A few days ago I came across a series of posts in a newsgroup debating the origin, nature, and opportunity of writing stories set in the rejuve universe (RU,) the fictional futuristic world created almost a decade ago by the author known as Lurking Dragon. In the RU penitentiary system, criminals are rejuvenated (or “rejuved”, as it is incorrectly but usually phrased,) to the state of children, and placed in the care of parents who will administer sound and continuous corporal punishment to their charges.

One of the posts in that thread also mentioned ageplay (AP.) It made me think how a number of ageplayers are also authors of stories set in the rejuve universe. As an ageplayer, albeit currently not an active one, and author of RU stories, I am worried that people may wrongfully identify one with the other in all cases.

AP is a form of role-playing game where one or more players take the role of a young child character, and interact as such. Typically the child character is a somewhat accurate reflection of one’s inner young self, and is named IK (for InnerKid), as opposed to the Big (one’s everyday adult personality) that controls it. Certain players prefer having the IK retain their true name and history, i.e. 35-year-old Mary playing 5-year-old Mary in a setting familiar to her own childhood. Others, more frequently, will make up characters that do resemble themselves as children to a point, but have a different history, i.e. Mary plays 7-year-old Kim, whose parents have died and who is seeking a new family. In that case, more often than not adult Mary will have a real life childhood history of loss and abandonment, or some form of abuse anyway. She’s still playing a younger version of herself, but not entirely consciously. Approximately three out of four ageplayers are female, more or less equally distributed between adult and child characters. Those that are males more usually play adult characters.

I should mention that spankings have not always been a part of ageplay. That AP chat rooms and communities are often associated with spanking ones is only because most ageplayers cannot, or will not, separate childhood from spankings. That is perfectly understandable, given that everything spanking does relate to childhood in one way or the other. But pure AP is something entirely different, and, sadly, fading away.

Pure AP is age regression for the sake of age regression. It is playing consciously and conscientiously in a controlled mindspace, keeping control of your IK at all times, using your adult personality as a medium. That brings to fun, fulfillment, and joy for being able to relive your childhood actively and serenely. Being able to “use one’s adult personality as a medium” is the key concept. What if an ageplayer’s adult personality is undeveloped and not able to keep control, and is instead basically that of a child in an adult’s body?

Those are what I call “naturals,” because they would not *need* to ageplay: they are naturally childish. All ageplayers, pure or not, have or have had great pains in their life; but naturals have been so deeply affected by that pain, that they have never formed a stable and reliable personality. As a result, ageplay for them is not a game any longer. It is not even age regression, but rather an expression of their “natural” form. They are more kids than kids.

As a result, they are the worst ageplayers. They often take things very personally, seeing their characters’ faults and successes as their own. “Characters” is right, since frequently they have two or more littles that they play, each with slightly different personality traits. It should be said that full-fledged Multiple Personality Disorder is not exactly widespread among ageplayers, although the concentration is remarkably higher than, say, among spankos or BDSM-ers. It is not uncommon at all to see naturals talking to themselves through different identities. The demarcation line for them is so much harder to see, and ageplay outpours in their real life just as much as their real life outpours into ageplay.

The problem is they don’t play by the rules. Every game has rules, either written or unwritten, and AP is no exception. Many naturals are known to become whiney and sticky when their “Mommy” or “Daddy” needs to leave, either to attend real life commitments or just because they are in need of a break in the game. It goes from simple scowling all the way down to insults the likes of, “if you disconnect it means you hate me!” Very often they act like their littles, but using language pertaining their Bigs: they talk of chat rooms, server issues, and even AP itself not as the adults they are, but as the kids they are supposed to be playing. They do not get out of character. As stated above, that is often because they don’t even have a character. They are naturals, after all.

Naturals are quite widespread. I would say they constitute a good 80-90% of the Internet age-playing community. They are also the reason why I abandoned all active ageplay; it is virtually impossible to find an AP community free of naturals. I have been an ageplayer for five years, mostly on the adult side of the game, with a few age regression experiences. It is a myth that ageplayers who play adults have a natural predisposition to leadership; if anything, it helps them/us to overcome insecurities and gain responsibility. I have spent beautiful months with two wonderful kid characters, Lindsey Kate and Summer. Their Bigs might not have been the best writers, but they understood pure AP perfectly. They played by the rules. It is why I am still best friends with them, even though their littles are long-since “dead.” But most ageplayers will take things way too personally, and draw very faint lines, if at all visible, between reality and fiction.

That is part of the reason why rejuve universe is many ageplayers’ dream situation. Lurking Dragon had a genius idea and carried it out with 50+ terrific stories, but he didn’t really get much into the philosophy of rejuvenation technology (something I would personally like doing a little more extensively.) His idea of the future is one of the worst case scenarios for humankind, but at the same time, can you imagine being turned back into a child? Not age-playing, but being the actual child. How awesome! You lived a happy childhood and have fond memories? Go back and relive them all. Adults abused and mistreated you? Here’s your second chance, and this time it’ll work out. If ever a technology for rejuvenation is invented, and let’s hope it is not, it will be the most profitable business in history.

It is no surprise that most writers in the RU are ageplayers to some degree – but the RU is not ageplay. The RU is a fictional setting for fictional stories, not a chance to write out one’s role-play sessions. Ageplayers who write in the rejuve universe have produced some of the least interesting stories to date. Ageplayers who write spanking fiction in general have generated unremarkable products; there are a few notable exceptions, of course, but for the most part an ageplayer’s fiction ends up being a rather plot-less interaction with feel-good situations, and no character development to speak of. That’s what happens when you try to mix two things that are only apparently complementary, but are actually quite diverse.

Those ageplayers who are interested in the RU might as well join communities that are dedicated to both AP *and* the RU. There are several role-playing groups where players take on the role of rejuved children, or their host families, or school teachers, or authorities from the Department of Corrections, and so forth. If ageplayers continue to mistake the rejuve universe for yet another AP scenario, therefore committing themselves to write stories set in the RU, the overall quality of the stories will continue to decrease, and on average it is low enough as it is. Stories are not role-plays, and role-plays are not stories. Sadly, many ignore this point, or choose to ignore it.

It is true that several RU authors envision themselves in the place of the rejuved kid. Even I tend to put myself in the shoes of my fictional rejuve child Gracie Mae, and I’m a male top; more like a mentor/parent type than a dominant, but still a top, and of the opposite sex, and that’s saying something. I can only imagine the degree of identification of ageplayers with their (RU) characters. The rejuve universe does have a strong age-playing component to it, but again, only those who can do good ageplay would probably be good RU authors. The naturals, the not-so-good ageplayers, are more often than not poor RU authors.

Their afflux into the rejuve universe is one of the reasons why several people are either uninterested or full-out disgusted by the RU. Their inability to build a consistent plotline and believable characters makes the stories a hard and annoying read. Those who find the RU revolting, of course, will do so with all kinds of RU stories, that they are written by ageplayers or by actual authors (as “actual” as it can get with us amateur writers, anyway.) We see stories with spankings that are abusive to say the least: intentional blisters, badly marked bottoms of preteen children, rape scenes, judicial tortures, and other gruesome elements of a varied nature, so it’s no surprise that some shy away from those.

But that is the point of the rejuve universe. That’s how it originated in the mind of its creator, and that’s how it should be: it would be unrealistic to have such a fascist, oligarchic and then maintain that its inhabitants do not bask in the morbid acceptance of extreme violence… and what is more extremely violent than turning convicted criminals into little children to torment so heinously? It is punishment after a crime, granted, but of unjustified violence. It would make little sense to have non-violent expressions in the rejuve universe.

Stories that feature “I” rejuves (Innocentata, people who have been judicially rejuved by mistake,) “M” (Medicalos, people who have been rejuved in order to be saved from a fatal ailment,) “V” (Voluntaras, people who choose to be rejuved to have a second childhood or extend their life-span,) or even “K” (Kindern, a biologically natural child,) still contain a certain degree of violent spankings. It’s in the nature of the RU to contain those. It takes an exceptionally talented author to build a story that does not conform to those standards, and yet is readable and consistent with the general RU guidelines. As stated above, ageplayers are hardly your idea of “talented authors.” It is too bad that they would try their hand at such “reduced violence” stories. It’s like having a horror movie without the chase, the stabbing, the gore, and the screaming schoolgirl: it’s no longer a horror movie, it’s… nothing.

Spanking fiction written by ageplayers, especially RU fiction, often falls into the infamous Realm of Nothingness. In Italy, they say, “it’s neither meat nor vegetables,” to say that something cannot really be placed in any category. While usually the non-classifiability of a work of art is a good thing, it is definitely not a good thing in this case, because it produces insipid stories that have most likely been written by the author as a form of personal self-therapy, and that kind of story is hardly, if ever, enjoyable to anyone else.

All in all, I am not opposed to either ageplay, or the rejuve universe. If anything, I take so much pleasure in both that I like to see them treated right. The current state of things is like being a big baseball fan who sees a game with no strikeouts, no hits, and no homeruns: it is boring, unexciting, and altogether a missed chance for a good game. It is like walking in an art gallery where most paintings are facing the walls instead of the audience: you don’t get anything out of it. It’s like going to a Shakespeare festival where the actors speak in such a hushed tone you think Hamlet is saying, “To beer or not to beer?”

Statistically speaking, most ageplayers are not good ageplayers, and most rejuve universe authors are not good rejuve universe authors. It is no surprise that more and more people are being driven out of the age-playing community, and that many consider the rejuve universe fallacious, sickening, or just plain wrong.

Of course, that most rapists are male does not mean that most males are rapists; likewise, there *are* good ageplayers and good rejuve universe authors. But they are rarer and rarer finds, and it is why I would be so immensely glad to see people who have a brain and know how to use it try and be ageplayers, or rejuve universe authors. I was neither, and was convinced to be both by influential acquaintances. I am glad to have been both, and I hope that others will do the same too – *pure* ageplay, and thoughtful rejuve universe writing.

~ Haley. Nov. 15, 2005

"THOUGHTS" MAIN PAGE

Copyright © 2005 Haley Brimley. Contact for information and/or feedback.