This is fine. It's fine. We're fine.

[sharpasanarrow]

[Well that was.

Something.

Underneath everyone’s door they’ll find a slip of paper, in shaky calligraphy, that reads:

INVITATION

Meet in the Dining Room.

Do not bring alcohol of any sort.

Upon arrival into the Dining Room it’s clear that this is very much...not a party.

The center of the room is cleared of all tables, and instead has all the chairs arranged in a circle, facing inwards. On the tables pushed to the side are jugs of water, cups, plates of saltines, and several hastily-made pamplets that read on the front ”How to cope with Child homicide” that contains an advisory list:

1. Try not to think about it.
2. Do not get hysterical.
3. Crying is permitted, but keep it within a reasonable volume. (For the consideration of fellow mourners)
4. Maintain civility
5. Do not plunder the belongings of the deceased.
6. No drinking or gambling your sorrows away. Set an example.

Standing in front of one of the chairs already is Mr.Arrow. He clears his throat as people start to slowly come in.]

I gathered you all here because I believed it would be conductive to group morale if we all worked through our feelings regarding recent events. Talk about your feelings with one another, but not with me.

[He steps back a little, out of the circle of chairs, in what seems to be an invitation for people to sit down and discuss with one another.]

Comments

[upgradeit]

[There's silence for a long moment and then:]

Sure, whatever. It - it's open.

[He doesn't really want to get up from where he's sitting on the bed. Processing grief sucks, and he's just. The idea that he might be able to talk to his brother, losing multiple friends in a single day - it's just A Lot and Hiro's never been great at processing anything.]

[nachosquire]

[He gets ya, buddy. He really does.

Marco opens the door a little slowly, peeking in to see if Hiro was still throwing stuff around but seeing him on the bed instead has him feeling a little relieved. He wasn't in the mood for getting a chair thrown at him on accident or something.

So he pushes the door open all the way and steps in, closing it behind him before he walks over to Hiro, and just kind of... stands there awkwardly and stares down at him, hands in his hoodie pockets for now.]

H-hey. How, uh... are you okay? I-I heard some crashing and... [sobbing] ...a-and I thought that maybe you tripped or something?

[upgradeit]

No, I - [He gestures in the direction of the bathroom, where the lamp from his bedside table is now shattered.] I couldn't throw anything at that asshole earlier, so I . . . threw the first thing I could pick up.

[He'll rebuild it later, maybe, if it doesn't come back on its own.]

[nachosquire]

[Marco's silent for a moment as he stares at that broken lamp.. he can't say he didn't consider doing the same earlier, so he gets it. He absolutely gets it.

He moves to take a seat next to Hiro on his bed, pulling his hands out of his pockets to rest in his lap instead.]

Y'know when I'm upset, I find some monsters doing crimes so I have the excuse to punch the crap out of them.

[It feels good to take your anger out on other people when it's totally 100% justified with Crimes.]

....you can punch me, if you need to.

[upgradeit]

That would probably make me feel worse.

[Because???? Now Hiro and Kim are like his only friends????? And also what he really wants is a hug???? But also he's never asked for a hug in his entire life?????????? How do you do that. His friends are just clingy and weird and he doesn't have to ask for physical affection.]

. . . Throwing the lamp didn't even make me feel that much better. It's - I saved all of San Fransokyo twice. You'd think I could save . . . you'd think I could do something about one person.

[nachosquire]

[Be open with your feelings, Hiro...... just ask the boy for a damn hug...]

Yeah, I.. I get what you mean.

[Marco reaches up to run a hand through his hair, looking off to the side at the broken pieces of the lamp on the floor.]

I've had a hand in saving a lot of lives before too.. it's not fair that he wouldn't spare her even after so many people stood up for her.

[upgradeit]

[Do you ever realize you wrote the wrong character's name in a tag. I don't even have an excuse, I'm just a fucking idiot - unlike my character.]

The worst thing is his stupid, smug [Hiro's fingers curl into a fist.] face as he was like "oh, if any of you had said please this could have been avoided." I don't believe that for one second.

[nachosquire]

[hiro's only friends are kim and himself]

Yeah, no. He probably would have just killed all of us and laughed.

[Marco's gaze shifts over towards Hiro a little bit, noticing how his hand is clenched into a tight fist. He didn't... he hasn't seen Hiro this upset, yet. It's a little shocking, to be honest. But this entire day has been.. shocking. He didn't even think he'd get that upset over it himself.]

At least we didn't get horribly eaten by a monster.

[He says that dryly and after a second of hesitance just kind of. Reaches up to lightly pat Hiro's back.]

[upgradeit]

[Hiro has a lot of deep-seated resentment towards people he views as taking away people he cares about. It's fine. He's fine. This is fine.

He does relax a little when Marco pats his back, though.]

Yeah. As long as we're alive, we can - we can keep trying to get out of here.

[nachosquire]

And we can give that jerk a taste of his own medicine, too.

[Punching him will be so, so sweet.]

How messed up do you even have to be to kidnap a bunch of people and put them through something like this? I mean Jane, she...

[Marco bites his bottom lip, unable to really get the words out that easily.]

H-he could have at least given her mercy by.. by killing her quickly.

[Instead of doing that.]

[upgradeit]

I don't think that bastard knows the meaning of the word mercy.

[He says "bastard" like it carries a weight it doesn't really in English. Because he translated a swear into English from Japanese purely for Marco's benefit.]

I mean, just look at all the things he was telling us! He - he called my brother a murderer. Tadashi would never.

[Hiro is 100% of the Tadashi apologist squad.]

[nachosquire]

[thank you hiro, you are a true friend

Actually, Hiro swearing has Marco's eyebrows raise a little in shock. He may be a misunderstood bad-boy but swears are for sailors, mister.]

Yeah... yeah. He called my best friend a murderer too and said "they" voted for her but that's not possible right? Like, I saw her just the day before I was kidnapped so there's no way she could've been here before.... right?

[He might be legitimately asking Hiro this. He's smart, he would know the answer to that.]

[upgradeit]

I don't think anything he said was . . . I mean, it can't be. My brother is - [He swallows.] My brother is dead.

[pops up like a fucking mameshiba: hey did you know this is the first time Hiro has acknowledged his brother is dead rather than ambiguously Not Around :)]

He can't have murdered anybody.

[nachosquire]

[hey r do you take constructive criticism?]

......um...

[Marco starts, but the words quickly die on his tongue. He wants to tell him that Lekmet was brought to life, that it was possible Randall brought his brother to life but he.. he's not sure he wants to actually bring up that possibility. It's hard enough thinking that Star could have murdered someone, but he can't imagine what it'd be like to think your dead brother killed someone.]

Y-you're right. He couldn't have killed anyone.

[Marco reaches up to Hiro's shoulder with his hand, gripping it a little bit tightly from comfort and to try and ignore the twisting feeling in his gut right now.]

[upgradeit]

[:D]

Sorry, I. Today was a lot.

[Hiro brings his hand up to his shoulder cover Marco's and smiles before letting his hand drop back down. That's not too gay, right???? Is that weird?????? How do people do physical affection????????????]

I didn't mean to just dump that on you.

[nachosquire]

[Nah man, that isn't too weird. He's held hands with a demon guy he used to hate before so it's Fine.]

What? Nooo, it's... totally fine.

[Marco takes his hand back then, and rubs his other arm with it a little awkwardly.]

I came in to see if you were okay so, like, I dunno... I'm glad you trust me enough to open up like that, I guess?

[It's better than if Hiro said "I'm okay." and left it at that, he thinks.]

[upgradeit]

. . . I'm not really used to hanging out with people my own age?

[All of his friends are ambiguously 4 or more years older than him, because uh. He sure skipped almost 4 grades.]

It's - it's nice. Sometimes I wish I could have gone to school with people my own age.

[nachosquire]

[Oh.. he's his first age appropriate friend.. somehow that's touching for Marco, and he lets out a little laugh.]

Nah man, high school sucks. It's just full of a bunch of sweaty, hormonal teenagers who all hate each other and want nothing more than to get the heck outta there.

[upgradeit]

Yeah. It sucks because they don't let you skip out of high school, no matter how smart you are.

[Hiro smiles, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes. His high school experience was, uh. Super not great.]

[nachosquire]

See? You probably had a way better time in college than in high school.

[He sees the way you're smiling, he knows.]

But I'm glad you're not too used to adults to be friends with someone like me.