route_1065 | // and if you call, I will answer

Entry tags:

hal 'otacon' emmerich | metal gear solid

// and if you call, I will answer

Who: Hal Emmerich and ~open~
Where: Goldenrod City
When: Afternoon of March 16th
Summary: Coffee and discussions over coffee.
Rating: gonna roll with a T just to be safe.
Log:
Hal Emmerich didn't have an ordinary sleeping pattern. In fact, he'd had no such thing since he was about eighteen years old. Like many eccentric geniuses, he functioned mainly due to an amount of caffeine that would keep an entire army wired for days.

Lately, he'd taken to spending some time in a cafe near the hotel--it was quiet there, something he rather enjoyed. When one traveled with Liquid Snake, peace and quiet weren't often part of the deal. Ordinarily it didn't bother him, but the occasional break was nice. Otacon sat at a table with a cup of coffee in front of him and half a sandwich in his hand--the other half had been stolen and was currently being devoured by his Arbok, Kotai Of The Infinite Stomach.

"Between you and Liquid, I don't know who's going to drive me crazy first." he remarked with a sigh. At his side, the eleven foot cobra simply nuzzled her trainer's head in response.

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Cooper raised an eyebrow at that, but answered the question without hesitation.

"No, it's not a term I'm familiar with. Why do you ask?"

Otacon sighed, looking relieved. One more world that likely didn't have them, then.

"You're right, your world does sound like mine. But in mine, there's this weapon called Metal Gear--essentially a bipedal, nuclear-equipped robot. I'm starting to think our home might be the only one with them."

Edited 2011-03-19 03:47 (UTC)

Cooper looked intrigued, but wary.

"That sounds like a dangerous weapon."

"To say the least. One model, Metal Gear REX, could launch untraceable nuclear missiles to and from anywhere in the world. It could easily have started a third world war."

"I take it use of the Metal Gears are prohibited."

Both an assumption and hoping so.

"Well...yes and no. The blueprints for RAY were leaked to the black market five years ago, and there are more prototypes and knockoffs now than I can count. A couple years ago, the Marines got their hands on a version called Metal Gear RAY to deal with REX's derivatives--but they're not any better, that was only going to make things worse."

Which it did.

"RAY was eventually stolen. Worse, there's dozens of them now...no, that's not entirely true. There were, until the AI controlling them went berserk. I'm not really sure how many are left now aside from the original."

Edited 2011-03-19 14:04 (UTC)

...well, shit. Cooper looked genuinely troubled, despite the fact that this was none of his problems, even if he for some reason would have wanted them to be. He frowned, asking-

"What are the measures taken?"

"About RAY? Nothing yet--we only tracked them down a few days before I came here, and things were kind of complicated that day."

Which was one hell of an understatement. Things had gotten so complicated that even Metal Gear was the least of their worries now.

"But as for the rest...Snake and I are part of an anti-Metal Gear NGO called 'Philanthropy'." he explained, fully realizing where this conversation was going and what he would have to admit to. "For five years we've tracked REX's derivatives, infiltrated where they're being kept, and destroyed them. W-well, I say 'we', but Snake does most of the work. I'm sort of just the tech support."

"Not very surprising, from what I understand of your skills."

Cooper smiled quickly, before leaning forward somewhat, definitely interested in what he was told.

"I imagine the illegal actions you've had to take are many."

It wasn't said in a judgmental way - from what he could figure, Otacon's world was in a state that would warrant it.

Otacon looked uncomfortable for a moment--then he remembered he couldn't exactly get arrested for all that here.

"Afraid so, yeah. When RAY was stolen, the tanker it was being transported on sank. It was a huge disaster at best, and Philanthropy was blamed for it."

He paused, debating over whether or not to finish this train of thought before he spoke again.

"...They call us environmental terrorists now. For the past two years we've been hiding from the government even more than before."

There was a moment of silence, but Cooper didn't have a good answer.

"What does the government do to handle the situation?" he asked instead, wanting to know as much as possible before judging the situation. It was the way he went about things - always had been.

"That's just it, they were answering REX's derivatives with RAY. A Metal Gear to stop a Metal Gear--it would keep going in a cycle until someone triggered nuclear winter.

These weapons shouldn't exist, no matter who's using them. Even built with the best of intentions, they'll invariably fall into the wrong hands."

No one knew that better than Otacon.

"You've got a lot on your hands."

Cooper looked at Otacon with something akin to sympathy, but his expression was kept pretty even. Then something visibly cleared up for him and he leaned forward somewhat as he kept talking.

"You developed at least some of them, didn't you?"

"I know we've done a lot of illegal things, and I wish we didn't have to. But I won't apologize--Philanthropy's doing the right thing to save the world from the threat of nuclear warfare. If I end up getting arrested for it, fine. At least I did what I could."

The determination Otacon had as he spoke quickly faded at Cooper's next sentence, and he glanced away with something very like shame written all over his face.

"...I was the head engineer working on Metal Gear REX five years ago. It was more or less entirely my design except for some of the weaponry." Otacon's hands fidgeted idly, and he couldn't quite bring himself to look up again. "I was told it was for defensive purposes, and if I had known it was going to be nuclear-equipped I'd have never worked on it."

A sigh--no, he really couldn't keep making excuses. Not for this.

"When I found out, I made sure to help Snake destroy it however I could...not that I could help him all that much."

Cooper hadn't meant it like that, actually - but he didnn't voice this, instead listening without interrupting. The silence stretched a little even after and he shook his head as if shaking off any unnecessary thoughts.

"You did what you could. I don't think much else can be asked from anyone."

He had never been one for shrugging, not really, but had he been, this would have been a time to do so. Instead, he just let the words fall as he took another sip of his coffee, finishing what was in the cup and setting it down with a just-audible sigh.

"I never thought those blueprints would be stolen once everything was over. I guess I was so relieved to live through the night, it never occurred to me to destroy them."

Hard to think about typing up loose ends after just barely evading an airstrike on a military base.

It should have, but Cooper figured that Otacon already blamed himself enough about that. He didn't need to add to that guilt. But then, what could he say at this point? He didn't believe that love or good would prevail in the end. He hadn't for some time now.

"Hope is the last thing to leave man", he quoted, glancing out a window. "In the meantime I guess the best we can do is enjoying our stay here."

"I'm trying, at least." Otacon leaned his head on his hand with a quiet sigh. "Honestly, sometimes it's not bad here and I end up forgetting the kind of place I'm going back to. Other times, it's all I can think of."

"I know what you mean."

Cooper had the same kind of mindswings himself. While he never could forget the situation back home, he was sometimes content to ignore it, if just for a while, in favour of what really was amazing about Johto.

"It won't be easy to get used to Philanthropy again after all this. I'll definitely miss not having to go into hiding."

"Assuming we won't have our memories of Johto erased, I don't think adjusting to our respective homes again will be easy for any of us."

"..."

He didn't answer that at first. On one hand, Otacon didn't want to forget. It would have been an insult to all his friends here for Otacon to believe nothing had happened. But on the other...if he forgot, he wouldn't have to feel like he'd lost everything.

"I...really hope they aren't erased."

It was better to have good memories than not, even if it meant the separation from them would hurt.

"Me too."

Many things indicated that they would be, but ... well, like he'd previously stated: hope is the last thing to leave man. He wouldn't want to forget Johto. He definitely didn't want to forget the people in it.

And of course, he would miss his pokémon, despite never having imagined to bond with them the way he had. He'd never had pets before, and while these creatures were a far cry from the animals back home, he imagined that if he ever did get out Johto with his memories intact, he would have to get a cat or a dog to make up for their absence.

It was difficult to imagine being without the team he'd so carefully raised, particularly Asimov and the giant cobra currently at his side. More than that, however, Otacon worried about the people he'd knew he'd never see back home; Liquid, his father, and probably even Heather if their worlds were separate ones.

"...this place never makes things easy, does it?"

Cooper smiled, ruefully, and shook his head no.

"It does make things a bit harder than most worlds."

Granted, the world in itself was in many ways a better place than the one he'd left behind - and he imagined the same was true for many people having come here. But like Otacon implied, this was harder on you in ways you wouldn't have experienced back home.

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