much awe and incredulity as her expression as Tracer blinks back over to stand amidst the wreckage of... well, what used to be their training bots. She spins and holsters her pistols, lifts her goggles, like she can't really believe what she'd watched - the blur of movement leaping and landing and denting bots in with just a kick, the way she's only ever seen omnics manage. Threw her completely off her groove to stop and watch, it did; now she's points behind.

"'Cos I'm sure I could try for the odd hundred hours or so and still not manage anything like that." Not that it isn't disappointing to admit. She'd love to do folks in with just a swift kick to the head. Or jump that high, come to think of it. "If it's just practice, can you teach me?"

[simianscience]

a vaguely plotted starter for @cheersloves.

Winston was always especially cautious when they did missions in Ilios - for the sole reason of wanting to avoid the deep hole in the middle of the ground. He’d never learned why it was there, and he didn’t really want to ask. As they got their bearings and prepared for the next wave of attack, he looked over at Tracer, who was standing precariously close to the edge.

“Please be careful.”

“Psh- I’m always careful.” She had said, before looking at him, winking, and jumping into the hole.

He rushed to the edge to grab her, but by the time he got to where she was standing and looked down, she was gone. “Tracer!”

[cheersloves]

It's a beautiful day, and they're positively smashing it, and the exhilarating joy of a mission gone right has her on cloud nine. Tracer does a lap around the far perimeter, loops back, and then blinks herself from one side of the well (her working theory - it's got to be a well, right? has to be. awfully impractical, though) to the other.

The second dropship they're anticipating is nowhere to be seen just yet. The comms are clear. The open air under her feet calls to her, and when she leaps backwards into the hole the wind is warm as it rushes past her face. She closes her eyes and breathes in the feeling of free-fall - one, two, three - before she throws herself into reverse, falling this time into the stream of the accelerator as it whips her back through the timeline.

"Whew!" She lands neatly back on her feet, then pops right back up onto the edge, leaning over again to peer down. "This thing goes on for ages! Could've fallen further, but," she taps a finger against the casing of the accelerator, goes to say that it's probably best she not push it to its limits during a mission and it can be so temperamental, besides, but stops short when she smiles sideways at him and catches the expression on his face.

"Winston? You alright?"