Shawn felt weird, and the appearance of the girl from Minnesota was concrete proof that it wasn't just a feeling. For now, he played it close to his chest, pretending to play along with the others. The important question was whether the girl recognised him.

A devious grin spread over Delilah's face. She pulled a large, floral scrunchie off her wrist. She tilted her head this way and that as she pulled her hair into a swinging, high ponytail.

"Alright, alright. Back up! Make some room! And prepare to be amazed."

The smug smirk faded and she exhaled. Her eyes focused on a spot somewhere between Susan and Anthony. A short sprint across the lawn, then a leap: Roundoff. Arabian Step Out. Roundoff. Backhand Spring. Back Tuck.

She knew this run like the back of her hand, but the landing was sloppy. She fell forward and tried to pull it off as an intentional pose. She glanced left then right, hoping no one noticed. It must have been a long time since her last practice, but time was funny ever since the snow fort.

"Uh...yeah," she panted and tossed her hair back. "Top that!"


22:00, Today: Delilah Gray rolled 1 success using 7d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((3,3,1,1,9,4,2)).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhVReQnZeuo

"Shawn! Check it out! Did you see what Delilah just did? That was better than when Hacksaw Jim Duggin hit the Model Rick Martel with a two-by-four 'HOOOOOOOOO!'"   Anthony shouted in approval, and with one hand he beckoned Shawn forward to join the group.

Delilah looked over her shoulder to see......Shawn. Someone her mind was telling her was someone that she knew.

But her memories nagged at her. There was another, equal truth that she couldn't seem to shake: That was the same kid on the day that the Clown had attacked in the snow storm.  That was the same Shawn.

Both of these incompatible truths were floating around in Delilah's mind but only one felt true: the Snowstorm.  The other version, which Delilah was aware she was currently living, and which her mind was informing her was real, felt more like a story. Or, to be more precise, a lie. But it was the kind of lie that a kid might tell so many times, that they begin to believe that it was true.

"Oh Brother! That looked dangerous!"  Bobby said agreement of Delilah's daring move.

"Mmmmm.." Michael intoned from under a tree where he was sitting, looking over to see Shawn's presence and seeming to pay particular attention to it.

Delilah knew that Michael was the 'silent' kid in the group. Also, she seemed to 'remember' something about him having some kind of problem. It might be the retard problem that some kids had. Or something like that. This retard problem got him in trouble and made him act different. Like a retard might act, but in a way in which he didn't know that he might be acting wrong. Maybe that was one reason why he didn't say anything.

Tiffany jumped off the curb and started to clap her hands. "That was phenomenon!"  She said, clapping her hands.  Then she reached into her pocket and pulled out a Baby Ruth candy bar.  She opened the white, pristine wrapper and took a long, satisfying bite.

Then she held it out to Delilah, "want a bite?"

"Phenomenon?" Anthony said, raising an eyebrow like he had never heard that word before.

"Yeah." Tiffany said, jiggling the candy bar with her wrist and turning her head to answer her older brother. "If you say that something is 'phenomenon', it means that it's really good."

"Yeah, gimme!" Delilah popped up and snatched at the candy bar.

"I'm like a ninja phenomemom. When I'm not bein' a pirate phenomemom." She was passingly familiar with the word. It was one sports casters liked to shout after great plays, so it had to be a good thing.

She was all smiles and brags for the kids she "knew." Anthony, Bobby, Tiffany, Mongo Mike. His siblings didn't like it when you called him Mongo Mike, but he didn't seem to mind. But there was one person she couldn't smile at. Shawn. She didn't know how she knew his name. She didn't care enough to ask back then, but it was jammed into her brain now. It was all wrong. It was all lies and truth swirled up, like nuts and nougat. The scent of the candy bar made her feel ill.

"Hey! Hey, you!" Delilah stretched out her arm and pointed a shaking finger at Shawn.

Bobby followed the gesture of Delilah's finger toward's Shawn. And, to Shawn's surprise, it suddenly seemed that everyone was watching him.

Suddenly, he was on stage. A familiar feeling, an he knew that what he said and how he responded with the group watching could determine how the conversation went.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:52, Thu 01 Feb 2018.

Shawn felt like he was on stage, and instinctively, he went with the answer he thought the group might expect. Or at least wanted to hear. "Hi Delilah!" He smiled at her, as if those lies he'd found in his head were the complete truth.

Delilah's arm dropped and her eyes opened wide in surprise. "What? NO! Shut up!"

This wasn't how she imagined meeting Shawn at all. He was supposed to be frightened and running away. Not smiling and calmly asking what's up. Everything about Shawn's easy demeanor was wrong. He didn't seem any more worried than he did that day in the snow.

"Get away from him! He's with the monsters!" She shouted her warning to the group.

Well, that answered the question about whether or not Delilah remembered him. Of course, they were in the middle of the street in front of all of his friends, so it wasn’t like he could admit anything right now. So instead he made himself look confused for a moment, then grinned and let loose a silly growl. “Yeah, I’m a monster and I’m gonna get you! I’ll count to 20 and come find you! Ready? 1, 2...”

Delilah's feet stuttered backwards. Her throat felt tight. What if Shawn was a monster who only looked like a boy? It all made sense now!

"Susan! You gotta get outta here! Go!"

"Oh Brother! I love playing monsters!"

Susan was clearly confused and the cotagion on her face spread to some of the other kids. Some kids were laughing, some were perplexed. No one really knew if Delilah was joking, or whether or not she was really seriously warning them about something.

"Huh?" Susan said.

"11, 12, 13..." Shawn loudly kept counting, hoping that playful urgency would eventually get them to scatter, and convince them that Delilah was just playing along with this game.

Delilah tugged at her long braids and hopped from foot to foot. She squeezed her eyes shut, but Shawn was counting!

She turned to her sister and shook the poor girl's shoulders.

"I won't let them get you!"

They would run. And they would hide. And then they'd run some more. Delilah could run forever.

Taking Susie, by the hand, she sprinted away down the street.

Delilah felt the equal grip of Susan's hand, her little sister's face scrunching up in confusion as if to say 'where are we going?'

And suddenly they were running down the street, Susan managing two twist her head around one last time to croak out "see...see you guys!"

OOC:  Delilah Joins thread:

Delilah: Bradford Has A Few Secrets....

While Shawn keeps counting, he heard Delilah run off and breathed an inward sigh of relief. He'd have to figure out what was going on later, when he had time to actually think.

"What was that all about?" Bobby asked as he stopped running.

Junior hopped out from behind a bush, stumbling slightly.  "It's Shawn!" He announced with great fan-fare, like he was telling the kids that the Ice Cream truck man had been spotted.

"Shawn's here guys!!"

"Yes" Tiffany affirmed, with less interest that Junior. "Shawn's here. But we're talking about Delilah. Geez Junior, that's not very phenomenon of you."

She rummaged through her pocket to pull out a tootsie roll. It seemed like all of the other kids had stopped running now. Whatever Delilah did had taken the steam out of the game, or at least the frenetic energy. Except for Anthony, he was still running around like a maniac on the adjacent neighbor's lawn.

Sensing things had deflated a little, Shawn stops counting. "Aww, I guess they didn't want to play. Oh well!" He shrugged his shoulders, dismissing their behaviour in a way that tried to encourage the others to do the same.