Chapter Text
Jake rose from his knees, and believed .
That was how you summoned the force of Hope, of course. To believe. To Hope.
It came to him, filled him with strength and vigor, because he had faith in his strength and vigor.
He was going to beat this green skeleton fucker into the goddamn ground.
And he could- no, he would- because he believed.
It was always with him, that chipper, upbeat attitude that either made him everyone's pal, or an extremely annoying optimist. He liked it, it made him, well, hopeful. He knew what he could do and what he couldn't, but then Hope would shake its head, and say 'No Jake, you can, just have faith', and then he did it. It was great, he thought , always having something to cheer you on. Hope was there to brighten his day, and he felt most at home with happiness and positive outlooks for the future.
Rose had once commented that he was the only reason they could withstand the torturous ascent through Lord English's hellish fortress, but he knew that was Hope, not him. It whispered to him certain things to say when things looked bad, and he said them, and he wasn't sure if it was the words or the way he said them or something unrelated, but someone always smiled after he was done talking. That was Hope.
Right now, that Hope made his body glow and his muscles swell with an invisible force. English-he was disgusted that the thing had taken his name, so long ago- swung at him, a fist the size of an armchair barreling towards his chest.
He thought to himself, 'I can stop his fist.'
The real strength of Hope was its tendency to continue. He would hope, and it would happen, which would cause him to believe further, which allowed more to happen, and so on. By now he was versed enough with the Aspect to grow its power into the strength of fifty men, and he held his hands out to stop the green gargantuan limb.
Hope said to him, 'Your faith was not misplaced.'
He caught the fist, though not without effort, and threw it away from him. The others were close behind, he knew, so he only had to stall until the arrived.
But Hope said 'Ah, but we can do more than stall- is that not what you believe?'
With a start, Jake realized he did believe that. There was one trick up Jake's sleeve that never failed to harm the beast in front of him: The Hopesphere.
He was sure that that wasn't quite the correct name for it, but that's what it would always be to him. Terezi had once mentioned that the 'Game Over' Jake, as she described him, had turned into a massive ball of pure Hope, one that he had eventually replicated to deal Lord English his first defeat in this war of theirs.
He had since found it to be a taxing weapon to reuse, though it was often worth the trouble. To summon the Hopesphere, he'd need to believe more than he ever had before, which meant he was constantly upping the levels of hope he needed for the sphere to come into form.
But oh, once it was created, there was nothing he could not hope for.
And so, he once again called upon Hope, and said to it, 'I have faith. I believe. I've seen what you can do, but I think you and I can do more.'
And Hope smiled. 'I think you are right.'
A bright flash.
A blinding sphere.
Hope.