[OPEN] Have you seen this child?

[bigdamnhiro]

Characters: Hiro Hamada & YOU
Date: March 16-18ish? Depending on player actions (how fast can you reunite a couple of dumb Hamadas?)
Location: 'round the city in general, starting out, moving to the Midnight Hotel(?) & miscellaneous locations afterwards, particularly the Metal District.
Situation: Hiro is a small sad hobo child for his first few days in Keeliai. Also, he has no idea Tadashi's here and probably looking for him. Refer to this ooc post for more information & if you want to plot details before threading. For chronological ordering of Hiro sightings, specify a general date, time & location please.
Warnings/Rating: Warning for general depression stuff + possible discussion of a major canonical character death.

a.) City

Hiro can't believe he's scribbling in the dirt like a caveman.

Well, almost like a caveman. He couldn't find a stick, so he's using the screwdriver that came with him to carve notes into the mud, trying to gather his thoughts and formulate some kind of a plan of action.

It's not really going well. He's been to the Welcome Center and had a few things explained to him, and after that he sort of wandered around for a while trying to get over the shell-shock (ha, he'd thought faintly, when the thought crossed his mind). Maybe he asked a few questions, and some of the Kedan were forthcoming. Others ignored him or outright told him to buzz off.

It's cold. He's hungry, circumstances as they are making him more aware of his body rebelling against the fact he didn't touch his breakfast or dinner the night before. He's trying to kick his brain into gear and figure out what to do - trying to remember the tactics he's seen homeless people in San Fransokyo use to weather through the winter, trying to remember how to make that one face that might earn him some sympathy and maybe some local currency to go with it - but it's sluggish to respond after the mind-numbing haze he's lived through the last few weeks.

So here he is sitting in the dirt in a corner of some street market, tongue sticking out of his mouth in concentration, grimacing as he cuts his thoughts into the dirt to try and organize them, so maybe he can figure out what to do next. He keeps smudging things out with his hands and starting over; right now it kind of looks like this:



At some point he probably gives up and throws his screwdriver down. It sticks in the dirt blunt end up, impaled right through the center of his disorganized note-taking.

b.) The Midnight Hotel

Hiro's been tasked with working on the garage door in exchange for his room, and he throws himself into it because if nothing else, it gives him a distraction; something to think about besides oh god, what is he gonna do and...everything else. It gives him access to tools and facilities he doesn't otherwise have here in Keeliai, too; he can be found in the garage most hours of the day and sometimes the night, he's in there maybe more than he should be, pouring over blueprints and working to understand this whole...inter-dimensional thing, that the hotel's got going on, that has to be worked into the functions of the door itself. That or he's drawing out copper wire and soldering bits and pieces onto a circuitboard to make the normal, physical aspects of the thing work, and with remote control at that.

Or he's just passed out asleep on the floor because sometime his metabolism bottoms out and it sorta happens all at once.

- or -

Anyone living on the second floor may note that whoever lives in room six isn't seen coming and going very much, and that's because either:

a) Hiro isn't there, or

b) He's being very sneaky about his leaving and returning. When you're small and don't have all that much to say, you tend to keep a low profile.

On occasion, though - in the very, very wee hours of the morning, residents may be awakened by the pitter patter of sock feet scurrying around doing who knows what, or the thunk of something large and heavy hitting the floor, hopefully accidentally.

- or -

When he's not up to his eyeballs in the project in the garage or locked in his room doing who knows what, occasionally Hiro will sneak to the balcony to take advantage of the hotel's never-ending coffee supply. Which is weird. Broken Laws of Conservation of Mass weird, and sometimes he eyeballs the coffee grounds suspiciously because coffee grounds don't just appear out of nothing - there has to be some kind of exchange of energy and matter, some logic or reason to it, but there's not. Like a lot of things in this place, it doesn't make sense.

But he's getting used to that. He's even starting to accept it. He'll at least accept that ever-replenishing coffee grounds makes about as much sense as the decision to guzzle three cups of hard, black coffee in one go, which he does, frequently and without thought. He may get the jitters and crash hard later, but half the time he does that anyway so...no great loss.

c.) Choose your own adventure!

You may find him wandering the city just about anywhere, maybe picking a fight with a random Kedan (oops) or just kind of skulking around observing. You may, in particular, find him inadvisably hanging around the Metal District investigating what kind of technology they have available, since this seems to be the most advanced general area of the city.

Comments

A on the 16th?

[akito]

It's the hair that catches Akito's attention at first - it's so familiar and unexpected that he can't even breathe, and even though he knows it's not Ikki (the posture is all wrong, and so is the build) it takes him a few minutes to get his heart to stop beating rapid fire in his throat. He's already accepted that he's likely never going to see his friends or family ever again. And he's fine with it, really. He has to keep telling himself that.

But when faced with someone who reminds him so much of home that it hurts, Akito can't just walk away. Not when the boy is so obviously lost, under-dressed, and overall just unprepared for life in Keeliai.

It takes less than three leaps to land near his target. Mentally, Akito thinks of what he has on him that he could give away. Not as much as he would like, but better than nothing at all.

"Um... Hey?"

[bigdamnhiro]

Hiro's just about to pick the screwdriver back up again when, lo and behold, this kid pops over next to him like a really large grasshopper to say hello, snapping him out of his own thoughts. It's jarring and he doesn't even want to admit that he bolts upright with a yelp because hella embarrassing. And then two thoughts, in quick concession:

a) What

b) Oh good I can fight you if I have to

Well, it's true, kid's smaller than he is but. That kind of defensive thinking isn't doing him any good. Still, he tucks his screwdriver close to his chest because hey, that's one of his few worldly possessions at the moment. And Megabot, which is too big to pocket so it's just kinda...sitting next to him on the ground. He pulls that close too.

"...Hey?" He blinks a couple times, wide-eyed and still winding down from the initial shock, but...okay, wait. On closer inspection, this is the first person he's met who looked relatively normal by not-turtle-town standards. "Are you human?"

Obvious best way to say hello duh.

[akito]

Oh no.

It takes a moment for Akito to think of anything beyond the absolute dread of knowing you're attracted to someone. It wasn't just the hair that was similar, but the eyes remind him of Ikki too. A different shade of brown, sure, but bright and expressive.

And, of course, the tactlessness. That definitely reminds him of a certain dumb crow he used to love.

Oh no, indeed.

"Human by Earth standards," Akito answers, stifling the giggles that bubble up from his throat. "From Tokyo, Japan, if that means anything to you. Right now I think you're probably more cold than human though."

It's not a question. Even layered up as he is, Akito can feel the chill down to his bones. Then again, he's always been sensitive to the cold - being tiny being one point against him, and having a frail body being a second. Still, he has a scarf he can spare, so he unravels it from his neck and holds it out for the other boy.

"I don't have a jacket big enough for you but I have spare mittens at home, and a bag you could borrow for your robot."

A

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene's walking around through the city, as one does, when he spots the little figure hunched over the dirt. The homeless and otherwise destitute are nothing new - the rising tide in Keeliai hadn't lifted all boats - but this kid catches his eye because he looks so...human.

Upon further inspection, it is in fact a small human, drawing busily in the dirt with...is that a screwdriver?

Huh.

Gene peers over the notes as he's in the process of walking by. "Definitely some weird metascience bullshit," he says, as though it's as normal as saying 'hello'.

[bigdamnhiro]

Hiro would like to say he has some kind of a graceful reply to that, but all he really has is a low, grumbling noise kind of like an upset, bristling cat. He kicks the screwdriver over and leans back against the building behind him, arms folded and lips pursed tightly together.

He glances woefully up at Gene. He's getting the idea that there are plenty of human foreigners here, so it's less of a shock this time around. "Is anything here not bullshit?"

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene has to stop and think about that for a moment. Foreigner/kedan relations? Bullshit. Family heads? Bullshit. The fact that the hatchlings had all escaped in a pod with little more than a tenuous psychic connection for their caretakers? Super, ultra bullshit.

"The tea's not half bad," he says at length. Ouch, Gene, why don't you damn more with faint praise. "It wouldn't be too much of an assumption to say you're new here, huh."

A on the 16th

[whitelotustile]

Iroh keeps an eye out for poorer kids. He can't do as much about it now that he's not running a shop any more, but every little bit helps. And at least the cold has stopped being so cold.

He does notice Hiro -- and that Hiro is clearly a Foreigner. Even if a kedan was good enough to mimic a Foreigner, that wasn't any of the kedan scripts. He crouches down to expect the drawing. "It's an ocean-going turtle, not a tortoise." Because herpetology is really important, okay?

[bigdamnhiro]

Hiro looks up sharply at the old man crouched in front of him - and then back down at his drawing, which is, yeah, a turtle with legs. He frowns.

"Oh."

He scrawls out the turtle, venting a little frustration as he does by digging at it a little harder than necessary, and tries again; he's seen sea turtles, they used to crawl up on the beach at home to nest and sometimes when he was little Tadashi would take him to watch from an appropriate distance with binoculars -

He pauses, his frown deepening.

"Have you seen it, though? Is there really a turtle? What if they just....made it up?"

[whitelotustile]

"bits of the shell. The head and flippers. It's far too big to see all at once," Iroh said. "When I first arrived, places bare down to shell were a lot more common. Now, they're more likely to be covered in soil and plants."

A, 17th? c:

[windbreak]

He needs to keep walking, because the day's wearing on and he still hasn't come up with a plan for when it wears out entirely, but Yosuke finds himself edging over while the kid's back is turned to peer at the scribblings. While they aren't exactly the kind of text he'd be forced to hack to bits in an English class back home, he imagines he can understand the gist, somehow. The pointed-looking cartoon face in front of his foot really brings the whole piece together. It reminds him of someone he knows.

But the young would-be artist's stony face is hardly an improvement, and what Yosuke can see of it when he glances to his side promptly grabs the rest of his attention. How old is this kid, anyway? Middle school? What's he doing hunched over by himself in a dusty corner like this? Putting together the apparent content and the language of his scrawling, that has to mean... there are even younger kids caught up in the same mess Yosuke is in? That can't be right.

Loath to simply walk away now that he's stopped, he instead leans down a little further, hoping to catch the kid's eye. "Yeah, that's just about the only thing that wouldn't be an improvement, huh?" he says, as conversationally as possible. "Being literally that high up."

[bigdamnhiro]

Unfortunately, sneaking up on him while his back's turned doesn't quite work toward conversation; Hiro's so engrossed in what he's doing that he doesn't even realize anyone's there until Yosuke starts talking. At which point he yelps in alarm and scrambles to his feet, jumping a good six inches in the other direction.

He realizes his mistake after a second and relaxes by degrees, but seriously, tall dude, sneak more loudly.

"Uh..." Hiro glances back and forth between Yosuke and his notes in the dirt, not really sure what he's talking about for a second until it registers where he placed his x and he laughs, a little. "Oh, that's - that wasn't literal, I just - turtle in general, it, uh, I hope nobody falls through a hole in the universe and comes out in the sky because that'd...suck."

[windbreak]

"I... don't really recommend it, no."

Yosuke shoots the boy a sidelong look. Laughter is a good sign, even a single uncertain borderline giggle like that one, but accounting for the rest of the picture (plus the, you know, picture), he still can't help feeling concerned. A shade guilty, too - it's usually pretty obvious when he's trying to sneak around.

"And I dunno if I'd recommend anywhere in this part of town for an art project, from the looks of things," he adds. The kid is probably a bit too old-slash-tall for crouching down to be taken the right way - oh yeah, Yosuke remembers middle school - but he does essay a sheepish smile and a vague wave of his hand, just to be extra clear on how non-threatening he is. That never hurts. "Uh, but what I mean is - are you okay there? Need a hand with -" Figuring out what he's saying before he opens his mouth is something else that never hurts. Oh well. "- something?"

B: Midnight Hotel

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis was tired when she came back from her run outside the city. Not caring who saw, she nosed open the door to the Hotel and slipped inside. Her fur was still sleek and shiny, but her green eyes were dull and her tail hung limply. Lack of sleep was starting to get to her. She walked through the lobby and was about to go into the back room to shift out of sight when an unfamiliar scent caught her attention. She turned her head to see the small boy guzzling down coffee. Her ears pricked up and a bit of life came back into her eyes.

She walked over and huffed at him, her tail raising slightly as she tipped her head.

[bigdamnhiro]

Hiro has his face in a cup of coffee and he's not expecting any dog noises so a sudden whuff is kind of a surprise; he jumps, lowers his mug and - yeah, it's a dog. Hiro stares blankly, half a dozen disorganized, caffeine-driven thoughts racing through his head at once, such as -

Well, he's never had a dog, for one, just Mochi, who's a cat, and he's met some little dogs out on walks sometimes but the ones that are as big as him, those are always on leashes or kept in fenced-in backyards and not standing right in front of him watching him intently.

He clutches his coffee cup in both hands, keeping it out of reach.

"Don't look at me like that. Pretty sure caffeine is super bad for dogs, you can't have any."

I suppose I should have told you she is the size of a horse...

[redlightgreenlight]

She released another low huff, amused how this tiny human was trying to protect his coffee. She stepped up to her full height, but lowered her large head to his level, so that she could look him in the eyes.

I'm not a dog, her voice would echo in his head. But I appreciate your concern. She sounded quite amused.

B!

[kreitech]

When the thumping starts in the dead of night he rolls over and tries in vain to locate his cellphone, hoping in that half-asleep way that maybe if he hits snooze it'll all be over. Except he can't locate his cellphone, and the more he can't find it the closer toward wakefulness he creeps. This isn't his nightstand either, come to think of it, and the bed--

Oh.

It hits him like a ton of bricks as soon as he's awake enough to remember. He's in the Hotel, in his shared room, and his cellphone is gone. Which also means that whatever the noise was that woke him, it wasn't his alarm.

THUMP.

Ugh, does no one else hear that?

More awake than asleep now, and thoroughly disgusted, Krei crawls out of bed and pads toward the door on bare feet. He doesn't have the slightest idea what time it is at the moment, but he knows it's too damned early to care what he looks like. Time to find the source of the noise and smash the proverbial snooze button on it.

So here, Hiro. While you're tinkering away, have a very rumpled, half-asleep Alistair Krei, in what would pass for a t-shirt and shorts in kedanese fashion and hair totally disheveled, banging at your door.

[bigdamnhiro]

Hiro doesn't know where the microbot went. He took it out to look at it and it promptly zipped off across the room, leading him to charge after it without much regard for the unholy noise he's making at way too early in the morning. He trips over a toolbox he borrowed from the garage and hits the floor; a second later he's leaping across the unused twin bed onto the one he's supposed to be sleeping in, snatching at the tiny bot that ends up slipping through his fingers anyway.

And then someone knocks. And Hiro winces, caught between ignoring it and looking for the microbot (it's vanished) and maybe, possibly apologizing because he's not stupid and he knows or at least realizes now that he's...probably making a lot of noise.

Sheepish, he slides off the bed and scurries to the door, leaving the microbot to its own devices. He undoes the bolt and cracks it slowly, just enough so that Krei only gets a glimpse of half his face peeking out, one eye growing wide and one eyebrow shooting up.

Because Alistair Krei - as in, the Alistair Krei - is standing outside his door. In shorts and a tee, with bags under his eyes and normally-immaculate hair sticking in every direction, but even so he'd know that face anywhere because the guy's all over the tv and Forbes and he's got one hell of a nose -

Hiro chokes on whatever apology he was going to offer and instead fumbles, "You -"

He cracks the door a little wider, and at that moment his stray microbot chooses to shoot out. Hiro doesn't think. He just reaches out and grabs it, inches from colliding with Krei's face.

"Mr. Krei?"

A.)

[backwordscompatible]

Zatanna remembered him from the Welcome Center.

A glimpse, mostly; she'd been mostly preeocupied in her room around the time he'd come in, but she caught sight just as he was leaving. There had been something in the poor boy's eyes. He looked as lost as anyone she had ever seen. Her heart went out to him, empathizing. So when she caught sight of him later in the day...

Idle drawing in the dirt. With a screwdriver, rather than your usual stick. Switching things up a bit. As she got closer, she recognized some of the images. The Hotel--no, wait, it was a house of some kind. A giant Turtle--Asti, most likely. With an arrow pointing from one to the other.

All in all, she thought it was cute. Endearing.

"You're quite the artist."

[bigdamnhiro]

Out of the corner of his eye, Hiro can sort of see that someone's approaching; it tugs at his attention, but he's too caught up in what he's doing at first, reluctant to focus on anything else. It's only when she gets close that he pauses, and when she speaks his eyes snap up sharply to look at her.

It's not that he's afraid, or that he doesn't want to trust anyone. But it's a new place, new people...nobody to fall back on or pick him up on a scooter if things go wrong. So there's still this constant, coiling anxiousness in his chest; he doesn't know what to do with the people he comes into contact with. He sort of thinks maybe he caught a glimpse of her on his way out of the Welcome Center, though, so...she's probably okay.

A nervous, quiet laugh escapes him with a rush of breath. "Never heard that one before. Usually it's stuff like, Oh, you're such a genius! But quit doodling on your homework or Pay attention in class or...y'know. It's just some dumb notes, though. Think I'm more of a kindred spirit with Tesla than Picasso."

B is for Bazinga : 18 March

[strokeofgenis]

It's been an alright day off in the world of the Shell. And an alright day is actually better than average, so perhaps that's a plus? Genis returns to the Midnight Hotel in the middle of the day, just when Hiro happens to be coming for a coffee fix. And what the coffee fix it is! Dear Summon Spirits almighty! He watches the whole thing and just kind of stares blankly at it. How can that boy even be alive after all that!?

"You do know that caffeine is theoretically a poison in large enough quantities, right?" Genis says, offering a rather unfortunately blunt introduction. Yeah, he read that in one of Raine's books somewhere. "But more importantly, at that rate, you're liable to be able to run faster than a manticore before too long."

[bigdamnhiro]

Dude, you did not.

Hiro lowers his coffee mug, peering over the rim at Genis, eyes narrowed and mouth pressed tightly into a frown. Is this guy serious? At least he's Hiro-sized, maybe a little smaller than Hiro-sized. Another person he can fight if he has to.

"Theoretically. But I'm not dead yet, so I'd say the results are inconclusive." And he very deliberately pours himself some more out of the coffee pot. "I'd also say I'm already faster than a manticore, since those aren't real, but we're riding on the back of a big ol' turtle so you know what? I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on that one. They're probably real someplace."

C? Outside Stark Industries in the Metal Sector? 17th?

[theideaguy]

Sokka is off on his way to work. While Sokka is way not into the look and style of San Fransokyo, at least the way he dresses—well, sans the heavy winter coats—might look a little like ancient China, so maybe that's something... recognisable? Maybe?

Anyway, his work takes him to the Metal Sector today in order to check in with the management and deliver some reports, and as Sokka is managing a few clipboards, trying to keep them all within his arms as he walks along. And then there's this boy who seems to be just looking around, not in amazement, but almost as if he's scoping out everything here. It definitely catches Sokka's eye because, really, the only people who would be doing something like that would be a Foreigner, and most importantly a Foreigner that's new here. After all, there weren't all that many little kids that were here.

Well, Sokka's got a little bit of time before the whistle will ring. He's usually pretty punctual, and that is to say early.

He comes over and gives him a rather dumbfounded expression. "Lost? Or trying to sneak your way inside?" It was either one of the two.

[bigdamnhiro]

Hiro jumps just slightly, because okay, it's not like he wasn't considering it. This is about the only place in the city that doesn't look like it's a few centuries out of date compared to home, so of course he's going to be drawn here. If any place has the materials or tools he needs, this is it.

"Uh - maaaaaybe?" He says, noncommittal, eyeballing the clipboards. Works here, maybe? Because he's fully prepared to run, if the guy takes offense to the implication he might have been trying to sneak in. "Are you?"

B!

[needmetoo]

The balcony was one of Xion's more favorite spots thus far, given how she'd always been fond of heights. They reminded her of afternoon sunsets and ice cream and friends, even here. The Midnight Hotel's balcony was indoors, sure, but it still worked, especially given the building as a whole was dubbed "safe" by her. Thus, when she had a free moment, she would often go up there, to look around or even just relax.

Seeing a new face eying the coffee grounds as she wandered up there at one point caught her attention, especially given a certain network post she'd seen. She ambled over, hands behind her back.

"Is that what he- I mean, Mr. Shudder, was talking about on the network? The coffee that just... appeared?" she asked, peering curiously.

[bigdamnhiro]

Hiro's distracted pouring himself some fresh coffee to wake up when she wanders over, so it takes him a couple of seconds to respond; maybe he's processing slowly, maybe he's just...distracted.

"Huh? Oh, I dunno," he says absently, peering inside the coffee container. Still seems pretty full, and he knows he's been hitting the supply hard all week. "I haven't been here very long."

He leans back against the table and stirs his coffee for all of about five seconds to let it cool - and then tips up the mug and drinks. it. all. in one go. And then goes back for more.

"Can confirm though: it doesn't run out. I've tried. Keeps coming back while I'm not looking. Weird."