Stray (fanfic)

Romance, Time Paradoxes, and small hostile cats

Ocelot did what any reasonable person faced with a mysterious red button in the middle of a weapons research lab would do. He pushed it.

Stray is a Metal Gear Solid Slash Fic by Dahne that centers around a romantic relationship between Otacon and Major Ocelot (also called Adamska within the story). Yes, that's the twenty year old Ocelot from Metal Gear Solid 3. Not surprisingly, the story involves Time Travel. Apart from its unusual pairing and premise, the story is notable for its length (71 chapters plus prologue and epilogue), its multiple plot arcs, its blend of serious character-driven drama and quirky humor, and writing a bit towards the lower-wavelength end of the visible spectrum. And Otacon's adorable in it.

Tropes used in Stray (fanfic) include:

Actor Allusion: "the cold, thousand-yard glare Snake would give anybody who spoke ill of the first two X-Men movies."
Adaptation Expansion: Stray was originally a one-shot story, which covered major events from Hal and Adamska's first meeting through the beginning of the Shadow Moses arc in a series of vignettes. Then the author decided to do an expansion/rewrite, which included several new story arcs and more time for relationship development.
Adorkable: Otacon. Even Raikov thinks he's cute! (It Makes Sense in Context.)
Afraid of Needles: variation - Adamska's not afraid of needles, he's afraid of what might be in the shot, on principle.
Alas, Poor Villain: Esau's death scene. In true MGS antagonist fashion, he's very chatty about it.
Ambiguous Disorder: Otacon. Metaphors aren't his strong point, and at one point the story mentions that he's not great at reading facial expressions.
Ancient Conspiracy: the Philosophers.
Anti-Hero: Adamska. He starts out as a Type IV - he's done plenty of dubious things, but has enough in the way of personal standards that the prospect of developing into a creepy old torture fetishist with a ponytail still Squicks him.
Arc Words: "What can change the nature of a man?" and variations.
- The phrase is also a Shout-Out to Planescape: Torment.
- Also, "Find what your enemy wants, and do the opposite."
Author Appeal: the writer seems to be a big fan of Scandinavian mythology.
Badass Longcoat: Big Boss wears one. Lampshaded when another character remarks that he must do so for the dramatic effect.
Batman Gambit: the story has Ocelot (admittedly a younger and better-natured version) and an entire international conspiracy of Chessmasters. It's not exactly surprising that someone tries to pull one of these.
Better Than It Sounds: a romance between a shy, kindhearted Otaku from the 2000s and a Troubled but Cute Tyke Bomb Double Agent from the 1960s (who grows up to be one of the Otaku's best friend's recurring enemies), who Meet Cute in an accident involving a homemade Time Machine.
Beware the Nice Ones
Bi the Way: Otacon.
Broken Ace: Adamska. He's smart, he's talented, he's good looking and he manages to change history - but he's not exactly a paragon of personal stability.
Bunny Ears Lawyer: Otacon. He's a massive Otaku, and Adamska is convinced in the early chapters that he's thoroughly - although harmlessly - insane, but the man managed to build a functioning time machine in his garage.
Cats Are Mean: a running gag with Tanya, a scrawny little stray with violent Tsundere tendencies.
The Chessmaster: the Patriots, although they're an international conspiracy, not a single person.
Cloudcuckoolander: Major Raikov is a rather disturbing version of this.
Contemplate Our Navels: possible subversion, in that the atmospheric philosophical ramblings of the prologue (concerning the nature of time and free will) are in fact highly relevant to the themes of the story.
Continuity Nod: many, to the MGS games. Including some references to events which, in the story's particular universe, never took place.
Cool Old Guy: Big Boss.
Crack Pairing: do Otacon and Ocelot ever even interact in the games?
Dead Person Conversation: Adamska and the Sorrow, Big Boss and older!Ocelot.
Determinator: Adamska. He pursues his goals despite the obstacles presented by time, space, causality, a globe-spanning conspiracy, and his own personal pathologies.
Emo Teen: Esau's more crazy than angsty, but has the style. "... he could have passed for a member of one of those bands who wore girls' jeans and talked about not being okay a lot."
Enemy Within
Epigraph
A Father to His Men: Big Boss. Literally, in the case of the Snake twins.
Final Speech: Esau, Ocelot at Shadow Moses.
Fish Out of Temporal Water: Adamska. From the 1960s to the early twenty-first century.
Florence Nightingale Effect: in an Elseworld chapter. Hal is the caretaker and Adamska is the patient.
For Science!: why Otacon built the time machine in the first place, and according to the story, a strong component of his overall personality. This has its downsides. "Sometimes he was so fascinated with a problem that he forgot it was one better off not solved."
Freudian Excuse: discussed.
Future Me Scares Me: Adamska's reaction to Revolver Ocelot, although less fear than Squick.
Good Hair, Evil Hair: variation: Revolver Ocelot's ponytail of evil. Alternate Future Ocelot has short hair.
Hannibal Lecture: Esau loves these. Adamska also winds up getting one from "himself".
Heroic BSOD: Adamska at Shadow Moses, Otacon in Russia.
I Cannot Self-Terminate: Adamska mercy kills older-Ocelot (who had been partially converted into his continuity's version of the Cyborg Ninja) at Shadow Moses at his older self's request, Hal does the same for a gut-shot Esau.
I See Dead People: Ocelot can see ghosts. The Sorrow also makes an appearance, and has the same abilities he does in canon.
IKEA Erotica: strongly averted. It is possible to tell what's going on in the sex scenes, but they're much heavier on internal monologue than anatomy.
Jossed: on a few issues. This was probably inevitable, since the story was started well before Guns of the Patriots came out and gave the official explanation for the series' Gambit Pileup.
Journey to the Center of the Mind
Kansas City Shuffle: It wasn't Adamska the Patriots wanted.
Last Kiss: Big Boss and his timeline's Ocelot, whose spirit was being channeled by Adamska.
Literal Split Personality: Adamska/Ocelot, after he changes the timeline.
May/September Romance: Adamska's twenty, Otacon's in his thirties.
- If you consider birth date and not years spent living, it's a May/December romance the other way, since Adamska was born decades before Hal.
Mind Screw: most of the story is fairly straightforward, though unconventional, but "For What Was," "For What Might Be," "For What Is," "For What Can Change," and "For What?" up the story's average level of trippiness considerably. The later chapters' treatment of time travel and memory could also count.
Morality Pet: Otacon for Adamska, in a way. "The only promise I can make is that I will never let anything hurt you. Including me."
Nakama: FOXHOUND under Big Boss' leadership. They're explicitly compared to a family more than once.
The Nothing After Death: mild example. The afterlife has no distinguishing physical features besides blankness, and the dead are left to entertain themselves. It's implied that they play cards.
Opposites Attract
Pitbull Dates Puppy: eventually subverted. Otacon may be a Non-Action Nice Guy, but he's tougher than initial appearances would indicate.
The Power of Love
Psychic Powers: Ocelot, the Sorrow, and Psycho Mantis. Vulcan Raven's abilities may count as well.
Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: both used straight and with some weird variations.
Screw Destiny
Set Right What Once Went Wrong
Shadow Archetype: Adamska gets two - his older self, and Esau, another former Tykebomb agent of the Ancient Conspiracy.
ShoutOuts: lots of them, most notably to Neon Genesis Evangelion, Planescape: Torment, and Norse Mythology.
- Philip K. Dick gets a few references, too, in phrases like "I hope cyborgs dream of electric sheep, I really do" and "I saw him through glass, darkly."
- "I saw him through glass, darkly," as well as Dick's "A Scanner Darkly," is a Biblical reference (from Corinthians: "For now we see through a glass, darkly.").
Shrouded in Myth: Big Boss, who is a Memetic Badass to his own troops.
Sleep Cute
Spy Catsuit: one of the later plot arcs gets Adamska into one of these. He's not impressed.
Spy Couple: Adamska and Otacon, eventually.
Suicide Is Painless
Techno Wizard: Otacon. He built a time machine in his garage, out of parts scavenged from household appliances.
Techno Babble: a lot of this in the scenes with Otacon and Ocelot working on the time machine. To be fair, it's not like there's an accepted scientific vocabulary for this sort of thing. Lampshaded when Otacon admits that he made a lot of it up himself.
Theme Naming: the Philosophers/Patriots do love their Biblical references.
- Otacon's anime-inspired names for the dogs would also count.
The Theorem of Narrow Interests: an aversion.
Troubled but Cute: Adamska, although he's slightly older than the stereotypical example and not a James Dean homage. He is, however, attractive, morally ambiguous and potentially dangerous but with a touch of hidden vulnerability and massive issues.
- Esau would be a villainous version.
Tyke Bomb: Ocelot was brought up as one of these by the Philosophers, and the story goes into the psychological impact quite a bit.
- Esau was, as well, by the Patriots.
Unholy Matrimony: Volgin and Raikov, in flashbacks. "The two of them complimented each other, he supposed. Like oil and fire. Or potassium and cyanide."
Warrior Poet: Vulcan Raven. He's a BFG-toting Inuit shaman who is well versed in Norse Mythology and quotes Beowulf.
The Woobie: Otacon is a self-deprecating Shrinking Violet with a screwed up and fairly traumatizing romantic past - and the events of the story aren't entirely easy on him either. Adamska has moments of woobieness as well, due to some rather traumatic plot developments and his own personal issues.