Oh this is bullshit!

[sphererpmod]

Who: Everyone.
What: The May Nightmare.
Where: Anywhere within the City. However no area is under constant bombardment.
When: May 13th->May 28th.
Notes: This is May nightmare log. The nightmare for May is: an adult trapped in a child’s body. Plotting for the nightmare can be found
here.

MAY NIGHTMARE LOG.

Where as in the past nightmares have been more generalized, starting in unspecified areas, this one definitely has a ground zero point that it spirals out from. The ground zero point comes from the dome of the head of the Council, Max Tinder in the middle of the residential domes. Those who are close enough my even be able to hear the scream of a kid happen, followed my mountains of gratuitous swearing. (Don’t worry if you don’t hear it in person. You’ll be able to hear it on the network.) From that central point, the nightmare shifts outwards following no single pattern or anything like that to strike at the other domes.

As for the transformation that the nightmare brings, that’s entirely up to the players involved. It can be something slow and painful as your bones and body rewrite itself into your child form. It can be a partial transformation: an adult head on a child’s body or a child’s hand on an adults. The situation is nightmarish by design, however what level that nightmare is is subjective. (Warn for body horror etc if it’s going down in the thread.)

Leaving the affected area has the same effects if you want to play with them. Maybe it takes longer and longer for the effects of the nightmare to be removed. Maybe they only become partially removed. Maybe your character is stuck like this for two weeks.

The most important thing to know is that in whatever form this nightmare strikes your character, your character still has all of the parts of your adult character’s mind intact. All of your characters memories, experiences, dreams, personality, all of it are still there, trapped in the body of their childhood self. That is what makes this a nightmare. It should be your character as they were on May 12th etc.

Comments

Alec i Amasa | OTA

[whiteroadrunning]

a)

Alec had never given much thought to the vulnerability of children. It wasn't something that occurred to him as a child, after all. He'd never felt as if he were in danger. His father always protected him, or else left him with people who made him feel safe while he was off hunting the bear. There was never any immediate threat or knowledge of what he couldn't do in the face of the unknown.

But this was frustrating, at best. Everything in the pod was just a touch too large for his reach, which was remedied easily enough by dragging a chair around with him. Other solutions weren't quite as simple. How was he meant to defend himself with a bow two times too large? How was he meant to look Seregil in the eye when he returned to the pod? Was Seregil similarly affected? Was this another nightmare, or simply some rotten stroke of luck on his part?

It unsettled him. He felt small and far too delicate; it reminded him of holding a fingerling dragon, struck with no uncertain knowledge that the poor thing probably wouldn't survive the ravages of the wilderness for more than a few days. At least, not statistically. And so he struck out, as he did so often when he didn't understand what was happening. A bad habit he'd picked up from Seregil, perhaps. But if he struck out in the sphere, if he gathered more information, spoke to more people, maybe he would feel as if he had some modicum of control over the situation.

[Feel free to run into him anywhere in public, for this scenario.]

b. ((locked to Seregil and/or Angel))

Wandering left him with no solutions that he didn't have prior. Likely a nightmare. Though unlike the last one, it didn't seem contained to particular areas. He caught snippets of conversation while he was about; some people had been affected for a few days already, so perhaps it was meant to affect people for different lengths of time. There was no way to know, and while Alec was growing accustomed to relinquishing the things he couldn't control, this predicament was particularly vexing.

When he returned to the pod, it was with a deep frown that looked more like a pout on his chubby cheeks. And, even if there were no one around to hear, he crossed his arms and proclaimed in a high-pitched and slightly lisped voice:

"This is horse shit."

A

[10milliondollars]

After some practice and a bit of a wardrobe change, Rhys has managed to figure out how to drag his robotic arm around somewhat comfortably. It's awkward, and it might be easier to just detach it, but he doesn't feel comfortable not having it. He also doesn't feel comfortable talking to other adults. So he approaches the first boy he sees.

"Hey. Are you...Have you always been a kid?"

[whiteroadrunning]

Rhys managed to catch Alec right outside of the library as he exited, but the question only seemed to throw him off for a moment. Alec sighed, though it seemed more relieved than anything, and -- with just a brief glance at the mechanical arm -- Alec shook his head.

"I'm afraid not. You're not either?"

[10milliondollars]

Rhys shakes his head as well. "Pretty sure this is another nightmare, but...it sucks." He huffs out a breath, then eyes the other boy critically. "Have we met? As adults, I mean."

[whiteroadrunning]

"I don't think we have," Alec says; he's fairly sure he'd remember the arm. "I'm Alec. I'm usually, uh... taller."

What a stellar observation.

Alec holds out his hand in greeting, as he's learned is custom in most of the cultures here, and smiles warmly. Perhaps if he acts confident, he won't look as foolish as he just made himself sound.

[10milliondollars]

"I'd assume you are," Rhys says, staring at the hand offered, then looking down to his robotic hand. "I'm usually taller, too, and this arm usually...fits." He huffs and shoves his left hand out instead. It's what he's used to.

"Sorry, it's hard to lift this thing right now..."

[whiteroadrunning]

Alec's smile turns sympathetic, and he nods as he shakes Rhys' hand.

"Don't apologize. I don't think any of us were expecting this to happen today.

"Care to walk with me? As long as we're children, we'd might as well have some sweets, right? I was just heading to the market."

[10milliondollars]

"Sweets sound really good, actually. I'm a big fan of ice cream. My best friend says I overindulge, and maybe he's right, but I'm a grown--I was a grown man, so I can do what I want."

Yes, he's a little defensive about that.

[whiteroadrunning]

"I'd never had any, before we arrived in the Sphere! We don't all these machines, back where I'm from, so it's difficult to keep anything cold enough for all that.

"I may be indulging a bit."

Alec looks thoughtful, as if he were only just realizing that this may become a problem.

"Did they have ice cream where you're from?"

[10milliondollars]

Rhys laughs, understanding the feeling of realizing you suddenly have unlimited access to something so tasty.

"Yeah, we have ice cream. My world's got interplanetary travel and habitable space stations. I actually worked on one, in the Propaganda and Securities department. But now I'm running my own company planetside on Pandora. Once we get things fixed up, I'll be jetting off to Promethea," he explains, getting sidetracked from the mission at hand by his own plans.

[whiteroadrunning]

Until this moment, Alec hasn't actually considered the possibility that there were entirely separate planets. He's quite certain he's not on his own anymore, but more? He's staring at the ground, momentarily stunned.

It makes sense, now that he considers it. But the technology required to travel to another planet? Through space? He can't begin to fathom it.

"How many have you been to?" Alec asks. "Planets, I mean?"

[10milliondollars]

"Uh...Let's see...I grew up on Eden-5, and my family took a vacation to Aquator a few times...I've got family on a couple of the other Edens," he recounts, keeping track on his fingers. "University was on Eden-6. That's 4...No, 5! I visited Tantalus once during a break from uni, because I wanted to see where my hero was from. I've been to Promethea and Hera. And now I live on Pandora. So 9."

It's not something Rhys has ever thought about. Interplanetary travel was just so easy that he didn't put much value in it.

[whiteroadrunning]

Nine planets, when Alec has never even thought about leaving one. It's about two tons too much to wrap his head around, so -- as with most things -- he simply accepts it for the reality it is, and rolls with the punches.

"That's incredible. Does it ever worry you, traveling through the heavens like that? Seems an awfully long way up."

B

[of_bokthersa]

While it looks like the whole room is empty, there's laughter coming from among the pillows. After a few moments, a young boy's head pops up. He looks like the tiniest Seregil Alec would have ever seen; very feminine with quite long hair and those startling grey eyes, fixed intently on the small blonde swearing.

"You're far too young to swear like that."

[whiteroadrunning]

Alec can't help himself. His face breaks into the biggest smile, and he covers his mouth with both hands as he dissolves into a fit of giggles. Seregil is tiny and adorable. Somehow, Alec has never considered the possibility that Seregil had been a child once; or at least, never really tried to picture it, even when Seregil's sisters spoke of their youth.

"Haba," Alec giggles as he runs over and plops down beside Seregil. "I get it now."

[of_bokthersa]

Seregil reaches over and unceremoniously shoves Alec in the shoulder with slight annoyance. Alec knows how much he's grown to dislike that name. He's barely that boy anymore (at least in everything except present body).

"Don't call me that." Then he grabs a pillow and just smacks him without warning. "You look like you could barely reach the table."

[whiteroadrunning]

"That's true enough," Alec laughs, and grabs another pillow to toss at Seregil's head. "How am I supposed to make you any toast?"

[of_bokthersa]

He can't help laughing at the jokingly veiled innuendo as the pillow actually knocks him over into the others.

"As much as I enjoy your toast, and I assume you know just how much, it would feel wrong when you look like that." Their mock-married life would have to wait until Alec didn't look so much like a fresh faces whelp who just got out of nappies.

"I might be able to reach the counters, though." He hadn't actually bothered to try. Just laid here in the pillows since all this happened. He hadn't even tried to find fitting clothes.

[whiteroadrunning]

"Obviously," Alec sighs, and glances toward the kitchen. "But one of us will have to. Or else cook meals on the dining room chairs. That's how I made my breakfast."

And that had been a sight, Alec's sure of it. Not that he has to belabor the point; Seregil's imagination is active enough without his help.

"We're definitely not the only ones affected. It may be another nightmare, but it doesn't seem to be limited to certain areas like the last one. Some people have already been like this for a few days. Some people are... strange. I saw one with a child's head on an adult's body. But it could be worse."

[of_bokthersa]

There's a soft snort of laughter at Alec's admission before he thinks about what the other man is actually saying.

"We have chairs, we should be fine." At the comment of people with children's heads on adult bodies, he begins to worry. "Have you seen Inësa?" He didn't like the idea of her being out there on her own in this sort of state.

[whiteroadrunning]

"I ran into her at the library. She's fine. Also a child, but a normal one." Alec pauses to laugh a little, "She said, 'I've been like this before, so I know how it works.' Perfectly profound in its simplicity, don't you think?"

Alec rests his forehead against Seregil's shoulder for a moment. Moments of solitude are rare enough between them as it is, and when they're this small it just seems strange to be this close. Bad, perhaps, though he refuses to think of their love as bad.

Momentarily inconvenient. He'll settle for that.

"Oh, I meant to ask you," Alec says, and he's not sure why it occurs to him now of all times. "You know my friend John? The ghost woman?"

[of_bokthersa]

Seregil has no worries in regards to the situation. It probably has a lot to do with his age. Even now he would have been older than he looked (if slightly) and having spent the majority of his life around magic made this an unusual, but hardly surprising situation.

Adjusting himself to be more comfortable, he let his arms rest around the other man's back. Comfortable, but chaste enough for their size. "I think I've seen her around."

[whiteroadrunning]

"She mentioned that she would like to marry her girlfriend, Laurie, but she couldn't because she's a ghost. I told her that hardly seems like a reason not to marry, if she wants to. There aren't any laws against marrying a ghost, are there?

"For that matter, are there any laws in a place where we can't really die?

"In any case, I may have, ah..." Alec trails off, because the words are sticking in his throat and he's not entirely sure how to unstick them.

[of_bokthersa]

Oh! Well this is interesting. Alec tongue-tied after all their time together is always a curious thing. Seregil raises a tiny brow and leans forward to look at him, grey eyes alert.

"You have a, ah?" With his talk of marriage preceding this pause, Seregil can guess what the 'ah' is, but he's damn well going to make Alec say it anyway.

[whiteroadrunning]

"I may have proposed a pact, that I would ask you to marry me, if she asked Laurie."

Alec seeks out Seregil's gaze, and his eyes are just a bit wider than they normally are. He's prepared to be chastised, or else bear Seregil's laughter. He deserves either, and that realization comes with a hint of a pout, because he absolutely hates to think that he's done anything to displease Seregil. But a marriage pact without consulting the man? That's owed the ire.

"You don't have to say yes, though. If I do ask."