zerotohiro | OVERFLOW;

...we've got a lot to catch you up on. [Where to even start...] Has anybody told you anything about the jungle at all since you've been here? That's the first place we should start.

Well...

[ She looks around. ]

Actually, Hiro, could we... do this somewhere else. Like. Anywhere else? Heh. Jungle sounds like a good place to start but I want to see the rest of the carnival too.

What? [He seems genuinely surprised but he shakes his head then.] Oh, right. Sorry. [He's used to being in work-mode, excuse him.] We can talk about it all later.

...I owe you something for rescuing me, don't I?

Yes, but... no. [ She's grinning because she likes to be in work-mode too and this kid is fucking awesome. Adorable and awesome. She just-- ] I want you to pay me what you owe me as your saviour. [ said snootily ] But I... definitely also want to talk about what you know about Cerealia! [ said all in one breath ]

Why choose, right? Heh.

[...girls are so confusing sometimes. He looks up at Baymax like he's hoping for an explanation and he's definitely not getting one, so he rolls his eyes instead.]

I guess you shouldn't have to choose. If you can have it all, you should take it all. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. [He rubs the back of his neck.] It's just that sometimes people don't walk to talk about the bad things around here while they're trying to enjoy themselves.

Hm. [ It's no overstatement to say her eyes go cool and wistful here, but she doesn't want to seem like a boring, stuffy adult so she trims her melancholy to just: ] I don't know. Isn't that what most people do on a daily basis? Deal with the horrible while juggling the wonderful?

I don't know. Don't listen to me. Are you hungry at all after all that - hanging?

["Some of us are still learning to juggle." He doesn't say anything out loud, lifting his eyebrows in an almost playful manner even as he shakes his head.]

Sure. [It's both an answer to her question and also the idea of food.] I saw a cart not too far from here that sells cupcakes the size of your face. Wanna split one?

Uh. Wanna split two so we can each have one?

[ Seriously cupcakes? No way she's going halfsies on a cupcake. If anything, cupcakes are a call for seconds and take away!! ]

I'm pretty sure that's like the opposite of splitting but yeah, okay. Two giant cupcakes. [And in the back of his head he's actually pretty relieved. There's really only one person he wants to share a cupcake with. Maybe he'll buy a third just to split with Ruby later. Strawberry frosting. She'd like that.

But for now it's him and it's Rapunzel and they're off on a search for cupcakes.] They probably have some weird flavors, too. It'll be awesome.

[ Don't worry Hiro. You'll face the ~~harem~~ protagonist's dilemma's when Rapunzel wants to share an ice cream cone.

BOTTOMLESS STOMACH. Also bottomless eyes? She can't stop looking around, even now. ] Really? Like what?

[But he doesn't want to be a Persona protag :( He notices that she's looking at everything and he's laughing to himself at her obvious curiosity.]

There's this one shop here that sells raspberry and mint milkshakes. It was pretty weird but not too bad. And knowing the aliens they probably have ones that tastes like...I dunno, pork rinds or burnt toast or something. Don't get those.

[He's still watching her carefully.] You don't get out much, do you?

No. [ She's glad he can't see her face, walking as she is a few feet ahead of him; her clipped tone already reveals more than she'd intended. ] Ah, no, I... My world wasn't like this. That's all.

[He's not great with reading expressions or social cues, really, but he's getting better. He's learning how to deal with people and how to be a better person and hearing Rapunzel's response is enough to make him really consider what he's going to say.]

Our world was sort of similar to this, but there's a lot of things I've found here that I never thought I'd see. This place is pretty unusual for all of us. I don't understand all of it, but that just means there's more questions to ask and answers to find, right?

Ah. Well. That is certainly how I've been treating it. [ she chuckles softly ] So... what's this about a jungle? I'm guessing that's one of the answers you found, huh?

More like it found us. A couple of months ago, a couple of people in the colony broke into the CERES research tower to free this entity called The Bridge. [Maybe someday he'll tell Rapunzel that the someone was him. Him and Korra.] She's like the queen of the elemental spirits around here, you'll probably hear about them sometime soon...anyway so to thank them for freeing her, she decided to return the favor and took all of us out of the colony and dumped us into the jungle for 10 days.

[A beat.] It was pretty bad toward the end. None of us had been outside of the colony before and toward the end a lot of my friends told me it was getting harder for them to breathe. People died out there, the place was crawling with monsters, and at one point we were all split into four groups and sent with one of the other spirits. I ended up on a mountain. Tadashi went to another part of the jungle, some of my friends went to the ocean and some other friends went into a volcano.

But we did find out a lot after that. Especially after some of us went back a second time.

The Bridge, huh... [ Darkness falls across her face at the sound of this grand "adventure." ] Looks like CERES was telling the truth about the planet being inhospitable.

[ She runs a hand through her hair, sighing and glancing around. There's no way she'll be able to focus on the carnival now, but that doesn't matter; this, what he's telling her about their world, ought to be her first priority right now. Fun can come later. ]

Other than that, though? Wow. Why would she do something like that if she was trying to thank you? This Bridge. And - who are these... these elemental spirits you're talking about? ...I hadn't heard anything about spirits or magic. Mosley didn't mention them when he talked about the planet itself. I thought everything on Tellus was all about technology.

Because she really thought that keeping us here in the colony was dangerous. And she might be right. [That's a whole other issue though.] The spirits are around. They have shrines in the colony and everything. I can show you later if you want. [He rolls his eyes though at the mention of Mosley.]

The thing about Mosley is that he only tells you what he feels like telling you at the time. The guy's got his own agenda when it comes to stuff like that. The colony itself is all about technology but before CERES built Cerealia it was all inhabited by natives who didn't have anything to do with tech.

I see.

[ Time for the real question then... ]

And-- Why is all of this so important to you anyway? Part of... being a superhero or... Is it-- [ A shrug. Still casual but with an air of heaviness. ] Something else?

[They're in public. Anyone could stumble upon them and so he doesn't know how to respond other than a shrug of his own.]

It's both, honestly. [He looks at her with a contemplative expression.] The something else is why I'm a superhero. I--I want to help people. I have to help people. Someone has to and I want to. So...why not?

[ That softens her interrogative gaze. ]

You're a good person, Hiro. Your soul is... bright. Dynamic. Like the sun. [ Where has she heard that before? Something someone told her once...

She laughs. ] I'm glad Baymax ran into me. What would we do if I'd gone on thinking Hiro Hamada was some totally different genius little brother.

[Aw, look, she's embarrassed him. He's ducking his head a little more to focus on his helmet even if he's grinning to himself.] I'm trying to be. [There's more here than what he wants to offer right now.] Thanks.

[But he's suddenly startled into a laugh as well.] Run in terror, probably? I'm not sure the world could handle two people like me anyway. That's all Tadashi said?

More or less. [ Still eyeing him, watching for his reaction, because... no that isn't all Tadashi said. It doesn't seem important to mention the rest at the moment, though. The past is a ghost no one wants summoned here.

Urge to hug, however? RISING! ]

Oh. He also said that you're a total brat, but... don't tell him I told you.

[There's a snort at that.] I'm pretty sure he tells everyone that. [He says with nothing short of fondness.] In that case, I guess this is where I tell you he's a total nerd and you shouldn't listen to things like that. Have you seen him around here?

Mmhm. [ Rapunzel nods, smiling a soft, girlish smile that Hiro probably knows pretty well since it's the Your Brother Is Kind Of a Hottie When He Wants To Be Smile. ] I was being sort of - impossible actually. Ahah.

Ham-- Er, Tadashi sort of... talked me out of it. I talked to him, we talked together, walked around, he t-- ...Uh, but that's boring! He - He was hanging around the food stands when I saw him last if you guys were supposed to meet somewhere...!! Eh heh.

[ Hanging out with a guy and then hanging out with his younger brother is weird as shit. ]

[Ugh. He recognizes that smile. He has mixed feelings about that smile. But he can't help but laugh a little at that because it sounds about right. Tadashi somehow always finds troublemakers and tries to be a conscious. It doesn't always work.]

I'm not supposed to meet him anywhere, don't worry. I just wanted to know where he was. [There's a bit of a languid shrug, though he caught that. "Ham???"] Tadashi and I are sort of used to knowing where each other is at any given time. I actually don't have a lot of plans for the rest of the day.

[...] We could go do something not boring if you want.

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