aterat | just a day in the life.

Entry tags:

just a day in the life.

Who; Cloud Strife (

mostlycloudy) and you!
What; Making his way downtown; some memory threads/catch-all
Where; Multiple Locations
When; Throughout January
Warnings; Only what may come up in memory threads; will update accordingly

Cloud's occupation took him many places in and outside the city, and he wasn't about to let the snow impede his progress. What was his occupation? Nothing in particular, and yet everything. He did odd-jobs for people around the city: clearing out direrats, eliminating giant roach infestations in the Docks, whatever someone might be willing to pay him for, really. Today he'd been lucky enough to have been near a merchant's stall when he'd overheard the man grumbling about needing some textiles delivered to the noble district. He knew there was a delivery service around town, but Tommy had enough clientele to share and Cloud could use the coin.

Later, his delivery made, he's making his way back south towards the markets when a glitter catches his attention from a small drift of snow and he stoops to retrieve it. He'd been paying enough attention to the network to know what it might mean, but curiosity won out in the end. A sharp intake of breath sounded as his fingers touched the crystal in the snow and images flooded his mind.

(OOC: If you'd like Cloud to have found one of your character's crystals, just let me know! You can PM this journal or hit me up on discord (vikael#0221) or plurk (

vikael. If you'd like to simply run into him for general threads, feel free to start a prompt below!

Some prompts are closed for planned shenanigans! Also, if you'd like to have anyone find one of his memories, they're right here!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There was no denying Aerith could be a bit difficult. Not only was she strong willed (read as stubborn) but she also kept a lot to herself. It hadn't always been her choice, but at this point she wasn't entirely sure if it wouldn't have been the choice she'd have made regardless of the outside forces. With the things she knew it really did just seem easier to keep it all to herself. Everyone else had plenty of their own issues to worry about, especially Cloud.

Poor Cloud. He had so much in his head and on his plate and she knew there was a lot more to come. The fact that memories were coming down now was definitely a worrisome thing for her. What would he end up finding? Nothing she hoped. Nothing at all. But would they actually be that lucky? The text she got told her that the answer there was probably not.

My garden of course. Do you need me to come meet you somewhere?

No. I'll come to you.

He started off immediately, though he had no idea what he was going to say when he got there. Hojo's madness was no surprise, and he knew that was personal knowledge, but a headache flashed behind his eyes anytime he tried to examine why; what that meant. Did he know Hojo's experiments were as mad as they were damaging because he'd heard so many people talking about it or was it something more, something...intimate? He couldn't remember, or his mind would let him remember, but he knew Hojo's words were true: he wasn't a SOLDIER. He didn't know what he was.

Well, that wasn't true. He was a bodyguard, damn it.

He stepped into her little grove carefully, mindful of any plants that may be blooming near the entrance. "Hey."

Okay! See you soon :)

Things could never just be simple, could they? The thought popped into her mind out of nowhere and she couldn't figure out why. It was just this foreboding feeling that had fallen over her after he said he'd come to her.

"We'll just have to see, won't we?" she said to the flowers as she heard him approach. She brushed some of the dirt off her hands and stood up to smile at him.

"Hey there, stranger."

"Hey," his response was casual. He'd heard her voice as he'd approached and looked around at her already beautiful garden, blooming in abundance even in the middle of winter. She really was amazing.

"Have these learned how to talk to you?"

"Not yet, but I think I'm working towards a breakthrough," she said with a little smile. Of course, that wasn't exactly true, but it also wasn't entirely untrue either. That was something she was particularly good at: sprinkling just enough truth into things to make things easier to just go along with.

"So...what did you want to talk about?" Might as well get it over with.

"That's good to hear." He wasn't sure he particularly believed her, there was something about her demeanor that suggested she wasn't being completely truthful, but if there was one thing he'd come to learn about Aerith, it was that she often omitted information, or at the very least, downplayed it.

He cleared his throat at her question, rubbing the back of his neck as the situation came down to it. How did you even breach the subject of Hojo?

"Have you noticed the weird crystals falling with the snow?"

"Mmmm, I heard about it," she said with a tone that sounded just a bit too innocent. Maybe if she just kept circling around it, they could just ignore the crystals. Except she knew they couldn't. He'd clearly found something and it made her stomach knot up just to think about what he might have seen. There were too many memories in her head that he just wasn't ready to know yet.

"Jacob found one of us!" Maybe she could change the subject.

As always, it seemed, she was able to run circles around him. While he paused, trying to figure out how best to broach the subject of Hojo, she'd already successfully, at least for the moment, changed the subject.

"I...he did?"

"Yup," she smiled as she realized she'd definitely thrown him off track. "Remember our high five?"

He frowned at her question, crossing his arms. He definitely did remember, now that Rhy had pointed it out.

"Yeah."

"He gave some tips, maybe I can offer them to you. I think my high five was pretty close to perfect," she said with a wide grin. "He did say he thought it was kinda cute. Not sure if he meant you or me though."

"Great." He breathed a sigh, shaking his head. He wanted to get the topic off his ineptitude fast.

"I saw one of yours, too."

"Well, that didn't work," she said with a little shuffle of her feet. It'd worked for a time, but not nearly as long as she'd thought it would. She let out a sigh and looked over at him hesitantly.

"What did you see?"

"Hojo." He spoke the name through clenched teeth, giving a subtle shake of his head. "And what he...planned on doing with you.

He's a psycho, Aerith. I'm sorry." It sounded lame, putting it that way, and like a supreme understatement, but it was what he had.

"Oh," her voice was suddenly small, smaller than it ever had before. "Did you see what happened after?" Had the memory only shown him her brave front while Hojo was there or had he seen her cry when he'd walked off? For some reason she really didn't want him to have seen that and yet something told her she already had her answer.

She shook her head and put her hands close to her chest, almost as if collapsing into herself she could protect herself from the memory.

"I didn't know he went back for her." But she shouldn't have been surprised. He was cruel and twisted, he would do anything to get his precious data back.

He wasn't sure what he'd hoped to achieve by confronting her with this revelation, that he'd seen how strong he put herself forth has and how scared she was of the man. He didn't know what to say, but he did know he wanted her to know she wasn't alone, and that Hojo made him feel vulnerable, too, for reasons he couldn't even fully remember. He was starting to wonder if he'd forgotten on purpose.

He wished he could make her forget, but he knew that was impossible. He wished he had the words to express his feelings, but he'd never been good at that, either. All he had was himself, and so he'd use that.

He stepped toward her, uncertain and hesitant, before he awkwardly pulled her in to a hug. He didn't know if it would help, but it was what he had.

Ultimately, he said the first thing that came to mind, too. "I will never let him have you again."

"Oh," she let out a small gasp as he pulled her in for a hug. It was so unusual for him to do something unexpected that she wasn't entirely sure how to react. Strangely it felt more like a Zack thing to do and well that thought was a Pandora's box that she didn't want to open. Reflexively she relaxed into his arms and smiled up at him.

"Thank you," her voice was gentle and small. "But nobody should make promises they can't keep. He still has a role to play I think and so do I. One that you can't protect me from." But it was a nice thought to think maybe he could.

"Do you?" He pulled away from her, hands still on her shoulders, enough to look in her eyes. "I thought you said you didn't know what was ahead anymore." He didn't know how she'd known in the first place, but she was a Cetra, and that meant maybe he wasn't supposed to know.

"I know that much." She tried to give him a smile but it was weak and there was still something that was obviously haunting her behind it. "I don't know everything for sure like I used to. But I think there are still some things that may have to go a certain way. I warned you for a reason." Well, she'd given him her warning for a lot of reasons.

"I don't care." It was past his lips before he really had time to evaluate the statement, but one he'd said it he found it to be true. He didn't care that she had some cosmic destiny or whatever, or about the world Sephiroth eluded to they're creating. He wasn't sure about much, he couldn't even trust his own memories most of the time.

But he was sure about one thing: he would die before he let any harm come to Aerith. "I just...care about you."

"Do you?" She moved back and tapped his forehead with a small smile. There was a sadness in her eyes that she tried to hide by brightening the smile. "Or is it something else?" Maybe that wasn't quite fair to ask. No, it definitely wasn't, but somehow she felt like it needed to be said.

"I'm sorry. I just...I don't want to see anymore people get hurt."

"Neither do I." Not his new friends, or his old friend, or Aerith. He'd seen enough people being hurt. He was done with it.

"But...shouldn't we enjoy the time we have?" That's what Watts had said, and something about that resonated with him.

"Strange," her voice was light and managed a hint of cheerfulness. There was no getting rid of that sadness in her eyes though, it'd seemed to have frozen itself there for the time being. "That sounds like something someone else has said recently. Hmmm...is Cloud actually listening to someone else's advice?" That was definitely surprising and she couldn't help but tease him about it.

"You mean the time here?"

He uttered a soft tut before shaking his head. "So what if I am?" Watts seemed to know what he was talking about, which was more than Cloud could say. "He's a good guy. I...think he works for you. Uh...Watts?" He said he did, at any rate.

"And...yeah. I do."

"Mmmhm, very good worker!" She pinched her finger tips together. "Little bit nosey but that probably comes from his profession back where he's from. He's a detective you know?" Which meant he was a bit too good at observing things.

"Sooo...what would you suggest we do to enjoy the time we have here?"

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