#fr knew what they were cookin when they released that. at least

[batfossil-fr]

someone take har/jest away from me. i can’t keep doing this to myself i have to stop scrying with it. i have 2 projects that need harlequin and 5 that need jester

[wispyatomica]

The Rabbit, The Rat, and the Hog (Chapter 6) - “Let’s build!”

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Jamison was startled awake by a searing pain in his left side. He cursed under his breath as he slowly sat up off the cold flat table, moving his mechanical arm to his bandaged side. He examined the bandages for a moment, intricate metal fingers tracing the blood stained fabric before his gaze shifted around him. He recognized the walls around him, he was back at his and Roadhog’s hideout hidden deep within the wasteland of Australia. “Hooley dooley, That fuckin’ hurts.” He commented to himself as he slipped his legs off of the table, moving to the door slowly and stepping out into the open factory floor.

Roadhog was set up in a room on the opposite end of the building, one hidden just underneath the staircase that led to the catwalk. He could tell by the blinding light shining in from the western windows that the sun was about to set on another day in the outback. Holding his prosthetic limb against his injury, he poked his head into the room where Roadhog was working on his scrap gun.

“Thanks fer patchin’ me up, mate.”

“Wouldn’t have had to if you had listened.”

“Well excuuuuse me for wanting more excitement out of my life!” Junkrat responded with a giggle as he stepped inside of the room, leaning against one of the walls as he watched Roadhog work for a few more moments before speaking up again.

“How did we get out of there?” He inquired, his mind struggling to recall the exact series of events of their escape beyond that mecha pilot girl sending that cocky junker pilot flying.

“Your friend provided a distraction.”

“Friend? Whaddya mean friend? Yer the only one I’ve got Roadie.”

Roadhog pointed a hand upwards, lifting his head from the work on his gun and pointing at the ceiling. “That girl killed her own mech to save your ass.”

Junkrat tilted his head in confusion for a moment, glancing in the direction of the iron wrought staircase that was just barely visible from the doorway, and it was then that he recalled the entire scenario. He rewinded the memory in his head of when D.Va used her MEKA’s self destruct protocol and sent a decent chunk of Junkertown to rubble. He could see her once more emerging from the debri she used as a shield, and in the aftermath of that explosion, she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. A grin spread across his lips as he looked back to Roadhog, pulled from his own thoughts.

“Y’mean that sheila’s here?”

“Yup.”

“...She’s alive?”

“Yup.”

“...You’d never bring anybody here, mate. Why did ya bring her? Don’t get me wrong, that explosion was quite a sight, but that mech she was usin’ looked like somethin’ from the pocket of a suit in Sydney. She might not be trustworthy.”

Roadhog shrugged his shoulders in response, facing down Jamison once more as the smaller lankier male adjusted himself on his peg leg. “She was going to die there, and she saved your life, Jamison. You owe her a thanks.”

Junkrat’s expression dulled even further, poking out his lips towards Roadhog in a pouting manner, a bushy blonde eyebrow raising as he sighed heavily, kicking himself off the wall of the room. “Alright fine, but you’ll neva hear me say it again!” Roadhog chuckled to himself as Junkrat exited the room, returning to his delicate work on the scrap gun as Junkrat scaled the staircase to the catwalk.

Hana Song was still completely knocked out from exhaustion. Being given a chance to relax and collect herself with a good rest was never more welcomed, even if the futon she was sleeping on wasn’t the most comfortable in the world. Nevertheless, she slept soundly the entire afternoon. The MEKA unit comm set she had resting on her head the whole time was lazily falling off the edge of the mattress, her body half under and half out of a large blanket. Her shoulder length brown hair was a complete mess; covered in dust, dirt, and debri from the excitement the night before, and her exposed face was no different. Soot and dirt were pooled on her forehead and cheeks, even a small sliver of dried blood rested on her forehead. Having rolled over onto her stomach, she unconsciously grabbed a hold of one of the nearby pachimari plushes, the toy buried in her neck as she slept peacefully.

Junkrat poked his head in each of the different rooms on the catwalk, until discovering that she was in their loot room. He saw her delicate form curled on the mattress, covered in a blanket and holding onto one of Roadhog’s prized pachimari toys. Whatever obsession Mako had with those toys, Junkrat would never know or understand. He carefully and quietly snuck into the room to get a closer look at the girl before him.

She was completely different from any of the females that Junkrat ever saw or encountered in the Outback. Her skin was very light colored, not tanned and her frame was so small and delicate it was like she had been starved, not too different from his own physique. Though her eyes were closed, he could see that they were much thinner and smaller, she was probably not from Australia based on her appearance, yet her clothing spoke otherwise. The maintenance uniform she wore looked eerily similar to the clothes that most junkers wore, which probably a good thing for her, it would help her blend in. Jamison focused on her face for a few moments, noting a large soot and dirt mark on her cheek, he chuckled slightly before noticing something odd: her breathing.

Even though she was lying down, Junkrat could easily discern that she was struggling to breathe, as her back would rise and fall eerily slow compared to his own. He tapped a mechanical finger against his chin, watching her for another quick moment, before he wanted to make sure that she wasn’t dying. Who knows, maybe Roadhog decided to poison her. He carefully clasped his right arm against her shoulder, shaking her slightly, “Oi, wake up sheila.”  

The movement alone didn’t seem to be enough to wake her though, and as a few moments passed he suddenly shook her very harshly, worried by the fact that she wasn’t awakening quickly. Hana remained unconscious for a few more moments, before she was startled out of her sleep by the harsh shaking motions. She threw herself up from the bed as Junkrat pulled his arms back defensively from her body. She began to breathe and pant heavily for a few moments, before harsh coughing left her throat. She doubled over for a moment, coughing into her non injured arm until her coughing subsided and she saw who was in the room with her.

Her first reaction was to scoot backwards and away from him, her mind having fully awakened itself now and recalling that she was accompanying two international criminals in their own base hideout. Junkrat tilted his head, his amber colored eyes rising up and down her form as she backed away even further from him.

“Woah woah, sheila. Easy. I ain’t gonna hurt ya.”

Hana kept her distance from Junkrat despite his words and attempt to calm her down, she gave him a skeptical look, finally having a good close up look at the criminal mastermind. His body was abnormally tall, even hunched over in his current position she could tell that he had at least a foot on her own height. The skull tattoo ridden right arm sported an incredible, fully functioning prosthetic forearm, no doubt made with precision and care. D.Va’s eyes traced from his prosthetic limb to his shirtless torso, exposing his permadirt ridden body and surprisingly toned abdomen. When her eyes caught sight of the bandaged wound on his side, she eased slightly, returning her gaze to his haunting, yet captivating amber eyes.

“There ya go, now I suppose I owe ya a thanks fer savin’ me life back there.”

“You’re thanking me?” Hana returned, tilting her head as she adjusted herself more comfortably on her knees, her heart rate slowing from the rather sudden start she had moments earlier.

“Well mostly Roadie made me do it.”

“Oh. Well...You’re welcome.”  Han responded, offering Junkrat as genuine a smile as she could, despite how strangely awkward she felt in this situation. It was when Junkrat responded by waving an arm and slouching backwards,  that she felt a little bit more comfortable, allowing the tension in her shoulders and back to release.

“I gotta know sheila-”

“My name’s not Sheila.”

“What’re you spittin’? ‘Course it ain’t yer name! Sheila’s what we Aussies use as slang for women.”

“Oh.” How was she not surprised.

“I guess I outta know yer real name though, since you’ll be hangin’ with me and Roadie for awhile.”

“What do you mean awhile? Am I...a prisoner or something?”

“Oh no not in the least, girlie. With the heat of everything that happened back in town, it’d be best ta lay low for a few days before tryin’ to make a getaway. ‘Sides, we’re in the middle of the Outback a thousand miles from anywhere, you won’t be gettin’ very far on two feet when the sun’s high in the sky and cookin’ ya like a steak.”

Hana gritted her teeth for a moment, as much as she didn’t like it Junkrat had a valid point. She knew how far away she was from Sydney and trying to make that four hour journey by MEKA on foot would surely end in her demise. Her return to the city would probably not be welcomed by anybody at all either, as there was probably no doubt a search party looking for her where abouts by now from the Korean military. She sighed heavily, running a hand through her hair as Junkrat beamed an unusually friendly grin to her.

“Well whadd’ya say? What’s yer name?”

“ D.Va. You can call me D.Va.”

“Well D.Va it is a pleasure to meet ya, my name’s Junkrat and my tubby friend is Roadhog. As far as I know, I’m the only one who gets to call him Roadie and live.”

Hana chuckled softly as she adjusted herself once again in her sitting position, looking around the room for a moment and taking in again just how much stolen stuff she was surrounded by. “What is this place anyways? I’ve never seen a factory like this before.”

“Well it's obvious you’re not from the Outback then, these factories used to be all over the place, before those omnic blokes ruined everything. When the omnium exploded, everythin’ here went to shit. This place was one of the last few left standing, and once Roadie and I found it we knew we’d have a good place to call home, on our home turf.”

Hana nodded her head softly as Junkrat got up from his sitting position, practically jumping to his peg leg and easily walking out of the room, motioning for her to follow him. She hesitated for a moment. Well, there’s nothing better to do while the heat dies down, might as well entertain him.

“This whole building is our home and we use all of the scrap and spare metal to build things as we please.” Junkrat started rambling on about the various engine and robotic parts scattered around the room, it was similar to the mission briefings she would get in the good old days of her early Korean military years, she often slept through them or dazed off into her own world. If there was one thing that Hana could tell from Junkrat’s speech though, even if she hardly remembered anything that he said, it was that he was no doubt enthusiastic about everything as he was always laughing crazily or over exaggerating his statements.

“Oi, speakin’ of crimes from around the world; I don’t recognize yer accent. Where are you from?”

“I’m from South Korea.”

“What in the world is that?”

“It’s a country in Asia, just west to the cost of Japan.”

The description was clearly going over his head, to which she shook her head, “Never mind, don’t worry about it.”  “Heh, whatever you say Dee-va. C’mon, let’s go see what Roadie’s got planned for cookin’ tonight.”

The conversation wasn’t forced or extremely awkward, but the whole situation that Hana had found herself in was making her sick to her stomach. She knew mentally that she hadn’t eaten since midnight the night before, and no doubt her body was starving and yet she had no physical appetite. Nonetheless, she followed Junkrat as he hobbled down the iron wrought stairs, moving slightly slower than Junkrat. Despite the fairly severe injury to his left side, he still firmly planted his regular hand on the railing, flipping his body off of the side instead of walking down and around like any normal human would. Something about his eccentricity was very amusing to Hana, and she laughed as she followed Junkrat into the room where Roadhog was finishing up his work on his scrap gun, setting it neatly on a hanging rack on the wall.

“Roadie, meet D.Va!”  Junkrat exclaimed, presenting both of his hands with open palms in a very overly dramatic pose, hunched over as if he was announcing her presence to the very world itself. Hana very cautiously stepped into the room, noticing Junkrat’s strange posture and nervously waving her injured arm to Roadhog. “Hi.”  “Hey.” He responded in the deep voice she recalled from the night before. He waited a moment for Junkrat to move over and hop into a sitting position on a nearby desk to speak again. “How is your arm?”

“It’s doing better, I’ll make it through.” She responded with a soft, authentic smile, to which Roadhog grunted once more, before their loud companion once again bellowed out in his maniacal voice. “Not to interrupt, but I’m starved! Whadd’we got ta eat Roadie?”  

Roadhog remained silent as Junkrat questioned what they would be eating for dinner that night. She could swear that if his pig mask could show emotion, it would be showing the most unamused expression to the lankier junker. The former motioned his hand as he moved towards D.Va, who quickly stepped out of his way. Junkrat was the first to barrel past D.Va, eagerly following Roadhog into the open factory floor, with Hana following slowly behind. She felt a slight pain in her chest, perhaps it was from being scared awake earlier, and tried to ignore it as she watched Roadhog move into room where they had bandaged Jamison earlier. She watched as Roadhog opened a cabinet in the room, exposing blank silver cans which were then tossed one to each individual. “Beans, gotta get more food soon, ‘Rat.”  “You got it mate, we’ll go out tomorrow evenin’ once me side is all healed up.”

Hana caught her can of beans with her good arm, noticing that there was an easy open pop top. She opened the can and tilted her head, she was not all that familiar with canned beans, as it wasn’t part of her normal diet in Korea, but nonetheless she could feel the hunger start to slowly rise in her stomach, it would have to suffice. She looked around for a moment as Junkrat hopped onto the table he had woken up from and opened his can, pulling a utensil from out of practically nowhere and going to town on his dinner. She tilted her head slightly, watching Jamison devour the meal before Roadhog caught her attention by gently nudging her arm. She glanced over and was met with a spoon being offered to her, to which she thanked him and began to eat her own food. The texture of the beans was different, smooth but she did recognize the distinguishable taste of pork, it made the beans a bit easier for her to eat.

The western sunset on the Australian horizon shined it’s brilliant orange light into the open building, illuminating the factory floor in a strangely beautiful light. Once she had finished her food, she tossed the can where the two junkers had tossed theirs and placed her spoon on a nearby box, hoping that it would be there should they eat again. She stretched her arms over her head slightly as Junkrat and Roadhog moved past her and exited back out into the spacious floor. She followed behind soon after, watching as Roadhog scaled the iron wrought stairs and ascend to the room which she had rested in earlier. “Have a nice rest Roadie, I’ll take first watch with D.Va.”  

“Eh? First watch?”  

“Yeah, we might be hidden by that rock out there, but given we’re criminals and nobody ‘round here quite likes either of us, we still have watch shifts.”  

“Oh, I see.”

“C’mon, I’ll show ya some of my work!” Junkrat beamed proudly, motioning for Hana to follow him over to a crowded work desk. The desk was covered in crinkled papers, scrap metal parts, and various tools. The closer she got to the table, the more quickly she realized that they were intricate blueprints for various bombs, mines, and even some guns. She felt her jaw drop slightly as she looked over the various papers, picking one of the visibly older and crinkled ones up and examining it, while Junkrat plopped on a tall stool and began to work on the creation at the center of his table.

“You’ve made all of these?”

“Well most of ‘em. Some were just ideas, that was one of my first pipe bombs that you’re holdin’!”  

“Wow, this is really cool.” Hana commented as she moved a little closer to Jamison, watching as he delicately worked on a flat-bottomed circular device. “What are you working on?”

“Well this is one of me favorites, D.Va! It’s a mine that I use to help me get around.”

“Oh wow, but isn’t that dangerous?”

“Who ever said that I was careful?”  

Hana laughed in response to that, pointing at his side. “Yeah, that’s kinda obvious.” She watched as he worked so carefully on the device, it was shocking to her. She had hardly seen him sit still for that long of a period of time, she could tell that he was one to pride in his creations. She took a minute to think as the sharp pains came back to her chest, causing her to cough a few times away from Junkrat. She had noticed that the air was thicker, no doubt thanks to the radiation disaster years prior, that was probably the cause of her cough. With time she figured that she’d adjust, and it was as she was thinking about time that something caught her attention.

“Hey, wait a minute. Do you remember my mech suit?”

“Well o’ course, sheila! That was quite a spectacular clunker.” Junkrat responded as he finished placing the final wire to his concussion mine, nodding his head in approval and setting it off to the corner of his desk, turning his ember ridden head of hair to the smaller girl.

“What if...we build another one for me?”

“Build you a new mech?”

“Yeah, I mean I’m not really going to have much to do while the heat dies down on us. Besides, when we part ways, you won’t have to take me anywhere.”

Junkrat paused for a moment, tilting his head and scratching his chin as he contemplated her idea. It could prove fairly entertaining, and he could also learn how she managed to create that beautiful explosion. “Alright, let’s build a mech!”

“Yes! Thank you Junkrat!” Hana cheered eagerly, pumping a fist in the air. If her years in the Korean military had given her anything, it was a near eidetic memory of the interior skeleton and exterior shell of the MEKA units. She searched around Junkrat’s desk for a blank piece of paper, which she quickly found. She began to look for a pencil or something to draw with, when Jamison offered her one. She smiled softly to him, taking the pencil from his hand and slightly bowing her head.

“Heh, that’s the third time you’ve done that, sheila. Dunno what it means but it’s weird lookin’.”

“Oh, it’s a sign of respect in my culture, it’s second nature to do it.”

Junkrat raised a slightly flaming eyebrow, making an inquisitive noise before bowing his head to her in an obnoxious fashion, which caused her to laugh heartily. “Now that looks weird!” She responded through laughs, which Junkrat dismissed with a wave of his hand.

“Get ta work on yer mech, girlie. Yer crowdin’ my work space.”   D.Va couldn’t be all that surprised by his sudden change in attitude, she was after all dealing with an unpredictable criminal. She looked down to the ground, gently pulling the ponytail holder from her hair and letting her brown locks drape freely around her shoulders as she exited his work station area. She moved to one of the conveyer belts in the open room, moving a large box over towards the flat surface and sitting on it cross legged. She quickly began to sketch the skeletal structure of the MEKA units as best as she could from memory. Things are looking up. I finally have a way to get out of this forsaken wasteland and back to civilization.