come and lay your bones on the alabaster stones

[scalpedsociety]

Who: Aramat and YOU! (Certain prompts are locked for certain people though.)
What: A month in the life of the pianist.
When: Throughout March
Where: Various Places Around Vista City and Pride HQ
Warnings: Possible sex, mentions of triggering things and whatever else. Will warn in advance. Prompts are in the comments.

Throughout March, Aramat is rather busy with various things, recording for Crown of Thorns, performing in clubs, searching for apartments to spend some quiet time in, and perhaps other errands. Of course there's always time for fun as well...

Comments

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"We've been doing it longer than they have. Uh... you know of any? 'Cuz I sure don't."

At least that supported his 'no one will find us there' argument.

[scalpedsociety]

"There's one near the club. Hopefully it's empty." Aramat replies.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Okay. Let's get there. You just lean on me."

If Jecht can do one thing, it's being support. A little girl like Aramat can't wear him down even if he was carrying her; her weight on his arm won't make him budge. Sort of like a knight escorting a lady, he'll get here there.

[scalpedsociety]

She doesn't mind. Aramat can't explain this, but Jecht feels safe. Perhaps it's the way a lady should feel towards a knight.

Soon enough, they get to the church. A grand place that happens to be open with no one in there.

"It's funny. This place doesn't look anything like the places back home. Too ornate. But it will do." And it's awful pretty.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Big city. Different places. Dunno... this might be the first time I've been inside a church."

Keeping her tucked close to his side, Jecht tugged her down into the pew in front of the furthest one back, sliding all the way down to the side. As far away from anyone who knew them as could be.

[scalpedsociety]

A church, but not a temple.

She's still close to him, even in the pew.

"Jecht, have ever had this feeling that you're really playing a role? That none of this is even real, but you desperately want to be?"

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Considering he still had an arm around her, she better be. Gonna keep her tucked up close to him, safe and warm. He can do that much, at least.

"I'm guessin' you don't mean that in the whole 'I can't believe I made it to the big time' way."

[scalpedsociety]

Aramat shakes her head. "No."

"I can't explain it, but I feel like I'm a bird stuck in a cage."

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Put on display for everyone to poke at, gawk at, and demand it sing on command?" That's what he's getting out of it. But what a strange feeling for her to have. How long had they both been in this business?

...But he can't deny he understood.

[scalpedsociety]

"Yes. I guess this all was so sudden for me. Spend years on the underground and you can't really get used to the fame." Her head goes down for a moment.

"...Sometimes I get these visions... I don't know if they are real or not."

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Jecht hesitated.

He'd laughed them off to everyone else. Dismissed them, smirked at them, made fun of them. In all Jecht's life there was only one person he might, maybe, consider being honest to -- and here she was, tucked beneath his arm, admitting to much the same.

"They can't be real," he finally muttered. "They're too damn goofy."

[scalpedsociety]

"How goofy can they be?" It's pretty much an offer to tell some of these things to her.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"People have to breathe! They can't spend fifteen minutes underwater playing some dumb game!"

Naturally, he picked the mildest weird aspect of his dreams to share. The others were -- heavy. Really heavy, like psychological monster movie heavy.

[scalpedsociety]

"...So you're actually part sea creature?" She jokes.

[Although the typist wonders how in the hell is blitzball possible. People can't hold their breath for that long.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

[something something pyreflies]

She might have meant that as a joke, but Jecht didn't laugh as his gaze unfocused slightly.

"Sea monster, maybe."

[scalpedsociety]

She's too in tune with him to not notice that. Sensing he needs to get his mind off things, she tells him this:

"I lived with eleven or ten other woman in a old mansion in these visions. You aren't lying when you say they are silly."

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Heh, you know, I can kind of buy that from you. 'Specially if you were all hardcore grrl-power in it." He tried to make a joke out of it -- maybe a little laugh would break this mood they've both fallen into.

[scalpedsociety]

"Yeah." She looks at him, her eyes without light. They were much more hardcore about it than most. So hardcore, Aramat would kill some herself for... anything.

"They were my family, I guess. Did you have one?"

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Yeah. Yeah, he got the message from that look of hers. Maybe joking was a bad idea.

"Kid," he rumbled. "Little twig of a thing. Don't know how a guy like me had a little crybaby like that. I was tryin' to toughen him up a bit, but... "

He'd been a sad case himself, sad enough that talking about it to her would embarrass him. He didn't want to be anything less than strong in her eyes.

"Damn good thing I never took up booze."

[scalpedsociety]

"Twig or not, he's still your son. What's his name?" She'll ask slowly.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Aramat...

You're the only one, the ONLY one, who can get away with that question. And Jecht's long silence, his distant expression, show just how little he wanted to answer it. Voicing it made it more real. Acknowledging the dreams made them memories.

"Tidus."

[scalpedsociety]

"Tidus..."

It's tempting to not ask anything more about this, but she wants to know more about Jecht than the person he is in Vista City. Wants to know these dreams made memories. She'll tell her own.

"Does he have a mother? Does he look anything like you?" She asks this gently.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Kid's as far from me as anything. Little squirt. Maybe my face a little, but he's think as a wire, big crybaby, you couldn't imagine anyone less like me." The man can't help but smile a little. Kid had a terrible father, but not a father who didn't love him. "He'd grow up to be a hell of a blitzball player, like his old man."

[scalpedsociety]

"What's 'blitzball'?" Why does she think it has something to do with the water?

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Big sport you play in floating water spheres. Probably shouldn't surprise you that I'm the best, huh?" Okay, he might be cutting out his problems with alcohol and his decay, but...