#de-aging

[junodoom]

my second prompt for the MDZS gatcha for gaza fundraiser!! @ gentil_minou on twitter requested the juniors wrangling a de-aged WWX, LWJ, and JC. i adore this concept

[arodatnak]

[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

[bet-on-me-13]

Oliver Adopts Danny

(Note: I have no idea what exactly happened on the island and made up my own thing. Also I had no plan when making this and it shows)

...

So! When Oliver landed on that Deserted Island, he wasn't alone.

On the Island, there was a Little Kid.

He was about 7, and he was just as confused as to why he was there. Apparently he had been sleeping at home when all of a sudden he felt himself falling, and seconds later he hit the ground in the forest. He couldn't remember anything past that, or really anything before that as well. He had seemingly lost his memories.

So, Oliver was stuck helping a Random Kid while trying to survive on the island.

He did learn that the Kid was a Metahuman with the ability to make Unmelting Ice, but the kid seemed disappointed by his powers. It was like he expected them to be stronger than they were. When asked, he said that he didn't actually know why he felt that, like it was something else he had forgotten.

And that was how the situation stood for a few years. He and the Kid, who he eventually learned was named Danny, became closer. He took up a paternal role in the kids Life, trying to keep him safe from the dangers of the island.

Danny was also a huge help on the island, his Ice was useful during Hot Nights, and the fact that it was Durable and Didn't Melt made it a good material for their tools. He also knew a lot of random skills, like the basics of how to shoot a Bow and how to set up a Campfire.

By the time they had been there for 3 years, Oliver already saw Danny like a Son. He had decided long ago that when they finally left the island, he would adopt him.

Then, on the 4th Year, Oliver found something strange. There were tracks in the Dirt on the less explored side of the Island, Human Tracks.

Following them, he found the source, An Illegal Slave Trading Ring.

The Base seemed to be new, so they had probably set up shop a few weeks ago at most. He and Danny must have missed them because they didn't usually go to that side of the Island.

He returned to the Camp that night and contemplated what to do.

It took another few days for him to resolve himself to go and save those people.

It took another few weeks to prepare himself.

It took less than 30 minutes to get the Job Done.

By the end of that night, every Slaver on the island was Dead, and the slaves were set free. They still didn't have a way off the island, since a few of them had managed to sabotage the boat before they died, but Oliver and Danny were there to help them.

By the 5th Year, they basically had a Small Village set up back there their Camp used to be. It was a community of all of the people Oliver had managed to save that night, all working together to survive on that Mysterious Island.

Then one day, finally got some luck. A Fishing Boat had gotten lost on their usual Route, and had spotted the SOS Signal that they had set up on the Beach.

After that it didn't take long for everyone on the Island to be saved. Oliver asked the former slaves to keep his heroics a secret because he wanted to keep him and Danny safe from the press, and they all agreed.

So, Oliver went home and adopted Danny.

He also decided to become a Vigilante.

And then eventually he joined the Justice League.

And one day while showing his son around the newly build Watchtower he ran into Constantine, who then proceeded to ask "Why the hell do you have a mini-death god holding your hand?"

...

I have no idea what this was supposed to be. I wanted Oliver to adopt Danny, and I wanted it to be on the Island, but I had no idea how to do it.

My basic idea for it is that Danny accidently wished for a Good Dad one day and Desiree heard him. So she turned him into a Kid, sealed away most of his Powers, and sent him to the Island with no memories past age 7.

Maybe this was "Ghost King Danny"?

Idk, I like it more as "King Danny who rejects the Throne but is still basically the leader because he keeps helping people no matter what" but that's just me.

Thoughts?

[immeasurablesaladagere]

A Wildcard is Active - Team Self-Sufficient

Series - A Wildcard is Active

-----

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.

-----

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.”

[fandom-friday]

Hi there! Just wanted to recommend a few fanfics on deaged Tim Drake, Timmy Au, Tiny Tim, and Little Timmy.  

Back Awhile by Cobwebbs: Tim gets deaged and not only is attached to Jason, but a complete menace to him. My favorite part of this fanfic is how Tim stresses Jason out and Jason is secretly getting fonder with toddler Timmy. 

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38597613/chapters/96485289 

Bad Man by ArtistAtHeart1: Timmy gets deaged and refuses to let Jason leave him with Bruce and everyone at the Manor, leaving everyone trying to find more details of who this “Bad Man” that Tim keeps mentioning and is the reason for deaging him. 

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18469549/chapters/43759738 

Love Me a Little by Living_Free: Poor Timmy is deaged as a baby, but still has all his memories and has to tolerate his family doing baby things that he doesn’t like. 

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11625945 

Baby Beluga by HoodEx (@hood-ex on tumblr): A cute little story between Dick and baby Timmy-my favorite part is where Dick sings to Timmy and tells him how he missed how they used to hang out before Tim went on a Bruce mission

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13593645 

  Being eight again by Alone77 (@alone77 on tumblr): Core 4 has got hit by a deaging spell, Batman wakes up to a call from the JL. It’s a cute story of Timmy being deaged for 7 days and everyone in the batfam is fonded of Tim. 

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39426051 

Ah yes, the de-aging trope, which always leads to some shenanigans (and sometimes, a heartfelt moment or two). This is one heck of a comprehensive list, and honestly, it doesn't surprise me because the Batfam seems like the perfect group for this trope to flourish in. Thanks so much for putting this list together!

Participate in Fandom Friday to show your favorite creators from this week some love! :)

[meowmeowmeowmeow4x]

Dark Blue Moon and the Suffering Sun Capitulo 2

credit @brekitten @bucketorandomness @hermit-scribe-vibe for help and inspiracion :D

Danny clamped his teeth down on his kill, at last a fish big enough that to feed the both of them, and which hadn't escaped. Ear fins fanned out, he kept wary of approaching hums of boat engines.It could've been only a few minutes, but to Danny it was as if hours had passed. He'd already failed Damian once, and for his distraction he earned a new gash or two from his hunt.

Danny startled when he came back. Damian had not awoken just yet, but the transformation was complete. Dark green scales enveloped every inch of skin on his body, soft from youth. Spots of gold scales like freckles gathered around his cheeks, and at the base of each of his fins and transitioned into full golden membrane with the faintest red along the tips.

And of course, Damian had no legs, none at all, replaced by the thick sinew and muscles of a siren's tail. All of this Danny knew would happen, and expected, but he never thought about how tiny Damian looked at the moment.

From head to tailfin, Damian's new height (or length?) only equalled half of his human height. Siren children were small compared to humans, for sure, but even Youngblood was easily a head or two taller than Damian at this moment.

Before he could ruminate further, Damian's eyes shot open. Faster than Danny could blink, the new siren launched himself at Daniel with a piercing shriek of a war cry.

Damian's talons gripped onto Danny's scales, and his jaw snapped down upon his shoulder like a vice. Danny yelped and fell upon his back and bent his sail.

Damian's tiny hands wrapped around the elder boy's neck. His tiny young face twisted into an honestly shocking amount of anger and agression. His hackles rose and his fins stood at full attention.

"Where am I?! What have you done to me?! Return me to my original form or perish!" Damian spat out in hissed clicks and chirps. Despite the situation, Danny finds himself thinking he had to be really upset if he didn't even notice the change in voice.

"Answer me!" Damian hiss and bared his teeth. Danny gulped, which was difficult considering the tiny hands vice-gripping his neck. Suddenly he realised he'd never had to comfort a newly-turned before.

"H-hey hey hey now, there's no need to get all murderous over here!" That was the wrong thing to say, because suddenly there was a katana straight for his neck. "Where did you get that?!"

"From my clothes, you buffon, the clothes that you violently relieved me off. What other untoward things have you done with my body? Speak!"

"Look I didn't do anything untoward to your body I swear! I was trying to save you!"

"You mutilated me! You kidnapped me and drowned me and now you clain innocence with nothing to prove such a notion!" Damian's grip wavered for a moment, and Danny realised something. This kid was probalby scared out of his life, and his shouting wasn't helping anything. The smaller boy's gills flapped open. His breathing laboured, heavily.

"You need water. You're not gonna survive long.

"I can kill you long before that point." Gently, Danny picked the child up by the waist, his arms far outreaching the boy's tiny limbs. "Unhand my you psychotic murdering wretch!"

Horns blared in the distance. Damian's body seized up, his ear fins curling in on themselves in Danny's peripheral vision. "They've caught up to us."

"Good, now it means you can be put to justice and I reunited with my father."

Danny coiled his tail and pulled Damian against his chest, against the boy's protests. "The only thing they're gonna unite you with is a scalpel."

"I said unhand me!"

"No time!" Danny uncoiled like a spring and shot into the water. GiW agents shouted above the surface. Danny held him tight against his body. Motors roared into action and echoed through the water. Sonars rang in his ears. But they could never catch up to even a teenage siren.

Pain rocked up his arm. Danny loosed his grip, and Damian slipped out. After floundering for just a few seconds, Damian righted himself and bolted for the ships. The speed at which he made for the freaking GiW shocked Danny. This kid was a human less than an hour ago!

Shit. "Where the heck are you going?!" Danny shouted. He wasted precious seconds turning around and doubling back. "They're not gonna help you Damian!"

"You cannot fool me with your temptations, siren!" Daman spat out. Then he did the absolute worst thing. He surfaced.

Danny's heart sank again. No, no, not again. He pushed through as fast as he could. Damian shouted something above the water. An agent in cold sunglasses aimed a gun at him.

Damian seemed to realise his mistake. He tried to evade the attack, but his strange body just left him rolling over in place.

Danny's eyes glowed blue. Seawater froze into ice in his hands, and he tossed the spear over water. The spear landed an inch away from where the agent was standing. In his shock, he lowered his gun. Danny shot forward. He grabbed Damian's hand and pulled him away. Harpoons flew into the water. Danny ducked and weaved through all of them and full speed. Soon they were far behind the horizon.

[browniesarethebest]

I want a fic of the canceled rottmnt de-aging episode, but it's Casey Jr instead of Mikey.

Like maybe one of the turtles is able to get a distress call out before they're de-aged and Casey Jr shows up to a pile of toddlers who don't know where they are or who he is.

Casey of course panics massively. He was finally getting used to his family being teenagers instead of adults and now they're practically babies. They are much more prone to wandering off and getting hurt. Not to mention, Casey has no idea how to take care of kids.

Just the task of getting them back to the lair is nearly impossible. He, of course, calls April, Casey Sr, Draxum, and Splinter to help out, but as the first one on the scene and it being his family, he makes it his mission to take care of them and protect them until they are back to normal.

[batfamficrecs]

Do you have any recs of where everyone meets you'd dick grayson either deaged or time travel and they expect a happy go lucky child and is met with a pure ball of rage?

Hello! OMG, it's been almost a year since this ask, I just found the password to this account recently. You probably don't need this list anymore, but I'll answer the ask for anyone who might be interested!

Here are some fics that might fit the bill:

exactly how this grace thing works by irnan

Dick gets de-aged. You'd think this would be a routine thing.

Just, How? by Lady_of_Lorule

A magic artifact de-age Dick, Jason, and Tim all down to thirteen years old, with no memories of being older, and now Bruce has four Robins to deal with.

Bonus: Dick isn't quite a child in this one, but it's really good

deep roots (are not reached by the frost) by fanfictiongreenirises

Dick gets reverted to a younger self after being kidnapped on during a case. But this is far from a routine de-aging. In which the author attempts to mend a few relationships here and there.

[flamingpudding]

DPxDC Family Week June 22 (Day 5)

Prompt: Children | Music

A/N: Super random and I had no idea what to do with the prompts until a couple hours ago.

AO3 Link: DPxDC Family Week Contributions

It was supposed to be a slow and easy day, barely anything big happening. Just a day for them all to chill and relax. Danny really had hoped for that one calm day. He had gotten Jason to come to the Manor to help him with his literature homework. It took a lot of convincing but in the end he managed to convince his second oldest brother to come. Normally he would have asked Jazz or Barbara but the girls were out on a girls night Steph had demanded.

He knows that Dick was also in the Mansion the moment Danny had let it slip a day earlier that he had gotten Jason to agree to help him; the eldest had announced that was going to come visit too. Of course to spend time with the two youngest Damian and Ellie who were busy caring for the animals in Damians Barn. That he got to hang out with Jason, read: force a hangout, was just a bonus.

Bruce was probably in the office and Alfred was in the kitchen baking.

Everything sounds like a nice and calm day doesn't it? Yea, Danny would have thought so too if it weren't for that sudden slip of cold air leaving his lips as well as a certain ghost looking at him through his Textbook.

He blinked, Jason blinked, they blinked.

"Desiree?" Danny carefully started. "What are you doing here?"

She was supposed to be in the Ghost Zone, specifically in Walker's Prison on time out for granting Condiment King of all people a wish and nearly flooding all of Gotham in mustard, ketchup and other things. Lady Gotham hadn't been very amused either, which was why Desiree should be in Walker's Prison.

The ghost in question only smiled brightly at him and he resisted the urge to close the book in her face. He could see Jason digging around in his bag, ever since the ghost had followed him to Gotham he had made sure that all of his siblings had at least something to catch them. "Well hello there Phantom. I just wanted to see if anyone wanted anything."

Before he could answer her she slipped away from them. Danny cursed in a way that would make Jason proud as he jumped off his chair, changed forms and followed the other ghost through the floor, barely remembering to yell at his brother to tell the others to not utter anything that could remotely sound like a good damn wish.

Too bad Danny had not anticipated Desiree going to the Kitchen were Alfreed and Bruce were apparently having a little nostalgic chat. In which Alfred just happens to say that he wished he had more photos of the times all of them had been children.

One wish granting ghosts intermission later…

Alfred blinked at where Bruce had been sitting a couple seconds ago. No, Bruce was still sitting there but he was not the adult he had been talking to but the six years old version.

"Master Bruce?"

The child looked up at him, tilting their head. "Alfred? Why do you look so old? Older than you normally do?"

Well wasn't that a predicament, Alfred mused. "Master Bruce, what is the last thing you remember?"

"Mom and Dad told me they were going on a business trip and I would be alone with you in the Manor for a while."

Okay that was something Alfred could work with. Surely one of the children could tell him what was going on. Maybe Daniel had an idea, this could be something related to the Infinite Realms after all.

"Alfred! Do you know where Father is?" The butler turned to the kitchen entrance only to find Damian and Danielle each holding onto the hands of a young Richard. "Richard suddenly turned into a child and he doesn't appear to remember us."

"I don't remember you because I don't know you." The child between the two frowned at them. "How did I get here? Did you kidnap me?"

"We didn't twerp. You got de-aged." Danielle was clearly fessed up with young Richard and Alfred couldn't help but chuckle.

"Who are you guys and why are you at my home?" Bruce suddenly piped up jumping of his chair and rushing over to the three.

"I live here, who are you brat?" Danielle questioned in return before Damian could say anything, her eyes narrowed at the young Bruce.

"Nu-uh. I live here with Mom and Dad. You're the stranger."

"Hi I am Richard but call me Dick, I got kidnapped."

"We did not kidnap you."

"Hi, I am Bruce and that's Alfred."

"Alfred, this boy… is that father?"

"I am afraid so, Master Damian."

Before anything further could be discussed the screaming of two other children could be heard. Bruce and Dick rushed out of curiosity toward the noise as children were. Damian and Ellie quickly followed behind them. Alfred didn't take long to also follow them.

The five of them did not expect to find more children but these two were brawling. Two similar looking young boys were currently fighting each other biting, hair pulling and even punching while screaming at each other.

"NO JAZZ TOLD ME STEALING IS BAD!"

"SHUT UP YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT!"

"NO! YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT!"

"NO YOU!"

Alfred did recognise one of them as Jason while the other most likely was Daniel. Clearing his throat the butler waited for the two brawling children to notice him before pulling them apart. "Master Jason. Master Daniel. You two shouldn't fight inside the house."

Danny scrunched up his nose side eyeing the Butler and Ellie cooed who would have guessed that her template used to be this cute. "I don't like that. Call me Danny."

Jason on the other hand stuck his tongue out at Danny once the two got separated. "Daniel, Daniel, Daniel."

Danny glared and Ellie could only laugh at the face he was making. "Stop that."

Damian let out a sigh. "It looks like everyone but us got turned into children. What could be the cause of this?"

Danielle shrugged. "Dunno, the only I know that could do that is a ghost but she is in ghost prison."

"I will see if I can conta-"

"Weeeeeeeeeee!"

The two youngest turned oldest looked up in time to see Dick swinging on the foyers chandelier. The young child's hand slipped and suddenly the boy was free falling. Both rushed to catch the child, Ellie taking to the air and catching him while Damian on the ground let out a sigh of relief, before realizing that Jason and Bruce were gone.

Danny thankfully was still with Alfred holding on to the butler hand watching wide eyed and in awe how Ellie was slowly floating down to the ground with Richard in her arms. The boy was loudly yelling "Again" over and over.

"We need to find Father and Todd." Damian declared once Richard safely touched ground. The boy pouted but took Alfred's hand as he was told.

"I believe Master Bruce might have thought out his old room. It would be in the right wing of the second floor. In regards to Master Jason…"

"I will find him." Danielle offered, already speeing off. Damian only huffed in annoyance as the girl did not stay long enough for him to properly plan how to find the two missing children. With another huff he turned around and left to find his child turned father.

Alfred only smiled as the two now oldest children left and led the two whose hands he was holding towards the kitchen. "Master Richard, Master Daniel. How about you two help me bake some cookies?"

"They won't come to live will they?"

The butler chuckled at little Daniel's question but also noted that down as a worrisome statement he would have to inquire later about. "No they won't but they will surely taste better with two little helpers."

The boy let out a sigh in relieve as the other tilted his head slightly. "I love cookies! This is definitely the coolest time I have ever gotten kidnapped for."

"You have gotten kidnapped before? Jazz said getting kidnapped is bad."

"Nope, this is my first time! But how can it be bad if it's fun so far? I wanna swing on that ceiling thing again!"

"I wanna try that too…"

Alfreed only shook his head as he let the two children continue to talk. Whatever was happening the butler would make sure to take as many pictures as he could. This was his one golden opportunity to get these for the family albums. After all Tim had gifted him last month with the latest phone model that supposedly had one of the best cameras integrated.

--------------

Somewhere else in Gotham…..

When Tim finally got out of the meetings he took a look at his phone. Alfred had been sending pictures all day and he hadn't had the time to take a look at them. He choked on his coffee as pictures of Bruce, Dick, Jason and Danny as children greeted him. The young Co-CEO rubbed his eyes wondering if he was dreaming but then Alfred sent him a video that he instantly saved in his blackmail folder. Whatever was going on he would hold that over his brother's heads for a long time.

Duke leaned back into his chair finally taking a break from his study session. He had ignored his phone so far. Now that he was taking a break he looked at it and spluttered at the cuteness that greeted him. Wait, was that Bruce? And Dick? And Jason? And Danny? What was happening in the Manor? Wasn't today supposed to be a slow day? Hurriedly, the Meta packed up his things from his library table and made his way back home. He did stop shortly at one point to take a look at the video Alfred sent, trying but failing to stop the laugh that bubbled out of him.

The girls all crowded around the screen as Barbara pulled up a live feat from the Manors cameras. They all collectively squalled when they watched the children play. A part of them wondered if they should go to the manor to help Alfred Damian and Ellie but they were having too much fun just watching the chaos unfold on screen.

In the video and live on Barbara's screen four children were currently dancing to the strangest music with Danielle before them instructing them on how to pull off the best moves. All the children's attention was on her as she taught them everything from easy hip hop moves to the funkiest dance move she, herself could think of. Meanwhile Damian was on the sidelines, head in his hand mumbling something but because of the music neither the video Alfred was taking nore the video cams, the girls were watching them from, picked it up.

A couple day's later a blindfolded Constantine finally grazed the Wayne Manor with his presence and a solution to return the four children back to their original age. Once that was done, three out of four were certainly mortified, the fourth trying to take it with Humor all while Alfred was happily working on an additional family photo album.

[bubblesxo]

okay but how do you guys think the batfam would react to jonathan crane's backstory from gotham (tv 2014)

[arodatnak]

[coupleofdays]

I have been thinking about a particular aspect of Alien: Romulus, and how it's similar to Tron: Legacy. Spoilers for both movies ahead.

One of the characters in Alien: Romulus is Rook, a broken android who looks and talks exactly like the character Ash from the original Alien movie. This was done by using a combination of physical and digital effects, and sound filtering of the voice actor, in order to create a character that looks and sounds like Ian Holm, who played Ash, but is now dead.

There are of course many arguments to be made about the ethical and artistic implication of this kind of "reviving" of a dead actor, or similar "de-aging" that has been done in other movies. One common argument is that such attempts usually aren't entirely life-like, that the characters fall into the "uncanny valley".

But in this case, I think that if Rook looks "uncanny valley", that's actually kind of appropriate. The character is, after all, a creepy android, ripped in half and only repaired enough to lay on a table and talk to the other characters. If he looks "off", not entirely human, that makes sense in the context of the film.

As I was thinking about this, I realized that the same can be said for the character Clu in Tron: Legacy, who is a CGI-de-aged version of Jeff Bridges. In this case, I also don't think that it's a problem if the character looks "uncanny valley", since he is supposed to be a computer program, a digital copy of the young Kevin Flynn, living in an entirely digital world. If he looks like he's made out of CGI, that's entirely appropriate.

(Of course, this argument might not work for the flashback scenes where the human character Kevin Flynn is a similarly de-aged Bridges, but I have my own weird headcanon about that.)

On the whole, I guess I think that there are some specific contexts where it might be fitting to actually embrace the uncanny valley phenomenon: When it's a character who's intended to be artificial, or maybe just somehow unnatural or supernatural. I would love to see a horror movie some day that has a monster that is intentionally made to look creepy through the uncanny valley effect (yes, I am aware of all those "The Polar Express was actually a horror movie" jokes).

[i-will-cry-you-a-river]

"Pretty!" The almost prayer-like soft whisper came from the tiny Lan, whose eyes were big and round and more expressive than all of the Lans' together. He was absolutely adorable, and Nie Huaisang had to suppress the squeal that threatened to leave his mouth behind his fan. The tiny Lan in pale blue, with his tiny hands on his tiny chest was the most adorable thing Nie Huaisang had ever seen in his life, and he had the fortune to grow up looking into the mirror day by day.

The tiny Lan beat him in adorableness, fair and square. Now, he just needed to know who was his competitor and how come he had never seen him before.

"Hello there," he cooed, lazily fanning himself as he kneeled down so he could be at the same eye level as the kid. "And who might you be?"

"This one is Lan Huan," he said seriously, properly bowing, with his hands in front of him. "Who are you, Pretty gege?"

"L-Lan Huan?" Nie Huaisang's voice trembled. The tiny boy in the tiniest Lan robes, with the tiniest headbands, who had the widest and most innocent blue eyes ever was Lan Xichen?!

"Yes!" The boy nodded with a toothy smile, then waited patiently.

When he remembered, he bowed, and said as serious as he could be while wanting nothing more than to take the child into his arms and squeeze him tight, "This one is Nie Huaisang."

"Nie-gege?"

Huaisang melted. "To you, it is Sang-ge!"

The smile he received back was brighter than the Sun itself. Suddenly, the kid grew shy, almost curling up, looking down the ground instead of up to Huaisang's eyes.

"What is the problem, Little One?" He asked, booping the tiny nose with his pointing finger. Eyes crossed to look at the offending digit, and the sight was just too cute to bear for the young Sect Leader who already had an unfortunate soft spot for Zewu-Jun.

"I wan- can-," the kid bit into his lips. "This one would be honored if Pretty Sang-ge would hug him."

Nie Huaisang never had self-restraint when he saw something cute, and there was nothing cuter than the small, more adorable version of the First Jade, with his chubby cheeks and toothy smile and huge eyes.

Of course he had to hug him!

Contrary to what he wanted - to squeeze the kid like a toy -, he took him into his hands gently, taking care of his precious burden. He was holding him like he never wanted to part from him, and the little body relaxed against his bigger one.

"It's okay, Huan-di, Sang-ge is here for you," he whispered, and it was a shock to even himself that it was the truth. As much as he despised Jin Guangyao and the brotherhood between the two older Sect Leaders, he couldn't hate Lan Xichen.

Especially not Lan Huan.

His hand came up to the back of the kid's head, who buried his head into Nie Huaisang's neck, his breathing tickling the sensitive skin.

"Lan Xichen!" sapped the voice of an angry Lan Qiren. "Sect Leader Nie!" yelled again, sounding offended and aggravated. Nie Huaisang had experience with both of those emotions coming from Teacher Lan. "Put him down immediately! It is highly inappropriate and unacceptable!"

Nie Huaisang's hold on the child only tightened, one of his hands continued to gently caress Lan Huan's back.

"Lan Huan asked me to hug him, and it is my pleasure to finally be able to complete a task right," the Sect Leader of Qinghe said airily, referring to his Headshaker persona.

Lan Qiren spluttered and muttered something about the rules, but Nie Huaisang didn't pay attention to that. No, his focus was only on the precious little boy in his arms.

"Sang-ge's hug is the best!" Smiled Lan Huan sunnily, and Nie Huaisang was defeated.

After a day spent with his favorite boy, he was basically thrown out of Cloud Recesses. He wanted to stay, to know if they found a solution for the de-aging spell, but as he was not a family member nor a well-known expert in this field, his presence was undesirable.

He wanted to stay.

He couldn't. And no information was forthcoming from Cloud Recesses either, the Lans closed their metaphorical gates. He didn't know anything about Lan Huan nor about Lan Xichen, until-

"Sect Leader Lan is asking for permission to see Sect Leader Nie," his discipline stated. It didn't take more than a blink for Nie Huaisang to hurry to the gates, where Lan Xichen was standing, in all his grown up glory.

Lan Huan was the cutest little boy ever.

Lan Xichen was the handsomest, most devastatingly gorgeous man Nie Huaisang had ever seen.

"Er-ge!" He yelled in delight, rushing towards the other Sect Leader.

The man smiled with a mysterious smile, one that hid the mischief nobody would ever believe him that Lan Xichen had, and asked, "Will Pretty Sang-ge hug me again?"

There was only one possible answer to that, really.

[quinloki]

Yandere wb pirates (main 4) with y/n that’s been turned into a kid/teen along with the memories turning back to whatever age they are? I can imagine ace running around with them on his shoulders lol

Decided to give you some fluff to take a small break from the dark stuff :)

-💧

You give me fluff and go dark with it.

Like, getting de-aged and losing your memories. Having all these new memories of these fun time with the main 4 and like

none of it's uncomfortable or scary. You're not afraid because young you doesn't have any memories of how things had gone before, so it's all clean-slate stuff too. It's great for everyone, but (the grooming vibes are so creeeeeepy for this too T-T ).

Sure it's fun to have free rides on Ace's shoulders.

Helping Thatch with cooking because he's good at it and teaches you stuff.

Doing makeup and dress up with Izou.

Being Marco's #1 lil' helper in the clinic.

It's ALL adorable and wholesome and maybe there's not even any intentional grooming happening at all. Just fluff. Sweet pure fluff.

But the de-aging wears off, and your memories come back, but the other memories don't leave, and the disconnect is harsh. Even more than that is the gaslighting that comes from it, and how easily they're all able to twist things with truths.

Certainly you were happy. Certainly they were kind. Certainly it was good.

But like - ah, no don't dwell on it sweet one, just accept it. It's okay, you were happy, keep being happy. Focus on the good.

[the-au-collector]

Do you know the Linked Universe AU where the whole chain minus Time got turned into kids? It’s called the Tiny Chain AU and if you have heard it do you know any fanfics based on it? I’ve been looking for AGES

I'd definitely come across it before. It's very cute! (The Tiny Chain AU for anyone else looking into it)

I can't say if these fics are inspired by the Tiny Chain AU but they all involve two more Links getting turned into kids at least:

Chibi Links Club by thatsnotmyname32: from a quick search it's the only one I could find where the entire Chain minus Time gets turned into kids. 3 of the parts only focus on one Link getting de-aged, but the 4th fic in the series, A Dad Before Time, features the entire Chain minus Time as kids (with a bonus of Malon being there too!)

The Days Are Long Indeed by LightBlueScrubs: Everyone but Wind gets turned into kids, and Wind has to look after them.

A Minor Inconvienence by herbalicious: Sky, Wars, and Wild get de-aged, the rest of the chain look after them.

Twilight Is Not Emotionally Equipped To Be A Single Mother by quickbrook: Four, Legend, and Time get turned into kids in a dungeon and Twilight has to look after them.

Also if you look under the age regression/de-aging tag on AO3 you'll find a lot of fics where single Links get de-aged (Wild and Time look like they're the most popular ones to get hit by the tiny humans spell). I know it's not exactly what you're looking for, but I thought i'd put it out there.

I hope this helps 💖