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

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...he isn't you. If you want to turn yourself in, that's your decision, right? [Odd words coming from a lawyer, but the circumstances are rather peculiar. It's not as if she REALLY hurt him. Really.]

Hm? Oh, yeah, well...it's not like this is anything new. [He chuckles a bit, genuinely amused.] Let's see...I've eaten glass, been beat up, threatened by the mafia, tazered...[He counts off his fingers as he does this, wincing a bit at the memory of that latest one. Manfred von Karma is NOT someone you want to mess with.] It's really alright.

[And, true, he does understand that he could have been hurt. Really, really badly. But he doesn't see it that way. It didn't happen, and that's what matters.]

....... I guess.

_{[After the initial hysterical response, logic is starting to seep back in. The LAWYER she beat up is telling her it's okay. That's got to mean more than some MARINE who doesn't even know what happened, right?]}

... You're telling the truth about not being too badly-hurt, right?

[Yeah, listen to Phoenix! He's only an idealistic fool, what could go wrong?] It's alright to feel guilty. But...don't let it eat away at you.

[And now he grins, and gently nudges his bruise, wincing only a little bit.] I'm fine, I'm fine. _{It's not as bad as it looks.}

_{[Well, he's an idealistic fool who's also an incredible defense attorney, so it can't go too badly, right??]}

... all right.

But Phoenix, if... if it ever happens again for some reason?

... Don't try to talk to me. Just run, okay?

_{[Admittedly, if it ever did happen again, she'd know better and would force herself to ignore the fight instincts and opt for flight instead, but... better safe than sorry.]}

[The 'incredible defense attorney' bit can be disputed depending on who you talk to, but no one can deny that he doesn't have a talent for the unlikely and idealistic.

--and at the question, he hesitates. Because Phoenix is a pathological helper, and he's not sure that if he were to give that promise and be able to keep it. Although...maybe if it does happen again, he'll have a better idea of how he can help without getting his ass royally kicked. So he grins, albeit a bit sheepishly.]

Alright, alright.

_{[Well, he's incredible enough to have a game starring him, anyway! It's gotta count for something!]}

I'm serious, lawyer-man, I don't plan on tweaking out again but-- I literally do not even know when I attacked you because whatever I thought I was fighting, there was-- ... it didn't look anything like you.

[Hey, his buddy Edgeworth got himself a game, too. It's not that hard!]

I figured that. [He scratches his head, thinking.] ...you really did think we were monsters. [A pause.]

...Heather, what did you mean by 'monsters'?

_{[The question doesn't catch her by surprise, but it does make her hesitate, brows furrowing. Normally, she'd be... reluctant to answer, but... after what she'd done, she kind of owed Phoenix an explanation, didn't she?]}

.... I meant monsters.

The kind that aren't supposed to exist.

[He senses her hesitation, and...hesitates as well.] One second-- [He fumbles with his Pokegear for a second, brows furrowing as he tries to find that stupid--ah, there it was. Since he had a feeling Heather wouldn't appreciate what she was telling him leaking out...he switches their conversation to private.]

...like, monsters? Er...the not-human kind, you mean? And not Pokemon?

_{[Yeah, it's not something she tells people lightly. Thus far, Otacon, Kaito, James, and ... kind of Rise are the only ones who know. Knowledge of Heather's background is sort of... scattered in bitty pieces between the people she trusts most here.]}

Well, I've met plenty of the human kind, too.

But... yeah, those weren't the ones I meant.

[And Phoenix is certainly getting that vibe. Which is why he's trying to handle this as gently as possible.

--after all, Phoenix has met plenty 'monsters' in his lifetime, too. At least his were only human.]

Monsters...[He furrows his brow again, trying to make this all make sense in his head.] But monsters don't--

[--then he remembers that he has a daughter here from two years in the future. anything is possible.]

...what happened to you, Heather? [He says this quietly, because, seriously -- he had firsthand experience with Heather's reaction to these monsters she seems so afraid of. She was obviously horrified by them, whatever they'd done to her back home.]

_{[She's not looking directly at the camera-- her brows are furrowed and she's sort of just... staring at the edge of the screen intently as the gears work away in her head.]

[She wasn't sure what she wanted to say. Phoenix was a good guy, but she still didn't know him too well yet. ... And she never, EVER had planned on telling a thing about what had happened in Silent Hill to any kind of lawyer. Not when she was on her own, her father dead and she was emerging from the wake of a turbulent school career and entanglement in a series of violent, unexplained happenings. Pshyeah right, telling a lawyer that stuff would have just been a one-way ticket to some kind of institution.]

[... But she did owe him an explanation. And he'd... tried to help her, when she was going crazy.]}

... A lot.

A lot's happened to me.

_{[It's a statement he's UNDOUBTEDLY already worked out for himself, but it's laden with meaning.]}

[Phoenix is probably aware that his job might be preventing Heather from being completely honest with him -- lawyers were never the most popular people, after all -- but he really wished more people understood that he was a defense attorney. Defense attorneys don't put people away, they protect them. It's a situation he's had to explain to quite a few people before, but he figures now isn't exactly the time to tackle that can of worms.

...instead, he just bites his lower lip worridly. He words are so heavy. And she was only in her, what, late teens? It was a kind of heavy that he'd seen in his client's eyes when they'd turned to him for help, in Maya's eyes when she'd kneeled by the dead body of her sister, in Edgeworth's eyes when Phoenix had seen his photo in the paper, seeing his friend for the first time in eleven years.

...all of this rolled together gave her words far more impact than she could have expected.]

...but look at you, Heather. You've beat that, haven't you? You're strong. _{Stay strong. Trust me, I...I can't even imagine what you've gone though. But ...} But whatever it is, you've beat it. The nightmares, too.

['Course, he doesn't know that -- he's just wildly guessing, here. but he sincerely hopes that she has]

_{[Yeah, the poor guy's probably used to the whole YOU'RE A LAWYER? GET OUT mentality from a lot of people. Heather's no different, unfortunately. The law had never done her much good and she'd already had to deal with counselors prying and prodding for any sort of sign that her father's death had driven her over the edge.]

[But then... unlike them, Phoenix's concern is completely genuine. The guy is like an open book-- she can just tell. And though she doesn't know it, he's reading her pretty well, too. She covers it up from day to day with that spunky, rough facade-- but that heaviness he's hearing is always there, deep down.]}

... Yeah, I did beat it.

_{[Her tone shifts a little, becoming clearer, and she lifts her head, looking him in the eye now.]}

... I'm just still working on the 'getting better' part.

_{[She pauses a moment. He HAD asked her what happened... and she wished there was some concise way to explain it that wouldn't also be totally dishonest by default.]}

[Yeah, he's been called an ambulance chaser so many times by now that's it's pretty much lost all meaning -- almost. But, really...he's just a bleeding heart. And he cares too much.]

...it's hard. [a pause.] ...but at least you're not alone. _{I know how that feels.} [and boy, does he.]

_{[Aw, Phoenix. You're such a sweetie. And Heather knows this, too. Which is why she's currently struggling with just whether and what she wants to tell him or not. She hasn't known him for too long-- and hell, apart from the name, occupation, general temperament, and the little time paradox they had in common, neither of them knew a lot about each other.]

[But he cared-- genuinely cared. And she owed him an explanation.]}

I know it's hard.

... I know I'll be able to do it, but it has been hard.

_{[One thing that Heather believed unwaveringly was that she'd survive. Some people had doubts about whether they'd make it, and Heather didn't have that. She KNEW. But that didn't make the process itself easy.]}

.... I already told you I don't come from a very good place and I wasn't lying. It's a bad place.

[Phoenix has earned him trust a-plenty because of his raw honesty, and the crazy thing is that he never expects any of it. Naiive and endearing to the last, despite being a grown, 25-year-old man.]

And that just means that you can't give up, right? [He grins, a bit crookedly. Dispositions and occupations and genders aside, he figures he and Heather are actually quite alike in a few respects.

--and now that he senses the tone of their conversation treading on crazier ground, he opts to sit down, cross-legged, leaning on his elbows with the Pokegear resting on his hands.]

...a bad place. [A pause.] With monsters.

...I take it you're not from my United States, then. _{Unless there's mosters back at home, too...} [The thought is defintely usettling.]

_{[The question gets a crooked little smile that spoke plainly enough. Giving up was the LAST thing on her mind-- and always had been. It had crossed her mind, a couple of times as she'd been cutting her way through that town, that maybe it would be easier-- even better-- to give in and let that woman's plan carry through. ... And then she'd decided she had better shit to do! Heather Mason was not somebody who just 'gave up'. Harry hadn't raised her like that.]

[So... she and Phoenix are pretty alike in that respect.]

[The smile fades into a more sober look when he makes that observation, though.]}

Don't be so sure. I said there were monsters. I never said there were supposed to be monsters.

_{[She'd grown up being told by the world that monsters weren't real, just like any other kid. The monsters of the Otherworld hadn't just been wandering down the street.
"Oh hey Roy, I'm just picking up the mail. How's the wife and kids?"
"BLARRGHARG"
"Really? That's ni-- NO WAIT DON'T SPEW HORRIBLE ACID ON ME AAAAAGGHGHGGHH"]

[Yeah. It hadn't been like that. The monsters had very much been aberrations to Heather's everyday life. In fact, they'd arguably never set foot in the real (or was it just normal? The Otherworld was as real, too.) world at all. She'd been dragged kicking and screaming into theirs.]}

...these monsters crossed into your world, then? Or...the other way around? [His tone is still as concerned and personal as it always was. It's one of the wonders about him, how he can be a professional without sounding like an unattatched douchebag. He would make a pretty nifty therapist, in retrospect. None of that "How does that make you feel" bullshit, because Phoenix knows how it makes people feel. It hurts.]

... I guess you could put it that way.

Or the other way around.

The lines got kinda blurry after awhile.

_{[Silent Hill was hard to tack a definition to. Perfectly normal (albeit seedy, corrupt and more than a little skeevy under the surface) tourist town on one had, but on the other...]

[And yeah, Phoenix is right on the money with that. After that horrible night where she'd saved the world and become a real orphan as a reward, she'd had to spend the rest of the school year listening to crap like that, and it had the most spectacular level of unhelpful she'd ever witnessed since the time Harry had tried to fix her computer and wound up setting off every smoke alarm in the apartment building. That was to say, it was pretty damn unhelpful.]}

... [Having only experienced the pseudo-paranormal on a very mild, spirit-channeling scale, Phoenix isn't quite sure how to respond to that. He doesn't have any doubts as to whether she's being thruthful or not, however.]

...why would they do that? [Because he's a lawyer, and he asks these kinds of questions. All. The Damn. Time.]

_{[Yeah, it's okay Phoenix... there aren't actually many ways to respond to that. Just... be glad she's not telling you what she told Kaito. Although who knows, you might wind up hearing the whole story like him one day, too. But ...Heather's not quite willing to tell that yet, even if she did beat the daylights out of him. SORRY PHOENIX BUT YOUR LAWYERNESS IS STILL A LITTLE TOO MUCH FOR HER PARANOIA.]

[She does, however, incline her head a little.]}

A few reasons.

_{[Oh lol Heather, so evasive.]}

... None that I could ever explain without sounding like I need to be locked up in a padded cell.

_{[And that's her way of ... sort of politely blowing him off... for the moment. The fact that he's so genuinely concerned means a lot more than he might realize, though.]}

... But basically it had to do with a... some people that sort of had it in for my dad. _{[... And who worshiped Heather. Not in a healthy, wholesome way, either.]}

... It's complicated.

[He's not expecting her to spill everything -- from what he's gathered so far, it's probably not a happy story, and considering how they barely know each other...yeah, he's pretty fine with whatever Heather feels she can give out. Mostly.]

Boy, have I heard that before.

...but if you'd rather not, that's fine. [A slight shrug.]

People who...had it in for your dad? [Ah, THIS is territory he's familiar with. Eeexcellent.]

... Heh. You must hear it all the time in your profession.

_{[It's... probably pretty obvious to him that Heather doesn't have a whole lot of faith in the law. Given the fact that she wasn't too upset about being a wanted criminal until she found out she'd hurt a FRIEND.]

[The camera shakes around a little as she sits up. She doesn't want to be lying down while she even begins to wander towards the territory of this subject. ... It makes her feel too vulnerable. Or like she's talking to a psychiatrist.]}

... Yeah.

Not very nice people.

If I had a penny... [Yeah, kind of. Bit of a cliche in his line of work, to be quite honest.

He watches quietly as she gets up, waiting on her reply before he speaks up again.]

...I can imagine.

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[video; private; dammit stop trying to make me ship these two]

[video; private; MUAHAHAHHAHAAA]

[video; private; DAAAMN YOOOOOU]

[video; private; HEY I'M JUST PLAYING, MAN. THIS IS ALL YOU.]

[video; private; why can't I quit yoooou]

[video; private; PHEROMONES. :I]

[video; private; I swear to god it's all these teenage girls. DAMMIT, PHOENIX.]

[video; private; D-DAMMIT PHOENIX well at least he's probably more innocent than Heather is? <8D;]

[video; private; --you know, probably. AHAAHAH.]