"It smells like butterscotch." Ralph announced, holding the jar out like it was some kind of candy dish, the white face paint catching the light of lamp from the corner of Shawn's room with a sparkle.

"Ralph, you should put that down. It's from the Circus, it could be dangerous." Shawn tried to keep his tone calm - he didn't want to set Ralph off again.

"But, it's butterscotch." Ralph objected, looking at the jar and then back at Shawn hopefully.

"We should eat it" he suggested.

Nevertheless, Ralph followed Shawn's instructions and put the jar down. Now all three boys stood standing around it looking dow.  The creamy face paint had a tinge of blue to it that caught the light.

Shawn glanced around for the lid, trying to avoid looking directly at the jar. "It's face paint, though. Even if it wasn't from the Circus, you shouldn't eat it."

"Yeah." Bobby agreed. "I ain't never heard of any clowns eating face paint. Say, where is that from? I mean, the face paint." He looked over to inspect it, not having thought about the origen of the jar nor its contents.

Then his eyes opened with dawning realization. "That's from......the Circus."

"Yes." Ralph agreed, not seeming surprised or worried like Bobby. "Can't eat it?" The last phrase came out like a dissapointed question.

"Oh no, can't eat it." He finished with dissapointment, realizing that the moment had past. "You put it..it...it...it...it...it...it...it..on?" Ralph said, offering the jar with both hands towards first Bobby and Shawn.

"Yeah, I grabbed it when we were at the Master Maker's place." In retrospect, Shawn wasn't sure why he'd grabbed it. He must've just assumed "clowns + facepaint = important". "I don't think we should put it on."

"If you grabbed it then, and they still haven't found out...." He said, bringing a finger to his chin thoughtfully. "They must not know everything. The Circus. They probably don't know everything Shawn."

Ralph was trying to convince both boys to try on the face paint, but to Bobby, the small child's voice was just a distraction to a larger point he was trying to make.

"They would have come back for it by now if they knew? Right Shawn?" He suggested, raising the possibility that the Circus didn't know everything even though the Cherrywinks Clown could go anywhere. These points Bobby made one by one, beginning to pace again as he made another suggestion.

"Maybe we can get something to turn the tables?" He said in a stream-of-conciousness sort of way. Shawn didn't know what Bobby meant, but the boy had repeatedly gone back to the idea of returning to the Circus, some part of him refusing to accept the current dynamic.

"Would they leave anything like that just laying around? All I did was grab some of their makeup, they've probably got more." Shawn was a little uncomfortable at the idea of seriously trying to fight back against the Circus.

"But what if they've got other things, other things we can use?" Bobby suggested, coming back once again to the idea, refusing to give up.

OOC: Shawn Rolls Wits + Empathy + Striking Looks to read Bobby and possibly find out why he keeps coming back to this

"Master Maker has things. And Fortune Teller too." Ralph said, unhelpfully aiding Bobby's argument.

"See?" Bobby pleaded. "Listen, these Clowns could come back at any time. They could get me, or you or Ralph. If there's more stuff out there then I think we need to take a look. Just take a look. We don't even need to take anything or do anything. We just need to see what's out there. See what we're dealing with. You know? Find out what's going on and where we fit into what's happening. That's what undercover Joe's do. They do recon. That's what Duke did against Cobra command. He figures out what's going on before the Commander turns into a snake." 

OOC: 21:24, Today: Shawn Cramer rolled 2 successes using 5d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 2,10(+9),6,7,3. Wits + Empathy + Striking Looks.

Shawn gave a good look at Bobby and realized what it was all about in that instant: Bobby was still struggling desperately to find a way to make sense of his predicament. Without his own family, Bobby was stuck. While Ralph certainly missed his family and Shawn could see the young boy was often depressed, he lacked the intelligence or craftiness to do something about it.

Bobby on the other hand was as good as any other kid with coming up with plans. The more Shawn thought about it, the more likely it seemed that it was only a matter of time before Bobby acted. Acted in some way to do something to find out more about what exactly had happened to his family. It seemed like the list within the Master Maker's house or tent, wasn't enough to satiate Bobby's curiosity. Or maybe the boy just didn't want to believe that his family was missing. Either way, Shawn knew that Bobby was probably apt to do something to find out what exactly happened to them, holding out hope, probably in vain, that he could do something. Shawn wondered openly if Bobby might even cut some kind of deal with Cherrywinks.

"You might be right about recon, but..." Shawn's realisation put a big pit in his stomach. Bobby wanted to put himself in danger, and while Shawn could sympathise, he had to make sure that didn't happen. Terrifying as it sounded, he had to head this off at the pass, seize the initiative before Bobby could. "...but it should just be me going. Ralph could get captured, and Cherrywinks said you'd be fair game if you came back. If I'm caught, I might be able to make up an excuse."

"If you go back, might....might...might...you have get lost." Ralph said, still eyeing the jar of face paint, like he wanted to touch it. He didn't though. His eyes looked up instead and they made contact with Shawn's, he withdrew his hand and put it behind his back.

"Babysitting again?" Bobby complained. But Shawn could see that even though it was a genuine complaint, and that Bobby didn't really want to be stuck with Ralph, he also wasn't keen to go to the Circus. After all, the Evil Circus was a scary, dark place. Shawn pictured the reddish-hued Sky and the ominous, empty tents spiraling to form their own skyline.

OOC: further results from previous roll

Looking back at Bobby, Shawn could tell that the boy was caught between overcoming this fear --- insisting on joining the search for his family --- and not wanting to be stuck with Ralph, who he still was annoyed with. Shawn could see the indecision in Bobby's eyes. It was also the way his hands clenched together, the worry marks on his forehead and the restless nature of his left leg that kept bobbing up and down once he sat down on Shawn's bed.

Shawn tried to look sympathetic, even though he was probably just as scared (if not more so) of the Circus as Bobby. "It won't be for that long, Bobby. And we've gotta do this the smart way, even if we don't like it. It's what the Joes would do, right?"

"Alright, Alright." Bobby mused moodily. It seemed he had given way and then he said "But this is the last time I'm baby sitting." He added, and then he folded his arms. It was the kind of gesture that was a reluctant acceptance of the decision that had been made.

"And you get the Rubba-sucky" Ralph added, piling on.

"Shut up Ralph!" Bobby shouted. Still folding his arms he got up and sat down on his bed and faced the two boys, sighing with annoyance.

"And will you get Ralph's blanket too? I'm getting tired of hearing about it. That's all he talks about all day 'Rubba-sucky' this, and "Master Maker" that. It's getting really heavy." Bobby complained.

"I'll do my best." Shawn tried to sound confident, though this would be the first time he'd gone into the Circus alone and uninvited. He really really really didn't want to go, but he felt like he didn't have a choice anymore...

"I'm coming next time." Bobby added with a weak voice that didn't sound convincing. It seemed like the kind of thing a kid would say that they wanted to do, even though they didn't want to do it. More of a measure of control than a true want.

As if on cue, or perhaps overhearing a need for its services, light poured out from under the seam of the door within the closet. It was the Book of course, and Shawn could already hear it's large pages flapping about, no doubt expecting a traveler.

Shawn looked at the closet where the Book was, then back at Bobby and Ralph. His gaze was drawn to the jar of face paint. 'Sometimes I want what I didn't' Ralph had said, and the words kept sticking with him. Maybe because his life had turned into a succession of things he didn't want. Not even sure himself why he was doing it, he went over to the jar, picked it up, and put it in his pocket. "Maybe I can barter with it or something?" Then he turned back to the closet and the Book within.

OOC: Shawn Join's Thread - The Devil Is in The Details