Shawn saw the refusal in Leonard's eyes, and decided it'd be best for him not to push it. Mr. Clayton looked shocked, though. "Really, they wouldn't like it? But it's gonna keep you and your friends safe - why wouldn't they like that?"

Shawn gently pushed Mr. Clayton slightly to the side, as if trying to convey to Leonard that the dummy's opinions weren't his. "That's okay, Leonard. If you don't wanna do it, you shouldn't do it." He looked a little worried, though, as if he wasn't sure what they could do to protect people if he didn't agree.

OOC: 17:02, Today: Shawn rolled 3 successes using 12d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling on 9 or more with rolls of 6,4,8,5,4,8,5,8,5,7,1,5.  Manipulation + Subterfuge + Striking Looks + WP.

Leonard's face twitched with fear as Shawn beckoned him to take a step into the unknown.


OOC: 06:23, Today: Leonard failed (no successes) using 8d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((1,7,1,5,7,6,6,1)).

Leonard listen to Mr. Clayton and Shawn watched the boy's resolve slowly crumble. It was just a matter of saying the right words in the right way. The right distraction. In a way, it wasn't really all that surprising. Leonard was, after all, younger than Shawn. Anyone, even Michael, would have said that Leonard was a 'Little Kid.'

"Safe." Leonard said. "We're going to make people safe. Aren't we?" He repeated, as if uncertain.

Shawn could tell Leonard just needed a little push to agree. He let Mr. Clayton stay silent for the time being, wanting to be nice. "We're going to try and help people, Leonard. It's okay if you're scared, but this is important." He sounded a lot more certain than he was - he had no idea if this would work, and even if it did work, no idea if it would help. But he pushed on anyway, because with so much in question, so much weird stuff going on, maybe this would be the difference between Leonard turning into a killer robot or not.

"I am scared!" Leonard confessed. And with that tears began to run down his face. "I don't think its good. But if you say we should do it then I'll do it." He sobbed, reasoning coming out more in a rambling stream of a child who was waking up from a nightmare more than a kid with certain direction.

"What if what your saying doesn't work and things become bad and then bad stuff happens and then its the worst ever!? And what if the bad stuff makes you bad. And then if you're bad that I'll become bad and then we're both bad together and then they'll be no going back to the good stuff because we'll be both trapped in a bad place like bad people forever doing things that are bad and forever saying bad things like cuss words and doing bad things like stealing candy instead of trick or treat!!!" He sobbed.

Shawn moved over to Leonard's side, and tried to pat him on the back reassuringly with his free hand. "It'll be okay, Leonard. If it doesn't work, we'll still have done it because we thought it was the right thing to do. And the Virgin Mary and the Lord Jesus will look in our hearts and know we were trying to help people, and they'll forgive us. So I still think we should do it." Shawn and his family weren't particularly religious, but there was stuff you picked up just from celebrating Christmas and talking to other kids.

Shawn felt certain that he was doing the right thing...right? He found himself reflecting on the little statue he’d found in Leonard’s closet, the way the kid had described him as doing bad things and calling them good, the tears in Leonard’s eyes... Thinking about being trapped forever in a bad place... His resolve faltered. Maybe he was just being too suspicious, too ruthless. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt just this once to let things slide...“Wait! Don’t say it. We’ll figure out another way together, one that’ll make Mary and Jesus happy.”

Leonard had closed his eyes as Shawn first spoke, the boy was getting ready to do whatever it was that Shawn said he should do. Shawn observed that Leonard had one hand on the blanket of his bed, hand squeezing so tight the knuckles were white.

The boy's face was all scrunched up like driver waiting for the inevitable impact of a car crash.

But then.....

When Shawn said that they didn't have to do it to make Mary and Jesus happy, Leonard opened one eye. The eye looked around as if just taking a peek before drifting up to Shawn, hand loosening on the blanket.

"Are....are you sure?" Leonard asked with a weedling voice as if he was hoping Shawn was sure as if Shawn being sure about backing out was something that Leonard wanted very much. Shawn could tell that Leonard wasn't sure that Shawn was sure, and so because of that the boy was hedging his bets, the other eye remaining shut as if prepared to go through with it.

Shawn already kind of regretted changing his mind, but he'd already doubled back and wasn't going to triple back. "Yes...yeah, I think I'm sure. We're going to try to do this without - but if we do need to do it later, you gotta promise to say it right as soon as I tell you, okay? No arguing."

He had the beginnings of a sort of idea that he might be able to turn into a plan, but he'd definitely need help from Leonard first. "I think we should get you some paper and crayons. You said the King of the Robots is doing stuff in Ralph's basement. I gotta know whatever you can tell me about that."

Leonard looked like he was going to nod but instead just exhaled in relief. His body deflated as he let go of the blanket and sank into the bed, shoulders slumped as he sat, breath returning to normal.

"Not doing it now is a good thing." He observed, smile returning to his face. It was a smile of relief more than anything else, the kind a kid gets when a teacher realizes that the kid wasn't responsible for some misdeed and therefore spares him punishment.

"What?" Leonard asked, still so focused on the fact that he wasn't going to have to do it after all, that he wasn't paying attention to Shawn's question about the Robots and crayons.

"Geez, and I thought I was the dummy." With the immediate crisis past, Shawn felt like he could bring out Mr. Clayton again to keep Leonard on task. "We gotta figure out what the King of the Robots is doing in the basement!"

Leonard stood up from where he had been momentarily sitting. He raised his forearm to wipe something away from his eyes. Were those tears? Then, without saying anything he walked over to the end table.

It was covered in papers. There was an old water glass in the corner of the end table, Shawn thought he saw something black floating in, maybe some old mold.

He picked up a piece of paper and a pencil.

"Maybe draw it?" He looked over at Shawn uncertainly, as if for guidance.

Shawn noticed what looked like tears, but he didn't mention that to Leonard. He didn't want to make him defensive. Instead, he gave him an encouraging smile. "That's a great idea!"

Mr. Clayton nodded along with him as well. "Yeah! I think 'ol Shawn might have a plan, but we'll need to know what the basement looks like, and how the King's turning people into robots! You know this dummy here with a hand up my back's too dumb to figure it out himself!"

Leonard started sketching. His eyes fixed on the sheet of paper, he drew a large arc on one side and lines coming down and across the page. As Shawn listened to the sound of the pencil flecking on the page, Leonard spoke

"It's in the basement." He said, starting to form a stick figure out of the drawing. "Something is going on in the basement. It's.....maybe more like the robots or robots of like being commanded. But not made of metal." Leonard said.

"The other thing is that there's some kind of tunnel in there..." Leonard said and his face scrunched up as if he was trying to figure out what that might mean.

“You mean like a secret entrance? That’s great!” Mr. Clayton’s face couldn’t move, but somehow conveyed that it was impressed. Shawn also looked encouraged. “Is there a control panel or something for the robots? If we can get to it, we wouldn’t need to fight any robots or anything like that- we could shut them down or reprogram them to be good or something.” Shawn didn’t know anything about programming robots, but it always looked easy in the movies.

"Hmmmmmmmmmmm...." Leonard opined. Faint scratching gave way to a louder scratching. The pencil frantically moved across the paper, the sketching beginning to come more into focus.

"Robots..." Leonard repeated. His hand curled around the grip of the pencil, his eyes fixed on the page, details of thick lead dotting the paper into what was becoming a drawing of what looked like a room.

"I think the robots maybe are people. But they act like robots. Like they listen to them."

"People who act like robots? That's crazier than a dummy who acts like a person!" Mr. Clayton leaned towards the paper as if he had eyes that could see what Leonard was drawing. Shawn did too, though obviously he could actually look at it. He thought about how what Leonard said matched the earlier drawings he'd seen. "So the Robot King is making people act like robots, because robots will listen to the Robot King? That makes sense, but how're they doing it?"

Leonard's hand moved quickly with a flourish, the pencil thrashing about the paper as the image of a basement with stairs was now formed on the page.

"Because the Robot King wants them to listen to him. They act like robots. They want to do the stuff the Robot King tells them. Its bad stuff going on. The kind of stuff you or I could get punished for. That's why they listen to him. They aren't adults or kids anymore. They're robots."

He added some more details. There were discarded cardboard boxes in the corner of the room. There was also a bunch of piled up clothing, a long sleeve sticking out from the bottom of the pile.

"There's something else." Leonard said. He moved towards the paper and started to sketch a circle. "Something else down there." he said, this time in a whisper.

"A tunnel."

"Is it a tunnel to get in, or a tunnel going...somewhere else?" Shawn stared at the drawing, trying to orient it with what he could remember of what Ralph's house looked like from the outside. He made Mr. Clayton wave his arms a little. "More important than that, how's the King turning people into robots? Does he have a magic wand? Or a weird raygun? Or maybe there's a big vat of goo?!"

"Hehehehe." Leonard gave a chuckle. "You said 'goo.'" Leonard chuckled again.

"That's a funny puppet." Leonard said. "I wanted to have Evil Horde Slime Pit for Christmas, but my Mom said no. I don't think its fair. I won't ruin my He-Man toys or the rug." Leonard said, abandoning the drawing to plead his case with Shawn.

OOC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHncoxvxRO8

"That sounds really cool!" Mr. Clayton seemed excited to talk about toys, so Shawn acted as a sort of bad cop to try to get things back on topic. "Leonard, we gotta concentrate on the Robot King, remember? It's really important!"

"Oh. Right." Leonard said, as if forgetting the task at hand.

The next few moments were in silence, Shawn sitting and looking down. Leonard was drawing furiously. Michael was staring off into nothing, a look that gave no hint of what he was thinking.

Finally Leonard said.

"Here. This is what the basement looks like. Well, sort of. See, its got tunnels. And I wrote Robot because that's how King Robot acts. And that's how he makes others act. Oh, and there are lots of tunnels too."

Shawn looked closely at the drawing, trying to see if he could match it to what Leonard had said earlier. "Okay...I see the tunnels. Do they connect to anywhere? Could someone sneak in that way?" He knew Leonard seemed to pick up more from his drawings than the random viewer did, so he knew he had to get as much information as he could.

"This is what it is!!!!" Leonard explained. "But only the inside."

"Well, it's what's on the inside that counts!" Mr. Clayton nodded in a faux-sage way as Shawn continued to study the drawings. "Well...if they're robots on the inside, is there a way to turn them back into people?"

Leonard put down the pencil and the crayons he had used to color the drawing. He leaned the chair back on its two legs, just like Shawn was told not to do in class because 'kids fall like that.'

After analyzing the drawing for a few seconds Leonard looked up at Shawn, clearly ready to explain and answer the questions  he and the Puppet had.

"Look..." He said, laying one thick finger on the drawing with tunnels. "There's something going on here. I think I know what it is. The Robot brings people to the basement, which is inside Ralph's house. Then, he takes them into the biggest tunnel." Leonard's finger traced a line from the steps of the basement drawing to the largest tunnel entrance surrounded by a turquoise circle.

"No one knows where the Robot brings them." Leonard's voice was tinged with a worried and foreboding tone. "But they never come back."

Leonard summarized the drawings, putting the basement sketch and the Robot sketch side by side as one story.

"That's what the Robot does. He hypnotizes people so that way they act like robots. They follow him back to Ralph's house. He shows them the way into the basement and into the big tunnel. And then they are gone forever."

"The Robot is Ralph's Mom." He concluded. Shawn had heard many accusations and insults on the playground against other kids' Moms. However, none had been made with such a serious tone and it appeared as if Leonard was not intending the final statement to be an insult, but rather a warning.