Insert joke about how being in charge of the Legion is like being a babysitter.

[rokketmann]

Who| Rokk Krinn and anyone
What| Time Ripple shenanigans
Where| Anywhere that isn't locked.
When| If relevant, like if you want to note it's after an event.
Warnings/Notes| I'm awful.

[ When the time ripple hits, Cosmic Boy gets utterly blasted by it. Maybe it's the time travel he's done in the past or the other universes he's been through, where time didn't quite meet up with this one. Whatever it is, the effect remains the same. One moment, Rokk is making his way down the hall towards the monitor room by memory, as his eyes are glued to his omnicom, and the next moment finds him greatly diminished and falling, tripped up on nothing but his own surprise.

Rokk sits up and blinks a few times with the shock of suddenly finding himself on the floor, before bursting into tears. The crying stops short, however, when the omnicom flashes with something brightly colored. He picks it up, batting at the screen with his hand to make it happen again. Triumphant, he gets to his feet with a little wobble, as the device is rather cumbersome for a two-year-old, and charges down the hall to find Mom and show her his new toy. ]

Comments

[goddamngrenades]

[ Jason had mentioned something about eight year olds earlier but this? This takes the case. A man made toddler in midstride- he probably could've caught him before he hit the ground but-

Okay look. Man one second, itty bitty child the next. It's weird to see and hard to wrap his head around and god why does this shit keep happening around him. But. Toddler. Okay. He can handle a toddler, right? Right. What do you call children that are wandering around aside from 'trouble waiting to happen'? ]

Hey sport! [ Oh god he sounds like a geriatric house dad that wears sweater vests. Not cool. ] Uh-. I mean. Kid. Hey kid.

[rokketmann]

[ Rokk stops and looks up at the person, who is very tall and Not Dad. It's the wide-eyed, silent stare of a young child addressed by a stranger who is trying to process why this is happening.

The toddler holds up a hand, and there is the tiniest wave, just three fingers half curling down as if the other two are too shy to commit to anything more vigorous.

But then he decides the attention is enough social interaction and sidesteps around a corner. Mostly around the corner, because he peeks back around it, so he can an eye on this intrusion into his life.

[thebiotickid]

[Jane is not exactly pleased about suddenly finding herself on an unfamiliar space station, but one thing she's never done is shy from a challenge. It's a little weird that her biometrics seem to be letting her through everywhere, but she's not going to look a gift software glitch in the mixed metaphor, and takes advantage of her unprecedented (for her preteen self) access to investigate the mystery on her own. Just when she's working around to admitting it might be time to hunt down an adult rather than wandering with no particular goal in mind, she finds someone even more out of place than she is, and the last of her nebulous spy vid fantasies disappear in a puff of responsibility. Jane crouches in front of the toddler, instinctively reducing herself as a threat.]

Hey, buddy. Are you lost?

[rokketmann]

[ The toddler looks around at the question and rubs at his left ear. There's still a telepathic earplug in that one, but he hasn't figured out what it is or how to get it out. It's a little overwhelming to hear two languages at once. ]

No, I in the hallway.

[ His voice is that high toddler voice that could be saying anything, so squeaky and garbly is the vocabulary. But he's pleased to know that. Of course, he doesn't know where the hallway is, but that hasn't occurred to him. Rokk holds up the omnicom upside to show it off, less nervous around the girl than he's been with adults. ]

I got this and I like it. I go like this. [ He has figured out where the play button is on a feed. Teenaged Brainy starts complaining, and Rokk laughs. He silly.

[thebiotickid]

...Okay, you got me there.

[It sure is a hallway. Score one for the literal baby.]

His hair's pretty funny, huh?

[Jane dutifully watches a few seconds of a younger Brainiac 5 failing to endear himself to anyone. Wow, that guy's a jerk.]

I'm Jane. What's your name?

[Even in middle school, her people skills are already pretty well developed, and despite a lack of experience with very young children, she knows to engage with what he's interested in. That works with everyone.]

[rokketmann]

I got you there.

[ It is, in fact, a still a hallway, although this is more monkey-see, monkey-do.

The toddler reaches up and touches his hair, which is quite dark and that's how hair should be. He looks at the girl's red hair, and then the boy on the video. His face looks like she just suggested he eat cauliflower and then take a nap.]

He got yellow hair! And you got red, Zhane!

[ Yeah, that J sound isn't happening for a few more months, but he's still laughing because they are clearly trying to be funny with their hair.

He points at himself with his thumb and beams.]

Rokk.

[thebiotickid]

[Well, heck. Jane's pretty sure she just got burned by a barely-verbal preschooler. At least he's happy.]

It's nice to meet you, Rokk.

[It occurs to her that extending the principle that she likes to be treated like an adult by actual adults to cover a two-year-old is a bit excessive, so she catches herself before she offers a handshake.]

Would you like to come exploring with me? Maybe we can get a snack.

[Look, she knows what kind of bribery works on her.]

[rokketmann]

[ Snack gets his attention, predictably, but there's a wide-eyed awe at this as well. Random snacks aren't a common occurrence. Rokk gets to his feet and rushes over with an excited march step.

He holds his hand up to her expectantly. When you go places with a big person, you hold hands. ]

Yes! Please!

[thebiotickid]

[Aww, what a good kid. Jane rises from her crouch to take his little hand.]

Let me know if you get tired, okay? I'll carry you.

[Jane is pretty built by preteen standards. She can tote 20 or 30 pounds of baby for a while, especially piggyback.]

[rokketmann]

[ Jane is about to learn a very valuable lesson: do not say the c-word to a toddler.

Rokk immediately stops walking and holds his arms up to her expectantly. ]

Up?

[bachido]

The time ripples are beginning to affect Kubo's mind more than they were before. Now, when he snaps back to age 12, he doesn't remember his Legion adventures. He just has moments of sudden disorientation as he finds himself wandering the halls of the Legion remembering only a second ago being in some other point in his childhood, wondering why his robes don't fit him anymore.

And then, just as frequently, the opposite happens. He'll suddenly snap into being much older, and his memories take on a smoky, inconsistent quality. Are they true, or just likely? Are they just good stories his mind is filling in the blanks with?

Well, a toddler's not likely to be able to tell him. The appearance of a very small child snapped Kubo out of his pondering. He narrowed his eye, trying to determine if he knew this child or not, then crouched down to give the kid a friendly smile.

"Hello. Are you looking for someone?"

[rokketmann]

"No," said the toddler in a sing-song voice. For about twenty seconds, this remained true. Rokk was enjoying playing by himself with his new toy that sometimes spoke to him and, once, seemed to make the lights in the hallway change color.

That could have been a mere coincidence, but he was nevertheless convinced that the toy did it. He offered the omnicom to new person and informed him of the situation. "I pushed the button and it don't work and I want purple and I TOLD it I want purple!"

By the end, the pitch has gone baby nuclear, but he's not upset, just excited by getting to explain what the trouble with the toy is. "I want Mommy. She can fix it."

[bachido]

A small child wanting his mother was a subject too close to Kubo's heart not to affect him intensely at any point in time.

He could hold the conflicting feeling of missing his own mother alongside amusement at the little boy's source of frustration, and so his chuckle only had a slight hitch of emotional compromise.

"Wow, she must be smart. We should probably go get her then," he suggested. He hadn't seen a grown woman in the hall lately, so he held out his hand. Even if this child was someone he knew shifting through time as he was, it was impossible for him to leave even a temporary child alone and missing their mother, with Too Many Feelings building. "How about it, do you want to help me find her?"

[rokketmann]

Rokk nodded. Yes, his mom was very smart. She knew how band-aids worked. They were sticky and tricky.

"Yes! I help!" The little boy has always been keen on helping, and he took the offered hand by as much as he could get his fingers around (about two fingers). Rokk started down the hall, pulling on Kubo and really throwing his weight into it after only two steps. "Come on... people!"

He wasn't going to be dissuaded by not knowing someone's name.