(no subject)

[stayb100ponyboy]

Who : Little Equius and whoever finds him
Where: in his backyard and around the bubble
When: whenever during the age-swap curse
Style: baby!STRONG
Status: OPEN

One: In the backyard of his hive

It's very scary, waking up in a place that's not your hive and that doesn't have your lusus! Especially when you're a much shorter, not nearly as STRONG version of yourself, and know that without Aurthor around to protect you, you are subject to the whims of a brutal, ugly society. That's why the first day of the curse finds a tiny version of Equius, with both horns intact and no glasses covering his face, hiding in his backyard in the pen with Darkleer's horses. They are the closest thing he has to a lusus right now, and he's got his face pressed against the shoulder of the larger one, letting its large body block him from view.

Or so he thinks.

Two: Around the bubble

A day or so later, Equius discovers RoboEquius, and RoboEquius is about the coolest thing ever! It's like a giant, metal friend, just for him! They even have the same sign! And the robot speaks to him, but only to him, and only in his head! It's like an imaginary friend you can touch!

RoboEquius is cool enough that the little blueblood ventures out of the backyard, holding the robot's hand and letting himself be guided around the bubble. Should anyone get close, though, he retreats behind the robot's legs and peers out with serious, solemn eyes. It hasn't quite dawned on him yet that no one else can hear RoboEquius.

[OOC: I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow, so most of this log will be backtagged!]

Comments

[stayb100ponyboy]

Shocking revelation! "Humans can change color?"

[redcladidealist]

"Yeah! Don't you?" There's nothing surprising about this. Here, he'll show you! He bends down and grabs two chubby fistfuls of dirt, then holds them out to Equius. "Go on, put this on!"

[stayb100ponyboy]

RECOIL IN HORROR!

"No! I'll get dirty!" Like a commoner, Lloyd... a commoner!

[redcladidealist]

Whoa, why is he looking at Lloyd like that? Only one possible reason Lloyd can think of.

"Don' worry, it doesn't hurt, I p'omise!" He offers the dirt again. "Come on, it's fun!"

[stayb100ponyboy]

"Bloobloods don't get dirty," Equius informs Lloyd, lifting his nose in the air and looking down at Lloyd superiorly. "We have too much dignity for that."

That dirt does look kind of fun, though...

[redcladidealist]

Dignity? What does that even mean?

No, really, Lloyd doesn't know what it means. But he's a smart little boy, so it doesn't take him long to pick it apart and take a stab in the dark.

"How can you have digginity if you don't like to dig?"

[stayb100ponyboy]

"I... what?" Congratulations, Lloyd, you have completely befuddled him!

[redcladidealist]

Come on, Equius is the one who said the word first. "Dig-inity," he repeats with emphasis. "It gots dig in it. So that means you gotta dig! In dirt!" See? Logic. Even bitty Lloyds have some of that.

[stayb100ponyboy]

"But... I... dirt..." Equius cannot refute that logic, and after struggling with it for a few moments, crouches next to Lloyd in the dirt. "Can I dig too?"

[redcladidealist]

Lloyd's face practically lights up at this. He eagerly moves aside to make room for Equius. "Yeah! It's lots an' lots of fun!"

To illustrate his point, he finds a spot that doesn't have quite as much grass and digs his little fingers into it. "Sometimes you fine stuff inna dirt, too! Like bugs or rocks or ch'eshure!"

this took a turn for tooth-rottingly cute, didn't it?

[stayb100ponyboy]

Equius tentatively digs his own fingers into the dirt beside Lloyd's. Okay, this is kind of fun, and if it has dignity in it, then that's okay. "Ch'eshure? What's that?"

It sure did~ [/no regrets]

[redcladidealist]

"Ch'eshure is stuff that pirates bury inna dirt! Gold an' joowls an' s'ords!" Not that he's ever found such glorious caches of wealth, but his parents have told him all about them, usually when they're telling him stories at night. "I even finded money once." Planted there by his father, though he doesn't know about that.

Of course, there's no treasure in Equius's lawn for his fingers to dig up, but his questing fingers pick out all the little rocks. He even finds a piece of sparkly quartz. "Ooooh, this one's pretty! Maybe it's a joowl!"

[stayb100ponyboy]

"I know about pirates. The troll who lives close to me thinks she's a pirate." She's kind of scary, though, so Equius would rather not talk about her.

He grubs cheerfully in the dirt beside Lloyd, getting nice and filthy. He looks at the sparkling stone appraisingly. "Maybe. It would be prettier if it were blue, but that one's nice."

[redcladidealist]

"You know a real pirate?" Lloyd's eyes widen with awe. That's something really impressive!

"I like blue, too! But I like red the bestest!" Every chance he gets, he tries to convince his parents to let him wear his red shirt. Never mind if he wore it the day before and got it covered with dirt. He's just going to get more dirt on it, right?

[stayb100ponyboy]

"Red?" Equius' expression sours. "Red isn't a good color."

[redcladidealist]

Lloyd screws his face up in confusion and protest. "Huh? Yes it is! It's my fav'ritest color! That's what color strawb'ees is!"

[stayb100ponyboy]

"Don't you know anything? Red is a lowblood color. It's very low."

[redcladidealist]

If anything, that only confuses Lloyd more. "But... but b'ud is red. Yours is red, too, jus' like me!"

[stayb100ponyboy]

"What?! No, it isn't!" Equius gestures at his wrist, where the skin is very thin and tinted a faint blue through the gray. "See? I'm a blueblood."

[redcladidealist]

"But I sc'aped my knee an' it was red." But okay, if Equius wants to show proof that way, Lloyd can stick his arm out, too, right next to Equius's. Pale as his young skin is, it's easy to see the tracery of veins just beneath his skin... veins that look purple and blue in some places. Lloyd blinks at this seeming evidence against his own argument.

[stayb100ponyboy]

"See? You're a blueblood too." Equius is pleased by this; now they can keep being friends. "Maybe not as blue as me, but still blue. That's good!"

[redcladidealist]

Lloyd pokes at his wrist, baffled at this seemingly sudden change. "I'm blue? But..." But blood was red. Right? It couldn't just change on you, could it?

Or could it?

There isn't any way to check, though. Not without scraping his knee again, and he cringes away from even the thought. "I don't want a owie!"

[stayb100ponyboy]

"Of course not." Why would he even think about hurting himself over something so silly? "Really, you're better off. Blue is much better than red."

[redcladidealist]

"But I like red. Red's berries an' jam an' my shirt an' daddy's hair's gots red in it." All very good reasons that red was a good color. "Don't you like berries, too?"

[stayb100ponyboy]

"I like blueberries." Something Lloyd said grabs Equius' attention. "What's a daddy?"