ataraxionlogs | fresh starts [open]

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fresh starts [open]

CHARACTERS: Tadashi Hamada and several others!
LOCATION: Throughout the ship during the month of June
WARNINGS: Fire. Always fire. Maybe some science bro shenanigans.
SUMMARY: Coming soon! Hiro's starter is in here now. I'm working on the general one and some other individual ones.
NOTES: He's working his way out of his more somber mood as the month goes on!

[SHUTTLE BAY]
[open for earlier interruption, though the end is aimed at Hiro]

The time following the memory swaps that he and Hiro had gone through had been rocky for Tadashi. He had decided to continue forward as best he could, but the nightmares that greeted him nearly every time he closed his eyes were demoralizing. There had been a few days where he had to drag himself out of bed (and several more where he just stayed planted there without opening his eyes, mumbling and waving a hand at Hiro if he tried to convince him to get up). When he did get a decent amount of sleep, he found himself slipping into his own thoughts, wondering constantly what he should take away from his fate -- what he should do with his borrowed time to repay the universe for the extra chances. And also what he should do for Hiro to get him safely back home to Aunt Cass. Connected to that, he agonized over every goodbye, especially before the Jump. If one of them was sent back home, that would be it. There wouldn't be any other chances.

There were several times when Tadashi had to fake smiles and shrug off his brother's concern about him. While he appreciated it, Tadashi just couldn't find a way to confront what had happened out loud after that time lost in the corridors. He wrestled with it mentally plenty, but saying it out loud... it would have only led to drowning in the reality of it again.

So Tadashi decided that "fake it til you make it" was going to be his motto to live by.

He threw himself into his projects, volunteered wherever he could, and tried to redouble his efforts to be the voice of optimism on board the ship.

Eventually, it seemed to work. While he wasn't completely over it, Tadashi didn't feel like he was faking happy. That shift that had started the moment he forced himself to keep moving had clicked into place. He was going to be okay.

Which... led to making it up to Hiro for the times he'd been occasionally distant while putting himself back together.

Tadashi had slipped out of their room impossibly early to get out to the shuttle bay and make some shady decisions. He'd technically volunteered his services to help do various repairs, but he didn't know if that extended to possibly breaking things. He didn't plan to break anything, but you never knew... He at least took precautions to place his little work station far away from the shuttles in a relatively open space.

Over the course of a few days he'd dragged the parts together that he'd been using to get a hands-on idea of how some of the mechanical bits for the shuttles went together, then went to town with a welder, scrap metal, and a temporary disregard for common sense. What he ended up with was reminiscent of a childhood project that... honestly could have ended better. Once he was satisfied that it was ready enough, Tadashi wiped the back of his arm across his forehead and keyed the voice function of his communicator, sending a message to Hiro.

"Hiro. Hey, knucklehead. You up? I need you to get down to the shuttle bay ASAP. I've got something to show you."

He smiled to himself and leaned back against his project, arms folded across his chest. This was probably a bad idea. But it was a good bad idea.

[Near Engineering]
[Open to anyone around Engineering + Rikku]

Maybe he should have signed up for Engineering.

The idea was still appealing, despite Tadashi's convictions that training under medical would allow him to more effectively help his fellow passengers. There were an entire twenty-four hours in every day (and time was relative in space with no windows, anyway) and only a few of those needed to be dedicated to sleep. And showers. Eating could be taken care of while working -- Tadashi had mastered snacking between projects during his first semester of college.

His goal today was to meet up with Rikku to talk over some ideas he'd had for her bots and see if he could brainstorm with her for his own project rebuilding Baymax. But right now... he was just loitering sheepishly in the corridors, trying desperately to look busy when he had nothing to do.

Somehow, he'd gotten some messages crossed, or looked at the time wrong... he was definitely early. Really early.

So this was Tadashi. Attempting in vain to look like he wasn't up to anything. He'd been hanging out with Hiro a lot -- he was starting to feel guilty by association. Even when his intentions were perfectly innocent!

[Bar]
[open, also Firo can come scoff, any science-y friends can come and techno babble]

The talk about supposedly psychic abilities had piqued Tadashi's interest lately. He was still leery of the connection that had allowed his and Hiro's memories to swap, but at the same time... science demanded experimentation and answers. The real tipping point had been hearing about some of the people on board creating objects with their minds. On one hand, it was so far away from science fact to Tadashi that he stayed skeptical even as he made his way to the bar area for the fourth night in a row. Looking at it from the other way, a controlled ability like that held endless potential.

Back home there were high-speed synthetic fabricators and continuous interface liquid production, but there weren't a whole lot of tech that you could carry around in your pocket for when you needed to create something on the fly. If this turned into something legitimate that the passengers were capable of and not just an illusion, maybe they could use it to produce necessary medical equipment as needed, or think up a perfectly realized model of the part they needed.

Those thoughts were the ones that had Tadashi perched on a stool at the bar, an untouched drink sitting within reach (just in case his inhibitions and skepticism turned into hindrances), and a puzzled expression on his face.

He wanted something simple -- just a block or a disc, but no matter how much he flexed his fingers or squinted at the space in front of him, it remained empty.

Once, something flickered, but it startled Tadashi so much that he completely lost concentration and had trouble reproducing it immediately.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Dude..."

Hiro was circling it as Tadashi spoke, fighting down the temptation to reach out and run his hands over the surface, half in fear of it falling apart and half in awe that he'd rebuilt the thing in the first place. It was obviously better than what he'd put together when they were little, so it inspired a lot more confidence in him than it had back then, but it was just...

So totally Tadashi.

He gave his brother an amused look, tilting his head as he came to a stop on the exact opposite side of him. "You sure about piloting this thing, bro? How did you even remember what kind of bugs it had last time?"

"Well, I don't," Tadashi admitted with a casual shrug. "Not all of them, anyway."

That was one of the interesting parts of redoing the project, he felt. And also, he might have mentioned that just to tease Hiro a little more. That aside, it had actually been a much needed exercise in distraction. Not only was he trying to recall plans, but he had to tweak them as he went, applying the things he'd learned in more recent years. The finished product would, hopefully, carry them safely. Not far, granted. And not through space for sure. But it was good for a joy ride across the shuttle bay.

Nudging the back of Hiro's head, Tadashi moved to vault himself over the pilot's side. He waited until everything seemed to be stable and not falling apart, then glanced back Hiro's way and nodded his head toward the space beside him.

"Look at it this way -- if we crash and you break your arm, I'm learning how to take care of that. So it's win-win for me. I need the practice."

Hiro nearly laughed at that, but instead opted to just roll his eyes as he climbed into the passenger's side of the shuttle. "For you maybe, but I'm still the one who ends up with a broken arm."

Mentally, he made a note to check out what Tadashi's made here more thoroughly. The quick once over at least told him that the thing wouldn't simply shake itself apart once the engine got going. That didn't tell him much else, though, and if he had to guess then he'd say that a few laps around the shuttle bay was probably going to be the extent of this thing's flight life.

"No helmets this time, huh?" He gave his brother an amused, teasing look, letting his hands come up to grip at whatever he could. Just in case. "Check you out, walking around on the dangerous side of life."

"Not quite." Tadashi fished around under his seat for a moment. Finally, his fingers brushed the straps of his moped helmet and he flipped it up into his hands and immediately plunked it back down and onto Hiro's head. The helmet had mostly lived in his locker until now, and this seemed like a good time to put it to good use. "I'm not letting that big brain of yours get scrambled."

In retrospect, he should have had Hiro bring that high-tech helmet of his down. Tadashi shrugged that thought off. Things should go relatively smoothly with this first test. If he tried to do anything more elaborate in the future, he would make certain they both had a helmet.

"I'd strap in if I were you -- especially if I'm living on the dangerous side of life now." He rolled his eyes at that idea, but grinned slightly as he leaned forward to flip a few switches before gripping the yoke as the engine hummed to life. It didn't power up with a roar like the one when they were kids did -- tech had come a long way since then -- but it still vibrated the little aircraft violently. Everything held tight, though. He would just need to work out how to put some dampeners into place.

"Ready?"

The second Hiro confirmed, he would silently breathe a quick here goes and send the little vehicle shooting forward.

The way that helmet came plopping down onto his head, just like old times, made Hiro wrinkle his nose a little in mock-protest. He pushed it up into a more comfortable place with one hand, at least enough so that he could see what was in front of him, then gave his brother an amused look. "This thing really isn't gonna be all that effective, you know that, right?"

But that argument was neither here nor there while Hiro went ahead and fastened himself in. He gave the belts a good, hard tug just to make sure they wouldn't come off so easily, then settled back into his seat. He gave Tadashi a quick thumbs-up signal to show that he was ready, then drew in a breath and let it go.

'Here goes' was right. Hiro may have gotten used to flying around San Fransokyo, but that was flight with the comfort of knowing exactly what made it possible. This was completely different, but if Hiro felt nervous at all, he hid it behind the way he bit down on his lip and said something stupid. Something like, "Do your worst, bro."

"Wear it anyway -- it helps me sleep at night," Tadashi quipped in return.

And that was all he had time for before the little ship was rocketing forward, shuddering as the anti-grav boosters he'd lifted from the busted remains of a shuttle (most likely meant only for cushioning a landing -- not facilitating a flight) sent the two boys several feet skywards.

That was all according to plan.

The sudden spluttering of the power system? That... that was not according to plan. Nor was the way one of the anti-grav boosters blinked out for a second before powering back on, sending them tilting crazily toward Tadashi's side of the ship for a few second before they stabilized again.

Tadashi's eyes were wide, his knuckles white as he held on. There was a reason those shuttles had been scrapped. Clearly he hadn't sorted out all of the faults in the wiring.

Maybe it was intuition. Maybe he just picked up a difference in the pitch of the anti-grav thrusters' humming whine. Regardless of how he knew, Tadashi suddenly felt very certain that they were going down.

"Hold onto something--!"

He cut the speed as quickly as he could, slowly them down just as both thrusters went out, dropping them the several feet to the shuttle bay floor. They skidded several yards before the little craft completed one lazy spin and came to a stop, facing the brothers back the way they'd started.

Tadashi didn't move for a moment, staring back at the shuttles.

Finally: "Better than last time. Anything broken?"

It wasn't that Hiro was scared. No no no, it was concern that he felt when he heard the sound in the engine that he knew, instinctively, was definitely not normal. It was anxiety when the whole thing jolted and started tilting like crazy for a few seconds. And it was wariness when the whole thing finally dropped like a rock to the ground and slid across the floor with a loud scraping noise before coming to stop.

No, it definitely wasn't fear that had Hiro white-knuckle gripping whatever he could reach, one foot pressed hard against the inside of the shuttle. Fear had nothing to do with the way he braced himself for impact, or with how wide his eyes were, or the "Whoa- wh-whoaaa" noises that escaped him. Nope, definitely not scared.

He just needed a minute to collect himself once everything was stopped, blinking slowly while his quickened breathing got back under control. Then finally, he just shook his head in answer. "No."

With a deep breath to steady himself, Hiro cleared his throat once and turned to look at his brother. "Sooo... How thoroughly would you say you checked out those boosters before installing them?"

Tadashi laughed, shakily pulling his hat off and running his fingers back through his hair several times before he seemed to notice the nervous tic and tugged the hat back into place. "Uh, thoroughly. Trust me. It shouldn't have done that."

Now that the sudden rush of adrenaline was burning out of his system, leaving him just a little shaken up, he was concerned. That... could have ended badly. And he shot Hiro an apologetic look to make sure he knew that Tadashi wouldn't fool around on purpose in a way that would lead to either of them getting hurt -- no matter what jokes had been made.

Shaking his head, Tadashi undid his safety belt and slid over the side, landing in a crouch and peering at the underbelly for any obvious signs of what had gone wrong.

"It all worked individually without any problems after I repaired the initial damage," he continued, confusion coloring his tone. "Something must have been incompatible. The power supply might auto-regulate -- that. Yeah. I'm an idiot. I ran all the wiring together when it worked individually."

He wedged his fingers into the seam of the panel he'd made, popping it off to peer at the wiring. Nothing looked like it had burned out, but there had to be a short somewhere...

Hiro didn't need to catch that apologetic look from his brother to know he didn't mean for this to happen. It was just a thing that... did. Science was like that, and Hiro of all people knew that things got dangerous whenever new things were being tried out. Flying, at least, was not so far left field that Hiro didn't know how to help out.

Without missing a beat, Hiro was unlatching the belt around him and hopping out to the other side of the shuttle. He quickly joined his brother underneath the thing, his eyes moving quickly in search of flaws. The stuff that the ship had was totally different from anything he was used to, but there were enough similarities that he could figure out what was what.

"You are an idiot if you didn't test everything out once it was hooked together." He smirked a little, though. It was nice to know that Tadashi had his moments of being unable to contain his excitement.

Once the panel was out of the way, Hiro moved in to look inside, squinting a little as he searched for anything out of place. "Oh- Here we go. Looks like the power surged and totally burned right through some of this wiring, completely blew this section out."

He leaned back with a thoughtful look on his face, head tilting to one side. "...This'd be so much easier with a holotile and a 3D model to reference."

((if that even makes sense idk i r dumb))

"Tell me about it," Tadashi muttered, tapping at Hiro's shoulder to let the younger boy know he was going to be moving past him. He tilted his head to one side until he had the angle he needed to see what Hiro had found and -- yeah. Totally burned through. He would need to completely strip those wires out and replace them. Which, truth be told, would be more annoying than difficult. The real problem would be the cause of the power surge.

He groaned. Great. This is what he got for not taking his time... and for having his attention tugged in a million directions at once.

"Professor Callaghan would kill me if he could see this." Tadashi dragged his hand down his face, then sat back on his heels. "Last time I don't triple check my work. I swear."

But things were what they were. At least he could be grateful that nothing had happened to either of them and that he'd had the common sense to take things slowly in the test just in case something went wrong.

"Well, we don't have a 3D model, but I think I have a fairly good idea of where the problem is now. I think we can regulate the power flow if we reroute it to only power the antrigrav and use a secondary generator for the thrusters. I'm going to have to strip all of the wiring anyway."

He shrugged.

"Or I could get distracted and search the upper floors for material to make a holotile. I'm flexible."

((TECHNOBABBLE. I appreciate all forms of it. also I'msososorry re: callaghan comment))

As Tadashi moved in to make his own inspection, Hiro pointed toward the damage one last time before stepping back. He let his eyes wander, going from the inside of the panel back out toward the anti-grav boosters... And after his eyes locked there, he let the rest of himself wander over as well.

He peered into them, running his fingers along the surface and practically shoving his nose right up against it as he inspected it. Whatever he thought of being on this spaceship, access to all this tech was a serious perk. It was so far beyond anything he could've come up with given the tech they had back home, and it tickled his brain to think of all the possibilities. It shouldn't even be hard to put together a holotile computer out of what they could find here...

The wanderings of his mind snapped back into the present when he heard Tadashi mention the former professor, and automatically he scowled, repeating the name in a soft mutter under his breath. He didn't like to think about him much, besides the times when he remembered that he was safely put away in prison. Whether or not Tadashi heard the bitterness in Hiro's tone was of no concern to him, really; he barely even knew he'd said anything out loud.

With a shake of his head, Hiro refocused himself, moving from one booster to another, tilting his head as he poked experimentally at its surface. "That could work. But it might get clunky, and having the extra weight of a separate generator attached might make the whole thing less effective as a mode of transport."

Finally, Hiro stepped back a little more, assessed what he was seeing in front of him with a hand on his chin, and smiled a little. "Or you could leave the holotile to me and keep going on this. I've already got a pretty good idea of what to use to put it together."

"I could reduce the maximum speed, but leave an emergency override in," Tadashi mused, taking a step back and brushing his hands off as he took in the entire project again. "If it's mainly going to be used in the hallways of the ship, there shouldn't be any danger of crashing into other vehicles. I could reduce the weight by switching out the plating for one of the lighter materials we've run across. If I throttle everything down, it will cut some of the strain on the system. Once you get the holotile system going, we can work out a better way to run the wiring and identify any problem areas before I string everything back together."

Yeah. This project would definitely last him for a few more weeks. On top of the work he was still doing to get Baymax up and running again. That was even more slow going, however. The particular parts he needed to remake Baymax's body as close to the original design as possible required a lot more creativity to find anything even close enough to work. Almost everything needed to be customized to match with the system. The wiring and computers here were completely alien to the software Tadashi had originally created. If he wasn't careful, he would end up with another burned out system... and possibly a fried medical chip.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, letting that fall aside for a moment. He'd picked up on Hiro's tone a moment ago, but had almost dismissed it, thinking he hadn't heard Hiro correctly. The last he knew, Hiro had been Professor Callaghan's biggest fan.

Tadashi was convinced that he couldn't have heard that tone right, but...

He was curious now.

"Hey... what was that about Professor Callaghan?"

Hiro nodded in agreement to every part of Tadashi's assessment-- Well, most every part, anyway. He disagreed on the part about the reducing the maximum speed of the whole thing, since he wasn't sure what the point of even making it would be if it wouldn't be moving quickly. If Gogo was around, Hiro just knew she'd agree with him, too. Where was that girl when he needed her, anyway?

At any rate, Hiro decided to himself that yes, he'd leave finishing up the little mini-shuttle/hover car to Tadashi and focus his efforts on building them a holotile computer. Or two. Or three. The more the better, after all, and he was sure he'd be able to find the materials he needed somewhere around the ship. So he turned to Tadashi with a confident nod and a smile. "It'll take a week, maybe two, I think. But I should be able to get something up and running soon enough."

And he was just about to start explaining his plan to strip out one of the other shuttles in the shuttle bay for more parts when Tadashi cut him off with that question, and Hiro's eyes widen. Had he actually said something about Callaghan? He hadn't meant to. And he definitely hadn't meant to around Tadashi.

"What? What was what about Callaghan?" Maybe he should've still referred to him as Professor Callaghan, or maybe he should've let this line of questioning just fall off completely. Hiro's not sure what might've worked better on his brother. But as things stood, he was hoping he could just sweep this under the rug and leave it alone.

"Professor," Tadashi corrected, frowning deeply.

Now he really was suspicious. Tadashi had avoided asking about his professor after finding out his own fate, mostly because he felt like he already knew what had happened and confirming it would only twist the guilt a little deeper into his gut. He felt badly enough that he was going to die and leave Hiro and Aunt Cass behind. Confirming that he hadn't been able to rescue Professor Callaghan wasn't something he felt he could handle when he was still trying to come to terms with living on borrowed time.

In retrospect, it was probably something he should have brought up by now. He hadn't even considered that Hiro might blame Callaghan for what was going to happen to him. Which... was the conclusion Tadashi was going to jump to until further notice.

"He was a great man." Tadashi gave Hiro a confused look, wondering just what was going on in his brother's head. "What's with the tone, bonehead?"

Hiro just shook his head and waved a hand, trying to dismiss the whole thing. "Yeah, I know- Look, it's nothing, okay?"

He couldn't tell Tadashi about what happened. How could he? How could he tell him that the teacher that he'd deeply respected had not only set the fire that killed him, but also stole Hiro's microbots and repeatedly tried to kill him and his friends for getting in the way of his revenge? Maybe the man did feel bad about it now that he knew it was all for nothing, but that didn't change what he'd done, the damage he'd caused. Because of Callaghan, Hiro had lost his brother and had nearly lost his best friend, and he couldn't help it if he still felt at least the tiniest bit bitter about it.

He couldn't tell Tadashi that. There was just no way. He was barely adjusting to the fact that he was alive again. There was no reason to make everything worse.

"I was just thinking. It's not a big deal." He shrugged his shoulders like that would cement his words in Tadashi's mind, crossing over to examine one of the other antigrav boosters. "You know, it'd also be majorly helpful if we could get some scanners, too. Be able to plug in the specs of whatever we find straight into the system and work with it instantly, you know?"

Uh huh. Nothing.

Tadashi folded his arms over his chest and studied Hiro's expression for several moments, watching the younger boy try to wave off that line of questioning. He wanted to press it. He really didn't want there to be any bad feelings that he could clear up now. Just... just in case tomorrow one or both of them ended up back at home. It left him in a strange position, basically trying to talk to Hiro from beyond the grave, as creepy as that was to him. Don't hold any grudges, move on with your life, be every bit as amazing as Tadashi knew he could be.

That sort of thing.

"Oh man." He reached up to drag his hand over his eyes. "Whatever you say, knucklehead. It's a big deal to me, but if you don't want to talk about it right now..."

Tadashi shrugged, letting a half-smile tentatively slide back into place.

"Okay, yeah. I can check with engineering later and see if they have anything we can repurpose. The medbay might be our best bet. The scanning tech there might be something we can use as a template to build our own."

Living here, Tadashi was getting a thorough understanding of how a lot of tech he took for granted was actually put together. He couldn't go over to the university and borrow any equipment or get anything pre-made aboard the Tranquility. He and Hiro had always modded and built a lot of their own stuff anyway, but this was on another level.

That's right. Absolutely nothing.

The bad feelings weren't directed at Tadashi after all, and there was no real need to get him involved in it. Maybe if Callaghan were around there'd be cause to share. But as things were, with Callaghan home and behind bars and nowhere near here where he could hurt them, it didn't matter. So he waved the whole thing off again, shaking his head and waving one hand.

Besides, there was science to talk about. He preferred that. It was better. It was safe.

"I guess that's true," he remarked, thinking back on what kind of equipment he'd seen in Engineering. He couldn't remember seeing any scanners there, at least not the kind he was thinking of, so that left the med bay as their best bet. "And if they had anything up to par, we'd have to recalibrate it anyway, focus it on the physical and chemical properties of objects rather than biometric signals... Still shouldn't be too hard to get something to work the way we need it to."

Though... That did remind him. With a slight tilt of Hiro's head, he looked over at his brother curiously. "How's all the med stuff working out for you, anyway? Getting good ideas for Baymax?"

"Too many," Tadashi admitted with a groan, reluctantly letting the previous conversation die a quiet little death. For today.

He gestured vaguely. "They have some major tech in the med bay. I mean seriously sweet scanners and robotics that are decades ahead of us. If I try to add in upgrades based on the biometrics tech alone, it's going to set me back a few months."

He was still debating whether it would be better to get Baymax up and running sooner, or if it might be worth it to wait and have the better version come out first. The people on board the Tranquility didn't need outdated tech to help them -- they deserved to have an extra medical assistant that was fully up to date. That meant Tadashi needed to spend a few more weeks writing new code to go along with the medical chip he already had. Maybe he could even strike a deal with communications to have Baymax assist with greeting any newcomers...

As usual, when it came to Baymax there were endless opportunities and avenues for improvement.

"Actually, I think I know what I'm going to work on next." Tadashi tapped the side of his neck. "Not sure how open anyone would be to wearing a medical necklace, but I think I can make something that will track heart rate and adrenaline levels. Just for starters. A ship this big, it might be a good idea to be able to remotely monitor vital signs for anyone who goes off into the corridors."

Hiro nodded with a little grin, more than happy to have had the whole Callaghan thing dropped for the time being. And it was funny; months ago Hiro would've been rolling his eyes and making fun of Tadashi for talking about the endless list of things that could be fitted into Baymax's programming. But now, Hiro was almost as enthusiastic as his brother was to think about. He may have been approaching things from a slightly different angle than Tadashi, but they both wanted Baymax to be able to help as many people as possible.

"It doesn't have to be months," he said with a shrug. "If we both work on it, there's no way it'll take that long."

After all, two Hamadas on one project? That usually slashes the difficulty level by at least half.

He paused for a moment to think for a moment, taking Tadashi's newest idea into consideration. "You know... Yeah, that's a really good idea. I'm surprised they didn't have a system set up to do that already."

Tadashi was so accustomed to the necessity of working on Baymax alone (school projects frowned on getting a lot of outside help when you were working for a grade) that he'd naturally slid into the role of working on it by himself, assuming Hiro would be occupied with his own projects while they were here. Teaming up, though -- it was a good idea. They did always come up with the best solutions to problems together.

"It might go a little faster with help," he conceded. "Gotta admit -- it's frustrating rebuilding everything that I had finished back at school."

Not that it was dissuading him from continuing to work on Baymax, but it did add a level of difficulty when he knew how he had solved a problem or worked together pieces of the frame before.... but had to go through the entire drawn-out process all over again. Some things were faster, but other things were just as slow as the first go-through.

Tadashi shrugged that off, switching gears to focus on his other project. "You and me both. There could be something in place that I don't know about, or it could just be that the problems with interference in the ship didn't make something like that feasible. I know Rikku had some trouble with long distance remote-access for her robots."

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fresh starts [open]

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