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( mini-plot post: open to all )
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jawdacity & all of cerealia!
When: towards the end of the event (so this won't conflict with any event threads you may already have going). 2-3pm.
Where: Abandoned village + surrounding jungle
What: THERE ARE EXPLOSIONS. And mushrooms.
Rating/Warning: Possible NSFW for gore?
Details about this mini-plot HERE
(theme song of this post, courtesy ofmoribound.)
[ it's another muggy, meandering day in the jungle; nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. ]
IN THE VILLAGE
[ if your character is near the center of the village, they'll bear witness to the curious sight of a herd of shuffling mushroom beasts. in terms of threat level, to the experienced hunter they may have ranked low on the scale: slow, lacking an external fang or claw, they seem to be interested only in their endless march forward.
but, if your character is close enough, they may catch sight of a red-haired young man, a manifesto of anger written across his face. one breathless moment, the calm before the storm, and then he hurls a metallic pair of gloves at the closest beast, the gloves trailing arcs of flame.
what may strike your character first is the searing heat, the thrum of the earth below their feet. the whole village is demolished in a moment, the dying cries of the beasts rising above the din. the explosion lasts much longer than it should, the line of mushrooms going up one after another.
if you're too close, you might be torn in two. you might lose a limb, or two, or three. you might go deaf, you might lose your sight. you might lose all your eyelashes, your clothes. maybe the bag of mushrooms you'd collected for dinner is now little more than ash.
keep running. the smoke trails into the air. someone is screaming. the smell of charred meat follows you even after you disappear into the jungle. ]
IN THE SURROUNDING JUNGLE
[ if your character is close enough to the village, they'll feel the blasts, one after the other. the jungle is on fire, quickly spreading. maybe you'll hear the screaming, too; maybe your lungs will fill with smoke. maybe you'll run into one of the last mushroom beasts, fleeing from the explosion only to trigger a lesser one in the depths of the jungle.
it came from the village, didn't it? maybe someone you love was swept up in the explosion.
if you manage to escape the stampede of terrified jungle beasts (some of which may stop to crunch you up as a quick meal as they dash away from the blast), maybe you can venture closer to see what's happened.
or maybe you should get as far away as possible. ]
jawdacity & all of cerealia! When: towards the end of the event (so this won't conflict with any event threads you may already have going). 2-3pm.
Where: Abandoned village + surrounding jungle
What: THERE ARE EXPLOSIONS. And mushrooms.
Rating/Warning: Possible NSFW for gore?
Details about this mini-plot HERE
(theme song of this post, courtesy of
moribound.)[ it's another muggy, meandering day in the jungle; nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. ]
IN THE VILLAGE
[ if your character is near the center of the village, they'll bear witness to the curious sight of a herd of shuffling mushroom beasts. in terms of threat level, to the experienced hunter they may have ranked low on the scale: slow, lacking an external fang or claw, they seem to be interested only in their endless march forward.
but, if your character is close enough, they may catch sight of a red-haired young man, a manifesto of anger written across his face. one breathless moment, the calm before the storm, and then he hurls a metallic pair of gloves at the closest beast, the gloves trailing arcs of flame.
what may strike your character first is the searing heat, the thrum of the earth below their feet. the whole village is demolished in a moment, the dying cries of the beasts rising above the din. the explosion lasts much longer than it should, the line of mushrooms going up one after another.
if you're too close, you might be torn in two. you might lose a limb, or two, or three. you might go deaf, you might lose your sight. you might lose all your eyelashes, your clothes. maybe the bag of mushrooms you'd collected for dinner is now little more than ash.
keep running. the smoke trails into the air. someone is screaming. the smell of charred meat follows you even after you disappear into the jungle. ]
IN THE SURROUNDING JUNGLE
[ if your character is close enough to the village, they'll feel the blasts, one after the other. the jungle is on fire, quickly spreading. maybe you'll hear the screaming, too; maybe your lungs will fill with smoke. maybe you'll run into one of the last mushroom beasts, fleeing from the explosion only to trigger a lesser one in the depths of the jungle.
it came from the village, didn't it? maybe someone you love was swept up in the explosion.
if you manage to escape the stampede of terrified jungle beasts (some of which may stop to crunch you up as a quick meal as they dash away from the blast), maybe you can venture closer to see what's happened.
or maybe you should get as far away as possible. ]
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It's really okay. I've got this. [And he shakes his head again, a little harder this time.] We can't lose any more people.
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[ And what is this... any more? ]
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It's also a bullshit argument, but he's trying.]
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[ Okay, now her voice has taken a turn for the stern. ]
Are you even listening to yourself? What makes you any less at risk, any less important here?
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The monsters are getting in my way but I have to go find where they took him after his body disappeared.
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[ Speak to her, future brother-in-law. ]
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Tadashi. [Does she know who Tadashi is? He doesn't know, maybe that's not important. His hand waves toward where the village it where the remnants of the fire are.] I don't know what happened but there was an explosion and flammable monsters destroyed everything in the village. A lot of people got hurt and I went to see what happened and Tadashi wasn't waking up. [There's a pause.] His burns and the smoke inhalation were too much for him…his body disappeared a few hours ago and I have to find where they sent it so I can make sure he comes back this time.
[This time. It's not explaining everything, but it's a start.]
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... And 'this time'. ]
Hiro... [ Her fingers flex on his shoulders. ] Where they go... I'm pretty sure it's somewhere you can't follow. I've tried doing the same thing.
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He can feel the grip on his shoulders tighten but he shakes his head.] I have to at least try. We were just talking about this a few days ago…we were talking about figuring out how to get into the Nexus and rescuing our friend and some others. I know I can fix this, I just have to find him.
[The pitch in his tone is upping as he continues to talk.] I was supposed to protect him this time. He has to come back, I can't do this. [It's not something he'd usually openly admit, but he's too rattled to stop himself from basically spilling over.] If he's too corrupted they won't release his code for a long time but if I can find them and help fix it I can get him back faster.
[It's still weird to think of Tadashi the way he thinks of Baymax, but at the same time it's just egging on the idea that there's something he can actually do.]
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But going about it like this, recklessly and wildly... ]
Hey.
[ It's all Yang says, softly, before she pulls him against her, wrapping her arms around him instead in a tight hug. ]
You're not someone we can afford to lose either, at the way you're taking this. If you want to do something, I'll help you. But don't take this on yourself.
[ She could mention pretty much all their technology is useless right now, that there's hardly a way to get back to that place without attempting to tamper with their own code, and even then, they're in the middle of the jungle. She could mention his brother probably wouldn't want him to do this.
But she won't. ]
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...and yet...he gets it. He gets what Yang is saying. He gets that she's speaking logically and that he needs to be logical about this, too. This isn't what Tadashi would want him to do. Tadashi wanted them to stick together to survive. Disappearing on his own in some foreign jungle on an alien planet is probably the stupidest idea ever...right up there with creating armor for his brother's nursebot to go exact revenge on the guy in the mask without any kind of backup.
Baymax had called his friends initially because he realized Hiro needed help. In a way, it's like he's trying to go backwards and that isn't fair. That isn't fair to Tadashi, Baymax or himself. But then again, he never thought he'd have to do this twice. He seems to realize all of these unsaid things on his own and his posture slowly relaxes from its tense, tightly coiled stance. Instead he slumps a tiny bit.]
I couldn't stop him from running into the fire the first time. [It's the first time he's ever explicitly explained what happened to anybody in this world. His words are careful, calculated.] He was pretty much unrecognizable after the flames died down. Things were supposed to be different this time, Yang. Maybe I could have saved him if I got there faster or if we hadn't split up. Tadashi didn't want to split up here but we did. I was supposed to keep him safe here. ["I'm a superhero and that's my job" goes unsaid. It's a lot of what the problem is. Old wounds being reopened and also believing there was something that could be done.]
What am I supposed to do if I can't find him? Just wait? [He doesn't like that option, and that's clear. He's not good at waiting.] People have said that sometimes it takes a whole week for people to come back here, but that's inside the colony. Do the rules change once we're out here?
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But it's precisely because she's no stranger to it that she holds him closer, shaking her head. No. If he starts thinking like that, he'll think himself in miserable circles, and that never ends well.
He's already lost his brother to the fire once. It's no small wonder he's reacting like this. ]
I don't know, Hiro. I mean, there's always a possibility that it'll stay the same, or it'll change, but... I don't think it means you have to just give up and wait, either. And no kicking yourself, either. If you want to look for your brother, that's fine. Like I said, I'll help you. Only... let's be smart about this, okay? We'll definitely find him again.
[ Alive. Probably somewhere in this jungle, but at least Hiro won't be flinging himself into brawls with monsters with a high risk of injury. ]
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For now though he shifts a bit to look up at Yang, quizzical frown on his face.]
I don't even know where to start looking. [Unlike the RWBY girls, Hiro has absolutely zero survival skills in the wilderness. The first few days had been totally fine because he'd been with Tadashi and Baymax. Without either of them now and without his tech he's pretty much just a kid wandering around waving his fists and hoping he looks intimidating.] I don't think the Bridge meant to bring us here, but I also don't know if she's finding a way to bring us back. Why would she just drag us out here without a real clue to what we're doing?
[He should move. He should pull back from Yang and stop propping himself up against her.] The other thing I wanna know is how the fire started. We find that answer, maybe we'll know how to find Tadashi.
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Let's start with that fire, first. If you're okay searching where it started, we can see if there are any clues and go from there. I don't think we'll find any answers if we go much further without a lead.
[ And he's probably going to be tired once all of his ferocity wears off. She's going to have to keep a close eye on him for awhile, just in case. So with a last, gentler squeeze, she'll let go of him. ]
We can see if we can find the Bridge, too, and ask her ourselves.
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It's back at the village so it's not too far from here. The whole places are wrecked so I don't know what we're gonna find, but maybe we can start asking around and checking with other people who were there to get an idea.
[He appreciates it. He appreciates the gesture and once she lets go he stands up again, frowning at the idea of speaking to the Bridge about such things.] I don't know if she'd have an answer to that, but it's worth a shot. I've got some other things I'd like to ask her anyway. ...Tadashi and I were supposed to find her together, but I don't know if that's gonna happen now. [A beat.] He got kinda mad at me for going into the research facility without him because I could have died, too.
[All the more reason Tadashi's second death has upset him.] I promised him we'd do everything together from now on but...he can't get mad if I don't keep that promise this time, right?
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She offers him one of her softer smiles now, nodding. ]
Besides, you can just tell him everything you managed to learn, and we'll go from there. Village stuff first, though?
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[It makes him feel a little better at least. For a city kid, he's fairly independent and he knows that. In the real world it's a lot different and he's aware that if he wasn't smart about things he'd be the first one to be eaten. Having Yang on his side for a little bit definitely isn't a bad place to be. At least until they could find answers.]
That's what I did after the raid. [A shrug. That hadn't gone as bad as he thought, but Tadashi was still sort of angry at first when he found out Hiro went alone.] Village stuff first. We find the start of the fire, we find our lead. Ready to head back?
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[ It's pretty rhetorical, though; for as much as she'll joke about it, she knows Ruby wouldn't mind this at all. Knowing her sister, she'd probably be clamoring to be a part of it too. That thought makes her smile, as she turns towards the general direction of the village. ]
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...Ruby doesn't know about Tadashi. [It's the first thing he says. He'd purposefully left that part out of his origin story. Truthfully, before this happened he'd been planning on keeping Tadashi's death under wraps unless Tadashi mentioned it first.] I told her some other stuff about me, but I never told her that Tadashi's dead back home. Can...we leave that part out if we do find her?
[Later. He'll tell her later (maybe, probably, unless someone beats him to it and he has no control over that) but right now it just seems sort of weird. A few days ago he'd just been telling Ruby about how he rescued the Bridge. Now he kind of dissolved into a mess. The less people see it, the better.]
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She nods, waiting until he's close enough to reach out and ruffle his hair. ]
I won't mention it. That's something better left off to you, anyway.
But let's just say, I think she'd get it when you do tell her. [ She's assuming he will. One day, when he's ready. Til then, her lips are sealed. ]
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The problem is that Yang's phrased it in a way that's raised some suspicions...and he doesn't like it.]
Oh my god are you dead, too? [Please say no. Please say no, he's not sure he can handle that news, too.]
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[ She's already looking dismayed. Oops, she hadn't meant it like that! ]
But she's-- we've lost someone in our family, too. A long time ago, when we were both still pretty young.
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Tadashi and I both know how that is, too. Our parents died when I was three...I don't really remember them but Tadashi does. He was ten. We've been living with our aunt since then. [There's a bit of silence as they continue toward the village.] ...loss is a weird thing, huh?
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[ Losing his parents and his brother... that's even worse. ]
But I think that's also why you have to remember... that you shouldn't let yourself be alone. No matter what, you're always going to have people who care about you. Who may or may not get it, but who'll want to be there anyway. And sometimes, that's all it takes.
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He kicks a spare pebble in their path as they walk. Baymax had tried to tell him the same thing. He shouldn't be by himself and those suffering a loss benefit from contact with friends and loved ones. He hasn't been here too long, but...maybe the same could be applied anyway.]
Heh. The last time I didn't handle this by myself I turned my friends into a superhero team. It's what we were doing before I ended up here. I don't know if the same thing will happen here but I guess this is okay.
[People are weird. Making friends has always been a little challenging for him but people in Cerealia are a little more open, it seems.] ...thank you, by the way. I don't remember if I've already said that but...y'know. ["This means a lot."]
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