And if I could move I'm sure it would only be to crawl back to you [W2, Thurs]

[zerotohiro]

[As the sun finally settles below the horizon, Hiro finds himself coming back out of his hut. It's Thursday and he knows he only has a few hours before he needs to be back and it's for that reason he walks down to the water's edge. Settling down, he takes off his sneakers and sits on the wet sand, feet in the ocean and staring off into the distance. He'll be there for a while.

It's where he'll be by the time Nino finds him, and though he's not facing her at all he does speak up.]

…dude, where are you going? [Too bad he's not talking to her. And as such...he's up on his feet and beginning to follow whatever he's seeing straight into the water.]

Comments

[learnings]

Okay...

[Par for the course, really...but she's happy to start heading right on back to shore.]

I don't know... it seems almost like magic, really.

[Magic of the not good variety.]

[zerotohiro]

Is magic real? [He's definitely asking the wrong person, but he's also heading for the shore while keeping an eye on her. Nino please be careful, you're small and missing an eye and Jaffar can be terrifying.]

That's a question I've been asking a lot, if the island has a lot of magic happening. [...] I saw someone I shouldn't have. That's all.

[learnings]

Of course it's real!

[She follows, okay, it's fine, it's fine. Nobody is faceplanting today, aside from Hiro, who already did that.]

Magic's always been real.

But... it sounded like it was someone important. [Judging by how Hiro just CHARGED ON IN THERE.]

[zerotohiro]

How can magic have always been real? [Onward they go. But.]

Yeah. He was. [He shakes his head.] This island's stupid and all they're doing is showing us family to mess us up. [HE'S ONTO YOU, ISLAND!!!]

[learnings]

Because I know magic! And so did my parents! And...lots of people have known magic for a long time!

[Magic: always real.]

... Family...? You saw your family?

[zerotohiro]

...are you a witch then? [THIS IS IMPORTANT NEWS. But also. His shoulders deflate a little.] Yeah. I saw my brother. But he's obviously not here so...[Shrug.]

[learnings]

A mage, actually!

[Sparkles.

...Wait, no, Nino, focus.]

Oh... your brother...

[She takes a slow breath in, and--]

I think I saw my brother earlier too, Hiro. But... he couldn't have been here either. Is it...something strange, do you think?

[zerotohiro]

Maybe magic since it's really real. We know we're the only people on this island so seeing people we shouldn't see...it's weird. And Tadashi would never come here so...if was a stupid mistake.

Did your brother show up here and disappear after a while, too?

[learnings]

[... She just nods quietly, accepting.]

It has to be magic... maybe an illusion, or something.

Lloyd can't be here either.

[They both have the exact same reason for it, really.

It's just... if they're going to say it or not.]

[zerotohiro]

It's a pretty good illusion if that's what it is. It's like he was real and really there, and that's impossible. [Hiro Hamada is stubborn and doesn't want to dump his bullshit on people. Especially people like Nino. He's appreciated and been baffled by the kindness of people on the island. It's the same sort of confusion he felt with the nerd lab.]

...when was the last time you saw Lloyd? [He's assuming he's her brother, since that's the line of conversation they were on.] Can magic really be that powerful?

[learnings]

[She's quiet for a long moment, before she just nods. She's seen powerful magic, and she knows--]

Lloyd died awhile ago.

[Oh.]

He couldn't have been here. But... it felt like he was. He was right there...

But that's how I know it had to be an illusion.

[zerotohiro]

[Nino how can you just blurt that out? He looks startled by the revelation, but he doesn't say "I'm sorry" or anything. It makes no sense. There's a really, really long pause though as he gives her an unreadable look.]

...Tadashi's been gone for a couple of weeks. So that was how I knew, too. Unless the island can also bring us ghosts..?

[learnings]

[Because she has had to come to terms with a LOT of family deaths.]

... I'm sorry, Hiro. [She'll tell him that much, ducking her head a little. She knows how hard it is to lose older brothers.]

I guess it might be ghosts... I've never seen ghosts before, though, and I've seen magic. So... [That's what she's going with.]

[zerotohiro]

[He's shaking his head because he doesn't want apologies, though there's a brief look that says it's fine that she says so. He's still doing okay holding things together and so this isn't the time to be sad about it. That can wait.]

I've never seen ghosts before either, but I've also never seen magic. Someone told me that people's powers got nerfed on this island though. You think maybe that's so whatever magic is here can't get mixed up with it? Can magic conflict with other magic that bad?

[learnings]

I don't know...

[Nino has to admit that with a soft shake of her head.]

I've never formally studied it, so... I don't really know what would happen in a situation like this. I can't even begin to guess.

[zerotohiro]

And asking Hal and Pal probably won't do us any good either. [There's a frown.] It's just another thing we don't know how to answer. I hate this.

[learnings]

[...]

I know...that there's a lot we don't know about here. And honestly, I'm not very good at that sort of thing. But...

[...There is something she's not terrible at.]

Will you tell me a little more about your brother?

[zerotohiro]

[The question catches him by surprise because he's really not sure what that even has to do with this. He settles for blinking a few times, debating if he even wants to answer, but at the same time...]

...Tadashi and I are seven years apart, so he's always been around. When I was three we moved in with Aunt Cass because Mom and Dad died kinda suddenly, and I think that probably changed a lot since he remembers them a lot more than I do. [But this isn't the sad life story hour. This is about Tadashi.] He's always been a huge nerd. Really smart, hard-working, but also kinda annoying sometimes because he's really...protective. And he always wants to help people no matter what. He was supposed to do a lot to change the world and make it better but he never really got a chance because he decided that he needed to help somebody and died.

I can't think of anybody who would even say anything bad about him. He was always easy to get along with and people thought he was one of the nicest people ever. Probably because it was true. And he never gave up on people or projects or anything even when it seemed impossible. [A pause.] We're not that alike. Not really. But he was probably my best friend anyway even if he didn't know how to mind his own business sometimes. And now that he's gone, I guess...I want to do what would make him proud or whatever. [He shakes his head.] I'm pretty sure this island would be the worst possible place for him.

[learnings]

[It's important, okay... she can only help emotionally here, and she loves hearing about things like this. Really, from that way Hiro talks about Tadashi, it's clear--]

He seems like a really, really good big brother.

[She smiles softly.]

I'm sure you can still make him proud, Hiro. I...want to make my big brothers proud too. [Even though they're gone.]

But if you do your best... you can definitely do it.

[zerotohiro]

...thanks, Nino. [There's a small smile.] The only way to do that is to keep moving even with all of the weird stuff going on on this island. Sitting here worrying about it too much isn't gonna help anybody, you know?

I think we can both still do something about all of this. What do you say?