1738/Hospital Flowers

Hospital Flowers
Date of Scene:	31 July 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	The Titans (and friends) stumble upon a strange phenomenon while visiting at the Children's Hospital. Something is afoot.
Cast of Characters:	87, Beast Boy, Jacky Diamond, Raven

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Vorpal (87) has posed:
Outreach. Charitable works. Those were some of the things that superheroes did. Their public presence could be used for good when meant to highlight causes or people in need... and hence, the idea for the outreach at the Children's hospital. Everything had been coordinated between the tower and the Hospital through Tommy Hunter. To the outside world he was Beast Boy's 'PR person', but to the Titans he was also known in his secret identity as Vorpal, one of their newest members.

For this particular excursion, Vorpal was not in attendance. Tommy was, as the PR contact, because bilocationn wasn't one of his gifts- and no matter how much that Yoga class promised, it was not something to be achieved

"Alright guys," the tan-skinned redhead says as they ride up in the elevator, "We ready to make some kids smile today?" he looks over his shoulder, taking off his sunglasses. Raven and Beast Boy. Raven. Bringing her over had been Gar's idea, because Gar was like that- in GarLand, "Let's take the emo-goth Titan to a feel good lift-the-spirits-of-the-sad-kids event!" was an excellent idea. It built character.

Tommy wasn't entirely sure WHOSE character was going to be built here, though.

In any case, Jacky had been a personal call. A friend, and someone who had certain... sensitivities, he figured it would be a good idea to bring him along in the mission of spreading joy, good cheer and all that.

Dear goodness he hoped this would go well.

"Showtime," Tommy says under his breath, "Think of the children, and on the potential donations to the hospital!" he says in a good-natured, cheerful tone as he steps aside to let the Titans through. He'll be taking pictures and video, like a good totally not a superhero one hundred percent civilian public relations person who does not have a tail is supposed to do.

Beast Boy has posed:
GarLand is the best land.

Smiling hugely, Beast Boy is all but bouncing on the balls of his feet. Because this is EXACTLY what he loves doing with his powers. There's too much sad int he world, and depression is a villian that can't be seen or heard by any but victim. It's a villian that takes more innocent lives each year than any super-powered alien, crazed meta, or quasi-sentient death robot could ever do. It is a villian Garfield fights with smiles and jokes and hugs and warmth. Because that is Depression's kryptonite.

No one try to tell him otherwise!

"Act One: puppies and supers!" Garfield quips stepping from the elevator with a warm smile. His rich forest green eyes sweep about.

Jacky Diamond has posed:
Spreading joy? Yyyyeah. This is a hospital. Spreading joy is like going to war.

Jacky is a blondish guy with a guitar. He doesn't own a superhero costume. His 'training outfit' from the school for (shh) mutant kids that he attended years ago ... is too small to fit now, because it wasn't made out of anything useful like 'unstable molecule cloth'. So he is wearing a western shirt (with pearl buttons and a neckerchief) and blue jeans and motorcycle boots and amber sunglasses that almost match the amber-brown of his hair, and he has an acoustic 12-string guitar in a case with him. He introduced himself as "Dr. Winters" with the caveat "I'm a veterinarian." But that's it.

He is looking askance at Beast Boy, thinking, "hyper much?" to himself, and politely NOT intruding on the shell of keep-away around the dark-clothed woman ... and here we go. Oof. The vibes off the kids in here ... so much fatigue, so much loneliness. He swallows, and pushes out a vibe of his own. Strong. Durable. There are people here who are interesting and who care what's happening. Good things WILL happen.

It takes a lot of energy. Fine. He's GOT a lot of energy.

Raven has posed:
    Raven was dragged away against her will. Garfield always pulled her away, always in the middle of the best parts of her books or while she's in the middle of a good meditation or whatever it is that's garnering her attention at the moment. But she didn't hate him anymore for it. It was just that way in the Titans. One minute you're in the middle of a book, then next you're flying off the Tower to find some megalomaniac with the hots for blowing up half the city... or going to a PR function to make people smile.

    The latter part is Beast Boy's department, not Raven's. Even as her civilian self, Rachel isn't cheery, and it shows when she blinks at the coppertop. Where Garfield is almost bouncing off the walls, Raven is a pillar of stillness and calm. And of course she has to say something.

    "Oh joy, the donations," Raven says in parched-sounding, crackling alto oozing with the driest form of sarcasm. In mockery of Garfield's playful demeanor, Raven adds in, "Do you have a clown form, too?"

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"Clown form? What do you think he's been wearing this whole time?" Tommy fires back at Raven with an infectious grin. He hadn't had a chance to interact with his colleague much, since he wasn't officially *in* yet (he hadn't moved his stuff into the tower.) But he could appreciate the stillness she irradiated, in contrast with Gar's hurricane. If they trained together, Raven and Beast Boy might make a rather hilarious comedy team, with Raven specializing in Bea Arthur-type smoldering take-downs and caustic one liners.

Not gonna happen.

"Alright, I'll just hang back and take footage." He takes out the camera. Yes, a camera, it's a fancy one, at that.

Beast Boy has posed:
"Of course I do! Dumb question. But, I'd need a salt-water tank and some anemonea," Beast Boy retorts to his dry-humored team-mate whom he loves for the straight man she gives to his not at all straight zaniness.

Cue Tommy.

"Ouch! Right in my feels's cockels!" Beast Boy retorts before shifting into the best emerald labrador ever. Lassie, eat your heart out! The canine inhales, smelling the sick and the sad. A thin whine escapes his nose before his tongue lolls and he pads his way toward the Shift Nurse.

"Good afternoon," says Garfield, the bright green dog. Because while Garfield COULD do Big, he can't do Red.

Jacky Diamond has posed:
Jacky doesn't involve himself in the banter... something feels off. There's a vibe here that doesn't belong in a hospital. Something corrupt. Just a whiff of it. Like it's coming from somewhere else, but also from here.

This is not the layout that adults and super-sick kids get, not this ward. For the moment, there aren't separate rooms. The doors have been slid open, beds and chairs pulled into a sort of audience for the visitors.

Jacky sits on the floor, kids watching him curiously as he takes out his guitar and tunes it, making a few faces when he hits a deliberate sour note.

"OK. First song is going to be 'It's not easy being green' and I have no idea if the dog can sing along. You kids can sing along as much as you want but you don't have to."

He begins playing the music, and uses it to catch attention, while his own vibe begins finding the baseline for theirs. Music is a pretty good way to bring people into a stronger group mind, in a positive way.

Raven has posed:
    Sadly, Raven is immune to all infections of the smiling strain. Garfield knows best the truth of this. So she shoots back at Tommy and Garfield, "Riiiight." No, she knew the context of that joke. It was the test to see if Garfield would stumble. He pushed her buttons, she pushed his. Like this piece of mutt that BB is morphing into in front of them.

    Raven follows along behind the viridescent surrogate canine, hands in her hoodie pockets, looking like the sort of person one might expect to see hanging out in a graveyard or a tattoo parlor. She doesn't even acknowledge the nurses giving BB and herself the stares that say so much. Respect. Dismay at the unsanitary dog. Goth wierdo. They all go right past her as if she walks down an empty hospital hallway.

    Then they are in the makeshift 'auditorium' for the kids, really just a play area for the less sick kids to get some recreation when they aren't tethered to monitors and IV bags. The sickly sterile smells fills Raven's nostrils and she sighs. She stands and looks a bit awkward while the real entertainment puts on a show for the kids, looking like the disinterested babysitter at a school play. She looks anywhere but the kids. At the overly saturated walls without any personalization. The donated toy bin with beat up, ten year old toys that are on their last limb. Miniaturized furniture for the smaller bodies of feeble children. A joyous place to be, for sure. But that's the point of the exercise.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
For Tommy it was about fighting. It wasn't so much about negating pain as in defying it. The hope that someday the pain would be the anomaly and not the norm. As much of a scatter as Gar could be, Tommy had to admit the green teen's dogged optimism was inspiring.

As he is moving back to get a wider angle, he frowns. That's odd. Did the room just... no. Everything looked fine... "must be the lack of sleep."

Beast Boy has posed:
Given directions, Garfiel is all too happy to be in the little auditorium, though he has plans to slip off later and therapy animal it for some of the bed-ridden children. For the moment, called out to sing, Garfild the Emerald Labrador bounds onto the 'stage' area.

"Of course I can sing! But I need help! WIll you help me?" the canine implores of the children, hamming it up with all the experience he has.

SHift? What weird shift? There's nothing weird about being a dog!

Jacky Diamond has posed:
Jacky is not a hairy guy normally. Then there's a sort of 'voooooom' that he feels in his bones and out his teeth and fingernails. "Timmy's having another nightmare" says the elf on the shelf, just before it's eaten by a crocodile diving from the ceiling tiles and splashing into the pool of the floor with a ripple and a plop.

"It's not easy bein' green
Having to spend each day The color of the leaves
When I think it could be nicer Bein' red or yellow or gold
Or something much more colorful like that" Jacky sings, backing up Gar. Other kids are singing too, not noticing as they grow scales and brightly verdant fur, all the singers matching the singing dog for color and furriness as teh song continues.

There's a pungent, sharp rotten-vinegar stink of absolute terror from one chair in particular, one where a two-inch-tall mouse sits chewing its tail, which is beginning to bleed. The pain makes the fear stay a little bit away, but then it comes back. The mouse is named Timothy and Jacky can't reach it with any good vibration. The bad vibe, though, Jacky feels coming from somewhere else. It's playing, an arrogant superior snotty game like a Tremaine or a Q, which makes Jacky frown. That's way too old for a kid to be hiding in their zeitgeist. Is this coming from outside?

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Tommy stares hard ahead of him, camera lowering gradually. "I'm not doing this," he mutters to Raven, as if to clarify he wasn't the kind to create horrifying illusions.

He quickly turns to the windows. He feels the water rising, he feels it. The windows look dark to him now... black with occassional water bubbles appearing.

they say that if you're ever on a boat, in the storm and you happen to go underwater, if you can see green light coming through the windows then you'll be all right, but if you see nothing but blackness it's all over.

He stares at the windows, forgetting much of what is going on around him. He is eight again and in his uncle's boat. The storm rages outside... and then there's the wave.., and blackness through the windows.

Suddenly, breathing becomes really, really hard...

Beast Boy has posed:
"It's not easy being green.
It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things.
And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water or stars in the sky..?" Garfield's dance and song missed a note, falling a bit flat as he notices the children shifting. The rotten vinegar stench smacks him in the very sensative canine nose and he takes a step back, shakes his head, and shifts back to person to try to clear it.

Emerald eyes look around again, worry flitting across his features the moment he spots the tiny mouse chew chew chewing. Garfield moves over and shifts into a mouse to scurry up to the chair's seat, seeking to be the same size as Timmy Doormouse - so as not to scare him! - and there Garfield tries to gently put paws on Timmy's tail, to try to coax the tail away.

"Hey there. Hi! Hey. That's not a good chew-thing," Garfield is saying, his voice tiny and squeaky.

Jacky Diamond has posed:
Jacky frowns ... this is an attack, well, nobody gets to hijack his performance and contaminate his vibe. He stops abruptly and then strikes with a pick, an abrupt WHAM of sound and intention that vibrates across the room shattering the channel that's doing the feedback through his own mindspace. The girl, Raven, suddenly wraps in shadow and vanishes, and he senses her intention to hunt down whatever is feeding that fear. And that leaves him to repair the mess here.

He begins playing "while my guitar gently weeps" because it fits the context that he grabbed from the children who got to watch Kubo after dinner last night... the music pulls them out of the swirling confusion and the fur and scales evaporate.

Timothy looks at the green mouse, and an impossible human tear drips out of each eye, before he is suddenly himself again.

"I see it now," Jacky whispers. Timothy is a metahuman. Not clear what kind, but he has the power to create illusion, and he's been pretending to be well but he's very, very sick, and whoever it is that's been feeding on his pain and fear, has been keeping him trapped. Well, that's broken now. But he has to heal, and that's going to be harder. Jacky can't help yet. There are too many traumatized kids here, too many nurses and doctors, who have been caught in this ugly bit of Mara.

He uses the music to drag their emotions around to where they should be. They'll have questions ... but not now. There's still work to do.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"Jacky...." the redhead calls out, "Are you..." he can hear a guitar playing. A guitar playing... underwater? No, that can't be right.

Soon, the music manages to break the illusion, the darkness of deep water disintegrating before the light of day.

And he's back in the hospital room, feeling nauseated. It's all he can do not to drop his illusion due to the distraction this powerful illusion caused- what could be so powerful to get HIM ensnared in an illusion.

"G-Gar, Jack, is everybody oka- where is Raven?"

Beast Boy has posed:
Timothy returning to normal has Beast Boy smiling. With the music resuming, Garfield shifts into a fluffy lemur, cute and furry and perfect for clinging to. His green eyes turn toward Tommy, concern there too for his teammate.

"I'm good. She's probably off... saving the day?" Garfield hazards while hugging TImmothy.

Jacky Diamond has posed:
Jacky is slightly aware that for some reason Beast Boy can selectively control bits of his shift, because he doesn't SMELL like a lemur, and that's a very, very good thing. It would make it harder for him to tie up the energy and eliminate the negative vibes, and he's switching to an old French lullaby that has no words so he doesn't have to sing while he's focusing on each child, one at a time. It leaves him drained, when he's done. He waits for the kids to be returned to their rooms with ice-cream or jello, and sits in a chair with a cloth to his nose, because the nosebleed WILL hit soon. He notices that Rachel is not back.

"Uh. She went after the parasite being. Whatever was latched into Timothy, it was looping him in a fear pattern. Something about money and his Mom ... kid has been using his power to mask his actual symptoms. They should be able to treat it now anyway."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Tommy sits down once the show is over and makes a mental note to get the scary parts edited out. He's still shaking, remembering that moment. Whatever it was that came through Timothy, it managed to latch onto his memories and dig up a fear. One he hasn't really told anyone about- except his parents, who were there when Uncle Karl and Aunt Martha pulled up to the pier with his hyperventilating ten year old self. It's the reason he's never been on a boat since.

"If you guys don't mind, I can have a talk with Timmy. After he's calmed down, later in the day, as my other self. I want to see if he remembers anything of what came through him." It's a hunch, but at this point any clue is a good clue to figure out what happened. And how to keep it from happening to the kid again.

He shdders and closes his eyes, trying to dispel the image of the water.

Beast Boy has posed:
Garfield sat with the boy, continuing the show but cleraly letting Jacky take the lead on it. WHen at last it's done and over with, Garfield makes his way over to Vorpal, shifting into a lapcat. Beast Boy inserts himself onto Tommy's lap, stretching up to nose his head under the ginger's chin. Raspy pink tongue licks at Tommy's chin, a purr in his chest.

Beast Boy has posed:
"Want me with you?" Garfield asks, voice a steady purr, tail curling as if it could hug Tommy's midsection.

Jacky Diamond has posed:
"Check with your friend too. Though, I have a feeling the real parasite got away. Just a hunch," Jacky says. His nose starts bleeding suddenly and he catches it into one of those beige-pink containers they use in hospitals for various kinds of material ejected from mouth and nose. He lets it go for a few moments, then changes from flesh and blood to pure carbon lattice.

That, and not the blood or the illusion attack, alarms one of the nurses, who begins an alarmed yammering that may well have been suppressed before by the aura of friendliness he usually projects. He gives a frustrated glance to one of the doctors, while the blood in the little basin sparkles as bits of it form into tiny gemstones.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"You're turning into Carol Channing's best friend, Jacky," Tommy mutters, leaning down to bump noses with GarCat, since he is a cat under the illusions too.

"Always," he responds to Gar's question, and reaches down to scratch him behind an ear. "We'll probably catch up with Raven at the Tower. She'll probably head there. Not that I have been there YET" he says quietly, because he is in his secret identity. "They need to get me in the database so the defense systems don't taze me if I try to walk through the front door." And you try combing your fur down after you've been electrocuted.

He takes a few breaths and nuzzles Gar. "I'm ok, hon. Do you want to go and do your therapy animal rounds? I'll be okay..."

Or he's going to try to, at least. He hadn't thought of boats for years- he'd alway found ways of not being in positions to get invited on them. But now he *was* living by the ocean, sooner or later there would be boats. Heck, the Titans might decide to get a boat.

Well, now he knew what he was going to talk about on his next therapy session.

Beast Boy has posed:
Without the purrs skipping a single beat, Garfield bumps noses and rubs his cheek on Tommy's jaw. His daintly seeming claws hooked into the 'shirt' Tommy is wearing (read: carefully hooked into cloth and fur and not near the skin at all!).

"You sure? I mean, I do want to go do those rounds, but if you need me right now...? I'll keep an eye on the clock. One hour, and then we'll go. Anywhere you want," Garfield says, the worry more than apparent and strong enough to keep him from even realizing there's blood or freaking out nurses.

Jacky Diamond has posed:
Jacky sighs, even though he doesn't need to breathe at the moment.

"Yeah, this is to keep me from bleeding nonstop for an hour. They'd have to transfuse."

He sighs again, as the nurse is scolded by a doctor, and walks over to the two of them.

"The kid was being fed on by some sort of emotional vampire thing. Please get him checked out again, I'm pretty sure his problem isn't what you've diagnosed. Lady, stop freaking out. I turn into diamond. It's not that weird. There are people who are much worse off and you may run into them here. Here. Touch my hand. See. Still warm."

The nurse begins to calm down. All of the blood in the plastic catch-basin has collected itself up into several large gemstones. Jacky puts them in his pocket, and picks up the guitar case.

"I'm out, Tommy. I need to get some food that isn't hospital food."

And he's gone, just vanished, no black bird-aura, no sparkles, not even a "bang" of displaced air.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"You're too sweet," Tommy smiles and nuzzles Gar. He'd give him a lick, except it would seem WEIRD for a human to lick a cat. That, and he is not supposed to be dating Gar in his civilian identity because of secret identities. He speaks quietly so the nurese don't hear, "Now get your butt off to make some kids feel better. We'll cuddle on my couch and watch a terrible movie or something, I'll be fine. No go." He gives him a tired smile and leans back on his chair.