foolishwren | 008. Video

008. Video

_{[When the screen comes on, it's pointed straight at the sky-- specifically, at the deep, smoke-gray thunderheads starting to roll in. The foliage just peeking over the bottom of the screen's view is whipping around in a frenzy, buffeted by the foreboding winds that have sprung up in the face of the storm.]

[Heather's voice then cuts in over the roar of weather. She's YELLING to make herself heard.]}

Can you BELIEVE this!?

Can you friggin' believe this?!

All day yesterday I'm slogging along through the heat and then the moment I get to the city to actually chill around in civilization, THIS happ--

_{[A handful or so of wet leaves is quite suddenly plastered against the camera lens. Thank you, 60 mph wind. Thank you]}

Ackplthh--!!

_{[... And apparently Heather was hit in the face by several, too.]}

PLHHHFFLT! If I have to spend another week sitting in the Pokemon Center in order not to drown, I am gonna...... oh boy.

_{[Aaaand here comes the rolling wall of pure downpour. The camera turns sharply and any viewers still watching are treated to a tilta-whirl of grass, dirt, a running Sentret, and occasionally Heather's boots as she high-tails it away from the rain. THAT'S RIGHT, HEATHER. IF YOU RUN FAST ENOUGH, YOU CAN OUTRUN NATURE.]

[Eventually the video feed cuts out.]}

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... Well that adds a whole slew of weird to what I initially had in mind.

...He didn't hurt you, did he? This one's younger than the Liquid I knew back home, but...he's still dangerous.

Wh-- hell no! If he had, he'd be lying in a ditch somewhere right now with severe head trauma. And regrets. _{[... Okay, that statement was kinda overconfident. ... A LOT overconfident.]}

... Is this something I should be worried about? ... I don't mind a little insanity, believe me, I've dealt with enough total lunatics to know that some are worth freaking out over and some aren't, but in the event that something bad happens, I'd like to know what to expect.

[He smiled at Heather's confidence, somehow just a little reassured.]

You shouldn't need to worry. He wouldn't have any reason to attack a civilian like you--his problem's with me and Snake, and I just have to watch my step.

_{[Overconfidence on her part or not, he had a right to be reassured. Even if Heather wasn't a trained soldier or anything, she'd faced worse than madmen. ... A lot worse.]}

... All right. _{[Just to be sure, she'd watch her step, too. ... She did like Liquid. But Heather wasn't generally someone who let that sort of thing get in the way of... y'know. Surviving. ... Or revenge, for that matter. She hadn't always hated Claudia, after all...]} ... You be careful then, though.

Don't worry about me.

[He smiled, trying to reassure her.]

I've dealt with worse than Liquid. Just not personally.

All right, as long as you're sure.

_{[Heather wasn't one of those ultra-protective types, the kind that smothered the people they were concerned about. Not like her father had been. Hell, she wasn't even totally ready to admit that she'd been making friends here. It had been so long since she'd done something normal like that-- and let's face it, if anything that happens in THIS place is considered anything remotely like 'normal', it means your own life is more or less an aberration.]

[But needless to say, she was concerned about the people she had met here.]}

Just be careful.

_{[... And then, because GOD FORBID she act all sappy and worried for more than two seconds without cracking a joke, she grins crookedly and bunches her fists.]}

I could give ya a few tips, if you want! Y'know, in case you ever need to do any... clobbering.

[Otacon laughed, waving a hand dismissively. Though it was sweet that she seemed a little worried.]

I don't think that'll be necessary. Besides, I'm a pacifist--couldn't hurt him if I wanted to. Combat's not my thing.

_{[She shrugged.]}

We-ell, all right, if you're sure. Never hurts to know a few tricks, though. _{[Nodding seriously, she waves a finger like she's making some kind of super-important point. It's all part of that goofball facade, of course, although there is some seriousness underneath. At least it's not another 'Ghost of the Bloody Finger' story.]} My old man taught me that. I laughed at him. And then one day I was faced with the dilemma of either kicking something into submission or becoming very dead, and then I totally understood.

True story.

You don't seem like the type to let anyone or anything give her trouble.

[He smiled playfully, adjusting his glasses.]

I...bet he was really proud of you.

Used to be. Not anymore.

_{[And at that, her smile doesn't disappear-- she's gotten good at retaining that-- but there's something in her expression that becomes a little strained.]}

Mm... I hope so.

. . .

[Oh, Otacon knew that look. Knew it very, very well.]

...I'm sorry. I didn't realize...

_{[Heather was good at keeping a happy face. She wasn't over it-- not by a long shot. But she was good at pretending and her angst-fests were better kept outside of the public eye. She held up a hand, shaking her head.]}

Don't apologize, it's okay. It was a nice thing you said.

[And here would be where an awkward pause went.]

...can I ask what happened to him? I-I mean...you don't have to tell me or anything, but...

[He cleared his throat, adjusting his glasses.]

I'm...a good listener, y'know?

_{[The smile disappeared for a moment, but it wasn't really one of those vulnerable looks that one would expect on someone who'd just been asked that tough question. And it wasn't one of her goofy pseudo-serious looks, either. It's calculating. Trust issues? Not in the 'so intense they screw you up' sense, but she had them. Who wouldn't, after everything she'd been through?]

[It's an aged expression. One you're not supposed to see on a kid at the age of first-time live concerts and sneaky rule-breaking and general 'away from parents for the first time WOOOO' shenanigans. The truth is that under the goofball, Heather is dead serious.]}

_{[And then it was gone, and Heather was shrugging the question off like it was nothing. She was good at doing that, too.]}

Eh, can't see why not.

It was about ... hn, a year ago. _{[She said it like someone else would say 'ten years ago', or 'twenty'. It was a practiced tone that deliberately ignored the fact that a year... was not really that long a period of time.]}

[Much like Heather's general goofiness, Otacon had a smile. Such a simple thing, a smile. And with Otacon it was never easy to guess where the rare false ones were. It was true that he was a generally happy and optimistic person, but every so often...well, his circumstances would wear on even the strongest people.]

[But he had to keep smiling, even when things were painful. If he didn't smile and stay optimistic...no one else in his world would. Someone had to believe things would be okay.]

Yeah? I'm listening.

_{[Heather's smiles were... fake more often than she cared to think about. That wasn't to say that EVERYTHING SHE DID WAS A LIE or something, but it was just how she coped. Hide your troubles long enough and things would be okay. Make light of a situation enough and the darkness starts to subside. Crack jokes in the face of danger. Laugh about something hard enough and it becomes less scary. Smile until it turns genuine.]

[It was a little dishonest, sure, but ... it had kept her alive this long.]

[She and Otacon had that in common.}

Well, it's a long story, I guess. Long, tedious, lots of pointless details involving adoption and pseudo-custody battles and even a private investigator _{[More like kidnapping attempts and psychotic 'biological families'. And stalkers. And a cult. But that was more detail than Heather cared to hand out, especially when she didn't want to come off as fuckin' crazy.]} ... Y'know. The works.

Anyway... Dad made some enemies by raising me, and... one day, it caught up with us...

_{[The smile was still there as she shrugged again, broadly. It looked damn real but it was all bluff and no substance. Heather had a great deal of bite in her but there was a lot of her that was nothing but bark, also.]}

. . .

[It didn't sound like a happy story. Otacon could identify with a miserable family life if not the adoption and all that.]

[Idly he wondered if Heather had ever blamed herself--if it had been him in that position, he certainly would have. Then again, Otacon blamed himself for a lot.]

[After a short silence, he offered a hesitant, faint smile.]

[Then leaned over and hugged her like he assumed an affectionate older brother might.]

...I'm sorry.

_{[Otacon was a smart man.]

[Heather's outlook on what had happened was something best summed up in two parts. There was the rational. She knew it wasn't her fault-- she hadn't murdered Harry. She hadn't hired a detective to track them down. She hadn't chosen to be poster child of Silent Hill's twisted religion. But the plain, blunt truth of it was that humans weren't rational, and no matter how much she knew that she wasn't to blame for what happened, that didn't stop her from feeling the guilt. There would always be the questions.]

[What if she'd come home sooner, on time like he'd wanted? What if she hadn't gone out at all? What if she hadn't wasted so much time being a stupid, rebellious ingrate instead of appreciating what she had? All those months she'd spent acting out, trying to be the opposite of her stuffy, overprotective father who was crimping her fun by worrying about her so much ... She'd give anything to have that time back.]

[Guilt, see, had its way of worming in around the facts. Sometimes it just plain didn't matter to know that it wasn't your fault. The chance that maybe, if you'd just done things a little better at some point in the past, things would have turned out all right, was more than enough to haunt. Heather knew she hadn't done anything wrong by going out to the mall that evening. But that didn't change the fact that maybe if she'd been at home instead, Harry might still have been alive.]}

_{[The hug caught her by surprise. It had been a good long while since she'd had one-- her friendship with Douglas wasn't really the 'huggy' kind. And he was the only person she'd really stayed in contact with, after Silent Hill.]

[Blinking several times, she just sort of sat there for a moment. Oh man. It's a hug. A sentimental one... Crap. How do I do that kind again? Eventually she sort of returned the gesture by patting Otacon on the shoulder awkwardly.]}

Hey, no need to apologize... shit happens.

_{[Heather, that whole nonchalant shtick really doesn't work when somebody is giving you a hug. Apparently realizing this, she conceded and gave the scientist an awkward, one-armed teenager hug. It was the best she could summon up for the moment-- it had been awhile and she was out of practice. HOW DOES I SHOT HEARTFELT HUG?]

[Oh well-- even if she failed at that, the slight grin she's wearing is more real than the false smile she wore a few seconds earlier.]}

C'mon, you'll get me all emotional.

Heh...sorry. [He let go after a second or two longer, adjusting his glasses with an awkward smile.]

It's just...well, I kind of lost my father when I was a little younger than you. So I sort of know the feeling. [Otacon glanced away a little self-consciously, still smiling. This one? This was one of those occasional fake ones that covered everything up.] A-a little, at least. Maybe.

[Granted, circumstances were waaaaaay different and in one case not involving insane Lovecraftian horrors unless one was to count Julie *zing*]

_{[Even if she played the teenager and whined over it... she liked that hug. Hugs were good. And it reminded her of home. So when Otacon pulled away, she made sure to give him the most genuine smile she could muster up.]}

Yeah... I-- uh, figured. _{[What with the story he'd told and all.]} It's rough. ... But we get through it, right?

_{[The circumstances were definitely different, and if Otacon knew the whole story... hooboy. But she didn't plan on telling that. Nobody wanted to hear about the end of the world. Even if it had been averted. It wasn't exactly storytime material. ... And it still hurt.]}

... Thanks for listening, though. I don't talk about it much.

Yeah. We just have to keep going.

[He paused, fiddling with his glasses absentmindedly.]

...no problem. You can trust me, Heather.

_{[Dawwhhh Otacon. Too bad Heather has trust issues. She realizes they're issues and that they're not necessarily fair, but you didn't really need to worry about 'fair' when you more or less mistrusted everybody the same amount. Heather was an equal-opportunity... mistruster. Or something. But Otacon ... he'd trusted her with something, even if it hadn't quite been direct. So that won him some points. He was a good dude. Heather didn't fail to take things like that into account when making impressions of people.]}

Heh. Thanks. That's a commodity there isn't much of in the world.

008. Video

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[1/2] TL;DR GO

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