#what is this little freakazoid on my screen get him out of here

[bonefall]

do you have any plans for willow tail?

No solid plans, just little fragments that I'm fond of.

I do actually like the bunny bone idea, in some ways. I like how it starts. She sees Red Claw just sunbathing on the moor, can't stand the idea of seeing his ugly mug around, and comes up with a way to get him in trouble. It's so petty!!

"Ohh I'll get my revenge on him! First I'll eat my lunch, and then I'll CLEAN my lunch, and put it on the border, and say that he is eating our rabbits. That will make Wind Runner yell at Clear Sky, and he will yell at Red Claw, and he will never sunbathe here again aha HA HA it's BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT!" Ok Yzma. I love you.

Mundane bullshit I love it so so much. She just ate her lunch for the drama.

That's such an interesting idea for a conflict, y'know? I love it so much more than "IT WAS ALL FOR REVENGE." What starts as petty, easily resolvable drama escalates because Clear Sky is SO easy to offend, which makes Wind Runner dig her own heels assured that she's right, and then eventually Willow Tail can't back down because it's gone too far and she hates Red Claw too much.

And even Moth Flight. I wish they did more between Willow Tail and her, as friends and allies. They both hate Red Claw for getting people they love killed, it would have been a lot more interesting seeing the two of them commiserate and confide in each other.

(but if moth had friends, then you can't do the stupid celibacy rule because then the clan would. like. help her babysit a little. which they offer to do, btw, canon moth flight is just such a freakazoid that she rejects all help. its a bad book, brent)

It's also interesting the way that Clear Sky is, again, a monster in this book. He clawed her eyes out, for the crime of "stirring up trouble." Then he stepped aside and told Red Claw he could do whatever he wanted with her. It would be a shockingly violent thing even for someone who earned that level of brutality. I really expect no less from the SkyClan tyrant.

(it's not lost on me btw, that the writers will go to bat for Tom the Wifebeater and give him a redemption death but then show Willow Tail suffering and dying slowly on screen for Clear Sky's vindication. They don't see him as the demon they wrote him as.)

Anyway... time for Fragments Proper.

BB!Willow Tail

TO BEGIN WITH: BB!DOTC is the one arc that I have no intention to stay faithful to. I do not value "sticking close to canon" the way I do with the others, it is not a consideration. It's a total overhaul-- with Gray Wing being killed in book 1 and xeir roles taken by Thunder Storm's mother, a language barrier between Park Cats and Tribe Cats, and a totally different order to the formation of the Clans.

Moth Flight's Vision is now Moth Flight's Vow... and there's no room for Willow Tail's bunny bones drama anymore. It's a completely different story with a brand new origin for the Cleric's Vow.

So if the Bunny Bones drama remains, it'll have to go somewhere else

Though I do like it, I'm also nonplussed about losing it.

I feel like the Bunny Bones plot works best with Skystar as the antagonist, because no one else is nearly as easily offended as him... but at the same time, I have a really solid plan for him losing 8 lives to Star Flower's Ritual, and then his final picking a fight with the River Kingdom, winning a significant amount of territory.

But, it would also be VERY cathartic to have Skystar's final death be just after gouging Willow Tail's eyes out, with someone deciding ENOUGH IS ENOUGH and even if Willow Tail did lie, she doesn't deserve to be tortured.

I'd be inclined towards doing the Bunny Bones plot the way I described liking it; as petty drama that got out of hand, but really revealing Skystar's true colors.

Hmm... maybe I'll make it a Tiger Sky novella, and have this be the story about her deciding to leave SkyClan.

(INFO for those who don't recognize the name: Tiger Sky is the BB version of one of the Angel Fetus Children they gave Clear Sky. She is the daughter of Falling Feather, and half-sister of Thunderstar.)

Anyway-- depending on if Willow Tail ends up being a Park cat or a Tribe cat, her name could be very different. The Wind Coalition is Park-culture, so they're born nameless and earn titles over time.

It's likely she won't end up with Willow Tail as her name, but something more like Willowbark Weaver, or Willow Flayed Bare. Willy for short.

Windstar's Revelation, a direction given by Gray Wing the Wise in the aftermath of the First Battle, is to begin innovating and moving away from violence. So I can see Willy earning this title after demonstrating excellent uses for willowbark.

Her childhood name was different. The first name a Park Cat wears is [Mentor]'s Paw, and before that, they have a simple physical descriptor.

So first of all I need to pick a mentor for her, and I'll only figure that out after making a loose allegiance list

And second of all, her baby name was probably Tabby, and her brother's was Mottle.

Speaking of her brother, though...

I don't like how they broke Frog's back and then just had him die on the way home. I dislike the trend in this arc where several cats get disabling injuries (Moon Shadow, Frog, Tiny Branch, Willow Tail), only to die of them shortly after.

So I think I will be keeping Frog alive, especially to point out how they dealt with a paraplegic cat in ancient times in contrast to modern times, with Wildfur and Briarlight.

Which means he will also need a new name and chosen mentor, if he's a Park cat. But anyway...

Their ages might get shuffled, but at their very oldest, I want them to both have been young during the First Battle.

And that's what I've got, so far!

[phantoms-lair]

Serious Freakzoid thing (Freaking Out) Part 3

It was a familiar chiptune that woke Dexter up, one he had set to play when his custom GUI loaded. He forced his eyes open and realized he was one the floor. What was he doing there? 

Seeing the side of his computer opened jogged his memory of the Pinnacle Chip going nuts. Or did it? The computer was functioning perfectly now, humming quietly along with the screen. He looked at the hand where he'd grabbed the chip and saw no sign of the massive electrical burn that would have had to be there. 

An electrical burn is a burn that results from electricity passing through the body causing rapid injury. Approximately 1,000 deaths per year due to electrical injuries are reported in the United States, with a mortality rate of 3-5%.[1] Electrical burns differ from thermal or chemical burns in that they cause much more subdermal damage.[2] They can exclusively cause surface damage, but more often tissues deeper underneath the skin have been severely damaged. As a result, electrical burns are difficult to accurately diagnose, and many people underestimate the severity of their burn. In extreme cases, electricity can cause shock to the brain, strain to the heart, and injury to other organs.[3] 

What....? Dexter shook his head, trying to figure out where that had come from. 

He shook his head and Mr. Chubbikins meowed and rubbed against him. Dexter reached to pet him when a strange feeling shot through his head.

Pheomelamine is the pigment responsible for the ginger color in cats. 

A huge 80% of all ginger cats are male

♪ Cat *wink* I’m a kitty cat. And I dance dance dance. And I dance dance dance ♪

Words and images flooded his head and all of a sudden it was hard to think, to focus. He saw Mr. Chubbikins and for a moment didn’t recognize him as his beloved pet, but simply a cute cat.

“Kitty Kitty Kitty,” he cooed in a tone that wasn’t like him at all. It was certainly enough to scare off Mr. Chubbykins, who nyoomed under the bed. The disappointment of the moment was enough to bring him to his senses.

He turned on his heels and ran to the bathroom. He examined himself in the mirror, trying to see if there was something wrong with his head or eyes. He ran through the Stroke checklist, but passed the standard tests. “Am I just going insane?” he muttered to himself. “Next I’ll be seeing little blue men.”

As he said this he felt a gentle buzzing on his skin. Looking down he saw a wave of electricity passing him over, leaving his skin blue in its wake. He whimpered, his mind trying to wrap around what he was seeing, What on Earth could turn his skin blue?

Cyanosis refers to a bluish cast to the skin and mucous membranes. Peripheral cyanosis is when there is a bluish discoloration to your hands or feet. It's usually caused by low oxygen levels in the red blood cells or problems getting oxygenated blood to your body.

No, this wasn’t cyanosis. Even he knew enough to know humans didn’t turn that particular shade. And why the heck did these...data pieces keep forcing their way into his brain?

His thoughts were interrupted by a pounding on the door. “Hey Dorkster, open up. The rest of us need to use the bathroom too!”

It was all Dexter could do to keep from hyperventilating. He couldn’t let his family see him like this! They already thought he was weird! What could he do? Disguise himself?

He felt the lightning tingle again, around his eyes and the top of his head. A glance in the mirror revealed his hair had become black and spikey, while a domino mask appeared about his eyes. As his panic rose, he felt a strange bubbling feeling in his mind. His thoughts broke apart and drifted away, no matter how hard he tried to hold on to them. Why was he trying to hold on to them anyway?

“Come on, freakazoid, open the door!”

Oh right, Duncan. Huh, Duncan had always been upset Dexter wasn’t like him, big and strong. If everything was changing, maybe he could change that?

He grinned as he became taller and gained a physique not seen outside comics. Duncan would be so happy! He opened the door with his grin growing ever wider. “Let’s Wrassle!”

~~

Roddy took a deep breath as he stopped the car, ignoring the ache in his ribs it caused. There was no ambulance or people screaming, so hopefully no one had been seriously injured. It was a small comfort, but it was there. He grabbed his old Apex employee card and the cane he hated but needed to be mobile right now.

He made his way to the front door carefully, avoiding icy patches on the walk and steps (oh how he’d come to loathe steps) and rang the bell.

He heard some movement inside and the door opened to reveal a middle aged woman with a smile that seemed almost grafted on.. “Can I help you?” “My name is Roddy McStewart, I work for Apex International, creators of the Pinnacle Chip.” He handed the man both his Work ID stating he was an employee and his driver’s license. “We received a signal from a newly installed Pinnacle Chip of a malfunction and I’m here to take a look at it.”

“On Christmas Day?” she asked, surprised.

“We all do what we can to make a living.” He gave her a sad smile.

“Well, okay then. Dexter’s room is upstairs, second door on the right.” Roddy blinked. Just like that? Still he shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Even if it involved stairs.

He was nearly bowled over by a teenage boy running past him, yelling about something blue. Roddy looked to the woman who’d opened the door, but she'd just called up to ‘Dexter’ that he had a guest.

Odd Family he thought, as he made his way up the stairs.

~~

This was some quality family bonding he thought as he sat on Duncan’s back locking up one of his brother’s legs. That’s what it was, right? That’s why it was okay for Duncan to get physical with him.

“I give! I give!” Duncan called out.

But he knew this game. It wasn’t over because the other person gave up. You had to make them say something. “Sing ‘I’m a tugboat, Call me Mel’.”

“I’m a tugboat...call me Mel...I can’t, I don’t know the words?”

“That’s a tough one since I just made it up.” He admitted, but let Duncan up since he had tried.

Duncan tore out of the room, so he knew he’d done a good job, until he heard his mother’s voice coming from downstairs. “Dexter, you have a guest.”

Dexter. That’s right, he was Dexter. And with that realization the floating feeling he had vanished as his thoughts coalesced and his body condensed into the body he’d always had. He fled back into his room and huddled on his bed, too freaked out to try and do much more.

There was a knock on the door and a red-haired man entered. He glanced around seemingly surprised at the computer, still humming along. “Are you Dexter?”

“Yeah, who are you?”

“Roddy McStewart. I’m here about a malfunction with your Pinnacle Chip, but everything seems to be-”

“That was real?” Dexter blurted out. “Ever since that happened...I think I’m going insane.” he clutched his head.

“Can you tell me what happened?” Roddy asked. The room wasn’t a mess of shrapnel as he feared, but it was obvious something had happened.

“After I installed it the cat jumped on the keyboard and it started going nuts. I tried you yank the chip out to save the computer-”

“Are ye daft boy! You could have electrocuted yourself!” 

“I know, I wasn’t thinking!” Dexter snapped back. “I grabbed it and I thought I got shocked and blacked out, but my hand was fine when I woke up. And...thoughts keep popping in my head.”

“What kind of thoughts?” Anything besides a broken computer was well out of his wheelhouse, but Roddy couldn’t just leave the kid when he was so upset. Especially given the concern he now had with the lad’s mother sending him up to see her teenage son without any supervision.

“I dunno, random facts? It’s like articles and videos are just pulling themselves up in my mind. And then everything goes fuzzy.” Dexter didn’t mention what had happened in the bathroom. There was no way that was anything other than a hallucination.

There was the beginning of an idea forming in Roddy’s head, but he wasn’t ready to admit it was possible yet. That the reason Dexter’s computer had been spared was the Pinnacle chip had found a better storage solution for its mass internet download.

Before he could even think of how to check or even explain the door burst open and a taser fired directly at his chest. Roddy’s world exploded in pain, both from the electricity and his ribs from the body spasms, and everything went black.

~~~~

I’m trying to do more of a buildup to Freakazoid’s development and not him just being created fully formed by the accident. In the first episode Dance of Doom Freakazoid states that he and Dexter are two aspects of the same person so I wanted to show how he comes from Dexter.

[overwatchworks]

Blackwatch Week: Pain

Jesse spoke with Reyes over his comm quietly, everything uneventful for the time being, the night still and peaceful. The intel mission they were on was surprisingly calm, which worried the gunslinger. Then again, they were in the stake out phase, Jesse perched on a roof opposite of the building they were keeping an eye on.

“Boss, ya want me ta go in an’ see if I can get that intel? I got eyes on the tech room, and the monitor it’s on too.” Jesse asked, a soft hum coming before his answer.

“Wait just a little longer, McCree. You got a set of guards walking past at your ten, they’ll be in sight in about two minutes.”

“Copy that.”

The intel they needed was a simple video recording of a meeting between a suspected Vishkar representative and a known Talon influencer, something Blackwatch could use in order to apprehend both parties and end whatever deal they were making before it could cause trouble. Jesse waited for the guards to show up and pass without a worry, the two of them strolling down the hall the cowboy had been watching for a few hours. They came in intervals of twelve minutes and thirty seconds exactly, the same six going as pairs in rounds. Jesse knew their faces by heart now, and he sighed as they passed the window, none the wiser of his presence. 

Stake outs were some of Jesse’s least favourite missions. They always lasted way too long and were just so goddamn boring. He’d take gunshots and running through fire any day if it meant a little excitement in his life. Reyes was always saying that would get him killed, and Jesse was betting it would too. This life suited him though, and he wasn’t planning on leaving it anytime soon. The gunslinger’s comm came to life again, the commander’s voice smooth as ever across the line.

“Alright, security cameras are on a loop, you’re good to go. Ten minutes tops in there, got it?”

“Aye aye, cap.” Jesse replied, finally standing and taking a few seconds to stretch. He then took the line they had already set up for him to get onto the roof and slid down it, his gloves absorbing the friction for him. Jesse landed on the balcony with barely a sound, waiting a tense moment to see if any alarms would start to blare. Everything stayed quiet, and Jesse grinned to himself, heading over to the door to place a hacking device on the security panel.

“Shimada’s going with you.” Reyes suddenly informed, Jesse’s brows furrowing but not taking his eyes from the device. He typed in the numbers it showed for him, the door opening with a hiss.

“Not that I ain’t happy ta have some company, but I could get this done on my own, boss. Why send in extra?”

“Because I am clearly better at stealth than you are, and we’re hacking two monitors.”

The gunslinger whipped out his gun, leveling it with Genji’s forehead before he bit his tongue on a frustrated scream.

“Don’t fuckin’ do that! Goddammit you know it scares the bejesus outta me!” Jesse whisper-shouted, his free hand balling into a fist as he shoved Peacekeeper back in her holster. Genji was wearing a smirk under that mask of his, those red eyes holding traces of amusement. The little shit always did that to him on purpose.

“Come on, we’re wasting time.” The ninja murmured, slipping past Jesse and into the building without a sound. The cowboy grumbled to himself, following Genji after making sure the door shut behind them. It would open again for them in eight minutes. 

Genji had already started tapping in some numbers to get into the tech room with all the monitors and machinery, the keypad he was using flashing green after a moment. Jesse gave him a little thumbs up, then entered the room cautiously, rows of blinking lights and various computers showing different images meeting him. The cyborg went off to Jesse’s left, eyes scanning a desk he passed before moving in further. He disappeared behind a row of screens and what looked like filing cabinets for technology. While the gunslinger didn’t like losing sight of his only teammate and backup for the situation, he went to the right to search for the computer containing the intel they needed. It would be on row 37-J.

“McCree, status report.”

Jesse tapped his ear to activate his comm, speaking into it in a hushed tone, repeating the row number in a mantra internally.

“We’re searchin’ now.”

“I have Agent Shimada overriding their security systems so we can get in and you can get out. You’ve got five minutes until the guards come around.” Reyes told him, Jesse’s brows furrowing.

“Boss, I thought this was just an intel gatherin’ deal.”

“There’s a change of plans. We’ve spotted an investor of the company. They must be having a meeting.”

“So...What? Yer gonna arrest him?”

“I’m gonna see who it is first. We could have more players in this deal than we know.” Reyes murmured. The gunslinger shrugged a shoulder, stopping at the row of computers that had been listed as the site for the information he wanted.

“Aha...Alrighty, down fifty-two eighty...Fifty-two eighty...”

“What?”

“Nothin’—Found it!”

Jesse grinned as he whipped out the drive and plugged it into a port, the lights beside it blinking rapidly.

“McCree, what’s Shimada’s status?” The commander suddenly demanded, Jesse frowning and looking up from his work.

“Uh...Not sure. Gimme a sec.”

The cowboy reached for his gun instinctively as he stepped away from the device he was hacking, glancing over the tops of the databases.

“Gen? Where’d ya go?” He called, his frown deepening when he got no response.

“Genji?”

“Is that the freak omnic thing you’re talking about?” A new voice piped up, strangely warbled and definitely not one Jesse had ever heard before. The room suddenly lit up with a purple light, the computers all showing a skull symbol of some sort. Peacekeeper was in Jesse’s hand in the blink of an eye, though he wasn’t quite sure where to aim. The voice was coming from everywhere at once.

“What the hell did ya do to ‘im?! Who are ya?!”

“Ha! Freakazoid asked the same thing. I’m afraid I have to stop your attempts at stealing my info. I have to say, I’m impressed with your little hacking devices. Too bad mine are better.”

His hard drive suddenly sparked and started smoking, fried from the inside out. So much for that. The gunslinger cursed and pressed his comm to alert Reyes, but there was another laugh from the voice.

“No no, that won’t work just yet. I gotta set off the alarms now, so good luck getting out of here alive. Boop!”

The screens all went black, the room turning pitch before red lights and sirens started to blare.

“Shit shit what the hell?! Commander?! Reyes!” Jesse shouted, furiously pressing his silent comm as he made a dash for the door. He ran past it to the left to search for Genji, shouting for him and checking the isles as fast as he could but finding nothing. Cursing the whole time under his breath, Jesse went back to the entrance. He was about to leave when he ran into someone, a blade being pressed to his throat as he leveled Peacekeeper at their head.

“Genji?!”

“Jesse?”

“The hell did ya run off to?! The fuck’s wrong with ya?!”

“I told you where I was going! I had to reset the security system in a different room, then my comm stopped working after that voice!” Genji hissed angrily, lowering his weapon and leaving the room, Jesse on his heels.

“Ya didn’t say nothin’ ta me!”

“No, I told you, and you answered an affirmative!”

Jesse glared at the back of Genji’s head, then frowned, thinking about what the voice had said. It must have been able to do more than just jam their comms.

“Hey, stay close ta me. I don’t think we should go out the way we came in, an’ I can’t trust the comms anymore. I don’t even know if that was really Reyes talkin’ ta me.” Jesse called, Genji nodding in agreement and sticking with him like a shadow. They hadn’t run into any guards yet, which immediately sent off red flags in Jesse’s mind. A low rumbling sound came from below them, the ground tremoring and causing the two to halt their trek.

“We need to get out of here...” Genji murmured, Jesse throwing a sarcastic look his way.

“Nah, I was thinkin’ we stay an’ relax a bit longer while the buildin’ collapses on us. Sounds like more fun.”

“Shut up.”

“There’s another exit five hundred meters opposite of the one we came in from, let’s head fer that.” The cowboy offered, already moving off. Genji kept pace with him, and they sped up when the building shook again.

“Are they tryin’ ta take the whole damn thing down?!”

“There weren’t many guards here to begin with, I’m thinking they were expecting us.”

“How in the hell would they know? And why blow the fuckin’ buildin’ up?!”

“I’m betting it’s our little voice from earlier. It’s a sure way to get rid of any traces that we could find of the information we want.” Genji growled, glaring and tapping at his own comm. He cursed sharply, giving up on it as Jesse had. They weren’t too far from an escape anyways.

“Ya still got that hackin’ device, by any chance?” Jesse asked as they neared their exit, noticing the little panel next to it was blinking red. Genji nodded once, both skidding to a halt when they reached the door. The gunslinger kept a lookout in the slim chance that someone may come after them, stumbling when another explosion went off below them. They were getting closer, the building groaning when the trembling subsided enough to hear over.

“It’s fucking jammed!” Genji shouted suddenly, banging a fist on the panel and then kicking at the door. Jesse put his gun away for the moment, running to the ninja’s side and pressing a few things on the panel. It was green, but the door was indeed jammed shut.

“Shit...!”

“Move.” Genji growled, pulling out his katana and shoving it into the crack between the wall and the door itself. He pushed his weight against it, Jesse catching on and helping him try to pry it open. The floor shuddered again, the cowboy’s footing almost slipping, but he managed to remain upright. Genji glanced at him, then took his prosthetic hand off the grip of his blade and pushed with Jesse.

“C’mon c’mon c’mon—!” The gunslinger grit out, a cold sweat beginning to break out on his brow, hands clammy in his gloves. The door budged, moving open enough for him to fit his arm through. That was all the momentum they needed, Genji quickly resheathing his katana and shoving the door back with both hands. Jesse turned and pressed his back against it, using his legs to help hold it open, the space now large enough for Genji to slip through.

“Go! An’ hold it open from the other side for me!” Jesse ordered, the cyborg complying without a word and moving under his leg. They worked quickly, Genji keeping the door open long enough for Jesse to try and squeeze through, the space tight and uncomfortable. The building rumbled again, Genji losing his grip with a shouted curse and before Jesse could yank his left hand free, the door slammed shut on it. He heard bones crack, white-hot pain blinding him as he screamed. The ninja was shouting something at him, fingers scrabbling at the lip of the door to no avail as Jesse turned his agonized shouts into a litany of colourful language.

“Jesse! Fucking open dammit—!”

The cowboy felt tears springing to his eyes, body slumping a bit as panic took over and he just tried to yank his arm free in desperate, almost animalistic attempts. It didn’t budge, only causing more fiery agony.

“Stop moving! You’re just making it worse, stop! Jesse!!” Genji yelled, gripping Jesse’s shoulders and shaking him. It grabbed his attention, his frantic movements halting for a moment.

“Listen, it’s not going to move, and the building is about to collapse on us or explode! Now either it gets blown off of you and we both die, or I cut it off, got it?!”

“What?! No no no, no don’t ya fuckin’ dare chop off my arm—Gen I swear to god—No stop!!” Jesse practically screamed as Genji ignored him and ripped a piece of cloth from the black serape, tying it tightly around his bicep. The gunslinger swiped at Genji with his good arm, trying to shove him away while mindlessly shouting at him, the pain making his vision tunnel.

“No please, please don’t I need that arm, we can still get outta here with it attached don’t fuckin’ touch it—No! No no no!”

Genji gripped Jesse’s chin in his hand, forcing him to focus, those red eyes boring into him.

“We’ve got all of two minutes before this whole thing collapses and Reyes needed us to meet him at that warehouse downtown, remember the one—“

Jesse’s shriek interrupted him, the ninja whipping out his blade while Jesse was distracted and cutting straight through his arm in one clean motion, the limb severing in a little spray of blood. The gunslinger immediately collapsed, Genji dropping next to him and yanking the rest of his serape off his shoulders and wrapping it over the bleeding stump of his arm.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, come on we need to get up, I’m so sorry...” Genji was murmuring, Jesse barely hearing anything over the buzzing in his ears. He vaguely felt the cyborg drag him to his feet, his whole body feeling like it was on fire. Genji somehow managed to get them off the balcony, keeping Jesse slung over his shoulder until his head cleared enough to walk.

“Oh fuck...Holy hell, dammit—!” Jesse cursed when he had to jump across to a different ledge a story down from the one they had been on, the movement jostling his arm. He was running completely off of adrenaline at this point.

“You alright? Okay, hurry up—!” Genji was interrupted again, only this time, it was an explosion from the balcony they had just been on. The door blew off it’s hinges, glass spraying everywhere and the force of it knocking both Blackwatch agents from their spot. Jesse went free falling for too many seconds, then blacked out as soon as he hit something really hard way too fast.

-

“Jesse!! Jesse no, wake—!”

-

“—O’Deorain now! No, I need emergency—”

-

“—Blew up and I had to!”

“You could be sent to rehab for—”

-

“--Stabilizing. Injecting anesthetics now--”

-

Sounds came back to Jesse first, a steady beeping slowly urging him awake. He felt like he was floating, something tugging at his left arm. It throbbed dully, along with his head, and just about everything else on his body. With a soft groan, Jesse finally opened his eyes, silently thanking whoever had decided to turn the lights off in the room he was in. It was definitely a medical bay room, the gunslinger had been in one enough times to know. There was movement beside him that he registered just a little late, unmistakable red eyes peering at him from a chair to the right of the bed.

“Well howdy.” Jesse slurred, frowning at the rough and scratchy sound of his voice. Genji stared at him a moment, then silently offered a glass of water that had been sitting on the little table next to him. He wasn’t wearing the bottom half of his mask, but his face was just as set and unreadable as if he was.

“Mm, thanks...” The cowboy mumbled after downing the whole thing, pain slowly ebbing back to his body. When the silence between them prevailed, Jesse asked a question to fill it.

“Where’s the commander?”

“Just left about twenty minutes ago.” Genji told him quietly, his eyes drifting to his arm and then darting back up to the cowboy’s face, lips pressed in a tight line.

“An’ the rest of the mission? Tell me we at least got somethin’ outta that.”

The ninja shook his head, fingers tapping restlessly against his leg.

“‘S gone, ain’t it.”

A tiny nod, then more tense quiet. Jesse forced himself to look down at it, what was left of his arm bandaged heavily and resting in a sling. It wasn’t too bad, considering it could have been his life. He’d expected to lose more than just an arm on the path he chose, but it was still a shock that it had actually happened.

“I had to.”

The cowboy’s gaze slowly dragged back up to meet Genji’s, his eyes hesitant.

“What?”

“It was your arm or your life...And call me selfish, but I was not about to lose you.”

Jesse pursed his lips, then nodded slowly. It didn’t quite seem real yet, the fact that his arm was gone for good not sinking in. He laughed dryly, Genji wincing slightly and curling his fingers into fists, looking away.

“Well, hey, at least we’ll match now.” The gunslinger finally murmured, bitter amusement twisting a little grin from him.

“I...Do not think that’s a good thing.”

Genji still wasn’t meeting his eye, his gaze trained at his lap instead.

“Gen. Look at me.”

Those piercing eyes were dancing with guilt when they finally looked up, the cyborg’s fists tightening to white knuckles.

“Thank you.” Jesse told him, Genji’s brows suddenly furrowing low in confusion.

“For what...?”

“Savin’ my life. I’d have been killed without ya there with me.”

“But...Your arm—“

“I got two of ‘em. Well, not anymore, but ya know what I mean. What I’m tryin’ ta say is, don’t beat yerself up over this. It was bound ta happen one way or another, an’ honestly, I’m glad it was you an’ not the explosion.” Jesse said with a shrug of his good shoulder. 

The ninja dropped his gaze again, not offering a reply. Jesse moved his only hand to the edge of the bed, capturing Genji’s attention again. He held it out as an invitation, the cyborg sitting still for a long moment before he reached out and joined them. The cowboy grinned a bit, squeezing his hand and rubbing his thumb over Genji’s knuckles.

“Ya selfish bastard.” He whispered, Genji huffing a quiet laugh before he nodded and moved closer, tucking himself into Jesse’s side and resting his head on the other man’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry...” He whispered, his arm lacing over the gunslinger’s waist.

“Don’t be. Ya did good, the best ya could.” Jesse assured, pressing a soft kiss to the top of Genji’s head. He fell asleep again like that, the pain of everything soothed down to a dull ache as the ninja rubbed lulling little circles over his hip through the fabric of the sheets covering him. 

~~