voidtreckerexpress | Make the Clock Reverse (Day 22 Jelly)

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Make the Clock Reverse (Day 22 Jelly)

Make the Clock Reverse,
Bring back what once was mine.

On the evening of Day 21, before it goes dark, any Voidtreckers who look out of the windows might see the void is a little more chaotic than usual. There's a little bit of turbulence. Nothing too bad, nowhere near how bad it got during the void storm, but noticeable all the same.

It doesn't last long, and the night continues. Those who are not early to bed may see the odd golden flicker out of the corner of their eyes, darting away and vanishing if pursued.

Strange...

Heal what has been hurt,
Change the fates' design.

"Good Morning passengers. Today is day twenty two of the month of Jelly." The morning announcement wakes everyone up as usual, and they awaken in their own beds.

Though, for some passengers, those beds may seem completely unfamiliar: a strange room full of people they don't recognise. For others the room and people are perfectly normal, just... bigger than they remember them being yesterday.

Or it might be that they feel healed, old scars faded. The changes might be small, sporting their embarrassing teenage hair cut; or drastic, their whole body younger.

Either way, it is clear that something very strange has happened on the train.

(OOC: All the information about this event is Here. All changes will reverse the next night and passengers will wake up normal on day 23.

Update: In early afternoon the dressing carriage cupboards will open and animal onesies will be available in child size.)

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Inigo was bound to be disappointed if he was expecting Senku to act like a child his age. He never had. Whatever it was that made him who he was had been present since he was a toddler.

"Yesterday I was a day younger." He blinked at Inigo, obviously. He shrugged at the question. He didn't really know how to answer that.

He had deduced that Byakuya wasn't around, and he was feeling a lot of things, worry about him if something happened, worry he'd been left behind somewhere, but he wasn't planning on putting up with that. He was going to make a great escape.

Okay. Wait. Inigo is only getting confused here, so maybe he should backtrack and start with the basics. Because something tells him that asking Senku if he carried out some experiment to make himself younger isn't really going to get him anywhere anytime soon either..

So instead Inigo points to himself.

"Do you know who I am?"

He kind of feels dumb asking it, but what else is he supposed to do in this situation?

Senku responded by giving him a discerning look, before shaking his head.

"No idea. Are you some kind of...I don't know, a work friend of Byakuya's or something?"

After all, who else would potentially know him?

"Or some kind of kidnapper?"

"H-Hey, I look way too friendly to be a kidnapper, right?" Inigo says, defensively raising his hands in front of him.

(That's exactly what a kidnapper would say. Inigo, please.)

But okay. Senku is a child and doesn't recognize him. That's two facts he's confirmed so far, even though they absolutely make no sense when coming out of the blue like this.

"I'm stuck here, just like you. We're.. uh.. situation buddies! Yes, we're situation buddies now."

"Hmmm." He considered Inigo's question seriously. Was he too nice to be a kidnapper?

Honestly, he had no idea. "Okay." He said agreeably.

"Well, why are we stuck here? Is it on purpose?"

Inigo may be letting out a slight sigh of relief here. After all, even with Senku looking so much younger than he usually is? He still doesn't doubt the other could outdo him when it comes to knowledge and anything that involves using your brain in every single possible way. No matter the age difference.

So Senku just going along with his bumbling attempts at making this conversation work? It's such an enormous relief. This much Inigo can work with, probably.

At least until he figures out what's going on here.

"Yes, it is." He won't sugarcoat it. Exactly because it's Senku. No matter his size or age, he'll figure it out eventually. "We were all kidnapped to this place, but.."

.. you know what? Maybe he should be treating him different than other kids, exactly because it's Senku. And seems so Senku-like even in this moment. Maybe Inigo should just go for the idea he's got in his head now.

"In fact, can I tell you something that will sound really ridiculous? I promise it's the truth!"

While Senku's IQ may not have changed, the breadth of knowledge he knew as well as experiences had been wiped away. He was significantly more naive.

At first, his brow furrowed when he was told he was there on purpose, almost like that would be upsetting, but being kidnapped is different. That meant he wasn't just ditched in an unfamiliar place.

Being kidnapped was more comforting to him at that age. Clearly they just had to escape.

He paused at the question. He wasn't a big fan of whimsy, or ridiculousness. He never had been.

"...Okay, tell me." He decided.

"Alright."

Sure, there's some relief in Senku apparently being an agreeable enough kid that he's willing to go along with this so easily.

But Inigo knows that relief is short-lived. Because what he's about to tell Senku would sound much more ridiculous to someone who has no idea about their current situation. And yet Inigo feels like trying to make up some lie here would only make things more complicated than telling the truth, no matter how ridiculous said truth is.

So he inhales, and just decides to try. Let's see how Senku was when he was younger. How he thought.

"I know you. Or rather, I know an older you."

Let's start there. With the very basics, even though even they are ridiculous in and of themselves.

He gave him an expression that suggested he very much did not believe a word Inigo just said.

"I don't like fairy tales." He informed him with a skeptical, frowning look.

"That's not possible."

Ah.

Well, this was to be expected, wasn't it. Thankfully the look hits a lot less hard when Inigo kind of saw it coming - even though it sure would have been a lot easier if Senku would have believed him off the bat. But there's no way Senku - even smaller and younger like this - seems like the type to believe a stranger so easily.

"Yeah, it isn't." He admits as much! Look, time travel did exist in his world, but even so, it was still unique and rare enough of a thing that Inigo knows it's technically not supposed to be possible ~~without a magical dragon god on your side.~~ "But a lot of things here on the train aren't possible. Here, look."

Thank god for the Arms Band - it allows him to give a brief demonstration. One moment there's nothing in Inigo's hand, and then, with a glow, there's suddenly a flower being held in it. Out of nowhere.

"See? This place isn't normal."

Edited 2021-02-21 18:13 (UTC)

Senku was still young and a magic trick like that was an amazing distraction. His eyes went wide and he leaned forward.

"How did you do that?!" He demanded to know. No, it definitely didn't sound like a question.

It was alright that Inigo wasn't intimidated. No one found him particularly intimidating.

Inigo isn't too sure how to feel about this. He's kind of sure the main point he was trying to make it flying straight over the kid's head, after all.

.. on the other hand, at least Senku seems willing to listen to him now, even if it's just about the way the band works..

"It's all coming from this ring here." He points at the right one, considering he's wearing more than one ring. "It can store an infinite amount of items, and you can recall them any time you wish."

The one upside about all this? Inigo doubts he has to dumb it down for a younger Senku. If anything, he wouldn't be surprised if Senku at this age was still smarter than Inigo is at his proper age..

"How is that possible?" Senku was leaning up on his tip toes to look closer at the ring, incredibly skeptical, but he did just make something appear out of thin air.

"Are you sure you didn't use sleight of hand?"

Okay, it's that last question that just makes him laugh.

"Trust me, you would've noticed if I did. I'm not very subtle at all." At least he's selfaware enough to know that much.. Inigo would never be able to pull off such a thing smoothly.

But he's not sure if Senku will buy that explanation, so he shakes his head and moves a step back, just to make sure he doesn't accidentally hit or hurt the bitty.

"Here, I'll show you something I couldn't just make appear through sleight of hand." The flower disappears again, and instead Inigo calls forth his sword from the Arms Band, holding it in his hand with his usual grip. "There. No way I could sneakily pull that out through a trick, right?"

Senku didn't think much of sleight of hand at this age, it wasn't terribly impressive to him and he definitely would never know a magician-type, or learn it himself for the opportunity to show up said magician.

None of that would ever happen.

His eyes were a little wider because definitely a sword was too big to just hide away.

"Okay, I believe you it's magic. Why do you have magic?"

"Well, I don't really have magic.."

Before Senku gets the wrong idea. Sure, maybe it'd work if he'd claim to be some sort of wizard, maybe Senku would want to listen to his explanation as to what's going on here.. But it'd feel wrong to lie to a friend.

Even a friend who's been turned into a suspicious child.

"It's this ring that has magic. A friend gave it to me. Anyway-- that's not the most important thing right now. The important thing I'm trying to say here is that there's tons of unbelievable stuff that can happen in this place." Inigo gestures with an arm at the train around them as he says it.

"Really?" Senku's brow furrowed as he looked around full of skepticism.

"What kind of weird things could happen?"

He wasn't sure how much of this he believed, except Inigo seemed kind of weird in his opinion.

"Just about anything you could think of."

.. Or maybe almost anything. Inigo isn't very sure of just what kind of crazy things Senku's brain could think of.

"Say something you think is impossible. Maybe it's something that can actually happen here."

He had to stop and think about that, considering what the best response would be.

"Doraemon would come here!" He declared suddenly, staring at Inigo. "But that's impossible because Doraemon isn't real."

....

Inigo was anticipating Senku saying something ridiculous. But he didn't expect to encounter his one and true nemesis here: modern pop culture. Because he's never even heard of anything remotely close to the name Senku is saying right now.

Which leaves the boy just.. staring. In confusion. Maybe if he wasn't so caught off guard by it, he would've worked with it, trying to glance the meaning from context, but in this case all he can say is a very elegant:

"Who?"

"Doraemon." Senku said with a bit of inflection.

"He's a blue cat robot from the future that uses scientific gadgets on all kinds of adventures!"

What kind of a rock did this guy live under that he didn't know the best anime there was?

"Well.."

Sorry for the slow reaction, Senku. Inigo's brain is still kind of busy trying to wrap itself around this concept, but he's getting there! Just.. very slowly.

"We do.. have robots here on the train? And we've had cat people before." Not that he's entirely sure if there's still one of those around on the train right now. "And we are going on adventures."

That's close enough, right.

Also, Inigo is from the future.. technically. But he's pretty sure explaining that in a way that's convincing to this tiny Senku is going to be impossible, so he keeps it to himself.

Senku just stared at him, brow furrowed with a little pout. It was not the same at all.

"I don't believe you." He informed Inigo, but he wasn't sure exactly what he believed or didn't.

"There has to be a limit to what can happen if Doraemon's not here." He may have been a little obsessed with the cartoon as a child.

Inigo can't believe he's basing all potential belief on the presence of some.. weird robot cat. How come he hasn't heard Senku mention that thing even once when he's older, huh! Is this just some kid Senku trait? Not like Inigo's got a clue in that regard.

But he's trying to be patient here, no matter how obstinate this little Senku is. (After all, the grown Senku is just as stubborn when it comes down to it, huh..)

"Well, if you don't believe me, just go look around the train. You'll find that I'm right. I'm pretty normal compared to most people here." And he's a time-travelling medieval fantasy prince. So. That's saying something.

Senku stared at him for another long minute, like he was trying to discern if Inigo was right or not.

He should ask adult Senku about the robot cat, really.

"Alright. I will." Senku said decisively, because he was planning on exploring anyway and now that he knew Byakuya wasn't around he could probably get away with all kinds of science without adult supervision.

He turned and headed in the direction he'd been moving in the first place.

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flatteries - 2021-03-03 10:14 (UTC) - Expand

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