4682/Another You: A Star Is Born

From Heroes Assemble MUSH
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Another You: A Star Is Born
Date of Scene: 11 January 2021
Location: One of the labs at the tower
Synopsis: Gar finally wakes up. Terry is waiting for him.
Cast of Characters: Terry O'Neil, Gar Logan




Terry O'Neil has posed:
It has been many hours since the Titans extracted Gar Logan from the ocean-- how many, exactly, Terry O'Neil couldn't tell. All throughout the process, everything was a blur to the young man, and afterwards he took point in transfering Garfield safely to the prepares tank... as if he would do anything else, or accept anything else. Careful tests were made, and the relevant experts of the team made cautious tests on StarGar while tank conditions were calibrated, acclimating and all steps were finished.

It is evening, now, and Terry is no longer awake. The young man has essentially collapsed on one of the desks, head cushioned by his crossed arms. So intent on everything, he didn't even bother to change out of the wetsuit. His wet hair is now dry, with some salt crystals in it, and he seems to be sleeping what his mother calls 'the sleep of the just.' Once Gar had been settled in and everybody had left, he had said a few, quiet words by the tank and then sat down 'to rest his eyes,' followed by a free release of the emotions of... everything. Tears of relief, joy, worry, they had all flown.

Terry knew Gar wasn't out of the woods. He knew that he could awaken with damage, physical or psychological, that might never recover. He was prepared for Gar to wake up in any state... and dreading the fact that he might not wake up at all. Because in cases like these, Terry prepares for the worst while hoping for the best. But above it all was the relief that Gar was alife and, as long as there was life, there was hope. So he sleeps.

Gar Logan has posed:
It's unclear how aware of all this Gar was. What kind of sentience does a starfish have? Not the same as one Beast Boy has taken the shape of, undoubtedly. There is still the human mind in there, mixed with animal instinct, but nobody here has ever known him to hold one form for so long. But, holding it is what he had to do. He was in no shape to leave the relative safety of the ocean floor, and until he was he could only hope someone found him before he had to make a decision himself. It didn't have to be a Titan thing, either. A random diver collecting aquatic life could have randomly picked him up.

Do starfish even sleep? The answer is no, not really. If Gar slept, he'd lose his form and revert back to human due to the break in concentration. Being the species he is now, the effects of a week without sleep might not be as pronounced as it would be for a normal human, but in the wake of everything that happened there are bound to be side effects. Time will tell.

While Terry sleeps, Gar watches through the eye at the end of each arm. Then, he moves to the side of the tank, slowly crawling up the glass with hundreds of tube feet until reaching the top. Teetering on the edge, partly in, partly out, momentum takes him the rest of the way to the outside of the tank, at which point he reverts back to human with a loud clatter that knocks over a rolling cart nearby with a few instruments upon it.

He lands on his front side, and a few things are apparent: his skin still retains the characteristics of the starfish, more bumpy, textured similarly. Good thing he didn't pick a spiny version. His left arm is, for lack of a better word, a stump ending just past the elbow. It's the clearest sign of what others have seen of the video of the attack.

He's also completely naked.

A low groan follows, and after a second of trying to push himself up to his hands...to a hand and knees, he just lies there instead.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
The crash wakes Terry up with a start, and as he gets up some of the splashed water from the tank causes his bare feet to slip. With a yelp, he lands on his tuckus with a wince, and he blinks several times. He had been having a very strange dream where Harley, dressed in a lab coat, glasses and her old harlequin costume underneath, was having him classify different marine flora. "Ya gotta make shuah," she said in her distinctive accent, "That ya catalogue 'em correctly, or mistah J is gonna make ya sleep with the fishes to learn ya!"

And in the dream, the crash was interpreted as the Joker breaking through a wall. So it takes him several seconds to get his bearings, and then to comprehend the sight before him. Once he does, though, he acts quickly.

A spare lab coat is taken from a hook as well as the towel he had brought with him earlier so he'd stop dripping all over, and Terry gently tries to coax Gar off the floor.

Realizing he's probably too weak to stand, Terry gets down to his kneees and tries to wrap Gar in the towel, "Gar... Gar..." he repeats several times. Not entirely sure if he's saying it for himself, or to see if Gar responds. He resists the urge to pull him into his arms- he was trying to refrain himself from sudden, brusque movements until he could ascertain Gar's state.

Gar Logan has posed:
This would be a good spot to sleep, yes. Just shut the eyes and let it wash over like a...lab coat?

Wait, what?

Getting him up off the floor might be a bit of a task, and Gar's come out of a few different shapes with some lingering visual tweaks before, but nothing this pronounced. He's still wet, and a little slippery, so it's going to take extra effort to deal with all of that and to an upright, or at least seated, position.

The look on his face, which is still mostly Gar-like, is less expressive right now rather than more. His eyes, thankfully, look mostly normal, but have a distance to them. The voice is there, just soft, a little rough from almost ten days of disuse. "..Ter..ry.."

He's leaning closer, not just because he needs the aid. He could just cling to Terry, still 'thinking' more like a starfish. Just try not to look at what's left of that arm, though thankfully the regeneration process has already caused it to heal over rather than showing anything gruesome at the point of injury.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
The sight of Gar's arm takes Terry's breath away, but Gar speaking his name almost makes him cry. The redhead works gently, drying Gar with the towel. As he does, he checks him for other injuries- he remembers the video, and he is relieved to see that the horrible wounds to the chest have been healed. "Yes, it's me..." he's doing a remarkable job of holding his voice from breaking, "It's me." His voice breaks at that one, and he doesn't say anything until he's gotten Gar drier.

That's when he wraps the towel around Gar and he gently pulls Gar closer to him as he leans, strong arms wrapped around him. He doesn't care about the strange texture to the green skin, he cares more that he can touch it. He extends his legs into a sitting position and pulls Gar onto his lap, "Are you hurt? Are you in pain?" he asks, shaking a little, "Do you need something?"

Gar Logan has posed:
It's one thing to see it on video. Special effects are remarkable these days, and a lot can be done with CGI and green screens.

Random Thought: green screen technology must be pretty useless with Gar.

Even he appears a little surprised that nothing shows of the injuries he'd taken to the face and body, but while they were deep cuts, they weren't the type of wounds that would linger between shifts, especially with more time spent as what he was. "You," he confirms, and his body weight feels like it could be twice what it normally is based on how heavy his limbs feel.

In truth, he weighs less than normal, not only because he's eaten very little, but..well, the portion of his arm that's missing makes up a few more pounds.

He sinks easily into the new position, eyes passing over the fact Terry's still in the wetsuit from earlier. "No.." is his answer to the questions related to pain. "Sore. Tir..ed." More of his weight leans in, and he glances down at his missing hand as if he could imagine maybe flexing it. "Have to..find him..find me. Stop..me."

He's probably right about part of that, just not for the reason he's thinking.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"We will," Terry says quietly, his hand caressing Gar's wet hair, "We will. Not right now. Right now, you need to heal. Recover. Regrow."

He had read how long it took starfish to regenerate. And he had had an idea in the interim, during the early hours of testing. He'd had a conversation with Nadia. "You'll have time for that, you don't need to rush. Just.. trust me about that, okay?"

Terry is strong, he was already in excellent shape before he became a Titan, and training as both Vorpal and Terry only improved him. He slowly gets to his feet, cradling Gar in his arms, muscles taut as he tries to not jostle him too much. He carefully steps around the puddle of water, so as not to slip on bare feet anymore, and makes his way to one of the examination tables, where he places Gar to sit, his arms still holding him.

"I'm... Kori and Nadia and Harley and everybody believed you were alive. I... I though..." his voice things out.

Gar Logan has posed:
Right now, moving far from the tank would be a poor idea. Gar won't be able to regenerate further in his current form, but he could at least eat and sleep more normally. There may need to be a cycle set up for time spent regenerating. "Could be..months," he says, well aware of the timeframe it usually takes a starfish, or sea star, to do such a thing. "No..time. Still..out there?"

The words are few, and with him set on the exam table..it's not his bed, but he can lie down, rest on his side, curl up, whatever. His eyes drift shut for a few seconds before he wills them open again, just to look at Terry. A week apart, three months apart, it's too long regardless. "They all..did?" he asks, before he coughs a few times. Even those don't have much force behind them. "Should..be dead," is the admission that follows, and he's right. There's no reasonable excuse for him to be alive right now, except for a thought in the nick of time.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Gar, trust your boyfriend, okay? We have more time than you think. We'll talk about it when you're rested." Terry says, helping Gar settle down, "And don't say that. You shouldn't be dead. You should be exactly here, with me, like you are right now."

Terry brushes some fresh tears from his eyes, and he adds "Wait here, okay? Don't move."

He transforms, and Gar might see, if he's paying attention, that the Cheshire's right arm is in a sling, a bandage pink with blood across the right shoulder. He reaches for the SHIELD comm.

"This is Vorpal. Rabbit Hole at the Titans Tower. Disregard."

He waits for the confirmation, and then he opens a Rabbit Hole. Several moments pass, and then the sounds of something dragging against tile are heard before the twin bed is essentially pushed into the laboratory. Vorpal has to push a few things out of the way, but he finally gets a good fit, and then he closes the hole and reverts to his human form. "Like hell you're going to sleep on some lab table," he mutters, pulling the covers back. He walks over to the table and holds his arms out to move Gar again. "Sorry... last stop for the moment, I promise," he whispers, and makes sure Gar is fully dried but for his hair, before transporting him from the table and onto his own bed, drawing the covers over Gar and kneeling by his bed.

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan may not even have the energy to shed any tears right now. Emotionally, he's a step or two above catatonic, but not by very much. At least he's speaking, and moving a little.

However, he tucks his bad arm closer to his side, as if trying to mask it, to block it from being visible. A wounded animal hiding his injury.

There's confusion when Terry goes to Vorpal mode and a sling is present, leading to his brows knitting closer together after he says something into whatever he's got on. "Hurt?" Then he grimaces mildly at the sound of the bed being pushed, pulled, shoved, and otherwise cajoled into the lab. It leaves him staring, but he doesn't have a problem with being shifted from table to bed. "Yes."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Mind your business, Garfield Mark Logan," Terry says quietly with a slight smile when Gar asks if Terry is hurt, "We're taking care of you right now."

That bed is a twin, so it's not very spacious. However, Terry and Gar have been on it before, multiple times. He knows the way. By now his wetsuit is dry, so he doesn't think twice about slipping under the covers with Gar, his arm reaching over to drape over the green titan, and draw him a little closer, perhaps to give him an added sense of safety. "You're going to rest. And eat. And recover. And we'll get through this together."

Gar Logan has posed:
Gar Logan hnfs softly, but he just doesn't have the energy in him to raise any real fuss. "Have to..heal more," he does say, but there's a shiver that runs down him from something or another. Again, they saw the video feed. They watched what happened to him. He went through it. He felt it. He barely found a way to survive as everything was starting to fade away.

And they found him. They found him and brought him back. Now he's curling up next to Terry, who acts protectively toward him, and just for now, just for a little while, he can allow himself to think things might be okay.

Only, he knows his other self is still out there. Terry didn't say they found him and stopped him.

Over some time as Gar sleeps, he will finish reverting back to normal visually, but the recovery is only just beginning. He says, again, "Yes."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Sleep," he says gently, and wraps his arms around Gar and intertwines his legs with his Gar's in order to give him the very solid, very palpable feeling of connection. "I'll be right here when you wake up. Promised." He leans forward and places a kiss on Gar's cheek, bumpy and textured as it is, "I'll see you tomorrow." And then he moves closer, letting Gar snuggle against his chest.

Gar had a rough road ahead of him, but he was going to make sure he was right by his side. As Terry rests his nose on Gar's hair, letting his thumbs rub against Gar's back, Gar might be abe to hear Terry's heart beating in his chest. He didn't sleep, as he had slept a lot already, but stayed awake to think and simply be aware of Gar's presence.