foolishwren | 034. [Video]

_{[It's a little before sun-up-- that weird hour of the morning where the sky is still dark but just starting to brighten in a thin, pale line at the horizon. Of course, where Heather was, that horizon was hidden by the trees, so it's... still mostly dark.]

[She's sitting up in her sleeping bag with a couple of blankets around her shoulders, next to the camp's fire, which had mostly burnt down to ash speckled with a few tiny, stubborn embers. They stood out against the general grayness of the clearing 'Camp Otacon' resided in. Said grayness was only emphasized by the layers of frost coating the earth and grass. It was well into October now, so... unsurprisingly, the weather had been getting colder.]

[Heather was not sure she liked this, though thankfully she's in possession of a living heater in the form of a now-distinctly-potbellied dog (Camp Otacon had been treating him well. Especially because though she'd never admit to being such a softie, she'd been giving him more treats than normal out of pure guilt over the whole 'I thought you were a double-head and also I was kind of a jerk to you in general anyway' thing), who was curled behind her and serving as a backrest.]}

So hey, guys. I have a question.

_{[Her words were accompanied by puffs of steam from her breath. It's c-c-cold this morning without the sunlight.]}

What happens when our warrants expire?

_{[A couple of people had asked her this before, but she'd never had too specific an answer to give them.]}

I heard we're like... basically off with a smack on the wrist and not much else, but... _{[She pauses, sucking her lips inward a little and fiddling with that stubborn eye-bandage. She's gotta be able to get rid of that thing soon, right?]} ... That seems pretty lenient for a bunch of "dangerous fugitives". _{[She's quoting Officer Jenny directly from that announcement, and there's suspicion in her tone. SCREW THE COPS, THEY'RE NEVER HONEST, RIGHT? THIS HAS TO BE A TRICK.]}

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

_[D-DAMMIT]

... Huh. Haven't heard of him.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the people here are not robots.

_{[AND SHE'S ALSO PRETTY SURE YOU ARE A WEIRDO.]}

Well, it's just a rumor. Can't believe everything you hear.

[S-SOB WHY JUST CAUSE HE CAN SUMMON SAMUEL?]

...I'm Seta Souji. Better to introduce myself now or never.

Yeah, best if you don't. I've heard some REALLY crazy stuff.

_{[NO HE IS JUST WEIRD. It's okay, though. Heather can deal with weird.]}

Heather Mason.

[STOP DISCRIMINATING AGAINST FETUS GODS AND WEIRDOS. GAWD HEATHER. But Souji takes no notice-- or if he does, he doesn't say anything about it --and makes a small bow of his head. Handshakes? Yeah, not possible over the gear.]

Nice to meet you, Heather-san.

I guess you were here a lot longer than me, right?

_{[SHUT UP SHE'LL JUDGE IF SHE WANTS.]}

Goin' on five months now.

[YOU'RE JUST AS BAD AS JUDGE JUDY YOU NEVER LISTEN]

That's pretty long. Probably longer than my friends here.

[Wait, let him think about it. Rise was here about four months, right? Naoto and Kanji for about a month...How long was Chie here for? Hmmmm...]

_{[SHUT UP, JUDGE JUDY IS A SAINT.]

[And oh, he already knew people here? Heather's voice lifted in curiosity.]}

Who're your friends?

[JUDGE JUDY, A SAINT? HAAAAHAHAHA YOU MAKE ME LAUGH...Now drop the act.]

I don't know if you met them, but they're Rise Kujikawa, Naoto Shirogane, Chie Satonaka, and Kanji Tatsumi. They've been here for a while.

[He names them all pretty well, not even stopping to think about their last names. He has a pretty good memory and he'll never forget his friends.]

Oh!

You know Rise?

[He just nods and smiles.]

She's a good friend of mine. We get along pretty well.

I guess you know her, huh?

Yeah, we're pals.

_{[Rise was one of Heather's best friends here in Johto-- one of the first she'd made at all. For all their differences, the girls got along pretty darned well.]}

You must be one of the ones she's walking back to Violet to meet.

[He nods again. God, if he had a nickel every time he nodded or shrugged...]

She made her mind up about it pretty quickly too, even with a twisted ankle. Hope she makes it alright here.

_{[SOUJI HAS ACHIEVED NEW TITLE: "Bobblehead".]}

Yeaaaaah.

Yeah, she did.

_{[Can you tell Heather's not too pleased about this decision?]}

When she gets there, scold her for me, will you?

I didn't wanna rain on her parade, but hiking through the wilderness on that ankle is probably not one of her best ideas ever.

[Place him on your dashboard and bang your head with him as your lifts up and down with the music of the 80s. Ohhhh yeah. Here, have another nod to start you off.]

I'll make sure to have her rest as soon as she arrives. She's still stubborn as ever.

[But he smiles at it a bit. It was glad to see that his friends didn't change at all and that just calmed him.]

_{[Time for some BON JOVI awwww yeeeaaaaaaaaaah!!]}

All right, good.

I'd hate her to wind up like.

Crippled for life because she didn't let it heal or something.

[He chuckles for once.]

Rise-chan's strong, but I'll be there for her if she needs my help. We've been through worse than a sprained ankle.

...How did she get it anyway?

Yeah, she told me about some of it.

_{[Then she paused a bit... before slowly bringing her hand up to her forehead.]}

She, uh... she fell down a well.

_{[QUICK GET LASSIE.]}

[WHAT IS THAT, GIRL? POOR RISE FELL DOWN THE WELL? LET'S SAVE HER! But...Souji's face right here...just...what? Seriously, Rise? That's...That's just straight out of that Lassie show he saw in his elementary English class...]

...She fell down a well, and got a sprained ankle?

.......

[Just give him a few minutes to ACTUALLY PROCESS THAT SHE ACTUALLY FELL DOWN A WELL]

_{[THAT'S BASICALLY WHAT HAPPENED.]}

Yeeeaaaah. ... She was probably lucky she didn't get worse, I mean, it was a pretty steep fall...

[GOD IS LIFE AROUND HERE JUST ONE BIG LASSIE EPISODE?]

Yeah, I'm really glad that she didn't get any worse injuries...

...I'm just wondering how that happened in the first place though.

I think one of her Pokemon fell and she just kind of... grabbed for it and lost her balance.

It happened awfully quick.

034. [Video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]