resizing plot

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee is sitting crosslegged in a large, overstuffed armchair, with a glass of wine on the side table and a magazine in his lap, when suddenly the big, fluffy armchair cushions threaten to swallow him up.

"Oh!" he squeaks, startled at the sudden sensation and shift in perspective.

He looks at his hands. They're so small! He touches his face. Gone are the traces of stubble. He stretches his legs out. His little boots dangle over the edge of the chair, nowhere near touching the floor. His white tank top and knee-length trousers have also shrunk with him.

Sweeping his long black hair out of his eyes, he looks around the bar and notices the proliferation of children.

"Perhaps I should have stayed in my room today after all," he sighs in a delicately German-accented voice.

Comments

[imthepilot]

There's another dark haired boy sitting by the fire with a kitten in lap and a bandage around his upper arm.

He has a holo-projector open on his lap, watching a drama of some kind.

[i_am_your_host]

"Excuse me," he asks the boy ever-so politely, "but have you any idea what is happening in the bar today? I seem to have...de-aged, quite drastically."

As ageless as Emcee seems as an adult, he's positively elfin as a child. Physically he's no older than ten years old.

[imthepilot]

"Me too. It's going around. The Bar says it will go away eventually."

Bodhi looks to be seven or eight, underfed with big eyes.

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee stares at him for a moment, barely registering what he'd just said. He then catches himself and shakes his head with a chuckle.

"I do apologize," he says smiling. "Not only do you seem familiar to me, but good lord, you are one of the most adorable children I have ever seen, like a doll come to life. I'm Emcee. I'm sure we've met."

[imthepilot]

Bodhi blushes, not sure what the make of that. "I'm Bodhi."

[i_am_your_host]

"Bodhi!" he squeals with childlike glee, made even more childlike because he is, in fact, a child.

"How wonderful to see you! But what happened to your arm?"

[imthepilot]

"Galen and I were... playing. I fell on someone's glass. He was nice about it. He even stitched up my arm."

[i_am_your_host]

"Oh no, you needed stitches?" he gasps, wincing in sympathy. "Is Galen-- affected by this, too?"

[imthepilot]

He nods. "The man was really good about it." He frowns. "I didn't think to ask his name. I was feeling a bit dizzy. I wonder if the bar would know."

He nods, smiling a bit. "It was his fault. We were racing to the rafters."

[i_am_your_host]

"Well, it was good that he helped you. What did he look like?" he asks, because there's always a possibility that Emcee may know him.

"The rafters? Oh, I'm not particularly good at climbing, so I would lose in such a race," he chuckles.

[imthepilot]

"He was tall." But then everyone is tall right now. "And had black hair but with a funny white bit. And lots of scars."

He nods. "Galen and I like to climb. But usually up rocks and mountains, not rafters."

[i_am_your_host]

"Hmm, that sounds like Jay to me," he remarks. The white forelock is quite telltale.

"Have you and Galen explored the mountains outside yet?"

[imthepilot]

Bodhi nods. "I'll find him and thank him later." probably with a home cooked meal.

"Galen's explored more than I have. We... Something strangr happened the night everyone was dressed up. I have really need out there since." he bites his lips, trying not to still look shaken by it.

[balancingminds]

Charles recognizes Emcee's mind and walks over, he's missed walking, "It might have found you up there."

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee looks up at the other boy, eyes wide.

"Do you think so? Oh, well."

He wriggles out, trying to sit up properly amid the nest of cushions. It's quite undignified. But it's then that he tips his head at the other boy with a scrutinizing gaze.

"Oh, I think I know you! Do I?"

[balancingminds]

He smiles at the wriggle, its a movement that seems to suit Emcee, "Yes, you do. Its Charles."

[i_am_your_host]

"Charles!"

He looks him up and down with a beaming smile, happy to see him like this. But they both know that this is only temporary. He takes his hand and squeezes it.

"How incredibly strange this all is! How old do you think you've become?"

[balancingminds]

"Nine, I was about this age when my sister was adopted. How about you?"

Emcee looks so young and breakable.

[i_am_your_host]

"Oh, goodness, I don't know, age was always such a vague thing to me," he says, looking down at himself, holding out his thin, pale arms, sticking out his little feet. "I can't remember having boots this size. But I was always small for my age, though, or so everyone said. Perhaps I'm your age, too, but don't look it."

He hops off the chair with the same lightness and grace of his adult shape.

[balancingminds]

"Maybe, I've never been good at judging. I just remember looking and feeling this way when Raven appeared."

[i_am_your_host]

"Hmm, well, I was either still on the streets of Berlin, or living with the ladies at the brothel." His memories of this time aren't that extensive, but there are flashes of being surrounded by beautiful women who, despite their profession, did care about his welfare as a child. He'll always think of them fondly.

"We should do something fun! Do you want to come up to my room? We can order up tea and food or whatever you like. I have lots of magazines and music!"

Emcee's natural enthusiasm seems to be enhanced by his actually being a child.

[balancingminds]

Emcee's memories are nice, warm in a different way than Charles' of his childhood, "Yes, I like that idea."

[i_am_your_host]

"Marvelous!"

The word loses its lascivious purr coming from a child, but it's no less his signature statement.

After asking a waitrat to bring them up some tea and sweets, he takes Charles's hand again and leads him upstairs to his room, which is tidy and minimalist, sort of resembling one of those ideal, art deco-infused apartments depicted in 1940s films.

There's a gramophone on a table, and the bookcase is stocked with record albums and mostly magazines, mainly Time and National Geographic.

"Make yourself comfortable," he says, ever the host.

[balancingminds]

Charles laughs and follows Emcee up and starts looking through the records to see if he can find artists that he knows.

When the rat appears, its with all sorts of cookies, cakes and sweets, "I've always loved Sinatra but I told you that. Have you found anyone new that you really enjoy?"

[i_am_your_host]

It's not often that Emcee gets to enjoy tea and biscuits, so he marvels a bit at the variety of sugary snacks piled high on a doily.

"Oh, yes, definitely," he says, coming over to flip through the records. "I have a Sinatra record, if you'd like to put that on while we eat. But I really like Queen...and ABBA...and David Bowie...and more recently, the Ramones." He pulls out the records to show Charles. "They are all from the 1970s. I don't know what it is about the music and performers from that particular decade, I just happen to like them all."