We all are made from stars.
The constant spewing of elements, then the long dark wait while gravity fields pull and push, eons spent in nothingness. Then the pressure, the apocalyptic fusion, spinning and melting, forming through the most intense heat and fantastic pressure, perfect round spheres on which to begin the first microscopic traces of life.
Whether through God or Darwin, all life is created from the dust pumped out from these newborn stars. 116 measly elements to make up anything and everything.
We are all made from stars.
Yet, the instantaneous lives of humans could never reflect the time and energy it took to create the components for their miraculous forms. Humans live for only a millisecond. Blink but once and they are gone. Yet in that blink, they change the world.
Their thoughts carried through the air; their particles (evenly mixing the beggar and the king) are continually being recycled in a never ending river of decomposition and reconstruction. The Law of Conservation makes sure of that. Energy is never created or destroyed. Merely changed.
Change being the main weapon of choice in a certain Titan's arsenal. Shifting, rearranging, altering, and modifying. He is dangerous clay. But clay that can only be molded within certain boundaries. He was given a stack of outlines, and then had the pleasure of coloring in those forms however he pleased. Even if he wanted to, he cannot not drop the molecular bonds and melt into a puddle; he has certain limits.
Limits being those of nature, other living breathing creatures with whom he shares a common archaic heritage. Forms with which he shares DNA. The tight twisted helix his only blueprint for another being. Another body.
A body which he obtains simply by flicking some interior switch. Letting his humanness bleed away while his internal programming swaps wires, alters composites, and completely changes the chemical compound of his flesh. Bones shrink and draw into themselves, or expand and balloon out; converting unnecessary material into a neutral substance and slinging it into his body for later use. Eyes sharpen their focus as easily as twisting a microscope. Fingernails lengthen into claws, or hooves, or talons, or fins. Muscles strengthen and flow like liquid beneath skin, which quickly sprouts fur, feathers, and scales. His nose sometimes exploding with smells that had been unnoticed until his olfactory expanded as well.
And all this happens in an instant where logic takes a vacation and worldly rationale goes: Nyah nyah nyah!
Beast Boy may have shared an ancestry with animals when all their atoms were floating around in a distended soup in space, yet that can not explain his shape-shifting abilities which defy all tangible theory and simply heave the erroneous justifications into the piled high outbox for the shredder to deal with.
All he needed was the easy access and control of such power. The physical pathways had only one map in existence to chart their complex twists and turns. That map ingrained into his core, never for once giving him any doubts as to what part goes where, or how the molecules stack up. Traversing the species was a walk in the park, skipping back and forth from one powerful shape to another.
While he may have complete control over physical transformation, he often finds the internal battle to be the real struggle. The psychological difference always whining, pulling on its leash, willing him to go sniff something, or climb a tree, or mark his territory, or kill and eat something.
Paradigm shifts are always a part of his nature; encountering each new form with its own unique view of the world. Each creature has its own drives, its own priorities, and awareness. Predator consciousness is fairly easy to embrace. He was human before he was animal, and humans despite centuries of agriculture, behave and think like predators.
A mind that is fairly linear. Focus attention on the prey, move directly towards it, concentrate on that goal and shut everything else outside the laser sharpened motivation. Predator's consciousness tends to be goal oriented, A-to-B behavior, everything about narrowing attention and concentration in order to have a successful hunt. In order to kill.
But if predators think like an arrow headed towards a target, the prey think like the circles spreading out around the bull's eye. They are not into focus, they are into omnipresent awareness. They are evaluating and interpreting all 360 degrees of the environment around them at all times. They know at any second, a predator can come hurtling out from beneath any rock, or bush, or blowing leaf. Therefore constant controlled paranoia is key to survival.
Their job essentially is to not be killed. The predator's job is essentially to kill. Those result in widely diverging world views, quite literally. Predators have both their eyes placed in the front, giving them stereoscopic vision to judge distance accurately. Prey creatures have eyes on the sides of their heads to increase their peripheral vision to give a broader field of view.
Nature is full of such contrasting relationships which are constantly and symbiotically interacting with each other. The two need each other. One can only be defined in relation to the other and the spark that animates them comes from the tension and back-and-forth flow of their energies. Like the ancient symbols of Yin and Yang, predators and prey both oppose and need each other to live and keep their numbers in balance.
Beast Boy is and always was a walking paradox.
Meeting the conflicting drives halfway with his own human intelligence makes him a lethal weapon. The calm calculated fury of nature coupled with the domineering intelligence of the human mind. Though his team may laugh at his comic antics, his seemingly brainless comments and attempts at humor, there is still a huge distance between his "stupidity" and the mental processing of a chimp. He is still on the cutting edge of evolution, still a member of the dominate species on the planet; yet with the muscle of nature to back him up.
An all encompassing existence which pairs brain and brawn, modern and ancient, prey and predator.
That duality being the true power. The opposites pulling each other tighter, strengthening Beast Boy as a whole; balancing him in a way that the other Titans can only dream of.
Even though they don't think of him that way. They only see the mask; the convincing façade of cheerfulness and endless supply of corny jokes. That is part of him too. But his character has much more depth than a stale punch line.
They say a clown laughs to hide a warrior's sorrow.
Laughs to cover the depth that could swallow him whole.
The abyss that most paradoxes reside in.
Beast Boy wanted to be free of that darkness. So he perches perfectly balanced on a beautiful, yet shaky, twirling tightrope; letting the duality hold him in his precarious position while looking up and facing the sun. Moving forward eternally with the radiance and refusing to look down at where the impossibility of his strength comes from.
For when you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
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Another reposted fanfic. Banished the small mistakes and the unprofessionalism. Though it still retains all of it's depth, and none of it's "plot".
This fic came into being because of a conversation with my partner in crime, Robinrocks. She asked the common and unavoidable question. "Who is your favorite Teen Titan?" I usually try not to limit myself to one character fandom, but I had to give some sort of answer besides the lame cop out "I like them aaaaalllll!" So I decided on the little green bean who always makes me laugh no matter how corny the joke is. Then I began thinking..."Well...if I am gonna go for this favorite character thing, I might as well out myself and write a fic about him!"
...so I did...
And following a predictable pattern, I over-analyzed and turned this comic relief character into something deeper...I didn't really intend for that, but I just let everything spew onto the paper and this is what I got.
Robinrocks...this one is for you. It wouldn't have been created if it hadn't been for you.