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 Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 10:09 pm
It felt like forever since she'd woken up in the hospital. In reality, it had only been a few days. Tara changed into the clothes her parents had brought her, a thick turtleneck and sweater and corduroy pants. Possibly the warmest clothes she owned. Her parents were in overprotective mode, that much was obvious. They were busy talking to the doctors and filling out the paperwork for her release. Kent was waiting outside. It was time to go home.
But not just yet. Before Tara could leave, there was something she had to do.
There was a brush in the bag her parents had brought her. Tara's hair was less of a mess than usual; her mother had brushed it out during her visit the day before. Fingers fumbling, she pulled aside a small section from behind her left ear and split it into three strands. Right, left, right, left. Her mother had taught her how to braid years ago, but she was bad at it. The end result was messy, too loose in some parts, too tight in others. The three strands were uneven. Tara left it in anyway, and tied a ragged red ribbon around the end.
"Do you have it?" she asked, coming around to the other side of the curtain, carrying the mostly empty bag. She handed it to Kent, who gave her a small paper bag in exchange. Tara looked inside, and nodded. "This is perfect. I owe you one."
Kent snorted. "You bet you do." Then his expression softened, and he glanced at the elevator. "Do you want me to come with you?"
"What am I, five?" Tara snapped, but she relented as well. "It's okay. You don't have to, but you can if you want to." Even though she'd been up there already, it wouldn't be bad to have someone else there. Maybe it would be good for them to meet.
They held hands in the elevator, through the hallways of the hospital, past the sign that read "Glascow Ward --->," into a room shared with other patients. Tara left Kent there, ducked behind the curtain, and gave a halfhearted wave. "Hi, Laney."
There was no response. She wasn't expecting one, not really. She'd been there before, asked the nurse about it. She knew what Glascow Seven meant. But that didn't stop her from trying.
"I'm going home today. Well, not home exactly. I still need to tell my parents that I want to go to school here. It's not a conversation I'm looking forward to, let me tell you. But it needs to happen this way. I still don't really understand, but I need to be here. And hey, this way I'll be able to come whenever I want. In the meantime, I'm leaving these behind for you."
As she spoke, Tara opened the bag and pulled out a package of adhesive glow-in-the-dark stars. They were small, cheap, and the foam adhesive wasn't very sticky, but they would have to do. Carefully, she stuck stars on the wall behind the hospital bed to form random constellations that came to mind. Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, Orion. Aquarius, mostly for laughs, as well as Capricorn and Pisces. She used all but one of the stars in the box, sliding the last one into her pocket.
She knew that Laney wouldn't be able to see the stars, glowing or otherwise. It didn't matter. On some level, she knew that she was only putting them up to make herself feel better. That didn't matter either. All that mattered was that she did something- anything- that felt like it would be helpful. Even if it wasn't helpful, as long as it felt like it might be, maybe...
Maybe she wouldn't feel like this was all her fault.
"I still don't know what's going on, Laney. I don't know if this is real- organ trafficking, you being here- or if Barren Pines was real. Or maybe none of it's real, and I had too much icing and you'll wake me up before I'm late to class. I don't know. But I'm sorry. I should have been there, and I wasn't, and... and I don't even know if you can hear me. But I'm sorry."
It didn't matter that they might never have really met, or that Laney might have been that way before Barren Pines ever happened, if it happened. Laney was her friend, and friends stopped bad things from happening to friends. Friends didn't let friends drive drunk, and friends didn't let friends drown. Except she had, and that meant that as a friend, Tara was seriously failing.
"I keep thinking that this is what it was like when I... when the roles were reversed. Except I probably have it easier. I wasn't going to come back- except I did- and you might." She coughed, clearing away a lump in her throat, and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "I'm not going to let you down again.
"I know I forget things sometimes, but I didn't forget what I promised you. We're going to space, both of us, someday. I'm going to keep that promise, so you need to keep it too. Because..." And there the tears started flowing in earnest, and her sleeve was already soaked. "Because I can't go to space without you. So you need to get better, okay? I'm going to keep coming until you do. I'm not giving up, so you can't either."
Tara leaned forward and clasped Laney's hand, squeezing it tightly. It was warm. Of course it was, Laney was still alive. The fact that Tara had to remind herself of that was frightening, but she clung to that fact. Laney was alive. And as long as she was, Tara wasn't going to stop coming.
"I'll be back after I get the whole school thing sorted out, okay? So be ready for it. I'll have lots to tell you, I'm sure."
It felt wrong, taking with no cheery reply, no hummed showtunes or clever quotes. But Laney was, in some way, still alive. "I'll be back soon," she repeated, pulling away. "I promise."
Kent was waiting for her just outside the curtain. If he'd heard anything Tara had said, he didn't mention it, instead taking a quick peek at the sleeping girl inside. "She's lucky to have a friend like you," he commented, offering a pack of tissues.
Tara took one and blew her nose. "No," she whispered, unable to speak at full volume just yet. "I'm lucky to have her. We're going to be famous one day, just wait."
For a moment, it looked like Kent was going to say something. But he shook his head and put his arm around her shoulder. "Are you ready to go?"
No. No, Tara wasn't ready to go. Going meant accepting the situation, meant leaving Laney all alone. But she couldn't do anything else. All Tara could do was cling to Laney's lifeline as if it were her own and work on her end of their bargain. If she found a way to space, maybe that would be enough to bring Laney around. There were miracles in modern medicine every day. She just had to keep working, and she couldn't do that if she was stuck in place.
"Ready as I'll ever be," Tara said softly, letting herself be led out of the room. She looked back not once or twice, but three times, watching the curtain and then the door until she couldn't see it anymore. But the image of Laney lying still in the bed was burned into her brain, and it spurred her on. She touched the poorly-woven braid behind her ear, and that spurred her on too.
If they were going to space, Tara had her work cut out for her. Even though the odds were small, she was going to make it. For both of them.
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 8:55 pm
Breakfast at Denny's
[Zodiac Group Meeting]
Despite missing the memo, Tara winds up crashing the Zodiac meeting at Denny's, of all places.
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 8:56 pm
[reserved, school/moving solo]
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 9:00 pm
Advanced Placement[Tara + Yvette] While taking placement tests at Meadowview, Tara runs into fellow ex-Barren Pines student Yvette. While she doesn't get much information, she does gain a potential prom buddy and Star Wars watching partner. Not bad for an afternoon's work.
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 9:02 pm
Killing time during Soccer[Tara + Ellie] Tara is disappointed with Meadowview cheerleaders. Ellie is disturbed by cheerleading in general. The two chat about school subjects and bake sales.
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Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 8:30 pm
No Reservations[Tara + Aggie] Lunchtime at Meadowview has its own share of difficulties. Tara meets Aggie, and proves again that she's incapable of remembering her schoolmates.
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Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 8:56 pm
Star Wars, Part 1[Tara + Yvette] True to her word, Tara has Yvette over to begin her Star Wars education.
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Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 8:57 pm
Visiting hours at the hospital didn't start for a while yet. Perhaps, Tara reflected, she shouldn't have come at six in the morning. But after begging, pleading, and finally bribing the night nurse with a slice of cake, she managed to get five minutes. "Just five," the nurse warned, looking for a fork in her desk.
Tara ignored the nurse and slipped past the curtains, rustling them as she did. At least she didn't have to worry about disturbing the others. Nobody in this ward would wake up even if she screamed, which was convenient, but a sobering reminder of what she was dealing with.
Once she was out of sight of the nurse's station, she stuck a small birthday candle into her one remaining slice of cake, and lit it with a lighter she'd swiped from her father. Singing was out of the question- even if it wouldn't wake anybody up, it felt wrong- but she hummed the tune to 'Happy Birthday' as she approached, sitting on the edge of Laney's bed as she reached the end. She did find her voice for the 'are you one, are you two' and continued all the way to seventeen, at which point she shut her eyes and blew out the candle.
"I'd brought two slices. I was going to leave one here... but I guess the nurses would probably take it. So let's say I owe you one, okay? When you wake up, I'm taking you out for belated birthday cake. My treat."
Tara pulled a fork out of her pocket and tasted a bite. It was still warm, which wasn't surprising considering she'd stormed the bakery nearest the hospital as soon as it had opened. The frosting was melting a bit, which she didn't like, but the cake itself was moist, rich, and full of chocolate chips.
"My parents are coming into town tonight," she told Laney between bites. "It's kind of weird. I mean, before I practically had to pay them to do anything for my birthday. Now they're driving in together. I guess being a Saturday probably makes it easier. I think we're supposed to go out to dinner. There's a pizza place I've been dying to try."
She paused, considering her choice of words. "Maybe not dying," she amended. "I've had enough of that for a while."
That would have made Laney laugh, if she was awake. Maybe the subject matter was questionable, even uncomfortable, but if Tara made a joke, Laney knew how to react. Now there was no laughter, and Tara still had no idea what she was supposed to be doing. Only that she clearly wasn't doing it yet, or Laney would wake up.
She couldn't keep thinking about that, Tara reminded herself. She was a free thinker. She didn't let other people's conceptions define what was possible and what wasn't. That meant that she couldn't let her own limit her. Maybe she hadn't found the answer in the time she wanted to. But she would still find it, someday. She had to keep working towards that.
"The nurse will probably kick me out in a minute. And you know, places to go, people to see. But I'm glad I came. You know I don't care much about when and where, but I'm glad I got to see you today. It means a lot to me. And I promise, as soon as you're better, we'll do a real celebration. Cake and uh... well, you can decide. I'm up for anything."
The curtain rings rustled, and Tara was kindly but firmly removed. But not before she'd managed to stick the new glow-in-the-dark stars up on the wall behind Laney. Not before she wrote out a simple IOU for cake and stuck it under Laney's pillow.
The sun was just rising as Tara left the hospital, and she realized that until her parents arrived that evening, she had nothing to do until then. A whole day to kill, and nobody she really wanted to spend it with. Even the idea of doing experiments while her brother was at work just made her feel more lonely. Days like this called for being with friends, and she'd done that in five minutes. For once, Tara was out of ideas.
Picking a direction at random, she walked away, humming to herself again. "Happy birthday dear Tara, happy birthday to you..."
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Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 11:23 pm
Wow you look cool![Aquarius + Sirius] On an otherwise uneventful evening, Aquarius has her first encounter with a terrorist- that is, a Sailor Senshi.
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Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 11:26 pm
THE ULTIMATE SENSHI MEETING[All Senshi + Kunzite + Luna/Astrea] Astrea calls a meeting of the Sailor Senshi. Aquarius is rather displeased that she does not get a shiny phone to play with.
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Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 11:29 pm
No One Is Alone[Zodiac Group Meeting] The Zodiacs gather at the grave of their fallen prince, in a somewhat odd Valentine's Day party.
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Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2010 12:29 am
Family Bonds and Broken Bones[Aquarius + Chronos + Taurus + Yvette + Mr. Weaver] Zodiac bonding time turns into Zodiac pounding time, but despite their best efforts, not everyone makes it out unscathed.
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Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 12:06 am
Please get better, Daddy[Tara + Yvette + Topher + Melody + Alessa + Azzo] Tara visits Yvette's father- and more importantly, Yvette- in the hospital.
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Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 12:07 am
[follow-up to above RP, visit to Laney]
Things got very hazy very quickly. Aquarius looked around her prison, her allies and enemies, wondering what she could use and what would kill her. She closed her eyes, opened them again, and saw nothing but sterile white ceiling and walls. When had she fallen over? And hadn't the Witch's house been made of wood? Unable to deal with the parallel images in her mind, she shut her eyes again and focused on her other senses.
All she could hear was a dull, rhythmic beeping in the background. She couldn't smell or taste anything. There was someone gripping her arm tightly. She tried to shake it off, but her muscles felt like overcooked pasta. "Stop," she tried to say, but her voice worked no better than her arms. "S'taah. Gosa go 'fosa w-w-iiih co ba."
The grip on her arm tightened, which only made her more anxious. "It's okay, baby." Aquarius couldn't identify the voice, but she knew it was one she trusted. Somebody began to stroke her hair. "Oh, thank god, thank god. You're going to be fine, baby, just fine."
If whoever was there was so grateful, Aquarius reasoned drowsily, she didn't have to be on high alert. Which was good, because despite the alarming amount of sleeping she seemed to be doing lately, on the bus and again on the road, she felt like she needed a nap. Just a little one, to get her strength back. Surely with all she did, she was due that much.
Sailor Aquarius went to sleep.
Tara Kavanaugh woke up.
It was a hospital room. She had been in enough of them to recognize it instantly, as soon as she was conscious enough. There was the white ceiling, and the edge of the curtain separating her bed from the next one over. Slowly, gently, she turned her head to the side. There was the equipment she had come to know over the months. She wouldn't have been able to name any of it if asked, other than the obvious heart monitor, but she recognized life support when she saw it. Whatever she'd gotten herself into, it was bad. Again.
Groaning a little with effort, Tara tilted her head to the other side. There were chairs there, three of them. Two were filled with old magazines and newspapers, a handful of cheap romance paperbacks, and an old tray of hospital food. The chair closest to the head of the bed was occupied, the man in it looking older than Tara remembered. His face was a little thinner, with a few more wrinkles. That might have been due to the unnatural position he was sleeping in, which explained his wrinkled clothes and sour expression, but somehow, she doubted it.
Had she missed this the first time she woke up in the hospital? She tried not to think about it. This wasn't something she planned on making a habit out of, but her life rarely went according to plan. It took a couple of tries for her to get her voice, rusty from disuse, to work properly. "Daa." She coughed, tried to swallow, and found her throat dry and sticky. "Dad."
Even as lacking in volume as she was, Gregory Kavanaugh started to stir as soon as she started coughing. By the time she managed to speak, he was leaning in towards her, staring as if she was a ghost. For a terrible moment, Tara wondered if she had died after all, and was having an out of body experience. Then she felt him squeeze her hand, and realized that she really was alive.
"Tara. How do you feel? Do you know where you are? Do-" For a moment Gregory was overcome by his emotions, but he swallowed and was able to go on. "Do you remember what happened?"
If one of her parents had to be there for her grand awakening, Tara was glad it was her father. Her mother would have weeped and wailed, and while it was nice to be the center of attention, all that crying always made her uncomfortable. Being stuck in a hospital bed feeling like she'd been put through the proverbial wringer was uncomfortable enough. Her father was far more reasonable, more grounded. He wanted to know more, and that made Tara smile. It was clear who she took after most.
"Like I died again," she answered, without really thinking. Too late, she realized her slip and tried to cover it up with humor. "Kinda sore. I've been here enough to recognize the decor, Dad."
Coming up with something on the fly had been tough, but she was rewarded by a flash of a smile on her father's face. It quickly disappeared, reaffirming Tara's concern that the situation was bad. "I... was on the bus, I think." That seemed like it was a thousand years ago now. "I was meeting Kent, but I don't remember getting there."
Gregory hesitated, either wondering what to tell her or how to phrase it. "You didn't," he said finally. "The bus was in an accident. A few people died. You got out with a concussion and some broken bones."
"I'm here for a concussion?" Tara tried to shake her head, but found that only made her dizzy. She didn't even think to ask what she had broken. "I've had a concussion before, and it didn't make me feel like this."
"Repeated concussions can result in permanent brain injury," Gregory said. He was stalling for time, trying to figure out what to say next. "But that's not all of it. Nobody's sure what happened, but that day, everyone in that area of the city suddenly fell into vegetative states. Everyone. That's why the bus crashed, the driver was asleep."
Tara's eyes widened. Gregory kept talking, trying to get everything out as quickly as possible. "Nobody knows what caused it. The initial thought was a virus, so they quarantined the whole city. When they saw it wasn't contagious, they thought it was a bioweapon, but they're still studying it. A few days ago, some of the victims..." he frowned at his use of the word, but went on, "started to wake up. We've been here ever since... hoping."
It was a lot to digest. A city-wide human blackout of unknown origin was the scientific phenomena Tara drank like nectar, but it was less exciting when she had to suffer the consequences. As she took that in, she started to realize the smaller bits of what her father was saying. "Some people aren't waking up. Or..."
"Some are fading." He couldn't meet her eyes as he said that. What wasn't he saying? Tara tried to form a question, couldn't, and just looked at her father askingly. "Nobody you know, I think," he said soothingly, a little too quickly. "Kent woke up yesterday. Your mother's with him now, but I should let her know you're awake. She said she saw you open your eyes yesterday, but, well, I suppose I had to see it for myself to believe it."
"Like any true scientist. You missed your calling," Tara joked, trying to hide a whirlwind of thoughts. Had Kent experienced what she had, or was that just because she was Aquarius? What was her father hiding from her? And moreover, what happened? "Dad, how long has it been?"
Gregory, halfway out the door, froze. "You should get some more rest, sweetie. I know that's all you've been doing lately, but you have to work on these things slowly. I'll get your mother."
"Dad, I'll find out either way." Was this what he was trying to hide? Had it been days, or weeks-
"September First. It's been a little over three months." Gregory clearly wanted to leave, but he waited to see if Tara had anything else to say before he did.
Three months... "Well," Tara murmured, drifting off to sleep again, "at least it's not another year gone."
"You have got to stop doing this to me," Melanie Kavanaugh complained, setting aside her third used handkerchief. "And you're a bad influence on your brother. The two of you will be the death of me at this rate."
"We wouldn't be good kids if we didn't test your constitution every now and then," Kent retorted. He had been given a clean bill of health, and while he had yet to be discharged, he was allowed to make visits. "And I can't let Tara have all the fun, can I?" He squeezed her hand tightly.
Tara rolled her head from side to side. "Think of us as giving your heart a workout. Now you don't need to exercise!"
"Enough of that talk. Is that the way I raised you, to treat your elders this way?" Melanie swatted first Kent, then Tara, with her fresh handkerchief. She sported a few new gray hairs that Tara didn't remember, but also looked happier than she had in a long time. Maybe almost dying (again) had a few good side effects too.
Gregory peeked into the room, smiling as well. "Dear, the doctor wants to talk to us." He offered his wife a hand up, escorting her out ahead of him. "If you need us, we'll be right outside."
"Leave it to Dad to think we'll perish if he leaves for a minute." Kent rolled his eyes. "Then again, after this, I can't really blame him."
Tara frowned and looked at Kent. "You're taking this well," she said, not bothering to hide her suspicion. Was he keeping something from her as well?
Kent shrugged. "If there's one thing the incident last year taught me, Tara, it's that life is precious. Am I thrilled about missing three months of it? Not really. But compared with what could have happened, it's really not important."
"Not important," Tara repeated, raising her eyebrows.
"Think of it this way," Kent went on. "If you meet a mugger, the best advice is to let him have what he wants. Money and valuables are replaceable. Your life isn't. This... whatever it was, it was just a well-disguised mugger. It took three months, but what does that matter when I have the rest of my life- and yours- to look forward to?"
Tara thought about it. Even though the analogy was a bit off- three months of life were hardly "replaceable" in her mind- what he said made a lot of sense. Not everyone got a second chance in life. She had lost track of what chance she was on. "What would I do," she sighed, "without you here to put things in perspective for me?"
Grinning, Kent gave a mock bow. "Always glad to serve."
"In that case..." Tara paused and listened, the noise outside convincing her that her parents weren't eavesdropping. "Tell me what they're hiding from me,"
"Tara-"
"I'll find out sooner or later, you know that. Why can't I know now and deal with it?" Tara would have crossed her arms, but one was still in a cast. She had to settle for looking irate.
Kent sighed. "You were never one for blissful ignorance, were you?"
"Is it Laney?" she asked, out of the blue.
"What? Oh, no, she's fine. She didn't wake up," he added quickly, noticing the hope on Tara's face. "No change. But her coma is normal, not like whatever caused ours."
"Yvette, then? Are you going to make me guess?" Tara demanded, close to tears. "Something happened to somebody I care about. If you don't tell me, I'll think everyone I know has died, so just tell me already."
She thought he would tell her it was too soon, or that she had to rest. Instead, he rifled through the stack of old newspapers, pulling out one dated some time after the accident. "I don't know how close you were, but I remembered hearing you mention the name. Maybe it's nothing. But this is all I know."
It was a small article in the local news section, about a recent uptick in the violent deaths of Destiny City teenagers. Even before she read the names, she knew it was talking about senshi, and maybe their enemies as well. Some names were vaguely familiar. Some were a totally foreign. And there, near the top, one she knew well indeed.
Adelaide Hero Barrett
It had to be a mistake. Hero Barrett didn't just die. Aries was a fighter, a leader. Not Aquarius' leader- except she was. Aries was their leader, and Aquarius hadn't followed the lead. She had patrolled alone. She ended up in a random coma, and Aries had ended up dead.
"Maybe this is how it's supposed to be," she murmured. "Eon's gone, and Jude. Are we all supposed to die here?"
"Tara?" Kent's concern was obvious as he scooted closer and rested a hand on her head. "Are you okay?"
Not as long as Aries was gone, and Sagittarius, and Eon. Not as long as parts of her were dead. They might as well have chopped off one of her legs and told her to go on living, without bothering to staunch the bleeding. Aries' death- Aries, of all people!- was a raw wound on top of so many, infected, ready to burst.
"I'm fine," Tara said with false cheeriness. "Can I just be alone for a little bit, please?"
She knew Kent would be listening from outside, that he would tell their parents something was wrong. She didn't care, or couldn't. Crumpling the paper up, she rolled over and cried in her pillow. For her rival, her leader, someone she respected but never liked. For the deaths too close to feel and too alien to understand. And for herself, broken and mangled, with no way of knowing if she'd ever pick up the pieces of herself and make something she could call a real life.
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Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 12:12 am
The First Zodiac Meeting[All Zodiacs] The Zodiacs discuss the loss of the Opal Crystal, the appearance of Wiseman and Black Lady, and the question of alliances with the Lunar Court.
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