NaNo2014 day 20

[shamera]

The next few days were a blur and busier than Hope would have preferred.

Multiple messages between multiple scientists had revealed attitudes both excited to see what he could contribute and far too scared of l’Cie to actually meet him in person. There was only one, an older lady with a shocking head of white hair who almost looked like she electrocuted herself with the way the strands would stand up every which direction, who insisted that she come meet him face to face in order to discus modern theories on mechanical engineering.

“Pish-posh.” She dismissed his hesitant remarks about her decision to meet a former l’Cie easier with a wave of her hand, the edges of her eyes crinkling up in amusement. “I’m an old lady, what need have I of reputations? If I haven’t gotten enough respect from my colleagues by now, I might as well retire. Bah. Those fools don’t know what they’re missing out on, but I’m not going to be like those narrow minded cockholds.”

Sadly, she was barely able to stay for a few hours as he introduced her to the makeshift labs he set up in the Guardian Corps ex-hangars, having to return home soon enough both due to her work and because her doctors wanted to keep a close eye on her in her age and especially after the Fall.

The scientist, Dr. Kathryn Sanighte, roared with laughter whenever Hope suggested that perhaps she should take it easy, clapping him hard enough on the back that he would have been knocked over if he hadn’t braced for it. For a small tottering old lady, she sure had some strength to her.

“Boy,” she told him, voice wizened and fond, “You learn not to let things like age and the opinions of other people stop you from doing what you want to when you get older. The young are supposed to listen to the old, after all, not the other way around!”

Her dark eyes had been sharp when taking in his projects, clear and intelligent as he described all he was trying to do and his limitations.

“It sounds to me like what you’re missing is the funding.” She told him bluntly when he was done talking.

Hope rubbed at the back of his head sheepishly. “I’m not sure it’s that. I just…” he struggled for a moment to properly summarize what it was that was limiting him. The current level of technology, perhaps. Time, or cooperation. “...Okay, maybe a little. It’s just hard to do this when I have to make the equipment, too.”

She laughed loudly at the observation. “Blunt! But far too humble. Funding is always an issue, no matter what department we come from and just how many breakthroughs we provide for the government. It’s a shame, really. Maybe if more people appreciated just what we do in order to provide people with their current comforts, we might stop worrying about funding.” She stopped, and then laughed again. “But then again, that’s not likely.”

Hope thought to the Academy, and the ease he was used to when requesting the appropriate funding for different projects. He tried not to imagine that his influence might have come from his father’s role in the creation of the Academy, but more because of how the Academy later on took over the role of the government. With the scientists deciding to intervene in delicate situations, it meant that funding was never an issue. Perhaps that was why humanity advanced so quickly over the years after that.

“You must not be afraid of causing waves.” She told him in the hangar. “Don’t settle for ripples. Someone like you is bound to be noticed whether you plan on it or not. Since you’ll make a splash anyway, might as well make it one no one will ever forget.”

He smiled for her then, drawing strength from her can-do attitude. It wasn’t often he met anyone so confident and bold, and he wondered if he might have been able to find comfort in her words the first timeline had he met her.

After she left that day, with promises to return and discuss her research with him on a later date as well as introduce him to the team who was working on the current scenarios now that she was to step back and merely keep watch on the newer generation, Hope called Vanille up to tell her about the latest developments.

“It’s good news, right?” She asked him cheerfully.

“It is,” he agreed. “But how come I’ve never heard of her before? I mean, it really sounded like she knew just about everyone who’s important.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t dwell on that,” she told him quickly. “Things are different this time around, remember? Maybe we’ve already caused a bunch of changes.”

“I suppose.” He responded reluctantly. The more he tried to think about it (and he tried not to), the more ominous of a feeling he got. There were other things he wanted to solve more, anyway. Other ideas and other options. Especially with the latest news… “Did you hear about those kids that set a hospital tent on fire?”

“I did!” Vanille enthused, sounding much more cheerful. “Isn’t it amazing? I’ve heard Serah talking about magic coming back to people before, but what if it didn’t happen here? I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but this is amazing!”

Hope hummed his agreement. It had been exciting the first time around, and just as perplexing this time. The random development of magic within children who have settled in Gran Pulse was such a baffling event that even the Academy four hundred years in the future couldn’t pinpoint who would receive magic and why. It had been agonizing the first time around, to see others granted magic around him and not being able to access it himself, especially since he remembered the feeling of fire between his fingers and ice upon his skin.

Even now, he missed being able to heal the injured, to knit bone and sinew together effortlessly. He missed the magic to protect and to strength, to heal and to defend himself. But the ache was far away, just distant enough that his voice didn’t hitch when speaking of the ‘new’ phenomenon giving birth to magic within the human race again.

“Maybe we’ll all get our magic back.” Vanille suggested. “Not that I’m not grateful about being able to live, but it would be nice, wouldn’t it?”

Hope wouldn’t know. From what he remembered, only Serah manifested magic after the Fall, seeing as he couldn’t exactly tell what had happened to Lightning, and Fang and Vanille had been crystallized. He had lost the ability entirely.

“Maybe we’ll be able to learn what causes it,” he enthused instead. “Whether the condition is environmental or maybe genetic, or whether it’s a threshold scenario where certain conditions must be met before anything happens.”

Vanille giggled at him. “Good old Hope. If you’re not careful, you’ll turn it all into science one day. And then where would the magic be?”

“Readily available to the populace.” He responded without missing a beat. “So that everyone can defend and heal themselves.”

“It might make the world more dangerous, though,” she warned him. “If everyone can throw fire around like those kids, there’d be a lot more injuries than there would be people who could heal them. It’s not always the easiest to find a healer around, even if you learn how to do magic. Remember how hard it was for Snow to try and learn healing magic?”

He did. Vanille explained to him during their journey that it was rarer for people to exhibit healing magic than otherwise, and that while it could be learned by those who were determined enough, if the magic user was not predisposed toward healing, then they only never be able to reach the mastery that a natural healer obtained effortlessly.

“But maybe we could practice.” Vanille suggested. “We’ve got far more experience than those kids, so we could teach them what to do.”

“I doubt they’d want to hear about it from us.” Hope shook his head. Likely those kids had lost a family member or friend to the Fall, or even to the pursuit of l’Cie before that. He doubted their help would be welcome.

“Well,” she made a humming noise in thought. “I guess if they really wanted help, it wouldn’t be too hard to find us. Or at least just tell someone that they wanted to find us.”

Hope doubted that would work, either. Even if those kids did want help, which was slim in the first place, adults near them would never allow their children to go near a former l’Cie if they had anything to do with it. He just made an indeterminate noise that he hoped Vanille would take as affirmation or agreement to her statement, and let her continue talking.

“Serah and Snow are back,” she informed him. “You might be hearing from them later. They haven’t told anyone where they really went — apparently it’s ‘their little secret’ or something. And,” and here she sounded huffy, making Hope draw back from the phone despite knowing that she wouldn’t be able to actually reach through it and shake him. “We all saw your scores, which are great, but you completely forgot to tell us something important!”

“Uh.” Hope’s mind ran over everything that happened recently. Had Lightning told them about the crystal already? He didn’t think she would, not when she was the one who expressly told him to take the time and think it over because it was his decision, and somehow his alone. “I… I don’t think I did.”

“Your birthday.” Vanille lamented, sounding genuinely upset. “Your birthday last week. It was printed on your exam, too!”

Hope paused. Was it really that time of year already? He had been so engrossed in everything that had been happening recently, so busy with wishes and timelines and studying and tests that he had overlooked it entirely, measuring his life in days and weeks and projects. That happened frequently during his time in the Academy, but before then..

Before then, it had been his mother who enthused for weeks beforehand about his birthday, badgering him constantly with what he might want as a ‘surprise’. His father was less obvious, usually needing some reminding before adding extra money to Hope’s credit for him to get whatever he might want himself. His birthdays after the Fall were usually quiet affairs.

This time, it had been forgotten entirely, and it wasn’t his father’s fault so much as it was his own.

“I, uh,” he stammered out, flushing. Of all the things to forget, he had forgotten that Vanille might get upset about that. “...I forgot about it.”

“Your fifteenth birthday is important!”

“Well, I’m not technically fifteen.” Hope protested weakly. “I mean, I’ve been fifteen before already. This would be the second time.” And his fifteenth year hadn’t been all that memorable, anyway. He had forgotten to think about ages, except for the fact that he was once again younger than the others where once he lamented upon growing older and older and eventually dying before he would ever see them again.

“Yes, but I couldn’t celebrate it the first time.” Vanille protested, and then gave an exaggerated sigh. “And I can’t celebrate it this time either because you forgot to tell us!”

“How about we celebrate your twentieth twice as hard?” Hope suggested. “I mean… that one’s been a long time coming, right? My birthday would have been the second time I went through it, but you must have been waiting for your birthday for a really long time now.”

“Ahh…” Vanille sounded hesitant now. “Your calendars are really different from the ones from home, actually. We don’t usually have… exact dates. Just moons, and those born under the same moon. I don’t think you’d want a month long celebration.”

“No, no, that sounds perfect.” Hope insisted. In all his studies of old Pulsian culture, he had barely only begun to scratch the surface. The archaeological digs had been abandoned too soon for lofty future goals, and it would have been nice to go back to them. He wanted to learn more about how Fang and Vanille lived their lives; their traditions and history and stories. “We should do it. Set aside a whole month for your birthday. You deserve it.”

There was an embarrassed pause from the other end of the phone until Vanille piped up, “Well! I should really get down everyone’s birthdays, right? Then we can celebrate for all of us! I think Dajh and Sazh are next, actually. Their birthdays are only a week apart, did you know? Then Serah, and Gadot and Lebreau… wow. Team NORA’s all born in the same month. Except Snow. He hasn’t told me his birthday yet. And we’ve got almost half a year to go before Lightning’s birthday comes around again.”

“Don’t forget Fang’s and your own.” Hope reminded her, glad that she wasn’t making a big deal out of his own forgotten birthday anymore.

“I’m not.” Vanille told him. “But we’re going to get a whole month, remember?”

Hope laughed quietly in response. “Sure. We’ll celebrate all through the year.”

“Mm-hmm.” Vanille agreed pleasantly, and the both of them were quiet for a while as they went about other things, staying on the phone with each other. Hope settled into the small lab he was finally getting into a semblance of order, tapping lightly on the crystal that Yeul had given him. He would have to tell Serah would it sometime. If no one else, she deserved to know about it. She was the only other person who knew both Alyssa and Noel.

Just a little later, he told himself. She just came back from her honeymoon, after all. He’d give her a little more time to enjoy it.

“Hey, Hope?” Vanille finally asked again several long minutes later, and Hope made an inquiring noise. He could almost hear her smile from the other side, her voice soft and fond. “Happy belated birthday.”

—

The following week was nothing short of hectic, reflecting a weather of constant rain and wind, turning the moods of everyone living in the settlement just a little more somber and dark. Hope made his way between his home and the hangar that Rygdea set up for him on a daily basis, getting up early in the morning before the sun came up (which it did later and later by the day) to make a simple breakfast for both him and his dad.

It had been years since he last did that… and really, he had only ever done that for special occasions in the last timeline, but things were different now. Despite all he had to do, Hope remembered how to felt to be left all alone. He also remembered more sharply the mornings of waking up to his mother’s humming in the kitchen and her laughter as he fake gagged over her experimental recipes.

Even if his cooking was nowhere like her’s, even a simple breakfast of eggs and toast with coffee was better than nothing.

“When did we get a coffee maker?” His father asked in bewilderment one morning when Hope stepped to clean up the dishes.

“Mrs. Twiledger bought a new one.” Hope explained. “So she gave us her old one.”

“Mrs. Twiledger?”

“Downstairs.” Hope explained. The housing complexes were almost finished, and already people were starting to move out from the temporary apartments. While most avoided Hope when they could, they were more cordial now that they were about to leave for bigger, better homes. Some of them even started greeting him in the mornings when he left, and a select few would smile as well.

Slowly, ever so slowly, things were starting to get better.

“Huh.” Bartholomew intoned, still looking baffled, although he curled his hands closer to the mug of steaming coffee. “That’s very nice of her — wait, Hope, are you drinking it as well?”

“Uh.” Hope paused where he was picking up the dishes, and darted his eyes over to the half finished mug on his side, sans any sugar or cream. While his taste buds still insisted it was horrible, he remembered ingesting coffee so often in the future that he never thought about not drinking any. “...Yes?”

His father looked disapproving. “You’ll stunt your growth.”

Any other person might have panicked, but Hope already knew when his growth spurt would come in, and he had a long time to wait yet. He doubted he’d actually end up too affected by the caffeine in that manner. Dependence on the substance, on the other hand…

But then again, his father might be concerned over the fact that he hadn’t grown any in the past several months.

“I’ll be fine.” Hope insisted. He already knew he’d hit his growth spurt around seventeen, and then another one at nineteen. He didn’t mind that it’d be late, just so long as he didn’t stay that short forever. “But won’t you be late if you keep asking questions?”

He bit his lip after the question, smile dropping. It was a tactic his mom used to use to get them both to hurry up in the mornings, but…

Bartholomew glanced down at his food and nodded in agreement. “You’re right. I’ve got a meeting in the hour…”

As his father hurried to down the rest of his coffee and make himself presentable for work, Hope set the dishes down in the sink carefully and wondered at the dull ache he still felt every time he thought about his mother. He doubted it was a pain that would ever go away, not when he had dealt with it for well over a decade already. If she were here now…

“I’m off.” His father informed as he stepped into his rain shoes, work case in his hand and an umbrella in the other. “Remember to lock up and wear something warm before you leave.”

“I will.” Hope confirmed, and then listened as the door clicked shut as his father left. It took another half hour for him to clean up completely and organize the things he wanted to cover that day, before he looked out a window and saw that the rain had cleared up entirely. Instead, the clouds were clearing up to reveal blue skies and sunshine for the first time in nearly a week.

A good sign, he thought, before putting his raincoat away. It was still cold outside, colder than before with air that chilled a person’s lungs as they breathed in, but at least now it was dry rather than wet even if the puddles on the ground seemed more like miniature pools than puddles.

While Hope had no fixed schedule yet, he still hurried out of the house soon after with his coat and scarf in his arms rather than on his person as he locked the door behind him and made his way out of the building with his nose buried in a datapad. Ever since he had gotten his exam scores back, he had been in near constant contact with various scientists from Eden University, some of whom he vaguely recognized as names who would later move their way to the Academy in order to continue their research.

He was halfway through the settlement before he remembered about the coat in his arms, reminded by his own shivering as the wind blew threw between the buildings. A sweater just wasn’t going to cut it in this weather, no matter if the sun was out and shining or not.

Hope paused in his steps and shifted to turn off his tablet before attempting to slip the coat on, one arm at a time.

He didn’t get very far with a tall shadow snuck up behind him and he turned, only to drop the coat and scarf (tablet and all) entirely in the mud as he was grabbed.