foolishwren | 99. [Text/Action for travel group]

Current Mood: indescribable
Current Location: Saffron City hotel

99. [Text/Action for travel group]

_{[SO YEAH, UH. IT'S BEEN. A FEW DAYS. SINCE... YOU KNOW.]

[Since the whole thing on the weekend that they all remember now.]

[In those few days, Heather has been holed up in her hotel room like a dysfunctional pop star hiding from the paparazzi. What's she been doing in there? GOD ONLY KNOWS. Actually, the people IN that hotel room know and it's mostly being quiet and sleeping a lot, but there you go.]

[BUT LO AND BEHOLD: a text!]

[A text with a request.]}

SUP PEOPLE

I have a mission for all of you


send me funny shit

any funny shit

I don't care if it's a joke or a story about the time your drunk uncle bill mistook your annoying aunt sally's drink for a spitoon or a video of that fat Meowrth that likes to get in boxes i forget his name it's like Maroo or something

1 2 3 GO

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

_{[They probably remain like that for some time.]

[The truth is that those precious hours spent with her long lost adoptive mother are not the only reason she's craving comfort from him, the man who protected her for her entire life. ... There's other reasons. But she doesn't want to talk about them.]

[So Jodie is as convenient an excuse as any to bury herself in her father's arms. And besides... she DOES miss her. Already.]}

... That was real, wasn't it, Dad?

....Yes it was.

[Yup, long hug this time.]

All of it.

[The wife, the monster stalker. Everything. And in the end, she was still gone.]

... If she'd lived...

Is that what it would've been like?

Us... just being normal?

_{[She doubts it-- because as tragic as Jodie's death had been, it had been completely unrelated to the terrible origins of her adopted daughter. Reversing it would have done nothing to change the sad fate of Cheryl. ... But still...]}

[He sighs, stroking her hair, like he did when she was little and had woken up from a nightmare.]

I don't know sweetie. ...

Maybe for a while.

[It's funny, he had just been talking to Coop about not looking back and spending your time with what if's. ...but that was before Jodie actually appeared.]

[If Jodie hadn't died, would they have gone back to Silent Hill? If they did would both parents have survived the town? Survived the cult afterwards? There were too many possibilities of death on top of all the normal day to day things that might have happened.]

....I don't think it's something we can know for sure.

_{[She inclines her head a little bit, scooting up to be even closer to him.]

[It's a melancholy thought, but... yeah. It probably wouldn't have been very different at all. And it makes her even angrier at her hometown, for its hypothetical ruining of their lives even if her adoptive mother HAD survived to see it try to rip her child away from her.]}

... I wish we could...

... I dunno.

I wish she could've stayed.

If she could come HERE, it'd be just like it was last night. But for longer.

[He hates the town as well. Because he knows Jodie wouldn't have been sitting on the sidelines if she'd ended up in the town with him. She'd be trying to find their daughter. And she'd have to see what he had.]

[He's so very glad she didn't have to see that. Dahlia is very lucky Jodie didn't see what had happened there.]

Me too Cheryl... me too.

[He falls silent for a moment.]

I'm glad she got to see you though.

... She was nicer than I thought she'd be.

_{[... This had been spoken in an absent murmur, before, perhaps realizing a little too late what she'd implied, she hastily speaks again.]}

I mean-- not that-- I knew she was a good person. I ... I could remember a little. From my f-- ... you know. From ... Cheryl's life. _{[The first one. She knows that they're one and the same, but it still feels strange sometimes, to talk about it that way to her father, who had lost the first and been forced to raise a second, who was the same as the first but with something dark stirred in.]}

... But I guess I...

... I always sort of figured that if I met her again as an adult, I'd... it'd be different. Since I'm all jaded.

... I never...

... Never had as many memories of her as I did of...

_{[She trails off there. She knows he'll know who she's talking about.]}

[He does indeed and Heather gets another squeeze of the hug. Because he really wishes that wasn't the case.]

Your mother was like that.

She was so happy when we found you, I don't think anything would have changed that.

_{[Dimly, she can remember that moment, too. Not from Cheryl's eyes-- not even a crazy magical soul-baby can remember the moments directly after its conception. But from Alessa's-- she can remember watching the couple from afar (very afar... she had not, of course, had the privilege of physically being there in person) as they picked up that little piece of her soul and carried it far away from Hell like some kind of refugee.]

[Of course, that memory isn't as clear as the horrendous pain that followed it for seven years. But it's there.]}

... Did you guys ever need to tell anybody where I came from? I mean... it's not like I had a birth certificate or anything...

In a way.

A friend of Jodie's helped us with that. She knew we'd been trying to have kids, and we'd been looking into adoption before we found you....

No one had reported a missing child, so we assumed you were left by a young mother that couldn't look after a baby.

[If only that was the case.]

It didn't take too long after that to adopt you legally. Shirley helped us get a birth certificate for you, without getting too many people involved.

... D'you think those people ever wondered where we went?

You know... after...

[He sighs, thinking back.]

A few maybe. I was already pretty withdrawn ...after your mother died.

[Sad to say, there weren't many people after that. And the few remaining....well how do you explain that you suddenly have a baby again?]

My family and your mothers, was gone by then. So we didn't have any family wondering. A few close friends had already moved to other states or countries by that point as well... and I guess we just lost touch.

I guess I figured that's what happened...

_{[It had been a somewhat lonely existence... but at least she'd had school. And friends, even if eventually the friends she'd made had started being assholes. It was still something.]

[She can't imagine what it had been like for Harry.]

[She trails off there.]}

Just something that happens I suppose.

[He had his writing. He was a little too paranoid to make real friends. They moved around too much, people might start to ask questions. Or worse, they might be another Order member trying to trick him. No, it was better not to risk it.]

_{[At least now they were somewhere where they could live like a normal family. ... Or, well, normal by this world's standards, anyway.]}

... Do you think Mom might show up? I mean... for real. Like you did.

[He starts to say something then stops. And sighs.]

I don't know sweetie.

...I suppose it's possible. ....but it doesn't seem like something we should get our hopes up for.

_{[It's sad, but... it's true, and she knows it. It's something she accepted long ago, about many people. Not just Jodie. ... But it's so easy to get lost in pointless optimism.]}

... Yeah...

[That's sadly something both of them have had to accept. But it's never easy.]

But....

[He starts and then falls silent again for a moment, he knows he's partially responsible as to why Jodie wasn't mentioned as much as she should have been when Heather was growing up. But then it had been still too painful.]

She might not be here, but if you want to hear about her sometimes. I thinks I might know a few stories.

_{[She thinks about this for a moment, thinking the same thing he is. It's not that she's mad about it. She completely understands why she grew up not hearing much about her adoptive mother, who had perished before she'd even been born. But it would have been... nice.]}

... I'd like that.

... Maybe not right now, though.

_{[Because right NOW, it's too painful for HER, too.]}

Later.

[Yup, later is better then now. Far too soon.]

I think we need a distraction though. Do you feel up to helping me pick some names for people in a story?

... Yeah.

I'd like that too.

Great. I might even have some stickers left.

[Because name=stickers. Ongoing traditions and all that. Just let him go get his things.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

99. [Text/Action for travel group]

Action

Action

Action

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject