Things I post on Tumblr show up here. For the time being that's gonna mostly be Overwatch stuff, including my fics. Also photography, silly things, cuteness, possible political content.
@teanerystheunicorn ask and ye shall receive! I’m shit at Tumblr so i don’t know how to properly reply to, erm, anything, but I saw your query in my notifications and here:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/16453925
There’s the fic I wrote, based on that comic that dinochoobs did - if you even remember asking for it by this point, because I don’t know how long it’s been, because (as mentioned before) I’m shit at Tumblr.
...so if you’re squinting at the screen like “Who the fuck’s this jerk and what’re they talking about?” then by all means please disregard this and just go on your merry way, but if you read the thing, good luck and enjoy! And either way, I hope your day improved - even if only marginally - from however it is now, be that good or bad.
@redcap3 tagged me, and I always love things like this!
What is your total word count on AO3?
844536, coming up on a year of writing. I was kinda hoping to break a million words in a year, but things at work and in real life have meant a fairly slow month so that may well not happen. However! I suppose I have two or three chapters of several things written, so I guess I could always post those if I wanted to pad it out XD
How often do you write?
I try to write every day, but that doesn’t always happen. Usually I can get some out, though - and amount written varies from day to day of course. Some days I’ll go at it in all the free time I have and only end up with a thousand words, sometimes I’ll knock out a complete 7500 word fic in an hour and a half, just depends, heh.
Do you have a routine for writing?
MUSIC! That’s about it, really; sit somewhere - at home, coffee shop, what have you - and put on some headphones and start playing some music. I joke that playing it louder forces words out of my fingers faster (because of the increased pressure in my ears, right? XD).
All kinds of music, usually just shuffling my library or a large chunk of it - lots of people say they need instrumentals, but I’m happy with whatever. Vocal, instrumental, pop, rock, synth, classical, all kindsa stuff. Often I’ll tailor the musical selection somewhat to the subject matter - SoaOW was written to lots of Depeche Mode, Shiny Toy Guns, Fad Gadget; slightly strained and synthy stuff to go with the neo-dystopian setting, y’know?
What are your favorite kinks/tropes/pairing?
Hmmm. Well, I suppose I’d say “not necessarily”. I don’t think I’d say that I’ve written particularly much in the way of kink-driven stuff, although what I’ve considered has been rooted in character anyway in a way that- well, I don’t know if it’d exactly count, but I suppose someone can tell me when I write it, heh.
Tropes? I like some tropes, I like when they’re used fairly subtly; one that I think will usually be found in my works is that the good guy wins. People don’t die (and stay dead) for no reason!
(...and yes, the “and stay dead” is definitely important because I am known to occasionally kill or nearly-kill good characters for uh... well, just go read BSN or SoaOW if you want to see XD but they don’t stay dead!)
Pairings? Oy, just fuck me up. I love ‘em. I've got a soft spot for polyamorous groups given my own real-life Venn intersection there, heh. One that has a special place in my heart, certainly, is Winston/Orisa - for two reasons: one, I have written the only fic with that ship so far on Ao3, and two, every single person who has ever commented on it has said the same thing which essentially amounts to “Okay, when you said Winston/Orisa, I was dubious, but these two are so freaking cute!” And you know what? They really are.
Do you have a favorite fic of yours?
Oh dear, favourite? “Favourite ______” is a sure-fire way to make me waffle for a good long time, haha!
I think my favourite in general will probably be “Both Sides Now”, for now - almost a half-million words of action and interpersonal relationships, weaving in backstory for Overwatch’s earlier days and fall. I don’t think it’s the be-all and end-all, though, not nearly.
I think... my favourite underrated fic of mine is “Used to Be”. It’s a shorter thing, introspective and reflective, Fareeha sitting at Ana’s grave and wondering over what their life was like, and wondering why she hasn’t cried since the funeral. I just really like how the portrayal of Ana as a beleaguered and wearied mother and soldier came out, and the way it dealt with grief. I like the turnaround and how the ending mirrors the beginning, and several little turns of phrase in it, and I think it’s not got particularly much notice because there’s no romantic ship involved. Just a daughter and her mother who she misses, but doesn’t know quite how to deal with that feeling.
Your fic with the most kudos?
“Both Sides Now”, hands down. “Streets of an Orphaned World” is holding at around two-thirds of that, my nearest contender, but it’s been finished so long that it’s highly, highly unlikely to close the gap in my opinion XD
Anything you don’t like about your writing?
Honestly, it depends on the day. When I’m having good days, then it’s all pretty great - but when I’m having bad days? Uh, everything. The description’s somehow simultaneously pedantically excessive and still inadequately sparse, the dialogue’s choppy, the prose is stilted, words are overused, aaaaaand basically it sucks XD
...but that’s just the bad days. Most days? Most days I like it pretty well, but I’d say a commons ticking point with me is this: the length.
Don’t get me wrong, I like being able to write longer things, but I would also dearly love the ability to write short ones. I can write a 20k fic in two days, and I have done as much, but writing something short? Writing a chaptered work that doesn’t break sextuple digits? That’s really fucking hard for me. I would love to be able to write shorter stuff, but it just takes an absurd amount of effort for me to do so.
Now something you do like?
Hmm. I think I have some good lines. Some good points. Overall, I’d say... the flow. I think I have fluid writing, that can kinda sweep you away if you let it - to the point where you maybe don’t think about how long it’s been since somebody talked, or how long this paragraph of thoughts has been carrying on, where you don’t think about the chapters and the pages and the words until you realize that you’ve read a hundred thousand words already and yet, still, you’re only a quarter of the way through.
I like that.
I like my dialogue, even though I know a lot of what I write in it is stuff that, it is said, should not be written in dialogue. I have misspoken words, and epithets, and pauses and lots and lots of punctuation - em-dashes and semicolons, chunks of word broken up by actions, italics and emphatics because that is how people speak in my world. The people around me gesture. They squint. They get halfway through a word, stop, frown, shake their head and start again from the beginning. They shout. They make up words. They use pet names, or teasing ones, or whatever else.
I like that.
Most of all, though, I think what I like about my writing - what I hope for, and what I always love to hear confirmed when I get feedback - is that it makes people think. Somewhat, sometimes, about some things. Or at least about some thing, singular, because I want it to be fun and enjoyable but I’d also like it to do something.
If someone can read my Satya/Symmetra, and walk away with maybe just a slightly more in-depth view of what Autism might entail in an everyday space, what it’s like maybe when their classmate or friend or family member or lover is having a bit of an issue, a bit of A Problem, and if that person can then maybe bring that understanding and make things a little better, that’s what I want. I like that.
If someone can read my Amélie/Widowmaker, and gain maybe a bit of a deeper understanding for trauma or sociopathy, that lack of what we might sometimes call basic human empathy, and realize that lacking that doesn’t inherently make somebody a bad person - that’s what I want, I like that. If someone can read any of my old guard - Torb, Ana, Rein, Jack, Gabe - and see something new about PTSD, or see the same in Tracer; if they can get some calm from Zenyatta or some hope from Tracer or some anything, from any of them, from me, then that’s what I want.
What do I like about my writing? That people take it away with them. That they take it, and they cut out the bits that they love, and they carry those bits around right next to their heart.
I love that.
Tagging people! @madame-kiksters @oinkyblanketpig @thesoundofthunderstorms @app-jelly @twoheartedalien2-0 Sure, those seem like some good folks; do this if you want! If you don’t, don’t! I’m not your real mom. XD
Hey there folks, this here’s a little thing I did for the Overwatch Femslash Exchange, an awesome project that I was excited to be a part of! It’s a mostly cute and silly piece, a date between Mercy and Sombra; some naughty implications in there (because, I mean, Sombra) but it’s SFW overall.
It’s for @hiddeninthunder! And I should tag @owfemslashexchange as well, who’re the people who organized this whole lovely thing, so go shoot them a thanks if you think this idea was cool.
Read it below the cut!
Angela “Mercy” Ziegler sighed, sagging in her chair a little as she clicked through screen after screen of diagnostics, test results, computer simulations, and on and on and on.
“Virus seems,” she paused for a yawn, “to react to... Alpha-level inhibitors,” she muttered into a recorder, her chin slipping off of her hand and nearly falling to the desk, forcing her to sit abruptly upright with a sudden noise.
“You look tired.”
She turned around at the voice, low and warm, smiling when she saw Winston in her doorway. “Oh - I suppose I am,” she sighed, “but I just need to finish this bit of work before I head home to sleep.”
The other scientist, of whom she’d always been fond, cast his huge eyes toward the couch in her little office - covered in blankets and with a few pillows as well. “Uh, home. Sure.” He smirked and Angela sighed, opening her mouth to protest, but he waved her words away with a hand as he loped into the room.
“Don’t worry about it, I-” he chuckled briefly, rolling one shoulder in a shrug. “I know what it’s like to get caught up on a project and keep going far past the point of it being sensible.”
Angela actually laughed lightly at that, shaking her head. She knew she should’ve gone to sleep a while ago, but she was just on the edge of being able to direct the computers to run some more tests. Another twenty minutes of work on her part and the machines could be making progress while she slept, and she wanted that.
Twenty minutes. An hour, tops. Maybe two at the outside.
“I just need some coffee,” she groaned, rubbing at her eyes heavily with the balls of her palms. She smiled at Winston’s chuckle and his huge hand patting her on the shoulder, seeing bright spots and splotches that slowly resolved into his face.
“I’ll get you a pot,” he nodded, turning to head back to the door. “Black, double-strength-”
“-no cream, no sugar, no nonsense, yes,” Angela called after him. “Thank you, Winston! You’re a life-saver!”
They’d worked together on some projects before and formed a nice friendship - Winston wasn’t a doctor, but he was a good scientist and he had a good head on his shoulders, and had proved indispensable on solving a few problems. Particularly given that they tended to come up against some truly absurd problems here in Overwatch.
Angela returned her attention to the screen which was blurry at first, then wavy, and she rubbed at her eyes again with a heavy sigh. “Should’ve got coffee an hour ago,” she muttered to herself as she shook her head.
Of course, an hour ago, she’d thought she only had ten minutes of work left.
In lieu of hot caffeinated goodness, Angela leaned back in her chair, stretching her arms up over her head and groaning as sore muscles and ribs complained for the first few seconds but then started to relax and feel better, and the groan shifted to a sigh instead.
She didn’t expect a voice in her ear, warm and smooth. “Hey, chica.”
Between the shock of hearing anything at all, and the further shock of it being the voice of who it was, and her precarious position, bad things were practically guaranteed. Angela jolted slightly when she heard Sombra’s greeting, twitching and sending her chair keeling over backward - she yelped and flailed, but there was nothing to grab on to.
She didn’t hit the ground, though. While there was nothing for her to catch, something else caught her - or rather, someone, as Sombra chuckled and waved her camouflage off, holding Angela in her arms.
“Careful there, angel,” the hacker grinned at Angela’s still-shocked expression, the light pink creeping into her cheeks. “Falling for me all over again, huh?”
“Sombra,” Angela half-whispered, half-groaned, glancing around nervously. “You can’t be here - how did you get here anyway? What if somebody finds you, what if-”
“Yeah, well, that’s what makes it exciting!” Sombra snickered, setting Angela’s feet down on the floor. The doctor ran immediately to the door, turning the lock and double-checking it, but it wouldn’t stay locked forever if somebody wanted it open - Athena could override that, and she knew it.
“You need to leave,” she hissed, peeking through the door’s peephole. “I think the hallway’s clear, you can-”
Sombra interrupted her, waving a hand and bringing several screens up. Screens which showed the hallways of Overwatch’s Gibraltar facility. “Oh, oh yeah,” the hacker murmured, “the hallways are clear. Not that it matters to me anyway - come on, amiga, you know me better than that, I could get out any time.”
“Yes, I know, and you need to,” Angela insisted, turning away from the door. She had planned on protesting further, but was stopped when she noticed Sombra’s exaggerated pout. “What?”
“You haven’t even said hello yet!” Sombra crossed her arms, sticking her lip out even further. “You’re gonna make a girl feel unwanted at this rate.”
Angela let out a noise somewhere between a groan, a sigh, and a laugh as she crossed the floor quickly to her girlfriend. She wrapped the hacker up in a brief hug. “Hello, Sombra, it’s lovely to see you, but this was an incredibly dangerous plan and maybe a little bit stupid, and,” she withdrew from the hug to peck a kiss on Sombra’s pouting lip.
Sombra, however, wasn’t quite happy with just a peck. Her arms uncrossed and she caught the back of Angela’s head, holding it there for a moment - holding them in the kiss as their mouths shifted against each other with a host of soft noises. She felt a triumphant little thrill as Angela’s fingers finally twisted into her hair and the doctor sagged into the embrace.
Angela got too distracted by her work sometimes and Sombra knew it - she’d seen it time and time again over the months they’d been together, and she was happy to help break her girlfriend out of it a little.
Plus, she just liked kissing.
They held it for another few moments before parting somewhat breathlessly, grins replacing their former expressions. “Now that’s a hello I can get behind,” Sombra murmured appreciatively.
Angela giggled, blushing slightly as she dropped her hands to catch Sombra’s. “It- this really was a sweet plan, but you can’t-”
“Oh come on! You don’t even know the plan yet,” Sombra pointed out with a grin, tugging Angela over toward the couch. “C’mon, sit - I’ve got eyes on the whole facility. Nothing’s gonna happen, relax.”
Angela didn’t really want to relax, but she knew she probably should and it was so difficult to say no to Sombra when she had that grin on, and that twinkle in her eyes. Angela forced herself to sit (nervously) on the blanket-covered couch, watching (nervously) as Sombra stepped around the couch and Angela could only wonder (nervously) whether anyone else would stop by.
They usually didn’t, when she was working on things, and it was late as well. Somewhere near midnight - a glance at the clock showed it to be one-thirty, in fact. Probably nobody would be up and around except for her, Tracer, and Winston. It helped ease her nerves a little.
What helped more than that, though, was everything that Sombra started doing - she came back around the couch with a wicker basket in hand, and immediately had Angela’s curiosity. Sombra pulled out a white-and-red checkered sheet from the basket and laid it out on the floor, and Angela started giggling. When Sombra started to pull out candles and light them, Angela tried to help, but the hacker waved her off.
“Hey! No, you stay sitting, angel,” Sombra insisted. “Hardly a surprise picnic if you’re doing half the work!”
Angela had to laugh at that, shaking her head softly as her grin grew and grew. Sombra had proved to be unexpectedly sweet and delightful in their time together - she had a front of aloofness, certainly, and there were certain extents to which that was true. She was definitely a deeply passionate person, but that translated into more than just deep kisses and frantically grasping hands.
It also meant little gifts whenever she came back from travels, it meant hidden surprises to be found, it meant a constant kind of thoughtfulness and attention which never failed to make Angela’s heart swell.
Candles, lit; white wine, poured; sandwiches and a platter of cheese and crackers, laid out. Then, Sombra sat down with a grin and looked up to Angela on the couch. “Well? You gonna join me, angel?”
The doctor laughed again as her heart leapt slightly at the little epithet, feeling more awake and lighter than she had in hours as the concern and stress sloughed from her mind. “Of course I will,” she replied with a smile. “It would be quite rude to refuse such a feast.”
“Damn straight it would,” Sombra chuckled, “but uh, y’know, I kinda just ate, so actually both these sandwiches are for you.”
Again, Angela laughed, sitting down on the blanket and taking a glass of wine in hand - she noticed a thermos in the basket as well, and wondered what it was, but that could wait. She raised her glass with a smile as Sombra did the same with a grin, and they clinked them together.
“To dangerous but wonderful surprises,” Angela teased lightly, drawing a laugh from Sombra’s painted lips.
“Hey, that’s my middle name, chica,” the hacker shot back with a grin, tipping back her glass for a swig. Wine wasn’t exactly her thing, but she made an effort at it at least - and it was alright. She was learning to like it more and more.
“Mm, quite a mouthful, that name,” Angela smirked as she took a sip, sighing through her nose. A nice crisp Zinfandel, perfectly chilled, and she wasn’t surprised. Sombra had a good eye for details. Despite her chaotic appearances she was actually quite precise.
“Speaking of mouthfuls, eat up,” Sombra insisted, shuffling around the blanket to be behind Angela. “C’mon, I know you, chica - I bet you haven’t eaten in eight hours.”
“I-I ate dinner!” Angela blushed lightly at the teasing.
“Yeah? What? And when?”
“I- well-” Angela frowned slightly, picking up one of the sandwiches. “I hardly keep a journal of it all. I don’t remember exactly.”
She didn’t, either, genuinely didn’t remember exactly but she was pretty sure it had been around six and she’d only had a bowl of soup, and didn’t really want to admit to that.
Sombra, laughing, snapped her fingers. “Luckily, you’ve got me looking after you,” she murmured over Angela’s shoulder as a screen floated in front of them - security footage from the mess hall of a certain blonde-haired doctor eating a (small) bowl of soup at five forty-eight in the afternoon.
“So, maybe not quite eight hours,” Sombra murmured as Angela sighed a laugh. Then the hacker started to rub at her shoulders and the laugh shifted into a groan as Angela slumped backward into her grip.
For a few moments, they both happily let the meal go forgotten. Sombra worked the balls of her thumbs deep into tight knots in Angela’s shoulders and down her back, and as she did she peppered light kisses down her neck, over the edge of her ear, on every patch of skin she could reach.
Angela sighed and stretched an arm back, running fingers through Sombra’s hair and holding her head in against her neck, letting out a slight gasp when a soft kiss was emphasised by a little nip of teeth. The gasp swiftly shifted to a laugh as Angela twisted to the side a little so she could turn her head over and meet Sombra’s eyes with a grin. “Are you sure you’re not hungry?”
“Not for a sandwich,” Sombra responded in a deep and warm murmur, eyes twinkling, “but I could definitely eat…”
Angela laughed brightly, slapping at Sombra’s shoulder and sitting upright. “You’re incorrigible!” Still, she couldn’t deny that the idea was a good one. It had been a very long day, and just having Sombra close meant her heart was running a little faster, her blood feeling warmer than it had. It would be all kinds of wonderful to cuddle up underneath the blankets on the couch.
There was still the slight fact that she was technically trespassing, though, and Angela really didn’t want to broach that particular topic with her coworkers and teammates at the moment. Things weren’t quite as they seemed when it came to Sombra, but they didn’t know that, so it was easiest to just keep their relationship hidden.
Even if that meant they didn’t get to see each other as often as either of them might’ve liked.
Angela sighed slightly as she picked up the sandwich again, Sombra’s hands dropping to her sides, her ribs, massaging lightly still. She felt energized at the contact, brighter and better than she had minutes ago.
“Thanks for this,” she murmured softly, before taking a bite of the sandwich and even surprising herself with the moan that came out. Her stomach jumped at the idea of food and she took another bite, larger, and focused on chewing it down as quickly as possible.
Sombra chuckled, shuffling forward to rest her chin on Angela’s shoulder, legs on either side of her and arms wrapped around her torso. “No problem, chica, I just wanted to see you and - I mean, hey, who doesn’t want to pull of a romantic picnic for their girl every now and then, huh?” She snickered before squeezing her girlfriend lightly. “Hey, you might wanna slow down there. Not so romantic to choke to death on a sandwich, y’know?”
With a laugh, Angela shook her head, blushing slightly. “Sorry, I just- it’s very good, and as it turns out, I am quite hungry.”
Snickering again, Sombra planted a soft kiss on the back of her neck, grinning as the hairs there stood up on end at her passing. “Yeah, I figured you would be.” She didn’t have any real concerns over Angela choking, but she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to tease her a little.
For the next few minutes, she just held on and breathed deeply, nuzzling against the back of Angela’s neck, getting whiffs of laboratory and operating room, and soap that had faded over the past two days or so, sterilizers and ozone from the electrical equipment, vanilla and cinnamon from somewhere. Sombra doubted it was baking, but it brought a smile to her lips anyway, all of it. Her favourite scents in the world.
After she was done eating, Angela took Sombra’s hands in hers and squeezed at them gently. “All finished now. Here, come and-” she dropped the sentence, but not Sombra’s hands. Those, she tugged on gently, standing and pulling Sombra over to the couch.
They slumped down to it, the cushions squished and formed by hundreds of hours of Angela’s sleeping form on top of it. She grabbed a couple of the blankets and wrapped them both up like a burrito, and then sighed with perfect contentment as they settled in to just lay there.
One of Sombra’s arms slipped up underneath the hem of her shirt, palm flat against her side and stroking up her ribs. The little bit of skin contact was so lovely, it felt warm and comforting, and Angela unbuttoned her shirt thoughtlessly as she kissed at Sombra’s forehead and stroked at her hair.
The hacker took advantage of the opportunity quickly, dipping down to kiss Angela on the now-exposed shoulder before sitting up just enough to shuck off her own shirt. When she laid back down again, she slid a bare arm behind Angela’s back and laid her head down on the doctor’s shoulder, wrapping her other arm around the front in a tight embrace.
“Much better,” she murmured, nuzzling her cheek against skin that was interrupted by only a bra strap. Angela laughed and nodded, stroking her fingertips lightly up and down the soft, warm skin of Sombra’s ribs and inhaling the scent of her hair. Something fruity, tangy - kiwi, maybe, Angela wasn’t quite sure, but she knew she loved it.
“You really should leave before you get found,” Angela whispered, but the insistence had bled from her voice. Replacing it was a tired sort of resignation, and it was echoed in Sombra’s sigh.
“Yeah,” she grumbled, trying to burrow her head in deeper to Angela’s shoulder. “I know. I really am keeping an eye on things, though, but… yeah, I’ll leave in a bit.”
“Not too soon, please,” Angela smiled, the expression widening when Sombra looked up to her with a grin.
“‘Course not.” Sombra snickered, stretching her neck out to kiss Angela on the lips, just softly, just briefly.
Angela had somewhat different ideas, though. The hand at Sombra’s side rose to her hair and tangled there, holding her head, shifting it to the side, letting the kiss deepen. Sombra didn’t complain about that in the slightest, though - she let out a soft moan of approval, her lips sliding against Angela’s as she repositioned and ran a hand up her back, tracing the fine fuzz along her spine.
She knew Angela liked that. A second later she got the shiver and the little whine she’d been looking for, goosebumps breaking out across Angela’s skin.
“You should let me know next time you want to visit me at work,” Angela whispered breathlessly, parting the kiss just for a moment - Sombra’s mouth fell to her neck, though, kissing and sending bright waves of sensation rippling below her skin. “I can make more time, maybe take a break and head outside somewhere safer.”
Sombra chuckled, brushing her lips against goosebumped skin as she grinned. “Didn’t I already say? Half the fun’s in thinking you might get caught. Who wants a safe picnic? That’s boring - now, this,” she caught the back of Angela’s head with one hand and bit gently on her collarbone, laughing lightly at the groan which flew from the doctor’s mouth. “This is exciting!”
“I can’t- can’t disagree with you there,” Angela sighed, heat flooding her cheeks, her neck, her core, her everything, spreading out like flares from the sun as Sombra’s hands roamed over her skin and she returned the favour. They didn’t get to see each other often enough. They deserved to be uninhibited, unfettered, unhindered.
Unfortunately, fate has a sense of humour.
Angela’s eyes flew wide as there was a knock on the door.
“Doctor Z- uh, Angela? I brought the coffee. Are you alright? The uh… door’s locked?”
“Winston,” Angela hissed a whisper as Sombra grinned and waved, and then shimmered away into invisibility. “I, um-” Angela turned around on the couch to face the door, pulling the blankets up and over Sombra’s invisible form. “Come in,” she called out, “and err, door, unlock!”
The door unlocked itself at her command, Winston turning the knob a moment later with a curious and slightly concerned expression on his face. He had a large carafe of coffee in hand, but his expression split into a chuckle and a grin as he looked into the room.
“Oh, having a little nap?”
“Y-yes! Yes I am,” Angela grabbed onto the provided excuse tightly, even as Sombra started kissing at her ribs and belly. It wasn’t fair in the slightest, and Angela grabbed a tight fistful of purple hair under the covers, but that just spurred the hacker on.
“Sh-short nap, I think,” Angela continued with a light and forced laugh. “Twenty minutes or so.”
Sombra made a slight noise and bit her side.
“Or m-maybe more like forty minutes,” Angela corrected herself, stifling a noise. “Mm. Or an hour.” Sombra didn’t seem to react to that, so Angela laughed and nodded. “Yes, yes that would be best - sleep cycles and circadian rhythms and all that, it won’t do to sleep for too short a time, you know?”
Winston shrugged, not knowing much about that kind of stuff, but it made sense. Sometimes he woke up from a ten-minute nap feeling refreshed, but one that lasted half an hour left him feeling sloggy and dull. At the end of the day, he trusted Mercy to know what she was talking about when it came to medical things.
“Whatever you think’s best,” he shrugged, “the coffee should still be hot either way when you wake up. But, you know, uh… if you just go to sleep? Not such a big deal, I think.” He smirked. “You don’t need to work every hour of every day, you know.”
Angela laughed at his teasing words, and also to cover the fact that she wanted to gasp as Sombra started to unbutton her pants. “Yes, well, you know what they say - n-no rest for the wicked, ha!”
“Wicked, sure, yeah right,” he rolled his eyes and shook his head, ambling over on both feet and one fist and setting the carafe down on Angela’s desk next to the computer. “Just leave this here, shall I?”
“Excellent! Thank you, Winston.”
“No problem at all. Have a good nap or sleep or whatever, Angela.”
“Of course I will. Thank you. You can um- oh, lock the door on the way out.”
Winston chuckled as he headed out, waving over his shoulder. “I’ll let Athena know you’re not to be bothered for the rest of the night unless it’s an emergency!”
Then the door closed, and locked, and Angela immediately threw off the covers that were causing her to overheat now, and revealed Sombra’s grinning face.
“That was so mean!” Angela hissed, smacking at Sombra’s shoulders, but the hacker just laughed and curled up and took it.
“I know it was!” Sombra giggled and shook as Angela continued to smack ineffectually at her. “It was great!”
The laughter flowed freely as slaps softened until they were strokes and caresses, mouths losing their grins to become occupied with each other instead. With the door locked, with the knowledge that nobody would be coming their way, Angela was able to relax even more - which, after all, had been the point of the whole thing.
That, and to have a bit of fun, at least.
In the end, she even did nap, drifting off into unconsciousness afterward with Sombra curled up in her arms. The last thoughts in her mind were that soft, tangy, fruity scent of Sombra’s hair, the warmth of her skin and the slight difference where implants ran underneath it, and how incredibly wonderful it felt to just hold her like that.
She woke up an hour later, to her phone alarm gently sounding - wind chimes, a tune that brought a smile to her lips even though it wasn’t one she had picked. Sombra was gone, but she wasn’t really surprised to find that.
Angela stretched out with a yawn to grab her phone, flicking the alarm off thoughtlessly with a thumb. When it went away, though, the screen showed something else - a picture of her sleeping face taken over Sombra’s bare shoulder, the hacker grinning like a fool.
The photo was captioned “Morning, beautiful” and it made Angela giggle and grin, and immediately flick to her contacts to send a message.
“Thanks for this, so much. It was wonderful - I really needed a break, I think. Thank you.”
The response came only a moment later. “Hey, you can always count on me to help you avoid work!” Angela laughed at that, shaking her head as another message came through. “It was good though, yeah. We should do it again some time.”
Her cheeks were sore from grinning as she tapped out a response, pulling on a lap coat almost thoughtlessly. “Good idea! Are you free Tuesday?”
“For you? Always, angel.”
Angela sighed and pressed the phone to her chest, shaking her head softly and wondering how exactly she got so lucky. Yes, technically, Sombra was a wanted fugitive - but technically, so was she, so was Winston and Tracer and all of the others. Overwatch was illegal, but that didn’t mean it was wrong.
Yes, Sombra was helping Talon at the moment - or appeared to - but to the people in the UN, everyone in the reformed Overwatch was appearing to do all sorts of horrid things.
Something Angela had learned quite thoroughly was that there was more to life than appearances.
She smiled and set some music playing as she settled in her chair again, waking her computer from its sleep and picking up the recorder in hand. “Now, where was I? Let’s see… oh, yes: the samples of the virus which we have cultured seem to have a high level of response to Alpha-level inhibitors. More research is required to see whether this is correlative or causative. Of particular note are the effects of more complex compounds such as…”
There was a large part of her mind which had been trained in to this, switching in to research mode as easily as one might flick on a lightswitch, and that left the rest of her free to think about purple eyes and grinning lips, picnics and get-togethers, and little sweet souvenirs...
Whew! Okay, so, this is official now - I’ve been accepted into a zine! I’m doing several pieces for it (and I’ll probably be posting a couple of teasers here for them) and I’m really, really excited!
Interested folks (out of my eleven followers XD) can keep an eye out here - and my ask box is always open if you want to try to finagle some hints out of me, heh!
((Also I suck at Tumblr, sorry, but I’m gonna try to start getting better at it >.>))
And they say the millennial generation is lazy and entitled.
Here’s a secret: it’s not OUR JOB to adapt to the market. It’s not OUR JOB to buy napkins and golf clubs and drive to the mall on the other side of town to make sure it doesn’t go out of business.
Did previous generations kill the horse and wagons after the car was invited? Did those lazy citizens kill the town crier by buying into that newfangled newspaper business?
What people want and are ready to spend their money on will change over time. Today we have different goals and different standards - like I will invite my friends over for dinner and instead of napkins I’ll put a roll of paper towels on the table. And my friends won’t clutch their pearls and hiss “you uncultured swine” at me, because we value that paper towels are cheap and efficient! Napkins may be pretty but some of them end up being unused, and I’ll have to throw them away after the dinner and it’s a fucking waste.
Did your mall end up as an empty husk outside of town because those pesky millennials buy all their clothes online now? You lucky son of a gun. Now you get to use your ~*IMAGINATION*~ and repurpose that ugly windowless box into something actually useful. Why not a nice office space? (x)
Or how about you make the old stores into cute micro apartments? I WOULD LOVE TO LIVE IN ONE OF THESE! (x)
Are the stores fine but the parking lot empty because those cheap hipsters would rather take a bus or bike to the mall instead of buying a car like regular people? Do like they did in Seattle and turn it into a fucking beautiful water treatment facility and park. (x)
This thing collects storm-water runoff to create and provide nutrients to small pools and green areas. It works like a natural creek that ALSO filters out pollutants that would damage the salmon population! AS A MILLENNIAL I CAN SAY THAT THIS IS SO FUCKING UP MY ALLEY YOU HAVE NO IDEA. I WOULD GO TO THAT MALL, BUY A COFFEE AND GO OUT TO LOOK AT THE BIRDS.
Actual fucking plovers. When was the last time a parking lot did something for the environment except gathering upp more roadkill for the scavengers?
I could also go into why no-one is watching shitty sitcoms or boring movies because we have access to so much media that we can filter out the generic stuff that doesn’t appeal to us, but that is an essay in itself. We are extremely capable on spending it on media that speaks to us though (hey this is unrelated but did you know that Wonder Woman has passed 570M$ worldwide?)
TLDR: Market powers are entitled and used to people spending an ever-increasing amount of money on their shitty products. When this trend turns they are too unimaginative and lazy to do something about it so instead they’ll whine about how their former customers are “killing” them.
They can either DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT or spend the rest of their days crying into their surplus napkins.
Also, the idolized lifestyle of the 1950s-2000s was unsustainable. The bubble burst, and my generation inherited a ruined world whose elders refuse acknowledge that their prosperity came at our expense.
Agreed entirely, this is always ironic to hear from Capitalists whose whole point is espousing the ideals of market pressures and free market economy - if your shit doesn’t succeed financially? That’s clearly your own fault, Capitalists, by your own logic.
Gotta say though, every Millenial I know loves the shit out of going to the movies. Good movies, at least - but hell, we’ve given up hope of owning homes. We’ve abandoned dreams of property ownership. We have no intent nor real desire to end our financial lives anywhere better than “on par”, really. No debt is the goal, forget savings and a large estate to be divided up - so what do we do instead of killing ourselves trying to save for something we know we’ll never be able to attain?
We buy ourselves nicer meals, and we go out to the movies, because fifty bucks a month will never, ever, ever get us closer to a house, but it will get us a smile and some time with our friends. It’ll improve our lives, here and now, and we realize that and we embrace it! I’ve gone to more movies in the past year than the past decade and ditto for meals - not talking crazy fancy Michelin stuff or anything, but going out for sushi or to that cute new Korean BBQ place down the street, or that artisan burger joint, or whatever.
Read the entire archive of OutWeek Magazine at the OutWeek Internet Archive!
The site contains all 105 issues of OutWeek, published from June 1989 to July 1991 in PDF format.
More about OutWeek:
OutWeek Magazine was the seminal lesbian and gay publication during the peak era of AIDS activism in the late 80s and early 90s.
Founded by Gabriel Rotello and Kendall Morrison, it employed a staff of about 30 people in Manhattan during its tumultuous two-year existence.
OutWeek redefined the role of the activist gay press, not only by reporting the news but also by frequently making news itself. Its aggressive coverage, incisive commentary and in-depth investigative articles on gay rights, politics, AIDS, the arts and popular culture made it a must-read publication far beyond the usual scope of gay magazines.
Several of the most contentious controversies of that era were sparked by OutWeek. The magazine pioneered the use of the word ‘queer,’ which was highly controversial at the time. It was closely associated with the AIDS activist group ACT UP, and several of its staffers and contributors helped to co-found the group Queer Nation.
Many of OutWeek’s editors were committed to sharply challenging the then-pervasive culture of the closet, and a sideline of that commitment - the advocacy of ‘outing’ prominent gay and lesbian celebrities – began in Michelangelo Signorile’s “Gossip Watch” column and was one of many things that made OutWeek a household name and a lightning rod.
OutWeek was committed to an inclusive vision of queer life, and was the first major national publication to bill itself as a ‘lesbian and gay’ magazine.
this is a really exciting resource! especially if you’ve ever wished you could get a better view into gay/queer/lgbt activist culture in the early ’90s, you gotta check this out
Hello and welcome to the second edition of the Overwatch Femslash Exchange! We’re really excited to organize this exchange again, we got really positive feedback from the first one and we can’t wait to see what you guys bring to the table this time around!
We’ll be listing some of the rules and important things down below, and it would be amazing if you could reblog this post to help spread the word! As they say, the more the merrier.
Dates: (all of the deadlines are set at 12am EDT, if you need to convert to your timezone this will help)
Feb 19 - 26 –> Sign-ups are open
Feb 27 –> Assignments are sent out
March 10 –> Drop out deadline (mods will contact participants via email to check up on their progress)
March 27 –> Works are due
March 30 –> Works are posted
Guidelines:
To sign up you will need to fill out a form on Typeform, and then the mods will match everyone with their recipient. By February 27, every participant should receive an email with the recipient they got. If you don’t get an email, please contact the mods via the blog or via email at [email protected].
Aditionally, we ask you not to discuss your assignment in public until after the works have been posted, it’s meant to be a surprise!
Please make sure to check out the rest of the rules here before you sign up.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to shoot us an ask at our blog or contact us via email.
Hi all and Happy Valentine’s Day! While I spent the majority of it eating chocolate and watching Dragon Ball I was also pretty busy compiling a list. This list actually.
Because let me ask you, what’s the best way to celebrate the day of lurve than read some awesome Spiderbyte fic? Recommendations are below and I thank @tacticalgrandma for ALL the help they gave me when I was making this.
One word:
GLITCHFIC - Honestly if you’re not reading Glitchfic then I don’t know what to tell you. It portrays humble beginnings for Spiderbyte and is a lovely representation of both Sombra and Widowmaker. Read it, seriously.
JRade
Tears - Beautiful piece about Widowmaker and Sombra’s relationship, as well as a look into what makes Widowmaker the person she is today.
One Night on The Job - What it says on the tin. Sombra and Widowmaker are on a mission where there’s witty banter and snark. What could go wrong?
mywordsflyup
Silence in my Blood - Widowmaker and Sombra are on a job. Their flirtations become slightly…morbid. It’s great. One of the first Spiderbyte fics I’ve read and one of my favourites.
sapphicleksa
All You - Sombra’s drunk and Widowmaker is…adorable? It surprisingly works.
NiteWrighter
Overwatch Prompts - NiteWrighter writes more than just Spiderbyte in these prompts but I can promise you that they deliver such GOOD Spiderbyte you’ll be wanting more and more.
TheSoundOfThunderStorms
Nightmares - aka the reason why I can’t sleep at night. So sad. So very sad. Read if you want to cry your damn eyes out.
Feel - A lot of these fics come from this author, but they are super talented and this fic is no exception. Look at the title. You know you’re going to catch the feels.
In The Moment - This is incredibly poignant and funny at the same time. Also there’s kissing so EVEN BETTER!
Burn It Down - A great fic that narrates the events that lead up to Sombra’s recruitment to Talon. AUish.
kinaesthetic
Porcelain and Snow - Sombra and Widow have been free from Talon for months. But there are still some…issues.
Theoroark
Feeling Good - The Feeling Good series is such a clever take on the Spiderbye dynamic that I thoroughly enjoy. Please read as there are simply amazing writing for characters such as Hanzo and Reaper.
Cheap Thrills - Sombra in a suit. ‘Nuff said.
chasingredballoons
On The Edge With No Control - Based around the ‘Masquerade’ comic. Sombra and Widow have fun in a limo. (NSFW)
Wildfires - Widowmaker returns from a mission injured. Sombra has a good idea how to help. (NSFW)
todarroch
Audience Participation - Sombra and Widowmaker have an interesting encounter in the showers. (NSFW)
TallFlower
Been Here All Along - If there’s one thing I enjoy more than Spiderbyte, it’s Spiderbyte and Team Talon goodness.
And that’s all I can remember for now! If there’s any fics that you feel deserve to go on this list too then please don’t hesitate to include it! Thank you and happy Valentine’s Day!
I’m betting that one or two of the folks following me, do so because of my Spiderbyte stuff, so I thought you might appreciate a little list of some others to check out!
That and maybe I’m just giddy over the fact that somebody thought my stuff was good enough to put in a list and share with others, I seriously don’t even know how to react to this, it’s excellent??
Okay but forget the strikethrough this is seriously a huge honour and I love it :D And I’ve read a bunch of these and they’re great, and I’m sure the ones I’ve missed are excellent too!
Hello! I’m sure some of you are aware that I write Overwatch fanfiction, a handful of you have possibly even read my stories! It’s something that I like to do in the time that I’m not writing for a living, given how much I love this franchise and this community.
Unfortunately, life is starting to catch up, and my income just isn’t cutting it anymore since my rent was raised. Which is why I have decided that now is the time to open up commissions!
I will still be writing my own stories, and I do have my day job to still consider, so any stories you commission me for will operate on a “when it’s done” model. I will do my best to give you an estimate of when you will receive your story, and I won’t accept payment until the work is done.
For this first month, from today until March 20th, I will be writing Normal commissions at a rate of 1.15 cents per word, and Smut commissions at a rate of 1.5 cents per word. These rates will be going up to 1.25 for normal and 2 for smut after the first month, so now’s the time to get in! All payments will be made in US dollars.
I don’t write non-con or incest, but any pairing and kink is at the very least up for discussion. I do maintain the right to refuse the request after our discussion, but I will not do so without hearing you out first.
Here’s how it will work, you contact me through email at [email protected], where we will discuss the parameters of your story, how long you want it to be, as well as any potential wiggleroom with your word count.
I will write the story for you, at which point I will contact you telling you I have finished and the final payment amount. You will make the payment through paypal, and once payment is confirmed I will send the story through.
The assumption is that these will be uploaded to my Archive account later, but if you wish to keep your commission private I am open to discussion on that.
Here is a link to my Archive account, so you can see the quality of my work.
Please reblog this if you can’t afford a commission, or even if you can, any work I can get is another meal I can afford!
I know I’ve got some Overwatch fanfic-loving folks following me so, here’s this! A friend is opening up commissions, and they do some pretty great work; I’ve been reading their stories from a distance for a while (and secretly swooning when they read mine) so if there’s an idea that’s been picking at you for a while and you’ve got a couple of bucks to spare, why not give them a shot?
I assume if you’re reading this that means you’re interested in applying for either or both FemWatch: The Overwatch Femslash Zine and FemWatch: After Dark so here are the details:
- Applications are open from now until midnight March 4th PST. As for how long it’ll take to get back to you about the result of your application, it’ll depend on the amount of applicants but we’ll try do it as fast as we can. Hopefully within a couple of days.
- We’re looking for both artists and writers, anyone who can do both is a bonus and you can apply for both. All we ask is that you have samples for us to look at.
- All femslash pairings are welcome except for Ana/Pharah, sorry.
- For the After Dark, the NSFW, version of the zine, we won’t be accepting submissions with noncon or dubcon elements of any kind, if you’re looking to do something particularly kinky or on the more extreme side, please be aware that it may not fit this zine. Feel free to ask us if you’re not sure. We’re fairly open minded and flexible.
- If you’re worried about deadlines, we’re looking at having a July deadline, so you’ll have plenty of time to complete your work.
- We’re looking at having more than twenty spots for artists and the same amount for writers. We’re not locking ourselves into a particular amount until we know how many applicants we have but it’s fair to say we’re hoping to have a fairly large range of writers/artists for this zine!
- All proceeds will go to an LGBT charity that will be confirmed at a later time, most likely an Australian one as that is where I live.
- It will be an e Zine, for now we have no plans for physical copies but if there is enough demand, we might change there.
- There are worries about the selection process and whether it’ll be fair as that has been an issue with previous zines, there’s nothing really that I can say here is that there will be more than just myself involved in the selection process and that we’re looking for not just quality but variety and flexibility from applicants so the content covers a broad spectrum of interests. We’re going to endeavor to be fair and transparent here.
- If there are any questions either about the zine itself, the application, or anything else, feel free to either send us an ask through this tumblr account or to the email address [email protected]
If you’re feeling ready to apply, here is the application:
https://goo.gl/forms/wA4it8udZqmtGtVh2
Thanks,
Levi (twoheartedalien), the organiser.
For those interested in creating or consuming wlw media, or Overwatch, or even better yet - both! Thought I should pass this along! Creators should apply and everybody else should keep their eyes open, maybe?
hi i’d like to announce that @jr4de is responsible for my actual physical death, the latest chapter of their story personally came into my home and murdered me, there’s a gaping hole where my heart should be and there’s blood everywhere, hope you’re all happy
hi i’d like to announce that @jr4de is responsible for my actual physical death, the latest chapter of their story personally came into my home and murdered me, there’s a gaping hole where my heart should be and there’s blood everywhere, hope you’re all happy
