At that, he did drop character very briefly to answer. "If you have to put up with this, I should too when I'm not being the Wizard. It's not like I ever wanted to be the source of suffering." Or a wizard, although he was reluctantly learning to be that.

Switching back to mute clowning, Clumsy Charlie shuddered, mouth working silently in mock shrieks of "No! No!" grasping the hose with both hands and pretending to be trying to pull it out with all his might... and utterly failing. He let go of it, arms waving frantically and feet kicking a little in panic as pump after pump made his sides bulge further. On his own, Rodger was still afraid to blow himself up past full transformation, so getting bigger like this was a new experience. It felt strange, in ways he didn't have words for yet.

'No pain, no gain Eskin," Al replied, staying in character as the pumping continued. "Let's see how you like it, Mr. Wizard!"

Rodger's jaw quivered, head shaking side to side "no," eyes pleading as he clutched his belly in a futile effort to try to keep himself from swelling any further. All acting, of course. Letting go of his stomach, Clumsy Charlie clasped both hands together, pleading silently with his tormentor for mercy  for perhaps a dozen strokes of the pump handle - was that thing filling him with air or did it have a tank of another gas inside of it, Rodger briefly wondered - before he 'lost his balance' and tumbled to one side, rolling around in pretend distress on the mats. He wasn't that round yet, but little things like that were no obstacles to theatrical imagination. He just had to watch out and make sure he didn't kink the hose or get tangled up in it.

The clowning continued as Al pumped Rodger up little by little. The teacher could feel himself inflating more and more with each passing second.

Despite the pumping setting off urges of self-preservation and feelings of growing distress, Rodger took it like a man, being silly and pretending to be hysterical but cooperating completely with what Al was doing to him. Clumsy Charlie was a terrified clown, seemingly thinking that he was going to pop like one of his own toy balloons, and desperate to do anything to placate his assailant and avoid that fate.

Rodger was growing quite round, and genuinely couldn't stand up on his own, so he rolled back and forth on the mats at the end of the hose. It crossed his mind that he was getting a taste of what he'd put Dastardly through the other day.

"I'm half tempted to kick you Eskin," Al said, grinning. "But....I have a class coming in soon. So...best to get my shots in while I can..."

He then started to roll the blimpy teacher all around for a few more minutes, then began to deflate him.

Rodger put up with it gamely, briefly shifting mental focus to view his gemstone display and see if he could tell whether their little playtime had generated any mana. He suspected that it had, although he wasn't entirely certain.

It took a bit of deflation before he got his voice back, it turned out. Apparently he'd been full enough to prevent speech. "I'd better get out of sight before your students start showing up," he commented when he was able.

  He saw that he had, indeed, generated some black mana.

Seeing that he'd generated some mana was something that lifted a bit of the burden on Rodger's heart. A little more that he could do to help out the clown brigade, doing his part to support the group. And it had been fun, in a thrillseeking kind of way.

Taking his leave of Al, the evil wizard (still in clown mode as Clumsy Charlie, rather than all the way back to Rodger) slunk out a back door to get out before the class showed up. It was that, or come up with some sort of cockamamie excuse for his presence - or attack and inflate Al in front of his own students, but that might have forced him to actually explode the coach if none of them took action to save him. And Rodger wasn't up to facing the idea that he'd killed someone yet, even if he knew it was temporary. He wasn't even sure that he could bring himself to randomly attack another brigade member, any more than he could just attack someone in the street. It went against so much of his nature.

Strolling away from the physical education building, he inwardly debated his options. Switch back to Rodger now and go do something mundane, or stay Clumsy Charlie and try to amuse people as a street performer? Although with the rash of clown-related crimes lately people might get upset; he was fairly sure that most of them were being done by members of the brigade, too, which upset him thinking about it.

He glanced around, seeing what and who were close by.

  There were several students nearby, and they spotted him.  And began to converge on him, with a teacher in tow.  Who promptly began to lecture on the skills of a clown as a thespian in life . . .

Oh? With a woebegone expression and mannerisms, Rodger listened intently to the teacher, taking his cues for changes in his improvised act straight from what the teacher was saying to help illustrate a point being made.

  The teacher was also giving a bit of the history of where clowns came from.  As he talked, he would occasionally point to this or that spot on Clumsy Charlie, but the fellow knew, very well, what he was discussing.  And how accurately a clown could portray a tragedy without words if they were careful.

(after the 5 year timeskip)

The athletics department...  where signs proclaimed Free (chocolate-dipped) Ice Cream Cones Today! and pointed to the gym.

Inside, a soft serve machine and counter had been set up, along with borders for a line leading from one door, past the ice cream service, around it behind it and out the other door. There was a malicious reason for the set-up, the nasty 'secret' of the price for the free treats only being visible on the way out once you already had one. However, with the constant evil, Evil, EVIL radiating from one of the men behind the counter, people could be assumed to be forewarned that something was up. For that man was The Rich Man, Rodger Eskin in his green mana super form. Hair and beard of metallic gold, a fancy, sparkling green tuxedo sporting glittering dollar signs, and a cane with a diamond the size of a plum or tangerine for a handle  made it clear that this was a parahumanly wealthy man. Although the paper hat of an ice cream vendor was quite out of place perched atop his head. The other man with him was one of his henchclowns (GM's choice of who).

The ice cream was free of magic, being straight-forward soft serve like any ordinary restaurant might have. The sugar cones were store bought and mundane. The melted chocolate that they were dipped in? It was magical. The source that it sluggishly flowed out of to the dipping vat was a tall, opaque rectangular container... opaque from the front side of the counter. People going out could see through the clear back side of it, and atop some heating elements stood a life-sized, solid chocolate statue of Coach Al Thompson. He was fully conscious and aware in his transmuted state, but only able to move muscles that wouldn't move his skeleton, leaving him with mostly facial expressions and his eyes to express himself with. While he was being melted alive and served to his students as chocolate coating adorning their ice cream.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:38, Tue 27 June 2017.

  Several of the coeds and some of the random people were staring at the chocolate man, and the Rich Man could hear them talking about how lifelike the chocolate sculpture that was being melted was.  One of the students said "Looks a lot like the coach, but he's not rich enough to go making life sized chocolate statues to get melted."

Overhearing that going on behind him, the Rich Man finished handing the cone he'd just dipped to another student on the front, incoming side, his friendly smile belaying the flickering hellfire in his dollar sign-shaped pupils. Few were those who could tell the difference between real hellfire and his fake, illusionary evil just by looking at it, but even after years in his android body Rodger still refused to fully play along with his programming and behave in ways that went along with his faux-evil design much of the time.

Half-turning, he commented to the speaker, "Oh, it's not a matter of wealth young man. I have no trouble giving someone all they need in the way of money. But... yes, Coach Thompson is paying for this event, so none of you need fear any evil from me during it. Well, except for the sin of cannibalism, but is it really being a cannibal if you're not wheat, dairy, or chocolate yourself?" He smiled mysteriously and turned back to the front counter to get started on another cone for a sweet-toothed student.

Maverick is here, having visited a university student he befriended a year back during a grocery run. He saw the line leading to free ice cream and a wizard who somehow radiated evil. Despite how much he wanted some ice cream now, Maverick was worried. So rather than get in line, the boy began to sneak about behind the counter to try and find out what was going on. Was there poison? Spells? Something else he hadn't thought of?

He carefully watches Rodger from behind to see what all the man is doing. A few years ago, he would have thought himself overreacting to a "feeling" of evil, but he still would have done the same thing that he does now. Only difference is that now, he no longer feels he is overreacting to spy on people for no apparent reason.

Somehow, the Rich Man failed to notice the lad scurrying in back of the counter with him and his clown co-worker. Somehow. Yet he stepped over Maverick's foot, further than his normal stride, rather than tread upon it as he moved away from the chocolate to hand the freshly dipped treat to a young lady. He listened to the request of the next in line, and picked up another two cones, moving to the ice cream machine to fill them with vanilla soft serve.

It was a bog standard soft ice cream machine, complete with an inspection sticker on the side. Here behind the counter, Maverick could easily see that the supply of cones were mostly in boxes, still sealed from the store.

Mav doesn't see anything wrong just yet. So he sneaks off to watch if anything happens to the people who are eating the ice cream.

(Presumably, he sees nothing happen to them)

If he finds nothing wrong with the people who ate the ice cream, Maverick will get in line...

People who have gotten theirs already seem to be fine, but there is a small crowd by the exit line of people looking over something and discussing it.

The line is long. There will be a wait for your ice cream, as it appears to be popular.

Maverick weighs his options. Spend a long time waiting in line for free ice cream? Or investigate the end of the line and pay a couple dollars for ice cream later?

Maverick is a curious sort. Why else would he spy all the time? So he heads for the exit area to see what the fuss is all about.

Getting there without going through the line wasn't as simple as it sounded, the way things were set up. But definitely doable by going in the out door from outside of the gym.

What college students were looking at back there was... a full-sized, extremely life-like chocolate statue of a muscular, shaven-headed man was visible through the clear back panel of the machine supplying the stand with the chocolate they so abundantly coated the cones with by dipping. A statue that was being slowly melted. Had he imagined it, or had an eye moved?

Maverick widened his eyes at thinking he might have seen an eye move! He quickly calms himself and tries to get closer. If the crowd was large or thick, Maverick tries to use his size to his advantage, trying to weave through the crowd, so he could get a closer look at the statue. He hopes he didn't really see what he thought he saw, but he can't rule it out.

While Maverick worked his way in closer, he overheard comments on
 how life-like it was
 people wondering how the Coach could have afforded having a life-sized chocolate sculpture of himself made just to be melted
 somebody philosophizing about cannibalism
 someone discussing Thundercats
 two girls trying to calculate how many calories the entire statue would have had and how many servings it would have safely made without going to their hips
 complaints about an upcoming test
 someone congratulating someone else on winning a recent athletic event
 people wondering where Coach Thompson was


Yup, the eyes moved. And there'd been a few twitches of the right cheek, like a subdued flinch. Possibly the pecs had flexed a little, but with the heat in there that might have been something else.

Maverick feels his heart sink. This guy, whoever he is, is stuck and can't cry for help. The sight is downright terrifying, but Maverick refuses to let it scare him. Even if he realizes that whoever turned this guy into chocolate could very well do the same to him.

Maverick makes a phonecall to Matt. If Matt picks up, Maverick says clearly enough to talk over the small crowd of students, "Matt... I'm at Weston State, just outside the gym. Please come quickly."