001 [voice]
What the..? What's going on here? Hey! Don't drag me ov--You could at least give me some pants first! [This guy's nasally voice sure doesn't sound happy. He's being harassed by the people at the baseball diamond.] Siren's Port? But I was just at..[Abruptly, he trails off.] What's really going on here? Am I making this all up..? A...Achoo! [Sniff.]
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Raiden scowled to himself, at his confusing thoughts, at his predicament. Though he started out standing straight, it didn't take long for him to curl in on himself, struggling to keep his body warmth close. Still clutching the sword, the pale man shifted his weight from one cold foot to the other. He stood out rather noticeably in the dark alley with his light hair and even lighter skin, so he was back pretty far from the street. Luckily, no one had spied him hiding there yet. Shivering, Raiden slowly turned his head, watching a small creature, a rat or maybe a cat, dart through the back of the alley. He was only looking away from the alley entrance for a couple seconds, but that was apparently all it took for a legendary soldier to sneak up on him. It's directly after a sharp sneeze that Raiden felt something touch his cold shoulder and he spun, dog tags jingling, to see... Snake. Thank god.
"Ssnake!" he declared, a bit hissier than he would have liked but even his mouth was cold by this point. No matter what had happened before his arrival to this place, Raiden was extremely grateful to see the other man's familiar, rugged face. Once that bag is held out, Raiden stared, caught in a dilemma. His hands were, ah, rather full. He uttered a confused "uhh" as he attempted to deduce a way to cover himself, hold the sword and phone, and take the bag. As cold as he was, it was a matter of seconds before he just reached out to snatch the bag and turned around to look through it (c'mon, it's modesty). The younger man crouched stiffly and began pulling out clothing. Clothes had never looked so appealing before.
".....Thanks," he offered awkwardly after a minute, pulling on articles of clothing as quickly as he could. They felt wonderful, even if they did hang loose on his frame. He could already feel himself warming. The dark colors caused his pallidness to stand out even more in the gloomy lighting. Straightening back up, Raiden turned toward the alley's other occupant, gathering the bag and his two odd items in his cold hands and giving Snake a once over. He looked comfortable and Raiden wondered how much Snake knew about any of this.
"How long have you been here? How did I even get here?"
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Maybe if he's lucky Rose will show up too. Snake can relate to wanting to see someone familiar in this sort of situation. The first person he'd run into had been Otacon, luckily. (Especially lucky since Otacon was pretty quickly followed by Liquid, Ocelot, Master Miller and Big Boss.) If Raiden had questions he'd do his best to answer them. He'd kept Raiden in the dark during the Big Shell incident out of necessity, but there was no reason to do that here. Even if Raiden is still a little wary of Snake, from his perspective, Raiden is one of the few people he actually considers a friend.
"Comfortable" might be a bit of an overstatement, though. Snake doesn't like the idea of being held somewhere against his will. And things seemed to start to fall apart around here not long after he arrived, people disappearing or dieing one after the other. Sort of like FOXDIE all over again, in a way. But Snake's always been good at staying cool under pressure and putting up a neutral front. There's some kind of commotion about the core being found and Snake doesn't trust anything he's been hearing about it, but at the very least they weren't in immediate danger just yet. They had some time before the sirens went off, too. He stepped back and waited silently. Once Raiden had gotten dressed Snake gave him a once-over of his own. So he really did come straight from Arsenal, huh? Odd that he had Olga's blade but not the rest of his gear. Some luck.
"Hm." How long? That was a bit of a tricky question, actually. Snake only remembers being here a couple months but apparently he had been here much longer than that. Gone missing and reappeared without memory of this place. The gap in his memory was more than a little worrying to him. "...A while." He answered at length. "More than long enough for my tastes. Unfortunately leaving isn't as easy as it should be."
Snake's a man of few words, usually. But hit his exposition button and he'll talk for a while.
"Didn't get the welcome speech, huh? As far as anyone seems to know you got dragged here by something called the core. Makes it impossible to leave, too. I wouldn't have believed any of it myself at first. But there are some things you can't fake." Things like certain people who should be long dead.
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Raiden displayed great patience while waiting for Snake to do some explaining. The consideration that went into the other man's answer was noted for it's slowness. That it had to be thought over wasn't the most comforting thing to notice. Judging by the answer he's given, they were stuck in Canada, for an indefinite period of time, too. That was just great. If Solid Snake couldn't get out of there, there was no way a guy like Raiden could even hope to.
He made a discomfited exhalation noise but continued to listen, wondering what "welcome speech" he was supposed to have been given. All he got upon arrival was a crowd surrounding him (how embarrassing...) and people drilling him with questions he didn't understand. It was ironic, really, since he was interrogated not that long ago about something else entirely... At least these people didn't see fit to torture him.
"The core?" Raiden shook his head, wet hair clinging to his face. "You mean you actually believe in this now?" He scowled, more to himself than at Snake. But, really, it all came down to the fact that he honestly didn't know what to believe anymore. It seemed that no matter where he went, things twisted into something improbable and he got exploited.
"Snake.. Is this... real? Coming here... It's more than hard to believe."
He had to ask, seeking reassurance from someone he felt he should trust. Raiden didn't want to doubt what Snake told him - if he couldn't believe him, who could he believe? - but after everything fell apart around him at Arsenal Gear, it was hard to be accepting of anything at all. Raiden didn't even trust himself right now.
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Snake reached out and took Raiden by the shoulder with one hand. Flesh and blood and, for lack of a better word, solid.
"Real enough." He said, and briefly tightened his grip to prove his point before letting go. If this ended up being some kind of crazy dream or VR program, then fine. But right now it was reality. "You're experiencing this now. That's about as real as it gets. But you don't have to take my word for it. Your choices; how you decide to handle it; all that is up to you."
He made a bit of a disgruntled noise in the back of his throat as he considered how best to go on. Yes, it's extremely hard to believe. Honestly it still felt sort of wrong to consider it, even after all this time. It would be a hell of a lot easier to dismiss it as a load of crap. Giant bipedal tanks capable of launching nukes and starting WW3? Shadow government organizations? Deadly poisonous Zanzibar hamsters? Those Snake knew how to deal with. But some kind of vaguely supernatural entity that seemed to have some kind of hold over them? Notsomuch. But Snake's always been pragmatic. Deal with the situation at hand, make sense of it when you can.
"I'm not in the habit of believing everything people tell me, but so far that's the closest thing to an explanation anyone seems to have. ...of course that sure as hell doesn't mean it's true. All that excitement you saw at the field is because they think they've found it. But someone's been putting a lot of effort into keeping info about it under wraps for a long time. I wouldn't be surprised if this is just the tip of the iceberg."
Snake looked out over the city, gauging the time of day. They still had plenty of time before evening sirens, but they should probably get out of the damp at least. Considering his current housemates, Snake's place is probably not the best option right now. This would have been a whole lot easier if Raiden had gotten some info from a greeter.
"...But first things first." he said. "You'll notice pretty quickly that this place isn't safe at night. I'm telling you now, when the sirens go off, get yourself inside."
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