4335/Licking Your Wounds

Licking Your Wounds
Date of Scene:	24 April 2018
Location:	New York City
Synopsis:	Hospitals are an excellent place for a team pow-wow. It's a Titan tradition.
Cast of Characters:	87, Stardust, Breath, Robin (Wayne)

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Vorpal (87) has posed:
To say that Vorpal was in a bad mood would be a gross understatement.

While he had not been personally unplesant to the nurses, because that's just a jackass thing to do and he doesn't roll that way, he has proven completely resistant to attempts at friendly conversation, deflecting them with a respectful but nevertheless sullen silence.

At the moment, he is on his bed in the hospital bed, flipping through a badly-worn paperback that he Rabbit-Holed out of his apartment. The title reads something along the lines of 'To Say Nothing of the Dog,' but he doesn't seem to be paying much attention to it.

The fact that he has several injuries and a decent amount of pain-killers flowing through him to keep him comfortable probably have something to do with it.

Stardust has posed:
There's a minor commotion outside Vorpal's hospital room. Voices hushed but in intense conversation. To someone with sharp feline hearing, one of them sounds suspiciously like Colette. After a short exchange, the voices can be heard going off into the distance. Then peace returns.

A few minutes later, there's a knocking at the window. Sometimes windows are easier, particularly if you can fly. Colette, in full Stardust mode, hovers outside, but doesn't wait to be invited in. She shoves the window open, accidentally breaking some part of it with a *ping* and an "Oops," and steps inside. She's holding flowers. "I brought flowers," she says unnecessary. "I came /this/ close to putting some catnip in the bouquet, but I decided not to." She puts the flowers down on the bedside table, and walks around to the other side, arms folded, and stares at Vorpal for a few moments, with her arms crossed and a stern expression on her face. "

"So. Punch or hug? I can't decide, so I'll let you chose."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
The Cheshire cat looks up as Stardust makes her entrance. He is unusually sedate and it takes him a few seconds to respond to her inquiry, finally settling on answering:

"If you do either, my stitches will burst and I'll probably exsanguinate and splash it around like a very morbid lawn sprinkler." He puts the book down and sets it on the night-stand, looking at Collette. "If you're comfortable with that, you can do either," he finishes dryly.

Breath has posed:
Lyssa just sort of idly comes in through the door a little bit afterward, dressed in nondescript civvies that she wasn't wearing before, and a purse. Apparently she's a lot less intimidating when she's dressed like all the other random people roaming around. Or maybe she bribed someone or something. The world may never know. She closes the door behind her before anybody on staff notices she's not where she's supposed to be, digs in her purse for her mask, and slips it on. "Hey you! We were worried."

Stardust has posed:
"That's fine," Colette says with a nod of her head. "Blood doesn't bother me." She makes a fist, waves it threateningly, and then sits down on the edge of Vorpal's bed, sighing. "It wouldn't be fair to punch you when you've already been beaten up, and I don't think you're really the hugging type of cat. " She pokes Vorpal's book with a finger, tilting it forwards so she can read the title. "A cat reading a book about a dog. Cute. "

When Lyssa enters, Colette greets her with a nod of the head. "I had to agree to doing a public appearance in the children's ward before I was able to escape. Shoulda just turned up out of costume." She gives a shrug and turns back to Vorpal.

"Sooo. The whole going in on his terms without any support or planning backfired?" Colette asks. She frowns at him then sighs. "I hope you're okay. I wanted to be all mad with you, but I can't. I think you're an idiot, but you're also my friend. Anything we can do for you?"

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Vorpal waves at Lyssa when she comes in, and then looks at Colette as she speaks. Then he turns his gaze back to Judge Judy playing on television (she's still on, of course- Some people say she's an android) but mostly as an excuse to not look at anyone directly. His gaze is intense, with a slow burn fury behind it, even if the rest of his face comes across as impassive and detached.

Instead of answering the question, he reaches into thin air and retrieves something from a tiny Rabbit Hole.

"He left this behind. I imagine he wanted all of you to see it, whatever it is." He holds out the disc to Lyssa when she approaches.

Breath has posed:
Breath takes the disk carefully and examines it, frowning. "Where did you find this at?" She furrows her brow a bit. There's a bunch of investigation stuff that she is dimly aware should be done to this, none of which she knows how to do. Hmm, how to do this... Ugh, this just isn't her skill base, is it? At least she knows what she doesn't know.

Stardust has posed:
"Fine!" Colette stands up and stomps over to the window to stare out of it. For a few moments, Judy's judgements fill the silence. "Maybe you have your reasons. I don't know. It's not anyone's actually talking." It's kind of a reverse staring contest. Can Colette stare out of the window as hard as Vorpal stares at the TV?

Vorpal wins, and Colette turns back from the window, shaking her head. "This isn't the Just So Stories, Vorp. You've got friends. A team. Aren't we supposed to back each other up? How can I... how can I help if everyone just goes off into their own little world?" She steps back to the side of the bed, looking Vorpal over closely. "Okay. You're still in one piece at least. " She lets out a long, slow breath. "I suppose you're rabbit holing in all the contraband you need, so you don't need me to smuggle in pizzas. But the offer is there if you want it.

For now at least, Colette seems to be paying very little attention to the disk.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"On the ground next to me. He left it as a reward for being so spectacular," Vorpal answers Breath, clearly not happy with his performance.

"I appreciate the offer, Colette. I... am not sure." He shakes his head and looks at the wall for several seconds.

"He used things against me. Used /him/ against me. He picked at my weaknesses as if they were written all over my face. And you know? Maybe they are. I made the mistake of letting one person get too close."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     A man in green scrubs opens the door, clad in a surgical mask. He's holding a chart in his hands. "Lacerations to the rectus abdominus, lacerations to the anterior and posterior deltoid, blunt force trauma to the solar plexus." He looks up, at the group. "You two aren't supposed to be here." He says, gesturing to Colette and Breath, lowering the chart.

  The man reaches for his mask, lowering it, and looks extremely odd, his lower face doesn't match the top. It's someone familiar, Damian's face. "Red X is much more than an idle threat, or some basement dwelling lowlife it seems."

Breath has posed:
Breath nods. "Well no duh. He knows all about us, he has skills to spare, and gadgets. He can rearrange his load out to deal with us one on one. If he knew Vorpy was coming, he would have all the tricks to take him down on hand. And he is probably listening in. We kind of have to assume so anyways."

She looks around and frowns at everybody. "We'd have to totally go off book, and I just don't know how we would do that." She pauses a moment to glance back, then leans against the wall and crosses her ankles and arms, thinking.

Stardust has posed:
"Bullshit, Vorp." Colette steps over to the TV, switches it off, and stands in front of it. "You made the mistake of keeping everyone at arm's distance. You tried to solve a problem on your own rather than turning to your team mates... your /friends/... for help. You already /knew/ that he knows all about us. What do we know about him? He has the advantage of intelligence, and you let him pick the battleground and fight him on his terms, too? Of course he's going to go for your weaknesses. I'm sure he'd do the same for any of us. Well big news, we all have weaknesses. Isn't that why you have a team in the first place? So we can make up for each other's weaknesses?" She shakes her head and looks away. "Nobody listens."

Colette goes back to the window and resumes staring out of it, ignoring the intrusive surgeon until he speaks. She stares at him over her shoulder for a moment, one eyebrow arched. "Robin. I should have done that. Dressed as an orderly or something. Then I wouldn't have got roped in to spending tomorrow afternoon entertaining the kids in the next ward over. Yeah, more than an idle threat." She turns back to the window. "But then you didn't need to see what he's done to Vorp to know that. You took him seriously from the word go."

"There is no book," Colette responds to Breath gnomically.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Vorpal raises an eyebrow. "Of course I keep 'em at arm's length. I've been burned three times by letting someone get too cozy in my shadow, and that's three times too many." He tries to cross his arms, but winces, and leaves them where they are. "So what do we do about this twerp? And what are we going to do about the backlash of losing the Maelstrom? Someone has to go and talk to Aquaman."

He then looks at Robin.

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Damian-doc remains in Damian's own voice. "We don't know who /they/ are." He's implying that it isn't male at all, someone specific instead. Something he's been sure to keep gender neutral since the very beginning.

  Damian stays by the door, letting passers by know there's a doctor in, and to stay away. He looks back to Vorpal. "If you're implying I should, I would agree, but only with others. We make this about the Titans handling this, not the son of Batman."

Breath has posed:
Breath mmhs. "True. Didn't we see X? I thought somebody said they presented maskie, but sure, can't rule out nonbinary.. I don't know if that actually MATTERS right now though, other than I wouldn't want to fight in a binder. The guys I know lose a lot of lung capacity with one on.."

She smooths her hair in thought.. "I seem to miss all the doom and disaster when they show up.. but -I- can't duplicate that stuff."

Stardust has posed:
Colette answers Damian's emphasized 'they' with a raised eyebrow and a faint smirk. She has in fact noted Damian's usage before. It's all there in her internal dossier. Unfortunately, English pronouns are notoriously vague. Thus in the mental notes in her internal dossier, quite close to the top and scrawled in red ink, underlined three times, is the question: 'Why does Damian keep referring to Red X in the plural? What does he know?'

"Well I guess it depends on whether you prefer being burned or stabbed then," Colette replies to Vorpal. "I mean, too close and you get burned. Too far away and you get stabbed. You'd almost think balance was a good idea, rather than veering way off. I wonder if back in cave-man days there was a cave Vorp who got his fingers burned when they first discovered fire, and decided the best response was to leave the cave and get rained on."

"Speak to Aquaman?" Colette considers this suggestion with a thoughtful air. "Desole, je ne parle pas Anglais."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"Well, *someone* has got to go. And it can't exactly be me unless you want to roll my bed over to His Royal Highness, and figure out what sort of etiquette involves an IV drip and a gown that leaves my ass bare for all to see."

He grumbles, "I'm not exactly going to be up and about in a short time, you know."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     "Maskie?" Damian just shakes it off, obviously not considering those options. Damian does however look to the disc, holding out a hand in order to look it over.

  <tt> Rings out, a tsk directed towards Colette. "Conneries." Responding back in French. "If I go it alone to Atlantis, we risk destroying everything we have done to make us a crime fighting force, instead of the fucking kid's table."

Breath has posed:
Breath ohs, "Everybody who actually SAW Red X kept using 'him' pronouns, so I assumed they were presenting masculine. But yeah, I totally should be assuming that X could be nonbinary. Pr-o-bably not female though if they have a tight costume and people are reading X as male. Anyways, it seems like the most diplomatic thing to do would be to keep looking, and pass down our clues. And hope he doesn't show up and wreck our one good ambush."

Stardust has posed:
"I guessed I missed part of the conversation," Colette replies in English. "Where we agreed to be responsible for this Maelstrom thing. Or is it that we are responsible for our fantome familiaux? There..." she points a finger to Breath. "There you go. Take Breathmints with you. She's thinking about the diplomatic thing. Just what we need. You don't need me along messing things up."

Colette has a point. It's not that you could say diplomacy isn't in her blood. If she'd spoken much about her family, it might be clear that's very much not the case. She almost certainly has a lot more insight into diplomatic etiquette than anyone else in the Titans, but on the other hand she and tact do not get on well with each other.

"I'll go if you want me to, though." Colette lets out a quiet sigh, avoiding anyone's gaze when she says it. "Just don't blame me if I accidentally start a war with Atlantis. Because I probably would."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"Breath and Robin it is," Vorpal says hastily- sending the Assassin and the Diplomat is a much better option than sending the Chaos Cat and, well, Colette. "I'd join you, but I'm injured. And I am quite sure Aquaman does -not- want to see the guy who left his bling get stolen."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     "Well, one can presume we took responsibility when Red X decided to steal the damned thing and told us weeks before he did it." Damian offers with a slight sigh. "We at least have the T-sub we can take. If I showed up in the Batsub it would also defeat the purpose."

Breath has posed:
Breath nods. "Oh, totally, we need to use Titan branding, not Bat branding. The Bat totally didn't do this. I'm going to need to get up to speed on things so I don't make a fool out of myself. Do we, yanno, have a way to deal with the conditions there personally? I mean, like, I'm not worried about air, but I haven't ever tried deep diving before, and I do-n't think I want to find out the problems all out of the blue and all." She hmmmms. "I'm gonna have to look at diplomacy instead of chess for awhile, hope that's okay? 'Cause like, this seems like it's a leetle bit more pressing right now?"

Stardust has posed:
"I don't remember him being that specific," Colette replies to Damian. "But whatever. The T-sub? Does that thing actually work? Okay, I want to go along now. I can stand guard outside or something. And Breathmints? The amount of internal pressure your lungs can cope with, I doubt deep water will be a problem. But we probably have like T-diving suits or something."

Colette crosses over to stand next to Vorpal's bed again, and plucks an imaginary stray hair of his forehead. "You didn't let him do anything, Vorp. You tried to stop him, and got beaten up trying to defend his property. Where were his own guards when this was happening, hmm? He owes you."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
"You can totally go tell King Aquaman the Hot that he owes us one. In my experience, royal personages don't like being told they owe anyone anything... and unlike back in Wonderland, I don't have the semi-omnipotent powers to keep any of you out of jail so... good luck with that."

Vorpal smirks and yawns. "You need to see what's in that disc."

Breath has posed:
Breath shrugs a little, handing the disk over. "I was more worried about things like ears and cold and stuff. But yeah. Robin? You can explain what you're doing to this and maybe I'll understand a couple sentences of it, but it'll be a step up, yanno?" She digs out her phone and starts looking up relevant things that Needs To Be Known For This while listening, and tags along out when an exit happens..

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
Damian gives a nod to Breath, their chess matches will have to hold for a moment. But it's all relevant in his eyes.

  "We can assume its going to be the next round of puzzles, or a message." He is already placing back his mask before he looks to Vorpal. "Listen, it's takes a lot of... courage to do what you did, I'm...not dishonored by having you on the team." With that, Doctor Damian opens the door, leading himself out, and back to the Tower. There's more work to be done.

Stardust has posed:
"Yeah, we should probably let the kitty cat sleep." Colette watches Breath, and then Damian, as they make their exits. Her eyebrow arching excercises continue. She jerks a thumb in the direction of Damian's exit. "You hear that? He's not dishonored. Sweet deal." She steps back over to the window and opens it wide, before turning back to Vorpal.

"You're lucky you escaped the hugging because of those bruises. But next time you decide to try to do everything on your own rather than letting me help you, I'm gonna stab you myself. Get better soon, kitty cat." With that, she dives head first through the window.

In that mental dossier Colette has been keeping, she gets out an imaginary red sharpie and draws a metaphorical line through the name 'Gar' near the top of her suspect list. One down...