Victor Stone had resigned himself to the fact that he was completely alone in the world. He had comrades, but they were completely organic. He had people he'd consider calling 'friend', but they were organic as well. They had secret identities. They...
Author's note: Just a little disclaimer that I'm really not a fan of the Titans show. I love The New Teen Titans comics and the Teen Titans cartoon, but the tv show...I just can't get into it. Still, I didn't mind the casting for Beast Boy so I'll still use him as the faceclaim (despite the fact that BB should be green ALL the time, not just when he transforms 🙄)
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That simulation had been a small slice of heaven. It rejuvenated Victor's confidence, and gave him what he'd been craving for years now; the opportunity to love Harper as a man, not a pile of metal. The only problem was that, ever since Harper had shown him this device, he absolutely refused to leave...
He spent every waking hour inside of that virtual reality. He ate there, slept there, played football with his old teammates. He did everything that he could never do in his cybernetic prison. It was becoming a little unnerving.
"When I created this place, I didn't expect you to retreat inside of it permanently." Harper sighed. She had entered the simulation to speak to him, because it was the only way that anyone could nowadays. He was still in his human form - complete with its broad shoulders and long legs. "I wanted you to have a place to yourself...where you didn't have to feel so seperate from the world. Instead, you've decided to hide in it."
"I'm not hiding from anything." Victor scoffed. He was sitting on the bleachers, watching his team run a few laps around the field. "I've lived out there, as a freak and a monster, for years. Just because I prefer my life in here doesn't mean I ran away from my other one."
Harper shook her head, defeatedly. She had been trying to get him out into the real world for days now...but he absolutely refused. At this point, she didn't know what to do. Shutting down the program was an option, but Victor had already taken it over - with his complex technology, it was a hopeless effort to even try.
"This isn't real...none of it is. Doesn't that bother you?" Harper asked in a last effort to convince him, but her words barely reached him at all.
Victor shook his head and averted his eyes from hers. Despite being certain of his decision, he hated seeing the disappointment dawn upon her face. "It's real enough, Harp."
It became clear, right in that moment, that this was beyond Harper's reach. She had practically handed him the answer to his every nightly prayer...and granted a wish that he had previously thought hopeless. Victor wasn't going to give that up, not now that he had remembered how fulfilling it was to be human. Harper, however, couldn't simply watch him live in a high-tech fairytale. "You know that I can't condone this..."
"Why not?" Victor asked, though he didn't sound shocked by her response. Harper had never been the type of women to blindly follow behind his every path...sometimes he wished that she was. "I can be with you in here... We can be normal."
