Resizing Plot

[fry_sandhu]

There is, at some point in the evening, a loud shriek from one side of the room. Apparently suddenly going from the body of an 8-year-old to a 16-year-old is a bit of a surprise, and despite the lot of unfamiliar kids in here, Fry hadn't really been paying much attention.

His first move is to go up to Bar.

"Don't I usually get let off this sort of thing?" he complains, stopping when he realises how deep his voice is.

"This better be temporary or it's going to be very difficult to explain at school."

Bar gives him a juice box and a freddo chocolate in compensation.

Comments

[cottoncandypink]

One of those unfamiliar kids is up at the bar as well. He wants a pack of Luckys, but the bar won't sell them to him, because he is twelve, and twelve-year-olds can't buy cigarettes. He's a bouncy, jittery mess, and he wants a cigarette, and this is stupid.

"How old are you?" he asks when he sees Fry. Without pink facial hair and an acquired speech impediment, Wilford could be anybody.

[fry_sandhu]

"I am eight years and three hundred and and fifty three days old." Fry says.

[cottoncandypink]

"What?"

That's a lot of math that Wilford is not prepared to work out right now.

He feels like he's about to jump out of his skin.

[fry_sandhu]

"I'll be nine in twelve days." Fry says.

[cottoncandypink]

"Fuck."

Wilford looks around, hoping to find someone he can throw six bucks at for a pack of cigarettes.

[fry_sandhu]

"Why, how old are you?" Fry asks.

[cottoncandypink]

"Thirty four."

He taps on the bar's surface with his fingers. "And you know it, so come on."

He gets a juice box.

[fry_sandhu]

"What are you trying to do?" Fry asks.

[cottoncandypink]

"I want a pack of cigarettes," Wilford says. "That's all I want. Just a pack of Luckys."

He's not even sure they'll help, ultimately, but this situation sure isn't making anything better.

[iprotectyou]

Baze saw him grow, so it's with a smile that the boy approaches.

"Hello, Fry! May the Force of others be with you! It's me, Baze Malbus," he says, his voice high and childish.

[fry_sandhu]

Fry still looks startled.

"You don't have a beard." He says, stating the obvious.

[iprotectyou]

"I didn't, when I was six," Baze says, beaming.

"And now that I'm around that age again, I don't have one anymore. No one knows the cause, not even Bar."

[fry_sandhu]

"I think the usual cause is puberty." Fry says. "So I guess it must be ytrebup."

[iprotectyou]

It takes Baze a second to get that, but once he does, he throws his head back and laughs, high and piping.

"Well, that might be a contributing factor, but that wouldn't explain why you've grown."

[fry_sandhu]

"Well, in my case I suppose it must be puberty." Fry says.

"But it's come on a bit quick."

[iprotectyou]

"You seem to have skipped several years in between, yes," Baze says jovially, still giggly.

"But it's strange--we all seem to retain our memories of our actual ages."

[fry_sandhu]

"Well I couldn't be suddenly a big person in my head without having years in between." Fry says.

[cook_the_rude]

"So the magic works backwards as well," says the boy at the piano. "Interesting."

[fry_sandhu]

Fry spins around.

"Who are you?"

[cook_the_rude]

"Dr. Hannibal Lecter," says the boy. "And you're Fry Sandhu."

[fry_sandhu]

Fry looks him up and down.

"Does your mother cut your hair?"

[cook_the_rude]

"No," the boy who usually is Dr. Lecter says. "Don't you like it?"

[fry_sandhu]

"It looks like someone put a bowl round your head and cut it." Fry says, helpfully.

[cook_the_rude]

"That's how children wore their hair when I was one," Dr. Lecter says.

[fry_sandhu]

"You look older than one." Fry says.