4096/Flowers for Cyborg

Flowers for Cyborg
Date of Scene:	18 March 2018
Location:	STAR Labs
Synopsis:	Breath brings flowers to the fallen. Things are dire. So very dire.
Cast of Characters:	Cyborg, Breath, Power Girl

---

Cyborg has posed:
     It's a beautiful day to visit someone in their medical room to be fair. The sky's are blue as far as the eye can see for miles over STAR labs. The bright facade of the building reflecting the light bounced off in every direction. Breath manages to make her way into the building without problem and after a bit of talking she's even lead further into the structure.

     It wasn't standard procedure to allow someone into the bowls of star labs unannounced. Most people would have just been turned away at the door, but for a hero of a well known group like the Titans? It wasn't completely outside the realm of possibility. As such Breath is lead back to a small viewing room near the back of the facility, along with who else but the very C.E.O. of Star Labs, Karen Starr.

     "Now" The lab assistant who had lead them this far says rather calmly as she moves over to the wall where the one way window into the operating room resides. It's covered over by a large curtain blocking the view. "Before I open this curtain, I'd like you to have the right mindset going in." She seems to be dancing around the issue somewhat, as Julia always tended to do. She's highly uncomfortable with the whole thing and it shows through her forced smile. "Victor might not be... exactly how you remember him... but... I... I assure you he's receiving the best medical care we can offer him." She keeps her hand balled up a bit tightly in place as she speaks not exactly comfortable telling this to her boss. "You can trust me when I say he's in no pain."

Breath has posed:
Breath flares out and comes in for a noisy landing and steps up to the door. With a bunch of flowers. And a teddy bear. Yeah, people might be kind of busy. Or whatever. Or something. But someone tried to do something *nice* for them, and she doesn't *know* him but for that? She is very grateful.

And now? He is hurt. He is getting company whether he asked for it or not, darn it! That's what we DO. She looks around a bit and makes her way in in a lost sort of fashion.

She sighs with faint annoyance at the dancing around. "Okay, look, two years ago people wanted me to try out for the football team. The BOY'S football team. I think I can deal with people looking a bit different. Just give it to me straight, here. He pronouns, not hurting, looks different. Am I right? If so? Awesome. We're good."

Power Girl has posed:
    To say that Karen Starr cuts just as imposing and stark a figure as the bombastic superheroine Power Girl would be a laughable statement.

    For the CEO of a company, she certainly isn't intimidating. I mean, sure she's tall, but that's about it. She slouches most of the time. She's dressed like she's running for president, and despite that there are some things you -can't- hide (and she has two of them) her pantsuit isn't doing her any favors.

    Especially not in that shade of salmon.

    Her glasses are so thick they're probably weapons, she's wearing a literal zero amount of makeup, and her hair isn't really brushed as much as it probably fell into an acceptable position out of the shower, and seeing as it's a lot of effort to take good care of something that reaches her mid-back? She likely didn't bother.

    Her ability to bluff is also top-notch, because she's practically shivering, and is pale beyond all recognition. Apparently this level is very cold and -something- has her a practically medical level of distraught.

    She has under her arm a folder that is helpfully labeled "Stone, Victor" and behind it there is a larger, more intimidating file labeled "Stone, Silas."

    When she arrives, the first order of business is to internally commend the assistant for treating her like someone who is going to vomit as soon as she sees him.

    Then, she offers a palm that she takes from one pocket- it's really, really clammy- to Breath. "Oh, uh, hey, hi, I'm Karen Starr, President and CEO of STAR Labs." She stumbles over her words, and god bless 'er, even manages to put the -perfect- stutter on the P in President.

Cyborg has posed:
     Julia is dressed in a very simply lab technicians uniform. Her name tag prominently pinned to her right lapel. She's genuinely a bit distraught even thinking about it as she moves over to the curtain to slide it off to one side. She takes her time walking over in her too tall for her high heels. They're a bright red that really doesn't match the rest of her outfit but the truth was she just couldn't wait to get out of here and spend the night at her favorite club. "Well then." She responds to breath adjusting her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. "I guess we're all on the same page then." And the curtain slowly slides open to one side as she presses a nondescript black button on the wall.

     Inside the room the lighting is bright to the point of almost blinding shining down onto the operating table where Dr.Silas Stone is working his magic with the best equipment money can by on the Young Victor. Between Dr.Stone and his various assistants as well as the highly advanced machinery filling the room it's hard to get a good look at the operating table itself. Machine arms move to and fro on their own drifting stitching and grafting parts. The Doctors operate as they had been for the last 24 hours, and it's clear that the greying haired Silas hasn't slept for a single one of them.

     When they finally do move out of the way the sight is like something out of the worst nightmares of the average person. The news articles had been a far cry from doing the sheer horror on display justice. To list what is missing would do less justice then to simply say what's still there. Only half his face remains eye closed as a small tube run down his throat provides oxygen to his body. A small part of his upper torso remains as does part of his spine. Most of his body is burnt and clawed far beyond any possible recognition, and that's AFTER 24 hours of surgery to make him even this presentable.

     Even looking at him from the other side of the glass he looks to be in immense pain, with barely anything of him actually left to even bother saving. He's very clearly not alive on his own, the various multi-billion dollar machines doing most all the work for him. Silas has been spending himself broke on this project dipping into his own personal assets and even liquidating his home to pay for it. This is perhaps one of the single most expensive operations that's been done in the facility in recent memory, and so far all it's created is a bit of body horror.

Breath has posed:
Breath shakes the hand softly. "Pleasure to meet you. I'm the Breath. Other names as needed. Second string Titan. Doing whatever I can." She actually layered a little bit today, so her costume is just a touch warmer than usual, and she gets used to the cold from working out outside, so she's not nearly as chilled. Also, not nearly as femininely shaped. She briefly muses that averaging the two of us out would be preferred for all present.

"So far I am getting a bunch of nervous dodges that sound a little bit like what I get when any of my family has to introduce me to anybody. Not a lot of actual facts, too, just like them. Trust me, it's ten times more awkward that way."

She wanders in and looks him over a bit. "Daaaang." She pauses. "That's a lot of metal. Is he awake yet? It's a little early to give him a hug, but like, totally would." She hmmms and tilts her head, looking him over a bit more to get her eyes used to him. "What's next? Is he going to be out for a long time?"

Power Girl has posed:
    Nobody has ever really wanted less out of Power Girl, so she probably wouldn't appreciate the musing. Still, she offers a continued nod over the course of the handshake, before offering the kind of comment that anyone outside of their community would call rude- but it's pretty apparent (at least by appearance) that Karen Starr might not be the most socially graceful. "Second string Titan? I thought they were the sidekick team."

    he secretary pulls the curtain aside, Karen's response isn't to look over what's going on, and for the first few moments she just kinda blinks. "You're not family and not friends, really, so... I don't know why anyone would want to release any information to you at all. The only living relative is that man, right there-" and she points, her attention going into the room and as soon as it does, she does the most unPower Girl thing likely possible.

    She vomits. Into the can to her side, and she's really quick about it- but apparently, the sight of not-even-most of a person really turned up her stomach.

Cyborg has posed:
     Julia for her part doesn't really have much to comment, only really giving a bit of a raised eyebrow to the young hero. She's not exactly sure how to deal with this, but Karen seems to have this well under control, until the expected vomiting starts. Julia is right on hand with a small trash bin to try and catch some of it at least so it doesn't get all over the floor. She about trips over his high heels in the process cursing under his breath "Stupid f- gah shoes." Barely managing to regain her balance trying her best not to be a sympathetic puker.

     Inside the room Silas is hard at work reworking young victors neural pathways in order that his brain might accept the synthetic replacements for the sections that were badly damaged in the accident. "Just hold on there Victor, just hold on, I'm not losing you to." Spoken behind his face mask as he looks over towards the constant stream of complex medical information providing up to the second feedback on exactly what's happening to the young teenager.

     "The warning was more for the benefit of Ms.Starr," Spoken as she holds the bucket in place for a few moments only pulling it away once she's sure the vomiting has stopped. To be fair this was a semi regular occurence with any of the more... disturbing projects at Star labs. "Uh, as you can see." She pauses for a brief moment to set down the bucket. "We can rebuild him, here at Star labs, we have the technology." She pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose once again as a helpful janitor quickly arrives on the scene to clean up the mess. "We have the capability to make the world's best bionic man." Spoken with a bit of a smile as she works through the 'sales pitch' as if he were a product and not a living breathing human being. "Victor Stone can be that man." Julia engages in a bit of gesticulation. "We can make him better than he ever was before." She smiles reassuringly. "Better, stronger, faster, he'll be the perfect soldier."

Breath has posed:
Breath blinks a lot. OK, that's awkward. The urge to be comforting and helpful war with the fact that... well... eeew. She does at least vow that no living soul will ever hear about that bit of embarrassment from HER.

I mean, yeah, that's a lot of seriously horrifying surgery, but on the other hand, she feels for him. And she knows what it's like to be stuck in a body that just isn't the way it was supposed to be. Hers was just a lot more socially acceptable.

She eventually decides to pointedly face away from the trash can patiently, very visibly ignoring what was happening there, and wait quietly for Karen to recover her composure. She watches the room silently, studying Cyborg quietly until her eyes accept that that's just.. what he looks like. Patient silence, listening until addressed by somebody who isn't embarrassed at that very moment.

She makes a bit of a face at Julia's comment. She mutters, "Soldiers are overrated. What if he wants to be an EMT or an artist or something?"

She sighs a bit and looks at Julia. "Point still stands. It always worked way better to have somebody just say 'Oh, they're a girl now' than it does to dance around nervously. Like, drop all that 'not like you remember him' stuff and just say he has extensive visible cybernetic body modifications. You can use a percentage or something. I'm guessing you are going to have a lot of counseling ready to deal with body dysphoria issues? Do you even have anybody who has a lot of experience with that? Never mind, I know, I know, I'm not exactly a relative or anything. Call it rhetorical or something."

Power Girl has posed:
    Quietly, and to herself, Karen Starr is reminded of why she's CEO and hasn't just retired with the various buckets of money she has lying around. It's Julia's attitude that does it- Karen being one of the only things that keeps STAR Labs from being another terrifying Beyond Morals Scientific Entity.

    The vomiting doesn't last long- and to be fair, there isn't much mess. Karen is apparently very good at not vomiting all over the floor. She's relatively incapable of regaining her composure properly, looking decidedly uncomfortable for the whole of the time that they're there. Eventually, though, she does adjust her glasses as she looks over the practical-corpse on the table.

    It's then that she's aware that various lobbyists will be receiving small anonymous donations, in addition to some donations to important political figures- to make sure that, outside of saving Victor's life? None of the components within his body ever become legal. Of course, STAR Labs will do everything in their power to keep Silas Stone out of prison, but that's the most she'll be willing to do- and it'll take a relatively impassioned testimony from the first superheroic entity to respond to the explosion that nearly took Victor's life to do it.

    Still, despite having seen literally through the whole of Victor's body, her attention turns to Julia and Breath. Idly, she's dabbing at her lips with a handkerchief. "Did we successfuly manage the neural probe to get his consent?" she asks, looking between Julia and Breath for a moment. "I don't really appreciate the tone. STAR Labs was not only not responsible for the accident, but despite that, we are doing our best to make sure that Victor -survives- the incident and once he -does- we are going to make sure that he survives -surviving.-" She's finished adjusting her glasses, then, and to be fair, her tone carries the sort of gravitas required of a CEO.

    "As such, I'd rather you, as a -guest-, not make it about gender or identity politics, nor accuse my organization of mishandling such an issue before we have even been given a chance to -handle- the issue."

Cyborg has posed:
     "A-bout thaat."There's a long silence from Julia, as he pulls out her digital data assistant, pretty much just a fancy overly expensive tablet that keeps all her charts and data in a nice organized place. She swipes her finger through the pages. "We..." She trails off for a lone moment tapping her fingers on the pads surface as she tries to figure out just the right way to put this without sounding completely heartless towards the Teenager in the next room over. "Unfortunately haven't exactly made progress on that front." She wraps the stylus onto the side of the pad for a few moments. "He's been unresponsive to the probes so far, so we haven't been able to get much of anything from him."

     She adjusts her stance speed reading her way through the chart data before continuing. "We're not even entirely sure he's still in there." Her hands clasp together as she delivers the bad news. "Though on the bright side the occult specialist we brought on to the reconstruction team's been very successful at preventing rejection of the technological components."

Breath has posed:
Breath eyerolls SO hard. "Okay, what. The. Hell. I CAME here because somebody I didn't actually get to meet yet tried to do something NICE for us, and now he is HURT, and I brought FLOWERS and a TEDDY BEAR and a GET WELL CARD because I really really want him to be okay, and it seems like I am the only person here who isn't acting ten kinds of creeped out, which by the way sucks to be around because I've BEEN there. I want him to feel better soon! Okay? Can I do that? Can I try to do something nice for someone without having somebody accuse me of trying to be an asshole? Is it going to offend you if I wring my hands because I can imagine how much suck is going to happen and I worry about whether.. you know? Jeezus."

She sighs and listens. "Well crap. Look, all I can offer is some flowers and a teddy bear and a card. But I felt like that was pretty important. Seriously, I just want him to know that at least *I* believe in him and want him to feel better. We got signatures and everything. And I get to go back and let everybody know how he's doing. Maybe next time somebody else gets to come down and say that we are thinking about him. If *I* was laying in the hospital feeling like I lost a fight with a lawnmower, I would want to know that. So yeah."

Power Girl has posed:
    For a moment- specifically, during the eyeroll- Karen Starr opens up the folder labeled Victor, and reads at a few things. She seems to appraise them rather quickly, having to hold a little back in order to seem only as smart as a human probably ought to be. Kryptonians are naturally smarter than most humans if they've been allowed to have at least some upbringing on Krypton. Having neared adulthood, Kara Zor-L, who would become Power Girl, is one of those. It also helps that she's of quite above average intelligence for a Kryptonian, too.

    "The electricity is there, but it's erratic and... We're not exactly keeping it stable." she states, taking a moment to look at the Occult paper. That's... Probably the one bit she has literally nothing to say about. Magic is magic, and Karen Starr doesn't dabble in magic.

    Her attention returns to Breath after the rant, and she just gives this shrug. "Then if you want to wish him well, you can probably start by asking what we're doing instead of aggressively asking about what you think we won't do. More productive." Closing the folder, then, she looks back out over Victor. "What's the eta on the end of the surgeries? Do we have any sort of estimate as to when all of the systems should be in place and we can just... Figure out whether any of it has worked?"

Cyborg has posed:
     Julia stands in a bit of silence, allowing the pad to fall down under her arm slightly. She isn't sure exactly what to say more just looking a bit nervously from one side to the other as if expecting someone to give her some sort of cue on what she's supposed to say. It's like watching someone on a live TV interview where the cameraguy just dropped all the cue cards.

     "If we keep up with our current progress, and Dr.Usanagi arrives on schedule we should have him ready for field testing-" She pauses for a moment catching the distance and rather impersonal tone she just adopted and takes a verbal step back. "That is to say... we should know if any of this has worked in a few days when we power him on for the first time."

Breath has posed:
Breath grinds her teeth a bit. "You literally just told me I shouldn't ask any questions like that. Okay. Fine. 'A few days'. Do you know if he might have any senses before then? Like, do you think he might be listening, just you haven't finished giving him a way to tell anybody he is yet? And I know you are working super hard on that, and it takes time, just like, if he might be stuck in there waiting for it to be finished, them maybe we need to send flowers more. I don't know, am I even making sense? I'm not good at this. I basically just volunteered for the extra thing. Just.. I want to help, and I basically can't."

Power Girl has posed:
    Karen nods along, all professional for most of it- if not all of it. She turns her head from Victor to Julia, offering the other woman the folders now that she'd looked over the one that was especially relevant for today. She offers this mild sigh before giving orders, as if she was in charge of the project. She is, but more from a corporate standpoint. "Send Usanagi a stimulus package to motivate her to shift her priorities. This is likely the only thing on her plate that involves saving a life. In the meantime, I want them to start scanning for whatever brainwaves are present, analyzing, and recording patterns. That way we'll save as much as we can, if we don't save everything."

    Her attention returns to Breath. "That's not true. I told you to stop heckling by assuming we weren't taking precautions. Asking about his wellbeing is fine, assuming we're not competent isn't. You'll learn that later in life." There's the age thing. Karen may not be an imposing figure, but she's a legit-shit adult who seems to be pretty good at adulting. It might be somewhat patronizing, but she's probably not wrong very often.

Cyborg has posed:
     Julia pulls the pad out from under her arm and starts tappity tapping out on its surface a quick message is sent in a matter of seconds. "Done, and done!" With a light smile as she swipes her hand across the screen. "If this doesn't hurry up Dr.Usanagi nothing will." She mentions as she looks back up from the pad tucking it right back under her arm, only for it to buzz and cause her to bring it back out looking over the surface. "And speak of the devil, looks like she's on her way, that was fast." Commented under her breath. "Noble intentions my left foot." Spoken barely above a whisper as she thinks about how easy it was to hurry her up just by providing monetary incentive.

Breath has posed:
Breath hardens a bit visibly at being talked down to by yet another person who thinks that the fact that they have lived longer gives them the right to be dismissive.

She has been having to teach doctors and psychologists how to do their own job and about herself for years already; she is used to older people assuming they know her better than she does. Or maybe just scarred by it. Countless memories of authority figures reciting variations on 'That's nice, and I know you think you feel this way, but you really don't' flash through her head for an instant.

She turns to Julia, refusing to honor Karen's treatment of her with her attention. "Right. So where do I put this stuff? I'm sure you're in a hurry to get me out from underfoot. I imagine there isn't going to be news for a day or two, from what I think I understood.."

Power Girl has posed:
    To be fair, a lot of doctors have to pick and choose some of their cases. Someone like Usanagi probably gets a large number of hopeless cases- people whose nervous systems won't accept prosthesis, or whose bodies will reject organ replacements, and so on. A case like Victor's is one that genuinely probably seems to Usanagi like she'd just be blamed for the non-results of a case that was hopeless before she even arrived. Considering how easy it is for a scapegoat lawsuit to turn into a loss of one's license to practice, Usanagi is probably just being careful... The extra stimulus just overrides the caution.

    Truth be told, Karen doesn't feel it's the -years- that gives her the right to be a little condescending, but there's no way for Breath to know that, so she doesn't necessarily feel right saying anything more than what she has. "Get her an overnight ticket, too. I imagine Silas will want her here yesterday." she states, before Breath speaks up again. "We probably won't be releasing a statement at least until Usanagi has had a chance to look at the equipment, but I trust you understand the fact that we're not really keeping this 'under wraps' as much as we're 'trying not to say anything that isn't absolutely correct.' The worst thing we can do is release information that gives people the wrong impression, and it's not as if we're keeping his family in the dark." She then gestures to Silas, who is still working diligently to save his son.

    "You can probably leave all of that wherever you like. We'll make sure that whenever Victor regains consciousness, -if- he regains consciousness, he gets them."

Breath has posed:
Breath nods agreeably, "I completely understand not wanting to say things you don't want to be wrong about." She finds something table-like and starts setting things down on it. "Well, we just want to do what little we can. I'm sure you can handle this from here then. I assume you will want to show me out as well?"

Power Girl has posed:
    Karen nods slightly, at that. "For now, if you have any medical or spiritual experts, feel free to let them know that we can use the assistance. We'll have to have them vetted, but I've written those algorithms personally. It would only take minutes, and we can book passage if they'll be of help."