Walkabout: [Shortly after their arrival]

[professorwolf]

Randolph Lyall here. Anybody else dropped into the noisy arcade? Or were most of us lucky enough to wind up in a hotel room or a lobby? Can we have a check-in?

Also, anybody else stuck with animal ears and a tail, or aged up or down? I've heard about a Jaunt much like this place, a while back, though I wasn't here for it: a school for anime magic, basically. Sparkles and animal ears and flowers coming out of nowhere. All the symptoms I'm seeing seem to be lining up for that world.

I'm still working out what's going on. It seems like some kind of multiple-school event, from the signs and the brochure handily in my pocket. I'm even wearing a badge for one of them, so I suppose I'm some kind of representative. The aging up doesn't go all the way up to adults, and I haven't changed any.

Comments

[professorwolf]

It's possible. Or it's possible your high school was different from the ones here. Here, though, I can quite confidently say it will not go well for you if you punch anyone. I'm sorry.

[Not that he's... terribly sorry, but he has a feeling she'll be unhappy with it. She'd seemed awfully eager, there, for a minute.]

[happyhalloween]

It wasn't my high school! It was Jessica's! Jessica's much older than me!

[professorwolf]

I'm sorry, I just meant "the high school you are referring to" more than yours, in particular. I didn't assume you had gone to one, given your confusion about them in general.

[happyhalloween]

I was in elementary school last time I went to school.

[professorwolf]

High school does have some differences. You have more than one teacher, for one thing, one for each subject. Plus a lot of the students are starting to be more interested in the dating than friendship and games of pretend or hopscotch. I'm not sure if that will affect you, being magically aged up, but I'd be on the lookout just in case.

[happyhalloween]

Oh.

[Hm.]

... do you know where Kanji is?

[Because it occurs to Maria she's old enough to marry him now.]

[professorwolf]

I'm afraid I haven't heard from him, or smelled him. He may not have turned up yet, but it's possible we've been split up again.

[Are they friends, perhaps? He doesn't pick up on the whole potential marriage thing. Why would he?]

[happyhalloween]

Uu. [Despite the lack of inflection on the network, that was definitely a pouting 'uu.']

I wanted to show him what I look like big.

[They ARE friends. It's just Maria also has a very big crush on him.]

[professorwolf]

It's entirely possible that even if he isn't here, you might be able to keep this ability-- to age yourself up to a teenager at will. That's how it works with my ears and tail. Here, they're permanent-- in liminal space, they're a shapeshift.

[happyhalloween]

Really?

[Oh no, Lyall, what have you done? She's making plans.]

[professorwolf]

It's possible. This is a virus, albeit a very strange one. I imagine it would be something of a nice change, being able to alter one's age.

[Particularly when one is from grade school. The Trumps really do suck, taking so many children. Ugh.]

[happyhalloween]

I'd be able to ride on all the rides. If we ever got rides. And Naoki would give me drinks like everyone else.