Behind The Scenes 3 - Exposition
Let's get back into it! Sorry for the delay, I had a busy time at work and my imagination was getting no energy :/
"Welcome home... (sigh)... darling."
After Raven finished speaking, they were surrounded by recorded applause for several moments, the noise afterward fading into silence. Raven cleared her throat.
"Well... that was mortifying," she said, matter-of-factly. Beast Boy laughed nervously.
"Ha... yeah." Raven turned away from him to once again examine their surroundings.
"If we're following the show, why are we able to speak again?" she pondered out loud. Unexpectedly, she got an answer.
"The intro ended there, usually. I'm guessing in the time between actual scenes, we're free to do whatever, like the show is just highlights of what we're doing," Beast Boy said, following Raven's example and looking around himself. Raven herself had snapped her attention to him.
"That... actually makes sense," she said, trying to hide her surprise. Beast Boy smiled and looked back at her, flushing under the rare praise.
"Well, I was just thinking about how we were us and then we got our "cues". Made sense that we get prodded into the right places for whatever scene is coming up next. Raven nodded, still impressed. With a grumble, Raven felt the weight in her mind of the unseen controlling force. Before her head began to ache, she turned back into the kitchen. Confused, Beast Boy followed her. Raven apprached the refrigerator but was able to glance back at him, similarly confused.
"You aren't feeling anything?" she asked. He shook his head. "Hm. Why just me?" she wondered, the answer becoming all to clear as she mechanically began gathering ingredients. "Oh Azar... I'm going to cook dinner!"
...
"Ummm... wow!" was all Beast Boy could say. Raven had begun expertly preparing her ingredients with a mildly astonished smile. Her one and only attempt at cooking had been the disastrous pre-apocalypse pancakes she had served her team before the rise and subsequent fall of Trigon the Terrible. She had never even entertained the idea of trying again, though she occasionally wished her pancakes had been more successful. Now she watched as her hands deftly sliced, peeled and diced the food before her, hoping she might retain some of the skills. She was still definitely going to punch Control Freak in the face, though. Her fascination turned to uncertainty, however, as she began preparing the next ingredient: turkey. She managed to glanceat Beast Boy, who was looking fearfully at the meat in her hands. Even without her powers, she could sense his unrest: he was going to be forced to eat meat. Even as her hands continued to work, she watched him and spoke.
"Beast Boy..." she began.
"I'm gonna be sick," he murmured, swallowing the bile at the back of his throat. Raven shook her head.
"Beast Boy, it isn't real. It isn't meat!" she tried. He didn't even look at her.
"What? But it's got wings and legs and bones and-"
"Think, Beast Boy! We're in a TV show. We're in a simulation, nothing here is real. My dress, your suit, this house and this food. It's all synthetic," she said, noting with relief that his eyes grew less panicked as he listened. He nodded tiredly.
"Yeah... yeah, you're right. It's not real," he mumbled.
"It isn't real," Raven repeated. "In fact, it's more like I'm trying your food: fake meat." His eyes finally moved from the food to look at her face, his ears pricked in surprise at Raven's attempt at a joke. He smiled broadly.
"Ha! Good one, Rae!" he laughed. Raven smiled and turned away, wishing for her hood. Later, the pair felt the pressure at the back of their minds and took their places at the dinner table. As they ate, the applause and laughter returned as they bantered about "Tom's" day at work, which hadn't actually happened. It was a bizarre experience, talking animatedly about something they didn't actually know about, the facts and names just spilling from their mouths. Raven was conflicted as she had been about her time in the kitchen: she had never been able to laugh so freely and was partly glad to experience it... but the laughter wasn't her own. It was forced upon her and, without that choice, it was utterly offensive. In one thing, however, she felt no conflict.
She was definitely going to punch Control Freak in the face.
CONTROL FREAK'S "LAIR"
Cyborg stood silently, examining Control Freak's equipment with his electronic eye. He was being expecially thorough and had stood, still and silent, for five straight minutes. Finally, he moved, turning to face Robin and Starfire.
"Well, I know one thing: this tech ain't from Earth," he said. Robin glanced at Control Freak than back to Cyborg.
"Not from Earth? Any idea where it came from?" he asked. Cyborg shook his head.
"Not yet, I need to get closer, but I don't wanna start taking anything apart or hitting buttons while BB and Rae are..." his words trailed off as he turned to the screen. Beast Boy and Raven were having dinner. A turkey dinner. He swore he could see his friend's discomfort in his eyes. He turned and marched toward Control Freak, grabbing his collar and lifting him from the ground, his legs swinging helplessly.
"Cyborg!" Starfire yelped. Cyborg held up his other hand, warding off his colleagues.
"You made my friend eat meat. You made my vegetarian friend. Eat. Meat!" he growled. Control Freak cowered. "Just so we're clear, I would very much like to hurt you. And it wouldn't be hard." With that, Cyborg grabbed a nearby piece of hardware from a parts shelf. With no effort, he crushed it in front of Control Freak's nose, eliciting more terrified whimpers. Cyborg tossed the villain aside and returned to his work. Starfire breathed a sigh of relief. She floated to Cyborg's side while Robin none-too-gently lifted Control Freak to his feet.
"Your indignation on your friend's behalf does you credit, Cyborg," she said. Cyborg glanced at her, at the floor and back at the machinery.
"Maybe. Sorry I lost it there, Star. I know I'm always messin' with him about what he eats but... some lines shouldn't be crossed, y'know?" he replied.
"I do know," Starfire agreed. "But I must ask that you leave the Control Freak undamaged. At least until we have retrieved out friends. Then you may damage him." Cyborg snickered at her, saying that with a huge, innocent smile on her face.
"I'll try, Star. I'll tr-... Oh, man," Cyborg said. Robin stepped closer.
"What is it?" he asked.
"I've worked out where the tech is from. The materials are from Earth, so I think it was actually made here, but it's a copy of alien tech with some genuinely extraterrestrial parts in the mix," he reported.
"Copied from..." Robin hinted. Cyborg turned to stare incredulously at Control Freak.
"A Mother Box. Control Freak has a Mother Box."
THE CAMPER RESIDENCE
"Tom" and "Lucy" finished their dinner, still chatting. Beast Boy rose to his feet, his plate in hand, heading for the kitchen. With a blush of sudden realisation, he stopped next to Raven.
"Dinner was perfect, sweetheart. Thanks," he said, easily, leaning down and pecking her on the cheek. For her part, Raven tipped her head to permit him. Beast Boy vanished into the kitchen and the weight vanished: they were themselves again. Raven flushed scarlet, her hand pressed to her cheek. Beast Boy was in much the same state in the kitchen. Raven paced around the small dining table: she shouldn't have been so surprised, they were cast as a married couple after all. It left her with a bigger, terrifying question, though: what else would they be made to do? Beast Boy emerged, stammering apologies, insisting he should have remembered that was going to happen.
"We should both have expected something like that. We're playing at husband and wife," she said. His words gave rise to another question: "You know this show?"
"Yeah," he said, nodding. "I remembered my parents watched this show, even if I couldn't remember much about it. My mom - my adoptive mom, Rita - she helped me find it. She watched it with me, too, the whole series. I should have realised, Rae... it's just kinda different from the inside. I know where we are now, though. I think I can remember most of what happens down the line." Raven nodded. This was helpful. Without warning, the weight returned, gently urging them into place.
"I... I want to go upstairs," Raven said.
"Me too," Beast Boy agreed. "Must be time to film the bedroom scene." Raven regarded him with wide and panicked eyes.
"W-what?!" she shrieked. Her brain stalled. She had just been wondering what they could be made to do... could they-... would they-... would Beast Boy-
"Oh sh- Raven no! That is not what's happening!" Beast Boy shouted. Raven looked over her shoulder at him as the weight grew heavier and she began to ascend the stairs. He followed, his flailing arms at odds with his measured steps.
"Tell me!" she demanded. He took a breath - he needed to say this right.
"The show... it was super-conservative! There's no s-sex, no nudity... they only filmed one episode with an actual kiss and it never got aired. Nothing like that will happen, Raven," he insisted. Raven shuddered with relief. They reached the bedroom and Beast Boy elected to wait outside while Raven changed, enduring a slight headache. Raven told him he could enter and saw she had hidden in the en suite bathroom so give him his own privacy. He quickly changed into the blue pajamas he found in the closet. He called out to Raven when he was decent. She walked in, eliciting an amused smile from the changeling. She wore a floor-length nightdress with a neckline that was genuinely around her neck. She smirked but glared at him all the same. He wordlessly raised his hands in surrender and moved to his bed, a single and separate from Raven's. As he passed her, Raven reached out and held Beast Boy's shoulder.
"Thank you, Beast Boy. For putting my mind at ease," she said. He shook his head, smiling back.
"I should have said something sooner... but you're welcome, Rae. Thanks for helping me with dinner," he replied. Raven dipped her head in acknowledgement before releasing him and climbing into her own bed. Beast Boy found himself staring at a newspaper and Raven found her hands occupied again, this time with knitting, when the scene started. There were a few bad gags, some more idle chatter and a sickeningly obvious moral before it ended. They felt the weight sending them to sleep and tried to speak before it took them.
"G'night, Rae."
"Goodnight, Beast Boy."
And there it is, the next bit. Not a lot going on but BB and Rae are finding their feet in this bizarre prison and the rest of the team are realising how difficult this is gonna get. A freakin' Mother Box?! More on the way! Read, enjoy and review ^_^
-Jack