Like a lot of fans, I had this idea in school for a while that I wanted to be a writer. So I went at it, took a creative writing course, did well, wrote some things, and started submitting. I got some nice personal rejection letters from actual head editors saying they were very nice stories but not right for them, and even got a story published in a Canadian small-press lit magazine.
But it was always like pulling teeth to get words out, and I never, ever enjoyed the process at all, and eventually figured out I wanted to want to be a writer more than I wanted to be a writer. (Tho' I did end up writing professionally on and off in
non-fiction, where the words came far more easily, and for far more money. My top rate of $1.50/word was pretty tasty, and I got it regularly.)
And I didn't even ship Tracer and Widowmaker at first, despite their obvious chemistry in "Alive." But then, about two years ago, I found
this fan comic on Tumblr, and had to know how they could get there, and started chewing on it, and then, the following April, I started getting scenes in my head as
this started coming out, and I couldn't stop it even if I had wanted to.
on overcoming the fear of spidersa novella by solarbird
URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10670052/chapters/23618382Pairing(s): Amélie "Widowmaker" Lacroix/Lena "Tracer" Oxton, Angela "Mercy" Ziegler/Fareeha "Pharah" Amari
Rating: Mature
Other notes: Early chapters are not in chronological order. That changes, and it's for an important reason regarding how the world works. Canon-compliant through 2068, after which, well.
Summary: "A single death," the Widowmaker says, "can change everything." But everyone forgets, this saying goes both ways: a single assassination can change everything, certainly, but so can a single unwanted death, an untimely death not prevented.
Amélie Lacroix, the head of Talon, has been shaping history with the tools she knows best, tracing the strands of past and probability around her, perfecting where to prune the tree of the world with the precision of perfect, single shots, and perfect, clean kills.
What if that's not enough?
Lena Oxton, test pilot, has been presumed dead since her Slipstream vehicle exploded ten thousand metres over Greece, one day in 2068. Now, it is 2073, and there is a broken strand in the web of the world, one which should not be broken, and no assassination - no additional death, no matter how elegant - can fix it. The spider must learn to use other tools, instead.