Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans.
CHANGELING
It's been a long night.
Hours and hours of finding, fighting, and capturing villains. Hours and hours of walking, running, clawing, punching, and biting... Only now are Hex and Robyn finally calling it quits, nearly four hours after we started.
That means it's… four-thirty in the morning. I'm dead tired still, but a bit peckish from all that work. Hopefully Crow won't mind making something for me, 'cause I doubt I'll be going back to sleep for a bit; I'm too awake for that now.
Speaking of Crow. Demon, huh? Honestly, I couldn't care less. I thought Crow would have known me well enough at this point to figure out that I wouldn't give a shit, but such a deeply fear is hard to shake. Ah whatever, it'll do him good to hear I'm indifferent; it was clearly freaking him out before.
"Here they are." Robyn sighs, standing up from where she had been sitting.
Me, Rob, Star, Hex, KF, Arachne, Conan, Gizmo, and Mammoth had all been waiting around the parking lot of the (closed at the moment) Pizza Place for Cyborg and Crow, who had been paired together as a 'strike group' as Hex called it.
Oh yeah; by the way, Rob was not happy about me recruiting the HIVE to help, and was doubly not happy about me actually giving Hex command of the situation. I say no harm no foul, Hex kept up his part of the deal, and even went above and beyond. Hell, the whole HIVE even stuck around afterwards when they could have just as easily bailed when the job was done.
There's also this Kid Flash person. Rob recognized her actually, apparently they're friends. Little KF seems to like what she sees though; she's been constantly looking at me whenever she thinks I'm not looking. It's rather cute actually.
Speaking of cute, Crow's here! He's just shuffling along behind Cyborg as they round the corner. Cyborg waves a hand and greets everyone, and I return the gesture absently, my attention obviously behind her. Crow, for his part, notices my fixation. Rather than moving towards me as he would usually, the small boy instead averts his eyes, pulling his cloak further over his body and tugging his hood lower on his face.
Geeze, was he expecting me to react that badly? C'mon Ru, it's me… Ah whatever, this gives me a perfect excuse for another hug anyways, I won't complain.
So, ignoring the conversations happening around me, I stride right past everyone else and make a bee-line for Crow. The sorcerer actually cowers when I stop in front of him.
"H-Hi Ch-Changeling." Crow stammers, still not looking at me. He's so awkward it's painful.
"Crow." I say flatly, keeping my voice as neutral as possible. "You're back."
"Ye-Yes." He gulps. "I-I am."
The pause is tense, Crow expecting me to respond but me not saying anything. I'm just about to drop my silence, and my charade of cold neutrality, when Crow speaks again.
"A-About that b-before." He stammers, his words coming out in a bit of a rush. "I-I d-didn't w-want to t-tell you because I kn-knew you'd be m-mad-"
"Crow."
"-o-or that you w-wouldn't like m-me anymore," he babbles, "b-because de-demons are e-evil and b-bad-"
"Crow!"
"-b-but I d-don't want that t-to happen b-because I like y-you," his voice is growing hoarse, and his small frame shrinks in on itself, curling into something that looks like a bow, "and, and-"
"Ruban!"
He freezes, though doesn't look up at me.
This is actually worse than I expected, I thought he was just a bit nervous, not on the verge of panicking. Guess I underestimated the whole 'deep-rooted fear' thing. "Come here Crow." I sigh.
He takes a few hesitant steps forward, his eyes fearfully glancing up at me for a moment before going back to the ground. When I reach out an arm he actually flinches, like he expects me to hit him or something.
I am, of course, doing nothing of the sort. My arm reaches in his cloak, looping under his shoulders and tugging him forward. My other arm quickly reaches out to wrap around his waist and hoist him into the air.
I can feel the tension in his body; he's coiled like a spring and still not looking at me. Despite my arm under his shoulders, his hands are still pulled defensively in front of his body, curled into small fists. I try to ease his tension, and start rubbing his back with the hand around his waist.
"Ru," I say softly, leaning forward and bumping my nose against his forehead, "it's fine. I don't care. You're just you. Race isn't a problem."
"B-But d-demons are e-evil." He croaks.
"Clearly not, I see one right in front of me who isn't." I respond. "Look at me? Please?"
He slowly, timidly, brings his gaze up to meet mine. Even then his eyes flick away a few times, still cripplingly nervous. When he finally settles, I take a moment to just look, taking in his large, innocent, eyes.
"See?" I say, putting all I can into an affectionate smile. "Do I look angry?"
"N-No." Crow stammers. He hesitantly pulls his arms away from his chest and delicately places them on my shoulders. This is important, because it signals an end to his defensive body language. "You're smiling…"
"Of course I am. How can I not when I have an adorable friend like you?" I coo, leaning forward to nuzzle his nose with mine. This prompts a very flustered squeak from the sorcerer, who's cheeks go slightly red. "And I have more reason to smile now that you feel better!"
"Ah- Well- Um-" He searches for words while staring up at me with wide eyes. "Th-That's good. I like it when you smile..."
"Aw, thank you." I purr. I'm only partially conscious of the fact that my voice has dropped into it's usual husky tone rather than the light one I normally use with him, or that my eyelids have partially drawn over my eyes to give me a bit of a smoky gaze. "Can I get you to smile too?"
Crow squirms for a moment, his blush growing a tad brighter, but he does eek out a small, timid smile while shyly looking up at me with those large eyes of his.
I can't resist giving him a small squeeze, Crow is just too adorable sometimes.
KID FLASH
So, long story short, the HIVE were given a clean slate (at least in regards to the Titans; they can't speak for the JCPD) which is great! I really wouldn't have wanted to chase down my new buddy. Hex is a lot of fun, even if he didn't trust me at first.
I mean, I didn't totally trust him either, but I didn't try to 'test' him the first chance I got. I only did it 'cause he did.
So, yeah, new friend. He's not the strongest ever, but he knows how to use what he has. Plus, he's actually friendly; not at all what I expected a villain to be like. Oh, and he has a cool hat, can't forget that.
By the way, remember how he 'tested' me and then I said I wanted him to try and solo the next villain we came across? Yeah, we kinda ran into someone Hex knew, a lady in a suit called 'Killer Moth'. They had a rather heated argument about the morality of… whatever it is Killer Moth was doing, and then started fighting. Unfortunately, Hex was severely outmatched on his own, what with all the giant moths that just popped out of nowhere, so I had to step in and help.
I felt kinda bad after that, I had just intended to give him a taste of his own medicine, not kill his ego and embarrass him in front of the police (who were watching, 'cause that's what they were told to do).
So, yeah. Despite not endearing myself to him all that much, he was rather cool about it. Not particularly happy of course, but he didn't blame me or anything. At least we made a good team after all that 'testing' bull was done with. I'm a bit stronger than him overall I think, but magic has a ton of uses, even if Hex is mostly limited to just offensive blasts.
Other highlights of the night were apparently spider girl and Conan running into something called 'Kardiak', Gizmo and Mammoth squaring off with a human-sized robot that called itself 'Atlas', and Robyn and Changeling running into a biker named 'Jane Rancid' who almost broke Rob's arm.
Oh, oh! Right, almost forgot. See, the media and the public have been curious about the mysterious fifth member of the Titans since the team assembled. I've seen countless articles online or in papers and magazines about just what is below that ominous blue cloak of theirs. They speculated that, due to the small stature, they might be a midget, or (so says the church) a demon due to the use of dark magic. The internet, of course, tends to forget the whole height thing and speculates that it's some ruggedly handsome but tragically shunned sorcerer under the cloak.
I can say with all certainty, that this is not the case. Though I think truth might be stranger than fiction here. So, see, apparently Changeling has some sort of relationship with him, because as soon as they and Cyborg came back, the green girl ignored the metal Titan completely and went to talk with the sorcerer (and when I say 'talk' I mean cuddle and flirt). Part way through their 'talk' the guy's hood fell off.
Apparently the mysterious fifth Titan is actually a ten years old kid with grey skin and purple hair and eyes. Also, his eyes seem a bit too large to be natural, it's sorta off-putting actually. Wait, if he and Changeling are romantically involved (as their 'talk' would seem to imply) does that make Changeling a pedophile? Wow… I mean, I suppose it's not that big a deal to me. Anyone willing to put their life on the line to help others has my vote of confidence for being a morally upstanding individual, but the public and the media will certainly not approve. Heck, they'd probably throw a fit over a ten year old being on the team at all!
I guess that's why the kid hides from the cameras though. Smart choice. I'll stop staring now, they're having a moment.
Guess I won't get a date with Changeling anytime soon. Ah well, plenty of fish and all that. Rob, you have weird teammates.
Hex's voice snaps me back to the other conversation happening right around me. "Alright, we're leaving." He says smoothly, giving a smirk and a nod to the Titans' leader. "Pleasure working with you."
Robyn gives him a murderous glare, clearly not happy about letting him go. "Just get out of here before I change my mind!" She snaps. "Go! Shove!"
"Pushy, pushy." Hex chuckles. "Alright guys, let's bail!" He calls to his teammates. "Conan, can we stay at your place tonight? It's the closest."
"Yeah, fine." The boy mutters.
"Bye!" I call, waving after the group. Hex glances back and returns the guesture before the HIVE disappear around a corner.
That's that. The HIVE leave unharmed. I have a quick chat with Rob, which basically boils down to her offering me a place to stay if needed (it's not, I have an apartment) and setting a date for us to catch up, seeing as it's been almost a year since we last saw each other.
With that all set, I give a joking salute and run off. Despite my pep, I too am dead tired. I'm gonna sleep for, like, a year after this.
Nice to see Rob again though. Been too long.
ROBYN
I was planning on going to sleep, but there's one thing I need to do first. I've put it off too long, especially since I asked for it before.
Amelia's letter.
Ehem:
Dear Master Rebecca,
First off, I would like to remind you that it is my job to do everything, but your concern is appreciated. The party was quite a hassle, we nearly ran out of caviar.
You also know full well I am not the one to ask here. Brianna would be better suited for such a question. Perhaps I am more perceptive, but Master Brianna knows the details of leadership much more intricately than myself. After all, she directed you and
Master Brice quite efficiently, and leads entire teams for her job.
I also have little doubt that you have started to figure it out on your own by the time you are reading this. Give yourself time, you are a smart girl. You did not get as far as you have on simple good looks and sheer determination.
You will puzzle through it as you always do. That much, at least, you and Master Brianna have in common. That and stubbornness.
Best of luck,
Amelia.
"She's right, as always." I sigh, delicately folding the letter and putting it away. "Ugh, I wonder if she expected to receive that letter."
I slip into bed, glad to be able to sleep properly for the first time in a while. There's so much to do still, so much to figure out.
"Tomorrow is a break though." I murmur, drifting off. "Then we'll start. One day at a time…"
RUBAN
The five of us had returned to the tower. Nothing big happened on the way back, it was just a quiet flight with Star carrying Cyborg and myself lifting Robyn with my magic. (It came back a few minutes after we beat Ternion and Rose. I didn't get to lightning bolt anything in the end)
When we got back to the tower, Robyn and Star went straight to sleep, while Changeling and Cyborg stayed up with me. Changeling asked if I wouldn't mind making a small meal, stating that she probably wouldn't be able to sleep for a while and was a bit hungry. I, of course, was more than happy to help. Cyborg said she wasn't hungry, but I'm making some potato chips for her to snack on anyways. I doubt she's truly full; few people could take four hours of constant activity without being a bit peckish at the end.
Seeing as I'm alone right now… Azar am I lucky.
Maria doesn't care, and I mean that in the best way possible. She's totally indifferent to me being part demon. All my panic, all my worry, totally unnecessary. I really should have more faith in her. I am very lucky that she considers me worth her time. I also got another hug, which is great… Am I overreacting about something so simple? Maybe, I mean, I got them from dad all the time and it wasn't a big thing.
Whatever, it makes me happy. If I'm overreacting, so be it.
I'm still trying to get all of the last few days through my head. So much has happened: we've barely gotten any sleep because of constant villain attacks, we've taken down a whole revolution that was responsible for those villain attacks, Robyn demeanor has changed dramatically, as has mine now that I think of it, and… yeah, just lots of stuff.
For me specifically, I got closer to Maria, literally and metaphorically. I got hugs! That's plural, meaning more than one! I also know that she actually likes having me around, I'm not just a charity case anymore; well, not completely at least.
With Rose and everyone defeated, we should all have time to relax, and not be fighting every single day. I'm going to need a hobby, won't I? There's only so many times I can clean the tower before I get bored, and even if I hang around Maria most of the time, I'll still need something to do, we can't always be watching movies and stuff after all.
Maybe I should start carving again. I stopped when I left home, and I wouldn't mind starting again. I didn't bring my tools with me though, I'll need to buy new ones. Besides, I'll need specific carvings for certain rituals if I ever plan on using them again. I could start playing chess more as well, I miss being able to play with dad every day.
I'm getting ahead of myself, I have food to make, and plenty of time ahead to do all the things I want to do. I look forward to relaxing for a little while, and maybe I'll take the suggestion of my emoticlones and start talking with the others too.
I'm looking forward to the next few weeks. This could be great.
And so, with that, we more or less conclude season one. I find it funny that I ended on introducing an important character (Kid Flash) in the last few chapters, but hey, I didn't plan on her being introduced by the fifth season in the first place, so I'm just as surprised as the rest of you. It just seemed to fit so I threw her in.
Right, I'm going to ramble a bit here seeing as this will be the last regular chapter for a while.
So yeah, uploads will become a lot more sporadic beyond this point, as I'll be working on another story before coming back to do season 2. I will probably upload a few chapters here and there, but they won't be part of the season 2 arc, they'll just be miscellaneous ones that I didn't feel fit into the seasons.
Incidentally, the story I'll be working on will be for Fire Emblem Awakening. I don't have a title yet though, or else I'd tell you. It'll employ the same rotating perspective style I used here. It's pretty much the only style I feel comfortable with, and I feel I'm kinda good at it.
For those of you asking 'what about Red X?' don't worry, we'll see them eventually. I don't know exactly when, but eventually. I have something interesting planned for Red X.
Can I talk about what writing this story has been like for a second? Because holy shit was it crazy. Okay, 'crazy' is probably an exaggeration, I'm never panicked or stressed when writing these things, but there were several moments of squee with Ruban and Maria. I suppose the most stressful part of the writing process was at the start; I was worried each chapter wouldn't get the fantastic reception Beast Boy's Little Problem did, and I was right, they didn't. To be honest, that was a bit of a high bar for my expectations though, BBLP was an unexpected and, frankly, unwarranted success. Looking back at it, it's a pretty crappily written story. It was just a barrel full of cuteness, and that made people look past the glaring flaws (bad pacing, paper-thin excuses to prolong the emoticlone section, etc…). I was glad when this story picked up regular reviewers though. (Hi A person! You rarely ever missed a chapter! Hope to hear from you when you're back! Of course, I haven't forgotten you Origami Stars, or razgriz108. I know there are others, but these three were by far the most frequent.)
This story actually does a lot of the same things, just not as badly. The story as a whole is quite a bit more coherent, and the cuteness is more appropriately used. I learned to set things up beforehand and hint at things rather than reveal them right away (looking at Crow's character and background as a whole here) and there is actual character development (even if some characters started out very straw, like Robyn). I think I managed to succeed in making the story a bit dark while still maintaining the superhero vibe of 'no one dies'. I mean, seriously, compare Rose to Slade and Slade is far, far more threatening and dark. Seriously, most of the villains are either not that bad to begin with, or well-intentioned extremists (except Cinderblock, Plasmus, Overload, and Ternion for obvious reasons).
And holy shit the characters of this story. Sure, they're based roughly on the characters from the original series, but they definitely feel like my characters. I mean, does Robyn really seem like Robin? A bit maybe, the resemblance is there, but certain parts of their character are so drastically different (like their leadership capabilities, work tendencies, etc) that they aren't easily confused. For a more extreme example, look at Ruban.
Holy shit Ruban… No surprise to any of you when I say he's my favourite character. I was worried at the start that no one would like him, but that fear turned out to be totally unfounded. Everyone else seemed to love him just as much as I did. He changed the most over the course of the season, more so than Robyn who really just had one big change. I'm fairly sure the majority of us enjoyed seeing the small changes in Ruban whenever a significant conversation or event happened between him and Maria. You guys even pointed out some of them before I did, like the stuttering (which became somewhat of an nervousness indicator) or how he stopped impulsively trying to call her 'mistress'.
Maria was a bit of a different case, as she was the only main character who I considered to be mostly finished her character arc before the season even began. She's supposed to be stable, with any changes in how she acts being due to Ruban's improving mental state allowing her greater freedom of expression without garnering panic. She definitely still stole the show with Ruban though, as her odd mix of patience, flirtatiousness, and emotional sensitivity allows her very unique interactions with Ruban, while she only really shows the flirtatious side to everyone else. I mean, this isn't even half of her. She's also pretty stubborn, and we know she still has some anger issues (though they rarely surface).
There's so much to say about these characters. I once heard that if you can sum up a character in their entirety in only one sentence, then they're a flat character, and I wanted my main characters to be very 'round' so to speak, so I must be doing something right if it takes me a full paragraph to even touch upon the detail of these two.
Cyborg is probably the closest to being flat at the current point in the story (the original title goes to Robyn). She has some of the fewest chapters among main characters, and has almost no development. I suppose that's partially my fault, I didn't give her any bonds going into this story. She's sort of a reflection on how Cyborg is used in fanfiction: a side character. Just a support for the two main pairings. Don't get me wrong though, Cyborg will get her time. Character interaction with her is rather hard actually. Being the most well-rounded and calm character makes her rather boring to write. She's not as open with her emotions as the others, making those emotional moments that we love so much between Ruban and Maria very difficult for Cy. I want to her justice, but just haven't figured out how yet.
Robyn. Robyn, Robyn, Robyn. If you asked me to spell the work 'straw' at the start of this story, I would have replied 'R-O-B-Y-N'. She basically started out as a jab at feminism, despite me knowing full well that she practiced feminine supremacism. Eventually this evolved into a, still biased, but more tolerant version of the character. Starfire helped out a lot her, providing her with someone she trusts, but still irrationally accuses. This setup is what made it possible for her to actually introspect and not just brush off her attitude towards men, as she didn't want to be an ass to someone she actually liked to a certain extent. The whole 'bad leader' thing was quite unplanned, and partially resulted from this introspection. Robyn's interactions with Maria worked great as well. Maria being the more 'equal minded' of the two, but being so rude about it made it so Robyn had to actually think rather than just take her word about it.
Right, just a note before I move on to Starfire. Feminism: I don't claim to have perfect knowledge of it, and, as you can probably tell from this story, I hold quite a strong disdain for it. I pretty much think of the whole movement as: 'good idea, bad execution'. Robyn was originally supposed to be an example of the 'bad execution' part, where 'equality' comes to mean just giving women more power without thinking of the downsides or removing their gender privileges as well. Maria was supposed to be more faithful to the actual idea of equality, though she might disregard the current state of the world in the process. Needless to say, it didn't turn out like that, and I think it was for the better. A bit of exaggeration goes a long way to help writing a character for me, and turning Robyn into a proper feminine supremest was probably for the best. Also for the best was turning down her tendency to tunnel-vision onto gender issues, it helped flesh out her character.
Starfire is odd for me. I don't know what to think of him. I can say for certain he's improved over the course of the story, but beyond that… I dunno. He was always a pretty well-written character. Not on the level of Ruban or Maria, but still good. He helped develop Robyn, has some depth with not understanding human culture, and provides soft tension with Ruban to showcase that no, not everyone is fine with a demon just waltzing around. He also has his issue with getting home, even if that's mostly been sidelined for the moment. Being the only main character without his own proper season means his development will be much more spread out than the others. I love how he became sarcastic though, it's a nice contrast to Robyn's total seriousness.
Other standout characters are Hex and Conan, or even the HIVE team as a whole. I expected Conan to be disliked despite his depth because he was a typical brooding loner who was essentially throwing a fit over not having superpowers (which is like griping about not being born a millionaire in this case, especially considering what great friends he has).
I like how it's possible to identify pretty much any HIVE member by how they say 'yes'. I might have mentioned this before, but if you go back to where they agree to help Changeling I didn't tell who said what, but you should be able to figure it out without me telling you outright.
There's so much more I could say, but I will refrain. I'll see you all next chapter, whenever that will be.
Jaalk5: Yes, Rose does have a son named Slade. No, he won't be appearing in this story. I mean, probably at least. C'mon, you know what it is. If you've been following the review section down here, I've already admitted what Changeling's old job was; but if you need me to say it outright: she used to be a prostitute. Niu is the name you're looking for, and yes she will appear more. She's been on the backburner while the whole 'constant villain attacks' played out, but that's over now. Maria and Cy? Maybe, but more likely Cy and Robyn or Cy and Crow. Crow will age mentally, but never physically. He might make a disguise, but I highly doubt it. Yeah, it might be kinda annoying, but being a superhero will let Crow get away with quite a bit. I mean, Robyn is an under-aged driver, and the Titans are five unsupervised minors living in a giant alien military drop-pod, so it isn't quite as bad as you think.
Yes she is, but I think I crushed the whole love triangle thing pretty quickly. Sorry about that.
Nice to know you like it, I take great pride in these characters after all.
RedTsundere879: That, my friend, is a massive exaggeration, but I'll take the compliment nonetheless. I'm happy that you think so highly of my story and the characters. Always appreciate a compliment.
Trase: Yes, yes, yes, yes, kinda, and yes. I think I stereotyped Kid Flash quite a bit, but it works. I'm not sure Hex's conversion will go down quite like that, but your enthusiasm is appreciated.
