video; un: mccree

[flashbanging]

[ The video shows a table in some corner of Oska's kitchen. There's a man at this table, long legs propped up on top of it, reclining against his chair. He's wearing boots with spurs, leather chaps, and a red serape that hangs off of his left shoulder. Body armor covers his chest; the panels inlaid on either side glow faintly blue. He's holding a revolver of significant size with one gloved hand, and with the other, he's carefully polishing oil off of that revolver's barrel. That other hand is bionic, and also covered in faintly glowing panels. The prosthetic runs up the visible length of his arm and disappears into the shroud of the serape.

He grins into the feed from beneath the wide brim of his hat. In his late thirties and handsomely rugged, he's swarthy, with thick, brown hair and dark eyes. His voice is a deep, southern drawl--affable, but with a suggestion of something sharper just beneath. A cigarillo, lit and gently smoking, dangles from the corner of his mouth. ]

Well, now. I'm findin' this place right peaceful. I got to say it's nice to walk around without worryin' over a bounty on my head, so I ain't too sore at these ALASTAIR fellas for pluckin' me out my own place like a ripe peach.

[ He jerks one metal thumb at the table. A few gleaming revolver shells are scattered across the wooden surface, nicely framing a half-finished tumbler of bourbon. ]

Bourbon ain't too bad, neither.

[ He sits up and leans forward, setting the gun down next to the glass; as he does so, there's a glimpse of his belt--strung with more revolver bullets and cinched with a gold buckle. The letters 'B A M F' are clearly engraved on this buckle. ]

'Sides, it's a job like any other. I done escorts before. Granted, they usually been human. Sometimes omnic. Never whatever the hell these things are tryin' to be. But if it's got to get done, it's gonna get done, right? Right.

[ He puffs on the cigarillo, exhaling a long plume of white smoke. ]

Oh, yeah. I had a look see at this here device, flicked through the archive a bit. Noticed some talk about learnin' this or that. I ain't handy with a sword, but if you need a man to show you how to shoot, I'm your huckleberry. I know my way around a fist-fight, too, if it comes to that. Ask and ye shall receive.

[ His smile widens, warms. This is still a hell of an unfamiliar situation, but he's damned and determined to make the best of it. ]

Name's McCree, by the way. Pleased t'meet you.

[ He tips his hat, and that's all, folks. ]

Comments

[nishishi]

Kind of monstrous, right? Nihihi, you're pardoned! [Using the word monster and yet he's laughing and smiling.

He waves a hand, now, as if to brush the conversation straight out of the air.]

But come on, really? A bounty? Mine's 500 Million, what's yours?

[flashbanging]

Seriously, son. You got a tic.

[ Stranger and stranger ... but he presses on, shrugging. ]

60 mil. Less the money and more the 'dead or alive' designation. As I dearly don't want to be dead.

[nishishi]

[A tic? Ok sir whatever. He's ignoring that comment simply because there's better conversation to be had. A hand on the back of his head, he shoots Jesse a wide smile.]

Hey, that's a pretty good one! But you don't look like a pirate. Are you a bandit?

And nah, I don't think anyone wants to be dead.

[flashbanging]

[ He makes a noise in his throat. He's met plenty of people in his life who were pretty careless about staying on the right side of death. ]

Vigilante. Bounty hunter. Et cetera.

[nishishi]

Oh! That's pretty awesome. My first mate was a bounty hunter, too.

...

Isn't it kind'a weird to be a bounty hunter AND have a bounty on your head though.

How do you turn in stuff without gettin' arrested?

[flashbanging]

First mate? You run a ship or somethin'?

[ Oh, but he was asked a question, too. Best be polite, though he just shrugs out his response. ]

Folks who seek me out ain't necessarily interested in dealin' with the law themselves.

[nishishi]

Sure do! I'm Monkey D. Luffy, the Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates!

I'm gonna' be the Pirate King one day.

[A wide grin, a wave of a hand.]

I guess that makes sense! [I mean, sure.] If yer gonna' break the law, might as be around other lawbreakers.

[flashbanging]

[ Hmm, he's not the only one who's mentioned piracy so far. ]

Seems we got a lot of pirates 'round these parts.

[ Is that good? Bad? They're friendly, at any rate. ]

[nishishi]

Oh, you met some of them?

Most of them are my crewmates, I'm their Captain!

[He smiles so brightly, damn near sparkling from McCree mentioning them at all.]

[flashbanging]

A couple, yeah.

[ Damn, this kid had energy. People often found McCree too much--too gregarious, too forward. But Luffy was in a different category altogether. ]

Glad y'got your crew with ya. I sure do miss mine, sometimes.

[ And he'd just been on his way to reunite with them, too. ]

[nishishi]

Naa? You have a crew too?

Hey, hey--maybe if you're lucky, they'll show up here, too, right??

[There's an unlimited amount of energy in this one, McCree, and he didn't care what others thought of him due to it. An oaf, an idiot, a child--they could say what they wanted.

It was better than being a complete mope or too serious.]

If not, until then, you could be our nakama. [Shishi.]

[flashbanging]

Used to. Been years since I saw'em last.

[ He's not sure if he wants the other Overwatch agents to come here. On the one hand, it'd be nice to see them. On the other hand, they're a bit stuck here, aren't they? Feels like a selfish desire, even if he's thinking about it all the same. But his mind catches on the foreign word--nakama. ]

Sorry--your what now?

[nishishi]

[Years, huh. Yeah, he knows how that feels, man. Maybe you'll meet up with them again, Jesse. He'll hope for that personally, and the grin on his face shows it, even without words.]

Nakama! You know. Friends. Crew. Family you choose.