A/N: As always, thanks very much for continuing to read and enjoy this fic :)
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 and characters from other Final Fantasy games that are alluded to in this chapter all belong to Square Enix.
Chapter 9: Mindset and Motive
Ten days later, Hope found himself throwing Nue out the window contemplatively, swinging three-hundred-and-sixty degrees around in his chair, and then catching the boomerang with his other hand as it flew back. Taking up a pen, he pulled the Project Alexander blueprint close, examining the robot design with pursed lips before leaning down to doodle a mustache on the robot's face. He looked up and eyed the cup of coffee in the middle of the lab table. It was under an umbrella-like lid with transparent, membranous panels. The control at the top of the lid was about the size of his palm with a simple on-and-off switch, and with the smallest letters possible, the surface was engraved with "Estheim Industries, Prototype: Food Temperature Maintainer." He checked the timer in his watch. Forty more minutes to go before the experiment ends, he thought. For lack of anything else to do, he threw the boomerang out the window again.
The lab door slid open just as he caught the boomerang.
"Hey, so how's the coffee?" asked Maqui as he entered, peering into the transparent cover of the device. Steam rose from the cup, but was held frozen. The liquid did not even move or spill out when he gently shook the table.
"Still stable, as you can see," answered Hope, folding Nue and putting it back in his pocket.
"That's just freaky. I can't believe we stopped time for that cup of coffee."
"That's the purpose of that device anyway."
"But time stopped so that the coffee will stay fresh. Doesn't that just boggle your mind by how ridiculous that sounds? Stopping time itself around an object."
"It's the kind of thinking you do in Academia."
"Man, you guys must be smoking a lot of shit to be able to think of stuff like this."
"You're the one who came up with the idea because you wanted to keep your ramen warm."
"I know, but...well, whatever. I guess we'll see just how fresh that coffee is. How long do we have left?"
Hope checked his watch. "Thirty-five minutes."
Maqui took a seat, brightening up as he remembered something, and reached down for his bag. "Guess what I brought?" He pulled the corner of a glossy magazine from his bag, and Hope leaned over, mouth hanging agape as he caught the title.
"No way!" the silver-haired exclaimed excitedly. "Is that—?"
"Uh-huh," nodded the blond, pulling the magazine all the way out and placing it reverently on the table.
"The ultra, super special, limited edition," whispered Hope, eyeing the cover on which a green-eyed blonde woman in a yellow bikini gave them a come-hither expression. "Where did you get it?"
"Subscription."
"Oh man. This is the one thing that Academia doesn't have that I really missed from Cocoon."
"Shall we get started on seeing its contents?"
"Hang on." Hope ran to the opened window to close it. Seeing this, Maqui went to the door and took a furtive glance outside before locking it. Then the two met up at the table and sat down.
"Ready?" Maqui took the corner of the magazine cover, ready to flip it over.
Hope nodded, concentrating on what was about to unfold, trying to stop himself from hyperventilating.
And then, afterwards, there was a chorus of "Ooohhhhhhh."
Noel stepped up to the reception desk of Estheim Industries. "Hi, I'm here to see Hope Estheim."
The woman looked up from her terminal. "Do you have an appointment?"
He shook his head. "No."
"Oh, I'm sorry, sir. Appointments only."
"Did Hope say that?"
"No, sir."
"So why do I need to make an appointment?"
"All our researchers are always busy, sir."
Noel sighed. He really didn't want to abuse any kind of authority when it came to his adopted father's company; it was why he opted to keep his own last name—a decision that the Estheims wholly understood and respected. But he supposed there was no other choice if he wanted to see Hope.
He took out his executive all-access ID and showed it to the receptionist, watching as her eyes grew round.
"Oh, sir, Mr Kreiss, I'm really sorry. I didn't recognize you. Please forgive me. Mr Estheim is on the seventh floor, room 7-CC."
"Thank you..." He leaned over to read her name tag. "Pat. Have a nice day."
"You as well, sir. Sorry again."
Noel waved and made his way just in time as a lab-coated worker stepped out of an elevator, quickly letting himself in and pressing the button for the seventh floor. Upon arriving, he scanned the signs on the winding hallways, following the arrows that directed him to room 7-CC. The door was locked, and a key pad was set on the wall beside it. He scratched his head, wondering if his ID was really an all-access type, before inserting it into the keycard slot, and issuing a sigh of relief when the light turned green and the door slid open.
Inside, two figures were hunched over a lab table set in the middle of the room.
"Oh, would you look at that!"
"That...that's really hot. Like, seriously."
"Aw, man, is she really doing that?"
"I didn't even know that's possible."
"Oh, oh, wow, just wow. Look at her."
"I know. Can't believe she's doing that with her mouth."
Noel's lips thinned as he made his way to the two. Here he was, worried that work had totally taken control of his brother's life when, from the sound of things, he was perving over a dirty magazine. Finally reaching them, he snatched the book from under their noses.
"Hey!" They both exclaimed.
"Oh, Noel," said Hope in a surprised voice. "What are you doing here?"
"Who's he?" asked the blond.
"My brother," answered Hope.
Ignoring them, Noel flipped through the glossy pages of women. There was a large-breasted cowgirl with long dark hair; a flower girl with bright green eyes and brown hair; a very sexy black-haired woman wearing what appeared to be a skirt made entirely out of belts; and many others, each in a provocative pose and wearing seductive expressions. And they all had one thing in common.
He finally looked up, incredulous. "Boomerangs? Seriously? You guys are perving over a boomerang magazine?"
"Hot women doing awesome stuff with boomerangs," corrected the blond.
"You guys seriously need to get out of here and get laid. Go out there and find yourselves a girlfriend. Have you seen the beach? It's teeming with hot, live girls."
"Do they have boomerangs?"
"What the fuck?"
"What are you doing here, anyway?" interjected Hope, seeing how livid Noel was becoming. Maqui just shrugged and pulled the blueprint from under Hope's elbow and began to make notes on it.
"I haven't seen you in over a week," replied the younger man. "You don't even call or anything. Did you even get my message about borrowing the car this coming weekend?"
"Yeah, I did. Didn't you get my text saying yes?"
"Did you even really send it?" countered Noel.
Hope thought for a moment and frowned. "Didn't I?" He reached for his phone in his pocket. "Oh. I forgot to charge it."
Noel sighed. "Do you even come home?"
"Yeah. I go home to shower and change."
"Where do you sleep?"
Hope glanced around. "Can't remember if it was on the table or the floor. Or maybe the car."
"The hell?"
Hope shrugged, pointing to the device over a coffee mug on the table. "I was trying to finish that as quickly as possible. Contrary to what you saw us doing, we really were working. We were just on a break."
"What is that anyway?"
"It's a cup of coffee that's existing outside of time."
Noel looked up. "What?"
"Basically, we isolated a small area and made it exist out of time. Since it's suspended in that vacuous space, the idea is that it's not expending or exchanging energy with its environment, therefore keeping its temperature the same as when the coffee was first made. So that by the time you're ready to drink it again, it's still as hot and as fresh as when you first got it."
Noel just stared at him with his mouth open. "What the—what kind—what, just what?" After several seconds of processing what he'd just been told, he asked, "Can't you just reheat it? Isn't manipulating time dangerous?"
"Well, yes, you can reheat it, but it's preserving its freshness that's the key here. And yes, manipulating time is dangerous, that's why we only made two prototypes and destroyed everything else related to this project. We don't want to mass-produce something like this that can easily be used for non-food-related things."
Noel just sighed, pulling a chair and flopping down on it, dropping the magazine on the table.
"Watch it!" said Maqui, looking up. "That's a limited edition. Handle with care, please."
"Sorry," said Noel as he began to flip through the pages. "Hope, about the car for this weekend—"
"I already said yes, you can have it," Hope cut in, tilting his head so he can better see the magazine.
"I'll need for you to come with us."
Hope looked up. "Why?"
"To visit Mom!" Noel swatted his head.
"Ow!"
"She's been asking about you. And also, just in case the car breaks down along the way, I'll need for you to be there to fix it. Your car doesn't even have a normal car engine, and I don't really feel like explaining to a mechanic how it runs."
The silver-haired shifted in his seat, clearing his throat. "Who else is going again?"
"Serah, Vanille, and Lightning."
"I thought so," Hope muttered. "Why are they going to Palumpolum anyway?"
"It's because Serah wants to look for her wedding dress there. And rather than letting them go on an eight-hour train ride, I figured I'd offer to drive so they'll be able to get there in half the time."
"Oh." He drummed his fingers on the table and released a deep exhale. "Fine, I'll go. But I get to drive."
Noel looked up. "Fine. But you can't drive using your mind."
Hope shrunk back, looking away guiltily. "I wasn't even thinking about that."
"Uh-huh, sure you weren't." Noel ran a hand through his brown hair. "Look, what ever issues you have with Lightning, confront it head on. Don't run. Man up."
"I don't have issues with her." Hope nervously looked at his brother from the corner of his eye. "D-did she say she has issues with me? Is she still mad?"
A smile almost stretched the corner of the younger man's mouth, but he stifled it before it could grow. "You'll have to see for yourself."
Hope sighed. "You know, I've been thinking about her…"
Noel coughed to hide his smile.
"And about, well, you-know-who."
"Oh?"
"And about where everything started and where everything went wrong. In a way, I realized that, subconsciously, there was a reason why I decided to pick Bodhum instead of Eden or Palumpolum. There was something here that I wanted to test, something of myself. Lightning...when I was fourteen, I had an indescribable moment of clarity the first time I saw her. It was almost unbelievable to be so overcome with absolute conviction, with absolute inescapable truth...Then I went to the Academy, and for the past six years I've been trained to think beyond what I'm capable of, to do or make something beyond what I'm able to, and throughout then, I began to question: what if that moment of clarity can be experienced again with another person? Can I recreate it? Would I feel the same? Or was it solely with that one person that I'm able to feel it?
"It became an experiment for me. There was a girl; she was bright and beautiful, and she said she liked me. And I thought: why not? So I went through the motions of being her boyfriend, all the while waiting, hoping, wishing for that moment of truth. And over time, I think she began to notice that what I felt for her didn't even come close to what she felt for me, that there was a part of me closed off and just watching the two of us from a distance. And when she left me to pursue her dream of singing...despite myself, it still hurt, because I didn't realize I'd become attached to what we had, even if it was only an illusion. And I don't know how I could face her now, or even know what words I could say to her if I ever meet her again.
"So then, now, here I am, back to the place where I'd felt that moment of conviction. It's still there, but...it's faint. It wasn't as strong a pull as when I'd first experienced it. And I wonder, was it because I was young and naive then, and that moment was coloured with the romantic ideals of a child? I guess I came here to find that out."
Hope jumped, startled from his musings by the beeping of his watch, while both men stared at him, mouths agape. Silence reigned while he reached over to the device and flicked the Off switch, watching as the membrane-like panels began to recede into the device, and the steam over the coffee began to curl up and evaporate. As he pulled the cup up to his lips, Maqui finally found his voice, "That's just deep, man. All the stuff you just said."
Hope took a sip while they watched, beheld by anticipation.
"How is it?" asked the blond.
"Like regular coffee," answered Hope after swallowing, handing the cup over to him.
Maqui drank, then swished the liquid inside his mouth before gulping it down. "Yeah, it doesn't taste different. I guess the experiment's a success?"
"Guess so," agreed the silver-haired, taking the cup and holding it out to Noel. "Wanna try it?"
The younger man took the proffered cup, eyeing it thoughtfully before speaking up. "Why do you have to treat it as an experiment?"
Both stared dubiously at him.
"So we can test to see if the thing we invented actually worked," replied Maqui. "Isn't it obvious?"
"No, I don't mean about the coffee," answered Noel as he turned to his brother. "Hope, about you and Lightning and you-know-who...why does that all have to be an experiment to you? And I know you said that that's how you were trained to think, that if this-and-so happens, then that-and-so would happen. But love and feelings aren't things you can qualitatively measure, you know? That they'd have an effect on your whole being, no matter how big or small."
"I know," said Hope as he took the cup back from Noel's unresisting hold and drank some more of the coffee. "And that's the thing. I don't really know how to answer all that. And that's why I'm here now."
Thanks for reading :)
May/2012
