Oh. Late to change my vote by 2 minutes.
... Eh. Would have ended in a tie if I did. Alea iacta est.
... Eh. Would have ended in a tie if I did. Alea iacta est.
Fractured Fantasy: A CK2 Style Final Fantasy quest
- Thread starter griffinlw
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy Action
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Where the Heart Is
Nora stuffed yet another piece of sushi past her lips. The spicy sort, courtesy of Bartholomew knowing her orders by heart. Savouring it, the kick, the calm, everything coming together perfectly.
Now, if only anyone had said a word since dinner began.
She glanced between Bartholomew and Hope, the former's shoulders stiff with skittish glances in Hope's direction and pleading ones in hers, and the latter having eaten at half the rate she knew of him. Barely even touched the fried ones, his favourite.
Hope may not have manifested a springloaded tension in his body like his father, but the vacant, aggravated stares at the food and the glances to her when he thought she wasn't looking spoke volumes.
She clinked her chopsticks against the platter as she reached for another piece. "So, something funny happened today at the base. You remember Sazh, the one with a chocobo chick nesting in his hair?"
Bartholomew nodded. Hope didn't budge.
"Well, I finally got him to the Synergist course on time, but since he's missed a session or two when things came up with his boy, he didn't pick up a few fundamentals." She downed the current piece of sushi, then held out her free hand, holding the chopsticks over it like a pointer. "So, as he's trying to get his enhancement spell to fire up, that little chocobo chick swoops down, hovers in front of him, little peeps and kwehs cheering him on..." She prodded the chopsticks' tip in the air. "Right in the way, so guess who got a power boost instead?"
"Oh, my." Somehow, some way, the tension left Bartholomew's shoulders.
A bright chuckle rang out from her, for the whole table's sake. "Yup! Little gal had energy to spare, zipped around, and ultimately? Sazh met his match. Floored by her flying tackle, the chick chirped over him, victory in that manic spike of power. Whole class enjoyed that one, even Dajh at the sidelines—"
"I'm not hungry."
Before she could say anything, Hope shoved out his chair and retreated to the hallway. The click of his room's door closing came shortly after.
And so did a sigh from the other end of the table. "I just don't know what to do, Nora." He held his head in one hand, though the other slid towards her. "Everything seems to get to him. He barely eats, it feels impossible to talk about anything without the fal'Cie being related somehow, and then? Point of no return." He shook his head.
Nora, for her part, laid a hand over his free one. "Let me talk to him, Lem. I might as well, while I'm here. No clue when we might get deployed, so..." She stood. As she passed him, she squeezed at his shoulder with a smile. "You'll have to figure this out, too, but it's not as impossible as it looks. ...and it starts by putting the fried pieces in their own container when putting the leftovers away. He'll be back for them, I guarantee it."
Sure enough, the thunks of a frantic search through the cabinets trailed behind her. She soon left them, though, coming to Hope's room. One knock, and she gave the magic words. "Hope? Mind if I come in? I won't be long."
Silence responded for a good several seconds. "It's open."
A smirk teased at her lips before she composed herself and walked inside. What greeted her was only to be expected. More of a mess than usual, Hope's various AMP boomerang models propped against the wall, and components making grand escapes from their boxes, all while the tinker himself sat over another boomerang at his desk. He held the tools of the omnikit tight.
"You doing alright, Hope?"
He huffed, not looking away from his work. "I'm fine! I just don't want to... Nevermind."
There it was. "Look, Hope. Much as I've been avoiding it, I don't care for the idea of eating from the same place my brand came from, either."
That stopped him in his tracks. The fine-point screwdriver he held clattered against the counter, and he turned to her, teeth gritted yet eyes wide with moisture.
"I know. It's a raw deal, but I did some thinking on it." She crossed her arms, then shrugged. "We've relied on Carbuncle all our lives, for more time than any of us will see. The only way to stop relying on it is to start fresh, and honestly? I don't know many who are even trying, save for that kid who rallied us at the Purge." She chuckled. "Rumours around Bodhum said his little gang were farming for themselves, apparently. Couldn't feed many, but it was their little way of not having to answer to the fal'Cie. Which means others can do it, too. It's just a matter of figuring it out."
His jaw finally untensed, and his gaze fell away. Those eyes flicked to and fro with an array of thoughts she couldn't begin to guess at the conclusions of, but she'd done her best. "A-Alright. I'll, uh... I'll see what's left later tonight. I'm sorry."
"So long as you take care of yourself, but anyways..." She pointed two fingers at the yellow-orange boomerang on the work table. "Seeing what you can do with that new Airwing? And here I thought you couldn't stop yourself from jamming every new improvement you could in the Hawkeye."
"That's kind of why I'm working on this one instead, actually." He gestured behind him, the purple, branchlike boomerang polished to a fine sheen. "I think I've done everything I can with it. Only one more piece and I could make it better than ever, but perovskite isn't the kind of thing you just find in a scrapyard."
"Makes sense. Hopefully that little rock will turn up after all, but until then?" She stepped behind him, laying both hands on his shoulders and leaning down. With a kiss to his head earning her a groan under his breath, she headed back to the door. "Keep up the good work, and I will, too." She made to close the door, but left it open just a crack. "Love you, Hope."
"L-Love you too, Mom."
With Hope firmly back to his tinkering, she let the door click shut, striding to the living room. As she rounded the corner, a sterile, fact-of-the-matter voice drifted through the room from the glow of a screen. Bartholomew just stared at the report from the couch, unblinking.
"...and with their most recent excursion, the reallocated Bodhum Security Regiment have made significant progress mapping the new world beneath Cocoon. In other news, multiple military directors and the Primarch himself have confirmed that Sanctum l'Cie are nearing readiness for assignment to any divisions that request their services."
"You keep making that face and it'll get stuck like that, Lem."
He jolted from his hunched posture. Bartholomew looked to her, and he willed a fragile smile onto his face. "So, then. Is Hope alright?"
Nora gave a smile without need for a front, and she lowered onto the cushion next to him. "Fine as he can be. He'll be back for his favourite, at least." She leaned towards him, and as soon as his arm wrapped around her shoulders, she settled into his chest with a warm sigh. "You should see him diving into his work. It reminds me of someone else I know. I think you know him, too."
He sighed. "That aside, how do you do it, Nora? It's terrifying just trying to start talking to him. What's your secret?"
"My secret? That's a simple one." She reached up a hand, booping him right on the nose. "I'm never sure, either. All I can do is my best. Figuring out places to start doesn't hurt, though. Things like his tinkering."
"Ah, right." He glanced down to her, his hand rubbing her shoulder. "He's been using whatever scrap he can find on that Alicanto we got him, right? How's that going?"
A laugh escaped her before she could stop it. "Oh, Lem, that was his training model. It's his Hawkeye that's more tinkering than original parts, and now he's on to the hunting model we got during the trip in Bodhum."
"An Airwing?!" He flopped his head back. "Where does the time go, Nora? How much have I missed behind a desk? Do I even—"
"Hey." She straightened up, then put a hand to his cheek, turning him towards her. "You haven't missed enough that you're too late. I know it." Her forehead pressed to his, she whispered. "It's not too late for any of us, Lem."
His eyes flitted about, reaching for any thought they could. One thought won out. He leaned in and kissed her, and they stayed like that for longer than they cared to wonder.
When they parted at last, both now laid out on the couch side-by-side, Nora spoke up. "You know, I doubt Hope's the only one feeling that apprehension about Carbuncle. For anyone whose entry fee took someone they love, the last thing they wanna do is rely on the fal'Cie. It makes you wonder: what would it take to get that up and running?"
A glint sparked in his eyes. He got that same look Hope had hearing the reality of Carbuncle earlier, and he stared up at the ceiling. "Hmm... I do wonder. Something that could even begin to approach that farming system Carbuncle manages would be nothing short of amazing, even at a smaller scale. But the materials, funding, the people to help with it..."
She held him tighter. "See, you're getting it. One step at a time, and we take it as it comes. That's all we need, and we'll all be just fine. I'm sure of it."
A few chuckles out of him, and they said nothing more. Neither could be bothered to move from their place together. In that bliss, though, her earlier words itched at the back of her mind.
"My secret? That's a simple one. I'm never sure, either."
--
Definitely not me waiting for the gap between a vote ending and a turn resolving to post a thing, nope.
Anyways, when I said I wasn't redownloading 50+ gigs of game to check things? Lied. Like a liar. I'm in the postgame now. And I've dived deep into flavour text on Hope's various boomerangs.
See, the one he starts with is, very notably, not the training model, so he already knows how to use AMP boomerangs. The Airwing is actually a sport hunting model, while the Alicanto is the training one (Stagger Lock passive), and the Hawkeye is for amateur competitions. Hope's pretty young to be this good with AMP boomerangs, which led me to the conclusion above:
They're absolutely a pastime of his and he's totally nerding out with it in his private teenage bedroom sanctuary and incidentally getting way better with AMP tech in general than any civilian reasonably could.
On a side note, "Bart" is an absolutely poisoned nickname in FF13 due to a certain recurring megalomaniac jackass, so I wound up desperately mining phonetics for literally anything else usable as a nickname for Bartholomew.
Side side note, have you ever thought about what people eat in FF13 before the centuries pass and we get confirmed food in Lightning Returns? I have. And down that way lies madness that results in making compromises like "Okay Snow did a full dogeza that one time so there's some Japanese culture injected here, and Hope's dad is an economist so they're at least middle class, thus a nice order-out dinner is sushi I guess???"
Literally the only thing anyone eats on-screen or in text on Cocoon in the first game is a single orange-coloured cocktail. Thanks, Fang. .-.
Nora stuffed yet another piece of sushi past her lips. The spicy sort, courtesy of Bartholomew knowing her orders by heart. Savouring it, the kick, the calm, everything coming together perfectly.
Now, if only anyone had said a word since dinner began.
She glanced between Bartholomew and Hope, the former's shoulders stiff with skittish glances in Hope's direction and pleading ones in hers, and the latter having eaten at half the rate she knew of him. Barely even touched the fried ones, his favourite.
Hope may not have manifested a springloaded tension in his body like his father, but the vacant, aggravated stares at the food and the glances to her when he thought she wasn't looking spoke volumes.
She clinked her chopsticks against the platter as she reached for another piece. "So, something funny happened today at the base. You remember Sazh, the one with a chocobo chick nesting in his hair?"
Bartholomew nodded. Hope didn't budge.
"Well, I finally got him to the Synergist course on time, but since he's missed a session or two when things came up with his boy, he didn't pick up a few fundamentals." She downed the current piece of sushi, then held out her free hand, holding the chopsticks over it like a pointer. "So, as he's trying to get his enhancement spell to fire up, that little chocobo chick swoops down, hovers in front of him, little peeps and kwehs cheering him on..." She prodded the chopsticks' tip in the air. "Right in the way, so guess who got a power boost instead?"
"Oh, my." Somehow, some way, the tension left Bartholomew's shoulders.
A bright chuckle rang out from her, for the whole table's sake. "Yup! Little gal had energy to spare, zipped around, and ultimately? Sazh met his match. Floored by her flying tackle, the chick chirped over him, victory in that manic spike of power. Whole class enjoyed that one, even Dajh at the sidelines—"
"I'm not hungry."
Before she could say anything, Hope shoved out his chair and retreated to the hallway. The click of his room's door closing came shortly after.
And so did a sigh from the other end of the table. "I just don't know what to do, Nora." He held his head in one hand, though the other slid towards her. "Everything seems to get to him. He barely eats, it feels impossible to talk about anything without the fal'Cie being related somehow, and then? Point of no return." He shook his head.
Nora, for her part, laid a hand over his free one. "Let me talk to him, Lem. I might as well, while I'm here. No clue when we might get deployed, so..." She stood. As she passed him, she squeezed at his shoulder with a smile. "You'll have to figure this out, too, but it's not as impossible as it looks. ...and it starts by putting the fried pieces in their own container when putting the leftovers away. He'll be back for them, I guarantee it."
Sure enough, the thunks of a frantic search through the cabinets trailed behind her. She soon left them, though, coming to Hope's room. One knock, and she gave the magic words. "Hope? Mind if I come in? I won't be long."
Silence responded for a good several seconds. "It's open."
A smirk teased at her lips before she composed herself and walked inside. What greeted her was only to be expected. More of a mess than usual, Hope's various AMP boomerang models propped against the wall, and components making grand escapes from their boxes, all while the tinker himself sat over another boomerang at his desk. He held the tools of the omnikit tight.
"You doing alright, Hope?"
He huffed, not looking away from his work. "I'm fine! I just don't want to... Nevermind."
There it was. "Look, Hope. Much as I've been avoiding it, I don't care for the idea of eating from the same place my brand came from, either."
That stopped him in his tracks. The fine-point screwdriver he held clattered against the counter, and he turned to her, teeth gritted yet eyes wide with moisture.
"I know. It's a raw deal, but I did some thinking on it." She crossed her arms, then shrugged. "We've relied on Carbuncle all our lives, for more time than any of us will see. The only way to stop relying on it is to start fresh, and honestly? I don't know many who are even trying, save for that kid who rallied us at the Purge." She chuckled. "Rumours around Bodhum said his little gang were farming for themselves, apparently. Couldn't feed many, but it was their little way of not having to answer to the fal'Cie. Which means others can do it, too. It's just a matter of figuring it out."
His jaw finally untensed, and his gaze fell away. Those eyes flicked to and fro with an array of thoughts she couldn't begin to guess at the conclusions of, but she'd done her best. "A-Alright. I'll, uh... I'll see what's left later tonight. I'm sorry."
"So long as you take care of yourself, but anyways..." She pointed two fingers at the yellow-orange boomerang on the work table. "Seeing what you can do with that new Airwing? And here I thought you couldn't stop yourself from jamming every new improvement you could in the Hawkeye."
"That's kind of why I'm working on this one instead, actually." He gestured behind him, the purple, branchlike boomerang polished to a fine sheen. "I think I've done everything I can with it. Only one more piece and I could make it better than ever, but perovskite isn't the kind of thing you just find in a scrapyard."
"Makes sense. Hopefully that little rock will turn up after all, but until then?" She stepped behind him, laying both hands on his shoulders and leaning down. With a kiss to his head earning her a groan under his breath, she headed back to the door. "Keep up the good work, and I will, too." She made to close the door, but left it open just a crack. "Love you, Hope."
"L-Love you too, Mom."
With Hope firmly back to his tinkering, she let the door click shut, striding to the living room. As she rounded the corner, a sterile, fact-of-the-matter voice drifted through the room from the glow of a screen. Bartholomew just stared at the report from the couch, unblinking.
"...and with their most recent excursion, the reallocated Bodhum Security Regiment have made significant progress mapping the new world beneath Cocoon. In other news, multiple military directors and the Primarch himself have confirmed that Sanctum l'Cie are nearing readiness for assignment to any divisions that request their services."
"You keep making that face and it'll get stuck like that, Lem."
He jolted from his hunched posture. Bartholomew looked to her, and he willed a fragile smile onto his face. "So, then. Is Hope alright?"
Nora gave a smile without need for a front, and she lowered onto the cushion next to him. "Fine as he can be. He'll be back for his favourite, at least." She leaned towards him, and as soon as his arm wrapped around her shoulders, she settled into his chest with a warm sigh. "You should see him diving into his work. It reminds me of someone else I know. I think you know him, too."
He sighed. "That aside, how do you do it, Nora? It's terrifying just trying to start talking to him. What's your secret?"
"My secret? That's a simple one." She reached up a hand, booping him right on the nose. "I'm never sure, either. All I can do is my best. Figuring out places to start doesn't hurt, though. Things like his tinkering."
"Ah, right." He glanced down to her, his hand rubbing her shoulder. "He's been using whatever scrap he can find on that Alicanto we got him, right? How's that going?"
A laugh escaped her before she could stop it. "Oh, Lem, that was his training model. It's his Hawkeye that's more tinkering than original parts, and now he's on to the hunting model we got during the trip in Bodhum."
"An Airwing?!" He flopped his head back. "Where does the time go, Nora? How much have I missed behind a desk? Do I even—"
"Hey." She straightened up, then put a hand to his cheek, turning him towards her. "You haven't missed enough that you're too late. I know it." Her forehead pressed to his, she whispered. "It's not too late for any of us, Lem."
His eyes flitted about, reaching for any thought they could. One thought won out. He leaned in and kissed her, and they stayed like that for longer than they cared to wonder.
When they parted at last, both now laid out on the couch side-by-side, Nora spoke up. "You know, I doubt Hope's the only one feeling that apprehension about Carbuncle. For anyone whose entry fee took someone they love, the last thing they wanna do is rely on the fal'Cie. It makes you wonder: what would it take to get that up and running?"
A glint sparked in his eyes. He got that same look Hope had hearing the reality of Carbuncle earlier, and he stared up at the ceiling. "Hmm... I do wonder. Something that could even begin to approach that farming system Carbuncle manages would be nothing short of amazing, even at a smaller scale. But the materials, funding, the people to help with it..."
She held him tighter. "See, you're getting it. One step at a time, and we take it as it comes. That's all we need, and we'll all be just fine. I'm sure of it."
A few chuckles out of him, and they said nothing more. Neither could be bothered to move from their place together. In that bliss, though, her earlier words itched at the back of her mind.
"My secret? That's a simple one. I'm never sure, either."
--
Definitely not me waiting for the gap between a vote ending and a turn resolving to post a thing, nope.
Anyways, when I said I wasn't redownloading 50+ gigs of game to check things? Lied. Like a liar. I'm in the postgame now. And I've dived deep into flavour text on Hope's various boomerangs.
See, the one he starts with is, very notably, not the training model, so he already knows how to use AMP boomerangs. The Airwing is actually a sport hunting model, while the Alicanto is the training one (Stagger Lock passive), and the Hawkeye is for amateur competitions. Hope's pretty young to be this good with AMP boomerangs, which led me to the conclusion above:
They're absolutely a pastime of his and he's totally nerding out with it in his private teenage bedroom sanctuary and incidentally getting way better with AMP tech in general than any civilian reasonably could.
On a side note, "Bart" is an absolutely poisoned nickname in FF13 due to a certain recurring megalomaniac jackass, so I wound up desperately mining phonetics for literally anything else usable as a nickname for Bartholomew.
Side side note, have you ever thought about what people eat in FF13 before the centuries pass and we get confirmed food in Lightning Returns? I have. And down that way lies madness that results in making compromises like "Okay Snow did a full dogeza that one time so there's some Japanese culture injected here, and Hope's dad is an economist so they're at least middle class, thus a nice order-out dinner is sushi I guess???"
Literally the only thing anyone eats on-screen or in text on Cocoon in the first game is a single orange-coloured cocktail. Thanks, Fang. .-.