Summary: “When he looks at Hope, he sees the earnest boy he’s met not too long ago, but these green eyes are glinting with a maturity he’s not sure many warriors possess.”
Note: AO3 link. Hope & Squall interaction, set during DFFOO Act 2 after Hope got back his memories from XIII-2.
Hope wordlessly sits next to him on the ground, and looks up at the night sky full of stars. Whatever people say about worlds having their own rules and looking different in every aspect, the sky is always the same—the deep blue in this world of respite brings him the same comfort as the one back at home.
“It is much more pleasant to admire the sky in silence, isn’t it?” Hope says.
Squall glances at their group of friends gathered around a fire, loudly telling stories or reenacting some epic battle that happened either in their world or in popular books. Squall’s not sure that blocking a weapon with bare hands can actually happen in real life.
“You got tired of the noise?” Squall asks instead of answering Hope’s question.
Hope turns his head to look at him, and the smile that settles on his face makes him look a lot older than his current body suggests. That will never stop being odd to see.
“I’m happy that everyone is getting along. But I guess I’m not used to so much liveliness around me anymore.”
… What a thing to say, in such a calm tone, when a few days ago Hope was happily mingling with the other kids.
“Some of my friends can’t stop talking, so I’m never passing up the opportunity to get some quiet,” Squall says, shrugging. “I don’t like constant buzzing around me.”
This is a choice Squall made, though; distancing himself from other people and only keeping for company the slashes of his gunblade. It’s simpler that way. Having friends with all sorts of personalities is more exhausting than he imagined.
Hope nods, always keeping that little smile. “Do you mind if I join you during these moments of quiet and peace, sometimes? I love hearing about our allies’ journeys and the adventures they went on, but I think that my mind is still adjusting after getting back my memories.” He looks down, tracing some patterns on the ground with his finger. “I need to put some order in it.”
Hope speaks more clearly, saying each word with intention like he’s carefully chosen them. He seems to be a natural at making those around him see and hear exactly what he wants. He doesn’t speak loudly, but his words have weight. No one doubts him.
Squall only noticed because he’s acting the same. He also prefers thinking his full sentences first before saying them out loud, though the difference is that a few people have no qualms calling him out when he’s taking too long turning a sentence over and over in his head. When he looks at Hope, he sees the earnest boy he’s met not too long ago, but these green eyes are glinting with a maturity he’s not sure many warriors possess.
“It’s okay if you prefer being alone, I just thought that maybe having someone by your side will prevent other people from coming and bothering you.” Hope glances at him, his lips stretching into a grin, more carefree and a little mischievous, like the one Squall often sees on Selphie.
“...I don’t mind. Don’t expect me to hold an exciting conversation, though.”
“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t be sitting with you if I wanted to talk for hours.”
Squall’s eyebrow twitches, as he’s pretty sure this is a jab at him and his social skills, but Hope’s relaxed posture indicates that he’s only teasing. Well. He’s not the first one to say something along those lines.
“I can’t imagine Vanille or Snow not talking at you,” Squall says.
Very quickly, Hope’s composure breaks before he remembers himself and schools his features back into neutrality. Something unpleasant curls into Squall’s stomach as he realizes he touched on a sensitive subject.
“They would, wouldn’t they?” Hope chuckles. “Vanille has an endless list of conversation topics and Snow simply doesn’t know when to leave someone alone.”
If Snow sticks to someone like glue, and Vanille spreads joy like she breathes, then surely Hope would still be used to never ending chatting around him. Squall doesn’t point out the incoherence in Hope’s words. From the hints he dropped, maybe unconsciously, Hope’s future doesn’t sound full of happiness and little victories, even if Serah and Noel seem perfectly fine with the future they’re living in.
Something is bothering the Hope from the future, but Squall doesn’t know him well enough to prod and get answers out of him.
“They’re still the same, then,” he offers instead.
Hope shifts his gaze back at the sky, and extends a hand towards it. Maybe with the tip of his fingers, he’s touching a star.
“Yes, they haven’t changed, even after all these years. Time is different for everyone.”
“...Some people grow up and others don’t.”
Hope laughs.
No matter how wise this old Hope is, Squall wishes someone would come and erase the loneliness in his voice.
“I won’t be defeated!” I plan to do a series of doodles I’ve observed from my obsession of playing the Dissidia series wayyyy to many times, being completely captivated with the story, combat, and of course the magic! The series holds a lot of good times I’ve spent growing up. I decided to start with Terra Branford, my fav, in her Esper form performing Riot Blade! ✨🌟❄️⚡️🔥🌪☄️ original design by yoshitaka amano
Today I decided to play Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy again, starting from scratch, and to my surprise, when I was navigating the menus, I noticed...
... that you can actually CREATE QUESTS.
And when I say “create quests” I don’t mean just “x fights y” and little more, no... I mean that you can MAKE YOUR OWN STORIES.
You write dialogues, choose music and scenario, put effects, choose the battles settings... I didn’t remember that feature AT ALL, and it just sounds so RAD.
I’m too excited about this feature! 💛
I think I just didn’t understand back in the day what this feature was for exactly because my English level wasn’t even close to how it is now. Or maybe I didn’t even read all the instructions...?
As a curiosity, in Spain this game came out with everything in English except for cutscenes and dialogues, which is weird.
And well, I’ve already experimented a little bit with the Quest Creator (or, should I say, “Interactive Fic Creator”) today, and I’ve started to create a quest with Lightning and Kain because I love these 2 characters and I love them as a pairing~
It seems that one can share said quests in certain ways, and one of them allows to just upload the file of the quest to your own PC. I’m thinking that, if I do some quests and anyone’s still playing this and is interested (although the probabilities are very low, if not nonexistent), I could upload them to Dropbox.
Ah, man... This Quest Creator opens up so many possibilities.
For now, I’ll just satisfy the shipper in me that hurts at the lack of Lightning x Kain and try create a story involving them lol.
Another good thing is that this will probably make up for a decent solace if Dissidia NT Final Fantasy ends up having as less story as I fear. Hell, I could even try to recreate a story about an ealier cycle if I wanted to, given the tools the Quest Creator has.
