There was a brief moment when the kids took time to stop think about what to do next. Bobby was covered in a sheen of sweat from running.  Anthony was playing 'air guitar' on the grass.

Junior took time to hurry up to Shawn.  "Hey." He said, shyly.  And then, with a little more boldness...

"Do you wanna show us some acting stuff?" He suggested

"Oh, I dunno..." Shawn hedged a little, knowing Junior thought that kind of stuff was cool, but not sure what everyone else's feelings were on acting stuff. Not to mention 'acting stuff' was a really vague term. "I'll bet it's kinda boring..."

"It is boring." Tiffany agreed. She was laying out a small handkerchief on the ground, taking care to flatten the edges. She grabbed an adjacent rock, making sure that each side of cloth was weighed down so the wind wouldn't blow the whole thing away.

Cowed into submission by the comment, Junior just whispered under his breath "no it's not.."


But only Shawn could hear him.

"Alright." Anthony said, taking control. "I have an idea."

"Let's talk about what's going on here lately. Let's talk about the carnival that's supposed to open the last week of the summer. Have you guys seen the newspaper?"

"The Circus is coming to town!"

Shawn gave Junior a surreptitious wink, like he'd heard him and was sharing some subtle inner secret with his. Then he heard what Anthony was saying, and it took all his self control not to react with fear. Instead he laughed and tried to play it off. "The circus? Isn't that stuff, like, our parents would do when they were kids?"

"Yeah, that's probably true." Anthony said, suddenly trying to contend with this new, perhaps more serious problem of not being caught in a lame, parent trap.

"We'll have to do our best to avoid something our parents did, so we don't end up all, all..."

"Square!" Bobby interjected.

"Yeah. Square. Good one, Bobby-O." Anthony agreed. "We'll avoid square stuff." And just like that, Anthony's mind seemed to be satisfied.

Junior raised his hand, the index finger pointing upward as if he had a point to make, but he was to shy and too timid to yell it out like Bobby did.

"But not the treats. Not the Circus treats. They're not square..." Junior said softly, eyes looking around to one person and then the other as if he could be getting shot down by a firing squad of judgement at any second.

"No...." Anthony agreed. He had adopted the position of the 'Thinker', chin resting on his hand. He was all thought. All contemplation. "No. You're right. The treats aren't lame."

"Ferris Wheel." Michael added. It was the first words he had said in over five minutes. It wasn't even a sentence. Still, its affect on Anthony was noticeable.

"Yeah. The Ferris Wheel is pretty cool. I mean, you get to go up on the ride and see the lights at night. I mean, I'm confused actually. Is it a Circus or a Carnival? Is there a difference?"

"The fried dough too. Fried dough isn't square at all." Tiffany said, licking her lips. She had placed several pieces of candy on her handkerchief now and was working methodically to unwrap each of them: Tootsie rolls, lolly pops, she even had a large Charleston Chew.

"Oh brother! I just remembered that Circus have all sorts of weird, crazy animals." Bobby said. "There are probably tigers and really loud lions. And stuff that eat other jungle cats! It's crazy!"

"Oh that's cool!" Anthony proclaimed. It all had happened so quickly. Just a few comments and a half sentence. Soon everyone was talking about how cool the Circus was.

"A girl at school told me that Circuses are really mean to their animals, though. They whip them and don't feed them and stuff." Shawn could see where the general sentiment was going, and tried to distance himself from the opinions that may disagree with them. Even if he was also trying to make the Circus sound bad.

OOC: Shawn Rolls Lying to Convince a Group: Manipulation + Empathy + Striking Looks + Specialization(+1) with the following results:

0 Successes: No way! The Circus is Cool! = Everyone feels the Circus is a great way to spend the rest of the Summer. Everyone wants to go

1-4 Successes: Really? Some kids have doubts about the Circus. Shawn will make a follow-on roll later in the thread to see if he can convince the rest of the group. A debate ensues.

5+ Successes: Better things to do. Everyone is convinced that going to the Circus isn't the best of ideas.

OOC: 07:47, Today: Shawn Cramer rolled 3 successes using 11d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 4,10(+7),2,4,5,5,10(+1),10(+2),4,2,4. Manipulation + Empathy + Striking Looks + Specialization + WP.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:48, Mon 05 Feb 2018.

"I dunno...." Bobby said, trailing off and leaving lingering doubt as to whether or not he wanted to go. "How do we know that animals are safe? What....what if they get out?"

"I dunno guys. I'm not sure if I wanna go." Bobby concluded.

"What are you so afraid of?" Tiffany asked bluntly. But suddenly, everyone realized the question wasn't asked to Bobby, but rather, to Shawn.

Shawn actually laughed out loud, like Tiffany's question was so out of the blue and out of context that he took it as a joke. Then, he waited a second, like he was realising that she was being serious and shrugged. "Why would I be scared of circuses? They just sound kinda lame, and there's a million better things to do when there's not much summer left."

"Like break stuff!" Anthony announced, snapping a nearby stick over his leg. The he shook his head and through the stick off to the side of the yard.

"Eh, maybe not. I'll tell you one thing though. This is getting boring. I kinda wanta to go break something, or maybe get something to drink."

"Or maybe eat."

"Mom's got some Kool-Aid inside, I think! First one there is a rotten egg!"


The kids started to run towards the house, leaving only Shawn and Michael who was under the tree.

As Shawn turned to follow everyone, he heard Michael say from under the tree.

"Wait!" and then, once he had gotten Shawn's attention, he said in a lower voice.

"I want to know about it."

Shawn was about to follow Anthony inside when he heard Michael's voice. "Know about what?"