@coluberfoxii
Coincidences were no small thing in this terrible city.
In his resurrection, Mantis had been given a boundless supply of a once-precious resource: time. Plenty of time to think, to reminisce, to wallow-- to truly consider the minute happenstances that defined each point of his life, that entangled him in the writhing world of snakes.
So, really, he couldn’t feign surprise coming face-to-face with Solid Snake once more. Stranger things had happened since.
Solid Snake was his enemy by virtue of being Liquid’s enemy. Strange, Mantis thought, how so many of his enemies fell into that category. But Snake was different; he was one of the few enemies that Mantis attached a personal involvement to... emotions, perhaps. Who wouldn’t feel something about the man who killed them? Or. The man who killed their only friend-- a far more severe transgression to Mantis.
“You look well,” came the icy wheeze, muffled by the signature gask mask. In a different world, Mantis wouldn’t dare engage with Snake in the powerless state he found himself in. But he didn’t have much to lose in this city; if Snake chose to kill him again, the soldier wouldn’t meet much resistance.
Besides... this was not the Snake he encountered in 2014, and that put Mantis in quite an interesting position.
“Not so old. Decrepit. It hurt to look at you. But I suppose a life of murder does wonders for one’s vitality, hm, Snake?”