Bobby's hands came up to the sides of his head as if suddenly struck by a headache. He dropped to one knee and shook his head from side to side. "Uggghhh." He groaned.  And then, in a sudden voice. "Where are we again?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Penelope asked Ralph, throwing the "H", "E",  'double hockey sticks' word out with reckless abandon. But then just as quickly she looked side to side to make sure no adults were around.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:52, Mon 26 Mar 2018.

Shawn feigned a look of confusion. "I didn't tell him any of that!" It was tricky - he had to balance making Penny believe him but not Ralph, and without confusing Bobby too much either. It was enough to give him a headache.

"Beat it, shrimp." Delilah aimed a kick at Ralph. Little snot nosed brat was butting into Big Kid talk.

"Forget him, Penny. He's the biggest liar I ever met. And the worst person alive." She glared daggers at Shawn. The anger rose from her in waves. "But, in case you are telling the truth this time, then none of us have to worry about "The Gristler." It's too busy eating the fact that Shawn was born. None of us could do anything worse than that."

No one spoke for a moment. Ralph took a step back, clearly wounded by getting kicked out of the Big Kid talk. Ralph looked at Shawn, confused by Shawn's reply..

Bobby looked at the ground, eyes closed, rubbing his temples with his fingers.

Tiffany looked at Delilah, as if hopeful for some kind of assurance.

Penelope nodded at Delilah in agreement. But then equally she looked at Shawn, partly confused by his statement, partly enamored by his good looks.

Tiffany finally spoke after a long sigh. "OK. So, can we just called it even and say that we should be careful of Monsters?" She asked the group, eager to play broker. "I know that I know more about Monsters than anyone. But I mean, for those of us who don't know, we should be careful and do what we can to make sure Monsters don't eat the kids that don't know anything about Monsters."

"Stuff like that." She concluded, looking around to see if there was support for her position among the group.

Shawn tried to look relieved, as if Tiffany was being the voice of reason here. "As long as people are careful about monsters, I don't mind if they trust me or not." He gave his voice a catch, though, as if it did actually hurt his feelings to be distrusted, but that he was trying to hide that fact for no-doubt noble reasons.

Delilah crossed her arms and gauged the group.

"Yeah. I'll watch out for monsters. Because I hate them."

Her mouth closed, but her jaw was still working, grinding her teeth.

"Alright" Ralph said, looking up at Shawn, keen to follow his example.

^"Ughhhhh." Bobby groaned, getting up from the ground, still obviously in pain, rubbing his temples. It wasn't obvious if the fact that he was moving his head a sign of agreement, or just a consequence of the pain he was in.

Delilah left off grinding her molars and tilted her head towards Bobby.

"What's with him?"

"Ehhh, he'll be fine. I think we can put a little schnizzel-pizzle on this argument and call it a day!" Penelope confirmed brightly, a bit of pep and vigor in her voice.

She glanced over at Shawn and gave him and raised her eyebrows twice, though it was hard to see because of the giant glasses she wore.

"I'm alright Daphney." Bobby said, trying to reassure Delilah that he was, in fact, ok, not seeming to notice that he called her by the wrong name. Perhaps it was the pain he was in.

"Good." Tiffany said, chest puffed out, clearly basking in the glory of having resolved the issue and taken a leadership position among the group.

"Now who wants to come with me to Bradford's house? He said he might know something about Monsters. He was going to tell me something he found out." Tiffany said.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:14, Tue 27 Mar 2018.

Before answering, Shawn went to Bobby to try and help him up. "Hey Bobby, are you okay?" He saw Delilah looking at Bobby, and felt his hackles rise. She wasn't allowed to mess with Bobby!

Delilah's green eyes flashed angrily. "Innaminute," she said to Tiffany.

Daphne! She'd pulled that stunt on her sister a million times, calling her by the wrong name just to get he worked up. She turned slowly on Bobby.

"You know my name, retard."

"Uh, yeah. I'm fine Brad." Bobby answered Shawn. Then, turning to Delilah.

"I knew that! I was just testing you is all. Oh brother! It's hot outside. Is anyone else hot?"

"It's pretty hot, yeah. That's August for you." Shawn's tone was oddly cheery, but just a little bit artificial. Like what you'd use on a younger kid who you wanted to reassure. He turned towards Delilah, casually standing in between her and Bobby. "Bobby was just being silly. Leave him alone."

She stepped closer to Shawn.

"Like how you left Roger alone? You're gonna get a payback. For everything."

Shawn leaned in, speaking low but not showing anywhere near the kind of anger Delilah was. "How're you messing with everyone's head? Is that what it's for? Revenge?"

"Ummmm..guys?" TIffany interrupted, the look on her face like she didn't want to lose out on being the center of attention.  "We're supposed to be going to Bradford's house?" She reminded, the tone of an annoyed leader, trying to herd cats.

The mention of Roger, though a whisper seemed to linger in the air.

"I'm not doing anything. You did it. Everything is wrong and it's all your fault."

Her fist bunched and trembled. Flecks of saliva gathered in the corners of her mouth. When she heard Tiffany whining, Delilah backed off a pace. Bradford had so many questions to answer.

Shawn gave Tiffany a confused shrug, like he was unsure of what Delilah was doing either. "Sure, we should go see Bradford!" He sounded chipper and completely unbothered.

Delilah followed along. It was good that Shawn walked ahead of her. She didn't want to let him out of her sight.

OOC: Shawn and Delilah Join Thread

Shawn, Delilah: The Mindfulness of Horror Practice