As Shawn got up to investigate, any and all pain from his finger faded. It was still there, the stinging, but it was more of a background noise and was no longer driving itself in to the forefront of Shawn's mind as it had when he awoke just moments ago.

Instead, the focus of light at the end of the hallway and the creaking sound that slowly drifted its way down the dark corridor now captured Shawn's waking mind. Gently and rhythmically, the creaking sound continued. There was a beat or a rhythm to the sound. As Shawn made his way down the hallway towards Dad's room, the creaking joined with an interior welling from with in.

Shawn's heartbeat began to pound fast against his chest, coinciding with the creaking noise. Each step increased the pace of his heart and the speed of the creaking noise.

Shawn paused for a moment to try and calm himself down, but his heart continued to pound in time with the noise. He realized the only way he was going to be able to settle himself was if he found out what exactly was going on. He kept moving toward the creaking sound.

Shawn crept down the hallway. The creaking noise continued its low crescendo. Shawn tip-toed past a smiling family portrait that had been hung on the wall quite some time ago. Mom and Dad behind Shawn smiling.

OOC: Shawn Rolls Dexterity + Stealth

OOC: 20:44, Today: Shawn Cramer failed (no successes) using 5d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s.  Dexterity + Stealth.

Shawn's foot touched on the soft carpet and a small, weening sound came up from the floor. It was just a small sound, but with it, the sound of the creaking noise from Dad's room stopped for a second.

Then, as Shawn heard his heart beat and the sound of his own breath in the hallway, the sound slowly came back from Dad's room. A creaking sound. And also, the sound of muffled static.

Shawn held his breath for a moment as the creaking stopped. The silence was somehow even stranger than the noise. But as the creaking started up again, Shawn realized even if he'd been heard, he could stand the suspense no longer. He made his way to his Dad's bedroom door and looked inside.

Dad was sitting in a rocking chair moving back and forth with his eyes closed and his hands folded in his lap. His mouth was open, and he was snoring silently. Even as he slept the chair was somehow gliding back and forth just like it would if an old grandma or elderly person was sipping tea and gently rocking, or the soft rocking that a mother might do to ease an infant child.

Draped across his lap was Mr. Clayton. The Puppet's eyes were closed as if it too were sleeping. The radio was on, and in between the static Shawn could hear the sound of the tapes. The tapes. Bradford's tapes. Tapes instructing a new user how to perform ventriloquism:

"The second part of the alphabet has 7 letters: B, F, M, P, V, W, and Y. If you try to pronounce these letters the same way you did the others, you will find that you have to move your lips. So, for the time being, substitute another sound for these letters. For example, try this sentence: “The bad boy blew up the big jet by using his brain.” Only with your mouth in the position described in STEP 1, say: “The dad doy dlew up the dig jet dy using his drain.” Again, focus strictly on your technique, avoiding any other thoughts or perceptions you may have."

Shawn felt an undirected surge of anger and upset when he saw Mr. Clayton and his father like that, though if he'd been asked why he felt like that, he probably wouldn't have been able to answer. He knew he'd made noise on his way over, so he found himself wondering if Mr. Clayton was in fact just pretending to sleep, as absurd as that sounded.

Regardless, he wasn't going to leave the dummy in here doing who know's what. He crept into the room to pick up Mr. Clayton to carry him back to his room. He was going to have a long talk with him.

When Shawn took Mr. Clayton off of Dad's lap, his father didn't awake. He just kept rocking there, snoring. The radio fuzzed into a static like taking Mr. Clayton away had ruptured the connection.

As Shawn carried Mr. Clayton back towards his room, the Puppet's eyes opened and blinked, adjusting to the waking world.



"Incredible thoughts....from an incredible mind.....how did his brain conceive them?" Mr. Clayton said, clearly referring to being in the rocking chair with Shawn's Dad.

Shawn kept silent as he returned to his room, not wanting to wake his Dad, but also stewing on what he'd seen. It wasn't until he'd returned, closed the door, and then sat himself down on the stool in front of the mirror that he spoke. "What were you doing in there again?" His voice was low, but a little accusatory.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:52, Tue 22 Sept 2020.

"Nothings...I mean...nothing." Mr. Clayton replied in a coy voice which, under the strange circumstances came out like 'more than what I'm admitting to you right now'
This message was last edited by the player at 12:53, Thu 24 Sept 2020.

Shawn again felt an undirected surge of anger, though he was slowly managing to unpack his feelings about it. Perhaps part of the anger was about his Dad, the way he hated all the artistic stuff Shawn did, but apparently had no problems playing with Mr. Clayton personally. He wanted to get to the bottom of it, but he knew he couldn’t just ask Mr. Clayton. So he decided to try another tack. “It’s okay, I know that whatever you’re doing with my Dad must be important. Can I help with it too? Dummy to dummy, and all?” He tried to sound reasonable as he said it.

"Ahhhhh......I don't know." Mr. Clayton answered unsure. "I can't make him tell you it's OK. He's...."the man of the house", as they say! Yucka Yucka!" Mr. Clayton, pulled one finger at his imaginary collar, trying to get some additional air in those wooden lungs of his.

"It's his fault. I was just sleeping and then, next thing you know I'm in his chair. What's a Dummy to do?"

"Besides, I'm not supposed to talk about this with you..."

Shawn kept pushing, trying to stay nice and understanding-sounding, but not letting Mr. Clayton off the hook. "Come on, what's the harm in telling me? We're in this together, plus you know I'm so empty-headed I'll probably forget anyway."

"Your Dad's a fag." Mr. Clayton barked out. Then he waggled his puppet eyebrows in a mock gesture of an old-time silver screen actor.

OOC: Shawn rolls Intelligence + Expression + Study with the following results

0 Successes: Shawn doesn't understand what Mr. Clayton means, but knows its an insult to his Dad

1-2 Successes: Shawn knows that 'fag' is a bad word and Mr. Clayton shouldn't be using it

3+ Successes: Shawn knows the meaning of the word 'fag' in this context and understand what Mr. Clayton meant by it

Shawn didn't know what the word meant, but he vaguely understood it was a bad thing. Still, he didn't want to admit his ignorance, so he kept going. "So what? That's got nothing to do with you teaching him ventriloquism. C'mon, tell me what really going on."

OOC: 07:51, Today: Shawn Cramer rolled 1 success using 5d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 4,3,4,8,4.  Intelligence + Expression + Study.

"Fine." Mr. Clayton agreed. "You're Dad keeps taking me out of bed. And out of your room. It's not my fault that he's interested in learning the secrets of Ventriloquism." Mr. Clayton said, hands out and extended, wooden palms up in surrender like there was nothing that could be done about it.

"I tried to tell him that I was your Dummy. But he's soooooooo interested. He's been practicing how to say the letters while he sleeps. It might be a sleep walking thing. Like he doesn't know he's doing it!!! Yucka Yucka! I wouldn't ask him about it. You know you're not supposed to wake up a sleeping, sleepy, sleep-walker? That's what they say."

Shawn had heard of sleep-walking, but sleep-learning-about-ventriloquism seemed like something that was maybe a little suspicious. But he couldn't get openly upset or openly accuse Mr. Clayton of anything, because that wouldn't help things at all. He just had to pretend to roll with it.

"In that case, why don't we trade jobs for tonight? You can get some rest, and I can teach him about Ventriloquism. We just need to drop my people disguise for a little bit and put you under the covers, and he'd never be able to tell the difference, right? Since he's asleep and all." His request sounded absurd, but he delivered it like it was the most normal thing in the world and Mr. Clayton would be crazy not to accept it.

"No." Mr. Clayton disagreed. "That's not what Papa wants." Mr. Clayton said, presumably saying that Shawn's Dad wouldn't agree to that and using the affectionate term 'Papa' to refer to Shawn's Dad. Shawn had never heard his own Dad called 'Papa' before.

“You said he’s sleepwalking, though. So how could he tell the difference?” Shawn tried to sound curious, like he was just asking innocent questions, rather than trying to press Mr. Clayton for information in the hopes he’d let slip his ultimate plans with his Dad.

"No. Not your Dad" Mr. Clayton corrected. "Papa." Mr. Clayton said.

"When your Dad falls asleep. Then Papa comes and gets me. Its the way its been for some time now." Then as if this was all a surprise to him, Mr. Clayton asked Shawn.

"What? You don't' know the difference between Papa and your Dad?"

Shawn was confused, and he allowed a little bit of it to show, though he didn't allow it to break his mostly genial tone. "Of course not; you've never told me, silly!" He sounded a little befuddled, but not outright frustrated - it was like Mr. Clayton had forgotten to mention he should add 'eggs' to the grocery list.

"I didn't?" Mr. Clayton asked Shawn in what sounded like genuine surprise, adding to the confusion with a confusing question of his own. His blank puppet-face stared up at Shawn with those dark eyes, the motion of the wooden face stoic and silent, waiting for Shawn to respond.

“Well, no. I think I’d remember if you did.” Shawn kept his tone light, though he was upset that Mr. Clayton was hiding yet more things from him. “Are you going to introduce us? If Papa is living in the house, we should get to know each other, right?”

Mr. Clayton shook his head. "I don't know if I can introduce you! Yucka Yucka! " Mr. Clayton waved those loose arms around in a pantomime of an excited child.

"Papa only comes out when you're asleep." Mr. Clayton explained. "When you're asleep and when your Dad is asleep. That's why I said your Dad's a fag. Because your Dad is Papa when your Dad is asleep. Actually, come to think of it, you we're right, You're Dad isn't a fag, Papa is!"