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?]
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?]