Revenge can consume your ragged soul [OPEN]

[liquid_serpent]

Who: Liquid and You!
What: The Dreamwalker event
Where: In the dream state
When: May 16th-26th
Warnings: Death, torture, anger, angst and violence.


Rage:

Damn him! Liquid is back at his base slamming his hand down onto his desk and there's Ocelot next to him. The man he trusted. Trying to calm his rage but would it work? No. The rage was deep. Revenge etched into the very being of his heart. His brother had killed his best friend.

Psycho Mantis was dead.

You might notice how angry the blond is. Blinded by sheer rage and the pain that goes with losing your close friend. Your only friend. Shot down by his own twin brother, Solid Snake. He was slowly killing off the members of FOXHOUND. Liquid's organisation of elite soldiers, gunned down by one man. The blond's heart aches with loss. The psychic link he had with his friend gone forever. The link they shared since they were twelve years old. Innocent. Just kids. Now he was alone again.

"He.....He will pay! I will make him pay! Him and father can rot in Hell!" Liquid cries out in pain, his sub commander, Ocelot, casually spinning his guns and waiting for his boss to complete his rage tantrum. He slowly pipes up himself in his American south drawl.

"Don't worry, boss. We'll get him. Snake can't stop us now."

Liquid turned to face Ocelot and slumped into his chair. He felt like a broken man. Mantis was everything to him. He wanted to kill Solid Snake. His own brother and laugh at his bloody and bruised body. He would pay.

Delight:

Shadow Moses was a success. The Metal Gear had been armed with the nuclear warheads and Solid Snake had completed the mission. Liquid's disguise as Master Miller had worked. His brother had fallen for his disguise and had now aided Liquid in fulfilling his dream. The world would taste his revenge and feel the wrath of a man born as a failure not claiming what was rightfully his.

A world gone soft would be restored. The chaos would cease to exist.

He felt light and happy that things had gone his way. Solid Snake was dead. Anyone looking would see a strange floating man wearing a gas mask float over to Liquid resting one of his long sleeves on his friend's shoulder.

We did it, boss. We finally did it.

Liquid heard his friend's thoughts telepathically, as he stood in the command centre looking upon his prize. Metal Gear REX armed with nuclear warheads. Nothing could stop him now.">

Comments

Rage

[ginger_firebird]

Sleep came upon him so suddenly that Mantis was almost certain someone had drugged him. He never slept that easily. Never fell into the potential of dreams without a fight. So when he comes to the realization that he can hear Liquid yelling, it seems like a perfect reason to move forward. Metal walls leading to the hanger bay where- Wait.

Confusion takes him over as he lingers in the doorway of the little control room. There's Liquid and Ocelot. The middle-aged cat is being himself and toying about with his guns, but why is his boss so miserable? It isn't mere anger that is coloring his voice and causing him to grow limp in the chair. It was the image of a man deep in the throes of utter anger and despair.

What had happened?

He walked in slowly, edging away from Ocelot so he could try and pick up on Liquid's thoughts. Whomever hurt him like this was going to die soon, and it might not necessarily be Liquid who achieves it.

[liquid_serpent]

Liquid felt Mantis's presence almost immediately and stood up sharply knocking off papers from his desk and near flipping the chair up behind him.

"Mantis? Where are you? You're alive? But-"

The blond's hand clutched at thin air, as if desperately trying to make contact with his close friend. Was he delusional now? Had grief drove him mad? He could see Ocelot looking rather concerned at his boss but still carried on playing with his revolvers. Liquid swallowed dryly and couldn't believe he felt the link.

That link.

The link that tied him with Mantis. The psychic bond they had shared since they were kids. Had Snake failed to kill him after all? Perhaps, Mantis had found a way to cheat death? Liquid glanced around the room praying to see that familiar man floating above him.

[ginger_firebird]

Alive? No. No, Solid Snake had seen to that. At least until he ended up in the cage. Was this a dream, then? Some slip he made into Liquid's subconsciousness in the depths of sleep? It would explain the location and Liquid's actions. He didn't seem to see him.

Mantis walked closer as a kind of ache filled his chest. It wasn't like when the bullets had gone through him. Rather, he felt the more devastating ache of sorrow. Never would he have wanted Liquid to be severed so violently from him. Not in the heat of a battle and the beginnings of a rebellion.

He knelt down next to Liquid, putting what he thought to be a perfectly solid looking hand above one of his. "Liquid? Liquid, try and be calm. The pain didn't last."

[liquid_serpent]

Liquid nearly fell backwards out of shock when Mantis floated closer to him. No. He was dead. He died. This wasn't real! It couldn't be. Yet, the hand felt real. The blond hissed in pain and frustration, yet he forced himself to listen to his friend's words. The pain didn't last? Then, it was true. He had died. Yet, how was he here now? None of it made sense!

"How can this be? How can you be alive? You died. My brother shot you and you were lying dying on the floor. That bastard killed you after the fight." He knew this because he had informants and demanded to know how his friend had failed and died. Beaten by his twin brother. Damn him. Liquid swallowed and reached out, grasping at Mantis's long black suit. "It.....didn't last? You died then? It actually happened and you didn't feel anything?" Liquid didn't want to cry but he felt like doing just that.

[ginger_firebird]

A dream rarely had opportunity nor reason to have a lot of sense going for it. He tried to stem the rush of confusion and shock going through Liquid and keep it from circling around into a spiral of anger. That was the last thing either of them needed right now.

"Liquid... It's a dream. A bad one, but a dream." It made his stomach turn to be reminded of how he had died. He put up as much effort as he could to keep Solid disoriented and distracted and then he found that one back door for escaping his control! He hissed at being grabbed, but it didn't frighten him. This was Liquid. Liquid would never hurt him. "Of course it didn't last. I was bleeding out too heavily. He must have nicked an internal organ or two. The pain was there for all of a few minutes."

[liquid_serpent]

A dream? Was this true? Then, perhaps none of this was actually happening. Was Mantis just a shade of his imagination? Soemone playing with his emotions? He snarled and felt like slamming his fist into his desk. He'd had enough shit dealt to him by his brother and now Mantis was telling him this was some sort of grand illusion.

"A dream? How? The only bit that makes me think this is a dream is that you are alive. You died, Mantis. Snake shot you. You died whilst laying on the floor." Liquid gritted his teeth. He was pissed off, angry, confused and annoyed with himself. At the other man's words he nodded slowly. Yes. Must have nicked an organ or two. The bastard. He had killed his only friend.

"The pain.....I hope it didn't last."

[ginger_firebird]

No mere shade, although he can understand why Liquid must think it so. He tried summoning images of the city in the cave: the shapes and sights and how everything is so different, yet eerily similar to what they know of their own world. Something had to be enough to draw Liquid into a state of lucid dreaming.

Liquid had seen his corpse? Mantis could only imagine what that would have felt like had their positions been reversed. He reached up to touch Liquid's arm. All that anger writhed in him like an angry animal snapping and yowling at everything.

"Not at all. After a point, you're too lightheaded off of blood loss to feel anything."

[liquid_serpent]

Liquid flinched slightly at the touch, as it didn't feel as natural as it should be, since Mantis was dead. This man was an illusion. A fractured piece of his past placed inside this dream. This was a dream. Mantis has said it himself. Not reality. So, the touch from his comrade's arm wasn't even real. Why should he believe any of this?

"You died quickly then. My brother won. I was informed soon after your death." His voice was stiff with emotion and felt his teeth grit together slightly. None of this should ever have happened. Mantis wasn't supposed to die. He was supposed to have killed Snake. Killed his pathetic brother. Yet, he didn't.

"Was he too strong for you? Is that why you failed?" He looked at Mantis with a mix of anger and regret all over his face.

[ginger_firebird]

He'd like to believe that being told it's a dream would be enough. That there was something inherent to Liquid's mind or their bond that would be enough to convince him. What a nightmare. Literally as well. He sighed and stood up, hands slipping behind his back.

That look. That face. How could he have lost like that? He took a couple of steps back and kept his gaze on Liquid's face. Maybe he did owe an explanation, but he hardly had one to give.

"I really don't know. Everything seemed to be fine. I was knee deep in his head and keeping him on the edge, and then... Then I was out of his head. Something kept me out of his mind. Accidentally coming across a mental shield that he threw up on instinct." Talking it out, his shoulders sink low. What if it really was that simple? "If I had more time than I did, I could have broken it."