foolishwren | 92. [Audio/Video]

_{[CLOUDS ABOVE. WATER BELOW. That's what Heather is seeing when she briefly flicks on the audio feed.]

[After spending a whole lot of time trying to ensure through various means that she wouldn't meet an uncertain death trying to fly, enough time had passed and Heather couldn't hold back that classic Mason mother-hen desire to have all the eggs in one place at the same time anymore.]

[In hindsight, though, informing the two she'd gotten on the bird to actually GO SEE that she'd left... AFTER she left, was a bit of a bad decision. Turns out the roaring wind is pretty damn loud when you're that high. She has to raise her voice to be heard.]}

Angela. Lisa!

Sorry for the wait. M'finally on my way.

_{[A pause, punctuated by the whistling wind.]}

... Aaaand it'd be good if you could both tell me where you are, too. Prooobably should've asked that before I left.

_{[But THAT ASIDE... the video feed flicks on then, showing off a vast expanse of blue water below and fluffy clouds above, with Sunny's downy ear-tufts fluttering down towards the bottom of the screen.]}

I take back any misgivings I might've had about flying before.

This... is pretty awesome.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Heeeeey, I've been here for like two years, remember?

I know my way around the country!

... Mostly!

....Mostly.

ONCE.

Once I got lost.

... And that was because I didn't have anything with me and I was delirious.

... Which was ALSO not my fault.

What happened?

And why were you delirious?

Ooh, man... I never told you about that?

... S'a LONG story...

Not that I remember.

What happened?

_{[She makes a face. Harry's seen it many times-- it's the one that usually comes up when he's asked her how her day went at school and she has some sort of horrible ordeal to impart.]

[Of course, it had been a lot worse than a bad day at school... but it's been over a year. And as bad as it was, it didn't hold a candle to the real thing.]}

Well, a few months after I got here... I guess the ghost Pokemon in the wild decided to play this like... collective prank on everybody.

They flooded the whole area with fog and everybody started hallucinating.

... Three guesses what sort of things I saw.

[He nods.]

Right, I remember you said something about that.

[When they had their long talk about Silent Hill.]

Fog, of course it was fog.

I know, right? That was what I said.

_{[She heaves a sigh. Even now, more than a year later, she can still remember that nightmare so vividly. Hell, even more vividly than the dozens of dreams she'd scurried through last summer when she'd been in a soulless coma.]}

Anyway... I thought I was in Silent Hill again and basically spent the whole time running for my life. Since, uh, the monsters I was attacking turned out to be Pokemon and police officers...

By the time the whole illusion faded, I was out in the middle of nowhere.

[He nods.]

And then what?

Well, I basically wandered until I found civilization. And it sucked.

I didn't have any of my stuff, not even the PokeGear. _{[She'd had it, but it had been broken.]

[There's a longish pause during which only the roar of the wind comes through the speakers.]}

... Just Cujo.

How long did that take?

I forget. A week, maybe?

I was kinda... totally out of it.

Well I'm glad you managed alright.

[He can't really lecture you, being something she couldn't control.]

Me too.

... Cooj got me through that, actually.

Did he?

Well then I'm glad you had him.

[Point for the dog.]

Yeah. Me too.

_{[If he hadn't stuck with her... she'd have been all alone. In the wilderness. With no supplies. For over a week.]}

... That was kinda when I realized it wasn't fair to hate him.

That's perfectly understandable.

[Dog on fire. He still can't believe the town did that.]

While I was hallucinating, I thought he was... one of the dogs from, you know, the town.

I beat him up pretty bad.

He didn't once bite back, and then he followed me around till I came to my senses.