FissionMailed

[Otacon ducked into his room, nervous and in quite a bit of pain. The other Raikov hadn't hurt him seriously, but those bruises were definitely going to stay for a while.]

[He took a deep breath and sighed, starting to calm down. He was safe now, at any rate...though he'd have a lot of explaining to do.]

[A lot of explaining.]

[for kuklakimou and possibly whyamisobritish]

[If you're a Liquid with nanomachines, you're getting a call right now.]

This is Otacon--I'm in the third floor library. If one of you isn't busy, I'd like to talk to you.

[A pause.]

It's important.

[Guess who's been in the nexus for 368 days, three hours, and seven minutes?]

[THIS GUY.]

[And as usual, he was just wandering around the nexus aimlessly until he came across an interesting looking door. Being a curious little scientist, he just had to open it.]

[And of course out came a FLOOD OF RUBBER DUCKIES, burying Otacon and the entire hallway.]

[But these were not normal duckies. Nonono. These were SPARKLING ANNIVERSARY DUCKIES.]

[Do watch your step. And help the little nerd if you can.]

[Here's to another year, y'all. <3]

[He hadn't slept in days. Ordinarily, that was perfectly normal. Otacon would stay awake working for days on end, forgetting that most people needed to eat or sleep at some point. He enjoyed working on something new, no matter how difficult or time-consuming it might be. But there was nothing for him to work on. Nothing to distract him from the fear and paranoia that was starting to wear on even his relentless optimism.]

[And it was when he slept that the nightmares started. He trembled uncontrollably, curled up on the bed and clinging to a pillow as if it was all he had to protect him.]

Please...not again. Talib, stop...please don't...

[Murmuring under his breath and whimpering helplessly, the sleeping engineer hugged the pillow a little tighter.]


[for kuklakimou]

[Breathe. Just keep breathing.]

[He fell to his knees in the hallway, hand against the nearest wall. Feeling the solid surface underneath his touch. Feeling something. It was amazing how the smallest, simplest things were enough to make his heart race with something like joy.]

[Like the fact that he was breathing. That he could feel the floor underneath him and the aching pain in his chest where a hole had been burned straight through to his heart.]

[But with the return of sensation came that paralyzing fear--the sharp memory of everything Talib had done to him, again and again for god knows how long...no one would want him after he had been reduced to such a revolting state. Just something to be used over and over before being discarded when no longer useful.]

[Hal Emmerich pulled his knees to his aching chest and broke down completely, strangled sobs leaving him as he buried his face in his arms.]



[Shush, it's past midnight here. :| that totally counts.]

[Anyone in a certain fourth floor hallway would find this particular Otacon pacing back and forth for a while--five minutes, maybe--before finally stopping and pressing his shoulder to a wall, hand to his head. He was conflicted, confused--and more than a little nervous.]

[What was he supposed to do today? Just say something along the lines of 'hey, sorry I slept with my stepmother and drove you to kill youself, effectively ruining the lives of everyone involved and--']

[Okay, that was a dark place for his mind to go so quickly. Otacon sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose--how was this supposed to work? Should he just go back to his room and hide out until today was over? But....he was so sick of hiding. Tired of running away like the coward he knew he was.]

[Slumped against the wall, he took a deep breath and sighed. He was a damn genius, surely he could at least work this situation out. Right?]

[Happy Father's Day. :B Looking for hueyemmerich, but please bother the nerd. <3 ILU gaiz.]

[Otacon didn't sleep well. That much had been true since college, back in the days when he had far less to worry about and a little less to hate himself for. When he worked, the engineer forgot about eating and sleeping altogether until he was finished; overall, he got by reasonably well as an insomniac.]

[But all that being true, Otacon would have loved to forget his insomnia for one night. He wanted to be able to ignore the burning pain from several injuries, to just sleep through it for a while.]

[Of course, tonight of all nights he couldn't sleep. Otacon was afraid, terrified of every sound and perceived movement in the dark. Ultimately, he wound up sitting on the bed with his laptop, room lit by the battery-run device. He typed away a bit awkwardly with his one usable hand, coding a program for the communication device that would eventually be used by corpsidus.]

[...really, he just wished he didn't have to feel so helpless.]


[Locked to kuklakimou

[Otacon had managed to hit a stroke of good luck around here; things were nice, really nice. Even if he was in a bit of a weird place as far as relationships went, he was happy for the moment.]

[And then the lights went out as he was walking to the kitchen. Now Otacon wasn't exactly afraid of the dark, strictly speaking.]

I...Ivan? Liquid? A...anyone?

[He was afraid of what might have been in it.]

[For breakuliquid and eventually viscous_serpent]

[This particular Otacon was in a surprisingly good mood as he walked into a room--believing it to be his own. He had to finish that generator and communication device for Solidus, his father wanted to see blueprints for REX...the engineer had a lot of work to do and was finally happy for the first time in months.]

[The room he had walked into almost seemed to reflect this, for this was a stealth snuggle room: full of comfortable looking furniture. A small note pinned to the wall opposite the door detailed the instructions.]

Welcome to the stealth snuggle room.
The rules are simple: sneak up on one person without their knowledge and snuggle them in order to be able to leave.

[Otacon read the note, smile spreading across his face. Nothing short of a massive outbreak of combat could ruin his mood today.] ...Hm. Sounds fun.

[Here we have a rarely-seen Otacon--he's been here long enough to know better than to wander into rooms randomly, you know.]

[But he does it anyway.]

[FOR SCIENCE~!]

[So here he is, walking into a room which just happens to be nicely decorated for Easter; with stuffed rabbits everywhere, a table full of candy, and very Easter-ish pastel colors everywhere.]

Huh. That's different.

[On smaller tables all around the room there are baskets, and in these baskets are brightly colored eggs. Approach with caution~]

[WE NEEDED AN EASTER ROOM. Touch an egg or eat it, effects will be the same and last as long as you darn well want them to.]

[Blue gives you complete and utter serenity. At peace with the world and all things in it.
Purple makes you confused--think like Pokemon 'punching-self-in-face' confused.
Pink gives you bunny ears. Yes, really.
Green makes you speak in nothing but rhymes.
Orange does nothing unless shared with someone else--each person involved become unbelievably clingy to the other.
Gold eggs make you super-happy, in love with the world, life, and everything.
Pink with blue spots make you super-childish and immature.]

There was a very cheerful Otacon in the fifth floor kitchen attempting to put together a cake. If anyone knew this Otacon well enough, that sentence alone would be utterly horrifying. The last time he had tried this was infamously known to his version of Philanthropy under the ominous name of the 'Silverburgh Birthday Incident'.

The scientist's intentions had been nothing but good, as they always were...honestly, to this day he wasn't sure how the cake had exploded.

Regardless, today was special. And really, a cake couldn't be that hard. That had just been a freak accident, right? So, singing an upbeat song to himself, Otacon was quite content at the moment.

"And I would like to find a hand like yours to take mine, and with one kiss we could stop time and I'd fall in love with you..."

...Of course, someone would likely need to stop him before he set fire to the kitchen/floor/entire building.