"I continued the work on my 'Cerebral Projector' (funny name, right?!) that I started back in my college days (which you don't need a date on!). Until my original lab is fully operational again, it gives me a chance to work on more personal projects (you know, like that snow cone gun everybody writes to me about?) so I'm very excited to come back to this Projector!
Farewell! Especially if you're running a bus company!
Mei-Ling Zhou
Mei energetically pushed herself against her desk, sending the rolling chair beneath her skidding across the room, though not far enough to reach her destination. Her face contorted in determination as she grasped the seat and pitter-pattered her feet against the floor, slowly making her way over until once again coming face-to-face with her spherical 'Cerebral Projector'- a project she'd grown quite fond of since making some rather important progress on it.
She pulled it into her lap and whipped out a small wrench-like tool, poking and prodding at the inner workings of the metallic ball, her lips bending to one side as her eyes narrowed in focus. Her tiny drone flew by to watch, having finished its previous task of formatting the blog post Mei had just completed.
"Thanks, Snowball!" she exclaimed as she worked her tool around various wires and circuit boards, "Right now I'm trying to link up the motherboard with the front ports. I'd like to make it project independent of any peripherals, but for now, I'll just settle with projecting, uh, you know, to monitors and stuff."
Nearly losing her train of thought within that dense collection of technology, she sighed in relief as she finished up, "Great! Can you get me a USB to HDMI cord?"
Snowball made an agreeable whirring sound as its digital eyes rose in a happy expression, its tiny body lightly floating across the room. In the meantime, Mei finished reconstructing the outer shell of the device, patting it affectionately as she nodded approvingly of her work.
"This could revolutionize psychology, neurology; everything!" she exclaimed aloud, carefully placing the spherical ball of tech onto her desk as Snowball returned. Hooking the device up to her monitor, she held her hand against a small grove in the Cerebral Projector, studying the screen as she played certain thoughts through her mind.
Nothing.
She groaned, "Well, looks like we need something more. Ugh."
Shaking her head dejectedly, Mei sighed as she spun around in her chair, "I was hoping it would pick up the correct biorhythms and pulses of nerves that time, but it wasn't even picking those up! Snowball, what am I going to do?"
The small drone's face fell into a pair of sad eyes as it lowered down against Mei, gingerly rubbing against her face, which only caused her to laughed, "Okay! Okay! I'll just take a break and come back to it…again."
She stood up and walked toward the door, though only to make her way around a desk. Instead of leaving her dark lab, she walked toward a couch she'd brought herself, hopping into it as she reached for a controller, turning a nearby television onto some show or something. She sighed as her mind remained on her little project, though she only snuggled with a pillow as she sunk into the couch, dejectedly.
Since coming to Watchpoint: Gibraltar, Mei had barely left the quiet confines of her laboratory, though it easily doubled as a workshop with all the technician work she also performed. Despite inviting her himself, Winston would often forget she was there himself; though, on the times he would invite her to escape sometimes, she simply laughed and waved it off.
Her true headquarters, however, was down in Antarctica, where one of Overwatch's few environmentally-minded Watchpoints was, though, in a devastating storm, all of the people she had worked with, and grown to consider family in that isolation, had all perished. In a desperate attempt to wait for aid, they'd all cryogenically frozen themselves, and in those ten years of waiting, all but one had died in their stasis.
Mei often tried not thinking about it, though it was one of the reasons she was so dedicated to this Cerebral Projector. The purpose of the device was to be a non-obtrusive method of projecting one's thoughts and memories, hopefully including ones that the individual user couldn't fully recall.
She could remember the names, voices, and personalities of her old colleagues, but she had devastatingly found that she could not remember their faces. So, while her project may have started sadly enough, it had grown into a device she had hoped could help amnesia patients or others with psychological issues.
Still, despite her work, save for a major breakthrough or two, she still had nothing to show for it. Sometimes she would ask Winston for some assistance, but even he was flabbergasted by some of the stuff she was doing, and after a single visit to Tracer's small workshop, which was where she built model planes, Mei had decided not to risk her device in the hands of a being who teleported through time and space so recklessly.
Mei wrapped a blanket around herself as she rested her head on her pillow, her eyes focusing seriously on the screen in front of her, one of her favorite characters facing certain death. One of her reasons for her solitude was her adversity to the Gibraltar heat, and as long as she remained in her small lab, she could crank the a/c as low as she cared. Though, on the other hand, she was also very solitary herself, choosing the company of a blanket and coffee over most humans.
Upon arriving to Gibraltar, Winston had suggested that she begin writing a journal and offering it to be viewed online for the masses. As one of her only close friends, Winston knew of her lovable personality, and figured having such a friendly person as a face of Overwatch couldn't possibly hurt, at least not any more than already was the case, as Overwatch was 'officially' disbanded.
Mei sighed, relieved, as her character had just managed to escape their demise, dramatically throwing her head back. She reached for her cup of tea, her eyes not daring to leave the television. Pulling it back over toward her, the flexi-straw poked her in the face as she was unable to direct it, though after another few pokes, she'd managed to aim it at her mouth properly.
Suddenly, the small receiver she'd carried with her at all times began sputtering to life, and she hurriedly paused the show, turning at the small radio curiously, the scruffy voice of Winston sounding out, "Mei? You there?"
She reached for the small device and pushed the small tab at its side, "Yes sir!"
"The new recruit is here; would you like to meet-"
He paused, quietly biding his time before going on, "-you fell off the couch, didn't you?"
"N-N-N-No!" she stammered nervously as she picked herself up off the ground, "I-I love meeting new, uh… people."
Winston chuckled lightly over the radio, "I mean, you don't have to. Angela's here too, so I mean, you could possibly finagle seeing her again without running into a new face."
Mei's lips tightened in frustration at her own introversion, "A-Are you trying to entice me, sir?"
Winston reply came with a voice that could easily been seen by Mei as accompanying a shrug, "I was just saying is all. I was just curious is all. How's your work coming?"
Mei sighed, happy that her personality was no longer up for discussion, "Good, I guess. I'll keep getting more and more burnt out, though, if I don't start getting results… I'm itching to do more climatological studies."
"Ah, yes," Winston replied, wonderingly, "Your heart belongs to the atmosphere and all that it surrounds, right?"
"J-Just because you can hunt down my old high school poetry doesn't mean you can just quote them out of nowhere!"
Winston chuckled before signing off, "Alright, alright. Hey, I've gotta meet this Fareeha lady; I'll leave you to it. Good luck!"
"Tha-" Mei replied, lightly, as her radio clicked off, "Thank you…"
She sighed to herself as she fell back into her couch, pulling her legs up and crossing them as she pulled out her phone, only watching it sadly. Snowball levitated down toward her, rubbing against her cheek again, though eliciting much less of a response from his maker.
"Thanks Snowball," Mei muttered quietly, "But this issue requires more than tickles to fix."
Like most things, Mei's emotions were much more easily expressed through writing. She swiped through her phone, opening up her personal journal- the one kept private and available only to her. Sadly, her fingers hovered over the keyboard, unable to find a starting point for the longest time.
I'm so distant and quiet (not that you'd know, diary). I love being able to live so self-sufficiently, but… I hate this inability to easily deal with new people. I hate being so shy…
She groaned, tossing her phone onto the couch, frustrated with her poor writing and, more so, her lack of insight of her own feelings. She simply grabbed the controller again, continuing on to watching her show, though her sadness continued to grapple at her attention.
Some hours later, the head of Mei poked out from the kitchen, carefully checking down both ends of the hallway. Her eyes skeptically scanned the area as she stepped out through the door, pulling off her coat and dropping it onto a nearby chair, left there for such a purpose. Carefully enough, she made her way down the hallway, knowing full well how much these hallways echoed.
Turning a corner, her eyes trailed further down the previous hallway, not keeping up with her change in direction and, sure enough, her body ran straight into a massive force, knocking her backward onto the ground. She looked up quickly to see a rather burly woman, just managing to regain her balance above her.
"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" Mei repeated as she took to her feet, rapidly reaching out to examine the unfamiliar person.
The tan woman laughed, pushing her hands back, "No, it's fine. I was more worried about you; are you okay?"
"F-Fine!" Mei repeated, loudly, catching the newcomer off guard, "Oh… You must be, uh, Faree-"
She hid her face behind her hands to hide her embarrassment at forgetting her name, "Ah! I'm sorry!"
Faree grinned, bending down to collect the few items that had fallen out of Mei's hands during the crash, "Like I said, it's fine. I'm Fareeha Amari. I'm actually new here; I was told to go to the green room to prepare for training? You're the first person I've seen to ask, though."
Mei slowly moved her hands away, though made an "Eep!" noise upon realizing Fareeha had gathered her belongings for her, "Th-Thank you!"
Waving her off further, Fareeha assured her, "It's fine, you know? Anyway, could you direct me to the green room? I'm already late as it is, I'm sure."
Mei remained quiet, staring down at the bag she'd reclaimed from Fareeha as if not able to hear the guest's words. Fareeha watched her curiously, not wanting to either insult her or bother her by repeating herself. Instead, she looked around again, her face twisted in thought.
"Ah, maybe it's down here," she muttered to herself, "Sorry again for running into you…ma'am; I'll keep my eyes on the road from now on."
Before she could walk off, however, Mei suddenly perked back to life, "S-Sorry! I was just, uh, thinking. The green room is the left there, just past the, uh, locker rooms."
"Oh, hey thanks!" Fareeha replied, happily as she stepped away, "Oh, if you're watching a sad movie or something, try some wafers- the crunch really helps deter tears. At least if my roommate was any indication."
Mei watched her curiously, "How did you, uh…"
"Well, your bag," Fareeha explained, "You got ice cream and a bunch of sweets and stuff. I just figured you seemed the type to binge watch stuff, right?"
"N-N-No!" Mei replied, nervously, "Nothing like that! Just, you know… There's this one show, 'Some Like It Botter'…"
"Ah ha!" Fareeha exclaimed with a grin, "My roommate back at Helix watched that whole series. I thought it was the dumbest thing…uh, no offense. I kept catching glimpses of it though, and woefully began watching it with her. That explains a lot though, for sure. Just get through season eight and you'll be good to go, alright?"
Fareeha held out a hand for a high-five, which Mei gingerly reciprocated as the newbie continued, "Hey, I didn't catch your name."
"Oh! Uh, I'm Mei-Ling…"
"Wait, the Mei-Ling from the blog online?" Fareeha questioned, shocked, "Wow! You seem so different in person! Oh, no offense or anything."
Mei shrugged, "N-No. I get that a lot..."
Fareeha watched her, carefully, before starting off again, "Hey, I'll see you around. As long as they keep me around, that is."
She snickered to herself, shaking her head, "It's not like it's my life-long dream or anything!"
As she vanished into another hallway, Mei slowly began to recoup herself, having exerted quite a bit of energy in simply speaking to another human being. She turned around to head back to her own space, careful to avoid anybody else. Still, she whipped out her phone, jotting down some words before sending her message off to Winston.
"She seems like a good person," was all she had written.
A/N: Not sure how often I'll update this. I'm more focused on completing my Two Moons series, so if I still have more to write of this once that's finished, it'll be all hands on deck! I have a pretty fun and dramatic story in mind for this, so I hope the introduction isn't terrible to read through. Plus, this time, I know to hunt out commission artwork ASAP this time around, rather than wait until my story is more or less completed xD
Anyway, I hope you return for more, and I hope you enjoy! :D