foolishwren | 032. Video

Current Mood: drained
Current Location: An undisclosed location near Azalea

Entry tags:

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

_{[She lets out what was supposed to be a laugh, but wound up being... she didn't even know. Some sort of noise that wasn't really a laugh at all. The truth was that Kaito was much better at this whole poker face thing than she was. Right now the biggest boon Heather had going for her was that stupid bandage that covered about half her face.]}

Yeah. Yeah, it kinda sucks. A lot.

_{[LAUGHING SHOWED THINGS WERE OKAY, RIGHT?]}

... Why'd they kill your dad?

Do you even know?

[IT'S OKAY HE GETS IT HEATHER. His grin is very very wry as she talks]

They... [ohgod now here's the huge huge huge question of whether he wants to tell her everything or not. Kay knows it all, Johan knows that he's Kid and he's looking for something (even if he doesn't know about his Dad's murder yet), and Heather knows about his dad's murder but not Kid...

Why is trusting people so hard for him sometimes]

Oi, Heather. Can I trust you to keep a secret?

_{[Because trusting people is only easy for the ones who haven't had terrible things happen to them. Like, you know, watching your dad die in a horrible stage 'accident' and then finding out someone did it on purpose.]

[Heather had paused momentarily to gingerly rub at her good eye, only to stop and look back at the screen.]}

.... I'm good at keeping secrets. You can trust me.

_{[God knew she had plenty of them, herself. She knew the importance of keeping them.]}

[he leans forward again (and surprisingly, during this entire conversation, his expression hasn't flickered an inch) and... starts his story]

They killed him because my dad was an internationally wanted jewel thief. He wasn't killed by police officers, or anything like that. He was killed by a gang of criminal creeps who wanted him dead so he couldn't prevent them from getting their hands on a certain jewel. One called 'Pandora,' that could give immortality to whomever drank the tears it shed during the passing of a certain comet.

My dad was a great magician. The best there ever was. The only one who was better than me. He was murdered because he didn't want these criminals to get their hands on a gem that dangerous.

[he lapses into a thoughtful silence]

The police ruled his death a stage accident. 'M one of very few people who know the truth.

_{[... Her eye gets wider and wider as he tells his story. She can't really help it-- it's a pretty wild tale and not one she expected. But she doesn't look away. When he's finished, she lets out a slow whoof of breath.]}

... That's...

_{[Hunted for a word. Couldn't find one.]}

... I won't tell a soul.

_{[... And then, with a strangely shrewd look in her eye...]}

... Are you gonna take them down?

_{[Like earlier, something about the way she says it... seems to suggest that, again, she knows what he's talking about, on some strange level.]}

[he exhales, and his smile is wry]

You met Kaitou Kid, didn't you?

_{[There's a pause as she mouths the words for a second, brows furrowed. ... Then realization dawns on her face. Along with a very tired-looking, but genuine smile.]}

... I should've known.

You're really something, Smiley.

[he lifts a hand to rub his nose]

It's something I can't just tell anyone. Who'd believe my story, anyway? [he laughs, somewhat bitter]

And how many people would rat me out to the authorities?

_{[Heather's been unusually frank tonight, for a lot of reasons. Ones that she'd feel stupid sharing, sappy sharing. Because a person like her, well, let's just say it took somebody really earnest to put words to these kinds of reasons and actually make them sound something other than stupid. Heather wasn't earnest. She hadn't been 'earnest' in years.]

[So her weird little spat of saying things without the usual levels of goof or sarcasm slathered onto them would just have to go without explanation for tonight. Either way, she's being totally honest when she speaks.]}

I believe you.

And friends don't rat each other out. Not for stuff like that.

_{[Now if he was stealing the SOULS OF INFANTS or something? THEN maybe she'd reconsider.]

[She laughs a little then, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.]}

Besides, I.... I get where you're coming from. In a way. Not that... my situation's anywhere near that... wild, but... _{[It was similar. On a much, much smaller scale, it was actually very similar.]}

[it's okay it's just jewels, not the SOULS OF BABIES. and he totally returns them when he's done with them anyway]

Yeah? Mind if I ask about your situation?

_{[Yeah as long as there's no baby souls involved, it's all good, man. We good.]

[Heather looks a little surprised at the question, then shrugs her shoulders as expressively as she can without making everything in the history of EVER start hurting, an awkward smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.]}

Well...

My dad was a thief too, I guess.

Or at least... that's what they called him.

_{[The ones who had taken him away.]}

-- who's they? [he's honestly curious, and this tone indicates that if he asks too far, she's free to cut him off. Just because he shared doesn't mean she has to, after all]

_{[There's very, very few people she's told about this. Otacon... probably knows the most. James knew bits and pieces. The only person besides herself, honestly, who knows the full story is Douglas. The only other person in the world who knew that it came pretty close to ending that night.]

[So... yeah. She's just not sure how to go about explaining. She frowns a little, rubbing her chin.]}

They... are. Um.

... D'you know much about cults, Kaito?

[he pauses, before he gives a slow nod]

I know what they can be like. Not through personal experience, but... y'know. You hear things. [like most people, he had heard his fair share of stories involving crazy cults and mass suicides]

_{[You never really knew what a cult was like unless you'd been inside and out of it. But Heather nodded-- she's friggin' GLAD Kaito hasn't had any first-hand experience with one.]}

... Well.

There were these people, and uh... they really had it in for Dad.

...

Was it your dad who was killed? By those guys?

_{[There was a long pause, and when she speaks again, her voice sounds a little croopier than before.]}

... I'd just spoken to him on the phone hardly two hours before.

When I got home...

... geez, Heather. [and he's completely sincere when he says this because damn that sucks so bad] 'M sorry.

_{[That weird smile hasn't disappeared-- she knows it doesn't look genuine and it's not really SUPPOSED to, it's just... the fact that it's there that matters. Same with the humorless laugh she lets out as she distractedly swipes some hair out of her good eye.]}

We'd ... we'd kinda been going through a rough patch-- I wasn't exactly the best daughter ever, y'know?

But we were getting better.

Things were going so well.

_{[What's that? You're a happy, generally well-adjusted person? WELL! Silent Hill will fix that!]}

... [he falls silent, because it hurts to lose a father you admired your entire life, but it has to hurt to lose one that you were trying to patch things up with]

People like that never give a damn about what other people think of feel. They only act for themselves.

_{[No matter what bridges she'd thought she was burning, Heather had always admired her father... He was her hero, the strongest man in the world. And he'd always loved her, even when she was at her most rebellious and impudent. He'd even helped her quit the cigarettes she'd only picked up in the first place to immaturely try to get a rise out of him.]}

... Heh. Sometimes that's not the case... but... it doesn't make it any better.

_{[As... much as it churned Heather's stomach to think about, Claudia had been... the furthest thing from selfish she'd ever known. She hated Claudia. She'd wanted to kill Claudia with her bare hands and it still burned that she didn't get to. .... But selfish... no. After all, Claudia had done it all while believing that the Paradise she brought to the Earth would be meant for everyone but herself...]}

There were a lot of... reasons behind what they did to him.

... But some of it was just plain old revenge.

Revenge for what he stole from them.

... heh. It is kinda similar, isn't it?

[he pauses again, lifting a hand to rub his nose before he continues]

What about you? You gonna take them down? Or... did you already?

_{[Her expression darkens. ... Significantly.]}

... I did.

In... a way.

... It's complicated.

_{[It had started out as revenge, pure and simple. ... It had turned into much more. She wasn't even sure what it had been now.]}

... this is where the monsters come in, isn't it?

[he won't ask for clarification or details. Not after her expression darkened that much]

_{[... There's another long pause. That probably was enough to signify that it was a 'yes'.]}

.... The thing about it was...

Well, my dad wasn't... he didn't steal money or machines, or... or jewels. He never stole anything like that.

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

Re: [video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]