384/Won't Somebody Think Of The Turtles

Won't Somebody Think Of The Turtles
Date of Scene:	09 March 2020
Location:	Queensland Boardwalk and Beach
Synopsis:	Shooting material for his social media as a means of escaping ongoing issues comes back to bite Gar Logan- literally!
Cast of Characters:	Terry O'Neil, Gar Logan

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Terry O'Neil has posed:
Early March was a perfect time for shooting at the Queensland beach-because very few people could be found. At fifty degrees, it was a far cry from the eighty-degree summer temperatures that brought people to the waterside in search of shelter.

Terry was wearing a light sweater that had clearly seen better days. One hand held a digital camera, while the other one gestured while he walked with Gar.

"... and that's why it's important to get that sort of message out there. Your empathy with animals makes it more poignant, lets people identify more. It's also something you do want to talk about in public- let people discover there are more sides to you. Right now, I think a problem is that you've boxed yourself a little bit."

Gar Logan has posed:
It sounded like a good idea. Do a PSA sort of thing, come at it from a perspective others might not think of or appreciate. Gar's had the acting side, the hero side, neither of which have got him all that far lately, and it's been weighing him down. Maybe something like this, a little positive publicity, could do him well.

"Maybe you're right," he admits, picking at a fully-covering outfit as he looks down at it. "But do I really need the wetsuit?" It runs down both arms and legs, snug up to the neck.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Unless you want to freeze when you exit the water," Terry says with a smirk. "You can turn into a dolphin for part of the thing, but having you in human form for the rest of the message is important. You know, draw the link for the audience." He traces an invisible line in the air, linking two points. "And if you're wearing jeans and a T-shirt, you're just going to freeze. And Pneumonia is so last decade," he grins and looks at Gar. It hadn't been hard to find a wetsuit that somewhat matched the colors of his old Titans uniform. Branding was important. "Now, have you thought more about what you want to say? In specific words?"

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan handwaves. "I'm not worried about freezing, but I guess it'd be a bad message to send if I'm not dressed properly for going into the water in March," he supposes, rubbing around a pointy ear.

He walks over toward the water, hands at his hips, facing the ocean instead of his partner in..filming. "I could start out in the water, do the dolphin thing, then swim over to around here and come back out as me, say something like 'I flip for aquatic wildlife preservation' and talk about the dangers of trash getting out into the water. Fish get stuck in things, dolphins can get hooks caught in their flippers and fins, birds can get messed up by oil slicks, you know?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry takes a few seconds to answer, almost as if he only now realizes he was being asked a question.

"Yeah. That sounds about right." He quickly recovers from whatever absent-mindedness had taken him over, looking down to check the camera. "We want this to look natural, so we can try our best to do it in one take, and include the links at fade-out." Terry had dwan up the names of a few ocean conservationist groups, eventually between the two of them they had narrowed down a few to point to.

He walks up to Gar and puts a hand on his shoulder, "I'll remember to catch your good side. Do dolphins /have/ a good side?"

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan glances back over a shoulder, snapping his fingers. "Earth to Terry. Still with us? C'mon, dude." Things, at least, have improved since the heart to heart the other day, but the path to being right again is not one that can be taken in one or two days.

"Anyway, we'll figure it out. I'm a natural at this stuff, you know. I'll swim out a bit, not too far, and give you a sign to start rolling. I'll do my dolphin things then swim back and talk while I go back to normal. Every side is my good side, by the way."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I know," Terry says without thinking about it, then adds "That you're a natural at this. It's why there's no script. We're riding on one hundred percent Gar Logan spontaneity."

Good save.

"The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can go somewhere warm and have something warm. Like Miso soup."

He starts looking at the water now, and steps closer to the shore, though not so close as to get his sneakers wet. "Whenever you're ready, say the word and I'll start recording."

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees something. A large patch of... but it's gone when he turns his head to look at that particular part of the water.

Must have been a trick of the light.

Gar Logan has posed:
The best comic ad-lib a lot, unable to be constrained by basic scripts. How can a writer understand true comedic genius, coming abruptly, a spur of the moment thing? Many times, a scene has been made better by an actor slipping in something unexpected, playing better than it would have otherwise.

Gar..could do that, maybe. It's a work in progress. "Yeah, one of my favorite comics told a joke about how when he was at the improv, he had a bad set so the next night they added an 'E' to it."

Soup and more sounds good, but he's getting himself hyped for the acting again, even if it might all be done in the next minute or two. "Time to show you why they called me 'One Go Gar'" With that, he trots out into the water, getting used to his feet now in the cold ocean, then he dips into the water and begin to swim out as a dolphin.

Whatever Terry thinks he might have seen, the dolphin shows no indication of having spotted it.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
It was probably nothing. The reflection of a cloud in the water, most likely. He watches Gar dip into the water, and as soon as the titan turns dolphin, he is laser-focused on the take, trying for the best angle as he follows Gar, ready to catch him in action.

He is hyper-focused, so the fact that that odd spot in the water appears again is missed on him. It suddenly vanishes once more, leaving no trace.

Gar Logan has posed:
Onward! The Garphin doesn't go out more than maybe one hundred feet, well within range of the camera Terry's using. Getting back to shore at the rate a dolphin can swim shouldn't take more than about ten seconds.

His head pokes up out of the water and he calls out, "Here we go!" as he makes a few pulsing, whistling sounds to signal his readiness, then he breaks into a bit of song once the recording begins. "I, I wish you could swim! Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim!"

But he's not the only fish in the sea, is he? Do dolphins have to pay royalties for Bowie songs?

Terry O'Neil has posed:
At least he's not tuna-deaf, Terry thinks, and mentally kicks himself. It's hard not to fall into the habit of making terrible puns when hanging out with Garfield for any period of time.

He doesn't say anything, lest it be picked by the mic, so instead he gives Gar a thumbs-up and continues shooting, moving along the shore to catch the full schtick.

Under the waters, something stirs, very slowly. It has detected... something, and it is investigating.

Gar Logan has posed:
Heedless of whatever else is in there, the green dolphin races in the direction of the camera, throwing a flip or two in for good measure and chattering in the ways that made Flipper so endearing to another generation of children, people old enough to be grandparents today.

Once he's close enough, he starts to tail walk across the water as he look toward Terry. "I'm Garfield Logan, but you may know me better as Beast Boy! I'm here to tell you I /flip/ for marine animal preservation!" One is thrown in for good measure, leading to him zipping in the direction of the shoreline to get ready to shift.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Okay, that was good delivery. Terry keeps nodding. This was going to go well. One take-true to his word. Though the redhead was hoping for at least a couple of more. You know, to choose from.

He frowns, for a moment thinking he is seeing some bubbles rise to the surface some ways behind Gar.

He shakes hsi head briefly. He must be imagining it...

Gar Logan has posed:
The dolphin makes one more leap toward the camera, returning to his usual human side to land about ten feet away, standing back up with his back to the water, the wetsuit returning. He runs a hand through his hair, which is miraculously dry - there was no water touching it by the time he changed - and he gives the camera a thousand-dollar smile since that's mostly what he can charge for something like this.

"Did you know that every time your trash goes into a storm drain, it can wind up right there? Over in the Pacific Ocean, there are piles of trash! One of them, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is about 1.6 million square kilometers. That's about two times as big as Texas and three times the size of France!"

Keep rolling, O'Neil. Keep it going.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry nods. The facts check out. In general principles, he is against anything being the size of Texas, up to and including Texas, much less something larger. He zooms in from a full body shot to a close-up as Gar speaks... and that's when he notices the bubbles, in the distance, over the Titan's shoulder.

At first, he frowns, seemingly not understanding... but then his misunderstanding is cleared up when an enormous, green head emerges from the water, easily the size of a person.

"Gar!" Terry points, astonished, but not too surprised to keep filming.

The head belongs to that of a turtle, but it's... somehow //wrong//. It looks like a turtle who has spent a few hundred years auditioning for monster roles. It's... terrifying.

It's starting to swim this way!

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan brings his hands together in front of him up by the chest, clasping them as if he's shaking hands with himself, and he takes on a serious, sincere expression. "Plastic soda rings get stuck in birds. They cause a turtle's shell to grow deformed. Fish mistake trash for food and choke on it. Old fishing gear can strangle animals or keep them from swimming in the homes they live in. Pollutants poison them. Scientists estimate around 100,000 marine animals die each year because of trash. If we all remember to put it where it belongs, we can--"

The bubbles get Terry's attention first, then the shout causes him to stop. "Eh? Dude, I had this nailed in one take! You saw! It was--"

Here's where he turns around, stopping to stare at what's out there in the water. "What the..?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
This turtle's shell is evidently deformed. As it emerges from the water, it is clear that the tortuous spikes protruding from the shell, large enough to impale a person, are the product of some sort of abnormal process... as is the turtle's growth. It is enormous.

"Gar-" Terry's voice is panicked, and he is rooted to the spot as the enormous mass of the creature starts making a beeline for their location.

"It's a..."

While it's in the water, it manages to move with impressive speed. It is almost to Gar's location in no time, beak opening as if to snap him in half.

"GAR get out of there!" Terry shouts.

Gar Logan has posed:
There comes a grimace from the green teen, leaving him to rub his head momentarily. "Ugh..it's confused, and angry. Hungry. Feels like something's amplifying what it's feeling," he says rapidly. It's something he picks up on from animals, but there's nothing he can do about it.

As the beak opens wide for a second chance at a Garpy Meal, he freezes. Normally he'd just turn into something small and fast and be out of the way with but a thought, but the thought doesn't form until Terry's yelling at him. He dives to one side, but the giant, mutated turtle's beak shreds down the right calf of the wetsuit, digging into the back of his leg as he hops out of the way and scampers further. "Ow! It got me! Dude, that /hurts!/" Red shows where the slice is, leaving him hobble-walking-running as fast as he can.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry can't believe his eyes. He watches the creature take a bite out of Gar and Gar just... lets it. He isn't sure what he finds more terrifying: Gar's injury, or the fact that he saw Beast Boy freeze. That wasn't the Gar Logan he was familiar with.

The redhead's sneakers are pounding the sand in a panic as he runs as fast as he can, ignoring the searing pain from his right shoulder, until he can catch up to Gar and, slipping under his arm, tries to grab him and provide the support needed to help him run. "Hold on to me!"

The turtle, in the meantime, has landed, its corpulence making a dent in the sand. Fortunately for the teens, though, it loses an enormous amount of speed as soon as it is out of the water.

Gar Logan has posed:
A short hiss of breath once Terry's there, helping him on that leg he favors. It's a clean cut, but it could get infected if they aren't careful and quick to get back and clean it. Gar looks back over a shoulder at the giant, the spikes in its carapace leaving him wanting to reach out and comfort the poor thing. "I just..ow..locked up, man. I don't know what happened! And that was going so well, too!"

He may be as bothered by the take being ruined just as much as he is by the injury. "We gotta get out of here. I feel so bad for him, though. Look at him!" It would certainly carry a greater weight to the things he was just talking about.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Yeah, well-" Terry stops abruptly. He realizes he's been filming this whole time, albeit things probably look like a Found Footage feature.

The turtle has stopped chasing them. In fact, realizing it has lost its advantage, it turns around laboriously and begins to head back into the water.

"... he's going back in. Look, we can investigate this later. I'll send a notice to get the police to cordon off this area... it's likely that thing will be around for a while." He pauses and looks down at Gar's injury, and winces. "Let's worry about him later, though." He starts leading Gar towards his car. This time, it was Terry's turn to drive, considering circumstances.

######################################

Terry's apartment is in disarray- namely from Terry fishing for things needed. He had guided Gar to the bathtub so he could do what he needed to do while Terry proceeded to upend the entire cosmos of his apartment. When he comes back into the bathroom, it is with the supplies needed, and his hands thoroughly washed.

"How's it feeling?" He asks, stepping into the bathroom.

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan doesn't need to say anything else if they really want a good example of what trash ending up in the ocean can lead to. It just wasn't something where he was expecting to almost end up a meal!

They get back into the car, their beachcoming adventure at an end, and Gar gingerly works his way out of the wetsuit. In fact, to do so he has to just cut off part of it to open up the area around the leg, then get the rest off as carefully as possible without brushing against the wound. It looks long and a mix of clean and jagged, showing a difference between where the creature got him just before he bolted.

"Like we might have to amputate and I'll have to learn how to push a doggy walker every time I go out for a fo...three-legged walk," comes the voice from the other side of the door, just as Terry enters. Gar's got a pair of shorts on, but nothing else.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Hush. It's not going to get to that." Terry's voice is terse, but his expression shows that it is because he is very worried, not because he's annoyed. "Lay don on the bathtub, we need to wash that first."

Using the hand extension of the shower, Terry washes the wound. keeping Gar's leg elevated on the edge of the bathtub, before using soap and a clean washcloth to clean the area around the wound.

"Gar... you... you kind of locked up there," he says very quietly. He does a good job fo trying to overcome his queasiness as he inspects the wound to see if there is any dirt or debris that needs to be removed with isopropyl alcohol-soaked tweezers before moving to the treatment, proper, as he grabs the sterile gauze from his selection of supplies.

Gar Logan has posed:
There's some sand, but the saltwater from the beach already seems to have helped with some of the bacteria that was present, getting it toward the outside rather than staying within and festering to the point of causing an infection. All things considered, that's pretty fortunate.

"No I didn't," Gar answers defensively. "It surprised me, and it was faster than I was expecting." Chances are he could have been mauled by a sloth and still given the same excuse. Fact is he was slow, and he did freeze.

He also freezes with a sucked-in hiss of breath as the cleaning of the wound commences. Something more might be needed, just to ensure it closes up properly. There's a good amount of skin that's parted. He realizes it, having seen it already. "So am I gonna need stitches or staples?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Yeah, I think so," Terry says weakly. "Let me finish cleaning this and getting a temporary on before we go to the hospital." Now that he could see the wound clearly, it was evident more would be needed. But he could stop and contain the bleeding before moving Gar.

Using the sterile gauze, he presses gently on the wound, applying some gentle pressure on the elevated part.

"You froze Gar. There's..." he pauses. Saying to someone 'there's something wrong' was a great way to get them to clam up. "... there's something very scary in seeing that. I guess I know how you felt when I got injured."

Terry's touch is gentle, the way he handles Gar showing a great deal of care. His green eyes flicker over to look at Gar as he applies the second clean piece of gauze to keep the blood from oozing through. "... we can talk about that later."

He looks at the Titan, clad in nothing but a short, and muses to himself how difficult it is to look away. There are words floating around at the periphery of his consciousness, thoughts that beg to be named and owned... and the complications doing so would bring about. Fortunately, he can't do so because his friend is wounded and in pain, and that trakes priority over everything else.

"I think we're ready to go," He says, slowly standing up and offering to help Gar onto his good leg, so they can make the trip to the car and the hospital.

"For what it's worth... you would have totally gotten it in one go."

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan grows very quiet while Terry is dealing with getting things wrapped and protected for the hospital visit. Deep down, he knows he froze and he essentially knows why. He's out of practice. There's still something kicking around inside his head when it comes to being hesitant when needing to act.

He did all right when it came to getting Terry out of trouble with the gang, but Terry still got shot. Maybe Gar could have been faster.

He did next to nothing when things were going on with Poison Ivy, the crocodile dude, and the guy who looked like some dark Spider-Man sort of ripoff. He was trying to figure out what was happening before acting, but he didn't get involved in any of the conflict even if no real fighting took place.

Now, this. It was going to be a great PSA. He was in his element, in the zone, then things took a turn and he almost got more chomped than this.

"Let's just get to the hospital," he says, avoiding what Terry's already worked out. He asks, "Do you have a crutch, or should I just use you as one? I need to get a shirt on, too." The shorts are fine, at least. As Terry provides assistance, they make their way along and he says one more thing before gingerly getting into the car.

"I told you I was gonna nail it."