foolishwren | 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

[There was a long pause before James sent a reply.]

Yes.

[Sorry Heather, as much as James wants to chat and feels slightly better he wasn't alone with what happened, he's still pretty shaken up so he can't completely think right, right now.]

_{[She doesn't blame him. She's... not really in much of a state to, either.]}

it wasn't real

i thought id been taken back there for good, but it wasnt real

sure seemed like it was though

are you gonna be ok?

Yeah. I know it wasn't. But I thought I went back too. I saw Maria. Who was someone that was traveling with me before. I mistaken Mary for Maria... I think I'll be fine.[Out of all of this, that was probably what James felt the worst about.]

_{[.... Abuh. Maria? He hadn't told her about anybody named Maria. There's a slight pause before she replies.]}

i saw people from back then, too

it seemed so real




you let me know if theres any way i can help alright?

.... you are safe from the police right???

[Yeah James forgot he hadn't really mentioned to Heather who he was traveling with at the time.]

It was pretty cruel. Do you even know what caused it? I think I'll be fine on my own. I just need to think about things is all. I think so, I haven't gone outside or anything since I got the message I was wanted. I'm too afraid to.

_{[... Poor thing...]}

james...

_{[The thought of him huddled in a room somewhere, too terrified to LEAVE was a bit of a heartstring-jerker.]}

i dont know what caused it but people are saying it was ghost pokemon playing tricks

if that was their idea of a trick id hate to see what theyd do if they were actually mad

Trick? They have one sick sense of humor. Well, with any luck maybe the police will understand what happened, though with us being put up as criminals I don't think that's a possibility as much as it is wishful thinking.

fuck the police

of course they won't understand

_{[... Bitter much, Heather?]}

Heather, they are just doing their job...

[James the boy scout.]

im not mad at them for doing their job

its ok that theyre after me, i understand why

but they dont have to be dicks about it

they know damn well it wasnt really our faults

I agree. But what can we do? It's obvious they don't care that the pokemon made us do it.

im staying with otacon and liquid... just gonna lay low till this blows over

its not the first time ive had to keep my head down...

_{[Minor troubles with the law when she was a bit younger aside, she'd had to keep a low profile after Silent Hill, just to be safe... both so that Douglas could make sure no one pinned any of the killings and disappearances caused that fateful week (Claudia, Vincent, Leonard, and Stanley aside, there had been those poor guys down in the sewer, probably guilty of no more than of being in the wrong place at the wrong time... and then there was her father, of course...) on her, and also just in case there was any further backlash from the cult, in case her true identity might have leaked out to more than just a select few... They hadn't been sure there wouldn't be people coming for her with vengeance-- or worse, their own take on Claudia's plan-- in mind.]}

Well, I'll probably go hiding out in the woods or something till this all blows over. I've never had to deal with something like this before.

_{[... Aw. James hiding in the woods was just... somehow a very sad concept.]}

good luck

stay safe and stuff...


im just used to needing to stay secretive

though ive never had the police after me for something like this before

[Probably because if this was in DnD terms and it came to James making a survival check, he'd have a penalty of -56.]

[His idea of camping is going to a camping ground that has a place for your camper to hook up to, cuz how can he camp and not have electricity?.]

I never really needed to stay secretive, cuz no one really pays attention to me. So this is so weird for me. Not to mention terrifying. ..I've never really been in trouble before, well I mean as a kid but nothing serious like this.

032. Video

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