Title: Recreate
Characters: Symmetra, Junkrat, (Torbjorn.)
Note: Sorry it's a bit of a short one, I'm not feeling so well today but I really wanted to finish this idea. I guess it kinda shows. ;^; I'm just gonna skip to the RFR
Kudos to:
Ashbringer36 (to make up for using the poker idea for something else)
SaltyDan15 (for the actual request)
Rapid Fire Round
- Is cackling at how many people she has converted to the McTracer/ReaperTracer cult - I mean ships
- McCree and Pharah? Well, I have an idea in mind, but it's not shippy. Accepted.
- DDR contest accepted.
- Hanzo and Mei accepted oh my GOD I cannot stop thinking about these two since seeing this suggestion. I think this has become a new ship for me ...
- TrueMcreeMemes, you let yourself down by not saying 'It's high noon here', instead of 2am XD, but thank you.
Always and forever, thank you everyone. - Guixi
For regular users of the base's communal workshop and to the engineers themselves, the sounds of high pitched shrieking had just became a norm. It usually belonged to their resident demolition expert, upon (once again) catching fire from being too dangerously close to his project, or occasionally and this time ripped from Symmetra's throat when she saw her section had been sabotaged by the aforementioned Junker.
Her fleshy fist trembled in utter rage as her gaze swept side to side, sickened and riled to the core seeing the total mess. Everything had been ordered. Everything had been placed to perfection. Labels were neatly plastered on every bag, bin, bucket and cupboard. And now?
It was an indiscernible pile in the middle of the floor.
Symmetra had become so wound up at his antics she did not realise she was clenching her teeth until her jaw started to hurt. It would take hours to restore everything to how she envisioned it – thankfully, she had a photographic memory. Nevertheless, the Vishkar trade agent would not settle for such insubordination, especially since Torbjörn's response tended to be nothing on the matter.
Hard light sprung into the centre of her prosthetic palm, living digits manipulating it swiftly and meticulously into the design for her turret, reprogramming the AI with one intention only, before neatly embedding it against the frame of her door. With her protection sorted, she set to the gruelling task of cleaning up after Junkrat.
There was a sense of cruel satisfaction when she spotted his form hobbling towards her corner, fat smile slapped onto his crooked long face, to which she venomously returned, much to his confusion. Just as he snapped his fingers in greeting and stepped just that inch too close, her turrets sprung into life, photon beam searing into his exposed chest like little cigarette burns.
He yelped, unabashedly screaming – he was always a vocal man – and frantically tried to scramble away. The pain was like a continuous threading needle; coupled with the burn on his muscles that slowed his movements, but otherwise was not enough to cause serious, lasting harm. The grin was wiped away from his face, replaced with a heated questioning scowl as the friendly gesture of his hands was morphed into something a little more derogatory.
"Perhaps now you will take the hint, Fawkes." she hissed.
"You're breaking my heart, luv! After I went to all this trouble to get you a little surprise." he returned her vicious smirk. A sense of dread welled up in the pit of Symmetra's stomach when he hooked off one of the many grenades adorning his harness, sinking one of his incisors within the ring and pulling it off before drawing back and tossing the live explosive into her domain.
No amount of composure or etiquette training could stop the streak of instinctual fear sparking in her eyes, widening them as her lips popped open in an involuntary shout. Her hands and mind co-operated faster than she actually kept track, ensnaring the soaring charge into a hastily made prison of hard light, to which it exploded harmlessly and left only smoke curling out of any slits.
As her heart beat a mile a minute, Jamison was in stitches, robotic leg slipping as he scrabbled to try and maintain his grip, before giving up and contently throwing his arms around his sides, laughing hysterically. He seemed so amused by her reaction that little tracks of tears were visible on his cheeks thanks to the soot, and each noise emitted from him put Symmetra all the more on breaking point.
"I have HAD IT with you two!" boomed a voice, silencing Junkrat to a more managable fit of giggles instead and Satya sheepishly resting a hand over her heart, trying to still the rapid beating.
A very stern looking Torbjörn rounded the corner and despite his short stature, beige apron, welding mask and beard neatly gathered and protected, he still commanded respect. At least, Symmetra's, in any case. Junkrat was far too tickled by the prank and the sight of him to muster up any semblance of respect, and she was pretty sure he didn't know the meaning of the word either. The Swedish engineer waved his hammer like a gavel of molten judgement, pointing accusingly at the pair.
"Every day it's same, bickering and fighting like yer five years old! I did not agree to share my workshop with a bunch of unruly children!" he grounded out.
"But -" her protests were shot down by his fiery glare.
"No! I don't want to hear another peep outta ya about this! Junkrat is here to stay, and if you don't like that then you can build one of yer fancy teleporters to go back to Vishkar an' tell 'em why we sent you packing." Sufficiently reprimanded, Symmetra fell begrudgingly silent as Torbjorn rounded on the Junker.
"And I have told you repeatedly to stop antagonizing the other engineers, and repeatedly you have broken my rules to pick fights. This is not a playground, lad, this is a workshop!" Junkrat didn't seem to be listening, happy to remain on his floor and pick a bit of dusty earwax out of his ears, or scratch out some ash that had peppered his tufts of blonde hair.
Had it not been for his mask, they likely could have seen how red-faced Torbjorn was getting by shouting, and it was not because of the active furnace on his back. He simmered down a little, clawed appendage whirring as he lowered his hammer and spoke in a lower, yet still growling tone.
"I'm punishing the two of you to share a workshop space and to come up with a collaboration. If you manage that, then you will get your space back." he told them in a huff, taking in account the look of horror on Symmetra's face and Jamison finally snapping to attention.
"Oi, mate, you can't just -"
"I'm not yer mate," Torbjörn spat. "I am yer boss and my word's final!"
It had been an hour since the Swedish engineer had imposed his punishment on the two, and so far all they had managed to do was split the space to claim as their own and shoot askew, glaring glances. As Symmetra mustered up another look to flay the demolition's expert with, he had spiced it up to lewdly leer in jest; causing her to scrunch her face up in disgust and adjust the hard-light seat she had manufactured.
Working alongside the embodiment of chaos and anarchy was bad enough, but to work with him was another circle of hell entirely. At the very least, Symmetra could be practical, and wanted nothing more than to have her own space back, so eventually resigned to pull one of the blueprint paper, construct a variety of her architectural tools and tap the side of her visor to activate it, back turned on the Junker.
The white pen flawlessly graced the pen as she began to drew up a few concepts, and she smelt the ashen soot of his charred scent just behind her shoulder long before he actually spoke.
"Whatcha drawin'?" he asked, innocently curious as from the corner of her eye, his head came into view. Her lip curled back to sneer as it appeared Junkrat had no sense of personal space, their cheeks inches apart while he stared at her design. What caused her to snap was a bit of chalky dust fluttering off of his hair and onto her dress, and she pulled back to flick it away.
"Something that will look primitive, to pass as a collaboration between our methods." she answered shortly, trying to return focus to her work. It was a little impossible as Junkrat now sat once more on the floor beside her chair, chin propped on the desk as he stared intently at her lines. Symmetra twirled the pen in her hand before rolling her eyes and conjuring up another chair for him.
"Oh, sweet! Thanks, Sheila."
"Don't mention it. Ever."
Jamison wiggled a bit in his seat, trying not to giggle (and failing) when it bobbed up and down with the pressure. Thankfully, he did not go overboard with it as his attention span was as fickle as his projects, and focused once more upon her drawing, foot and pegleg planted solidly on the small round seat of the stool.
"Why ya drawing it anyway? I thought you didn't need blueprints." he asked, genuinely curious.
Satya paused, but deigned to answer him that. It was an acceptable question. "It is a good way to visualise my thoughts and helps aid the creation process, especially with something new or unorthodox. Additionally, it helps to have some form of reference – I noticed you still have a periodic table in your space, albeit burned. I assume you refer to that when making explosives, no?"
He seemed proud that she would have guessed that, but it dropped as quickly as it came when he accused; "Who said you could go into my space?! Oooh, now I'm gonna leave traps all over the place for you to really step in it!"
"I did, since you invaded mine." she returned with equal bite. "And your traps could use a redesign to be a little less.. obvious."
"But then you don't get to see that precious face people make when they realise, 'oh shit, I did not see this coming from a mile away', before they're blown to smithereens!" He cackled, and given his proximity, it caused Satya to cringe.
"Yes, well, I tend not to take sadistic delight in my creations, but let us take the scenario of Talon, for example. Do you think they would not notice something as crude as your steel trap?" She scrapped away the blueprint she was working on to pull out a fresh sheet, rapidly drawing up a prototype of a much slimmer, smaller, streamlined design.
Junkrat watched her work, entranced by how quickly and fluidly the motions came to her, how natural it was to simply, create and design. It kind of made him wanted to tear it up just so he could watch her do it again, though he figured she probably wouldn't appreciate that, and for the first time, refrained from his impulse.
"This is just a – a quick prototype of what I mean," she coolly stated, though there was an inkling of trepidation as he viewed her blueprint with acute inspection that did not befit the wild man. "Discreet, and functional."
"But a load of junk."
".. Excuse me?"
He shrugged his shoulders, never the most graceful person to deliver his criticism. "A load of junk. I mean, who am I trapping here, an anklebiter? Nah, your dinky thing wouldn't even trap the German's toe. I need something bigger with tougher stuff than light, y'know?"
Satya blinked. That was.. surprisingly adequate feedback, even if it was delivered poorly and uncouth. Her trimmed brows furrowed in concentration as she viewed her blueprint once more, immediately nitpicking the flaws she could see. She refused to let the heat on her cheeks show, merely bowing her head as she hummed in thought.
"Hm. This mistake can be corrected -"
Symmetra frowned deeply when Jamison wrestled the pen out of her grip, starting to scrawl crude and unsightly crooked lines on her design. It took a moment to realise that he was not defacing it for the sake of annoying her, but actually modifying it to show his point. Now, (if she was deciphering his drawings correctly) it possessed a series of serrated talons, a thicker base with some notes about what material would be used and..
".. is that a smiley face?"
Junkrat thumped his chest proudly. "I gotta have me trademark somewhere!"
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, she snatched the pen away from his hand, shuddering as it was now a bit sweaty and stained, and opted to simply craft a new one and give the sullied one to Junkrat. She visualised his creation, then drew up the modifications he had added to a new sheet, seeing the Junker rapidly bound his head up and down in agreement.
"Yeah, yeah, that's a good start!"
"I was thinking about integrating my photon technology to hold the person still, however on second thought I do not think you have access to such things." she flatly noted, pulling back to view the trap before a realisation hit her like a truck. They had just collaborated. She had worked with Junkrat, and she only had to raise her voice once.
Before he could comment further, she rolled up the design and hastily muttered; "It.. um, still has issues that I need to work on. I will show you the end result when I am done."
Junkrat didn't appear to be bothered nor care. "Sure, whatever floats your boat. Less work for me!"