007 - From Unlucky to Disaster

[brotherofagod]

Who; Jacob Miller brotherofagod & You
What; Severe Bad Luck…
Where; Around the City.
When; Any time in June. Specify the date if you wish.
Warnings; Injury, poop jokes, possibly some violent but mostly innocent stuff to accent his bad luck. If you have any ideas of just unlucky situations feel free to wild card it because I need Jake to suffer… because it's funny.


MORNING RUN; ACCIDENTS/MUGGING/CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE OF MISFORTUNE!

His morning runs had taken an interesting turn after adopting the floppy-eared puppy he'd found at the workshop. Despite his odd proportions and tiny legs, Shi was determined to not only follow Jake but keep pace within during his runs. This shouldn't have caused an issue but ever since he'd stolen the motorcycle with Illyana his luck has taken an unfortunate turn.

One morning Shi took a sharp left in front of Jacob's legs, tangling them in Shi's leash before sending the both of them tumbling onto the stone sidewalk. The bruises had barely faded when Shi ran out in front of a Chocobo and Jacob had to quickly dash in front of the running creature to scoop the puppy into his arms, again, landing hard on the stony ground.

After this, Jacob stopped bringing Shi on his runs but his misfortune didn't stop there…

COFFEE/SMOKING & BIRD POOP…

A rich steaming mug of coffee was held carefully in Jacob's hand. He usually filled a larger mug but with all the accidents lately, he decided it was best not to tempt fate.

The morning had gone smoothly. He had walked Yuki to work, gone on his morning run, and, after magically avoiding any accidents, was finally on his way to work. It was a miracle that Jacob still had all of his fingers after the last few weeks but he was determined that things would get better. This absolutely wasn't an unusual circumstance that required intervention.

He turned the corner, making up his mind that this bad luck was all in his head when a bird flew overhead and pooped directly into his mug…

This wasn't his normal bad luck.

HELP! [CLOSED TO HARRY DRESDEN]

He couldn't remain in the great state of denial for too long. Not only was his bad luck affecting his daily life it was beginning to affect those around him. Eventually, Jacob had to admit that it was a curse or possibly some type of magic. It might have been cast by the city but he had a feeling that it had to do with the motorcycle. His troubles had only begun after he'd brought the magical metal contraption into his apartment.

Whatever the cause, it was time to find a cure.

This train of thought brought Jacob to the unfamiliar door in front of him. He hadn't known that there were people here who called themselves wizards but he supposed that this person could at least confirm if there was an outside magical force involved.

With a tired sign and a small puppy waddling around his feet, Jacob knocked on the sturdy wooden door. "Hello? I am looking for a wizard?" That was a weird sentence.

Comments

MORNING RUN; ACCIDENTS

[cetrary]

Today was a day that Aerith had decided to leave early to open the shop up. She'd spent a lot of time recently bringing in new flowers and today she'd wanted to get an early start at working on new displays. As she walked down the stone sidewalk she had her mind up in the clouds thinking about possible combinations she'd like to put together when she got to the shop. Which meant that at first she didn't notice Jacob and his little puppy.

In fact, it wasn't until she heard some sort of crash that she was stirred out of her thoughts.

"Oh my!" she put a hand to her mouth to cover her audible gasp as she tried to see what had happened. That was when she spotted Jacob on the ground, wrapped up in a dog's leash. She leaned down and offered him a hand in the untangling process. "You know, I don't think that's where you belong, mister," she said with a gentle smile.

MORNING RUN; ACCIDENTS

[brotherofagod]

Jacob's head thumped gently on the ground while Shi wriggled happily on his chests. The puppy hadn't noticed that it was nearly squished by its adopted father or that he was continuing to tangle the pair of them in the. Jacob began to carefully untangle but him and Shi when he saw a slender delicate hand reach out to gently loosen the leash. He looked up and grinned sheepishly at his charming friend.

"Mister? Doesn't that make me sound old?" Jacob focused on moving Shi and with Aerith's help he was soon rising to his feet. His shirt was matted with sweat from his run though he wasn't winded since he'd had an impromptu rest on the ground. "I don't usually see you out this early." He spoke gently, starting up a casual conversation while Shi began to sniff at Aerith's boots curiously.

It was the first time that the puppy has met the flower girl and she was covered in new and interesting smells that required further inspection.

[cetrary]

"Maybe you are," she said with a little wink. "You okay?" she tilted her head back and forth, clearly looking over him for any sort of injury. She was pretty sure he'd hide if he actually was, it seemed like half the people here were that type. So many seemed to put on brave faces to hide any sort of problem that was going on and she was no exception to that rule.

"I can fix it right up if you are," her tone was that of someone trying to gently nudge someone to take advantage of a good offer. "Clearly it's your lucky day in that case," she grinned. He wasn't wrong though, she wasn't usually out and about this early. Usually her mornings were spent in her little garden away from everything. "Who is this little fella?"

[brotherofagod]

Jacob huffed and placed his palm over his heart. "You wound me." He didn't think he was old but then he had also spent a great deal of his life living with people who didn't age. "Time and world shenanigans aside, is 24 old?" He didn't really count the time that he spent in the city... that would involve a lot more math than he was comfortable with.

He was bruised and scratched up but in one piece. It wasn't as bad as his sparring matches with Nida. "I'm fine but thanks." He looked at his elbow which was dripping a bit of blood. "Unless this counts." It was just a scratch and it'd heal on its own whether he cleaned it up or not.

"Oh, right. This is Shi. I found him in the shop. He was wounded and after I got him healed he seemed to want to stay with me." Jake looked down at the large-eared puppy with a fond smile. Shi, noticing that both humans were looking at him, yipped happily to get attention from the new nice-smelling human.

[cetrary]

"Hmm... 24? Nope. Not even close to old." It was only two years older than she was and she definitely didn't see herself as old. Honestly, it was hard for her to even consider herself much of an adult. Too much of her life was decided by outside forces for her to feel any real sense of time.

She tilted her head as she looked him over then gave an over-exaggerated frown at the elbow. "Here," she said firmly as she closed her eyes and whispered, "I'll take care of it." A small bit of warm light came from her hands as tiny yellow particles danced around, healing up the scratch completely almost instantaneously. "There we go." Did she need to heal up such a small wound? Not at all, but she didn't like friends being injured in anyway at all and it wasn't as though it took much. Back home it'd be a slightly different story, but here? It seemed like it was more weird to not have special abilities of some kind.

"Shi, huh? Well, hello, Shi! It's nice to meet you," Aerith looked at the puppy and reached out to give it a strong scratch behind the ears. "You were lucky to find yourself a hero and now a home, huh?"

Bird Poop

[soulsword]

Illyana had a secret: she occasionally liked to watch people. In particular she liked to watch the people she actually had mild interest in and between her magic and ability to teleport she wasn't seen unless she wanted to be. Sadly, she didn't usually get too much entertainment from it. Which truly was a disappointment. Occasionally it even made her think that she may have to do something to create her own amusement. Luckily for her (and unluckily for him) Jacob suddenly presented her with some missing entertainment: bird poop in the mug.

Should that have been something she laughed at? Probably not.

Was it something she snickered at? Yup. It definitely was.

The stealth spell she had around herself vanished as she continued to snicker at what had happened to him and she looked down at him from the stall she'd been sitting on.

"Having a crap morning are you?"

Bird Poop

[brotherofagod]

Jacob was ready to toss the cup of coffee across the street when the audible snickering made him look up. Of course Illyana had to bare witness to his misfortune. He exhaled an exhausted huff before tossing the coffee cup into a nearby trash bin. Jake didn't even try to empty it out first, he wasn't in the mood to extend the extra energy required to be thoughtful.

"You didn't do this, right?" His eyebrow rose at his snickering friend.

It was harmless but he was annoyed at the constant run of bad luck. Of course, he knew that Illyana couldn't be to blame but that didn't make him less annoyed. He needed someone to direct his frustration at because of course it was a crap morning.

...that poor cup of coffee.

Re: Bird Poop

[soulsword]

"No, unfortunately it's not my handiwork," she said with the smirk still plastered to her face. Theoretically a bad luck curse wouldn't be that hard for her to pull off. Alas, something else had gotten to things before she ever had the chance to.

She waved a hand and a cup of coffee appeared in her hand as she jumped down off the stall, landing in front of him. A swirl of steam came off the coffee and she blew on it to send it towards him.

"Looks like you could use a fresh cup." See? She could be helpful. Sort of.

Bird Poop

[brotherofagod]

Jake's eyebrow raised in a curious arc before taking the cup. It smelled amazing though it was still the weirdest display of her powers that he's ever seen. "And this came out of nowhere?"

Even as he asked he took a sip and felt his insides melt. He didn't need to drink coffee but Jacob loved warm drinks and it was nearly impossible to drink them in the summer. The only time of day he could was in the morning, and so his default in the summer was to drink coffee.

"I'll let the next bird poop on my head instead of in the cup." It was worth it.

[soulsword]

Luckily it tasted just as amazing as it smelled despite being magically created. "It came from somewhere." Where was that somewhere? Fair question an one she wouldn't exactly know the answer to. Magic was magic. In some ways she understood where the things she created came from and in other ways she didn't.

"Oh you should have. Then you'd still have your original cup. Instead of wasting it after the bird assault."

Coffee and bird

[monochromatically]

Jacob’s little shadow hadn’t really seen the guy in a while. He was pretty busy with carrying messages and moving and stuff… So seeing the guy while he was out on his delivery route was kind of exciting! He hurried quietly (as ever) up behind the guy, intending to greet him when he witnessed the very unlucky fate of Jacob’s coffee. It was hard to not react to it, his nose wrinkling in disgust. “Ew… Birds are mean.” He commented, revealing himself in a slightly serious tone.

Birds were not something he had a lot of good experiences with in his life, and even if birds here were nicer… They still clearly had a malicious side, at least in Mono’s opinion.

Coffee and bird

[brotherofagod]

Jacob turned and paused. He was readying to throw the full scolding cup of coffee across the street aiming at the birds flying away but had stopped when he realized that his young friend would have been in the path of his anger. He was pissed but not pissed enough to accidentally injure a child.

He steadied his breath and kept walking, waving for Mono to follow him. "I seem to be having some bad luck." His voice was tight and annoyed but he lightened up after discarding the cup on a random ledge before continuing to walk down the street.

He was too pissed off to be aware of things like littering. "How've you been lil shade?" He hadn't seen his young friend in awhile and he really wanted a distraction from how pissed off he was. Of course there was no hiding how annoyed he was, hopefully Mono would for give him. He hadn't been able to drink his morning coffee.

[monochromatically]

Mono could definitely tell that Jacob was angry. The kid had too much experience with upset adults in his own world to not recognize the signs… But as his friend gestured for him to follow; the boy hurried after him to catch up and talk.

He had been rather busy for the last while, between his promotion at work and moving in with Ignis and Nida. “I’ve been good! I got a promotion, and I got to move in with people before the people at that orphanage place made me go there.” He chirped out his explanation as he fell into step next to Jacob, still eyeing the man curiously.

“Bad luck? That sucks… Birds pooping in your drink is definitely bad luck, but they’re also usually kinda mean, too.” So he wouldn’t put it past the bird to have done so on purpose, at least based on his own experience with birds.

“Do you gotta go back and get another coffee? I bet I could run and get you one. I know adults need it every morning.” Mono responded with a serious tone, since he had definitely noticed it was almost part of a routine. It was like adults couldn’t function without their coffee or tea! That was definitely not an appealing fact to getting older, he didn’t like how bitter the stuff tasted the time he’d tried it… But if it was part of being grown up, then maybe you had to drink it whether you liked it or not so you could get stuff done!

[brotherofagod]

"That's good. I was a bit worried about you but you seem to be fine." Jake didn't know if worry was the right word. He was more curious about Mono's life and presence but he had the feeling that the kid could handle himself.

"Yeah. I don't really care for birds either." They sucked and poop was one of the worst things for any outside wooden structure. He hadn't initially cared about that but having to fix things that the birds have ruined took up way too much of his time. "Jerks." Jake mumbled beneath his breath before kicking the ground. He made sure to make it clear that Mono wasn't the source of his anger or at fault.

But he still needed a way to vent and the innocent ground was everywhere.

"Don't worry about it. I don't really need it. I just like drinking warm things in the morning. It's usually too hot to drink hot things in the summer." Jake preferred colder weather.

He turned to look at Mono as they walked towards the carpentry store. "I've found a house. I'm working on fixing it up but when I do, I'll invite you over." There were parts of the house that were currently unstable or he would have invited Mono over there after work.

[monochromatically]

Worried? Adults seemed to do that, and it was always weird. That much was apparent if Mono’s expression was anything to go by. Still, he nodded as Jacob agreed with him about the birds. “They are jerks! Big flappy jerks.” He sounded serious enough as he commiserated with his friend, who was clearly still angry at the bird and about the loss of his coffee. Jack hadn’t turned the anger on anyone which helped keep the kid from getting too nervous about that.

He wasn’t sure if he bought the whole ‘not needing’ his coffee thing, though. “You sure? I thought all adults needed it every day to be like… doing-stuff-people.” Productive, Mono, but close enough. The boy had witnessed Ignis drinking coffee and Nida drinking tea every morning since he’d moved in with them, so it was easy to see how he’d come to that conclusion, given how much he didn’t know about adults.

Jake seemed alright without his coffee though, or at least he was doing a good job of pressing on without it. So Mono continued to follow his friend towards the carpentry shop. He didn’t have anything important to do yet. He still had time before his letter-carrying job started for the day. He tilted his head curiously to hear that Jacob was working on fixing one of the houses in the city. That was pretty cool. It sounded like a lot of adults were starting to do that. It almost made it feel more like a real city. A live one, gradually moving steps further as people left behind the apartment buildings to settle. It was nice… Way different from the Pale City. “That’s neat, I wanna see it when you’re done! Where are ya gonna live?”

Coffee

[orangewayfinder]

With his usual morning routine out of the way, Terra had gone home to take a shower. And then he figured he might venture out for the day. He usually did a lot more exploring in other worlds and there were more places he was usually too busy to take in since in this one he had a job.

But since he had the day off and it was too hot to race the chocobos today, he meandered through town and eventually came upon Garry's Carpentry. Blue eyes looked up and down and Terra decided to have a look around the place. The sawdust everywhere reminded him of the sand on Destiny Islands.

A man came around the corner with a frown on his face and a coffee mug in hand, with a pencil tucked in behind his ear. But this person was covered in some sawdust and Terra wasn't sure what to do. However, a place he'd seen on the way to the Coliseum came to mind and he wondered how to balance things with the alchemist.

Still, he had to ask, not having any idea about the coffee gone horribly wrong.

"Are you guys looking for help?"

Coffee

[brotherofagod]

Jake was grumbling angrily at the cup of coffee as if it could somehow show repentance for its defilement. Coffee... the most sacred of all drinks and it was ruined before he had more than a sip.

His attention turned towards the man standing before him and he had to stop himself from being pissed or noticing how attractive the guy was. It was free to look but he felt guilty now that him and Yuki had continued to move their relationship forward. It didn't help that he was really pissed off either. It was difficult for him to be mindful of others but he always put in the extra effort when it came to Yuki.

With a heavy sign he dumped the coffee onto the grass and then tossed the cup into the sink. Jake wasn't going to deal with or think about it anymore. Even if his mood was already soured.

Jake tried to steady his voice but he sounded very annoyed. "Yeah. We could use some help. What skills do you have?" Gary was getting older and Jacob didn't like helping with some of the things that his boss made him do. It'd be good to get someone else to do it. Maybe he could get this guy to fetch him coffee too. The path between the café to the workshop wasn't safe for him.

[orangewayfinder]

Terra was puzzled by the coffee tossing thing but he didn't say anything. Maybe this was how this man started his day every day. But he was glad to hear that they needed help. And after he asked his question, the keyblade wielder shook his head. "I have the sales clerk skills."

He sighed, and launched into his brief story. "Before I was able to learn to ride the chocobos in the arena, I had to sell tickets for two weeks outside the gates. The more sales I did, the more things I was promised to learn."

And then he pulled out the parchment that his 'boss' had which gave a great review of his work and a pretty glowing recommendation for what he did, handing it over to Jacob.

"If you need more of one for work or reliability, I can get one from the alchemist Fanci since I worked for her before when I was here last. And when I came back, I got my job back."

[brotherofagod]

Jake wiped his palms on his pants before gesturing for Terra to follow him into the shop. It was primarily a woodworking space but there was also an area for storage and a small counter set up to process orders. "You don't need that." Jake grinned. "I believe you plus this will be a bit different. You'll have to price these things up but Garry can teach you the in's and out's of that."

He really didn't like the pricing aspect of the job.

"You'll also need to estimate the time that it'll take while taking all of the other orders into account. And maybe lift things or organize deliveries." Jake stopped talking and looked up at Terra with a raised eyebrow. "You have a lot of jobs. Think you can handle this too?" He was smiling but there was a slight seriousness to the question. It sucked being the only one here other than Garry.

Plus Garry was aging and Jake wasn't sure he could keep working in the shop, which meant that his workload would increase.

[orangewayfinder]

"I can learn." Terra replied. But then again he hoped he didn't reply too quickly. It was hard getting a job sometimes. People might be too eager or not eager enough and it was hard to decide which hat to put on or not put on so to speak.

He nodded to the list because he could definitely lift. Terra didn't mention it but he could even do push ups on his hands in battle, so he could do what was being asked of him. "I can handle it. Chocobo races go whenever I want to. And Fanci pretty much just lets me make up my own schedule, so I'm not at work for her some days. So if I get this job I can make it a priority and shift things around to make sure I'm here when needed."

Help! (I need somebody) Help! (Not just anybody!)

[harrythelizard]

[Forgive my Beatles reference]

Harry did his model best to maintain regular business hours, and he kept himself pretty busy. Turns out, when you open up a professional practice in a city where magic is accepted, a lot of people come knocking. He'd actually just rounded out a project for a lady up in the noble quarter who'd been plagued by what she was certain was a rabid squirrel and it had actually been a mischievous ghost. It may not have seemed like much, but it was something.

He was actually working on rounding out her invoice for delivery when the knock came at his door. Not one to turn down a potentially paying customer, and feeling pretty high on life at the moment (aside from the utter failure his personal life was) he moved do the door leading out to the street, opening it wide enough to admit the knocker. Something prickled at the edges of his senses as he did so, something oily and ill-meaning and definitely attached to this guy. His eyebrows raised.

"If you're looking for a wizard, you've found him. Come on in."

The seating area was a tad spartan, though there was a small table with an old school percolator with warm coffee and cups, sugar and the whole bit. Along the opposite wall was the desk Harry had recently vacated, and a chair facing it for clients. "Can I get you a coffee?"

(Help) you know I need someone, help!!!!! lol

[brotherofagod]

"Thank God." Jacob mumbled the words beneath his breath like a prayer. He was incredibly religious for someone who's best friend was a mage and sister was a god but no amount of praying had released him from whatever curse had befallen him. God probably didn't like the fact that he'd recently become a thief.

Jake stepped into the office and took a seat as if the chair was the only safe place in the room. It's been a really rough couple of weeks. "Knowing my luck right now, that isn't a great idea." He'd probably have it spilled on him or worse.

"We talked once," He thinks. "On the network. It's nice to meet you in person." Though he was annoyed, Jake tried to keep his head steady. "I don't know what your rates are but I'll pay anything to get whatever is on me off..." He knew a bit about magic from Sam but she was skilled in healing magic and this was nothing like what she'd once described to him.

[harrythelizard]

There was a familiar surge of faith-based magic that seemed to envelope the guy as he walked in and uttered a small prayer under his breath and that got Harry's attention. Being of the Nevernever, non-human entities, they couldn't evoke that type of power, so, whatever was going on with this guy, there was at least a human soul in there; a human soul that had come here, seeing Harry's assistance, and by all the forces of nature, he was going to make sure he had it if it was within his power. If it wasn't, he'd find somewhere it was and get it done regardless.

"100 silver a day, plus expenses, but you don't have to give me anything up front, at least not until I know what I'm dealing with." He moved to the other side of his desk, motioning for Jacob to have a seat in the client's chair across from him. "I'm going to take some notes," he said as he took out a notebook and a pencil. "So, when did this first start, this...what did you call it? A run of bad luck?"

[brotherofagod]

"That won't be a problem." He had been saving up money to purchase a house in the Noble District but it wasn't going to be too costly since he was going to perform most of the repair work himself. If he ran out of money, he'd just have to make more. "I can give you a few days upfront, just tell me how long you think it'll take." He paused and then added. "You'll have to tell me what your expenses are afterward. I can pay that all at the end. If that works for you." He had money and rarely had to pay in installments.

It was strange not having debt...

"Ah. Right. It was about two months ago. I think..." He had to pause and recall back to when all the trouble started. The problem was, it felt like this had become his steady state of living, and he couldn't remember his life from a few months ago. "I think it started when a motorcycle fell on me." That day had gone smoothly and with his luck, as it was now, it shouldn't have.

[harrythelizard]

The guy sounded confident in his expenses, but if whatever was plaguing him was something like an entropy curse, his luck could change in an instant. Of course, Harry wasn't the type of guy to just let a man die a slow and agonizing death at the hands of malicious magic, either.

He frowned at the story, and looking up at Jacob's face, chancing a glance at the man's eyes for just a second before focusing on the bridge of his nose, instead.

"A...motorcycle fell on you?"