Here You Are, Stick Figure and a Busted Grin [Open to All]

[applesaucemod]

The first thing that the dreamers of Manhattan might notice is that the ground is a good deal closer than it normally is. The second thing they might notice is that their surroundings are larger than they might expect. The playground looks almost daunting. Of course, there are other ways for the dreamers to occupy themselves on this hot summer day: a charming fountain bubbles away a little distance from the playground. There's an ice cream stand with treats free for the taking. Beyond the paved area is a meadow, covered in wildflowers and dominated by a huge, sprawling tree, perfect for climbing.

It's all prime entertainment for children. So really, it's just as well that 'children' is what the dreamers will find themselves to be - once more, for those who had childhoods, or for the first time, for those who didn't.

Perhaps you'll remember everything: the Rift, Manhattan, the friends (and enemies) you've made since your arrival. Or perhaps you'll only remember who you were when you were young, and find this an opportunity to forge new friendships - or new (and probably pettier) animosities. Run around, get dirty, have a good time. It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.

[ooc: usual dream party rules apply. All are welcome, whether they've been apped to the game or not. Characters will remember or forget the events of the dream at the players' discretion. Mental and emotional regression is optional, but physical regression is mandatory: your character is in the body of a little kid - human, or human-ish - regardless of who or what they are in the waking world.]

Comments

[timeladylost]

This is so cool.

She's not used to being able to play so openly. Nyx loves to run around, she loves to jump and shout and play games in the fields, but the other students at the Academy think that it's unseemly, or messy, or that they'd get in trouble. And yeah, maybe they will, but who cares? But her arguments tend to fall on deaf ears, and she's left to run around on her own.

But this? A whole structure made for playing on? Forget using bogs or fields or fruit-stalls, or trying to climb up the smooth walls of one of the libraries in the Capitol. She could do whatever she wanted here. She didn't even realize it at first, not until she watched a couple of the other kids.

And so there's a rambunctious, blonde Time Tot racing around--spinning the tic tac toe board, jumping off of the more moderate platforms, and swinging from the hanging bars. Just wait until Keikophnyxol finds out what a slide does.

[not in the game (yet???), so fully regressed to about 8 or 9.]

ohai thar, it's cully!

[imashinyboy]

Vince, like Nyx, has never seen a playground before, but Vince, unlike Nyx, is pretty much used to everything being for playing on. So while the structures are new and strange to him, what's even stranger is all the people! Vince hasn't hardly ever met any people-- human people-- other than Bryan and Andy and Other Brian and Phil, and they're all adults, so that's different.

He's skipping haphazardly along a long wooden bar that's clearly supposed to be used as a railing but which is much better utilised as a balance beam when he sees Nyx spinning the tic tac toe board, and prompts launches himself in her direction. He lands like someone who's spent a lot of time launching himself at things (he has; comes of growing up in the jungle), a crouch that he springs up from easily.

'What's that?' He points at the spinning board. They're letters, he thinks; Bryan has sporadically been trying to teach him to read, but Vince isn't much good at it.

He's an incredibly small child; skinny enough that ribs can be seen under his t-shirt (decorated in pink rhinestones with his own name: VINCE), and short for his age, but his hair and eyes seem to be trying to be big enough to make up for the rest of him. His feet, when he stands, point in, a pigeon-toed stance that betrays some of his nerves at the unfamiliar situation, despite his decided lack of shyness.

[timeladylost]

Well, it's not that Nyx doesn't try to play on a lot of the structures she comes across. It's just that they're either not all that good for climbing on and jumping of of, or they're patrolled by too many adults. The stones are five million years old, they can stand a little bit of scuff.

Her own clothes aren't really meant for running around in--the high-collared, dark green robe skirts the ground when she's standing straight, and whips at her heels while she's running. But Nyx is doing her very best not to tear it too much.

She looks up at the sound of the voice, eyes narrowed very slightly. It doesn't sound like Gallifreyan, which probably means that he's an offworlder. (The fact that the skies are a bright, beautiful shade of blue, signifying that she's not on Gallifrey, is currently lost upon her). But Nyx grins nonetheless. "I'm spinnin' them!" Maybe he'll be able to understand her? She hops up onto feet; she's a full head taller than him.

[imashinyboy]

The other kid (Vince isn't actually entirely sure how you tell gender with human (or human-looking) people; an upbringing whose only human contact has been with glam rockers hasn't given him a very clear idea in that regard) smiles, which is encouraging, and Vince smiles back, huge and sunshiney. And then she says... something. His smile falters slightly, and he squints; it had a lot of syllables and sounded a bit like singing, except not. Maybe the kind of singing Other Brian would do, but he's a bit weird.

She's tall, but it doesn't throw him much. Vince's friends range from being literally the size of his hand to nearly eleven feet on their hind legs. Still, he's a bit intimidated by the fact that she seems to be speaking some language that Vince doesn't. He's used to being able to talk to everyone, even ignoring things like species boundaries that get in most people's way.

He looks up at her from under his fringe, and shifts a little on his feet. 'I dunno what that means.' He shrugs, and lifts his hands a little in illustration.

[timeladylost]

Whatever he's saying sounds weird. Flat, and really short. Nyx furrows her brow a little bit--he's definitely an offworlder. She didn't even think that she'd meet one. People didn't come to Gallifrey; the Time Lords didn't like strangers very much. When she was older, she was going to go everywhere, and meet everybody in the Universe. She'll have to learn how to talk like him.

So Nyx does her best to mimic him--"Aye...dannoo wut zat mayn." She shrugs, watching Vince's hands to try and get the positioning of hers right.

[imashinyboy]

Her imprecise imitation of him makes Vince laugh, loud and shameless, but it's not mean-spirited, he's just tickled, and he grins up at her.

'No, no, that ain't-- hmm.' He wrinkles his nose, idly fiddling with the hem of his shirt with one hand. 'You got a name? Like, I'm Vince, right?' He pauses, and then says it a bit slower, 'Vince. See?' He puffs up his skinny little chest, bringing his hand up to run a finger under the name emblazoned there.

Hopefully, he points at her, and makes a face that he hopes looks curious, all big eyes and eyebrows up.

[timeladylost]

She grins right back. He might not be from around here, and kinda short, and wearing really shiny clothes, but this boy seems okay.

"Wince," Nyx tries. And then frowns a little bit, because she knows she didn't get that right. "Vince. Oh! You're called Vince!" She glances down and picks at his shirt, pulling it forward to try and get a better view. He pointed to it, so it must be important. Maybe it says his name? Are these letters? Weird.

"'m Keikophnyxol," she says.

[imashinyboy]

'Yeah!' Vince grins when she gets his name right after a couple of goes. It sounds strange in her accent. He giggles a little shyly when she tugs on his shirt, pulling him forward along with it to peer at the letters there. They glitter appealingly in the summer sunlight. Vince doesn't read too good, but he can read his own name. And Ziggy Stardust. Really, the only things he definitely knows how to read are mostly the names of pop stars and their albums.

She says something else in her strange up-and-down language, and Vince squints up at her, doing as she'd done and trying to repeat it. 'Kay ko fuh-- kayko fuh nix all?' The l comes out like a w in a fashion that has little to do with childish speech impediments, and more to do with the fact that his accent is pure South London. 'Is that your name?'

That's a really long name. But maybe it's her whole name, like Vince's whole name is Vincent Artemus Noir. Which is also pretty long if you say it all together; Vincentartemusnoir. Vince is a lot easier.

He tries again, looking up at her to make sure he's doing it right. 'Kay-ko-fuh-nix-all.' He accompanies it with that hopeful look again.