Characters: Kanati, Robin, Starfire, Static Shock, Jenga Tag: sahoniSilvElenaphant @machineking jenga Setting: Thread starts on a sunny afternoon week day at the Pizza shop. Expect location shifts Previous Threads: Plot Summary: Mysteriously, a rash of heart failure has been striking the city. The cases seem small, isolated, and unrelated save for one factor, all the victims were sick already. The doctors are writing if off as unfortunate medical coincidence. Unconvinced and unsatisfied, Lang and a few other Titans investigate only to find something very old and very dangerous has been hiding amongst them, feeding upon the hearts of the sick to fuel it's own unnaturally long lives. Can the the Titans team up to take down this threat? Or will this new enemy spell out heartache for the crew?
Lang played idly with his communicator, the yellow and black plastic clumsily tumbling between his fingers, until it thumped against the table of the cafe, snapping him out of his thoughts. He had been staying at the Titan's off-site bunker longer than he had expected and still felt weird about it. He spent what time he could outside of it. Doing small jobs, investigating the city itself, or making money through telling fortunes or playing guitar. Sometimes he even slept leaned up against a bus stop or hiding in a tree at the park. "It's not like I have anything." he reasoned under his breath to himself, picking up his half-cold tea to sip. "I have a hunch and a bunch of coincidences." He ran his fingers over the obituaries of the local paper, following the words of the ad some family member must have took out. Eyes searching for something he may missed. for what must have been the 30th time.
A black and white photo of a laughing woman with curly hair and loving eyes stared back at him. The obituary reading in a flowing font "Mona Torrin, Rest in peace." before continuing in the standard newspaper print bellow "Mona Torrin, age 34, passed this Wednesday after complications resulting in heart failure at Saint Mercy hospital." It continued below with funeral arrangements.
There was nothing there he hadn't seen before. Nothing that held the now bitter tea settle in his stomach.
"I should at least check it out." Lang said, shakily firming up his resolve. "I think Mona deserves that much." Lang ruffled his long hair through his hands wanting just to yell out in frustration. The temptation was there, but instead he flipped open his communicator and sent out a simple message. "Hoi. Osiyo. I dunno how this thing works, but this is..."
Dang it, he never bothered to come up with a handle. Something that other people could call him on the job. Usually he just evaded any questions about his identity and let people call him what they felt comfy with. You'd be surprised how often that worked. His mind searched for something to use. What did his Grandpa use to go by on the job? It was mentioned a few times in his journal.
Kanati. That was it! Lang felt he right eyebrow raise as something he felt some pieces slide finally fit all together. Kanati is a mythological figure he grew up hearing about. He was the first man and more or less a god in he own right. He was invoked in hunting prayers and used magic wolves to hunt. It was strangely fitting. Lang could see why his Grandfather used it. "Well, you can call me Kanati." If it was good enough for Grandpa it was good enough for him. "I think I got something. It could be a thing that could require out attention. It could just be me seeing patterns where there is nothing."Lang said, keeping the camera from showing his full face. "I dunno. I guess I want to check it out at least. It wouldn't hurt to have someone to have my back or a second set of eyes." Lang said, finding a blush building in his cheeks despite himself "Yeah, anyways, I'm gonna be at that pizza shop in the corner of Main in about 30 if anyone is interested. I can talk details there. I'll be investigating either way. Just look for the guy in the blue sleeveless hoodie okay? Um, Kanati, over and out." Lang said, flicking the communicator closed.
The ball was out of his court now. All he he had do at this point is find some place to change and show up.
Spring had finally arrived, not that there was much of a season shift in California as there had been back in Gotham, and the Teen Titans were doing their civic minded duty to help others beyond beating up criminals and keeping the city safe. He'd volunteered to help Starfire with planting the community garden. With absolutely no ulterior motives beyond helping plant vegetables. None. Yup. Golly, she was still pretty with dirt on her face.
He was helping with a wheelbarrow full of turnips when his communicator went off. The Boy Wonder glanced down at it curiously, but didn't take it out until he could reasonably pause what he was doing. It hadn't been an alarm alert telling him the city was in danger. Which meant dropping the turnips all over the sidewalk was not a reasonable option. He waited until he made it to the turnip bed to pull out his communicator and check the message.
It was from that kid that Cyborg had pulled off the street who'd turned out to be something of a supernatural cop. The message was vague. Vague to the point it was almost a waste of time, but Robin wasn't really the sort to turn his back on another Titan. Especially when it seemed like some sort of mystery was involved.
Be there in thirty. -Robin
The message from Robin read as he sent it with an electronic chirp. Then he forwarded the meeting spot to a few Titans (because level one communicators are one way until synced in group-mode), most of them new recruits, so he could get a better feel about how they would work as a team. Once the message had been sent, to Static, Jenga, and a few others, he went off to find Starfire. Not that it was difficult to find the cheerful alien among the flowers and other volunteers.
"Starfire," he said when he reached her, waving a hand to catch her attention. "One of the recruits wants to meet," the Boy Wonder said vaguely, because he didn't have enough information. "I'm meeting with him at the Joey's Pizza after our shift is done. Want to come?" They'd been here all morning, and managed to get considerably far on the garden. It wouldn't be long before they had fresh zucchinis everywhere.
When it came time to leave Robin offered her a ride on his motorbike. Even though she could fly. Because it was a great excuse to have her cling to him while he drove like a maniac. But even with invulnerability helmets were non-negotiable. Because that was the law.
The R-Cycle roared to a stop outside the pizza place and Robin kicked the stand out as he got off the bike. He pulled off his helmet, his hair cartoonishly plastered to his head for a moment, before he shook it and the spikes all popped instantly back to normal. He locked the bike and stowed his helmet before opening the door to the building with a clang of the bell. "Hey!" he greeted Lang with a grin.
TAG: Elenaphant Ooc: sahoni , assuming Lang is in there. Lemme know if I'm wrong. @machineking - because no one else knows how to tag you xD
The heels of Jenga’s boots hit the ground with a ‘clack’ as he carried his father’s box of prosthetics supplies, the pair were regulars at the hospitals all around the area, so weekly visits to fit new amputees with prosthetic limbs was a normal occurrence to the android. The two slipped into a room and Jenga set the box down on a nearby desk.
“Alright Jenga hand me a syringe, 20cc lidocaine and we’ll get him all numbed up and ready to-.” Dr.Hawthorn looked up to see jenga with a sheepish look on his face, biting his lower lip and eyes cast downward. Dr.Hawthorn sighed out loud; he swore he was getting too old for this! “Make it quick.”
Jenga was gone from the room in less than half a minute and was in the nursery as quickly as his legs could carry him. Something about babies just made him happy, made him feel alive. Technically he was still one himself; he was just programed to be a teenager. He couldn’t help but make all kinds of baby babbling noises in an obnoxiously high voice, gently booping baby noses and letting their chubby little fingers grab his hands. He was giggling like a child with a pet, except the pet was actually someone’s baby, and if they knew Jenga was actually all metal, wires and computer chips, they might not be too pleased. “You done?” He heard over the communication chip implanted in his auditory systems.
He stood and reluctantly left the nursery after saying good bye to every single newborn personally… all 54. Jenga slipped back into the room he’d left his father in to find him at the part he usually needed help with on leg joints.
“Feel better?” Dr.Hawthorne asked.
“Yes, much. Thanks, dad.” He held the false appendage down in his titanium grip as his father twisted the bolt down with all his might and eventually the leg snapped into place. “Alright walk around on it I- “
“Oh my gosh! Dad! My first mission! I get to go do stuff! Real stuff!” Jenga bounced, goofy grin plastered over his face as Dr.Hawthorn sighed. That communicator sure was annoying!
“Fine. Fine. Be careful, come back in one piece, alright?” Dr.Hawthorn grumbled as he pulled Jenga down, planting a kiss to the android’s forehead. Ever since he joined the titans he only grew to savor those moments a little longer, for he never knew when the worst might come for his ‘little boy’. Jenga rushed down to the pizza store after a quick systems scan to make sure everything was in order. Nothing terribly wrong this time, The facial scanner wasn’t quite connecting to database yet, some kind of wifi issue surely Then again it was kinda early for him and things always seemed a bit off in the first few hours of the day. He walked into the pizza shop, jumping as the bell ‘dinged’ softly when he came in. Silver eyes sparkled and he looked utterly human! At first glance. The silver eyes were a bit abnormal as was his white hair and a face that looked intentionally sculpted by an artist; so much so that it looked completely fake.
“I didn’t miss it did I?” He asked, worried he may have been late because he was playing with babies.
What started out as an opportunity to help Jump city's vibrant community turned into the discovery of a passion for the Titan and former princess of Tamaran. Aesthetically, flowers had intrigued her with their colours and patterns. Then, they caught her attention by their constant reference in expressing love in a culture that had reservations about speaking the words earnestly. Now, with knees in the dirt and a spade in hand underneath spring sun with the faintest breeze across a dirt streaked brow, she realized she loved gardening for nature's sake. Anyone could see the girl was enjoying herself from the fixed smile on her face; her pearly whites on full display as she bit her lower lip in concentration while still having corners tugged opposite ways.
It was that sort of pleasant expression she turned to Robin when he called her name, as she sat back on her feet with a successfully potted sapling by her knees. Her brows raised in intrigue as he mentioned a new recruit. One of their new friends had reached out to them? While that sounded wonderful, she would be sorry to cut their gardening shift short. The dilemma was resolved quickly as he elaborated, and she was free to continue being content.
“Mm, pizza,” she said approvingly. “I would be glad to.”
It was agreed. The promise of pizza made the end of the shift not so disappointing, and Starfire was sure to make arrangements to come in the next day before she joined Robin on the motorcycle—helmet secure. One arm around Robin's waist, the other waved back to the other volunteers as they took off. Once they were out of sight the arm joined the other to happily hold him in a hug while he cruised most expertly around cars and curves.
They stopped at the pizza shop called Joe's and Starfire took in a deep breath of the mouth-watering smell as she got off the bike and pulled her helmet off to place by Robin's bird-themed one. They both had a hair-shake moment and once that was over, she was only a step behind when the young leader passed through the doors. She came to a stop beside him, smiling her greeting at the boy she had yet to meet. Starfire took him in before being distracted by the pizza menu. Ooh, they had some of the vegetables that they had planted! She hoped their new recruit didn't mind zucchini on his pizza, or she may just have to get her own large pizza!
Then there was a ding behind them and a question. A dazzling boy that had unusually smooth features addressed them. She glanced to Robin, as she assumed he would know about this. As leader he did keep track of who was on the team better, and his lovable trait of recruiting all sorts of allies made her naturally suspect this was one of his. "I do not think anything has been missed yet," she said reassuringly. "Are we waiting for anyone more?" she asked, and looked between Lang and Robin for the answer.
Lang could have easily just blended in if he wanted to. He was good at blending in to a certain extent. His grandfather had taught him that it was all in how you carried yourself. It was a skill that could be honed. A skill that he had found very useful when just slumming around for information. You'd be surprised what people would say when they thought no one was listening or who would be willing to talk to you if you acted like you belonged. But today, he wanted to be noticed.
He didn't exactly seem out of place. He wasn't wearing the tight colorful fabric typical of the superhero, but he carried himself with a purposeful tenseness those there with their family or hurriedly scarfing of a greasy but satisfying slice on their lunch break just didn't have. He was dressed in what looked like a blue cotton hoodie, sleeveless and hanging too heavy from his body. It did a good job showing off the elaborate tattoos of a dog and a crow he wore on his arms and hiding the top half of his face from curious passerby's. It worked well with the tight black shirt he wore underneath and the brown leather belt filled with pouches he wore around his waist.
He had changed into his outfit in some lonely alley on the way there, ducked behind some overlooked dumpster. to change into the gear he had stashed away in a backpack. Part of him wondered if Superman and Justice Leaguers suffered through the same minor indignities, It was a funny image, trying to picture someone like the Flash ducking behind the dumpster. He found it humanizing. Different from how they appeared in TV and magazines.
As people started to gather, Lang gave a small nod from under the shade of the umbrella. He couldn't help but feel a little impressed by the turnout. Truth be told he hadn't expected anyone to even show up. He recognized a couple of them easy enough. He had already had some one on one time with Robin, and Starfire was a well known member of the Titans. Identification wasn't so easy with the rest.
"I'm not sure if everyone, but if everyone is here I wouldn't mind getting started." Kanati began, clearing his throat slightly for attention. Tugging his hood down to avoid a few stares from surrounding people he scratched jittered his leg a bit, unsure of what exactly he was supposed to approach all of this. "Right, you guys probably want some pizza or something first." Nervously he fished round in one of the leather pouch pockets, pulling out a collections of singles. "Sorry, this is a first for me. Usually I work on this sorta thing alone." Kanati explained "There should be enough for a large with two toppings here. You guys can choose. It's not much, but it's something. Consider it compensation for your time at least." Lang offering a flicker of a small smile.
The offer was genuine, but it'd be off the mark to say if there wasn't a secondary motive. He wanted to see who he was working with first hand. Two toppings between three people (not counting himself). Someone was going to be left out. He wanted to see how they solved something simple like this. He wanted to get a feel for who they were. In his job things weren't always as simple as they seemed at first glance. He needed to know what he was walking into.
Kanti waited for them before continuing."Sorry, like I said in my message before, I'm not sure if I even have anything. But I wanted to have a second pair of eyes, maybe do a bit of investigating." Kanati fished in his book bag to pull out a dollar-store binder from his book bag. Colored tabs stuck out the side labeling it A-Z including a couple extra tabs for numbers and symbols and "Ongoing". Bits newspaper and scrap stuck out from the sides but it was mostly empty, relatively new if a bit banged up.
Thumbing through the book, he opened up to to the ongoing section. There he had a collection of obituaries he collected from the local newspaper. At first glance the people he had collected had nothing in common. They were all different face ranging in gender, race, and age, but upon closer inspection there was a single repeating phrase"heart failure". It was posed and dressed up in different ways "passed on" or "tragically left us", but there the phrase was, highlighted in neon green. "Now, before I taint the narrative anymore than I have with my highlighting, what do you all see?"
Robin grinned and shook his head at Jenga's arrival. "You're good," he assured his teammate after Starfire informed him that he hadn't missed anything yet. The Boy Wonder didn't know who else would show up, though. It'd been a last minute send-out. He checked his communicator to see if anyone had replied they were running late, but didn't get that far as Lang decided now was a good enough a time as any to start.
One pizza? Considering that there were four of them, all hungry teenagers, and Starfire had more stomachs than the rest of them combined, a single pizza wasn't going to be even close to enough. "We can cover the rest," Robin replied with a nod, not refusing Lang's offer. "We're a team. We don't need compensation to help each other," then he turned towards Jenga and Starfire. "What do you guys want?" he asked, determined to make sure at least one pizza they got remained edible to human stomachs, before he popped off to order them.
When the Boy Wonder returned Kanti was pulling out a book. Robin slid into his seat and curiously leaned over the table to see what it was. Perhaps, if someone had taken all the newspaper clippings off the wall of his office, Robin could have had a similar book to reference. His teammate had opened the book to a particular page and slid it over to them. The Boy Wonder studied the page for a moment, frowning at the green highlights, before glancing very seriously up at Kanti. "You don't think it's a coincidence," Robin replied easily, his masked eyes narrowing. "Is there anything else that links them besides the cause of death?"
Jenga internally cringed at the idea of pizza. Should he or should he not? If he did, he would most likely fall over and scare everyone into thinking he was dead. What if they out him in a casket and buried him!? Jenga didn’t want to be buried. Then again if he didn’t eat the pizza, they might think he was weird. If he did eat the pizza and he didn’t wind up in a casket, he’d have to face the wrath of a very upset Dr. Hawthorn. He decided he’d wait it out and pray everyone forgot.
Then came the binder, his attention was immediately grabbed… yet he was slightly afraid. Whenever he saw anyone offering papers out of binders it was usually when his dad needed some rather boring task done or something built from the directions. But what he received was totally different. His optic scanners began sweeping through the text, mostly taking in the highlighted words, the pictures of the people and some . As soon as he heard heart failure, his mind began flipping through past experiences. His dad was a doctor, so he did know a little bit about the human body. He knew more about limbs than anything, but he did remember his dad having to save someone who’d had a heart attack at the circus last year. Which then Dr. Hawthorn had to explain what heart failure was and how it worked.
“What kind of heart failure? Left, Right or congestive?” Jenga asked after Robin asked for similarities, not realizing that his question may have seemed random… or redundant. His silver eyes highlighting violet as he kept reading and thinking.
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Alviss: Darn doesn't show the pic
Apr 18, 2019 7:10:17 GMT -6
force: miss this place. if anyone comes back and sees this, i'm force, i was kid flash here once. you can find me on discord at rook#9485
Jan 12, 2023 13:11:35 GMT -6
The roleplay takes place after the series end of the original Teen Titans animated show, but does not include the movie Trouble in Tokyo. Since then Robin has been on something of a recruiting spree, and many new young heroes have found themselves a home in Jump City as well as Titan Tower.
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