Three weeks later...
This year's Titans East Gala was one that Raven would like to forget. But, one thing she did take home that night was an even firmer decision to tether herself to Gar's handwritten wishes. And that was exactly what she'd been doing over the weeks since the dance.
She gradually was able to meander around the city without being an attention magnet. In fact, it had only taken under a week for her 15 minutes of fame to die down. That was one benefit of today's social media climate.
After the tense task of the Titans East Gala and the livestreaming, the next couple of messages were relatively tame.
Finally taking Robin's advice, Raven asked to reduce the intensity of the numbing spell. Although her powers were still very muted, she felt emotionally lighter, with the occasional withdrawals.
Raven was waking up with a headache, moaning as she drowsily wondered why so.
"What did I do yesterday - Oh... right... The arcade..."
As encouraged by Gar in the latest of his chain of letters, Raven went to the Emporium Arcade Bar in San Francisco and played every single game available.
"Every... single... damn... game..." Raven mumbled almost incoherently. She'd always believed video games were a different level of brain-rotting compared to TV. She remembered telling Gar this.
She took a deep breath in, trying to ease the pain. However, something cottony entered her left nostril, causing her to sneeze herself awake.
Upon her jump awake, she made a pillow bounce, causing traces of wool to fly all over the room.
"Never mind yesterday - What happened last night?" asked Raven, examining and feeling a handful of wool.
Sheep's wool.
"Did... did he manage to get a sheep to break into our home?" Raven was all of flummoxed, annoyed, and impressed.
"I guess I did, huh?" responded the imaginary Gar, leaning against the bedside dresser.
Ever since the dance, Raven's personal manifestations of Gar had become his adult version and not the jovial juvenile. He'd also gone life-sized as opposed to the miniature, Thumbelina-esque personification.
Shelving the question of how the sheep entered her bedroom in the first place, she reached for the envelope and opened it. She felt the envelope was a little thicker than usual. She realised why when an extra piece of paper fell off it as she pulled Gar's letter, landing on the bed next to her.
Her eyes fixated on Gar's latest letter.
"Hey Raven!
I hope you enjoyed the arcade. My high score in Mega Monkeys Ultimate Sling better still be intact. The fact that I can't watch you play the vintage classic kills me. Teehee. Get it?"
Raven frowned, reading on.
"Sorry, bad joke, I know. I imagine the unimpressed glare you're giving me as you read that.
We never got officially married because we were waiting. I don't know anymore what we were waiting for. And unfortunately, we can't change that now."
Raven slightly tensed up, the thought of their wedding day briefly brushing in her head. No mental image surfaced, however. She hadn't really given it a thorough thought.
"Still, I don't want you to regret us never tying the knot. There is NOTHING I regret between us. Nothing.
Having said that, I want you to have one less regret because of waiting. I know you've been holding off on building that meditation sanctuary / library.
Well, Rae-Rae, my love my sweet, my mission for you this week is to get that started.
You may be wondering what that picture attached to this letter is."
Raven picked up the fallen piece of paper and inspected it. It turned out to be a map. Of where, she hadn't figured out in her brief glance.
And when she read the next line of Gar's letter, she almost dropped the map again.
"It's a map to a plot of land - All yours!
In marriage vows, they say 'Til death do us part'. Well, suckers, we're not married, so death do not do us part!
Love ewe lots,
Beast Boy"
Raven found herself rereading 'Til death do us part' and then staring at Gar's drawing of a sheep as she processed what she had just read.
"Is this a joke? Gar couldn't possibly have bought land for me..."
She recalled an offhanded conversation she had with the dead changeling involving a sanctuary...
Raven busted into their San Francisco unit, her hair frazzled and her eyes occasionally twitching with exhaustion. She found Gar in front of the TV, eyes also twitching but due to his long video gaming session.
"Raven! You're back early today!" Gar saw her in the corner of his mildly twitching eyes. "How's the new girl?"
Raven prepared herself a cup of herbal tea, dodging the plate in the sink of Gar's late lunch, or early dinner, or late late breakfast.
"The new girl's name is Traci. Thirteen."
"Isn't she turning sixteen?"
Raven groaned. "Thirteen's her surname. I can tell she has insecurities with her magic, but I can also tell she has great potential to be a permanent part of the team. She has chemistry with Robin and Starfire... and Blue Beetle... Especially Blue Beetle."
Gar stifled an excited, triumphant squeal at his video game victory, mindful of Raven's obvious physical exasperation. She was desperate for her herbal tea.
"You okay?"
Raven's eyes mindlessly wandered towards the TV screen, paying little mind to it, only hearing animated monkey howling coming from the speakers.
"It's nothing," she responded quietly. "This mentor role... Way more social interactions than I anticipated."
Having won his current level, Gar left his game idle to give his attention to Raven. Behind her, he noticed strands of vegan ramen noodles floating through the transparent water window of her kettle. He'd tried to boil his noodles directly in her tea kettle and thought he had washed it thoroughly.
He let out a tiny panicked squeak, hastily rushing to her side, standing between her and her kettle.
"Why don't you sit down and I do the tea for you, eh?" He tittered, rushing her to the couch. "Care to elaborate on what you mean?"
Raven was too tired to reject his offer.
"Well, for starters, every magic user's abilities are different, so I have to tailor their training to fit their powers on top of their other needs. Kid Devil, for example, is a demon who's pretty much in his identity and morality crisis. Traci Thirteen is Homo magi that believes she's fated to represent bad luck. I mean, we couldn't get Jinx to return to Jump City to help her out?"
Raven stopped herself.
"I like what I'm doing, but maybe it's not for me... I don't know, it's too early to tell."
Gar hastily redid the tea, after rewashing her kettle. With his back to her, he asked, "What do you want to do?"
Raven contemplated. "Hmm... Be an archivist of sorts? Or, instead of training and counseling, I'd like to help with just the latter... but with fewer social interactions... Like a meditation mediator... In a recluse tranquil location, like a sanctuary..."
"Oh, like an animal sanctuary?"
"No... Maybe, but for people like us... There's potentially a market for that...
"Oh what am I saying? Where's my tea, Gar? I need a sip, bad."
A sweat dripped down Gar's forehead - definitely not just from the condensation caused by the boiling water. Gar had put it on its highest heat, and blew the contents cool as he poured herbal tea into her cup.
"Coming right up!" he assured her, blowing furiously before turning back around to Raven.
He handed her the cup and she took a slow, easing sip.
"Well... why don't you do something about it?" he asked.
Raven glanced at him, a lack of enthusiasm in her glance.
"What I'm describing sounds like retirement plans, Gar. Otherwise, wishful thinking and all that jazz..." She looked at her drink. "Interesting taste on this tea, by the way..."
"Hehe... Is it, now?"
"Interesting," she repeated before taking another sip. "You make good tea."
Raven studied the map after shaking the memory out of her head. Apparently, Gar's plot of land was in Ohio near Lake Erie.
She rolled her eyes as she read the exact location.
"Garfield, Ohio... Of course. Named after the 20th president, but of course..."
"Hehe, clever, am I right?" inquired imaginary Gar.
She wasn't even aware of any income Gar was earning other than potentially from his online presence.
But, she quickly made her mind up, the map secured in her grasp.
"No regrets. It's time to get out of California."
"That's right!" quipped her manifestation of Gar, in his imaginary holiday attire with an imaginary luggage to go with it, eagerly waiting at her door.
Raven looked at her imaginary dead boyfriend, eyeing him.
"There are several things I have to do before setting off..."
Raven was standing on a grassy patch. Beside her were Starfire, Robin, and Cyborg.
Commencing maximum couch time.
Garfield Mark Logan. Beast Boy.
A forever hero. A forever Titan. A forever friend.
May his name have a place in all of history.
Raven knelt down before Gar's tombstone, her hand grazing the grass. She could not feel presence nor energy at the moment, and even if she could, nothing would emanate out of a dead person to her, spiritually or otherwise. She never had that ability. However, she did feel something. The weight of the loss.
After a moment of silence, she finally got back up.
"Thank you, Gar, for everything..."
Behind her, her three best friends glanced at one another. They were proud of her for doing the brave thing. They were also curious.
After visiting their dead friend, the Titans were now atop a hill. Raven was about to share her plans with the team. Imaginary Gar was sitting on a hanging tree branch.
"If I may ask, what inspired today's visit?" Starfire asked. "Does it, perchance, have anything to do with Gar's letters?"
"You're still getting them?" Cyborg asked, leaning against the tree trunk, inadvertently next to Gar.
Gar knocked on his metal head. "Good deduction, Chrome Dome."
"Yes, and yes." Raven looked onward, down the hill, Gar's gravesite in the distance.
Starfire smiled at Raven, touched by Gar's final actions. "Fascinating."
"A bit over-the-top," uttered Robin, his arms folded. "Especially since it's been this long... but that's impressive. Kudos to Garfield."
"May I ask another? What did his latest message contain?"
At Starfire's query, she and Robin inched a bit closer, contained curiosity intensified, and for similar reasons.
"I'll be leaving California," Raven revealed. "There's a place he has in Ohio. It's bittersweet to say it, but it's time I retire what I'm doing for the Titans.
"Or... was doing, at this rate."
Cyborg was now standing all on his on, incredulous.
"Are you sure about that, Raven?"
Raven faced her friends. "Let's face it. I haven't been the best mentor. I don't show up to the sessions, physically. I haven't been counseling everyone - Jinx has filled in for me quite nicely."
She paced.
"It's just... really not a deep-seated passion of mine anymore. Hasn't been, for a long time. Is that bad to say?"
She looked at her friends, the three eying one another.
"Are you getting that, Robin?" asked Cyborg. "What do you make of it? Star?"
Starfire hovered forward to Raven, holding her hands.
"I desire what is best for friend Raven. Being under the Titans schedule has not been best for her, hence the sabbatical."
Cyborg frowned at Starfire, turning to Robin. "Rob?"
Robin was now staring at Gar's gravesite, thinking back to one of his final conversations with the changeling.
"Hey, bud," Robin greeted, entering the room where Gar had been resting. He caught him hastily stashing some papers underneath his pillow. "Have you been... writing?"
Gar tittered feebly. "Hehe, somewhat. Can't play video games. What am I supposed to do?"
"It's just not the choice of activity I'd expect out of you, even now..." Robin noticed one page of it on the floor and bent to pick it up.
"Wait, no -" Gar held his palm up at Robin, but he was in too weak a state to actually stop Robin, who had proceeded to read what had been scribbled on it.
Robin furrowed his eyebrows as his head traveled left to right, then on to the next line, skimming.
"What's the meaning of this, Garfield?" He looked at a sheepish Gar. "Why is this letter addressed to Raven's mother?"
Gar sighed, admitting defeat.
"I don't know if I'm going to even send it. But, I just have to have some form of communication with Raven's only biological family. You know how timid Raven is when it comes to Arella."
Robin read the letter again. He contemplated if he should ask about the other pieces of paper Gar had under his pillow. However, looking at the changeling's begging eyes, he decided not to.
"I can help you deliver it."
Gar considered it, pupils up in thought. "You do have the moniker of an animal, so technically it's still an animal delivery..."
"What are you talking about?"
"Thanks, dude, if you can somehow get this through to Azarath without Raven finding out, it'll mean the world to me."
Robin rolled up the paper carefully and nodded. "Whatever you need, Gar. I've got my connections. Anything else?"
A light bulb appeared above Gar.
"Speaking of connections, I need some money... Like, acres of it..."
"I say... Go for it."
Cyborg nodded at Robin's input. "Okay, fine. Go ahead, Raven. But, if you need anything, hit us up."
"You know I will. Maybe not immediately, but you can count on it. You're all still my best friends."
"And mine too!" Gar exclaimed, jumping out of the tree branch.
Starfire reacted giddily. "Aww, Raven!"
Raven backed away as Starfire flew to her, obviously going for a hug.
"Okay, that's as sentimental as I'll get," said the Azarathian.
"You got your seals of approval," Gar pointed out, transforming into a seal, applauding. "Time to hit the road!"
"How are you gonna get there?" Robin asked. "Your powers are still regenerating - if that's even the right word to use."
Raven shrugged. "We've driven spaceships and submarines, I can drive a car."
Robin, Cyborg and Starfire looked at one another, uncertain. Raven scowled. Cyborg stepped forward, cautious.
"Autopilot's a commonplace function now. I'm sure we can get you a car that can do that. Maybe you can stop by the East Coast to Steel City with me first before you go."
Raven's scowl disappeared. She definitely would rather not drive miles east and north across the country to get to Ohio.
"That'll be much appreciated, thanks. The drive was the thing I was least looking forward to."
"Then it is the solo road trip!" exclaimed Starfire.
"That's right, sister!" exclaimed Gar, his imaginary self trying to high-five Starfire. "No turning back!"