#age regression/de-aging

[immeasurablesaladagere]

A Wildcard is Active - Team Self-Sufficient

Series - A Wildcard is Active

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Words: 4973

Summery: By a stroke of bad luck, both Gem and Joel end up as children and are determined not to let anyone know. There are reds about, it’s not safe for them to be alone without an adult to protect them. When they run into trouble in a cave, they're forced to ask the Bamboozlers for help.

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On the first morning of the fourth session, Joel allowed himself to stay in bed just a bit longer and take in the snail-less peace and quiet. No more running about constantly looking over his shoulder for deadly flying mollusks, just a nice easy doze in the Charger, living the life.

Gem was already up and about, cooking breakfast by the smell of it. Somehow session three had been a breeze for her and now she was going around being all productive. Showoff. 

“Joel! Breakfast is ready!”

As much as he wanted to roll over and doze for another thirty minutes, the start of the session would wait for no man. They only had a short time before the next wildcard activated for the week and they needed to pound back as many calories as possible if they wanted to keep up with whatever craziness Grian had in store this time.

So out of bed and into their makeshift kitchen he went, rubbing the sleep crusties out of his eyes. “Quit yer yelling, what if I’d been sleepin’ still?”

“Then you needed to get up anyway. Wildcard rolls in an hour, up and ‘attem!” Gem said with the chipperness of someone who hadn’t spent the last week fearing for her life, and slid two plates of eggs, toast, and bacon onto the table.

“Yeah, yeah. Easy for you to say, you dirty snail-lover.”

“Hey! Who made you breakfast?”

“You’re right, you’re right, I’m sorry.” Joel shovelled a forkful of bacon into his mouth and groaned. “S’really good.”

Gem chuckled. “Well don’t make it weird! Maybe I shouldn’t be cooking for you.”

“No, please, I’ll be eating nothing but bread all season.” He whined. “Seriously, this is great, thanks Gem.”

“Well of course! We’re going to need the energy!” She finished her glass of milk in one go and got up to start putting her dishes away because holy moly, she ate fast. “What’s on the to-do list for today?”

There were about a million answers to that question, seeing as no one got anything done last week. Diamonds, finish the base, make traps, go to the nether; but of course what they’d like to do didn’t matter so much as what they could do once the wildcard hit. “Dunno. Some mining, maybe hit the nether if Grian hasn’t rigged it to explode or sumfing. I need redstone and gunpowder.”

“Ooo, yeah, the nether sounds good. I don’t know if they’ve found the fortress yet, so maybe there’s still some potion stuff left.” 

The moment the last piece of toast was in his mouth Gem was snatching his plate out from under him and dumping it in the sink.

“Oi!”

She stuck her tongue out at him. 

Well, might as well get started on the list. “If gonna try to finish the base while nofing’s going on, head’s up for falling deepslate in here!”

“If you get rock dust in my kitchen I’ll put you on yellow!” She called after him.

The base was coming along nicely, it just needed a few finishing touches. Trim here and there, polish the windows, sand off a few edges. He grabbed his tools from the starter base and climbed up onto the hood of the car. Maybe he could even finish before the session started.

-

“Joel! Wildcard!”

He could not. Joel sighed and set down his tools as the colourful ellipses appeared in his vision and Gem came outside. They had to be prepared for anything, and it was much safer to find out the gimmick together. They both braced for the worst. Floor is lava? Levitation? Permanent nighttime? More snails?

A Wildcard is Active.

The two of them did a hasty once-over of themselves. 

“Hearts and hunger are the same,” Gem reported.

“No effects, and you’re not dying right now so no floor-is-lava. Darn, I was hoping for that one.” He didn’t feel any different, and nothing around them seemed immediately strange. It was almost more unsetting that he couldn’t pinpoint the twist right away. 

“You were hoping I would die?”

“No, no, but you know what I mean. I was so sure that’d be one of them!” He patted himself down. “I don’t feel weird. Do I look weird?”

“More than normal? No.” She smirked.

“Wow, rude!”

He was about to accept that maybe Grian had miraculously decided to do something low-key this session. Maybe it was nether-based or mob-based and wouldn’t be nearly as big a deal as the murder snails and the hunger. Sure, it would put a mild spanner in the works but they would live. But then he felt it. His entire body suddenly felt… buzzy. Like pins and needles all over.

“Um, actually… Maybe I do feel a bit weird…” 

Gem shifted from foot to foot, rubbing a hand up and down her arms. “You feel it too? What is that?” Her eyes widened. “Oh my— Joel, you’re smoking!”

“I know that Gem, but I’m married so—“ Oh. Sure enough, his arms were giving off a faint purple mist, and now that he noticed it, so was Gem. “Woah, you’re smoking too! What on earth is this? Gah, I hate this feeling!”

In seconds the smoke went from tiny wisps to thick fog that surrounded him completely, and he could just barely make out Gem disappearing behind her own cloud as the smoke consumed him and everything went dark.

Then a moment later he was back again, lying face down on the car and tingly all over. He groaned. Was it weakness? Why did he feel like he was just tossed around by a ravager? He went to sit up and was rocked by a wave of dizziness. “Ugh, oh dear…” He mumbled, and then slowly his words caught up to his spinny brain. 

Something was wrong with his voice. It was higher, and weirder. 

“Joel!?” Came a squeaky cry from the ground, one that sounded eerily familiar. 

He shuffled forward to the edge of the base and oh, that was a long way down. Standing in a fun-size suit of armour and using a sword much too big for her to prop herself up was Gem. Tiny Gem. She looked no older than seven, maybe eight at the absolute most.

“Gem! What’s happened to you?” He called down, and yeah, his voice was definitely wrong. 

“Me? What about you? You’re teeny!”

He took a proper look at himself and his new tiny body, squishy arms, and stubby hands. Oh, this was terrible. 

“Are we all kids? Is that the twist!? That’s horrible!” How were they supposed to survive like this!?

Gem fumbled to pull out her spyglass and looked across the field to their neighbours. “No, not everyone! Tango’s still big over there, but Etho and Bdubs are little!”

“So only some of us? And we both get made into stupid toddlers? That’s not fair!” He pouted.

Their communicators were suddenly flooded with messages, mostly panicked gibberish from everyone who had been baby-fied and gushing from everyone who hadn’t. From the looks of it every group had at least one normal adult; between Scott, Cleo, Pearl, and Impulse there were three, except for them.

“This is bad, right?” Gem asked nervously, “There’s yellows and reds and if they know we don’t have someone protecting us… what if they kill us?” Joel hadn’t even thought of that. “Come down from there, we gotta find a place to hide!”

He went to climb down, but stopped when he saw the steep drop down the windshield to the ground. Suddenly his stomach was twisting into knots and he couldn’t bring himself to slide down. “Uh…”

“What’s wrong?” Gem asked with a look of growing worry, “Are you… scared?”

Joel’s ears burned. “N-no! Just, um…” So it was messing with their heads as well.

Gem seemed to understand, and careful to stay out of sight from their nosy neighbours, she crept around to the front of the car and built up a few blocks. When she got close enough, she held out her arms for him to slide into. “I’ll catch you.”

Absolutely not. He would rather die right then and there. “I don’t need your help!” 

Gem rolled her eyes. “Sure you don’t, now come on! Before someone sees us!” She hissed.

Without much of a choice, Joel took a deep breath and pushed himself down the hood of the car with a squeak and landed safely in Gem’s arms. Once he was safely back on solid ground, she immediately began to manhandle him.

“C’mon, c’mon!” She dragged him by the hand to their starter base and to his dismay, she was indeed much taller than he was, and she was able to pull him like he was a bundle of feathers. “Grab as much food and stuff as you can.” She said, and began rifling through their chests.

“Wha— okay, where’re we going?” The chests were so hugehe almost couldn’t reach into the bottom and he had to stand on his tip-toes to reach a pile of bread.

“We’re gonna hide underground. No one’s gonna wanna come look for us down there.” Gem said, like she’d thought the whole thing through already. She dropped a stack of torches and loose coal into her inventory.

“For all week? That’s a long time.” He pointed out.

“Yeah, I know, that’s why we’re getting all this stuff. We can come back up for food if we really gotta, but we can’t let anyone know that we’re both kids. That’d be super bad.”

Joel snickered. “You’re talkin’ funny.”

She scoffed, offended. “Am not! And don’t be mean to your elders!”

“You are not my elder! Look at you!”

“Uh-huh, and what does that make you? Look how small you are compared to me! You’re just a baby!” She teased, ruffling his hair.

“Oi, you—“

“—Gem? Joel? Are you here?”

They froze. Bdubs. And where there was Bdubs, there was Tango, and Tango was red. Gem hurried them to the wall and dug into it, boxing them in. They both held their breaths as multiple sets of feet walked around their base.

“Awe, they’re not here.” Bdubs.

“Do you think they’re kids, too?” Etho.

“Oh, I wanna see kid-Joel so bad! I bet he’d be real tiny.”

“C’mon Dubs, let’s go find the others.”

The footsteps walked away, and they both let out a sigh of relief.

“Let’s dig down.” Gem whispered. She lit a torch and the little box they were crammed in filled with light, which he liked a lot more than the dark. Joel tried his best to stay out of her way as she began to dig a tunnel down, and he was put on torch-duty, keeping it lit all the way down.

After what felt like forever, they finally hit a cave. It was really dark, which was both good and bad. Good because it meant no one had been there yet, and bad because Joel was very quickly learning his little kid brain didn’t like the dark very much.

“I don’t hear any monsters.” Gem said, peering into the hole, “Gimme the torches.” She took one more look around, then scooted down from their safe ledge into the cave. The torch in her hand lit up the walls around them just enough for him to see just how much further the cave went. It was already huge, but it seemed even huger because they were so small. The empty void made his stomach feel fluttery. He took out his sword and gripped it tight.

“Put the torches down, Gem! So the mobs don’t spawn!” He said urgently. Gem turned around and raised an eyebrow at him.

“You’re really jumpy, huh?” She smiled.

“I-I’m not! We just have to be careful. What— w-what if mobs do more damage ‘cause we’re tiny? Didjya ever think of that, Ms. Not— uh, Afraid?”

It was meant to be a jab but she just started giggling. “This is adorable. You look so pouty!” 

She was so busy laughing at his expense she didn’t notice the creeper emerging from the darkness and scuttling towards her.

“Gem, watch out!” 

She whirled around just in time to pull up her shield before the creeper blew up in her face and sent her staggering back into the wall. 

“Are you okay!?” He called, timidly crouching over the ledge. 

Gem chuckled nervously, brushing off some of the stone bits that got on her clothes and hair. “Yep, all good! Maybe the torches are a good idea…”

As Gem placed down torches he cautiously climbed down into the cave, keeping a sweaty hold on the handle of his shield. He hated just how blummin’ nervous he felt. He shouldn’t have cared if it was dark or if there might be monsters lurking around the corner, but suddenly the thought of leaving the light and Gem’s side was the worst thing ever. Stupid kid brain, stupid kid body. 

“Okay! We’re okay, we’re fine.” She chirped, “We’ve got torches, an’ our swords and shields, we’ll be fine.” It sounded like she was trying to tell herself that just as much as she was telling him, which strangely did make him feel better. At least we wasn’t the only scaredy-cat, even if Gem was better at hiding it than him. “Let’s go find some iron. We might even be deep enough to find diamonds!”

Right. Diamonds, iron, focus on that. “We’re gonna be so rich, Gem. All those silly fools up there are gonna be freakin’ out about being stupid babies and we’re gonna have full diamond!”

“There, that’s the spirit. Do you— um...” She offered her hand to him with a small smile. “You can be our shield, and I’ll protect us with the sword. How’s that sound?”

Joel scowled at her hand and reluctantly, to the death of his pride, took it. This was the worst day. He was going to have a talk with Grian when this was all over. The jerk was probably an adult as well, knowing him and the stupid universe. “Fine. But only for teamwork.”

“Teamwork.” Gem agreed, and they descended into the darkness.

-

“See? That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Gem asked, throwing a few more loose pieces of wood into their little campfire.

It wasn’t. Sure, the dark still wasn’t very nice and they hadn’t had much luck with diamonds, but their trek through the cave got them a lot of iron, nearly a stack between them. “I wasn’t worried. I knew we were gonna be fine the whole time.” 

“Uh-huh. And when you screamed like a girl ‘cause you saw a spider you were totally gonna take it down, right?”

He nodded, dumping as much raw iron as he could fit into the furnace. “Yep, you just got their first. Silly Gem, stealin’ my kills.”

Even though he’d been trying not to think about it, he appreciated what Gem was doing. Both of their minds were being affected by the wildcard, but it was embarrassingly obvious that he had it worse, probably because he seemed to be the ‘younger’ of the two of them. And all the while dealing with her own nervousness and keeping them safe, she was talking to him like a normal person and keeping him steady. The good-natured ribbing kept everything feeling light when the scary cave sounds started to get to him, and she wasn’t being overbearing or babying him. It was almost like session one again; a normal day, just ever so slightly shorter than two blocks tall.

“Here, pork chop’s ready.” Gem passed him a stick with a cut of cooked pork chop skewered on it. Even without any seasonings, it smelled delicious.

“Fanks, Gem.” He devoured the whole thing in a few large bites, much to Gem’s disgust. One of the few upsides to being so small was that they were going through much less food than usual, and one pork chop was all he needed to feel properly full again. 

“So,” He burped, “We’re really gonna stay down here all week?”

Gem nodded and started making something on the crafting table. “Thas’ the plan.”

“Aw, but that’s a bit boring, isn’t it? I wanna have some fun too…” He kicked a little stone away and the clacking echoed off the walls.

“Do you wanna have fun, or do you wanna stay alive?”

How could she be so tiny and still act like such a mum? “Stay alive, I guess.” He pouted.

She turned around and laid a thin wool sleeping bag on the floor with the tiniest pillow Joel had ever seen. “That’s what I thought. I’ll take first watch. I didn’t bring enough wool, so sorry it’s not very good...” 

There was no way he could be upset about the sleeping bag, not when she was making that face. If they were on the surface Joel was sure Gem could get them whatever they wanted just by giving someone puppy eyes. “No, no, it’s fine! It looks super comfy. In fact,” He crawled over to it and nestled inside to show her. Stones dug into his back. “See? I could fall asleep right now.” He made an exaggerated yawn.

Gem chuckled. “I ‘precicate it, but you don’t hav’ta lie. Your pudgy little face doesn’t hide anything.”

“Going to sleep now!” He yelled, turning over and pressing his face into the pillow. “Honk-shoo, honk-shoo, see? Sleeping.”

“Have a good sleep, Joel.”

-

“Joel, get up, get up, come on!”

Joel barely had time to remember where he was before he was on his feet and they were running. His half-asleep legs stumbled to catch up and Gem was half-dragging him, and between his bleary eyes and the unlit cave he could barely see where they were going.

“Gem, what on earth— what’s going on!? What are we runni—“ Two arrows whizzed past his head much too close for comfort, and that woke him up.

“There were so many, I—I couldn’t kill them all!” Gem exclaimed. They took a hard left at a fork and two more zombies joined the chase from the right. There were at least six mobs behind them, probably more. There was no time to pull out their shields, they’d surely be overwhelmed instantly, which meant they’d just have to find a place to hide.

“Gem this is bad, this is so bad!”

Gem cried out as an arrow lodged itself in her shoulder, and then another. “I-I know, I know, keep running!”

They rounded another corner and skidded to a halt. Dead end. Joel raised his shield to catch another arrow but the mobs were getting close fast. They were dead. 

He yelped as Gem grabbed him by the scruff and pushed him into a corner. “Ow! Gem, what—?” She began haphazardly surrounding him in cobblestone, and Joel’s stomach sank. “Wait, G-Gem, what are you— what are you doing?”

“I’m low, my shield’s almost gone,” She panted, and her splitting shield took another hit, this time from the zombie at the head of the pack gnawing viciously at the wood. “Stay in here, I’ll come back for you, okay?”

“Gem, no!” His heart was pounding. He could only see a sliver of Gem’s scared but resigned expression through the gap now. More zombies caught up, groaning and forcing her back. “Gem—!”

The last block slid into place and he was plunged into darkness just as the message rang out.

Geminitay was slain by a zombie

-

This wildcard is a nightmare.

Jimmy watched, exhausted, as Lizzie tried to coach Scar up a tree for the third time. While a good “parent” might have stopped it by now, falling out of a tree was about the safest thing they had been up to over the last twenty-four hours. If all he had to do was pass out snacks for regen every time Scar fell, that was fine by him.

He truly believed Grian’s games simply hated him personally. Why else would he be the only adult in his team? The yellow life, the canary, the one who attracted death, keeping two children safe. What was the universe thinking? And of course in all the nonsense he hardly had any time to think about how he was going to get his next kill. Lizzie had been trying to help, but most of her ideas ended up drifting in a fantastical or hypothetical Jimmy-is-suddenly-amazing-at-pvp scenario and hadn’t come to fruition. 

“Jimmy, look! I made it!” 

Sure enough, Scar had finally managed to clamber up next to Lizzie on the branch, smiling proudly down at him.

“Wow, look at that! Don’t fall please, I’m running out of bread!”

“I won’t, I’m being very careful.” Scar waved him off, then wobbled and caught himself. “See? Careful.”

“Mm-hm.”

Bzz-bzzt.

Oh? What’s gone on now? He pulled out his communicator.

Geminitay was slain by a zombie

<Smajor1995: ???>

<Grian: red/yellow kill??>

<BDoubleO100: gem’s baby I kno it>

Huh. Gem and Joel had been missing for the entire session so far, and for her to die to a zombie of all things, she must have been seriously caught off-guard. Or small, came the thought, but even then Joel probably would have been looking after her, what with his whole “family” bit. Was he seriously being a better parent than Joel right now? He smiled to himself. What an idea.

And so, continuing his streak of great parenting, he went back to supervising. 

“Wo-OAH!”

And down Scar went, taking Lizzie with him and hitting the ground with a thump. 

“Owwww, Scaaar! That hurt!” Lizzie whined.

“Sorry, sorry! I was tryin’a get higher!”

Jimmy just sighed and fished two more loaves of bread from his inventory. “Come on now, no arguing, just take your bread.”

Thankfully even though Lizzie and Scar had proven themselves to be quite the tiny squabblers so far, the snacks seemed to settle them enough to just sticking their tongues out at one another and throwing crumbs. It was in the middle of their picnic when he heard someone yelling his name, and he turned to see Gem running towards him. Sure enough, she was a kid maybe the same age as Lizzie, and she looked all out of sorts.

“Gem! Where’ve you been, eh? What’s going on?”

“Y-You gotta— you—“ She gasped, out of breath and stumbling over her words, “You— we need help!”

Jimmy raised an eyebrow. “What? Slow down, who’s ‘we’? You and Joel?”

Gem nodded quickly. “We— we were in a cave and I was s’posed to protect him b-but I couldn’t an’ there w-were so many mobs an’—!“

“Hey, hey, woah, easy.” He knelt down in front of her and put his hands on her small shoulders. This was still so weird. “Deep breaths, ready? In…” She took a harsh breath in. “Out.” She released it. “Now, tell me what’s happened.”

Gem swallowed hard and Jimmy swore he could see the faintest hint of tears forming in her eyes. “Me and Joel are b-both kids, a-and I said we should hide ‘cause we had no adult to protect us so we went into a cave. I-It was my idea an’ I was s’posed to keep him safe, b-but there were so many mobs and—and I di-died and now Joel’s trapped down there and it’s all my fault!” She blurted, and a few stray tears fell down her cheeks.

Oh boy. “Well, that is a lot, isn’t it?” He said stupidly, and then rushed to correct himself when Gem’s face scrunched up like she was about to start bawling, “B-But don’t worry, we’ll get this all sorted, yeah? Where is he? I’ll help you rescue him.”

“In a cave under our base. I gotta show you, w-we dug it ourselves.” She sniffled, collecting herself. Thank admins.

“Alright, well…” He looked over to Lizzie and Scar, who were watching with wide eyes. “Lizzie, I put you in charge. Go back home with Scar and play some board games or something until I get back. Or go play with the neighbours, whatever, just something safe, alright?���

Lizzie got a look of genuine seriousness about her and nodded, and the two of them ran off towards the mountain.

Jimmy offered his hand to Gem. “Alright, lead the way.”

-

The staircase down into their cave was a tight squeeze, but once they were in the mouth of the cave opened up considerably. For an undiscovered cave it was very large and, other than a few of Gem’s stray torches, very dark.

“Jimmyyy!” Gem urged, “Hurry, this way!”

“Right, right, hurrying!”

He heard the mobs before he saw them, and there were a lot. At least two skeletons, a handful of zombies, and a spider. No wonder they’d been overwhelmed, even he was going to need to be careful about this. He motioned for Gem to stay back and brought up his shield, steeling himself with a breath for courage. Why Gem came to him with this was beyond him, but there was no turning back now. Joel needed him. Heck, Gem needed him. He peered around the corner where the pack was clustered around a cobblestone box and noticed a single creeper mixed into the bunch. Bingo. 

“Hey, big stupid mobs! Come and get me!” He shouted, and the entire group turned to come towards him. The creeper scuttled faster, pushing its way to the front, exactly what he was hoping for. He hid behind his shield as they all clustered together and the creeper hissed to life.

BOOM

The only surviving skeleton was easy to cut down with his sword, and he let out a huff of relief as the bones clattered to the floor. He did it. Holy moly he did it.

“Joel!” Gem rushed past him to the cobblestone box.

He helped her break away the stone, and inside the box with not so much as a torch sat Joel, who was maybe even younger than Scar, curled in on himself and shaking like a cold strider. A tiny part of Jimmy, the tiniest, ugliest part, whispered in his ear how easy it would be to get a dark green kill right now. How simple.

No. Not like this.

“I-I don’ l-like this wildcard…” Joel whined, before bursting into tears.

“Oh Joel, buddy, it’s alright…” Jimmy tried to comfort. His hands hovered uncertainly. A quick glance at Gem told him she wasn’t doing much better and was just barely keeping it together. He needed to come up with something quickly. 

Without stopping to consider the possible awkward consequences, he did the first thing he could think of. He reached down and scooped Joel into his arms.

“Hey, shhh, you’re alright, you’re okay… shhh. Uncle Tim’s gotcha now, everything’s gonna be A-OK.” He hushed, letting every soothing phrase he could think of tumble out of his mouth like alphabet soup. He threw in a little gentle rocking, pet Joel’s hair, anything he could think of until finally the shaking and crying began to settle. The shoulder of his jacket was soaked through with snot and tears by the time Joel properly came back around, but that was fine. He would just have to dunk it in the river or something later.

Joel sniffled and sat up slightly, using one hand to scrub at his face while the other stayed firmly clutched in his shirt. “Ugh… sorry about that, Jim. This whole kid ‘fing sucks…”

“…Joel? Are you okay?” Gem mumbled, face flushed and eyes puffy.

Joel thought for a second, then nodded slowly. “Yeah. Just got a bit scary there, y’know? Stupid baby brain didn’ like the dark.”

“M’so sorry…” She warbled, sounding on the edge of tears again, and Jimmy had to put a stop to that right away.

“Nope, no more crying!” He announced, maybe a bit too loudly, “Everything’s alright now. You did the best you could, Gem. See? Joel’s still on six lives because of you.”

“But I—“

“No buts! You did a good job protecting Joel, and Joel was very brave for staying safe down here by himself. Can we all agree?”

“Haha, butts.” He heard Joel mutter against his shirt. Jimmy counted that as a win.

“Perfect. Now we’re all going to get out of this cave, and you two can spend the night with the Bamboozlers, how does that sound?”

“Like a sleepover?” Gem tilted her head like a puppy, and now that they weren’t in a crisis, man, these guys were cute. 

“Yeah, like a sleepover. C’mon now, I’ve got to get back to Lizzie and Scar before they destroy the server.” He went to set Joel down, only for him to cling tighter and wrap his legs around his torso like a koala. Jimmy was happy to keep carrying him; if he was being honest he expect Joel to start thrashing to be let go the moment he came back to himself, but if he still needed it then Jimmy certainly wasn’t going to judge. Plus, one day it was going to be an amazing story to hold over his head. Maybe not today, but someday.

“So,” Joel said, a cheeky smile on his face as they started up to the surface, “‘Uncle Tim’, huh?”

Jimmy wordlessly reached up and pushed Joel’s head back against his shoulder. “Hush.”

[jacksdinonuggets]

Vaggie's Classification: Chapter 15 Bedtime

Summary: Vaggie's bed time routine!

Notes: its short because writers block sucks

Vaggie played for a little bit on a tummy time mat as the afternoon passed. Nothing too interesting happened for the rest of the day. Just mainly playtime, hydration and med reminders, and checking Vaggie’s diaper from time to time. The girl was okay with it though. Dinner was fine and luckily Vaggie had no problems. However, it was starting to get late for a little one, (around 8 pm). This meant it was time for Charlie to get Vaggie ready for bed. 

Vaggie always had troubles going to bed at a regular time. But so did Charlie so they would sometimes stay up late together as they did work. However, Charlie didn’t want to encourage that behavior for small Vaggie.

Speaking of which, Vaggie was currently watching tv in their room while sitting on the floor, gently playing with her Koala stuffed animal. Charlie walked over to her and knelt down to her level.

“Hey, sweetie, it’s time to get ready for bed,” She told her. Vaggie pouted though, not wanting to go nini yet.

“Don’t wanna though,” She protested. Another nightmare was not what Vaggie wanted right now.

“You don’t have to go nini just yet, I’ll just just be helping you get ready.” Charlie said. The girl still pouted but got up. 

“Alright, first, we gotta get you changed into some jammies,” She picked her up and sat her on a changing mat on the bed. She quickly got her padding changed into a fresh one and got out a new onesie for her. Once she got it snapped up, she held her hand and walked her over to the bathroom.

“Now we gotta brush those teethies of yours,” Charlie baby-talked, getting Vaggie’s toothbrush ready. As she brushed her teeth, Charlie helped her keep the toothbrush steady and wiped her mouth with a tissue after she spat. 

Next was meds. Vaggie usually needed melatonin or a sleep aid to help her go to bed. She could get pretty stubborn with not sleeping so the extra help from the medicine really helped with getting her to bed. Luckily, they had melatonin gummies and Vaggie happily chewed two of them.

Once she was all ready for bed, Charlie brought her over to the bed to tuck her in. she made sure she had her comfort items, and that everything was perfect for a good night’s rest. Once she turned off the lights, she started to leave.

“Wait, Mama,” Vaggie reached out to her, stopping Charlie in her tracks.

“What is it, baby?” Charlie asked, walking back to her.

“Don’t leave…” She whined.what if she had another nightmare or something bad happened? Charlie wouldn’t be around to help her. 

Charlie sighed and sat next to her, a pitiful smile on her face. She held Vaggie and stroked her hair, waiting for her to fall asleep. Eventually, she did and Charlie managed to escape the room without waking her. Hopefully when she’d wake up, she wouldn’t worry too much about the being little thing.

[jayvik-ao3]

holding back the years

by spqr

Rated T, 12k words, complete

Tags: Protective Jayce, Age Regression/De-Aging, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, no underage

Warning: major character death

Summary:

Viktor tells Jayce, over breakfast, “Real life is not like the radio dramas, you know. Shining men from Piltover do not really go around adopting Zaunish orphans and rescuing Zaunish women from lives of whoring themselves for food. You cannot — save me. Not really.” “Well,” Jayce says, shoving the syrup at him, “I can damn well try.”

OR: the hexcore zaps viktor back to fifteen years old, and jayce has a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad time

[writing-oof]

Tallulah: World's Best Babysitter

(How the Fuck did Philza end up with so many children? And how did Tallulah end up watching ALL of them?)

[When her Uncle Slime turns into Gegg, it's Tallulah's turn to step up and be the babysitter. She handles this surprisingly well.]

'Uncle Slime?' Tallulah writes, but he just looks at her little paper sign uncomprehendingly.

Tallulah points at him, poking him gently, and Slime blinks at her before breaking out into a wide grin.

"Gegg," he says, pointing at himself cheerfully, "Gegg."

Slime kicks his feet, his heels smacking into the couch, and bounces a little bit where he sits. Tallulah, never one to be left out, kicks her feet back at him and grins.

'Hello, Gegg,' she writes, even though Gegg can't read. Tallulah can read a lot of things, but she's pretty sure she's older than Gegg right now, so that makes sense.

Tallulah picks up one of her less-favorite toys Papa gave her and holds it out to Gegg. Gegg laughs, clapping his hands, and promptly tries to put the wooden train in his mouth.

Tallulah's eyes blow wide and she hurries to pop the train out of Gegg's mouth. It's wooden! What if he got a splinter on his tongue!? Tallulah shudders to think of it.

Gegg, face surprised and pinched, sniffles.

Then, to Tallulah's great horror, Gegg begins to cry.

Tallulah tries to give him a hug, but Gegg just curls up and stares at the ground sadly as he cries.

With nothing else to do, Tallulah pulls out her flute and begins to play the only song her Papa had been able to teach her before he had to go away.

It takes a few seconds, but Gegg sniffles and sniffles and finally stops crying, flopping back against the couch tiredly.

Tallulah has to play the song a few times before Gegg finally falls asleep, but he finally closes his eyes and she doesn't even wake him up when she accidentally kicks the coffee table.

[gives gegg cookies shes not supposed to know about]

---

Tallulah's abuelito Philza gets home late, almost twenty minutes after the sun sets, and he's careful to open the door quietly. It's good, because it had taken almost four times playing her best song to finally get Gegg to sleep and she would be pretty upset if he woke up again.

Philza hangs his coat up and groans quietly, stretching his shoulders. Tallulah watches him from her seat on the couch across from Gegg, and he startles when he notices her.

"Tallulah? Why aren't you in bed?" he asks.

Tallulah shrugs and gestures to Gegg.

Philza makes a face and pinches between his eyes, sighing.

"Damnit, Slime," he mutters with an exasperated smile, rolling his eyes, "Couldn't even handle a few hours, huh?"

Tallulah shakes her head; she and Gegg handled all day.

"No?" Philza asks with a raised eyebrow and a soft smile, "Was he a good babysitter?"

Tallulah bristles, shaking her head with a scowl and pointing to herself. If anyone was the babysitter, it was her. And, she was the best babysitter ever! She let Gegg stay up late and even gave him cookies!

She means to tell Philza too, since he can actually read her paper signs, but she very suddenly remembers that being an awesome babysitter and being an awesome Egg are a little bit different.

She wouldn't want Philza to move the cookie cupboard that she definitely doesn't know about, after all.

"You're the babysitter?" Philza asks, amused. He huffs a bit as he bends down to shake Gegg awake and Tallulah freezes before springing into action and tugging him away, shaking her head furiously.

At his bewildered look, Tallulah writes, 'Don't wake up the baby!'

Philza snorts.

"Alright," he agrees, "Okay, Tallulah. I won't wake up your Uncle who should have put you to bed an hour ago."

Tallulah nods, ignoring that last part since she hadn't been tired and Gegg had been busy trying to eat her toys.

"Come on," Philza says, scooping her up in his arms, "Let's get you to bed, Tallulah."

Tallulah yawns, leaning against his chest as he carries her up the stairs and to her room. She is a little tired.

---

Tallulah pats herself on the back; she really is the best babysitter out there.

---

Tommy, 17 - her uncle is running after exile, injured, confused, alone, literally wanders into Tally's house

Fundy, 14 - lost and confused, as a fox, gets pet adopted and then real adopted by his 7 year old sister

Tallulah, 7 - the babysitter to make all babysitters

Chayanne, 7 - they almost get attacked, her uncle is very tired but standing guard so tallulah takes her turn standing guard and puts cheyenne to bed

Slime, 20 and sometimes 4 (Gegg)

[iwillfightformydream]

I need a fic of Senku de-aging, and being a smart little brat.

He 100% destroys chrome with his knowledge. 

[randofanficrecs]

Fandom: Softenni

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Relationships: Harukaze Asuna/Akiyama Chitose

Characters: Akiyama Chitose, Harukaze Asuna

Additional Tags: Romance, Yuri, Genderbending, Transformation, Transgender, Manga & Anime, Age Regression/De-Aging

Summary:

A depressed tennis supply store worker has a run-in with a particularly lively high school girl, who helps him remember a little bit of why he fell in love with tennis in the first place, which sadly exacerbates how empty his current situation feels. Wishing he could get a bit more of his enthusiasm back, he returns home to find that he might just get the second chance he's always longed for.

[incorrect-fanfiction-quotes]

How I imagine the conversation between Ron and Hermione went before they sent a letter to Voldemort, demanding proof of life of Harry, who had been de-aged and immediately scooped up by Voldemort.

Ron: He’s never going to respond.

Hermione: He will, we just need to find the right thing to threaten him with. Maybe… fire?

Ron: I have a brilliant idea. Crude nvde and horribly drawn pictures.

Hermione:

[emacrow]

The Justice League hasn't heard from John in four months. It was Zatanna who got concerned first when his phone was disconnected.

Batman found out that he died saving an important little girl named ellie from a group of drug trafficker using her as a battery. How paled zatanna was said about the girl and John's deceased body disappeared in a green portal afterward, telling him what level of apocalypse could have accurate if she had died.

Zatanna Investigating the house of mysteries was the next plan of action, considering only Zatanna and Deadman knew that house was claimed by John with an amount of cursed items, books, and every other apocalypse related items.

Zatanna was only going to place seals upon and inside the house, so nobody would attempt to enter ever, except the house wouldn't let her open the front door.

Her blood felt ice cold as she kept trying to pull the door open, but no budge.

That was where she brought the Justice league in, thinking only someone sinister and patience enough placed a claim on the house after John died because if they did.

This was a code blood moon to them. This could be the universe ending on the other side if whoever had control in the house has every cursed item, weapons, and apocalypse making ritual books imaginable that John had collected over the years.

Before J'onn could slip intangible through the house, the door opened to reveal.... Ellie?

The girl who disappeared, wearing a red beanie and a bright smile.

"Oh good, John said you all would probably come here like headless chickens. Come in!" Ellie said, leaving the door open as she floated back inside.

The Justice League and zatanna look dumbfounded before J'onn, the brave soul went in first, saying that he felt no threat.

The house of mysteries seems to have a new type of decoration done, though still very creepy. Safety baby locks, anti plug in, and a bunch of ghost related toddler toys lay around.

A very massive in height man wearing a gravity defying cloak full of stars, hair whiter then snow with constellations braids with the stars themselves sat in the couch that was obviously too much for his massive form.

A squealing little toddler wearing a soft orange jumper with purple hair giggling loudly every time he smack his tiny hands hard onto a board with a bunch of green blob in 9 holes popping out randomly like some ghost theme whack a mole.

Zatanna glanced, looking down at the little boy and then back at the familiar massive tower entity smiling softly, his stardust freckles luminous glowing green with the frozen frost crown with nebula emblems inside floating innocently on his head as her eyes widen a bit.

"Zatanna, who is this guy?" Superman said, concerned in the back. The Justice League didn't know where to go defensive mode or stand down as there was a child present.

She bowed on her knees immediately on the ground, her eyes teary up with a sense of relief.

"I greet thy infinite Realm, Danny Phan-"

"Zatanna, I told you four times in a role. It's not worth repeating my whole titles. You can call me Danny, and no, i didn't win John's soul... I merely adopted him." Danny waves his hands lightly, miniature dwarf star float around lightly before reabsorbed back in his palm.

"It took me 5 years of planning with clockwork and ellie after John helped my realms from the GIW and their plan to make my people into non-living, and living batteries, even though the Justice League had help along with disbanding them. He grew onto me and my family, and seeing what would've become his cheese grated soul after he died was a big no-no in my book." Danny said softly, Ellie popping behind from his mass of white hair.

"I helped, even though now I'm a bit younger than I am now after that whole pretend to get captured by amateur traffickers, but I'd owed constantine for that prank idea for Dan."

The Justice League awkwardly sat on the opposite couch that suddenly appeared, zatanna sitting on the floor a few feet away from John, still playing on a ghost themed whack a mole board.

"Why is John acting like this?" Zatanna asked softly, pulling a handkerchief from her pocket to wipe her moisten eyes.

"Well, with the combination added years of his much overdue life, by cheating, swindling and dealing with the Supernatural, Gods, faes, and demons alongside the amount of pushed down trauma and PTSD John accumulated in his barely to be call a soul piece after dying in a perfect way for ectoplasm to fixed all of that to made him into a halfa." Danny continues to explain softly.

"His halfa core couldn't handle the weight of it all his soul pieces put together again, especially with his main soul piece being the size of broken miniature ball even after the others entities figured out I claimed and relinquished their contracts because they know I outrank them all, but John's core couldn't handle being put together all at once like that, especially how long he was with barely much of his soul left in the end once he died."

"In a simple way, all His memories, skills and everything in each soul pieces that was taken in between like a giant block of cheese being forced into a tiny mash sieve that was his current mind and body state right now, what Frostbite explain to me." Danny explained simpler with conjuring a solid glob of ectoplasm in his left hand, being pushed in a mold of mini sieve, barely any being pushed out except a couple of glowing liquid dripping.

"John is still the same John, only at where he was his safest mind state before all those deals, trauma, and everything that resulted into what he was, then that slowly returns with time. Only he is free now." Danny finished softly smiling, watching John ripe out a oooing blob ghost from the board with a gleeful squeal, smacking it on the board with delight, his tiny legs kicking in excitement.

Part 1 here <- part 3 -> here

[quinnysnursery]

when the party's over,, party people・₊✧

agere frat au (little!chris x caregiver!nate centric)

tara yummy - "you got invited to a tara yummy party...like the tara yummy?"

junior. president of double delta. looks like a mean girl, is actually the sweetest girl on campus. fashion design student. short (compliment). social anxiety is scared of her. "tara yummy is a mindset."

larri "larray" merritt - "third door on the left, you can't miss it. he's always blasting billie eilish on mondays."

junior. film major. nick's IMMEDIATE bestie. silver jewelry & painted nails. never in class, somehow the teachers favorite. "i wanna be a director 'cause i love when people listen and respect my words." "...larri, you just want a stable relationship." "okay and??"

quenlin blackwell - "you mess with ben, you mess with larray and quen."

junior. once she sneezed and the entire classroom said bless you. business major. has blacklisted SEVERAL people from double delta. "i'll drive!" "isn't your license suspended?" "okay well where's your license?" "..." that's what i thought."

benjamin de almeida - "that's ben! he...i don't really know what he does."

sophmore. parties aren't actually his scene but he was adopted by larray and quen last year. messiest dorm on the campus. roblox fiend. film major. somehow always slightly lost. "when mitski said 'in the corner taking up space'...i felt that."

[justaz]

one of my fav tropes in merlin fanfic is when merlin gets turned into a child and is literally terrified of the knights and arthur (aka his bestest of friends (excluding gwen whoops sorry my love i adore you i promise)) and they're just like "wtf????" and then merlin's little child self isn't in control of his magic and they just go "oooohhhh that makes sense" and i was thinking about it and i need one of those fics where it happens when they're all just chilling in the woods, not in their armor or anything and they just sit around and tell stories to merlin to get him to relax bc he was a bit frightened when he appeared in the woods with a bunch of random men.

gwaine telling the story of how he met merlin and arthur and the tavern brawl and how they won and little merlins just like "whoaaaa i never win any of my fights" and gwaine chuckles and looks at this like seven/eight year old like "and what fights have you got into?" and merlin just shrugs all sheepishly like "well, maybe not fights, but the kids in ealdor don't really like me. they throw stones and call me names and follow me into the woods to hurt me. i never win those fights, there's always too many of them...will fights for me tho!! he usually also gets beat up but he can actually fight so..." and theyre all just like :((( fuck :(( especially arthur who knows how much will meant to merlin but he never understood why

merlin also mentions how they call him names like freak or bastard but his mom won't tell him what the second one means. gwaine is like "you know, all the kids in ealdor are around our age now. we should go and teach them a lesson" and little merlin gasps and grabs gwaine's arm and is like "no! D: that's so mean!" and the knights are just like yep. that's our merlin. complete sweetheart. anyways what i mean is just them growing closer and maybe little merlin sees a flash of red in the distance and freaks and tells them all to run and hide with him which they do while completely befuddled. when they ask him why he's scared merlin just whispers "it's a knight, I saw him. he's from camelot" and the knights are like ??? and merlin looks at them like their crazy "you know how knights from camelot are! they're cruel. they'll kill us the moment they see us. stay quiet!"

anyways idk where i was going with this. ig i don't really need a fic like this i just wanted to get this idea down and out there. maybe leon tries to calm merlin and is like "don't worry, knights of camelot protect us. i mean, we're knights of camelot and we'd never hurt you." and merlin just turns and stares at him like "you're a knight?" and he nods and merlin turns to the rest and is like "you're all knights? of camelot?" and they nod and merlin stands there for a minute before booking it and hiding in the woods. they spend all afternoon and evening searching for him. merlin refuses to come out. but you know he can't exactly survive in the woods for long so he starts wandering when the sound of their footsteps fade and somehow finds himself in gwen's care. look idk my vision was little merlin sitting with the knights and becoming friends and then the knights seeing merlin terrified of knights of camelot idk what happens next stop hounding me get off my back

[wangxianficrecs]

The Kid In My Garden by kathie_raddare

The Kid In My Garden

by kathie_raddare

G, 7k, Wangxian

Summary: One day, Wei WuXian's husband went to work, and a child returned in his place. Kay's comments: A very cute story of Lan Wangji getting de-aged and stuck in the body of his five-year-old-self for a day. Luckily, he has Wei Wuxian there to care for him. This story is so incredibly sweet and Wei Wuxian takes such good of Lan Wangji. Pure sugar. Excerpt: Wei Ying, on the other hand, was quite used to enduring and teasing his way out of Lan Zhan’s stubborn moods. He remained silent and let the little boy sulk his way into answering. Sooner than later, a childlike, but solemn voice, sounded: “Apologies.” And, Heavens, it was so very cute!! Wei Ying had to fight for his life to not throw himself at Lan Zhan, embracing him in a tight hug!! He waited for the little boy to mull his words over and saw when he eyed Wei Ying’s robes and realized that Wei Ying was an elder. Probably, an important one that he, at his tender age, had yet to know. Still kneeling properly, his little back very straight, Lan Zhan puffed his chest out and, with an air of dignity, answered: “I am Lan WangJi, second son of QingHeng-Jun. I am five years old.” He showed his palm, only four fingers in the air.

pov wei wuxian, post-canon, established relationship, married lan wangji/wei wuxian, kid fic, de-aged lan wangji, age regression/de-aging, caring wei wuxian, child lan wangji, protective wei wuxian, emotional hurt/comfort, tooth-rotting fluff, family feels

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

[phantomhivestims]

────────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹─────────

{Credit}

Custom Monster high LPS

Free to use with credit, if you use please tag me in it I'd love to see what you made!!!

────────⊹⊱✫⊰⊹─────────

[jacksdinonuggets]

When Amity regresses she tries to do big girl things (things like studying or wanting to help with housework or cooking) even though she feels small?

Here you go! wrote this all in first period :)

It was quite a stressful day for Amity. She had a test soon and the teacher barely gave out any study material for them and she had to create them herself. She tried studying during lunch but Luz accidentally spilled her apple blood on her notebook. Amity tried not to be upset with her, but was still a bit upset. Masking was the only option if she didn’t want to hurt Luz’s feelings.

However, right when she got home, she realized her room was a mess. She just wanted to relax a bit before studying but now she had to clean. Then she had an idea. What if she regressed and did some of her big things? That would be like killing 2 birds with one stone! 

There was just one problem with that plan. She usually needed Em to watch over her and help her with things. But Em would say that she needed to de-stress and not worry about her big kid things. She’d just have to regress without her then! Em was probably busy anyways. She didn’t need to be bothered by her.

Amity quickly got changed into a onesie and a pullup (She would use them for public outings to be more discreet) and grabbed Otabin, and her paci before starting to clean up her room. It felt very frustrating because her mind wanted to relax and cuddle. But after putting away her laundry and fixing her books (and feeling a bit worse than before) she sat down at her desk, grabbed a new notebook, and started writing down new notes. Otabin sat in her lap as she worked.

Even though she had almost all her comfort items, she still wasn’t feeling like she was relaxing and regressing. Sure, her brain was feeling very baby and was making it difficult for her to study, but she didn’t feel like she was doing anything to feel small. She was already frustrated enough, so why wasn’t this working?

After trying to study and being distracted by fidget toys for 30 minutes, she banged her head on the desk and groaned. Why couldn’t she relax and do stressful things at the same time?! 

Unfortunately, her small groan alerted her sister in the next room over. Em was just scrolling through her scroll, when she heard Amity’s small groan through the wall. At first, she wanted to just ignore it, but then heard her bang her head on her desk. So she knew Amity was having a hard time with either her homework, or studying. Em’s sisterly (and sometimes motherly) instincts wouldn’t let her just sit there and act like she didn’t hear anything.

“Mittens? You okay?” She knocked on her sister’s door. 

“M fine,” Amity said, but it sounded more like a babble. She cursed herself for forgetting to take out her paci.

“Amity, are you…regressed?” Em asked.

“Umm, nu!” Amity countered. Em sighed and opened the door. She saw her baby sister, sitting at her desk in her kitty onesie, with a pacifier. 

“Sis, why are you working on big kid stuff? You need to be relaxing,” She told her as she walked over and picked her up.

“Bu I needa study!” Amity stressed, but Em started bouncing her, distracting her mind.

“Shh, little one’s like you don’t need to worry about that stuff,” Em said, “Now, let Emmy get you changed so you don’t leak and then we can cuddle while I read to you, okay?” 

Amity finally gave up and nodded. Emira quickly changed her into a disposable nappy as her pull-up usually didn’t hold much, and Amity didn’t like changing so frequently unless it was absolutely necessary. Once she was changed, Em washed her hands with a baby wipe and tucked Amity into bed. She brought over a couple of books for her to choose from. 

“That one,” Amity pointed to one at the top of the pile. Em smiled and snuggled up next to her. She opened the book and began to read.

[gh0stlyb34r]

[🍇] Percy de Rolo moodboard

[phoenixyfriend]

Okay I'm seeing some misuse of tags on AO3 so let's just clarify:

De-aging is not "I am making this character younger in this fic, as if they have always been younger, in order to work with some shipping, or for a role swap."

De-aging and Age Regression are lumped together in AO3's tag system due to the thematic overlap.

(Neither of them are "for the purposes of this fic, character B is younger than in canon, so that there isn't an age gap with character A.")

It is a parent tag, with a variety of tropes equated to it. Due to the overlap of themes, a lot of people don't differentiate when tagging unless they are specifying for an individual character.

De-aging: magical/sci-fi reverse aging, usually instantaneous. Refers specifically to a physical return to youth. Mental/developmental age change is optional, and retaining adult memories is optional.

Age regression: a character is reverted to childhood developmentally and mentally, possibly with memories, possibly without; physical regression is optional, but if it's tagged with the "age regression/de-aging" tag instead of just age regression, it's usually going to be both.

IRL, "age regression" refers to an individual mentally returning to a younger age, usually childhood, generally as a coping mechanism. It is not the same thing as age play. In fic, however, a mental/developmental regression in this manner may be tagged as non-sexual age play, in order to separate itself from the sci/fi fantasy plots, though "Age Regression" as an individual tag, without mention of de-aging, may still refer to a mental reversion as coping.

Both tropes are in some way about a character who is in-text usually an adult being, temporarily or permanently, returned to a previous point in their life, whether mentally or physically, sometimes both.

"This character is, and always has been, younger than the canon, in order to facilitate the plot I want." does not fall under de-aging, or age regression, as the change is not itself an event or plot point

In my experience, de-aging is usually for fluff or angst purposes, much like time-travel fics where a character runs into a younger version of themselves or their loved ones, and proceeds to take care of them.

Mental regression sans physical is usually used either as a kink thing, or as mental health exploration in the same vein as depression comfort fics, falling into the family of sick fic.

If you dabble in the de-aging parts of fandom, let me know your thoughts!

(If you don't have a backround in de-aging fandom as either a writer or a reader, just try to listen to what's being said by those of us who are already in here and have been for a while.)

[licobat]

made some non-paci icons using the trauma regressor, goth regressor, and agere flags!