paixaorpg | Another victim of fate. [Active/open]

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Another victim of fate. [Active/open]

Character(s): Hope Estheim
Content: Hope arrives in the city
Setting: Joutenheim
Time: morning
Warnings: none

After all he had been through lately, waking up in a completely unfamiliar location was probably the worst thing that could have happened. The first thought that went through Hope’s head was that they had been captured, and were scheduled for execution at any time. Yet, as far as Hope could tell, that wasn’t the case. This place wasn’t a prison, or a holding cell, it looked more like a city than anything else. Even though it looked nothing like Cocoon at all. The architecture, the people’s clothes. Everything was all wrong.

Hope noticed the line forming outside the gate he had ended up by. He watched as dozens of seemingly nondescript people were shuffled into the city by the guard. It just added to the surreality of the situation. Hope tried to keep his distance though, he didn't want to know what would happen if they saw him, what if they worked for the Sanctum? He just didn't trust this place.

He needed to find Lightning and the others. If they were here, then they might know what was going on. But where to start looking? Maybe they were in the city. He had to try to sneak in past the guard somehow.

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It wasn't exactly a routine for Lightning to walk by the gates these days, but she sure seemed to be doing just that lately. She wasn't even sure what had drawn her to this gate in particular, but there she was that morning. At least she looked just as she normally had on Cocoon. Lightning had seen no reason to change what she wore just because of where she had found herself.

Approaching the gate, she glanced through it on a whim and did a double take. No... surely she hadn't seen who she thought she'd seen.

Lightning walked closer, ignoring the protests from people who were trying to get through and into the city. Where was it, where- There! The hair was unmistakable and so was the kid's clothing.

"Hope!" she called out, pushing through the crowd. Of all of their companions, he was the one she'd wanted least to get pulled into this mess.

Life rarely presents itself with the opportunity to do things at once. Fortunately that opportunity presented itself by recovering from massive physical trauma and tail a recently acquired friend. Sure, this may have been a kind of stalking, but since the best that Celes was able to manage was a slow sprint, she was willing to be a little sneaky.

Besides, as open as Lightning was, there was a lot that she held back. Celes wasn't quite sure if that was intentional or just part of her personality. Yet seeing as she finally revealed what a l'Cie was and everything that entailed, Celes guessed that Lightning was just quiet by nature. Which was fine... until curiosity begins to overwhelm.

Unfortunately things had begun to seem just as telling as how she usually presented herself: calm and composed. While it was comforting to see this be a trait of her friend, she had hoped to see a little more range of activity. Celes was about ready to go home (as her knees were getting a little wobbly), when Lightning suddenly barreled through the gate. Curious, she saw her pink-haired friend walk toward a spikey-haired kid, no older than Gau perhaps, standing in front with what seemed to be a dazed expression on his face.

Ah, but it was those rare strokes of luck that made everything worthwhile. A fickle thing, really, but Setzer had long since gotten used to that. One could hardly be picky in his line of work.

Still, he hadn't quite expected to find to find a payoff here. He'd long since stopped treating his visits to the gates as anything more than the wanderings of a man more used to sky than a city like this. Wanderlust was a cruel mistress, when there was so few places he hadn't been. But there was no mistaking at least one of the people in the streets. (The woman who'd all but run through the streets, he was entirely unfamiliar with, for all that it was a fairly familiar story.)

He wasn't going to run though. It wasn't dignified.

"Celes?"

Hope looked up at where his name had been called from, and he was surprised to see a familiar pink haired woman running toward him. He was relived to see that she was okay, and that he didn't have to go searching for her. He wouldn't have known where to start if he had to do that.

"Light!" He called as he closed the distance between him and Lightning, "You are here!"

He looked around behind her for any other familiar faces, only to find none. Hope frowned, and looked up at Lightning. "Where's Snow and Fang?"

Lightning wasn't entirely sure how she should greet him, especially if the rumors about time differences were true, but she was glad that Hope had called her "Light." That at least meant he remembered enough of their time together to be comfortable with her.

She gave him a relieved but tense smile as she stopped close by him. "Glad to see you made it in one piece." The question about Snow and Fang made her shake her head and then she frowned. "Haven't seen them, Sazh, or Vanille. I was the only one from Cocoon until just now."

Much as she wanted to know what Hope remembered, she knew she'd need to get him through the gate first. "You can go ahead and give these guys your name. They don't know anything. About us." Meaning, they had no idea what people were l'Cie or even what l'Cie were. "It's the only way to pass through the gate."

Celes shook her head in frustration as she strained to listen to the two talk. She could make out a few of the words that she was used to hearing Lightning said, but most of what they were saying was drowned out by distance. Undaunted, the former general gazed around for another, closer, hiding place.

She had just decided to make a hobble for a large-enough pillar when a surprisingly familiar voice spoke up behind her. Stunned and a bit alarmed, Celes turned around to be greeted by a scarred face that she hadn't seen for what seemed like years.

"...Setzer?"

While he couldn't say he was surprised at the look of surprise he was treated, it was still remarkably sobering. How many times would he have to re-explain things? How many more times would people move on and leave him stuck behind in a world without ship or sky?

He wasn't sure he really wanted to know the answer. It would have been a bad card in an already bad hand. Thus, it was best to put that carefully out of his mind and make the best of what he had. There was nothing so horrible that a friend couldn't at least make it somewhat more bearable. So he simply settled for offering an easy smile.

"Don't tell me you're surprised to see me."

Celes laughed and smiled. Of course she was surprised to see Setzer. Since coming here two weeks ago she had seen and listened to so many different things that were so foreign to her world. Had she had a few more weeks here, she would have begun to block out her thoughts of the Goddesses and Kefka and the Espers for more immediate concerns. Yet now here he was: a reminder of her world, a voice, a smell that brought back all the memories in vivid detail.

Celes tilted her head coyly. "Of course I'm not surprised," She lied, "this world seems to have everything else so why not another person from my world?"

That did seem to be the way of the place, from what Setzer had seen thus far. Enough of the unfamiliar to be distinctly somewhere that he'd never been to before, but with a few familiar faces dotted here and there. Sadly, not all of them were precisely welcome faces, but that could be put safely out of mind for the time being.

"Why not indeed?"

Celes smiled a small smile gazing into the familiar face before her. Though she didn't want to forget her promise to her new friends, seeing old friends was far from an unwelcome sight.

"It's nice to see you again." She said warmly. Then another thought crept into her mind: "Is there anyone else from our world here that you know of?"

Had he known about any promises, Setzer would hardly have asked her to forget them. Nor would he have asked her to if he had known, for that matter. After all, they were hardly the sort of thing one should forget, and new friends were always welcome.

"Terra's here as well," he answered. That was the easier of the two to bring up. Old friends, old allies; far easier than mentioning the alternative. But on the other hand to not mention the other side of the coin would to be leaving Celes unprepared, and he wasn't the sort to leave her in that sort of situation. So after a moment more, he continued, in a much more serious tone of voice.

"And Kefka."

Celes smiled at the mention of Terra. Since arriving into this strange land she was unsure if anybody survived the Blackjack's destruction besides herself. She had been consoling herself that their absence was merely the fact that she was the one that was displaced and that they were alive and well far, far away.

Yet this relief was short-lived, as a sickly pit began to fit in her stomach. "Kefka's here?!" Celes shouted in exasperation and terror as she stepped away from the pillar that she was using to support herself. That was a mistake. The former Imperial General quickly found that her legs were unprepared for that sudden shift in balance and her feet were suddenly in midair as she careened forwards.

He was afraid that might be her reaction. Or at least, he'd expected the surprise and terror. He was a thorn in all of their sides, and even if he'd thus far been comparatively quiet, that wasn't the most comforting of facts, with him. He was a danger even when he wasn't trying to be.

He was not however, expecting Celes to pitch forward so suddenly and he moved without thinking to catch her. It wouldn't do to have her go crashing to the street. What's more, it wouldn't be gentlemanly. He was perfectly capable of helping, so help he would. It was a simple as that.

"Careful, there."

Celes recoiled feebly at Setzer's touch -- being held was not something that she was used to, even now. But after a quick reminder that she barely had the strength to stand for longer than a half-hour much less fend off a friend. This hurt. Not because she didn't trust Setzer to be ungentlemanly (far from, since he did save her), but because she became startlingly aware of her own physical limits.

Which was a serious problem given recent news.

For the moment, though, she flustered and blushed at how incredibly bad her outburst went. After settling down, she gazed sheepishly apologetic at Setzer. "Thanks... sorry."

"Think nothing of it," he answered with a smile. He would have caught her a thousand times over if it had been necessary. And besides, there wasn't any sort of point for apologizing over the failings of one's own body.

Not to say that it wasn't worrying of course. It was. Deeply and intensely so, as a matter of fact. He wasn't precisely the best when it came to combat and on the off-chance that they happened to need to come to blows with him it would be far better to have everyone ready to make the best stand they could and this... this didn't particularly look like it.

"Are you all right?"

Was she all right? What a strange thing to ask, she thought. She had been emaciated and bed-ridden for the past two weeks with barely enough strength to walk for more than a half-hour. To make matters worse, she had heard that the one person that was capable of destroying everything in existence much less this island was still alive and well. Yet while these thoughts troubled her, they did not appear outside of herself -- save perhaps an occasional trembling in her arms.

"I'm fine." She stated firmly. "I'm just a little weak."

A little weak? If he was any judge of that sort of thing, he'd call that more than just a 'little'. But if she wanted to pretend that it was less of a problem than it was then he supposed he could afford to let her think that for a bit longer. As long as it didn't keep coming up anyway.

"I have a place nearby, if you'd like to rest for a bit," he offered.

He wasn't precisely expecting him to take her up on it, but it couldn't hurt in the least to actually offer.

"Thanks..." Celes said while contemplating everything, "...but I think Lightning would get worried if I wasn't resting when we got back."

She looked over in the distance where she saw her last and saw that she was still talking to that boy. "In fact, I should get going, she looks like she's going to leave soon." Even though she was pretty sure that she'd never make it in time, she her pride also wasn't going to let her ask Setzer for help either.

Lightning. Now that was the sort of name you didn't hear every day. But at the very least it offered a name to match with one of the other faces. It wasn't much, but he'd gambled on longer odds and come out the victor before. An enjoyable little pastime and he had a perfectly good reason to know someone else's name now.

Sometimes it was the little things that made all the difference.

"Perhaps you'd care for a familiar arm to help you along the way?"

A part of her wanted to say no straight away and drag it out. However, Setzer had already caught her once already and being helped to their apartment wouldn't be any worse. "I wouldn't say no." She stated softly, hoping that he wouldn't look bad to him but already knowing that it didn't matter much.

"Thanks." She added.

It would certainly look no worse, although he couldn't say it looked good either way. It was simply that he was well prepared to play the part of the perfect gentleman and ignore all (or most of) the signs that one of his friends was in bad shape. He could worry when he got back to his own place, or drown his woes in spirits and in the patterns of the cards. But that was for him to worry about, and not Celes.

"Would you rather go join them or shall I wave them over?"

At first Celes was confused. She had momentarily forgot that she was following her roommate in the memories of her past and the calming nostalgia of someone she knew. Thankfully his eyes reminded her of her misplaced mission. Her embarrassment was made worse by the fact that they were now looking at them. So much for going unnoticed...

Weighing her options, she decided that for Setzer's sake and perhaps even safety it would probably be better to appear in control of the situation. "I think we should go join them," she responded, thinking to also add "...and for your safety I think you should keep your flair for the romantic to yourself for now."

"I'm glad you're here, too," Hope replied, "I wouldn't want to deal with whatever's going on alone..."

He matched Lightning's frown when she said that she was the only other on from Cocoon. He really didn't like the sound of that, "What happened to them?"

Hope looked at Light incredulously when she told him to tell the guard his name, while Hope was certain Lighting wouldn't astray, the whole thing just seemed... strange.

"Are you sure they don't know anything?"

Lightning's smile faded, but she nodded anyway at Hope's questions. "I don't know what happened, but my guess is they're all still wherever you last saw them. They'll be fine." Even if she wanted a little more support to arrive here with her.

"Don't worry about the people here. They really don't know. The Cocoon paranoia doesn't exist here."

A quick glance around proved that they were holding up a couple of people, so she guided Hope into line and stood with him. "Let's get you through the gate and then I'll show you where I'm staying." Her gaze returned to Hope as she tried to determine how he was doing.

"How are you feeling?"

"Alright, if you say so, Light," He replied as he walked with Lightning over to the line with trepidation. Maybe they didn't know about Cocoon, but he still didn't trust this place. At all.

"I'm feeling fine, I guess, but there's something about this place that--" Hope was cut off when the guard asked him for his name, and then he shoved the journal at Hope after the boy answered.

Hope turned the journal over in his hands, "What is this? A computer?"

At least the line hadn't taken too long. Lightning didn't like to wait. She glanced down at Hope, though, and offered him a small smile.

"I know. It doesn't have a good feeling, probably about as good as Palumpolum after PSICOM moved in."

Lightning placed a hand on Hope's shoulder and started to guide him through the gates. She glanced around, about to answer his question, when her eyes fell upon something else. A frown creased her face then. Was that...? But she didn't say anything, just moved towards the person who looked like her roommate, pushing Hope behind her in case that other man wanted to try something.

When Lightning pushed him behind her, Hope started looking around the crowds of people to find what she was reacting too. But as far as Hope could tell, there was nothing.

"What is it?" He asked quietly. If Light's sudden change in demeanor was anything to go by, trying not to bring attention to themselves was probably a good idea.

Lightning didn't know the man at all. She'd never seen him here before, though that never meant he didn't live here. Weapon staying in its holder for now, she peered around the crowd, knowing that at any moment she could be seen.

"My roommate," she explained, tilting her head in Celes' direction. "The blonde. She arrived injured, so I helped her. She's stayed with me since then."

But who was that man?

"I don't know who she's talking to, but she's not strong enough to manage a fight." Not that Lightning particularly expected anything to happen over there; it never hurt to be prepared.

Well, that was certainly an odd request. A simple enough request to fulfill, but distinctly beyond what he might have expected all the same. Still, he would hardly have made it as far as he had without knowing when to hold back and besides, who was he to not do what he was asked to when it had been she who'd asked him?

"I'll do what I can," he answered with a smile as he offered his arm. "Shall we?"

He expected he knew how she'd answer, but it would hardly hurt to check in the end.

Celes smiled a bit. She somewhat thought that Setzer would be a lost cause, but considering their mechanically inclined womanizer ally, at least this one had more common sense. Even if he rode on a ship in the air and had a habit of kidnapping opera singers that he fancy.

"Lets." Celes answered, wrapping a hand around Setzer's shoulders. "And if I catch you grinning about this I will not hesitate to punch you in the ribs. I don't care if I fall down with you." She grinned cheekily.

It was good to have him there, that was for sure.

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Another victim of fate. [Active/open]

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fffff you even have an approrpriate icon xD

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We're heading to the apartment soon I think o/

got it o7

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Spirits and cards without her? She'd be crushed

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combine threads soon?

That sounds good

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