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

[Snorts.]

Maybe I don't want to see things get worse for you. Whatever you think you've outrun, running away more doesn't fix things. It doesn't change the past. Even if prisons are just basically a time-out here, that's a reason not to run. They aren't anything fucking close to Impel Down so there's no excuse.

Really, I expected better of you.

[Smoker liked her too, but he's hard on everyone and worse on criminals. And there's a reason he doesn't have many friends, or give a damn about it.]

_{[He's doing what he believes! No matter how mad she gets about it, in the end, Heather's not... actually gonna judge him too much for it. As much as people who think like him bother her... she knows good and well that she prefers that to ... other kinds of people.]

[... But she's still pissed.]}

Yeah, well, sorry for disappointing you.

I'm pretty good at doing that, so I guess you'd better get used to it.

_{[And it's not as though he's entirely wrong, even to her-- though of course she's not paying attention to the part of her mind that says that. She's not handling things in the most mature way possible... she never had. Not even at her best, really. But... she's got more reasons for this than just immaturity and pride. If it were just those... well. Things would've been a little different.]}

[Snorts softly.]

Look. This isn't either of our worlds. Punishments are really lighter than anything I'm used to. [Times... infinity. They sentenced an 8 year old girl and her entire freaking island to death over learning a language :|] Try discreetly getting in contact with one of them. They sound like they had more problems than just us otherworlders, so they'll probably be open to a deal. Is cleaning up some of the broken and windows and shit from the ordeal really that much worse than even staying on the run unable to trust anyone?

[He's an asshole... but he still doesn't want her hurt if it's avoidable. Since he knows she's a good kid too.]

_{[She might've laughed hollowly if her throat wasn't so sore.]}

I told you I'm not turning myself in, Smoker.

I don't like cops.

I don't trust cops.

I don't think they're evil, I know they're just doing their jobs, I'm NOT angry at them for being after me, but I'm not gonna hand myself over, all right?

I don't make deals with ANYBODY.

_{[... Would you believe that when she was little, Heather had wanted to be a policewoman once? My, how time had a way of changing things.]}

[Poor Heather. ;; Smoker however is just going to huff some smoke and growl, giving up and shutting off because all the extra stress without Kaz around is only compounded, so better he stop before he does something he'll regret.]

So be it.

_{[Poor Heather indeed. Though she's not blameless-- there were a lot of ways the conversation could have gone without ending in this, but as usual, her temper had gotten the better of her.]

[Still her voice is surprisingly subdued-- but still holds an angry quiver.]}

Yeah. So be it.

032. Video

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]