Seriously, please work on your jokes. [And with that he goes off, disappearing from Joshua's watchful eyes.
For the most part, he spends the rest of the day sneaking around the Station tinkering with some of the tech the place has to offer, occasionally popping into stores for food or camping out tucked away in a corner searching for something on one of the computers. Distractions during the remaining daylight hours wasn't the trouble here. It was filling the night hours that had been Hiro's real trouble and it's not until the very late hours of the night (or the early hours of the morning) that Hiro finds himself in his room laying on his bed. He has a book open in front of him and for a short time he occupied his mind with reading the same sentences over and over again. He couldn't concentrate really. Everything Joshua told him about the music made sense and the music only grew louder in the otherwise silence of his room.
Eventually exhaustion took over and Hiro fell asleep face-down on his book, limbs sprawled haphazardly in a way only a teenage boy could pull off.
The dream wasn’t anything unusual. The dream found Hiro at the bottom of a grassy hill, staring up at rows and rows of little tombs sunken into the ground. The sky was gray and rain had started to fall. He fixated on the fact that he wasn’t getting wet, using that logic to keep him grounded. He had to focus. He could hear the music louder than ever much as he had several nights before. The music came from on top of the hill and Hiro knew exactly what to expect should he make the trek. There had been a reason he never did make the journey uphill, instead sitting at the bottom of the hill and waiting until he woke up. This wasn’t the worst of his nightmares. This one was relatively calm and yet the music struck him with more fear than most nightmares would.
He couldn’t stay down here today. If, for some reason, Joshua was telling him the truth he had to find the harp and destroy it.
Slowly he pushed himself away from the tree he was hiding behind and began to climb the hill, music growing louder as his sneakers sank into the soil with each step. At the top of the hill he found a small see of black umbrellas all opened up and crowded around one particular grave. The music was at its loudest here. He could do this. He just had to push his way through and kill the harp. It’d be over soon and if things turned sour, Joshua would be by soon. (He hoped.)
He elbowed his way through the crowd, ignoring the way their faces were blurred and ignoring how indescribable they were knowing that they were just copies of the same faceless clone. He wrestled his way through and as the music swelled the crowd seemed to grow larger and left him with more people to push through.
He finally broke through, stopping right at the burial site. The tombstone in the ground bore the name Tadashi Hamada just as he knew it would, and at the head of the grave stood a man in a red and white kabuki mask. Hiro faltered, staring as he took in what he was seeing right in front of him. A man in a mask standing aside, several hundreds of miniature robots, his microbots, forming two large hands that plucked the harps strings.
No. No way. Callaghan wasn't going to use his mcrobots against him again. He tried to yell, tried to get the man's attention but his voice was drowned out by the nearly overwhelming music that caused Hiro to cower back. He lost his nerve just long enough for Callaghan to notice and though the hands stopped playing, the music went on. The hands formed into a new wave and the microbots carried the harp up and away, Callaghan running after it and leaving the funeral behind just as Hiro's hand came up to form a large fireball to fling at his retreating back. The flames missed Callaghan but settled instead on an arrangement of flowers and the funeral of Tadashi Hadama erupted into flames. The fire roared, flames swirling and absorbing every last black umbrella and Hiro finally found the voice to yell out loud.
He'd caused this. He had caused the fire to break out and consume everything in its path and the sheer terror of that realization rendered him speechless and frozen in place as he watched his microbots carry away the source of the haunting music. Callaghan was getting away. He wasn't going to allow this to happen again. He'd stopped him once. He could stop him again, even without his team. The rain wasn't putting out the fire and the fire was closing in on him but he turned and ran, chasing after the music one more time. Callaghan and the harp were both in his sight and he felt himself pick up speed.
Dreams, as Hiro knew, were prone to causing strange things to happen around him. As much as he had argued with Joshua that science could explain everything, there was absolutely no explaining the transition from jumping over an open grave and into the open air, finding himself suspended and back in the portal. He hadn't dreamed of this place for at least a week or two, the bright colors both beautiful and just as equally ominous all at once. He knew he found the right place to be though. He could hear the harp and he propelled himself forward through space to close the gap. Buried deep within the portal several miles from the entrance he found it. The harp was gently playing still but this time the hands weren't floating by themselves.
This time the microbots had found a new home surrounding the armor of his fallen best friend, hands formed around Baymax's arms to keep playing the tune as Callaghan loomed over him from atop Abigail's ship. It was as if the dream version of the professor knew exactly what would cause Hiro to tense up and stop in his tracks, knew every little thing he had been trying to avoid since arriving in the Drabwurld. The dreams. The memories. Everything that continued to haunt him every day he went without further progress in repairing Baymax and every day he went thinking about how Tadashi and Baymax would be on the Seelie side of this war and he would have to fight the pair of them.
With that thought, he realized he couldn't let them be used against him here. At least here he could control the outcome, no matter how much his chest hurt and no matter how much his vision blurred with tears as he approached. He knew Callaghan was watching and it angered him. It angered him to know he was being a pawn once again but this time in his own head. He hated it. He wanted control. He wanted to get a grip on his own emotions and conquer his own nightmares just this once.
He quickly changed directions, lunging for Callaghan instead and knocking the mask aside. In a dream, he could do anything. In a dream like this, it was easier to steal the kabuki mask from the man and regain access to the neurotransmitter. In a dream like this, it was easier to slip the band on over his head and take control of the microbots, hands stopping the music and forming giant fists that began to beat the harp into pieces, pull apart its strings and destroy it.
Of course, in a dream like this, it was also easy for Hiro not to know what his subconscious would do and he felt a kick in his back as Callaghan got up, wrestling Hiro to the ground to regain the mask. He fought and he squirmed, keeping his head tilted back as far as he could to make sure the microbots could finish their work even as Callaghan persisted. The microbots weren't moving fast enough. Several of them left the harp to aid Hiro in attempting to pull off Callaghan and slowed the process of destroying the harp. He just had to hang in there for a little longer. He couldn't wake up before the deed was done.
And outside in the waking world, Hiro finally stirred, body shifting and kicking out at an otherwise invisible foe and a litany of mumbles and whimpers following after that. Despite the fact that he was fighting to stay asleep, his body had other ideas and continued trying to force him awake before he finally flung himself off of the bed and hit the floor with a sob wretched from his mouth, eyes flying open and Hiro finding himself scrambling for leverage.
How unfortunate that the moment came right as Joshua was due to check in on him.]
no subject
For the most part, he spends the rest of the day sneaking around the Station tinkering with some of the tech the place has to offer, occasionally popping into stores for food or camping out tucked away in a corner searching for something on one of the computers. Distractions during the remaining daylight hours wasn't the trouble here. It was filling the night hours that had been Hiro's real trouble and it's not until the very late hours of the night (or the early hours of the morning) that Hiro finds himself in his room laying on his bed. He has a book open in front of him and for a short time he occupied his mind with reading the same sentences over and over again. He couldn't concentrate really. Everything Joshua told him about the music made sense and the music only grew louder in the otherwise silence of his room.
Eventually exhaustion took over and Hiro fell asleep face-down on his book, limbs sprawled haphazardly in a way only a teenage boy could pull off.
The dream wasn’t anything unusual. The dream found Hiro at the bottom of a grassy hill, staring up at rows and rows of little tombs sunken into the ground. The sky was gray and rain had started to fall. He fixated on the fact that he wasn’t getting wet, using that logic to keep him grounded. He had to focus. He could hear the music louder than ever much as he had several nights before. The music came from on top of the hill and Hiro knew exactly what to expect should he make the trek. There had been a reason he never did make the journey uphill, instead sitting at the bottom of the hill and waiting until he woke up. This wasn’t the worst of his nightmares. This one was relatively calm and yet the music struck him with more fear than most nightmares would.
He couldn’t stay down here today. If, for some reason, Joshua was telling him the truth he had to find the harp and destroy it.
Slowly he pushed himself away from the tree he was hiding behind and began to climb the hill, music growing louder as his sneakers sank into the soil with each step. At the top of the hill he found a small see of black umbrellas all opened up and crowded around one particular grave. The music was at its loudest here. He could do this. He just had to push his way through and kill the harp. It’d be over soon and if things turned sour, Joshua would be by soon. (He hoped.)
He elbowed his way through the crowd, ignoring the way their faces were blurred and ignoring how indescribable they were knowing that they were just copies of the same faceless clone. He wrestled his way through and as the music swelled the crowd seemed to grow larger and left him with more people to push through.
He finally broke through, stopping right at the burial site. The tombstone in the ground bore the name Tadashi Hamada just as he knew it would, and at the head of the grave stood a man in a red and white kabuki mask. Hiro faltered, staring as he took in what he was seeing right in front of him. A man in a mask standing aside, several hundreds of miniature robots, his microbots, forming two large hands that plucked the harps strings.
No. No way. Callaghan wasn't going to use his mcrobots against him again. He tried to yell, tried to get the man's attention but his voice was drowned out by the nearly overwhelming music that caused Hiro to cower back. He lost his nerve just long enough for Callaghan to notice and though the hands stopped playing, the music went on. The hands formed into a new wave and the microbots carried the harp up and away, Callaghan running after it and leaving the funeral behind just as Hiro's hand came up to form a large fireball to fling at his retreating back. The flames missed Callaghan but settled instead on an arrangement of flowers and the funeral of Tadashi Hadama erupted into flames. The fire roared, flames swirling and absorbing every last black umbrella and Hiro finally found the voice to yell out loud.
He'd caused this. He had caused the fire to break out and consume everything in its path and the sheer terror of that realization rendered him speechless and frozen in place as he watched his microbots carry away the source of the haunting music. Callaghan was getting away. He wasn't going to allow this to happen again. He'd stopped him once. He could stop him again, even without his team. The rain wasn't putting out the fire and the fire was closing in on him but he turned and ran, chasing after the music one more time. Callaghan and the harp were both in his sight and he felt himself pick up speed.
Dreams, as Hiro knew, were prone to causing strange things to happen around him. As much as he had argued with Joshua that science could explain everything, there was absolutely no explaining the transition from jumping over an open grave and into the open air, finding himself suspended and back in the portal. He hadn't dreamed of this place for at least a week or two, the bright colors both beautiful and just as equally ominous all at once. He knew he found the right place to be though. He could hear the harp and he propelled himself forward through space to close the gap. Buried deep within the portal several miles from the entrance he found it. The harp was gently playing still but this time the hands weren't floating by themselves.
This time the microbots had found a new home surrounding the armor of his fallen best friend, hands formed around Baymax's arms to keep playing the tune as Callaghan loomed over him from atop Abigail's ship. It was as if the dream version of the professor knew exactly what would cause Hiro to tense up and stop in his tracks, knew every little thing he had been trying to avoid since arriving in the Drabwurld. The dreams. The memories. Everything that continued to haunt him every day he went without further progress in repairing Baymax and every day he went thinking about how Tadashi and Baymax would be on the Seelie side of this war and he would have to fight the pair of them.
With that thought, he realized he couldn't let them be used against him here. At least here he could control the outcome, no matter how much his chest hurt and no matter how much his vision blurred with tears as he approached. He knew Callaghan was watching and it angered him. It angered him to know he was being a pawn once again but this time in his own head. He hated it. He wanted control. He wanted to get a grip on his own emotions and conquer his own nightmares just this once.
He quickly changed directions, lunging for Callaghan instead and knocking the mask aside. In a dream, he could do anything. In a dream like this, it was easier to steal the kabuki mask from the man and regain access to the neurotransmitter. In a dream like this, it was easier to slip the band on over his head and take control of the microbots, hands stopping the music and forming giant fists that began to beat the harp into pieces, pull apart its strings and destroy it.
Of course, in a dream like this, it was also easy for Hiro not to know what his subconscious would do and he felt a kick in his back as Callaghan got up, wrestling Hiro to the ground to regain the mask. He fought and he squirmed, keeping his head tilted back as far as he could to make sure the microbots could finish their work even as Callaghan persisted. The microbots weren't moving fast enough. Several of them left the harp to aid Hiro in attempting to pull off Callaghan and slowed the process of destroying the harp. He just had to hang in there for a little longer. He couldn't wake up before the deed was done.
And outside in the waking world, Hiro finally stirred, body shifting and kicking out at an otherwise invisible foe and a litany of mumbles and whimpers following after that. Despite the fact that he was fighting to stay asleep, his body had other ideas and continued trying to force him awake before he finally flung himself off of the bed and hit the floor with a sob wretched from his mouth, eyes flying open and Hiro finding himself scrambling for leverage.
How unfortunate that the moment came right as Joshua was due to check in on him.]