Said it was all a game | Daddy got bent and twisted in the bed that he made | You'll end up the same

[evilhandissues]

Who?: Lindsey Mcdonald and you?
What?: Event catchall - the 20th thru the 27th
Warnings?: So many warnings. Potentially. Lindsey and Abby threads, Lindsey being an oily little thief and also shy, and Lindsey being A merman (drawing by inklingbot.)

Teen!Lindsey and Mer-Lindsey below the cut.


See Lindsey, see him very well at 27 years of age, wandering out among the new playground equipment. Climbing up the slide, riding down it with his jeans landing in the sand. The more he plays the happier he gets, the more he plays the younger he gets. He doesn't seem to notice how his clothes are several sizes too big, his shaggy hair is considerably longer and there's a ripe crop of acne across his cheeks and nose.

One tentative hand raises to his face at that ...And it drops. Instead he slips out of his shirt, staring at it aghast before he - topless - ambles back into his room.

He can be seen later, wearing a dark blue "Whedon Ranch" shirt with a stylized horse on the back and his flannel tied around his waist. Apart from a belt made out of an electrical cord. Occasionally picking his nails, he can be found sliding around, reading as much as he can in the library - stacks and stacks of books - returning to the playground...and also occasionally a few knickknacks - that are in his hands and end up missing. He really can't help it.

Towards the 27th he's stopped visiting the playground, returning back to an adult - he'll head out to the beach only to spend two days in the water, panicking ...and then returning to enjoy it. Come and give him a ring!

Comments

during his de-aging, obviously!

[becauseihaveto]

He's here. That's all Abby can think as she hurries back to the mansion following a visit to the carnival. The source of her nightmares, the reason for her being what she is, her sire is here in Wonderland. She's always feared this day would come and, now that it has, she's all too aware of the fact that for the first time in centuries she doesn't have a ready-made plan.

So she does the only thing she can think to do. Moving quickly, a literal blur to the average human eye, she heads toward her floor. Or, more importantly, to the man who is staying just a few doors down. She knows she and Lindsey aren't exceptionally close, and he's much older than her typical familiar, but she's pretty sure she can trust him and she knows he's human. Right now, that's all that matters to her.

She pushes aside the worry that might not be home. She knows he might be out, exploring the new areas of Wonderland like so many others are doing. She hopes not, though, because she also knows it's only a matter of likely moments before her sire tracks her down and then... she doesn't even want to think about what will happen next. Granted if she could stop thinking about that, she could focus enough to hear if there's a heartbeat coming from inside the room, but she can't so she's just going to have to find out the human way.

Trembling slightly, Abby knocks loudly against Lindsey's door and mutters a soft, "Please be there, please be there, please be there" under her breath while she waits for him to answer.

yes good

[evilhandissues]

Whoever this room belongs to - he's rich but he has shitty taste in clothes and seems to drink, occasionally write. The songs are dumb and Lindsey's taken the liberty of correcting most of them with bad poetry (he had a lot to learn) trying to figure out how he got here and deciding that he doesn't care.

He's more worried about Izzie and Danny then the rest of it. If they might be here, or if they might be sick at home, he'd been walking home and thinking about the twins - small and sick twins -

Easy to be jerked out of his thoughts. Hell he welcomes it. Padding to the door he peers through the peep hole before frowning. Small child. Something says that it's familiar - she's familiar - be wary -

But he opens the door.

Plus one lanky teenager in your life abby.

"...Hi."

[becauseihaveto]

At first, Abby wonders if Lindsey has a roommate and hasn't mentioned it. As quickly as that thought enters her mind, though, she knows that isn't the case. People don't have roommates and, even if Lindsey did, she would have heard - or at least smelled - him by now.

And that's when she realizes she has smelled him before. His scent is familiar. In fact, it's Lindsey's scent. Yes, that makes no sense but she also knows it's true. Somehow, some way, this teenager is the very same man she's been talking to since her arrival in Wonderland.

Realizing she's wasting precious seconds by trying to work things out, she decides to figure out what's going on in a second. For now, she has a much more pressing issue that has to be attended to immediately. Before her sire gets any closer.

"Invite me in." The words come out in a rush, laced with a touch of panic. She hesitates, glances over her shoulder, then peers back up at him with a fearful expression. "Invite me in," she repeats again. "Please!"

[evilhandissues]

"...Uh -"

If this son of a bitch was into kiddie porn he was going to piss all over his things. That was just Gross but why else would a grown man have a kid here? Unless she was his daughter?

That thought made him clench his chest and not question stepping back and nodding, "...Yeah come In. c'mon. c'mon." Things were becoming normal now, he knew her but he couldn't place where.


"...Are you being chased? Is there somebody hassling you?" His texas accent is thick

[becauseihaveto]

The invitation is barely past his lips when Abby rushes inside. She shuts the door quickly - with a touch more force than is probably necessary - then turns to face the now, apparently, teenage version of the man she's only just begun to know. She opens her mouth to respond, to affirm that yes, she's being hassled, but stops herself. She's pretty sure, as an adult, Lindsey would listen to reason and wouldn't try to take on her sire on his own.

Teenagers, however, are impulsive by nature and most tend to be arrogant as well. That combination, coupled with the very real knowledge that he might not even know about vampires yet, stays Abby's tongue. She replies instead with something wholly different that in no way answers his question.

"Don't invite anyone else inside, Lindsey, all right? No matter what they say, don't invite them inside."

It's a testament to how shaken up she is that she doesn't even realize she's used his name despite not having explained how she might know it.

during his teenage years!

[onsilksheets]

At some point she finds herself in the library, searching through all the shelves for anything that might be of interest to her. Back home, she would have found herself tucked away in her room with a book or two, immersing herself in a world that was so much better than her own.

Eventually, she finds The Secret Garden and curls herself up on a comfy looking chair in the corner of the library, reading away. She hopes that no one disturbs her.

Yes good.

[evilhandissues]

Lindsey likes to read.

Books about knights and castles, books about trucks, books about cowboys. Any book. Except now, bored as hell he's been slouched in a chair flipping through books. When the new girl arrives he peers over at her.

"...Is it good?"

[onsilksheets]

"Oh. "She's startled by the sudden voice, almost dropping her book in surprise. "I um. It is."

Her tone is quiet and hushed, her English accent clearly distinctive. Completely unlike the grown woman that Bela had become. Green eyes study him curiously, trying to see if he was a threat.

[evilhandissues]

"...You know, if you like English books-

Not textbooks. But like uh...English books written by English people." Like her? There's a faint blush across his cheeks, "...Classical literature. You'd probably like uh Jane Eyre better. It's uh... That one's really sad."

He points at the book and nods, "Jane Eyre's uh - at least it has y'know. Romance." Girly stuff.

[onsilksheets]

"I do." She brushes a hand through her hair, tucking a few strands behind her ear. "And I've read Jane Eyre. Read a lot of classic literature." It's said clearly enough but she's still quiet.

Why was he blushing? Strange.

"This book is far better though. There's more to life than romance." She glances down to finish the rest of the page.

aged-down

[johnnyblake]

There isn't much for a nineteen year old to do in a place like Wonderland, so it's been interesting for Johnny when he's forced himself to avoid most everything Wonderland has to offer. It's all weird, right? He feels like things are ten times stranger at twenty as they are at thirty.

But he's not without his rowdiness, and he's not without his quiet moments. It happens to be the library that puts the young John and young Lindsey together. He's coming in to find himself another book when he spots the kid.

"Hey, what're you readin'?" he asks from a distance.

Re: aged-down

[evilhandissues]

Lindsey has - somehow - managed to find a law book. The only law book there.

"Studying." he pauses, "Not reading. "Greatest closing arguments in human history. As a rule, lawyers are not scientists. They have learned the doctrine of hate and fear, and they think that there is only one way to make men good, and that is to put them in such terror that they do not dare to be bad. They act unmindful of history, and science, and all the experience of the past."

His voice takes on a sonorous quality, enraptured. Awed.

[johnnyblake]

Somewhere in the middle of the recitation, Blake finds himself wondering how anyone could find studying interesting. He likes to read, sure, but studying has always felt like a special brand of torture. Why does everything have to be so boring and dry? If they just made structured learning a little more interesting, the world would be an entirely different place.

All those thoughts aside, though, he nods slowly at Lindsey and presses his lips together. "Yeah, that sounds 'bout right, I guess. Terrorists," he says, voice edging with humor.

[evilhandissues]

Teenage Lindsey wanted to get out - to leave being a hole in the wall boy with goodwill shirts and shoes that are more duct tape then shoe. He tucks one foot under the other, setting it aside, "...Terrorists suck. But I dunno I want to be a lawyer and if I want to make UCLA and get inta Law School..."

With that really thick country accent.

"...You know."

"...What're you doing?"

[johnnyblake]

Johnny knows a bit about accents and perception. When he was in the orphanage, they'd tried to coach him against the heavier accent the people in his neighborhood tended to adopt. To this day, you can usually tell how Blake feels based on how loose his words get when speaking casually.

In this case, he feels pretty loose.

"Lookin' for somethin' to do, really. Painted some, but that's only satisfyin' 'til the can runs out of paint," he says, somewhat chippy in tone.

He gestures. "Why don't you go into the Navy or somethin'? They'll pay for your degree or whatever. And they got that JAG shit, don't they?"

( de-age )

[tact]

Cordelia's not too fussed on the whole playground scene, but considering it's a brand new thing within Wonderland, she can't quite help but wander over there in order to cure her boredom.

She thinks to sit on a bench nearby, but, instead, chooses to sit on one of the swings. It's been a while since she's been able to do something so simple and so normal — sitting on the swings is something she hasn't done in almost a lifetime. But she moves back and forth lightly, simply taking in the new scenery Wonderland has to offer, and watching a few kids she's never seen before play on the equipment.

There's one kid with a shirt several sizes too big. She arches her brow, but she's a little too far to comment on it. What's she going to say, anyway? Kids are delicate creatures — anything she says will probably make them cry. (She thinks she made Buffy cry a few times.)

:D

[evilhandissues]

Lindsey is enjoying the slide. Or at least he was until impulse decided that the best thing to do would be to climb to the top of the slide. One hand over the other. Moving like a monkey he starts up the side of the slide to the top of the playground equipment, completely heedless of anyone watching.

63! lindsey

[theychoseme]

So Lindsey would block this from his memory, unusual or not. Keep it to himself with regards to others. After abandoning the gazebo, examining the sides, his chest started feeling funny, then he'd noticed that same warm feeling that had come with the playground.

Only this time he was...endowed in places where he shouldn't have been, two sizes smaller then he should have been with a chest.

Once the shock wore off there was nothing to do but wait for it to wear off, so she's in jeans and a flannel shirt - thoughtfully provided by the closet with a book tucked under one arm. Greatest closing arguments in law.

Someone is trying not to be noticed in the library.

huehuehuehue

[glumshoe]

"Evelyn, is there a point to trying to organize this? Everything keeps rearranging.

...Evelyn?"

She better not have gotten trapped underneath a bookcase. The breadth and expanse of the library when she's in it is labyrinthine and while Will had confidence in his hearing, he was decidedly less so about accidents and the ways that Wonderland might gleefully conceal them on a whim. So went Will's short-lived career as assistant to the librarian.

Once dismounted from the (dizzyingly high) ladder, he set off toward her last known location, landmarked so in his brain by a disconcerting tower of books in her arms and the sounds of her rambling disappearing... that way.

As expected, the tables are occupied, though not by who he'd thought. Instead of a cute brunette of dubious spatial awareness there is a cute brunette of radiating self consciousness reading a tome usually reserved for stopping particularly strong doors. And well sure, Will hasn't been a resident of the Mansion for any good length of time and old faces around its halls were still new to him, but for some reason he cleared his throat and approached anyway, thinking uncute thoughts.

"Um, excuse me? Are you all right?"

[theychoseme]

Lindsey blinked, brown eyes wide, "...Me?" She's tried not to talk the whole time, so when she does she looks surprised. She has one of those voices. The kind you could listen to read a book.

"...I- I am I guess. You?"

SO LATE. Feel free to ignore if it's too far back! During de-aging.

[vampdetective]

Angel wasn't looking for anyone in particular when he decided to visit the library that day -- with all that's going on around the mansion, it seems like one of the best places to escape the chaos. He has nothing to worry about with the playground or the gazebo, though he's heard rumors about the effects they're having on people -- the outdoors are off-limits to him until after-hours, meaning if he does happen upon either of them once the sun is down, he'll have been forewarned.

He was so invested in securing a quiet corner for himself with the intent to read that he doesn't even notice the teenage boy at the table nearby as he himself addresses the shelves -- and even if he had? With the changes in place, the chances of him recognizing Lindsey are slim.

I can give it a shot!

[evilhandissues]

Angel may not recognize Lindsey, but Lindsey recognizes Angel. He recognizes Angel and how put together he is. It's hard not to be aware of how different they are.

He was never this awkward.

He never wore hand - me - down clothing. Worn through shoes or bad underwear. Glaring at him, Lindsey thinks...

And then rips out a page with a loud cough. It takes him ten minutes before he's got a small selection of spitballs.

The first one is flicked in Angel's direction.

[vampdetective]

He hears the cough, of course, but doesn't think much of it -- not until that first spitball hits.

What the--

He turns sharply, glaring. A kid. Of course it was a kid. "What the hell was that for?"

[evilhandissues]

Lindsey has his nose buried in the book before looking at him, completely insolent. Angel might recognize that look - Lindsey hasn't changed much facially, it's simply well...the length of his hair.

He blinks, "...What?"

[vampdetective]

Angel squints a little, trying to place the expression. It doesn't quite click yet, but there's something vaguely familiar about it.

"The spitball?"

He gestures vaguely, teeth clenched. You know what he's talking about.

"Can't a guy grab a book without being assaulted?"