ysabetwordsmith (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ysabetwordsmith) wrote2014-07-22 02:12 am
ysabetwordsmith) wrote2014-07-22 02:12 am
Entry tags:
Poem: "Friendship Is Important"
This poem is kind of an elegy, thus posted free. It fills the "coma" square in my 6-10-14 card for the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
hc_bingo fest. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.
"Friendship Is Important"
By the time Joan Henson finally
talked her husband Tim into the hospital,
he could barely breathe.
The doctors diagnosed
a severe bacterial infection of the lungs,
which they treated with aggressive antibiotics,
but nothing seemed to help.
Tim Henson slipped into a coma.
"I'm so sorry," said Dr. Chakraborty.
"There's just nothing else we can do.
The world will miss him so much.
My children learned to speak English
from watching Semolina Lane."
Joan just held her husband's limp hand and cried.
When Tim Henson woke up,
he felt perfectly fine,
better than he had in years.
Joan was asleep over the foot of his bed,
and someone had tucked a Floppit under his hand.
The hospital sounded oddly quiet at first,
then even noisier than ever.
A policeman stuck his head into the room
and then yelled, "Nurse! Nurse!
Mr. Henson is awake."
Nurses and doctors swarmed around Tim's bed,
urgently checking the state of his health,
but the findings made little sense to them.
"I don't ... I don't think I'm sick anymore,"
he said, as baffled as they were.
"Well, either you just experienced a miracle,
or somebody healed you," said Dr. Chakraborty.
Joan woke up and started crying again,
but this time they were happy tears.
Tim clung to her for comfort.
"Do you remember anything that happened?"
one of the policemen asked Tim.
"Somebody infiltrated the hospital
then stunned a bunch of security guards,
along with some of the staff on this floor.
All the cameras have been wiped clean."
"No, I don't remember anything," Tim said.
"I wish I could be of more help."
"Maybe Taggert the Toad saw something,"
the officer said with a wink, nodding at
the Floppit which lay by Tim's side, distinctive
with its warty green skin and black freckles.
It was an old habit, an old comfort,
for Tim to slip his hand into the soft puppet
and say, "Hello, I'm Taggert the Toad and --"
Then he broke off in surprise,
pulling a slip of paper from the toy.
It unfolded to reveal a looping, girlish script:
Sorry I wasn't able to ask
for your permission first,
but I couldn't just let you die.
Don't worry about the guards;
they're all fine.
:)
"Holy shit, I recognize that handwriting!"
the policeman exclaimed.
"That note is from Dr. Infanta.
She could have killed everyone in sight."
"She could have," Tim said slowly,
"but she didn't."
While everyone else ran around
trying to find evidence and explanations,
the master puppeteer stroked the Floppit
left for him by a notorious supervillain,
and pondered the implications.
A month later, Tim Henson
released a special episode of
"Taggert the Toad Talks to Kids,"
which usually ran as one of
several segments in Semolina Lane.
"Friendship is important," Taggert began.
"Life can get really tough sometimes,
but friends make it easier to get through.
So work on being the best friend you can,
because you never know when
you might need a helping hand --
or have a chance to give one."
The world heaved a collective sigh of relief,
grateful that Tim Henson was still with them,
but really he was talking to one person
and he knew she was listening.
* * *
Notes:
Part of the inspiration for this poem came from exploring divergence points between local-Earth and Terramagne. So we had Jim Henson and Jane Henson. They have Tim Henson and Joan Henson. You can read about the tragic death of Jim Henson online.
In our world, Muppets are a type of puppet used in puppetry theatre. Terramagne has Floppits.
Here, Sesame Street is a famous children's show. Terramagne has Semolina Lane, which is named after a fairy tale character variously called Mr. Semolina or Sir Marzipan. I did my own rendition of that fairy tale in "Husband By Hand."
Kermit the Frog is probably the best known of the Muppets. Taggert the Toad, in Terramagne, is a green toad.
Healing is a common superpower. Click the link and look at the illustrative video. That guy? Is one of the creepiest fucking supervillains in the history of ever, with NO respect for anyone's agency or body autonomy. A responsible healer always gets permission before acting, although there are alternatives for when verbal permission is unfeasible. So here we have a supervillain doing something beneficial for really selfish reasons.
Tim being Tim, he correctly intuits that Dr. Infanta could use a good friend, because she doesn't have many, and puts himself forward, Taggert and all. Friendship is a vital part of life, and friends help each other in many ways. It just doesn't always look like people expect it to. Know how to be a good friend and how to help a friend in need.
hc_bingo fest. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics."Friendship Is Important"
By the time Joan Henson finally
talked her husband Tim into the hospital,
he could barely breathe.
The doctors diagnosed
a severe bacterial infection of the lungs,
which they treated with aggressive antibiotics,
but nothing seemed to help.
Tim Henson slipped into a coma.
"I'm so sorry," said Dr. Chakraborty.
"There's just nothing else we can do.
The world will miss him so much.
My children learned to speak English
from watching Semolina Lane."
Joan just held her husband's limp hand and cried.
When Tim Henson woke up,
he felt perfectly fine,
better than he had in years.
Joan was asleep over the foot of his bed,
and someone had tucked a Floppit under his hand.
The hospital sounded oddly quiet at first,
then even noisier than ever.
A policeman stuck his head into the room
and then yelled, "Nurse! Nurse!
Mr. Henson is awake."
Nurses and doctors swarmed around Tim's bed,
urgently checking the state of his health,
but the findings made little sense to them.
"I don't ... I don't think I'm sick anymore,"
he said, as baffled as they were.
"Well, either you just experienced a miracle,
or somebody healed you," said Dr. Chakraborty.
Joan woke up and started crying again,
but this time they were happy tears.
Tim clung to her for comfort.
"Do you remember anything that happened?"
one of the policemen asked Tim.
"Somebody infiltrated the hospital
then stunned a bunch of security guards,
along with some of the staff on this floor.
All the cameras have been wiped clean."
"No, I don't remember anything," Tim said.
"I wish I could be of more help."
"Maybe Taggert the Toad saw something,"
the officer said with a wink, nodding at
the Floppit which lay by Tim's side, distinctive
with its warty green skin and black freckles.
It was an old habit, an old comfort,
for Tim to slip his hand into the soft puppet
and say, "Hello, I'm Taggert the Toad and --"
Then he broke off in surprise,
pulling a slip of paper from the toy.
It unfolded to reveal a looping, girlish script:
Sorry I wasn't able to ask
for your permission first,
but I couldn't just let you die.
Don't worry about the guards;
they're all fine.
:)
"Holy shit, I recognize that handwriting!"
the policeman exclaimed.
"That note is from Dr. Infanta.
She could have killed everyone in sight."
"She could have," Tim said slowly,
"but she didn't."
While everyone else ran around
trying to find evidence and explanations,
the master puppeteer stroked the Floppit
left for him by a notorious supervillain,
and pondered the implications.
A month later, Tim Henson
released a special episode of
"Taggert the Toad Talks to Kids,"
which usually ran as one of
several segments in Semolina Lane.
"Friendship is important," Taggert began.
"Life can get really tough sometimes,
but friends make it easier to get through.
So work on being the best friend you can,
because you never know when
you might need a helping hand --
or have a chance to give one."
The world heaved a collective sigh of relief,
grateful that Tim Henson was still with them,
but really he was talking to one person
and he knew she was listening.
* * *
Notes:
Part of the inspiration for this poem came from exploring divergence points between local-Earth and Terramagne. So we had Jim Henson and Jane Henson. They have Tim Henson and Joan Henson. You can read about the tragic death of Jim Henson online.
In our world, Muppets are a type of puppet used in puppetry theatre. Terramagne has Floppits.
Here, Sesame Street is a famous children's show. Terramagne has Semolina Lane, which is named after a fairy tale character variously called Mr. Semolina or Sir Marzipan. I did my own rendition of that fairy tale in "Husband By Hand."
Kermit the Frog is probably the best known of the Muppets. Taggert the Toad, in Terramagne, is a green toad.
Healing is a common superpower. Click the link and look at the illustrative video. That guy? Is one of the creepiest fucking supervillains in the history of ever, with NO respect for anyone's agency or body autonomy. A responsible healer always gets permission before acting, although there are alternatives for when verbal permission is unfeasible. So here we have a supervillain doing something beneficial for really selfish reasons.
Tim being Tim, he correctly intuits that Dr. Infanta could use a good friend, because she doesn't have many, and puts himself forward, Taggert and all. Friendship is a vital part of life, and friends help each other in many ways. It just doesn't always look like people expect it to. Know how to be a good friend and how to help a friend in need.
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