[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

[sagramore]

"We'd need quite a lot for sausage, that's the only problem."

[sagramore]

Sagramore strokes his hair and rubs his little back. "I know. I know, little one. I'm sorry. Thou hast been so good, and it's so hard."

[lightbearinglord]

It feels as if every part of him is aching with the sweetness of this. In sleep, Galahad is slightly heavier, and the dense but small weight of him is so like the first time A-Yuan trusted him this much and nodded off in his arms, after his seclusion, after he started slowly and stubbornly to re-enter the world. He doesn't let go; he holds onto him, resettling his weight with all the care he has not to jostle him so that he will be comfortable. He breathes slowly and quietly, and waits.

[summerdude]

The squinting intensifies. Magnus knows all about this story, actually, through osmosis, from all the religious kids at school. "You're Jesus?" Jesus, who is definitely fake?

[summerdude]

Magnus nods, cementing the agreement and his relief that Sagramore isn't going to get mad at him for breaking the law and saying 'suck' out loud in front of him, and then -- because Sagramore seems to like facts -- says, "Did you know Roman soldiers wore skirts?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad stares. "No. That's blasphemy."

[summerdude]

"What's blasphemy?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Speaking sacriligiously about sacred things," he recites. "Jesus is the only Son of God."

[sagramore]

"Did they!"

[summerdude]

"So you're not Jesus," Magnus says, nodding like he understands anything at all. "What's sacred?"

[summerdude]

"Even in the snow. When they were colo-- col -- colonororizing, um, Asterix and people like that. So they'd slap their legs with stinging nettle to warm up since they couldn't have pants." Magnus sighs very heavily for a boy his age. "Mom says I can't slap my legs with stinging nettle to find out how it feels, though."

[futaille]

He giggles. "What was that?"

[futaille]

"Or make very little sausages."

[lightbearinglord]

Uncle might scold him for this later. Lan Zhan is not certain whether he is supposed to allow someone outside of his family to touch him like this. But he can be stoic; he can take the punishment if he has earned it. It feels worth it for Sagramore's kind hand rubbing his back. "Thank you," he says, stoutly polite, muffled.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Mind the steps," once she's opened the door, arm high enough that he can duck under and head outside.

[lanselos_du_lac]

Lancelot cannot stop himself from looking Galahad over, almost critically -- though he certainly doesn't mean to be critical.

He had told (the grown) Galahad, some months ago, that he did not see Elaine when he looked at him -- that he had little recollection of Elaine at all. That was true; to some degree, it still is true. He sometimes sees himself in Galahad -- both in some of his features and occasionally in his manner or bearing. He doesn't speak of it, but he knows he seeks those similarities out, almost against his own will. As much as he has tried to have some other relationship or connection with Galahad, to not think of Galahad as his son (as he knows Galahad has ceased to see him as his father), he has not been able to shake the desire for that connection. Lancelot keeps this to himself because that seems best for everyone.

As for Elaine: much of his time at Corbenic is still fogged or lost. But he has found he can recall her real face, what passed between them that terrible morning. This, too, he usually does his best to put out of his mind. It does no good to remember it, or to dwell on it, and so he simply leaves it aside.

That is much harder to do when looking at this small child. Elaine was fair, though not quite so fair as this. Her eyes were blue, like Guinever's, but not so blue as Galahad's. There is something to the shape of his face that recalls her, but that will be lost as Galahad grows into manhood.

Galahad's solemnity, though, his sincerity and flat honesty -- that speaks more of Lancelot himself than, he thinks, of Elaine.

He closes off as much of that feeling as he can, and kneels so as to be roughly at eye level with Galahad. He answers, "Not yet, no. Thou'rt small. It would be no fair fight. But when the time comes, thou wilt."

[ravkanwitch]

"That was me," Nina says wryly. "I was a force to be reckoned with when I was younger."

[sagramore]

"It's not good, I promise you."

[ravkanwitch]

Nina is not going to reveal the details of the former king's struggles with the demon within, so the first part of what she says is going to be quite vague. "There was a ritual. Something went wrong and instead of darkness leaving someone's body... your spirit entered the body of another."

[lanselos_du_lac]

"I don't think I should like that much," a little warily.

[ravkanwitch]

"A pleasure to meet you, Mercutio. Do you enjoy living here?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Important to God. His word and His commandments and His scriptures."

[ravkanwitch]

"Is there any political intrigue here?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Did you come to see me?" He worries at the knot of his belt.

[ravkanwitch]

That's a difficult question. Nina never thought that she would be in a position to be Queen, let alone the Queen of Fjerda. Grisha, orphan, Ravkan. But then -- Hanne happened. Together, the two of them have accomplished so much. "I enjoy what I have done," she replies honestly. "I come from a war-torn world and I might finally see a tentative peace. That alone is worth it."