hotel: hope

[shaft]

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week 0, tuesday, ? room 1

[shaft]

[ 1. You open a door and step into a room that looks normal and fits the hotel's general aesthetic. Slowly, your vision begins to fade, until you are plunged into absolute darkness. Slowly, your hearing starts to go, until you are surrounded by absolute silence. It's quiet. So quiet. It's dark. So dark. How much time has passed? You can't tell. You can't see anything. You can't hear anything. You can't feel anything. Then, suddenly, you find yourself back in the hall, disoriented. You can see, hear, and feel again. Only four minutes have passed.

Claude looks around them, confused. ]

... I don't think I trust this.

[highestheim]

[ well, this is happening. hope's expression mirrors claude's for a moment before a more cautious one replaces it. ]

...Yeah. Keep your eyes open for anything that looks even the smallest bit off. [ he takes a couple of steps further into the room, then casts a glance over his shoulder. ] I probably don't need to tell you to stay on your guard.

[shaft]

[ He nods, surveying the area, gaze lingering over the shadows. ]

This doesn't seem to be the one with the boardgame. I wonder if it'll be monsters or psychological torture.

week 0, thursday

[shaft]

[ late in the evening: ]

Hope, would you like to have dinner?

[highestheim]

Is this a sincere offer?

[ or a shitpost?? ]

[shaft]

Do I really seem that rude?

week 1: monday

[highestheim]

[ welcome to aurora barealis, claude!! hope is looking decidedly out of his element in this classy hangout, sticking out like a sore thumb as he glances around the club. he's trying to stay out of the way of any stray shadows, even if they'll go right through him and his companion; he's just that awkward... ]

...It's weird how lively it feels in here.

[shaft]

[ Claude is relaxing with a cigar, looking at the stage where... nothing is happening! ]

There certainly seems to be a theme here.

[ Also, his wyvern is perched on a table, staring straight at Hope. ]

[highestheim]

[ SQUINT. ]

...Your pet?

[ if he had it in seasons then my ic excuse is that its been years for hope im assigning us both shitty memory ]

week 1: friday

[highestheim]

Where are you?

[shaft]

[ after A WHILE, a response comes ]

I woke up in the cemetery.

[highestheim]

No recollection of how you got there?

week 2: sunday

[highestheim]

[ after execution, hope comes to check in on claude... how are we doin buddy ]

What do you think the hotel holds for us this coming week?

[shaft]

[ Claude's in the dojo, let's say... Practicing some archery.

He rolls his shoulders. ]

You mean in terms of mystery rooms or strange effects?

[highestheim]

[ though he remains focused on their conversation, it would be disingenuous to say hope isn't also intrigued by whatever claude's training entails. despite being a jrpg character, hope has never really been a fighter, especially not since he'd lost his ability to use magic in his youth. ]

I was speaking more in general, but you have a point. Maybe it'll be Wiwaldi this week.

week 3, tuesday, hallway

[shaft]

[ Hello Hope! Claude is trying to move quickly through the hallways, but not quick enough to avoid being shoved into another memory.

(0:00 - 0:35)

The first thing that comes into focus is the smell of smoke, and the bright red banners that hang in the wind, emblazoned with a gold two-headed eagle.

Derdriu isn't your city, but it still aches to see it under siege. Even with the citizens evacuated, with each contingency plan that you've put into place, it aches; its streets bloodied and burnt with magic, men and women dead, blissfully unaware that they'd lost their lives in vain.

Behind your old teacher, and the woman in red and gold armour, the bodies of the only people to ever believe in you grow cold. Your mind is racing—always thinking, always planning—how do you recover them? How do you do this entire thing again, better, smarter, so that they're standing by your side instead?

You told Hilda to flee, if she thought the situation was lost. You value life more than any ideal and any victory. Maybe that's why you're here, defeated. Perhaps you should've been more ruthless.

"If you're as smart as you seem," you start, smiling even as a chill spreads through your chest. You're going to lie, because Almyra won't welcome you back. If you're being honest, part of you doesn't even want to carry this weight back to your birth place. You're not as clever as you think, not as smart, not as worthy as you've always wanted to believe. Part of you truly believes that dying here would be the only right choice you'll ever make.

But it's too ingrained in you. Survive, find a way, think smarter, and win. Don't give the trials of your childhood validation.

Your wyvern growls, tense and unhappy. She's smart enough to know the severity of the situation she's in.

"I bet you've figured out why I was able to summon Almyran reinforcements. Wouldn't it be better to let me go and have me in your debt?"

But Byleth has always been impeccable at routing her enemies, hidden or otherwise.

The only answer you get is the Sword of the Creator burning as it runs through your chest, precise and deadly, even with the distance afforded to you by sitting atop your wyvern. It's jagged and destructive like this, and you can feel how it tears through flesh and bone, your blood staining the fabric of your uniform, but hardly enough to dampen the Sword's glow. You think the pain ought to make you cry, but it doesn't.

"I see..." It's paralyzing, both the pain and the realization no matter how hard you think or how hard you try to weasel away, this is it. You failed. "Right until the very end, I've read this whole thing terribly wrong..."

Back in the hall, Claude's got a hand pressed to his temple. ]

This is really getting exhausting.

[highestheim]

[ claude calls it exhausting, but hope . . . isn't sure what to call it, actually. memshares in general don't faze him too much, but it's the sheer amount of emotions that go through claude's mind in these few seconds that feel like several lifetimes that truly overwhelms him. he's always gotten the sense that there's much more to claude than he lets on, but this... to say it comes as a surprise would be a gross understatement.

even when the vision ends, there's a faint buzzing left in his head and a sharp sting in his chest. it's a phantom pain, yes, one that he's never truly experienced himself, but he still brings a hand to his heart, as if attempting to staunch the bleeding that isn't actually happening, to dull the pain that isn't real.

when hope's body becomes his own again, rather than claude's, he pulls in a deep breath that becomes two, three, and so on and so forth. there are so many questions he wants to ask—questions he's not sure he wants the answers to—but the one that finally leaves his mouth when he can find his voice again is: ]

That...was that Byleth...?

[shaft]

[ Claude had made peace with Byleth at Wiwaldi eventually, accepting that she wasn't the same person that has run him through, conquered his city and murdered all his friends. It wasn't fair to her, for him to begrudge her for things she had no idea of.

But with the memory so stark in his mind, the sight of Hilda's body, the smell of his city burning, it builds a familiar resentment in his chest. A desire for reparations. ]

Not the same Byleth from Wiwaldi. [ Still, he won't lie. ] Dimitri and I, and even Sylvain, Yuri and me here, we're all from different versions of Fódlan.

The Byleth you knew had sided with an entirely different army.

week 3: thursday

[highestheim]

[ ...

. . .

hope takes out his miniature claude model and stands it next to miku. ]

[shaft]

[ Claude watches this. ]

Yuri made fun of me for having this idea.

[highestheim]

You actually thought about it, too?

week 5: sunday

[highestheim]

[ it's a little morbid, isn't it, to tell someone you'll see them on the other side when their time has come? you hope that won't be for a long time, that they'll have the chance to live out a full and enriching life, but some part of you, whatever remains of your consciousness after death, wishes they would join you sooner rather than later...

these have been hope's thoughts since the three deaths were announced friday morning, and they haven't really abated since.

when claude wakes in the graveyard's cemetery, hope is already there, holding out his hand to help him out of the coffin. ]

[shaft]

[ Opening his eyes, Claude first thinks to himself, again?

There's a sinking feeling in his stomach this time, and he probably punches the coffin open with a little more strength than is really necessary, rubbing his head as he pushes himself up.

But the tension eases when he sees Hope, a tired smile as he reaches out to take his hand. ]

Terrible circumstances, but I'm glad to see you again, Hope.

week 7: wednesday

[highestheim]

[ it's day 3 of their sudden bup revival, and hope is starting to get a little antsy.

wherever claude is right now, he is going to suddenly feel a light thud on one of his shoulders. whatever it is does not go through him like most other things have in his current state; it rests solidly against him, adding a little pressure to his otherworldly form.

the tickle of white hair should probably make it obvious what, or who, this is. ]

[shaft]

[ hope makes literally no noise since he is a ghost, so claude doesn't expect the sudden presence, though he doesn't jump too much.

he will take one of hope's hands. ]

It'd be great if we could turn invisible, wouldn't it?