frostedplum | { psl for mylawn }

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{ psl for mylawn }

Nine years. It's only been nine years and yet to Mei, it feels like ninety. The world has changed. Not only was Overwatch disbanded while she slept, but conflicts with the omnics are increasing once again. Some places still hold on to peace, like in Numbani, but in Russia and Korea, there are often attacks by the omnics.

There are other forces on the rise too; shadowy organizations who work to undermine the order of things. Mei might not have been in Overwatch's inner circle, but even she knows of Talon, and can only assume they're still operating while Overwatch isn't. Well, Overwatch isn't officially operating again, but thanks to Winston, she can continue the work she loves. Now she gets to experience this new world as she travels to abandoned Ecopoints to secure their data. But she has to be careful. Who knows where Talon might strike next?

It's a hot, muggy day as Mei leaves the hotel in central Mexico. She's going to explore the town today and experience the local culture before getting on a bus tomorrow bound for the Yucatán Peninsula and the Ecopoint there. It's hard to leave her coat behind; at this point it's more a security blanket than anything, but with the temperature rising, it's for the best. Walking down the sidewalk, she looks in shop windows, a spring to her step as she goes. This place is so bright and festive, and some graffiti on a brick wall catches her eye due to the bright colors.

"Los Muertos," she reads out loud to herself, wondering what it means.

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To say that 76 has tunnel vision regarding his current mission might be an understatement. He's keeping a tangential awareness of what's going on with the Overwatch recall and the omnic attacks in Russia, but otherwise he stays focused on the current task at hand, moving from one objective to the other in the long string of leads that just deepen the mystery. Los Muertos is his current target, as he has suspicions their weapons trafficking is benefitting Talon, to say nothing of their ties to the Sombra Collective. Add LumériCo into the mix, and as far as he's concerned, it's a recipe for

All those moving pieces have him prowling the streets of Dorado, most often at night, but sometimes his leads take him out into the daylight as well. He can't exactly appear as either Jack Morrison or Soldier: 76 in the middle of the day, so he opts for a the simpler disguise of a hat and sunglasses and high-collared jacket. It isn't going to fool any bio-scanners, but it's not like he has to worry about that in a town like Dorado.

It's during the day that he sees a familiar face--somewhere during his operations, he'd learned of Mei's recovery (or, rather, self-recovery). There's some measure of relief in knowing at least one member of the lost ecopoint is still alive, but catching her in the streets when he isn't prepared for it is something else entirely. He's about to leave well enough alone when he sees what she's looking at.

"It's the local gang."

The least he can do is try to steer his people (or ex-people) away from the mess he's dug himself into.

"You don't want to tangle with them."

A shadow falling across the brick wall alerts Mei that someone is coming up beside her, so she isn't surprised when someone speaks. She glances up with a slight frown, taking a moment to nudge up her glasses as she so often needs to. This man is certainly trying to keep the sun off of him, and there's the urge to be friendly and offer him some of her sunscreen, but she refrains. What he's said has definitely piqued her interest and she doesn't want to rush to change the subject just yet.

"Oh, I definitely wouldn't want a gang to come after me, but I doubt I'd be of interest to them in the first place." Her gaze flickers back to the graffiti before falling on the man again.

"How do you know about them?" After all, he's speaking English, not Spanish, and the accent sounds American if she's not wrong. Is he on vacation? If so, how does he know about this gang?

He opens in English because he knows her, though of course there’s no way for her to realize that, and he’s not quite thinking about how it might be suspicious. Already he’s kicking himself for engaging to begin with, but he’d been so dumbfounded at the sight of her—alive, looking just as she did in the final transmissions from Ecopoint Antarctica, that the words were out before he could stop himself.

Now he has to roll with it. 76 has done worse things, he supposes.

“They’re not exactly discerning.”

Meaning they’ll traffic weapons just as soon as they’ll harass civilians. 76 shoves his hands in his pockets, casting his eyes downward so that the baseball cap can obscure more of his face.

“You’re here long enough, you see them around.”

"Oh." Well that doesn't sound very good. Still, she can't see why they would even take notice of her in the first place. Mei is the one who always falls between the cracks. The one who just does her own thing quietly and people hardly ever notice she's there.

"How do you know they're in the gang when you see them? I want to avoid any trouble." And just go about her business collecting climate data.

76 is still feeling out the climate—part of the reason why he’s out in broad daylight, undercover—but he does know what he’s looking for. How deep it all goes, however, is another story, and there’s a cyberterrorism arm as well that he’s barely skimmed the surface of.

He knows enough, however, to give Mei an answer.

“They mostly operate at night. Fluorescent tattoos are hard to miss.”

And not very subtle, but Los Muertos isn’t exactly trying to be.

“They shouldn’t bother you if you don’t go looking.”

Fluorescent tattoos. It sounds like such a strange thing for gang members to have, especially at night when they'd be all the more visible. Maybe it's an intimidation tactic? If so, this is the sort of thing that raises Mei's hackles a great deal. She hates bullies.

"I wasn't planning on it, but it's such a shame! This is such a nice town, and I'm sure that the people here don't appreciate a gang in their midst. Isn't law enforcement doing anything to stop them?"

He offers a shrug. In a perfect world, yes, law enforcement would have the best interests of the people in mind, but so often they’re easily bought off, or drunk on power, or simply lazy. In the end, it’s the people that suffer for it, and he supposes that’s where Soldier: 76’s brand of vigilantism comes in.

You want something done right, you have to do it yourself.

Not that he’s necessarily interested in ridding the town of Los Muertos—he just wants to find out their connection to Talon and possibly LumériCo. Find out how all three groups might be interconnected, and where the weapons are going. Whatever happens to Dorado after he’s gone isn’t really his problem.

“Suppose you could check in at the police station. See how that goes.”

"I suppose so," she says, though there's hesitation in her voice as she says it. Maybe the police would take offence to her meddling and read it as her criticizing them, which is the last thing she wants to do. "I'll think about it."

Mei came out here to gather Overwatch Ecopoint data, not involve herself in the matters of one small town. Maybe she should remember the task she's assigned herself. The fate of the whole world could depend on all this collective data into climate change. Deciding on that, she gives a nod to herself, before refocusing on the man.

"Hey, would you like some sunscreen? I brought plenty and it looks like you're trying to protect your skin." It's just Mei's way to want to lend a helping hand wherever she can.

76 is clearly getting antsy, not wanting to spend more time in this conversation than he needs to for fear of being found out. He’s surprised she hasn’t picked up on anything yet, though he imagines that if you’re convinced Jack Morrison is dead, it’s not something at the forefront of one’s mind. He has no idea, however, how long before she starts to find all this suspicious.

More suspicious than it already is, anyway.

He seems to look a little taken aback by her offer of sunscreen, to the point where he takes a step backward in turn.

“No, I’m okay. You should move along from here.”

It won’t be safe as long as he has unfinished business.

"Oh, okay." Her hand was already reaching into her bag, but when he declines she slips her hand back out. Something does seem to be strange about him, but she can't really put her finger on it, and that's irksome.

"I was just window shopping. You don't think it's dangerous for me to be out here during the day, do you?" Sure, according to him, this gang can be pretty bold, but the town is still functioning as normal, so it can't be so bad, right?

"No."

It's broad daylight, and Los Muertos has no reason to be interested in her. All 76 can really do is hope that she doesn't go digging--but the fact that she's an Overwatch agent, being hailed recently for literally walking out of Antarctica means that someone else might have an interest in her.

He's not sure what he should or can do about that, or if he should warn her.

"You know anything about the Sombra collective?"

Mei tilts her head slightly, brown eyes narrowing behind her frames as she thinks hard to remember if she's ever heard of such a thing. Sombra is a Spanish word... what does it mean again? Dark-- no, shadow! The Shadow Collective? It sounds very cloak and dagger. Like something out of a movie. For some reason, she's picturing dark alleys and brick walls-- wait.

"I think... I think I saw the name in graffiti somewhere around here too. It just said 'Sombra' in white. Is the collective linked to Los Muertos, or is that just a coincidence?" Maybe everybody likes to do graffiti art around this town.

It's true that "Sombra" is graffitied around Dorado in Los Muertos colors. Unable to pinpoint the culprit, 76 is running on the popular assumption that Sombra isn't one person in particular, but a collection of hackers and other related cyberterrorists.

He's not certain he should get into this discussion with an ex-Overwatch agent, but it's hard to get him to stop talking about his various conspiracies once he's begun.

"Not sure. If they're not one in the same, they seem to be working together recently."

And here Mei is, an ex-Overwatch agent who still wants to do what's right to try and make the world a better place. For all she's been through, she hasn't lost her optimism that that can be achieved as long as she's willing to put in the work to do it.

"On what? What are these gangs doing around here, besides being intimidating?" Mei isn't sure she can really do anything about all this. She's supposed to be just passing through, ready to collect data tomorrow at an abandoned Ecopoint. But it's also not like she's on any kind of strict schedule here. Mei's really her own boss now, and she just wouldn't be her if she wasn't curious about the things around her.

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{ psl for mylawn }

oh my god finally im here

fall into my arms ;_;

i should be faster now 8,I

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sorry for the delay! just got my computer back from the repair shop.

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