250 thousand miles on a clear night in June Who: Cloud Strife + Cameron + Rex Racer + Anyone! When: Noon-time, maybe Where: Around the city What: Cloud is trying to get around...as best as a guy with a humongous ride can do it. Rating/status: ~PG/ongoing
John Glenn.
That was the name Cloud Strife heard the TV screen call the smiling man waving to the camera. He was the first man to fly out to space, they said, and he seemed like a very interesting and nice man, too, with whatever the voice was telling its audience of two about him.
"You think he's saying the truth about space, son?"
Cloud turned to the old man smoking a menace beside him.
"I think it's all crap, if you ask me!" he cackled a broken one and removed his cigarette from his lips. "It all just can't be emptiness and lights, you know? What about all those aliens, huh? Those aliens, they gotta be out there! Huh? What do you think, son?"
Cloud blinked at the man scratching his balding head. "Me?" he asked.
The old man looked around. "Sure, you! Who else, huh?"
Who else, indeed? Cloud turned back to the head-sized TV screen in front of him. It was a sunny day and there was barely anyone around this side of the city. "I know there are stars all over. And it's really dark out there. And empty."
"Empty! That's bull, y'know?" the old man snorted. "What, you talkin' like you'd be there?" But when Cloud turned to him quietly, he added, "You've never been to outer space, or have you?"
Cloud nodded. "I've been there."
"You're crazy," the old man snorted again and tossed his cigarette down the pavement. "Jesus Christ, you're all crazy." And then he turned.
"Wait," Cloud called the moment he saw the man moving away, "Do you know where I can get fuel?"
"Screw you. Crazy."
Cloud let out some breath through his nostrils, pressing his lips against each other very vaguely before he looked down to the black beauty that he held by its grip -- a bulky contraption which, if inspected closely, actually had the architecture of a highly-modernized motorcycle. It had been drawing much attention from the citizens, and the children especially loved it that Cloud could not find it in his heart to be selfish to them. Anyway, their parents drew them away in the end. But that had been the first time such attention happened.
So what was this place? Where was he? His phone wouldn't work no matter how many times he tried it and the city was...so rich, so happy, as if the world hadn't just started to end.
And this John Glenn...he wasn't the first man in space. Unless Shinra tampered with the records, he knew that it was his friend, Cid Highwind.
So many questions with absolutely no answers. Cloud was determined to find them but in order to do that, he had to get one thing first: fuel for his motorbike the Fenrir.
Kicking off her sidestand, Cloud soldiered on, pushing his precious ride along.