vulpesvivus | ☮ 050; [voice/video] dated to saturday morning

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☮ 050; [voice/video] dated to saturday morning

[It had been a week since anyone heard this voice. Longer still since it was broadcast over the network.]

[For Hal Emmerich, it had been five years since he awoke from a dream calling itself Johto. Five long years of wandering as fugitives against the world, of unkind truths and harsh realities. Failed missions, broken hearts, and at last a hard-won victory at the end of it all. The Patriots' AIs were eliminated thanks in no small part to Naomi, and for the first time since 2005, Otacon felt that everything might just truly work out alright. But first there was Snake to worry about--he'd last been seen from the air, fighting Liquid Ocelot on top of Outer Haven.]

[And the very next second, Otacon was waking up in a room he only vaguely recognized. His voice was the only thing heard at first, sounding as if the Pokegear was a short distance away.]

Where--...? Oh, no. That's not good. I'm piloting a helicopter and I'm dreaming, that can't be a good thing. Wake up, I need to wake up or I'm going to crash right into Haven, it'd really be stupid to die now.

Phaaaa. [The concerned bleating of an Ampharos was much closer to the Gear than Otacon's voice--he was the one that had turned it on, most likely. The silence that followed was almost tangibly stunned.]

A...Asimov...? No way. This--that was just a dream. It still is, because this kind of thing doesn't just happen! Think of how many laws of physics a place like this would break, it's...it's not possible. I'm still in the Kasatka. I can't...

[Another pause. There was the shuffling sound of someone taking the Pokegear, and then a familiar yet somewhat older face in an unfamiliar turtleneck and trenchcoat appeared onscreen.]

...This really happened, didn't it? I thought--I thought it was just some dream I had. That I was going crazy or something. But it's too lucid to be anything like that, isn't it?

Is anyone else still here? How long has it been? And does anyone know if this place is even real?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I kind of assumed 'lots of people' still being here was a safe bet. I was worried about a few specific ones.

And I figured if I've really been gone for as long as I think, someone might've figured out some answers by now.

Well, then you should have asked for them by name instead of being so vague about it. Don't you think? No, you don't. Because if you did think, you would have known otherwise.

[ Tch. ]

So you were here before and asked such a dumb question? You're not helping your case here one bit.

You know, you're not really helping much of anything. I'd like to see anyone try to think straight after spending five years at home before coming back here.

Huh? You mean people return to this place even if they go home?

It looks like it, yeah. I know I've been here before.

... So there's no point to trying to find a damn way to leave.

Some people don't come back, that much I remember. So there's some way out for good. I just honestly don't know what it is.

Didn't you just say you were gone for five years and then you've come back? Maybe the other people just haven't spent enough time away before this place decides to drag them back!

That's different--I was asleep here. People disappear all the time.

Asleep? How do you know you were asleep here and didn't just disappear?

Judging by what I'm hearing, I was still here.

So if people fall asleep, they return years later?

From what I remember, it could be pretty much any amount of time. Years, months, probably even a couple weeks.

... did you know you were asleep here? You know, when you were back at home and crap.

No. I woke up back home thinking this had all been a really weird dream.

But you remembered the stuff that happened here and all the people you've met?

[ Even if she's being pesky with her mannerisms there's one thing evident in all of this - she's gaining as much information as she can without giving anything in return. Almost like she's use to this sort of gathering, trained to excel at it even. ]

Kind of--I mean, as much as you'd expect to remember about a dream like this. I didn't think too much about it.

... and how long were you in this place before waking up back at your home?

A little longer than a year.

So you have a dream that has several events that take up over a year of your life and you just dismiss it, barely thinking about it, for five years.

Guess you had no friends here or anything.

I did. I still do, that's why I asked about them before I did anything else.

What was I supposed to do, look for the interdimensional portal that was obviously under my bed?

[Someone's had a very rough day, Asuka.]

You sure as hell didn't call them by name.

[ Shrugging her shoulders. ]

Don't get irritated at me for not believing your story. It doesn't make any sense at all.

Since when does anything here make sense?

It was starting to until I started to talk to you. Who the heck are you even? What kind of person starts talking to a stranger without fully introducing themselves even?

You, apparently.

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