Post by gem on Sept 12, 2005 22:02:47 GMT -5
Alright, no title for this one yet. If you have an idea, PLEASE let me know. I desperately need one before I post this on ff.net. Anyway, first I'm gonna post the summary of it from my proflie on ff.net.
Well, here you go, the first part (I really hope this isn't too long):
Chapter 1: The Birth of an Addiction
It was night in Titans Tower. Around 10:30, actually. Each of the five Titans were immersed in their own evening activities. Robin, the only one not in the main room, was in the work room filling out some criminal reports that the Jump City Police Department wanted the next day. While Robin worked, Cyborg and Beast Boy played. Video games, that is. For that night, they had chosen Turbo Racers 6. Starfire sat on the left side of the semi-circular couch working on her latest hobby: cross-stitching. At that point she was making... Well, none of the other four were quite sure what she was making. It all looked like a big jumble of colors. However, it seemed to make sense to the Tamaranian, so everyone else chose not to inquire. The last Titan, Raven, sat on the right end of the couch doing what she had done nearly every night (and every day) since she joined the team: reading. Tonight’s selection was called The Lifeguard. It was a horror book, just the kind that she could usually be found reading.
Though Raven had been reading each night for so many years, there was a time when she wouldn’t have been reading in the main room with three other Titans in the vicinity. No, there was a time when the empath kept to her room almost 24/7. Now, needless to say, she had warmed up to the rest of the Tower’s residents sufficiently. She had even grown accustomed to the music from the video games that she once hated so much, which was why she was at this time able to spend time in the room while the afore-mentioned games were being played.
Raven was thinking these same things as her eyes strayed from the page in front of her to the nearby window. Lost in her thoughts, she failed to notice how late it was getting, until Cyborg dropped the Gamestation controller and stretched out his mechanical arms.
“Kicked your butt again,” he said to Beast Boy, a victorious smirk on his face.
“Yeah, yeah,” Beast Boy mumbled, leaning back on the sofa. “Rematch?” he offered.
Cyborg shook his head. “Nah, it’s gettin’ late. I’m goin’ to bed.”
This statement startled Raven slightly; she had not realized the time. A quick glance at the clock told her that it was just past eleven o’clock. She looked back down at the novel in her hand. She decided she may as well finish the chapter, as she only had a couple of pages remaining.
Cyborg left the room with the hiss of the electronic doors and before Raven had finished a paragraph, Starfire had gathered up her supplies to leave as well. She bade Raven and Beast Boy good night and disappeared through the double doors.
Ten minutes later, Beast Boy had put the video game into one-player mode and was pressing those buttons like there was no tomorrow. Raven, meanwhile, completed her chapter and dog-eared the page she left off on before closing her book. She stood to leave, but hesitated momentarily. This was not the first time Beast Boy had stayed up late playing video games. In fact, he had been doing it quite often recently. This had caused Raven to grow a bit concerned. He scarcely put down the controller during the day either, and though he stayed awake later, he still rose at his usual time, sometime between 9 and 10. That meant he was losing sleep.
These facts worried Raven slightly, but for now, she would just hope that it was a phase and that the changeling would get past it soon.
Still, she felt the need to say something. “You planning on sleeping anytime soon?” she asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
Beast Boy simply gave a shrug, his attention never leaving the screen. Raven allowed a small sigh to escape her lips as she walked through the electronic doors, locking the tower for the night.
~~~
Days continued to pass and Beast Boy’s behavior did not improve; it only worsened. He was eating less each day, staying up later, and no longer leaving the Gamestation except for an emergency, weekly combat practice (in which he seemed quite disinterested.), and the occasional food or bathroom run. After a total of three weeks of this, Raven was becoming more than a little troubled. She had a feeling Cyborg had begun to take notice as well. He was now trying more often to lead Beast Boy away from video games and toward things that could potentially hold his interest. Each attempt was to no avail.
One particular night, Raven found herself unable to sleep. Restlessly, she rolled over to look at her clock. The numbers “1:17” glared back at her. She moaned, “Azar, did someone slip caffeine in my tea?” She crawled out of bed, nearly falling in the process. The empath hastily threw her cloak over her shoulders and made her way down the dark hallway toward the main room.
When Raven reached said room, she found that she wasn’t the only sleepless one in the tower. Beast Boy, predictably, remained sitting on the sofa, firing away at another one of his video games. Cyborg sat in the kitchen area of the room, a glass of milk in hand. Raven made her way over to that general vicinity and began fixing a cup of herbal tea.
“Hey Raven,” Cyborg said in a voice that one wouldn’t exactly call cheerful.
“Hello Cyborg,” Raven replied, placing the kettle on the stove. She turned to face the rest of the room waiting for the water to boil and found that Cyborg’s expression matched his voice. “What’s eating you?” she inquired, “And why are you up so late?”
The half-robot took a sip of his milk and sighed. “BB’s not himself. I mean, he’s always loved video games, I do too. But it’s getting a little out of hand. He’s become like a zombie, you know? He’s been like this at least a week...” Cyborg trailed off and took another sip from the glass in his hand.
“More like three weeks,” Raven replied curtly.
Cyborg turned to face her direction, the diameter of his human eye suggesting that he was a bit taken aback. “Has it really been that long?” he asked incredulously.
Raven shrugged one shoulder, taking the now boiling water of the burner and pouring an adequate amount into a teacup. “It seems so,” she said. Both her tone of voice and her facial expression remained as emotionless as ever.
Cyborg sighed, his head tilting downwards. “Either way,” he spoke in a low voice, “I think Robin needs to know. He can call a meeting with the rest of us and maybe we can all figure out how we can help BB.”
Raven nodded in response as she sat on the stool next to Cyborg’s, teacup in hand. After a slow sip, she spoke, “I’ll talk to Robin.” After saying this, she was unsure of why she volunteered; wouldn’t it have been easier for her to get involved as little as possible?
After a few moments of sitting in silence, Raven stood to take her tea back to her bedroom. Before stepping into the hallway however, she turned to look at Beast Boy, who remained in the same spot he had been in all night. It seemed that he had not once noticed Cyborg’s nor her presence.
~~~
The next morning, well, technically later that same morning, Raven arose promptly at her normal time of 7:30 AM, despite her lost hours of sleep the previous night. She pondered this as she sat on the edge of her bed shortly after waking, but shrugged it off deciding that she would turn in early in the coming night to make up for it. Donning her signature navy cloak, she stepped from her room greeted by the silence of the early morning. She entered the main room, releasing a breath she didn’t know she had been holding when she found that a certain green titan no longer occupied the couch. So at least he had given up on the video games at some point in the wee hours of the morning. The room currently held only the Titans’ leader, who was sitting at the computer, typing as if his life depended on it. Paperwork of some sort, no doubt.
Raven strode to the kitchen area and went about her time worn ritual of preparing her herbal tea. When she finished, she took a seat on the couch and took a long sip from the hot cup in her hand. She then placed said cup on the coffee table in front of her. Robin remained in the position he had been in when the half-demon entered the room. Raven supposed that it was now or never; she needed to fulfill the promise she had made to Cyborg and she hadn’t a clue when the Tower’s other three residents would appear. She cleared her throat, then broke the silence, “Robin, I need to have a word with you.” Raven was slightly surprised to find that her voice sounded even more monotonous than usual. That seemed to be happening quite often as of late.
Robin nodded curtly in response to Raven’s statement, then continued typing, presumably finishing a sentence or something of the sort. He then swiveled in his chair to face the other Titan. “Shoot,” he said simply.
Raven released a heavy sigh. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately as well. Without further hesitation, she began, “It’s about Beast Boy.”
Robin nodded, seemingly in understanding. “His video game problem?” he guessed.
Raven also nodded. “So you’ve noticed too?”
“Yeah,” Robin replied, “I didn’t realize just how bad it was until the incident with the H.I.V.E. Five the other day.”
Raven winced. She remembered all too well. Upon later investigation of the team’s embarrasing failure to thwart the group of teenage villains, it was discovered that the fight would have most likely been considerably different, but Beast Boy had been distracted, to say the least. It was evident that he hadn’t been into the idea of fighting that day.
To save Raven from being forced to comment on the subject, Robin said, “It’s definitely an issue that we need to find a solution for.”
Raven nodded. “I was talking to Cyborg about it last night. We were thinking that we all need to talk about Beast Boy’s problem together in order to figure out how to fix it.”
The boy wonder rubbed his chin in thought. “I can call a meeting with the rest of us later today. Sound good?”
For the umpteenth time that morning, Raven responded with a nod. At this point, the conversation ended, so the empath drained her teacup, placed it in the sink, and retreated to her room for her daily meditation and reading, plus a possible nap.
Beast Boy has always loved video games, and this may never change, but what happens when he starts to love them a little too much? In other words, he becomes addicted to that Gamestation, and though the rest of the Titans can't seem to pull him away, Raven realizes that the way to cure Beast Boy's addiction might lay in an area that she happens to be an expert in. The chakras. (Raveast)
Well, here you go, the first part (I really hope this isn't too long):
Chapter 1: The Birth of an Addiction
It was night in Titans Tower. Around 10:30, actually. Each of the five Titans were immersed in their own evening activities. Robin, the only one not in the main room, was in the work room filling out some criminal reports that the Jump City Police Department wanted the next day. While Robin worked, Cyborg and Beast Boy played. Video games, that is. For that night, they had chosen Turbo Racers 6. Starfire sat on the left side of the semi-circular couch working on her latest hobby: cross-stitching. At that point she was making... Well, none of the other four were quite sure what she was making. It all looked like a big jumble of colors. However, it seemed to make sense to the Tamaranian, so everyone else chose not to inquire. The last Titan, Raven, sat on the right end of the couch doing what she had done nearly every night (and every day) since she joined the team: reading. Tonight’s selection was called The Lifeguard. It was a horror book, just the kind that she could usually be found reading.
Though Raven had been reading each night for so many years, there was a time when she wouldn’t have been reading in the main room with three other Titans in the vicinity. No, there was a time when the empath kept to her room almost 24/7. Now, needless to say, she had warmed up to the rest of the Tower’s residents sufficiently. She had even grown accustomed to the music from the video games that she once hated so much, which was why she was at this time able to spend time in the room while the afore-mentioned games were being played.
Raven was thinking these same things as her eyes strayed from the page in front of her to the nearby window. Lost in her thoughts, she failed to notice how late it was getting, until Cyborg dropped the Gamestation controller and stretched out his mechanical arms.
“Kicked your butt again,” he said to Beast Boy, a victorious smirk on his face.
“Yeah, yeah,” Beast Boy mumbled, leaning back on the sofa. “Rematch?” he offered.
Cyborg shook his head. “Nah, it’s gettin’ late. I’m goin’ to bed.”
This statement startled Raven slightly; she had not realized the time. A quick glance at the clock told her that it was just past eleven o’clock. She looked back down at the novel in her hand. She decided she may as well finish the chapter, as she only had a couple of pages remaining.
Cyborg left the room with the hiss of the electronic doors and before Raven had finished a paragraph, Starfire had gathered up her supplies to leave as well. She bade Raven and Beast Boy good night and disappeared through the double doors.
Ten minutes later, Beast Boy had put the video game into one-player mode and was pressing those buttons like there was no tomorrow. Raven, meanwhile, completed her chapter and dog-eared the page she left off on before closing her book. She stood to leave, but hesitated momentarily. This was not the first time Beast Boy had stayed up late playing video games. In fact, he had been doing it quite often recently. This had caused Raven to grow a bit concerned. He scarcely put down the controller during the day either, and though he stayed awake later, he still rose at his usual time, sometime between 9 and 10. That meant he was losing sleep.
These facts worried Raven slightly, but for now, she would just hope that it was a phase and that the changeling would get past it soon.
Still, she felt the need to say something. “You planning on sleeping anytime soon?” she asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
Beast Boy simply gave a shrug, his attention never leaving the screen. Raven allowed a small sigh to escape her lips as she walked through the electronic doors, locking the tower for the night.
~~~
Days continued to pass and Beast Boy’s behavior did not improve; it only worsened. He was eating less each day, staying up later, and no longer leaving the Gamestation except for an emergency, weekly combat practice (in which he seemed quite disinterested.), and the occasional food or bathroom run. After a total of three weeks of this, Raven was becoming more than a little troubled. She had a feeling Cyborg had begun to take notice as well. He was now trying more often to lead Beast Boy away from video games and toward things that could potentially hold his interest. Each attempt was to no avail.
One particular night, Raven found herself unable to sleep. Restlessly, she rolled over to look at her clock. The numbers “1:17” glared back at her. She moaned, “Azar, did someone slip caffeine in my tea?” She crawled out of bed, nearly falling in the process. The empath hastily threw her cloak over her shoulders and made her way down the dark hallway toward the main room.
When Raven reached said room, she found that she wasn’t the only sleepless one in the tower. Beast Boy, predictably, remained sitting on the sofa, firing away at another one of his video games. Cyborg sat in the kitchen area of the room, a glass of milk in hand. Raven made her way over to that general vicinity and began fixing a cup of herbal tea.
“Hey Raven,” Cyborg said in a voice that one wouldn’t exactly call cheerful.
“Hello Cyborg,” Raven replied, placing the kettle on the stove. She turned to face the rest of the room waiting for the water to boil and found that Cyborg’s expression matched his voice. “What’s eating you?” she inquired, “And why are you up so late?”
The half-robot took a sip of his milk and sighed. “BB’s not himself. I mean, he’s always loved video games, I do too. But it’s getting a little out of hand. He’s become like a zombie, you know? He’s been like this at least a week...” Cyborg trailed off and took another sip from the glass in his hand.
“More like three weeks,” Raven replied curtly.
Cyborg turned to face her direction, the diameter of his human eye suggesting that he was a bit taken aback. “Has it really been that long?” he asked incredulously.
Raven shrugged one shoulder, taking the now boiling water of the burner and pouring an adequate amount into a teacup. “It seems so,” she said. Both her tone of voice and her facial expression remained as emotionless as ever.
Cyborg sighed, his head tilting downwards. “Either way,” he spoke in a low voice, “I think Robin needs to know. He can call a meeting with the rest of us and maybe we can all figure out how we can help BB.”
Raven nodded in response as she sat on the stool next to Cyborg’s, teacup in hand. After a slow sip, she spoke, “I’ll talk to Robin.” After saying this, she was unsure of why she volunteered; wouldn’t it have been easier for her to get involved as little as possible?
After a few moments of sitting in silence, Raven stood to take her tea back to her bedroom. Before stepping into the hallway however, she turned to look at Beast Boy, who remained in the same spot he had been in all night. It seemed that he had not once noticed Cyborg’s nor her presence.
~~~
The next morning, well, technically later that same morning, Raven arose promptly at her normal time of 7:30 AM, despite her lost hours of sleep the previous night. She pondered this as she sat on the edge of her bed shortly after waking, but shrugged it off deciding that she would turn in early in the coming night to make up for it. Donning her signature navy cloak, she stepped from her room greeted by the silence of the early morning. She entered the main room, releasing a breath she didn’t know she had been holding when she found that a certain green titan no longer occupied the couch. So at least he had given up on the video games at some point in the wee hours of the morning. The room currently held only the Titans’ leader, who was sitting at the computer, typing as if his life depended on it. Paperwork of some sort, no doubt.
Raven strode to the kitchen area and went about her time worn ritual of preparing her herbal tea. When she finished, she took a seat on the couch and took a long sip from the hot cup in her hand. She then placed said cup on the coffee table in front of her. Robin remained in the position he had been in when the half-demon entered the room. Raven supposed that it was now or never; she needed to fulfill the promise she had made to Cyborg and she hadn’t a clue when the Tower’s other three residents would appear. She cleared her throat, then broke the silence, “Robin, I need to have a word with you.” Raven was slightly surprised to find that her voice sounded even more monotonous than usual. That seemed to be happening quite often as of late.
Robin nodded curtly in response to Raven’s statement, then continued typing, presumably finishing a sentence or something of the sort. He then swiveled in his chair to face the other Titan. “Shoot,” he said simply.
Raven released a heavy sigh. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately as well. Without further hesitation, she began, “It’s about Beast Boy.”
Robin nodded, seemingly in understanding. “His video game problem?” he guessed.
Raven also nodded. “So you’ve noticed too?”
“Yeah,” Robin replied, “I didn’t realize just how bad it was until the incident with the H.I.V.E. Five the other day.”
Raven winced. She remembered all too well. Upon later investigation of the team’s embarrasing failure to thwart the group of teenage villains, it was discovered that the fight would have most likely been considerably different, but Beast Boy had been distracted, to say the least. It was evident that he hadn’t been into the idea of fighting that day.
To save Raven from being forced to comment on the subject, Robin said, “It’s definitely an issue that we need to find a solution for.”
Raven nodded. “I was talking to Cyborg about it last night. We were thinking that we all need to talk about Beast Boy’s problem together in order to figure out how to fix it.”
The boy wonder rubbed his chin in thought. “I can call a meeting with the rest of us later today. Sound good?”
For the umpteenth time that morning, Raven responded with a nod. At this point, the conversation ended, so the empath drained her teacup, placed it in the sink, and retreated to her room for her daily meditation and reading, plus a possible nap.
. don't know about name sry 
Theubu, those names are better than anything I could come up with. If I find nothing better by the time my editor looks at it, I might use one of them. And you will of course be credited. Lol.