Shadows After Sunset [Beast Boy]

[Raven]

It was getting late out, but that just meant she had plenty of shadows to hide in. Doing so helped Kira to feel safe from all the dangers of the world and its people. However, that was not what she really longed for, not by a long shot. No, what she wanted was to find a place that she could belong, that she could be without worry of what she could do or what she was. What was she anyway? She still could not answer that question. Kira had no idea where these powers came from or why she had them, only that she did and that she was different. Within her she could feel a comforting energy, though she was unsure as to where that came from as well, only that it was there when she was thinking negatively or when she was in trouble. It sort of guided her in a way, giving her the feeling that what she was doing was right or wrong. Like instinct she supposed, but perhaps a little more. Whatever it was she was glad it was there.

Looking up she could see that the sun was almost set and that it would be night soon. Already the stars were appearing in the sky and the moon was quite visible and nearly full. Currently Kira was up in a tree and enjoying the view it provided. There was little else for her to do at this time anyway. She had no where to go and this seemed like a nice spot to settle down for now. She sat quietly for a time, sinking into concentration. After a moment a shadowy charge of energy appeared to seep out of her and form into a raven shape. She looked at it calmly, knowing it contained a part of herself. “Always a raven,” she muttered to herself, “perhaps that's what I really am..” It had been so long since she had been home, but she was not going to go back anytime soon. In fact, it might be time to drop Kira as an identity for good. “Raven..”

It was almost completely dark now and the shadows hid her well. She was currently wearing all black to keep her hidden even without the use of her powers. Her physical manifestation of her spirit had long gone by now, having dropped her concentration after only a couple minutes as she remained in thought. The animals around her either seemed to settle down for the night or came to life. Kira, no she would call herself Raven now, relaxed on the tree branch, leaning into the trunk a bit and closed her eyes to rest a bit. She would not fall asleep, not yet, it was still too early. However, she did let her thoughts roam a bit and slowly began to lose focus of everything else around her, as if she could care less about the world around her. It probably did not matter anyway, they would probably reject her as well like her father did. At that thought a single tear found its way out and rolled down her cheek, eyes cracking open slightly only to look lost.

[Beast Boy]

The sound of a bell jingled from another branch of the very same tree the teenage girl was sitting upon. Clearly the girl was not alone, at least not any longer. It was hard to say how long the creature had been sitting on a branch of its own, staring off into the distance, almost as if it were daydreaming.

Strangely enough, the cat's fur coat was entirely green in color, its eyes red and glowing more and more as the darkness caused by the setting of the sun fell upon the area.

It just so happened that he had noticed the girl, the tiny music-like echo of the bell around his neck had been the first signal of that as he turned his head to get a look at the nearby person. Wondering why she looked so glum... That was rather close to how he felt, actually, but he was trying to make himself feel better, looking on things with an optimistic view. Though that was a lot harder than one would think.

Almost immediately the cat felt as though he should cheer the girl up, noticing and unable to ignore the sadness in her eyes. Did he even know how to make someone feel better, though? And a complete stranger at that... He could only blink over at the girl curiously, confused, yet deep in thought while he attempted to think of something. Well... maybe she liked cats...?

A few more steps were taken along the branch, guiding him closer to the teenager until he finally dropped down to the branch she had been relaxing on. Briefly, he made a low purring noise before stopping, finding it to be a somewhat odd and slightly awkward thing to do. Hey, the seat wasn't taken, was it? So, he decided he would casually just sit next to the girl in his catform, eyes not on her, but rather looking off at the sky once more.

[Raven]

Raven slowly rose her hand and wiped the tear away, composing herself and trying to be apathetic once more. She hated feeling sad, though everyone probably did, but she just could not help it at times. The best she could do was try to ignore it and hide the pain away, pretend that she felt nothing. It was interesting that she could take pain away from others, but she could never rid herself of her own pain. Such a thing seemed like it could be such a luxury, but she was out of luck in that case. No matter how much she tried not to care, the point was that she did care and there seemed to be little she could do about that.

After a moment of thought she was drawn out by something, a small ringing. More of a jingling actually. At first she did not think much of it, but then she wondered why it sounded so close. At that thought Raven knew she should probably care a little more. After all, trees did not ring or jingle, whatever that sound was. However she could not clearly feel any emotions other than her own, at least not human emotions. The vague feelings of animals were there, but it was harder to distinguish their feelings than human feelings. She was unsure why, though if she really tried hard enough she could get a better reading of their feelings. Perhaps it was that since she was human it was just easier to connect with other humans. Even so, she had grown to like animals a lot more anyway.

Before she could actually turn to look for the source of the jingling she found a cat slink into view and sit next to her, a soft purring audible to her ears. Raven was a bit surprised at his appearance, but the surprise turned into curiosity and calm rather quickly. She found herself instead focusing on the creature, his emotions easier to read than any other animal she had tried. It looked odd to, almost green it seemed, but she figured it was just the darkness around her playing tricks on her eyes. He was probably black or gray, something like that. What interested her the most was that he really did not seem happy more than he seemed comforting, like he was there next to her trying to make her feel better. It made her a bit happier.

“At least you seem to care about me,” she said to him softly, “it's a start I suppose..” Raven could feel herself smile slightly, raising a hand and gently petting the cat. “I wish I had a cat growing up.. Maybe things would have turned out better.. No, probably not. I'm to abnormal for things to go better.” She was dwelling again. Raven shook her head as if to try to rid herself of those thoughts. “I'm Raven,” she said as she scratched behind the cat's ears, “do you have a name?” As she asked that she looked for a tag of some sort, but only found the jingling bell.

[Beast Boy]

The cat had must have succeeded in his efforts, he had gotten the girl to speak to him, despite thinking that he was no more than a cat. Strange, no one had ever pet him before when he was in this form, it was surprisingly relaxing, an enjoyable sensation, almost like a massage. At each word, his ears twitched slightly, thinking it to be funny that she thought of herself as abnormal. Here he was, sitting on a tree branch, claiming to be a cat, an imposter, while to him, she appeared merely as an ordinary human girl, albeit one who was strangely clothed in all black.

Oh wait just a second there. It felt even better as the scratching made its way to behind his ears, the green cat couldn’t help but smile as his head tilted downward to the side in a reaction quite common amongst felines. “It’s Cale,” a response was spoken by the odd-colored cat, literally spoken aloud in a rather young male's voice. The cat remembered his name given to him at birth only, his surname escaped him after such a long time, not as if it mattered anymore anyway.

The cat hadn't thought much on what this teenager, Raven, would think if he had suddenly spoken aloud... but the cat was out of the bag now, so to speak. Though exactly what type of creature she would think he was now was anyone's guess. A cat that could speak? Or the truth, that he was a shapeshifter. That or she was going crazy and hearing things! "What's got you so glum?"

[Raven]

The cat spoke. Raven had to pause in her petting at that. It caught her off guard, as off guard as she could be actually. Never had she heard of a cat speaking before, nor had she ever been able to understand one so clearly emotionally. At first she did not know what to think and only stared at the little being sitting next to her, eyes widened slightly and mouth opened a little as if she was trying to speak, but forgot what she was going to say. What was there to say to that anyway? It was not something that normally happened or that any normal person would have a response to except to run off screaming in the night. Well Raven could not do that, it would attract far too much attention, so she was stuck with being silently shocked.

“Somehow... I'm not as freaked as I should be in this situation,” she said a little slowly, coming out of the shock of the cat suddenly speaking. She blinked a bit and then pinched her arm. “No, not dreaming.. I don't think I've gone crazy.. Yet.. Ordinary cats still can't talk as far as I know..” She was so distracted by her spoken thoughts that she almost missed his question. She had not been sure it was a he before, but the voice only confirmed her suspicions. It was a young male voice. “Glum,” she more just repeated in thought than asked. There seemed little reason to not tell him, except for the fact that he was obviously not a normal cat and who knew what his motives where. Wait though, that was not quite right. She could sense that he really was just curious and wanted to help, that was what he was feeling.

“Just stuff in the past,” she said with a sigh after a moment of contemplation, “I don't know why, but I can do things.. I have some sort of power in me.. And it was just too much for my father to handle one day. Now I'm here, with no place to go. Just to put it simply,” she explained with as little emotion as she could muster. She did not want to appear too upset by her own story, so she acted like it did not bother her too much. “I mean, that would make anyone a little upset, right?” Actually Raven thought she was taking this rather well over the past two years, other kids would probably have been crying their eyes out and who knew what after that. She was not like that, and perhaps it was better off that way.

[Beast Boy]

The girl’s mouth was agape. Surprised? Well sure, of course she would have to be. The boy, err, cat, didn’t blame her either. If some random creature had come up strolling over to him out of nowhere and started up a casual conversation, then surely he too would have wondered the very same things. Apparently she thought she might be crazy, or dreaming. “You aren’t? Are you sure?” the cat’s red eyes glowed in the darkness, disappearing for a moment as he blinked and then reappearing once more. “Nope, they still can’t talk!” he repeated, followed by a flick of his tail as he rose to his feet, standing now on all fours. The cat was merely adjusting himself, turning to face Raven before promptly sitting himself back down again. It was his way of being more attentive as she spoke.

“You have nowhere to go aside from this tree?” the green creature added in a bit jokingly. Of all the places that could be ventured to in the city, the thing that had drawn her attention the most had been some random tree in a park. Now, let's see here... would that make him upset...? Good question. “Maybe. I guess I wouldn’t really know,” he replied, his response accompanied by as much of a shrug as he could manage to do in the form he was currently in.

“But... you said you have a power...? Hey, what can you do?!” excitedly asked the cat, smiling toward the teenager. He didn’t understand why she’d left her father. The reason was her abilities? That sounded a bit odd though, to Beast Boy at least. He tilted his head at the female creature, a look of uncertainty spreading throughout nearly all of his features “What... did your father have to control your power or something? I don’t get it.”

[Raven]

At his question Raven had to shrug a bit. “Well plenty of weird stuff has happened before,” she said in thought, “I suppose after the initial shock it really isn't that big a deal..” It was a bit strange how she recovered so quickly, though she simply shrugged it off as being use to weird things. Though that did not explain the calming feeling she felt even now, just like most of the time when her feelings begin to overwhelm her even a little. When he repeated her she had to raise an eyebrow slightly at him, wondering why he sounded so chipper. At least to her he sounded chipper anyway. “Yeah, I guess it wouldn't be so weird if they could, anyway,” she said with a shrug. Raven felt her head tilt slightly as he got up, turned and sat back down. Such an interesting creature he was and, now that she did look at him closely and knew that he was different from other cats she could, in fact, see that his fur was green and his eyes glowing red.

“Well I could have chosen another tree aside from this one,” she said as she pulled her knee up to her chest and hugged her leg a bit, “of course then we wouldn't be speaking with each other right now. I guess I liked the idea of being here rather than being on some random street or in some random alley though.” At the very least the scenery was more appealing than what she probably would have found if she had not come here. When he said he was not sure if it would make him upset she had to brush it off. He was only a cat, though a talking one, but still just a cat as far as she knew. Raven figured he probably would not understand so well with that being the case and she really did not feel like explaining further.

“Don't get too excited about my powers,” she said, raising her eyebrow again, “so far I've figured out that I can create this dark sort of energy thing. I can use it to move objects or hurt someone I suppose if I were in danger. I can also feel other people's emotions. It's kinda strange, I suppose, but I'm use to it by now.” Raven was unsure if she should tell him about her other powers, mainly the one where she could steal emotions from another being. She was afraid it would freak him out and drive him away. When he brought back up her father she fell silent for a moment then sighed quietly. “He couldn't control me or anything like that. He knew I had these powers, but the extent of them scared him. One day he just snapped and freaked out on me... He ran away from me, said that I was a mistake, that he had made a mistake... I didn't want to cause him anymore trouble and fear so.. I left and I haven't been back since.” Her father had been so terrified of her, she could feel his fear coursing through him at the time. Raven was not even sure why she was explaining herself, but being alone since she ran away perhaps it was time she told someone what happened.

[Beast Boy]

Raven, she seemed to be rather open when it came to talking and answering questions about herself. Were he not a cat, would this conversation be going the same way, he wondered? The first person he had really held a casual conversation with in... ever, actually, and he was, well, not quite himself. But the boy didn’t want to reveal anything in regard to his powers at this time, because he was only now finding out just how similar this girl’s troubles were to his...

“So... you ran away, huh? I can understand that,” the cat gave the girl a nod, he had gone through the same thing. The circumstances had been different, but that didn’t change the fact that he had run away, same as her, and it was because he didn’t want to cause trouble anymore either. Caleb didn’t exactly know if there was anything else that he should say in response to what she was telling him were her father’s reaction to her abilities and... all that personal stuff.

What else, what else...? Oh, right! Her powers! She wasn’t an ordinary teenage girl, nope, she had abilities just as he did. Sounded as if she was only somewhat discovering them now, however, and they sounded as though they were far from any power he had ever witnessed. “Hey, who knows, maybe he was just jealous that you had powers and he didn’t!” the green cat joked, shrugging off the serious mood that had seemingly been set.

“So, why don’t you show me what you can do then? If your powers don’t scare me, then they can’t be all that bad, right? After all, I’m supposed to be a scaredy cat.”

[Raven]

Raven hadn't spoken with anyone like this before, though she always found it easier to talk to animals more than people. Of course, they usually did not talk back to her either. Him being an animal probably helped her be more open while him being able to talk just added more conversation than the one sided talks with some random animal because she was bored and alone. In a way, she was glad that he could talk. It made her feel less weird. After all, a talking cat was pretty weird in itself.

When he said he understood she had to wonder why. It would be strange if he were some sort of house pet, though perhaps someone was trying to make money off of his abilities to speak and, well, be green. Even then how did it happen to begin with? Had he been exposed to something that changed him this way, or perhaps he was some sort of science experiment. If someone experimented on her she would probably try to run away as well. Now that she thought about it, if anyone really knew about her powers they would probably try to do stuff like that on her. If something like that happened she would fight it. Doing that against anyone's will was wrong and she did not approve of it at all.

Raven had to smile slightly when Caleb tried to joke a bit. She was sure that he had not been jealous, but what he said had lightened her mood, even if only a little. “Well he probably would have been scared of a talking cat too, you know,” she said, still holding that slight smile, “especially a green one with glowing red eyes.” With that she scratched a little behind his ears again. So far he was being good company and he seemed to enjoy the attention the first time around when she did it as well. “You probably would have made him faint, it wouldn't have surprised me anyway.”

At the thought of her powers she had to take a slow breath. After that she looked for something nearby, spotting a fallen tree branch on the ground. “Here's one,” she said as she raised her hand up and held her palm out at the branch. After a second the branch gained a bit of a shadowy outline and began to life off the ground before being tossed into the distance. “The energy I used to lift that I can also form into a ball or something and shoot it at stuff,” she said, her palm turning up and a small orb of shadow energy forming briefly before disappearing again. Raven lowered her hand again and looked over to Caleb with a shrug. “There are some other things, but that's the basics of my powers.” She did not want to go too in depth about them

[Beast Boy]

The green wasn't that bad, was it...? “Maybe I’m just more of an acquired taste?” the cat questioned, a bit hurt, in regard to the mention that Raven’s father would have fainted had he seen Caleb. His green fur was odd, to say the least, but with all the forms he could take, never could he change the green pigmentation in his skin nor the color of his fur and hair. By now, he had gotten used to it for the most part, but he supposed he could understand how a person could be weirded out by such a freak of nature.

From a distance, Raven’s power allowed her to move objects as she wished, even those as heavy as a fallen tree branch. “Nice!” the cat exclaimed quickly as he stood to gaze out at the branch as it flew through the air. Impressive, and a useful power to have at that. So why then was the girl’s father so fearful of it? Oh well, the green creature didn’t often worry about that sort of thing, so he merely brushed it off rather than think of it further. If a parent rejects his own child, then he probably wasn’t fit to be a parent in the first place.

The green creature turned his head at Raven’s next comment, turning his head as she formed a sphere of shadowy energy that hovered just over the palm of her hand. She had said earlier that she coud use such an orb of energy in order to hurt a person if she wished it so... "If an ability seems as though its only use is for hurting people, it can also be turned around and used for good. You just gotta know how to use it," the cat nodded with a smile, as if he was some wise and all knowing creature. Yeah, and that was definitely not the case, far from the truth, in fact.

[Raven]

Raven frowned slightly at his words, feeling that her words upset him a little. “It's not that. Actually you're quite a cute cat,” she said quietly, “it's just that for some people it's hard to accept something so different. It's those things that people are afraid of most. Things that are different or that they don't understand. That's just how people are a lot of times.” With that she gave a little shrug, showing she really did not, or tried not to, care about what other people thought about her. It did bother her a bit, but somehow she was able to just shrug that off and go on with her life. Sometimes it just felt like things that should have gotten her emotional just did not seem to effect her as much. She did not quite understand it, but she was glad for it just the same.

At Caleb's excitement Raven had to smirk a little, a bit proud that her powers impressed someone. She had known that she was different when she was younger and had often found herself holding back from the other children everything she could do, afraid of their judgment. However, getting the chance to show off her powers and to have them approved of was something that she realized she did enjoy. It was like drawing a picture that she was afraid to show anyone only to find out that it was a masterpiece. Well, perhaps not as big as that, but close enough. It made her happy in any case, and that was what mattered.

“I suppose,” she said in response to his seemingly wise tone and words, “if nothing else I could use it to fight crime.” Raven spoke in a joking tone, cracking a small smile at the thought. A small girl like her taking down some hulking, muscled bad guy fleeing the scene of some crime or other. It was a bit silly to imagine, but with her power it was probably possible. “And you could be my little sidekick,” she said with a slight chuckle, still holding the image in her head. Only knowing Caleb as a cat she really had no idea of what he would do as her sidekick in such a case except yell at the criminals that they could not get away, or something like that.

[Beast Boy]

Well that was a new one, being called a cute cat. 'Odd cat', maybe, or 'sick-looking cat', but never cute. If cats could blush, Caleb might have just then.

The boy didn't know what to use his powers for. He was afraid to use them for anything that might cause him to stand out, not again, he didn't want to repeat the mistakes he'd made in the past. With green skin that forced him to stick out in any crowd, he was naturally wary of that, as well as the possibility of being identified. That could end badly for him... so Caleb was contemplating on whether or not it would be best just to attempt blending into the background of the city and helping neither hero nor villain. Better than getting caught by anyone who might know him, though, right?

"I try not to let attitudes like that bother me, though... You shouldn't let it bother you either... because, like your dad, people don't know any better. You don't want to go down the road I've been down, trust me, powers shouldn't be used for anything other than aiding people who need it." Although he wasn't sure of what he himself should be doing, it seemed a much easier decision to say that Raven should find a way to use her powers for good. ...He didn't know why really, perhaps it was merely because the decision was not his own to make, so it was easier. That, and he also knew that she would not want to experience what he had to go through.

“Hey, wait a minute! I’m no one’s sidekick,” it was obvious the cat was adamant, leaping up to a higher branch as he declared his opinion on the matter. The higher elevation serving, in his mind, to prove that he was more suited to be a hero than just any old sidekick. If he could show her that his ability allowed him to transform into various types of versatile and strong animals, then his claims would probably have more weight to them. However, now probably wasn't the best of times for that, he didn't want to freak her out or anything. That or she'd think he was some sort of creep or something... No reason to chance it, anyway, not now.

[Raven]

Raven could practically feel the blush leaking from his emotions, though he could not physically show it. It made her want to giggle a little, but she held that back, just putting on a small smile in it's place instead. Caleb probably did not want her mentioning it anyway. She did tell him she could feel another person's emotions right? Well, he technically was not a person, he was a cat. If she did say anything about that he probably thought he did not count because he was not human.

There was some thoughts to be had at trying to use her powers for good, like he said. She had always preferred to remain hidden for one reason or another, but to openly use her powers for anything was a big step. Raven was unsure if she could do that, at least not yet. She was still very young and still in the midst of learning all of her abilities. In fact, she suspected that if she really practiced she could fly using her powers, but it was still only theoretical for the moment. For now she would probably get beaten by any real villain out there if she tried to do anything by herself and that just would not do. She was not ready to die just yet.

Her attention was caught at his words, something he said making her think a little more. “Do you have any special powers to,” she asked curiously, “I mean aside from talking?” He was a red-eyed, green talking cat after all, he may have had some other powers as well for all she knew. They had really only been talking about her, but now Raven was getting more curious about the small cat beside her. Aside from the obvious she really did not know too much about him or where he came from. Of course any normal person might have been asking all these questions first, but it really had not come to her mind until now.

Raven watched him leap up on a higher branch, a smirk on her face as he made his proud exclamation. “How are you going to defend yourself or others as a hero? You are still just a cat after all, talking or not.” She could tell that he was bothered by the notion of being a sidekick, but it seemed like there was something more that he was not telling her. From his emotions she could feel that he felt he could do more, but was holding back. It only made her more curious about it so she left the conversation open for any sort of revealing information or demonstration. He was a talking cat and she had gotten over the surprise of that, what could be more surprising?

[Beast Boy]

The cat took a seat, paws pressing against the bark in front of his feet while his tail slowly wagged back and forth behind him. That direction. Yeah, the one the conversation had just seemed to turn toward, that was the direction Caleb had been trying to avoid. Raven didn’t need to learn anything about who he truly was. As far as he was concerned, all she needed to know was that he was a strange, talking cat, nothing more. “And what if I don’t? Cats can be tough opponents. We have claws, we’re always landing on our feet, we have good balance, we’re great jumpers, and you know, nine lives and all,” he drew out the list of all the good cat qualities he could think of, gesturing with his paw as he spoke just as a human might do with his hand. “And then those criminals will be shocked once they hear a cat yelling at them, so that’s the only unique quality I need.”

Oh... well... just because the cat did not want to be a sidekick, well... it did not completely mean that he was going to take up the role as a hero. Sure, he believed he was suited more to be something more along the lines of a hero than a sidekick or a villain, but... defending himself and others, hrmm...

Nevertheless, he already knew he could not allow himself to do that, not even if he wished it so. “But you’re right, I wouldn’t want to be a hero anyway,” the cat shrugged, flattening himself out onto his stomach in order to relax a bit. “I’m not cut out for it, I’d really do a crappy job,” Caleb finished that last statement off with a large yawn and the resting of his chin upon his arms. “It’s far too much trouble, too.”

[Raven]

Raven had to smile a bit at how adamant he was being about cats, but she knew better than that. A simple cat would not be something that any big villain would worry about. Even with the small time robbers it could be a large problem. “Unless in their shocked state they freak out and fire a gun at you, then you're a dead cat,” she said more realistically, “especially since cats don't really have nine lives, they're just good at getting themselves out of trouble.” Of course, many times a cat is in trouble it is because it put itself in trouble with its curiosity. Another saying was that curiosity killed the cat, and sometimes it really did. Still, this cat, Caleb, seemed to be a special case anyway. He was smarter than the average cat, that was for sure.

At his next words she had to shake her head a bit. “So you tell me to use my powers for good, but it's too much trouble for you,” she asked with a raised eyebrow, “granted you are just a cat that can talk, but that still seems a bit hypocritical to me. I'd like to think hero's come in all shapes and sizes. Even an average cat could be a hero, just by leading his owner to safety during a fire. You're a cat that talks, so you could do even better, right? It may not be catching bad guys or anything, but you could still make a difference. Isn't that what a hero is essentially? Someone who can make a good difference in the lives of others? Something like that anyway.” It did sound like an exciting life to have, perhaps one that would make her feel glad that she had those powers too. However, Raven did not want to go at it alone, at least not to start when she barely knew what she was doing.

After her words she stretched a little then leaned back onto the trunk, one leg hanging off the branch and hands resting on her stomach. Her brown eyes found the night sky, tracing shapes among the stars through the leaves of the tree. “Do you ever get lonely,” she asked quietly, a yawn coming to her lips. She knew she did sometimes. He was a talking cat so she had to wonder if he got along with other cats or if anyone else aside from her knew he could talk.