{ fighting with h o p e ;

Hope Estheim here. I may be fourteen, but don't mistake my age for weakness. I've been through a lot, and it's made me stronger in a lot of ways. { tracking ravagerestheim } { m!a status: sexually attracted to wickedcataclysm for four days }

[kevin-hp-deactivated20140729]

Noel couldn’t help but frown a little as he heard the other’s comment. He soon chuckled and shook his head. “Hey … if I met you in the future and you’re still alive then obviously you didn’t die."

Normally the brunet wouldn’t be giving away secrets from the future, but it was pretty obvious that the younger male survived his focus. After all, Noel had known who he was upon his arrival. Clearly he had to have been alive for the hunter to even know who he was. “Everything will be alright."

Huh, here Noel was assuring Hope that things would be okay when he didn’t even know if it was true…

[ravager-estheim]

"You said yourself you've been changing the future, right?  That means it's unstable.  Maybe in your future I figured it out, but in my time, I won't, so then it'll change your whole future." Well that was a cheerful thought process.  "Sorry," he added after a beat.  "I guess I've gotten kind of cynical since all this started."

Hope groaned and fell back, staring up at the bright sky above him.  What he wouldn't give to be staring up at that sky as a normal person instead of a l'Cie.  "Hey, Noel?  In the future... you get to tell your mom you love her, right?"

[wickedcataclysm-archive]

"I’m just so drawn to you." It was hard to tell if she was serious or not, considering the sarcastic tone.

[ravager-estheim]

"That's really creepy, Lumina."

[bladedrose]

"—I’m counting on it, Hope." A faint smile tugged at the corners of her mouth due to his words. Hope had come a long way since they had met, and Lightning was truly proud to having been able to see him grow stronger. 

There was something off with this forest though; but what it was, the soldier couldn’t quite place. "..It’s too quiet here." She mumbled over her shoulder to him, while remaining alert as ever. “Watch your step, and keep your eyes peeled as well. You never know when an enemy may strike."

[ravager-estheim]

Hope felt a surge of pride swell up in him.  Lightning was counting on him to be there for her, to help her when they got into a sticky situation.  He couldn't--no, he wouldn't let her down.

The forest seemed to echo with every step they took, and Hope chewed anxiously at his bottom lip.  "Is it weird that I like the noisy forests more?  This one feels... I don't know, it feels like it's made of glass or something--almost... fake."  Could there even be such a thing as fake forests?

[lightningofdeath-deactivated201]

The woman noticed the situation, and went to an immediate response, planting her gil on the counter. Her stern eyes pierce into the cash manager, as if she held the high ground. If there was anyone in this place that deserved the utmost respect, it was her. And she isn’t in the mood for games or jokes at this rate.

"Money’s for him. Get him something good with this." She said bluntly, already giving the woman time to scram to the kitchen, fishing out one of their special burgers. The worker handed it to Lightning, and in turn, the pink haired soldier handed the packaged burger to Hope.

 "Here."

[ravager-estheim]

Eyes shining like he'd been handed a burger by an angel of heaven, Hope gratefully accepted the food from Lightning, his stomach growling loudly as soon as the smell of the food hit his nostrils.  "Thank you," was all he could manage to get out for a minute, and then finally he remembered how to work his brain; he bowed deeply, wanting nothing more to peel back the wrapper on the burger and dig in.  "Seriously, thank you so much."

[rainstormestheimarchive]

"Yeah I know they meant well about it, but they should both be starting to realize by now that I’d like to do something like this career wise, not just for a couple years." He sighed, thinking back to his college work. “I didn’t pile on the course work to get two years done in one for nothing…"

[ravager-estheim]

He gave a small, somewhat bitter laugh.  "Fighting for the rest of your life?  It sounds pretty awful to me.  I've only been fighting for a few months, and I hate it." God, he hated it so much.  If Hope could go the rest of his life without needing to handle his boomerang, he could die a happy man.  "You should have at least enjoyed college for two years.  Now that you're part of the real world, you'll never get out."

[serxphic-deactivated20140730]

She needed some place to hide. Any place. She went to the church knowing not many people went by there during the weekday and sat down on one of the benches. She placed a hand over her bangaed arm and peaked under the bandage. It was still there. She was really a l’Cie. It was still hard to believe and she didnt know how to accept it before telling her loved ones. How would they take it? Will they still love her? Will they even bother to help her? She looked up at the statues of the gods who were said to rule this world. She didn’t really believe in them much, at least, not until today.

The creaking of the doors opening startled the pinkette as she covered up her brand and looked to the silver haired boy. “It’s alright. Come in." It was a place open to the public. She felt a little strange inviting the boy in.

[ravager-estheim]

Anxiously making his way towards the front pew, Hope glanced over at the girl he'd be sharing his sanctuary with.  "Um... are you okay?" he asked, pursing his lips.  It looked like she might have been crying recently, like something really awful had happened to her.  "Do you... need help?  I can go find a priest--or a soldier, if it's something like that..."

Hope didn't know how to deal with women who were upset.  His mom was a generally happy person, so there was never any reason to try and comfort her when she was around, and Hope didn't have any female friends at school, so... he was honestly completely clueless around women.

[kevin-hp-deactivated20140729]

"Well.." He supposed Hope had a point, but it was easier said than done. If the future still was in shambles then he would have no idea how to go about fixing it. Noel had a feeling that there would be no more paradoxes to fix with Caius gone—if he was truly gone.

The older male blew out yet another sigh, leaning back to look up at the sky. “I hope so. I really hope so." Rubbing the back of his head, he focused his gaze on the light-haired boy beside him. “So, what have you been up to? I mean … if I’m remembering Serah’s stories correctly, you all are trying to find a way to beat your focus?"

[ravager-estheim]

There was something about Noel's story about the future that had Hope intrigued--after all, how often did you come across people that earnestly said they could time travel?  If he could go to the future, though, maybe... maybe he could find a time when he and his companions were all together, with no threat of becoming Cie'th pressing down on them, no battles, no deaths--nothing.  Just them and the happiness Hope was sure they'd earned by now.

"Yeah... we're trying," he agreed, sighing as he moved his bandana away from his wrist.  The symbol was still relatively closed up, but Hope knew that eventually it would open.  He didn't want to think about what happened after that.  "It's like a bad tattoo that I'm gonna die from one day." Hopefully Noel found the joke funny, even if the situation itself wasn't.

[orebayunfang-deactivated2014031]

That feeling of minty freshness that tingles?  That is how Fang’s chest was feeling at the moment.  Hope’s healing energy flown through her body and it was almost…  screw that…  It was better than sex.  Not in the screaming the name sort but the platonic way of relaxing.  “Mmmmmm?" Fang’s eyes closed when the spell started, snapped open again and moved her right arm. “Much better, thanks!"

"How long were you out there training?" she asked, oblivious to the thoughts about a rabbit.  She was used to calling those critters lunch, so Vanille skinning one to butcher it for food didn’t phase her at all.  The concept of keeping one as a pet confused her. 

[ravager-estheim]

Hope grinned triumphantly as Fang moved her arm around.  It had been a pretty simple fix--probably just a couple of cracked ribs or something--and with Fang in tip-top condition, Hope could rest easy when it was her turn to keep watch in case they got ambushed by some creatures at night.  "It was nothing, honestly.  Just a little quick fix."

The question caught him off guard.  They'd agreed to take a break from travelling since they'd found a pretty good place to set up camp (and because Hope and Vanille both were sick of walking), so he'd decided to starting training since they'd stopped to rest.  "... I guess about three hours now?  I've taken a couple of breaks in between, but it's been pretty non stop for the most part."  Lightning would have been proud of him.

[ravager-estheim]

In Need of a Mother | ホープ + エアリス ☾Hope & Aerith☽

[tinywishes-deactivated20140610]

     Having woken in a world of the unknown without any memory on where she had come from or how she got here, Aerith found herself guided towards a church. A place that gave her a certain feeling of comfort and sense of security. Here was where she stayed for hours that day; sitting quietly in thoughts and prayers as her attempt to reach out to some sort of light. Not even a god, but a way to connect to the planet or world she currently was residing in.However, silence was broken when she heard the doors swing open and very shortly after, a young boys broken voice. Surprised by this, the maiden quickly turned her head to look back at him. He looked embarrassed, like he had just walked in on her undressing. This caused a small smile to curl over her lips. 

     "I wouldn’t worry so much. A church is somewhere many people can come to whenever they’d like." She said in a soft tone before turning her head back towards the stained glass window. The colourful lights that reflected the sun grazed over the pale features of the young woman’s face as she breathed in deep and took in a great deal of oxygen. "You can come sit. I was getting kind of lonely, anyway."

[ravager-estheim]

There was hesitation in his step as Hope slowly complied with her offer, but about half way down the aisle, he said, "I was just... um, going to take a nap here..."

Oh, that sounded awful.  This woman could have been incredibly religious, and he probably might have been better off getting struck down by all three gods.  "I-I mean... I come here because I feel safe," the boy tried to amend, shuffling his feet anxiously.  Why did he feel like he needed to explain himself to this woman?  He didn't know her at all, but... she had some kind of air about her that made him sheepish, like a child who was confronting his mother after stealing cookies from the jar before dinner.

[liberatorxvalkyrie]

Looks like Snow had been right to inform Light of his suspicions about Hope.

The boy hadn’t even noticed her standing by the side, watching him, and she hadn’t hesitated to act when she saw that Hope wasn’t even able to get anything to eat, just because he was short of Gil.

So she made her way to the front, stopping Hope before he left the queue, and placed down the sufficient amount of Gil on the counter, her expression never changing.

"Give him whatever he ordered, seeing as all you see when you look at customers is the Gil that they’re worth instead of who they really are."

Turning to face Hope, she gave him a small smile.

"-Snow was worried about you and he shared those worries with me, so I came to check up on you. Looks like it was a good job I did."

[ravager-estheim]

Okay, so Hope hadn't expected Lightning to be there to help him out, but he'd really been hoping for it.  The older woman was always his salvation--even for something as stupidly simple as getting something to eat.

"Lightning," he breathed, relief in his voice.  He tried not to grin as she told the stunned cashier off, moving to the woman's side.  As she as she mentioned Snow, though, the younger was all scowls.  Snow was worried about him?  Great.  "I would have been fine," came the defensive grumble, though it was hard to argue when his stomach produced the loudest growl in the history of... well, everything, basically.

Hope's face turned red and he clutched at his stomach, heaving a sigh.  "I would have just had Lebreau cook for me or something..."

[wickedcataclysm-archive]

Obsession || ravager-estheim

She stared at the light-haired boy that was standing a short ways away from her, possibly unaware of her presence. Good. She could sulk by herself while soaking in his looks all at the same time.

How she despised those little magic beings who somehow caused these feelings.

Inwardly groaning, Lumina was close to clawing her face off. This wasn’t right, but the demon couldn’t deny how attractive and just … nice he looked to her now.

This is so sick…

However, that didn’t stop her from moving over to him. The pink-haired girl stepped into his line of vision, hands placed on her hips. How was she going to go about this? 

Pausing for just a moment, Lumina reached forward to cup his cheeks and pull him forward rather forcefully, connecting her lips to his.

The most forward way possible was definitely her method. Oh well, she could have done worse. Unfortunately it wasn’t as close to her liking, but it wasn’t like she could do much more than that at the moment. Even she had her standards.

[ravager-estheim]

Hope had just been trying to have a normal conversation with one of the townspeople of New Bodhum.  They were talking about... hell, he didn't even really remember, and he wasn't exactly that interested in it.

But that didn't mean he wanted Lumina to break into his conversation to kiss him.  Ever since he'd gotten that awful saboteur spell cast on him about liking the pink haired girl, he'd seriously tried to avoid her.  After all, he was only fourteen--raging teenage hormones just made for a pain in the ass.  He didn't have time for that stuff.

He tried to tell himself that when Lumina kissed him out of the blue, their soft lips meeting for only a brief moment.  Hope staggered, then put a hand on her waist to steady himself.  Not the best place, but he couldn't do much about it now.  "Lumina, what..."

He took a deep breath, trying to push down the little voice that insisted he kiss her again.  Not now, hormones, and definitely not with her--saboteur spell be damned, he thought with mild irritation.  Hope had his standards, right?

[ravager-estheim]

//I told you guys I'd do it.

{ outofhope ;

Here’s my blog for older!Hope if you’re interested. uvu

[ravager-estheim]

{ outofhope ;

Offline for the night.  I'll get my drafts done tomorrow, I swear!  And hopefully I'll make follower posts as well.  We'll see how well Hope want to cooperate.  He's still mad about the drunk texts.

As always, feel free to pester him/me while we're sleeping!

[ravager-estheim]

//I told you guys I'd do it.

{ outofhope ;

Here's my blog for older!Hope if you're interested. uvu

[kevin-hp-deactivated20140729]

"Maybe."

He wasn’t sure. He hadn’t checked on the future at all since he and Serah had fought Caius. It was like he was afraid that all of their work hadn’t been worth it. Noel wasn’t sure he could bear seeing the future as it was, or somehow worse, after the sacrifices that had been made.

"I haven’t, not yet. I don’t really want to know yet. I’ve been putting it off for a while."

[ravager-estheim]

"What's the point of making things better if you don't go enjoy them?" Hope inquired, looking over at the older male with a small frown.  "Even if you're scared, you should do it.  That way if nothing's changed, you'll know that you have to keep trying, keep fixing things until it's better... don't you want to know that kind of thing?"

Truth be told, Hope couldn't blame him. Noel had probably been through a lot, and if all his work was for naught... it would be devastating.  Hope clapped a hand on his shoulder, trying to muster up a reassuring grin.  'I'm sure it's okay, Noel."

[ravager-estheim]

you should make an older hope! you would be great!

//—i

ok yes i’ll d o it

[kevin-hp-deactivated20140729]

Nodding Noel took a seat beside the younger male, rubbing the back of his neck. If he wanted to hear cheery stories about the future then there wasn’t much he could share. The brunette highly doubted that Hope would like to hear that most of his group of friends had gone their separate ways.

"Well .. where I’m from there’s really not that many people. I was born at the end of days." He heaved a soft sigh, wondering where he could really go with this. “It might change now, but I’m not sure. Serah and I did a lot to try to fix things, and you play a big part in it, too. So I’m hoping that the future looks brighter than my time did."

[ravager-estheim]

"The end of days," he repeated, leaning back on his hands, "Sounds really cheerful.  I've got a lot to look forward to when I become an adult, I guess."

Hearing that he somehow helped Noel and Serah made him feel better about himself.  It was good to know that he could be useful and strong even without Lightning by his side.  "Hey, I'm sure things get better.  If you guys tried to fix whatever it was that was messed up, then it'll probably be a much better place.  Have you... been back to your time since meeting Serah to see what you fixed?"