Wind.

It was brisk and cold as Shawn stepped outside. Rarely this cold in the LA region and with leaves tumbling about, the whistle of sharp gusts sounded out as wind ran through Shawns hair.

Down the left side of the Street, a car was slowly making its way down the road. Down the right side, in the distance and at the end of the street, a small gathering of neighborhood kids.

Shawn squinted into the distance to his right to see if he recognized any of the kids. It had felt like forever since he’d played with anyone, and he felt a little nervous about it. Maybe he’d forgotten how to do it right.

Shawn tried to see who was about and could make out a group of three kids. When was clearly Penelope. She was wearing those big glasses and had that permed fluffy hair. Then there was a short boy that Shawn didn’t recognize. The food was a girl with a smile on her face and dark black hair. She was dancing among the fall leaves that whirled around her in the middle the street.

Shawn decided to go see if the group would let him play with them. They seemed to be having fun, at least.

“Get it! Get it!” Penelope yelled as Shawn drew closer.

Black-haired girl moved to one side of the yard. Just then a dog raced across the yard, knocking over the smaller boy who tried in vain to grab a hold of the animal and, having failed, face planted in the leaves dirtying his “Transformers” shirt.

Shawn wasn't sure what Penelope was talking about at first, but then he saw the dog coming across the yard. He tried to move to intercept it, not wanting to let the other kids down.

“Get ‘er! Don’t let that dog blow by you!” The short kid yelled, cheering Shawn on.

Shawn rolls Dexterity + Animal Ken

OOC: 18:23, Today: Shawn Cramer rolled 2 successes using 2d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 10(+1),10(+5).  Dexterity + Animal Ken.

It looked like the dog was going to charge Shawn And knock him over. However, just at the last second, Shawn reached forward and grab the dog by the collar as it was passing. The animal struggled, twisted it’s neck back and forth but eventually gave in. And let out a little whimper as it sat down defeated.

“Wow!!! You called my dog! Great job! Nobody ever catches Rex. I can’t believe it!”
This message was last edited by the player at 15:43, Fri 27 Dec 2019.

Penelope came up to Shawn and the short kid. She gave him a look and then averted her eyes. It was a look that seemed to be an acknowledgment of a memory that they shared. And it was clear that the memory that she was conveying in that glance was not a pleasant one. It was a glance that had a shared meaning to it.

A large, pink rabbit that had Devoured Delilah.

“Oh yeah… Good job. You got him.” Penelope said a little awkward she brushed her hair away from her mouth

Shawn met Penelope's gaze, though there was a little more relief in his expression than there was in her's; this was his first direct confirmation that she'd survived the trip to the underworld. He'd been told she was fine, but he'd been lied to a bunch before. Still, he didn't press it, since he didn't really want to revisit that particular memory either.

Instead, he held on tight to the dog and gave the new boy a grin. "Well, he didn't make it easy. Rex's really fast!" He tried to make a good first impression, to seem cool, but also friendly and approachable and nice.

"Could've done better with that Pink Rabbit." Penelope said under her breath.

"What?" said the boy, who apparently had heard the comment.

"I said, 'It's a good thing he got Rex before the dog could eat a Rabbit.' " Penelope said and gave the boy a toothy grin.

"Oh. Yeah." He agreed. He turned to Shawn and came over to take hold of the dog.

"My name is Leonard. I'm glad that you caught my dog. My dad would get really mad. He'll kick the dog if he can. Any chance that he gets, he'll -boom-, kick it. Especially if he finds out that it's ran away again. Rex isn't a bad dog, but he likes to chase small animals."

Shawn gave no sign that he heard Penelope's snide remark, but inwardly he wanted to protest that a dog was a lot smaller than that giant pink rabbit. He released the dog into Leonard's care, making sure he had a solid grip on the collar before he let go. "I'm Shawn, it's nice to meet you. I haven't seen you around before, are you new here?"

"Oh, I live on Rodeo drive." Leonard said, taking hold of the dog's collar. The dog's tail went between it's legs and its ears fell back as Leonard gently grabbed a hold of Rex's collar. It's hind quarters sagged to the floor and it let out a whimper.

"It's just across on the other side of the development. A bunch of kids over there are trying to find out what's been going on over here on Main Street. I was going to check out after my chores were done, but then, yeah, Rex got loose. Yeah."

"So I guess I came over earlier than I thought I would. Do you live here? Like, on Main Street? Like, on this side of the development."

"Yeah. We both do. I told you that already. That's Shawn. The kid I told you about."

"Oh. You're that Shawn." Leonard said. "Yeah. Your that Shawn. Oh, Ok. I think I, I think I know what you were saying Penelope. Yeah, he does look like a movie or like a person who would be in a movie." The small boy gave Shawn an 'up and down' look as if trying to take Shawn's presence in and then trying to match Shawn's appearance with any preconceived notions that he might have had.

"Shawn are you a person that would be in a movie? Is that right? You're that Shawn?"

Shawn gave Leonard his best dose of humility - he'd had to talk about his acting almost every time he introduced himself, and he always tried not to come off too big-headed about it. No one liked a bragger. "I've been in some movies, yeah. Mostly little ones, though."

“Haven’t seen ‘em” Penelope said in a loud bark.

“Oh. I’m not sure I mean, what are they called?”

Shawn scratched his head as he thought about his 'career'. "Umm, well there was a whole bunch, but a lot of them I'm not allowed to watch, 'cause they had parts in them for grownups only." He'd been in a bunch of low budget horror and action movies that his parents had refused to let him see, usually in roles as 'bystander kid' or 'leading lady's son' where he was only allowed to see his own part in the script. On one memorable occasion, he'd been made up to look like he'd been eaten by a dracula, though. "I was in Kid Knight if you've ever heard of it?"

“Nope!”  Penelope yelled.

Leonard was more circumspect about his answer

“Am I?… I don’t know… Maybe not.”

Shawn felt a little sad about that, but at the same time, it took a bit of the pressure off. "See, it's not that big a deal." He kept his humble tone, as if to say 'see, I'm just a kid, not some movie star'.

“ i’ll tell you what. Yes you are in movies or if you are at in movies, you are OK with me. You know why? Because you said my dog. You saved him in a real big beating. stupid dog.”

Leonard gave Rex a little kick. The dog didn’t seem to notice, Just moved it’s paw a bit.

The wind blew and Shawn felt his hair plaster against his face a bit.

“I bet Rex is good at breaking stuff. I like to break stuff. Penelope said, clearly getting a little bored and showing her impatience through provocative statements.

"I think your dog's cool." Shawn felt like he was making a friend, which was a welcome relief from all the time he'd spent cooped up with Mr. Clayton. "So what're you guys doing out here? You said you wanted to see what's going on?"

"said! HuH! I said 'said my dog' instead of 'saved my dog.' I'm so Stupid!" Leonard said, ignoring Shawn for a second.

"Stupid. Stupid. Stupid." Leonard said and hit smack his own forehead with an open palm.

"Yeah, what's going on. Like, what happened to all of the kids. Yeah."

Shawn wasn't sure if Leonard was talking about the way a bunch of kids had died, or just the unusual stuff that had been happening to kids lately (some of which was arguably his fault). "Which stuff happening is that?"

"He means what happened to all of the kids." Penelope said. "What did happen to all of the kids on this street Shawn?" Penelope asked. And then she waited a second. It seemed like an eternity. Of course Shawn knew that Penelope knew what had happened to them.

Shawn shrugged, trying not to rise to Penelope's bait. "I dunno. It's all really weird, and everyone thinks it's something different. Seems like it'd be dangerous to go looking for it."

"Hahahaha." Penelope laughed. "Just kidding." Penelope taunted. "I know that we both know that no one knows. It's just I'm the only one that goes from this way on Main Street to Rodeo drive. At least I think I'm the only one. So, I'm just joshing you."

She turned to Leonard. "That means I'm joking around with him."

Then she sighed.

"I'm actually bored. That's why I'm doing it. That's what Dad says in the Diner, you know? When I get in trouble for having the giggles. Or like, the 'sillyness.'"

Shawn laughed along with Penelope, like they were sharing a joke. "It's probably not something we can figure out, anyway. Why don't we just play?"

"Ok. Ok." Leonard said, warming to the distraction of abandoning the whole reason why he came over here in the first place.

"But....I can't until I bring the dog back. Ughhh. I'll be right back OK?"

Shawn gave him his most cheerful smile. "Want me to come with you? When you bring back the dog?"

"Yeah, Yeah!" Leonard said. "Geez I should have thought of asking you. Man that was dumb of me. Hu-huh." Leonard said.

Penelope gave a sigh.

"See you guys later." She said, getting on top of her bike, and kicking the kick stand like it was a motorcycle.

"Aww, you're not dumb." Shawn gave Penelope a friendly wave good-bye, happy she hadn't made their meeting as horrible as it could have been given the last time they'd seen one another. He turned back to Leonard. "So, where do you live?"

OOC: Shawn Joins Thread

Shawn: New Friends Have Secrets