Shawn sat in his bedroom thoroughly exhausted from his endeavors and the hard work that he focused on earlier today. His own legs were tired from standing for hours on the set and even as they rested in the bed, they ached and burned. The muscles in his face were fatigued from endless expressions and his voice was hoarse from reading endless lines, some of which required yelling. But most of all, it was his mind that was tired from the demands of Mom and Mrs. Worthington. (OOC: Feelings the result of Roll in last thread/tired but Mom approves)

Bobby, meanwhile, was talking from the other side of the room in the darkness.

"Do you want to go to bed or do you want to take another crack at the book." He asked. And then there was a bit of silence filled by the sound of a car passing along the street outside, headlights briefly appearing on the wall and then fading again.

"What's it like being a movie star?" Bobby asked suddenly.

Shawn kept his eyes closed for a bit, not so much trying to sleep as giving his brain a rest from visual input for a few minutes. "I'm not a movie star yet. Might not ever be. But being an actor is really really hard work. You're always busy because people need you to do stuff, and you can't complain because they're all busy too. It's fun sometimes though. I like the monster makeup."

He rolled over onto his elbows and levered himself up. He felt stiff and exhausted, but he knew what his answer had to be. He'd promised, and while he'd been dreading it all day, he owed it to Bobby. "No, we should do this tonight. I'm going to be busy tomorrow too, and probably the day after."

The room seemed to warm slightly and Shawn could feel Bobby get out of bed, excited. Perhaps it was the fact that Shawn had agreed to do what he had promised he would do.

"Monster make-up." Bobby repeated in a low voice, feet padding on the floor as he approachd Shawn's bed.

"That sounds fun. Like in the music video Thriller. You know, by Michael Jackson. My mom would always let me watch MTV. And the videos. That was my favorite one. I like the part where the evil voice starts at the beginning. But my Dad only let me watch VH1 because he said it doesn't have as much adult stuff on it."

"Yeah, it's kinda neat to be able to look in the mirror and not recognize yourself. I don't get to do it that often, though." Shawn looked over at the closet. "So...are you ready to do this?"

"I'm ready." Bobby said, and the two both stared for a moment at the closet.

It looked dark and foreboding. The shadows seemed to creep in from the sides of the walls, parts of the room unable to be seen despite the flinty presence of dim light outside cast from the street through the blinds.

Bobby swallowed. "Let's go." he affirmed and he started to make his way to the closet. "This time, I'll try to to take the first shot of..of..whatever it is that we need to do. Whatever April said we need to do to get the Book started."

Shawn hesitantly opened the closet door and swept the pile of clothes aside. Assuming the Book was still there, he picked it up and handed it to Bobby.

Bobby grasped the Book in his hands and Shawn saw a similar look appear on Bobby's face from last night. It was eager, needy and yet haggard and tired. But much like Shawn's own tiredness, it started to fade as the reality of using the Book now became the focus of their endeavor. "OK."

The Book itself did nothing as Bobby leafed through its contents, the pages crackling, smell of old paper like that of a stale leatherbound on the top library shelf.

Bobby closed his eyes and still nothing happened. He watched as Bobby leafed through the Book and...

OOC: Shawn Rolls Wits + Composure

OOC: 22:11, Today: Shawn Cramer rolled 1 success using 4d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s. Wits + Composure.

"Eeeeeeh, watch me paste this pathetic palooka with a powerful, paralyzing, perfect, pachydermous, percussion pitch!"

The Book suddenly yelled, transforming into its form quickly. Eyes appearing through the leatherbound cover, tongue swishing out rapidly like a whip. It tried to slap at Shawn's hand but he pulled it away.

The Book's eyes looked at Shawn and Bobby, shifting between the two of them. Then Bobby, fumbling the Book out of his own surprise, dropped it. With a book that heavy, it would have made a loud crashing sound on the floorboards. Instead, it landed with a heavy thud onto the pile of clothing that Bobby had laid out.

"Eh, what's up, doc?"

Shawn took a half step back with surprise, and had to take a moment before his heartbeat came back under control. This was not a great time for surprises! "That's weird - it didn't transform last night."

"Yeah." Bobby said in a cautious voice. "I don't know what happened. I started to think about being a G.I. Joe, maybe that had something to do with..."

"Pizza!" The Book suddenly shouted.


Loud.


Loud enough perhaps to wake both Mom and Dad. The comment itself was also strange. It came out in a demanding voice. The way an adult might scold a child. The Book's dry, leathery toque began to swish about its lips. The tongue formed a sort of hand gesture and then pointed inward towards its mouth like it wanted to be fed.

"Pizza!" It said again.

Shawn didn't have any pizza. They ordered it last week. Mom had said it might be time to cut back, seeing as the family might have to go on a 'budget' for some reason she didn't explain.

Shawn tried to shush the book, lest it wake his parents. "We don't have any pizza." He tried to think of what sort of leftovers they had in the freezer.

"It want's pizza? Why does it want pizza?" Bobby said, looking around the room in vain as if he could find pizza somewhere.

"Pizza!" The Book suddenly shouted.

"Shhhh!" Bobby hushed, putting his finger to his lips at the Book.

He turned to Shawn.

"What do we do? We have to do something, or else it will wake everyone up."

Suddenly there was a knock at the door.

Shawn, Bobby? It was Dad's voice. Quiet it down in there OK? Mom and I are trying to sleep OK?

The floorboards creaked and Dad's footsteps faded away back towards Mom and Dad's room.

"How about pasta? I think there's some leftover pasta in the bridge. It's got cheese, tomato sauce, pasta's basically the same as crust. How about that?" Shawn was trying to sell it as best he could, but he didn't really know about what the book wanted - could it even eat?

OOC: Shawn Rolls a contested Roll against the Book

Shawn Rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge vs. Book's Wits + Subterfuge

Books Roll = 08:20, Today: The Book of 'Babble' rolled 2 successes using 2d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((10(+3),9)).



"Pizza?" The Book asked, a little too loudly. It twisted its tongue into a hand and pointed at its mouth, wanting to be fed.

OOC: 09:09, Today: Shawn Cramer failed (no successes) using 7d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((3,2,4,1,2,1,4)).

09:09, Today: Shawn Cramer failed (no successes) using 2d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s.  Striking Looks?

"Good idea." Bobby said and he raced down the stairs. Shawn kept the Book busy. Past really was the same ingredients as pizza, wasn't it.

A few moments later, Bobby came racing up the stairs. He was holding Dad's left over pasta from Giamacci's Italian Restaurant. Dad famously loved Giamacci's and was very protective  his leftovers.

"Let's give him this." Bobby suggested, handing the plate over to Shawn. "If we don't feed it soon, it's going to get louder and louder. I think April said something about that."

Shawn, unsure of how to feed a handless book, tried propping the Book up against the closet wall, and held the plate right up to its mouth. "Here's some, uh, pizza."

OOC: Results of failed Roll

Shawn moved the bowl of pasta up to the Book's mouth tentatively. With one full swipe of its tongue, the Book slapped the bowl out of Shawn's hands. Pasta flew into the air and landed all over the place. The bowl of sauce landed upside down in the pile of clothes that the Book once was sitting in.

The book shook its face as if saying 'no.' It's tongue stabbed relentlessly at its mouth in an impatient gesture.




"Pizza!" it yelled.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:57, Sat 03 Dec 2016.

Bobby turned to Shawn, his pajamas splattered with tomato sauce stains. "Look." He said, as if understanding that Shawn might not want any of this.

"I need to do something about this. I understand if this..." he gestured with his hands. "Is all too much for you." He glanced at the Book with a weary face.

"But I've got to get my family back. And this Book is the only way to do it. I guess I have to go to the pizza store somehow. Maybe I'll ride my bike. You don't have to come if you don't want to. We don't have any money. And that means I'll probably have to grab a slice of pizza using a five-finger discount." He explained.

It was true. Shawn didn't have any money that was his.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:01, Sat 03 Dec 2016.

"Hang on, we might not have to steal anything." Shawn tried not to think about the morning, when they'd have to explain why their pyjamas were covered in tomato sauce and why Dad's pasta was missing. Instead, he went to his dresser and found his box of keepsakes - it was mostly cheap props and other things he'd been allowed to take home from movie sets, but buried in the back he usually had a little bit of spending money. On the sets he liked to be helpful even when he wasn't shooting, and when the crew would ask him to fetch things, sometimes they'd give him a little tip afterwards.

OOC: I have the Odd Jobs merit, which gives me $10-$20 to spend without needing to ask anyone's permission. Can I apply that here?

Shawn's memory was fuzzy, hazy after all the work he had been doing today. Especially the tasks ordered by Mrs. Worthington.

Bobby smiled.

"Yes!" He announced suddenly, pumping his fist.

OOC: Yes. My memory is fuzzy and hazy! Apply Odd Jobs Merit Here.

Shawn pulled out a mess of one and two dollar bills, and totalled them up. "I've got fourteen dollars - that should be enough for at least a couple slices, right?" He was exhausted and fuzzy, but determined to get this thing done tonight.

"C'mon, we can do this!"

Bobby rejoiced as Shawn displayed the dollar bills. A few were crinkled. Others had frayed edges.

Bobby opened up the window and grabbed a hold of the Book, which didn't seem to resist in the slightest. Not that it really could move, other than its tongue. Of course, Shawn had seen it waddle across the floor slowly in the cabin, but it didn't seem to be doing that now.

"Let's sneak out." He said. "We can get the pizza, come back and no one will know the difference."

Shawn nodded determinedly. "Okay...we just have to keep quiet"

They were outside now. Feet crunching on the rooftop, the night sky bright with a big, yellow moon. Somewhere out there a coyote was howling. Its calls faded into the night air.

Moments later they found themselves riding bikes. Bobby followed Shawn down the road and into the nearest strip mall. Giamacci's Italian Restaurant: Shawn had been there many times before. It was only two miles from home and the fatigue that Shawn had felt early from such a hard days work seemed to be present somewhere in the back of his mind. But it was far back there, as he felt he was getting a second wind now.

"OK." Bobby said, stuffing the Book under his shirt. "Let's do this."

Shawn knew he was tired, but the physical energy he used to ride a bike and the mental and emotional energy he depleted at work seemed to come from entirely different source. He pedalled as fast as he could - the sooner they got the pizza, the sooner they could get back and avoid his parents noticing them missing. "What kind of pizza do you think a book would like?"

"Pizza!" The Book yelled from underneath Bobby's shirt. It was a huge, blocky buldge and it made Bobby look like he was wearing a shirt over some kind of large card board box that was underneath him.

"Let's get cheese." Bobby reasoned. "Everyone likes cheese, so the Book will probably like it as well."

They passed through the double doors of the restaurant, and took note of the empty booths to the left.

"Not a lot of people are here. We can sit in the corner booth if you want. I'm not sure what to do. Should we just by it and go home? But wait, how are we going to carry it? And what if it makes more noises if it smells it?"

These were all questions that neither kid had considered. But, under the circumstances, they were perfectly logical. After all, they were in uncharted territory.

Behind counter, several nondescript workers were walking. One was flipping dough. Through the display case, several pieces of pizza were on display: cheese, pepperoni, white pizza and meatball and sausage. There was even a full pie with green peppers.

Shawn approached the front counter, projecting normalcy and confidence that he certainly didn't feel. "Excuse me, can we get a slice of cheese pizza please? For here?" Bobby had made some smart points - maybe they could feed it here quickly and get it back?

The next hour of Shawn's life went by in a whirldwind. One moment, he was eating pizza in the back booth of the Italian restaurant. The Book struggling and shifting under Bobby's shirt. The next, Bobby taking it out and placing it on the table. Shawn had looked around once or twice to make sure none of the other patrons--there weren't many--could see. That's when without warning, the Book opened its gaping maw and the boys had gingerly placed pizza slices into it. It's leathery tongue lapped at the sides of the its leather-bound mouth, making a 'swishing' noise as it moved back and forth.

Shawn had expected the Book to make loud crunching noises. Indeed, Bobby had commented on the bicycle ride back that he thought the Book would sound very much like 'Cookie Monster' from Sesame Street. But instead of acting like a monster, or a Book monster, the Book had simply sat back with a content, satisfied expression on its front cover. It did belch once or twice. But the burp didn't sound anything different than a fat man burping at a restaurant and Shawn had heard that plenty of times before. And during the bike ride back the Book did develop a case of the hic-ups. But that soon cleared up as well as the boys sneaked back into Shawn's room. Bobby had mentioned that the overall plan had gone fairly well.

An then, in the quiet of night at the Cramers' house, Shawn and Bobby found themselves on the floor, huddled around the Book in a conspiratorial manner. Feeding the Book had also seemed to stop its nonsensical comments, at least for now. Its eyes had a lazy, hazed look and its tongue moves slowly. In that moment, its expression seemed more like a satisfied Jabba the Hut from Star Wars than anything else.

"Hey, I want to say thanks. I mean for doing this. And for having me at your house." Bobby said, raising a finger to his chin and looking up as if there was something else he had forgotten to say to Shawn.

"And for spending all your money on me." He said finally.

"I mean. Normally I don't say that to most kids. But you're different. I feel like we understand each other. Most kids are kind of boring and they don't get me the way you do. They think I'm snarky. That's what my Mom thinks of me too." he added, as he started to open the Book, turning its face aside to reveal its browned, parchment-like pages.

Shawn shrugged and looked a little embarrassed. "You're the only person I don't have to hide around. You're way more important to me than money." He leaned in, fascinated, to look at the Book's pages.

Shawn looked over Bobby's shoulder and saw the pages of the Book. They were worn with age and smelled like...well, Shawn supposed they smelled rather like pizza which wasn't a surprise.

Bobby flicked through the pages and suddenly, there was an image on one of them that made him stop:


It was a theater of some kind. It looked like the small kind of stage that Shawn had performed at during some of the school plays when he used to go to normal school before he had to attend a school where he just dropped by every now and then. Before he joined a 'Hollywood School.' Only it seemed darker than any other kid theater he had been too. There seemed to be a small gust of wind that came out of the picture out from the book, breezing through Shawn's hair and making it move.

"That's weird." Bobby said. "I didn't think I'd see something like that. Should I keep turning? Or should we do something with this?" He said, somewhat excited that the Book was doing, or offering something. Warming to the idea now. The Book's edges clutched tightly in his hands.

Shawn squinted at the picture - it seemed almost real. He kind of wanted to reach out and touch it, but this being a magic book, he wasn't going to try anything without discussing it with Bobby first. "I don't think the Book would show us this without a reason, right? Let's keep it on this page for now." He looked at the rest of the page - were there any captions or writing he could see?

Bobby nodded. Shawn watched as he reached into the Book and...

Suddenly disappeared. Shawn looked closer. He didn't disappear. He went into the Book. One moment he was there and the next he was climbing into the Book, only he was smaller. Shawn could see him now, running up the aisle of the theater. It was like he was watching a small television screen that was inside the pages.

Shawn instinctively reached after Bobby, not even thinking about the consequences!

OOC: Shawn Joins Thread

Shawn: In the House of The Master Maker