"WAKE UP!" Bradford yelled angrily, he kicked Shawn roughly in the ribs, driving the air right out of him. Shawn tried to breath in, but the air was gone. It took a few seconds for him to gain his bearings.

He was leaning against the wall of a red tent. The ground filled with clay and mud.

He was at the Circus.

Shawn coughed and gagged as he tried desperately to regain his breath. He would've asked where he was, but by the time he had enough air to form words, he'd figured it out. He put his arms out to block any further kicks from Bradford. "-m up."

Bradford didn't miss a beat, now berating Shawn with admonishment instead of kicks. Still he used his words like a club, beating Shawn as Shawn got to his feet.

"I told you NEVER to look at the proprietor." Bradford warned. "That's the last time I'll tell you too. Come to think of it, I don't even know why I did. I should have let you burn. Just like my face." He pointed with one thin finger at the melted slab of skin that sagged on one side of his face.

"I wa-I didn't..." But Shawn knew he was about to look into the well, and it now seemed absurd to think that that keeping his eyes closed would have made a difference. He gave Bradford a genuinely grateful look. "Thank you. For snapping me out of it."

"Ha!" Bradford laughed sarcastically, the sound like a dart thrown in Shawn's direction. "Don't thank me for anything. I'd just as soon as see you dead. You're the reason my face is the way it is. And you're the reason why I'm lost with no family. The only reason I woke you up was so we could get started doing what we've got to do to re-establish the Fortune Teller's Order."

He gave Shawn an appraising look.

"Funny thing, isn't it? We were on the same side before, and I didn't much like you then. Before you betrayed Ron and me. And Naomi. And Henri too come to think of it. But we were still on the same side. I'd swore that if I'd come to it, I'd get my revenge on you."

He shook his head. The melted side of Bradford's face was all sweaty, a red glow from the eerie sky of the Circus reflecting off of it.

"But it seems that circumstances being what they are, we find ourselves on the same side again. Guess life is funny like that. Here I spent this time thinking up all sorts of ways to make you pay for the evil lies you told and did. And now the Circus surprises me again. It put us back together on the same side. Traded us to the same Master. Funny thing." Though by the way Bradford spoke, Shawn could tell he really didn't think it was funny.

Shawn bore up against Bradford's entirely deserved response with characteristic subdued sadness. Still, regardless of what he said, Bradford had saved Shawn's life, and that felt important. He brushed himself off and got to his feet, legs still a little shaky. "So what do we do next?"

Well, Bradford said, pointing to a tent that wasn't too far off from the tent they were leaning against.



"It's only fair that you go in first. After all, this whole thing..." And he waved his hands in a jiggling gesture to encompass his dissatisfaction with the entire Circus and all the sadness and death that surrounded them.

"This whole... this...is because of you. Plus, you're right in a way. I did just save you. So, after you then." And he gestured for Shawn to step past him and towards the Fortune Teller's tent.

Shawn sighed and talked towards the other tent. Sad as it was to say, he was getting used to this.

Unlike the other tents Shawn had been in, this one was tight and crammed. It looked bigger from the outside, but once they got in, everything seemed to center on a small table. Tarot cards were layed out in a display over an Ouija board.

"Sit." A voice from nowhere, and everywhere said. It was the same voice Shawn had heard before. The voice of the macaroni.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:12, Thu 20 Apr 2017.

Bradford looked at Shawn uncertainly, the good part of his face showing the innocence and doubt that he once had long, long ago.

He sat down. "this is kind of...spooky" he whispered, sounding like the old Bradford for once.

Shawn wasn't any less spooked, but he was better at hiding it. Obediently, he sat down next to Bradford. "It'll be okay."
This message was last edited by the player at 11:50, Thu 20 Apr 2017.

Shortly after sitting down, a strange gypsy tune began to play inside the tent, slow, and harmonic. Shawn began to look for the source of the music but then a strong incense smell caught his nose and began filling the room. His inner mind, interpreted the phenomenon as an indication of the Fortune Teller's presence in the tent, even if his conscious mind--the mind that he thought with everyday--did not.

Then as if slowly appearing through a translucent ether, a shape began to form in the chair across the table. The woman's shape--the fortune teller--slowly materialized. She looked old and gaunt, hunched over like a witch. And she had three eyes.

Next to her, a strange bird appeared, sitting on a perch.



"I am Melinda, of the Order of Sybil. You have done an excellent job. We have much work to do. So if it pleases you to ask questions of me, before your apprenticeships begin, now is the time to do so. You will find that I am a patient Master. But I teach by doing. And so you must learn in the same way."

Shawn barely knew the first thing about magic, which seemed like a problem considering who he was apprenticing to. So he picked a question he hoped both showed his willingness to learn and hopefully be practically useful. "Can you teach me how to use the Numbers game? Not now, I mean, but like in general?"

"You will find that such things are well within my power to teach. The Numbers Game is just what you call it. Long ago it was the stuff of the world below! Even further below than here. It was left over from before the Old Time, when demons walked the earth! A relic, from before the Old Time. It allows the summoning of devils, the taking of forms and other such things. Yes I will teach you."

"But we must also not lose focus. Ours is a special task: To place ourselves at the helm of this great traveling show. Ahead of the Clowns." her lip curled at that last part.

Shawn looked over at Bradford to see if he had anything to say before speaking again. "What do you need us to do...master? Mistress?" The last word of that sentence rose into a question - something Bradford said earlier, combined with the mention of an Order made him unsure if the Fortune Teller had a title or mode of address he should be in using.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:30, Fri 21 Apr 2017.

"You may call me Melinda." The Fortuneteller advised. "There is something missing. Something that we must find. Before Crowley, the Pawn shop-keeper finds it. I've heard a tale of a missing Clown nose in the depths of Circus' sewers. It is in the pocket of a boy that died there. His name was Henri. You will find this boy and dig into his pockets before Crowley gets there."