#.you don't wanna go to war with me ; sol.dier

[dimensionalspades]

close on both accounts, I'll take it.

[dimensionalspades]

The physical self

There's no way to understate Jack's issues with his appearance post Overwatch.

For years his face was slapped on posters and propaganda (the worst of which, in his opinion, was the statue). Because of this, Jack became very meticulous about personal care. How long his hair was, any facial hair, taking care of his skin, etc.

When Overwatch fell and Jack lost parts of his memory along with general physical trauma from the explosion, one of Jack's chief issues was depersonalization. He stitched himself up, but, to him, it was more like stitching someone else's face up. He tried to piece things together but the persistent feeling was that he was trying to solve someone else's life. Though the least of his worries, mirrors still tend to make him uncomfortable because there's always a detachment from who he remembers being versus who he is now.

He doesn't have issues with his scars, however. Those he tends to like. Due to his healing factor, it means he either took a lot of damage, or a heated weapon hit him, and the partial cauterization meant that his body couldn't just seal it up. In those cases, and that of Reaper's weapons, Jack needs stitches and bandaging to help his body along.

[dimensionalspades]

What are some headcanons that you have and want to share more, but it's difficult because they rarely come up in threads?

- anon questions || accepting -

That's a fun one, I'll toss out one for each!

Arlynn has a stuffed dragon one of her brothers got her when she was young and hides it from literally everyone.

Aziraphale can be directly linked to how much fatter the cats around Whickber Street have gotten through the years. A lot of his time is spent caring for them.

Daud's identity is near impossible to find in the real world, there are very small echoes in the Void that you can use to trace back to his mother, and that's the only way to find his real name. He does actually want to know it but never vocalizes that.

Gurney can fall asleep standing and sometimes dozes like that if he gets too bored in meetings he's not needed in.

Julian is always speaking Arabic, translated by the UT. Any time it malfunctions, he constantly forgets, given that the UT is so constant/unobtrusive.

Leon's apartment is so rarely used that while he's had the same place for like 10+ years, there are still at least 3 moving boxes of stuff he never opens/just exist to collect dust at this point. He also has like 0 decorations and uses the place to sleep and watch Netflix mostly.

Pasiphos has fully driven several people to madness with their tech, and because of their wealth/status, they've essentially disappeared said people into a ward in the Scandinavian mountains.

Soldier is a huge musical buff and as it's his favorite, he has the entirety of Pirates of Penzance memorized. His second favorite and most watched movie is "Singin' in the Rain"

Sova has bitten someone's finger off when they made the mistake of trying to steal his eye while he was still conscious. He will bite again.

Vittorio is fluent in Latin. In his postfog verse, he uses this fact to get himself a job, and due to the magic sealed inside him/his tattoos, he has a drastically increased lifespan.

[dimensionalspades]

Strike-Commander Morrison

Since B.lizz hasn't given us further info on O.verwatch's timeline that I know of, I'll go over what's canon for the blog.

Jack was hesitant to accept the promotion, because in his eyes, Ana and Gabriel were both better picks. In the end, he decided to accept after some talking with core O.verwatch members, especially Gabe, Ana, and Gabrielle.

Aside from trying to manage the trauma from the Crisis, Jack spent a lot of the initial months trying to adjust to the position, leading to high stress and some blatantly wrong decisions on the political side. He was still a soldier, and that meant that he needed to take care of his people. Their lives and livelihoods were in his hands, and he took that seriously. Most of his early failures followed themes of unpreparedness, rash decision-making, lack of decorum, or just making the wrong choices regarding certain aspects of leadership. The public was slow to trust O.verwatch in the beginning due to this, but Jack continued to adapt and work through issues, throwing his entire life into O.verwatch.

Jack, for all his faults, was an unflinchingly kind man who spent most of his time campaigning for O.verwatch to help in the most affected areas of the world, often going head to head with some higher-ups over that. In addition, Jack was often embroiled in arguments with people who wanted to gear O.verwatch towards a more militaristic institution, as Jack found they would be better served with doctors and scientists. He still went on missions at this time, O.verwatch acting as ancillary or emergency help in other countries at first.

That continued as time went on, and Jack most often tried to keep this version of Overwatch at the forefront. He joined missions less and less because of the workload, leading to a bit of his own crisis as he asked whether or not he was still a soldier (whether he still wanted to be treated as a solider as he got farther from the battlefield). Ultimately, he still defined himself as a soldier more than a politician, though he tried to balance to two when the situation called for it. He pushed on trying to hire the best of the best when it came to doctors, climate scientists, and leaders both on and off the field. In many aspects, his most trusted people were Ana, Vivian, and Gabe, though the last relationship would sour as time went on and they fought more and more.

Despite his desire to focus on O.verwatch's medical and scientific teams, he couldn't ignore Talon. While Jack was kind in as much as he could, Talon was where most of his disdain went. He was glad to make an enemy of them, publicly denouncing them too many times to count and working against them at every turn. Though they were evenly matched in many ways, Talon tended to take the upper hand at times, given their lack of moral constraints. Jack dedicated as much time and effort to fighting Talon on all fronts as he could, though he still found time to argue for O.verwatch's cause in the meantime.

He was not infallible, and this includes many decisions regarding B.lackwatch and his refusal to either earnestly question Gabe or put a stop to certain activities/missions. And on more than a few occasions, Jack was happy to look the other way as B.lackwatch struck against Talon in some capacity. As much as Antonio's death wasn't one he shed a tear over, it was something of a wakeup call to what he was enabling. While he and Gabe had been at odds for a year or two by then, it only intensified when B.lackwatch was shut down. In addition to other stresses, Jack struggled to maintain things while Overwatch began to crumble.

However, he truly believed that he could reunite the warring parts of Overwatch at the conference in the Swiss headquarters, but that was demolished when the building was destroyed with them in it.

[dimensionalspades]

[ META ] + SEP ( for Jack LMAO )

- META || accepting -

@deathsighs

As stated, the program was made as a sort of Hail Mary approach to creating enhanced soldiers to combat the Crisis. Soldiers would be approached about a program, very much lured in by propaganda about an experimental project that could save the world and all that, make them feel like heroes.

The program would put Soldiers into units under a commanding officer, Jack landed in Gabe's unit. The serum was administered in batches; first to unit a, then a week later, unit b, and so on. This meant that the serums would have a small incubation period to check for horrific side effects before moving forward. While there were some things put in place to help with the general strain of the program, this wasn't exactly a water-tight operation due to rushed implementation.

The biggest challenge was that because of the nature of the serum and what it was doing to the soldiers' bodies, there was no real way to predict how it would affect each soldier. So one dose could kill a soldier outright while another had much more mild symptoms.

The weekly injections gave the soldiers some time to recuperate, work out, etc between shots. Life was pretty scheduled in terms of recreational time and mock battles, workouts, etc. Still instilling military values, lots of propaganda in the halls, that kinda thing. It was a very 'serve your country, your sacrifice is needed' kind of shit. Side effects could range from mild, like muscle cramps and sinus pressure, to more serious, like seizures and cancerous growths. The general process was that the first few injections were the worst, and then as the body adapted and grew stronger, it'd get... marginally better. Enhanced healing would aid in managing pain and symptoms, but a serum could still kill a soldier even in the "home stretch" of the program.

In Jack's case, he struggled with a lot of the injections but got through them. However, nearing the end of the program, he had one that caused him to suffer a grand mal seizure and he was laid up for a few weeks. In general, the program was hell on everyone, and Jack spent a lot of time trying to keep the spirits of his fellow soldiers up. Many didn't survive the program, some were lost in the Crisis, and by the time Overwatch was formed, only a few of the enhanced soldiers were still alive.

[dimensionalspades]

[ META ] + Gabriel ( for Jack )

- meta || accepting - @deathsighs

You have chosen................................. death. Cut for length because this is actually insane

Jack has never been objective when it comes to Gabe. From the minute he was put in Gabe's unit in the SEP he knew he'd follow Gabe into hell and beyond.

While it was initially infatuation as someone who was still trying to find himself, Jack's respect and admiration for Gabe only grew as time went on. During the SEP, he'd go to great lengths to get Gabe's attention. While yes, he was pretty well-known as a morale booster all around, he was particularly fond of trying to lift Gabe's spirits in the worst of the SEP.

During the Crisis missions, Jack and Gabe worked as two halves of a whole. Gabe was an intelligent, efficient leader who strove to keep their people safe and Jack functioned as a brace and compass, both helping Gabe figure out strategy with Ana and supporting him whenever he faltered. They operated on the same wavelength, making them an extremely effective force on the battlefield. And, more often than not, Jack could make on-the-fly decisions on missions knowing how Gabe would react in that situation. If Jack gave a directive, it was likely it either came from Gabe or would be something Gabe approved of. Much of Jack's later leadership style can be directly attributed to both Ana and Gabe.

It certainly wasn't all perfect all the time, there were occasions where they would disagree heavily, and while often this could be solved by communicating, other times you could hear their shouting from a mile away. While Jack's an empathetic man who leads with his heart, he's no pushover. They're both exceedingly strong-willed and stubborn. Most arguments would be solved, but some they just had to accept wouldn't be.

While he loved Gabe dearly, Jack also recognized that a relationship wasn't what either of them needed at the time. Emotions were high and extremely volatile during the crisis, and adding any associated complications on the battlefield would only make things harder.

As Overwatch established itself post crisis, Jack recommended both Gabe and Ana for the promotion over himself. He knew he could lead, but to him, they were both the more appropriate candidates. Even after he was promoted, Jack leaned heavily on Gabe and Ana. He'd often say as much if asked. Both in matters of politics and in more emotional distress, as he struggled with the expectations of suddenly being a leader. He tried most often to lead with his heart, fighting with Overwatch leaders about where to apply the organization in a post Crisis world. He fought particularly hard to get doctors and scientists on board, wanting Overwatch to be seen as more than a military organization.

When Blackwatch was created and then employed on different missions, Jack trusted Gabe implicitly. If Gabe said Blackwatch needed to go here or there, Jack signed off on it. If Gabe said that Blackwatch needed this or that, Jack signed off on it. If Gabe wanted to recruit someone to Blackwatch, Jack signed off on it. There were missions where he questioned it, but as Jack got more wrapped up in the politics of Overwatch, he had to rely on Gabe's past judgments in regards to Blackwatch missions.

As he continued to disappear into the political side of Overwatch, it caused something of a disconnect. He still relied heavily on Gabe and Ana emotionally, but began to fight with Gabe more and more as time went on. Missions Blackwatch went on, Gabe's decision-making both past and present, things began to crack.

When Ana disappeared, Jack buckled. He obsessively fought to look for her, even shirking some duties and spending his little vacation time exploring the place she disappeared. It broke him to lose her. And as he fought with Gabe even more, Jack knew he was losing him as well. Without his supports, Jack struggled hard with the increasing unrest surrounding Overwatch, causing him to lock up and vanish even more.

At the Swiss headquarters, Jack resolved to make things right, not just with other Overwatch leadership, but with Gabe in particular. The thought of fully losing Gabe was terrifying. When the explosion hit, Jack tried to get others out of the building as it collapsed but desperately tried to find Gabe. When he couldn't, Jack had to contend with the idea of losing him as the building collapsed around him.

As he recovered, Jack found himself at a loss. Ana was gone, Gabe was gone, Overwatch was ostensibly gone. He lost everything he had built his life around. He was left with no supports and no direction for the first time in his life, staring at the mirror and his own stitched up face, knowing he would likely never see any of the people he loved again.

When Jack discovered Gabe and Reaper were the same, Jack was enraged. He felt betrayed by him, that Gabe gave up the fight to throw his lot in with Talon, fabricating a dozen reasons as to why Gabe would join the enemy of everything they'd built. The first time they fought, Jack threw everything against him, all his rage and sorrow, but even then, Jack couldn't try to kill Gabe.

Every time they've fought, the very scant few times he could get a "killing blow" in, he saw Gabe's face and he faltered, escaping the encounter. As his mental health continued to fail, Jack obsessively pursued Gabe, attempting to both fight out his anger and demand answers. He told himself if he understood what Gabe had done and what he was doing now, he could solve what happened at the Swiss headquarters. Jack doesn't hold Gabe responsible entirely, but there is suspicion there that he can never truly voice because the thought of it is so offensive to him.

There are often times where Jack experiences auditory hallucinations as a side effect of the head trauma he experienced in the explosion, and more often than not they take the form of either unknown voices or Gabe's voice directly. These come in moments of delirium wherein he loses focus on both himself and the environment, and while he also has memory loss from the head trauma, he still has vivid memories of Gabe that he holds onto, for better and for worse.

Gabe is a part of himself he can never let go. Even in his rage, he loves Gabe too deeply.

[dimensionalspades]

TAG DROP: Soldier: 76