[None of that really matters to him, even if Angela did name names. It's all said and done, and he's not surprised to hear that Venom pieced it together on his own. It's all very obvious, once one knows enough. Jack is maybe a little surprised that people didn't figure it out sooner.
Either way, he doesn't sound disappointed, but then again, this is all over communicator. Venom wouldn't have brought this up if he didn't want to go somewhere with it. The least Jack can ask is that they do it in person.
Jack is waiting on the porch when Venom arrives, dressed just as casually--his tactical gear is nowhere to be found, though of course he'd be able to get it quickly in a pinch. He knows it's kind of a stark contrast, but if Venom wants to talk about who he really is, well. Jack will present himself accordingly.]
[ Venom makes his way to the porch, and stalls by the bottom step. There's something disarming about seeing 'Soldier: 76' without all the components that comprise the alias, without the visor and the numbered jacket that always seemed, to Venom, to be an assertion of his relative status as a nonentity.
Maybe this is why 76 never took off that mask. Without it, he looks—
—what, human? Venom knew that already, though. But 76 said it best, himself: "Civilians don't really understand.".
He leans on the banister leading up to the front door, and tips his head to the side. ]
76.
[ Not 'Jack'. It seems strange to make that transition, anyway. ] Nice place.
[He wants to make some sort of quip about how strange it is, really, to show up on this planet and just get a house, but he knows that ultimately it will just detract from the real point of things. There's no sense in pretending Venom is here for any other reason than to talk about one specific thing, and Jack straightens, perhaps a little unsure as to whether or not he should invite his 'guest' inside.
Maybe they can just...hang on the porch for a minute.]
It's not bad.
[Jack could talk about how he grew up in a place like this, sort of. How in many ways, this is what he knows, and it's been far too easy to slip into a daily routine that doesn't involve constantly looking over his shoulder (even if he does that anyway, with Reaper around). But that's all far too personal, and not something to get into when Venom addresses him by the number, rather than his name.
[ Patience is all Venom has, and he has it in spades. But the answer to 76— Jack's— question is a low puff of breath, and a light: ] I can think of a few.
[ Because of course he can, let's not pretend.
And he doesn't invite himself up into 76's space beyond the lean of his upper body from where his elbow's braced against the banister, open body language in contrast with his pinpoint focus. ]
[Only McCree, but it had been welcome, and the more masochistic part of him wishes the rest of them had reacted with that kind of violent anger. He grins a little, remembering it, but there's something sort of sad about the expression.]
[ The bruises must have healed by now, Venom thinks idly as he looks up at that face behind the mask. Scarred and tired, somewhat melancholy. Actually, do supersoldiers even bruise?
(They clearly do, even if it's not external.) ]
It was a hell of a lie. [ No sugarcoating there, even if his words are borrowed from someone else. ] But sometimes it is easier to work as a dead man.
[Jack nods, but he doesn't seem particularly elated about being forgiven. Of course they'd forgive him, no matter how much he insists that he shouldn't be forgiven. They're willing to set aside his transgressions and just be happy that he's alive, and he's still not sure how he should be dealing with that.]
It's the kind of people they are.
[The people he made them--but really, did he have that much to do with it? They were part of Overwatch because they believed in something greater than themselves. For all the talk about Jack's uncanny ability to bring out the best in his team, it often feels like he didn't have to do much work in that department.
That's what makes all this hard. They deserve so much better than anything he can possibly give them.]
Didn't go into it wanting to lie to them. [Even if that's what he did, but it's a more complicated issue than Jack waking up one morning and deciding he was going to fake his own death. He hadn't been given much of a choice in the matter, really.] Wanted to give them some plausible deniability. It was the only way for them to get on with their lives.
[ Venom confirms, pulling up the bits and pieces he's garnered from past conversations. Again, the eerie similarities between his situation and Jack's are looming shadows, but again, Venom tries to refrain from idle projection. At the very least, his own experience lends itself to some degree of understanding.
He stretches along sanded-smooth wood, slow and languid. For a guy who doesn't say much, Venom's talking a lot today. ]
—It wasn't a bad call. [ A hm, in consideration. ] But I doubt any of them would have taken the deniability, even if it was on the table.
[Jack doesn't necessarily want to be validated, but there's something relieving when Venom seems to agree with his actions--then a degree of guilt that he would even think such a thing.]
They got fed a pretty tidy story.
[With a suspect and a motive and everything. It all lined up very nicely, which is exactly what the real culprits wanted. Pump it into the media. Discourage questioning. Close the book on Overwatch. He doubts his own agents bought it fully, but what could they have done? As loathsome as it all was, it did a good job of keeping them all out of it. Now that they know he's alive, however, everything's going to change.]
[ Of course it did— politics are like that. Fight by proxy, kill through ideology. Obfuscate, and then move on. The truth is always, always subjective.
And after a beat of silence, Venom poses a question that he knows verges just on this side of being too personal. ]
You gonna sleep better or worse, now that they know?
[It's a joke, sort of, meant to downplay that he doesn't quite like the situation he's put in. It's nice, sure to have everyone here and feel like they're his people again, but he knows that if and when they return home, he's going to have to disappear. Now that they know, they'll come after him. They won't lose him again.
Jack can't say he blames them, but it's going to make his mission that much stickier.]
I'm not sure. It puts them all in danger, knowing.
[ This really puts everything into perspective, for Venom. It's a little excruciating, truth be told— the casual asides of not being able to sleep, the uncertainty that Jack voices about the future, they're all framed with respect to 'how will my friends deal with this?'
Jack Morrison killed himself to let his family live; the moral debate surrounding this statement is irrelevant. It's the sort of truth that resonates with Venom, questionable or no. ]
—They'd rather die with you than live without you. [ A simple statement of fact. Venom finally moves to scale the porch steps, stopping several paces away from his companion. ] Tough spot to be in.
[ That's a light joke, too— the spiritual equivalent of 'shit happens', but without the malice. ]
[Jack never wanted to put anyone in that kind of position. They've all made their choices, sure, but he can't help but feel like the one who spurred them to that in the first place. It's very silly, to think things like "I wish I'd been less inspirational", but that's what it is, isn't it? He'd affected them all irrevocably, to the point where they want to follow him into hell without a second thought.
He doesn't flinch when Venom closes some of the distance. Jack isn't looking at him anyway, staring out over the yard and maybe trying to recapture some kind of nebulous pre-Crisis, pre-Overwatch time, when none of this would have mattered.]
[ Ah. Venom rolls those words over in his head, digests them slowly so that they percolate. In his mental frame of reference, the answer to that is 'maybe you weren't meant for a commanding role'; it's a charisma's job to protect his or her people, or finish them off by his or her own hands. To burn yourself for the sake of the people that burn for you, irrespective of emotions.
But things never quite work out that way— Venom knows that, because Venom is just an exoskeleton of his own equivalent of Jack Morrison. Whatever he has to say is trite, because he's sure everything he's ever thought has already crossed Jack's mind. ]
After a while, it stops being about what you want. [ Blunt words, tempered by his careful delivery. Venom takes another step, two feet away from being at arm's length. ] But you're still gonna have to live.
[ That's the easiest way to make his people happy, even if it's the most difficult option. ]
[It's never been about what he wants--to think otherwise is silly. Jack has made immeasurable sacrifices in the name of his organization, to the point where he thinks he could make a good argument that he's never been able to have what he wants. It had never really bothered him, not when he was so devoted to Overwatch and doing what was best for it. Putting himself second was just part of the job.]
They're trying to bring it back.
[Really, it's just Winston and Lena, but he already knows that the others will jump at the chance. Maybe it's irrelevant because they've all been brought here, but it still twists something inside Jack's chest, to know they can't just leave well enough alone. That they understand so little about what actually happened that they'd try to do it all over again. Overwatch was never as pristine--its ideals never as pure--as they thought it was. They'd gone out and saved the world while Jack stayed in his office, wading through the actual repercussions of running a global peacekeeping force.
Now they're going to do it all over again, except this time, they don't have him to navigate the politics of it all.]
There's an active recall in effect. One of the old agents sent it out. They're all going to end up in prison over it.
[ Venom doesn't have an exact understanding of the politics behind Overwatch, but he can hazard a guess. After all, he knows what happens when vigilante military factions get too big: they get bombed to hell and left to rot at the bottom of the Caribbean ocean. He's been there.
So— yeah, it's naive. ]
They made it public? [ If so, that's incredibly visible, which is incredibly foolhardy. His incredulity settles in his voice, culminating in a silent sigh. ] Not the smartest thing they could've done.
[ It took his own Diamond Dogs nine years of planning and under-the-table HUMINT maneuvers to start operations in full; an active recall is like painting a giant 'Kick Me' sign on every agent's back. ]
[To say nothing of various other international intelligence agencies. Jack is of the firm belief that the UN is letting this happen because it's a good idea to have a convenient scapegoat. Winston is walking right into a trap, and all it's going to take is one slip-up.]
There was an incident. Media's mostly speculating right now, but it's only a matter of time.
[ Which is probably a huge understatement, but it's the most of what he can make with the information that he has. Media intervention is usually the quickest way for any situation to spiral out of control. ]
I'm guessing you've already tried to explain this to the others.
I lost the right to tell them what to do when I 'abandoned' them.
[Their words, not his, and he hopes that the emphasis makes that clear. Jack shrugs a little, because they're not wrong--it's just much more complicated than any of them want to think about.]
They think saving the world should speak for itself. Never had to navigate the politics of it. Don't understand that sometimes the world doesn't want to be saved.
...Give them time. They're gonna need it to get things in perspective.
[ He says, but he knows that it's not so easy. Emotions are minefields where the traps have been laid at random, and any slight tremor can send the entire place alight— if Jack's people loved him as much as Angela did (does, present tense), they're going to need some time to disarm the worst of their explosives.
Venom Knows. He has lived this also. ]
You don't seem like the kind of person who could just cut them loose, anyway.
[ He shifts on his feet, breathes softly under his breath. "Cut your losses" is never a thing that Venom can bring himself to say, despite reality necessitating it on occasion. ]
[He makes a vague sort of gesture to indicate that yes, he knows, and he doesn't blame them. They can think whatever they want about him, he just hopes that someone takes his words to heart. He's been there. He knows how this goes. Ignoring his advice is a bad idea, no matter how much they want to do this on their own.
They don't have time, is what he wants to say, because all it's going to take is one slip-up, one singular instance of inserting themselves when they're not wanted.]
Wish I could.
[Even if that's not quite the right phrase. Jack wishes he could walk away from Overwatch itself, that it didn't keep threatening to drag him back in, even after he's given so much of himself to it.]
Not much I can do for them this time.
[A lie, because there is one thing--coming back to life is a trump card he'd rather not use, but it's a trump card all the same. Jack would be more than content to go to prison for the rest of his life if it means the rest of them walk free. He can only hope it won't come to that point before he has the answers he wants, but he's full prepared to take that fall.]
[ A mm under his breath, and Venom moves to lean against the porch fence. His fingers drum along wood, filling the stretch of silence that follows Jack's response.
It's heavy, but he didn't expect anything less. ]
Sometimes— [ —the hardest people to handle are your allies, not your enemies— ] —some things are gonna be out of your control.
[ Not something that needs to be said, Venom's sure. He waves that thought aside physically, a palm in the air and a sigh to scatter it. ]
[The past ten years seem like little more than a spiral of things escaping his control. They're all adults. They'll make their own choices, even if he doesn't approve of them. Even if it's going to undo all of the work to which he devoted his entire life.
He'll have to come to terms with that, somehow, and he gives Venom a somewhat surprised look, like he's not sure why his feelings should factor into it at all. It's never been about him.
[ It's never really going to be about them, when it comes down to it. But that doesn't preclude Venom from a vague sense of misplaced empathy, so he moves to put a hand on Jack's shoulder. The gesture is instinctive, simple and uncomplicated. ]
Get some downtime. This is as good a place to get it as any.
[Jack can’t quite help the derisive snort—at the sentiment, not at the hand on his shoulder. He flinches a little, an automatic response, but after a moment he relaxes, though he can’t quite take his eyes off where Venom is touching him.
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Either way, he doesn't sound disappointed, but then again, this is all over communicator. Venom wouldn't have brought this up if he didn't want to go somewhere with it. The least Jack can ask is that they do it in person.
Jack is waiting on the porch when Venom arrives, dressed just as casually--his tactical gear is nowhere to be found, though of course he'd be able to get it quickly in a pinch. He knows it's kind of a stark contrast, but if Venom wants to talk about who he really is, well. Jack will present himself accordingly.]
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Maybe this is why 76 never took off that mask. Without it, he looks—
—what, human? Venom knew that already, though. But 76 said it best, himself: "Civilians don't really understand.".
He leans on the banister leading up to the front door, and tips his head to the side. ]
76.
[ Not 'Jack'. It seems strange to make that transition, anyway. ] Nice place.
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Maybe they can just...hang on the porch for a minute.]
It's not bad.
[Jack could talk about how he grew up in a place like this, sort of. How in many ways, this is what he knows, and it's been far too easy to slip into a daily routine that doesn't involve constantly looking over his shoulder (even if he does that anyway, with Reaper around). But that's all far too personal, and not something to get into when Venom addresses him by the number, rather than his name.
They'll come around to it, maybe.]
I'm guessing you want to ask some questions.
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[ Because of course he can, let's not pretend.
And he doesn't invite himself up into 76's space beyond the lean of his upper body from where his elbow's braced against the banister, open body language in contrast with his pinpoint focus. ]
Anyone try to punch you?
[ This is the opener. ]
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[Only McCree, but it had been welcome, and the more masochistic part of him wishes the rest of them had reacted with that kind of violent anger. He grins a little, remembering it, but there's something sort of sad about the expression.]
Can't say I didn't deserve it.
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(They clearly do, even if it's not external.) ]
It was a hell of a lie. [ No sugarcoating there, even if his words are borrowed from someone else. ] But sometimes it is easier to work as a dead man.
[ He hums. ] —They forgive you for it?
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It's the kind of people they are.
[The people he made them--but really, did he have that much to do with it? They were part of Overwatch because they believed in something greater than themselves. For all the talk about Jack's uncanny ability to bring out the best in his team, it often feels like he didn't have to do much work in that department.
That's what makes all this hard. They deserve so much better than anything he can possibly give them.]
Didn't go into it wanting to lie to them. [Even if that's what he did, but it's a more complicated issue than Jack waking up one morning and deciding he was going to fake his own death. He hadn't been given much of a choice in the matter, really.] Wanted to give them some plausible deniability. It was the only way for them to get on with their lives.
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[ Venom confirms, pulling up the bits and pieces he's garnered from past conversations. Again, the eerie similarities between his situation and Jack's are looming shadows, but again, Venom tries to refrain from idle projection. At the very least, his own experience lends itself to some degree of understanding.
He stretches along sanded-smooth wood, slow and languid. For a guy who doesn't say much, Venom's talking a lot today. ]
—It wasn't a bad call. [ A hm, in consideration. ] But I doubt any of them would have taken the deniability, even if it was on the table.
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They got fed a pretty tidy story.
[With a suspect and a motive and everything. It all lined up very nicely, which is exactly what the real culprits wanted. Pump it into the media. Discourage questioning. Close the book on Overwatch. He doubts his own agents bought it fully, but what could they have done? As loathsome as it all was, it did a good job of keeping them all out of it. Now that they know he's alive, however, everything's going to change.]
It went deeper than any of them knew.
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And after a beat of silence, Venom poses a question that he knows verges just on this side of being too personal. ]
You gonna sleep better or worse, now that they know?
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[It's a joke, sort of, meant to downplay that he doesn't quite like the situation he's put in. It's nice, sure to have everyone here and feel like they're his people again, but he knows that if and when they return home, he's going to have to disappear. Now that they know, they'll come after him. They won't lose him again.
Jack can't say he blames them, but it's going to make his mission that much stickier.]
I'm not sure. It puts them all in danger, knowing.
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Jack Morrison killed himself to let his family live; the moral debate surrounding this statement is irrelevant. It's the sort of truth that resonates with Venom, questionable or no. ]
—They'd rather die with you than live without you. [ A simple statement of fact. Venom finally moves to scale the porch steps, stopping several paces away from his companion. ] Tough spot to be in.
[ That's a light joke, too— the spiritual equivalent of 'shit happens', but without the malice. ]
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He doesn't flinch when Venom closes some of the distance. Jack isn't looking at him anyway, staring out over the yard and maybe trying to recapture some kind of nebulous pre-Crisis, pre-Overwatch time, when none of this would have mattered.]
I didn't want this for them.
[For any of them. Even in death, he failed.]
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But things never quite work out that way— Venom knows that, because Venom is just an exoskeleton of his own equivalent of Jack Morrison. Whatever he has to say is trite, because he's sure everything he's ever thought has already crossed Jack's mind. ]
After a while, it stops being about what you want. [ Blunt words, tempered by his careful delivery. Venom takes another step, two feet away from being at arm's length. ] But you're still gonna have to live.
[ That's the easiest way to make his people happy, even if it's the most difficult option. ]
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They're trying to bring it back.
[Really, it's just Winston and Lena, but he already knows that the others will jump at the chance. Maybe it's irrelevant because they've all been brought here, but it still twists something inside Jack's chest, to know they can't just leave well enough alone. That they understand so little about what actually happened that they'd try to do it all over again. Overwatch was never as pristine--its ideals never as pure--as they thought it was. They'd gone out and saved the world while Jack stayed in his office, wading through the actual repercussions of running a global peacekeeping force.
Now they're going to do it all over again, except this time, they don't have him to navigate the politics of it all.]
There's an active recall in effect. One of the old agents sent it out. They're all going to end up in prison over it.
[So much for getting on with their lives.]
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So— yeah, it's naive. ]
They made it public? [ If so, that's incredibly visible, which is incredibly foolhardy. His incredulity settles in his voice, culminating in a silent sigh. ] Not the smartest thing they could've done.
[ It took his own Diamond Dogs nine years of planning and under-the-table HUMINT maneuvers to start operations in full; an active recall is like painting a giant 'Kick Me' sign on every agent's back. ]
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[To say nothing of various other international intelligence agencies. Jack is of the firm belief that the UN is letting this happen because it's a good idea to have a convenient scapegoat. Winston is walking right into a trap, and all it's going to take is one slip-up.]
There was an incident. Media's mostly speculating right now, but it's only a matter of time.
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[ Which is probably a huge understatement, but it's the most of what he can make with the information that he has. Media intervention is usually the quickest way for any situation to spiral out of control. ]
I'm guessing you've already tried to explain this to the others.
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[Their words, not his, and he hopes that the emphasis makes that clear. Jack shrugs a little, because they're not wrong--it's just much more complicated than any of them want to think about.]
They think saving the world should speak for itself. Never had to navigate the politics of it. Don't understand that sometimes the world doesn't want to be saved.
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[ He says, but he knows that it's not so easy. Emotions are minefields where the traps have been laid at random, and any slight tremor can send the entire place alight— if Jack's people loved him as much as Angela did (does, present tense), they're going to need some time to disarm the worst of their explosives.
Venom Knows. He has lived this also. ]
You don't seem like the kind of person who could just cut them loose, anyway.
[ He shifts on his feet, breathes softly under his breath. "Cut your losses" is never a thing that Venom can bring himself to say, despite reality necessitating it on occasion. ]
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They don't have time, is what he wants to say, because all it's going to take is one slip-up, one singular instance of inserting themselves when they're not wanted.]
Wish I could.
[Even if that's not quite the right phrase. Jack wishes he could walk away from Overwatch itself, that it didn't keep threatening to drag him back in, even after he's given so much of himself to it.]
Not much I can do for them this time.
[A lie, because there is one thing--coming back to life is a trump card he'd rather not use, but it's a trump card all the same. Jack would be more than content to go to prison for the rest of his life if it means the rest of them walk free. He can only hope it won't come to that point before he has the answers he wants, but he's full prepared to take that fall.]
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It's heavy, but he didn't expect anything less. ]
Sometimes— [ —the hardest people to handle are your allies, not your enemies— ] —some things are gonna be out of your control.
[ Not something that needs to be said, Venom's sure. He waves that thought aside physically, a palm in the air and a sigh to scatter it. ]
You're gonna be alright?
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[The past ten years seem like little more than a spiral of things escaping his control. They're all adults. They'll make their own choices, even if he doesn't approve of them. Even if it's going to undo all of the work to which he devoted his entire life.
He'll have to come to terms with that, somehow, and he gives Venom a somewhat surprised look, like he's not sure why his feelings should factor into it at all. It's never been about him.
After a moment, he nods.]
Yeah. Yeah, I'll be okay.
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Get some downtime. This is as good a place to get it as any.
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[Jack can’t quite help the derisive snort—at the sentiment, not at the hand on his shoulder. He flinches a little, an automatic response, but after a moment he relaxes, though he can’t quite take his eyes off where Venom is touching him.
The sentiment, at least, is understood.]
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