[Hank smiles faintly. He'd needed that to go okay, without magic shit getting in the fucking way, and it had. That actually went alright. Nice when that happens.]
Sometimes I get lucky.
[His eyes dart down to the kid's hands. That grip on his shorts, that'd been hard not to notice.]
[He admits, a little shyly. He's so grateful for Hank for being there but... also feels bad that he couldn't keep it together like wanted to. Like an adult. Like a hero.]
Oh! No! I was just thinking... back home, they have all this stuff set up to help people with all sorts of different kinds of powers. To help them if their powers... make it hard to just have a normal life, you know? I mean... it's not normal for you but... powers are normal there. And I wish they had something like that here.
Sometimes! But also therapies, guides, all sorts of things to try to help kids understand their Quirks. Your Quirk is part of who you are, you know? People should feel they understand that part of themselves.
Yeah. I guess it makes sense that you'd feel that way.
[Hank's expression, though, is distinctly skeptical. It's not that he doubts what the kid's saying, but he can't help but relate it to himself, a little. That's where the whole thing falls down. He takes a couple seconds to work past the urge to be shitty about the whole concept, watching Izuku quietly.]
Must of been hard for you, getting here, having a whole new one.
It's just frustrating, because I've been working so hard at controlling my powers back home and learning how to use them but...
[He looks down at his hands, twisting his gnarled fingers together, like he's prepping himself to admit something shameful.]
I actually just discovered I had a Quirk a few months ago. Before that I thought I was "Quirkless". So I didn't... I didn't really fit in with most other kids.
[And here's another area Hank has absolutely no background in. He can try to relate it to other shit, sure, but he's got no way of knowing whether anything he knows about is actually the same. Still, it's... okay to focus on something that's not 'what it feels like to marinate in his own shit all day', and the kid looks like it still really bothers him.]
A normal person on a world full of superheroes. And then you get shoved into this fuckin place right when you start gettin settled in. Sounds pretty shitty.
I guess. But… we just have to make the best of it. As far as I know, no one has any idea what we can do other than what Miss Astoria says we have to.
[He sighs. They’re in the dark about so much and he doesn’t even know where to begin looking for clues. Then he glances at Hank.]
It must be even weirder for you. I mean just waking up and suddenly having strange powers in a strange land. …It’s kinda like the plot of those old comic books, you know? Or old for us, before Quirks showed up, where someone gets powers from meeting an alien or getting bitten by a radioactive insect and suddenly their life is totally different.
I’ve at least sort of had some experience with that, strange as it is to say.
Yeah, you got bit by a radioactive plot device and became just like everyone else. Not your usual comic book hero.
[Hank grimaces, wondering if he should of said that. Maybe Izuku mentioning how little choice any of them have but to sit here and do what their airhead leader tells them to threw Hank off. Or maybe he’s just a goddamn asshole.]
Sorry, um, I didn’t- I’m glad you found your... whatever. Your quirk thing. I didn’t even figure mine out myself. I just thought... I don’t know. I guess if anything weird happened I wrote it off. Shoulda fucking known it wouldn’t be that easy.
[He looks down at his shoes. It's a bit more of a comic book story if he were able to tell the truth about how he get his Quirk. But he promised to keep that a secret and he's going to stick to his word, even in this strange world.]
I-It's okay. I really found it out more by accident than anything else too... [But he nods.] They don't really make it easy for us here, do they? Even if we're expected to help. It just doesn't seem very logical.
[Fuck does Hank have things to say on that topic- but they’re the kind of things better spat out at someone just as angry as he is over a couple drinks. Not the kind of thing you say to a kid who still probably needs something to believe in, even if it’s the useless shithead who brought them all here. Hank sighs and looks down at the mattress.]
But you don’t need to listen to an old man bitch. It’ll all-
[The fake, stupid optimism doesn’t come out as smooth as he wanted it to. But it does come out. The kid doesn’t need to know they’re all boned.]
[Izuku smiles at him softly. He's naive, but he's not stupid. They're in a precarious situation and they have to be careful. But it's nice to hear that someone say it even if maybe, he's a little uncertain if Hank believes it himself. Izuku thinks that, sometimes it's important to be able give someone else hope, even if you don't feel it yourself.]
Yeah. Even if... right now it feels kinda hopeless. We can't just give up, we have to keep trying or else nothing is going to turn out how we want.
[Hank tries a smile but it feels as fake and pained as it probably looks so he doesn't make it last, just looks away and slumps even further down against the wall, sitting low enough now that he's halfway laying on it. That philosophy right there's about the complete opposite of Hank's personal strategy, and the attempt to look like he agrees with it just makes him look a little sick.]
Yeah. Just got to... uh, charge on ahead, right? To that next... the next world.
[God. Is that what they fucked up back in Akvos? A whole world? Or was it just the city? He doesn't have any idea. He doesn't think he'll ever have any fucking idea. Is 'just' the city anything he should even be hoping for? Christ.]
Look forward or. You know. Whatever.
[God, he should be able to keep the optimistic bullshit up better than this. He just doesn't have it in him.]
[His smile fades away too. It's easy to say but when he thinks about the next world, a chill takes over his body. He pulls his knees close to his chest and wraps his arms around them.]
I... I'm not giving up and I know I should keep looking forward but... I have to admit I'm nervous about where we go next. It seems so random and like we don't have have a chance to prepare ourselves and...
[Hank takes a breath, rouses himself, tries to make his voice a little stronger.]
You didn't fail. You know that, right? If we still don't know what the hell we should have done there's no way you coulda known then. This is on Astoria for not filling us in - for still not filling us in, even now everything's over.
[It's a struggle to keep what little life Hank's managed to stir up in himself from settling again. Because, yeah, chances are, without good info that's going to happen again. It's something he's been trying not to think about, but he can't believe anything else. Chances aren't good.
But he can't stand to see this kid- grow up, a part of him whispers, despite the rest of him. He can't stand to see him grow up, not like this. So he tries to find an angle.]
Now, if someone could get her to open up - cause there's got to be tons of shit she's not telling us. Then maybe... I don't know. Then we might know something.
[Hank grimaces apologetically, watching the kid. That's not much, he knows - but it's something, maybe. Hope for something.]
I just don't ever want to have to see that ever again.
[He shudders and pulls his knees closer to his chest. It's failure and then it's seeing the consequences of that failure that he can't get out of his head. And there's no way to make it right, like when he failed to save Kacchan from villains at Camp. There's no do over, no loophole to what happened in Akvos.
He exhales out of his nose before looking up at Hank.]
You're right. She brought us here but I really don't know anything about Miss Astoria. I've never even spoken to her... She acts like she's here for us and yet, she's actually really closed off.
[Izuku's face turns red. Both because he's being complimented and because he realizes he was being rude.]
I mean! It's not that I don't have faith in her but I just think... maybe she could tell us a little more about all of this if she wants to succeed! I'd like to believe she really is on our side but we just know so little that its hard to charge forward with any sort of plan to get done what needs to be done!
[Then something Hank says hits in his brain.]
...She isn't human, is she? We don't... we don't even know if she looks at things or feels them the way we do. ...But does that matter, I met a girl here, she wasn't human either, she was something called a jinba, but still she was trying to help everyone she could. It seems that... I don't know, feelings aren't just human, but maybe we just... don't understand hers either. Because we don't really talk.
[When he mentions the jinba thing, Hank sighs and pulls a face for a second. But his weird feelings about people he's too much of a dick to be friends with aren't the point here so he pushes it aside, tries to sound businesslike.]
There you go. Maybe if you and Konoha and all the other uh, nice, decent people around here get together and just talk to her, maybe she'll get that she has to tell us more. I mean, she doesn't seem like she actively wants us hurt so just talking to her can't do any harm.
[There. Now the kid's got a plan. Hopefully that'll keep him from folding up into a pile of bullshit like some people in this room. It'd be cool if it helped, because it's all Hank's got.]
[He presses his thumb to his lip in thought. There was power in numbers and if he could gather people to make a compelling case then that would be good for everyone in the end, wouldn't it?]
Especially if we gather information from people who have been here for multiple world hops. That way we can make a stronger case about how we need a lot more help and we're not just... bad at this. She has to know we're trying.
[He sniffs, lost in thought, before glancing up.]
See? You're giving advice again. You're not as bad as you think.
[Hank doesn't even try to hide his expression, like maybe he's having second thoughts about Izuku's judgement. But he'd wanted it to be good advice, right? He lets it go, shrugs.]
Look up, uh, Maes, or Barabas, they should be listed on your little watch there. They have this office where they wrote down some stuff that happened before I got here. Sounds like they did okay before, uh... before this, but that's still a good place to start.
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[Hank smiles faintly. He'd needed that to go okay, without magic shit getting in the fucking way, and it had. That actually went alright. Nice when that happens.]
Sometimes I get lucky.
[His eyes dart down to the kid's hands. That grip on his shorts, that'd been hard not to notice.]
What's up? I say somethin wrong?
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[He admits, a little shyly. He's so grateful for Hank for being there but... also feels bad that he couldn't keep it together like wanted to. Like an adult. Like a hero.]
Oh! No! I was just thinking... back home, they have all this stuff set up to help people with all sorts of different kinds of powers. To help them if their powers... make it hard to just have a normal life, you know? I mean... it's not normal for you but... powers are normal there. And I wish they had something like that here.
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[Hank watches his hand, rubbing his fingers together, then tucks his arm around his side again with a little breath.]
What kind of help's that? Some kind of, uh... assistive tech or something?
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[Hank's expression, though, is distinctly skeptical. It's not that he doubts what the kid's saying, but he can't help but relate it to himself, a little. That's where the whole thing falls down. He takes a couple seconds to work past the urge to be shitty about the whole concept, watching Izuku quietly.]
Must of been hard for you, getting here, having a whole new one.
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[He looks down at his hands, twisting his gnarled fingers together, like he's prepping himself to admit something shameful.]
I actually just discovered I had a Quirk a few months ago. Before that I thought I was "Quirkless". So I didn't... I didn't really fit in with most other kids.
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A normal person on a world full of superheroes. And then you get shoved into this fuckin place right when you start gettin settled in. Sounds pretty shitty.
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[He sighs. They’re in the dark about so much and he doesn’t even know where to begin looking for clues. Then he glances at Hank.]
It must be even weirder for you. I mean just waking up and suddenly having strange powers in a strange land. …It’s kinda like the plot of those old comic books, you know? Or old for us, before Quirks showed up, where someone gets powers from meeting an alien or getting bitten by a radioactive insect and suddenly their life is totally different.
I’ve at least sort of had some experience with that, strange as it is to say.
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[Hank grimaces, wondering if he should of said that. Maybe Izuku mentioning how little choice any of them have but to sit here and do what their airhead leader tells them to threw Hank off. Or maybe he’s just a goddamn asshole.]
Sorry, um, I didn’t- I’m glad you found your... whatever. Your quirk thing. I didn’t even figure mine out myself. I just thought... I don’t know. I guess if anything weird happened I wrote it off. Shoulda fucking known it wouldn’t be that easy.
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[He looks down at his shoes. It's a bit more of a comic book story if he were able to tell the truth about how he get his Quirk. But he promised to keep that a secret and he's going to stick to his word, even in this strange world.]
I-It's okay. I really found it out more by accident than anything else too... [But he nods.] They don't really make it easy for us here, do they? Even if we're expected to help. It just doesn't seem very logical.
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That’s one way to put it.
[Fuck does Hank have things to say on that topic- but they’re the kind of things better spat out at someone just as angry as he is over a couple drinks. Not the kind of thing you say to a kid who still probably needs something to believe in, even if it’s the useless shithead who brought them all here. Hank sighs and looks down at the mattress.]
But you don’t need to listen to an old man bitch. It’ll all-
[The fake, stupid optimism doesn’t come out as smooth as he wanted it to. But it does come out. The kid doesn’t need to know they’re all boned.]
It’ll all work out.
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Yeah. Even if... right now it feels kinda hopeless. We can't just give up, we have to keep trying or else nothing is going to turn out how we want.
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Yeah. Just got to... uh, charge on ahead, right? To that next... the next world.
[God. Is that what they fucked up back in Akvos? A whole world? Or was it just the city? He doesn't have any idea. He doesn't think he'll ever have any fucking idea. Is 'just' the city anything he should even be hoping for? Christ.]
Look forward or. You know. Whatever.
[God, he should be able to keep the optimistic bullshit up better than this. He just doesn't have it in him.]
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[His smile fades away too. It's easy to say but when he thinks about the next world, a chill takes over his body. He pulls his knees close to his chest and wraps his arms around them.]
I... I'm not giving up and I know I should keep looking forward but... I have to admit I'm nervous about where we go next. It seems so random and like we don't have have a chance to prepare ourselves and...
[he sighs and presses his face into his knees.]
I don't want to fail again.
[As if "fail" really captures what happens.]
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[Hank takes a breath, rouses himself, tries to make his voice a little stronger.]
You didn't fail. You know that, right? If we still don't know what the hell we should have done there's no way you coulda known then. This is on Astoria for not filling us in - for still not filling us in, even now everything's over.
[It's a struggle to keep what little life Hank's managed to stir up in himself from settling again. Because, yeah, chances are, without good info that's going to happen again. It's something he's been trying not to think about, but he can't believe anything else. Chances aren't good.
But he can't stand to see this kid- grow up, a part of him whispers, despite the rest of him. He can't stand to see him grow up, not like this. So he tries to find an angle.]
Now, if someone could get her to open up - cause there's got to be tons of shit she's not telling us. Then maybe... I don't know. Then we might know something.
[Hank grimaces apologetically, watching the kid. That's not much, he knows - but it's something, maybe. Hope for something.]
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I just don't ever want to have to see that ever again.
[He shudders and pulls his knees closer to his chest. It's failure and then it's seeing the consequences of that failure that he can't get out of his head. And there's no way to make it right, like when he failed to save Kacchan from villains at Camp. There's no do over, no loophole to what happened in Akvos.
He exhales out of his nose before looking up at Hank.]
You're right. She brought us here but I really don't know anything about Miss Astoria. I've never even spoken to her... She acts like she's here for us and yet, she's actually really closed off.
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Fuck. That'd be taking a risk, it'd be hard, so of course Hank doesn't do it.
He pushes the sour, heavy feeling at the thought, after a couple seconds, far back enough that he can at least say something.]
I'd of thought you'd have more blind faith in our great leader. Maybe you're gonna grow up into a suspicious bastard one day after all.
[Hank's expression's friendly, his voice complimentary. He means it as a compliment. Then he sighs.]
Maybe she just... I don't know, doesn't understand what us puny humans need out of a leader. She's not human, right? Who knows what her reasons are.
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I mean! It's not that I don't have faith in her but I just think... maybe she could tell us a little more about all of this if she wants to succeed! I'd like to believe she really is on our side but we just know so little that its hard to charge forward with any sort of plan to get done what needs to be done!
[Then something Hank says hits in his brain.]
...She isn't human, is she? We don't... we don't even know if she looks at things or feels them the way we do. ...But does that matter, I met a girl here, she wasn't human either, she was something called a jinba, but still she was trying to help everyone she could. It seems that... I don't know, feelings aren't just human, but maybe we just... don't understand hers either. Because we don't really talk.
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There you go. Maybe if you and Konoha and all the other uh, nice, decent people around here get together and just talk to her, maybe she'll get that she has to tell us more. I mean, she doesn't seem like she actively wants us hurt so just talking to her can't do any harm.
[There. Now the kid's got a plan. Hopefully that'll keep him from folding up into a pile of bullshit like some people in this room. It'd be cool if it helped, because it's all Hank's got.]
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[He presses his thumb to his lip in thought. There was power in numbers and if he could gather people to make a compelling case then that would be good for everyone in the end, wouldn't it?]
Especially if we gather information from people who have been here for multiple world hops. That way we can make a stronger case about how we need a lot more help and we're not just... bad at this. She has to know we're trying.
[He sniffs, lost in thought, before glancing up.]
See? You're giving advice again. You're not as bad as you think.
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Look up, uh, Maes, or Barabas, they should be listed on your little watch there. They have this office where they wrote down some stuff that happened before I got here. Sounds like they did okay before, uh... before this, but that's still a good place to start.
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He grins and leaps to his feet, filled a new determination. Or at least a new sense of something to fill his time.]
An office of records. Of course. It makes sense that we ought to keep information stored somewhere. I don't know why I didn't think to ask before.
Thank you!
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[He gives a faint, halfhearted smile, murmuring because he's expecting the kid to run out the door any second, and doesn't expect him to hear it.]
Good luck.