// open your heart and smile for me

[liquidouroboros.livejournal.com]

[The bar was dark, mostly quiet save for the radio playing off in the corner. Something about the atmosphere...was 'calming' the word for it? Somehow the room's lone inhabitant found himself thinking about things he hadn't considered in what felt like forever.]

[Liquid couldn't put a word to this particular feeling. He recalled friends he hadn't seen in so long. Gone home, most likely. Perhaps he should have been happy for them. But he wasn't, and what was this he felt when recalling them? Not loneliness, certainly. Liquid had learned what that felt like and knew this was something different. A sentiment without a name...]

[He lit a cigarette, leaning his head on a hand and staring distantly at nothing in particular. Was it...nostalgia? Wishing for days gone by just so he could see them again? Could Liquid Snake even be so sentimental?]

How very foolish...

[There was no point to dwelling on the past. Not about those that had gone, at least--his own past was another story. Liquid picked up a pen that laid a short distance down the bar and spun it around in his hand once or twice--then threw it at the radio with pinpoint accuracy, changing the music to something less depressing.]

Perfect as always.

[Snickering, he poured himself a glass of bourbon and drained it, smirking. Liquid Snake wouldn't pine for those that no longer remained here. There were more important things to worry about.]

Are you afraid of what might be hidden inside?

[likeyourheart.livejournal.com]

[Rosemary hasn't been here long. But already, she knows what's missing from the Nexus. A woman's touch! And good home cooking! Most of the people here were soldiers, like Jack. Rose wondered if they even remembered what it was like to just sit down and enjoy a good meal. Unfortunately, they're not going to remember any quicker seeing as Rose has taken it upon herself to do the cooking. She's reading up on how to cook lobster, because Jack always did say he really liked lobster. She was cooking for the residents of the Nexus of course, but she had Jack in mind first.]

A dash of this... a pinch of that...

[She wondered if Jack would appreciate this. He never seemed to appreciate what she did for him; the most emotion she had ever seen from him was during the Big Shell. True happiness, sadness, fear and anger... and she felt like she shared it all with him. It made her smile as she looked down at the lobster; the poor, still-living lobster that she was going to put in the pot of cold water and slowly boil alive. She already had some other things ready to eat: she had made a fresh salad, though she had pretty much drenched it in vinegar. And an extremely large omelette made for several people which was still runny and only half-cooked, with bits of the shell poking out of the top.]

[Rose watches the lobster for a while, though she isn't really seeing it. She's wondering... would Jack perhaps open up to her more if... well, he could unwind a little? Of course he wouldn't do so on his own, so... what if she helped him lower his inhibitions a little? Maybe suggest a drink... keep him drinking...? This wasn't about getting information for them anymore; she had a genuine, burning curiosity. What was her boyfriend of two years hiding from her? What was so awful in his mind about himself that he couldn't tell her? Why was he so afraid? She was completely open with him; or at least to the point that he didn't know their entire relationship was a set-up. Ah... there was that burning guilt again. She slowly rests a hand over her stomach. That was Jack's baby inside of her. A life they created together. Her resolve hardens. She had to know who the father of her unborn child really was. If not for her sake... then for the sake of the baby inside of her. She was going to find out who Jack Brannigan really was.]


((SOMEONE, SAVE THE LOBSTER. DEAR GOD. Also open for anyone, but if you're a Raiden then expect to be encouraged to drink heavily. :| You will be nagged moar.))

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good

[littleaviators.livejournal.com]

[There was a young girl, about eight years old, on a stepladder, reaching up to put a bucket of water on top of a slightly-open door.]

Nngh--

[The top of the door was just a little bit past her reach, and she was standing on her toes trying to get enough height to reach it.]

C'mon--

[She noticed that the room past the door wasn't the same as she remembered.]

Huh?  [crash]

[There went the bucket-- she'd lost her grip on it.  But it was more important to check out where she was than to take care of the water at the moment.]

...uh oh.  [This definitely didn't look like her dad's house.  Her dad's house never had big, white hallways in it.]

[calls out]  Dad...?



((Have an eight-year-old Cathy Miller from the Kulkaverse.  More info on her is in her journal.))

// Aa, sekai ga nijin de, soredemo suki de irareru ka nante?

[vestri-vires.livejournal.com]

[Otacon doesn't normally leave the sanctity of his lab, or the presence of his family, without due cause. When necessary, he detracts the MK4 from its near-constant surveillance of worlds_serpent to get what he needs, trusting in James to keep himself safe. But lately, he's starting to realise that while James has settled into this strange world, he hasn't. He hardly knows anyone, and thanks to his promise to Liquid, he doesn't even dare go into the rooms, even as he wants to see what they do with a childlike curiosity that's almost painful to ignore. The younger Liquid told him to learn to deal with the situation, that his confusion over recent events would pass the most he got used to the absurdity - and he has to admit that James keeps him out of the loop a lot. So he picks up his palmtop, syncing it to the laptop (in turn synced with the computers he had set up to control the lab and the MK4 with), the better to spy on keep a protective eye on James with, and slips out after securing the lab against intruders.

Nerves twist and churn in his stomach. The few people he has met here range from "strange" to "psychotic" and he still has bullet scars from previous encounters hidden beneath his jumper. Sometimes they still ache with phantom pains, as if Liquid hadn't painstakingly dug the bullets out and patched him up with painful and determined love in his every movement. But he can't let fear rule him. He won't. He's nowhere near the cowardly state he was in the past, the frightened little otaku that hid away in the locker at the first sign of danger. And he won't hide any more.

Otacon is out of the lab. Out of the house. And out into the Nexus.

Alone.]

In which you should never listen to chat's ideas, because they are frightening

[fakefse.livejournal.com]

[A large, animated 'sign' appears on the wall of a room, next to a six foot high, lavishly decorated cake on a dolly. It reads:]

HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY LIQUID SNAKE

 

[A song plays merrily in the room:]
 

 

[Inside the cake, Octopus laments his 'her' drunken deal so very, very much.]