Mom and Shawn continued to talk about the great job Shawn had done, and how he had secured the part above all competition. "I'm going to go to the bathroom, I'll meet you in there." Mom said excitedly, leaving Shawn at the threshold of Grandpa's room.

Shawn walked into Grandpa's room, slowly and making just a little bit of extraneous noise because he didn't want to surprise him. He knew Gramps' health wasn't great. He called out as he approached the bed. "Hello, Gramps? It's me, Shawn."

The white curtains still stood, hanging lifeless and covering the windows. Inside the room, it smelled like a mix of hospital food and old, must.

"Shawn...." was the only response that Shawn heard right away. Just a repeat of his own name.

"Who is that?" the voice asked, confused. Grandpa's voice. He then heard a moist, chewing noise like Grandpa was eating or something.

"Green jello today." Grandpa added

"It's me, Shawn. Your grandson?" Shawn spoke a little louder this time, assuming the trouble must be with Gramps' hearing. He ventured further into the room so he could see his grandfather.

Shawn ventured into the room at the foot of the bed, the antisceptic smell filling his nose with a sterilized odor of the room. Grandpa was pushed up against the corner of the room, face lost in the shadows, difficult to see, though Shawn could make out the features: hollowed eyes looked back from a sunken face, jaw fixed and serious, heavy wrinkles above Grandpa's bushy brow.

"OK." Grandpa stated, using the word as a shield, wielding it as if Shawn might be trying to trick him.

"I don't have it." he stated defiantly. "Those Krout-Wehrmachts took it off of us a few days ago. We've been fighting a rear-guard action for the last week, and a few of them made it through the breach, took it right from us. Since I don't have it, you'll have to find someone else that knows where it is. That or you can ask the Furher himself. Those bastards probably gave it to him by now. But I don't care, I'd rather take care of my boys and get back home. This mission's been a failure from day one." 

"Gramps, what are you talking about?" Shawn took a step forward, concerned. "There's no mission, Mom and I just came by to visit. I got a big part in a movie, Gramps..."

"A movie..." Gramps repeated, the voice of a blind-man looking for his cane, something to help orient himself back into the situation.

"...my Grandson." He said an paused. "...the one that lies a lot."

It wasn't said with scorn or disapproval. But more like a person who was trying to fit pieces of a dream together, bits of memory hazing and coming back piece by piece.

Shawn didn't know at all what was going on. How bad could his hearing be? When he spoke again, it was with clear enunciation. "That's right - you told me about the Birds, Beasts, and Bats, Gramps."

"Did I?" Grandpa asked, sounding confused. "The Bats and the Bees." he repeated.

"What are we here for? Where am I? And why am I here?" Grandpa asked, shuffling his feet, the bed sheets rising slightly

Shawn was getting worried now. He looked around for Mom, hoping she'd be back from the bathroom soon and would know how to fix whatever was happening here. "We're at the hospital, Gramps. You've been sick, but me and Mom came to visit. Don't you remember?"

"Oh! That's right! What is the good news?"

Shawn felt a little better that Gramps was talking to him instead of just acting confused, but he was still a little weirded out. Still, he pushed on through that feeling to answer. "I finally got a big movie part! I'm going to be playing the main villain in Kid Knight."

From the corner of the darkness, Grandpa let forth his admiration and praise

"That's wonderful! I knew you could do it! That's great news! Just great!"

Then he paused. A long pause. And then...

"Who...who are you...again?"

OOC: Shawn rolls 1d10 to determine how many minutes the cycle of conversation runs

"Umm..."

OOC: 22:07, Today: Shawn Cramer failed (no successes) using 1d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 3. Conversation Loop.

The conversation went back and forth for three minutes. It was a loop of sorts. Grandpa would ask who Shawn was. Shawn would answer, coming to tell Grandpa about the good news. Then Grandpa would congratulation Shawn and so on.

Finally, the loop was broken.

"You and I are the same." Grandpa said finally. "We're both liars. We act like someone else so much so, sometimes we are someone else. Someone else entirely." Shawn had heard this refrain before from Grandpa. He seemed sincere about it. It wasn't judgemental, just a matter of fact point of view.

Shawn was caught off guard by Gramps' sudden derailment from his predictable pattern. He cared deeply about Gramps, as a family member but also one of the few people he felt understood him. And so, he answered with unthinking honesty, a rare thing coming from him. "Sometimes I wish I really was."

Gramps grunted. "mmmmmm....like what?" he asked, shuffling in his bed. "What could  you be if you could be anything." There was a wet slurping noise, Grandpa sipping something like tea or maybe water from deep in the corner of the room.

"I'd be..." Shawn thought about it, and suddenly it was like a dam broke and the words came pouring out. "...I'd be an actor, a good one, but I'd like it, like really have fun doing it, not just pretending. I'd get all the big parts that Mom wants. I'd be smart, and get good grades because I learned all the answers and school would be easy and Dad would think I was a genius. I'd be nice to people because I really cared, not just because I wanted them to like me. People would be my friend because they think I'm cool, not just because I tell them what I think they want to hear. I'd-I'd be brave..."

The words flowed out with surprising honesty, first with a trickle and then with greater certainty. Grandpa's voice came through at the end, momentarily surprising Shawn and bringing him back to the reality of the room

"Wonderful!" Grandpa said with joy at Shawn's honesty "How does it feel? To be honest about what you are? What you want? What you feel?" Grandpa asked. It seemed that Grandpa's old, forgetfulness had waned as the conversation moved on. Like Grandpa had grown in his own certainty, just talking with Shawn. But maybe that's what happened when you had human contact after being so along in a hospital alone.

Shawn was relieved that Gramps seemed to be feeling better, but his emotional honesty was taking its toll. "I feel...kinda sick. It's like I'm naked in public."

The awkwardness of honesty seemed to expose Shawn, making him vulnerable, even if it left Grandpa in the darkness. Suddenly looking in the darkness, Shawn could see that Grandpa had some measure of safety, asking the questions, safe in his corner.

"Are you ready to go out and face the world, with your new job?" Grandpa encouraged, seeming to not understand or not be able to contemplate the idea that Shawn didn't like necessary how he was feeling. It was that thing that old people do sometimes. They didn't quite listen, or they didn't quite get it, or they didn't quite soak in the comments. It just went right over his head, Shawn's comments on how he felt naked.

Shawn relaxed a little as the conversation moved back to terrain he could handle. "I'm nervous, but I know I'm ready. I worked super hard for this, and I don't want to let anyone down."

"mmmmmmm..." Grandpa said. "uh-huh." If Shawn could see him, he imagined him nodding his head, even though he couldn't see it.

"What's the job? I don't understand why...why you're here. Wh-wh--who are you again?"

Shawn smiled at him gently while his heart broke a little inside. It seemed their moment hadn't really lasted all that long. "I'm Shawn, your grandson. I came with Mom to visit you."

The conversation went on like that for a while until Mom came in...

OOC: Shawn Joins Thread

Shawn: Final Exams