Chapter 2
"Whoa!"
THUDBeast Boy groaned, rolling himself onto his back. Spitting out a mouthful of gravel after his face-plant with the rocky terrain of Raven's mind, he stood up and dusted himself off.
"Great. I come to apologise to Raven and end up with a mouthful of dirt," he whined.
He looked around the familiar rocky platform. It was just like he remembered it. Everywhere he looked, all he could see was a mass of rock, floating in an endless sky of black. When he turned, there was a plain stone arch standing behind him.
Beast Boy stared at the archway. It didn't look special at all. Just a slab of rock carved into an arc shape. He could even see the black sky behind it. It was like a doorframe without the door, but he knew better than to underestimate it. He had seen a couple like it the last time he went into her mind, and knew they led to the different realms of Raven's mind.
He knew that he should just sit down and wait for Raven. She would have to look for him in here eventually, and she wouldn't want him looking around her mind.
Still, the arch was calling his name. Not literally, of course, but it just wasn't in his nature to wait patiently when there was an unknown world right in front of him.
Besides, curiosity is a very admirable quality. At least, that's what he would tell Raven if she asked why he was poking around her head.
Taking a deep breath, Beast Boy closed his eyes and walked through the stone archway.
When he opened his eyes, everything had changed. The sky had faded from black to a light shade of purple. Lavender clouds floated through the sky, changing from heart shapes, to flowers, to a pair of lips, and back to hearts.
The rocky ground had suddenly become fertile, and violet grass and fragrant white and purple flowers had sprung up everywhere.
Purple birds flew around and preened their feathers, their love songs filling the air.
"And I thought Happy's realm was girly," Beast Boy muttered, watching two butterflies flutter past.
"What are you doing here?" Raven's voice asked from behind him. Beast Boy jumped, before realising that she didn't sound angry. Far from it, in fact.
He turned around and came face-to-face with a purple cloaked Raven: one of her emotions.
Now, if Beast Boy were skilled in problem solving and putting clues together, he might have figured out that the realm he was in belonged to the emotion, Affection. He also might have realised that the girl smiling affectionately at him was the emotion that lived there.
Unfortunately, Beast Boy is not very skilled in those particular areas.
"Who are you?" he asked. The girl hesitated before answering him.
"It's probably best if you don't know just yet," Affection told him. "Just call me…" she looked down at her cloak. "Violet. Call me Violet."
"Violet," Beast Boy repeated, nodding, "I can handle that."
The girl smiled and sat down under a pale purple tree. White flowers grew along the base of the tree, and the leaves covering the branches were heart-shaped. She motioned for him to sit down as well.
"You still haven't answered my question," Affection informed him, "What are you doing in Raven's mind?"
"I came to apologise and got sucked into the mirror," Beast Boy explained, looking suddenly very guilty, "I was being a jerk earlier, and now, Raven's mad at me."
"Raven's not mad at you, Beast Boy." Violet patted his arm reassuringly, a gesture that would have made Beast Boy sure she had gone insane if she were the real Raven, and not an emotion. "A little annoyed, perhaps, but Raven couldn't stay mad at you over such a small thing as spilling tea on a book she didn't even like."
"I knew she didn't like it!" Beast Boy exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air triumphantly. Affection smiled lightly.
Looking over at her, Beast Boy realised that he really liked that smile. It wasn't the sarcastic smirk she wore sometimes. It was polite and small, but genuine. It was the smile she gave him on the rare occasion that he actually said something right around her.
"So, she's not mad at me?" Beast Boy asked for reassurance.
"No, not right now. She probably will be when she finds out that you snuck into her room and went into her mind… but for now, she's not," the purple clad emotion replied.
Beast Boy chuckled, leaning against the tree truck.
"It's nice here," Beast Boy told her, watching a heart cloud float lazily through the sky.
"Yes," agreed Affection.
"Why won't you tell me which emotion you are?" Beast Boy asked.
"It's complicated," she replied, and left it at that. For once, Beast Boy knew that he probably shouldn't keep prying for information.
They sat in a comfortable silence, watching the clouds float by. Affection wove a crown of white flowers while Beast Boy chewed on the sweet purple grass.
Beast Boy watched as she tied the stems together, smiling. He would never have pictured Raven as the kind of girl who would weave daisy crowns, let alone know how. Then again, it was only one of her many emotions. How many did she have?
He turned to ask Violet, lightly placing a hand on her shoulder, but forgot what he was going to ask. He looked at her as she carefully wove the flower stems. The quiet look of serene concentration she wore reminded him of the same expression Raven had when she read. Without fully realising it, he found his arm travel around her shoulder, pulling her closer. She gasped a little and looked at him. He tried to think of an explanation for his actions, but was interrupted by a bright flash of light shining through her cloak.
"What was that!" they both exclaimed, jumping apart.
"You mean you don't know?" Beast Boy asked. "This is supposed to be your mind!"
"I know, but…" Affection trailed off suddenly. With a curious expression on her face, she carefully opened her cloak to look at the leotard underneath. When she did though, she found that she wasn't wearing her usual uniform. Underneath her cloak, she was wearing a flowing purple dress. "What's this?" she mumbled to herself.
"Whoa," Beast Boy murmured, looking at the flattering dress. It was made of plum coloured material, with a satin sheen. Form-fitting at the top and flowing away at the hip.
Realising he was staring, he quickly coughed and averted his eyes. "Er… Have you been wearing that this whole time?"
"No," she replied, "I don't know how I got this dress. It just sort of… appeared… after that flash."
"That is so weird," Beast Boy said, "What does it mean?"
"I'm not sure," Affection replied, "I think, perhaps, we should look for Knowledge and Wisdom. They might know what's going on."
"Aw! C'mon, Vi, it can't be that important. So your clothes changed a bit, no big deal," Beast Boy tried to convince her. He wasn't particularly eager to leave this peaceful realm over a change of clothing.
"No," said Violet. "Even seemingly small changes can be big in here. It's better to be safe than sorry."
Seeing that Beast Boy still didn't seem to want to leave, she added, "You'll even get to see some of the other emotions while we search."
"Okay, let's go," Beast Boy jumped up from the ground. Affection smiled up at him.
"Which way do we go?" he asked, looking around for a sign of some sort. Affection stood as well. Standing upright, her cloak covered most of her dress, except for the inch or two peeking through the bottom.
"Follow me," Violet replied, walking across a cute little bridge that extended over a river of clear running water.
-
Raven sat on the roof, meditating. The fresh ocean breeze tickled her neck as she repeated her mantra. Suddenly, she stopped.
That wasn't the breeze. The skin across her shoulders tingled like a warm, invisible arm had been draped across them. It felt kind of nice, but it didn't last for long.
Deciding it must have just been her imagination, she continued to chant.
-
Beast Boy followed her across the bridge, and they made their way through a bright purple forest that reminded Beast Boy of the sunny part of the woods that Snow White met all the little animals in. His only solace for that though was that Starfire had been the one watching the movie.
Eventually, they reached another stone gateway. Affection went first, hoping that this one led to either Knowledge or Wisdom's realm. Beast Boy followed her, wondering where they would end up this time.
"I know this place! We're in the land of air-fresheners!" Beast Boy exclaimed, looking around the bright pink world, splashed with yellow, that he had followed Affection into. Someone giggled, and they both turned towards the sound.
"You're still funny, BB," Happy informed him, stepping from behind a tree. Her cloak was thrown open, revealing her own outfit.
"Hey, Happy!" Beast Boy greeted, smiling widely. "Your clothes changed, too!"
Happy smiled even wider and looked down at the garb under her own cloak. She wore a long, pink plaid skirt and a white button up shirt. A pink necktie was knotted loosely around her collar, and her white knee-high socks almost reached the hem of her skirt.
"Yeah, isn't my new outfit cute? I just love it!" exclaimed Happy, twirling around so her skirt swirled around her knees.
"Happy, have you seen Knowledge?" asked Affection, ignoring Happy's display, "Or Wisdom?"
"Huh? No, not recently," Happy replied, flipping her cloak open like a would-be model, then closing it and doing it again.
Beast Boy giggled at the performance before turning back to Affection.
"I guess they aren't here," he said, "Should we keep looking?"
"Not yet," replied the purple emotion, a thoughtful expression on her face, "Happy, when did your clothes change?"
"Just a little while ago. I got this warm, fuzzy feeling and- POOF- the boring black leotard is gone, and I've got this cool outfit!" Happy replied, making frantic arm gestures as she enthusiastically recounted her story.
Violet's pensive expression doubled after hearing Happy's story. She had said something about a warm, fuzzy feeling. She couldn't mean the feeling Affection had felt when…? No, of course not.
"Come on, Beast Boy! You're it!" Exclaimed Happy, tapping Beast Boy on the shoulder and running towards the flowery fields. Beast Boy smiled, and ran after her.
Affection watched as they ran around the field, Beast Boy trying to catch the laughing, pink emotion.
"Is that the best you can do?" teased Happy, dodging one of his flailing arms and staying just out of his reach.
"I'm just going easy on you," Beast Boy insisted, grinning.
"Oh yeah? Then, how come you can't catch me?" Happy joked.
"I can!" Beast Boy replied. Before Happy could reply, he lunged at her, tackling her to the ground. They both tumbled into the pink grass, laughing.
"You're it," Beast Boy told her, looking down at her smiling face. Wait? Looking down?
Beast Boy looked down to see that he was lying on top of the giggling emotion, his hands still around her waist.
Watching them from the path, Affection felt a tingle run up her spine. It almost felt like there were invisible hands pressed against the small of her back, and a comfortable weight pressed against her chest. She realised that they were probably the things that Happy was feeling now, only muted a little.
She looked over at the pair of them, lying in the grass. If she didn't know any better, she would have thought they were just a random couple canoodling in the park. Of course, most random couples weren't green and grey.
Suddenly, a blinding flash surrounded the two emotions. Beast Boy and Happy yelped and jumped apart. Affection jumped a bit, and looked down at her outfit. The dress was still there, but her cloak had disappeared: another odd clothing change.
Her mind raced as she thought back to the first change. It had happened right after Beast Boy had put his arm around her. And this time…
Affection's eyes widened as a possible explanation came to mind, but she decided not to voice her theory quite yet.
Beast Boy and Happy ran over.
"It happened again," panted Beast Boy, "Your cloaks disappeared!"
"I know," Affection nodded.
"Should we keep looking for Knowledge and Wisdom?" asked Beast Boy, suddenly reminded of why they had come to Happy's realm in the first place.
"Actually, there's something I have to do. You two should keep looking for Wisdom and Knowledge," she told them, feigning casualness. Beast Boy seemed unsure.
"Are you sure?" asked Beast Boy, watching her carefully.
"Yes. Just go. I'll see you both later," Affection insisted, smiling gently. Beast Boy smiled back.
"Okay," he agreed. "Come on, Happy. Let's go find the smarties."
Giggling, Happy led him through paths of bright flowers in the direction of the next portal. Affection watched, making sure they were out of sight, before she turned and ran back to her own realm.
-
"Azarath, Met-"
Stopping mid-chant, Raven opened her eyes. She shivered lightly, but it wasn't from the wind. Warmth spread from the base of her back, to her chest, and for a split second she felt her breath escape her.
The strange, but not entirely unpleasant feeling only lasted a few seconds before it disappeared. Raven looked around the empty roof. What was that?
"I'm obviously not going to get any meditation done up here today," Raven mumbled to herself. "I'll just go down to the main room."
-
Beast Boy watched Happy as she cheerfully skipped through her pink realm, humming a lively song. It was hard to imagine that the girl in front of him was any part of Raven. The school girl outfit didn't help much.
"Come on, BB! The next portal's right over here!" Happy exclaimed, pointing down a long stretch of path. He could see the plain stone archway in the distance.
They ran down the path, and stopped in front of the arch.
"You go first," offered Beast Boy. Happy smiled and walked closer to the portal.
"Oh, great portal," she chanted, holding her hands up, "Gateway to the realms, I ask you to bring us to the humble territory of Knowledge!"
Beast Boy watched her in amazement.
"Wow! Does that actually work?" he asked. Why hadn't Affection just done that in the first place?
"No," giggled Happy, "It's just fun to do."
Beast Boy laughed, following her as she stepped through the stone arch.
Looking around his new surroundings, Beast Boy couldn't help but laugh out loud.
An orange sky looked down at them, full of off-white clouds. The ground, well, he couldn't really see the ground through the mess. Take-out containers (how this emotion got take-out in Raven's mind, he would never know), grubby books, and various other debris were scattered everywhere, leaving little walking space.
"And Raven says my room's a mess," Beast Boy chuckled, nudging a dirty orange sock that stayed glued to the ground.
"My realm's not a mess; it's just a bit disorganised at the moment," replied one of Raven's doppelgangers, wading through the garbage to see them.
"Your realm has been 'a bit disorganised' since you got here," pointed out Happy, giggling.
"So, why this unexpected visit? If I had known you were coming, I might have cleared a spot," drawled the emotion sarcastically. Despite the fact that her tone clearly told them she wouldn't have cleaned up for anyone, she carelessly kicked some things out of Beast Boy's path, allowing him to walk over to a nearby orange couch.
"We're looking for Knowledge, or Wisdom," explained Beast Boy, taking in the emotion's clothing. Her outfit seemed to have changed as well.
She wore a pair of baggy jeans that were starting to slide down to reveal a pair of orange cotton underwear. The jeans were ripped in quite a few places, and the fly needed to be done up. Her loose T-shirt appeared to have been light orange, but now had several darker orange stains that covered most of it.
"Haven't seen 'em," the girl replied, picking up a half empty take-out box and checking the contents with a sniff. It seemed to pass her inspection, and she dug her fingers into it.
"Which emotion are you?" asked Beast Boy, watching the emotion lower wiggling noodles into her mouth with her fingers.
"Rude," she introduced herself with a burp. Wiping her greasy fingers on her shirt, she walked over to Beast Boy and held out her hand for him to shake. Beast Boy declined the hand. Shrugging, she let her hand drop. "I guess your looking for ol' four-eyes because of the change in clothing?"
"Yup!" Happy agreed, "I bet you want to find them, too. You can see every stain you make on that shirt!"
Rude looked down at her splotched shirt and shrugged.
"I like it this way," she replied.
"How did you make all those stains? The uniforms only changed a while ago," Beast Boy inquired. He looked at the shirt in amazement; even he couldn't spill that much in only a few hours.
"Some of them have been there since the change. I did make a couple though… This one's from some pizza sauce I slopped after the first flash," Rude informed him, pointing at one stain, before pointing at another, "And this one's from orange pop. This one I got from… actually, I don't know what that one is."
"Enough chit-chatting!" Happy broke in, while Rude sniffed the mystery stain, "Let's go find Wisdom and Knowledge!"
"Yeah," Beast Boy agreed, following Happy in the direction of another portal. "Maybe we'll get to see some other emotions! If everyone's outfit is changing, it would even be fun to see Anger!"
"The day seeing Anger is fun is the day my realm appears in a Mr. Clean commercial," Rude grumbled, following the other two.
Here it is: the second chapter! Infinite thanks to Regrem for proofreading it several billion times to get it just right.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed the first chapter. It's always appreciated.
Tammy Tamborine