[Open] I just can't ignore that I'm a Tyrannosaur--

[adaptiveimmunities]

Who: Bitty Shaun, Bitty Georgia, and YOU?
Where: Starting in their room and then throughout the Mansion, later: approaching dinosaurs
When: throughout the event
Rating: PG-13 (The Masons have never had PG language)
Summary: Shaun and George are small, mistrustful, and about 90% sure that their parents have engineered this whole thing.
The Story:

Waking Up

Waking up in the same bed isn't really a surprise. It happens more often than not, one of them crawling in with the other over the course of the night. The surprise is that the're in a bed that's so huge, Shaun can't reach both sides of it if he stretches out his arms and legs, and it's not one half of a set of bunk beds.

Oh, and also it's not their bedroom. He elbows George. "George, wake up."

She sleepily kicks him in the leg before rolling over and pulling a pillow over her head. "You wake up," she mumbles.

He elbows her again. "George. Our bedroom's gone."

That's such a stupid thing to say that she actually pulls the pillow off her head and squints at him. "What are you--" she blinks, looking around. "What?" She sits up. "...I know Mom and Dad are good, but I didn't think they could completely redecorate without waking us up."

"They would have had to drug us and remodel. This room's bigger than ours."

"And it's not our bed." Georgia slips out of the bed, grabbing the pair of sunglasses from the bedside table. They're too big for her, which makes her frown. "Something's going on. We better get to the bottom of this."

He gives her a sidelong look. "Okay, but can I set fire to the living room if it's some stunt by Mom and Dad?"

She tilts her head, considering. "Probably a bad idea," she says, almost regretfully. "They'd probably make us do a feature on it." She isn't even entirely sure what kind of feature that could lead to, but she's sure they'd find one.

"I bet I could do a science project on how fast curtains burn." But he sighs and rolls out of the bed. "Not that I want to. Fine. I won't set anything on fire. Maybe we can talk them into keeping the bed, though. It's the best jumping bed I've ever seen in my life."

She rolls her eyes. "Bed jumping's dangerous, stupid." She takes his hand, squeezing tightly, and goes out into the hallway. They stay close together as they walk through the mansion, wandering in and out of rooms with very little regard for who they might belong to. They eye other people with suspicion, especially adults, but that doesn't mean they'll run away or anything. They have a lot of questions, and this seems like the best way to get them answered.

DINOSAURS

"This is so stupid. They don't even have feathers." Georgia, who was born in 2017, has never lived in a time when it wasn't common knowledge. Sure, she's seen the ancient pre-Rising films, but everyone knows those are from a less scientifically advanced time. Why her parents would waste money on fake dinosaurs that didn't even look realistic is beyond her. But there's a lot of things about her parents she doesn't understand.

"It looks better to old people," Shaun says, staring out the window with an intense longing that most kids his age usually reserve for a mountain of candy or toys. "George, I wanna ride one."

George puts a hand on his shoulder, pushing him down so she can see. "There's no way that's safe."

"There's no way it's that dangerous either," he points out. "If Mom and Dad set this up, then there's no way they're going to risk the bad PR of losing two kids to violent animal deaths. They're not even mammals. Please, George?"

"They're giant prehistoric death birds." She's not even sure if they're actual animals at all and not just some kind of robot. But… Shaun has a point. Their parents know Shaun's basically the most Irwin kid to ever exist. Their mom gushes about it in half her interviews. They'd know Shaun wouldn't be able to resist trying to ride the dinosaurs.

Of course, they'd also know that Georgia's responsible enough that she'd never let him. A flash of irritation runs through her. If they want her to keep Shaun from doing stupid things, maybe they should have told her what was going on in advance. "...maybe we can at least get a little closer to them."

"You are my favorite sister," he says feelingly, and starts running for the door before she can change her mind.

Comments

D I N O S A U R S

[burntvideocassette]

[Why does this keep happening?]

[There are more kids--more kids!--running outside where there are literal dinosaurs. Literal man-eating dinosaurs. Has nobody here watched Jurassic Park? Even he knows this is a bad idea.]

[Wait.]

[Wait.]

[Sunglasses. Two little kids, one blond and one black-haired, and one of them's wearing sunglasses.]

[Oh god no.]

[He bolts outside after them.]

[adaptiveimmunities]

[Shaun is trying to get close to a dinosaur, so he's not paying that much attention to the other humans, until an adult starts running straight for them. He's a kid, but he's not dumb, and he knows from the worried look on the guy's face that this is going to be a Conversation, which means he's not about to ride a dinosaur, but if h stays where he is, he might get stepped on. He sighs and backs off several steps before turning toward the approaching adult.]

Yeah?

[chooseyouth]

[George is a little further back than Shaun since unlike him, she's not a crazy death wish person. But when he stops and backs off, she does too, looking over at the adult.

And at the camera in his hand.

She scowls, crossing her arms, and straightens, giving him an imperious look that is much more, well, adorable than on the adult Georgia.]

We don't consent to be recorded. If you use our images, we'll sue.

[Said with all the confidence of someone who doesn't quite know what suing is or how one does it but knows it's scary to adults.]

[burntvideocassette]

[She'll sue? She'll sue him for holding a camcorder. Alright. He doesn't want to call this cute, exactly, because it's Georgia, but...screw it, it's still cute.]

[Still, he tilts the camera down at his feet. See? They're not even on camera anymore.]

Not planning to, but--

[Focus. Can't let them knock him off-track.]

--but what are you two doing out here?

[adaptiveimmunities]

[Shaun gives him a "why are grown ups so dumb?" look and gestures toward the dinosaurs.]

Trying to ride one? Obviously?

[beatupgrass]

One of these dinosaurs seems to have a rider.

It's just a Ankylosaurs, not actively threatening to anyone, and is mostly just trying to live its life and not get threatened by the actual predators, and the tiny animal sitting as comfortably on its back is barely an inconvenience. It regards the two children with boredom. It's furry rider, however, recognizes them from previous events.

"Shit. Looks like you two got shrunk again."

[chooseyouth]

George doesn't exactly know what he meant by shrunk again, since they haven't shrunk at all and nothing like this has ever happened to them before, but she's a little too distracted by the talking raccoon riding a dinosaur to start putting too much thought into it.

She grabs Shaun's elbow. "This makes even less sense than Mom and Dad's usual stuff."

[adaptiveimmunities]

He glances over at her. "Yeah, but that's no reason to be rude." He looks up at the raccoon on the dinosaur. "You're calling us short?"

Okay, well, maybe a little rude.

[beatupgrass]

Rocket rolls his eyes. "And your memory's are gone, too. That's great." He slides off the dinosaur and lands in front of them. "Shaun, you're gonna be pissed when this event's over, lemme tell you."

All these dinosaurs and he wasn't an age where he could really do the stupid Irwin thing? Yikes.

[chooseyouth]

Wow. Speaking of rude. Georgia wrinkles her nose at the weird talking raccoon. "My memory's excellent, thank you. And we're both already pissed."

Okay, Shaun may be more excited about dinosaurs than pissed. But still!

Dinosaurs

[bibliocorn]

These human foals are blatantly crazy. It's enough for him to snap out of his usual avoidance tactic to go galloping off to try and cut them off. "You can't ride those!! They're dragons, they'll eat you up in one bite!"

[chooseyouth]

"They're not dragons, they're dinosaurs. And not even real ones." Georgia feels the need to be clear about that before she adjusts her sunglasses and frowns at the tiny..... talking horse. With a horn. "Are you some kind of robot? You're really lifelike."

That makes more sense than an actual tiny unicorn.

[bibliocorn]

What in the hay are dinosaurs? He's never heard of anything like that, and he's read the Monstrous Manual. He's about to question what they are, until his existence is brought into question and that's a far more pressing matter to attend to. "What? I'm lifelike because I am alive!"

[adaptiveimmunities]

"Okay, but you look like a stuffed animal," Shaun says, frowning thoughtfully. "I didn't think stuffed animals could come alive."

[bibliocorn]

He casts Shaun a LOOK, letting out a disgruntled, horsey snort. "Well, you don't look like anything I know that's alive either, but I'm not rude about it."

waking up;

[thevulnerability]

Chloe's already seen the dinosaurs, and that's a whole other thing that needs to be processed outside of her friends all turning into children. Freya and Seth are accounted for, but the Mansion is still teeming with little ones and Chloe's maternal instinct is really unlikely to shut off. She can't help but see her daughter wandering around Wonderland, confused and helpless, and if she has to round every last kid up in Wonderland in hide them in the penthouse to protect them, she's willing to do it.

Hopefully it won't come to that, though, considering how much Lucifer hates children.

Chloe has a general idea of who the two kids huddled together in the hallway are; Chloe never had any siblings, as much as she wishes she had, but that doesn't mean she can't identify a close bond between them. Chloe also knows she might be wrong and, more importantly, if they are like the other kids she's found, they have no idea what's going on and won't recognize her, anyway. So she's plays it cool, approaching them slowly but keeping a good distance between them. If they are Georgia and Shaun, Chloe imagines George is just as stand-offish as a kid as she is as an adult.

"Hey. Are you both okay?"

[chooseyouth]

Chloe's not entirely correct: kid!Georgia is even more standoffish. At least right now. She holds tightly to Shaun's hand and gives the woman a suspicious look through her too-big sunglasses. Anyone here could have been sent by their parents, especially friendly-looking adults.

"We're fine," she says. "We don't need help."

[adaptiveimmunities]

“Unless you have advice on how to get closer to the dinosaurs,” Shaun adds with a grin. They’ve had this act down almost as long as they’ve been talking. She’s the standoffish one. He’s the friendly one.

[thevulnerability]

Prickly child with sunglasses and excited child who wants to poke things he shouldn't?

This is definitely Shaun and Georgia.

"Yeah, the dinosaurs are... cool." And they are both snack-sized. Great combo. "Aren't you both more curious about how you ended up here?"

[chooseyouth]

"We know how we ended up here." A scowl flickers across Georgia's face. She's not as good as her older counterpart is at keeping her expression unreadable. "It's pretty obviously Mom and Dad's work."

dinosaurus!!!

[postictal]

There's a dinosaur running for him. It's running right for him, thundering with a vibration in the ground and the kicking up of dust and a horned head bowed low, gouts of steam issuing from blustering nostrils. He doesn't know what it's called - doesn't remember. Tricycle-tops? Something...something like that.

Either way, he isn't going to move. He can't move. He doesn't need to move.

"Not real," he says. Realizes that - there's a kid poised on top of it, like it's riding it, and it's still coming for him, and his eyes screw shut. "Not - not real."

Please. Please, please don't let it be real.

[chooseyouth]

If George has learned anything from this adventure, it's that she's never letting Shaun drive anything ever again. She holds onto his waist tightly as the dinosaur as the dinosaur rampages across the ground.

And... there's a terrified looking kid in front of them. Frozen in fear. "Shaun! Watch out!"

[adaptiveimmunities]

There is one thing Shaun hadn’t taken into account in his “I want to ride a dinosaur” plan. He doesn’t actually know how to ride anything that’s not the backseat of a car, or a bike with trining wheels. So when it comes to keeping control of their new friend the Triceratops, all he’s really doing is holding o. For dear life.

“Out of the way!” he shouts, and starts sliding off the huge thjng’s back, dragging George down with him. They should... probably check on the kid they almost trampled.

[postictal]

It's not real. It's not real. But there's still the roar of oncoming footsteps, the way the wind from its momentum tears at his hair and clothes and sends him stumbling back, landing heavily on his side. It's not real. It's not real, but the way the dirt stings at his cheek is, and he has to scramble upright.

"'S not real," he's still mumbling, bleary-eyed. The presence of two other children has hardly registered, it seems. "Isn't...isn't real."

[chooseyouth]

Shaun's body helps cushion George from the fall. After briefly checking to make sure he's okay--and he should be, he's had worse falls plenty of times--she bounces up and rushes over to the other kid.

"Seems pretty real to me. You okay?"