008 [Action/Video]

[soggypastry]

[Halfway to Sudowoodo crossing again, since she'd doubled back for Leon, Lightning decides to call up Hope to ask how he's doing. There's just...one problem.]

We are sorry. The number you are attempting to dial is no longer a valid number. Please check your number and try again.

So she stops, looking down at the Gear. Did she dial the number wrong

Comments

[video]

[eidolonracing]

[Sazh has to see this for himself, so before turning it to video he decides to give Hope a call. The number isn't valid. Sazh turns the video feed on.]

He really is, isn't he?

[video]

[soggypastry]

[Have a sigh, Sazh. She's hiding her face in shadows and with her bangs.]

I wouldn't have said it if there was even the slightest chance he was still here.

[video]

[eidolonracing]

Yeah, I know. Out of all people I'd expect to lie, you definitely wouldn't be one of them.

Still, I wish you were lying.

[video]

[soggypastry]

[Shaky inhale, and a nod. She wouldn't lie about something like this.]

Me too, Sazh. I wish I was lying, too.

[video]

[pullswhales]

A friend of yours? I'm sorry!

[video]

[soggypastry]

[Thaaat's a headshake. A friend? No. More than that. Family.] Hope is my little brother. But he's better off back home.

[video]

[pullswhales]

Oh, you only told me you had a sister!

Did he... come from the same time you did?

[video]

[soggypastry]

By blood, it's just me and my sister. By circumstance...I have two brothers. Neither's here anymore.

He came from earlier. Before...before a bad fight. He knows we win because I told him, but...[Hesitation. Could go any way.]

[Video]

[tiercelet]

[Not another of his friends...]

...No...

[Video]

[soggypastry]

[Makes two. Seems their luck just..never holds up.]

Happened sometime last night. I saw him before I left Goldenrod, and now...[Now she's hiding her face behind her bangs.]

[Video]

[tiercelet]

[No, it really doesn't seem to]

We need to figure out what's causing all this. So many people disappearing at once is...just...

[Video]

[soggypastry]

[Deep, shaky breath, then...]

The people in charge here seem to be the Gym Leaders. If anyone gets all eight badges, we might get our answers. [Though that means doubling all the way back to Violet, she's willing. As if the l'Cie weren't split up enough already anyway.]

[video]

[puppet_paladin]

...That's not meant to be metaphorical, is it. [That is not a question.]

[video]

[soggypastry]

[Tiny little headshake. Still hiding her face in shadows and behind her bangs.]

It's my little brothers name. [But it might as well have been metaphorical, the way she feels right now.]

[video]

[puppet_paladin]

...I'm sorry. Losing friends is bad enough, but family... [Losing family is even worse.

Also, Cecil might be staring at those bangs a little.] Have the both of you been here together for a long time?

[video]

[soggypastry]

He'll...he's safe, back home. [Hard swallow, and a nod. Y U staring at her hair, Cecil?] He was here when I first arrived in Johto back in September. Would have been four months next Tuesday.

1/3 - [video]

[will_to_burn]

Hope-kun is...

2/3 - [video]

[will_to_burn]

[ Yeah, give her a moment. She wasn't expecting this and while they didn't know each other really well, she had been looking forward to getting to know Hope better. That he's here one day and gone the next... she can only imagine how the people who know him better than she does feels, people like Lightning and Ven... ]

3/3 - [video]

[will_to_burn]

I'm sorry, Lightning-san.

[ And it's all she can really think to say, though she wishes she could say -- no, that she could do more. It's not like Hope just wandered outside of town. If he had, she could just go bring him back, but... ]

[video]

[soggypastry]

[Hiding her face behind shadows and her bangs, Lightning just...shakes her head. Apologies won't bring him back to give them a chance to say goodbye.]

Don't apologize, Hikaru. It's no one's fault.