foolishwren | 96. [Accidental Video/Action for Ecruteak] BACKDATED TO THE 22ND

_{[Chaotic and occasionally-accidental videos have become a relatively frequent occurrence during the outbreak, and this video is really no different in that aspect.]

[The feed comes to life in a chaotic jumble that makes it clear that the 'Gear was bumped or jostled into turning on-- no amateur-but-deliberate filming of Pokemon attacking action figures this time around. It does, however, come to a brief halt as the carrier pauses.]}

_{[Sunny the Togekiss peers sorrowfully down from the outdoor-rafters she's perched on, apparently refusing to come down.]}

-ny!

SUNNY!

Get the HELL down-- oh my god, you know what?

Forget it.

FORGET IT.

Forget it.

Fucking BIRD.

_{[The screen whirls and and all image coherency disappears in a swirl of bouncing sky and trees. The WHACK WHACK WHACK of the mic hitting the other contents of Heather's bag as it swings at her side destroy most of the audibility too, but snippets of voices come through-- Heather's and someone else's. People who are familiar with her and the people she travels with will recognize it as her father Harry Mason.]}

Heath--r please be reason-- just stop for a moment and think ab-- you don't need to d-- let it g--

No. NO. She--

I don't CARE if she's not g-- to-- I'm going--- do what I should have done in t-- --ace!

--L MASON--

_{[The thumping stops as Heather apparently stops and spins on her heel. As she does so, the camera's view once again settles, offering an off-kilter perspective view of her from roughly waist-level. She's been staying away from the network as much as possible as the effects of the strange outbreak started to hit her hard, and now it's fairly evident why: dark, scorched-looking splotches have spread across every inch of skin like burns-- and where they crack, bright, veinlike lines like something molten spread. Her hair is smoky and black.]}

I am NOT losing you again, Dad!

_{[And then, after that raspy, croaky scream, she whirls again and keeps going. The feed times out at some point, after a lot of jumbled sounds as other voices join the apparent debate.]}

[OOC: Cooooonteeeeeext. Replies over the 'Gear will likely be ICly delayed and/or limited.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

_{[Her answer comes fast and hard, with no hesitation.]}

Kill her.

_{[She knows he won't approve. She knows he'll try to talk her out of it. But what the hell. She's already alienated most of the people she cares about. Why stop now?]}

You can't do that.

_{[Equally fast, that warning more pronounced. It's the one rule he's been able to rely on here. But more underlying it means that she shouldn't. Couldn't, because it's not moral, right. Is foolish. Rash. Absurd.]

[She's a teenager. She shouldn't even have those thoughts to begin with.]}

Heather -

_{[Her voice takes on a harsh tone-- and like the one she's been using with everybody else, it's a little bit distracted. Her mind is on her objective and everything else is just frustrated background chatter.]}

The only reason I hadn't before I ever came here was because she died before I could get to her.

Stay out of my way.

_{[He hadn't thought to get into her way, actually. Ecruteak is one of the smaller towns but it's still fairly large, and he has no idea where she might be. Even if he gets out to search right now she could be off before he found her.]

[Still, he finds himself pacing somewhat, like he's itching to go and find her regardless.]}

I know you're looking for revenge. _{[Voice a little more urgent, but still with that edge. Trying to catch up to her.]} But you're not a murderer.

There's a lot of things you don't know about me, Cooper.

_{[No, she doesn't think of herself as a murderer... but there are some undeniable truths about her actions in Silent Hill. Truths that would perhaps equate to some as murder. The creature on the roof, Leonard... and Claudia, if she hadn't effectively slain herself first.]

[Maybe not a murderer, but a killer, yes.]}

_{[There's a reaction to her words, yes, but it's hard to put into an accurate description. Something tense, maybe, as the pause before he answers is a fraction too long.]}

There are a lot of things none of us know. But I do know that murder won't help you. Or what you think you're fighting.

I'm not fighting anything.

I'm finishing something that should have been finished three years ago.

You don't want to murder her.

You want to understand her.

_{[It could have been a bit of a plea. Instead, he says it like fact.]}

_{[That at least makes her pause, but probably not for the right reasons. When she replies, it's in a tone that's cold and almost a little affronted.]}

I understand her perfectly.

I understand her better than she does.

_{[Because she knows the truth about why Claudia ended up the way she did. She can see it without the blinkers of having grown up mired in cult brainwashing, but the education of having started that way and then escaped.]

[... Doesn't mean she's doing the right THING about it, but well.]}

_{[He changes tactic. Hopes to find answers.]}

Something changed. Between this stay and her last.

What?

_{[She wasn't about to murder her old childhood friend LAST time she showed up ...]}

I stopped kidding myself.

That's what changed.

_{[Claudia had been... herself, but she'd been... she had listened, to an extent. Enough that Heather had maybe entertained the briefest of hopes that she'd come around. ... But no. That had been foolish, clearly.]}

_{[Well, that went well.]}

Murder is always a mistake, Heather.

_{[Always, always. And he says it with a final bit of force, hoping to veer her off the track she apparently already chosen.]}

_{[THE WELLEST.]}

Eye for an eye.

You're better than that.

Am I?

_{[Her voice had taken on an aggressive, challenging lilt.]}

I'm going to put this into practice, aren't I?

What makes you think I'm better?

I'll rephrase: you can be better.

_{[There's something a little more flat in his voice in response to the aggression in hers.]}

You know a lot about me, Coop.

But you don't know everything.

I have to do this.

Trust me, Heather. You don't.

Yes.

I do.

If you do you can never undo it.

I've done a lot of things I can never undo.

96. [Accidental Video/Action for Ecruteak] BACKDATED TO THE 22ND

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