- Shopping with Solid Snake -
When I was twenty two, I came to meet the man many have come to call Solid Snake. Now, by this point in his life he had already reached his prime as a combat veteran. Yes I recall it well, his skin had wrinkled, his body looked like an old mans. Though, it is important to remember never to state that to him directly, unless of course you wished to be apprehended to the ground.
But I digress. I came upon meeting Solid Snake through the means of Raiden. For those of you unaware, Raiden is a complete fool. A complete and utter fool. After his success in becoming some sort of robot ninja, Raiden returned to his normal state and began to live at my house. Yes, you heard me correctly. The so called "Hero" lived in my basement. That however, is another story entirely to itself. Raiden and I have shared many adventures… yes… so many.
Anyway, Solid Snake came to visit Raiden in the summer time. Apparently after defeating liquid he had some free time on his hands. By that I mean the man was completely devoid of any work whatsoever. Not saying he was being lazy, no, Solid Snake had deserved rest much earlier than this. He simply was taking some time to himself and apparently during that time he wished to visit Raiden. I heard the door bell to my house ring and answered it promptly.
"Coming." I hummed opening the door happily. Gazing out into the summer afternoon, I saw him. He stared calmly at me, letting out a grumble as he did so. "Solid Snake…" I whispered. What else could I have done? My idol, My hero stood right there before my eyes! So many questions went through my mind, but the main one was what kind of food he liked. I could make him dinner, yes… then he would respect me! A man always respects another man who can make dinner! Wait… or do men respect women who can cook. Hmm, I have pondering to do later, for now let's continue on.
Snake grumbled, "Do I have the right house?" He asked.
"Who… are you looking for?" I replied, hands trembling and nose running.
"Raiden."
"Oh." My prior excitement dissipated at the sound of that fools name. "Yeah, he's downstairs follow me."
I led Snake into my house, closing the outside door behind him. He sported I nice tuxedo, something I never thought I'd see a war veteran like him in. Though I suppose his fighting days were in the past now, at least he had moved on.
Unlike the fool in my basement, Raiden. We walked down the stairs calmly, before reaching the halfway mark Snake had already started to understand his friend was no longer the man he once was.
Raiden had taken the liberty of painting the concrete walls in my basement a horrible purple, bullet holes acted as extra décor to his tacky living corridors. Crayons and teddy bears rested on the stairs, Snake let out grumbles as he stepped over them.
"So, when's the last time you saw Raiden?" I asked Snake.
"About two years ago, after the events with liquid…"
I nodded, "I see… well he's uh… different now."
Another grumble came from Snake. We reached the bottom of the steps. Of course, Raiden was nowhere to be seen. See, whenever someone entered into that basement he would hide, like a chipmunk or squirrel. He had told everyone in my house a code as well, and if you didn't say upon entering the basement - Raiden would open fire.
A few times I had forgotten actually. That was how I received my first bullet wound. The experience was enough to make me remember.
"Orca!" I screamed into the basement.
"Novelty!" Raiden shouted back. If your are perhaps wondering if there was some sort of strange connection to the words Raiden had picked, don't. I picked them for him, at random, because he asked me to. Trust me when I say there was nothing deep about that Raiden fellow, no, nothing deep at all.
With our code words met Raiden rushed out from underneath a box. Snake laughed.
"Still using that old trick huh Raiden?"
Raiden froze when he heard Snake's voice. He looked up slowly, those overly grown blonde bangs of his covering the tops of his eyes. His mouth began to shake, as did his legs and buttocks and eyes and fingers.
"Colonel? Is that you?"
I cleared my throat uncomfortably and looked to Snake.
"Raiden… what's happened to you?" Snake took a step forward, music began playing in the background.
I was still young at this point, and wasn't used to music playing in the background see. But with men like this it's actually quite normal. However, this time it caught me off guard and made me start looking for an mp3 player.
"Colonel, it's… covering me whole…" Raiden whispered as he dropped to the ground. Snake let a grumble and knelt down at his side.
"Raiden, don't you remember me? It's me, Snake… David…"
"No, no! You're dead! DEAD! I saw it, you… you died… in the cut scene… you died!"
"Raiden! Snap out of it!" Snake yelled grabbing Raiden's shoulders.
Raiden shook his head and squealed like a pig, "No! Get away!" He broke free from Snakes grip and army crawled to his cardboard box.
Yes… it was an awkward time, for me mainly. Snake seemed more disappointed then anything else, after all, his good ally was now in complete shambles over who knows what.
A good thirty minutes passed between Raiden and Snake, who dialogued about patriots, nano machines, destiny, the future, and many other things I cannot recall. It sounded profound at the time.
Now, up to this point my story has been nothing more than back water really. I've simply laid the ground work for what is yet to come.
However my time with you has come to an end for now, so we will save the greatest part of my story for next time. So until then, tootles.
- Adam Gilbert