"You stop calling me 'meatbag' and I'll stop calling you 'rustbucket'," Ben nonchalantly stated with a slight smirk. He was enjoying his moment of being a troll. As he put his hands behind his head and walked in the direction of the library, he noticed Sonic and a girl. She looked like a young princess and he didn't recognize her. He barely even noticed Koishi, who was standing nearby but off to the side.

"Hey, Sonic!" Ben called to them. "It's me, Ben. We're headed to the library. Wanna come with?" he asked.

edited 15th Feb '16 2:10:29 PM by AllHailThrall

"It doesn't amount to anything now, really." Sawyer pointed out. Something about the fact that the robot had to point out its emotions amused her; she saw something of her own situation in this. "It doesn't seem like anyone has an actual weapon to use."

She decided to tag along; there wasn't really anything she could do with her time at the moment. It beat standing around.

edited 15th Feb '16 2:11:47 PM by FergardStratoavis

"age swapping? that's weird, i don't feel any different from the usual." said Sans as he began taking a better look at his body, whatever difference there was must have been very small. "so you're actually a little kid? well, i guess you just got a sneak peek at how you'll be when you grow up."

As he walked around, Sans saw many human children walking around, other people brought to that city most likely and a good portion of them must have been actually adults. If it was just five minutes ago if he ended up surrounded by human kids he would likely consider that to be his own personal hell, but thankfully the humans in this weird city seemed to be less murderous than that one.

"miss tairee huh... did she name herself that? because im pretty sure thats a pun, a pretty good one."

edited 15th Feb '16 2:14:47 PM by FullMoon

The City Of Lost Children

As Specter Knight wandered through the city, it became apparent that, compared to other people in the city, he hadn't been changed too drastically. Surprisingly, there were still a few adults, although they may have been children before this happened to them.

After a few minutes of wandering, Specter Knight decided to head to the Library. After all, even if it was suddenly harder to induce fear in the hearts of others, he still needed to interrogate Miss Tairee about this.

edited 15th Feb '16 4:58:46 PM by astrokitty

"Well, I don't think you would be able to grow or shrink." Sawyer countered Sans' musings, still looking somewhat bemused herself. "Dead generally don't change sizes."

And then she saw some sort of skelekid with a toy scythe and a red robe, most likely the grim reaper from the day ago. She did not admit to standing corrected, of course.

"Also, I don't see a pun."

The Library, Day 4

They had succesfully killed the dragon. Miss Tairee was incredibly happy, so happy in fact, that she started hugging Rex. He didn't really know how to react.

"Mhhm... Awkward"

Thankfully the moment didn't last long as everything went blurry and Rex appeared sleeping in another part of the city.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Random apartment

Rex woke up feeling well rested. It's not like he felt tired but after dying for the first time, he kind of needed some time alone to process things.

To his surprise, his clothes were back to normal including his trusty goggles. He felt as if the room he was in was a bit too small but he blamed the stress getting the better of him.

He set off flying over the city. Most of the people down there were kids which was odd, yesterday there more adults than anything.

He continued flying until he found the library, hopefully Tairee would be ready to at least share a bit of information on her boss after they had rescued her.

As he was entering the building, he noticed a small child wearing a costume similar to that of Specter Knight, complete with a toy scythe. Maybe Specter Knight was also fictional in other worlds and this kid was disguised as him for halloween.

"Hi there kid, are you ok?"

Rex didn't know it yet but he was now sporting a soulpatch.

edited 3rd May '17 4:09:39 PM by DeisTheAlcano

"Nope, definitely never heard of Skyloft! And don't worry, I know A LOT of people who don't look their age," she said, and with a wet snapping sound she let her eye close. It would get dry if she just left it open like that for too long, and her optometrist^* (read: her sister) would get mad if she didn't care for it. "I'm Koishi Komeiji of The Palace of The Earth Spirits, of course." She returned the tiny bow, always happy to tell another person her name. It was a very nice name, after all.

And...a large, blue, talking, furred animal thing (for lack of a better descriptor) wearing shoes and gloves asked the two of them "what is up". A part of her wanted to be snarky and mention the sky, another part honestly forgot about that particular piece of slang, but she mostly just tried to be polite. By not answering him. Even though she spent most of her time at home with animals and animals that looked like people, they never quite resembled the blue one before her. She was really at a loss for words...was he some kind of youkai of pointyness?

She whispered to her little friend, "Hey, Zelda...do you know that?" She pointed in Sonic's direction, not very discreetly.

The City

"I'm not a child", Specter Knight muttered to the adult, until he remembered otherwise. He looked up -God, he was going to hate doing that- at the man speaking to him.

Going by the man's goggles and face, the man was obviously Rex, albeit with some facial hair. Specter Knight guessed that Rex wasn't aware of the day conditions, based on how he was treating him like a child.

"I assume you haven't noticed that the majority of people have been tuned into children, Rex."

edited 15th Feb '16 5:51:00 PM by astrokitty

Somewhere in the City Interior, Maybe Close to the Library

"I thought as such," Zelda said with a slight frown, "And I haven't heard of this 'Palace of the Earth Spirits,' either." She then made another small smile. "I suppose that makes us even, then? At any rate, it's a pleasure to meet you, Koishi."

She then took a look around. "Someone around here has to know something, right? I don't know where to start looking exactly, but...."

It was around that point that the weird blue creature showed up. Zelda didn't know what to make of it. On one hand, it was much bigger than any animals save the Loftwings from Skyloft, very humanoid, and very spiky. It almost looked like a monster, except it apparently wasn't aggressive. Maybe it was a friendly monster.

She looked up in response to its greeting, clearly taking it a little too literally as that piece of slang was rather unfamiliar to her. Then she turned back to Koishi.

"No. I've never seen anything like it," she replied. She then turned to the creature, intending to answer its question, when another unfamiliar voice called out. She turned in its direction to see another group of people...or rather, a group of two humans and two more monstrous people. Her eyes lingered nervously on the skeleton for a moment or two, before realizing that it looked a little too friendly. And the other thing...it sort of reminded her of that odd broken machine Gondo had. Didn't he call it a "robot?"

"...Who are all you?" she asked of all the newcomers, "And what's this about a library? Koishi and I were just talking about trying to figure out where we were, and that sounds like a good place to start."

"sorry kid, but i haven't died yet, came pretty close to it a few times though." Sans told Sawyer in quite a casual tone, then glancing at Zelda and immediately taking notice that she was nervous with the sight of him, she probably wasn't used to seeing monsters or at least was afraid of them "the name's sans, miss, and don't worry, im not gonna hurt you, i don't have the heart to do it." although he was partially joking, there was still some sincerity in his voice.

edited 15th Feb '16 4:18:45 PM by FullMoon

HK merely stayed quiet for now, trying not to humor Ben anymore, then the group met up with some... kind of spiky blue meatbag and two female meatbags.

"Answer: I am HK-47, meatbag. We were just on our way to the library in order to see the Advisor of the person who brought us here." HK answered Zelda's question.

As soon as HK-47 addressed the others, he frowned a little. So this robot called everyone "meatbag". Still didn't make it any less racist. Species-ist? He didn't know what to call it, point is, it was offensive.

"I'm Ben Tennyson," he told her. "Nice to meet you." He turned around the city until he saw the giant library, which towered over the other buildings, and pointed towards it. "That's the Library. It's always at the center of town. The rest of this city keeps warping around being weird. If we stick together on the way none of us'll get lost, kay?"

Morty blinked and looked around. The itchy, ill-fitting medieval clothing of the previous day had gone, replaced with his familiar old yellow T-shirt and slightly worn jeans. That was good, at least... Morty blinked and looked around .Something felt vaguely off. He was in Rick's lab - which was more than a little weird by itself, hadn't he been in the library a few seconds ago? He flexed his fingers... it was as though the skin and muscles felt a little different, a little looser. Maybe Rick would be able to explain it-

Rick! Where was he? As far as Morty could tell, he was in the third floor of Rick's lab... but then, Rick had fallen off the dragon the other day! Was he alive? Was he hurt? "Oh jeez..." Morty mumbled under his breath. Before Morty could even start looking for him, there was an explosion from somewhere downstairs, followed by an all-too-familiar laugh.

The six-year old ^note  maybe off by a year or two, it was hard to tell, with the grey hair and all currently sitting at his workbench clapped his hands in delight at the diminutive mushroom cloud he had created from a hodgepodge of chemicals. There was a pause as the little kid cocked his head, strapped on a pair of nearby goggles and rubber gloves, both far too big for his tiny hands, and poured a few more chemicals onto the glowing rock, causing a second miniature mushroom "Tiny Riiiiiiiick, baby!" Rick pounded his fist on the table, almost doubled over in hysterics, until he turned around and saw his grandson, staring at him in a mixture of horror and confusion.

"Oh man, Morty!" Rick laughed some more before pushing himself off of his stool, plummeting a few feet to the ground, and sauntering over to a pile of mechanical parts. "Morty, check it out, huh? Pretty cool, right?"

"Oh man, Rick, I, uh, I d-dunno about that, I mean... aren't you mad that you got turned into a little kid?" Rick rummaged through a pile of junk and produced an arc welder... the blue flame casting a sinister pall on his maniacal little face.

"W-wait! I got it, Morty! I wanna build a, a, a, robot! A robot dog, Morty! I-I-i-it'll be great! I'll name 'im after, uh, after a real famous physicist, and I'll fly around on him! It'll be great, Morty!"

"Rick-" Morty rubbed his hands against his face as the toddler continued to talk. "Rick, just-"

"J-just, uh, do me a favour and just, uh, hand me some uranium, okay? Gotta build a reactor here. Tiny Rick! Robot dog!"

"Rick!"

"Wait, wait, I got it, I'll, uh, I'll build a time machine! Uh, no... I-I'll clone a dinosaur! A dinosaur! Yeah!"

"RICK!"

Rick rolled his eyes. "Man, Morty, you're being a real buzzkill here."

"R-Rick, you, uh, you can't just go playing with plutonium-"

"-uranium, Morty-"

"uranium, whatever, okay! Y-y-you're, like, I dunno even how old you are, but, like, you're not old enough to make nuclear... stuff!"

Rick rolled his eyes again. "Alright, fine, Morty. You're the big man today, huh? Looks like you got aged up, huh? I mean, I dunno, I guess we could head to the park or something."

"Park?" Morty stared out the door at the sprawling playground that had materialized outside of Rick's lab overnight. There were several dozen other children sprawled out in the sand... some of them happily playing on the swings, others sprawled flat in the sand bawling their eyes out over one perceived slight or another.

"Aw jeez. Am, I, uh, am I like the only one left?"

"I 'unno. You think I know everything about everything that goes on in the whole world?" Rick shrugged... while surreptitiously opening his flask.

"Rick! Put down the bottle!" Rick pouted at his grandson. "Y-you're not old enough to drink!" scolded Morty, swiping the flask out of Rick's little hand and depositing it on the tallest shelf (had he been able to reach that one yesterday? Weird.) "I-I-I'm putting all your booze on the top shelf, okay?"

"Mmm. No fair. You're not fair ,Morty. Be cool, okay?"

"Well, someone's gotta take care of you today." Morty grabbed the sniffling Tiny Rick by the arm and dragged him out into the streets, where a mob of people - little kids, a few adults... a skeleton... and a tiny robot? - were making their way toward the library in the center of the city.

"Aw man!" exclaimed Morty, grateful to see that he wasn't the only one who hadn't been turned into a little kid. There were a few familiar faces in the crowd, too - Ben seemed to have grown a bit older as well. "H-hey, uh, hey guys!" he shouted, dragging Tiny Rick by the arm. "I mean, uh, i-i-it's crazy today! Everyone's turned into, uh, li-little kids! Uh, I, I dunno how to take care of all these kids!" he said desperately. "I, uh, I gotta watch out for Rick, cause h-he's gonna be a real handful today..."

"Tiny Riiiiick!" exclaimed Rick, staring at the newcomers.

edited 15th Feb '16 6:34:45 PM by Locoman

All Cole knew was that one moment, he had been rushing around outside the library, helping direct people away from the scene of the crash and the battle, and the next he was staring up at the ceiling of a strange place he had never been.

He'd been knocked unconscious several times during fights before, and usually those strange moments when his awareness abruptly shifted from place to place without his input meant that had happened, and someone, usually either Blackwall or Iron Bull, had carried him for a bit until a healer had been able to patch him up. He hoped that hadn't happened now, considering that he hadn't even been near the last battle with the dragon.

He did notice that instead of the strange black cloak he'd been wearing the day before, for some reason, he was now back in his regular outfit◊, and on sitting up from the bed he was on and looking around, he found his beloved hat sitting on the bedside table next to him. A happy grin came to his face as he grabbed it and plopped it back onto his head, covering his eyes even more than his shaggy blonde hair usually did.

Cole then noticed how...quiet it was. Not just in the room. Normally he was always aware of the sensations of people nearby. Lots of folks carried around aches both physical and mental, and he was so used to hearing it and feeling it at all times that whenever he didn't, he knew things were wrong.

He barely paid attention to anything else, leaping off the bed and running to the door, racing out of the room and out of the building-

-where he came to a screeching halt, staring around at everything.

Where Cole was from, buildings were wooden shacks or giant stone fortresses, built in fields of dirt or the middle of clearings in woods. What he saw in front of him now was nothing like that. He stared wide-eyed at the skyline, at the buildings and roads of sizes and shapes he had never seen before, the smells, the strangeness...

"What is this place...?? What monster of the Fade have we been thrown into now??" Cole looked around frantically, panic becoming rather clear. "Where is...what is this?"

The others might think that, if anything, Cole maybe hadn't changed beyond maybe being an inch or so taller, but it was hard to tell with both the ridiculously giant hat, and the way he seemed to hunch in on himself, practically shaking as he stared at everything around him in uncomprehending fear.

The explosion blasted apart the dragon's back, leaving a massive, bloody crater in it. The dragon roared in pain before succumbing and bleeding out.

Plague Knight stared at the corpse, taking a moment to fully register what he just did.

"Heh........heh......heh heh.....heh hee......hee hee.....hee hee ya hah hah.....HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!"

The knight started to uproariously laugh maniacally.

"I DID IT!! I SLEW A FULLY ACTIVATE LARGE DRAGON!! I AM THE GREATEST KNIGHT TO HAVE EVER LIVE!!! SCIENCE PREVAILS AGAINST ALL!!! THAT DASTARD RICK HAS NOTHING AGAINST - !!"

Plague Knight woke up with a start. He found himself in some sort of bed, big enough for a child. He looked around his surroundings, seeing it the walls were designed with look like the sky, covered in light blue paint with clouds here and there, and the walls themselves adorned with posters very warriors or athletes of some sort. Plus the bed he was on was fashioned as some sort of horseless carriage, judging for the four wheels at least. The knight hopped off the bed and noticed something. While he knew he was rather short for a man his age, he somehow felt.....shorter.....

There was a full sized mirror in the room......and he saw that he was, in fact, smaller.....younger in fact. "Seems I have been reduced to becoming a child," he said, and then noticing how he own voice had dramatically changed, sounding higher pitched. Looking around, he found his outer robes and equipment neatly folded up upon a dresser with his mask sitting on top of it. He put everything back on, but then notice something else.

First of all, his staff was now made of a hollow, flimsy resin instead of solid wood, the head out of the same hollow material. Second, the sword he retrieved two days prior was now made of a solid yet spongy material. Thirdly, his bombs were replaced with some sort of artificially created rubbery film filled with an unknown liquid. Essentially, harmless toys. He did not know if his arcana was similarly transformed, by he assumed he would find out eventually.

He found the exit, walked down the hall, down a flight of stairs, and was about to head out the front door when he noticed a flicker. Turning to his left, he peered into the living, at the glowing electronic screen boxes he'd seen around the city. Televisions, were they called? He walked closer to the screen until he could clearly read the message. It was clearly beckoning him to the library for furthers messages. TO him, that meant one thing.......

"My request as finally been processed!" he said. "HUZZAH!!" Like the excited kid he was now, Plague Knight excitedly ran out the door and headed for the library, running past and expertly dodging all the other children who were playing in the various parks and playgrounds.

edited 15th Feb '16 6:47:35 PM by UdtheImp

Near the library

The child knew his name, he was Specter Knight.

"Wait, you are Specter Knight? Oh man, I can't believe it!"

He started laughing, the thought of Marcus and being kids now really amused him and Specter Knight looked ricidulous with his plastic scythe.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's just... haha... I thought you were a kid dressed for Halloween"

After he was over the surprise, Rex finally answered Specter's question.

"I saw more kids than usual while I was flying but why I'm not a kid then? Not that I'm complaining"

Ben turned when he heard Morty greet the group, and he turned to greet Morty back.

"Hey Mor—" Ben started to say, wincing when he noticed Rick— er, Tiny Rick.... being carried by Morty. "What's wrong with him?" Ben asked, gesturing towards "Tiny Rick". Ben then looked back at Sans and HK-47.

"This is, uh.... this is Rick and Morty. The guy with the big hair's usually an old man. Guys, this is Sans and that's HK-47. Or as I like to call him, Rustbucket," he explained, a cheeky grin on his face as he introduced the droid.

edited 15th Feb '16 6:30:05 PM by AllHailThrall

Near the Library

If he had an actual scythe, Specter Knight probably would have killed Rex with it just now, for laughing at him. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. "Well, you've certainly changed," he muttered somewhat angrily. "In fact, you're sporting a small patch of facial hair."

With that, Specter Knight floated towards the library, somewhat self-conscious about his inability to strike fear.

edited 15th Feb '16 7:19:57 PM by astrokitty

Little City Zone/ Act 2

Sonic, while unintencional, caused the majority of people to group.

Sonic introduced himself to the newcomers.

"I'm Sonic! Well... now that we all hace met, I san we go to the library like Ben said."

HK merely sighed in annoyance upon hearing Ben calling him a rustbucket again, and decided to take matter in his own hands.

HK aimed his Nerf Gun at Ben's head and fired...a few harmless darts at Ben, whenever they would hit or not, HK would already be satisfied.

I am saddened they are not blaster bolts anymore..

"Warning: Next time you call me rustbucket will be followed by tickling automatic fire, meatbag!" HK then lowered his toy gun.

Ben nodded at Sonic, and turned to start walking towards the library when he felt something small bounce off the back of his head. He jumped slightly, then turned around and looked at HK-47. His eyebrows furrowed.

"Okay, fine, jeez!" Ben exclaimed. He may have been upset at the term "meatbag" but he wasn't stupid enough to tick off the droid, especially considering once this day was over HK might have a real gun. "I'll call you HK then, is that okay? I'll even ignore the whole meatbag thing. Whatever." He sighed, then entered the library, rolling his eyes as he entered.

There certainly were plenty of kids playing; there were also plenty of kids walking about the streets just seeming confused and maybe talking to someone else about what they should do. They were the ones still trying to approach this like the reasonable adults they actually were.

But the former ones were all being quick to take advantage of their new state, and having a blast on and around the playground, playing in the sand and on the swings and slides and all manner of things. In particular the passing group could see Bergree the dryder, too ecstatic about having his eight legs back to be worried about the fact that he was now somewhere around eight years old; he was moving about on the underside of a roof bit on the playground, playing some sort of game with his hands with another elven kid standing beneath him, Silnae.^note It was sort of like pattycake, but a bit more elegant and they were doing it vertically. Braston was also nearby, repeatedly going down a slide and then running back up it over and over. There was also a quintet of pig-faced kids with various holstered nerf guns playing tag with each other. And sitting alone on a bench just outside the sandlot of the playground was a certain, now ten years old, boy wearing a cardboard suit colored blue, minus his helmet which was sitting on his lap.

Miss Tairee, now a young girl probably 12-13 years old, was sitting on her central desk with her legs dangling off and playfully kicking at the air as she hummed to herself. She had a laptop sitting on her lap, and was now wearing some sort of blue sundress with a pattern of yellow flower petals, white low-heels, and a wide-brimmed straw hat.

A number of other kid civvie types were there and being helped by Tairee, other people who had put something in the suggestion box. Most were, 'please let me go home' or 'send us all home', and they were subsequently disappointed by the answers of no. Though she was sincerely apologetic to them, Miss Tairee's mood was currently too high to be brought down by this right now.

edited 15th Feb '16 8:31:56 PM by FirockFinion

Ben and the rest might be aware of Cole practically creeping up beside them, still hunched and ducked a little as he looked around, possibly even paler than normal. "This world is strange...I don't like it. Is this...what is this? Where are we?" He glanced back at all of them. "I-is...is this supposed to be. You seem different. Some of you are different than you were yesterday. Everything is different...everyone is quieter...I can't hear them as well. Is that normal? I don't...I don't like this. Wh-what can I do t-to help people if I can't hear them?"

Ben saw all of the kids playing around on the park. He would join them, but now he was an adult. He couldn't play around with all the kids anymore. He sighed, disappointed. Then, entered the library and raised an eyebrow at Miss Tairee, who in her de-aged state, almost reminded him of Gwen. And that made him miss home. His seeing the other kids, also asking to go home, made him miss home even more.

"You guys go introduce yourselves to Miss Tairee," Ben muttered to the group, voice waving. He winced, moving his arm up to his face. "I... I gotta go for a bit. I got.... I got something to do," he told them. then suddenly, without warning, left the library and headed back into the city.

"Celebratory: Haha!"

HK raised both his arms at the air in victory as Ben told him he would stop calling him rustbucket, and then HK saw a meatbag with a ridiculous hat approach them.

"Suggestion: Perhaps you should consider a new hobby? Possibly purchase a new hat that does not obstruct your field of view in case of ambushes..."

edited 15th Feb '16 9:20:00 PM by Darkomega245