8773/The Mirror Cracked From Side To Side

The Mirror Cracked From Side To Side
Date of Scene:	12 August 2019
Location:	Central Heights, Old Gotham
Synopsis:	There's something rotten in the state of Den---GOTHAM, and it's certainly not the Joker's socks. Raven and Shaggy and Scoob---Beast Boy and Vorpal go to investigate paranormal happenings, and stranger things. (around midnight IC, changed to 12th for better log order)
Cast of Characters:	87, Raven, Beast Boy

---

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Midnight.

It had been a blip on the metaphysical radar- those born to see strange sights, things invisible to see, would have sensed a disturbance in the ether, but one too fast to pinpoint with any accuracy.

To someone with affinity for, say, shadow magic, there is a definite trail. Suceptibility to certain types of magic, and intimacy with the spirit world, might help a certain Titan get a very strong, and urgent, intuition that pointed a bright red arrow towards the old part of Gotham, the part that a tour guide with an optimistic streak might call the 'historical part', but which a realist with no romance in her soul might call the forgotten places that have not known how to die just yet.

Moving away from the park and the glitzier commercial areas, down alleyways and shadowed streets, is a street full of old houses each one more decrepit than the previous one.

The house at the end of the lane, however, is a class in its own.

On the way here, certain mystics might be able to see the trail of shadowy magic that lingers in the air. Other signs might be spied by those with a keen eye- birds flying backwards, a rooster crowing (in the city? *who* has a rooster in Gotham?) in the middle of the night, the moon shining with a slight red pallor.

It all leads to the old abandoned house, with its boarded-up windows and barred doors, wrought-iron patio gates hanging, twisted, from rusted hinges, and crumbling masonry littering the expansive front yard.

Suddenly, there is a short, shrill scream that echoes through the lane and breaks the silence, but it is extinguished in less than a second.

The rest is silence.

Raven has posed:
    It's Midnight. Raven is, of course, awake, and using her middle-of-the-night time as wisely and constructively as any other person. However, despite that the night was quiet and calm enough that it almost seems like it's going to be an actually enjoyable evening.

    It's this calm in the tower that allows her to read an event so far away, and that ominous feeling- the understanding that some-thing- is happening some-where- is enough to tell her that she won't be having an uneventful night after all.

    The response is swift, though. Raven simply -appears- in the common room right as Beast Boy is making his return appearance. Ever the most respectful of her teammates' time, the flurry of swirling shadows that herald her arrival is much more warning than is usually given.

    Worse still is what happens when she -gets- there, as the writhing manifestation of her soul-self, seemingly refusing to take a cohesive form, does not dissipate when she is present, as is normal. To those Titans experienced enough to understand, it means that she's not done traveling. Much like a city bus, she has just stopped for passengers.

    Poor Gar doesn't even get to sit down or greet Vorpal. Raven's just -there- to ruin everything.

    "There is something amiss."

    Then, the room is swirling with the darkness of what can only be called the fabric of her very being. Before much can be said or done- but quick reactions be what they may, after all- the erupting shadow consumes the trio.

    It is not long- thankfully, as being transported by the bird is altogether an unpleasant experience- before they arrive on a dingy street renowned by guinness for just how long it has been a dingy street. Raven's hands are in the pockets of her sweater, and she is not frantically, but determinedly swirling on the spot.

    "Somewhere around here."

Beast Boy has posed:
It'd been a week or two since Gar was seen around Titans Tower. He's had periods of time where he came and went, also doing some things with the Outsiders, but this was always his home one way or another. Sometimes, the reasons have been personal, kept to himself. This time around, he left with optimistic news: he was heading to the West Coast for a few auditions in Hollywood. The well had dried up to some extent even after Pete's Dragon, his biggest role to date. He saw this as a chance to get back on the horse, so to speak.

It happens to be late at night when he bounds into the common room, looking around and spotting Vorpal. "Tommy!" he exclaims, an eager expression showing in his green face. "I've got some good news, maybe! I--"

That's about the time Raven showed up, giving her grave message to the two of them. "..huh? What's wrong?" There was no time for much of an answer beyond her going into action, swallowing all of them up in the darkness that took them over to some part of Gotham City. As soon as he stepped away from them, a hand went to his mouth as he doubled over, managing to keep from making a mess. "..gah. Warn a person next time, sheesh!" he coughs, working a couple swallows to keep the bile down even if it burns a little. A self-bellyrub helps, if only to a small extent, and he straightens as his eyes widen on their surroundings.

"This, just to put it out there first, is kind of spooky," he points out, keeping close to Vorpal and Raven. Good thing he's in costume, a purple and black number.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
It is a very good thing Vorpal stopped hanging out in the commons in his pajamas. This came about in part due to moments such as these, when they had to fly into action at the drop of a hat... and the fact that several members of the tower had complained that they couldn't watch their favorite TV show because Vorpal's pajamas were too loud.

The book he is flipping through, 'The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders Who was born in Newgate, and during a life of continu?d Variety for Threescore Years, besides her Childhood, was Twelve Years a Whore, five times a Wife (whereof once to her brother) Twelve Years a Thief, Eight Years a Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv?d Honest and died a Penitent' was something he had picked up on the discard pile of the local used book store. He had opened it fifteen minutes ago, and he had just now finally gotten through the title by the time Gar made his appearance.

"Gar, you're ba-!" A moment of excitement is immediately changed by the maelstrom of darkness that invades their life. Oh, and her soul-self, too.

Fighting the disorientation, Vorpal blinks several times as his cat's eyes adjust to the darkness. There is a slight chill- which shouldn't be at all, this being the middle of Summer.

"Rae... where exactly are we?"

All around them, there are things that are starting to look rather odd...

Shadowy figures right out of the corner of the eye that vanish when one turns. Faint echoes of voices. Whispers.

The house stands against the gloom, a very faint light flickering here and there through one of the boarded windows. Never the same window twice.

Raven has posed:
    Raven is nothing if not pragmatic. As well, she spends most of her time alone sequestered in her room with nothing to keep her company other than her thoughts. Probably the perfect conditions to breed a maelstrom of darkness that only occasionally invades lives

    Her attention goes to Beast Boy first. "I did warn you. I said that something was amiss." That, apparently, was warning enough. She begins striding forward, having lit her eyes upon the house itself. There are, of course, the phantoms of the darkness to worry about- but she apparently doesn't. She considers them fragments. A hair above illusions, more akin to -allusions- of the greater darkness within the house itself. Raven knows this magic.

    "We are in Gotham." she answers, as if that's a good way to answer that question, before continuing forward. With or without her backup, admittedly. It remains to be seen whether Raven brought the two of them there for assistance, or just on the off chance that they'd get slapped around by it while she did the work of wresting the evil from this plane.

Beast Boy has posed:
Beast Boy composes himself further, straightening his back and making himself look like the typical hero ready to come in and save the day. Puffed-out chest, fists planted at the hips, the whole deal. He mouths 'I'll tell you later' to Vorpal. That's when another piercing scream sends him briefly behind the cat for cover, which doesn't work all that well considering their difference in height.

"Did you hear that?" he whispers about as loud a whisper can be, looking side to side before focusing more fully on the house in question. "I swear I've seen this place on the cover of a Brian Keene book or something," he says, rubbing an arm where it's bare part of the way down. He has no retort to Raven's matter-of-fact explanations, whether the warning or letting them know where they've ended up.

About that time, that fangy underbite shows up as he grins and, in spite of himself, says, "If we're in Gotham, I've always wanted to do this." He *POOFS* into a bat, green as ever, flapping his way around Vorpal's head - but not Raven's. "I'm Bat Boy! This is gonna suuuuck!"

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Vorpal looks at the bat flapping around his head, and rubs his forehead. "We are so dead," he smirks, and begins to step forward. Then, he realizes he is carrying something in his hand... the book. He looks around and puts down the book. He will come back to get it after this is done. Still, he wasn't quite sure he was going to read through it- it looked like a disappointment. He wasn't sure he could take another literary disappointment since that time he picked up 'Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day' and found out it wasn't a book about Alexander The Great's death by poison at the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar II. He just had very bad luck with titles- it's the reason why cats and nobility seldom get along.

Straightening up, he says to Gar "Okay, come on you big scaredy cat, Rae's going by herself here."

As Vorpal's feet march on the cold street, something starts happening, or it might be better to say that whatever had been happening before is now happening much, much faster. There are parts of the street that suddenly look... odd. The dilapidated houses no longer look so dilapidated- some of them look brand-new, although exhibiting an unsettling blue pallor, as if overlayed by a faint ghost image of past glories.

There are now people walking down the street- transluscent, ephemeral people who might even walk *through* you if you're not careful- the effect is chilling both figuratively and literally.

"Oh crap... Rae. Rae, hold up!"

He trots towards Raven and eases down to a quick saunter next to her. "... so you don't have to go alone," he says, trying to put his dignity back together. It might take a while, some parts have a long way to go.

The house, as they approach, hasn't changed, even though it does have that faint pale blue after-image. Whereas the neighborhood seems to be bringing forth memories of its past glories, the house remains as ruinous as ever.

As they walk by, the gates slam behind them with a sonorous clang, that echoes like the bells at a black mass.

"Do you have an idea of... what's in there?" Vorpal asks Rae, his voice a sliver.

Raven has posed:
    Raven, for her part, is walking. She's not running, she's not flying- she knows that it'd be a little trickier for the two to really catch up to her if she actually went at speed, considering that they're about as composed as the jigsaw owned by a person who neither likes them nor is good at them, but believes that it's an interesting hobby for a person to have.

    More than anything else, Raven even appears to her in her element. It's a creepy dilapidated street that is varying levels of literally haunted. It's basically what everyone imagines Raven's dream neighbors to be. Dead, but in a more interesting way than normal.

    "This is no time for jokes, Garfield. This street does not need more bat guano." she remarks, before taking a moment to consider Vorpal's question at length. Her response is as measured as it is cryptic, which is to say, /yes/.

    "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue."

    True be told, Raven does not have -an- idea of what's in there. She has several. The problem with giving any of them out is that not only could it be one of several, it could even be several of several. The only way to narrow things down is to go inside- which is definitely where she's going. Dealing with Raven is normally... Intense.

    Sometimes, though, you just have to wonder if there's anything particularly weird enough that she'd be bothered, because a gothic style haunted house is essentially a vacation. For her. Probably not for the other two, who committed the tragic crime of Being.

Beast Boy has posed:
Bat Beast Boy somehow manages to level such the Look toward Raven, even with his batty little face, as he stops to perch atop Vorpal's head long enough to look like he's putting his bat 'hands' to his bat 'hips' in mock-disapproval. "I'd never!" he retorts, but she isn't far off with the jokes. Call it a coping mechanism.

Whether or not he's swatted away by Vorpal, he adds as he flits back away to reassume his usual form, "Says the actual cat." Whatever the case, he sticks very close to the others, a shiver running down his spine as he brushes against one of the there-but-not beings. "Um, guys. We've got ghosts, or whatever the generally-accepted term is for them these days. And things are this weird color. Raven, are you sure we're not going to die here tonight?"

Then, as they cross over onto the lot of the house itself and the gate predictably shuts on them with such a noise, he jumps. "We are /so/ dead," he cries out, echoing Tommy from just before. Not gonna think about their odds. Just not gonna do it. "But if this is it, I'll go down swinging. And biting and everything."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
The door is not locked. Of course, it wouldn't be. What is particularly interesting is that the foyer into which the trio enters is spacious, elegant... and actually rather cozy. This doesn't seem like the same house at all... for starters, from this side all of the windows are bar-less, with proper diaphanous curtains, glass windows intact.

There is a master staircase that leads to the second floor, and rooms open to the left and right. They are darkened, though. It seems that the trio has irrupted into a household in slumber, with all of its lights out, except the faint flickering upstairs, from some room, that hints that there is candlelight somewhere.

The windows, should anyone look carefully, look out to a very different Gotham. The neighborhood has a few tall houses, but it is by all accounts a small neighborhood... and the skyscrapers in the distance are nowhere to be seen. There is a greater expanse of stars visible in the sky than one might usually see, and a lot fewer artificial lights.

Vorpal is looking very worried, and very, very unnerved. At Gar's words, he reaches over and gives the green Titan a quick squeeze of the hand before stepping over to Raven and whispering to her, quietly, "Rae, this is your kind of bread and butter. Gar and I aren't familiar with this..." he waves his hands, encompassing Everything That Is, "What should we do. And more importantly, what shouldn't we do?"

While Vorpal is whispering to Raven, there is a voice that comes from somewhere else. It is very, very quiet, so quiet that a person with normal hearing wouldn't be able to hear it.

For someone with the kind of hearing that Beast Boy has, however, it's perfectly audible.

"Garfield?"

It's a woman's voice. It is soft, and more than a little breathless, as if startled by something. "Garfield... is that you?"

The voice comes from the darkened area of the house to the right of Beast Boy. The voice is... familiar, reaching across expanses of time to awaken memories of childhood.

Raven has posed:
    Each step forward is measured. Raven's pace seems to remain brisk, but at the same time, is a little slower than it had been. There are momentary pauses, here and there- as if a bloodhound seeking a scent, Raven is following the magic.

    She noticed the stars, but that's... To be expected, probably. That anything is as it should be in this house is the more unlikely event. "Anything. If I am being fair, there are so many possible causes of what is happening here that I cannot tell you anything you should do. I can tell you, don't trust anything that is not me. Maybe, even, not that much."

    Raven is making a bee-line for the second floor. She is obeying the rules of physics, though- her legs are carrying her, not flight. In silence from that point, she is obviously walking towards the light. Her hearing, though sharp, is human- she won't be able to hear what is calling for Beast Boy.

    Which is a shame, because she'd probably have a warning or two.

Beast Boy has posed:
Beast Boy returns the squeeze of hand with one of his own, along with a brief attempt at a reassuring smile. "We'll be okay," he says, lowering his voice, trying to believe it himself even as he tells it to Vorpal.

Within this place, everything just feels /wrong/ from top to bottom, enough of an unsettling feeling about it that leaves his skin prickly all over. "Look," he whispers, gesturing toward the other side of the nearest window, looking at it in disbelief. "I don't think we're in Kansas any more."

While he waits for Raven's cue on what they should or shouldn't do to ensure their survival, he freezes. Eyes lock on to the area right of their location and he strains just a bit more in order to listen. Thankfully, or perhaps not so thankfully, it's quiet enough that there can be no doubt. "Mom..?" he whispers, and he begins to lean in that direction before hunching down and physically grabbing his legs as if to stop himself from leaving Raven and Vorpal. "No, it's not real. She's dead. She can't be here," he says, audible enough for them to hear him.

But it sounds exactly the way he remembers her. Good time for that reminder not to trust anything that isn't Raven, but his face shows the conflict clearly as he stands rooted to the spot, for now.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
########### BEAST BOY ##############

"Garfield? I can't see you. Why are you standing in the dark like that? Honey, is something wrong?"

The voice grows more and more plaintive, as if deeply troubled by something she sees... or can't see. "It's... very cold in here."

The darkened room flickers briefly with a dim, sickly light, but it goes back into pure darkness as it was before. But in that flash, Beast Boy may have seen a very faint image of a very familiar living room, and a forlorn figure standing in front of a leather couch, concern in her face as she looks around.

Vorpal frowns as Raven begins to ascend the stairs, and he starts following her...

Until he hears Gar's voice. He turns around on the third step and looks at the Green titan, concern in his face. He descends the steps and makes his way towards Garfield.

"... Gar?" he asks quietly, resting his hands on Beast Boy's shoulders, "What are you doing?" he leans down as if to crouch next to Gar, when suddenly the floorboards right below him tilt, appearing to be loose. The effect is not unlike that of a slapstick routine, with the massive board slamming Vorpal across the back and sending him sprawling forward with a momentum that is too hard to resist. Bouncing on one leg, trying to establish his balance, the Cheshire cat is propelled through the doorway-

And vanishes into the darkened room. And there is no sound for a few seconds, and then an anguished cry:

"Garfield!"

But it was not Vorpal's voice.


######################### RAVEN ######################

The upper floor is in remarkably good condition. Family portraits hang along the walls, although it is too dark to really make out faces... although there is the unsettling feeling that the portraits change ever so slightly, when you aren't looking directly at them.

There is a long corridor upstairs, lined by many doors on either side. There is one door at the very end, the flicker of candlelight filtering through the space under the door, casting long shadows across the corridor.

The door proves to be locked, but that is not something that would not stand in Raven's way...

Beast Boy has posed:
Stick together. That's the right thing to do in horror movies, isn't it? But what do you do when the haunted house itself conspires to separate people from each other?

Gar starts hugging himself, shaking his head. "Not real. Not real. Not. Real. NOT. REAL." He's on repeat, trying to block out what he just saw as Tommy draws near, making it close enough to touch shoulders in what feels to be a supportive gesture. "I'm..I'm hearing things. It's.." Not a sentence he finishes, as the sound of the board coming up and /smacking/ his friend over and into the room, against all logic and reason. How..?

"Vorpal!" Beast Boy shouts, just before the call is interrupted by his name, much more audibly, by what he believes is someone impersonating his mother. In that moment he acts, racing through the darkened door to go after the cat, but not as himself. Rather, with a roar as a large, green bengal tiger. Whatever's in there, he's going to scare the hell out of it first.

Sorry, Raven.

Raven has posed:
    Raven considers herself a smart person. Admittedly, she also probably considers the other two Smart Enough, because there are certain implicit Rules that she didn't explain when Vorpal asked. She thought she didn't have to, but it's less an insult to their intelligence and more to their humanity. Raven can't -argue- with it, but she -can- complain.

    The movement from her is swifter than anything that she's done throughout the evening save the teleportation. It isn't swift enough, but it does show that she -can- move. "Don't split up!" she calls, not fast enough to stop Vorpal from getting Stooged into a side room, but fast enough that Beast Boy will be able to -hear- the thing he is going to obviously ignore. Before she can really -get- him in any fashion she knows is safe at the moment, he is gone.

    There is this... Thick sigh. Raven does not take long to compose herself behind the railing of the second floor. "He has -seen- horror movies. I -know- it." she mutters to herself, working through her annoyance at the situation before it has a chance to fester.

    "As if a sentient house that can actively fling a fully grown overweight cat is going to just let you catch up."

    Raven has finished with the finessing. There are times to be delicate. When two of your erstwhile victim-acquaintances are about to be wandering through some form of personalized Hill House is not one of those times.

    Her hands remain in her pockets, and her eyes simply disappear, replaced with this form of anti-light. As if the sun blocked out by the moon, a corona of white etches around where her eyelids end.

    "Open."

    A great bird bursts from the shadow upon the floor, and in but a spare moment of manifestation, flings itself forward with enough speed and force to topple the house were it not on a collision course with something altogether more fragile.

    She didn't even check if it -was- locked. Catharsis.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
############################## Beast Boy ##############################


What bounds into the darkness is a beast, but what comes through on the other side is a boy.

The living room is just as Garfield may remember it, in the hazy memories of his childhood. His mother had an obsession with retro furniture, and the living room often looked like it could be used to film any handful of old sitcoms.

Marie Logan is standing by the couch, her hair done up and out of the way. By the gloves and her gardener's apron, Gar can see that she was probably out in the garden until just recently. Doctor Marie Logan often enjoyed spending time in the garden whenever she hit a block in her research. "Garfield, where are-" she calls out, but then she turns around to face him, hearing his arrival.

Marie Logan is not as Gar remembers her. A decade and then some have passed, and she is older. But her smile is the same.

"There you are. I've been calling for at least ten minutes, what *were* you doing? I'm going to need some help setting up dinner for tonight. That is, if your friend from college is still coming?"

Marie winks and starts walking towards the kitchen, removing her gloves. There is a mirror in the hallway where Gar is standing. The mirror reflects Garfield, but with some major changes. His hair is blond, his skin is fair, and he has his father's blue eyes.


############### RAVEN ###################

The door offers no resistance, and as Rachel passes through the threshold, the light that was illuminating the room vanishes in a second, leaving nothing but darkness.

Then, there is light- the soft, golden light of a late sunset falling over the leaves and the ground. The garden where Rachel is standing is circular, with a labyrinth detailed on the floor under her in colored cobblestones. It is not the same circular labyrinth that you often find in some churchyards and rather patchouli-friendly new age locales. For starters, it is square, its four corners touching the walls of the garden, and through one half of it the corridors are straight, harmonious and easy to follow, whereas its other half has gnarled, twisting, and often confusing-looking pathsways.

There is a bench at either side of the labyinth glyph. One of them, nearest to Rachel, is empty.

The other one, right across, is occupied. There is a slender figure sitting there, dressed in resplendent white, with a hood over its head.

"Peace be with you." The figure reaches up and pulls back her hood. Rachel stares at Rachel. One of them smiles.

Raven has posed:
    As if she owns the place, Raven strides into the garden with the kind of confidence that one only acquires in one of several ways, such as with a liberal arts degree or by being half-demon. In many ways, interchangeable.

    Her scowl is the kind of thing that could bore its way through emotional bedrock. It's barely visible under the hood, the shadow of which seems to deepen momentarily as she steps into the light of the garden. Her eyes, then, return to normal.

    "No." she begins, looking at the other Raven. It is not the sort of disturbed rebuttal as if she has just seen something that got under her skin. It is dismissive- as if by simply denying the other Raven verbally, she will cease to be. The smile is what puts the Other into the uncanny valley. That is not to say that Raven has no humor, or that she is not capable of happiness- despite what the other Titans say- but the real Raven is not smiling.

    "You got a detail wrong." She begins, "Let me be clear. This is over. Dealing with it the -other- way is going to take more time than I care to spend. Cut it out. I don't look good in white."

    A bluff? She sounds confident enough. Could Raven possibly have this all figured out already? It -seems- plausible at the very least... And she does have a really good poker face.

Beast Boy has posed:
Beast Boy lands..on two feet, not four paws.

He lands not as the tiger he leapt into the room as, but as himself. Only, he doesn't know yet just how far that extends. He hasn't looked down.

"..mom?" he asks again, seeing her now instead of just hearing her, and she looks about as old as she should be if she'd lived. This must be a cruel trick, one he's determined not to fall victim to. But it's hard, so hard to think straight when such a familiar person seems to be right there before him, someone who died so many years ago.

"Wh-where's Tommy?" he asks through a clenched jaw, and perhaps the first sign that something is different about him lies in not feeling the same underbite as usual. That's when he reaches up to touch his mouth, feel over his fangs, finding everything normal, including the skin. Eyes shift toward that mirror next, and what he finds is staring back at himself, looking as if /he/ ought to if not for the sakutia virus. If not for him turning green, and fangy, and into the animal polymorph he is, or ought to be.

"No. You're not her. You're not my mom. And this isn't..it isn't me," he says, trying to keep his voice from cracking before he turns around, looking for the way back out. No, maybe he should check his room. Maybe Vorpal is there. Yes, go there. Quickly.

Watching those horror movies only works when you're able to keep your wits about you and think clearly.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
###################### RAVEN ########################

"You are right, dealing with it the other way has taken a lot of time." The Rachel-in-White answers calmly. She's using Rachel's voice, but the sound is bereft of harsh edges. "It's taken me... a long time." She looks down for a moment, looking down at the labyrinth, before she looks up again.

"I've been sitting here day after day for years. I've tried to follow. But you've been..." she points down to the ground, where Raven is standing. As it so happens, she is treading on the warped labyrinth.

The labyrinth design, now that she is close enough to see it, has all of its paths converging into the center, where a circular scene is painted. It too, like the labyrinth, is divided: one side showing the ruination of Azarath, while the other shows it in its old splendor.

"But after all your wandering, you have finally come."

She puts a hand on the empty space next to her on the bench.

################### BEAST BOY ########################

"Tommy? Isn't he coming in-" Marie starts responding, but then Gar is running away. This side of the house is familiar to Garfield, too- his room is here... it still is his room, although now it is reflecting a much more adult asthetic. Posters of superheroes adorn the walls, and in a special place in the room there is the picture of him and the Flash, from when he was a kid and ran into him while visiting San Francisco.

"Gar, what's wrong?" Marie's voice comes from behind him, strained and showing some worry. "You seem disoriented, let me give you a check-up," she says, advancing towards him. Her expression changes into Doctor Logan, Scientist, equal mixture of concern and clinical curiosity. "Have you felt any fever as of late? Dizziness?" she asks, waiting for him to answer.

A... memory? Maybe it's a memory of something that never was, but for a moment it seems as if Gar could remember Marie showing a similar level of concern any time Gar has acted out of sorts. It's the Sakutia, Gar's father told him at one point, she's never forgotten it. Gar's survival was nigh-miraculous, especially without any side-effects, but Marie never took their son's healing for granted. It was because of that that she insisted they return to the States immediately.

"Let me see your eyes?" she asks, gently. The first thing that changed when Gar was bit by the monkey were his eyes. Then, of course, everything else in rapid succession...

Raven has posed:
    Raven knows all too well the design of the labyrinth. She was there, after all, for most of her life. She regards it coolly for a few moments. There is no confusion or disdain, just recognition in form of quiet contemplation. The pause does not last long, though.

    "I don't know what you think you know." she begins, "But following me, calling me, is a bad idea. So is half of the things you've done in this room, let alone in the house. Drop the charade, or I will drop it for you." A threat, surely- one that cannot be dismissed, despite that it may not be heeded. "This ends now."

    It doesn't seem like she's going to take a seat.

Beast Boy has posed:
"Nothing's wrong," Gar lies, stopping at the entrance to his room. There's no possible way that could exist in the Gotham house. That's where they are, isn't it? He can't have been transported elsewhere somehow. Yet, the impossible has become possible more than once since...everything happened.

The picture is too familiar. There has to be something deeper at play here, something more sinister than he first thought. Turning away from her, he focuses on not even looking in her direction. "I'm fine." Raven was right. This wasn't a time for jokes, and he's in no joking mood now. He wants to find Tommy, find Raven, deal with this somehow, and get back outside before it's too late. "So just leave me alone." Just saying that to whatever is impersonating his mother..it hurts on some level, because there's a side of him that dearly /wants/ this to be true, to be real, to have his parents back again. Who wouldn't want that?

Maybe he's just acting like a child, disobeying, talking back. Gar brushes past her, whether he makes contact with her or not, his breath short. "Don't touch me! Please, just..don't touch me. I need to find the others. We shouldn't be here." He focuses again, thinking of the green, thinking of the change. If it works, he'll leave the room in search of the way back to the center of the house as something all too familiar, the first thing that comes to mind: a version of the monkey that bit him. If it doesn't...

Vorpal (87) has posed:
################ RAVEN ###################

White Rachel stares at Raven for a few seconds, and frowns.
"It should have been obvious, your father being what he is..."

She stands up, her white cloak trailing behind her by virtue of some phantom, intangible wind. "You may leave, but you cannot take the others." She smiles and begins to walk towards the other end of the room. With each step, the garden fades away and instead an old, decrepit attic takes its place. This is the old house.

And in a corner,huddled in front of a small table, is an old woman. She looks worn and very frail, and there are tears running down her face. Her withered, knobbly hands are caressing something close to her chest, that glitters like fire.

Not-Rachel looks over at Raven and gives her a sardonic smile. From the sheer, raw power emanating from the old woman, it is clear that she was the source of the paranormal event.

"Are you heartless enough to deprive her of her dying wish?"

The wold woman, crying softly into the crystal, is muttering something over and over.

Should Rachel come closer, she will hear the words clearer: "... fix everything... fix everything... fix everyone... not like this... not before I've fixed..."

The nature of what the woman is holding will become immediately apparent to Rachel.

"You should listen to her. You, too, could have pease. It can all be so easily fixed for everyone. You, too." Not-Rachel says, arms held out.


############## BEAST BOY #####################

"GARFIELD! Come back here this instant! Garfield!" as Gar storms off and tries to focus, the world around him begins to disintegrate. Out of the shadows, simian silhouettes come into being, only to disperse into nothingness again.

"Garfield! Come back! Garfield, there's-"

The living room tears away, as if it had only been a paper screen. Garfield is now in a darkened hallway, and off into the distance he can see something very disturbing: black ichor, in the shape of glistening tentacles, dragging something.

It's Vorpal, who is not moving, his arms dragging helplessly across the floor as the mass of black pulls the unresponsive Cheshire cat towards it.

Beast Boy has posed:
"No!" monkey-Gar shouts, first in response to his 'mother' demanding he return. Something is changing, shifting, becoming more real again as he peels himself away from the illusions.

The same word escapes his mouth again when he sees what's really going on, spotting Vorpal down the hallway, having gone /through/ the fake room. It only takes a moment for him to figure out what that inky black stuff is, for it's wrapped around part of his feline friend and that just will not do.

Feeling right again, he acts as he'd tried to before. The tiger makes its return and this time the roar is one of anger and power. Leaping into the mass of tentacles, razor-sharp claws and fangs tear into whatever they can get to. If there's a foul taste to it, he'll deal with that later. Rescuing Tommy is /all/ he cares about at this very moment.

"Vorpal! Wake up!" he shouts amid the attacks, his voice carrying a growling intensity to it. He is not going to allow this place to claim anyone.

Raven has posed:
    As the illusion unravels before her eyes, Raven does feel sympathy- but at the same time, of anyone, Raven is perhaps the most hardened. Her expression doesn't shift, but it does show a level of understanding.

    Instead of on the copy-her, Raven instead is focusing on the old woman, and the immensely dangerous magical artifact she is holding. This was easier when Stephen was incapacitated. Having access to The Best Library and a number of artifacts of her own would have been very, very useful right now.

    Still, her response is simple.

    "What wish?" she responds, looking around for a moment. "This isn't a wish. This is a nightmare." There's a pause, there, as she looks around the room. "The only -thing- that has gotten their wish in this instance is you. Like some grotesque vampire, you have sapped away this woman's potential in exchange for nothing. Almost, somehow, less. It is difficult for me to understand how a spirit that inhabits something called a Wishbringer can be so bad at their job."

    At that point, she knows where to send it- but for the moment, she needs the spirit to be paying attention to her. Further, she also somewhat serendipitously has managed to convince the spirit to drop the illusion that was producing so much -light-. This means that the shadows in the room, one of which she currently controls, can creep amongst one another, as if sneaking its way towards the aged woman.

Vorpal (87) has posed:
Vorpal is, unfortunately, unresponsive, but Gar's attacks do make a sizable dent in the force trying to pull him away. In an instant, all tentacles withdraw from Gar after seemingly sensing pain. This causes the unconscious Vorpal to drop to the ground, and should Gar try to run away with him, the tentacles will not be able to react fast enough to stop him. Damaged as they are, many of their limbs have been drastically shortened.

"How DARE you-" the spirit now looks a lot less like Rachel, and a lot more like... well, a lot of things. It takes several steps towards her, a scowl on a forehead that is changing swiftly. "You may be his daughter, but you are also mortal flesh and rot. It is time..." the creature draws back a hand/claw, crimson light shining between its fingers, "... to find out how long a bloodline like yours will feed me!"

Just as Rachel plans, the old woman is left completely unguarded, her tears falling constantly on the artefact held between her hands. However, she is frail, and it is not being held very firmly at all.

Beast Boy has posed:
Beast Boy succeeds in his goal of getting Vorpal separated from the tentacles one way or another. Best not to think of what may have happened had they drawn Tommy in the whole way. He's seen enough horror movies to know /that/ never ends well. A mess is made around the catboy, but there's no blood. At least the registering of pain or whatever was felt caused them to fall back.

Since tigers are not very good at carrying people, and neither are normal Gars, Vorpal will find himself hoisted up in the arms of a gorilla. If the claws didn't do the trick, Plan B was to simply tear or bash them apart. The big ape easily runs back to the main room with Vorpal in both arms, reverting quickly to himself once there.

"RAVEN!" he calls out, cupping his hands to his mouth to amplify the name. "We're here! Whatever you're doing, I suggest you do it now so we can all get out of here!" He'll have to trust her, because Vorpal is under his protection now. First things first, check for a pulse. Check for breathing. "Come on, man. Wake up. Need you back with us."

Raven has posed:
    "How dare I?" she responds, her voice lacking a sarcastic lilt, but even without it, it is clear that she is mocking the creature. Raven is only ever one or two degrees away from neutral in tone and mannerism, at most.

    The spirit's focus is on Raven, which is where she wants it. Birds, after all, like shiny things. Like a striking snake, the beak of a bird emerges from the floor, turning at once from 2-D, to 3-D, and then sinking back into the floor. It is then that Raven answers her own question. How dare she? Well, apparently...

    "With the greatest of ease."

    The sphere will go with the soul-self. Transported across dimensions and miles of distance in little more than an instant. Admittedly, it is mean. It is, to a degree, passing the buck. However, Raven needs to deprive the spirit of its food source... Sure, she risks sending it to an even greater one, but a certain Doctor will probably be fine. It's at least partially his fault anyway for still giving her access to the Sanctum.

    With any luck, the spirit is wilting now, like a flower. Raven has precious moments to continue her monologue. "Desperation is not a good look for you."

Vorpal (87) has posed:
The look on the spirit's face is absolutely priceless. It is a pity that it didn't last long enough to take a photograph. Before it can say one word, and it was probably a very foul one, the apparition disperses into thin air, into nothingness.

The old woman seems to snap out of her trance, now. And, a very unusual transformation is coming upon her. She becomes blue and transluscent, like the buildings outside were. What's more, the attic now progresses from having some mild disuse to being completely ruined. No-one has lived here for... decades.

"I only wanted..." the ghost looks around, her look of sorrow suddenly being overtaken by slow understanding, as she takes in her surroundings. Finally, there is anger. "That son of a ______!" she stands up, her spectral form quivering with indignation. "Tricked me for how many decades? I am going to... going to... UNGH!"

The woman seems to almost burst into flames out of sheer rage for a moment, before looking in Raven's direction. For a moment her anger is still boiling, until suddenly her spiritual eyes peer deeper still.

"... oh. OH."

There is an awkward silence, and then she says in a more subdued tone. "Well, then... thank you. For everything." She looks around, and sighs. "I'd offer you something in gratitude, but-" she shrugs, her hands gesturing to the dilapidated house. "... I guess I must be off, then."

Without a word, the elderly woman slowly begins to fade, her form dispersing into wisps of blue light that begin to ascend.

Then, there is nothing left in the attic, except Rachel.

Vorpal groans. All traces of monstrosities or spirits, or anything that is not crumbling, decrepit house, is pretty much gone. The Cheshire cat can't seem to quite make it back to full consciousness. He is not hurt, but he appears to be pretty drained. "Gar..." he mutters, and then falls back into unconsciousness.

Beast Boy has posed:
It's probably a good thing for Beast Boy that he sees and hears nothing of what's going on upstairs. Best not to think about any of that. There's enough of a /feeling/ that has his hackles up all the same, even without any at the moment. He's pacing, then he kneels next to Vorpal and makes his hands into the position needed to attempt CPR, and that's when the groan surfaces.

A hand is at the back of Tommy's head, providing support, his other one gripping the feline's closest one. "Shh. I think..I think we're gonna be okay. I almost gave you mouth-to-mouth, though." By the time he says that, Vorpal seems to have gone back to sleep. That's concerning, but he doesn't /look/ physically damaged, thankfully.

This is how Raven will find them, and after the briefest of assurances that all is as well as it can be, a teleport later will have Gar taking Tommy to the medbay back home for monitoring, just in case. The time to talk will come later.