[It's the way Jason approaches it that finally, finally allows Hiro to look up at him but even then it's very brief. He's doing his best not to catch his eye and eventually he shifts into a sitting position. He probably shouldn't be in the dirt but at this rate he's already battered from his run in the forest that it doesn't matter much. Drawing his knees to his chest he wraps his arms around his legs, chin tucking down to where he's practically concaved and talking more to his lap than to Jason.
But he's talking.]
Just once. It's not a big deal, I just got caught before I could get away that time. [Okay. This is it. It's a shaky little breath but he can push through it as long as he doesn't look at him.] Tadashi used to lecture me all the time about how bot-fighting was illegal and about how I needed to use my head more for something useful instead of scamming people out of money. I gotta give him credit, he was always really, really good at tricking me into things. He--I mean he used to let me think I was making my own choices. That I was winning. Not true. [There's a short, choked kind of laugh.] Right after we got out of jail I was already looking up the next bot fight to bet on and Tadashi…I really thought he was going to just let me go. He took me to his college campus instead because he knew better. Tadashi always knew better. [The longer he speaks, the more it becomes clear just how much he admires his older brother even now.] It's been that way since we were kids. Mom and Dad died when I was 3 but Tadashi was old enough that he remembered everything. We have Aunt Cass but it's always been Tadashi that…["Kept me safe."] Anyway, this was before the hero thing. Before that, I was just working on a project to get me into SFIT.
[A lull.] Tadashi was the reason for the hero thing though. I finally listened and used my brain for something else and created this really cool invention. My microbots? I don't know if I've told you about those. [He knows he hasn't.] They were supposed to change everything and they did at first. They were enough to get me into SFIT and everything. But then there was a fire and everything burned up. The microbots were destroyed, and Professor Callaghan was still inside and Tadashi…[Shit.] Knucklehead. So convinced somebody had to help and that that someone had to be him no matter what. …the building exploded right after he went inside. ["And I watched it burn."]
Later we found out that the microbots actually weren't destroyed and somebody was making more. For a while we thought it was Alistair Krei. He's the head of Krei Tech and he wanted to buy my microbots but I said no. Anyway, I had to fix what I started and I had to stop everything before it got worse, so…I recruited my friends and Baymax to help me catch the guy in the mask. I made them their armor and wrote new coding for Baymax and everything. [A beat.] I didn't do this to be a hero. That was never what I thought my life would be, but I had to stop the guy in the mask. Turned out to be Callaghan. He didn't even care about what happened to Tadashi. He said it was Tadashi's own mistake for running in after him to try and save him. [And even now judging by the way his voice cracks it still hurts. That's the only sign that he's struggling to keep talking though. He looks up again, making sure Jason's listening.] I almost killed him. I asked Baymax to destroy him…my friends stopped us though. I...I was really, really mad that they stopped us. They just let Callaghan get away from me when I had him right where I wanted him. It would have been so easy to just destroy him and let him die the way he let Tadashi die.
It took a while to understand, but I realized I can't kill people. Tadashi wouldn't want that. Tadashi...Tadashi only wanted to help people. He wanted to heal people and save the whole world. That was who Tadashi was and maybe I'm not like him, but I had to try and fix the mistakes I'd made but in a different way. Callaghan didn't care about anything but getting revenge and I couldn't let that happen. And even though he was a bad person, I couldn't let him lose his daughter when Baymax and I found her inside the portal. [Back down to his lap again.] Even if it meant losing Baymax, too.
[That's where he chooses to stop. It's a lot of information to take in, and he hopes Jason understands enough to either ask the right questions or just draw his own conclusions. He'll elaborate who Baymax is in a little bit. He had to talk about Tadashi first.]
no subject
But he's talking.]
Just once. It's not a big deal, I just got caught before I could get away that time. [Okay. This is it. It's a shaky little breath but he can push through it as long as he doesn't look at him.] Tadashi used to lecture me all the time about how bot-fighting was illegal and about how I needed to use my head more for something useful instead of scamming people out of money. I gotta give him credit, he was always really, really good at tricking me into things. He--I mean he used to let me think I was making my own choices. That I was winning. Not true. [There's a short, choked kind of laugh.] Right after we got out of jail I was already looking up the next bot fight to bet on and Tadashi…I really thought he was going to just let me go. He took me to his college campus instead because he knew better. Tadashi always knew better. [The longer he speaks, the more it becomes clear just how much he admires his older brother even now.] It's been that way since we were kids. Mom and Dad died when I was 3 but Tadashi was old enough that he remembered everything. We have Aunt Cass but it's always been Tadashi that…["Kept me safe."] Anyway, this was before the hero thing. Before that, I was just working on a project to get me into SFIT.
[A lull.] Tadashi was the reason for the hero thing though. I finally listened and used my brain for something else and created this really cool invention. My microbots? I don't know if I've told you about those. [He knows he hasn't.] They were supposed to change everything and they did at first. They were enough to get me into SFIT and everything. But then there was a fire and everything burned up. The microbots were destroyed, and Professor Callaghan was still inside and Tadashi…[Shit.] Knucklehead. So convinced somebody had to help and that that someone had to be him no matter what. …the building exploded right after he went inside. ["And I watched it burn."]
Later we found out that the microbots actually weren't destroyed and somebody was making more. For a while we thought it was Alistair Krei. He's the head of Krei Tech and he wanted to buy my microbots but I said no. Anyway, I had to fix what I started and I had to stop everything before it got worse, so…I recruited my friends and Baymax to help me catch the guy in the mask. I made them their armor and wrote new coding for Baymax and everything. [A beat.] I didn't do this to be a hero. That was never what I thought my life would be, but I had to stop the guy in the mask. Turned out to be Callaghan. He didn't even care about what happened to Tadashi. He said it was Tadashi's own mistake for running in after him to try and save him. [And even now judging by the way his voice cracks it still hurts. That's the only sign that he's struggling to keep talking though. He looks up again, making sure Jason's listening.] I almost killed him. I asked Baymax to destroy him…my friends stopped us though. I...I was really, really mad that they stopped us. They just let Callaghan get away from me when I had him right where I wanted him. It would have been so easy to just destroy him and let him die the way he let Tadashi die.
It took a while to understand, but I realized I can't kill people. Tadashi wouldn't want that. Tadashi...Tadashi only wanted to help people. He wanted to heal people and save the whole world. That was who Tadashi was and maybe I'm not like him, but I had to try and fix the mistakes I'd made but in a different way. Callaghan didn't care about anything but getting revenge and I couldn't let that happen. And even though he was a bad person, I couldn't let him lose his daughter when Baymax and I found her inside the portal. [Back down to his lap again.] Even if it meant losing Baymax, too.
[That's where he chooses to stop. It's a lot of information to take in, and he hopes Jason understands enough to either ask the right questions or just draw his own conclusions. He'll elaborate who Baymax is in a little bit. He had to talk about Tadashi first.]