Hop's Training

Summary

Hop was extremely fortunate compared to most homeworld hopfolk. His father, Sop, insisted he would be baptized in a dual star collapse, a phenomenon yet to be seen in the universe. After which, The Endless War for the Eternal Throne forced a long drawn out set of training, where Hop as trained alongside the Knights of Sop. Eventually, Hop had to handle his power with reserve and restraint. During the series of events in Hoppist history and the tragic pushes to be in control of his own strength, Hop became known as the strongest in the Universe.

The Potential - Hop's Baptism

Shortly after discovering their child, Sop and his wife cherished the chance to create their own family, naming Hop his junior and preparing a baptism to invoke his power. To begin, Sop would need to find a suitable star pair, unlike himself who was baptized in a dying dwarf star many orbits before. Thankfully a handful of orbits passed during the First Great Hop Expansion, meaning Sop's astrocharters discovered a suitable set of stars, a blue star (Luxstatem) coming from a gas/plasma nebula, and a larger, lone red star (Brylli).

The stars were located in one of the nearest galactic clusters to Karrots, the Matourm Cluster. Rimward, binary stars were common, as in this cluster, they held enough gravitational pull to keep them from escaping the cores of the galaxies within, but also stay in their own relative orbits around each other. However, the stars Luxstatem and Brylli forced to make contact by Sop himself. His strategic influence brought the stars together for the event of Hop's baptism.

After surviving the baptism, Hop burst into a powerful light, nearly blinding all nearby in space. Soppipsism followers said the light from this event caused any planets that it intercepted would be blessed to never be destroyed. Sop disregards such hyperbole, but assures the light carried more than photons in its passing.

Sop wanted to test the newly powered child, and they engaged in a sportsmanlike struggle, proving Hop could match his father's casual but immense power. Rewarding his son with a hearty dinner and a celebration (later becoming a Hoppist holiday, Grimsph-Eea). It last the microbit Hop awakes and leaves home, until his display of energy finishes. He does this to show his appreciation for his father's faith in him.

This baptism is why Hop ignites and glows with a fire-like aura around his body and eyes when ready for battle. The effect even creates a burning sound with a light wind-like noise emitting from Hop, even in space, as if it was telepathic. Research from smart beings indicates this is a natural occurrence, as Hop is channeling holy power with his will.

The Training | Knight of Sop Recruitment

At this young stage in his life, Hop had more strength than he knew. Because of this, Sop intended to train his child by himself. Hop's overwhelming force and willpower eclipsed nearly all challenges the Hopfather put before him.

Due to this, Sop introduced him into an accelerated training program with the Knights of Sop to get a handle on his raw brute strength. Over many orbits Hop had several masters including his father. At every point, he overpowered his mentors, excluding his phenomenal father. At this length, Hop had to be trained to hold back in order to develop the technical skill of a fighter, using discipline and technique as his weapon, and not raw power. This method encouraged Hop to prevent as much physical damage to the world around him as he could.

Ultimately this training routine lead to the discovery of Hop's first unique power that separated his abilities from his father's. Hop's body has the ability to "absorb" and "store" momentum and energy. This include kinetic and metaphysical forms of energy, meaning Hop can dead-stop even the most powerful blasts without effort, as his ability has no finite limit. Total or consecutive. Hop has been seen using this power to grant him the ability to leap from the surface of a world into space, without using his own effort and entirely reduce what damage he could cause.

Because of the events of The Endless War, Hop had to grow to control this strength to be worth of military service in the Grand Sop Army in order to win the conflict for his entire race.

Notable Mentors

As Hop grew, Sop declared the strongest beings they were allied with would suit his son's training, as he excelled greatly at numerous sports and needed stronger mentors. Hop's control was not always in line with those of the Grand Sop Army. Many instances he would go full force with reckless abandon toward any obstacle or foe. The destruction to property and nature was often far in excess of what could have resolved a situation otherwise. The new mentors were of the most withheld strength and patience of any of Sop's allies, the K'Ursans. No Knight of Sop has ever been a race other than a hop, and of those hops, being a long-term Hoppist follower is mandatory. Many allies exemplify these traits and are of note as honorary Knights, with the name "Vehv" added to their title, so they were granted exclusive permission to train with and learn besides actual Knights.

Vehv "Frhank" and Vehv Buddy (the brothers of K'Ursa) are the only non-hopfolk that were knighted by Sop himself. They were responsible for raising Hop and his manners at several intervals of time. Buddy is the only being that rivaled Hop's raw strength, as even "Frhank" and Sop once struggled to maintain a young Hop, together.

Hop often was seated for events such as ceremonies and speeches on K'Usra, to see the value in other beings and their lives. This was done so he could appreciate others that were not Hoppists and grow to respect them and what they did, even if he did dislike them, to never act upon his thoughts or prejudices. Unlike Sop, he was far more stubborn and harder to teach as he grew, because the world was too vast for even a constantly present group of mentors and his parents to keep up with.

The result of his failure to grow from a training session saw Hop incarcerated on K'Ursa, as he destroyed one of the space stations in orbit on the planet. He thought the consequences would not catch him, and his intent to prove his point were enough to justify the act, as it sprung from his sensitive feelings being insulted by another being. The identity of this individual was never found, and Hop did not know the stranger, but he described the being as "a hop wearing strange clothes, walking on all fours, and spoke rudely and quietly" to him. It boarded a ship, flew off toward a newly-built mobile habitat space station. As it began to land on its destination, Hop leapt into the sky, creating a gigantic crater beneath him that sunk part of the city he was on. As he flew higher, he fired a blast of energy from his face, instantly vaporizing the station that was going into orbit. The catastrophe brought all military force of the K'Ursan Federation to the area, where Buddy arrived before Hop even placed his feet on the ground and snatched him into his grasp.

Despite the struggling child's efforts, he became apathetic and began to giggle to Buddy, then frantically laugh about the outcome of his actions. Being more concerned the offending party's lesson was learned, Buddy shamefully had to discipline Hop in public before placing him in a prison. While it was not meant to keep him locked away, but to put him on display to be shunned for his crime. Buddy stood over him at all times, staring him down until Sop came to take him away and apologize on his behalf. Buddy refused his exit of the planet, and demanded he stay to undo the damage done and swear on the Treaty to never do so again. The public wanted Hop off-world as soon as possible and disagreed with him. But after a brief discussion with his father, the two mentors told the public that the child would simply grow to hate them and come back later to destroy them, and perhaps continue this behavior with others. He must be taught to do the right thing, and control his ego before his ego had control of his power instead.

While outcry ceased, Buddy and Sop oversaw that Hop physically cleaned and restored the damage to the city and surrounding area until he was allowed to go home again. In this time, he thought up an apologetic speech he wanted to share by those directly harmed by his actions. When pushed to reveal who it was that offended him in the first place, so that Hop may personally forgive him, Hop revealed he has not known of or seen this being before that moment. The details slipped into Hop's mind and as he tried to elaborate, many became disinterested in the identity or wording of the individual in question. He was allowed to continue his rebuilding efforts and make right by his actions.

Gifts of Meditation

On Karrots, following the low point in exploration of the Second Great Hop Expansion, Hop and Vibri began a reclusive study inside the Temple of Sop. This was a historical, record-breaking period of intense prayer and focus. Buddy himself appeared as a vision to witness the growth of their spirits in the void-like meditation chamber. Several orbits passed as the cosmic K'Ursan analyzed the role of the Sopson and his sister in the grand scheme of history.

While it was not revealed to the siblings during their quiet, Buddy later informed Hop he was gifted for his faith with an ability he did not yet need, but can use if the time comes. The deepest understandings of Gop were revealed in this discussion. As if tuning his mentor out, Hop did not fully process the entirety of the conversation, except for this:

"Hop... you possess a unique power gifted by Gop... higher dimensional entities, concepts and... You may reduce their ascension to this universe's level..."

Buddy has noted this as the reason he sometimes "struggles" with Hop, as his end goal to preserve, enforce and protect his universe eternally. Vibri worded this as a "fight me fairly or don't exist at all" clause. Hop is yet to encounter a "higher" being, but given the speculation of his sister and Buddy's avatar, all beings that would ascend the fabric of their reality have already been set to the same physics of the world Hop inhabits.

As the meditation achieved a sudden climax, Sop himself appeared before Hop and Vibri as an envoy of Gop. In this he shared wisdom that baffles all who have heard the Truth found in Sop's everlasting Journey. In their world, it is being authored by such a higher power. One that Gop is the fundamental "cause" of the author itself. Sop's Ascension served as a peek into the glaring omnipotent sunrise that is the almighty. The raw scale of this awareness does not begin to follow conventional Hoppist scripture and teachings, but it does correlate with the divine authority that the elders on Karrots revere as the Truth.

This session did not "unlock" new powers, it merely revealed how Hop is the definitive, chosen eternal guardian of reality. The defeat of the Black Star entity is backed up by this revelation. No matter how greatly it ascended, Hop was destined to defeat him.

This meditation session concluded at an indeterminate time thousands of orbits beyond the Second Great Hop Expansion.

Place in the Tier List

While Hoppism is defined by ranks, the raw "power" and ability of beings such as Hop are approaching concepts beyond comprehension. Because Hop knows you're reading this, you should know where this stands in your world. Please look upon this graph for more information:

• Official "tier list" of those within Hoppism and related entities.
  Official "tier list" of those within Hoppism and related entities.