From A Man To A Child (JP)

They finally managed to get him to his feet. After a few missteps and physical adjustment, Demitri(fin) seemed to gain his balance. His awareness was also creeping back into place. The point blank question signaling in the back of his mind that he was about to get in trouble. He lazily shook his head no, “Nope.”

As if by instinct at the denial, his body swiftly morphed into Lily Miller, Tessa’s eight year old daughter that had touched his arm earlier at the lunch table. Off came the grossly oversized pants down to the floor. Fortunately the shirt acted like a long dress, but it was dangerously teasing to slip off her shoulders. His weight was nothing now and he was held suspended in the air between Khunara and Johnathan. The change seemed to take even more out of him, looking even more punch drunk.

Khunara gasped and her eyebrows pinched together in a bit of anger. "Finlay, indeed..." She said in a hard tone. "You're supposed to be in bed. Lets get him to his room." She gestured with her free arm toward the room that he belonged in. "He's the only shapeshifter I'm aware of down here."

Johnathan scooped Finlay up into his arms. "This kid's gonna be the death of me." He muttered under his breath as they hurried to Finlay's room. As they neared the room, Johnathan politely asked one of the nurses to bring warmed blankets and and something with good notional value for Finaly to eat. He laid Finlay down carefully on the bed and draped the blankets that were already there over him/her. "Look kid, I understand that it gets boring as Hell down here, not to mention scary." He said as he moved towards the closet of the room and grabbed something. He returned to the bedside and handed Finlay a notebook and pen. "But you can't go running off like that. Everyone here has to look out for each other, including you." He pointed to the notebook, his expression stone cold, but his tone calm and even somewhat soft. "When I first lost my family, I found that writing things down helped a lot. I wrote about what our futures would've been like if I hadn't lost them, I wrote about the new people I met, new experiences, and when things got really boring, I wrote about anything I could see. Even the dirt walls." He said, pulling a chair up to the side of the bed. "I'm sorry if no one was listening to you when you said you wanted out. We try to accommodate everyone to the best of our ability, but it can be difficult at times. So what can we do to help?"

Khunara let Johnathan talk as she checked over Finlay's vitals, even this odd state as a child he was in. "Johnathan is right," She said after she was done and sure he was okay. "You can't go running around without help. What if you'd hurt yourself? Please, let us know what we can do. There are many people here who will help you..."

Shapeshifters were indeed rare to come by for a variety of reasons. One, anti-Gifted groups tended to exterminate them. Two, do to the nature of there ability, many get hurt or die during the initial phases where their abilities aren’t fully under control. Three, those that last longer tend to suffer from mental health issues and become suicidal, insane, or in some cases sadistic. And finally, many never come across one because it is really hard to tell if one is a shapeshifter or not if they are a tier one type. Finlay was a tier one and fortunately he had the blessing of the care and protection the safe haven provided. With just his mishaps today, imagine if he was out in the cruel unforgiving and dangerous world.

Lily(fin) was trying her best to listen to his elders. It looked like he was paying attention. Perhaps it was even registering, tough to tell with a 16 year old now eight years old; you know their prefrontal cortex where rational decision making takes place isn’t fully formed until around age 25. Suddenly his face cringed with shame, instead of a reply. It was followed by a growing wet spot in the bed. Having lost control of her bladder, she had just peed herself.

With a soft sigh, Khunara went to get a nurse to care for Lily - no, Finlay. This was going to be a very difficult person to deal with, that was for sure. She just prayed that the young man would soon figure out a better control over his power.