#and Sombra was born on New Years' Eve

[angeltannis]

pandemonium in the Overwatch fandom today as Blizzard decided with no warning to drop every single character's canon birthday and therefore astrological sign, as well as updated ages

[dinohunter2]

Here's the big one: the whole dang format skeleton for Terra Monstrum 2, when last I worked on it (plus sketches of new kaiju). This was the same draft that all the Ghiddy teasers came from. Long story short because I just wasted the last hour writing more than anyone including myself ever wanted to read Ghidorah would return and become King of the Monsters, an enormous but undisclosed period of time would pass by, and the setting would completely and totally transform. Ghidorah's character was going to be washed up and insane. He hated that he missed his chance on getting revenge on the one monster who ever stopped him from doing what he wanted and after hundreds of years? centuries? millennia? of having nothing to think of but THAT, nothing to do, nothing to work toward, and nothing to interact with he'd just kinda... lost it, living in ennui mostly just out of spite, clinging to old memories and the impossible hope that he might one day get what he wants.

Godzilla actually WOULD return in the story, though not through genetic engineering or anything like that. It was a fairly weird idea but one that I think makes sense for the character. Ghidorah is elated and makes a big show out of it, pretending to be just moments away from destroying the Earth and flaunting his stolen title by harassing Godzilla with an army of minions- a generation of new monsters he and the readers would not be familiar with who are allegedly the last monsters on Earth. Of course Godzilla trounces all of them and the conflict escalates into the final Godzilla vs Ghidorah rematch.

I did a couple versions of that story, and in the first one that was where it ended. In the other that became one of two fights between Goji and Ghiddy, with Ghidorah "winning" the first bout and Godzilla sinking into the Earth's core- not dead, but so unlikely to escape the impossibly huge, unnavigable magma trap that he might as well be, so Ghidorah feels his life fulfilled and starts the final countdown for real. Godzilla unexpectedly breaks through into the Hollow Earth and finds some of his old buddies being forced into hibernation by one of Ghidorah's minions and returns to the surface for a full out monster war, with Godzilla leading an army of C-listers like Gorgo and Reptilicus to combat the new kaiju on the block. Then Godzilla and Ghidorah would have their final battle.

Not sure I prefer that version, but it's where I left off.

Some miscellaneous other plots points:

The Shobijin generationally reincarnating, though sadly to their (temporary!) detriment, because their powers are linked to the Earth's life-force and continuing with so little of it is slowly robbing them of what makes them special and is thus turning them human.

Humans playing a bigger role in the story and the remnants of modern civilization being split between underground shelter-cities and a space station hidden behind the moon.

The sole inhabitants of Ghiddy's surface world being "Hellbats"- van-sized larval Miba that emerged from the Earth's core.

Rodan would get his boo back, because after everything that went on in the Heisei series I think it's safe to say lava is more of a hindrance than a death sentence in the Godzilla-verse. I'd have used the Radon name for her and her return would've made Rodan significantly less moody and jaded.

The kaiju "Mbizi" was the Monster from Green Hell. "Avivoca" was THEM! "Ghilus" was The Giant Gila Monster. "Maltero" was The Las Vegas Monster. "Garra de Sombra" was The Black Scorpion and was the hardest to name. I have "Garra Oscura", "Toro Demonio", and "Matizar" as other options in my notes.

The nature of Godzilla's return would imply that all Earth-born kaiju can and will eventually "come back to life", albeit through a process that takes thousands to millions of years. Despite how long he was dead Godzilla actually appeared super early, which was not an accident and may or may not have had something to do with Mothra and the Shobijin...

Despite having an even darker setting than the first TM it would have a much happier ending with it being VERY heavily implied that what follows will be a time of unprecedented prosperity, both for mankind and the Earth.

I wanted Jinzou (the manmade Mechagodzilla core) to return as Barubaroi for Terra Monstrum 3, which would've been the final entry and might've even involved Ghidorah and Godzilla teaming up to stop him... assuming I didn't just kill Ghidorah at the end of 2, which probably would've been more thematically appropriate but I digress! None of that matters because:

I will never, ever write this story.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[medialists]

Mamma Mia

Atomic Blonde 

Filth 

Regression 

Colonia 

El círculo 

Beauty and the Beast 

Trance 

Victor Frankenstein 

Atonement 

Starter for 10 

Becoming Jane 

The Conspirator

The Last King of Scotland 

X-Men.

Glass 

The Last Station 

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 

Big Fish 

La desaparición de Eleanor Rigby 

Submergence 

Thor 

The Avengers 

Intensamente 

Las ventajas de ser invisible 

IT. 

Inception 

Harry Potter.

At eternity's gate 

Catch me if you can 

Her 

Pulp Fiction 

Xavier Dolan 

Memorias de una Geisha 

Ready player one 

Battle angel 

Taxi Driver 

El doble 

Shutter island 

Cube 

My week with Marilyn 

Noé 

Ballet shoes 

El diablo viste a la moda 

Cazafantasmas 

Les miserables 

Lady Bird 

The Truman Show 

Irene, yo y mi otro yo 

Call me by your name 

The Favorite 

La la land 

La chica del tren 

Jolene 

Winter's war 

Tomb Raider 

Ex machina 

El código Da Vinci 

Ángeles y demonios 

Mean Girls 

Mulan 

Coraline 

Mujer Bonita 

E.T. 

Crimson Peak. 

Extraordinario. 

Las de Marvel que faltan 

The Room 

A quiet place 

Blade Runner 

Animales Nocturnos 

Animales Fantásticos  

La Propuesta 

A star is born 

Begin again 

Anon. 

From Russia with Love

Goldfinger

Thunderball

You Only Live Twice

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Diamonds Are Forever

The Man with the Golden Gun

For Your Eyes Only

Octopussy

Never Say Never Again

A View to a Kill

The Living Daylights

GoldenEye

Tomorrow Never Dies

The World is not Enough

Die Other Day

Casino Royale

Quantum of Solace

Dawn of the Dead

Blade II

RED

The Dark Knight Rises

Kick-Ass 2

Die Hard

Scarface

From Dusk till Dawn

Face/Off

No Escape

Impostor

Death Race 2

Jobs

Les Quatre Cents Coups

The Wolf of Wall Street

The Murder of Princess Diana

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Fight Club

My Sister's Keeper

Ida

Loreak

Sowon

Gran Torino

All About Eve

The Nun's Story

The Sunset Limited

A Clockwork Orange

Kingsman.

Batman: Under the Red Hood

Lords of Dogtown

Unbroken

Ip Man

Million Dollar Baby

Concussion

The Great Gatsby

Lilting

Birdman

The Theory of Everything

War and Peace

Collateral Beauty

The Children's Hours

Moulin Rouge!

Dolls

The Bridges of Madison County

As Good as It Gets

Me Before You

Before Sunrise

Before Midnight

Carol

The Reader

Like Crazy

New York, I Love You

Anna Karenina

Pride & Prejudice

Bridget Jones's Diary

How to Marry a Millionaire

Bus Stop

The Prince and the Showgirl

Ladies of the Chorus

Roman Holiday

Prendimi l'Anima

The Young Victoria

Sabrina

Ed Wood

My Life Without Me

A Woman of Paris

Metropolis

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Fantasia 2000

Punisher: War Zone

Robin and Marian

The Unforgiven

Green Mansions

Live and Let Die

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

To the Bone

T2 Trainspotting

La Grande Bellezza

Men, Women & Children

Lost in Translation

Ghost World

Before Sunset

Evil Dead

Army of Darkness

After Earth

Hulk

Get Smart

Raiders of the Lost Ark

The Dark Crystal

Labyrinth

300

Mononoke Hime

Edge of Tomorrow

Death Race 2050

L'Écume des Jours

Paris When It Sizzles

The Seven Year Itch

Down with Love

Monkey Business

Dead Alive

Monty Python's Life of Brian

Vertigo

They All Laughed

Love Among Thieves

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Let's Make Love

Funny Face

On the Town

The Sky's the Limit

A Damsel in Distress

Shall We Dance

There's No Business Like Show Business

It's Always Fair Weather

My Fair Lady

Don't Bother to Knock

Monte Carlo Baby

Las Dos Caras de la Verdad

Ciudad en Tinieblas

El Bebé de Rose Mary

The Chuck Net Atrapado Sin Salida

El Experimento

Holy Motors

Mindscape

Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me

Antichrist

Bottom of the Worlds

High Rise

Southland Tales

Magnolia

Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy

Inherent Vice

The Lobster

The Number 23

They Look Like People

Upstream Color

Twelve Monkeys

Minority Report

Los Cromocrímenes

Predestination

About time

Blue Velvet

Pi: Faith in Chaos

The Box

Identity

The Life of David Gale

The Gift

Lovesong

Miss Sloane

The Meyerowitz Stories

The Big Sick

Efectos Secundarios

The Notebook

The Odd Life of Timothy Green

The Little Mermaid

Manchester By the Sea

Silence

Moonlight

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Snowpiercer

Star Trek Beyond

Moonrise Kingdom

No Country for Old Men

The Exorcist

The Darjeeling Limited

House of Sand and Fog

Napoleon Dynamite

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Armores Perros

La Dictadura Perfecta

Frida

El Crimen del Padre Amado

El Estudiante

Cilantro y Perejil

Perfume de Violetas

Arráncame la Vida

Como Agua para Chocolate

Solo Con tu Pareja

El Callejón de los Milagros

Rojo Amanecer

La Ley de Herodes

Un Monstruo de Mil Cabezas

Las Horas Contigo

Maquinaria Paramericana

Ella es Ramona

El Jeremias

Sopladora de Hojas

Los Insólitos Peces Gatos

Guten Tag, Ramon

El Infierno

Mientras el Lobo No Está

Sexo, Pudor y Lágrimas

Miss Bala

Cronos

Después de Lucía

Qué Culpa Tiene el Niño

Nosotros los Nobles

La Jaula de Oro

Y tu Mamá También

Canoa

Amar te Duele

Toki Wo Kakeru Shoujo

Transformers

Harry Potter

Old Yeller

Legally Blonde

Miller's Crossing

Faustrecht der Freiheit

It's Called Murder, Baby

Heathers

The Love Witch

Southside With You

Pink Flamingos

Hr's Just Not That Into You

Windstruck

What's Your Number?

There's Something About Mary

When Harry Met Sally

Forgettin Sarah Marshall

Say Anything

Pretty Woman

Not Another Teen Movie

Kate & Leopold

Sleepless in Seattle

Pretty in Pink

Serendipity

Four Weddings And A Funeral

50 First Dates

Bridget Jones' Diary

Something's Gotta Give

Pánico Antes del Amanecer

Cumpleaños Mortal

Viernes 13

La Quema

The Slumber Party Massacre

Campamento Sangriento

Curtains

Siete Mujeres Atrapadas

The House On Sorority Row

Detrás de la Máscara

April Fool's Day

Lovecraft

Bubba Ho-Tep

Thor Ragnarok

Lo Que Hacemos en las Sombras

Zombies Party

La Noche de los Muertos Vivientes

El Regreso de los Muertos Vivientes

Army of Darkness

Pasion Infernal

Terroríficamente muertos

El Baile de los Vampiros

Braindead

Creepshow

El Jovencito Frankeinstein

Gremlins

Un Hombre Lobo Americano en Londres

The Edge Of Seventeen

Murder of Cats

The Book of Love

Atomic Falafel

Buddies

Tiempos felices

Illegal

Nise: El Corazón de la Locura

Kill Command

The Blind Side

The Fundamentals of Caring

The Danish Girl

Miss You Already

Fantastic Beasts the Crimes of Grindelwald

Side Effects

Requiem for a Dream

Constantine

The Island

The Box

The Tall Man

Oblivion

Gods of Egypt

Twilight Zone

Dusk Dawn

Jeepers Creepers

The Descent

30 Days of Night

The Midnight Meat Train

VHS

Minority Report

Terminator

Avatar

Midnight Sun

The Book of Henry

Lady Bird

Truth or Dare

Adrift

Stronger

Every Day

A Nightmire on Elm Street

REC

Monsters

American Mary

Found

The Witches

Let Me In

Let the Right One In

Oculus

Insidious 4: The Last Key

Trainspotting

Night of the Living Dead

Life of Brian

Drive

Snatch

Blade Runner

Scarface

Lord of the Rings

Ben - Hur

Cantinflas

Tin tan

Pedro Infante

Gone With the Wind

Indiana Jones

Salon Kitty

The Wild Bunch

Harold and Maude

The Warriors

The Long Goodbye

Deep End

Coonskin

The Bestia in Calore

La Cage aux Folles

Badlands

The Brood

1941

Eraserhead

Labyrinth

Legend

The Sound of Music

Repo! The Genetic Opera

Enemy Mine

Cannibal Holocaust

The Evil Dead

Lola Montes

King Kong

Rock and Roll High School

Blood In Blood Out

Easy Rider

Heavy Metal

Pink Floyd The Wall

Wicker Park

Lars and the Real Girl

The Cable Guy

Sophie's Choice

Brokeback Mountain

A Wrinkle in Time

Scream

Presagio

Señales

Titanes del pacífico

Clint Eastwood

Dirty Harry

Chappie

The Greatest Showman

Safe Heaven

Across the Universe

Thirteen

Perfect Sense

A Life Less Ordinary

Shallow Grave

No Reservations

The Holiday

Ali G in da House

The Reader

The Dressmaker

Brigsby Bear

Cast Away

Romeo + Juliet

What's Eating Gilberte Grape?

Body of Lies

Little Nemo Adventures in Slumberland

Apt Pupil

Stand by Me

Shawshank Redemption

Excalibur

Hearts Beat Loud

Velvet Buzzsaw

Nightcrawler

Chungking Express

Twin Peaks

Throne of Blood

Harakiri

2046

Tokyo Story

F for Fake

Allegrophobia

Lost in Translation

Hereditary

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

Rear Window

West Side Story

Manhattan

David Lynch Cooking Quinoa

Ikiru

Midnight Cowboy

Bonnie and Clyde

The Straight Story

Annie Hall

The Great Dictator

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

M

Y tu Mamá También

Paddington

Paddington 2

Birdman

Autumn Sonata

To Kill a Mockingbird

Barry Lyndon

It's a Wonderful Life

The Wrestler

The Florida Project

Rashomon

It's Such a Beautiful Day

Paths of Glory

Kung Fury

Boogie Nights

Gone with the Wind

The Prestige

Shaun of the Dead

The World's End

In the Mood for Love

Handmaiden

Intolerance

El Bola

Celda 211

El Olivo

Las 13 Rosas

Blue Valentine

Closer

Like Crazy

(500) Days of Summer

Le Mépris

Match Point

Ruby Sparks

Once

Revolutionary Road

Happy Together

Sleepy Hollow

Vampyr

Black Sunday

The Hunger

The Haunting

Rebecca

Crimson Peak

The Crow

Pan's Labyrinth

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Drácula

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

A Cure for Wellness

Horror of Dracula

The Bride

La Novia

Flavors of Youth

Dead Poet's Society

Mary and Max

Dear Zachary: a Letter to a Son about His Father

Big Fish & Begonia

20th Century Women

The Villainess

Touch of Evil

Christine

Zero Dark Thirty

The Stranger

Hannibal

El Autor

Short Term 12

Grave of the Fireflies

Cinema Paradiso

My Girl

A Ghost Story

Hasta el viento tiene miedo

El libro de piedra

Veneno para hadas

Pearl Harbor

Infierno azul

Guerra de Novias

El Bar Coyote

Needful Things

Sense & Sensibility

El Diario de Carlota

Batman vs Superman

Black Panther

Dredd

Scream

Valentine

Camino hacia el terror

Sé lo que hicieron el verano pasado

Joy Ride

Jeepers Creepers

La reunión del diablo

Viernes 13

Another Earth

A Quiet Place

Mississippi en llamas

The breakfast club

The revenant

birdman

sing street *

frida

roma

catch me if you can

dead poets society

the age of adaline

changeling

brooklyn

good will hunting

artificial intelligence

paranoia

to the bone

the danish girl

90 minutes in heaven

while you were sleeping

james and the giant peach

Crimson peak

pretty woman

summer days with coo

the breadwinner

summer wars

the gift

cargo

julie & julia

spirit

8 mile

raw

okja

schindler's list

blue valentine

the hateful eight

the untouchables

old boy

ghost in the shell

sophie's choice

ip man 2

frances ha

the tree of life

amanda knox

hail, caesar!

Janis: little girl blue

my beautiful broken brain

noah

the badadook

origin: spirits of the past

project almanac

the thing

bird box

death note

death note ii

1922

death note: light up the new world

pandora

american gangster

the nightmare

pasión por las letras

le dîner de cons

la grande vadrouille

la traversée de paris

le fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain

El secreto de Adeline

La boda de mi mejor amigo

Loco por ella

Quédate a mi lado

The mexican

A él no le gustas tanto

El regalo

Lo imposible

Con derecho a roce

Mi segunda vez

Canta!

El examen

El número 23

The game

Clown house

Km3!

Macario

Once upon a time in Mexico

Wes Creaven's New Nightmare

Don't look now

Eyes without a face

Como si fuera la primera vez

El diario de Biridget Jones

500 días con ella

Juno

El descanso

Virgen a los 40

Eterno resplandor de una mente sin recuerdos

Realmente amor

Ligeramente embarazada

¿Cómo sobrevivir a un ex?

Mensajero del futuro

El imperio del fuego

El libro de Emo

Oblivion: el tiempo del olvido

La última esperanza

Escape de NY

El expresó del miedo

Soy leyenda

El último camino

Cuando el destino nos alcance

Sunset boulevard

North by northwest

The artist

The good the bad and the ugly

Highlander

Hair

The Maltese falcon

The road

Independence day

Armageddon

28 dias después

Hijos de los hombres

La guerra de los mundos

Stake land

Take shelter

Snowpiercer

2012

Supersalidos

American Pie

Rumores y mentiras

Todo en un día

Chicas malas

El club de los cinco

El exorcista

El descenso

The babadook

La matanza de Texas

La cosa

Martyrs

Rec 2

El conjuro 2

Pulse

Evil dead

Voice from the stone

Clinical

Dig two graves

Kidnap

Black butterfly

Grey Lady

Dans la maison

Memories of a murder

Incendies

The prestige

Gone baby gone

El secreto de sus ojos

Mystic River

[glitchinthesystemspiderbyte]

Glitch in the System - Don’t Choke

Talon Holiday Pt. 3! You don’t have to read Part 1 or Part 2, but you could! A big final thanks to @corvid-aeon for graciously sharing their culture and favorite aspects of the holiday with us. I learned a lot and gained a friend!

By E.

Very many grapes happen. _

It had been a long day and while most of Talon has taken it easy, Sombra had been made to wade through mountains of work despite the holiday as Akande’s continued, not so subtle punishment for her botched infiltration weeks before. It was only fair, and while her pride was wounded, her guilt wouldn’t let her complain. Still, it was New Year’s Eve, and Sombra would be damned if she let her final, favorite part of the season pass her by. She’d set herself up with warm atole and some of Moira’s homemade Christmas cookies and waited.

Now, minutes before the changing of the year, it was time.

“Are you ready?”

“Born ready, hermano.”

Sombra and Gabriel sat on either side of the folding table they’d dragged into the living room, staring each other down. Before each of them was a plate full of twelve green, seedless grapes and a fluted glass filled with champagne, innocuous and ominous at the same time. Widowmaker sat in one of the many comfortable chairs lining the room, legs crossed, glass of wine in her hand. She was dressed in what she referred to as a “casual evening gown” which Sombra pointed out was not only an oxymoron, but entirely overdressed for the occasion. Widow insisted it was a tradition. Sombra hadn’t argued, considering she was about to shove a dozen grapes into her mouth all in the name of the same thing.

“Sure you’re not in, araña?” Sombra asked, gesturing at the fruit. “Year of bad luck if you don’t.”

“I have my grapes right here,” she replied, gesturing with her wine glass.

Sombra rolled her eyes. “Doesn���t count.”

“Then I will handle my bad luck the same way as always,” she said, tilting the glass back to sip the burgundy merlot, “counteracted by skill.”

“Savage,” Sombra grinned, winking at her. Widowmaker lifted her glass in toast, winking back.

“It’s almost time, Sombra,” Gabriel said, arms crossed at the table. “If you’re late, I’m not apologizing for winning.”

“You don’t win 12 Grapes, Gabe. You just don’t lose.”

“Seems like semantics to me,” he replied, shrugging. “You sure this isn’t just Día de los Inocentes part two?”

Sombra leaned over the table, finger pointing at Gabriel’s face. “Listen, pendejo - you said you wanted to learn, so we’re learning, ok?”

“All right, all right, just saying,” he said, relenting. “I’m from the US. We compete in everything.”

“Yeah, and poorly,” she mumbled to herself.

“Huh?”

“Nothing. It’s almost midnight,” she said. Gabriel was about to retort when the ancient grandfather clock in the corner chimed midnight.

“Bonne année,” Widow said in a singsong voice, tipping back her glass in time with the ringing of the clock.

Sobra snatched a grape from the plate, shoving it into her mouth and chewing as quickly as she could. Gabriel did the same, each grabbing for a second one as the clock chimed again.

“Hey!” Sombra yelled as Gabe slapped her hand away from picking her grape for chime three, causing her to shove two into her mouth on the fourth chime. “Bad luck!” she mouthed around the fruit.

Widowmaker took another sip, watching them play from the safety of her chair.

The fifth and sixth were easy enough; the seventh and eighth seemed more troublesome. By the time the clock struck ten past twelve, Sombra had accidentally spit out two grapes and was struggling to shovel them back in while Gabriel yelled out a muffled curse at having bitten his tongue.

Finally, at twelve past the stroke of midnight, all twenty-four grapes had been consumed by their individual parties, Sombra leaning back in her chair, chewing laboriously while Gabriel started making the most unholy howling noises she’d ever heard.

“I win!” Gabriel said through a full mouth, jumping to his feet, hands in the air.

“You don’t win 12 Grapes!”

Sombra’s wrath didn’t phase him, however, and he slammed his fists in victory on the table. A moment later, he began choking.

“Gabe?” Sombra asked, and he waved her off, pounding his chest and stepping into the kitchen, grabbing his glass as he walked off.

“He will be fine,” Widow said, unworried. “If he’s coughing then he’s breathing.”

“Ever the empathetic one,” Sombra laughed, swallowing the last of her fruit and washing it down with champagne. “I see you drank your grapes?”

“Oui. Although in my country we kiss at midnight,” Widowmaker said, setting her empty glass down on the table beside her.

“Well you know how much I enjoy learning about other cultures, araña,” Sombra said, grabbing Widow’s hands and pulling her bodily out of her seat. As she stood, Sombra met her lips with her own in a firm expression of all the affection they’d built up over the past several months. It was sweet, and dangerous, and imperfect befitting the trajectory of the bridge they’d built.

Widow looked at the clock; it was four minutes past midnight. “Better late than never I suppose,” she smiled, and Sombra bequeathed her with another, softer kiss.

“Here’s to another year of courting danger,” she said, holding the spider close.

“Another year of scrapes and bruises.”

“Another year of close calls.”

“And hopefully no more falls.”

Sombra raised an eyebrow. “Another year of mistakes.”

“Another year of forgiveness.”

Sombra closed her eyes a moment, standing on her toes to press her forehead against Widow’s. “You’re getting good at this, cielito.”

“I have had a very patient teacher,” she replied, placing her cold fingers against Sombra’s cheek.

“I don’t think anyone else has ever referred to me as that,” Sombra laughed, grabbing her hand and holding her palm against the side of her face. “Usually it’s just the opposite: ‘Sombra, pay attention,’ ‘Sombra, you’re talking too fast,’ ‘Sombra, stick to the plan.’”

“New year, new expectations,” Widow said. She tilted her head at the hacker curiously. “I have one question.”

“Yeah?”

Widow smirked. “Are there any more holidays we need to prepare ourselves for or is this it?”

Sombra laughed, taking both her hands. “Nah cariño, there’s one left, but it’s just for you.”

“Ouh lah lah,” Widowmaker swooned, and followed her up the stairs.

*Read from the beginning or check out our intro post! All stories tagged under #glitchfic. Table of contents located here.

[teimywimey]

My first fic posted to AO3 (or anywhere)!

Summary:

Every person is born with their soulmate's name written somewhere on their body. Symmetra’s used to be on her left wrist.

Or

Sombra has no real connections. The person she used to be did, but it’s better this way. Soulmates complicate things.

Chapter under the cut

As hard as Satya tries, she can’t forget the strange golden letters that had once glinted on her left wrist. No one in her family had been able to read the foreign alphabet. She had hoped, when Vishkar had plucked her from her home and enrolled her in their academy, that someone would have been able to read her soulmate’s name for her. But they had told her to put it out of her mind and focus on her studies. Then the gleam was gone, replaced by flat white and a soft, glowing blue.

---

A dingy gay bar somewhere on Route 66 isn’t where Sombra expects to meet a world-famous pop star, especially on Christmas Eve, but here she is. Even more convenient was the overlap between this and another job she had been given. The place is a comfortable kind of quiet. Most of the patrons seem to know each other, even though all but a few sit alone. Some curiously eye Sombra - a couple women with obvious desire in their expressions.

Sombra loves the attention, of course, but there are more important matters at hand. She sends a last flirtatious look to the woman in the corner with full sleeves and turns back to the young man who has just sat down across from her.

“Lúcio Correia dos Santos,” she says, grinning. “A pleasure to finally meet you.”

He smiles back at her. “It’s about time, isn’t it?”

“I suppose it is. So, what have you got for me? And why did you want to meet in person?”

Lúcio shrugs. “This place is on the way from Vegas to Phoenix, and I figured I may as well have some fun before the next show.”

“So you snuck out to go to a gay bar,” Sombra teases.

“Hey now, this can’t be the first time either of us have done this.” They laugh, then Lúcio sobers. “To answer your other question, stuff has been up in Rio. We haven’t seen the architechs in months. The security forces are still around, of course.” His expression hardens at the thought of the private police force Vishkar employs to keep the citizens of his city ‘in order.’ “I’ve heard they’re talking to Lumérico about redeveloping Dorado.”

Sombra nods, hiding the concern that sweeps through her. “They are. It’s been in the cards for a while. You gotta give me more than that, man.”

“ I know.” Lúcio sighs. “Listen, about the architechs? I dug into their backgrounds when you gave me the info on Vishkar, and there’s some stuff that just doesn’t make sense.”

“How do you mean?”

He digs into his pocket and pulls out a data cache. “Take a look.”

Sombra takes the cache - one she had given Lúcio over a year ago when they had first started working together - and connects to it, her enhancements glowing slightly brighter for a moment in the dim light of the bar. There is information from the last forty years, mostly from India: birth and death records, news articles, school transcripts, police reports, bank statements, and on and on and on. The data seems almost mundane until Sombra pauses to consider it more carefully. Transcripts that end with a note that the student withdrew or transferred are followed by missing persons reports. Others are followed by bank transfers out of the blue - many to previously empty accounts. The few police reports that any progress had been made on are followed by articles about unidentifiable bodies being pulled out of rivers. Her eyebrows raise as she notes that many of the records have been marked as deleted in the databases they originated from. She looks at the profiles of the architechs. Names, approximate ages, and even academic records all seem to match up. It takes her less than a minute to analyze all of it, and when she finishes, she looks back to Lúcio.

“So Vishkar has been kidnapping kids and/or coercing parents into giving their children up for decades.” She runs her hand through her hair and lets out a long, slow breath. “That’s low, even for them.”

Lúcio nods grimly. “And some of my people have come to me - teachers talking about missing students, kids who haven’t seen their siblings in days, parents who can’t find their children - Vishkar is doing the exact same thing in Rio, I know they are.”

“Most of this data is from India.”

“Which is where Vishkar was founded, forty-three years ago. It’s also where their academy is. But there are similar reports from everywhere they’ve expanded since then.” Lúcio takes a breath. “I was gonna pursue this myself, but I’m not as good at this stuff as you. You get the information, I empower the people. I’m way out of my league here.”

Sombra nods. “Alright, then. I’ll look into it and keep you updated.” She extracts the information from the data cache and replaces it with new files. “Here’s what I’ve got for you.”

He accepts it immediately and looks through the first few documents. “Helix owns Vishkar’s security force?”

“They contracted them through a shell company.”

“I see,” he says, frowning. “It’s good to finally meet you, Sombra. I should get going. I’ll keep you posted if I find out anything else.”

“Likewise. Have a good show in Phoenix, man.”

“Thanks,” he smiles and slips out of the booth, then leaves the bar.

Sombra leans back into the cushions for a moment, then stands and goes to the bar for a drink. The vodka tastes cheap and disgusting. She looks at it dubiously for a moment, trying to figure out if it has been poisoned or is just that bad. The bartender shoots her a dirty look.

She checks her Talon communicator. There was only one message, from Gabe: ‘Status report.’

‘The cowboy is fine,’ Sombra responds, looking down the bar to the strangely dressed man Gabe had asked her to tail over the holidays. ‘Drunk, but fine.’

The little check mark appears at the bottom of the screen. Sombra waits for a few moments, then sends off another message.

‘You know, you can text people back.’ The check mark appears again.

Rustling cloth and a warm body settling on a stool beside her distract Sombra from Gabe’s poor texting etiquette. The tattooed woman looks her up and down before tapping on the counter. As the bartender pulls a bottle down from the shelf behind him, she speaks.

“Haven’t seen you around here before. New in town?”

“Just passing through.” Sombra rests her elbow on the bar and looks over the woman’s arms, watching the muscles flex as she reaches out to take the drink the bartender sets in front of her.

The woman nods and takes a sip of her drink. She notices the way Sombra looks at her muscles, so she grins and flexes. Sombra holds up a hand and looks at the woman, asking for permission through eye contact. The woman nods again. Sombra pointedly retracts her nails, making the woman snicker, and squeezes her bicep. The muscle is thick and hard, but Sombra feels something even more intriguing under her palm - the slightly raised lines of the woman’s soul mark.

“You covered it up?” Sombra asks, curious, and not at all invested in losing or maintaining the woman’s interest in her.

The woman rolls her eyes. “Don’t tell me you actually believe in that shit. You waiting for your ‘one and only’ or something?” She snarks.

Sombra knows what the woman wants to hear. “No way. I make my own choices.”

The woman gives her a wry smile. “To free will,” she says, holding up her drink.

“To free will,” Sombra responds, clinking their glasses together.

---

Hours later, Sombra sits in her hotel room, going over the reports Lúcio had given her. The tattooed woman had been entertaining for a while, but Sombra had left as soon as she had fallen asleep. She had never been particularly concerned with finding her soulmate, though she knew that the woman was out there. Just because we’re soulmates it doesn’t mean everything is going to magically be perfect.

When she has compiled the data in a way she likes, she turns her attention to Vishkar itself. Their firewalls are easy enough to surpass, the advanced security simple to override. It would almost be fun if it wasn’t so easy. She picks out files pertaining to the architech academy. The intense academic rigor and draconian rules make her roll her eyes. Control freaks. Curious, she looks through the top students in each year from the past few decades, and finds one name consistently at the top.

Satya Vaswani.

Sombra pauses for a moment, then shakes her head. Satya is a common name, isn’t it? But she can’t help herself. She goes to the woman’s file and starts meticulously digging.

She isn’t quite sure what she’s looking for, why she feels a strange need to understand the person represented by the data on her holoscreens. She discovers Satya’s codename is Symmetra, that she had been ‘discovered’ in Hyderabad twenty-two years ago, and that she is probably the best architech on Vishkar’s payroll. Recent notes indicate that someone called ‘SK’ - presumably Satya’s boss or handler - is concerned about the architech’s dedication to Vishkar. ‘Response to events in while on assignment in Rio’ are cited as SK’s reason for doubt. Sombra narrows her eyes and remembers to look over the events surrounding Vishkar’s contract with the Brazilian government again soon. Satya’s academic records testify to her incredible skill with hard-light. Intrigued, she watches recordings of practical exams. Unlike her fellow students, Satya manipulates her tech with a fluid grace, reminding Sombra of a dancer. Her non-traditional method had been the subject of debate among the higher-ups of Vishkar, but they had ultimately agreed that the minor rule-breaking could be tolerated due to its effectiveness. Sombra scoffs. Of course.

As she looks through the architech’s medical files, she finds another video that piques her interest. She selects it. Based on the date displayed in the top right corner, it would have been filmed about a year and a half after Vishkar had ‘found’ Satya.

It is a psychological evaluation.

Sombra watches curiously as the doctors put ten-year-old Satya through a series of tests. She does quite well on the intellectual challenges, but is frequently stumped by emotional tasks. At one point, something overwhelms her, and she claps her hands over her ears to deafen herself. It is then that Sombra sees the flash of gold on Satya’s left wrist.

She pauses and rewinds the video, trying to get a closer look. The letters seem eerily familiar in their pattern of lines and angles, but the camera is too far away to make them out clearly. Sombra exits out of the video and flicks through all the other images of Satya like a woman possessed. Eventually she finds one where the mark is clear, and she has to compare it to a current photo, because this cannot be happening, there is no way, no, it can’t be. But the girl in the photo and the video had unmistakably grown up into the woman that was Vishkar’s top architech. It can’t be her. It’s not true.

But it is.

Sombra sits back, letting out a shaky breath. She looks down at the mark on her wrist, which she had been subconsciously rubbing with her thumb - the flowing golden script in a strange alphabet, which her processors now automatically translate for her.

Satya.

[perfectlycertaincolor-blog]

Leaked Documents Reveal The Resort Entrance hall's Aggressive Planning To Undermine Airbnb.

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