01 - [video]

[hirotohero]

[ The video turns on and everyone gets a nice up close and personal look up Hiro's nose before he pulls the camera back and grins. ]

Oh good, it's on. Um, hi. I'm Hiro. Hiro Hamada. I guess I've been assigned to engineering? I know there's a directory for people who're here on the ship but I'm not sure if the guy I'm looking for would really count...

It's 'cause he's a robot. His name is Baymax and he usually looks like a 7 foot tall marshmallow. Like this. [ He holds up a quickly drawn schematic of the inflatable robot. ] He's a healthcare companion robot. Really big, really polite, really squishy. Something he wears red combat armor for, um, fun... [ Yeah that totally makes sense, everyone is going to believe the heck out of that. ]

[ Hiro scratches the back of his neck awkwardly ] I-if you see him, send me a message. He's really important to me. And I haven't seen them on the directory either but if you see some people named Gogo, Honey Lemon, Wasabi and Fred I'd really appreciate hearing about it.

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Video

[metabee]

[Metabee's face pops up on the screen, and there was a definite note of humor in his voice when he answered.]

Dude, you try the kitchen yet, cause that sounds more like a grocery list to me.
[Who the heck went around calling themselves 'wasabi'?]

If you're robot guy is anything like a medabot, he would probably be on the list. Cause I'm on there. [He pointed to himself importantly.]

The name's Metabee.

[hirotohero]

They're nicknames. It's hard to explain.

[ He spilled wasabi on his shirt one time. Fred focused on weird details. Hiro wasn't sure he wanted to know what his eventual nickname would be. ]

I've never heard of your model of robot. [ He peers in close to the screen. He was well programmed to have that sort of tonal variation in his vocal processor. Plus the personal gestures... ]

What's your functionality aimed toward?

[metabee]

Pssh. Model? Functionality? [If he could roll his eyes, he would be doing that.] I don't know, ask Ikki, he's the one who cares about that stuff.

[None the less, he goes quiet for a moment trying to remember the answer, scratching the bottom of his faceplate as he thought.]

I'm a beetle type medabot. What're the letters- KBT type! That's it! I shoot stuff.

[He shifted the camera so Hiro could see his horns, and lifted one arm to show off the gun barrels mounted above his wrist.]

You looking at the robattle world champ!

[Technically the match was interrupted and he never actually beat the reigning champ. But no one here needed to know that.]

[hirotohero]

Oh, you're a larger model fighting bot...

[ He notes the styles picked and tries to think about what that would mean. Obviously he wasn't meant for regular bot-fights. None of the ones he'd participated in had involved autonomous fighters, it was too much a risk considering the investment someone would put into coding. ]

Wait- World champ? I thought bot fighting was illegal.

[ Well. When you gambled on it. But it wasn't exactly a mainstream sport when the cops would keep cracking down on it. ]

[metabee]

[ Metabee looked as if Hiro had just said the sky was purple.]

ILLEGAL? Dude, robattles are the biggest thing in the world! Thousands of people watched my matches!

[He shrugged] I mean, yeah, there are unofficial robattles if the ref's not there and I guess some jerks use their medabots to commit crimes and stuff, but it's not like all robattles are bad. It's all about the connection between a medabot and his medafighter and working together as a team. And me and Ikki, we're the best.

[hirotohero]

Must be a different world thing, I guess...

[ The whole different world thing is blowing his mind, to be honest. He wants to look at the Ingress at some point to see if it has anything in common with the Krei Tech's Silent Sparrow project. ]

Bot-fighting is illegal in San Fransokyo. Well... if there's money being bet on it, I mean. Otherwise it's just a bunch of people in a back alley fighting their bots to see whose is the craziest.

[metabee]

Oh, right. Forgot about that.

[ Aside from the obvious, he'd just been assuming everyone was from his world. It certainly made things easier. If inaccurate. ]

That's rough, kid. If you win a robattle, you get to keep one of the other person's medaparts. It's a pretty sweet deal.

[feck]

[ Okay, so. He's sort of interested? But not that much, please. What does he look like? A Navigator? ]

If they're not on the list, they didn't make the cut.

[hirotohero]

What cut? If there's a cut they should have made it, they're all geniuses.

[ Not... that he wanted them to be stuck in space with him. He wanted to be home, he wanted to go to classes. ]

[feck]

That's just how it is here. Don't cry about it.

[ Like he's even going to explain what he was talking about. Shouldn't he be able to figure it out? ]

[hirotohero]

I'm not crying! You're just being a jerk and weirdly vague for no reason.

[feck]

I didn't say you were, but you will some time. [ It's the hard truth about space. ]

[hirotohero]

Sooo... you're just predicting that at some point I'm gonna cry? And telling me not to?

[ Why are adults so weird? ]

[vengeance_driven]

Why are half of your friends named after flavors? Either way, I have seen no big squishy robots in fun armor, or young people with names like strippers, or any Freds.

[hirotohero]

They're nicknames Fred gave everyone. [ He... doesn't really know their real names, actually. Fred really did him a solid there. ] They're not... anything weird like that. They're college students.

You haven't? Man... [ He bites his lip for a moment, but reminds himself they're probably safe. Probably. ] Um, thanks, though. For saying something.

[vengeance_driven]

No problem. It is shitty to be out of sorts no matter who you are. [And it always makes him sad to see young men thrown into the rough of it too young. It could be worse... it could be very worse. But still, kids should be allowed to be kids.]

What you looking for a medical robot for? Do you need to go to Med Bay?

[hirotohero]

No, no. I'm fine. Baymax is my friend. My brother programmed him and we've been through a lot together. If he was around I wanted to find him as soon as possible.

[vengeance_driven]

☄Private

Ah, okay. That makes sense.

So ah.... Don't take it personally, but my girlfriend has bad experiences with smart robots. If she acts a little upset by it? It is because even good people can say things that are bad when they're afraid.

Sorry about your friend. Is shit situation for someone to end up in place alone, ah? But you seem pretty calm about it.

[hirotohero]

No offense, Mister, but if she's had bad experiences with robots then she should be looking at who designed them. A bot is the sum of what their designer makes of them. That's why the laws of robotics exists.

Anything can be seen as bad if it's used the wrong way. [ Like his microbots. ]

And I'm totally freaking out. It's just the... [ He awkwardly drops to a mumble hoping it slips by ] yelling a lot on the inside kind... [ It's very hard to actually be cool about something when someone brings it up directly. ]

[vengeance_driven]

Her people made the robots. And because of them, her people have had no home for generations. And she has also lost a lot personally.

I am sure it is very complicated, but... well, she has been put through a lot.

Hey, it's alright. I have had to go to new places a lot of times. You know what? I have always made friends. You should always miss the old ones, I know I miss mine. But you will find some other good people with wrestler names. They will help you out until you can go home.

[realitywarped]

Much like most of your respondents, I now crave sushi. Thank you for that one, master Hamada.

[Raw fish might be an issue in space, though.]

No, I'm afraid your friends probably aren't here. The nature of things like the Ingress are- whimsical, to say the least. But I have found that once someone from any given world turns up, there's a better chance of others turning up too. You might be lucky- or unlucky- enough for them to turn up yet. Or you might meet your worst enemy, or a face from the past you'd rather forget. And they may not remember you.

[hirotohero]

I thought so, but I had to be sure. They'd do the same for me. I know their names sound weird but it's just nicknames Fred came up with.

[ There was only really one name that came to him at the mention of a face he'd rather forget. Doctor Callaghan. Yokai as Fred had named him because of that mask. ]

My worst enemy is in jail, I don't think he's going to be much of a problem. Especially after he learned his lesson big time.

[realitywarped]

I've heard stranger nicknames, believe me. I'm merely teasing a little.

[He steeples his hands under his chin, looking thoughtful.]

Whimsical, remember? The selection process doesn't seem to be linear. People haven't always come from the same world, or even the same time. Which means, potentially, if your friends- or your enemy- do turn up, they could be from your future, or your past, or from a world in which they never met you at all. We've had people on this ship who by my timeline should be dead.

video;

[banknotable]

[ Fiona's escape plans are going awesome. AWESOME. She's still stuck here with no leads, and just about as far from outta here as it's possible to get. Means at this point her best bet it to wait until Opposite Day, and see if that takes care of things.

( Spoiler: It won't. She's screwed. ) ]

Squishy? How's that work with all the-- that's not actually metal, is it? What is that?

[ Look, hands down, probably not the kinda talk she should be spending time on right now, but damn if it doesn't...

Damn if it doesn't make her a little homesick for that robotic marshmallow of her own. ]

video;

[hirotohero]

It's Baymax, he's a healthcare companion robot. He's built with a carbon alloy skeleton and then he has the inflatable vinyl exterior to make him look huggable and approachable.

[ He looks proud as he lists off Baymax's many attributes. Tadashi had made the best possible robot he could after all. ]

He's my friend.

Vidja!

[keelahselai]

[She doesn't tend to like using video that much - most of the time, you're looking at a mask. What's to show? - but it's easier to match what Hiro's doing. So enjoy that facemask, Hiro.]

I really don't think the directory would have a companion VI registered on it, so maybe it's still on the planet somewhere. [Natural assumption for Tali: that he's talking about a virtual intelligence here. As in, smart, but not that smart. Not threatening smart.

And since she's never heard of honey, lemons or wasabi, Hiro is spared another set of food jokes, but,] I don't know, though, you might see your friends here sooner or later. Ingresses...Ingressi? ...The devices seem like they're pretty... [Vague gesture, a tilt of the head.] Unpredictable, I guess. Some people here come from the same place, or similar places, most people don't - trust me, you give up trying to make sense of it all sooner or later.