WARNINGS:
1) This fic contains male/male relations. If you understand what that means and continue reading to your future dismay, I will smack you with a 2 by 4...
2) This is NOT an action-packed story. This is a psychological story, so stuff happens, but there's a heavy focus on the thoughts and feelings of the characters involved. If I get a review saying that this story is boring because of its lack of action, I will simply point you back to this warning...
the requisite disclaimer: I in no way claim the characters within this fic...well, one, maybe, but other than that, everyone belongs to Kojima and Konami. All plot elements that are referenced from the game are also their ideas, but everything else is mine...
Oh, and one more thing. This story contains journal entries so I formatted them this way: Indented paragraphs are entries, Plain type is Snake, Italicized type is Otacon...ok?
Ok, enough out of me. On with the story!
I...
Wish I could see you...
One last time...
Hal...
"Those were his last words. Even with his dying breath, he whispered for me. I think I died on that day too.
"They say that heroes can't really die; that legends are invincible. But, I know better than that. I've always feared his death, and I was always afraid that I would be the one to cause it."
The Elevator Up to Hell
akaisakura
Chapter 1: Comradeship
We were sitting outside on my balcony that overlooked the little private swimming pool Rose and I had bought for our "cute suburban home." Otacon had changed a lot since I last saw him 4 years ago. How he tracked me down, I don't know, but he isn't a member of the Knights of the Lambda-Calculus for nothing. The glasses that he used to wear are gone, replaced by dull, gray-colored contacts. His eyes were blank and the gray only added to that. Even his hair added to the already evident theme of gray. Otacon's hair was still long, but was starting to prematurely turn gray, and was wilder than before as it blew around in the light breeze. His scrawny frame was smaller than I remember, he smelled faintly of cigarette smoke, even though he didn't look like he had picked up smoking, and his complexion was drained, making him look more like someone who had been living as a vampire for the last 4 years of his life. I suppose that was always sort of true due to the fact that he was indoors all the time hacking government computers, but this was even worse than I figured it could be.
He had shown up at my doorstep, holding a box full of things that used to belong to Snake - things like his spare sneaking suit and bandana. The box itself, I suspect, was probably one of Snake's old cardboard boxes. More importantly though, there were things that I had never known about, let alone seen, like Snake's old trinkets and books - journals. Mixed in with these were Otacon's own personal journals and some painted models of what he called "mechas." He couldn't bring himself to throw these things away, but he knew he couldn't keep holding on to them.
"Jack, I want you to keep all the things in that box somewhere safe. That's all that's left of Dave that I have." He looked out into the distance beyond the line of trees that surround my house as a privacy screen. "I've been carrying that box with me everywhere I've gone for the past 4 years, and it's almost like an obsession now. I need to move on, but I can't leave Dave behind on my own. Please. Promise you'll take good care of it."
I waited for him to turn and face me so I could look him in the eye. His body didn't move, and his mind was definitely not in reality anymore.
"Otacon?..." He snapped out of it. Where his mind was, I don't know, and I certainly wasn't about to pry. "I promise I'll keep it safe for you. Will you come back for it some day?"
He made a subconscious flicker of his wrist as he tried to push a pair of non-existent glasses up the bridge of his nose. He didn't seem to notice that he no longer wore glasses. He had phased out again.
"Otacon??..."
"… yeah. I'll come back for it… someday…" He exhaled sharply and looked down towards the pool. The pool brokenly reflected the mid-day sun like a shattered mirror and tried to bring light back to his eyes. But as I looked at his profile, he just simply closed his eyes and blocked out the light. He was losing it again. I tried to break the somber mood.
"…So, what have you been up to lately? I heard you had to shut your branch of Philanthropy…"
Ok, so that wasn't the greatest topic to bring up, and I knew it about three seconds too late.
"…"
I was losing Otacon fast. As I was busy kicking myself for being so insensitive and trying to come up with something to say, Rose came home from her Sunday lunch with "the girls."
"Jack, honey! I'm back! Whose car is that out front?" she yelled from the foyer as she checked the answering machine for messages, knowing that I probably didn't answer the phone all morning. I hate phones.
"That's Otacon's!" I yelled back. I'm sure Rose was surprised at that, since like I said before, we hadn't seen hide nor hair of Otacon after Snake died on that mission 4 years ago. The man had just up and disappeared, wiping out all traces of his existence from the web, from government databases, from everything you could get your hands on. I guess you could say that when he said that he had died that day, he pretty much did. At first, I had heard from Campbell, who I finally met for real, that Otacon was still trying to run his branch of Philanthropy, which covered all of North America, but about six months later, he disappeared, even though you could tell that certain other operations run by smaller organizations had his signature on them. Then in the last year, even those little traces faded away into nothing. And now I knew why.
Otacon was still very much in mourning over the one and only true friend he ever had.
Otacon made a move to get up and leave when I grabbed his wrist to stop him.
"It's ok. You can stay here…I'm sure Rose wouldn't mind your company."
"I'm not asking for a place to stay, Jack. I'm just asking for a place to store some memories of mine," he slowly said.
"Well, at least stay for dinner then. We'd really love to catch up with you, and see what you've been up to in the past 4 years." I gripped his wrist tighter. I wasn't about to let him go with him acting like this. I've read about people who do these sorts of things, like dividing their belongings. They usually do this right before they kill themselves. "You can't say no to dinner...I mean, Rose may not be the best cook, but there's always the shady pizza joint down the street, and they deliver." I couldn't believe how lousy of a joke that was, but I think Otacon was almost tempted to smile at that.
"I...I really shouldn't. You've been more than patient with me, and I've taken so much of your time already this afternoon. I should go. Please, Jack...let go." He tried to wrestle his hand out of my grasp, but of course I'm much stronger. Something flashed through his eyes at that moment...maybe my strength reminded him of Snake. From what I know of Otacon, Snake seemed to be the only person he ever really became friends with. Almost everyone else died or betrayed him in some way, and oftentimes, both. I guess in the end, even Snake...
Well, anyway, needless to say, I couldn't hold the man against his will, and in the end, after I got the number of the place he's staying locally, I had to let him go. He reassured me that he would be ok, that he wasn't going to kill himself and that he just wanted a clean break so he could move on with his life. But how much of that can I believe? I really don't think it was such a good idea to let him go, but... well, what can I do?
So that brings me to what I'm doing now. Curiosity has gotten the better of me, and I can't help but try to put together how a mission could have gone so wrong. After Snake died on that mission, no one would release any information. In fact, if Campbell hadn't contacted me to try and find Otacon, I wouldn't have ever known that Snake had died. Campbell may be retired, but that old geezer still has a lot of connections. But even with his connections, he couldn't find Otacon. Philanthropy wouldn't release any info mostly due to the fact that the person in contact with Snake at the time refused to comment, and then when he disappeared, he took it all with him. I had also tried to contact the UN. Technically, Philanthropy is sanctioned by the UN, so there should be some sort of record or something with them, but even they wouldn't acknowledge this mission.
So from what few scraps I've been able to put together, the mission was supposed to be a routine "find and dispose of the Metal Gear" type, nothing Snake couldn't handle on his own, which is why I guess they didn't ask for my help on this one.
So what is it that Otacon's hiding? Why is he so afraid of telling people how something like this could have happened? I wonder if it's personal...
I sorted the journals out earlier today, among all the little Alaskan clay statues, wood carvings and various other assortments of strange things, and arranged them in chronological order. There were also some DVDs in the box which are recordings of CODEC conversations during the various missions Snake went on. I even found the one for the Big Shell Incident. Oh, goodie. I can hear how much of a blind fool I was back then. Anyway, I flip through the oldest one to get a general idea. It seems that this one is one of Snake's journals from before Shadow Moses. I really want to read it, but I think I'll leave this one alone. I've got to focus on finding out what happened on that mission. The next few are also Snake's personal journals. I open the eighth one. This one seems to have been written by two different people, alternating back and forth. Snake wrote the first entry in fairly neat handwriting, and Otacon wrote the second in what I like to call "scientists' chicken scratch." Hmm. Maybe there'll be a hint in here about why Otacon is so affected by Snake's death. I plop onto the couch in the study and settle in. This is going to be a long night.
|
January 1, 2009 Brand new year, brand new journal. So this year, I'm going to try something a little different. I'm going to ask Hal if he wants to share this journal with me. That way, we can exchange thoughts and I would only be obligated to write every other day at the very most. I know he's not the type to keep a journal since his half of the room's about as bad as mine, but you should see the way he organizes every file on his computers. Jeez. And I thought I was bad with my box collection. Talk about compulsive. Not much happened today. We just stayed in bed all day today, seeing as how I was suffering a hangover this morning from all the drinking last night. Hal wasn't all that bad off, as usual. Gotta give the guy credit. It never fails to surprise me how much he can drink. Damn biological clock. I woke up after 2 hours of sleep, at 5 this morning out of habit and couldn't go back to bed. It took all morning and most of the afternoon for the hangover to go away completely. Have I ever mentioned that Hal makes a great nurse? I don't understand how he can have so much patience to take care of me when I know I'm at my most obnoxious. Oh, well. I should just be grateful that he's with me now. He's beckoning me to bed now with that smile of his that makes my heart quicken with excitement. I'm going to call it a day and end here, but first, I've gotta ask him if he wants to write in this journal too... |
Ok, so call me dense, but did I just read that right? "Beckoning me to bed...?" Am I missing something here? I know this has nothing to do with finding out how Snake died, but then again, this may have everything to do with it. Sides, call it "hero worship" that I still want to know everything about Snake, just like all those years ago when I was still green. I walk back over to the box and drag the whole thing over to the couch. Reaching in, I search for a journal which will hopefully answer my questions...
Here we go. This is two journals back, and towards the end. I guess this would be a little after the Tanker Incident.
|
November 10, 2007 Hal was trying to cheer me up. I mean, I know what the guy was trying to do, but it's just weird, you know? I don't think I'm making much sense, but then again, right now, not much is making sense and... ARG!!! Ok, where was I? Two days ago, after I came in from my morning routine with the dogs, I was feeling slightly depressed because of Meryl. Or more accurately, I was thinking about what I had said when I was talking to Hal after I knocked Olga unconscious. I guess Meryl never really left my mind, even though we broke up over six months ago. So as a way to cheer me up, Hal dressed up in one of those ridiculous outfits from one of his silly anime shows, only it was a dress. Don't ask me where he got it, but it was scary seeing him in it. I mean, this is Hal we're talking about here. The guy is just W-E-I-R-D. He decided that the way to get my mind off of Meryl was to be the opposite of her, which I guess is a guy in drag acting like a hyperactive school-girl... I guess it sort of worked since I was tempted to outright laugh at him for his outfit and behavior. Then he did something I would never have expected. I was trying my best not to laugh as I ignored him and continued to eat my usual breakfast when he decided to pull my chair away from the table. Then he sat himself down on my lap and started trying to flirt with me. And then... he was kissing me. Tongue and all. I don't know why I let him force me open, or why I didn't just deck him right then, and...well, that's why nothing makes sense right now. I have NO IDEA what to do, or what I think, or... how I... feel... After our lips parted, he gave me a look that haunts me whenever I close my eyes. I've seen that look on other people's faces before, but I never would've thought that Hal's would be one of them. Sympathy, caring, respect, lust, and... love. I wonder why I never saw it before. Now I just wonder if he loves the real me, or if it's just going to be another one of those misplaced loves, like Meryl's was. She never really got beyond the surface. Until the very end, I think she still only loved me as Snake, not Dave. We stared at each other for a few seconds. And then he leaned in, and whispered in my ear, "I'm sorry, Dave, but I love you." He got off my lap and retreated to his room, closing the door behind him. Course, this brings up another point. How long has he liked me? Is that why he was so nervous and made that comment when I sent him that picture of the Vulcan Raven action figure? I only meant it as a memento of Raven, since his last words were, "I'll be watching you." It was just mildly amusing to see that he was still around like he promised. He also seemed kinda unphased when he decided to lecture me on my, uh... "hyperactive libido"... Could Hal have liked me from when I moved back into this house (or I should say his house, since he bought it from me when I moved in with Meryl) after she broke up with me? Maybe even before then? I guess I should be asking him these questions. I don't know. For being the courageous, legendary Solid Snake, I'm sure acting like a wimp. We haven't even really spoken to each other in the past 2 days outside of grunts of acknowledgement and a quick "bless you" from Hal when I sneeze. I think he's avoiding me because he's afraid of what I might say or do to him. I'd tell him that he has nothing to worry about if only I knew how I would actually react if he were to talk to me. Sure it's easy to play the part of the asshole, but I know that he knows there's this other side to me. He sees it every morning when he's out there with me feeding my dogs. So far, it's only shown up when I'm around my dogs, but recently, I think I've been a little more open towards Hal too. Maybe that's why he got the guts to do what he did. This is bad. I never babble, but here I am, rambling on and on like Hal... What am I going to do? I can't say I'm completely cold about the guy, but I certainly don't lust for him either. He may be bi, but I'm pretty sure I'm straight.
November 15, 2007
November 20, 2007 I'm not sure I understand everything yet, but I have been thinking quite a bit. I know I do like him as a friend and I care a lot about him. Like right now, I can't help but wonder how he's doing, what he's thinking, and what he's feeling. I wonder if he finds this silence to mean that I hate him or something but he's too polite to throw me out of his house. I really need to talk to him.
November 21, 2007
November 25, 2007
November 30, 2007 I was really hung-over the next day, no surprise there. After the nanomachines stopped working, my body's gotten a little weaker, and I've definitely noticed that I can't drink as much. Or maybe that's because I'm no longer drinking all the time... anyway, Hal was just fine. I'm not sure how he was ok, but he was. It's "in his genes," he says. So he spent all of yesterday by my bedside, keeping me company when I was awake. This is where things get interesting. From what I can remember of Thanksgiving night, I think Hal kissed me again. We were both drunk as hell, and I think he asked if he could. I wanted some physical contact, so I said, "Yes." But that's as far as it went. I think Hal realized what he was doing, so after the kiss, he just sort of backed away and continued to chatter as if nothing happened. We haven't talked about the incident since, but I wonder if he's thinking about it too... To tell you the truth, Hal's not a bad kisser either. He's got this shy, scared sort of kiss where he starts out really nervous, but then, the longer the kiss is, the more confident he gets and he starts to take control until he's commanding your whole being... Damn hyperactive libido. I must be desperate...
December 19, 2007 |
Uh… So this is how they got together, I guess. When I first met the two of them 5 years ago, I think I knew they were an item. I mean, it was as though I had met two different people in Snake that day on Big Shell. When he was by himself carrying out the mission, he was cold and a total asshole, but when he was around Otacon, somehow, all of that just vanished and he changed into a stern, but patient man who could find a way to balance his sense of the mission and his caring for his friend. It's an odd combination, to say the least, but one that is incredibly hard to do. I know I couldn't pull that off in my relationship with Rose…
There isn't much left to this journal, so I pick up the next one. Skimming through it, it seems like Snake had a lot to write that year. I guess Otacon had a strong influence on his life. I open to a random entry towards the end. Hopefully, it'll give me a link, or if I'm lucky, a synopsis of events, between 2007 and 2009.
|
December 2, 2008 We made love for the first time yesterday, and it was the greatest feeling in the world. I've never had sex that felt like that -- so full of love and tenderness, yet so powerful and full of longing. It's the first time I've felt like my partner was my equal. I think he's officially moved into my room now cause he's been sleeping in my bed with me since Thanksgiving...that and his room's slowly becoming the annex to the mess of wires in the living room... Hal was pretty bold last night, but I could feel a nervous undercurrent in him the entire time and I can't understand why. I mean, I've seen nervous virgins and all that, but this was... Something seemed off, like Hal's afraid of something. Maybe he feels like he's betraying Wolf? I know she still holds a place in his heart... I don't want to pry, but still, I wonder... |
Ok. I think I could have lived without reading that one. I don't know. It's just, I'm not sure Snake wanted anyone else to know about his sex life. I'm sure I'm doing a full body blush right about now.
"Jack, why are you blushing?..."
Uh, oh. Rose...
"Um, nothing. Just reading Snake's and Otacon's journals and I stumbled across something... heh heh..." I scratch the back of my head nervously.
"What did you find?"
"Um... I don't think I can say... I don't think I was supposed to read it either..." I give a little frown. "Please don't ask what it's about, Rose. I really don't want to talk about it."
"You and your secrets!"
"But this one isn't mine! Well, I mean, it's not supposed to be, but it is now...and oh, ...anyway, what are you up to?..."
She's giving me this look that she likes to give me when I'm defying her. Ever since we started anew after the Big Shell Incident, she's definitely gotten a little more aggressive... all because I said I'd let her be the real her, etc., etc... I do miss how it used to be, with her accepting what I say without demanding to know more. On the other hand, it's nice to know she gives a damn about what I do, even if she does treat me like our kid sometimes... Which reminds me...
"Jack, did you call my mother today?"
Oops... she got to me first.
"Um, uh... no...? I was talking with Otacon, remember?..."
"Honey, he was only here until three. What happened to all those hours between three and seven when you came in here to read?"
"I was sorting Otacon's stuff...dinner...and then...uh..." I can tell I'm going to get it. She gives a little sigh.
"Jack. What am I going to do with you?... Alright, fine. Just remember to call her tomorrow. I want to you to communicate a bit more with my mother since she's nice enough to take Leo off our hands for a month."
I lucked out. She's not going to lecture me today, which means that she's probably going to find some other way to get back at me later. "Yes, sweetie. I will call her tomorrow and check up on Leo."
"And Jack, make sure you go to bed sometime soon. I do not need you running into the shower 3 minutes before we're supposed to be on the road for work."
Ugh. Work. I don't know which is worse, the battlefield or work. At least on the battlefield, it's over when it's over. Work is never over. It's an endless cycle of kids who refuse to answer your questions or are total jerks. Yes, I am now a military instructor at the base just outside of town, under a false name, of course. I suppose I could've ended up with a worse job, but I don't know what could be worse than kids, er... "young adults." Rose is also working at the base, but as an analyst, just like always. I swear the Patriots stuck me with this job to spite me for my past work with Philanthropy. Oh well. Have to make the best of it, I suppose, for Rose's sake. This is her dream, after all -- the quiet suburban home with a kid and low-risk jobs. But one day, I swear I'm going to get a better job.
"Yes, Rose. I'll go to bed soon, sweetie. You go on ahead and I'll be there in a bit..."
"..." She gives me that look that tells me she doesn't believe a word I just said. "Alright. Just make it soon, ok?"
"Yes, sweetie." I give her my best smile and she turns around to go upstairs.
I don't know why I can't be my old self around her anymore. I must sound like a total wimp. Plenty of people have told me that I'm totally whipped by her, and sadly, it's true. It's not like I want to do everything for her, or that I like everything in my life now, but something about her makes me want to keep her satisfied at the very least. Maybe it's the fear that now she's free to leave me whenever she wants. She stopped working for the Patriots right after the Big Shell Incident just like she promised, and Otacon had granted us some privacy and security by giving us new IDs to use, among other things. Just to be extra safe, I had changed our IDs another 3 times, after I left Philanthropy, to protect our son. I give a little sigh. Things sure have changed in the past five years.
I flip through the journal and a lot of it is more of Snake talking about various things he and Otacon had done, some more about his sex life, which I am not about to disclose, and even some arguments they had. Guess even the best relationships have their sour moments...
I don't know. The more I read, the more I'm beginning to feel like it's none of my business to know what went on in his life. Curiosity is one thing, but is it right? Maybe I should stick to finding out what I need to know, and stay away from all the things I don't... I give another little sigh...
But I am curious about what they thought of Big Shell... hmmm...... A few more entries before bed couldn't hurt, right?...
|
May 3, 2009 I'm beginning to question myself. I've questioned myself before, like where am I going, what am I fighting for, etc., but after this last mission, I'm beginning to wonder if I might one day become like my brothers. So far, it seems like all my brothers and Big Boss were angry at the world for different things, and that to "right the wrongs," have seeked to wield supreme power. I could've turned out that way too, but I haven't yet. Power doesn't interest me, and I'm not really upset at anything. I may be a clone but I'm not a complete copy of Big Boss, and who I am - my personality, I have some control over how those are shaped, right? But still, I wonder if it will ever happen. The only thing I know for certain is that if I were to ever lose Hal... He is still rather shaken up over his sister's death. The only thing he's done these past few days is sulk in our room. I keep on trying to get him to do other things or talk to me, but he refuses to. He's still blaming himself for everything that's happened. He did tell me about his stepmother eventually, and how that all tied in with why he left home, but I don't understand why he blames himself so heavily for everything. I'm really worried about him. This can't be healthy. And if this is any indication, I had better make sure I don't die any time soon. I don't think he could stand to take two deaths so close to one another... Maybe we should let the other members handle more missions from now on. I should also talk to him about this whole thing with his stepmother. Seems to me like it still hurts him a lot, and his fear over what happened is what's causing the underlying tension that's always there when we make love. If I had known earlier,... Hal... Why are you pushing yourself to suffer so much pain unnecessarily?...
May 6, 2009
He had to kill his own father and his best friend in Zanzibar. I've never killed anyone with my own hands, but it's the same thing. I've killed just as many people through my own irresponsible actions. That's something that never leaves you. I guess Big Boss was, in almost every way, a father to him, even if they didn't call each other father and son until their last moments together. Some of Dave's old journal entries are filled with nothing but pleasant memories of Big Boss when he was Dave's commanding officer. And Frank was his best friend, almost like a brother, on the battlefield. But there is a difference between him and I. He had no choice but to kill his father and friend, but I had a choice. Even if I didn't mean to kill my father, I still did through my choice to stay quiet and not stopping my affair with Julie. And while Dave's retirement didn't hurt anyone, when I ran away, I made another choice that would end up killing EE... no, Emma...
It's hard to think of her as Emma. I was always so much older than her and she was so little. Even now, she was still so young... If I remember correctly, she would have turned 18 in a month... |
Otacon's entry abruptly stops here. The page is crinkled and there are tear stains on the paper. I can only imagine how hard it was for him to write about his sister like that... after all the years of separation, finding out that she loved him, and then seeing her die in his arms... I remember the sound of his mournful wails and the expression of intense pain written on his face that day. If Snake wasn't there to calm him, I don't think I could've on my own. I think I'll stop for tonight. Reading all this has brought back some bad memories for me as well. Solidus, the War, the days of my youth when I was hailed as the ruthless "White Devil" or "Jack the Ripper." It's all things I wish I could forget. But I can't. These things are as much a part of me as the barcodes tattooed all over my body. I got those in the War too. It was their way of keeping track of all the Child Soldiers...
I close the journal, put it back in the box with the rest, and turn off the light to the study.
Notes:
-All the chapter titles will be names of various background music from MGS2: The Other Side soundtrack. Somehow, Norihiko Hibino just comes up with better music... The particular tracks also fit the chapters musically...
-Whee! In Japan, they just released a disk called "The Documents of Metal Gear Solid 2" for PS2. In this disk are all sorts of goodies including a sound test, 5 VR missions, polygon demos, and most importantly, the entire MGS2 script!!! So, whenever I make reference to the script, I mean the script that was released on this disk. These are Kojima and co's original words and camera/scene directions, so I give them a lot of weight.
-Knights of the Lambda-Calculus - A semi-mythical organisation of wizardly LISP and Scheme hackers. The name refers to a mathematical formalism invented by Alonzo Church, with which LISP is intimately connected. There is no enrollment list and the criteria for induction are unclear, but one well-known LISPer has been known to give out buttons and, in general, the *members* know who they are. (taken from: http://burks.brighton.ac.uk/burks/foldoc/3/64.htm)
-Raiden and Rose still calls Otacon and Snake by their codenames out of respect, but Snake and Otacon freely call Raiden Jack.
-Philanthropy... from the more-or-less "Official" Philanthropy site ( http://plaza28.mbn.or.jp/~projectitoh/philanthoropy/index.htm) This site is in Japanese, and I say its about as official as it gets because Project Itoh (the person that runs this site, who incidently draws and sells MGS doujinshi, and is some mangaka's assistant, though they don't tell you which mangaka...) was actually asked to write an essay for the Premium Package of MGS2 in Japan (apparently, Kojima really liked the Kojimania site that's hosted on the root directory .../~projectitoh/). If you can read Japanese, the essay he wrote is posted on the Kojimania page, and it's an interesting read. It wasn't just some fan essay either - it's more like a philosophy magazine article with a dash of commentary about Kojima's thinking and style…that's the best I can describe it as.
As for the Philanthropy page, I'm guessing that Kojima either gave him info to use, or let him have free reign to create the "Official" Philanthropy website. So… as a warning, I must say that some of this is rather odd-sounding, but remember, Kojima's a nut for movies and references, so here's some Philanthropy basics...
Philanthropy was founded on December 8, 2006 by an American science fiction writer named Tyler Duram after he went to a seminar at MIT. He didn't like the idea of Metal Gears running around and wanted to do something to rid the world of them.
I'll put up more info on my webpage as soon as I translate more...
So... Basically, Philanthropy was founded and is run by a nut who's watched a little too much Fight Club… -_-;;
From here on, you can fill in your own info for how Snake and Otacon fit in… My version for this story is that Snake and Otacon joined up shortly after it was founded in 2006, since I don't think Tyler sounds like either Snake or Otacon in any way, shape, or form... on top of which, I doubt either Snake or Otacon were SF writers on the side... After they joined, they didn't get to do anything really until the Tanker Incident, since Snake said that they hadn't caught any news of new Metal Gears in a while in the opening sequence. During this time, Philanthropy was filing for more official recognition and support from the UN. After Snake and Otacon's blunder, Philanthropy fell off the edge, but was brought back once they had stopped numerous smaller Metal Gear operations, along with the "success" of the Big Shell Incident, and gathered enough evidence to publish the grim news internationally. So by 2010, they were back in full operation, with Otacon and Snake heading one branch that covered North America. The whole thing with the Patriots is more or less against Snake and Otacon, since they were doing the most damage to their project. Philanthropy was also getting in the Patriots' way, but they figured that once Snake and Otacon were gone, Philanthropy would be much easier to control through their monetary influence (one of the 12 is a big contributor to Philanthropy after all).
Otacon probably learned how to fly a Kamov and drive a motor boat in a huge rainstorm during this time period. Maybe it was part of some basic training all support personnel receive. Would make some sense, right?... ^_^;;
-Well, Hal did say in the game that he learned that you have to go out and find love instead of waiting for it to come to you...I'd say he found his love and pursued it quite well ^_^ Hal in a sailor fuku... *heh, heh*
-Another cute little point I thought I'd bring up is: throughout the entire Plant Chapter, Snake doesn't say a thing about women, (that bit about Emma is actually really innocent in the Japanese version...Snake simply ponders if he has Otacon's permission to invite Emma to dinner in a plutonic manner (shokuji ni sasou ni wa OTACON no kyoka ga irukana...)) but you should hear the Japanese voice actor when he asks Stillman about the "security advisor" and his condition... ^_^ Sounds like he's a little overly concerned for the welfare of our favorite geek...
-Most big (famous) dog sled races are in February and March, with a few in January. There aren't really any in December...but I guess they can have local ones and all that... @_@;;
-Otacon still calls for Wolf in the game...I take that as she still holds a place in Otacon's heart. But who's to say that you can't hold someone dear and still love someone else, right?... Intrestingly enough, the original script calls for 2 flashbacks/references to Wolf during that scene (one was supposed to be right after Otacon makes his speech about love), but they only had 1 in the final version... hmmmm... ^_^;;
-Raiden has a kid who is now 5, is over at his grandmother's house for part of the summer, and is named Leo... yes, that's Leo for Leonardo Di Caprio (I don't even like the guy) ...Keeping with the Titanic reference here... (Rose, Jack...cheesy, I know... but I didn't make it up... you can thank Kojima for that one :P )
-Rose, in my opinion, had to suffer quite a bit during the 2 years she was dating Raiden. She seems like someone who has the potential to be strong and independent, but because it was her job, she had to change herself to fit Raiden's preferences, which I believe to be a weak woman who doesn't question the man. She even said that she had to fight her way into seeing Raiden's room when they were going out. It's rumored by many that she may have also been physically abused... So now, Raiden's trying to change all that. So even if he may not like everything, he tries to keep it under control now...so I show things that he doesn't necessarily like in quotes, things like "the girls" and the "cute suburban home."
-The parrot?...did Otacon get the parrot in the end or no?? I don't think so cause in the original script, Kojima describes the scene and says that "you see the parrot flying off, but you don't see Otacon's form. (Then you see Otacon in a car speeding away.)" That to me means that he intends for it to be a dramatic thing where Otacon's letting his sister go (or attempting thereof...).