Request: Magically Papa Nil, Papa I, Papa II, Papa III, and Copia are all young again (I'm talking early 20s young) What's the first thing they do? How do the Ghouls react?
Answer:
oh this is gooooooddddd. Also i see this and raise you: they traveled to an alternate dimension where theyre young again but also time went back too so everything is as it was. The ghouls quickly found a way to communicate with them, but are actively trying to figure out how the hell to get them back.
Papa Nihil: He would do everything he realized he couldn't do after having kids. Whether it's traveling he missed out on, or really getting around, or just spending time alone. He would make sure not to take a second of silence in which there was no screaming toddlers or one of his adult sons committing felonies on church grounds for granted. Of course he thinks about all of the things he could have (or should have) done differently in raising his sons. In his relationships with their respective mothers. With Imperator. Oh how things were good with Sister when they were young. Foolish, they say in their old age while reminiscing about the good old days. But that will never stop his heart from yearning to live forever in a world where him and Sister are together, and happy, and carefree, forever.
Papa I: Probably some self reflection. Think about how he could have changed things, and what he would want to tell himself if he could be young again. He thinks about it a lot - everything great he did, everything great he could never accomplish. Much like his father, he would take the time to get some of those things done, and treat every moment like it's his last before they those damned ghouls find a way to make him old again. He also spends a lot of time thinking about the way he treated his brothers. He should have seen it when II needed his help, or guidance, but was too hard headed to ask. He should have seen when III was struggling with his emotions and coming to terms with the fact that he has to become a Papa one day without a choice. He holds no remorse for the way he treated Nihil though - even with his wise mind, he sees that the way he and his brothers were treated when they were young was unacceptable by any standards. And will not hesitate to confront his old man when the ghouls bring him back.
Papa II: Probably party if im honest. His older body doesn't recover nearly as well as a twenty something year old body did after several nights of binge drinking and reckless behavior in a row. He sure did get those nights in during his first go around of being young (See: my murder hcs) but he would probably be smarter than the first go around - he can't really let himself go like he thought he would be able to when he idealized what might happen if he was young again. He put so much of his time and effort into being a good Papa. Doing what was right for the church and for everyone that believed in him. And doing even more to spite those who didn't. It's nice for him to go back to a time of such little responsibility for him - his older brother was still Papa, his younger brother was still young enough not to need real emotional guidance yet. He puts his restful mind on autopilot while his body is in some dreadful club getting batshit wasted with a couple of hot chix.
Papa III: As much as I would like to say he would Go Crazy Ah Go Stupid Ahghhh, he would probably attempt to fix mistakes his younger self made in love. He would probably find the most emotionally fulfillment out of all of them. Maybe he would find the one that got away, and make sure to never let them go. To cherish any time he has with them before the ghouls bring him back to what painful a reality it is knowing that they're gone. And maybe he gets the closure that even in another life, another world, things still might not work out. Maybe he could stop a terrible event from happening to himself or someone he loves. Lucifer know's he'd try. He also really takes the time to understand what his older brothers and father are saying to him - this and that are mistakes, you should be doing this. Even though he knows that things won't be different when he goes back, it gives him some peace to relive those painful moments through a different set of eyes. To relive it with wisdom no one should have expected a twenty year old to have, back then.
Cardinal Copia: The most interesting of all, I say, would be the Cardinal's choice. I HC that he was III's assistant for a long time, even in his 20s, and even brought up in/around the church (i will Not reference canon because I simply do not vibe with it). He would look at things a lot differently. He thought for a long time that if given the chance at a young age, maybe he would have left the church to pursue what might be a more meaningful career. Maybe he would have at least taken a break to build meaningful relationships outside the clergy. Or maybe he would have just taken III's head off a lot sooner. But when he really goes back, he sees things much differently than he even expected he might. He doesn't hate III. He doesn't resent any of the emeritus' brothers like he used to. Though he's still only a Cardinal, he's had to make a lot of hard decision in the church, and he understands the choices each of his predecessors had to make on a deeper level. When he returns to the right time, all he's left with is sort of an empty sadness. A longing for things to have gone differently. Maybe he could have gotten what he wanted without going to such drastic measures.
The ghouls response: As I mentioned, when the ghouls figure out for only a few moments how to communicate with their disappeared leader, they tell them they'll bring them back as soon as possible. The girls, Dew, and Swiss think it would do those old bastards some good to see what it's like to be young again, and maybe they'd be cut a little more slack. Rain is just awfully worried about them even though it's clear they lived decently well through where they are now. Aether and Mountain are just the ones trying to figure out how the absolute hell to bring someone back from another dimension, nevermind how they got there to begin with. After two weeks of reading every book in the church library and every related webpage they can find, they bring back their disappeared Papa/Cardinal, they're eager to hear about what's happened and what they learned. But mostly Dew is just a little pissed off he didn't have more time to cause more trouble without the supervision of a Reasonable Adult and with Aether busy in the books.