Chapter Text
The light from the streetlamp shone dimly through the window of Jake’s apartment, small slivers shining on the chest of his most recent client. Jake watched as their chest lifted and fell gently in an almost hypnotic pattern, the sound of his breath and feeling of his skin putting Jake into that post-coital bliss that he loved so much. He heard the seconds tick by on the clock by his bedside, the space between the ticks seeming to stretch out longer and longer and Jake luxuriated in the warm fuzzy feelings. Like the laws of time were being stretched just for him as if to say ‘You’ve had a rough day…have a little more time’
A lot of the time, being a sex worker was hard. The payment was always hard to come by, clients often felt like they had the right to get violent. And to top it all off he had the pressure from his father to look and act a specific way, combined with the overall vibe from the world at large that tended to be…’oh sex workers? Fuck em’…But right here? Lying against a warm body in a dimly lit room letting the seconds slip by?
It was nice.
He could pretend that just for a moment he wasn’t getting paid to lie here like the dutiful slut he was. He could pretend that he was wanted, that this man he was sharing a bed with wanted to be with Jake, just as much as Jake wanted desperately to have a real connection with him….anyone really. Jake knew he was kidding himself of course. He knew that there was nothing on anyone’s mind-his clients included-but the coming heat death of the universe, more commonly known as the Affini Compact.
They had been working through Terran space for the last few years, and by working through he really meant steamrolling the Accord like it was a plastic bag in a hurricane. Ever since the testosterone bound muscle heads in the stars damned cosmic navy declared war on the overgrown shrubs, the Affini were making their supremacy known. Inching closer planet by planet, moon by moon, ship by ship. No-one was under the illusion that the Affini weren’t coming for somewhere like Illumine 6, you don’t become a hyper-competent spacefaring species by stopping before you conquer one of the enemy’s main weapons manufacturing plants. The Accord didn’t, not with the Rinans. Maybe that’s why the Affini were coming, some sort of cosmic comeuppance for the treatment of the only other sapient species Terrans had ever known…
Well shit.
Jake hadn’t intended on ruining his post sex cuddling session with his own despair spiral, but he was most certainly out of the mood now so all he could do was stare out at the sky through the crack in the curtains. Waiting for his client to wake….tick…tock…tick…tock
How much longer before they would be here?
The man next to him roused, a deep and satisfied sigh escaping his lips. “mmmh good evening babe. Great fuck-as usual.”
‘’Oh…yeah, no problem’’ Instantly Jake’s illusion was shattered, and the reality of what the situation was came crashing back into his psyche. Would it have killed him to pretend a little?
“Yeah whatever, could I have my torso back so I can get the fuck outta here?”
“O-oh, yeah of course. Sorry” His client haphazardly tossed the blankets off of his naked body and started dressing in the corner of the room where his clothes had thrown earlier in the night. Jake let his eyes wander over the man’s body again, feelings from earlier rising up in his stomach. “I’ll see you again…right?”
The man turned pensive for a moment, one leg through his jeans “…I…. Dunno” and Jake could tell that he meant it, the broadcasts giving live updates on the Affini progress through the system were painting a particularly dire picture of late.
“It’s okay…I get it. I’m scared too.”
‘’What the fuck! I’m not scared you….you fucking queer!” He had said it way too fast for it to be the truth and he had managed to be hypocritical in the same sentence? double whammy! Jake was almost impressed if not for the bitter feeling that came over him.
“Yeah, I’m the only queer one here” Jake mumbled bitterly “I’m just saying that the broadcasts don’t think the Affini will be here for another week or so? We could…I dunno, escape? Run away to the country or something, that’s gotta be better than this right!?” He let the tiniest sliver of hope seep into his eyes, brimming at the opportunity. But the other man’s clothes were on, and he was already in the doorway, stomping his feet as he went.
“Look, I don’t know what you think is going on here? But this is only fucking, nothing else. And-if stars forbid-I thought we hand any chance of escaping the hypercompetent xeno’s who have walked over our entire cosmic navy in just three fucking years!? I would be a dumb fuckin’ idiot to choose you of all people to escape with. Get your head out of the gutter man and grow the fuck up. You are a whore, you never be anything more than a whore and you’re gonna die like one.”
*SLAM*
Minutes? Hours later? The harsh slam of the door was still reverberating through his skull, rooting him into place on the bed where the other man had left him. Jake had been seeing him for what, 5 years now? Well before word of the Affini had gotten around. Yes, he was just a sex worker, but he had thought…It was different with him. He knew what they were both getting out of the transaction…but they had been seeing each other for so long an-and Jake had opened up to him about his fears and concerns. They had spent hours after sex talking about each other’s childhoods and where they grew up and their parents and…..you can’t just throw that away after 5 years! All because what! He was scared!?
It didn’t matter now anyway so he pushed it into some deep recess of his mind where it couldn’t hurt him. Jake got up off the bed, mostly running on autopilot, and grabbed a synthcube off the top of his stash, noting that he was running dangerously low. He made a mental note to go out working all day tomorrow, should help take his mind off things as well. Jake went straight back to his bed in the corner of his studio apartment and distracted himself with eating the flavorless goo and whatever the corporations felt like shoving down his throat right now.
“You’re tuning into the one and only Free Terra network! The only destination you can trust to keep your best interests at heart and the best way to fight back against those damn weed xen-” Jake could practically feel the foam and spittle coming off the man on his tablet screen, no thanks.
“And as I was saying Andrew, this really is the hottest that we can get with a handheld weapon, up to 3,000 degrees Celsius and a spray that will travel 30 meters! This is the utmost protection against invadi-”
“It does exist though! Many of the higher ups in the Accord have stated in several unconfirmed reports that there is a bunker moon near Nyrina that all high-ranking officials have been asked to retreat to. This is an outrage! While they can live safe from the Affini, they are just going to leave us here to ro-” Oookay, maybe TV wasn’t the best idea to try and get away from his broiling emotions right now. Jake chucked the wrapper of his meal into the open trash bag next to his bed and tossed his tablet on the other side. Only for the tablet to switch to a different channel completely.
“…~Petal?~ I Know things are hard right now.” Oh no… “Please trust us that we are trying to get to all of you cuties as soon as possible and get rid of all those nasty capitalist fera-” Of all the stars damned channels…Jake hurriedly shut his tablet off completely in a huff. Anger, hatred, and disgust were totally fine in his eyes, at least the Accord were being true about their feelings and motives. Even if those motives and feelings were stars damned stupid. Compassion on the other hand? Jake had been subject to a lot of propaganda in his time, and always found the campaigns that were designed to lull you into a false sense of security were the most despicable. People want to feel comfort on a deep, fundamental level. They want to feel loved and needed, and he believed that to be loved was a fundamental human right. And you shouldn’t just trick people into going against their best interests by preying on that fundamental need. So as bad as the Accord was? What the Affini were doing with their broadcasts were so much worse, they wouldn-couldn’t be truly providing the kind of luxury and care that they showed in their vids, no one would just….do that.
With a resigned sigh, Jake flopped onto his back and stared at the paint-chipped ceiling, trying to fall asleep by sheer force of will. The tempest of emotions from the night were still raging away in his stomach and corners of his mind, a good cry would do him some good right about now he thought. But no tears came, not since he started high school had been able to cry. So, he was left in the silence of his apartment; wanting to cry but not being able to, feeling so much but not being able to do anything about it. Above all else, he was lonely.
How many more days of freedom?
The next morning crept up on Jake out of nowhere, he hadn’t even registered falling asleep. But he couldn’t ignore the bright sun glaring through his windows, only slightly diffused by the heavy smog in the air. He sluggishly removed himself from the covers and walked into the bathroo- “…idiot to choose you of all people to escape with…” Jake slumped hard against the wall and slid violently onto the floor, head in his hands. Could his brain not just have given him 5 minutes to exist before beating him with what happened last night? Examining his feelings from last night in the light of day was not on his top 10 list of things to do today. So he efficiently went through the motions of preparing himself for another day on the streets, like a normal well adjusted person would.
Wash here, don’t touch there, use this shampoo that clients particularly like, shave his face, shave his legs, heck shave everything, brush teeth, don’t look, pick clothes that will get him the most attention, put shoes on, get bag, don’t slam doo-shoot, awkwardly hurry away from his apartment after slamming his door, apparently his was in a bad mood this morning for some stars damned reason.
Jake pulled his scarf tight around his neck and adjusted his goggles as he left his half standing building, the blistering heat and dust whipping at any body part that was exposed. Once the degradation of Illumine 6’s biosphere had progressed enough (In an impressive 250 years no less), people fled en-masse away from the southern half of the planet that was tidally locked to the local sun Keilao. Ore Depot#315 (Real creative name for a city there) Was a dry, hot, blistering mess on said southern hemisphere and unfortunately, was where Jake lived. The planet had been getting warmer and warmer each year, smog and greenhouse gasses still being produced from Corp owned mega-factories located on the northern hemisphere, that were somehow still open.
The suits liked to ramble on and on about how it was only to secure the dream of a ‘free Terra’ and that they needed more guns than anyone else to make that happen. But the truth was that the planet of Illumine 6 had been making weapons before encountering the Rinans, continued to make weapons after encountering the Rinans that put up no fight whatsoever, and now that the CNS was at war with the Affini, the latest condition to pump out iron weapons of refuse had been met. But no-one was fooled, the planet where Jake currently lived was only colonized to make money for the money-grubbing assholes sitting at the top of the pyramid period. The city lacked any green growing anywhere on its streets or parks, dry and cracked dirt taking its place. The people that were out and about looked exhausted, dragging their feet along the dilapidated sidewalks, trying to scrounge up any synthcubes they could find from the dilapidated buildings. The sky had lost its beautiful shade of blue a couple hundred years ago, now looking a sickly shade of brown, and breathing in the contaminated air for more than a few hours was sure to land you a hospital bill that you would be paying off in the cosmic navy for the rest of your life, or out here in the sticks? Most likely death. So anyone who could get out of the southern hemisphere? Already had. That left people like Jake, scrounging in the dirt and dust, making their fingertips bleed trying to scratch enough together to last another day and go anywhere else. But now the Affini were even taking away their dreams, where could they go now? The entirety of Accord space was doomed, and any jump-drive capable ship wouldn’t ever be within 10000km of this shit-hole in the first place!
Jake kicked a stray bottle down the street a little harder than he meant to, wincing as he chided himself. “Taking it out on inanimate objects now, are we? Cool cool cool, great coping mechanism Jake.”
“Do you always talk to yourself?”
“SHIT, oh god! fuck, sorry” The voice had appeared just beside him out of an alley, when he turned to look at the culprit, he could see it was a man a couple of inches taller than Jake’s 5’9”. “You just scared the living daylights out of me is all.”
“No worries dude” He said with a wry chuckle “I kinda came out of nowhere, y’know. Hiding in the shadows and such” He had leant against the alleyway casually, resting his head against the rotting concrete and staring Jake down, deep in thought. “Are you Jake?”
There was only one reason anyone around here would know Jake’s name, and he did need to get more synthcubes to replenish his stash for another few days “…I might be for… 10 synthcubes?”
The man had the guts to look a little taken aback, as if he didn’t know exactly what he was asking for. “No beating around the bush huh? I gotta say I do prefer the ‘will they-won’t they vibe’. You’re just gonna skip by all that?” He reached out a hand to Jake “Speaking of which I’m-”
“No names” Jake’s tone was hard and sudden, the other man awkwardly retracted his hand. Jake didn’t have a lot of rules, but the rules that he did have, he wasn’t gonna break.
After a few seconds of studying Jake closely, the man gave a half-hearted shrug. “Why? I know your-”
“I don’t do names, okay? Not about to mix feelings and work.” Jake took another second to steady himself with a breath, he didn’t need to have this conversation right now, “Look, you wanna fuck or not?”
Jake couldn’t see the man’s face, but he was almost certain he was smirking. He turned around and started walking down the alleyway. “You coming?”
Jake hurried after him, catching up to his side “What, do you live down here or something, that desperate to catch me around?” He must have said something funny because the man abruptly chuckled.
“I thought you’d done this before? At least the people I’ve been talking to said you’ve got quite the technique for someone barely in their 20’s”
“Yeah, I get around…and?”
“You’ve done it in an alley before? I thought you’d know, but I don’t live anywhere fuckin’ near here” at that, he had stopped in front of Jake and was now very close to him.
Jake let out an exhausted sigh and rolled his eyes from behind his goggles “Fine, wherever you want I guess” He said with a shrug.
That was more than enough for his client though, Jake found himself immediately slammed against the wall with a hand working on the buttons of his jean shorts. He heard the man panting heavily above him as his cheek was pressed into the concrete. Then he heard a whisper right next to his ear, “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do this to you, slut. Once I started hearin’ bout a little bitch down here giving out favors left right and centre? I just had to feel my dick in your ass” With a strong tug, he cleared Jake’s shorts all the way down to his ankles. He was completely immobilized by one of the taller man’s arms, while they used the other to get their own pants off. He couldn’t help but feel a little anxious as he realized that even with only one arm being used to restrain him, he couldn’t move an inch. He bit down the feeling quickly, he wasn’t here to be comfortable, he was here to get some damn synthcubes and he wasn’t about to mess it up. Jake heard the telltale sound of discarded pants hitting the ground and prepared himself for what was coming. “Lets get to the main event, shall we?” His clients voice was breathy and was soaked with lust. “Tell me how much you want my cock, slut.”
Oh for goddesses sake he was one of those….Well time to earn those synthcubes. “Hmmmmnnn, please pleeease babe, I need your dick so bad right now. I cannn hnnng…feel it pushing and twitching up against me! You’re teasing me tooo much, I need it in me right now!” His voice came out perfectly, high and breathy with plenty of whining thrown in for good measure. He was just lucky the guy seemed to be dumb as rocks or too horny to notice that Jake wasn’t particularly invested one way or another.
He tried not to roll his eyes as he felt the man behind him gently start to peel off his underwear and let it drop to the ground. “mmmmmn, there’s some lube in the bag for us-” Jake started to reach for his bag when-
“We’re not using it.” In the amount of time it took for Jake’s brain to restart and argue the point, he could already feel something trying to gain entry into him. His facade cracked a little.
“Dude! I would really appreciate it if-agh!” If the man had heard Jake, he really didn’t seem to listen or care. In fact it didn’t seem like he could think right now, Jake saw him throw back his head with his eyes closed and lose himself to the motions. It was all Jake could do to stand there uncomfortably, his cheek grazing against the wall rhythmically. What an asshole, you sure know how to pick em Jake. His hips were roughly grabbed from behind as the man continued, fingers painfully digging into Jakes flesh. The only sounds that came from the alley in the next few minutes were the steady howling of the wind rushing by them, and the wet sounds of skin slapping against skin. To say that Jake was bored would be like calling a nuke ‘a pretty big bang’ not only obvious…but also a little funny. He let his mind wander away from the moment, he really didn’t enjoy this part of the job and any time he could spend not thinking about what was being done to him was welcome. He chuckled a little into the wall his face was pressed against. How ironic that the one part about being a sex worker he hated was the actual sex.
He felt the pace increase slightly from behind him and sighed a breath of relief to himself, this guy was stars-damned annoying, and he would be glad to finally be rid of him and a few synthcubes richer. With a long-drawn-out groan, the man held his pelvis against Jake’s and finished inside him.
“Fuuuuuuuuuuck, man they were right about you slut. A little rushed and bitchy, but a damn good fuck all things considered” He removed himself from behind Jake, but before Jake could make a move to put his clothes back on, he found himself yanked around and his back pressed against the wall. “But, I’m not sure I was 100% satisfied with your service today Jake. Let’s just say this one is the house hey?”
Despite his taller stature and looming presence over his head, Jake had been in similar situations before and was not about to forego payment for that abysmal experience. “Ah, okay you’re that kind of asshole.” He levelled the other man with a withering stare. “Listen up dickwad, I know almost half the people in this city on very intimate terms. You won’t ever be able to buy a synthcube again, rent a place within 200km of here or leave this alley without getting harassed, avoided, or just straight up assaulted if you don’t pay me. Right. Now.”
“You know, I could take you up on that but…” He made a show of raising one of his hands to his chin “I’m thinkin, you don’t know any of your clients names, you don’t even know where I came from and I’m pretty sure there is no one in this alley except. You. And me. So I think not.”
Fuck
Jake saw the strike coming but by then there was nothing he could do. A searing pain erupted from his head as his head bounced off the wall behind him and his vision went white. The next thing he knew, he was sprawled on the ground, a warm goo seeping from his asshole and a similarly warm substance soaking the back of his head and pouring from his nose. From high above him he heard that vile voice, “Like I was ever gonna pay a street bitch like you” an even worse pain blossomed out from his stomach, again and again, it was all Jake could do to curl up into as tight a ball as he could and wish that this vile being would just get bored and leave. Slightly out of breath from his most recent assault, Jake finally heard the man leave down the way they had come “There’s your payment, bitch.”
What was that he was thinking last night? A lot of the time being a sex worker was hard?...Yeah that tracks. Jake lay face down in the alley trying not to move as his brain executed its forced restart…..huh, the deep cracks running through the dirt looked much different from up close….flying? He was flying, wind blistering through his hair, clothes whipping around him. A-and he was soaring above those great big cracks that looked like the canyons of Pre-Accord Terra, ducking and diving through clouds, barrel rolling and somersaulting to his hearts content…laughing with wild abandon to anyone who could hear him at the altitude. He could see for miles up here! To his right lay a great ocean, the sun painting the waves with millions of tiny stars that danced and vied for his attention. On his left were great mountains that seemed to grow right out of the canyons below him. Their tips he assumed were topped with snow, but he could never hope to see the summit as they passed through the clouds and into the unknown. After a moments hesitation on which wonder to explore, he ripped his momentum down towards the ground at Mach3, the deep crevasses of the earth rising up to meet him faster than his eyes could blink and sliced past the surface of the earth deep into the fractures running through the ground. The bottom of the canyons grew closer, and closer, faster and faster still. Wrenching himself up at the last minute he grazed his hand along the dusty ground, plumes of brown kicking up behind him and a wild hollering leaping from his lungs and bouncing of the canyon. The walls gave way to his flying prowess, bending beneath his will as he banked left and right violently, he was alive and free and he could feel the dust tickling his face and the walls brushing up against his sides and the sun bearing down on him and he could almost taste the dirt…on his mouth…as….he…...right. He was firmly on the ground, painfully…aware, the one place and time in the universe that he wanted to be the least.
Groaning, Jake heaved himself off the ground, gripping the wall next to him like his life depended on it. After a minute of struggling, he was on his feet again, after another three he had finally managed to pull the rest of his clothes back on. Taking stock of himself he looked over his legs and stomach, some bruises already forming, eh that’s fine. He touched his nose to sigh in relief that it wasn’t broken, and the blood had stopped dripping much better. He then gingerly brought a hand up to the back of his head wincing as his brain cried out in pain. He pulled his hand in front of his face to find it covered in blood, well that’s…..much worse admittedly. Making up his mind to get out of there, each step he took was accompanied by a spike of pain behind his eyes, in fact there wasn’t an inch of him that didn’t hurt as he shambled his way to the only place where he knew he may be able to rest.
Diane’s hovel was exactly the kind of place you think it would be. Situated in an ‘out of use’ underground bar, the surface was constantly being battered from the harsh winds and dust from above, while the inside was always coated in a fine layer of dust that stuck to everything. The door had long since rusted off its hinges, giving the aforementioned dust free entry to wreak havoc, giving off a ‘come in, but be very careful of broken glass’ kind of vibe. The portion of old roads that had sat above the bar had long since disintegrated and now left a rather lovely skylight in the roof, if garbage-core was your thing. At the particular time that Jake stumbled into the bar however, the ‘skylight’ had been covered with a tarp. Apparently, a storm was coming later in the day.
Inside the room proper were 8-10 slabs of concrete held up by various bits of debris, with makeshift benches sitting around them. The ‘tables’ were arranged haphazardly around the first half of the dungeon-like room, with the back half saved for a bar that was nothing more than a random assortment of scrap wood help up by two milk crates on either end. Behind the bar were a few shelves that contained the one fucking decent thing about synthcubes. If you knew how (and Jake only knew of Diane) you could ferment the little buggers and come up with a hell of a strong spirit. She called it Synthbrew, and it was the sole reason that the little hole in the ground had anyone frequenting its tables at all, who woulda thunk that alcohol would be popular during a war.
Hearing the silt crunch beneath his feet, smelling the foul bodily fluids and alcohol splattered on the floor managed to put Jake’s mind at ease somewhat. There were not a lot of places where he could let some of his walls down, but he knew Diane personally. She liked him a moderate amount and no one fucked with Diane or they found out. Often very violently. She was about as tall as Jake and just as thin as everyone else in the city. Mousy brown hair ran down to her gaunt shoulders and framed the tattoo’s covering most of her upper body quite nicely. Jake had had it described to him as a ‘biker’ aesthetic, complete with ripped jeans and a ratty jacket with some century old patches on them. Apparently, the apparel was essential even if she didn’t have the bike to show for it. As she saw Jake cautiously make his way down the concrete stairs, she threw everything she was doing onto the bar and vaulted over a table to get to him.
“What the fuck happened!?” She had quickly looped an arm around Jake’s torso and was half guiding-half dragging Jake to the bar proper. “I was serious last time Jake! A few more times of you looking like this and I’m not so sure that you’ll be able to walk in here at all. Who was it? Please tell me you know what they look like!”
“I really don’t want to talk about it Dee, shitty guy, shitty situation” He let Diane guide him to a bench. She quickly set him down and set about soaking a rag in Synthbrew. “Has it happened before? Yes, will it happen again? Most certainly so can I please just get something strong? I’ll get you the synthcubes for it later, I promise.” He winced as the talking sent a hot poker into his brain again.
She came back around the bar and applied the alcohol-soaked rag onto the back of Jake’s head “I don’t give a shit about your synthcubes Jack! You need to lie down and stop talking, no complaints.”
“I’m fine Diane, please just give me som-AH!” Dee had readjusted the cloth on the back of his head, sending new waves of pain into his head again.
“You are clearly not fine! Look. Kid, at least crash here. I’m not goin’ back to my place tonight anyway, those Affini have everyone way too riled up, and I” she jabbed at her chest with a thumb “intend to capitalize on the situation.” She paused for a moment, trying to find the right words and she sighed quietly “…I don’t know what’s going on Jake, you never let me in enough…But I’m goin’ to hazard a guess that whatever you are going through? I don’t think getting drunk is going to help. And throwing yourself at the first client that comes your way is not healthy behavior either Jake.”
Jake huffed cynically “Yeah, says the person running a bar.”
“That’s exactly the reason Jake. You don’t run a place like this for as long as I have without picking up on a few things. Rule number one? People who turn up here angry, in pain, and sad will only ever leave more so but now they are nauseous as well…Forgetting what you are feeling is just kicking the can down the road Jake, and despite everything…I don’t hate having you around. I’d like you to be around for as long as possible and I am going to help in any way I can. Just so happens that right now it means getting your stupid ass onto a blanket and resting from being assaulted, y’know that horrible thing that happened to you?”
“I know it was a stupid idea okay!? I’m just tired of..” Being alone? Trusting people and having his heart stepped on? Being beat within an inch of his life in the street? Being terrified that sometimes he felt like he deserved it? “..of eating synthcubes, they’re…..awful…Thanks Diane I-I’ll crash here tonight, don’t worry.” He gave her a wry smile, but one look from Diane told him that she didn’t buy it, she was too quick for that. Too empathetic for him to hide.
“….Okay. Thank you, you can crash behind the bar. I got some blankets next to the rubble back here” Her tone was flat, she knew he had more to say, there was no way she didn’t. But either by sheer dumb luck or just a friend who knew when not to push, she didn’t say anything more.
It’s always strange being one of the only sober people in a bar. Daine’s hovel didn’t really start to get going until the midafternoon but with the Affini coming and the booze available there, it didn’t take long. The conversations got rowdier and rowdier as more spirits were passed around. The laughing got more raucous and the stories that were being told just got more ridiculous, Jake found himself laughing (and consequently wincing) along with everyone else as one particularly animated drunkard swore on her mother that she had seen an honest to goodness horse! Everyone knew that horses couldn’t survive in a terran atmosphere, ridiculous. As Jake started to settle for the night, he sat on the blankets that had been left on the floor and tried to get comfortable. The bar was still far too rowdy to actually be conducive for sleep, but he was still in a lot of pain and checking the back of his head-yep was still bleeding. Resting early surely couldn’t hurt. He spied a few bodies lying on the floor with him mostly from drunkenness, but then he saw something that gave him pause. Under one of the tables was a man shivering on the floor, hands glued to his face and his body curling in on itself so tightly that it might disappear if he blinked. He had dirty blonde hair, but that was about the only signifying factor that Jake could see, of course he was skinny as a rake which didn’t help him looking helpless, but Jake felt like this was more than just your garden variety terror. It took an embarrassingly short time for him to decide to make his way over to the man, he was still gravely injured, but the guy looked like he needed some comfort and Jake could at least supply that.
He made his way over to the man, catching a glare from Diane which he tried to soothe with a smile to show her he was fine to be walking around. His injuries and staggered walking didn’t look out of place around the jovial men and women drinking some of the last days of the war away at least. Jake managed to keep any errant Synthbrew from spilling on him and he made his way under the table, sitting next to the man.
“Hey, you okay?” The man recoiled and tried to shrink in on himself even harder “Woah woah sorry! I-uh didn’t mean to scare you. I…I’m just crashing here for the night, saw you alone and thought you could use some company. Something on your mind?” The man had stopped shivering but was still bundled up tight.
He responded with a half hearted mumble that Jake had no chance of hearing above the din of the bar “I’m sorry, but you’re gonna have to speak a little louder, I-”
“It’s the Affini.” The other man pulled his hands down ever so slightly, Jake was met with a dazzling pair of crystal-green eyes staring up at him. Cute.
“Ah, yeah. I guess they are on everyone’s mind right now. You think they’re gonna be here soon or something?”
He broke eye contact with Jake and stared at the floor “…Or something, yeah.” He gingerly raised himself into a sitting position, wincing as mis muscles moved for what must have been the first time in a couple of hours. “What do you think they’re going to be like?”
“Huh?….God I know they’re preaching all this lovely dovey shit, all rainbows and ‘we’ll take care of you’ but…that cant be real? They’re galaxy conquering aliens, what reason would they have to take over the Accord but exploiting us? I don’t know what they are going to be like for sure, but it sure as hell can’t be good.”
“Wh-what about all that stuff the CNS is saying a-about eat…eating us?” He looked fearfully at Jake, his eyes pleading desperately. Jake could at least laugh at that.
“Hah! Well, that’s just as stupid as believing that the Affini are benevolent. But don’t worry, it’s understandable that you’d be scared about that, the CNS propaganda does run deep after all. Even if they’re a bunch of idiots” He muttered.
“I just wish I knew which it was…I want to. I want to believe so bad that everything they are saying is true. I’m sick of running away and hiding, I’m sick of freaking synthcubes, I’m sick of no-one caring about me and I hate that I feel so helpless!” He dug his nails into the concrete and dust on the floor, tears spilling over into his eyes.
Jake quickly put a compassionate arm around the guy “I know, believe me I know. And I want more than anything to tell you that it’ll all be okay, that the Affini will be great and benevolent but…they’re coming for a reason. They want something from us, probably labor, and I can’t imagine they’ll be too nice about taking it from us. Take my advice, whatever it is? Just go along with it and maybe it won’t be as bad as what the Accord put us through.”
“Like that’s any kind of freakin ideal to strive toward! The Accord treats us like shit!” Jake rubbed the man’s arm, trying to calm him down and held him close.
“You’re right! You’re totally right, it may be better who knows? Look uh…” He seems trustworthy, go on Jake you can ask him “Wh-whats your….name man?” He was still glaring at the floor with tears in his eyes.
“…. It’s Riley. Why do you care?”
“Nice to meet you Riley, I’m Jake. And I guess its just who I am? I saw you sitting here, scared and I knew that I didn’t want you to be alone.” Jake leant over to rest his head on top of Riley’s “I screwed up at the beginning there, sorry. In my experience, when you feel alone and scared its more important to think about nice things rather than real things so…… What would you wanna do if the Affini are everything they say they are?” Jake didn’t know who he was trying to calm down and convince, and he really didn’t care. Riley snuggled into Jake a little more, the rowdiness of the bar fading into the background.
“…Get a nicer place I guess?” He said with a small chuckle “It would be so good to just…not have to worry about where I’m going to bed? Be able to breathe in the air without risking my life. Y’know, the necessities?”
“Ah, come on Riley” He lightly jostled the other man in his grasp “You can dream bigger than that! I’m giving you free reign here to do-be anything you wanna be. When you see those CGI holovids that the Affini put out, what does you mind wanna do first?” Jake of course, couldn’t verify that the videos were fake but there was only so much that his suspension of disbelief could maintain.
After a long while, Riley spoke “It would be really cool to be-stars this is embarrassing…I…I….I’d wanna be….. oneofthoseflortthings?” Not that Jake could see, but Riley’s cheeks had gone a deep crimson.
“Haha what? Sorry hun, you’re gonna have to slow that down a bit for me? You want to be a what?”
“….a flort. At least I think that’s what they’re called? Please don’t think I’m weird! Its just that you said imagine anything, a-and its not like its real even though it would be really really hot!” The blush on Riley’s face was only getting worse, and Jake definitely saw it now. Even cuter. But he was still confused out of his mind.
“Back up, back up” He loosed his grip on Riley a little so he could look into his eyes. “…What’s a flort?”
Riley was clearly surprised but more than a little relived that Jake didn’t know. “Do you not watch the?…. Never mind s’not important. Don’t worry about it.” He put his head on his knees and mumbled “...not like its going to happen to me anyway.”
“Well I’m glad you have something nice to think about at least.” During their talk, the bar had progressed from ‘loud and drunk’ to ‘subdued and even more drunk’ it was actually quite nice in Jake’s opinion. A constant white noise of chatter-not too loud-and a warm atmosphere had taken over the dingy space. Perfect conditions to fall asleep to, and Jake’s body was screaming at him to get some rest.
“Hey, I’m going to have to turn in, in a second here. Do….do you want some company? I have, lets say a little experience in keeping people company while they are feeling alone, and I don’t particularly want to be alone right now either…” Jake now felt like he was the scared, desperate one. Trying to appear aloof even though his pleading eyes made it clear what he needed.
But Riley took it in his stride and leant back into Jake again, a soft smile forming on his lips “Of course Jake, I’ll stay.”
Patrons slowly trickled out of the bar as Riley and Jake drifted off under the table. They spread out from the bar during the early hours of the morning, dragging their feet in a drunken and tired stupor. All of them with their eyes affixed to the ground to reduce the chance of throwing up the last 6 hours of drinking.
It was a shame really. Because if they had the stomach to look up, they would have seen the most amazing sight drifting over the morning horizon…