foolishwren | 021. ACTION! (and text)

_{(she's in too much of a hurry to make the text private to any of the individuals she's searching for-- and it's not as if they're the only ones. They're just.... the most urgent. Most of her friends can take care of themselves, she knows, but... these two...)}

Harry, James WHERE ARE YOU???
please reply

and if your'e on the ground, get somewhere hihg up
DON'T TOUCH THIS STUFF

-Heather

_{[The typos? Not a result of a careless hand-- Heather's RUNNING while she texts that, and more than a little frantic. Spelling mistakes be damned!]

[With the weird, ringing rush of the advancing crystals roaring in her ears, getting herself to safety is both the first AND last thing on Heather's mind-- she wants to know what the hell is causing this, and how to STOP it, and whether or not some particular people are safe, but she can't do that from the ground unless she wants to wind up looking like a blue-raspberry popsicle person, which is not exactly Point 1 on her agenda. Arty was originally running with her (she didn't trust Cujo not to like... try and LICK it or something), but as the crystallization got thicker and thicker, Heather had wisely decided maybe her critters would be better off in their Pokeballs. Others have probably seen her dashing through the street, occasionally pausing to dispense with some helpful hollered advice or offer someone a hand out of a tight situation-- which..... uh. Which she's sort of in right now.]}

F-- ... god damn it.

_{[Breathing heavily, Heather skids to a halt so fast that her boots left trails of dark rubber on the pavement. Maybe it would have been a better idea to go around the outskirts of the town rather than run right into the most heavily-hit edges, but she'd been hunting for a fire escape or-- SOMETHING to get up above the range above the rapidly-expanding mineral sea, and had ducked into a narrow little alley when she'd realized she'd gotten herself into a tight spot, with rivulets of the crystal trickling in on all sides of her.]

[Aaaaand what did she find in that ill-chosen escape route?]

[A dead end. And some trash cans. But mostly a dead end.]}

... Well that's helpful.

_{[This was uttered in a hiss as she whipped around to look over her shoulder-- the blue gunk was already building up around the edges of the alley entrance and even starting to flow into it, blocking her way out. Well, Heather, this is what you get for charging into things without a plan... as usual...]}

Never again... god, is this Monday? Shit like this only ever happens on Mondays. I fucking hate Mondays.

_{[No Heather, it's Wednesday and you're talking to yourself again.]}

... Oh fuckfuckfuck--!

_{[Of course the crystal was starting to creep in after her. It wasn't enough to trap her in an alleyway, it had to come join the party. Muttering a steady stream of incredibly impolite words under her breath (and this time, she didn't care if Harry was somehow listening in, this was justified), Heather shoved the 'Gear in her hands into her back pocket and clambered up onto one of the trash cans, which wobbled dangerously-- ... until crystal started to creep up its base and helpfully fused it to the ground.]

[Great.]

[Panting, Heather looked around hastily. There had to be something she could use in here, had to, she'd been in more than one situation like this before... she'd gotten away from that awful advancing red mist in the Borley Haunted Mansion and that was much quicker than this! C'mon, c'mon..... AHA! A fire escape, jutting out from the side of one of the buildings she was trapped between. ...... Way too high up for her to jump to. .... Shit.]

[A thread of crystal made contact with the side of her boot with a hiss and she jerked it away with a barely-concealed yelp, hopping perilously to another one of the cans, arms thrown out on either side of her to keep balance.]

[Okay, there wasn't any TIME to ponder an escape route. She had to get to that fire escape and she had to get to it now. Heather gritted her teeth. Okay. It had been awhile since she'd done any of this. More than two months, actually. But-- ... screw that, it had to be kind of like riding a bike, right? She couldn't have lost her touch this soon.]

[The metal lid under her feet crackled as glassy diamond flowed over it and hardened.]}

... Only one way to find out.

_{[Drawing in a quick breath, Heather leaped off the can and at the opposing brick wall, hoping to dear god that her boots had enough traction to pull this off.]

[WHUNK-THUD! Boot made contact, and then she shoved off-- YES!]

[Anyone who happened to be watching, either from the rooftops she was trying to get onto or somehow from the mouth of the alley, would be able to witness Heather literally scrambling up between two sheer (but narrowly placed) walls, shoving off of each and bouncing between them like a very gangly ping-pong ball. It wasn't too far a distance to the naked eye, but to someone actually trying to scale it, it was a different story-- her momentum had JUST about run out when she felt her fingers close around the rusty edge of the fire escape.]}

YEAH! -- ... mph!

_{[Letting out a hoarse, barky laugh of triumph, Heather swung her legs and hauled herself onto the rickety contraption, chancing a glance behind her at the crystal that was pooling into the place she'd just been like molten lava. Cue a great big adrenaline-fueled grin.]}

HAH. You thought you had me, but NO. I am a wall-climbing CHAMPION.

You probably can't think, anyway. Because you're stupid. Blue is a STUPID color for lava to be. Stupid lava.

_{[And yes, she was giving it the finger. That really helps, Heather.]

[The giddiness faded after a second or two and then Heather hauled herself upright. Okay. Srs bsns time now. With a resounding clank-clank-clank, she made her way up the fire escape. As soon as her feet were on solid brick up there, she'd get her bearings. Could see a lot more from up there, anyway.]

[Time for some rooftop hopping. Anyone else up there?]}

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She promised me she'd be okay. _{[And Heather believed her. Rise was a smart gal, she'd play things safe.]}

Liquid, on the other hand... you don't suppose he's run off to find Snake, do you?

_{[She... didn't know about the fateful meeting yet.]}

...I don't think so.

... _{[That's not a happy look. Heather wants to question it, but... given the circumstances... she's pretty sure it can wait.]}

Okay. Well, if he's not doing that... he's... he's probably okay.

... In the meantime...

_{[She stands up and gestures down at the streets below, which are filling rapidly with layer upon layer of crystal.]}

What the hell IS this stuff?!

[He looked over the edge of the building, cautiously.]

Not to state the obvious, but...some kind of crystal.

_[ADURRRR.]

Oh really? I thought it was koolaid lava.

_{[Sarcasm made everything better.]}

You're the scientist, man. Any chance you've got an idea how to stop it?

_{[If not, she's planning on either trying to find people, or making it to the edge of town where the stuff seems to be flowing from... And bless his cotton socks, she's not sure if Otacon is exactly the type to be able to keep up with a whole lot of roof-hopping.]}

I'm not sure. I've seen a lot of insane stuff, but this isn't really something I have experience with. Touching it seems to be a bad idea to say the least, but we can't outrun it forever.

Yeah, I think once it hardens, it's okay, but... I wouldn't risk it.

_{[She steps back from the edge and looks around, shielding her eyes.]}

... I think the best place to be is on top of a very tall building right now. _{[Or the best place for HIM to be, anyway.]}

Y...yeah. Good idea.

_{[She looks out at the city skyline a little more (it might not be a big one, but there's tall-enough buildings out there.) Then she sighs a little and turns to Otacon.]}

C'mon... let's find somewhere a little higher.

Right. L...let's go.

_{[Smiling reassuringly, she offered him a hand. Because... because yeah, they'd probably have to do some creative traveling in order to get to a window or something they could get into and navigate to higher ground.]}

[He took her hand, smiling a little awkwardly.]

Figures, I can't seem to stay out of trouble.

Well, it looks like everybody's in trouble, so... I think you're a little off the hook this time.

_{[She offered an encouraging smile and started heading over towards the other edge of the roof.]}

... How are you with jumping?

[Otacon laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand.]

I-I think I can manage alright.

_{[Awww he was all nervous and stuff. They WERE pretty high up, to be fair.]}

Just think of it like-- ... you ever play that game when you were a kid, where you pretend the floor is made of lava?

[Blink blink.]

Uh...not really, no.

_{[.... WHAT.]

[Heather paused, turned her head, and stared at Otacon for a few minutes.]}

... You had no childhood.

Okay.

_{[Stepping up to the edge of the roof, she looked down. The crystal was already beginning to creep down each street.]}

Basically how it works is, the floor is lava. So you can't touch it. You gotta find ways to get around without touching the floor. _{[It was kind of sad how perfectly that description summed parkour right up.]}

... And when I was little I always cheated by carrying pillows around with me and throwing them on the floor wherever I needed to go, but ... yeah. _{[STOP GETTING OFF-TOPIC.]}

[He laughed despite the situation, mostly because the image was kind of cute.]

Makes sense to me. I think I should be able to manage.

_{[If you can picture a miniature Heather determinedly carrying a small stack of pillows around and alternately throwing them down and picking them up as she goes WITHOUT smiling, you are not human and you have no soul.]}

That's the spirit!

_{[She let go of his hand and stepped back to get a running start. This was just one really big, really hardcore game of The Floor is Lava.]

Hup!

_{[Sprint aaaaaand JUMP! ... And wham bam, thank you ma'am, she's achieved landing!]}}

[Okay. Okay. He can totally do this.]

[Maybe.]

[Only one way to find out; Sprint--jump--WHACK.]

[Well, at least he landed. Face first.]

_{[.... Aaaand he'd get a nice view of Heather's scuffed boots as she stepped over to the valiantly-fallen nerd. And tried-- REALLY tried-- not to laugh.]}

It-- ... uh. ... It does take some practice.

...ow.

[Well, could have been worse.]

_{[Once this was all over, Otacon would need band-aids. ... And maybe an ice-pack. ... And possibly bedrest.]

[She reached out a hand again, this time to help him up.]}

C'mon, man. You'll get the hang of it.

[Or all of the above plus a hug.]

Right, o-okay. [He took her hand again, standing up and dusting himself off.]

Y'got your first fall out of the way-- it'll be easier after this!

_{[... And so would begin a long, fail-filled journey until they could find a suitably tall building to stash the nerd in.]}

021. ACTION! (and text)

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/messes with timeline because what is ending a log idek

ENDING LOGS IS FOR WEENIES.

YEAH

WHO NEEDS IT

YOUR MOM

UR FACE

>:

yeah I said it

oh u

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