It was an early dinner at the Cramer household and Shawn had just finished his first acting lesson in 'Method Acting.'  Mrs. Worthington, Shawn's acting coach, had agreed to have dinner with the family, in order to sit by and evaluate Shawn's progress. Mom had prepared dinner, and announced to the rest of the family that Shawn was going to be a movie star, and that because of that, sacrifices had to be made.

Bobby and Ralph didn't seem to understand what Mom was saying. They didn't seem to understand the concept of 'Method Acting' and how Shawn was going to play a character all of the time. The character was mean and rude and, according to Mom, always answered things as nasty as possible.

While the concept of 'Method Acting' seemed to go above Bobby and Ralph's head, Dad fully understood it. He fully understood and rejected the idea outright, complicating dinner from the very beginning. It was clear that Dad did not approve of the idea of Shawn acting like a jerk. But it was more than that. Dad no longer approved of Shawn's acting. This was clear, because after Mom's speech and Dad's subsequent tirade, Dad said 'I no longer approve of my son acting!'

Dinner began therefore, under tense circumstances in the Cramer household. Shawn looked down at his plate of spaghetti in silence, as the rest of the family did.  After all, it was dinner time and they had to eat.

Shawn could feel the tension in the air, and looked back and forth between Mom, Dad, and Mrs. Worthington. This was his nightmare scenario - five other people, two of whom wanted the exact opposite of what the other three wanted. He absorbed himself in his plate of spaghetti.

"Oh brother! I forgot to get myself a napkin. Can you pass me a napkin please?" Bobby asked Shawn, who was closest to the stack of napkins. Bobby had been working on his manners lately, and seemed proud of the fact that he had used the word 'please.'

Shawn looked up at Bobby and caught the glare of Mrs. Worthington, who had a look that was both anticipatory and expectant. Suddenly, the weight of that look pressed down on Shawn. It was the weight of responsibility, the look of a teacher who wanted a particular response to a question answered.

Shawn, like he did in all things, tried to please everyone. He was supposed to be acting like a character, and he knew that movie characters didn't really act like people. It was about performance, projecting emotion and intent - not necessarily fooling the audience. If he was playing a mean character, maybe he could give a proper mean performance, but do it in such a way that Bobby could understand what he was doing.

"Why don't you get it yourself, Daniel?" Deliberately using the name of the movie's protagonist, he performatively knocked over the stack of napkins, conveniently scattering them so one of them ended up near Bobby. On the side of his face Mrs. Worthington couldn't see, he tried to give Bobby a surreptitious wink.

Bobby looked over at Shawn with a measure of hurt and confusion.

"Daniel?" He said with a questioning tone. When Shawn winked at Bobby, he saw that Bobby's lower lip was protruding like he was about to cry. Perhaps it was the confusion and the name 'Daniel' that kept him together and preventing him from doing so.

"What the Hell was that?" Dad announced.

"M-E-T-H-O-D......A-C-T-I-N-G." Shawn's Mom replied in an angry, yet expected tone. The patronizing way she spoke upped the tension of what was becoming a verbal arms race. Mrs. Worthington, was smiling like she was taking on the role of Mom's ally and sidekick in the family argument against Dad.

Shawn, noticing that Mrs. Worthington was paying attention to Mom and Dad talking and not him, took the opportunity to squeeze Bobby's leg apologetically under the table and mouth <I'm sorry, please play along> Bobby was a good liar, right?

OOC: Shawn rolls Dexterity + Subterfuge with the following results

0 Successes: Caught! Mom sees Shawn breaking character, Bobby still doesn't understand

1-2 Successes: Mrs. Worthington catches Shawn breaking character, Bobby still doesn't understand

3+ Successes: Shawn talks to Bobby without anyon noticing. Bobby understands.

Bobby looked at Shawn and then looked at Mom and then back to Shawn....

OOC: 11:42, Today: Shawn Cramer rolled 3 successes using 10d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling on 9 or more ((7,7,2,8,9(+5),4,10(+3),4,1,1)). 

After a few moments, Shawn watched Bobby's lip--which was protruding--slowly push itself back towards his mouth. His posture straightened up. His hands fell to his side. They were no longer nervously clenched on the table.  His eyebrows raised, and his face broke out into a broad smile.

He understood.

"Oh Brother that's funny!" He announced, grabbing a napkin and making a show of wiping his mouth.

"Funny like your face!" Shawn sounded mean, but now that Bobby was in on it, he pitched it so he wouldn't take it seriously, like it was a private joke they shared. Hopefully Mrs. Worthington wasn't picking up on this.

"Enough of being silly." Dad warned.

He usually used that work 'silly' to mean anything from having an attitude to just acting like a kid. Both things he didn't approve of. Sometimes, in the past, it had made Shawn wonder if Dad would have preferred Shawn to be an adult right away. Like Dad might be able to relate to him more.

"Enough Silliness." Dad clarified.

"hahaha!" Bobby said, letting one more laugh out, Dad giving him an evil eye.

"Well everyone...." Mom said with theatrical flare.

"I have an announcement. Shawn is going to be in a new movie!"
Suddenly, everyone in the family looked at Mom. Then, after a moment, to Shawn.

Bobby looked happy. Ralph looked annoyed. Dad looked angry. Mrs. Worthington, beamed with a bright smile.

Shawn looked to Mrs. Worthington, as if confirming it was true, then back to his family. Then he brightened up, like it was good news he was happy about. Which it actually was, which he found to his surprise. Going back to acting was a welcome bit of normalcy in his insane life right now. At least no one would try to kill him on the set of a movie, right?

"Ughhhh..." Ralph sighed, clearly annoyed. It was as if every time he heard about Shawn's acting, it was a renewed jab towards him. He might not have been jealous anymore, but he clearly didn't like anything about Shawn's acting career, least of all hearing about it.

His nose wrinkled up. His face turned flush red, and he started to jab his food with his force forcefully.

"Sit up Ralph. Don't be that way." Mom chastised.

"Bobby, you too."

"This is a happy day. We should all be happy for Shawn. It's going to be wonderful!"

"I was sitting up! I am happy!" Bobby retorted, clearly unhappy about being accused of being unhappy. He looked happy, up until the moment Mom corrected him.

"This is nonsense!" Dad raised his voice above the conversation, letting his opinion known. Suddenly everyone was quiet.

Shawn was silenced along with everyone else. He was worried speaking up might get him in trouble.

The tension grew along with the silence.

Then, Mom shifted in her seat.

Creeeeeak


Finally, she shot Shawn a glare. "Shawn." She started with unusual formality. "Please explain to your Father why acting is so important."   She said, though it sounded like more of a command than a simple order.

It felt like she was pushing Shawn forward on the Chess board. Of what was, undoubtedly becoming a growing match of contention between two parents with Shawn being used as the sacrificial pawn.

Shawn looked back and forth between Mom and Dad, caught between the two without a way to please both...but then he noticed Mrs. Worthington and an escape hatch occurred. He knew he had to be nice, and cooperate with adults, but sometimes it got complicated which adults to listen to and when. If he didn't do what Mom said here because he listened to something Mom had said before, that didn't make him a bad kid, that just made him a little too eager to please.

He looked up at his Mom, and in his character voice, said, "I'm not an actor, I'm a scoundrel!" And he stood up from his chair and ran up to his room! Hopefully Ralph and Bobby could also escape in the confusion.

"See!?" Shawn could hear Mom shout at Dad as Shawn ran up the stairs. "Look what you've done!"

He could hear arguing as he got to the second floor, the chattering of plates and the screeching of chairs underfoot.

But when he got to his room, everything seemed quiet...

"Ya' alright lad?" Griffix said after a few moments. At first Shawn didn't know where the leprechaun was. Then he saw him emerge from under Shawn's bed.

Shawn tried to ignore the sounds of fighting, to push the pit it opened up in his stomach aside. This was method acting, right? If he pretended it didn't bother him, he wouldn't have to drop character. "I'm fine, Griffix. What are you doing here? You usually come at night."

"I know lad, I know. But I'm here to tell ya' that the new kids 'r here. And to ask ya' a favor, I am. I was hopin' that ya' could help me out, I was."

He headed over to the window. The summer sun was still bright outside, and Shawn watched Griffix's hand reach towards the slitted blinds at the window. One yellow nail parted two blinds opening them for a better view.

"There." Griffix said.

Shawn could see down the road, there was a moving van in front of the house.

"Penelope is movin' in." Griffix confirmed. "I was hopin' ya' could go over tomorrow and tell her 'bout me, lad. I mean, not really tell her 'bout me, but tell her 'bout how there's a story of a monster in the neighborhood that eats kids n' 'tings, if they do bad 'tings. But that it doesn't eat 'em if they right 'tings down" Griffix requested.

"Make it real scary." Griffix requested. Shawn noticed that Griffix was licking his lips.

Downstairs, there was the faint chatter of voices in a deep debate and angry conversation.

Shawn nodded his assent. In terms of things Griffix or the Circus had asked him to do, this wasn't so bad. "Oh, actually, here, I've got an idea..."

He walked over to his schoolbag, and took out an pencil and tore a page from one of his notebooks. He wrote down

I made Mom and Dad fight

 and handed it to the man. "Will this tide you over until tomorrow?"

Griffix took the paper and bit off the corner edge. He smacked his lips and put the rest of the paper in his mouth. "Oh." he said. "It's a good morsel." he agreed, nodding his head, shaggy hair flapping this way and that.

After he swallowed down the paper he went over to the window. "Mighty nice o' ya' lad." he complimented Shawn.

Griffix seemed satisfied by Shawn's gesture. He didn't seem restless or hungry as he described himself the last several times Shawn encountered him. And although it was almost imperceptible, Shawn detected that Griffix seemed a bit more jovial and less animalistic now that he had eaten something.

"Well lad, thanks for takin' care of the story tellin' for me. That should help. I should get goin' though. Anyting' I can do for ya' before I head back down below?" Griffix asked. Shawn knew that 'down below' meant the Circus.

Shawn shook his head. "Not unless you can stop Mom and Dad from fighting..."

Griffix opened his coat for a second to reveal his trough of bottles and elixirs. They jingled together. Then he slowly closed the flap, bringing the coat as a whole closed.

"Ay, I better not." Griffix said. "There's much ta' be done. N' I donna-think it'd be a good 'ting ta' burden ya' with another task before such a large one." Griffix thought outloud.

"Ay, best ta' say, I donna-think now is the time."  Griffix said. "Perhaps we could revisit it later?" He offered.

Shawn looked at the elixirs in Griffix's coat in surprise. "Oh no, it's fine - I was kidding." Though things would be better...no, focus on other things for now.

"As ya' were lad." Griffix said, and he opened the window and jumped out.

When Shawn turned around, Bobby was at the doorway.

"Dad and Mom are arguing. They sent me upstairs."

Ralph came up up behind Bobby, crashing into him clumsily.

"Me t...t...t...too." He said.

The old Bobby might have scolded Ralph and then told Shawn how he couldn't stand him. But this Bobby just smiled and patted Ralph on the head, instantly forgetting that Ralph  had almost toppled him over.

"Yeah, we're both up here Ralph. Hey look!" Bobby pointed to the window. "Oh brother, your window is open Shawn"

Ralph scooted over to the window and looked outside.

"L..l...l...looks like someone is moving in." He mentioned quietly, pointing towards the van down the street that Griffix had let Shawn know about earlier.

Shawn went and leaned out of the window a little, as if getting a better view of the van down the street. He was trying to give a nice, plausible explanation for why the window might be open. "Wow, yeah. I wonder if they'll have more kids?"

"Hey, we should go check it out!"

Shawn glanced back inside, trying to listen to hear if Mom and Dad were still fighting. "Sounds good! But we should sneak out, otherwise Mrs. Worthington might be mad at me for breaking character."

"Sneak out?" Bobby asked, uncertain. The old Bobby would have already been out the window, coming up with lies as to why they didn't do what they are were about to do, if they got caught. But this new, naive Bobby had retreated into his mind and now was little more than optimism, cloaked in an ever-trusting exterior when it came to interacting with Shawn.

"I mean, are you sure? We could get in real trouble. It reminds me of...." He thought for a second. "I... I'm not sure what it reminds me of. I can't remember. Oh brother! Isn't that funny? I can't remember! You're right, let's go do what you said."

"What did you say?"

Shawn suppressed a little flash of guilt for what he’d done to Bobby and tried to steer him onto safer ground. “We were going to sneak out and meet the new neighbors, remember?”

"New neighbor's..." Bobby said, sounding uncertain, the voice a blind hand reaching out into the dark, forgotten, unknown.

"The new neighbors that just moved in. They...they...they...they are here.  Another n...n..new....one." Ralph confirmed.

"There's Junior and Bradford. And then this one." Ralph pointed out the window. Then he turned to Shawn.

"But only Bradford knows about the Circus, right?"

Shawn gave Ralph a pointed look, making sure his head was turned in such a way that Bobby would only see the back of it. He found himself hoping Bobby’s forgetfulness held. “Yeah, so let’s go see our new neighbors!”

"Circus?" Bobby asked in a tone of curiosity.

There was a long pause, as if Bobby's mind was struggling to make sense of things. He grunted once or twice and then his face scrunched up. Finally, his face broke out into a smile.

"Oh brother! I love the popcorn." He announced. "I bet the neighbors have popcorn." He proclaimed, all happy and smiles.

"See?" Ralph said, focusing on Shawn. "He's getting more and more like this. He's b..b..b..b..becoming a...a...a...forg..for..forgetful."

"He's...dumb. He's getting dum..dumber." Ralph said. "We used to not talk about...about..about...him. But now we can. In fr..fr..front of him."

"Talk about who?" Bobby asked both Shawn and Ralph. And then, he stuck his head over to the window to get a better glance outside. "The neighbors?"

"See?" Ralph said, pointing at the back of Bobby's head with one hand, using the other to hike up his own pants which were slipping down in a manner that made him look sloppy.

He pointed towards Bobby with an index finger.

"Dumb."

Shawn looked back and forth between Bobby and Ralph. "Why's this happening to him? He wasn't like that before... He felt worried - had he doomed Bobby by trying to keep him away from the Circus?

"Well, its because the truck just came in." Bobby answered, looking out the window at the moving truck in front of the house down the street. It was an answer, but it didn't fit the context of the conversation Ralph and Shawn were having. It was like Bobby was adding some kind of inappropriate tangent.

"I th..th..think it's just getting w..w..worse." Ralph explained to Shawn in a somewhat bitter way. His face scrunched up.

"Y..you just ha..haven't noticed. You've b...b..been..been..been...been...been to busy with all of your movies." He quipped resentfully, the tone coming out in the same angry way it came out when Ralph complained at the dinner table when Mom brought Shawn's knew movie role to light for the family.

"Mom wants me to do those, Ralph. I just want to make sure Bobby's all right." Shawn squinted at his absentminded friend, worried about his memory. "Hey Bobby, what's your name?" It was an absurd question on the face of it, but Shawn worried he wouldn't be able to answer.

Bobby turned around.

"Bobby." he said. "And you're Shawn."

"And that's ummm...ummm....ummm.....Ralph. Sorry Ralph, Ha! I almost forgot your name!"

"Great, thanks Bobby!" Still, the fact that Bobby didn't recognize that it was an odd question to ask in the first place concerned Shawn. He looked over to Ralph with an unsure look, as if asking 'do you know what we should do about this?'

Ralph shrugged, reading Shawn's interpretation. "I don...don...don..don't know what to do." Then he paused as if seriously listening to Shawn.

"Maybe we jus...jus...jus..just watch it." He finally suggested.

"You're right, Ralph." Shawn nodded seriously. He was worried, but there wasn't much he could do about it. Mom and Dad were acting weird before, and then they went back to normal, more or less by themselves. Maybe this would be like that. "I won't be around to watch him all the time, 'cause Mom will want me to do movie stuff. Can you be a big boy and let me know if he gets worse?"

Ralph's shoulders slouched as if tasked with a burden. "Yeah.....alright." He said, kicking the rug with one foot as if he was just assigned more homework.

"It's wh..wh...what I've been doing. I don't think there's any...any..any...any...any...any thing else we can do about it. Not unless your gonna go back to the Baby-Monster and try to fix it." Ralph thought outloud, clearly talking about Crowley.

"When y...y...y...y...you go off to do the movie, are y...y...you gonna be gone long?" Ralph asked, wanting to know how long he might be saddled with this endeavor without Shawn.

Shawn wondered if this problem was the result of Crowley's berry drink, or using Melinda's key, but he didn't want to complicate things further for Ralph. So he kept quiet about that little fact. "I don't think it's a location shoot, so I should be back every day. If they're doing stuff in the evening, I might even be here to help most of the day."

"School's starting soon." Ralph said, as if warning Shawn that he might miss it. Ralph hadn't really been there during the formative years when Shawn missed a lot of school. Really, he hadn't even been there for long when Shawn went to the special school that allowed a lot of kids to miss school because most of them were little actors and actresses.

"You gon..gon..gun..gonna miss it if you're on a movie?"

"I don't know...Mom signed me up for special school where I can miss it for doing a movie before, but I don't know if she's doing it again." Shawn wasn't great at school, so hopefully he'd be able to miss a bunch of it.

Ralph groaned as if hearing bad news. "I don't wan..wan..wan..wan..wan..wan..wan..wan..wan..wan...want to do it all. I'm always doing it all." Ralph complained after one of his long stutters.

Doing more to assuage Ralph seemed to be another growing demand that was placed upon Shawn, after doing well on the movie, doing method acting, doing well at school for Dad, ensuring Bobby didn't remember, ensuring Bobby didn't get worse, making sure the Griffix was fed, keeping up with who was in the neighborhood, and doing tasks for the Order just to name a few.

Shawn felt like he was the one doing everything, and Ralph was being selfish by complaining about the one or two things he needed to help with. But he couldn't yell or complain about it or anything like that to anyone. He had to act like the good boy, or at least seem like it. "You're doing so much, Ralph. And you're doing a really good job, like you're a big boy. I'm sorry I'm having you do all this, but you know it's important, right? I wouldn't ask if you weren't the only person good enough to do it." And so the gulf between his thoughts and actions continued to widen.

"Yeah." Ralph said. "I kn..kn..know I'm still important." Ralph said begrudgingly. "But it's still n..n..not fair."

He looked around.

"You wan..wan...want to go see the new neighbors?"

Shawn gave Ralph a reassuring smile and a friendly pat on the shoulder. It wasn’t fair, but it wasn’t their choice, really. “Sure - should we take Bobby along?”

"Where am I going?" Bobby interjected. "We're going somewhere?"

"Ugh.." Ralph sighed, giving Shawn a look as if he preferred that Shawn handle the increasingly forgetful Bobby.

Shawn tried to match Bobby's vaguely enthusiastic energy, trying to keep Ralph happy by getting Bobby focused on him. "C'mon, we're going to meet our new neighbours!"

OOC: Shawn Joins Thread

Delilah: Target Number One