foolishwren | 77. [Video/Action]

Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Location: Ecruteak City

77. [Video/Action]

_{[It always seems like autumn in the woodland town of Ecruteak. But when it's actually autumn, the colors are mind-blowing.]

[Heather might not be one of those 'let's walk quietly in nature and be alone with our thoughts' types, but she can appreciate the beauty of the world when she sees it! Which is why, accompanied by a small chorus of footsteps as she and the rest of the gang tromp into Ecruteak City, she's got the 'Gear out and is pointing it around at the explosion of color decorating the trees.]}

Man, why did we skip this place again? It's friggin' gorgeous. Reminds me of home!

_{[New England autumns were one thing she had sort of missed since coming here. There weren't many of those]

[As the quaint buildings start coming into view, though, the 'Gear spins as she turns to the rest of the group-- her father, Henry, and the terrible trio of Kaito, Crow, and Aoko. ... Along with, of course, the Pokemon ambling alongside them all (or being carried).]}

Hey, I dunno if you guys wanna go on to the inn or whatever, but I'm gonna make a quick stop at the Mart, okay? If you don't wanna come in with me, I can catch up with ya later. _{[Doop doop gotta restock on sun lotion. :I]

[She heads into the store, greeted by the swish of the doorway and a burst of air-conditioning-- summer's still clinging on enough to make the sunny day hot, even in September. A couple of minutes of browsing later (a nice shady inn room and a nap sound awesome right now, so she's not exactly into lingering), she approaches the counter with her purchase (and a little bottle of Aprijuice for Godzilla because he had tugged on her shirt and looked pitiful when they passed the display) and puts them down, digging in her bag and speaking to the cashier a little distractedly.]}

Hey, could you feed the receipt into my 'Gear so I can keep track? Thanks.

_{[She sort of forgot the camera was on, apparently-- but the cashier takes the 'Gear and does so, before pausing and blinking down at the screen.]}

... Oh! Your name's Heather Mason?

_{[... Buh?]}

Uh... yeah. Why?

_{[Is it bad that her first thought is that this guy is like the Jennies from Violet and actually remembers that time a warrant for arrest went out with her name on it? But he doesn't seem accusatory-- instead, he's propping the 'Gear on the counter and bending down to get something from under the register.]}

We received a package with your name on it a little while ago and we've been holding onto it. Here.

_{[He passes over a slender box, with a few stickers and stamps on it-- looks like it's been sent around a few different places before it finally found her. Looking confused, Heather takes it, looking down at it with furrowed brows.]}

... There's no sender name on it?

_{[The cashier shrugs, making a baffled 'iunno' noise.]

[Heather glances downwards at the two Pokemon who had come with her into the shop, who look just as baffled as she does. ... Well, Arty kind of looks... angrily baffled, but there you go. Then, shrugging, she slips the top off the box and pulls out its contents.]}

_{[Two Pokeballs ... and a worn-out old cloth green headband.]

[Heather's heart sinks immediately. She knows exactly who this package is from...]

[A few minutes later, she emerges from the shop, the bandanna carefully folded back into the box and put in her bag for safekeeping, but the Pokeballs are still in her hand. Stopping once she's out in the sunlight, she puts her bag down and looks at the balls contemplatively for a moment or so, before turning her head to look at the autumn foliage again.]}

... I'll take care of 'em, Dave.

_{[... Wow okay, mumbling to thin air like he could hear her. That was dumb. ... But it made her feel a little better, anyway.]

[Rolling her shoulders, she puts a grin on her face and tosses the Pokeballs into the air, releasing their residents in the usual bright flash of light. Even if Snake was gone... it's good to see them again.]

[She raises her arms to meet the joyful trills of the larger of the two, and as she does so, looks over her shoulder and hollers--]}

HEY, DAD! Wanna see what Lisa's gonna look like when she's all grown up?

_{[ooc: Responses will come shortly, gonna go get somethin to eat B). Action for anyone in Ecruteak!]}

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Yes.

[Claudia has taken Heather's look to Sunny as understanding--or, well. She's going to try and ensure it.]

_{[Well, there's one thing setting this conversation apart from the others they've had thus far. That thing is that, thanks to the fact that Heather was caught in a good mood, she's not quite as inclined to respond right off the bat with a snarl... even if her response is rather negative. But hey, better bafflement than baring of the teeth, right?]

[Heather looks back and forth between Sunny and the 'Gear a few times. Don't get her wrong... there's bitter and biting responses fighting to make it to her lips, but Claudia's face just... shuts them down.]

[So what, last time, may have been some pissy SNARL along the lines of 'You wouldn't know a real angel if it came up to you and punched you right in the face', becomes, instead:]}

... Tha-- .... that's not an angel.

_{[Said in the eloquent tone of: DURR?]}

[Claudia looks at Heather's face--at her tousled hair, and at the feathery bulk still visible on the edge of the screen.

And instead of answering, she smiles.]

_{[... Heather wants to be angry.]

[She wants to go on another tirade about how for fucking crying out loud, this is NOT Paradise, these are NOT angels, and how could you smile at me like that after what you did, how could you even THINK of looking happy about the fact that I'm happy?!]

[... But she can't. Because somehow seeing that expression on Claudia's face, when it was in response to something that she herself had been smiling at not ten seconds before... makes her chest tighten. It's awkward, even somehow embarrassing. Like the extreme equivalent of having an old, uncool friend show up and catch you looking happy without them, and then laughing at the same joke you were laughing at and making it all uncomfortable. But more than the embarrassment, or the latent rage still bubbling under the surface, or even the indignity of her old foe continuing to view everything in this world through the lens of EVERYTHING THAT HAD MADE HEATHER'S LIVES HELL... there's guilt.]

[Guilt and a twinge of that sad, achy old nostalgia at seeing a smile on the face of Claudia Wolf.]

[Even if it was still one of spiritual bliss, it was for far more innocent reasons than the times she had smiled in her last few hours, standing over Heather with her arms and face raised to the sky while the younger girl was curled on the floor and writhing in pain.]

[And like that silly, self-centered remark from Vincent awhile back that had brought back old, dusty memories drifting to the surface, seeing it makes a more innocent time come to mind.]

[... So like any well-adjusted, completely-over-it person, Heather shoves the memories away and just shakes her head, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly and wrinkling her nose, forced gruffness in her tone.]}

S'not an angel, just a bird.

_{... Her name's Sunny.}

[Claudia stares at Heather for a long time in silence, her head inclined just slightly so that her blue eyes are raised slightly to look at the younger girl. She is torn between disbelief and something rather kin to exasperation, but her response is lost somewhere in the memories of Alessa's smile, flashing at her from across the street or next to her at a small table, its surface covered with the bright crayon expressions of their hopes and dreams.

Still, her expression should make her rather... sceptical sentiments obvious.]

'..........'

_{[After all those hopes and dreams, who'da thought they'd eventually wind up in a world not unlike the ones they created in their sketchbooks back in kindergarten?]

[Heather blinks at the skepticism, brows rising. ... And then she frowns, a tad defensively. What was wrong with 'Sunny'? HUFF.]}

Well, I didn't name her...

_{[.... w-wait why is she defending naming prospects from Claudia of all people...]}

[]Claudia blinks, then a look of understanding passes over her face and she nods--

Of course.]

_{[That earns another brief, baffled stare on Heather's part... before she realizes what Claudia means and just-- GROANS. It's the quintessential teenage UGHHH noise, and normally it applies to having unpleasant homework to do, or dealing with a parent who just doesn't get why it's not cool to come with her to the mall. Not... God.]

[But she does it anyway.]}

I-- that's not what I meant.

My friend named her. She used to belong to him.

Snake.

[Claudia manages not to narrow her eyes at the groan, and it's just as well--because she finds herself narrowing her eyes instead at the name relayed a few seconds later, squinting at Heather for a second before the name sinks in.

And then her eyes widen.

She tilts her head back, her eyes rolling up to the open sky briefly, as though in some secret and virtuosic religious convergence.]

...Ohhh....

[Don't worry, Heather. She gets it.]

_{[This time, Heather squints back. Because... dude, how the hell could she possibly have gleaned a religious meaning out of that-- .... Oh.]

[.... God DAMMIT!]}

UGH, not THAT Snake--

... I-- ... look, never mind.

_{[JUST-- YOU WIN, CLAUDIA, OKAY? Go right ahead and keep thinking that Heather's referring to the original father of God. Fine. Heather gives up. ... But if you even THINK about asking if Heather has another friend named Reed, she will-- DAARHRGHARRGH]}

Her name's Sunny. The end.

[Claudia looks somewhere between reproachful and puzzled, angling her head to give Heather a sideways look, but--while she would dearly like to press the issue--she is becoming more cautious about not setting Alessa off right now.

As strange as this conversation is... as different as Alessa may be, and as distant as they are... as they have become...

Something about just being here, speaking to her, seeing what she sees...

Claudia--very reluctantly--lets it go, replacing it instead with passion.]

She is beautiful.

_{[... Something inside Heather just... deflates.]

[All the anger, all the hurt and rage and thoughts of vengeance... they're not gone. They're not gone at all. ... But something about the way Claudia is talking to her, like she expects everything to be okay... to be the way it once was...]

[It just makes Heather feel so tired. Somehow.]

[So... okay, Claudia. You win... for now. Heather just can't keep up with your endless spiritual optimism.]

[She heaves another slight sigh and averts her eyes from Claudia's gaze, cheeks flushed once more, this time with something other than laughter.]}

... Yeah.

She is.

_{[And as though understanding them (because of course, she can), the Togekiss trills joyously and gives her wings a gentle beat for balance, ruffling her feathers.]

[... Which, due to the proximity, immediately makes roughly half of Heather's hair stand on end. God bless static electricity.]}

[Claudia is briefly conflicted, and it shows, concern intermingling with guilt and battling with her reaction to Sunny's styling job. Concern, obviously, because Alessa is so clearly unhappy... guilt because she knows it is her fault--the misery she caused her, though necessary for this new world, the only way... Claudia's pain is trivial--deserved, even, for what she has done.

And yet--

In the end, she cannot help herself, and covers her smile with her hand, trying to hide her mirth.

She shouldn't laugh--she has no right to laugh, she knows.

But Alessa just looks so ridiculous...]

_{[It's a tribute to just how ridiculously complicated everything is-- about them, about the past, about Silent Hill and about everything that had happened during the twenty-nine-or-so years that they'd BOTH been alive in some way, shape, or form-- that Heather, when the sound of Claudia laughing reaches her ears, doesn't fly immediately into a frothing rage.]

[She should. Hell, she's gotten angrier over less. Total strangers laughing at her could and had provoked harsher reactions. Usually at least a bit of profanity was in order.]

[And she is mad. Part of her, anyway. It's impossible not to be. Because Claudia isn't a stranger. She is the woman who killed Heather's father-- who used her suffering and anguish as a tool to sharpen the knife that would destroy the world, who hunted her down and destroyed everything she cared about, all for a crazy, impossible dream.]

[She's furious.]

[... But there's another part of her, just as significant, that remembers how often she'd once tried to make that happen, back when they'd both had precious little to laugh about. If Alessa laughing was a miracle... Claudia laughing is even moreso.]

[So when she whips her head back up to stare at the screen, her expression is one of... shock? ... Regret? ... Nostalgia? Some unreadable combination of various, contrasting emotions? Yeah, something like that...]}

...

_{[... A quiet, wheezy laugh.]}

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