"Awesome!" Shawn was mirroring Leonard's excitement. "Aw man, I bet his world is super dangerous. When the kids beat the robot, they'll have to go rescue the other kids in robot clown world!"

"Yeah but there's another thing." Leonard informed Shawn. "Do you see all of the swirly things? That means that he's hypnotizing them. He's trying to get them to see his way of doing things. He's trying to turn the kids he captures against the other kids."

Shawn frowned and leaned in closer to the drawing. "Is he making them into more clowns? Or just making them work for him?" That did sound concerning - he knew the clowns spread through the red noses, but this sounded like a completely different thing. He wouldn't be able to trust other kids if that were true.

"Hmmmm." Leornard said. "I don't know. I didn't get that far into it. I was focused more on the 'Pow!' - 'Pow!', laser beams and stuff." Leonard put a finger on one of the kids in the cage.

Shawn could see that the index finger was long, and there was a fair amount of brown dirt and crud under Leonard's finger nail.

"Like this guy got caught. And he's like a kid like all the others. But now that he's in the cage. But do you see that he's got a gun? So he's like still fighting. And in this case, its a laser gun! Pow! Pow!" Leonard explained.

"So, he wants to fight against it, but slowly its like he's changing to support it all. So that way, he slowly is like working with the Clown but he doesn't want to. But yes, he does slowly."

"Wow, that's really scary!" Shawn contemplated that as a weapon in the arsenal of Mr. Cherrywinks. And as he continued to look over the drawing, the paranoid, suspicious part of him pointed something out to him.

If the swirly things made kids think more like Mr. Cherrywinks, Mr. Cherrywinks hated kids, didn't he? And at least twice now Leonard had made a little mistake and called himself stupid and dumb and all sorts of names. What if that was why Leonard knew what was going on - he'd been captured and the swirly things made it seem like a dream? It wasn't a pleasant thought, and Shawn knew it was just an idea. But it was another thing he'd have to check with Mr. Clayton.

As Shawn began to ponder the hidden and profound meaning in the drawing, Leonard kept right on talking:
“That’s scary yeah! And then....wait? What’s scary? Did you mean the Clown, the cage or the gun? Or, or the swirly things?” Leonard asked, suddenly needing clarification.

"Well, the swirly things are really scary when you think about it. Even if you didn't want to, you'd end up as bad as the clown. And you'd like working for him, even if it was bad. You wouldn't even be you anymore, you know?" Shawn glanced at Leonard, trying to tell if he was making sense - he wasn't sure if he was.

Shawn watched Leonards face and Leonard, for his part began to nod with a slight grimace. “Yeah, that’s right. I just kind of wrote down the what I would, you know, do about it. So, the way I thought about it would be like if all the kids got together and then tried to go after the Clown. Umm, he might not be a robot though. Or maybe he is, I’m not sure. I’m more sure about the other drawing ‘cause it came from my dream. But I still think there’s cool stuff in this one. I mean, I still really think that the whole neighborhood needs to do it together! I know my Mom doesn’t like it, and she doesn’t believe in anything I write!”

Shawn tried to look reassuring. "Oh, it's really good that you wrote it all down like this! We won't be able to prepare for the clown if we don't think about what he might do, right? Even if you're not completely sure, it's good to give us ideas. Maybe your mom doesn't like it, but I think it's great." He looked down at the drawing again, trying to remember as much as he could for later. "Even if we can't get the whole neighborhood, I'm glad you trusted me, at least. I've got another friend I can ask about this - he knows more about clowns and stuff than I do, so maybe he'll have more ideas."

"As long as you don't tell my Mom anything, right?" Leonard said, trying to make sure that the promise would be kept.

Shawn put his hand over his heart. "I promise! Your secret's safe!"

"Alright!" Leonard said and then, switching the subject "I'm going to be a robot for Halloween. What are you going to be?"

Shawn hadn't thought about it before, but realized immediately that he only ever had one choice. "I'm going as a ventriloquist - I have most of the costume ready. We should go trick-or-treating together; a robot's kinda like a dummy, right?"

“Yeah! We should go together! But...what’s a ventricular-it’s?”

"It's, uh..." Shawn hesitated a moment as he tried to figure out a way to explain the concept of ventriloquism to someone who clearly hadn't encountered it before. "They're, like, people who've learned how to talk without moving their lips, so they can carry around a doll and pretend it's the one talking instead of them."

Shawn hadn't tried to talk without moving his mouth, or throw his voice without Mr. Clayton being present before, but he decided to try anyway - he'd learned the skill, right? "Like this." He tried to say it without his lips moving, and tried to make it sound like it was coming from a little ways away from him.

The effect, while normally something Shawn would have to concentrate and practice with, was suddenly there. But as the words left Shawns lips, they weren’t his words, they were Mr. Clayton’s. In his mind Shawn heard the words “Like This.”

But out loud, the voice that left Shawns lips, was reedy and thin.

“Hi-ya Leonard!” The voice said from Shawns lips.

Leonard opened his eyes wide and stumbled backward, falling onto the rug in his room on his ass. He looked up to Shawn with a mixture of horror and awe.

Shawn tried to roll with it and not look as freaked out about it as he felt. “See, it’s a neat trick.” This time he spoke normally, so he didn’t sound like Mr. Clayton.

Leonard brushed his forehead with his forearm and shimmied backwards, butt dragging on the floor as he increased the distance between himself and Shawn. “It sounded.....scary.”

Shawn scootched back a little himself, immediately realizing he'd miscalculated and not wanting to further frighten Leonard. "Sorry! Sorry...it was a dumb trick, I won't do it again..." He didn't want to admit it to himself, but he was definitely playing up how sorry he looked in hopes that it would get Leonard to forgive him.

Shawn Rolls Manipulation + Empathy + Striking Looks with the following results:

0 Successes: Shawn fails to convince Leonard and ends up leaving Leonards house after several unsuccessful attempts

1-3 Successes: Shawn convinces Leonard it was just a joke but can tell Leonard’s approach to Shawn is more cautious than before

4+ Successes: Shawn convinces Leonard and everything goes back to how it was

OOC: 22:56, Today: Shawn Cramer rolled 2 successes using 7d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 6,8,2,4,5,9,1.  Manipulation + Empathy + Striking Looks.

“I’m not so sure about it. I...I don’t like jokes like that. They’re scary and not fun and they make me feel like bad things could happen. I don’t like jokes that remind me of the bad parts of the dreams I’m having. Because the bad parts are the nightmare parts.” Leonard explained to Shawn, still looking at him from across the room where he sat in a pile of clothing.

"Gosh, I'm really sorry! I didn't mean to make you think about your nightmares." Shawn still hated it when people didn't like him, and it was even worse if it was his fault. He had to figure out how to get Leonard back on his side. "Instead, do you wanna draw? I'm pretty good at drawing race cars."

Without saying anything, Leonard got up from the floor and brushed his pants off. He nodded to Shawn but still looked him in the eyes, as if he didn't fully trust Shawn and wanted to keep his eye on him. Then he made his way over to the dresser next to  his bed.

The dresser was covered with a bowl which some time ago had been used to eat cereal. Now the cereal was stuck to the inside, stale and caked. A dirty sock lay next to it and next to that an old alarm clock.

Leonard opened the drawer and pulled out some crayons and some pieces of paper.

"Let's draw some race cars." he said.

Shawn noticed the way Leonard was looking at him, but didn't acknowledge it. Instead, he kept a friendly smile on his face as he took a crayon and a piece of paper. He concentrated on the page as he started to draw - he was going to draw the coolest looking race car he possibly could, that way Leonard wanted to be his friend again!