[OCTOBER'S MOD OPEN POST - PART ONE]

[desperatemods]

all work and no play makes jack a dull boy

all work and no play makes jack a dull boy

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY

ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY

It's almost Halloween in the world of the mansion spirits -- so it's time for some fun! These words have ominously appeared on one of the mansion walls and if a character even so much as looks their way or glances at them, they will either de-age or age up. Let's just be glad it isn't waves of blood of threatening twins.

Welcome to Kidmas v 2.0! A bit of a throwback to "i want to play a game". This is the first of two age-manipulation posts! Your characters can either be de-aged or aged up -- and while it's recommended to split multiple characters up between the two posts (mostly for the anti-captcha comment load), the time streams will mesh so that different affected versions can interact with each other. Ageing/de-aging and their memory of these events are by typist discretion, as always. Have fun playing!

Comments

[summerdude]

By this point, Magnus is hungry and looking for a snack. He pokes his head into about a million rooms, breathing slow and deep and careful so that he doesn't get overwhelmed by all the new stuff everywhere, and finally spots a kitchen with a really little kid... cooking????

"Um, should you be doing that without supervision?"

[biteybaby]

Sunny barely looks up from the large bowl she is mixing ingredients in. "I cleaned my room before I left this morning, didst thou see?"

[temnota]

Just as the sun started to go down, a six-year old boy peered anxiously into one of the sitting rooms. He was small for his age and dressed in worn but serviceable clothes. He wasn't quite sure how he got here and though he'd been looking through each room he found, his madraya was nowhere in sight. This didn't bother him precisely as she was often gone. It was just that he couldn't remember what name he was going by this time and he didn't want to cause a Problem.

What really worried him was that it was growing dark and he couldn't find a candle or lamp to take with him. If he didn't find his madraya, he would have to find someplace to sleep and he needed a light with him. Being in the dark was terrifying.

[involuntaryturncoat]

Asmodean is heading to the kitchen just to get some fruit for himself, as he's slightly peckish but it's not quite mealtime yet. He sees an unfamiliar young girl with pink hair and of course takes her for a new arrival. "Ah. Good day," he says somewhat cautiously.

[recognizance]

It actually takes SecUnit longer to identify him than it did LAN-000123 -- not perceptibly longer to humans, but still. It's not designed to heave enormous sighs, but internally that's definitely what it's doing. The Mansion's just getting lazy now, apparently.

Well, at least it knows the protocol for this one.

It approaches at an angle, so Lan Zhan has plenty of time to see it coming. It stops a couple of meters away from him, and does its awkward approximation of a bow. "Hi," it says. "It's okay, you're not in trouble."

[summerdude]

Wait. Is that... "Hanguang-jun?????!?!?!!" What the Helheim?

[biteybaby]

At the moment she is poking buttons on the oven to preheat it, but she does glance over her shoulder. "Hi Apu." A half second later she realizes there's something weird about his tone, and she stops what she's doing to turn around fully. "What's wrong?"

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon freezes when she sees the kid, her eyes going wide. She's never seen a child younger than herself, other than Harrow, who's only a year younger, which doesn't even count.

She peers at him, silent. He's slight, and so, so pale—necromantic blood for sure. He's not Ninth, though. The white alone makes that clear, even if she hadn't known all too well the Ninth has no other heirs. Is there an envoy from the Eighth visiting? Deigning to bless the crusty old heretics with their presence? Or is she somehow on the Eighth...???

"...Hey," she says, finally. If someone's going to come and drag her away from the Very Important Person she might as well get some info from him, first.

[timebethine]

--there is only one person who could say such a thing to him, and say it like that, and his heart swoops all the way down into his stomach as he realizes that this is his daughter. She's grown so tall, and her hands are so sure and confident, and this is his Sunny mixing ingredients all by herself. "Didst better than I, then," he says, as casually as he can. He feels as though he might burst into tears. "What art thou making, little rabbit?"

[biteybaby]

This is not the first time Sunny Baudelaire has encountered a younger version of her brother. It actually tends to happen on a near-yearly basis, so it only takes her a moment to recognize him.

"I'm fine, I do this all the time. Hi Magnus."

[untamedantinous]

"Toulouse." He uncurls a little more and fidgets with the bottom of his far-too-large shirt.

[tallyyoungblood]

Either something's gotten even worse with Tally's vision, or she's totally not in Uglyville any more. Seconds ago, she was hiding behind a bush with Peris, spying across the river in hopes of catching a glimpse of new pretties visiting the pleasure garden on the opposite shore. Now, she's inside some kind of weird Rusty mansion, and the walls are totally dumb. They haven't listened at all when she's asked where she is or what's going on. Her interface ring is broken, too, so she's set off to try to find a minder or a pretty to tell her what's going on.

Tally is thirteen years old, and therefore, of course, totally ugly. If asked to describe herself, she'd point out her squinty, narrow-set brown eyes, frizzy brown hair, wide nose, and thin lips. She'd point out that her dorm uniform--a t-shirt, knee-length skirt, and dark blue jacket--hangs awkwardly off her gangly body. Anyone with more Rusty sensibilities, on the other hand, will see a normal thirteen-year-old girl. The pretty face Tally has now is recognizable in this girl, or maybe it's more like the other way around. Anything that makes Tally's pretty face deviate from the Pretty Committee standard came from this face, the face she was born with.

Tally's a little freaked out, but not too badly. After all, being an ugly is boring. This weird mansion is, at least, an exciting deviation from the norm. She's going to brag so much to Peris when she gets back.

[lightbearinglord]

Wide-eyed, Lan Zhan returns the bow. He does this primarily because he doesn't know what else to do. This person is very tall and unfamiliar in almost every way. He wants his brother or his uncle.

At least he is not in trouble. He swallows, hard, and straightens. "Thank you," he says. "Will you please tell me where I am?"

[futaille]

"I don't think it's Toulouse either. Because it still doesn't look like a city and if whatever happened took me all the way from Marseille and put me wherever here is, it would be kind of strange if it took you from Toulouse and put you in... a different part of Toulouse. That would be very boring. Your shirt is a little bit big for you, did you know that? I bet we can find a different one if you'd like, although if you prefer it that way that's fine too. I don't know if kids wear different things in Toulouse."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Zhan does not jump, but his small body tenses. He glances briefly over his own shoulder, in case that will reveal the lordly adult who is, presumably, being addressed, but there is nothing aside from more long and unfamiliar hallway. His tension increases. He says nothing as he looks back to the person in front of him, who looks roughly the age of some of the older disciples, the disciples who are perfectly polite to Qingheng-jun's second son but just as perfectly disinterested in him.

[recognizance]

The difference is enough to throw Murderbot, who's never been more than middling at telling humans apart. It blinks at her from the doorway of the library. "Are you new?"

[kadewest]

Presumably by now, on a future mod event post parent comment, Kade West--who, at this point, goes by Katie Bronson--will have reacted to being in a strange new place that isn't all iridescence and rainbows and open fields surrounded by looming dark forests, and is now suspiciously inspecting her surroundings.

There's a kid in this weird-ass hall. Definitely not a kid who would ever to go Prism. Katie adjusts her grip on her butterfly-blade sword and watches, just as wary.

[papadopoulos]

Fortunately for him, there's a walking glowstick headed his way. Apollo is blithely unaware of any child-events, having never really had much of a childhood himself, but he looks up at the sudden entrance to his sitting room, where he's sprawled across a couch with a lyre.

"Hey," he says kindly, sitting up and offering a friendly smile. "You alright, kid?" After all, there aren't many children here. And he wasn't aware of any new arrivals.

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon's eyes go wide. This kid has a sword. "Where did you get that?" she demands.

[biteybaby]

"I'm using the oven right now, hope you don't need it," she says to him in the Old Tongue, though with the mansion translator he may not notice.

[tallyyoungblood]

Whoa, who is this? Tally can tell they've had an operation--obviously, since they're an adult--but they're not even pretty.

"I moved to Uglyville last year," she says uncertainly. Don't they know who Tally is by her ID? Oh, wait--if her interface ring is broken, theirs must be too. A thought occurs to her, and she takes a few steps backward. She'd thought they were a rumor made up to scare littlies, but... "Are you a Special?"

[recognizance]

Wow, he's tiny. (You'd think it would have gotten used to the fact that human children are ridiculously small by now, but somehow it keeps being surprising.) "Um," it says. "It's a stupid magic house in the middle of nowhere, it's called the Mansion. It's safe, no one's going to hurt you."

[recognizance]

Its neutral expression does something less-neutral. "Not exactly. Tally?"

[temnota]

Today seemed like a good day to make some soup so Aleksander made his way to the kitchen to attempt cajole the ingredients from the ice box. While there was always the possibility of finding strange things in the kitchen (or anywhere, for that matter), he did not expect to see a girl with pink hair comfortably bustling around the kitchen as though she had grown up in it.

Not sure whether this was Mansion trickery or a new arrival very comfortable with the art of cooking, he settled for a friendly smile. "Hello! Enjoying yourself?"

[involuntaryturncoat]

He certainly doesn't notice. Very well. Perhaps she's not as new and they just haven't been introduced. Or perhaps she has just adjusted very quickly. "No, by all means. I was just getting some fruit."