but the sun comes up and the world still spins

[petridish]

Who: Clone Shepard and Commander Shepard, Nihlus Kryik, and Aurelia Hammerlock; Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan and Nathan Drake
When: October 26th
Where: various
What: Everyone's out of cryo - thread dumping ground!

Cloney:

Shepard - the clone's out of the bag

Nihlus - mentor no more

Aurelia - reintroductions

Nate:

Sully - blast from the past

Big Nate - what'd I miss?

Comments

[oldforthis]

Yeah he mentioned something about that.

[Did not manage to mention you though, which is why he's still staring longer than he probably should be.]

A frozen nap? Why were you in that? They do something to you while you were asleep?

[ascendit]

Extended checkup: I'm one of the youngest people onboard and I've been through something like the Ingress before, so they wanted to make sure I was okay after the weird planet. Something about not being sure how the time energy affected someone still in puberty.

[The eyeroll of a teenager, I mean, someone who A) doesn't get the science and B) doesn't really care, because he seems perfectly fine. This is followed up by a scrutinizing look up and down.]

Did you say it's been twenty-five years for you?

[oldforthis]

Jesus, they couldn't do that while you were conscious? [It's more of a rhetorical question than anything, because he fires off a few more questions:] And what the hell are you talking about, being through something like the Ingress? Where were you before this?

[He may not care, but Sully certainly does. Time discrepancies or not, this is still Nate who's in front of him, and someone who he helped take care of and watched grow (in a manner of speaking). He did see that look up and down, though. He forgot what a piece of work he could be.]

Yeah. Twenty-five years since you and I first met and I took you in. Let me guess, you don't remember any of that.

[ascendit]

[Nate shakes his head. It's lining up with what his older self has said, but not his own experiences.]

I remember you holding back that guy on the rooftop. And then I ended up in this town called Balamb on another world, and [after he got caught stealing a loaf of bread (my name is Nate Valjean!)] this school took me in. That world's the center of a spell that started pulling people in from different times and places [kind of Ingressy], so the school's been helping out.

[oldforthis]

Christ almighty...

[It's said mostly to himself, but he's still staring at the boy in front of him like he's looking at a ghost. Except this ghost has apparently lived a completely different life than the one he knows he has.]

This Ingress really is a pain in the ass. [Understatement of the year really.] Guess that means some more proper introductions are in order. [He holds out his hand, much like he did when he first met him.] Victor Sullivan, friends call me Sully. But I guess your uh--older self already told you that, didn't he?

[ascendit]

Ingress, time compression, experimental tech. [Everything's a pain in the ass!

[But despite his expression being on the polite side of skepticism, Nate shakes his hand, his grip stronger than it would have been at the other Nate's eighteen (thank you, Garden training).]

He said you were his best friend, yeah.

[Actually, he'd said "our", but this Nate doesn't know him well enough to put that claim on him. He also doesn't feel the need to introduce himself.]