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☮ 058; [text]
Apr. 13th, 2012 07:56 pm[Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He should have known better, after all that had happened. Otacon should have known this would never last, and that it was a miracle things had stayed as they were for the year or so that they did. Two years? No, it was probably a little short of that. However long it had been, it didn't matter anymore. Did anything matter at this point?]
This message is for those of you who knew Liquid Snake.
[Of course not. Nothing mattered, not for Otacon. Whatever happened from here on out, he was alone. Liquid used to talk about changing fate, going back home and rewriting what was supposedly fated. Maybe it would work. Scientifically speaking, the probability of one timeline of one universe branching off was pretty good in the grand scheme of things. But where did that leave Otacon? The same place he'd ever been. Just like with Wolf, with Emma, with Naomi...he lost everything, and it only hurt worse each and every time.]
He's not in Johto anymore.
['I don't have any more tears to shed.' Otacon remembered when Snake had told him that, nine or ten years ago. He'd thought that must have been a terrible existence, to be so broken and jaded that one simply couldn't cry anymore. Given the kind of track record he had, just typing that last sentence should have had Otacon breaking down to an inconsolable wreck. But...there was nothing. It hurt, ached in a way he was very familiar with...and yet he was just empty.]
[He'd been right. It was a terrible way to live.]
[Why wasn't he breaking down? Why hadn't he burst into an inconsolable mess of tears? This wasn't like him at all. Was he just that broken by now, or did he still have some tiny measure of hope that things would be alright?]
[If anyone could rewrite history through stubborn singleminded determination, it would be Liquid Snake. Otacon believed that with all his heart--if Liquid wanted something done, no laws of time, physics, or reason would stop him. It almost made him wonder what kind of world that would result in. Shadow Moses would surely end differently, if it happened at all. And knowing Liquid...he'd trample time and space until he crossed paths with that world's Hal Emmerich. And then...no, it didn't matter what happened then. Because the Hal Emmerich of 2014 was the only one he could concern himself with. Whatever happened, he would never know and couldn't waste his life thinking about it.]
[Otacon leaned back in his chair, taking off his glasses and waiting for a response. He'd done what he needed to, now he just had to handle the fallout. He'd have a lot of explaining to do to Snake, at least. Taking a deep breath and sighing, the engineer stared blankly out the window.]
[...I believe you can change fate. I know that you can, James. So don't--you're not allowed to die like that, understand?]
This message is for those of you who knew Liquid Snake.
[Of course not. Nothing mattered, not for Otacon. Whatever happened from here on out, he was alone. Liquid used to talk about changing fate, going back home and rewriting what was supposedly fated. Maybe it would work. Scientifically speaking, the probability of one timeline of one universe branching off was pretty good in the grand scheme of things. But where did that leave Otacon? The same place he'd ever been. Just like with Wolf, with Emma, with Naomi...he lost everything, and it only hurt worse each and every time.]
He's not in Johto anymore.
['I don't have any more tears to shed.' Otacon remembered when Snake had told him that, nine or ten years ago. He'd thought that must have been a terrible existence, to be so broken and jaded that one simply couldn't cry anymore. Given the kind of track record he had, just typing that last sentence should have had Otacon breaking down to an inconsolable wreck. But...there was nothing. It hurt, ached in a way he was very familiar with...and yet he was just empty.]
[He'd been right. It was a terrible way to live.]
[Why wasn't he breaking down? Why hadn't he burst into an inconsolable mess of tears? This wasn't like him at all. Was he just that broken by now, or did he still have some tiny measure of hope that things would be alright?]
[If anyone could rewrite history through stubborn singleminded determination, it would be Liquid Snake. Otacon believed that with all his heart--if Liquid wanted something done, no laws of time, physics, or reason would stop him. It almost made him wonder what kind of world that would result in. Shadow Moses would surely end differently, if it happened at all. And knowing Liquid...he'd trample time and space until he crossed paths with that world's Hal Emmerich. And then...no, it didn't matter what happened then. Because the Hal Emmerich of 2014 was the only one he could concern himself with. Whatever happened, he would never know and couldn't waste his life thinking about it.]
[Otacon leaned back in his chair, taking off his glasses and waiting for a response. He'd done what he needed to, now he just had to handle the fallout. He'd have a lot of explaining to do to Snake, at least. Taking a deep breath and sighing, the engineer stared blankly out the window.]
[...I believe you can change fate. I know that you can, James. So don't--you're not allowed to die like that, understand?]
