The Raben Project
By
Agent X
The Restful.
A/N: When Robin catches her, Raven's eyes are still focused downwards, on the drop beneath her, not on her rescuer. This leads me to think that Raven is not surprised to be rescued, demonstrating a modicum of faith in her friends. But it also shows the enormity of her fear (especially for an internal person like Raven, whose small actions are quite expressive), which is not surprising in and of itself. When you think about it, she has probably never free-fallen in her life. Even when Starfire flew them in Raven's body, there was still some method of control. I've tried to capture the process of thoughts from tumble to rescue, but as always please let me know how I do.
And many thanks to my beta, DrewMay.
Moment: Episode 18 (Fear Itself) – Raven falls down the elevator chute. Robin catches her.
She is running.
The creature screams and scrapes behind her, and Raven can feel the warmth of it's breath on her back.
She doesn't want to turn around, doesn't want to know how close it is, but forces herself to look anyway. She glances backwards and suddenly there is… nothing.
There is nothing, no monster behind her.
And there is nothing, no floor beneath her.
Raven tumbles over the precipice and into darkness, and her voice dies in her throat.
A cool rush against her arms and legs.
Stop.
She calls upon the force inside her, but there is no answer.
Stop!
Panic. Fear.
Roaring in her ears.
Terror. Fingers hook like claws, as if to latch on to something, but she can't move.
Frozen. Suffocating. Mouth sealed. The air cold and burning. She can't take a breath.
Bones creak from tension, skin white and pale, eyes on the abyss, the fall-
- a band of warmth, a jolt, a puff of air at her back.
She focuses on breathing, on the shape of the hand at her hip, and the solid pressure behind her.
And if her hooked fingers dig a little more than could ever be comfortable into the sole arm that separates her from the black...
Well, he never says a thing.
A few comments:
As I said before, I wanted to try to capture the emotion of Fear Itself (namely, fear), which Raven would have been experiencing throughout the episode, and so for that reason the writing style is again a bit different. It was also, I'll admit, due to a small wish to experiment. But let me know how the contrast goes, whether or not this works and such.
For all my readers I have found a lovely little video that should tide you over and give you a peek of things to come. For anyone new, it's a nice demonstration of what this series is all about. Here is the link: www. youtube watch?v=NPnPIOLIXX8.
For those who answered my question last chapter, thank you. I'm not sure if I should be worried though, as most of them were quiet depressing (missed opportunities, being overlooked etc.) Doesn't suggest much hope for RaeRobbers. If anyone was wondering, the song I most associate with Rae/Rob is 'Woman' by Billy Joel. There is a line '... and the most she will do is throw shadows at you...' which I find especially amusing.
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