During the ride home, all Mom talked about was how great Shawn was doing and how proud she was of him. When they pulled up to the house, everything was dark. It was clearly night time. Shawn stepped out of the car, his feet touching the familiar concrete driveway in front of his house.

OOC: Shawn Rolls Wits + Composure (only one success needed)

OOC:  20:30, Today: Shawn Cramer rolled 1 success using 4d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 2,9,3,3.  Wits + Composure

Something was amiss. The house was all dark from Shawn's vantage point on the driveway. And quiet. Not a single light was on inside of the house.

And that was odd.

Usually at least the front porch lights were on. Even if they weren't. Mom never let the light inside the house go dark. Especially if they were coming to pull up to the house. Whats more, it was late enough for Dad to be home. Though he could have been on the couch with the TV on.

The house looked abandoned.

Shawn noticed the strangeness, but he was so fixated on going after Bobby and Ralph that he pretended not to notice. “Mom, you should be the one to tell Dad! I’ve gotta go tell Bobby and Ralph!” Without waiting for an answer, he sprinted away, heading for Bobby and Ralph’s new old house.

"Shawn! No! Wait!" Mom shouted in almost a panicked, shrill voice. "Shawn! SHAWN!!!!"

"Just one second! And then you can play!!!" Mom shouted after Shawn with uncharacteristic urgency

Shawn wasn’t what had Mom all freaked out, but he played it off like he heard her, but didn’t understand her obvious urgency. He yelled back without breaking his stride. “It’ll just take a minute, I’ll be right back!”

Shawn ran down the block hoping to get to Bobby and Ralph's house. To see what was going on and what might be found. To find out how and why and all the other thoughts that raced through his mind. But most of all, to figure out if the threat of Mr. Clayton had taken root in the waking world.

But as he approached Bobby and Ralph's 'new'-old house, he realized that something was terribly wrong. There was something strange that hit the pit of Shawn's stomach.

"Something strange is going on. There is something wrong! Something isn't right! Not at all!" Feddler spoke up, in sudden and uncharacteristic panic.

Shawn found himself slowing down, hesitating in the face of his increasing feeling that something was going wrong, and Feddler's sudden panic. He looked at the house, trying to figure out the source of his sudden fear.

creak-creak...

creak-creak...

creak-creak...

That was the sound that came out of the darkness just down the road where Shawn was. A bicycle appeared, its chain creaking as the boy on top made its way up the hill. And just like that, Bobby came zooming up from a hill that led to the main street. He was pedaling fast and hard and heading directly towards Shawn.

Then as he made eye contact with Shawn, he bounced on the breaks, squeezing the handle bars so hard that Shawn could see in the moonlight the tense quivering of Bobby's hands and arms.

Bobby stared at Shawn panting like he had just gone on a cross-country bike race. He was only few feet away, but the look on his face was one of shock and confusion.

"Wh...What?" He asked looking at Shawn with disbelief.

Then another bicycle made its way up from behind Bobby. It pulled up right next to Bobby and stopped. Shawn could see that Michael was sitting on the bicycle's handle bars. Then a head poked out from behind Michael.

It was..Shawn head.

Shawn. On the bike. Shawn...

Shawn.

Or someone who looked....who was....Shawn?

Shawn had stopped outside the house to find the source of his feelings of foreboding, but had felt a surge of relief as Bobby came over the hill. Now he just had to find Bradford and... Whatever train of thought he was on immediately derailed as another him came over the hill on a bike with Michael in tow.

He squinted into the growing dimness, waiting for his eyes to adjust and reveal that it wasn't actually him there. But the other Shawn didn't go away. So he slowly raised his hand, like it was a mirror or something, and said, "Hi?" If it was him, maybe that meant he wasn't a threat?

With Michael riding on his handlebars, Shawn saw Bobby's reaction before he saw what was causing it. When he saw who was standing in the front yard, he only barely avoided letting his bike fall over and taking Michael with it. He managed to keep it together long enough to let Michael off and then let the bike clatter to the ground. He just said the first thing that popped into his head. "Bradford? Mr. Clayton? Is that you?"

Shawn furrowed his brow, at first genuinely surprised at the question. But when the shock of talking to himself wore off, he realized that would be exactly the sort of trickery that he'd suspect if he suddenly ran across himself in the middle of a yard. "Of course not! Are you?"

"What's going on here!??" Bobby asked in shock and surprise at the double-Shawns who were both speaking in the same tone of voice. He looked panicked. A slight spasm broke out on the left side of his face, the horror and the unbelievably of what had happened. What was apparently occurring. Something genuinely without explanation.

Bobby strained his vocals a second time but nothing came out, still he screamed.

Suddenly, his body wracked with raw sobs and he shook like a leaf. Fright consumed every cell in his body, swelling them with terror. Then he let out a gasping wail of terror and confusion.


"AhH!H!HH!H!"

Even Michael got off the handlebars and took a step back.

His eyes darted back and forth between the two Shawns, almost ignoring Bobby's growing insanity.

The skinny boy looked alert and ready to run like a gazelle that had spotted the movements of some predator lion in the bush.

But he said nothing.

Shawn's head immediately whipped around to Bobby, his screams immediately taking priority over whatever weird existential things were happening with the other Shawn - though he noticed out of the corner of his eye the other Shawn had the exact same reaction. He had to keep Bobby calmed down somehow. The other Shawn suddenly piped up. "Wait, Grant? What're you doing back from boarding school?"

Shawn felt a little irritated that he had to take the fake name, but he played along with Shawn anyway. "The water main burst, so they had to send us home until the start of the school year. I've gotta say, you've told me a lot about your friends, but they seem a little high-strung. Haven't they ever seen twins before?" Shawn approached the other Shawn to give himself a friendly slap on the back.

"There are two of them." Michael observed, giving no sense as to what he felt other than the observation itself. The fact that there were, two Shawns.

"Who's......Who's Grant?"

'Grant' gave him a reassuring grin. "What, Shawn never told you about me? Ugh, he's always like that!"

Shawn shrugged his shoulders. "It never came up. Bobby, Michael, this is Grant. He's my twin brother. He goes to boarding school 'cause he didn't want to do acting like I do."

Michael was younger than Shawn and when Bobby looked down at him, he didn't return the look of confusion. He just stared right ahead, eyes moving back and forth between 'Grant' and Shawn. His face betrayed no sign of interest. Or disinterest, for that matter.

"They both look the same." Michael said stoically. "That is why you were confused." he told Bobby, deep voice making the statement sound almost like a final proclamation on the matter. It didn't come out like he agreed that the situation had been settled, but instead was a factual description of why Bobby was confused.

He never looked at Bobby when he said this. He just kept starring at the two Shawns.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 03:09, Fri 21 Dec 2018.

"Oh....." Bobby said, recovering from his confusion. "OK." He said, snapping back to the reality that Ralph might have been taken by some kind of adult. Or maybe had wandered away with some kind of adult. Or maybe something like that.

"Ralph!!" Bobby shouted, as if the thought had bubbled up into his mind from below the depths of chaos that the sighting of two Shawns had created.

"We gotta find Ralph." Bobby continued, shaking off the final remnants of confusion and pushing his bike back into motion.

Michael turned to face the Shawn who wasn't on the bicycle, cold eyes bearing down on him as he asked

"Have you seen my sister Tiffany?"

"Ralph's missing? What happened to him?" 'Grant' looked especially worried - had Bradford struck already? He turned to Michael. "Sorry, I don't think so. I don't know your sister, but I haven't really seen anyone tonight. Maybe she's with Ralph?"

Shawn nodded quickly, trying to move them along. "Some adults took Ralph - Bobby, can you get us any closer?"

"We need to find him!" Bobby yelled.

With that, Bobby took off on his bike. "We're looking for a blue car. Short. With two doors." Bobby yelled. "It's got a long antenna."


OOC: Shawn Rolls Intelligence + Composure with the following results:

0 Successes: Shawn doesn't pick up any memory from that description

1 Success: Shawn thinks it might be familiar

2+ Successes: Shawn knows the car in question

---

OOC: Shawn 'Grant' Rolls Intelligence + Composure with the following results:

0 Successes: Shawn 'Grant' doesn't pick up any memory from that description

1 Success: Shawn 'Grant' thinks it might be familiar

2+ Successes: Shawn 'Grant' knows the car in question

OOC: 22:22, Today: Shawn Cramer rolled 2 successes using 3d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 7,5,10(+9).  Intelligence + Composure (Shawn).


22:23, Today: Shawn Cramer rolled 1 success using 3d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 9,7,4.  Intelligence + Composure ("Grant").

For Shawn it was obvious. As soon as the description of the car was given, Bobby commenced the search. Michael nodding his head all of the way. After that, it was only a question of finding out exactly which way or how long it would take until the road inevitably led to the destination of the car in question:

Shawn's House.

For Shawn-Grant, the description sounded familiar. But it was only when they got closer to Shawn's house and the Dad's car was in view did Shawn-Grant realize the inevitable conclusion that the search was going to yield. The car in question was Dad's car.

"That's it!" Bobby said. "Wait! The car is parked at your house!" Bobby shouted, with alarm and then confusion. "Wait? Is that your Dad's car?" Bobby asked, and then, as if realizing it. "Yes! That is your Dad's car. Your Dad probably thought my brother was lost!"