foolishwren | 032. Video

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Current Location: An undisclosed location near Azalea

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032. Video

_{[Beep beep! What's that, Lassie? An incoming message?! Oh, looks like it's coming from one Hal 'Otacon' Emmerich's PokeGear! How lovely. What does the nerd have to say toda-- .... HEY, THAT'S NOT OTACON!]

[The screen blips into life on a face that's bruised, scraped, and... freckled?]

[Once its owner is sure the thing is on, she withdraws-- making herself a little easier to identify. Sheepish smile and all.]

[Behind her appears to be a standard little camp set up in the woods-- nothing... really fancy. But she's not the only one there-- somewhere behind her, there's.... some shirtless guy wandering around and his indistinct bitching about something or other can be heard.]

[The mat-furred, sleepy Growlithe in her lap just looks content to be there, although it's obvious he's had it as rough as his owner.]}

So. Uh.

_{[Her voice is a painful-sounding croak-- hardly more than a shadow of what it is normally.]}

Apparently I'm a wanted criminal.

... Anyone know what I did? ... Was it awesome?

I love that mugshot. It's so majestic.

_{[Yeah, she's making light of it, but her heart's not... really into it. Though it's sort of hard to tell the difference between that and the plain old exhaustion that's obviously leaking into her every movement and word.]

[... Meanwhile, in the background, Liquid has noticed that the camera's on and has started flexing his manly man-muscles at it in true Photobomb fashion. Heather doesn't notice yet.]}

Uh... anyway... I'm not... sure how long I was gone, and my 'Gear is uh... pretty thoroughly broken-- Hal's off in town getting stuff to repair it with, so... if anyone... like, tried to contact me, m'sorry, I probably didn't get it...

I uh... really hope everyone's all right.

_{[She probably doesn't need to clarify that she's talking about that fog. Now that she knows what had happened wasn't real, and that others had experienced their OWN nightmares... well, let's just say she's really hoping she didn't knock anyone's skull in. ... And the question "DID I knock anyone's skull in?" is implied at the end of her statement.]}

......

_{[And around that time, her Heather Senses pick up on Liquid's trolling behind her, so she reaches out to turn the camera off while looking over her shoulder.]}

Liquid, get the fuck out.

_{[End feed.]}

[Locked to Kaito and Rise]

[Another video feed, a little later than the first one, but not by too long. Otacon apparently was able to fix the 'Gear enough that Heather could receive those two messages that had been waiting a good week and a half to be received by this point.]

[And... judging by her hardly-disguised guilty expression, she's more than feeling the weight of guilt for worrying her friends. Especially since she saw Rise just the previous day and hadn't... even known how ... candid a message she'd left days before.]

[After a couple seconds, she breaks into a sheepish, crooked grin.]

Uh... hey, guys...

... I got your messages...

[Locked to Harry, James, and Mary]

_{[This one's in text, because she knows good and well that James at the very least will be freaking out over how she looked in that video feed, and she's not sure she can take his quiet concerned expressions.]

[But she can't avoid sending this-- if she saw Silent Hill in that fog, then she's... pretty sure that they'd have seen something similar. ... Well, she's not sure about Mary, actually, but given the connection... better safe than sorry.]}

are you guys alright

(typing is hard, sorry for no caps)_

-heather

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[His naiivette is being put to the test here, sure -- but no matter how much Heather denies it, he can't help but think that every problem has a solution. You just need to work hard enough.

...and at that second comment, Phoenix...just sighs wearily and responds;]

I wish you did.

_{Maybe I could have helped.}

[You would expect him to be angry, but, no -- he's far more upset by the fact that no one did help than Heather's cold remarks. Oh, Phoenix.

...and the sad look remains on his face while he responds to the mother issue. It's not pity, no. Just...sadness. And worry. Phoenix always worries.]

That must be...hard.

_{[It definitely is-- if it can last through the whole story once he eventually hears it? Then it's the stuff of legend because that's A PRETTY IMPRESSIVE FEAT.]}

... I doubt it. But I guess it would've been nice.

_{[Maybe.]

[She shrugs her shoulders a little.]}

Not as hard as you'd think.

_{[It was being CLOSE that had been the hard part. Dahlia was poison to everything she touched, and it was safe to say that Alessa had been the one most often on the receiving end of that.]}

Anyway, Dahlia-- ... that's her-- ... _{[Because she sure as hell wasn't going to refer to that batshit old witch as 'mother' any more...]} ... she tried to ... invoke powers she shouldn't have messed with.

[Hey, Phoenix is practically the stuff of legend as it is -- would not surprise me one bit!]

...once we get back home, if there's any way I can help... [He leaves it hanging there. Because, really, Heather's been using past-tense, so he FIGURES the situation has been dealt with already...but you never know.

--and then his expression visibly PALES at the mention of a woman named "Dahlia." Ooh, boy.]

D-Dahlia...

[He looks away for a second, a momentary look of sadness in his eyes -- befor ehe shakes his head a bit and turns back to face the camera.]

She messed with..."powers?"

_{[That particular catastrophe is long since over-- although the repercussions still echo onwards, as repercussions often do. The offer tugs Heather's heartstrings a little-- enough to make a brief ghost of a smile flash on her face. It's sweet even if she thinks it's futile. But it disappears when he turns white as a sheet at the mention of Dahlia.]

[OBVIOUSLY he doesn't know her, but generally you didn't have THAT kind of reaction unless the name had some significance. Which makes her curious.]}

... Yeah.

She wanted to summon the ancient god of the town.

_{[Her voice took on a sarcastic snarl.]}

I guess because she had nothing better to do.

_{[IT GOT BORING IN SILENT HILL ON WEEKENDS OK.]}

The..."god" of the town?

[At this point, he gains the first signs of dubiousness he's shown for the entire conversation, and even then his more curious than everything else. Anything with the words "summoning" and "god" in the same sentence can't end well.

...and he's still looking a bit sickly because of the mention of Dahlia. Considering the irony of it all, you can see a bit of a sardonic grin tug the corners of his mouth.]

Yeah. _{[He'd heard her right.]}

... Even I don't know ... everything, but... there's something wrong with that place. Has been for years. It's not like a haunted house or some dumb Ghost Hunter shit like that. It's... hard to describe.

... But anyway, she wanted the power. Or maybe she just wanted to dick with the world. Hell if I know.

So she and some of the cult's allies decided to try.

...if it's true that there was a...a "god" there, then maybe it was just...sacred. [He says the word tentatively, furrowing his brow as he says it. This is certainly not his area of expertise, and it shows.] But, if there was something wrong with it, why didn't you move somewhere else? _{Don't tell me you weren't able to?}

...power, huh. [Wasn't that, ultimately, what his Dahlia had wanted? dicking with the world, that is. She ruined so many people's lives for her own selfish means. Maybe it was revenge, but Phoenix had never thought she would have that petty a motive.

...but in the end, there were so many things that he hadn't known about her. She was practically alien to him, despite having dated him for a whole six months. It was crazy.]

It was sacred. ... According to history, anyway. It used to be considered hallowed ground by the native people who lived there before European settlers drove 'em out. Or something.

_{[Her father, long after the fact, had done quite a bit of research on that town... the notes were all he'd really left behind.]

[The question just got... sort of a look. Which was answer enough for the question. Sort of hard to just move somewhere else when you were a seven-year-old girl, Phoenix. ... Even harder when you were the charred remains of a seven-year old girl, strapped onto a bed and being kept alive in the basement of a hospital...]}

In order for the god to be brought into the world, someone had to ... be sacrificed.

_{[That was a kind term, as it implied they just needed to die. The truth was a lot worse. And she's not sure she wants to share it with Phoenix. Not yet.]}

...some kind of Native American folk curse? _{Or something?} [This is sounding more and more like a horror story every second.

...which would make sense.]

..."sacrificed?" [That look spoke volumes upon volumes, and while Phoenix...has a fairly good idea as to what she's hinting at, he doesn't want to mention it unless Heather decides to bring it up herself. For being a lawyer, he's awfully respectful of other's privacy.]

Could be. Beats me, I guess. I don't think anyone'll ever know for sure. _{[That much was lost to the depths of history-- though it would explain a lot... all the strange things that had happened there throughout the centuries... Horror story indeed.]

[Heather's quiet for a moment. She'd been... fairly frank with Otacon and Kaito, but then, she knew them better than Phoenix. ... And neither of them were lawyers. ... She'd go for the short version and he could figure the rest out for himself.]}

I was seven.

_{[... And that, Phoenix, is why she called her mother a bitch.]}

...maybe that's for the best. [Because sometimes, just sometimes, secrets are better left as secrets. Which is pretty rare, considering that he's a lawyer, but, really, he was pretty out of his depth here in the first place.

--and, well, that pretty much clinches it for him, and that purely sad look returns to his face. Poor Heather. What had she done to deserve that?]

_{I'm sorry.}

In this case... yeah, I think it is. _{[Maybe it would mean that for the rest of its existence, people would continue blindly living out their lives on that land, perhaps getting snared and sucked in by its darkness, perhaps escaping it like she had (though she had helped to shape it into what it was...), or maybe blaze right on through life without ever even knowing how close they were to the poison, like a bullet only just missing a gas tank.]}

.... s'all right. It was a long time ago.

_{[The answer was nothing. Nothing but being a little strange, and having no friends outside of the cult who might have been able to actually cry foul when the papers said that fire had been accidental, and maybe being born with a sociopath for a mother. Those had been Alessa Gillespie's only crimes.]

[That look on his face is one she's never seen on a lawman before (apart from Douglas, but then, HE really HAD a reason to apologize to her... a BIG reason...) and it kind of tugs on her heartstrings a little. It's honestly a little weird, from her perspective, to see someone in Phoenix's line of work (not that she knew any, just had a mental image of them along the same lines as every other lawful institution that had been so utterly unhelpful to her and Harry throughout everything) show this kind of emotion. And have it be... y'know, sincere.]

[... So she'll spare him the details of what that sacrifice really entailed. Not that she'd been planning on sharing them anyway, but she kind of didn't want to see that sad look get worse.]}

You would know best. [...you say this, Phoenix, but in all likelihood, were you back at home, you would be digging into this like a dog on meat. Without telling Heather, of course, because she's done with this. He wouldn't want to drag her back into it...so he makes a mental note to head for Maine once they get back home, and drops the subject.]

...that doesn't make it any better. [And that sad look? Now it's more...pained, almost. Empathetic. Because some wounds have a nasty way of never healing -- and you know this all too well, don't you, Phoenix? It's a given that he definitely hasn't been through nearly as much bullshit as Heather, but his scars run deep regardless.]

_{[No matter how mistrustful Heather was, the truth was that somebody like Phoenix... would have been a downright miracle. Someone who wouldn't give up until he got to the bottom of something. There had been ONE person like that-- but sadly, she was dead. Officer Cybil Bennett had been just the kind of foe the cult hadn't wanted and she'd been dealt with accordingly. ... But just maybe, somebody with Phoenix's luck could have actually made a difference. Still COULD, even. The incidents-- both as Alessa and then the other one, seventeen years later-- might have been over, but the town still stood and so did its toxic history.]}

No.... no, it doesn't.

But it's not like anyone can change it.

_{[She notices that look too, and watches quietly, her brows furrowed. She could tell he knew-- knew a little. Not EVERYTHING, no-- she hadn't SHARED everything. But you could always sort of tell when something hit home for someone. Because they'd always understand just a little more than someone who had no idea what it was like.]}

.... Anyway...

They were stopped from finishing what they started. ... By a hair, but they were stopped.

Dad killed the god and we went into hiding.

[It's a shame that there aren't more people like Phoenix out there. He's an annomoly, a freak in a sea of self-promoting attorneys only out to make a quick buck -- and even transcending into the police force, I mean, he finds almost all of the evidence he needs in trial while the detectives just sit around twiddling their thumbs and Being As Unhelpful As Possible. He thought it was only L.A. -- seeing at the city had never had the most picture-perfect portrait of justice -- but this. This makes him angry. Anger is not too becoming of Phoenix, though, so he's been valiantly fighting it down; getting pissed off won't help anything at the moment.

He muses for a few more moments, rubbing his chin idly with his thumb in that trademark thinking pose of his, brows furrowing as he did so. This was Phoenix in his element, just...listening.]

He..."killed" the god? _{Is that even possible? I mean, a god, that's...}

_{[It really is. Sure would do a lot for people like Heather's faith in humanity, that was for sure.]

[And it was safe to say that Silent Hill was just a little bit out of Phoenix's league, if even just this surprised him... Heather was keeping things as short and nondescript as possible. The whole thing was... so much worse...]}

I know it sounds crazy. ... I always thought, well, it must not've been a god if it could be killed by a human being... but he killed it.

_{[And so had she, when it was born again, seventeen years later.]}

Maybe it was because it was just a newborn and hadn't reached its full strength.

_{[... Then, a wry and mostly-mirthless grin.]}

... Or maybe it was just because Dad was the strongest man in the world just like he always said.

[Hey, to be fair, the most experience Phoenix has had with the occult is spirit channeling, and that's pretty damn tame. You've got to give him credit for being as chill with this as he has been. He could be reacting oh so much worse.]

...I see. [Killing a god, though...it's a bit staggering, when you think about it. He takes the next few moments to mull everything that's been said over.]

_{[This is true! And... Heather is mildly amazed he IS taking it this well. ... Although in keeping with her general pessimism regarding the law, she is secretly telling herself that she doesn't know for sure that Phoenix even believes her, or if he just thinks she's crazy and is playing along. Oh Heather.]}

Yeah.

_{[She pauses for a long time as well, possibly taking the same to do so herself. ... Was there even anything else to say? ... Well yes, there was a LOT more to say... but... hey, he'd originally just asked about the monsters. She'd explained enough to explain the monsters, right?]}

... Anyway.

What they did made the town go screwy.

Started to slip into an Otherworld.

Monsters resulted.

Lots of them.

_{[There. That was a simple enough explanation.]}

[Oh, that's entirely possible. Only he's kind of, y'know, not. Phoenix is so incredibly trustworthy by nature -- that and the fact that there's no way someone would lie about something like this. I mean, seriously. And he's conversed with Heather enough to know that while she may be a bit of a weirdo, she's definitely not crazy.]

The entire town...

...so, you had to fight them? The monsters.

_{[She'll learn that! With time, anyway. Even now, she's telling him more than she ever thought she'd tell a lawyer.]}

Yeah.

... Well, not that time.

But later.

_{[The Otherworld that had engulfed the town on that strange summer day had been one of Alessa's own creation (admittedly, probably an unplanned and unintentional one...), and she'd ironically been safe from the monsters that had been pulled out of her mind and set loose on the ones unfortunate enough to have been dragged into her Hell. ... And as for little Cheryl... well, she'd been in the grasp of a monster worse than any of the twisted critters roaming the streets. How the hell had Dahlia gotten hold of her, anyway? Offered her candy? Who the hell even knew.]

[Either way, Heather's turn to take up Harry's mantle and face the Otherworld from a distinctly more unprotected position hadn't come until several years later. Seventeen, to be exact.]}

..."later"?

[And, wow, finally a post where there actually isn't a lot to say in italics!]

... Yeah.

Last year.

_{[WE ARE CHAMPIONS OF TL;DR.]}

[Brb, getting this all out straight in his head. Be puts his Pokegear on the group so he can lean forward on his hands, brows furrowing.]

...when your mother tried to...summon the god. You father killed it, and then you two went into hiding.

...and then, last year, you had to go back?

Yes.

_{[... To both.]}

[...he nods. At this point, he's gathered enough informatin to piece together a rough idea of what's happened to Heather thus far; and, really, he doesn't want her to share any more if she doesn't want to. So instead of another question, or a prompting of any sort, Phoenix merely tilts his head a bit, giving her that look that indicates he's waiting for her to speak before saying anything else.]

[video; private]

[video; private]

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[video; private]

[video; private]

[video; private]

[video; private; aaah sorry I almost lost this again ghlljhhjk]

[video; private; IT'S OKAY I STILL LOVE YOU <3]

[video; private; D-DO YOU REALLY ;; ]

[video; private; YES. INFINITELY. ]

[video; private; Uuuu ;n; ]

[video; private; *SOULFUL EMBRACE* ]

[video; private; *CUE CHEESY BACKGROUND MUSIC AND WEEPY MONOLOUGE* ]

[video; private; /VIOLINS. ... Except with Heather it's more like /ELECTRIC GUITAAAAAR. ]

[video; private; WELL PHOENIX CAN PLAY HIS VIOLIN AT THE LEAST? ]

[video; private; OK IT CAN BE A DUET. ANGST HAS NEVER BEEN THIS AWESOME! ]

[video; private; I WOULD PAY TO SEE THAT. ]

[video; private; one of us should draw it. just sayin' ]

[video; private; and because I can't draw instruments to save my life, THERE'S YOUR HOMEWORK ]

[video; I WILL DO THIS AT SOME POINT ]

[video; I AWAIT THIS WITH BATED BREATH <3 ]

[video; private; SOULFUL EMBRACE ]

[video; private; CUE CHEESY BACKGROUND MUSIC AND WEEPY MONOLOUGE ]