"Open wide, OK?" An authoritative voice said through the blinding light that was probing, sticking itself into Delilah's eye. Her other eye--the good one--was closed. Delilah got the sense that she was in familiar territory. And that, she had chosen to close her eye.

For whatever reason, it wasn't exactly clear, she knew she had followed directions of some kind that had placed her here. But where she was, what was happening and what the blinding light was--in the current moment--she couldn't say.

Delilah blinked rapidly and stared into the light. It felt like a doctor's office and it felt like her eye was back, but she couldn't tell if she was still dreaming. She stared ahead until her eyes watered.

"Am I...ok? Where's my mom?"

"What's the problem, sweetheart?" Delilah heard her Mom's voice ask. But shen she turned around to look, she saw someone that clearly wasn't her Mom, even though the voice was the same.

The mouth was stretched impossibly back with an ear-to-ear grin. Delilah barely had time to notice that her own eye was not completely functional.

OOC: Delilah loses condition 'One Eye'

A terrible tremor ran up Delilah's legs and back. Her limbs shook like jello and she nearly fell off her perch in the doctor's office. Her legs windmilled in confusion trying to climb over the furniture and run away at the same time. She shrieked and took in a shuddering breath to scream again. Her eyes could not look away from the skinless thing with her mother's voice.

"What's wrong? Calm down. Are you OK?" The doctor's voice sounded distant. Delilah could sense that he was coming closer, felt his movements, one hand extended outward.

The thing that answered to Delilah as 'Mom' stood up, all normal looking, except for the face. There was something familiar about the way 'Mom' came closer, out of the dark corner of the room and into the dim light of the examination room.



"What's wrong?" Delilah's Mom asked, with the same exact voice as, well, Delilah's Mom. Everything about Mrs. Gray's demeanor seemed similar, except she somehow had blonde hair and her main distinguishing feature was a  grinning smile, in which its lips were fixed wide open, exposing  teeth and gums within at all times.

Delilah backed into a corner with her hands up to ward off the thing walking towards her. It moved like her mother. And sounded exactly the same. Only her face was all wrong. The blonde hair was confusing, but nothing prepared Delilah for that hideous face. Not enough flesh. Far too many teeth.

Back in the snow fort, a monster pretended to be her father. It wore him like an old coat until all the seams split open. This was the opposite somehow. Her mother was inside this freak-faced creature.

"Mom?"

Tears tumbled over her cheeks. The doctor moved and Delilah flinched to see him better. He was not familiar at all.

"Just calm down dear." Delilah's Mom said. "Just calm down sweetheart. OK?" The wide-smiling thing said. The doctor didn't seem to notice the strange, permanent smile on her face, or he did but didn't care.

"Just take deep breaths." Mom said. "Through the nose out out through the mouth."

Mom began to breath just like the old Mom had. It was a routine and ritual that Mom used to show Delilah when she was as young as two or three to control her temper tantrums. Delilah's tantrums however, had lasted long into her 4s and even her 5s. Delilah remembered her kindergarten teacher Mrs. Wells complaining to her mother about that.

"Smell the flowers..." Mom inhaled. "blow the candles..." she breathed through  her smiling mouth.

Delilah stood with her knees locked and her legs bracing her back against the wall. She wanted to close her eyes or cover them with her hands, but she was too afraid. What if, right at that moment, the Mom Monster pounced?

Delilah swallowed hard and lowered her gaze to the Momster's feet. If she didn't look at the face, it was just like normal. It was just Mom trying to calm things down. Breathe in. Quiet. Breathe out. Focus. Same as at home. Or at practice before trying a new routine. Delilah always liked to imagine she was blowing out candles one at a time. She counted them down under her breath.

She counted down from thirty. Her fists were still shaking when she reached zero. She looked up again.

"It didn't look like you. At first. I dunno." Her throat felt like a sandbox. She looked over to the doctor again. She couldn't stare into those teeth.

The Mom-thing was unmoved. Its broad smile stretched its face from ear to ear unnaturally.

"Not me?" The face would have smiled, but it already was. The eyebrows arched up in surprise, the mouth unmoving. A skull's grin.

"It's me honey." It chuckled as if in disbelief. "It's me! Mommy!"

Delilah shuddered and shrank back, but there was no room for worming away.

"No! Quitit!"

The horrid face loomed closer. Delilah could see into the crevices between the overcrowded teeth. Even all the way back in the stretched corners of the mouth. She scrubbed her eyes with the back of one fist and wiped the tear tracks off her cheeks.

"Forget it! I'm fine, okay? My eyes're fine and I want to leave! Now!"

Her mouth wobbled into a frown and she sounded close to tears again.

There was an awkward silence as the Doctor looked down, perhaps embarrassed by sitting around watching a fight between a daughter and her mother. The Doctor, had appeared by all means normal and clearly didn't seem to recognize the strange smile on Delilah's Mom's face.

The silence stretched out still.

And this emptiness stretched out to an almost infinite silence. Mom was smiling. But the lack of sound also meant that Delilah was able to focus on her own words.

Her eye was...was there. She could see, exactly as she had seen. She could moved her eye. She could blink. Everything was just as it was before.

Delilah gingerly touched around her face. She could feel her eyelid slide and blink. The painful, sickly emptiness was gone. Everything was almost like it was before. She got her eye back, but it made things look wrong.

If the doctor couldn't see her mother's new face, then she was screaming like a loon. He thought she was crazy. Mom didn't say anything. She stood with her gross grin, though Delilah could tell she wasn't happy. An awkward feeling came over the girl, embarrassment.

"It's fine. It's nothing. I'm s--" She grumbled, but couldn't bring herself to apologize for her outburst.

Delilah crossed her arms and glowered at the floor. Her eye was back, but the circus did something to it. She knew she'd made the deal and she was angry at being tricked somehow. She'd see the pig again. Maybe when she went back to sleep. She hugged herself tighter.

"Are we done now?"

"I mean....yes." The doctor said, looking at Delilah's Mom and then back at Delilah, as if hoping that the exchange between the two would end. His shoulders were slumped, his face was drawn long, as if he had never been involved with family quarrel.

"There doesn't appear anything to be with your eye."

"Yes." Mom said, mouth barely closing. "Oh that's such good news!"

"Well, I think we're done here Delilah. Let's go back home. What do you think?" Mom noted, her face was still stretched with that smile. Her eyes blinked only once or twice ever thirty seconds or so.

She stood there waiting, face smiling as if daring Delilah to say something else. The doctor didn't seem to notice.

Delilah stuffed her hands into her pockets and nodded sharply. Her mouth was closed and drawn into a tight pucker. She hoped "Mom" would turn and head for the door. Then she could follow and see only the back of her head.

At that's just what happened. Mom pulled out far ahead and Delilah was now in the hall of the hospital, waking by the Nurses who bore a hurried pace. A man with a cart filled with bags of clear liquid pushed by her. Mom just kept walking forward. And the strange thing was that she seemed to part the busy hospital workers just down the center. It was almost as if they were avoiding her.

Their faces were unperturbed and unworried, preoccupied with the tasks at hand and what needed to be done to keep the hospital running, to save lives. Still, it was odd to see the throngs of nurses, doctors, janitors and nurses aids fall to one or the other side of Mom's path, like she had some kind of invisible forcefield around her.

"Hey!" Delilahs' sister said in an excited tone. "What's the deal? Is your eye OK?" She said with hopeful glee, clearly looking up to Delilah with all of the gaze and wonder of a little sister that was eager to please.

Delilah followed along with her head down, at first. Usually, whenever she skulked along behind her mother, she would glare at the floor and bump into someone passing in the opposite direction. This time, she could see the quick, white shoes passing by. Looking up, she noticed they weren't just skirting by her; they were avoiding her mother. The nurses and other workers just seemed to turn at just the right moment. Delilah's mother moved down the hall like the prow of a ship. Delilah was simply in her wake.

That eye doctor didn't react to her mother's new face in any noticable way. Delilah studied the faces of passersby to gauge their reaction, but it was if they simply did not see the woman as she glided by. Delilah was so caught up in staring, that she didn't notice Susan's approach.

"Oh? Yeah. Hey, has mom been weird lately?"

Susan's face looked forward at Mom's back and then up towards Delilah, who was about a head taller than her. Her hair was shaggy, moving up and down as she walked forward, moving her gaze between Mom who didn't walk as much as glide across the floor.

"Ummmm." Delilah's sister said, eagerly. "Yes."

"Moms been weird lately. Probably?" She added in a question.



OOC: Delilah Rolls (Intelligence or Wits or Empathy) + Composure +1

00:17, Today: Delilah Gray failed (no successes) using 3d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((2,5,7)).

"Probably? Aw, c'mon! I mean, just...look! Look at 'er face!" Delilah gestured to their mother moving down the hall. Susan clearly couldn't see the woman's face, not right now, but she couldn't think of anything else.

Without missing a beat, or even looking, Susan said "Yes!"

Then she said. "Mom's all weird Delilah. Probably yesterday, or no!...the day before. Mom was in her room and then she grew purple wings and then her face got weird and then she told me to get here and then we came her together." She said all in one breath.

The girls were still following Mom and they were close to the exit of the hospital now.

"Moms gotten all weird!" Susan announced, almost happily, looking to Delilah to see what she thought about the explanation.

"Noooo! I'm bein' serious here! Like when I told you about the pig-- aw, forget it."

Delilah did not like to be teased. The way Susan looked fit to burst out laughing, this had to be some kind of joke. Her cheeks flushed red. Purple wings! I almost fell for it!

She wanted to stomp away from Susan and be the first one out the door. But she didn't know where the Mom-Thing had parked. And she'd have to turn back and ask Susan (or worse, "Mom") where it was.

Susan's lower lip quivered. Her eyes welled up. Then she pretended, clearly, that she wasn't as upset. It only took a moment, she pushed the palm of her hand into her left eye like she had something in it. Delilah had clearly misread Susan's expressions.

Susan wasn't goofing on Delilah, she was just trying to give her whatever answer her big sister wanted.

But who could blame Delilah? She had just escaped perhaps the worst nightmare of all. Looking at the back of Mom while she walked down the hall, it was clear, that perhaps the nightmare wasn't over.

The Mom-Thing pressed the button and the elevator doors opened. She glided inside, turned around to reveal that hideous, grinning smile and waited for Susan and Delilah to enter.

Delilah didn't see Susan's smile fall. She was stuck staring back into that sickening smile.

The thing that moved like Mom stood to one side of the elevator doors. Delilah nudged Susan forward and off to the opposite side. Suze was rotten little sister sometimes, but they'd made a promise to each other. Delilah stood between her sister and this Other Mother. She wanted to keep her eyes on that horrid face all the while. She tried to keep still and trick the creature into believing that she wasn't scared a bit. But she couldn't stop fiddling with her braids. She couldn't stop glancing at the numbers over the elevator doors.

Susan gladly pushed her way into the elevator and nudged her back against Mom. Mom-Thing's face kept smiling. Susan looked up into that face and smiled herself.

Then Mom-Thing pressed the button '1.' Her other hand dropped down to caress Susan's face and then shoulder. Gentle, loving caresses.

The face smiled broad and wide, the Mom-Thing wearing it like a mask.

The elevator doors closed. Then it started to move.

'ding'

'ding'

'ding'

The elevator was moving down, slowly.

It game to a gradual stop on floor number '2', the doors getting ready to open...

Delilah squirmed and shifted her weight from foot to foot. She kneaded her braids and wrapped them around her hand over and over. Watching the elevator doors felt like watching a bomb's timer run out. Still better than watching those teeth smile down. Even worse, Susan seemed to like the attention.

The elevator doors opened and a man with glasses walked in. He gave the Mom-Thing a polite nod and seemed to smile at Susan. It was the perfunctory smile that Delilah had seen a thousand times. The smile an adult gives at a kid and a mom because there's no other polite gesture that is ready to be taken off the shelf at a moments notice.

The doors closed and the elevator moved down again.

OOC: Delilah Rolls Wits + (Composure or Intelligence)

23:17, Today: Delilah Gray rolled 1 success using 4d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((5,8,2,4)).

Delilah scooted a little closer to her sister and let the man move to the buttons. This stranger noticed her mother, but didn't seem to see anything wrong. He wore glasses and she was reminded of the optometrist upstairs. An idea came to her. First, she closed her right eye and looked at the trio. Then she closed her closed her left eye and checked them out again with the soul rock wish eye.

At this point, Delilah became aware of something: The man didn't notice the smile on the Mom-Things' face. Susan didn't notice the smile. Even the people that were instinctively moving out of the Mom-Things' way in the hallway didn't.

No one seemed to notice.

No one except for Delilah. This realization was only slightly dampened by the sudden and unexpected opening of the elevator doors and the rush of hot, humid air that came inside.

Mom-Thing stepped outside with Susan and Delilah followed. They were in the bottom of the parking garage. But even through the slitted levels and hundreds of parked cars at the bottom of the hospital's garage, Delilah noticed something else:

Palm trees.

Delilah had never seen a palm tree in Minnesota. Never.

Delilah winked at her mom. It didn't matter how she squinted, the face didn't change. Nobody else saw what the circus had done. Not any of the strangers in the hospital. Not even her sister. She suddenly felt very alone. Mom and dad would always say that it was lonely at the top. And that was a good thing. It meant that you had no peers; that you were The Best. But this kind of lonely felt bad. Like the time her mom was late picking her up from practice. Or the time she was picked last at school for dodgeball even though the team captains could not pick anyone better.

Before she could wallow in this feeling, the doors opened and Delilah blinked her eyes against the hot air rushing towards her. For a terrible moment, she thought she was back at the forge. But it was bright here. And there were no pig monsters or slave kids. Cars and pavement and palm trees. All the regular Earth stuff. Well, palm trees were normal for some places on Earth, just not Bald Hill, Minnesota. Palm trees were for places like Florida or California or... wherever camels come from.

Delilah stared wide-eyed at the tall palm. Waves of heat rose from the vehicles. Even in the shade of the first floor, beads of sweat gathered at her hairline.

"Wh-where are we?"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:52, Thu 14 Dec 2017.

Mom didn't answer. She just started to walk towards the white Dodge Dart that Delilah had associated with trips to friends houses and long drives on family vacations out of state.

Susan turned to Delilah "What?" She asked, clearly somewhat taken aback by Delilah's question, as if the answer was obvious.

They were all heading to the same old car. That hadn't changed. The last time Delilah saw Susan, she woke up in the hospital and found out the snow fight had been six months ago. Now she wasn't even in the same town.

"I'm serious! Where are we? This isn't Bald Hill. This isn't home. What hospital is this? Why did--? What--? UGH!"

Delilah was pulling at her hair again. There were so many questions and no good way to ask them. Big sisters were supposed to be in charge, not ask their little sisters for help. She reached for Susan's shoulder and tried to start over.

Three. Two. One.

"What happened to my eye? What made mom bring me to the doctor? I don't remember." Her voice trembled. She wasn't simply alone. She was alone and lost.

Susan opened the back door to the Dodge Dart. It let out that familiar squeak as she swung it opened and jumped inside. The Mom-Thing sat in the driver's seat and adjusted the mirror. Delilah could see the wide smile plastered on its face, the Mom-Thing's eyes shifted towards focusing on buckling up its seat-belt, leaving Delilah and Susan to engage in kid's talk in the back seat.

"I dunno." Susan said, suddenly lost. Her voice was strained and defensive, like subject being interrogated at a police station. All innocence and uncertainty amid a line of harsh questions. She looked in Delilah's eyes as if searching for the answer there.

"You said you couldn't see." Susan said. And then, perhaps more shocking. "What's Bald Hill?"

Delilah followed her sister to the Dart. When Susan opened the door, Delilah jostled her. Not really to help her in so much as to hurry her up. The motion was so ingrained in her that she didn't even notice doing it. She climbed into the backseat, but couldn't follow the routine. Susan's question left her gaping open mouthed. She forgot to buckle up.

"What's Bald Hill? Bald Hill, Minnesota! It's our town! We've lived there forever. They named that one big hill after some dead guy." She shook her head slowly and blinked rapidly.

"Everybody goes sledding and has snow fights there every winter. And there's all the lakes. And we go ice fishin'. Skating. Hockey? You're the best right wing in the third grade. I mean, you're not as fast as me, but you're real good."

Delilah waited for some flicker of recognition. "And... and then last summer? There was that catfish contest? And you woulda won, but Justin Trudeau tried to steal your fish. So you socked him in the mouth and while you were fightin', the fish got away. You remember, right?" Staring back into Susan's eyes, she had the sense that the girl wasn't playing at amnesia.

Does my Twilight Zone family even sound like they're from Minnesota anymore? Or do they "talk funny" now?

The car pulled out of the garage into the balmy sunlight. And as they did, Delilah noticed that both her sister had a funny way of talking. It was smoother and softer sounding and it lacked the charm and familiarity that Delilah was accustomed to.

Susan seemed to be surprised by how animated her sister was. But then, her face turned from confusion to a big smile.

"I get it!" She announced, loud enough to convey surprise, but soft enough to keep the conversation between the kids in the back. "You're playing a game!" She announced.

"Wait a minute." Doubt crept into her voice. "Justin Trudeau." She said and she ground her fist into her open palm.

"I pummeled him when we were collecting shells on Venice Beach last summer. Justin tried to steal my shells. So I punched him." Susan said, lost in the moment of the memory.

Delilah didn't recognize it right away, but her own voice had an odd lilt. Not foreign, bit it might as well be. Something about the way vowels stretched and statements curled into questions.

She listened to Susan's version of the story and sank back into the seat. Venice Beach? Seashells? The memories were sort of the same. Like a spot the difference puzzle.

"So...so you remember Josh and Stinky Roger? And John with the red hair, right? Hannah and Sammy?"

There was a look on Susan's face of confusion. Like a recently woken person trying to piece together strands of recent dream that were fading fast into the background of the mind. The increasing reality only leaving echoes.

"No." She said simply. "I remember Justin because I wanted to punch him. Because that's what you said. You said we gotta punch kids that hurt us. So that's what I did. And that's what Dad used to say."

Susan got quiet.

"Before he went away." She finished, the last words seeming to choke her up. But she recovered quickly.

"That's why you gotta take as much as you can in any game. Because you don't know how much longer any game is gonna last. That's why I can't let Justin do that again, and that's why I can't, I can't...I couldn't let him do that then."

"Because if he did it once, he'd do it again. And then other kids would do it. I've got a reputation to look after. Just like you said that one time you hit Penelope."

Delilah nodded slowly when Susan mentioned their father. Susan was very hurt by his absence, but Delilah couldn't tell if "went away" meant that he died or just left. Either way, it felt a bit like losing him all over again. In this bizzaro wish world, Dad was gone and there would be no way to ask why. She would be expected to already know. She glanced to the rear view mirror and hoped their mom hadn't heard this bit of the conversation. Then she turned to the window and might have shielded the sun from her eyes.

"Yeah." Delilah cleared her throat. "Yeah, because you can't let someone just walk all over you. Once a chump, always a chump."

She couldn't think of anyone named Penelope. Same as Susan blanked on the kids that died back on Bald Hill. Didn't matter. Penelope sounded like a chump anyway and there were more important memory gaps to fill. Delilah had to figure out her new life before her mother and sister caught on. And before Hogwash came back. He might be there as soon as she fell asleep.

"What else do we have to do today?" She watched the unfamilar street signs go by and tried to pay attention to the route.

Delilah watched the road signs through the passing as her sister talked about the future of their day. Signs like Lincoln avenue and Welcome to Santa Monica.

"Well, I think Mom was going to make pasta. And tomorrow I have to go to a commericial...commeric-she-all." Susan cleared her throat. "A commerical. A come-ur-shall. I have to go to film. I mean, I'm going to be in a commercial. For toys." She finally spat out.

"But before dinner we can play marbles or something. Or maybe go to the beach. I mean, if your eye is feeling better and you're OK."

Delilah watched people taking a stroll along the pier as the sunset, that enormous sun inking into the sky. There was an amusement park—perched right on the pier with not-too-scary roller coasters and what looked like classic carnie rides that made a nice mix even for littler ones like Susan. Then there was an incomparable view from atop the pier -- a Ferris wheel.

Somehow Delilah knew that on weekends, adults could join free historical walking tours to learn more about the pier, which was old. And kids knew those tours were boring. And she also knew that there were other, more simpler pleasures on the pier—a creamy thick shake, a simple necklace of seashells—at snack shacks and trinket shops lining the pier. And that there were local fishermen at the docks on Sundays. If you hung out long enough down there, any kid was  bound to hear some good yarns and watch some slippery fish reeled in.

It all seemed so strangely familiar to Delilah. Yet, at the same time, Delilah had no real memory of any of it. It was almost as if the familiarity had been 'placed' there, inside of her head.

"A commercial? Right. I forgot."

Delilah let her head fall against the seatback. It felt heavy with strange knowledge. New memories and names lay atop the old like an oil slick after the rain: iridescent from afar and greasy to the touch. The soul rock wish changed her whole life around, but left just enough of her old self behind to feel bewildered and afraid.

"What kinda toys?" she heard herself asking. She wanted to scream, but then what? What would this other mother do?

"What?" Susan asked, as if she couldn't believe that Delilah could actually ask the question. "You know already!" Susan said, clearly thinking that Delilah was putting her on.

"Boglins." Susan said, mystified that Delilah might not know. "Boglins. What? You don't remember Boglins. You told me to do it. Didn't you?"

"Boglins. You know, the small, monster toys?" Susan probed.

"Boglins. Right?"

"Oh yeah. Boglins're great." Delilah's voice was flat. She remembered something about her sister on tv. And she also remembered not knowing anything about it.

"We can go to the beach, or wherever. Whatever you wanna do." Ordinarily, she would have loved a day at the beach. Especially in such nice weather. Now she just wanted to see it with her own eyes and stop the eerie dejavu playing in her head. "Wherever you wanna go."

The car turned into a development and stopped at a large, black metal gate.  Delilah could see large houses, some with two or three car garages. Even though they were all enormous compared to what she remembered in Minnesota, the houses all had a similar  "cookie cutter" look. They all had well cut lawns, painted colors of blue, beige or red, and each had an accompanying garden. It seemed like they were meant to fit four or three-person families but could easily fit a gaggle of relatives as well.  There were a few children living in the neighborhood and they were playing outside games of soccer and baseball in the hot sun.

"The beach! The beach!" Susan answered Delilah with excitement. And then...

"What are ya' lookin' at?" Susan asked, still clearly mistified by Delilah's strange behavior and questions.

Delilah stared in awe at the huge homes behind the black gate. She saw them already in her new memories, but they were impressive in person. Some of them even had a three car garage. She knew families like Roger's had more than three cars, but they were always out on the lawn and all busted up. She didn't know anyone with three cars nice enough to be kept in a garage all at the same time. They looked like houses on tv. The people who lived there probably looked like they belonged on tv, too.

"I, uh, it's just... Them!" Delilah quickly pointed at the kids playing ball. She scrambled to think of something on the spot and came up short.

The Mom-Thing adjusted the mirror and Delilah couldn't see anything in the rear view. Suddenly, the car pulled up to the curb and stopped. The Mom-Thing opened the car door and Susan jumped out onto the pavement, slamming the door behind her.

Delilah looked through the window from the back seat, gaping at the large mansion that set beyond the sidewalk, towering over her as if attempting to intimidate her. The cream coating of the paint shined as the sun beat down on it, causing Delilah to have to squint, even through the window. Uniquely twisted fencing kept the house enclosed, neatly trimmed hedges surrounded it. The roof was peaked, slanting down at an angle. The windows had royal purple curtains hanging on the other side of them, drawn so that the sunlight could stream through.

As she watched Susan run up the sidewalk, Delilah noticed a marble fountain sitting towards the right side of the lawn. An angel holding a flower was perched on top, looking up towards the sky. Water spurted from its other hand, which lay gently out in front of it, as if waiting for someone to take it in return. The water fell gently towards the crystal blue pool beneath it, causing ripples to form and wave out until they were no more.

Bushes trimmed into all sorts of green animals and green people littered the parts of the lawn that was not taken up by the fountain: cats, dogs, rabbits, giraffes, elephants, penguins, birds, snakes...All life-size. In the distance, Delilah could see the beach lay just beyond the backyard, grass forming into sand, bushes and hedges. turning into sand dunes.

OOC: Delilah adds to character sheet the Merit "Deep Pockets"

"No way."

Delilah sucked in a deep breath. The manse loomed over her. The biggest house she could ever hope to see. And she lived here. She looked down from the peaked roof to the stone angel and the fountain. A fountain! surrounded by hedges trimmed into animals. Delilah had never really thought of money before. They weren't poor and they weren't wealthy. Just normal folk. Now, they had a tv life. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

She hopped out of the car and followed her family inside, gawking at every luxury along the way.

Susan stopped in front of the huge, double front doors. There were large potted plants with fresh purple, yellow and red flowers on each side of the ornate, white molding that was so clean and crisp it looked like marble outlining the doors to heaven.

"What?" Susan said. "I swear, you sure are acting strange Delilah. Are you sure that your eye is OK? I mean, sheesh, you're looking around like something is wrong." Susan said as the Mom-Thing jangled the keys from her large, leopard-print, oversized, carry bag.

Susan looked so small in front of the stately double doors. If she didn't know her sister's temperament, Delilah would swear she was looking at a princess.

"It's just the...the glare. Gonna need my shades today."

She knew in the back of her mind where to find her room, but it was all so strange. And a bit heady. She was afraid of finding the pig man in her room. Or another golden handshake. But she was a little excited, too.

After the door opened, Susan rushed through all excited and happy, leaving the Mom-Things' gaping, unmoving and overstretched smile behind her. Two spiral staircases of white marble met at the top of the second floor, a small ornate table decorating the vast lobby of the McMansion like the opening scene from 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.'

"Come on! First one to get in their bathing suit is the winner!" Susan said. "And the second one is the Chump!" she announced, already running up the the left staircase.

Delilah walked inside without watching her step. She nearly collided into Monster Mom, then bumped into the delicately carved table in the foyer. Susan shouted a challenge and Delilah put her game face on.

"You're on!"

She sprinted up the right staircase. Her own grin widening with each step.

Delilah Rolls Stamina + Athletics vs. Susan's Dice Pool of 3. The Race ends when one participant accumulates 2 Successes.

17:07, Today: Delilah Gray rolled 1 success using 6d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((8,1,5,2,3,2)).

Delilah slowed down when she caught sight of the chandelier hanging above the double staircase. It had to be made of glowing diamonds. She couldn't think of anything else that would shine so. Across the way, she saw Susan running at full tilt.

06:26, Today: Delilah's Sister - Susan Gray rolled 2 successes using 3d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((10(+1),3,9)).


It was clear that Delilah was winning until she stopped. Susan, moving her somewhat pudgy lower body, threw herself at the doorway of her room with one final effort, crossing the threshold with a loud thud that was muffled by the carpet.

"I won!" She announced. "You're a chump!" she said.

It was a scene that had played out many times before. But it was usually Delilah winning and calling Susan a chump. Delilah was not usually in the position of losing to her younger sister. The world was clearly upside down.

Susan thundered up the stairs and crowed her victory. Delilah jogged up behind her, not quite believing that she lost.

"NUH-UH! You said first to get in their swimsuit. You're not dressed yet, Chump!"

She pushed by her sister with a huff.

Susan didn't say anything to this gesture. Delilah could feel the weakness of her younger sister as she pushed by here. Perhaps Delilah had eyes behind her head or something sixth sense, though it was more than likely she just knew from experience. It was probably true as Delilah marched towards her room that her younger sister's lip was quivering. True, Susan had gotten better over the last two years or so at keeping it in. 'Toughening Up' as Dad might have said before....

Delilah looked up at the huge, vast space that was her own room. Bright white curtains. A large pink bed with a canopy adorning it. Huge puffy pillows. There was even a separate table with chairs all made out for a tea party.

It was a princesses' room.

Delilah didn't look back. As long as no one saw Susan cry, then no one could tease her about it. It was hard, but Dad treated her just the same. Maybe harder as Delilah had a yen for sports.

She looked at the doorknob. Things seemed normal so far. As normal as living in a castle could get. She held her breath and tip-toed into her room. When she saw the décor and the playspace, she was the one likely to cry. Everything she could ever want all decked out in blush pink and white lace: a four-poster bed with a gauzy canopy, a rose china tea set, huge mirror and a heavy, silvery brush for her hair. She knew without looking that she'd find heart-shaped sunglasses on her dresser. There would be a stash of leotards and swimsuits inside. One for every day of the week, so she never had to rush to wash one before practice.

A little girl's dream come true.

Close to the mirror on the pink cushioned chair embroidered with golden-threaded flower designs, there was large envelope. Scrawled in large, sloppy letters read:

DEE-LI--LAH

Delilah skipped over to the envelope. Susan must have left the note. She decided to read it now and give her sister boogies later.

Delilah felt the cool envelope in her hand. She opened it and pulled out a piece of paper that wasn't folded as much as stuffed into the envelope. It was clear that whomever had written her didn't have Mom's cursive flourish. Worse yet, it appeared that the writer had little more than chicken scratch as handwriting.

Dearly DEE-LIE-LAYH

Good news! Got that eye all fixed up for ya! I found a way to infiltrate the wish system. It's my first time doing it. So I might have messed up a few things in your world. Hope you don't mind! 'Yucca, Yuckka!'

Best of Luck with your new face and life!,

-Mr. Clayton

Delilah smoothed out the paper and read the note. Her lips moved quietly. The handwriting was so scribble and bad. She wondered if the puppet master wrote it himself, or if he jammed The pen into the dummy's molded hand. Still! He really did it! (Or the person behind him. Whatever.) He rigged the wish to get her home! Or this Ritchie Rich version of home. She owed him (them?) big time.

"Whatcha readin?" Susan asked from the doorway.

Susan had changed clothes. She was sporting knee-high socks with stripes at the top. The band of color ran around just below the knee. The shorts were a yellow color, outlined with a white stripe around the edges and seams. Her shirt had a picture of Scrooge McDuck with his hands outstretched. He was holding a cane in one hand, while sitting in a pile of gold. Above the picture was the caption: Duck Tales.

Before she could answer, Susan said "Let's go outside!" and then she dissappeared from the doorway, footsteps heading down the strairs.

"Uh..." Delilah was startled and pressed the letter to her chest. She recovered by shouting "Git outta my room!" but Susan was half out the door by then.

She shoved the letter into her enormous wardrobe and pulled on the first swimsuit she saw. Snatching a large T-shirt for a cover up, then hurried to catch up. Susan had plenty to gloat over today. She'd never hear the end of it.

OOC: Delilah Join's Thread

Delilah: Sea, Sand And Surf!