A New World

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Regardless of my wishes to the contrary, I don't own (in a legal or financial sense) the Titans or anything even remotely to do with them. I'm just letting them play in my yard.

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Chapter Five: Understanding

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Rummaging around in the refrigerator didn't unearth what she was after, so Koriand'r of Tamaran let the door swing shut and turned her attention to the cabinets. Three doors down, she grinned in triumph and snatched a large bottle of mustard from the shelf. She was searching for the straws when the voices reached her. Muffled at first, they became much clearer when the great-room doors slid open.

"No." That was Raven's monotone.

"But Rae, you'll love it!"

"-ven."

"… Huh?"

"It's Raven. For a number of reasons, I dislike nicknames."

"Uh … whatever. So …" He rubbed his hands together. "Which side of the chicken has the most feathers?"

She gave him a look that might almost have been described as 'pained'. "That would be the outside."

"Aw, you've heard it!"

"Every man, woman, child, and semi-sentient ape on the planet has heard it."

"Please," interjected Starfire, "this 'chicken' … it is a bird?"

"Yeah." Beast Boy raised an eyebrow in lieu of asking her the obvious follow-up question.

"I was unaware that there were any species of birds which contained feathers under the skin."

"There aren't," intoned Raven. "That's why he thinks the joke is funny." Turning a baleful gaze on the shape-shifter, she added, "If he can be considered to think at all."

"Oh, harsh, Rae!"

Pinching the bridge of her nose in exasperation, she said, "I believe I will go lie down now."

"But you just got up! I've got more jokes left! Like, whaddaya get when you cross a cat with a ball of wool?"

The level stare Raven gave him should have clued him in to how close he was to sustaining physical damage. However, his basically oblivious nature was too caught up in savoring the fun of the punch line. When she said nothing for a few seconds, he blurted out, "Mittens!"

Starfire had a most perplexed look on her face. "I do not believe I understand."

"I," declared Raven, "am going to go lie down now."

"Lie down … what?" asked Starfire.

Turning her aggrieved countenance to the alien, Raven said, "On my bed, Azar willing."

"… But … what are you going to lie down on your bed?"

A very slight angling of her head was the only additional expression the empath gave. "What are you talking about?"

"… Perhaps I am using the wrong words?"

Raven thought that over a moment and nodded. "I think you're confusing 'lie' and 'lay'. It's a very common mistake, even among native speakers."

"Ah. Very well. So … you are going to … lay on your bed?"

"No. I will lie on my bed, which means getting on it and relaxing. If I use 'lay', then I would need to have something with me that I was 'laying' on the bed. Like a book. I would lay a book on the bed. But I would lie on the bed myself."

The flame-haired girl was thinking hard. She set the bottle of mustard on the table. "I believe I see. But I do not think that Robin had a completely accurate lexicon when I absorbed the language from him." She brightened and looked at Raven, then clapped her hands. "Oh! Perhaps I can learn more from you!" And she took a step toward the shorter girl.

Raven floated backwards. "If you don't mind, Starfire, I'll just explain it."

"Oh." She seemed a bit deflated. "Very well. I suppose that will work."

"It will have to." She cleared her throat. "To start with, there are transitive and intransitive verbs. You know verbs?"

"Yes … words of action?"

"Usually. Well, some verbs show action by themselves." She thought for a second and said, "I breathe. In that sentence, 'breathe' says what I am doing, right?"

"… Yyyyyes. You will breathe."

"Exactly. And that's all it needs. You know what I need you to know about what I will do. On the other hand, though, you have verbs that need more information before they can complete a thought. 'Lay' is one of those verbs."

"… Very well." She looked uncertain.

"That's the difference between a transitive and an intransitive verb. A transitive verb transfers the action to an object or person or whatever – as with your earlier question to me about what I was going to 'lie' on the bed, when you meant 'lay' – while an intransitive verb can stand alone because the action isn't being transferred to anything. So I can't say, 'I will lay down.' It doesn't have enough information. You have to add what's being laid down. But I can say, 'I will lay the book down,' because now there is a complete thought."

Starfire had a fierce frown going on. "I believe I understand. But … how does one know the difference between a verb of transfer and one that is not?"

Raven gave her a tiny shrug. "You simply have to learn them. Memorize them."

"So … you could go and lie on your bed, but you could not lay on it?"

"Ehhh … yes, in the sense you mean. Do you know about verb declensions?"

The alien just blinked at her.

"I guess that means Robin didn't get as good a grounding in English as he did in sleuthing. Hold that thought a moment." She floated over to the kitchen and got herself a glass of water, drank half of it, and then topped it off again. "That's better. I don't talk this much very often."

"You can say that again," muttered Beast Boy.

Raven ignored him. "There are past and present and future tenses for all verbs, and then what they call 'perfect' tenses that indicate ongoing action or possibilities or other unique effects."

"This sounds quite involved. Is this what is meant by … irregular verbs?"

"Quite so. And 'lie' and 'lay' are two good examples." She almost smiled. "It really isn't very fair to non-native speakers. For instance, the past tense of 'lie' is 'lay'."

"… What?"

"It's confusing, I know. Here's how it works: I lie in my bed today. Okay?"

"… Yes. That is the okay, I believe."

"But I lay in my bed yesterday."

A few seconds of concentration, and the light came on. "Oh! So in that case … it is simply that the two words sound alike? They are homonyms, yes?"

"In a manner of speaking. They are spelled the same, too. But used differently."

Beast Boy complained, "You're makin' my head hurt."

"Expansion is good for the mind." Turning her attention back to Starfire, she continued, "And the future tense would be, 'I will lie in bed tomorrow.' Then there are the 'perfect' tenses. Past perfect: I had lain in bed for two hours. That's an action that took place in the past, and finished in the past. Present perfect: I have lain in bed for two hours. This implies that I started lying in bed two hours ago and I'm still there. Future perfect: I will have lain in bed for two hours. That's an action that either starts now or at some point in the near future, and continues farther into the future."

The changeling held his palms against his head, squeezed his eyes closed, and said, "Ouch-ouch-ouch-ouch!"

"I believe I am doing the understanding of verb tenses. I have been using them already, obviously, but I did not know … very much about them." She gave Raven a pleased look. "So is the verb 'lay' similarly patterned?"

"Sort of. I can lay the book on the bed today. I laid it on the bed yesterday, and I will lay it on the bed tomorrow. It's more regular than 'lie'. And all the perfect tenses use 'laid', so 'had laid', and 'have laid', and 'will have laid'."

"So … let me try! I … had laid the book on the bed this morning, but it is gone now?"

"Good!"

She clapped her hands again and floated upward a few centimeters. "Glorious!"

Giving her a dumbfounded look, Beast Boy asked, "You get that?"

She turned to him and bumped back to the floor. "I am … sorry? What do you wish for me to retrieve?"

His look didn't change. "Retrieve? Huh?"

With the shade of a hint of a chuckle, Raven said, "The word 'get' has a lot of different meanings."

"Oh! Robin did the explaining of that to me two days ago, just before the storm of freaks!" She turned to Beast Boy. "How is it that you are using the word?"

"Uh … um …"

Raven stated, "Not rocket science, Beast Boy. Just tell her what you meant."

"Uh … well, it's like, you understand. If you get something, you understand it … or maybe realize it."

"Ah-hah! So it is doing the double-duty of meaning that Robin discussed. To get something may mean to acquire it, or it may mean to understand it. Ha! But that is the acquiring of knowledge of something, so it is similar." Her amazing smile was back. "Truly glorious!"

The door had opened, admitting Robin, during her final two sentences. He looked back and forth between the other three and asked, "What's 'glorious' this time? What knowledge is being acquired?"

"Oh, it is the most glorious, Robin! I understand now! Raven and Beast Boy are teaching me how to lie and how to get laid!"

It took Robin the better part of two minutes to control his hyperventilation, and Beast Boy another three to stop laughing at him.

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A/N:

And I'll be running away now…

Concolor