aterat | 003 It's not raining men [Open]

Entry tags:

003 It's not raining men [Open]

Who; Jacob Miller & You~! Also some closed things.
What; Handling the Crystals.
Where; Around the City.
When; Any time during the event.
Warnings; Just what might come up in possible memories.

Open to All | City Streets | Street Cleaner

He wore a wool jacket with his usual work pants and loose white shirt as he slowly made his way through the streets. In Jacob's left hand was a broom, his right hand a bag. He tried not to touch the crystals but when he saw one drop to the ground he quickly swept it into the bag. There were enough memories from his life that he didn't want to share and he imagined that others felt the same. It was impossible for him to cover the entire city but any reprieve to those he has come to care about was worth it.

Of course, he had to figure out what to do with the crystals but he'd have time to sort that out. Perhaps he could drop them into the water and let them be hidden by the sea. If they were really likely they'd disappear but Jake had never considered himself lucky. If anything he was unlucky.

He could be found anywhere around the city with his broom and bag. The bag varied in size throughout the day, growing with each hour but it wasn't enough. There were crystals out there and he couldn't do anything about it.

At least he had the broom, should he meet anyone who had bad intentions towards him.

Jake really had the worst luck.

Closed to Yuki | Blue Building B-06 | Finding Memories

He wasn't sure what to think. It was a strange memory but the strangest part was how it made him feel. It wasn't bad… not exactly but it made him realize how much he didn't know Yuki and at the same time, it made him realize how little he shared with Yuki. He understood from a logical perspective but it made him feel uneasy. Things couldn't always be happy and it was these memories that were the most important; it was these memories that should be shared.

Jacob didn't know if Yuki had found any of his memories. He was sure that there were some out there but it was something that the pair should talk about. If this relationship was going to be more than skin deep…

He was scared but knew that it was important that they talk.

Jake stopped outside of Yuki's door, knowing that the young man would be home. It was dinner time but he didn't feel like he could eat. He hoped he wasn't interrupting.

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Yuki was trying to finish reading but his mind was wandering back to the rain. He found that his eyes kept moving off of his page and went to the window. With a sigh he tried to go back to the same page, same sentence and this was just beginning to get frustrating.

Deciding that maybe he should take a walk, Yuki figured that should be a direction he should go in. So he threw a jacket on and grabbed his blue satchel and then he opened the door.

There stood Jacob.

"Ah..I didn't know you were standing here."

His hand was raised like he was about to knock and at that moment the door opened. "Sorry. Can I come in for a bit? The rain's... a bit loud." Jacob never slept well and the crystal rain along with the newly discovered memories made it impossible. "Or were you going out somewhere?" He didn't want to bring up anything if Yuki was busy but this was important.

How was he to bring up the memory he found in the crystal?

He was still somewhat startled by Jacob's sudden appearance, but Yuki wasn't about to deny him. So he stepped back to let the other man in. "Please..come in." He had to half smile at the last question and shook his head. "I was just going to go out just for something to do, but you're here now so that's more important."

Of course he had no idea that the other was coming over or he would've had food or something prepared.

It really was a strange little thing he'd found, and it was only his knowledge of Materia that gave him the vague idea what he'd felt from the crystal was actually from the crystal. He blinked when he rounded the corner and came upon the curious sight of Jacob sweeping the street. He was reminded of someone suddenly, a new friend back home who hadn't-

-but that didn't matter right now. He looked Jacob over then to the broom he carried.

"Cleaning house?"

Nothing was very easy here, not with the crystal rain being a thing. But sometimes you learned how to push on through that. Nida was one of those examples. He'd found himself a nice, wide brimmed hat to cover his head, and he'd brought back out his gloves to keep his hands covered. It was like this that he went through the streets now, still in his guard uniform of course, a large basket curled under his arm.

A basket that he'd had to confiscate from a merchant that was apparently so much of a profiteering asshole that he'd been working the memory crystals into jewelry. And, Nida had found, using only the most vile memories for it. What a dick.

The creations and the man's work supplies had been confiscated at the permission of Nida's superior, and he was working on carrying them to the main guard outpost, only to stop when he saw Jacob.

"Hey there. This part of your wood working apprenticeship?"

Some people were better at avoiding the crystals that most, and among them there was no one quite like Tommy. Of course he was sort of tired because slipping so much between high speed to dodge things and normal speed to interact with people so much was a lot of work.

But there was the guy, trying to sweep things up, and he didn't even see one coming for him, falling right for his head. Tommy sighs in his own speed and reaches out to grab the thing before it falls, striking the guy's head. Which of course was just the perfect way to experience it.

Well fuck. Tommy could feel the rush of memory, of pain, feel the quaking of his own body when he sees the pills spill into the sink and... Yeah, that face in the mirror was definitely a lot like the one he saw before him.

Shit.

Tommy, shaken, tosses the crystal into Jacob's bag.

"Hey."

This time Aerith was much more well dressed for the cold: a nice brown coat with a fur trimmed hood that was currently pulled down. It was practical, comfortable, and personally, she thought it was pretty cute. Cute mattered sometimes. Especially during a situation where things weren't...well, weren't quite that great. Nobody liked seeing things they weren't supposed to. The fact that it was awkward on both ends was something she knew all too well from personal experience. The things she knew back home weren't quite like these crystals, but it was close enough to make her just a bit uneasy.

On one hand she wanted to help people with it. On the other, there were a lot of things she wanted to keep tightly locked away in her own mind. It wasn't something she could just hide from though, she still had her garden and shop to look out for after all. Today in particular had been a long day at the shop busy with trying to make sure everything was doing alright with the change in temperatures. It'd taken her longer than usual to close up and then start through the city on her way back to her building. She'd have headed straight there too if she hadn't spotted Jacob with his broom out sweeping crystals up.

She tilted her entire body to one side curiously as she approached him. "I've never seen someone take cleaning up the streets so literally before."

"Thanks." He smiled though the expression didn't reach his eyes. Jacob was worried and it was obvious that something was weighing on him. "This is awkward." He announced, taking a page out of his sisters book and speaking bluntly. "But I needed to talk to you and I'm worried about how you will react." This was the worst way to start this conversation...

"Don't freak out, okay? I have some questions but that's all. Questions." He still wasn't helping his cause and he knew the more he put this off the more he'd worry Yuki.

Jacob closed the door behind him before fishing out a pale purple crystal that had crashed into his head earlier in the day. It hurt and the memory contained within had slammed against him like a wrecking ball. It was the image of Yuki turning into a rat... "I found this." He held out the crystal for Yuki to take, staying at the front door in case his boyfriend kicked him out.

Jacob was focused on sweeping up a collection of multicolored crystals when he heard the familiar voice sound from nearby. His gaze rose and he smirked when he saw the collection of spiky blond hair. He had spoken to Cloud before but this was the first time meeting in person.

He had to ask how he got his hair like that.

"Something like that." It wasn't much but he hoped that his efforts would ease peoples troubled hearts and frantic minds. "It's the weirdest type of janitor ever." Jacob laughed at his own horrible joke. "How you doing? Everyone looks to be having a hard time."

Jacob laughed and shook his head. "Nah. After your crystal landed on my head I had a thought." He glanced up and moved as a crystal landed where he'd been standing. He didn't always hear them coming but it helped when he stood next to buildings where the crystal clattered down to where he was standing. "If we don't touch them we don't have to see them."

He skillfully swept up the new crystal into his growing bag. "I figured everyone would feel better knowing someone was collecting crystals and not doing anything with them." He hadn't known that a merchant had been attempting to profit off of the crystals. Jacob would have likely beaten the crap out of him.

"Or seeing them." He wasn't sure what to do with them yet but he at least had a sizable collection to stash away from the nosy people of the city.

Jacob was familiar with interacting with people moving at high speed but that didn't mean that Tommy's sudden presence didn't surprise him. "Shit." He ducked his head though it didn't help with anything that Tommy was doing. "Thanks man. I owe you."

His brow furrowed into a frown. "You okay? Was the memory bad?"

He had seen a few of the memories falling from the sky, despite his best efforts, and knew that most of them were unhappy. He was trying to sweep up as many as he could but there was no way he'd make it across the entire city.

It was very cute and she looked good in her new coat.

"Yeah?" He looked up at her and smirked before sweeping up the last of the crystals that were within his view. "It isn't much but I think this will help people feel at ease." There were plenty of memories that no one wanted to share and while he didn't mind people finding his memories, he knew that some of his memories would be unpleasant for those who stumbled across them.

"Though. I still get hit with them from time to time." Jacob tried not to giggle as he pulled a light pink crystal from his jacket. "I found this one. It's yours. Nothing bad, I thought you might want to keep it." He held out the crystal to her. "You're pretty cute in it." Mostly because she couldn't high-five to save her life.

Yeah, Tommy was always pleased when he shocked people.

"It wasn't... pleasant."

And it was totally something Jacob probably wouldn't want people knowing. So it was better if Tommy didn't press on it.

"Shouldta thought to move you instead of it."

After Nida's crystal? That man goes almost deathly pale at that statement. The ones that his husband had seen had... been bad. Really bad.

"THere's people trying to profit off of them," Nida said. "So yeah, this is better."

Cloud was shorter than most people expected, and thin, which made the exceptionally large sword strapped to his back seem impossible for him to lift, let alone wield. It didn't seem to give him any trouble, though.

He shrugged at Jacob's question, not certain why he'd asked it. "I'm fine." He did hold up the green crystal, though. "Maybe you can help me make sense of this one."

Something was off and warning bells were going off in Yuki's head as he watched Jacob. And the whole 'need to talk to you' was never a good sign from listening to the boys at school when they spoke about their significant others starting off a conversation that way.

Don't freak out..ya okay, he was already there pretty much.

But he gave a pained sort of expression while trying not to freak out. So he stayed against the door because fight or flight was kicking in and he wasn't ever going to fight Jacob unless it was a friendly sort of spar or the other asked for it.

Slowly he breathed as he looked at the crystal. A strong sense of foreboding kicked in as he took it and looked at the memory within. It was the one when he was at the Sohma estate as a very young boy and how he transformed into a Rat in front of all of the other children there, causing Hatori to eventually erase their memories and end the friendships he'd made.

But he said nothing as the memory faded. However he began to shake and a few tears slid down his face. Now Jacob knew the truth and Yuki was pretty afraid of the outcome here. There was no way he could look up into those eyes and not see the disgust, not to mention the distrust since that secret hadn't been exposed.

"Maybe next time." He tried to smile though it was obvious that Jacob hadn't been sleeping well. It didn't bother him if people learned about his past. It sucked but he was slowly coming to terms with it. What bothered him more was the way that it could affect the people looking in on his life.

He had been a child when he had been taken and all of those memories were unpleasant.

"You okay? I think it's worse to be hit by the crystals than it is to be the owner." He thought of Mono and his frown deepened.

"What?!" Jacob's brow furrowed. "Who the fuck?!" He didn't swear often. It was reserved for when he was really angry.

"Please tell me you kicked their ass?" Some people didn't learn without a swift kick to the lower jaw.

Jacob's brow furrowed as he looked down at the green crystal in Cloud's palm. He reached out to it and suddenly felt the familiar rush of wind that surrounded him as he made his first field goal. The sensation lasted only a second before Jacob pulled away his hand.

"I guess you don't have football in your world." His voice broke and a tear slid down his cheek. "Shit. I'm better at handling bad memories. I didn't know that there were these too." Jacob's expression shifted into a grin. "This was the first time I made a field goal. I had set a record with my league." It's been a children's league but he'd still been proud.

He watched Yuki patiently as he took the crystal from his palm. Jacob didn't know what to expect but he knew that this was going to be difficult. There was so much that neither of them knew about each other, so much that they simply didn't talk about. Would Yuki feel hurt if he knew the whole of Jacob's past life? It wasn't that he kept it from Yuki but it was so hard to talk about.

Maybe this was the same for Yuki.

It was difficult for Jacob to understand because his adopted family shifted into animals but it didn't look like Yuki had a choice and he'd lost so much because of it. It didn't seem fair. He had to hide like the hidden, like his sister, or be a target.

Silence stretched between them but Jacob refused to let the space grow. He stepped forward and gently pulled Yuki into a hug. "It's okay Yuki. I love you. This isn't going to change that." Jacob almost surprised himself as he felt the truth of his words vibrate to his core.

His voice softened and he repeated those magical three words. "I love you."

All of a sudden he was in Jacob's arms and Yuki was pretty sure he had no idea how or why that happened. His mind was buzzing and it felt like there was a ringing in his ears or something. And surely he was imagining this hug thing.

But then everything just stopped as he heard those words. No, he'd simply misheard and he was trying to hide the sobs as best he could. He was so certain he was going to lose the best thing he had here because of his inability to tell the truth. He'd even been able to keep it from Machi but maybe that was wrong through he had been about to tell her when the curse had very unexpectedly broken.

He clenched Jacob's shirt, trying selfishly to keep the man in front of him and the his eyes opened wide as more tears came down. No, there they were again. And they were clearer this time.

Swiping at his eyes, Yuki dared to look up. "I'm so sorry..can you..repeat that again?"

"Yeah, but there's a first time for everything," she said returning his smirk with one of her own and a little wink. "That's really nice of you, trying to make people feel more at ease I mean. Even if it is a small thing, anything helps." Especially with something like this. She'd be lying if she said she liked the idea of anyone seeing most of her memories. In all honesty she took a lot of effort to try to keep the majority of her bad memories to herself.

"Oh..." she looked down at the crystal and bit her lip nervously as she took it from him. "Cute memory, huh? Well, that's kind of a relief to hear!"

"The world I was in before this? We had this happen once, what, every three months? Except it was worse. You were IN the memory. You WERE the person. It's more deep than this, more... complete. And it was a full month of getting constantly barraged with it all."

So he's adjusted to things like this. Even if he doesn't like the whole thing he just learned.

"Someone I've already dealt with," Nida answered. He was offended by it too. "They've been turned over to the captain to deal with."

If the slight furrow of his brow was any indication, Jacob was spot on about their not having football in his world. Sure, children played games. He'd even played with them, both when he was a child himself, and back in Midgar before he'd arrived here, but it was nothing like audiences or professional sports. At least not around Nibelheim or Midgar. There were places, sure, but those were places Cloud had never gone let alone participated.

Well, that wasn't completely true. "So it's a sport." He nodded, catching on. While it had been much more life and death, the arena in Sector 6 was the closest he could come to the feeling. "That's...pretty cool. Congratulations." Did he sound awkward? Most definitely, but he also sounded sincere.

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003 It's not raining men [Open]

Finding Memories

Finding Memories

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