InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "i can feel the pressure"

☁ (onewolf) wrote in silverage,
@ 2011-06-04 18:30:00

Entry tags:

!log, cameron, cloud strife, rex racer

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.

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cameront888
2011-06-04 02:22 pm UTC (link)

No rehearsal sessions today. Cameron had cleaned her apartment, done the laundry, and was headed out during daylight hours for a change to try what the other ballerinas insisted was fun; a thing called 'shopping'.

She hadn't gone far when she came across what appeared to be a human male pushing a two-wheeled non-autonomous vehicle of the sort that was called a motorcycle, although it didn't look like the other motorcycles she had seen on the streets.

Stepping out of the way, Cameron gave the human and machine a complete passive scan. Here was another unusual energy signature. Curious, she decided to commence interaction with the human.

"Is your machine broken?" she inquired, letting a small Allison smile come to her face.

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	onewolf 2011-06-05 03:06 am UTC (link)
	Machine. That was a new way of putting it. "No, she's fine," Cloud said, shaking his head as he regarded his Fenrir with a good glance. Then looking up to the brunette, he asked her the same question he'd inquired of the old man. "Do you know where I can get fuel?" and maybe some food but fuel first before food. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

cameront888
2011-06-05 03:19 am UTC (link)

Cameron consulted the map of New York she was building in her memory. "Fuel? I've never seen a machine quite like yours, but if it runs on gasoline, there is a service station five blocks North and three blocks East. It should be about a mile." She had learned that humans didn't appreciate distances given to the exact millimeter.

"That is a long way to push something that heavy looking. Do you need help? I was just going shopping, but I have some free time. Wouldn't it be easier to get some gas and carry it to your machine?"

She let her smile grow a little. This was apparently another man not from this place, and she wanted to learn as much as she could about what was going on.

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onewolf
2011-06-05 03:30 am UTC (link)

Well, this one is extremely helpful. Every town would have one, he supposed.

"Well, I've got to find out what kind of gasoline it is before I get it," Cloud said to the smiling lady as he continued his journey to the northeastern part of the city. Plus, he had no money. Based on what he'd seen around, they accepted 'dollars', not 'gil'. How he was going to get a dollar, he didn't know. "I'm fine, I'll go check it out. Thanks for the info."

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cameront888
2011-06-05 03:44 am UTC (link)

"The usual formula for gasoline is eight carbon atoms and 18 hydrogen per molecule, if that is any help."

Cameron looked down at the ground, "I was reading one of the local notice boards and it seems there a lot of people in New York from other times and places. You seem to be very new here, and that machine is like nothing else I have ever seen. Somebody wrote something about a membership card and secret handshake. Are you one of them? Do you know what's going on?"

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onewolf
2011-06-05 03:50 am UTC (link)

It wasn't. Last he recalled, it wasn't required for a driver to understand the elements of a gasoline. He'll know it when he sees it, and he left it at that.

"I don't," Cloud answered the verbose lady simply. "And I don't know if I'm one of them either. I just got here." If that wasn't obvious enough. "So this place is called New York?" Cloud decided against asking about the secret club of sorts. He'll know it when he needs it.

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cameront888
2011-06-05 04:00 am UTC (link)

"Cameron nodded. "If you don't know where you are or how you got here, you are probably one of them too. From what I read on the notice board, everybody else is confused about how they got here."

"This is the city of New York, and there are several smaller cities attached to it. You are in the state of New York, in the United States of America in 1964. I talked to another man and he didn't know what year it was so I thought I'd add that in."

Smiling again, she went on, "My name is Allison Young, from Palmdale, California. What's your name and what do you do when you aren't pushing your machine around?"

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onewolf
2011-06-05 04:29 am UTC (link)

"I was on my way home and wound up lost. That's how I got here," Cloud answered the female because it was true, he didn't not know how he got here, he did. Full memories, all of it from the rock to the steep climb to the lost green fields, everything. Because if he lost his memory again, well, that was going to be a much bigger problem now.

Other than her name, where she was from and what place this was, though, everything was gibberish. 1964 held no significance for him and he couldn't -- at least not now -- care less about America, not while he's still getting a grip of the smaller New York and its many...sectors for the lack of a better word.

"I'm Cloud," he said anyway to Allison as he paused by a corner and let a car drive past. After two seconds of emptiness, he pushed forth, no evidence of his burden visible in any of his features. "I'm a deliveryman."

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cameront888
2011-06-05 04:44 am UTC (link)

"If you are lost and just ended up here, all this is different to you." Cameron reached into her purse for her billfold and extracted two ten-dollar bills. "This should get you the gasoline you need and something to eat. I am with the cast at the New York Civic Ballet. You can find me there most days and pay me back when you find a job. When I got here it took me a little while to find a job and an apartment."

She looked around. "According to the newspapers there are criminals and vigilantes that come out at night, and some of them wear the most peculiar costumes. This is an odd city, so be careful. I met one the other night who said he was a hero."

"You don't seem to want to talk much - I suppose it is the shock of finding yourself here - so if you don't want me to help push your machine, I will let you go on your way by yourself."

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onewolf
2011-06-05 05:00 am UTC (link)

By the time they'd crossed the intersection, Cloud had paused in time to receive the notes from Allison. They were strange things, he thought. The texture was different, the size looked a little too iffy for him and, well, it was just strange to look at a different design altogether. He considered this charity he received and knowing that getting these donations was better than nothing, he turned to Allison and nodded to her. "Thanks."

The warning she'd given him about criminals and vigilantes was much heeded, too. Cloud's brows moved invisibly closer at the advice he'd been given and he looked over his shoulders, as well. Heroes in weird costumes? Well, at least he'd know them by a mile when he sees them.

"I'm fine," Cloud repeated to Allison when she offered her help, again. Fenrir was much too heavy right now that she became the sheaths of his six swords. There was no way he would burden someone by her impossible weight. "I'd hate to take you away from your shopping, either. Thanks for all your help, I'll take it from here." Then he paused as he looked down a little.

"Wait, just one more thing," Cloud slipped his mobile phone -- a black flip one -- and lifted it for Allison to see, "Do you know why there isn't any cell reception in this place?"

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cameront888
2011-06-05 11:21 am UTC (link)

Cameron looked closely at the small communications device. It confirmed her suspicion that this Cloud human was from a more advanced culture, just like the man the other night.

"The communications network in New York is mostly hardwired," she told him. "The radio networks mostly belong to civilian authorities and the military."

She stopped following the man. He was unusual, but didn't seem to want to talk to her. She would have to search for information elsewhere. "I hope you are successful finding a job and a place to live." Pointless polite words but humans seemed to find them comforting wherever she went.

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onewolf
2011-06-05 12:13 pm UTC (link)

Civilian authorities and the military? Cloud frowned at those words as he gazed at his phone. This was all so backwards.

He looked up to Allison and nodded to her. "I see. Thanks for everything. Have fun shopping." With a small wave -- which was basically a lift of his hand and then a raise of his index finger as the hand held the phone -- he slipped the device back into his pocket and went on his way pushing Fenrir. What she'd said worried him, though. A place to live, sure. He'd always needed a place to crash even if it was under a thick foliage.

But work? How long was he expected to stay in this place?

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