(Disclaimer: 1 d0n'7 PWNZOR teh 733n 7174n5. Trans: I don't own the Teen Titans. Just because I can't stand 1337-speak, that doesn't mean I don't know it.)

-Duplomatic: Director's Cut-

Author's Note: Okay, here's the alternate ending I considered. It's basically just the real Chapter Nine over again, with only the very end different. It's a bit sadder, which is why I stayed away from it, but it was still something that I very much considered actually putting in. Here goes:

Things had finally returned to normal in Titans Tower. The duplicates were gone; the Titans had held an informal little ceremony where they buried their multicoloured clothes, which were all that remained of them. They each got their own little headstones. It reminded Beast Boy of the ceremony they had held at Terra's statue, and he had to try very hard to keep himself from crying. He failed.

That had been almost a week ago. The damage to the basement had been repaired, and it was as if the whole thing had never even happened. The Titans had all returned to their usual business, with only two exceptions: Raven was even quieter than normal, and Beast Boy could sometimes be seen lost in thought, a state that was rare for him. The others decided that it was none of their business, though, and left them alone (although Starfire had required some convincing).

Beast Boy was lying on his bed, just thinking, when he heard a knock at his door. He got up, being careful not to bump his head on the top bunk of the bunk bed, and crossed his room to open the door. Raven was standing in the hall outside his room, looking uncomfortable.

"Beast Boy? Can I talk to you?" she said.

"Uhhh…sure, Raven. What do you want to talk about?" Beast Boy asked. Raven fidgeted a bit—it was disconcerting seeing her look so self-conscious.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for what Love did to you," she said. "She was kind of a part of me, so I feel responsible for what she did."

"Oh, don't worry about it, she didn't really hurt me or anything," said Beast Boy. He laughed and rubbed the back of his head, but then suddenly became serious.

"Are you sorry for what you did to her?" he asked. Raven was startled.

"What do you mean? She was crazy, Beast Boy," she said. "Love was unstable and dangerous. She had to be stopped. I just…"

"No, Raven," interrupted Beast Boy. "I mean before that. She told me how you treated her, or how you treat your love personality, or whatever. She told me how you yelled at her. I'm sure she was exaggerating a bit, but still…" He looked into Raven's eyes.

"So, are you sorry for that?" he asked.

Raven looked down at her feet. She looked embarrassed, but said nothing. Beast Boy sighed.

"Yeah, you know what? That was kind of a stupid question. Just forget about it," he said, and closed his door.

Raven turned away and walked back down the hall. She stopped just outside of her room, and looked back at Beast Boy's door. A single tear rolled down her cheek.

Oh, Beast Boy. I'm so sorry, she thought. I'm sorry, but I can never really be there for you.

As if to prove her point, the fluorescent bulb overhead turned black for an instant before it exploded, her powers inadvertently triggered by her emotion. Raven stifled her tears and stepped into her room to meditate.

-FIN-

Author's Note: Yeah, so there you have it. An alternate ending. If you like this one better than the one I really put in, that's cool, but personally I prefer the one I used (obviously). Anyway, what follows is a bunch of Author's Note type stuff with my thoughts on the characters, Raven/Beast Boy relationships, the whole Trigon issue, and some of the problems and rejected ideas that were part of my writing process, as well as what exactly my writing process was (I think I'll start with that). If you aren't interested in reading that, then you don't have to, but I think it might be interesting for other aspiring writers—I know I'd like to hear what kinds of things other people do for writing, and what thought went into putting their stories together. Oh, and to any admins or whatever that might read this, if this is too far from being a story post, just let me know and I will gladly take it down.

My Writing Process: To start, I'll tell you what my basic writing process was for Duplomatic. I've never written anything like this before—all I've ever really written before is short humour stuff like my spoof of the ending to Apprentice Pt. 1, some of it in script format, some not. Those kinds of pieces I can just write on the fly, since they're short and usually revolve around only one particular idea. However, to do a connected story in chapter format, even a relatively short one like Duplomatic, would require that I have a game plan so that I wouldn't accidentally write myself into a corner I couldn't get out of. So, I came up with one. Before even starting to type, I wrote down ideas on a piece of paper, thought about stuff, decided I liked some ideas better than others, and so on. Even before that, I was thinking about the kind of situations I was interested in portraying, not necessarily as part of a story I would write, but kind of just daydreaming. Anyways, this process of daydreaming situations, getting ideas down on paper, and deciding which ideas I liked and would keep lasted for a couple of weeks (on the outside) before I even started writing. In that time, the story went from some kind of big-ass fight against the evil sides of Raven's personality, including a duplicate dedicated to Evil that could 'infect' the other ones, turning them into dark versions of the emotion they represent (so Love might have become Lust, Smart might have become Ruthless, and so on), to a much less epic story that focuses on the relationship between Raven and Love. I also played with ideas like having Evil get her hands on the duplication ray and using it to make an army of sub-duplicates of herself and Angry, like Hatred, Rage, and so on, but I rejected that. Good thing, too, since that kind of emotion-splitting happens in "Seven Years' Bad Luck in One Day" by Demigod, a story which I only read when I was already most of the way done writing Duplomatic, and I don't want to go around ripping off other people's ideas, even without knowing it.

So, anyway, after solidifying what ideas I would be putting in the story, I began planning out my chapters. On another sheet of paper (several, actually), I wrote out the planned names for each chapter, then wrote a summary of what would happen in that chapter, including descriptions of any particular parts I wanted to make sure I would remember to put in. It was still pretty vague, but it got across what I wanted to do in each chapter, and kept me from going way off-topic. In writing the chapter summaries, I cut out a few more ideas, and added others in, in a few places. I did that while actually writing, too—basically, my whole process was fairly dynamic, with revision going on throughout. Anyway, once the chapter summaries were done and I had my game plan, I actually started writing.

The writing itself came fairly naturally most of the time. I used to read an awful lot as a kid (I don't so much anymore, though, I don't know why), so I've been exposed to a lot of good writing styles, and I just tried to use the stuff I liked the most. If the writing ever looked too unfocused, or contrived, or even just sounded wrong when I recited it in my head, I would change it. A lot of that is still left, but I'm pretty happy with what I wrote. It is, after all, my first serious piece of fiction. Since I only had basic chapter summaries to work with, I had a lot of room to maneuver, especially with respect to specific dialogue. I tried to keep all dialogue as much in character as possible. When I needed to have someone say something in particular, I would think "Okay, now who does that sound like?" then have the appropriate character say it. What really helped was watching a lot of reruns of the TV show—it even helped give me some new ideas to put in that just kind of fell out of the character interactions on their own. The same kind of thing applies to which character did what. If I ever needed something to be done, but didn't know who should do it, I would ask "Which character does this action fit with most?" and then go from there. Of course, all this depends largely on my interpretations of the characters, but whatever. From some of the reviews I've gotten, it looks like people agree with my interpretations of them, so I feel reasonably confident about that.

I also tried to keep my writing consistent, while still being sensitive to the situations being portrayed. For instance, my "omnipotent narration" bits often have some small jokes in them (like the note on tea consumption in the Tower), and I tried to keep that fairly constant, but I also realized that even slightly humourous narration wouldn't fit right with the truly suspenseful or dramatic parts. Again, I fell back on my experience with writing styles that came from reading like a maniac as a kid in order to try to create the right mood.

Anyway, as for the particular problems and rejected ideas that were part of the process, I'll address them by chapter later.

Comic vs. TV Show: Let me just say this right off the bat: I have never, ever read any of the Teen Titans comic books. I've done a bit of research by going and checking character profiles and stuff online, and the only knowledge I have of the comic books comes from that. My main source of information about the Titans and their world is the TV show. So, my interpretations of the characters and the background issues surrounding those characters (e.g. Trigon) are influenced virtually exclusively by how they are portrayed in the show.

On the Characters:

Robin: I tried to follow the pattern that the show establishes for Robin—he's intelligent, highly skilled, focused to the point of obsession, and very much the apprentice of the Batman. I didn't go into his character in too much detail, and mostly just used him as the leader figure in combat and the main detective when the Titans are confronted with the murders.

Cyborg: Again, I didn't go into much detail with Cyborg's character—even less than for Starfire and Robin, actually—and basically just used what I see in the show. He's immature at times, so he's a nice companion for Beast Boy, but he's also capable of fulfilling the wise older brother role for the Titans. He's either the calm voice of reason or one of the ones fighting in disputes.

Starfire: Like I said in one of my past Author's Notes, I do not think of Starfire as being dumb. She is just a bit naïve, and her grasp of English is a bit too much restricted to the official rules of grammar and strict dictionary meanings of words, so she often sounds a bit odd when she talks, and misunderstands most slang. The thing you really have to realize is that, as natural speakers of any language, we have an almost instinctive understanding of what sounds right, and we also never follow the rules exactly in everyday speech. For instance, I'm taking a Japanese language course right now, but the Japanese I'm learning would sound odd to any natural speaker of Japanese, since I'm basically learning how to speak Japanese like a fifteen-year-old girl ("Ohayoo gozaimasu!" eyes closed, big smile, and creepy little wave ). If I ever went to Japan and tried to speak Japanese, I'd probably sound like a fruit loop. Anyway, as I was saying, I don't think of Starfire as being dumb. I do think of her as cheerful, bubbly, enthusiastic, perpetually curious, and quite empathetic. The last two are the reasons why Starfire wanted to try to get to know Angry Raven better, even after she had attacked her.

Beast Boy: He's the joker of the team, obviously, but like Starfire, I don't think he's stupid. He obviously has loads of creativity, at the very least, if he's coming up with the pranks he plays on the other Titans. I think that after the events with Terra, he's much more given towards introspection—that wounded him, and it might have got him doubting if his carefree life might just be a sham. He's also fairly sensitive, I think, despite his jokes—he's usually the one who understands his friends' emotions, even if he doesn't understand the situation in general (or his own emotions, for that matter). Your basic creative, artistic, extroverted people-person, really (I say artistic because, as he proved in Betrayal, he obviously has mad skillz wit' da glue gun), but with a definite introspective side. As such, he's a good foil for Raven, and a great friend to Cyborg, who probably wouldn't have nearly as much fun without him.

Raven: A complementary character to Beast Boy in particular, although she and Starfire are also fairly complementary. Raven is introverted, introspective, and many other words that begin with intro. Since her powers can be hijacked by her emotions and go haywire, she has to keep those emotions in check at all times, but I don't think she's just classically repressed. I don't think she just locks her emotions away without even looking at them, since even her denial of her emotions can be dangerous, as seen in Fear Itself. Rather, I think that she has to be very aware of her emotions at all times in order to keep them under control. That's the main reason for dividing up her personality the way she does, in my opinion. She does it so that she can keep an eye on each of her emotions with her meditation. Also, if each of her emotions has its own distinct personality, they can vent in her mind without ever showing up in Raven herself (maybe—just a theory). However, I think that even that level of controlling her emotions, while not as bad as just locking them up without looking at them and throwing away the key, is still dangerous. It's still an artificial restraint that her emotions will naturally rail against, and if she ignores one particular emotion for some reason things might come to a boiling point, as they did with Love in this story. I kind of picture it like her meditation is spent kind of talking to her personalities so they don't go crazy and try to take over, and that she just never really paid much attention to Love (I'm pretty sure this interpretation of Raven's meditation has come up in lots of different "Raven's Emotions" stories, but I forget which ones in particular I've seen it in).

The Trigon Issue (why I avoided it): Trigon is obviously a big part of Raven's life, but he doesn't get any mention in Duplomatic, even with regards to Angry running around causing trouble, mainly because it's a huge issue that I don't want to have to deal with in my first serious piece of fiction. I've seen some basic plot summaries for how it goes in the Teen Titans comic books, and it seems to be that there's some kind of "seed" of Trigon in Raven (Angry?) that can turn her evil and so on. I wanted to avoid that, since the comic book seems to have taken it along this route: Raven turns evil, gets killed, gets brought back to life, turns evil again, gets killed again, turns evil while still dead then gets brought back to life, learns the true meaning of Christmas and dies again, and so on. So, instead of there being some kind of evil Trigon seed inside Raven, I kind of interpreted things so that Trigon is a representation of everything bad about Raven, so Angry will often take his form (as in Nevermore), but otherwise just acts as a nasty little part of Raven. If Trigon needs Raven to open a gateway to our world so he can come and take over, as he very well might, I'm sure that Angry would happily act as a kind of spy in Raven's mind, but other than that, I make no connection between Raven's Angry side and Trigon.

Raven/Beast Boy Relationships, and Terra: I can certainly see how Rae/BB stuff is so popular. As I said before, they are complementary characters, being near polar opposites of each other. Let me expand on this. I'll use the terminology of yin and yang—although I don't know many details of Taoist philosophy, I have learned a bit about yin and yang from my kung fu instructor. Yin is equated with stillness, closedness, introversion, peace, emptiness, nothingness, simplicity, death, and so on. Yang is equated with action, openness, extroversion, violence, fullness, existence, complexity, life, and so on. I would be very hesitant to equate yin and yang with evil and good, respectively, but I suppose that is a possibility. Anyway, it is easy to see that Raven fits with yin, and Beast Boy fits with yang, but I don't think it's that simple (it never is, really). Raven fits with yin because on the outside she's calm, introverted, thoughtful, and quiet, but on the inside she is very yang—there's a lot going on in her head, with all her emotions running around all over the place, and complex issues with her father, and so on. Similarly, while Beast Boy has a yang exterior, being extroverted, cheerful, and energetic, his internal world is yin, being very simple—he has a one-track mind, to put it another way. It is interesting to note that these clear divides between their internal and external worlds have become blurred in recent episodes, with the events regarding Terra shaking Beast Boy's carefree exterior, and the events of Spellbound shaking up Raven a bit (I mean, she even hugged Beast Boy at the end). It is also interesting to note that they are both pained characters who just deal with that pain in different ways (Beast Boy by making jokes, Raven by withdrawing).

So, with Raven and Beast Boy being opposite, complementary characters, all one really has to do is apply the old "Opposites Attract" rule, and you have why Rae/BB relationships are so popular. However, I can't really see the two of them seriously getting together without some serious character development taking place. I think that while opposites do attract, it's the similarities that allow couples to stay together over the long term. So really, while Raven and Beast Boy might very well be attracted to each other, if some similarities between them don't crop up it looks like Beast Boy and Terra would be the more stable relationship. I know that many of you hate Terra with a fiery passion that burns with the heat of a thousand suns, but you must admit that she and Beast Boy do have a lot in common. That said, I don't find Terra to be that interesting a character. She's basically just there to betray the Titans, and once she did that she lost all purpose for her existence in the show. What personality she does have is pretty much covered by the other Titans—she's running from her past, trying to control her powers, but hides her pain by being outwardly cheerful. She's kind of like a mix of Raven and Beast Boy, with a bit of Starfire thrown in for good measure, and blonde hair. She isn't really needed for anything other than the whole betrayal story arc. This non-interesting nature of Terra does mean that the Rae/BB relationships might be a bit more interesting, but I still don't think that it would work in the long run as things are now. So, to recap, I see Raven and Beast Boy as good friends, but barring some serious similarities that may come up, I don't see them actually getting together any time soon, although it's fun to play around with that kind of stuff. Oh, and Raven would have to lose her powers or something before they could really get it on.

On the Relationship Between Raven and Love: The main point of interaction between Raven and Love was in their little "talk" in Chapter Five, where Love blew up at Raven. I suppose that part of the venom present in Love's verbal attack on Raven stems partially from my own opinions of myself. I identify most with Raven out of all the Teen Titans (far and away), and not just because I'm a teenaged half-demon who can't feel emotion for fear of releasing my evil father upon the world…well, actually not for that reason at all. I identify with Raven because I have approximately the same social tendencies that she does, that is, even when living together with a relatively small group of people, I find it hard to really make friends. I spend nearly all of my time in my room, although I tend to sleep more often than read these days. However, I recognize that I can't just sit around and expect a network of friendships to spontaneously form around me. I know that if I want friends I have to go out in the world and make things happen, but I often find myself paralyzed by insecurities about what people will think of me, so more often than not I don't take advantage of even the few chances at socializing that do come my way. This leaves me kicking myself, and wishing I would just smarten up already. That's where Love's aggression towards Raven is coming from in terms of me, the writer. I hope that wasn't too angsty or anything, and I'm not looking for sympathy, I just think it's important for other aspiring writers to know where people draw their inspiration from. Bring on the Sturm undt Drang, baby! (Bad German, I know, but whatever.)

Problems and Rejected Ideas: I'll go through them by chapter.

1. Nothing much here, everything that I wanted to put in went in. The characters just interacted so well that I hardly had to do anything.

2. Problems: coming up with details about Multiple Gary, like his costume, background, etc. (anything beyond "villain with a duplication ray"); writing the action sequence; figuring out some way to get rid of the clones that allowed Raven's clones to survive (ordering the events, workings of the Duplomatic, etc.)

Rejected Ideas: the army of Garys being immediately seen looting or something

3. Problems: justifying the clone that would become Angry being put in Starfire's room, referring to each Raven uniquely without driving myself crazy

Rejected Ideas: other Ravens (Pride, Punk and Emo actually showing up, Inner Child, Hope, Good and Evil, Hatred, etc.); some interaction between the Ravens was scrapped (like Spiritual suggesting feng shui for the living room)

4. Problems: writing the action sequence, assigning the Titans and Ravens into amusing search teams

Rejected Ideas: more Angry Raven stuff was originally intended, but it kind of spilled over into the next chapter; alternate chapter title—Paint the Town Red

5. Problems: PG-13 paranoia, why Angry Raven can't escape

Rejected Ideas: none

6. Problems: BIG plot hole—duplicates' bodies are supposed to disappear, including their clothes (which were duplicated along with them), but Smart Raven's crackpot theories save the day; trying desperately not to make the killer's identity obvious

Rejected Ideas: split scene where Starfire takes tea to Angry, have her go to the wrong cell first (while the killer goes to the right one…), switch back and forth between Starfire and Angry (i.e. have Starfire open the hatch thingy, then switch to Angry's POV of the hatch on her door open, have Angry ask who's there, then switch to Starfire not seeing anyone in the cell because she's at the wrong one…oh no!), I decided that while this might add suspense (like in horror movies), it would break up the scene way too much

7. Problems: trying to make the announcement that Love was the killer all dramatic and stuff

Rejected Ideas: alternate chapter title—And the Killer is…

8. Problems: getting Beast Boy out of his restraints so he could be pushed out of the way of the falling chunk of machinery by Love

Rejected Ideas: none

9. Problems: none

Rejected Ideas: see the alternate ending above; alternate chapter title—Denouement

Okay, so that's everything, I think. Later!

To My Reviewers: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed!

Regrem Erutaerc: Sorry, but I consider this story complete. I might have my next serious one kind of take place after this has all happened, but it probably won't focus on Raven and Beast Boy so much (although I do like their character interaction—note, not necessarily romantic pairing, as I said above!). As for it being cruel, well, I could have had everyone die at the end or something. I mean, Hamlet is my favourite play, after all ("And now you're dead! And now you're dead! And you, and you, and you! And now I'm dead, too!" thump ). I consider Raven to be a bit of a tragic character, at least until she deals with Trigon with some kind of finality (if she ever does), so don't expect any deliriously happy endings for her just yet. I am considering doing an "After Trigon is Dead" story sometime, though.

Blackbird: Thanks! I'm glad I was able to drag you into the story with the detective work. That's probably one of the best compliments anyone could give me on my writing. As for the equations, I didn't want Smart Raven to do everything in this story—she was already saving my sorry ass from all the plot holes I let slip. Those damn non-dissapearing cloaks!

Mephisto2022: Yet another call to not let it end like this, eh? I actually think it has a positive ending, now that I think about it: Raven finally acknowledges her Love side, which she had been neglecting. It's not really a Raven/Beast Boy thing; it's more that Raven needs to get in touch with her emotions, even if she can't express them in an uncontrolled way. And who knows? Maybe now that Raven has acknowledged her Love side she'll tackle-glomp Beast Boy next time she sees him. Cue the bass-heavy 70s-style music! Rated R, for raunchy! Meh, probably not.

CloudsHalo: Okay, that was a joke, man. Don't take all I say seriously. Take some of it seriously, but only the stuff that I want you to take seriously. How will you know which is which? The Shadow knows! Muwahahahahaaa! Yeah, so ask him. Also, random-ass crap like that just now is kind of an indicator of joke-ness. But on a more serious note: the biggest reason I didn't go into all the gore-spattered details of the murders was that I wanted to keep this within PG-13, and as I've said before, I'm not totally sure where the boundaries are. Also, I wasn't sure of my ability to describe them all without getting repetitive. And besides, I'm not such a big fan of the whole senseless violence thing—I didn't think it was necessary, so I didn't put it in. I suppose it would have gotten some shock value, but I wanted the character interactions to take the spotlight, for the most part.

SnowhiteandtheSevenDragons: Thanks! I'll probably be doing some short comedy stuff between serious stories, so don't get thrown off if the next thing I post isn't anything like Duplomatic. I do have some ideas for serious stories in the works, though, so it's only a matter of time!

Kohikari: I'm glad you liked it. I haven't seen any of Raven's other emotions gone into any detail in the show either, but I've seen a few of the other "Raven's Emotions" stories that are posted here, so naturally a few ideas filtered through from those (even though I tried to keep it as original as I could). And thanks for the vote of confidence with the whole "separate entities with tendencies" thing.