Mun just finished the third game and got bitten by the F.E.A.R. bug again...

[boot2thehead]

[Ooh, now his mun remembers him. That only took months until a Steam sale. Not that he could really complain about being remembered. Even if it means said mun trying to reconcile both game worlds by making one a hallucination.

That definitely wouldn't make him confused about the whole train-subway thing. Or what was going on while he was enjoying Armacham's 'hospitality'.

Or about his entire team not being dead.]

Well, now what?

[Please tell him he's not just going to be stuck sitting here again, twiddling his thumbs. He's not good at that.]

Comments

[boot2thehead]

[What Point Man had to start with were facts - a million projects no one knew about, second prototype, first prototype, first was deemed a failure (surprise and guess what, soldier), the Synchronicity and all that death and enraged warnings on answering machines from a voice that somehow, deep down, scared him a little. Those, and a scant few hallucinations, or visions, or memories. This is more. The connecting pieces between what he knew and what he thought he knew. Hard facts and nightmares and this.

It doesn't all register for him. Not Paxton's emotions, at least, but his mind latches on to the memories and fills in with frustration and bitterness. All of the pain and trials and he still amounted to nothing to the scientists, no matter how much he pushed himself. Which he had, even if it failed to impress, which is often did. There wasn't a way he could match up, to the men and women in the white lab coats. Not that it mattered when the tests were over and he could just spend time with his cellmate without it being a competition. The only real social interaction he got, but it was... happy... until the scientists came back. Happy enough, though he could recall instances of fights between them - silly kid stuff (even with what they endured they were still children, sometimes) and a few more serious. And all those times his cellmatebrother had gotten upset and he got worried when the beds started moving by themselves. Being disturbed when the coloring came out of the books and onto the walls and floors because something was going wrong here and he didn't know what. Those moments were interspersed with play shootouts and jumping on the beds when they weren't supposed to and the occasional game of Keep Away (where his height had advantage over Paxton's brain, for once).

The hallucination throws him for a little bit of a loop. Things that were never to be.

His fingers twitch briefly as it ends, and he takes his own step back, looking at his brother with at least a little more recognition than he had before. He cards one hand through his hair before saying anything.]

They liked you best.

[But even what little he'd gotten back, familiar as it was, it felt like watching himself through a camera. It was there and it made his stomach turn... and it was all so far away now. He hadn't been that kid since he lost those memories.]

[allyoucaneat]

[A slow grin. Paxton is doubly pleased, that his brother not only remembers something but that he remembers that.]

Yes, I am the favorite.

[And he says this in the present tense, meaning not only was he the favorite of the scientists while they were children but also currently, in regards to Mother. Paxton is entirely confident he's the favorite. Really it's not so much any of Point Man's wrongdoing, he just has a harder time absorbing Mother's memories and thoughts whereas it comes so naturally to Paxton.]

Now, do you regret? Brother.

[boot2thehead]

[The confidence from Paxton in regard to their worth is only a brief sting before it smooths over. He'd been desperate to prove himself, once... these days, he's confident enough in his abilities to not bother. He won't get dragged down by needing to show off again; easier to just do what comes naturally and let things fall as they may. Their mother's decision of her favorite is up to her.]

Seem stuck on that, Fettel.

[In truth he rarely regrets shooting anyone, relatives and objectives aside.]

I regret that there didn't seem like another way for it to go.