okay but I’m obsessed with the idea that Wally and Hoagie didn’t reconnect in some dramatic, cinematic way… it was literally by accident. like, 15 years. 15 years of having no contact after Sector V fell apart and everyone went their separate ways.
and then one random night, they’re both online. different lives. different cities. different people, honestly. but they end up in the same game lobby.
they’re playing together for a while, just teammates, nothing special. maybe even a little back-and-forth, the kind you have with strangers online. Wally thinks this guy is kinda funny. Hoagie thinks this dude plays way too reckless. and then Hoagie turns his mic on. just casually.
And Wally freezes. because that voice hasn’t changed. not really. older, yeah. rougher around the edges. but it’s still him.
“…Hoagie?”
and there’s this long pause. like the kind where you can hear someone processing through the silence.
“…no way… Wally?”
and just like that, everything hits at once. 15 years gone, but not gone. they drop the game. immediately. doesn’t even matter if they were winning. they talk. for hours. catching up, overlapping, laughing at nothing and everything, that weird disbelief that this is how they found each other again. they exchange numbers before either of them can disappear again.
And after that? they make it a thing. late-night gaming sessions turn into regular calls, which turn into actually meeting up, like no time passed, but also like all the time passed.
