[It’s not the crowd that’s getting to him- or, it’s not the fact that he’s in a crowd. Surrounded by enough people to remind him he’s alive, by enough noise to drown out his thoughs, it’s a big part of what used to make going to shows so great, back in the days when he went. But this crowd it’s, it’s weird, weird in a way he doesn’t recognize, there’s a guy with eyes on the back of his head over there, and a girl with tentacle arms, and Hank’s watch is gone, and that doesn’t necessarily mean much but he doesn’t remember taking it off-
If that fucking airhead Astoria screwed up a try at sending him home, just dumped him in a random dimension that isn’t his and, apparently, just fucking left him here, couldn’t it at least have been somewhere that wasn’t weird?
God, that doesn’t matter. It’s not like anyone back home will give a shit if he never gets back. What matters is his fucking dog.]
Sumo.
[He tries to back up without really thinking about it, just wanting to get some distance so he can get a better look at everything, figure out his options. But he steps on something and hears the kind of animal yelp that instantly, instinctively makes him feel guilty and then it’s followed up with a growl - an honest to god growl - from behind him, right at the level of his face, and he turns around slow and he’s face to face with...
He doesn’t even know how to think about it. With a furry? Face to muzzle with a pissed off furry. Right. This is fine. He can deal with this.]
Sorry man, I didn’t see your, uh-
[He glances at what he’d stepped on.]
-your tail, that’s what that is, your tail there.
[Pissed off furry snaps his teeth at Hank and if Hank thinks about this later he’ll realize that was probably just meant as a warning, but in the moment what he does is dart a hand out to grab the guy’s shoulder. Hank meant to push him away but the moment he touches him the guy tenses up, his dark eyes going wide, and gives a sharp bark. Hank yanks his hand away, not sure if that was him or not, and holds his hands in front of him, palms out.]
Hey hey, sorry. Didn’t mean to. I know we’ve both got places we’d rather be so why don’t we just call this an accident and get on with our shit?
[At that moment, a figure dressed in bright green drops down next to them, seemingly out of nowhere and out of the sky and with movements so quick that he appeared to be a bright blur. However, now that he's stopped, the figure is just a young boy dressed in a green jumpsuit. Obviously a Hero or a Hero-In-Training to anyone from this world.
Izuku didn't usually interfere in these sorts of situations. For heroes, it wasn't really appropriate, their goal was to stop villains not conflicts between folks on the streets. But Izuku being Izuku... he just couldn't help himself. He had to make sure that no one was going to get hurt.]
Hey... is everything okay? It seems like maybe you just had a little accident. Nothing to fight over, right? It wouldn't be good if you started just using your Quirks in the middle of the street to fight over something so small.
[He speaks to Hank like a stranger and like someone who is from the weird world he always called home back at the circle.]
[Hank flinches, sliding half a step backward at the movement next to him, but it turns out to be-]
Izuku!
[He gives the furry a glance and sees he’s looking thrilled too, wobbly with relief, and Hank pulls his hand back from the guy real quick, taking a step toward Izuku with his hand held out, like he wants to grab the kid’s shoulder. He doesn’t do it, of course, now that he’s thinking about the whole stupid touch thing, but he wants to. It’d be great to feel something familiar in this weird fucking place, to feel grounded.
He’ll have to settle for just sounding relieved, instead, and more than a little urgent. Not that he’s not happy to see a familiar face, but that’s not Hank’s only problem here.]
Fuck, it’s good to see you. You haven’t seen Sumo around here anywhere, have you? There was a whole... thing, I don’t know where he is now.
[Then the older gentleman refers to him by his given name and he flushes. The furry, deciding that if this guy knows a young hero, it's probably not going to end well for him. So he decides to just give it up and wander away.
Izuku grabs his cowl and pulls it over his head. Which he should have been doing anyway but he tends to forget. And now it's come to bite him in the ass. He doesn't remember this man. Is he a friend of his father's? An old neighbor? It's embarrassing that he doesn't know.]
Umm, I don't know any "Izuku"! I'm a Hero-In-Training, "Deku, the hero that never gives up"!
[That doesn’t necessarily mean anything, there could be explanations for that, but Hank can’t help but remember their last conversation, how down the kid had been, how worried that his friend wouldn’t remember a thing about all the shit they’d done, once they were both back here. He wraps one arm around his chest and holds a hand over his mouth, frowning.]
Is that, uh-
[He pauses, trying to shove the shaken, worried tone out of his voice.]
Is that a superhero thing, some secret identity deal, or do you really not, uh...
[He didn’t really get the tone he was going for and won’t get it this time but he pauses anyway, not wanting to ask.]
You don’t remember me, do you.
[If he’s lucky he’s overreacting, high strung from this whole stupid little adventure. If he’s not lucky, at least sounding resigned to it will let him pretend he saw it coming.]
[well, he feels a little bad now. He pulls the cowl off his head and twists his fingers together nervously. He feels horrifically guilty about the situatuion. It's terrible not to remember someone who knows you!]
Do you... know my father?
[His father works overseas. This man is pretty clearly foreign. Maybe he met him when he was small and he just doesn't remember?]
[He's not overreacting. The hand over his mouth goes to join the one over his chest and he looks down, lips pursed, and takes a slow breath. When he speaks again he sounds almost irritated, derisive, although those are about the furthest things from what Hank's feeling right now.]
No I don't know your father. Look, do you- can you at least help me find my dog? That's, that's the kind of thing you hero guys do, right? Cats out of trees, and all that shit? I know you don't have any reason to now, but-
[He makes an unhappy face at the ground, shrugs. If he finished that sentence something emotional would probably come out like 'he's all I have' or some stupid bullshit, so he's going to have to just leave it there.]
[He trails off. He can't help but feel that something is wrong about this situation. There's no reason for him to think it, it's just one of those feelings that you have that you can't shake.
Except... he needs to knock it off and get his head in the game, he realizes. He's being asked for help and it's his job to give it, right?
He shakes his head to clear his thoughts.]
I mean-!
Right! Of course! What does the dog look like and how long has he been missing?
[He looks at the kid quizzically before he answers like Izuku - Deku? - like the kid's just said something weird. Then one corner of his lips pulls down, unhappy, and he looks away with a little sigh. It's weird, hearing him not know what Sumo looks like. But of course he wouldn't. He doesn't know Hank at all. No one knows Hank, here. There might actually not be a single person in this world who knows him.
Sumo. Right. Sumo. Find him first. Worry about the other shit when it matters.]
He's big, about yea high. Uh - Saint Bernard. I- I don't know, uh- He must of come with me. I think I saw him- I went about a block before I found you, come on.
[He turns back the way he came and heads into the crowd, looking behind him to make sure the kid's following. He needs to think of something else, something to take his mind off the worry that the dog he sort of glanced before the crowd got between them wasn't Sumo, that he's just fooling himself and he really is alone here.]
So, uh. 'The hero who never gives up' huh? You give yourself that nickname, or is that a thing superheroes do here, they get titles?
[Hank, frowning, glances at him. Yeah, that question's a pretty good opportunity for him to tell Izuku everything - but he knows what he'd of done as a kid if some random old guy'd come up to him talking about that kind of crazy shit. He looks away back into the crowd, shoulders twitching in a careless little shrug.]
Nah, I guess they don't. Is it that obvious I'm uh, not from around here?
[Hank actually smiles at Izuku for a second, the look very faint and kind of fond. This kid'll get embarrassed about anything. Then he turns to look ahead of him again and tries not to think about accents. He hadn't thought they were speaking anything but English - but he'd never wondered how they talked to anyone in Akvos either, because of course in dreams everyone speaks the same language, so there'd never been any reason to wonder.
He slows to a stop, looking around at streets and people and buildings. This is it. This is where he saw Sumo last, and now he doesn't see him anywhere. He takes a deep, shaky breath and decides he doesn't want to think about that even more than he doesn't want to think about the other stuff so he asks about the accent thing as he looks around, trying to spot anything.]
What kind of accent? Is it heavy or weird or something?
No! It's just... it sounds like how my friend Melissa speaks Japanese and she's American! So I thought maybe you were American too? It's not heavy at all though, you're doing great! Honestly... my english isn't that great so I'm thankful.
[He glances up at the man with a smile, trying to reassuring him that there's nothing wrong with being an American and he's doing great! Kanji is hard and such. Then the smile fades a little as he notices the shaky breath as Hank looks around and he gets it. This must be where he lost his dog.
There are a lot of people. It is near Tokyo after all. Izuku can't blame him for being nervous.]
[He frowns a little when he murmurs it, thoughtful. He tries for a second to figure out if he should have known the kid was Japanese before now, but he doesn't know shit about the place. They could well have superheroes running around his Japan back home, for all he knows.
They don't. His home doesn't exist here, and there's no getting back to it no matter how long he flies. But it's a nice thought, for a second.
I've never spoken Japanese in my life, he could say. He kind of wants to say it, but he's not ready to look totally nuts just yet. He sighs, purses his lips, frowns at the crowd.]
Yeah. Yeah, this is it. You think someone might have taken him? I didn't have him leashed or anything, uh, I didn't think I'd-
[He didn't think he'd magically appear in the middle of a fucking city. Not really a great way to finish that sentence. But he's not really sure how to save the sentence with something normal either, so he just leaves it.]
No, I don't think so. At least, it seems like it would be hard to grab a dog without alerting attention.
[He mumbles to himself, trying to think. It's possible that the dog just got confused and perhaps lost in the crowd. In a new place, in strange country those things can happen.
Then he glances up at Hank and tries to give him a reassuring smile.]
We'll find him. I promise.
...Just a sec, I'm gonna get a better view.
[Green lightning suddenly crackles around his body and he leaps into the air, a good 20 feet, and lands up on top of a nearby building. There he covers his eyes with a hand and looks around, trying to find Sumo as if that was a completely normal thing to do.]
[And there the kid goes, up, up, and away. Hank shields his eyes from the sun and squints upward, watching him and mumbling to himself.]
Superheroes. Right. Superpowers. Okay.
[It's a good thing someone has that kind of superpowers here, though, because Hank would have taken a lot longer to spot a big dog in a back alley a few blocks from here. It's leaning against someone who's sitting against the wall, and then the person starts to stand up and the dog moves with them.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
post-acata psl for shootstyles
If that fucking airhead Astoria screwed up a try at sending him home, just dumped him in a random dimension that isn’t his and, apparently, just fucking left him here, couldn’t it at least have been somewhere that wasn’t weird?
God, that doesn’t matter. It’s not like anyone back home will give a shit if he never gets back. What matters is his fucking dog.]
Sumo.
[He tries to back up without really thinking about it, just wanting to get some distance so he can get a better look at everything, figure out his options. But he steps on something and hears the kind of animal yelp that instantly, instinctively makes him feel guilty and then it’s followed up with a growl - an honest to god growl - from behind him, right at the level of his face, and he turns around slow and he’s face to face with...
He doesn’t even know how to think about it. With a furry? Face to muzzle with a pissed off furry. Right. This is fine. He can deal with this.]
Sorry man, I didn’t see your, uh-
[He glances at what he’d stepped on.]
-your tail, that’s what that is, your tail there.
[Pissed off furry snaps his teeth at Hank and if Hank thinks about this later he’ll realize that was probably just meant as a warning, but in the moment what he does is dart a hand out to grab the guy’s shoulder. Hank meant to push him away but the moment he touches him the guy tenses up, his dark eyes going wide, and gives a sharp bark. Hank yanks his hand away, not sure if that was him or not, and holds his hands in front of him, palms out.]
Hey hey, sorry. Didn’t mean to. I know we’ve both got places we’d rather be so why don’t we just call this an accident and get on with our shit?
no subject
Izuku didn't usually interfere in these sorts of situations. For heroes, it wasn't really appropriate, their goal was to stop villains not conflicts between folks on the streets. But Izuku being Izuku... he just couldn't help himself. He had to make sure that no one was going to get hurt.]
Hey... is everything okay? It seems like maybe you just had a little accident. Nothing to fight over, right? It wouldn't be good if you started just using your Quirks in the middle of the street to fight over something so small.
[He speaks to Hank like a stranger and like someone who is from the weird world he always called home back at the circle.]
no subject
Izuku!
[He gives the furry a glance and sees he’s looking thrilled too, wobbly with relief, and Hank pulls his hand back from the guy real quick, taking a step toward Izuku with his hand held out, like he wants to grab the kid’s shoulder. He doesn’t do it, of course, now that he’s thinking about the whole stupid touch thing, but he wants to. It’d be great to feel something familiar in this weird fucking place, to feel grounded.
He’ll have to settle for just sounding relieved, instead, and more than a little urgent. Not that he’s not happy to see a familiar face, but that’s not Hank’s only problem here.]
Fuck, it’s good to see you. You haven’t seen Sumo around here anywhere, have you? There was a whole... thing, I don’t know where he is now.
no subject
[Then the older gentleman refers to him by his given name and he flushes. The furry, deciding that if this guy knows a young hero, it's probably not going to end well for him. So he decides to just give it up and wander away.
Izuku grabs his cowl and pulls it over his head. Which he should have been doing anyway but he tends to forget. And now it's come to bite him in the ass. He doesn't remember this man. Is he a friend of his father's? An old neighbor? It's embarrassing that he doesn't know.]
Umm, I don't know any "Izuku"! I'm a Hero-In-Training, "Deku, the hero that never gives up"!
[He's terrible at lying.]
no subject
Is that, uh-
[He pauses, trying to shove the shaken, worried tone out of his voice.]
Is that a superhero thing, some secret identity deal, or do you really not, uh...
[He didn’t really get the tone he was going for and won’t get it this time but he pauses anyway, not wanting to ask.]
You don’t remember me, do you.
[If he’s lucky he’s overreacting, high strung from this whole stupid little adventure. If he’s not lucky, at least sounding resigned to it will let him pretend he saw it coming.]
no subject
[well, he feels a little bad now. He pulls the cowl off his head and twists his fingers together nervously. He feels horrifically guilty about the situatuion. It's terrible not to remember someone who knows you!]
Do you... know my father?
[His father works overseas. This man is pretty clearly foreign. Maybe he met him when he was small and he just doesn't remember?]
no subject
[He's not overreacting. The hand over his mouth goes to join the one over his chest and he looks down, lips pursed, and takes a slow breath. When he speaks again he sounds almost irritated, derisive, although those are about the furthest things from what Hank's feeling right now.]
No I don't know your father. Look, do you- can you at least help me find my dog? That's, that's the kind of thing you hero guys do, right? Cats out of trees, and all that shit? I know you don't have any reason to now, but-
[He makes an unhappy face at the ground, shrugs. If he finished that sentence something emotional would probably come out like 'he's all I have' or some stupid bullshit, so he's going to have to just leave it there.]
no subject
[He trails off. He can't help but feel that something is wrong about this situation. There's no reason for him to think it, it's just one of those feelings that you have that you can't shake.
Except... he needs to knock it off and get his head in the game, he realizes. He's being asked for help and it's his job to give it, right?
He shakes his head to clear his thoughts.]
I mean-!
Right! Of course! What does the dog look like and how long has he been missing?
no subject
Sumo. Right. Sumo. Find him first. Worry about the other shit when it matters.]
He's big, about yea high. Uh - Saint Bernard. I- I don't know, uh- He must of come with me. I think I saw him- I went about a block before I found you, come on.
[He turns back the way he came and heads into the crowd, looking behind him to make sure the kid's following. He needs to think of something else, something to take his mind off the worry that the dog he sort of glanced before the crowd got between them wasn't Sumo, that he's just fooling himself and he really is alone here.]
So, uh. 'The hero who never gives up' huh? You give yourself that nickname, or is that a thing superheroes do here, they get titles?
no subject
[Izuku trots alongside him. His face twisted in thought, both about how to find the dog and also why this situation feels so funny.
Then he glances up at Hank.]
Oh, um, I made it up. But heroes here often have titles! It helps us really convey to the public what we're all about, you know?
Do they not have that where they're from?
no subject
[Hank, frowning, glances at him. Yeah, that question's a pretty good opportunity for him to tell Izuku everything - but he knows what he'd of done as a kid if some random old guy'd come up to him talking about that kind of crazy shit. He looks away back into the crowd, shoulders twitching in a careless little shrug.]
Nah, I guess they don't. Is it that obvious I'm uh, not from around here?
no subject
S-sorry! I really didn't mean to assume! It's just that... well you speak with an accent so I figured that maybe you were foreign.
...Not in a bad way I mean! Plus from what you asked about Heroes... I know that it varies from country to country, what the rules are and such.
no subject
He slows to a stop, looking around at streets and people and buildings. This is it. This is where he saw Sumo last, and now he doesn't see him anywhere. He takes a deep, shaky breath and decides he doesn't want to think about that even more than he doesn't want to think about the other stuff so he asks about the accent thing as he looks around, trying to spot anything.]
What kind of accent? Is it heavy or weird or something?
no subject
[He glances up at the man with a smile, trying to reassuring him that there's nothing wrong with being an American and he's doing great! Kanji is hard and such. Then the smile fades a little as he notices the shaky breath as Hank looks around and he gets it. This must be where he lost his dog.
There are a lot of people. It is near Tokyo after all. Izuku can't blame him for being nervous.]
Is this where you last saw Sumo?
[...Wait.]
no subject
[He frowns a little when he murmurs it, thoughtful. He tries for a second to figure out if he should have known the kid was Japanese before now, but he doesn't know shit about the place. They could well have superheroes running around his Japan back home, for all he knows.
They don't. His home doesn't exist here, and there's no getting back to it no matter how long he flies. But it's a nice thought, for a second.
I've never spoken Japanese in my life, he could say. He kind of wants to say it, but he's not ready to look totally nuts just yet. He sighs, purses his lips, frowns at the crowd.]
Yeah. Yeah, this is it. You think someone might have taken him? I didn't have him leashed or anything, uh, I didn't think I'd-
[He didn't think he'd magically appear in the middle of a fucking city. Not really a great way to finish that sentence. But he's not really sure how to save the sentence with something normal either, so he just leaves it.]
no subject
[He mumbles to himself, trying to think. It's possible that the dog just got confused and perhaps lost in the crowd. In a new place, in strange country those things can happen.
Then he glances up at Hank and tries to give him a reassuring smile.]
We'll find him. I promise.
...Just a sec, I'm gonna get a better view.
[Green lightning suddenly crackles around his body and he leaps into the air, a good 20 feet, and lands up on top of a nearby building. There he covers his eyes with a hand and looks around, trying to find Sumo as if that was a completely normal thing to do.]
no subject
[And there the kid goes, up, up, and away. Hank shields his eyes from the sun and squints upward, watching him and mumbling to himself.]
Superheroes. Right. Superpowers. Okay.
[It's a good thing someone has that kind of superpowers here, though, because Hank would have taken a lot longer to spot a big dog in a back alley a few blocks from here. It's leaning against someone who's sitting against the wall, and then the person starts to stand up and the dog moves with them.]