i am constantly thinking about hal & dave's post-mgs1 era life.........
not only has it been a huge source of comfort for me for a completely unknown reason, but also its such an interesting time...gap... thingy?.. to explore. what have they been up to for those 4 years, besides little crumbs of information that's been briefly covered in canon? have they been living together in alaska? for how long? who proposed the idea of philanthropy? most importantly, why did otacon stop dyeing his hair grey!!
also i forget this all the time but keeping in mind that Snake had been drinking prior to shadow moses...he wouldn't suddenly sober up now would he? Hal was probably helping him a whole whole lot with that.
i imagine that's what they bonded over. helping each other overcome trauma and such.
...not exactly a revolutionary idea considering that that's what the whole fandom believes already but shh i'm new here, figuring things out!
i also wonder how Snake's doggos would like hal, and in fact as im writing that im coming to the conclusion that they would like him very very much! and i bet Hal would support the hell outta dave on the Iditarod.
and maybe Philanthropy is what breathed life into Dave? like... became his purpose, his reason to keep fighting and all. hm.
oh, i also wonder abt Hal's background a lot. did he have anyone to return to? he mentioned that basically him being veeeery very introverted was part of the reason why he got into science. plus, his self-studied to earn a PhD, a Master's and a Bachelor's degrees. so, probably... not a whole lot of friends... if any at all... on top of that, the government would probably start keeping tabs on everybody involved in shadow moses so there's also that, it'd probably be easier for Hal to hide in the same boat with dave.
so they probably kinda had no choice but to chill together and heal in the process.
and how them abducting Liquid's body... went, too. WHOSE IDEA COULD THIS HAVE BEEN.
ok no no that one was probably on Dave.