aperture_high | when I lived alone, is there a ghost in my house?

when I lived alone, is there a ghost in my house?

[He's always known, on some level, that Reyes--the mercenary that used to be Reyes--would catch up to him eventually, despite his best efforts. There's only so much he can do to keep word from spreading, especially when he's. Well. What he is, and doing what he's doing. So far he's managed to be elusive, and he would've liked to keep it that way, but he supposes that this confrontation is inevitable.

So he'll make it happen on his own terms. He starts leaving clues, lets Reyes track him to the abandoned warehouse that's already familiar to him so that he can have the meeting on his own turf.

He doesn't know what Reyes expects to find--if he even knows who is waiting for him at the end of this chase, or if he's just after the whispers of the thing that's been ghosting its way in and out of old Overwatch bases. He likes to think he's covered his tracks well enough, but if he'd been truly thorough, he wouldn't be preparing for this encounter in the first place.

All he can really do is stick to the shadows and wait. At the very least, he can safely say that he has the upper hand.]

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[ Gabriel is hunting an abomination.

He knows it well enough that tracking it down isn't so much the issue. It's what will happen once he catches it that's the problem. Sometimes, he'd stopped referring to the ghost as something human. Still, it's reckless and brash and certain clues had led him to believe it's none other than Jack Morrison. As thorough and careful as it thinks it is, Gabriel still has the resources and contacts from during his time in Blackwatch to keep himself strategically placed one step behind.

The breadcrumbs are followed dutifully, but carefully, researching each landmark and event that follows before making a move but not letting too much time slip by. His ghost is quick, and doesn't seem to want any sort of attention drawn to it. But bad news follows the black cloud around like an epidemic, and Gabriel isn't one to leave behind any loose ends, no matter how much they want to be left alone.

The Overwatch base is a dead giveaway, so he tightens his grip on his guns and lets out a heavy breath. Stealth and careful planning has always been his forte, but this thing has a knack for being very well-hidden as well. If it's really who he thinks it is, though, he finds this situation odd. During this entire operation, there'd been a lingering feeling of unease in the pit of his stomach which only grew in intensity as the days passed. Pressing himself close to the cold, steely walls of the abandoned base, he sticks to the shadows until he's far enough inside. His entire head is covered by a mask, eyes glowing softly in the dark. When nothing happens, he wonders if he should just announce himself.

If it really is Jack, Gabriel knows he won't reveal himself until he has no choice, and currently, he has all the choices available to him. He walks out into the open, cautiously, guns still in his grips, and looks around quietly. There doesn't seem to be any need for words. The moment he'd stepped foot into the base, he swore he could feel eyes on him, watching his every move. ]

[Jack has spent an awful lot of time thinking about all the ways this meeting could go. Six years later, he’s still burning with rage to the point where he knows he’s going to have to stop himself from killing Gabriel outright. He reminds himself with what little clarity he has that he needs answers, and that Reyes will need to be alive to give them.

Luckily, he holds all the cards—the only uncertainty is whether Reyes knows it’s him or not. He’ll bank on the fact that he does, simply because they’ve worked together far too long to not recognize each other’s ever move, but, well. He’s not exactly human anymore. There’s still the possibility, even as heavy footfalls signal the arrival of the person he’s lured here.

He’s melted entirely into the dark corners of the abandoned facility, finding it more advantageous to quite literally shadow Gabriel as he starts to make his way inside. Reyes has to know he’s here—Jack would be terribly disappointed in his abilities as black ops if he didn’t know when he was being watched.

So maybe he doesn’t need to be so careful—he can give a good chase, after all. He breaks the stillness by all at once rushing past Gabriel, a trail of black smoke leading him deeper into the facility. He’ll have to be quick if he wants to keep up.]

[ A shiver runs through his entire body, like ice crackling through his veins as he feels the temperature seemingly drop. Even when it's not. He just knows there's something in the shadows, following him, but he can't quite pinpoint it. He just has to hope that when something strikes that he'll be able to follow up and fight back.

Jack never really did play games, but he can almost sense a bit of restlessness when he has the time to analyze these actions later. When black smoke rushes past him in a fury, he startles, gripping his guns tight and snapping them up into position. Ready to shoot, he points it at the retreating tail of smoke, before sprinting after it. No hesitation, even though ever fiber of his being tells him not to blindly run into it. ]

[Shooting at Jack as he is now won't even make him flinch--there are certain advantages to being incorporeal. He's faster than Gabriel like this, too, making it all too easy to lead him deeper into the facility when he gives chase. Reyes is right when he thinks that Jack is generally more straightforward than this, but that doesn't mean he isn't adaptable. He's had a few years to acclimate himself to his powers, awful as they are, and he knows how to use them to their full advantage.

If that means being a little more underhanded than usual, so be it. The same rules don't apply to him anymore.

Still, he knows he can't keep this up forever, though he waits for a more tactically advantageous location before whirling around Gabriel's front and becoming solid again, launching himself out of the miasma of smoke hands first, looking to close around his pursuer's throat.

He's wearing a mask--old Overwatch tech nicked from one of their abandoned bases, but he doesn't much care whether Gabriel recognizes him or not. All the better to remind Reyes of what he did.]

[ He curses softly under his breath as he tails him, blood pounding in his ears. That feeling of being so close and yet still so apprehensive of what lies ahead; he's pretty sure he isn't going to like this one bit. Of all the horrible, shitty things he's had to face in the past, somehow— this seems to be the most emotionally trying. Steeling himself, blocking those little nervous voices in his head, he continues pursuit until suddenly. He's not.

There's that split moment before the trap is sprung, he knows he should've seen coming, but something about that desperation of catching up or not losing him blinded him for a brief second. A second is all it takes. He turns a corner, and suddenly there's smoke billowing out. A sharp form of a hand cuts through the haze and at his throat, and his first instinct is to throw his arms up. ]

Shit!

[ Trigger fingers can't be stopped, and when everything becomes too suffocating all at once, one loud, clear shot rings out. ]

[The rest of him coalesces not long after his hands, using his full weight to force Reyes over and overwhelm him before anything can really be done. He has the element of surprise, that much is clear by the panicked reaction, and the black mist swirls around them both in a bid on Jack's part to make everything that much more chaotic.

They go tumbling and Gabriel fires his gun. He'd be lying if he said he didn't anticipate that, but his very existence is a world of hurt to the point a gunshot feels like nothing.

The force of it, however, causes him to recoil, loosening his grip and letting out a howl. His form coalesces above Gabriel, the hole of black gore already smoking and growing smaller by the second.]

You're gonna have to do a little better than that.

[ It's hard to tell what's going on at first. There's black smoke everywhere, and just noise, noise, blood pumping in his ears. Then he's suddenly ripped from it when the smoke reels back. ]

Yeah, I'll show you better—

[ He unlatches a flash grenade from his belt, launching it at what he thinks is Jack's face. Hoping to blind him for a brief moment, he has his trigger finger on the ready, hoping to blow a wound in him great enough that it will slow him down.]

[He should know it's coming, at this point, but perhaps Jack is riding a little high on the fact that he has Gabriel so close. The prospect of either answers or his hands around his enemy's throat is so overwhelming that it makes him sloppy, lets Gabriel unhook the flash grenade and set it off right in his face.

Since some of his attention is currently diverted to healing the gunshot wound in his midsection, it makes it that much easier for him to be surprised by the grenade and subsequently allows Reyes to blow another substantial chunk out of him--this time his neck and shoulder.

He immediately loses his physical form, little more than a writhing mass of black miasma in front of Gabriel. This time, it takes him a few long seconds to start pulling himself back together, leaving himself open in the process.]

[ He takes this opportunity to pointing his gun right at the greatest point of impact, where the ooze looked thinnest. It'd be easy to just keep shooting, to continue shredding him to pieces until there's nothing left and hope that it stays that way.

If and when the mass starts to solidify a bit, he cracks off another shot. Whether Jack dodges it or not is not of his concern. ]

Any last words, Morrison?

[ He has so many questions about his condition, but he's pretty sure Jack also has plenty of things to say to him, too. ]

[So, maybe this isn't going exactly the way he wanted it to. Jack can more-or-less regenerate from a bloody smear on the floor, but of course he'd rather not do that if he could help it. It seems Gabriel is always one step ahead of him, even in death.

Un-death. Whatever. He's still angry.

Angry enough that he's not going to give a legitimate answer, instead pulling himself together enough to launch himself at Gabriel with another inhuman snarl, becoming solid just to try and topple him over with his weight.]

[ He braces himself for impact. The light armor of his Talon-issued gear isn't exactly the toughest material, but he knows himself well enough that he'll survive. He just has to keep his wits about him, gotta keep a level mind while Jack snarls at him in a frenzy.

When he hits the floor, the wind gets knock out of him but he only gasps for a brief moment, eyes going wide as he struggles to get air into his lungs. Legs kicking out, he tries to get an ankle around whatever body part gets stuck down there (his knee? Ankle? It's hard to say with all that smoke).

His hand swipes across the miasma, reaching for any solid mass to hold onto in hopes of getting his gun back up in time. ]

[Similarly, Jack knows that it’s going to take much, much more than this to put down an SEP graduate. But he’s intimately familiar with Gabriel in a way that Gabriel can’t be with him, anymore, and all he really needs to do is outlast, something that should be easy when he can continually rebuild himself.

Not that it’s very pleasant.

Knocking Gabriel to the floor offers him a momentary advantage, and he starts to coalesce, smoke coiling around him and becoming solid in an effort to pin him down. Vapor becomes a hand with fingers locked tight around Gabriel’s wrist, preventing him from reaching for his guns. A knee digs into his stomach.

It’s his face that forms last, not that there’s much to see, given the mask that he wears.]

Had enough yet?

[ Like quicksand, the more he struggles, the more he seems ensnared in the trap that he'd fallen into. Hand immobilized and the weight of a knee pressing heavily into his stomach stills him momentarily, chest heaving as he tries to catch his breath. He grits his teeth, fist following the motion as he stares up into the stone-cold mask looming over him.

With an experimental twist of his body, he gauges his position. Nope, stuck pretty tight for now. Jack isn't going to give him an opening that easily. ]

Heh, you know as well as I do I can do this all day.

[ This close up, he can see the smoky details. How every tendril seems to be a controlled part of him, stitching back together into solid shapes, only to disperse again at will. It's disconcerting, and altogether curious, but not as frightening as he'd thought it would be at this distance. Then again, Gabriel was rarely ever frightened. ]

...what the hell are you, Jack?

[ His tone drops down to something startlingly gentle, with only a hint of a growl in the back of his throat. ]

[Oh, Jack knows. He’s intimately familiar with the fact that they’re both stubborn, but right now he has Gabriel pinned. By keeping him from accessing his guns, Jack will outlast him. For now, however, there’s something supremely satisfying in being able to stare down at him, completely in control. It makes him smug, the confidence dripping from his voice.]

Why don’t you take this off and see?

[He says, not loosening his hold. Jack wants to be certain that Gabriel won’t go for his shotgun the instant he has the chance.

He doesn’t know what he is, but he knows he’ll get at least some satisfaction from making Reyes see it.]

[ He lets out a gruff sigh, testing the grip Jack has on him. Yeah, he didn't think the guy would be stupid enough to just let him reach out and take the mask off instead of, you know, punching him straight through the mask. Or the shotgun. Whatever's easiest, really.

So, Jack wants some sort of reassurance that he won't just go straight for the gun, huh? He wonders what sort of crazy method they'd have to come up for that, because right now? Gabriel is already getting irritated by the smugness, tempted to just muster up all of the strength he can manage to wrestle him off.

Hell, he might end up doing just that. ]

Sounds like a dare if I ever heard one.

Take it off, Reyes.

[A tendril of smoke manifests itself and swats the gun away, effectively putting it out of reach. Only after Jack is reasonably certain that Gabriel won't be able to reach for it does he loosen his grip. His hands still grip Reyes' arms, but not with the force from before--if he decides to free himself to remove the mask, he'll find that he's able to do so.]

[ Fine. He'll indulge him, if he must, to which he's 100% sure. Jaw clenched, he keeps his eyes on him, moving his hand up slowly to grasp the side of the mask. He's not sure what he'll find, and just why Jack wants him to take the mask off so much... he can only imagine the worst.

The bit of resistance as Gabriel moves his arm is telling of just much he can exercise his arm's freedom. Best not to push him. So, slowly, the mask unhinges and he pries it away. ]

[Jack stays right where he is, letting Gabriel pull the mask off and set it aside. Smoke immediately billows out from underneath, but soon it clears and he's pulling his face together as best he can, eyes locking with Gabriel's to catch every minute change in his facial expression. Take in his reaction--the fear, horror, maybe pity. Maybe he won't see anything at all. Gabriel has always been good at playing things close to the chest.

His face takes a moment to assemble, all half-decayed and struggling to keep its shape. Jack doesn't look any older than he was the day of the explosion, but he certainly looks deader, skin pale and crumbling, cleaved in two by the scars that bisect it. The one crossing his lip is deep, enough to pull at his mouth and expose his teeth. He can't seem to decide how many eyes to have, but eventually he settles on two, the extras blinking away before they're re-absorbed.

There's some kind of clever quip to be made here, but that's more Gabriel's style. Jack stares at him in silence, waiting to hear what he has to say.]

[ It's almost beautiful in its reveal, how it all falls apart and comes together. Gabriel did not scare easy; he's seen a lot in their lifetime, Jack as well, but when it came to the latter? He sometimes surprises himself.

The heavy scars catch his eyes first, eyebrow line hardened but the irises quivering ever so slightly as he tries not to flit his gaze in a sort of desperate attempt to find his old friend in the fractured creature before him. He came here after (trying to) compartmentalizing those feelings, but like this now, too close for comfort, he can't help but crumble just a little inside.

It's the extra eyes that jar him out of this, surprisingly enough. Gives him just enough leeway to take a crack at him, even if it seems a little forced. ]

Mgh... [ Clearing his throat, his fists tighten again. ] Bet you're a real hit at parties now.

[He’d told Gabriel to take his mask off expecting some kind of satisfaction—or at least the upper hand, but somehow a familiar quip like that breaks something inside him, makes him wish with everything he has left that things didn’t have to be this way. Jack doesn’t even have anything to say in return, and instead his face screws up in anger before he dissolves again, his weight leaving Gabriel with seemingly no strings attached, this time.

Jack crosses the room in what can only be described as a furious cloud of smoke before he re-forms himself against the opposite wall, mask still forgotten on the floor. His shoulders seem to hunch.]

What were you looking for, when you came here? Me?

[ Gabriel remains on guard, hands near his weapons, watching Jack—that thing that Jack became—in case someone flips the crazy switch. The image that just passed burns his mind, all those eyes blinking at him in mockery of the clear and honest hue they represented. ]

Was lookin' for a monstrosity. Gotta put it down, even if that isn't my fucking job.

[ He wasn't necessarily angry on his way here. Letting emotions get to him before the mission even starts always messes with your head, but now that he's standing in front of him? ]

Tying up loose ends, though... that's different.

[ He is curious as to why Jack lured him in like this, though. Clearly the guy has some questions, not that he can blame him. Just giving the guy some answers had been a great internal debate as it is, but at the same time, he probably owes him that much. Whether or not these answers will help or sate Jack's curiosity is a whole 'nother ball game. ]

[He laughs, a rasping sound that's a far cry from anything Reyes may have been accustomed to, once. Still, Jack doesn't make any further moves, like the very act of pulling himself together has left him either exhausted or unwilling to wheel around on Gabriel again.]

Are you gonna put me down, Reyes?

[Jack invites him to try, really. He still has very little idea of what he is, even, to say nothing of what could kill him. He's pulled himself back from fatal injuries and worse--been shot, stabbed, electrocuted, burned, disintegrated--he's come back from all of them. If Reyes is here with a solution, well. Jack would be interested in hearing it.]

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when I lived alone, is there a ghost in my house?

dusts off not-dead gabe

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crawls in late

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