"That's the spirit! Yucka! Yucka! But you know what this means, don't you?"

Shawn looked at his dummy head, stuck on his dummy body, seeing it all with his dummy eyes, and couldn't help but think whatever Mr. Clayton was about to say could somehow make this situation worse. "What does this mean?"

"It means you need to get a pet!!!" Mr. Clayton rejoiced, jumping in the air in a hap-hazard manner, arms flopping about like a jilting puppet.

Shawn actually felt a little relieved it wasn't something super scary. "That'd be nice - though I'd have to spend time taking care of it, and that's time I'm not practicing." He really didn't have all that much free time.

"Have you payed at all attention to this lesson on Greater Ventriloquism?" Mr. Clayton asked, suddenly a serious undertone to his question. It felt suddenly like Shawn was being interrogated by....well....Shawn. After all it was Shawn that was controlling the Puppet and its voice, wasn't it?

Shawn took a look at himself in the mirror. His arm wasn't up Mr. Clayton's back. Mr. Clayton wasn't sitting on his lap. And, to make the distinction even starker, Shawn himself still looked like a Ventriloquist's dummy.

"Pulling levers." Mr. Clayton intoned. "Controlling their cords." Mr. Clayton affected in a dry, emotionless voice.

"That's what you do to Puppets. That's what you do to something that's just an object......"

"That's what you do to me."

"But as we discussed. Its also what you do to pets sometimes, when the training becomes routine." Mr. Clayton explained, his voice now losing a bit of that dark intonation it had just moments before and recovering a light-hearted, mirth characteristic of a show-puppet.

"So as you can see, a pet really does fit into the plan!"

"That makes sense." Shawn said it with far more confidence and cheer than maybe he really felt, not wanting to seem like a dumb kid who didn't understand the lesson. Though all the lever talk made him wonder about the cavity in his back. He tried to reach inside with one of his wooden hands, see if he could move his own mouth-lever. He wasn't sure if it made things better or worse if he could essentially puppet himself.

"Well, I guess I need a pet...umm, am I gonna have to ask my Dad for a dog? Or is it something that I can just trust in Greater Ventriloquism and it'll make sure I have one? It'll probably be a dog, right?"

As Shawn asked the question, he managed to 'hook' onto something with his pinky. It was some kind of protruding object that was deep inside the cavity of his back.

OOC: Shawn Rolls Dexterity + Occult





"Hmmmm. That's a very interesting and very funny question! It's interesting because its fun to imagine-Ha-HA! and it's also fun to think about the kinds of pets that you could have! It's a funny question, because you think I'm more than just a dummy!"

And with that, Mr. Clayton began a light, buoyant chuckle. It wasn't the kind of chuckle that would make a kid feel upset or made fun of. It was rather the kind of chuckle that might make a kid feel accepted in front of a group peers that were laughing with him, not at him. The kind of laughing that was done out of observing a quirky but endearing quality that someone had.

"It's not me at all who is doing this. I'm just a dumb, dumb, dummy! I'm a trifle. I'm nothing. Anything you ever thought that I did do. Any anything you ever saw me do before, is all the result of Bradford, not me."

"And anything that I do from now on is because of you." Mr. Clayton affirmed. "I'm not the thing with magical powers that you once believed I was. Maybe you still believe it. Greater Ventriloquism seems that way only from those on the outside."

OOC: 21:21, Today: Shawn Cramer rolled 3 successes using 5d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 1,10(+8),9,5,6.  Dexterity + Occult.

Shawn grabbed something from his back with that one pinky finger and as he did, he held onto it, pulling whatever it was down. It felt like a small lever.

"What's that you have there?...." Mr. Clayton asked, tilting his Puppet head and looking at Shawn the way a dog does when it hears a strange noise.

Shawn's pinky pulled the lever down

"Bwhaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........." Shawn's mouth emitted a sound coming out of that Puppet face that was entirely involuntary but seemed to correspond to the tugging of that lever.

Shawn moved his hand away from the lever, startled by what was coming out of his mouth. Again, his puppet face hid the expression he wanted to make, so he just maintained that same smile as his mouth opened and shut. Assuming that sound coming from his mouth eventually stopped, he looked over at Mr. Clayton. "Sorry - I didn't know what that would do...wait, if I'm the one pulling the lever, who's making that sound?"

"You are Shawn. You are doing all of this." Mr. Clayton informed Shawn. "I am as stupid as that silly little sound that you made because I am nothing. And you're just as clueless as that sound that came out of your mouth. And just as stupid."

"It's OK to be stupid and silly. But you have to accept it. Puppets are dumb. They are a trifle. They are toys to be played with."

Shawn was about to retort that he wasn't a trifle or a toy, but looking the mirror, it didn't seem like it would be a really successful argument. "Well, maybe I'm a little empty headed *now*. But you said that dummies can do all sorts of things because they're dummies. So even if it's stupid, maybe I can still make stuff happen." Stubbornly, he reached back into his cavity and found the lever again. This time, he tried to be more deliberate about it - instead of pulling it randomly, he tried to move it like he did Mr. Clayton's, as if he was trying to mimic human speech.

"Oh that's just you trying to make up for being a stupid, dumb dummy." Mr. Clayton rejoiced in a snickering tone. "Are you a dummy?"

Shawn did, in fact, feel really silly, playing around like this with stuff he didn't understand in the least. He withdrew his hand, only not completely shamefaced because he couldn't make that expression. "I guess I am the dummy! Nothing upstairs but wood and air!" He tried to keep his tone upbeat, like he was delivering a punchline at a stage show. Hopefully this was what Mr. Clayton wanted to hear.

Mr. Clayton's mouth opened and shut, opened and shut, open and then snapped shut again. And with it, he laughed.

"That's a good one! Yucka! Yucka!" Mr. Clayton moved his hand up to his eye, the back of the wooden, stiff hand making a gesture like he was wiping a way a tear of laughter.

"But really, since you're a dummy. And I'm a dummy. And we're just two dummies." He leaned in towards Shawn to emphasize the question he was asking.

"What would you say is the dumbest part of you?"

Shawn could see he picked the right tack to make Mr. Clayton happy, and decided that maybe keeping it up would help him figure out whatever lesson he was supposed to take from all this. "Probably the head, Mr. Clayton. And arm's just an arm, but a head's supposed to think, and mine doesn't seem to at all."

"Yes, that's true." Mr. Clayton said in a tone that suggested he was interested in further exploring the topic.

"But what is it inside that dummy head of yours that you find to be the worst part? It's obvious you can't think. You're a dummy. And dummies aren't smart. They move because others move them."

"But what is it? What is it about the unique you that is so..." Mr. Clayton's voice trailed off....

"Stupid." He blurted out.

"Dumb." He inquired with finality.

Shawn felt the sting of Mr. Clayton's repeated insults, but he'd heard them frequently enough that he was almost used to them. "I guess...the bit that can't figure out what he's doing wrong?"

"Can't figure it out...." Mr. Clayton repeated wistfully.

"And do you think that makes you an idiot?" He probed. "Someone who can't even figure something out?"

"I guess, yeah...I'm not very good at school stuff either." Shawn tried to keep a bright, cheerful face on it, but there was a moment of genuine sadness in there too.

"Yeah, you are kind of stupid at school work." Mr. Clayton agreed.

"And even if you were good at school, which you aren't, then you have to admit that you'd never ever make it in an one of those honors classes. So, it doesn't really matter." He concluded. "What else are you stupid at?" Mr. Clayton asked, wanting to fully explore the subject.

"I dunno, I guess I'm always disappointing people..." Shawn was feeling increasingly bad about this particular topic. "What does this have to do with anything anyway? I don't make fun of you!"

"We already know that I’m a dummy. I’m nothing. I’m a trifle. I am made of wood and glass and things that people use. I am something that is used. So anything that I say and anything that I am is nothing. I’m really just bits of things that have been put together. If I have a thought or an idea, maybe it’s one of those bits or pieces of wood. But it’s not a real idea." Mr. Clayton explained “Its not something that means anything. Not a real thought.”

"And if not, maybe the person who pulled my lever or coord is responsible? " He wondered. "Now let’s look at you in the mirror." Mr. Clayton instructed.

“Do you look like a Dummy?”