OOC: This is a dream. This is the first thread in a series of dreams that Delilah will have. Delilah must play as Delilah 'Pig Form' in this thread.

Delilah looked around. Her snout was twitching as she took in the smell of they kitchen. A familiar smell. The smell of home. Not the fake home of Los Angeles with the fake kids and the fake memories. This was her real home. Her home in Minnesota. She moved one pig hoof across the table, somehow managing to pick up a fork with it, even though there was no opposable thumb. It didn't make sense, but neither did her real world.

"You're back!" A familiar voice from across the kitchen table said. It was Bradford's puppet, Mr. Clayton. He had appeared suddenly in what was a second ago an empty chair in an empty kitchen. Now the kitchen suddenly seemed more narrow, Delilah's own vision more narrow, focusing on Mr. Clayton. It was then that Delilah noticed in the dream that she was a pig. And that wasn't the only thing. She had only one eye.

"How was the wish? Did it work out?" Mr. Clayton asked Delilah. There were metal cords attatched to his hands and arms and legs. They led upward into a whole in the ceiling, as if being controlled by some unknown, unseeable puppeteer who was out of sight, but not out of the dream.

OOC: Delilah adds 'One Eye' to Pig Delilah Character Sheet

Delilah's fork twirled on her plate. She lifted the food daintily to her porcine maw and smacked away. The silverware stayed balanced perfectly on her trotters, like a cartoon animal, but the food fell messily on either side of her face as she chewed.

She tilted her head until she could fix the speaker with her good eye. Mr. Clayton. He looked strangely flat from her skewed perspective, but no less animated. She wiped her mouth with a napkin before speaking.

"Hey! What gives? Things were pretty good, but now I'm a pig again? I didn't even runn away or nothing this time."

"Hmmmm...in--ter---esting" Mr. Clayton remarked, as if learning something new.

"Listen. Have you thought about the Kool-Aid at all?" Mr. Clayton asked Delilah. One of the metal coords moved his arm upwards and with it the spoon that his puppet hand was holding. He made a gesture scooping air out of the bowl and then towards his mouth. It was like he was eating. Or pretending to eat. Because there was nothing in his bowl.

"Well, duh. It's the only thing in the house. I'm so hungry!"

Delilah snuffled through her food.

"Hey, how come my mom doesn't make real food anymore? And what happened to her face?"

"When someone smokes soul rock, they make a wish. It can be any wish that they want. And the wish will come true, so long as the proprietor of the Circus agrees with it." Mr. Clayton explained.

"But I've found a way to get into those wishes." Mr. Clayton advised Delilah, taking a moment to see if she could understand the implications of such an act.

"I thought it would be fun to see what I could do. To play some jokes. Was the Kool-Aid joke funny?" He inquired.

"No!" Delilah whined. "My mom's and sister's faces are all screwy now. And there's nothing to eat in my house. I'm so hungry!"

Delilah snuffled through her food. Her tongue lashed at the sides of her snout.

"Why'd you do that to my wish? It woulda been so good."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:08, Mon 26 Mar 2018.

The wires connected to Mr. Clayton's arms and legs slacked, causing him to slouch, and then dissappear under the table altogether. Then the suddenly tightened again, and he was sitting straight up, holding a large apple pie which he placed on the table and then slid across to Delilah.

"I'm so sorry" Mr. Clayton apologized.

"A great comedian cannot become great without making bad mistakes and telling horrible jokes." Mr. Clayton explained to Delilah. "Why, just think about yourself. We're you perfect when you started ice skating? Remember how your ankles used to bend inward towards one another?"

"I'm here to try to fix it. Well, first to see if it needed fixing. And then to fix it. Does it need fixing? Do you want your Mom and Sister to be fixed back to normal?" He inquired.

"Nooo, I wasn't perfect." Delilah slouched a little in her seat. It hurt to admit that. She fiddled with her fork, stabbing some empty space over and over. She perked up when the pie was served. Her fingerless "hands" held a knife and cut it into even slices.

"But this is diiiiferent! I got better with practice. I don't think they're gonna get better. They can't even see their faces. It's not funny. It's creepy."

The wires connected to Mr. Clayton's arms and legs moved around, wooden hand propping up his face under the chin.

"Oh" Mr. Clayton remarked.

"Who could have known?" he remarked, as if thinking outloud.  And then there was a moment of silence, as if he was thinking long and hard about the situation. Those big, round eyes blinked. And with each blink, the puppet made a 'click.'

"Oh, I know!" Mr. Clayton said suddenly, hand coming up from under his chin, wire pulling taught on his index finger.

"We can go to the Krinner! There's bound to be plenty of things there that could get your sister and mother back to normal. Even if you arent....." He gave Delilah an appraising look up and down, exaggerated in his evaluation. "...perfect."

"I myself was just planning on a trip the Krinner! There's nothing like company to join on a voyage. Hand-in-hand. Or hand in puppet hand, Yucka-Yucka!!" He joked.

Delilah placed one slice on her plate, then served another for the puppet. "What's the krinner?" She looked over the spread on the table. "And where's the ice cream?"

"Maybe I should just let Bradford explain" Mr. Clayton said sourly.

"It seems like everyone likes him better than me!" He pouted, and suddenly he sprang from the table and was in the door way, cables jangling together, arms moving erratically until he managed to settle down.

"I'm going to go." He said. "If you want to know what the Krinner is, you'll have to ask him."

"What? Wait. I did ask. I'm asking now."

She held the pie out to the walking puppet. The plate perfectly balanced on her little piggy hooves.

"What's the krinner? And your pie is getting cold!"

"The Krinner is a big rock at the edge of the Underworld. It's as far as anyone in the Circus has ever been. It's the place we need to go to find things outside of the Circus."

"To find things that will make things right again." the puppet said.

And with that, it turned around and opened the front door. Before walking through, it's head jerked back and yelled out to Delilah

"Tooodles!"

OOC: End Thread