#YALL EVER WANT TO TALK ABOUT METAL GEAR MY ASK BOX IS LITERALLY ALWAYS OPEN AND IM HERE FOR YOU BBYS

[okie-loki-artichoki]

Soo.. kinda wanted to hear ya rant bout pre mgs2 philanthropy era for awhile :p

OH!!!!! STRAP IN ANON I CAN DEFINITELY DO THAT!!!!! I could go on about metal gear for hours especially if it has to do with philanthropy. okay okay so in order to do this I guess i need to go into some vague headcanon territory in that i think. Which ending of metal gear 1 is the one that leads to the rest of the series?

 Its the Otacon one. Obviously.

So for a while its awkward. Really awkward. After Shadow Moses, Hal obviously doesn’t have anywhere else to go and Snake isn’t going to leave him out in the cold (literally) but it’s clear he’s not going to stay forever (which he does), but anyway. Snake isn’t used to having anyone around at all, especially someone who calls him Dave sometimes and sometimes cries over cartoons. Philanthropy was something they had both ultimately come up with together as a joke, when after a couple of weeks of sitting around in the middle of snowy nowhere Alaska, off the grid but out of danger. It became not a joke when they realized they could both do something about private groups and militia making REX knock offs, or trying anyway. Hal got fired up and Snake saw something in his passion for peace and the size of his heart and so they packed up and ran.

Early Philanthropy is alot of long and awkward car rides. Hal isn’t good at being quiet and Snake is, well hes Solid Snake. He’s quiet, except for an occasional hum or questions to whatever Hal was rambling about. He tries to keep it mission specific, nervously going over blue print layouts he’s already gone over a thousand times and guard schedules and change outs so Snake doesn’t have to think about it and numbers, graphs and things and new leads that usually ultimately lead to nothing. And usually Dave will catch him spiraling and tell him not to worry. He wouldn’t have agreed if he wasn’t the best. 

But after the first year or so it was less of a business partnership and more of a full fledged real life healthy, friendship. Support and trust and honesty was something neither had either really had and it hadn’t exactly happened on purpose. They were two people who had built up ridiculous iron walls around themselves that were welded together with past trauma and distrust and fortified with massive amounts of anxiety. But still, what had started with cracks that were justified by business partnership had become movie nights and talking through things neither had really talked about to another living person.

Early Philanthropy is alot of failed missions, or dead end leads. Alot of Snake going through the trouble of suiting up and sneaking into some big warehouse or a private militia base in the middle of the desert with Hal on tech support in a van close by that never lead to anything of substance. They erased some stolen blueprints every once in a while and destroyed some weapons, stuff that was helpful to the greater good but not exactly what they had gone in for.   

Early Philanthropy is a lot of frustrating dead ends, dangerous solo missions. Hal has to learn how to keep his hands steady, and gets over his squeamishness the first time he has to pull a bullet out of Dave’s shoulder. It’s alot of Hal hacking around online to get them leads and information. And Dave tries not to be impressed when he learns just how good at hacking Hal is. He can get into government emails, dig through files of data that’s hidden behind layers of classification, he manages to gain access to some bank accounts Snake doesn’t want to ask about to get them some funding he’s sure won’t be noticed has gone missing. 

Early Philanthropy is a lot of gross motel rooms with only one bed, and old apartments with stains on the drywall and no furniture, and that one week they stayed in a RV to avoid authorities who had been looking for a couple of terrorists who blew of a big old building. The big old building had had a prototype Metal Gear in it, they should have been thanking them but Dave assured Hal it didnt work that way.

“An explosion is still an explosion Hal.”

“Yeah well some explosions destroy robots.”

“Alright then why don’t you call the police and explain that to them.” Dave said through a smile. 

Hal narrows his eyes and tries not to laugh.

“Hi yes 911, I’d like to explain that that big explosion wasn’t an act of terrorism but it was in fact a good deed and you may not believe me but big robots were in there. My name is Hal Emmerich, yes that one, and you can find me and the fugitive Solid Snake in an RV running from the law-”

Hal laughs and then rolls his eyes. “Fine, fine. But one day they’ll be thanking us. I mean, y-you know.”

“Oh sure. That’ll be the day. If we live that long.” 

Philanthropy becomes legitimate eventually and the days of running and hiding and distrust disappear for a while. But that all go up in smoke, or you know, down in water when the Tanker sinks.