006 || {Video}

[contempsi]

[There's only one wall and some of the adjacent one completed so far, but Hope's up bright and early this morning, eagerly dragging his brush across the surface before him and illuminating it in a nice calming shade of blue. Apparently he's been mostly good about avoiding unwanted guests around the paint in here, as there's only a few paw-prints

Comments

[nomoreinsomnia]

...!

[Someone is being attacked! He looks like a civilian.]

Respond immediately with your current location.

[thestormishere]

[ But the person who answers a little while later isn't the teenager in the video, but a pink-haired woman that the journal doesn't even belong to, sporting a rather tense expression and tone. ]

It's too late.

[ And shortly after, even the original entry is locked up as carefully as she knows how to, on account of... definitely being something that she has zero interest in letting anyone else see. ]

[nomoreinsomnia]

[Unfazed by the sight of a woman. There are competent kunoichi, where he comes from.

Suspicious ninja is suspicious.] Are you his assailant?

[thestormishere]

[ ... Is he for real? Lightning gives a short, absolutely humorless laugh. ]

No.

[thestormishere]

[ ....

She wasn't even in the house this time. Didn't check her journal until she'd come back from running, found the door not only unlocked but open... and only then knew something was horribly wrong.

The fact that Baldr is clearly locked in her room and practically screaming is a pretty big clue, too.

Yet the first order of business is set: she finds Hope's journal and immediately goes through and filters away as best she can what was recorded, before anyone else who hasn't seen it yet gets the chance. After that she starts to try cleaning up, uprighting the paint can and scooping up what can be saved...

That doesn't last long. However, neither does the furious pacing of the entire house, before she finally lets her puppy out and, a few minutes later, ends up on the couch with him halfway in her lap, trying to push down about nine tons of anger and frustration.

Not that it's really working as well as it should. ]

[wingenvy]

[Zack comes home early today, not long after she sits down with the dog, and... whoa, talk about messy household. As he enters, he's already got a bad feeling- with Aerith taken last week, this is an all-too familiar scene. And that makes him pick up the pace.]

Light!? Hope!? Are you guys-

[And he cuts off, heading into the room and spotting her there. ...Oh.]

[thestormishere]

[ It's Baldr who looks up first-- and Daisy too, who's laying on the floor a short distance away, posture clearly speaking of self-disapproval despite the beast's generally stoic demeanor. The woman's glance is brief, shot over her shoulder for just a second before she goes right back to a posture that bears a suspicious resemblance to hanging her head.

Yeah, with the house half torn apart and her looking distinctly defeated for once, holding onto her dog that's both never allowed on the couch and far too big by now to even be trying to fit on her lap anyway, it really isn't necessary for her to point it out, but... ]

They took Hope, too.

[ Ouch, Malnosso. Seriously. ]

[wingenvy]

[Ouch, indeed. Zack pauses for a moment, then heads over there, giving Daisy's head a ruffle as he passes by and sitting down on the couch beside Light, giving her dog the same attention.]

Guess it'll be a pretty empty house for a while.

[And that's just a miserable concept right now. Damn...]