Logs:Just Small

Just Small
Dramatis Personae Bryce, Dallen, Joshua
In Absentia Hive, Quentin, Nahida, Jax, AJ, Rocket, Sriyani	2024-05-23 "Please bless that he returns home in safety!"
Location <XAV> Dallen, Roscoe, Spencer, and Sriyani's Dorm - XS Second Floor
What was once a generously-sized double-occupancy room (or a reasonably-sized triple room) is now a terribly cramped quadruple room, furniture arranged somewhat bizarrely to provide each of the residents a bed, a desk with a hutch, a dresser, and some closet space. It's not intuitive which desk goes with which dresser goes with which bed -- maybe even less so when taking into account the hodgepodge of decorations, which includes quite a lot of mess -- nerd stuff, weeb stuff, theater kid stuff, art stuff, leftist stuff, Jesus stuff. Roaming the floor like a Roomba is a spidery little robot, not quite a Sentinel, but perhaps a touch too similar for comfort. There is a brightly colored blown-glass mezuzah mounted vertically in the doorway. It's just after supper, when many students are still out and about, busy with activism or entertainment or drama. Dallen has the room to himself for now and is sitting at his desk with a copy of The Pearl of Great Price, glancing between it and a New Scientist article about the aliens who invaded earlier in the week. He's in soft blue flannel pajamas covered with little moons and stars, has an even softer gray faux fur blanket draped over his head and shoulders, and a silicone fidget pendant shaped like an eighth note around his neck. The door to the hallway stands open, and perhaps it's in consideration or compensation of those that he's wearing noise cancelling headphones, though he's singing softly and maybe unconsciously along to, "We are watchers of a beacon whose light must never die, we are guardians of an altar 'midst the silence of the sky..." Knock, knock, knock. It's not Bryce outside the door, or at least if it is he's transformed himself to look remarkably like Mr. Joshua, but regardless it's Bryce's voice that -- sounds? Is it sounding? The noise-cancelling headphones should probably block that out, but even so it does feel a Lot like Bryce excitedly chattering to Dallen: << Hey guess what I'm not dead! Can you open the door I have SO much to tell you. >> Joshua is looking pretty much as he always does. Long face. Kind of boring clothes. He's dropped his knocking hand to fidget with one of his tassels; his other is cupped very carefully around something. Dallen freezes, then frowns, then tears the headphones off, half-falling out of his chair and tripping over his blanket in his haste to get to the door. He stares up at Mr. Joshua with wide uncomprehending eyes, then looks to the left and right of the man. "Bryce?" he says, uncertain. "Are you invisible?" From atop her cage, now stuffed between Dallen's desk and dresser, Moab calls out, "Please bless that he returns home in safety!" << No I'm right here wait please lift me up I'm trying to get taller but it's hard -- oh I'm so glad you didn't get eaten by bugs, I knew Heavenly Father would look after you. >> There is a beetle, small and brilliant metallic-green, climbing to the outside of Joshua's fingers. Its wings open, though it doesn't take off. Joshua does, obligingly, lift his hand so that Dallen can more properly see the beetle and his attempted escape. His eyes flick to the bird, then drop back to Dallen. He shakes his head at the question of invisibility. "Just small." He's reaching out, very carefully letting the beetle crawl off of his hand and onto Dallen's. He gives the bug a last -- very long -- look. Then vanishes. Dallen still doesn't look like he understands at all, but he stretches out his hand all the same. Probably, if a trusted adult is handing you a beetle, they have good reason, right? "Thank you, Mr. Joshua!" Then, only after he's disappeared, "What do you mean 'just small'?" He looks down at the shiny beetle in his hand, eyes going even wider. "Bryce?" Moab's prayer salad is slightly less on point this time, "We are thankful for the moisture we have received!" << I'M A BUG!!! >> In mental space this sounds, feels, even more excited than it would be if Bryce were standing here using his Real Voice. Probably Dallen can picture Bryce's wide-eyed glee. As a beetle his eyes are also wide, but, in fairness, at the moment he has no eyelids. He's crawling up to the tip of Dallen's fingers, now, turning around a little bit like he's showing off his current bugginess. << I thought I died but Uncle Hive says I didn't die I just got real small. Did you get through the bugs okay? I said a lot of prayers for you. >> "You're a bug?" Dallen peers at the beetle closer, his excitement a little slower to set in, though it does get there eventually. "You're a bug! Wow, that's so cool! I didn't know you could change into a whole animal." He closes the door and drops back into his seat. "Heavenly Father did look after me, I was with Quentin and Nahida when the bugs came and we went to hide inside a store with a bunch of other people but the bugs caught up and then Quentin did a -- a -- shield like Mr. Jackson's, and the bugs couldn't get us." He recounts the whole incident in one long breath. "I prayed for you, too, and I knew you weren't dead, even though some kids said you were. Where have you been? Did you go to Thailand? Do you need food, or water? Can you fly?!" << I'm a bug! >> It's less boisterous this time, but no less excited. << I'm so glad they looked out for you. I didn't know Quentin could even do that. I couldn't do anything useful, >> Bryce is admitting, only a little abashed. << I got so scared and then AJ got naked and was screaming at the bugs! Without any clothes on! >> Even without lungs his voice manages to sound a little breathless with the scandal of this. << I don't think I went to Thailand, >> though he's slow about this, like he's turning the possibility over, << but I did go to space. I went a lot of places. Oh I can totally fly! >> His wings spread again. He flutters -- a millimeter or two off of Dallen's finger -- and then falls, tumbling down into his brother's palm. << Probably. >> "I didn't know he could do that, either! He's so wonderful." Dallen sighs, presumably in awe of all the ways Quentin is wonderful. "Wait why did AJ get naked?" His blush comes a little delayed, and his voice is hushed with the same scandal in Bryce's not-quite voice. "She said she was fighting the bugs, but she also thought you were dead, so maybe she doesn't remember it right because of the trauma. I wish you were with us and not -- where you were. But then you probably wouldn't have found out how to turn into a bug. How did you find out you could turn into a bug? How did you get to space?" "There is no end to matter," Moab supplies unhelpfully, walking herself over toward the boys and bobbing her head up and down to get a better look at the beetle, "there is no end to space." Dallen is frowning thoughtfully. "I guess space is much closer than Thailand. Or, the closest parts are closer anyway, I think. Oh, Moab could teach you how to fly! Maybe? Your wings are pretty different." << Hi Moab! Oh wait I don't know if I can telepathy at Moab. Moab can you hear this? Can you teach me to fly?? >> The bird is still bobbing her head, which could mean anything. Thankfully Bryce isn't fussed about this for long. << I'll watch her and see how she does it. I don't know how to turn into a bug, >> for a moment he again sounds pensive, << -- or how to turn back -- >> but though this thought seems to put a mild damper on his excitement, it's very brief. << -- I think Heavenly Father was just helping me. I was about to get eaten. While AJ was naked >> his emphasis makes it clear this is the most relevant part of the story, to him, << she was fighting some bugs and I wanted to go but I didn't want to leave her and then a bug tried to eat me. And it totally would have except I'm a bug now. And then I rode around on some people and one of them went to space and then I met a space raccoon -- oh oh oh when Sriyani gets back we need to tell them. I told Mr. Rocket that they might be able to help him get back to his ship. >> In case this needs clarification: << It's in space. >> "Oh, I'm so glad you didn't get eaten!" Dallen says earnestly, and then immediately looks distraught. "Oh no, what if things try to eat you now? Moab is vegetarian but so many birds eat bugs. I think raccoons do, too, but maybe not space raccoons. Are they different from Earth raccoons? Like how the space bugs are definitely way different from Earth bugs, I was just reading an article about that. Maybe you could turn into a raccoon! I guess you'd have to figure out how you turned into a bug to do that. Oh!" He bounces in place on his chair. "Maybe if a bird tries to eat you then you'll turn into a bird!" << He looked pretty raccoony but also he talked. I haven't seen an Earth raccoon talk before, but, maybe they've been talking all this time and I only understand now that I'm a bug. Oh but he did wear clothes and know a lot about flying spaceships. >> Bryce flutters his wings again, his excitement once more rising. << Oh we should go find some birds and find out, there's a bunch of woodpeckers out there maybe one of them will try to eat me! >> He sounds far too eager at this prospect. << And while we're looking you can tell me about how the space bugs are different. >>