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.