It was a hot summer day.

But a cool wind brushed against Shawn's skin, making his eyes sparkle. He looked over at Ralph as could see that the boy was giddy and giggly inside. After biking for a while, Shawn's mind wandered into vast wilderness, being taken further by leg power. Leaning into turns that defied gravity powered by a simple pedal and glide. All his senses were working together and appreciating the smells and sounds of nature in the neighborhood, enjoying the journey just as much as the destination.

"I l...love riding" Ralph said, his own bike considerably smaller than Shawn, though he managed it well for a kid so young. Shawn looked at the bike: it seemed such a long time ago that he had once rode that same bike when he was as young as Ralph. It's a good thing that Mom and Dad had put it into the far recesses of the garage.

Shawn waited until they were biking through an underpopulated area of the neighbourhood; no one seemed to be out and about this summer. "Hey Ralph, can you keep a secret? Like keep it really really secret?"

Ralph peddled harder to meet Shawn, coming up on his left side.

"yeah." Ralph said simply between breaths. "I have to..to..to..keep them. I still know stuff...stuff..stuff..stuff...about the Master Maker that I can never say to any person, just never say."

Shawn eased up on the pedalling so Ralph could keep up. "I...just got my first assignment from the Order. They want me to steal some souls, but I might be able to trick them with fake ones so I don't have to kill anyone, but I need kid tears to do it." He let it all flow out of his mouth in a disorganized rush. It sounded crazy when he put it into actual words.

"K...k....k...k...k...k...kid tears." Ralph repeated, trying to understand it.

"You're gonna make kids cry." He announced, coming to the conclusion verbally.

"Yeah, but it's better than the other option, right?" Shawn sounded a little regretful, but resolute. The situation could've been much worse. "I need two vials. I have a plan to get some from Eddy that won't hurt him or anything, and do you think next time you cry I can get some from you?"

"Sure!" Ralph said. Then he hesitated, slowing down a bit while he pedaled.

"But, does that mean I have to be sad? Or...or I have to make other sad?"

Shawn thought carefully about his reply. It wasn't about trying to be misleading, just figuring out a way to say it that Ralph could understand. "I think...I think sometimes sad things happen, even when it's just little things, and crying helps us feel better about it. So don't think about it as feeling sad, think of it as feeling better!"

"Like...*breathing heavily* the way you...you...you...you feel better after you throw up. In the...the...the..the...the..the...the toilet?"

"Even though it smells."

"Exactly. It feels bad for a moment, but then you feel better." Shawn probably wouldn't have chosen such an...evocative comparison, but Ralph seemed to understand his point. Now he just needed to figure out what to do with Eddy.

"It feels better after you do it." Ralph agreed. Then he asked a follow up question.

"But how much do I..I...I..I..I..I...I..I..I..I..I..I..I...have to cry?"

"To get what we nn..nn..n..nn....n...need?"

"Not much, they're just little bitty glass vials. About yay big." He held his fingers a short distance apart to match the approximate size of the vials.

"Yay-big." Ralph repeated, as if the two words were one.

He looked forward and then pointed, bicycle all wobbly with only one hand holding the bars.

"Alright. The Mall is just up ahead. That means...means...means...mmmm...mmeans...eans...means that we're almost there. Get through the crowd and we can get the things that Hogwash likes." He explained.

Shawn refocused himself on their mission. "Right. All I know is he liked that shiny piece of a bike. We'll go to the dollar store and see if you see anything he'd like. If you're not sure, we'll just pick out whatever's shiniest."

"Alright." Ralph said, following along until they came to a stop.

They pulled up to the dollar store. A few kids were standing around outside. Shawn recognized them from school, but didn't know their names. There was the tall kid with the yellow shorts and blue shirt, holding what looked like a slurpee. Then there was a short kid with blue eyes and hard, fixed jaw. A young kid with a smile sat on the lip of the brick outside the store window, kicking his legs as Shawn approached.

Shawn recognised these kids, but he hadn't ever really spoken to or interacted with them in any meaningful way, and this would be a really odd time to start. He led Ralph past the group to head into the store.

Ralph followed Shawn as he pushed past the kids. The store opened up with a loud, swishing glide of the door. Rows of trinkets from the store's aisles greeted them. Shawn could see yellow paper plates and green, plastic cups. A pair of tongs hung loosely off of a hook next to a cheap, plastic hat with a a propeller. There were packs of crayons and smaller, packs of toothpicks. There was a stack of cans and...

"I bet there's toys here!" Ralph announced, tugging on Shawn's sleeve.

Fortunately, Shawn had been budgeting assuming Ralph would want to see the toy section. "There is, and if you can help me find the stuff we need quickly, I've got a dollar you can spend on whatever toy you want!"

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Ralph said, tugging on Shawn even as he was walking forward, that dirty, rubba-sucky lolling behind him and dragging on the floor of the store.

The search was quick and Ralph came back with a handful of dangling, sparkling, cheap, plastic beads hanging out of what looked like a plastic prop goblet. He was also holding a trail of confetti that was red with glitter.

"This stuff would..would..would...work."

Shawn grabbed a basket and loaded it up with the beads, goblet, and confetti. He surveyed their haul with some satisfaction as he looked around the store. "Can you think of anything else before we finish?"

"Wha...?" Ralph gave Shawn a wounded look. "The t..t..t..toys." He muttered, as if Shawn was thinking of holding back or perhaps forgetting the dollar that he had promised to give Ralph if Ralph helped out.

Shawn gave him an amused look. "I mean before that, silly." He pulled out the dollar bill and held it out to Ralph.

"This w..w..w..w...will do!" Ralph said, placing the shiny, cheap objects on the floor and grabbing the dollar bill. Even if Ralph did think of something, it was too late, his mind too focused on what he could get for that dollar.

He hemmed and hawed. He went up one aisle and down the other, each time the rubba-sucky dragging behind him, each time spending a long time looking at the various objects. He stopped by the crayon and colors section, taking time to examine each page of the coloring books more than once. He went to the stickers section and placed his thumb and forefinger on the sheets of Transformer stickers. Then he went to the card section.

They spent another hour in the store. Finally, Ralph selected a pack of cards. The cards read:

'Garbage Pale Kids.'



"We can get..get..get..get..get..get..get..get..." Ralph stammered, stopping so that he could recover his sentence, the words struggling to get out now that he was so excited.

"We can get..get..get more than one pack! They're only. tw..tw..tw..twenty five c..cc..cents! We can get two with a dollar!"

Shawn gathered up the remaining items before following Ralph around the store. He looked at the cards, and then at Ralph, and gave him an impish grin. "Hey Ralph, I bet if you ask the store clerk real nicely, they'll let you get four packs of stickers!"

Upon leaving the store, Ralph was all smiles, an ear to ear grin and a fist full of four 'Garbage Pail Kid' packs. He opened one pack of cards, looking over them with intense interest, blanket still dragging behind him as they made their way to the bicycles.

Shawn, for his part, was carrying all of the shiny objects.

The kids were gone, but something didn't feel right....

Poof!

A choking explosion of black smoke filled the air to the right of Shawn's head. Through the murky mist Feddler appeared.  A small, child-like hand shot out from the cloud and grabbed a hold of one of the beaded, shiny necklaces, cheap plastic jingling. Feddler began to pull, trying to pry the object out of Shawn's grip.

OOC: Shawn Rolls Strenght vs. Feddler Strength

OOC: 09:06, Today: Shawn Cramer failed (no successes) using 2d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 6,3.  Strength.

19:02, Today: Shawn's Imp - Feddler failed (no successes) using 1d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((4)).


It became a tug of war of sorts, Feddler's small hand tugging at the plastic necklace, Shawn tugging back.

OOC: Shawn Rolls Strenght vs. Feddler Strength

"Let go of it! D..D..Dummy!" Ralph shouted at Feddler, evidently unphased by the idea that he was talking to an imp. Then again, Ralph had spent a great deal of time at the Circus.

SHawn pulled and pulled to no avail, but an idea occurred to him suddenly. "Yeah, give it b-wait, what's that behind you!?"

OOC: 19:10, Today: Shawn Cramer failed (no successes) using 5d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 3,7,1,2,1. Strength + WP.

Feddler's face was wide with a grimacing smile that revealed pointed teeth. Strangely, the demon-imp responded to Shawn's statement, looking over for just a second.

That's when it happened.

Ralph--face all contorted and angry looking--threw a partially opened pack of Garbage Pail Kid cards at the imp, hitting it straight in the face. The pack exploded sending cards out in a plume that added to the imp's confusion.

22:13, Today: Evil Circus - Ralph rolled 2 successes using 2d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((5,10(+9))).

"Baa!" Feddler said in a high pitched voice, leathery wings flapping as the necklace fell to the ground.

"Run!!" Ralph yelled

Shawn snatched the necklace up off the ground and beat feet as fast as he could!

OOC: Shawn Joins Thread

Shawn: The Road To Home Is Pave With Good Intentions