Event Post: The Hope of a Child

[hadrielmods]

THE RUNDOWN

Hope's in need of energy to get the city up and running again, and now Confusion's decided to help out Hope by getting a little creative. And hey, maybe it'll be a little bit like a vacation for the inhabitants of Hadriel, right? A blast from your past, as you turn into a younger version of yourself.

That's right. Starting on January 23rd, everyone is going to have a chance to relive their childhood years. Characters will find themselves falling into a deep, unwakeable sleep - and while they're asleep, their consciousnesses will be projected outside of themselves in the form of children. They'll have all memories and experiences of that character as a child, but be totally lacking anything beyond that, with absolutely no memory of ever being an adult.

The city will be full of sleeping adults and unsupervised children - except for the few adults who don't sleep. What are you going to do? Try to play babysitter and wrangle the little ones? Or just let them run wild? Let's hope these kids don't get into too much trouble.

THE DETAILS

How much you want your character to participate is entirely up to you. Not everyone will be asleep the whole time - some people might not fall asleep at all, some might only sleep for a few hours here and there, while others might fall asleep at the beginning of the event and stay that way until the very end. Normal sleep won't be affected: people will still get as tired as normal and when they choose to sleep there will be no child version of them. However, while in that unnatural sleep, they won't need to eat or drink and will have no awareness of passing time.

What counts as a child? Anything between the ages of about 5-14, with a little leeway - we don't want too many actual babies running around, but in the end it's up to you! And if your character didn't have a childhood - if they were created as an adult, for example - it can be whatever they personally consider to be themselves as a child, whether that's an actual child they never were or simply a mentally younger version of themselves.

It's also your decision how much your character remembers from their time as a child. While they won't remember anything with perfect recall, they could have very realistic dreamlike snatches of memory or no memories at all or something in between. Maybe this is finally their chance to have that happy childhood they always wanted, and fill themselves with hope for the future. That's what Confusion is hoping, at least!

THE OVERVIEW

► January 23rd: People start falling asleep and dreaming their child selves
► February 1st: That's all, folks

Comments

QUESTIONS

[hadrielmods]

[sciencelizard]

HEY MODS quick q

when the characters are in their kid-selves, will there be like... a constructed timeline for them? So for example, character a falls asleep on day 1, kid self tools around for days 1 and 2. A wakes up for day 3, falls asleep again on day 4. Will kidself remember days 1 and 2 throughout the event? Or is it going to be "fresh" version of them every time?

edit: one more. i'm assuming the kid's clothes size with them since it'll be just a projection of consciousness? but like double-checking. thx

Alphys and Taako

[sciencelizard]

R I S E YA'LL IM SO HYPE FOR THIS. Both my characters will be adults and kids for portions of the event and will get top-levels for those times. That said, deets:

Alphys will be de-aging to about 10; if you thought she was small at 4 feet, be prepared for half that size with The Same Size Glasses, Actually. She'll still be her usual nerdy self but much, much more shy and also very scared her father isn't around. Someone help her she'll latch onto any adult to save her, probably. Also: she'll never have seen a human before? She is going to scream directly at the first human she sees. I'm sorry.

Taako will end up around 12-13 and just be The Absolute Biggest Goblin To Ever Exist. He and his twin sister Lup grew up essentially orphans after around this point in time (though at that point they'll have only been on their own about a year) and are the kind of scrappy little shits you'd expect two street urchins to be. They'll fleece anything out of anyone if they think they can get it for free, so expect them to be picking pockets, pretending to be each other, and just outright stealing anything that isn't nailed to the ground. His magic will be down to just one or two cantrips during this time at least, which will be good because he Distrusts All Adults and Distrusting All Adults But With Fireball is absolutely worse.

please hit me up for this event im so excited ohhh my god

[circumitus]

I am so ready for babby Alphys.

Trafalgar Law

[hot_mes]

I'm on a phone so hopefully this works...

Law will be falling asleep three separate times, with very different selves each time. For the sake of not doing a "why am I here" every time, I'm going to assume he either asked, read, or figured it out himself. That way his prompts should be easier to get right into. Also lmao gj Confusion there is no hope here.

Flavor 1 is age 10, fresh from the massacre of Flevance and joining the Donquixote Pirates. Law will envision himself with a string of grenades around his neck but he isn't likely to even threaten to use them. Not that they'd work anyway. He's angry, hopeless, fatalistic, and ready to destroy anything that pisses him off. The most unstable he's ever been. Approach with caution.

Flavor 2 is just shy of 13 and honestly almost as small and weak as he was at 10. The major differences are that he's less hair-trigger ragey, smarter, sassier, and has large patches of white blotching all over his skin. Including half his face. His dream-self will think he's in pain even if he's not actually but getting him to admit it will be hard. His primary concern at this age will be "where's Cora-san" so the 1 or 2 people who met Corazon in that last dream may connect the two.

Flavor 3 is the last, he'll appear on the last day of the event when Law can't stay awake any more. This one has hope!! He's 9ish, pre-tragedy, pretty normal for a genius child studying medicine. He might want to dissect monster carcasses soooo....

All three versions will be wearing the same leopard-spotted hat (more boater style than golf ball) so as long as you've seen adult Law feel free to jump to the conclusion that it's the same guy. I'll post some pics in a comment when I'm not on mobile. This is a good opportunity to learn some about his past that he doesn't like to talk about - 1 will be cagey but admit he's from Flevance more easily than 2...2 will talk about Corazon while 3 will openly mention his sister and parents since he doesn't yet know that anything happened to them.

Come at me for having 1 threaten you, 2 be a snarky asshole, or 3 be the weird kid who asks too many questions about how your body works. His backstory is one of the worst in OP so have fun? Oh also he doesn't have his Devil Fruit yet so mentioning it will confuse him. OR in-between sleeps adult Law is still around to lineface at all the kids and try to figure out the shenanigans.

Re: Trafalgar Law

[am_i_a_monster]

Abigail grew up hunting with her father and he insisted on using every part of the animal. She wouldn't mind discussing carcasses with the 9ish version. She could be a child too, or her regular self.

Lance

[lifetothefullest]

Okay SO as a general warning, Lance's backstory involves child abuse (which is noted in his permissions post also, in case anyone would like to be sure to avoid this topic in the future as well) and so this will be a factor while he's affected by the event.

Therefore, for the portion of the event where Lance is aged down, I'm only going to be doing closed prompts; while this will probably be limited to close CR, please feel free to let me know if you want to thread something! We can probably work something out. I just want to keep my tag load under control, avoid this ICly being too upsetting for Lance if/when people figure out more about his history, and OOCly limit my chances of totally messing up writing this sort of issue.

So, while affected, which will probably only be a day or two, Lance will be about ten. At this point he's had some time to adjust to having a more 'normal' life in a safe household, but not nearly enough to be able to work through everything to the extent that his adult self has, although people who know him well as an adult can probably spot a lot of similar patterns of behavior. He's much like his older self, just less sedate and controlled; it's more difficult to handle the extremes of emotions, good and bad, and depending who he deals with and the particular situation he'll either be standoffish and just generally hard to deal with, or way too well behaved to be natural. How each situation will go is hard to say in advance though, so threads will just be kind of a whole see how it unfolds type of thing.

Meanwhile, while unaffected, Lance is on babysitting duty. He's great with kids and doubtlessly a fun adult to hang out with mostly because he's a complete pushover and--especially since this is all an event and will be temporary--is absolutely not going to even try to enforce rules or anything. If it's not dangerous, he's probably not going to say anything, so if kids want to get away with practically whatever while still be supervised he's perfect for that. I'll probably have an open prompt for this, but might just tag into other threads, idek. But in addition to CR stuff with others who are affected, he could also use some other help babysitting and bond with people that way!

So yeeeeees tl;dr I am open to plotting stuff!

Re: Lance (mentions of domestic abuse, murder)

[am_i_a_monster]

Abigail's father was abusive as well. Mostly emotional abuse, forcing her to help with her crimes, telling her he'd kill her if he ever said no. He also killed her mother and cut her throat.

An unaffected Abigail could see something in an aged down Lance, that feeling of not feeling safe, especially in the two well behaved version. She could try to help him feel safe, or open up, or to just feel free to be a kid.

Or we could do the reverse and have an unaffected Lance see something familiar in Abigail.

Or we could have them both young at the same time and recognize something in each other.

tim drake

[justmath]

timmy will be unaffected but available for babysitting/wrangling if anyone has a mighty need. poke me (here, plurk, discord) if that's something you'd like to plot, i'm probs gonna limit this to x2 max because i don't wanna get overwhelmed. but yeah, come at me!!

Lup

[restinglichface]

Lup, same as Taako above, is going to be about 12-13, though both of the twins are pretty scrawny and small for their age, so probably look even younger. They grew up as orphans and, after years of being passed around between family that didn't really care for them, finally ran away to take the world on their own. At this age, they've only been on their own for about a year, so they are still learning just how to steal and con people to survive on the streets alone. Their magic is also still very undeveloped. They've got a few cantrips they can sometimes use, but anything else that happens is mostly accidental.

They are going to be invading people's houses to steal their shit, as well as looking for adults they think may be easily conned. If you want to run into baby Lup, let me know! She'll be stealing a lot of shit and accidentally setting people on fire for the majority of the event, though is also going to have some CUUUTE interactions with her future hubby.

Also, let me know where you want adult Lup in the event! I'm definitely tagging her out a lot, because I want her to adopt all of the children.

[nowherewolf]

them both being goblin thief children seems like a good reason to finally throw tucker at lup

Lydia

[wonderland_vogue]

Probably taking Lydia from probably eleven or twelve and she's, uh, gonna be kind of upset. Mostly due to the fact at that age she was not without:

A. Her twin brother Edward
B. Her younger brother Keats

So that'll be fun. Either way, she was a total shitlord at that age as can be expected, tall and probably a little more on the thin side. And kind of running with her dumb self and brothers having to con (in the... convoluted carnival games with a side of small illusions sense) people in order to kind of survive. So her self preservation is pretty high, distrust of everyone else is high, and is probably acting a lot older than a child her age reeeeeeally should be. (Gotta be a psuedo-adult for babby brother, right? Right.) Yes, yes she basically is one of the versions of the Bad End AU of Lup and Taako, what are you talking about. That was totally intentional. If that's why it sounds the same to you, lmfao.

But hey, she's also not absolutely disgusting and sadistic as a child so there's that???

Someone please adopt this trash child and/or join in on her trash child adventures.

Plotting Comment for All Three of Bee's Boops

[imhisaunt]

Delmar, Rosen, and Whistler are all available for kid plotting. They will all be bb!-fied.

Delmar is a very serious little boy, he'll be about 10-11 and will be looking for his siblings/afraid that his father will scold him for not being at the family's shop working.

Whistler is a shy little boy, about 12, who preemptively goes on the offensive because he's used to being teased for being blind/moving 'kind of funny' according to other kids

Rosen will be 12, and is actually a somewhat athletic young man (on the school swim team) with dreams of being a rock god.

[nowherewolf]

Okay, hear me out: child tucker trying to convince child delmar to ditch work

merle

[weedbgon]

I'M HERE TO KICK DOWN DOORS AND OFFER A SHITTY DWARF

i'm not gonna be throwing around any trial-version merle for this event, but luckily the full version is available free of charge! if anyone needs some chill-ass dadding in their life, merle's got you covered. he's a dad!!! he has no idea what he's doing but damn if he won't still try to help out! THAT'S PRETTY MUCH ALL HE'S GONNA DO TBH?

just like

wander around aimlessly, maybe collecting kids. he might try to set up a little "crash here if you have no one to go to or nowhere to go" camp in an empty house or a temple or something, idk if anyone would be interested in it! i cant think of anything more merle than telling like 20 fuckin kids to just come hang out at Hope's house tho frankly.

plus he's got a flying broomstick who doesnt wanna ride on a cool broomstick with a vaporwave grandpa.

[fracturedbeauty]

bb!Yukari will need this in his life, especially when he can't find his mom. Also, chill dad figures are helpful. If you want to find Yukari trying very hard not to cry (and failing), I would definitely be down for some dadding on my poor child.

[circumitus]

Rey won't be affected, since trying to define a "childhood" for her would be too damned confusing. Which means she can be the reluctant babysitter for kids everywhere! (Also there are tons of places to sneak and hide at her Speakeasy and its cellar.)

I'm kinda waffling on Ravine (whip_poor_will), though. On one hand, she doesn't sleep, but on the other - this event could make an exception out of that, because it's tempting to play around with the memory of her living self. It would be before her people were deported to Babylon as slaves, so she'd be Yehudit, the little 9-year old psychic girl from ancient Jerusalem waiting for her baby brother to be born. Her psychic abilities would be watered down a lot because it would be before they developed as an adult and amplified when she became a reaper, so while she might know things about characters that they haven't told her, it won't be anything crazy. She also has less of a filter when a child than she is as an adult/dead person, so while Ravine would normally keep the stuff she sees to herself, Yehudit would be more gabby and blurt shit that she probably shouldn't. Rude as heck.

[puzzlingly]

Baby Ravine pls

Abigail Hobbs

[am_i_a_monster]

Abigail will be aged down to a young age first, long before her father became the shrike. She will be very happy, fun-loving and adventurous, wanting to try new things without any fear.

Abigail will later be aged down to a young teenager. This is before her father became the shrike as well,but it was when she was becoming more dependent on her parents, especially her dad and isolated from everyone else. She won't have many memories of her parents, but will have a sense that she urgently needs to find them and will be very anxious as a result.

She has sympathy for kids in bad situations. When she's not aged down, she'll be looking to help any children that seem as if they need it. She doesn't have much experience with kids and may be a bit awkward around them too.

[puzzlingly]

Bb!Atem had all the opposite to a bad situation when growing up but, I'd still want to develop this CR a bit more if that's ok with you.

rosie-dear

[hasitsthorns]

Rosie will try to stay awake for as long as humanly possible before inevitably passing out! Timeline-wise, this will be maybe Day 3-4 or whatever works best for other people. Until then and when she's awake after, she'll be available to babysit kiddos. Apologies though because she's the absolute worst influence and it will be a hilariously terrible idea to have her be responsible for anyone besides herself.

When her younger self appears, have fun with your new literal feral wolf child. Rose will be approximately 10-12 years of age and from before anything truly awful happened to her beyond just knowing she's different from the rest of her pack. She will be in yokai form - meaning she has white hair, matching wolf tail and ears, and her eyes are golden - as well as be a lot more skittish and timid. Once she realizes nothing bad is going to happen to her, she will be excited to be around human-looking/appearing people! Bonus points if they're around her age. Her adventurousness will also kick in after a little bit and she'll be eager to explore more even more dangerous areas but bare her fangs and assure anyone concerned that she's fine. Sound familiar?

[circumitus]

Oh man I need Rey to meet Rosie's wolfie child self. She'll find it kinda adorable.

[puzzlingly]

Atem's cute little projection of his consciousness will be more or less 7yo or so, much for the duration of the event. He will probably try to convince your character's kids to hide from adults because wtf they'd want them to be responsible and shit and that's not fun! He might be a little confused as of why the hell no one does what he wants because he's a little prince used to have his way, more or less, he knows no better. He will also look like he presented himself during the dreamwalker event: tan skin, lots of golden accessories and dressed in comfy expensive linen, more or less like this. TBH I got nothing planned but him running around, pls be his friend.

While awake, he'd totally try to protect and look after of any unattended little ones, got no plans either, I'm open for anything!

[hot_mes]

Adult Law is totally going to lineface at baby pharaoh just sayin

Fingon

[utulien_aure]

Fingon won't be sleeping though the entire event, but will frequently appear as a child at an age roughly equivalent to seven. Little Fingon-or more properly Findekano, of Tirion, which is the greatest city in the whole world don't you know- will be curious about where he is, and what the funny bright lights in the sky are, but he won't be terribly intimidated by what Hadriel has to offer.

If anything, he might go running off with any swords lying around so someone might want to stop him before he hurts himself.

Also Fingon and his similarly de-aged cousins are probably going to start playing with both paints and explosives at points, so if you want to get in on that you're welcome.

Edit Responses will be coming from whowouldvaliantbe when Fingon is a child.

[bythewaves]

Shennanigans

[loveathousandyearsgone]

Elrond won't be asleep the whole time, going in and out of being an elfling about 7 years old. He'll appear at first as a scared child, covered in mud, dirt, and blood. If you don't want mentions of a horrible massacre, just let me know! He'll be hiding especially at first because terrified and alone and searching hard for his twin brother Elros who is no where to be found.

If anyone manages to catch him and make him feel safe, he'll open up a bit but he's still a quiet child- if mischievous when given the chance! Also don't be surprised if he keeps trying to run away...

[whowouldvaliantbe]

Why're you crying, silly, lookit these shinies.

Michael and Tucker

[aroundthecoroner]

Both of my characters will be aged down for most of the event, though I might tag around and do a couple of closed prompts for their adult selves. The kid selves will be open prompts!

And hey, Michael has a lot of experience already with falling into an unwakeable sleep and projecting a version of himself into physical reality.

Michael: Quick CW that Michael's childhood was not great (shocker). The topics of child abuse and self-harm might come up, so be aware of that. He'll be about 11 or so, and pretty recognizable between the hair and the freckles and the glasses. It's fair to assume that people who know him as an adult can figure it out. The Visitor is not a thing yet. (Though that would be kind of hilarious; what would it look like? puff of smoke? floating skull? bear cub skeleton?)

Around other kids, he'll be shy and awkward and quick to give into peer pressure. Unless they insult his mom or provoke him or something, then he'll fight you. Around adults, he is pretty notably mature for his age, and while he's very curious and will ask a lot of questions (NERD ALERT), he's also very well-behaved and obedient. He apologizes a lot, reacts strongly to both praise and criticism, and cries kind of easily.


Tucker: Tucker's childhood wasn't super great either but no particular CWs here. Tucker is 13 and a tiny foxfaced shitlord. He's still pretty short, but he's skinny as a rail. He's impeccably clean, but his clothes will look worn-out and a couple sizes too big. He's a little harder to recognize than Michael, since he's a Generic White Boy and he will most likely not be turning into a wolf. (Though if he did, it would be a gangly pup with way-too-big paws.) About the only certain commonality between this and his adult self is the St. Christopher medal.

At this point in his life, Tucker has been living on his own (homeless) for a couple of years already, and he's adapted quickly. He is likely to steal things, pick pockets, and pretend to be hurt or sad for sympathy and/or material gain. He might try to convince other kids to do things he thinks are hilarious. He probably won't react well to authority figures. Has quick little fingers. Keep an eye on your phone.

[hot_mes]

ugh I don't know what'll be more fun, adult!Law nerding with Michael or kid!Law awkwardly being awkward with him...

[onlyanautomaton]

Oscar obviously won't be de-aged, but I would be more than happy for any of Hadriel's wee ones to approach him while he's out and about--if he doesn't see them and approach first. Any child seeking a metal friend will find a metal friend in Oscar.

[angelofnaboo]

What about a tiny queen? Would he like to meet a sassy, tiny queen who will make everyone seem like they're about two inches tall?

BIANCA

[wormintheglass]

Bianca has a canon childhood, described in the book Wildthyme Beyond!, and I'll be working chiefly from that.

Lilith, as she was known then, is around ten. She doesn't physically resemble Bianca as there are a bunch of regenerations before she gets to Bianca, nor does she know what she is. Lilith was a foundling child, taken in grudgingly by an entity/entities known as The Aunts and raised in an isolated house in a vast wasteland by the Aunts' household staff.

She'll be arriving from before the point where she restored an abandoned TARDIS and took off into the multiverse for a life of excitement and adventure, and she has zero experience of any life outside the house she grew up in. Hadriel is going to be wildly exciting and delightful for her - so many people! and since this planet physically resembles the one she grew up on it won't occur to her that it's not.

I'll be using clockworkflower for her replies, since I already had it made for kid events in my other game.

SO STOKED FOR THIS EVENT.

[dedikated]

kid biankat shenanigans tho y/y?

Brennan

[notimpervious]

She'll be 13, super nerdy, curious, awkward (though not as bad as she grows up to be) -- and hopeful! This is before all her trauma happens. c: She'll be fascinated by nonhumans and this strange city.

I'm going to be doing 2-3 threads (I'm p much set with them btw!), but I'm happy to handwave more. Adult Brennan can be some kids' science mom if anybody wants. She's really fond of kids despite being bad with people in general.

kate & serah

[dedikated]

serah/
will not be getting de-aged, since she's a pretty hopeful person anyway. instead she'll be providing babysitting duties, scolding children who are naughty and generally being the pure bastion of delight that she is.

kate/
is getting de-aged to 14 with her memories of childhood somewhat obscured so you're not dealing with an angry orphan, though the memories are definitely there to play with if anyone wants Sadness. she'll still be as physically active as ever, though far more limited in how fast she can run and how high she can jump - so instead, come find a way to climb up buildings with her so you can explore Hadriel from above! that's a good idea, right? other than that, she'll be chatty and social and nowhere near as lineface as her adult self. feel free to be weirded out.

also if you're a nerd, you will be called a nerd. sry bout it.

she will also be around in adult form to stare at all the kids and Not Know how to Deal with it. tiny things, yikes.

[nascere]

noct will come help mind the babies with you, serah.

Yukari and Tatara, and Beyond's exclusion

[fracturedbeauty]

Yukari will be a child for pretty much the whole event. Headcanon, his single mom dies. And I'm going to have him pre-tragedy. So he'll be a happy child, about 9-12ish that loves fencing, knows he's adorable (you can call him cute and he won't mind for a change), and is pretty driven. He's a bit bold, but not manipulative or Chaos-inclined. And, sometimes he'll want to see his mom and can't find her anywhere. If you want some CR with Yukari in his purest form, come have at. I also plan to have him remember as much of it as possible.

While Tatara would make a cute bitty, he'd much rather babysit all of you and get some Anna feels for his hope. And, given that his childhood wasn't very hopeful, he's going to stay an adult for the entire event. So, if you want someone to dote on you for the event, feel free to find this guy here. He's super lenient and only wants to encourage your happiness.

Beyond will not be participating in this event. Because.... he shouldn't be near bitties, and even as a bitty he's fucked up. So... he'll be sitting this one out. Sorry.

[so_dark_a_road]

I guess it goes without saying that child Curufin would like to run into child Yukari?

noctis & diana

[nascere]

Noctis gonna be an adult still, but I'm looking for him to be a big brother to all the little kids running around! He'll be tagging in -- if you want him to poke his nose into your character's business / help take care of the children, he's good with them.

Diana will be five years old! She's still got some of her powers but not very much of it, since she hasn't awakened much of them yet. And she's precocious and will be delighted to see so many others like her! She's never seen anyone like her all her little life, so let her come and make friends with your character! Or if your character's an adult, take her under your wing!

[bythewaves]

ohno baby Diana! would she like to meet a bitty elf?

[bythewaves]

Maglor dislikes this enforced sleep do you know how many nightmares he gets when he sleeps but there, he'll be spending most of the early part awake, probably babysitting his kidnap victim UH I MEAN Elrond. He's a pretty good dad, if anyone wants their bitties tto be adopted. By the end of the event, he'll lose the fight to sleep, and then I hope there is no one near him who likes peace and quiet (there is a REASON his mother basically named him 'the noisy one')

Makalaure will be a tiny elf child of about twenty, so he'll look about oh, 6 or 7, with a remarkably loud voice for such a tiny creature. He's fearless, at this age, and friendly with everyone. He will also be bouncing on a big bro who won't wake up. Expect paint, glitter, and possibly (probably) explosions. Tags from him will come from childofthemusic

[fracturedbeauty]

Omg, PLEASE! I'm down for bb!Yukari with both or either of these renditions. And it'll be open space for Maglor to get some closer CR with Yukari if you want.

Rhy & Adam

[anoshe]

Adam has canon child abuse in his past, so I won't be tagging out with him as a child unless it's something we set up beforehand! I'm happy to do stuff, though, just hmu. I will have a starter - he'll be about 10, quiet and contained and especially wary around adult men but curious about all kinds of things. He'll be around as an adult for child-wrangling, though, which he should be relatively good at!

Rhy will be around the same age but much more energetic and friendly, ready to make friends with other kids or adults or anyone else in the vicinity. Being a prince, he's used to speaking to most adults as if he's already their equal, despite his age, but he shouldn't be overly bratty. Probably. He'll also be around as an adult a bit, but pretty useless at child-wrangling. Happy to play with kids, though!

Prussia

[occupiesvitalregions]

LATE TO THE PARTY but Prussia as a kid was the Order of Teutonic Knights and was an even bigger pain in the ass than he is now. Just think of him with even more energy and louder. It's like Prussia x 10. he'll probably start what look like play sword fights with people that might turn into real ones. Oops.