Raven-Star – When Realities Collide
By Phluph, © 2006-2007
Authors note
Legal: Though loosely based on the Teen Titans comic book and TV series, this is a wholly original parody and fanart work that contains original characters by me as well as those from Teen Titans. As the original comic books and the television series only loosely correlate with each other and are often downright contradictory, this work continues in the same vein. Don't expect things here to fit with the books or the series cause they won't. DC Comics who own Teen Titans have given no approvals of any sort to this original work.
Random: Uh, since this is part-2 in a series I highly recommend that you also read and in fact start, with the 1st in the series, RavenStar - The Rise of Phoenix. If you don't there may be a huge WTF? cause this series is unlike anything else out there on the Net dealing with our favorite couple.
Ah Love! Could you and I with Him conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would we not shatter it to bits – and then
Re-mould it to our Hearts Desire!
-Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Prologue
Trigon, the Multiverse's most ancient evil being had been destroyed by the entity named Phoenix. Also known as the 'Two-who-are-One', Phoenix was an Eternal, part of an ephemeral non-physical race that exists outside of space, time, and the Multiverse itself. She was created from the blending of the two lovers known as Raven and Starfire who had been forever changed by the now extinct Azar according to a plan formulated at the dawn of Time in Earth's Multiverse by the rest of Trigon's own race and another rather enigmatic Eternal (and their new lover) Res'al.
After spending a few millenia – or was it days? ... Phoenix was lately beginning to forget the difference -- with Res'al in her own private realm she had created (complete with Titans Tower which Raven and Starfire had taken with them when they left Earth) and had named Big Rock Candy Mountain or BRCM for short, they had been reminded that Phoenix did not necessarily need to present themselves as a single being. Whenever desired they could again split herselves into their all but separate entities of Raven and Starfire. Still forever joined as one in mind and spirit they could nonetheless once again interact with each other and the physical world as individuals or as Phoenix at will.
Needless to say, after remembering this the two-who-were-one as Phoenix immediately discorporated into themselves once again to relive the joy of sharing each others bodies as well as their minds. At first their thoughts were again only of each other and Res'al left them alone to rediscover what they thought they had given up forever when they merged together and were reborn as Phoenix. More unknown time passed until eventually their minds again turned to Res'al who of course knew their thoughts and promptly rejoined them.
To put it mildly, a great time was had by all and for ages – or was it hours? It did seem to all run together... all was right with their existence.
Too bad the prime bugaboo of being an Eternal was beginning to raise its tedious head again.
Chapter-1
Strangeness in BRCM
Starfire, Raven and Ressie (as of late Res'al had been taking on a positively delicious female avatar form that Star and Raven had worked out for her) had been enjoying themselves in a dark forest glade on the far side of their little realm. To 'keep her warrior edge' as Starfire had put it, she had lately taken to creating simulacrum's of some of the most dangerous creatures they had encountered in their travels through time and space to use for battle practice. Raven added the touch of having them appear at random whenever they were in BRCM and added the rule of no using super-normal (for them) powers when fighting them – only their original powers and skills were to be used. As Ressie/Res'al had no such baseline to work with they had settled on basic athletic skills for her along with flight and taught her all they knew of physical fighting techniques. Luckily she proved a very quick learner.
Ressie had once asked what the point of it was and both Starfire and Raven pointed out that if they were going to interact with the physical races then they needed to stay in practice dealing with conflicts using powers more in line with those races and not those of what many would call a god. Considering that Ressie had always encouraged them to stay in-touch with the physical races she couldn't argue with that logic. Her only concern was their continuing desire to 'Do Good'. She felt that Life has to sort itself out and interference by beings such as they was not a good thing but... as long as they kept at least some sense of mortality when doing it then hopefully things would balance out.
Needless to say, when having their 'practice sessions' and bound by those rules they didn't always win against the creatures that were created. Often at least one of them and occasionally all three ended up getting their avatars shredded and more than once, eaten by some of the creatures. The first time one of them was actually eaten it was Ressie and she had found it a rather fascinating experience. Over the course of several more of these battles both Starfire and Raven each, and once the two together as Phoenix also soon got themselves devoured and agreed it was quite bizarre. However, afterwards they also fought much harder to not get killed or at least not eaten as it was not exactly pleasant.
Today had been one of their better battles with all three finishing mostly unscathed. The last of a pack of Rigelian were-beasts had just been crushed by a boulder thrown by Starfire when she told them she was getting 'The Hunger' as she so quaintly put it. She phased from the glade to the kitchen in Titans Tower and was soon poking around in the refrigerator in for something to eat.
Remembering an earlier time when Starfire had ran off for something to eat, Raven frowned as she watched the bodies scattered about the glade faded back into the quantum mists. "Oh no. I reeeeally hope she goes for pizza" Raven said as she too started to feel a bit peckish.
Starfire wasn't quite sure what she wanted which was fine with her. She enjoyed rummaging through the cold storage box with the 'Blue non-moving Furries' it made sure were always there for her. She was quite proud that when she and Raven together as Phoenix had created this 'scenario' as Res'al had called it, she had insisted that part of the setup was a refrigerator and kitchen that always remain stocked with her and Raven's favorite foods of the moment.
Since becoming an Eternal she and Raven may not need food (or air or water or anything else for that matter) to live, that didn't mean they didn't like to eat and drink just for the enjoyment of it. Res'al however didn't and frankly thought it rather bizarre to create food and drink and then ingest it just to savor it's physical sensations in their very thoroughly anatomically complete avatars until they made it go away again. He put it to their humanoid beginnings and felt it was an odd but harmless habit they'd eventually give up.
Starfire knew that Raven and Res'al were probably enjoying each others company after the battle but Raven would no doubt join her shortly. It was pretty much a given that whenever she or Raven got a craving for something the other eventually would too. "All part of what we've become" she thought to herself. "For now we may be 'ourselves' but still we are one.
Now, what to consume? Hmm, the little frozen checkerboards that become warm and brown? No... Perhaps with the furry little blue berries?" She gave a frown. Usually the refrigerator helped her along with it's idea of what she wanted.
"You are being the most unhelpful" she scolded it. As if to say it was sorry, an immense round and pungent wheel of Blue Furry Something appeared on the shelf in front of her. As its visible tendrils of stench tickled her nose she squealed with delight and seized it. With the wheel held tightly to her chest, almost dancing she closed the door with a happy spin.
"Glorious! I have not had this since I was a child on Tamaran!" She stepped back and gave a small curtsy, "Thank you most wonderful cold box of food." She could swear that the refrigerator slightly blushed in response.
"I do most dearly love this place" she said as she grabbed a large bottle of mustard and after thoroughly drenching the blue and furry wheel of very ripe and living Tamaranian cheese, ravenously tore into it. As she did, on the other side of the Big Rock-Candy Mountains Raven suddenly gagged as her face screwed up into a horrid grimace. She jumped up, began spitting and frantically pawing at her tongue with both hands then let out a disgusted "GLLAAAaaaahhh!" As she struggled to regain her composure she gasped to her startled companion "Oh... my... GOD!!!"
Tears were starting to drip down her cheeks, as her nose began to run she clutched her stomach which gave a loud and prolonged gurgle followed by her letting loose a great rumbling belch. She momentarily caught her breath and cursed "WHAT IN ALL OUR CREATION DID SHE FIND TO EAT?" then started gagging again. "Enough of this crap!" she finally managed to wheeze out as she killed her senses of taste and smell, wiped her eyes and blew the snot from her nose.
Rolling on the grass almost curled in a ball on the grass Ressie was convulsing in silent laughter at the spectacle with tears steaming from her eyes. "IT'S NOT FUNNY!" Raven snarled as she fired a searing dark bolt of energy at her. It was harmless to Ressie of course but made Raven's point by leaving a huge patch of burnt grass around her still convulsing companion.
"STARFIRE!" she angrily called as she phased over to where her other-half was at, leaving her very amused companion still rolling on the smoldering and blackened ground with a wide grin on her face.
"Whee ha! That was good!" She wiped the tears from her face and gave a sniff. "Woof... I think I'll leave those two alone for a bit though..." Ressie said to herself as she finally stopped laughing as hard. She gave another little chuckle thinking, "I told them it wasn't a good idea to share all their physical senses!" and that started off yet another round of hard laughter as she faded out from their little scenario.
A dark circular portal appeared on the floor near the kitchen counter and a rather miffed Raven rose out of it with eyes blazing. "STARFIRE! What in our world IS that foul stuff you're eating!" she yelled. While she could no longer smell it, she saw a green miasma rolling across the top of the table and down onto the floor that was emanating from a huge plate of some hideously blue, furry, and very runny looking block of – something.
A startled Starfire raised her now also blue and fuzzy face from her mawing with a questioning "Mmfff?" from her overstuffed mouth. Raven at first just gaped at her, then sniggered, followed by outright laughing. Her anger vanished as she took in the sight: Starting with the fact that Starfire was naked (they usually were when here) from all appearances she must have been rolling in as well as eating whatever it was she had come up with. The stuff was all over the counter and floor around her. She was almost covered from head to toe in great dripping smears and gobs of the blue – whatever it was – along with almost as much bright yellow stuff.
"Knowing Star, the yellow is probably mustard" Raven thought. As she watched, the blue smears on Starfire, floor, and the counter were forming their own little swirling green fog around her.
Starfire swallowed and now positively beaming, she proudly raised the plate to Raven's face. "Is this not the most wonderful food you have ever seen? It is a special cheese from my tribes area on Tamaran where it was made only once every 3 years! While each tribe has their own version, it is said that ours was the finest. Created from the fermented squeezings of the male Glorfalger, it is aged in great pits dug into the Fellian swamp."Her eyes glazed slightly in fond memory as she gushed "It takes almost the entire three years to properly ripen like this! Still I can remember the wonderful smells as the Northern winds from across the swamp blew into my bedroom when I was a child. This is the reason for my fondness of the Blue Furries in this box of cold!" She dipped her fingers into the blue goo and tried to put some in Raven's mouth. "You simply must try some!"
Raven began to feel her stomach roll again and gently pushed the plate away along with Starfire's hand. "I think I'llll pass on this one" she nervously drawled.
"But Raven! It is a most delicious and special food with living microscopic lifeforms that are most good for you. At the great Festival of Ripeness all the young who have or are coming of age in the local clans from the area during the three years since the last Festival are thrown by their elders into the blue pits naked to swim in this glorious runny food and gather strength from it. It is then collected into great basins where excess fluid is pressed from it with the feet and then hand-formed to make the Wheels of Great Blue Pleasure to be shared by all. The juice collected is used for many great toasting's at the end of the festival." She again pressed the plate of definitely living furry blue goo towards Raven.
That was just too much. Raven's stomach gave a lurch making her turn and double over with a dry-heave. Crestfallen, Starfire felt and saw Raven's discomfort. "I am sorry my love. I forget that the Tamaranian sense of taste is – different – from most other races."
Raven recovered a bit and wisecracked "Different does not even approach it! And it's not just your taste, it's your sense of smell as well" as she wrinkled her nose. Raising an eyebrow she looked at Starfire, "Just what did you do? Try swimming it?"
Starfire looked herself over and brightened a little. "It is to my people much like the catnip to Earth's feline creatures, I could not resist the feel of it upon me again. While there was not enough to swim in there was more than enough to roll in. The juice from it makes the skin tingle and very tough to help resist injury. It brought back some of the few good memories I have of Tamaran. The last time I enjoyed this rarity was just before I was betrayed by my parents and sister." Starfire became quiet after saying that and gave a little sniff.
Now it was Raven's turn to feel guilty. She steeled herself for what was to come and glided over to Starfire. She gave her a powerful hug and as she scraped some of the goo off of Star's face told her "I'm sorry. I know there are many things you love to eat that I think are revolting to even be near but it's part of what makes you so special. Only next time, please do us a favor and warn me to shut down the appropriate senses, okay?" With a slight shudder Raven sloughed a large mass of the stuff out of Starfire's hair. "It's not like you and I need anything to 'help us resist injury'. You know that nothing in or out of existence can ever really hurt us now." With a puzzled look she added "How did the magic fridge come up with that stuff anyway?"
"That is a most good question. I have not thought about Wheels of Great Blue Pleasure since I first left Tamaran. I simply could not decide what I wanted, scolded the cold box, and this appeared upon the shelf. When I thanked it the box blushed."
"Okaaay, somethings not right here. You know that's not how it's supposed to work. What you most likely want is supposed to be inside of it before you open the door. It shouldn't make..." Raven blinked as it occurred just what Starfire had said. "You said the refrigerator blushed? We didn't give it personality or any ability to do more than supply food and keep it cold. Where did that come from?"
Starfire raised her arm and touched her lip in thought, as she did the slowly drying goo began to crack. "I do not know. At the time I was so delighted with the Wheel that I did not question it. However now, that it has been said..." A large chunk of the goo fell off her arm to the floor with a wet thud.
Starfire smirked and giggled, "I think it is time to remove this..." Raven caught that Starfire was about to make the blue goo vanish and stopped her. Her now blue fingers were very pleasantly tingling as were her breasts from the goo smeared on them during their hug and a thought came to her: "As long as I can't smell or taste it anymore, I have a better idea." She raised a devilish eyebrow and slyly asked, "Does this stuff make everything it touches feel this – alive."
Starfire's eyes lit up as she picked up on what her other half was thinking. "Oh most indeed it does! While our adolescent males and females swim in it there is much of the orgasm enjoyed by all from it. It is where the 'Pleasure" comes in the name of the cheese!" she bubbled.
That got another raised eyebrow from Raven. "Uhhh huh... Ah, I'mmm not sure if you meant to say it like that or not, but let's see if we can enjoy some of that 'Pleasure' as well..."
Ressie was puzzled. Even by the unusual reckoning of it in BCRM, Phoenix had been out of contact with her for quite some time. She sped a thought towards them and in reply received a dreamy sounding "...It'sss sooooo bluuuuue..." along with a very confused and quite psychedelic collection of mostly blue-tinged images, swirls of other colors, along with very sensual feelings and emotions. The profound intensity and totality of these effects on Phoenix startled Ressie yet carried the hallmarks of being created by Phoenix herselves. Even from this minor contact with their minds, whatever was causing it was beginning to also effect her. This needed looking into...
A bit concerned, Ressie broke the link and projected a piece of herself into their tower. On arriving she found the tower's main room a disaster. It and the adjacent kitchen were totally covered with a furry blue mess as was the entire couch and floor in front of it, even the walls and ceiling were dripping with the stuff. The air was thick with a green mist rising from everything that was covered with the blue goo. "Great googly moogly! What had those two been doing?" she thought. "Eyuck!" At that, without even a conscious thought the furry mess and mist vanished leaving the area once again spotless and with a hint of cloves and mustard in the air.
Having eternity to kill, Ressie wandered around the tower to find her spacey lovebirds. All too shortly, she finally found them floating just above the roof meditating as the Four-legged Beast with Two Heads. Both were motionless. Looking like a Hindu temple tableau Raven had once shared the memory of with her, they were completely covered in the same blue goo she had found inside. Long ago it had dried to a fine light-blue powder now encasing their beautiful forms, each had their head buried in the others crotch with eyes closed and a look of utter bliss on their faces. From the condition of their dusty covering it appeared they had been unmoving in that pose for a very very long time.
Ressie gently touched their minds: "Err?" She was rather surprised when even though they were still split as Raven and Starfire, it again was Phoenix who with a mental yawn and stretch replied, "Mmmm, finally decided to show up did you? You have noidea of what you just missed!" A blurry recap of their experience flashed through Ressie's mind. "Ah, been enjoying a psychoactive fungus have you?" As the intertwined two stirred and slowly separated, the blue covering them cracked and began to fall off. They then morphed into Phoenix's single avatar leaving the dried cheese dust heaped in a pile around her.
Stirring the blue pile with a toe Phoenix snapped into mental clarity. "Psychoactive? Hmm. Yes, that would explain much of what this stuff does. Only when joined as Phoenix have we ever felt so close, felt such ecstasy!" Phoenix frowned, "Question is, when Star talked about it why didn't that possibility occur to Raven? I should have known better! "
Ressie was more than a little concerned about that as well. "I think that should be obvious – once Starfire embraced it's effects your link with her carried part of it over to you clouding Raven's judgment. As for Star knowing what it did to you, well, her mind was already out the window. You know, I think you're carrying this 'physical' part of your avatars too far. If simple substances like that fungus can effect you like that..."
"Yes yes, you're right. We need to stay more disconnected. Is that why you always have at least a few other bits of yourself spread around everywhere?" They knew that right now several pieces of Ressie or whatever they called themselves at the moment were wandering around in three galaxies inside their original Multiverse along with a few dozen more bits that were spread throughout the quantum mists in the rest of Eternity.
"I hadn't thought of it that way but yes, it does keep one a lot less focused and whatever its nature, drastically mitigates the effects of an assault on any single avatar. More to the point, even as only one you must always keep your minds at least partly separated from the avatar's!
When she first ate some of that moldy cheese and you had that hilarious fit, what physical aspects did you shut down – I'm willing to bet that it was only taste and smell and you left the rest active, right?" Pointing to the pile, "By all means go ahead and enjoy stuff like that but please keep a part distant and observing, ready to step in if needed."
"Fit? Please, what was your 'Fit'?"
"Ah, something like this..." Raven replied. The scene replayed through Phoenix's minds and she began to quiver and chortle. A snort escaped and a trembling wide grin appeared as Raven remembered and Starfire saw it not only from Raven's view but also through Ressie's eyes. "Oh I am sorry my love but that truly was most humorous! "
"Not for me at the time it wasn't! Now, what happened later... that's a different story!"
"I know, but I truly did not know of just what the Blue Wheels of Pleasure contained, only that to my people they were a source of great enjoyment."
"Ya think?!!! Just how long do your youths swim in that stuff?"
"Only a few hours at a time and many times a day over the course of the festival but it is only for those coming of age. Those who are younger are by tradition not permitted any contact with it and those who have already come of age and gone through the ritual generally only smear a band of it upon the forehead along with eating it and drinking its pressed juices."
"No wonder your people are so – unusual. That much exposure to such a powerful psychoactive would definitely have permanent effects for expansion of consciousness and who know what else."
"!!!"
"What?"
"Raven, when my sister and I were very young, no more than 6, my sister... We were playing in the swamps near where the pits of blue cheese ferments in our tribes area. None as young as we were are allowed there but, well, Blackfire had said that she had found a great secret in the swamps and wanted to show it to me. I asked what it was and she showed me a thin blue smear of something on her palm and said that it tingled. She pressed it to my forehead. From there I remember very little except wandering through the swamps to where she found it. It was one of the great blue pits she led us to. I think she had me move to the edge of it saying I could better see shapes in the green mists rising from the blue substance. Raven, she pushed me in! Before I passed out I remember her laughing at me, calling me little miss blue frog.
I do not know how long I was in it or how I was found and saved. I do remember waking up in my bed and hearing our healers talking; They were quite amazed that I was still alive. Many years later I found out that throughout our entire history only a handful of young children survived that much contact with the cheese. Nothing special was ever noted about them and when it was time, all went through the Festival of Ripeness just fine, as did I."
"And you think that may have something to do with what we've become? It's quite possible. What happened to Blackfire?"
"She was sent to our southern border to work on one of our relatives farms for several years. Now that I think about it, the area were she was sent was the same one that was disputed and I given to the Southern Tribes for.
That BITCH! I have the strong feeling that it SHE who caused the dispute to begin with! I later found out that while she was there, there were several very odd deaths of youths on both sides of the border." Starfire was beginning to fume. "I am now not so sure that Blackfire's punishment was enough!"
"Trust me Star, with at least a few more millenia of oversized pigeons crapping on her and Karras ahead of them, I think it is. What I wonder about is how the blue goo got on your sister's hand and what influence it may have had on her actions. If that stuff is what I think it might be..."
Ressie noticed the lapse in Phoenix's attention: "Talking to yourself again?"
Phoenix again snapped back to the now, "Hmm? Sorry, we just had a thought. Remember when we were becoming Phoenix and first met you? Starfire had just asked Arella what it was the First One's and the Ancients had done to make Tamaran part of what would become – me? Is it possible that it could have been the introduction of a mind-altering fungus to part of the Tamaranian life-cycle?"
Ressie shot a glancing thought at the dried blue pile and examined the fungal structures. "Odd solution but possible. The fungus is rather unique and when alive somewhat mobile but, why are you asking me? Go back and take a look for yourself to see what they did."
Phoenix smacked herself on the head, phased out and seconds later re-appeared. "Well that answered that. Why didn't we think of that before!"
"Because you were having too much fun?"
This time Phoenix gave a solid wide smile. "That we have been my dear, that we have." The smile then faded and was followed by a rather glum look. "Anyway, yes the Blue Goo is the key. It not only enhances the abilities of the people of Tamaran but also is their means of non-physical ascension.
While the non-physical abilities of the people themselves does not evolve – yet – the goo's does and with each generation of mingling between it and Starfire's people the bond between them grows. When it is complete we expect that the people of Tamaran will in some form become joined to the stuff. When it happens they may follow the path of the Azar and finally break their physical bonds.That's going to be interesting to follow.
Even though the goo is not by any means capable of rational thought as even we can conceive, it carries the racial memory of Tamaran and at times can move with purpose like a slime mold. All of the great blue pits on Tamaran are actually linked together through a fine web of tendrils running through the planets crust. For now at least, not until it is joined with a young Tamaranian host does their collective abilities usually assert themselves."
Phoenix gave a little sniff, "Without the goo, Tamaran would be no different than any other humanoid world. Perhaps the name 'Troq' truly is deserved by us." she said sadly.
"So any humanoid would react the same to prolonged exposure to it?"
"Well, no. The goo is keyed to Tamaranian physiology. It asserts its psychoactive effects in others but that is all. It cannot survive in any other host nor induce the bevy of other changes it does to the Tamaranian's."
"Well then Tamaran still sounds pretty special to me."
That brightened up Phoenix. "You're right! You know, the next planet the Ancients tinkered with was Nox. So maybe..."
"Tamaran was the prototype of planetary consciousness with the goo being the repository instead of the entire planet itself. Like I said, sounds pretty special to me."
Ressie was about to say something else when suddenly an immense fireball along with an incredible stench enveloped both her, Phoenix and the entire top of the tower.
10
