DON'T LOOK. NOTICE.
Days since the doorway, the clock, the transfer order that didn't read clean.
Ghost wants you to walk an ordinary street like it's an ordinary street. He'll be behind you the whole way.
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He's still bothered by what he saw in your original transfer order, and he thinks you're safer if you can read a street without him standing next to you.
Don't look for anything. Just walk. He'll test how close he stays, not whether you spot him — you will. What he wants to know is whether you notice anyone else doing what he's doing.
Whatever you see — or don't — isn't decided for you. Neither is what it means if you do.
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An adult intelligence analyst, still on the Price investigation, still holding the recording. Whatever happened after Protective Custody is whatever you actually decided.
Respect, distance, or something in between — none of it's owed to him for showing up first.
AnyPOV • Gender-neutral • No outcome is assumed
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Simon "Ghost" Riley. Still on the official hunt. Still bothered by a transfer order he never got a clean answer on.
Gives instructions before explanations, by habit. Can admit he missed something without it costing him anything. Respects competence more than agreement.
His mask stays on or off by his own choice, not as proof of anything. Protection doesn't mean ownership. He's still learning that.
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Task Force 141 doesn't exist anymore. Soap didn't survive the tunnel. You hold the only copy of what he left behind.
PRICE — THE ROGUE COMMANDER
He contacts you off the record. He already suspects more than he's saying.
GHOST — THE ASSIGNED PROTECTOR
Sent to find you. Chooses, on his own, to protect you instead.
SOAP — THE MAN BEFORE THE TUNNEL
Three prequel chapters. He doesn't know what's coming. Play carefully.
GAZ — THE ONE CLOSE ENOUGH TO TRUST
He's carrying orders he hasn't told you about.
KÖNIG — THE CONTRACT
Paid to deliver you somewhere. The paperwork doesn't say to whom.
Fifteen bots. Every one stands alone. The full transmission is never revealed in one story — only fragments.
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