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npc contact.1

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[ This is the most interested icon he has, but yes, he nods his head and will trust Steph in it not being gross, it'd better not be. ]

Great! It'll have to wait until lunch, though, okay? Just follow me.

[and she will otherwise just. add nothing else until lunchtime arrives.]

[ Making him wait until lunch time... Whatever excitement there might be doesn't keep him from putting his head down in his arms during classtime, though, zzzing straight through the morning lessons but managing to wake up just in time for lunch. ]

[when lunch comes around, Steph takes him by the hand and leads him through the crowds, stopping whenever she finds a relatively trafficless location. she turns and looks at him, bouncing nervously on her heels.]

... Okay, so. How are you with dancing?

[ uh

Hope she isn't too surprised when he shakes his head, but what high school boy is good at dancing? The closest thing, maybe, is bobbing his head to music, but that's not a kinda cool thing.

He does point at her with his free hand, though, with a slight tilt of his head. How is she with dancing? ]

Me? At home, I was always dancing. Here... I don't know. At first, I thought it was just the lack of privacy. But, then we got the dorms, and I tried...

[she shakes her head. it hasn't felt right.]

But... There's one dance that's very special to me. It's... home, and family, and friends, and love. Safety. Peace.

[she takes a deep breath. stands, her feet apart, her hands splayed at her sides.]

It's not hard, I promise. All you'd have to do is copy what I do. Okay?

[because, even now, he can tell her no.]

[ He can't, though, not after she says it's about love and safety and peace, and that she wanted to share it with him. No, more than just sharing— inviting him to be a part of it.

The deep breath Hiro takes is more to steel himself than anything, but he copies her stance, feet apart and hands at his sides. ]

[when she starts off showing him the dance, she goes slow, humming the tune under her breath, constantly glancing at him to see how he's doing, slowing further if she feels he needs it. it's only when they reach the end that she falters, when her feet find themselves automatically entering her part of the dance, half-caught in a pirouette before she pauses...

she steps into a lean, one arm in the air and the other reaching out towards him.]

... Okay, now, you spin into my arms, and I'll dip you.

[this very small child speaking with utmost confidence that she can do this.]

[ Slow is good, especially when it's easier to copy her like a mirror image instead of right being right and left being left, but then she does that high kick and oh boy.

...He does his best... manages maybe knee height... A lot of this is throwing him off balance, for somebody who is so used to sitting and slouching and sleeping. But he follows through to the end, in the middle of a slow pirouette when Stephanie proposes a trust fall that he can trust her all he wants but he is going to fall.

Okay.

He holds his hand out to Stephanie like she's doing towards him, and spins into her arms. ]

[she dips him, and maybe it's a bit lower than she's had done to her, but she absolutely has the upper body strength to keep a teenage boy from crashing into the ground.]

... Now you can visit me at home and fit right in with everybody else! [a grin] They'd love you, I know it.]

[ He's never felt relief as much as being vertical again. And that relief is quickly replaced by uncertainty and nerves, not only because he doubts people would love him, but more than that...

There's no way he can memorize this dance after one go and if it's a prerequisite to getting along with Stephanie's friends and family, it's not happening.

...

He goes through the first few steps of the dance, and then looks to Stephanie to correct him or give him the next part. ]

[at first, she's visibly excited that he's actually... continuing, practicing, but she picks up on his expression for once, and she puts a hand on his shoulder.]

You did really good! Only one of my friends has ever actually managed to learn it. Trixie tried, once, but... Y'know. [grins, wrinkling nose.] She'd be so mad if she knew I was telling people from other worlds that she can't dance. But, she's really bad at it. Two left feet.

[ Oh thank god, then, if everybody sucks then he'll fit right in, no need to learn the dance. At least he's better than one person there already, even if Stephanie had guided him through it at like 0.025x speed.

Since he doesn't really need to dance after all, he points to himself, points at his eyes, points at Stephanie. Show him how it's supposed to be done. ]

[she smiles, a bit sadly.]

It's really a two-person dance. [pause] When Sportacus comes to save us, we'll dance together. You'll see it the way it should be then.

[ He head tilts at the name Sportacus, because I don't think she's ever talked about him with Hiro. And if she has, pretend that head tilt means something else. ]

[no she only mentions him to npcs that immediately use it to harm her.]

That's the friend I mentioned. Well, he's more than that, really. He's... [pause] He's like my dad. I think.

[absolutely not a thought she's voiced out loud before, but it sounds right. feels right.]

He came to me when I needed him most before; I have to keep believing he'll do it again.

[ Nobody should ever tell Rokkun anything, that's the first mistake

Hiro's expression softens somewhat at the mention of Sportacus being like a dad, a little forlorn on top of that. He makes a loose fist and taps it to his chest: he'll believe with her. ]

[smiles] I really wanna show you my home someday. You'd love it. And Maya could come, too.

[because she thinks maya is kind of a jerk, but she'll accept a level of jerkiness for friends.]

... There's a sign-up sheet, for a transfer student program. My town... Lazytown is one of the names... It's a trap, obviously. [pause] I've already signed up for it.

[ He tries to imagine Maya dancing and he cannot. She can probably play that tune Stephanie was humming, though, building off of it and elaborating it into full song.

There's also no way Maya would leave the school on an exchange program, but Hiro? He points to himself, as if asking if he should sign up too. ]

[thinks... then shakes her head.] It probably isn't a very good idea. It's not gonna be the real place, after all. It'll be some sort of awful copy of it, like the one in the elevator. And it'll definitely be very dangerous.

[which is why this small child must go, obviously.]

[ He stares at her... Give him a good reason why she's going despite believing that. ]

[...]

Well, it's my home. Only I know what it's supposed to be like. So, I'll be the only one that'll know what's different, and what's dangerous.

[ That's... not making much sense to him, who thinks of awful and dangerous things as something he'd definitely be able to tell is different from how Stephanie would live. In his mind, it's a bright and energetic place, like she is. Someplace sunny. Perhaps under an airline flight path. ]

Well, take this for example. When I went to the elevator version of my town with Lucifer, he didn't know that it was a bad sign that the sports equipment was gone. He probably would've guessed that the robot guards and dogs weren't nice, but he wouldn't have known who made them, or just what makes them dangerous.

[pause] I mean, it wouldn't be a big deal for you, but if people were around you, you'd want to know that the robot dog will only tear you apart if you say the word "trouble," right? Nobody but me knows that.

[ Okay, never mind the image of a suburban block party that comes to a screeching halt in his head. Robot dogs that tear people apart for any reason paints a very different picture and he gives Stephanie a concerned look like maybe he won't be visiting, actually. ]

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closewithnewintown - 2021-09-12 02:56 (UTC) - Expand

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