[action]

[swordthrowing]

[Today, while roaming the Gardens, you might come across an unusual sight. Sure, there has been blonde maid in the Gardens for the past month and a half or so, but not one that is so...short. Or young. Upon closer examination, though, it seems that the clothes she is wearing are too big for her, and there's a bag of popcorn from the café cradled in her arms. Ah. Maybe that explains it.]

[The rabbits seem to be out in full force today, too, which isn't exactly helping matters. They harry Yumeko as they follow along at her heels, nipping at her socks and constantly getting underfoot in a way that offers just enough room to act like they aren't trying to trip her. Yumeko's scowl deepens more and more the longer this goes on, until finally she outright growls and throws the bag right at them in frustration. It's tossed with all the force she can muster, candy spilling everywhere as it hits the ground.]

[Whether or not that makes them scatter, Yumeko stomps past them without a backward glance at the mess she's made.]

Hmph...


[ ooc: JSYK, Yumeko has retained all her memories. The deaging isn't just physical, though — her mentality has also regressed, so despite her best efforts to do otherwise, she'll be behaving like a child. ]

Comments

[tosaveyou]

Oh, hello.

[Kariya smiles. She likes to see children, though she hides her smile by the time Yumeko turns toward her.

By then, of course, she's recognized her, and her expression changes in any case, to one of surprise.]

Yumeko? Is that you?

[Kariya's looking a little better than last time Yumeko saw her. Having died, she was revived along with the worms, but without her deterioration so far advanced.]

[swordthrowing]

[Augh. Yumeko had been hoping to avoid people on the way back to the place where she and Shinki had taken up residence, and doubly so people that she actually knew. She realized that would only be delaying the inevitable, since she would then have to explain the situation to Shinki, but...]

[Well, in any case, she's been caught, so it doesn't matter now. Gathering up her skirts, she turns to face Kariya, giving her a proper bow regardless of her current physical state. She tries to ignore how childish her voice sounds when she speaks.]

It is. Somehow, I ended up like this...

[tosaveyou]

[Kariya returns the bow, politely.]

Are you doing all right? I've had strange things happen to me before, but I suppose it could be worse.

[Kariya wouldn't mind being a child for a little while.]

Did something strange happen before you changed? Did you eat or drink anything unusual? It's probably only temporary.

[swordthrowing]

Worse? Maybe. I suppose that would depend on what kind of strange things you mean.

[As things are, this seems plenty bad to Yumeko. If nothing else, it's embarrassing.]

Strange? Not really. I ate some candy right before, but... Only probably?

[tosaveyou]

One time, I was overcome with cold. I almost couldn't bear it. That was after drinking some tea at the café. Another time, my body was switched with someone else's, and I didn't know who I was. Then there were the bad dreams...

Candy? Where did you get it? [Maybe she's about to solve this mystery.]

And almost positively. All these changes have ended, as far as I know.

[swordthrowing]

I'd heard strange things happen here a lot, but... [She shakes her head.] ...Oh! Speaking of those dreams, have they stopped? You look better now than you did then.

[Well, hearing that it's very likely to be only temporary is somewhat reassuring, but...]

The café? You mean that place with the robots running about? That's where I got it.

[tosaveyou]

They do. It's impossible to say what will happen next, I'm learning. There's no way to predict it.

[She nods, with a small smile.] Fortunately, the dreams are gone. And I do feel better now. [Even though she'd had to die.]

That's right, the robots' café. If you ate something there--anything could happen to you. That must be it.

[swordthrowing]

Do you? That's good to hear, at least.

[She smiles a bit at that, but then her face falls again.]

Anything could— That's ridiculous! Why would they make something that would turn me into a child?

[She scowls and turns her nose up in displeasure, but in her current state, it just looks woefully cute. The mannerisms are obviously too old for someone of her apparent age.]

[tosaveyou]

[She doesn't want to mention dying, so she nods.] Thank you. I think I'll be better for a while, before it gets worse again.

[She shakes her head.]

I don't know. I think the robots are magic, but they don't understand what their magic does to us. I don't think they mean to upset us. They're trying to be nice.

[She finds it hard not to smile at Yumeko looking so cute, so she doesn't stop herself from smiling.]

It shouldn't last much longer. There could be a way to make it stop sooner. The cold stopped when people tried to help me get warm. Maybe if you do something like play a game, something a child would do.

[Kariya still likes playing games.]

[shanghaiworld]

[You may feel like you are being watched.]

[swordthrowing]

[Yumeko's response to which is...to turn around and yell.]

Go away, you stupid rabbits! I don't have anything else to give you!

[She stops a foot. It's cuter than she means it to be.]

[shanghaiworld]

[This is a perfect time to just drop behind her, and say hello.

So let's do that.]

Hello.

[swordthrowing]

Wah—!

[Oh, Alice, you card. She whirls around again, practically jumping, and almost trips over her own skirt.]

Alice! How long have you been there...?!

[shanghaiworld]

Enough to witness your emotional outbursts, which I think is long enough.

[swordthrowing]

More like too long...

A-anyway, Alice! If you were there, you should have just said something.

[shanghaiworld]

It would have been rude to interrupt you while you were speaking.

[swordthrowing]

[She puffs up, obviously pouting like... Well, what she looks like right now. A child being teased by someone older than her.]

It would not! If you had just said something to begin with—!

[But then she realizes she has gotten snippy with Alice, so ruffled feathers or not, she looks away in embarrassment.]

[nephentes_rajah]

[ A moment after her outburst, a hand daintily collects a fallen piece of popcorn and brings it to eye level for strangely critical examination. ] Such a mess...

[swordthrowing]

[She actually doesn't recognize Yuuka by voice alone. Her tone is definitely familiar, though, and it's familiar in a way that makes Yumeko's spine go rigid. It's only when she turns back around to look at the scene of popcorn-based carnage she has wrought that she realizes why that is.]

[Yumeko gasps.]

You're—?!

[Definitely not an elegant greeting befitting of Shinki's maid, but it'll have to do.]

[nephentes_rajah]

[ Munching that piece because, well, it wasn't off of the ground, just in that bag, and no animals have been in it just yet.

She tilts her head to the side, thoughtfully, eyes narrowing critically. ] I'm—?

[swordthrowing]

You're here! What are you doing here?!

[Have you ever seen a preteen trying to look so righteously angry? It's funnier when she has to gather up her over-long skirts to move without taking the risk of tripping over them and falling right on her face. She takes a step or two back as she hikes them up, not...sure how to handle this situation with Yuuka right in front of her and herself in her current state.]

[nephentes_rajah]

Me? [ She can tell this girl is either familiar with her or her reputation, but Yuuka isn't giving in to that idea so easily. The youkai looked down at the mess at her feet then up at the girl. ] I appear to be witnessing a little girl wasting her food, for starters.

[swordthrowing]

I'm not a little girl! [She puffs up as she says it, and as ridiculous as it sounds right now, it's true. Though that doesn't change the fact that she probably said the same thing hundreds of times when she actually was that age. Nastily, she adds,] And the animals can take care of the food — though I guess they're already doing that, aren't they?

[It is, perhaps, not a great idea to yip at Yuuka when she's like this, but Yumeko puts duty above most everything else, and right now, with an enemy of Makai in front of her, her duty is...to be antagonistic. Yes.]

[nephentes_rajah]

[ There is something about that indignant reasoning that is familiar to her, but she has trouble placing it. Just like she has trouble placing that funny feeling in her limbs... perhaps it's just the chill air getting under the layers of her clothes that is bothering her — clothes that normally should be a good fit for her, if breezy, that aren't fitting so well...

Not that she's paying any attention to it. ] Why should they have to do your work for you? It doesn't seem fair.

[swordthrowing]

[Yuuka is still larger enough that Yumeko doesn't immediately place what's going on, either. The fact that she's so flustered might help with that, too, though.]

The only ones I see around here are troublemakers. Extra chores are a nicer punishment than they deserve.

[Totally talking about the rabbits. Right.]