Blowing in...(Open to anyone and everyone.)

[Chuckles]

A cloaked figure stands outside of the building looked at it from under the dark hood of their cloak. Passerbyes could see the tilt of the head. But what they couldn't see was that under that cloak, the eyes closed and the nose tilted up to fill with the air and all the scents it had to offer. "Vague, but here still." A cold gust rose up and the cloaked figure collapsed into a pile of dust.

The gust carried the pile of dust through the door of the Inn. Actually blowing the door open. The cold could be felt by anyone who gets close enough. The dust begins to fall upon the floor in a swirl. As the dust swirls it begins to take shape. The shape that it took was that of the cloaked figure once again. No hands, no feet, no part of the body benieth, could be seen. Smooth steps carried the figure around the room slowly.

Over by the fireplace there was some seating. A few moments of taking in scents told the figure that their target had been here. Closer examination revealed the exact seat that their target had sat in. The cloaked figure moved to sit in that very seat. With closed eyes the figure felt the air around the seat to try to figure out their next move. Of course, if someone were to come along, maybe they could help with that.

[DJ]

It was a school day.

By that definition alone he shouldn't be wandering around the Inn playing with his hand-held but rather he should be hitting the books and trying to be an overachiever. There was only so much 'achieving' an eleven-year-old boy could do when they were trying to adjust to a new life. New school, new place, new people, you get the idea. For the past four years schooling was done by private tutors so now to be in a school and class with other kids where you had to move at their pace and all that, it wasn't exactly his thing.

So instead he had been tending to the horses in the stables here and now had come in out of the fall-like chill and was wanting something warm to drink. He was a bit scruffy to look at, but that's what happens when you work with horses, you get a bit of hay in your hair and scruff on your sleeves. He'd change before he went upstairs. What was clean was that hand held device he had in his hand. If the boy was ever without it then something was up. It was more than a game and when he came in from the stables he flicked it on and had his head down in it as he walked to the bar area. This kid could navigate through a crowd of people with his head down in the game. He still saw what was going on around him, he was just that good.

Yeah, that meant he saw the cloaked figure. Kinda hard to miss a black mass in the chairs. He couldn't see anything else of the person in question but he was sure he hadn't seen him here before. So he figured he'd say something to the guy as he went to the bar.

"Hey there. Ya new around here?"

[Natalie]

Anooooother school day.

But Natalie had already done all her homework. That was the advantage of being in a school with other kids and having to go the same pace as them - her pace was faster and the homework was so easy. Was she bored sometimes? She would be, if it wasn't for her writing. She made sure to take a journal with her to school so that she could work on her stories or her poems, whichever she felt like that day. But to be clear, she wrote them in a journal not the journal. Because the journal was safe hidden in her drawer with the false bottom that she'd cleverly made herself, the book's tiny lock sturdily shut

The evidence of her finished homework was down the hall in the lounge, open books and notebooks and a pencil and an eraser out. But Natalie was here in the bar even before the stranger or her brother had come in. They just didn't know it because she was behind the bar, and...well she was still short enough that even standing up straight behind the counter she couldn't see over it unless she stood up on her tiptoes. Which she wasn't. Not right now at least.

She was peaking through the crack between the counter and the swinging door. Enough room for one eye to see what was going on. From this limited vantage point she could only see DJ when he walked directly past the crack, long enough to see that he was playing his game as usual It was the stranger she had a good steady view of from here, sitting in his chair. She had spotted him before DJ came in and she'd been wondering if she should say or do anything. Leave it to her brother to take care of that for her by just diving right in.

At least it meant she could just watch. Until something she saw or heard gave her an idea of what was the 'right' thing to do. Natalie just hated it when she did something and people gave her strange looks because of it. Like she'd gotten the wrong answer after raising her hand. That was the worst feeling in the world if you asked her, so she tried to avoid it whenever she could. So what did a hidden girl do when there was a cloaked stranger sitting in a chair being talked to by her brother?

Stay hidden and stay quiet. The only sound that came from behind the bar was a tiny creek of the floorboards as Natalie tried to crouch in a more comfortable position.

[Chuckles]

As the cloaked being sat alone in the cousioned chair, he could smell others around him. Some approached, others remained still. Scent was one of his strongest senses, even before his punishment. So when the young boy approached and even dared to speak, the cloaked being was far from surprised.

A tilt of the head upwards to view better he who stood before him. A deep breath inhailed through the nose. Ahh...He carries her scent. Lovely. So the boy spoke, had a question for the one in the dark cloak. To answer. "New? Yes. I am on a quest. Do you like baloon animals?" His voice was high pitched and naisal just like a clown that performs at childrens parties. He adapted this voice for jut such occasions.

The creak of the floorboards gave away that the little girl was not just standing back there, she was peeking out. "Come join us little one. There is plenty of fun to be had by all." And of course he knew how to make baloon animals, he was a clown. Though perhaps not a clown at heart. After all, humility was his curse. But he was sure he could make these children laugh. After all, who didn't love a clown?

He pulled from a well hidden pocket of his cloak, several long uninflaited baloons, and a small manual air pump. He placed them in his lap. There was a hint of a cool breeze that blew around them, he and the boy. If the girl were headed their way, perhaps she would feel it as well. After the cool breeze stopped, white gloved fingers showed as they touched the hood of the cloak. When the cloak's hood was lowered back, there was the happy face of a clown.

An ordinary clown by any measure. Rainbow colored afro upon his head. White face paint...Or was it? A bright blue tear in the outer corner of his left eye. An extended blue diamond shape going over his right that extended from above the brow to down on his cheek. A big red smile around his lips. And a big red foam nose that would honk if pinched.

Those gloved fingers lifted the baloons and their pump from his lap and placed them upon a table at his side. He then rose up to his regualr stature of six foot two. He reached for the zipper that held his cloak closed. Drawing it down the cloak began to shrug off of his shoulders. The attire that was revealed was rather normal for a clown as well. The big white ruffly collor was white with one yellow ribbon and one red along it's edges. The jumpsuit itself was half done in stripes that went down the body, red, green, orange, purple, yellow, blue, pink. The other half was solid orange with green poka dots. The cuffs of the sleeves matched the collor. And when he stepped free of the cloak, he wore oversized floppy red shoes.

The cloak was laid over a chair near him. Then he sat back down. "Please, do sit. Fun is more fun when you're comfortable." That was said to either the boy, or both, depending on if the girl had joined them yet, or if she was still hiding. He picked up a black baloon and the pump. He blew the baloon up almost all the way before he tied it off. He moved some of the air down with his hands so that it would fill the baloon and make it easier to twist. Then he moved back to the bottom. He made a fold about four inched up, then he foled it over again. This made it look like there was a four inch stick out from the side of the long straight baloon. He made a second fold opposite the first. When he was through twisting the folds into place he handed the baloon to the boy. It was a sword.

He addressed the little girl, where ever she happened to be. "How about a poodle for the young miss?" He lifted a pink baloon from the small pile he had placed upon the table and slid it onto the pump while he waited to see if she wanted it or not.

[DJ]

"That's a sword." So much for stating the obvious, right?

"You asked if I liked balloon animals and you made a sword." Perhaps it was a stiff snake with a knot in his tail or maybe a knot-tailed snake? This was Rhydin after all, where the not-so-ordinary passed as commonplace. Still he thought to take what he thought the creation was. Aside from that the guy looked to be a regular clown to DJ, albeit one that liked to walk around covered in a dark cloak. He probably did that for his own protection. If there wasn't anyone who didn't love clowns then the guy would probably have been stopped countless times on his way to the Inn and plagued with request to perform silly tricks and things made out of balloons.

He moved a step or two closer but he didn't take a seat, shrugging his shoulders a bit he looked down at his handheld and it told him that another heat-source was in the room. It was probably his sister since the clown said 'little one' but he wasn't about to call her to a situation that he didn't know was on the up-and-up. He was her big brother after all (even if they were twins) and they looked out for each other. If she was 'hiding' then it probably was for a good cause.

"I'd take a seat, but I'm a bit dirty. Ms. Aybara would make me scrub the fabric if I got mud and gook all over it." DJ said that as if it was a fact. He wasn't quite sure if that's what would happen to him, but he had heard that she liked to keep things in the Inn clean and in good repair. Better to be safe than sorry.

[Natalie]

Little one? She scoffed indignantly. Common adult mistake: see an eleven-year-old, think of them as 'little', call them little or even mention the word little, when what eleven-year-olds want to be is big. Most tweens just dealt with the 'little' stigma. Natalie was different. More mature and independent, like her brother. They'd spent half their lives being raised by a vampire counsel instead of by parents. They'd had to learn to take care of themselves because even well-meaning vampires forget what it's like to be human, much less a human child. To her little was not a good thing to be.

Didn't help that he was a clown. A lot of people didn't love clowns and she was one of them. It wasn't about fear, the years with the vampire counsel had desensitized her. The more he talked, what he offered and when he took his cloak off, all these things fed into what skewed her opinion of clowns.

So Natalie did not head their way. She'd been in the middle of a mission behind the bar when the stranger and then DJ entered. Then being behind had turned into this good happenstance, a hiding place. A spot she preferred to any other right now. Only because DJ was here. Her brother wasn't about to call her out, well she wasn't about to leave him with this clown. Now if DJ wasn't here, she would've already collected up her stuff for her mission and gone off to find Armandeus or Ms. Aybara to tell them there was a clown waiting. But if DJ was staying, she was staying.

And watching. Pink balloon? Her eyes looked to DJ's to confirm now that he'd gone closer to the clown and thus was in Natalie's line of sight. Black balloon, not blue. But hers was pink. So it wasn't boy-girl balloons. It was just coincidence that the clown had picked her favorite color? Pink was nice but she'd grown out of balloon animal age. "No thank you." A firm decline, but she had good manners.

That done she could get down to business. Letting just the sound of her voice represent her for now. "Were you hired for a party? My brother and I can go get the person who hired you." It was part of what bothered her about this clown. He did look very much like a party-style clown, not a European clown or even circus clown. Yet besides her and DJ when they chose to hang out here, there were barely any kids at the inn anymore. So who hired this balloon clown and for what? That's what the aspiring mystery-solver wanted to know.

[Chuckles]

So a smarty pants was he? Baloon animals was a generalized term for things made with baloons. Flowers, swords, hats, none of those were animals, yet the directions for them are found in the book of 'How to make baloon animals' that most clowns use to learn the trick of their trade. He himself had read it about a year and a half after he was cursed. And yes, he was presenting himself as a party clown. Though it was a simple thing to show himself as a European clown or even a circus clown. He had just chose party clown thinking it would make them the most comfortable.

The pink baloon was placed back upon the table and an orange was picked up. "Quite right." He loaded the baloon onto the pump as he addressed the soft voice from behind the door. "As you wish M'Lady." He was pumping up the baloon, leaving a section at the end about 3 inches long that had no air.

As he started to twist the baloon down where the knot was, he again addressed the voice behind the door. "I thank you for the offer to retrieve someone for me, but I am to be a surprise for someone special. There is no need to retrieve anyone, though I love to meet new people. So if you are worried about 'Stranger Danger' and wish to retrieve another adult, I would not be insulted." No, in fact, it would give him a change for more investigation.

About an inch down the baloon he had made his first fold and twist. It made for eyes and a nose. Then he had traveled a ways down before making another fold and twist, this fold being larger. It made for front legs. Another short distance, though longer than the first, he made another fold and twist that was about the same size as the second, though slightly shorter. The tiny bit of air that was left he pushed down to the end of the section that lacked air. All of that he had done while addressing the young lady.

The young man addressed his offer to take a seat, no seat because he was dirty. "I could understand you not wanting to sit down then. I would hate to have to scrub the furniture." He had pulled a brown marker from his pocket and was coloring markings on the baloon that looked roughly like a coble stone path. He covered the whole animal with different sized 'spots' while he continued to speak. He had a question for the young lady behind the door.

Without even turning his head to look at her, as he was coloring spots and adding eyes. "Tell me dear, would your mother not find it rude of you to talk to an adult through a door? If you are this handsome young man's sister, I would imagine that you're quite lovely." He finished the animal, that was actually an animal this time, and offered it to the young man before him.

He figured he should at least find out who he was speaking to, and it was always better to give a name to get a name. "I am Chuckles, and to whom do I have the pleasure?" Perhaps the names would sound familiar from his reserch of his target. He had studied her as much as he could in order to make it easier to find her. He knew the names of some who she called family and friends. That was how he had found her son.

[DJ]

It was funny. For someone who's suppose to be a type of comedian for children he wasn't laughing or doing any silly things (making balloon art wasn't funny in DJ's book). Chuckles didn't even chuckle! Talk about name irony. But he was eleven and surely he didn't know anything about situational irony.

What he did know was that this clown was paying a lot of attention to his sister and nicked him a little. Not that he was jealous or anything but she did choose to stay out of sight so he took that to mean she wanted to minimize communication. Once the clown said that he was a surprise for someone and that they were not to get the person but they could get 'a' person DJ got a bit suspicious himself. The whole reason they were sent away from their mother was because someone had been after them. Everything was said to have been taken care of but somethings had a way of returning.

"Handel," he said that with a flip motion upwards of the hand held game. Hey, this guys name couldn't really be Chuckles so it was okay to give him a fake name too. Kids. "That's my name." Just in case the clown didn't know. "And if people are comfortable where they are you should let them be."

Now he was being presented with an actual balloon animal, a giraffe? He couldn't hold it and his hand held, but he took it, ". . . thanks," and placed it on one of those end tables he was next too. "And it's name is Globo." He smirked.

Maybe he was a smarty pants.

[Natalie]

Behind the bar Natalie was bewildered and wondering if she was dreaming. Someone special he didn't want retrieved? Handsome? Lovely? What were their names? All he had to do was offer them candy instead of balloons and point out his white van and he would complete the stranger danger checklist. For someone who was just here as a surprise he was sure getting comfortable and demanding. A clown that looked like a party clown but sounded more like bossy Sister Mary Klumb who taught her and her brother...it didn't add up right.

And because Mommy loved them very much and because someone had been after them before, Natalie was certain that their mother would tell her and DJ that they could talk to an adult through any door they wanted to if things didn't add up right. Which is why Natalie chose to stay where she was. But she wouldn't be rude - since this clown had a problem with her talking to him through a door she would fix that problem. But her own way, on her own terms. By no longer talking to him. As Sister Klumb always said, silence is a respectable form of being polite.

It meant that she couldn't tell him her name. But she was alright with that. Because she wasn't staying here for the clown anyway, she was staying here to not leave her brother alone with the clown. And because like DJ, she wasn't going to tell the clown her real name anyway. Since her lips were silent they'd hear a little shifting behind the counter as Natalie went out of sight from the crack she'd been peaking through and got something out of her school bag. It was a hand-held device that was the same as DJ's, except hers was pink. She had a couple of games for it and played them once in a while, but the real reason she'd wanted it was for what she was going to use it for now.

The small keys clicked as she pressed them rapidly. She was a good quick typer. Before she hit send, she said to her brother. "Handel. Beep." Her thumb hit send. That way just in case his hand-held was on mute he'd know to look for a message. When he opened it, he would read: Call me Daisy. Shouldn't he want to deliver his surprise? Why is he just sitting? Most delivery people deliver and leave. This is weird. The way he acts doesn't match the way he looks. What should we do?

She nodded to herself after sending the message. She was glad she thought of her own hand-held. This way they could talk without the clown knowing what they were saying.

[Chuckles]

((Sorry, I was out sick Tuesday and Wednesday.))

So the little lady behind the door chose to not respond to the coment about her mother. She fell silent. No matter. Chuckles hightened senses as well as his extra senses told him that, the boy at least, was human. So they would not be able to help him find his target. He smelt of her, which meant that he had met her at some point. Might even know her well, but that wouldn't help Chuckles, she could hide from the child.

But given the way the children were acting, almost like they were protecting something, it seemed to him that they knew her well enough that she taught them a thing or two. Plus, they had no fear. There wasn't any hint of fear in the air. Both of those things led him to the conclusion that they might come in as handy as her son did. But he didn't need them right now. What he needed was someone who she couldn't hide from. Someone who would be able to hunt her down where ever she ran to.

The children didn't seem to be in a hurry to find that someone for him either. The boy had collected the sword and the giraffe, but beyond that, he had not done much. So it was time or Chuckles to move on, But first, a parlor trick or two for the entertainment of the children. After all, he was supposed to be a party clown.

From a pochet on the left side of the costume, which held many pockets in the seams so that they weren't obvious in the big baggy jumpsuit, he removed a deck of cards. He spread the cards in a fan shape with both hands. "Ok, Handel." That was the name the boy had given. "Pick a card." He waited for the boy to pull the card from the deck. Then he closed the cards back into a pile. "Now study your card." While the boy looked at his card, Chuckles would flip the bottom card so that it was face up rather than face down like the rest. And then he would quickly turn the deck over in his hands before the boy looked up from the card. Now all the cards were face up except the top card. "Ok, slide your card back into the pile so that I don't see where it is." This would place the boys card face down in a deck of cards that was face up.

Chuckles leaned forward and put the deck behind his back and reflipped the card that he had flipped before, putting it so that it was facing the same dirrection as the rest of the deck. Then he turned the deck so that they were face down again. Then he pulled the deck out from behind his back and fanned it out again. The boys card would be the only card that was face up. "Was that your card Handel?" Chuckles knew that it was, the boy had placed it in the deck that way himself.

After the boy reacted to the trick, Chuckles would pull one more out of his sleeves, so to speak, for the boy. He put the cards away and showed him that both hands were empty. Then he made a loose fist with his left hand. He slid his first two fingers of his right hand up through the bottom of the loose fist. The angel of his left hand with the boy standing the way he was would hide the corner of the boxer shorts that had gotten tucked up into the bottom of the loose fist with those two fingers. Then he started to pull out brightly colored handkerchiefs one at a time. He would lay let the tip of them go into the loose fist and then lay it over the left hand. He would stuff the handkerchiefs down into the loose fist one at a time. And he always went from corner to corner. That was because there were high powered magnets in the corners of the handkerchiefs and in those boxers as well.

Each magnet was smaller than the head of a wood nail, but they were strong. As each handkerchief was pushed into the fist, the corners made contact joining the magnets before they got pushed down. Once he had ten handkerchiefs bunched up in his fist he pulled a plastic black wand with a white tip out of a pocket. He tapped the fist twice and then set the wand down. He slowly began to pull the handkerchiefs from his fist. They were coming out attached at the corners. One long colorfull rope. When he had the tenth one coming out he stopped and tugged softly. He got a look of surprise on his face. He moved his pinky to open the sleeve of his costume open a little more, all part of the trick. Then he pulled the handkerchief again and slid the boxers out of the sleeve through the hand and then acted shocked and embarassed as the boxers hung from the end of the handkerchief rope.

He smiled as he gathered his things back up slowly. "Ok, well, I hate to leave such good company Handel. But I must find the person I am a gift for, so I am going to go. I hope you and your sister have a lovely day." He had everything gathered up and was covering back up with his cloak. Once his hood was up he bowed to the young man before he turned to walk away. He headed to where he thought he could pick up her scent again.

[DJ]

(Just so you know.... it's a bit rude to play out another characters actions if you're not that character or haven't asked them. It tends to cause problems or is looked at as bad form of play. We don't dictate the moves of others so it's appreciated if it's not done to us in return. )

Humor a person. That's what had to be done sometimes, even to clowns. You had to humor people to give them that extra little 'umph' to their confidence and let them believe that their time wasn't wasted. DJ learned that from all the adult parties he went too: people doing things to humor others that were there or just because it was the polite thing to do. That's what many adults seemed to be about. Humor and politeness. Since DJ was eleven and wasn't a little kid anymore he decided to do the adult thing and humor Chuckles the clown here by actually acting like a child. That's why he took the balloons and put away his hand held in his pocket and put on the eager and overly excitable face of a five year old presented with a sparkly object when the card trick was taking place.

Something had to be said for living with a group of vampires that pretended to be humans - you became skilled at putting up false pretenses. Okay, maybe he wasn't skilled, but he could still do a pretty darn tooting good job of it! So he played along and did the kid song-and-dance hopefully to the clowns delight (might have even got Chuckles to chuckle a time or two) until the show was over. Then he tucked the wide-eyes and grin into his pocket and pulled back out his hand held. The clown was leaving but he didn't really know why.

"Could have found them if you told us who you were looking for. She did offer." The 'she' was his sister of course. "Anyway, luck to you."

And that was the end of that for him. Now he could see about that drink.

[Natalie]

[ i have to agree. sickness isn't an excuse for playing someone else's character without permission - there hasn't been moding like this on this board since july. i hope you understand that the children offered a clear opening to bring your character's needs into play and that you chose to shut that down. the 'she' you are looking for can be found at - http://everlastinginn.6forum.info/forum.htm - but it is generally suspected that you already know that. ]

Silence is a response. People use it all the time to make meaning and Natalie chose to make meaning with it now. No need to say anything more to the clown. Earlier she'd asked him who he was here for and offered to get that person but the clown had said no. She had offered that because she was a good, polite girl. But she didn't need anything from the clown. Not balloons, not to be coaxed out from behind the bar, not to be entertained by the clown or to be an entertainer for him. So there was nothing more to say, especially since he'd criticized her already.

It looked like it was DJ's turn to be polite. Natalie felt bad for him, but ever since the clown had tried to coax her out from behind the bar by calling her lovely and mentioning her mother...well, that was creepy and she didn't feel like humoring creepy. So while DJ put on the smiles Natalie was cleaning her stuff up. Everything was going back into her school bag, including the few things she'd gotten from behind the bar and the kitchen. No, she didn't steal them! She left a note for Armandeus to let him know just what she took. As she put the last thing in her bag, she was glad to hear the clown say goodbye and leave.

"I did ask him," she said to DJ. In a tone that was insistent and a little sullen - she was still burning from the fact the clown called her rude. Sliding the straps of her school bag over each of her shoulders she pushed the door to the bar open so she could see her brother. "And he sat there. That's why it didn't add up." A pause, and then she added. "Handel." Since the clown appeared to be gone, Natalie's usual demeanor started to return, and she snickered at her brother's choice for a fake name.

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