Nevertheless, the puppet disappeared below the counter.

"What do you think?" Bradford asked, the gaping hole that Shawn caused still bleeding fresh blood onto the counter. Though, with the foggy logic that only makes sense in a dream, Shawn couldn't remember if it was the gunshot or the betrayal at the cabin that had caused the bloody hole in Bradford's face.

"I'm just getting started. Am I any good?"

Now that the dummy was out of sight, Shawn had a slightly easier time of getting himself under control. At least it wasn't a marionette, right? He gave Bradford a slightly sickly smile. "You're...really good at it. I'm sorry if I was rude; dummies always creeped me out a bit."

"It's alright." Bradford said cheerily. "I'm so glad that I'm not mad at you anymore. Even if Mr. Clayton is angry. I'm sure that over time, I can get him to let go of being mad at you. It just like my Mom says: 'small gestures and time.' That's what she says."

Bradford's good eye turned cross-eyed for a moment, drifting towards his nose as if he was trying to gaze at the ruined hole in the opposite side of his head.

"Next time you see me at the Circus, I'll be all tattooed on that side!"

"But next time you see me in the real world, I'll look normal. It's part of the magic of the Circus and what the Tattooed Lady did to me."

"That's weird, but kinda neat." Shawn was slowly stabilizing; the cowboy gruffness was gone, but he was starting to sound less openly terrified.

"I'm still gonna be here as the Tattooed Lady's apprentice for a while. In the Circus. Before I come back. So I won't be helping out with the Great Soul Race."

"So how are you finding things?" He ask, Cheerily.

"It's all been kinda crazy..." Shawn opened with a bit of honesty, but he knew he couldn't really open up to Bradford. Despite his protestations of forgiveness, there was a lot of justifiably bad blood between them. He tried to avoid any incriminating detail. "I met a guy named Griffix who's teaching me card tricks, but mostly I'm just nervous about the Race."

"Yeah. The Race looks like its going to be really hard from a distance. I mean, when I'm done with my training, I think I'll be able to help you guys out more. I mean, especially if I end up getting control of Mr. Clayton the way I'm supposed to."

"Hey, you ever wonder what happens after the Race? I mean if we win? If the Order wins? Do you think that you'll stop worrying? Or that I'll be able to go back home to the farm and leave the Circus behind?"

"I don't know. I'm trying not to think about it." Shawn didn't think the Circus seemed like a fair place, and he didn't really think he'd ever be able to stop worrying.

"Oh." Bradford said, somewhat dismayed by Shawn's answer. "Well. What have you learned? Anything good? I mean from the Order. Like I said, I'm not a really good ventriloquist. But the Tattooed Lady found some old vinyl records that the last Circus Ventriloquist recorded. All these instructions on how to work the doll and your mouth. She let me make cassette recordings of them. So now I've been listening to them. It's hard work."

"What have you learned?"


A large skull fragment fell out from the left side of Bradford's face, landing on the counter with a loud, hard 'plop' noise.

Shawn pulled a deck of cards out of his pocket and fanned them out on the counter. He kept it well away from the blood spatter, but he was too polite to mention the mess. "Just a card trick so far. It's supposed to make people like me more, but I haven't really had a chance to use it."

"Oh! Card tricks!" Bradford exclaimed, with all the enthusiasm of a new puppy. "I can't wait. It'll just be like Joey's birthday party from a few years ago. It's gonna be great."

He waited for Shawn to proceed.

"I don't think the magic part will work on you, since we're involved in the Circus, but I can at least try the regular card trick part." Shawn fanned out the cards and did the parlour trick competently enough.

OOC: 21:26, Today: Shawn Cramer rolled 1 success using 7d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling on 9 or more with rolls of 2,4,1,9(+5),5,2,7. Wits + Subterfuge + Striking Looks.

Shawn's instincts seemed to be vindicated. Bradford's eyes----or eye----remained fixed on the cards, marveling at the daft way that Shawn moved them and the sleight of hand he used. But there was no magical affect.

"That's amazing." Bradford remarked. "Every kid at my school and in my small town back home would love that trick. What do you think is next though? Will you learn to be in a hat, like a white rabbit? Or maybe pull one out. If the Fortune Teller gave you a choice between being invisible or flying, what would you choose?"

Shawn shuffled the deck carefully before returning them to his pocket. "I don't know what could be next. Maybe a hat trick, though I'm not really good with animals. If I got two choices, I'd pick invisible I guess? It might be nice to fly, but I don't know what I'd even use it for. But I've only really seen magicians on TV and movies, and that's like camera trick and junk, you know?"

"Oh I dunno." Bradford said. "I'm listening to the cassettes, and they seem to say that if you put lots and lots of work in, you can be a master Ventriloquist!" He informed Shawn.

"Imagine that? Me. A master at something. And when I go away from the Circus, I still get to have a real-looking face too! I mean, I can only go up for 3 hours at a time before it wears off."

"But think about your situation. If I can be a master Ventriloquist, you can be a Master Magician! Just think of all the things you can do. Better card tricks. Or, like, sawing something or someone in half. Hey, shouldn't you have an assistant?"

"That's true - if you practice something long enough, you can get good at anything." Shawn considered what Bradford said about an assistant. He didn't know all that much about magicians, but he kept coming back to a director he'd worked for who'd been a really big fan of old movies. The whole cast got dragged to this one showing of a silent movie about a magician who kept a man locked in a box, and he'd only let him out as part of a magic show or to kill people. Mom hadn't realized how adult that movie would be, but she didn't want to complain in case it jeopardised further roles, but it had formed a bit of his mental image of a magician's assistant. "I don't know if I'm good enough to have an assistant yet..."

Old movies. Shawn had seen a few. It sort of divided the kids at school. Some kids that Shawn heard speak wouldn't watch anything that wasn't a cartoon. Other kids got scared of the black and white movies. And some just thought that they were boring because they weren't in color.

"Do you need one? I might know someone." Bradford offered.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 09:11, Wed 21 June 2017.

"I think I'm okay, but thanks for the offer." Though as Shawn considered it, he couldn't help but feel curious about how Bradford knew a potential assistant. "Who do you know?"

"Well, there's a few kids at the Circus that might be able to help. The lead Carnie. His name is Hogwash. He's got a lot of kids. And he could trade you one." Bradford said, as if trading a human was a normal kind of thing.

"Ha-hehe." Bradford chuckled, "I'm just kidding" Bradford said, as if realizing that the words that came out might be a little strange or insensitive. It was the first time that Shawn had seen Bradford speak oddly without the puppet being there. Perhaps the words sounded strange to Bradford too, because he quickly tried to recover, his face taking on a strange aspect---apart from the hole in his head---as if he had said something that wasn't cherry and was out of character.

"Just...umm...kidding."

Shawn was weirded out by Bradford's 'joke', though when he said was kidding Shawn gave him a polite chuckle. Then when he saw Bradford's expression, he gave the half-faced kid a concerned look. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Bradford said. "I gotta go. I gotta go practice. I get all jittery when I'm not practicing. I don't what to, you know, let the Fortune Teller down."

He reached under the counter and grabbed Mr. Clayton, the doll now looking limp and lifeless in his hands. Except for those eyes.

"Uhhh... You're not gonna shoot me if I leave, are you?"

Shawn eyed the doll suspiciously, but shook his head. "No no, you're good. Just...you know, be careful and stuff. I don't trust Mr. Clayton."

Bradford didn't say anything. Shawn ...

OOC: Shawn Rolls Wits + Occult with the following results

0 Successes: ...Wakes up

1 Success: ...detects something

2+ Successes: ....feel's something that he takes with him from the dream

OOC: 21:07, Today: Shawn Cramer failed (no successes) using 6d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 4,2,7,2,5,7. Wits + Occult + WP.

OOC: Shawn Joins Thread

Shawn: Middle of the Night, Murmurs in the Office...