“Hello mien gud cybernetic cozplayer!”

A young costumed individual jumped as someone suddenly said with a thick German accent behind them.

“I vould call you by name, but it vould seem you’d have many, yes?”

“Oh um... yeah," the cosplayer smiled back at the balding man as they regained themselves "I tried to get a bit of everyone in here. Thought I’d try something different, y’know? Dress as a whole game instead of just a single character from it. Not that yours isn’t a fine recreation ‘Doktor’”

“Vhy zhank you! But yes, I zee Raiden, Sam, Mistral, and even a few small bitz to convey some ozzers from earlier games… Zough not much in zee vays of Mr. Sundowner or Monzoon…”

“Alas, they got demoted to token parts. I do have a couple of ‘Downer’s shields on the back and Monsoon’s Sai here” The cosplayer replied “but yeah, I had to prioritize a bit. Especially if I wanted to add the little touches of my other favorites like Solid Snake. And yeah, I know he wasn’t Metal Gear Rising but c’mon! It’s Solid Snake! David Hayter’s Solid Snake thank you very much; Sutherland can do a fine Big Boss, but Hayter will always be the true Snake in my ears.” They rambled off with a friendly smile.

“I wholeheartedly agree and approve” the ‘Doktor’ agreed with a small laugh “Zough, I am vondering vhat zee large orange blade on your back iz…”

“Oh that would be RAY's Heat Blade” The cosplayer announced proudly “It was such a hyped up and iconic fight for the game; I figured I should get something to represent it. Plus, I just thought it looked cool. I just really wish I had something to better represent Sunny. I wanted something like her little flower hair clip but couldn’t find anything similar enough and my attempts to make it… well, let’s just say jewelry isn’t my forte…”

“AH! Vell then! I zink you are in luck today mien fine friend!” He said with jovial flair while taking out a perfect replica of Sunny’s hair clip. Holding it out to the cosplayer, he offerd “I believe zis to be vhat you are looking for.”

“Oh, No Way! That’s it EXACTLY! How much did you want for it?!” The cosplayer asked excitedly.

“Oh pleaze, I coun’t zink of charging you for such zimple trinket vhen it vould finish your ensemble so perfectly” He explained “Besides, I vouldn’t be much of a ‘Doktor’ if I didn’t provide you vith your ezzential upgradez, now vould I?”

“Oh dude, you are The Best! Thank you so much!” the cosplayer practically squeed as they took the clip and immediately shoved into their hair, not caring that they just messed up the feathering they tediously gave it that morning. As they were looking though they noticed a very strange shift in the clouds, especially since there should have been a ceiling there

“…Did you just-” they began to ask before noticing that not only was the ‘gud Doktor’, the convention center and everyone else gone; but that ground was also suspiciously missing.

‘Oh no wait, there it is… all the way… down… there’ they thought before they even realized they were already falling.

Along with the typical panic falling to one’s death brought, the cosplayer had a disturbingly clear realization.

‘Wait- Helpful Stranger? FREE? Sudden location change to a far more saturated world?’

-tick-

-tick-

-tick-

“Oh fuck m-”

*Thud*

With a groan the cosplayer awoke in a crater, in the dark and in pain. A LOT of pain. But still alive at least and in relatively functional condition.

They sat up and immediately noticed several symbols and statistics running across their vision; condition readouts, body damage indicators, even blood sugar levels along countless other confusingly informative indicators. The cosplayer slammed their eyes closed only to still see them and started shaking their head willing them to go away, followed by their immediate disappearance.

“Oh, ok that was easy enough” they said as the got up and looked around, quickly finding a small sign indicating they fell near the ‘Small Trot Away Oasis’

“Ok, I just survived terminal velocity and have a bad feeling about where I think I might be” they muttered to themselves. It seems they landed in an aired region along the borders of a foreboding forest. Still in a good deal of pain, they hobbled to the nearby pond to finally get a proper look at themselves.

“Huh...”

It wasn't the face they had grown up to know. They now looked to be their costume... in a manner of speaking. It wasn’t as bad as they could have feared; They weren't some mixed and mashed together Frankenstien's monster but the change was NOT a subtle one.

An mostly unfamiliar young woman stared back at them. She had fair skin, brown hair and was admittedly quite attractive; perhaps not drop dead gorgeous but they doubted many would ‘kick them out of bed’ at it were. She also seemed to have central heterochromia; the majority of the eye was brown but the center of the iris was a kind of emerald green. The most surprising thing however was the seeming lack of a cybernetic body, at least in appearance. She seemed to be wearing more of a slimmed down exosuit instead.

She knew that she certainly still had to now have at least a partially cyborg body though, surviving that fall and the heads up display were proof enough of that. There was also the fact that she could just FEEL it; the dense weight of her body, the super strong ‘not quite muscle’ that felt threaded through more natural muscle, and subtle movement of what had to be nanomachines coursing through her veins. Yet, other than a few covered ports and seams here and there, she still LOOKED human… or a more natural, non-cyborg human at least.

“Well let’s see, I did have pieces of Snake, Sam, Sunny and guess you can count Armstrong as a more human part of the costume. Not to mention Mistral’s ‘Natural Torso’ that they made sure to make a point out of in the game. Stay classy Kojima.” She listed off to herself, the last bit with an amused smile “I guess that could be enough natural, organic people to tip the balance a bit, but then what am I? Some kind of hybrid? Then again, for all I know this could only be skin deep, if this is even real skin…” She said while her hands glided over her form, as if it would yield the answers she sought. It just felt like skin though, meaning she’d probably have to delve into that HUD for answers.

She sighed and rubbed at her temples, and then placed her hands on her hips and she looked out over the desert… only to notice her temples were still being rubbed. She gave a small shriek and slapped the hands away only to find them attached to her shoulders. It would seem the many arms of Mistral from her costume were now fully functional, and most of them were now holding weapons pulled from nowhere.

An HF blade she didn't recognize as any character's in particular, a pair of sai, Sam’s Murasama, the large heat blade of Metal Gear Ray, a few throwing knifes and firearms of different types and finally the explosive shields of Sundowner. She was about to wonder where they all came from but decided it was best to just not think about it.

She sat down and rested; thinking of her family, of her friends, and of the fact she would probably never see them again. Granted, she didn’t really like her life back home, but she still loved the people she shared it with.

‘Even if I did find a way to see them, they wouldn’t even recognize me anymore… Hell, I don’t even recognize me anymore’ She thought tiredly. She ended up sitting there for a while longer, a rather good while longer, just staring at her reflection in the water. Some tears were shed, an occasional curse as the truth threatened to overwhelm her but eventually, after the moon passed it's apex, she got up and decided it was to time to get moving.

She wasn’t ready, she knew she hadn’t really moved on yet, and she sure as hell wasn’t happy; oh sure, there were the stupid little day dreams and fanfics, but she never actually expected it to happen. She was here now though, and she wasn’t going to stop living because some fucker decided to screw with her life.

“Ok then! ah… um… hmm,” She started but quickly faltered as a simple thought occurred to her.

“Who are you?” she asked looking back at her reflection. She was about to tell herself to get moving but her old name just didn’t feel appropriate anymore. That name belonged to someone else now, who would have gone on to live a much different life.

“Hmmm… what do you call a jumbled mess of pieces that somehow still works out to a functional whole?” she mused and thought for a moment before smiling “Maze, short for Maisie.”

“It’s nice to meet to Maze.” She said with one last look at her reflection before whipping around the High Frequency Blade and pointing it at a mountain range to the north, trying to muster courage she didn't really feel.

“Alright now Maze, bring me that horizon! Without fear or hesitation!” She announced flamboyantly to no one before failing to suppress a giggle.

“Besides, I’m a fucking cyborg now…” She started, twirling the sword as she started walking. An old meme popped in her head and she just couldn’t resist…

“I mean, what could go wrong?”

Author's Notes:

So here we go! My first real fanfic with chapters and everything! To be honest, while I have some ideas where this is going and a few solid plot points, I have no idea how I’m goning to get there. I do fully intend to have fun figuring it out though! I’m also typically more of an illustrator than a writer but after reading some of the displaced stories out there, particularly Shinigamisparda’s awesome Gilgamesh stories, I just got the bug and felt the need to write my own displaced. Still, any concerns, tips or even criticisms are welcome! All I ask is to try to keep it constructive.

I AM open to the idea of crossovers assuming they would make sense and not degrade the either author’s story, but I have no idea how to go about them. So yeah, that might be a bit of a thing. Still, interested in trying once the story properly starts up!

Hopefully I’ve interested enough people into reading chapter one, and I hope you’ll enjoy it! I’m certainly having fun writing it!

EDIT: For any starting this story fresh after this edit, there are a few links for sketches at the beginning of chapter ten (so no spoiler risk). Just a few characters at the moment but there is one of Maze if you'd like a little visual aid- if not and you'd like to have your own mental view of of Everyone that that's cool too- just letting you know