[video .001] -- Route intro post

[thinkimsuperman]

((OOC: oh my god, you guys, what am I even doing? Late intro is so late because of NaNoWriMo and I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING, besides. Enjoy :'D Sorry if I derp this up like the derp I am. Also, feel free to add your own character tags. Tag add new/delete and add/remove to entry is set to any user because I am too trusting))

[the feed shows Douglas Cartland blinking in the middle of a random field in the sunlight, shielding his eyes from the sun. He's got his 'gear in one hand and his Shuckle in the other and he's staring hard into the screen]

How the heck do I... how am I supposed to work this thing? Is it like a phone? One of those new video phone things or...

[pause]

Oh, it's recordin'. Okay. Well uh... not sure if anybody can hear this but I'd really like to know where I am. Some woman gave me lunch and shoved me outside when I woke up this morning, but that's not really important. What I really wanna know is where I woke up.

Hello? Anybody listenin'?

[he frowns]

There's no way this is Maine.

[he resists the urge to say "I have a feeling I'm not in Kansas anymore", because this isn't the time at all]

Comments

Video

[harryusedworry.livejournal.com]

[A friendly face...oh wait. dear lord isn't this man supposed to be dead, possibly. Appears on the screen.]

It's a bit of a confusing story I'm afraid.

Video

[thinkimsuperman.livejournal.com]

[the last time Douglas saw him, he was dead under a sheet, so what? But there will be time for that later, because right now there are more important matters at hand]

Yeah, I figure any story that involves wakin' up someplace other than where I fell asleep is gonna be a lot to take in. [he offers Harry a small, slightly awkward smile]

Video

[harryusedworry.livejournal.com]

[Awkward smiles are par for the course when Harry talks to people.]

Sadly we're not really sure how, or why we're brought here. Just that people arrive and are told to go on their way around here.

It's called Johto. And it's some strange world where their culture revolves around fighting monsters with other monsters.

Video

[thinkimsuperman.livejournal.com]

More monsters? Great.

[there's a visible slump to his shoulders at the mention of monsters. He'd been hoping, after escaping Silent Hill, that he'd be done with monsters for a good lifetime or so]

So it's a whole 'nother world? That's... that's not what I was expectin' I'm not gonna lie. But I guess it could be worse. [things can always be worse]

[there's a pause and he looks at Harry for a while, trying to figure out if he's really seeing who he thinks he's seeing]

Aren't you...

Video

[harryusedworry.livejournal.com]

......aren't I what?

[Just tense now. Who are you and why do you regcognize him? The last people who did so were Order members.]

Video

[thinkimsuperman.livejournal.com]

[okay so that was an awkward way to leave off a sentence. Douglas rubs the back of his neck awkwardly and then gathers his thoughts]

Eh, sorry. Guess that wasn't the best way to put it. I'm a friend of your daughter's, I think. She's showed me pictures of you.

[and not to mention he's seen you dead, but that's not really... something he feels he should mention]

Video

[harryusedworry.livejournal.com]

You know my daughter.

[Suddenly, serious mode.]

Who are you and how do you know my daughter?

Video

[thinkimsuperman.livejournal.com]

[oops. Suddenly Douglas gets the feeling he's done something very wrong]

My name is Douglas Cartland. Heather and I met a while back, and we've gotten to be pretty good friends. I uh... was supposed to find her for somebody, but that turned out to be a mistake.

[He figures he might as well just come clean now, because Harry's going to find out eventually]

[Video] [1/?]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[There's been more than one occasion in which Heather's reflected on what she wants out of this place. A lot of people want to leave. She doesn't. There's nothing for her back home.]

[Except for one thing.]

[There is literally one thing she would even remotely consider wanting to go home for, and it's usually with a sort of sick sense of guilt when she considers this because as much as she misses her one and only earthly remaining friend, she always knew that even the prospect of getting to see him again wasn't enough to make her want to leave what had essentially become more of a home than home had been... even though she honestly and earnestly worried about how he was doing without her.]

[LUCKILY?]

[That guilt's about to be remedied.]</sub>

Video

[harryusedworry.livejournal.com]

[Looooooooooooong pause. And his voice is stiff with pretty much all the friendliness gone.]

You're the detective who was working for the Order.

[Video] [2/?] THIS MIGHT TAKE AWHILE

[foolishwren]

<sub>[That voice crackling out of her speakers is... familiar.]

[The last few times that's happened, it's been a decidedly unpleasant surprise.]

[At first, she's not even sure she heard right. It's in her pack when she does hear it, and she's out of the hotel room (... and therefore not around for the inevitable Cold Shoulder Coronary (tm) to hit when her father figures out who he's talking to...) and trying to get a vending machine down by the mart to give her something, so his initial message sounds sort of more like "MMmgrzzzpht? Kghmmmrt" or something.]

[... But she's fairly sure she's heard that mumbly voice before.]

[She pauses with her fist raised, tilting her head to the side.]

[Was that...?]</sub>

Video

[thinkimsuperman.livejournal.com]

[BAM, awkwardness initiated. Douglas swallows]

Look, before we get off on the wrong foot here I... I didn't realized there was an Order until it was way too late. Lady I was workin' for told me you kidnapped Heather, and I didn't have proof of it bein' any different until I'd already found her.

I'm not workin' for those guys any more than you are. You can believe that, even if you don't believe anything else I say.

[Video] [3/?]

[foolishwren]

_{[.... Nah, it was definitely her imagination. She bangs a few more times on the vending machine to try and get the bag of chips to drop.]}

[Video] [4/?]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[..... That was definitely NOT her imagination.]

[Cue her diving into her bag so fast that it startles the sleepy Growlithe lying on the cool pavement outside the store awake with a deep woof.]

[When she at last locates the 'Gear, it's around the tail-end of Douglas's message, but that's enough. She doesn't need to hear WHAT he was saying to know that the face on the screen is one she's missed since getting here.]</sub>

Video

[harryusedworry.livejournal.com]

I know that. Heather told me.

But you lead them right to us. I don't know if it means anything to you, but you destroyed our family.

[Video] [5/5] DONE

[foolishwren]

<sub>[There's a fizzle of static around the edges when Heather hits the video feed button to put her connection through-- anything electronic belonging to somebody like Heather is going to develop some dings and oddities after being thrown around and chewed on or dropped by her Pokemon so much. But hey-- the staticky intro is sort of fitting, yeah?]

[At least it's a friendly face that will form out of that static on Douglas' screen.]

[It's Heather.]

[... A Heather that's much tanner than the one he saw last, and with quite an impressive increase in freckles, but Heather.]

[She's grinning.]</sub>

'Bout time you made it, old man.

Video

[thinkimsuperman.livejournal.com]

[he swallows again]

Of course it means somethin'. If I could change what happened, I would. I never meant to ruin what you guys had. If I'd found out sooner I...

[but there's nothing he can do, now. Except maybe try to remedy this]

Heather's important to me. She's the best friend I've got anymore. I'd never do anything to make things bad for her on purpose, and it kills me that everything that happened was... my fault.

[Video] IMPRESSIVE :'D

[thinkimsuperman.livejournal.com]

[for a moment, Douglas can't quite grasp the fact that it's genuinely Heather looking at him through that screen. His brain stops working momentarily, and then when it starts back up again an almost disbelieving smile forms on his face, because what are the odds that it'd be her who picked up on his transmission]

Heather?

[for a moment there aren't words to say what he's feeling, which is a mixture of joy, relief, and utter confusion, and so a rather massive smile is going to have to do until he sorts things out]

What are you doin' here, kiddo?

[video]

[restardom.livejournal.com]

Well, you're 1 for 1 right now!

[Video] YOU SHOULD SEE THE FIRST STREAM OF REACTION-TAGS I GAVE OUR CLAUDIA.

[foolishwren]

<sub>[WHAT ARE THE ODDS, EH? Needless to say, seeing Douglas has confirmed her suspicions that this place... whatever it is, is definitely jerking her around with the people it chooses to appear and disappear... but Douglas's arrival seems to be one of the appearances intended to win Heather's favor rather than do the opposite.]

[Her grin widens. BOY is he a sight for sore eyes.]</sub>

That's ... a long story.

[ video ]

[getthehorns]

Not Maine, not New York, not Jasper, Nevada either. Welcome to Johto.

[video]

[no-ufo-ending.livejournal.com]

_{[Oh, hey, it's an old dude. Henry takes a moment to marvel at this.]}

No, we're not in America anymore. I'm not even sure what planet this is.

Video

[harryusedworry.livejournal.com]

Did you even bother to look into it? At all?

video

[newhero.livejournal.com]

Well... no, this isn't Maine, but there are people here from Maine! So you aren't completely alone.

[Video] I'M GUESSING IT WAS RIDICULOUSLY EPIC? 8D

[thinkimsuperman.livejournal.com]

[Douglas is still just grinning widely at her, just ridiculously happy to see her. She'll probably never have any idea just how much he missed her]

I've got time. Go right ahead.