Thirty-Sixth Hope [video]
[For once in the greek tragedy that is Hope's life, he turns on the video feed on purpose. His face bears a fairly solemn expression. He takes a deep breath before speaking.]
Uh.... hey. A lot of you know this already but... my name's Hope Estheim, and I've been on this ship for over a year. I've made a lot of friends here, and I've even found a girlfriend, which is something I never even thought would happen back on Cocoon. But... there's something I've been keeping secret ever since I came here. I know that's not fair and a lot of you are gonna be mad at me for it, but believe me, I had a good reason to keep it secret. But after a lot of thinking, I've decided I should come out in the open with it. About what I really am.
[Another deep breath.]
On my planet, a few days before I came to this ship... I became... a lot of people from my world would tell you I stopped being human. I even thought the same thing at first. Let me just get something out of the way first. My planet Cocoon was right next to another planet called Gran Pulse, which we just called Pulse. Both planets were watched over and... nurtured I guess, by these really powerful beings called fal'Cie. And the fal'Cie on both Pulse and Cocoon told the humans who lived there that the people from the other planet were dangerous and wanted to kill them all.
Well... one day a fal'Cie from Gran Pulse was found in a city on Cocoon. People from my world were so scared of Pulse that they panicked and the government decided to banish every single person from that city off the planet, including my mother and me who were just visiting that city on vacation. But the government lied. They didn't banish us, they took us all someplace quiet and then the military started killing us. My mom... she didn't make it.
[Hope's voice had been eerily neutral (if not a little indignant) up until then, but it starts to waver at this point. He takes a deep breath yet again to collect his nerves. before continuing.]
A-anyway. Some friends and I tried to get away, and we found the Pulse fal'Cie... and it did this to us.
[At this point, Hope holds up his left forearm to the camera and unwraps the yellow bandanna he has wrapped around it. Underneath, this mark is visible.]
This brand means I'm a l'Cie, a servant of a fal'Cie. The fal'Cie gave me and my friends a job to do, which is called a Focus. When a l'Cie completes their Focus, they're "rewarded" with immortality by being turned into a lifeless crystal statue. But if they fail before time runs out... they... [He hesitates.] they suffer a fate worse than death. So not a lot of humans think being a l'Cie is the "blessing" the fal'Cie do.
But it's not all bad, and I've learned that since coming here. In order to complete our Focus, a l'Cie has the power to use magic.
[With that, he holds out his hand and a small fireball appears in his palm.]
The powers we get is different depending on the person. A lot of my friends became stonger fighters, but I got the most powerful magic. I can use fire, water, ice, wind, earth...
[He pauses as the fireball dissolves into the air, only to be replaced by tiny sparks of electricity which dance along his hand and between his fingers. He smiles absently as he watches the electricity.]
.... and lightning. And that's just my offensive magic. I can heal wounds, and I can make people stronger, faster, and resistant to pain too. I can also summon a powerful creature called an Eidolon to help me fight. A lot of you have already seen me summon Alexander, and I even got possessed by him around this time last year. He's my Eidolon. Don't worry if it happens again this year, he's friendly. Well.... he's indifferent actually. The point is he won't try to hurt anyone. And neither will I.
That's why I kept this a secret for so long. After I became a l'Cie, the people from Cocoon were terrified of me and my friends. We were hunted at every turn, and not just by the military. People from my home town, people I grew up knowing... they tried to kill us too. That's why I hid it. I didn't want to run anymore, but... I can't keep it a secret anymore. So now you all know.
If any of you are scared of me and don't want to be friends any more... then I understand. Just know that I'm only gonna use my magic in self defense, or to heal anyone who's hurt. And if any of Xion's friends are worried about her living with me... don't. She knew what I was before we got together. She didn't tell you about me because I asked her to, so get mad at me, not her. That's... that's all I have to say. If you have any questions... I'll answer them.
[And with that he shuts off the feed.]
(OOC: Okay, Hope will be very anxiously attending this post to find out how many of his friends are scared of him now. Open to Xion for action as always, and anyone can knock on the door of room 7-6 if they want to make it action. And yes, he did purposefully leave out the worst part of his curse which is the possiblity of him turning into a mindless but weak as balls monster but he figures that it would have happened already if it was going to, and he doesn't want to pretty much invite people to take him out before he becomes dangerous.)
Uh.... hey. A lot of you know this already but... my name's Hope Estheim, and I've been on this ship for over a year. I've made a lot of friends here, and I've even found a girlfriend, which is something I never even thought would happen back on Cocoon. But... there's something I've been keeping secret ever since I came here. I know that's not fair and a lot of you are gonna be mad at me for it, but believe me, I had a good reason to keep it secret. But after a lot of thinking, I've decided I should come out in the open with it. About what I really am.
[Another deep breath.]
On my planet, a few days before I came to this ship... I became... a lot of people from my world would tell you I stopped being human. I even thought the same thing at first. Let me just get something out of the way first. My planet Cocoon was right next to another planet called Gran Pulse, which we just called Pulse. Both planets were watched over and... nurtured I guess, by these really powerful beings called fal'Cie. And the fal'Cie on both Pulse and Cocoon told the humans who lived there that the people from the other planet were dangerous and wanted to kill them all.
Well... one day a fal'Cie from Gran Pulse was found in a city on Cocoon. People from my world were so scared of Pulse that they panicked and the government decided to banish every single person from that city off the planet, including my mother and me who were just visiting that city on vacation. But the government lied. They didn't banish us, they took us all someplace quiet and then the military started killing us. My mom... she didn't make it.
[Hope's voice had been eerily neutral (if not a little indignant) up until then, but it starts to waver at this point. He takes a deep breath yet again to collect his nerves. before continuing.]
A-anyway. Some friends and I tried to get away, and we found the Pulse fal'Cie... and it did this to us.
[At this point, Hope holds up his left forearm to the camera and unwraps the yellow bandanna he has wrapped around it. Underneath, this mark is visible.]
This brand means I'm a l'Cie, a servant of a fal'Cie. The fal'Cie gave me and my friends a job to do, which is called a Focus. When a l'Cie completes their Focus, they're "rewarded" with immortality by being turned into a lifeless crystal statue. But if they fail before time runs out... they... [He hesitates.] they suffer a fate worse than death. So not a lot of humans think being a l'Cie is the "blessing" the fal'Cie do.
But it's not all bad, and I've learned that since coming here. In order to complete our Focus, a l'Cie has the power to use magic.
[With that, he holds out his hand and a small fireball appears in his palm.]
The powers we get is different depending on the person. A lot of my friends became stonger fighters, but I got the most powerful magic. I can use fire, water, ice, wind, earth...
[He pauses as the fireball dissolves into the air, only to be replaced by tiny sparks of electricity which dance along his hand and between his fingers. He smiles absently as he watches the electricity.]
.... and lightning. And that's just my offensive magic. I can heal wounds, and I can make people stronger, faster, and resistant to pain too. I can also summon a powerful creature called an Eidolon to help me fight. A lot of you have already seen me summon Alexander, and I even got possessed by him around this time last year. He's my Eidolon. Don't worry if it happens again this year, he's friendly. Well.... he's indifferent actually. The point is he won't try to hurt anyone. And neither will I.
That's why I kept this a secret for so long. After I became a l'Cie, the people from Cocoon were terrified of me and my friends. We were hunted at every turn, and not just by the military. People from my home town, people I grew up knowing... they tried to kill us too. That's why I hid it. I didn't want to run anymore, but... I can't keep it a secret anymore. So now you all know.
If any of you are scared of me and don't want to be friends any more... then I understand. Just know that I'm only gonna use my magic in self defense, or to heal anyone who's hurt. And if any of Xion's friends are worried about her living with me... don't. She knew what I was before we got together. She didn't tell you about me because I asked her to, so get mad at me, not her. That's... that's all I have to say. If you have any questions... I'll answer them.
[And with that he shuts off the feed.]
(OOC: Okay, Hope will be very anxiously attending this post to find out how many of his friends are scared of him now. Open to Xion for action as always, and anyone can knock on the door of room 7-6 if they want to make it action. And yes, he did purposefully leave out the worst part of his curse which is the possiblity of him turning into a mindless but weak as balls monster but he figures that it would have happened already if it was going to, and he doesn't want to pretty much invite people to take him out before he becomes dangerous.)