Pidge slams the door as he stumbles into his hotel room, tears in his eyes. He thought this software engineering conference would be safe, but the presenter had used his old name and refused to gender him correctly during his whole talk. He had held on during the talk not wanting to make a scene but now he was alone the tears wouldn't stop coming. He had called the organizers on the way back in the rideshare but they had been utterly unhelpful pulling out bullshit lines like "It's the presenters free speech" and "We don't get involved with the political views of our employees". He bets if it had been a racial slur the presenter said they would have gotten involved and not cared one whit about the presenters free speech then.
Pidge flops onto his bed and punches the pillow a few times just upset at the whole world.
"My old parents. But with their memories adjusted, so I've always been a boy. And I'd like to be 8. I guess. What else is there to the price? Will I lose all my memories or something, to protect the timeline or whatever?" He rather hopes he won't, he likes his memories. Even if he hates having not gotten this to begin with... He doesn't want to lose who he is, and he kinda figures losing his memories would do that.
"Alright, I can do that. Not to worry, you won't lose your memories. You can't tell anyone, though. You won't be able to tell anyone about this unless they've also had a wish granted by me, and you can't tell anyone you're really an adult. People won't be able to come to that conclusion on their own, or to decide you're some kind of genius and let you skip grades, but if you act too weird, they will notice, and you don't want to be stuck in therapy all the time, do you? Now, do you have any other questions or should I grant your wish now?"
"Can I tell people I can predict the future, stop bad stuff from happening? Can I change things, on purpose? How will I know when someone else has has a wish granted by you?" He doesn't really want to predict the future, but it might be useful. But if there are gonna be other kids who are actually time-travelling adults...he wants to know them.
"No predicting the future, go ahead and try to change things, and you'll know because you will be able to tell them about the time travel. You know what, I'll show up the night before you're about to meet one, if you're about to meet one, and let you know, give you a bit of a heads up. If you try to tell someone you can't by the way, you'll have a coughing fit. And you won't be able to talk about it around anyone you can't tell, either. Is that all?"
"Yeah, that's all, go ahead and grant my wish." He still isn't convinced this is real but...well, he'll see soon, won't he?
At this, the fairy pulls a wand out of thin air, spins around with it dramatically, taps him on the head with it...and he passes out.
Pidge groans as he wakes up. His body feels...off. What did he even get slipped last night? He should go to the hospital probably and tell the police...
This...Isn't his hotel room, that is very worrying. And his limbs feel very very wrong when he tries to move them. Could it be?...no way...there is no way...no fucking way.
He looks down. Yep, that torso doesn't have a binder or small breasts (he forgot to take his off last night like an idiot) and is much too short. Those arms are the wrong shape and length. He reaches down into his pajamas (that he did not remember putting on).
"WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!" He screams and flails around at the shock of feeling A PENIS! He ends up falling out of bed with a loud 'THUMP!'.
Ahhhh the fairy was real! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!
The internal screaming continues for some time until pidge snaps out of it. "I-I'm fine! Just woke up from a freaky dream!"
By every god in the pantheon of humanity, he was a boy! An 8-year-old boy! Pidge pats himself over trying to get a feel for what he looked like, then spots a mirror in the connected bathroom to this room. Well, that works too.
Pidge looks himself over in the mirror. He still looks like himself sorta. You could think this body and his old one were siblings maybe. He had the same brown hair that stuck up in places, same eyes and a similar nose even. But he was definitely a little boy now in facial features and body. He quickly pulls down his pajama bottoms to get a look at what he felt earlier.
Yep. That's a penis, neat.
He is unsure whether to be thrilled to be a boy or horrified to be a child. He is a pretty cute kid though, he could see himself being a pretty hot guy when he grew up. Yeah no there were more immediate things to worry about like who that was outside the door.
Okay... new parents. So this must be like an adoption agency person maybe? Well, any acting weird can just be put down to nerves about meeting his new family.
He looks over the room for some clothes and finds some, puts them on. Boxer briefs felt weird now he actually had something that needed the roominess. A T-shirt and shorts completed the kid standard wardrobe.
Any lingering weirdness about his limbs being different proportions quickly vanished while he was dressing and he felt pretty at home in this body now, even if seeing himself in the mirror was still a shock every single time it happened. Time to face this stranger and pretend he was a normal kid, and out the door he goes.
Ohhh cereal! Sugary goodness he couldn't quite make himself buy as an adult because of a general sense of health shame. Well, screw that he was 8! Time to eat all of the sugar. "Uhhh okay." Hoping him having no idea who this woman was just came off as excitement for breakfast or adoption nerves or something.
He goes to sit at the table. Gosh the chair was so high now and so was the table. He hopes he gets taller soon this could get annoying being so short. Om nom nom nom fruit loops are the best, childhood has perks at least.
He finishes his food quickly. "Do I actually have any stuff I need to get?... Wouldn't my new parents already have everything they need?..." He says to the woman, trying to find out if he actually has any stuff in the first place.
"I will!" Well, that didn't sound like he had very many possessions. Hopefully, his new parents liked to spoil him. He slides off his chair (Being short sucked!) and goes back to the room.
Oh... look. A suitcase was on the floor, so he does have more things. He picks through the suitcase trying to see if there were any clues to the manufactured previous life of this body (At least he hoped it was manufactured, body stealing a body that looked like him would be a weird way to grant that wish). Nope, no clues, just more Walmart brand clothes and not much else. No GameBoy games or paperback books or anything. Oh well makes sense it would just be generic stuff in this new life. So he brushes his teeth, packs his pajamas and toothbrush and goes back to the living room to wait awkwardly.
A few minutes later, someone knocks on the door. The woman who reminded him to brush his teeth answers the door, and another woman walks in.
"Hello, Pidge. Got all your stuff ready? We need to head out to take you to meet your new family!"
She sounds overly cheery in the manner of someone who likes kids but hasn't fully comprehended that they're people.
Yeah... He remembers that sort of treatment from the first time around. Being skipped ahead a few grades he got that from teachers all the time. "Yup!" He jangles his suitcase to prove his point. "Everything is packed. Ready to go."
He can do the moody shy child act to counteract the cheeriness juuuust fine then. He gets in the car. "I guess... hey do you have a newspaper?." He wants to know the year exactly, and newspapers had comics, kids read newspaper comics, right?
People always say other people are nice. That really Isn't a useful data point. "Maybe...I bet most people are nice when being judged by a social worker." He takes the newspaper, what is the year?
Huh. Neat. Not so far back that technology sucked too badly. He can play all the GameBoy advance games he didn't get to the first time around. Watch the shows he missed like Lost or Buffy.
Sitting for so long was... Different with a penis. Having to shift around every so often to readjust. Also not having boobs was amazing just all the time looking down and it being flat.
Was the child brain affecting him? because he started feeling all antsy and needing to do something. He puts down his newspaper and tries looking out the window but that didn't help much. "You know if they are allergic to dogs? I always wanted a dog." He asks the social worker. Dad had been allergic to every animal in his last life and his apartment was too small as an adult to have a dog.
Ugh wow, the over the top cheeriness had already gotten so old it had fossilized. "Yeah...sure I guess. It'd be a bit weird to just drop me off at the front door without seeing if they actually hate me first or something. Or if I hate them." Oh fuck... The antivaccine craze was in full swing right around now and he didn't know if this body came pre vaccinated. What if his new family was that kind of assholes? People who listened to idiot celebrities over doctors.
Please no crazies, please no crazies. He mentally chants while crossing his fingers as he goes into the house with the social worker.