ic [IC] Cat Mother & The All Day Babysitters

[olopi]

GM

 

Saturday, March 11th, 2017

Port Regal, Freedom City

11:21 AM

 

There were those times when one wondered just how they got into the situation they were in. Truth be told, those situations probably were a large part of being a superhero around Freedom City. It usually was best not to think about it too much, yet, somehow, that was exactly what Gretchen McDaniels wanted to do right now.

 

She had gotten roped into this thanks to her girlfriend, and the two of them were now standing in front of a large metal gate blocking the driveway. They had rung already, and somebody would come and get them in just a bit. Tied around some of the metal was bright green paper, cut into fine lines, together with a few balloons hanging off.

 

The estate looked quite large, which in itself wasn’t a bad thing. But then, then it became more and more apparent. A sound most abhorrent. Something that really, really wasn’t necessary today, right?

 

Children.

[Heritage]

The offer had been...unusual; provide security at a child's birthday party for one of Freedom's wealthiest citizens. Though the client refused to go into specifics, he implied that the threat was very real and very dangerous. Of course, he had his own security team, but they couldn't be everywhere, and Mr. Foster understood that Grimalkin and her associate the Shrike had certain skills and abilities that would allow them to protect his child without drawing attention to themselves, and for a man in his position, discretion was key.

 

Gretchen argued in favor of invisibility; she could perch on a rooftop or hover overhead, while Lynn moved undetected among the guests, both in constant mental contact. It was perfect and required minimal interaction with actual children.

 

Lynn admitted that while on paper it was a very sound strategy, and would probably work very well, it failed to incorporate one crucial psychological component: a parent's concern for his child. Foster needed to see his superhero security mingling with his guests to know his kid was safe, or else he would still be nervous and on edge the whole time.

 

So naturally, they went with clowns.

 

As a changeling, Lynn was ideally suited for this sort of role; in fact, she would arguably make a better clown than she did a shopkeeper. Agile, charming and artistic, she effortlessly slipped into the role like a second skin, adopting the loose, flowing garments of a classic black and white pierrot, complete with white slippers and gloves and a black skull cap. She chose simple monochromatic 'makeup' that was neither scary nor sexy (which was actually pretty hard to pull off in these jaded times), and decided she would not speak the whole afternoon if she could help it. She walked on tiptoe, darting here and there like a hummingbird, and occasionally did a random cartwheel or backflip out of sheer exuberance.

 

Gretchen...was not a happy clown. Not as a creative choice like the late, great Emmett Kelly, but more because she'd been shanghaied into this whole nightmare operation against her will, and would've preferred being stabbed repeatedly with a dull knife over spending the day with a pack of spoiled rich kids. Her barely-a-clown costume consisted of a bright yellow curly wig, a pair of oversized sunglasses, and a colorful vest covered in patches; otherwise, she just wore a red flannel shirt, jeans and a pair of red Converse Hi-Tops. Oh, and she two black lines of makeup, one under each eye...yeah. Because her girlfriend was so busy being 'in character' (grrrr!), it fell upon Gretch to drag the wheeled airport bag with all the face painting crap up the driveway, plus her ukulele case kept banging against her tailbone.

 

To say that she wasn't exactly loving Lynn this morning, as they stood waiting at the gate for this living hell to begin, would be the understatement of the year.

 

-You will pay...in blood.-

 

-That's the spirit!-

Edited March 11, 2017 by Heritage

[olopi]

GM

 

Beyond the metal gate, the two women could see somebody walk up to them. This was one of those times where living in FC just felt like living in a cartoon; it was a butler. Dressed as stereotypically as one could, and only adding to that with his haircut and facial hair. He clicked a button next to the gate’s inside, upon which it turned outwards and opened, right down the centre.  He stepped forward and extended his hand towards Lynn.

 

“You must be the clowns Ms. Foster mentioned. Welcome to the estate, I hope you will enjoy your stay. Now, as for Ms. Ellie, she is currently on the veranda, waiting for the rest of her friends to arrive. I hope she will not cause you too much trouble. “

 

His eyes scanned both the clowns, before offering them to come inside. As the two were walking down the driveway towards the actual building, he explained further.

 

“The birthday party itself should not be a problem, there are only 12 people invited. Ms. Sarah didn’t sound too happy about this party, so expect her to not show her face, or only do so barely. Which, all things considered, may not be a bad thing. “

 

As the three got closer, the sounds of children got louder. They were talking. Quite loudly so, almost screeching.

 

“GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILES!!”

 

Upon which, the butler nodded towards the two clowns, before turning away.

 

“Duty calls, I believe. If you need anything, please do not hesitate to ask me. “

 

And with that, he was off. Leaving the two some last moments before they turned the corner, and faced the kids.

[Heritage]

Silent grinning Clown!Grim shook the butler's hand and nodded vigorously as she pointed at herself and Clown?Gretch, who was busy texting. Once the butler left, she put her phone away, crossed her arms and just glared at her partner.

 

-I heard a lot of red flags.-

 

-Yeah, tell me about it. So do we think 'Ms. Foster' is the wife?-

 

-Probably. Also probably doesn't know the real reason we were hired.-

 

-Agreed. So if Ms. Ellie is the client, what does that make Ms. Sarah; jealous little sister?-

 

-Mr. Foster's crazy first wife that they keep locked up in the attic. Keep her away from matches.-

 

-Heh! Sounds like we're in for a fun day.-

 

-You do realize it will be at least a year before I even begin to forgive you for this.-

 

-Yeah, I know; you really don't deserve any of this. If it'll help, we'll spend all the money on really stupid s###.-

 

-We had better.-

 

Smiling a bit sorrowfully, Lynn gently caressed her lover's face, then leaned in to give her a warm kiss, which she then followed up with a playful nose squeeze, which earned her a quick half-smile. Then they both took deep breaths, squared up their shoulders and prepared to round the corner to face certain death.

 

-"Once more into the breach, my friends! Once more!"-

 

-Aye aye, captain!-

Edited March 12, 2017 by Heritage

[olopi]

GM

 

Rounding the corner didn’t quite reveal what expected. Mainly because Gretch expected something far worse. Which arguably made the sight of it just being a few children not that bad. And then she remembered that still, this were a bunch of children. All girls, standing around the building’s large veranda, two of them in the doorway, looking inwards, the others standing around and talking with each other.

 

When the clowns appear, they immediately caught all the attention. And within moments, like moths to the light, the girls had flocked to surround them. Considering Giles had run off to the inside, it was probably fair to assume none of these was the birthday child herself, they were all the guests.

 

“I want a flower!”

 

“Can you do a balloon dolphin?”

“Facepainting!”

 

“No, balloon animals!”

 

“Nu-uh. Facepainting first!”

 

Most of them were rather nice, just blocking their paths, but one of them began to pull on Gretch’s outfit. One of the larger girls, one who mastered that spoilt brat look already at this point in her life.

[Heritage]

The reactions of the two women to the flock of children were, of course, very different; not only had they had very different life experiences in general, but the changeling was much older than she looked, and had a lifetime of playing with children, grandchildren and even a few great-grandchildren under her belt. Gretchen, who had never been comfortable around kids even when she was a kid, only had memories of a lot of screaming, teasing and random physical abuse to draw upon.

 

As the children approached, Lynn broke into a huge, black-lipped smile and actually relaxed, as though every bone in her body magically turned into spring, and she began to flop about and tumble effortlessly, first like a monkey, then like a puppy dog, the whole time radiating a sense of harmless, silly fun. Gretchen, however, tensed up completely, her eyes darting about behind the sunglasses as she did her best to keep track of each individual pint-sized threat, and the kids by their very nature immediately picked up on her discomfort. Staring down at the defiant little creature at her feet, the young barista cleared her throat.

 

"Please don't do that. I am Bubbles the Clown, and I don't take crap from anyone."

 

Attempting to divert attention away from her reluctant partner in mirth, Lynn conjured up a cloth sign that she pulled out of her sleeve that said in large, friendly letters:

 

Hi, I'm Whispers the Clown!

 

She then held up a gloved finger to her lips, and then showed the other side of her sign.

 

Who wants to do FACEPAINTING?

Edited March 14, 2017 by Heritage

[olopi]

GM

 

In a span of time so short it was almost funny in itself, the girl’s expression managed to do a complete 180. First she looked happy, spoilt. And as soon as Bubbles told her to stop? Oh boy, the face. If before was spoilt brat, this was Hollywood-level spoilt brat.

 

“I don’t like you. You’re a bad clown.” She pouted, clenched her fists, and walked off towards Whispers, managing quite the performance.

 

Meanwhile, quite the crowd had gathered around Whispers. The girls were rather young, a small minority of them couldn’t read. Not that it mattered, it was pretty easy to figure out what was going on, even for them. There was some pushing, some pulling.

 

“Me first!”

 

“No, me!”

 

“Nu-uh. I was first.”

 

And then Lynn and Gretch both managed to catch Giles, coming out of the door, quickly side-stepping and looking at the two clowns, his expression quite hard to tell. Stepping ut onto the veranda after him was, quite clearly, he birthday child. A bit taller and thicker than the others, in what was best described as a princess dress.

 

“Facepainting! ME FIRST!”

 

And with that, she ran towards Lynn, at quite the speed.

[Heritage]

"I'm not a bad clown. I'm a badass clown," Gretchen muttered to herself as the little urchin wandered off; the young misanthrope was quite proud of herself for handling the pest so effectively.

 

Whispers, on the other hand, had her work cut out for her; she motioned to her partner to bring over the facepainting case, which 'Bubbles' dutifully did. The silent clown took the opportunity to stuff her cloth sign back up her sleeve, where it promptly disappeared. Once she had the case, she zipped it open and pulled out first one, then another small folding cloth stool, both of which she snapped open with an artful snap of the wrist. As soon as Gretchen caught sight of Ms. Ellie's approach, she sent a dryly humorous sending her partner's way.

 

-Brace for impact.-

 

-Yeah, I see her. You think Giles hates us yet?-

 

-Give him time.-

 

As the young 'princess' arrived, Whispers very visibly reacted to her approach, standing rigidly at attention before bowing deeply at the waist (Gretch just did a little half-bow), as though in the presence of actual royalty. She gestured with a flourish towards the slightly taller of the stools as she sat in the other, pulling out a tray of paints and a brush with the inquiring look of a secretary waiting to take dictation. Clearly, she was ready to get to work.

 

Meanwhile, Bubbles pulled out her ukulele, attached the shoulder strap, and began to check the tuning; true, she sucked with kids, but if it had strings, she could play the hell out of it!

Edited September 30, 2017 by Heritage

[olopi]

GM

 

At the sight of the two clowns, bowing down for her, Ellie’s eyes lit up. Not quite literally (even if, in FC, that would be that special), but she looked incredibly happy, as she approached the two. The other girls looked happy, but also slightly chuffed that they had to wait now, as Ellie took her seat on the stool. She looked over at the others, then back at Whispers.

 

“A Tiger! No, no … wait. A Unicorn!”

 

All the while, as Bubbles began to tune her ukulele, a few of the girls split off from the group watching the facepainting, and walked over to her, clearly intrigued by the music. One of them looked at the instrument closely, then asked, surprisingly not sounding malicious.

 

“Is that a guitar? My mommy always talks about those.”

 

Giles had already disappeared inside again, only to return a few seconds later, a tray in hand. On it were a variety of colourful plastic cups, as well as two glasses, and a large jug of what appeared to be syrup. He nodded towards the two clowns, placed the tray on the table, and then took a seat, observing what was going on.

[Heritage]

Whispers raised her eyebrows, pantomimed a horn rising out of her head, then nodded and gave Ellie a thumbs up; she had an image in her mind of a beautiful white mare, spirited and free, and started to work with that. The fact was, this was not Lynn's first rodeo when it came to facepainting; she used to do it all the time with her kids back on the Otherworld, and while she was no Michaelangelo, she knew what kids liked. She also had a fun idea for a surprise to complete the piece.

 

Noting the young guest's interest, Gretch went into lecture mode; she really didn't know how to talk to kids, so she pretty much treated them like small adults. Sometimes they responded to this very well, but other times, not so much.

 

 "This is a ukulele. It's like a guitar, but in only has four strings, whereas a guitar has six, or sometimes twelve."  She plucked each string in turn so they could hear each of the individual sounds. "One, two, three, four. I'm left-handed, so I have it strung in reverse order, which means I play it this way." She strummed it a few times, a very pleasant sound. "Ukuleles come from Hawaii. Have you ever seen the movie Lilo and Stich? They have ukuleles in that one. I think Stich plays one at one point, but I could be wrong." The talented musician began to play the opening chords of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's arrangement of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'. "It's a good first instrument if you have small hands." Was that just a hint of a smile on her dour face?

 

And then she began to sing, and it was lovely; it was easy to forget that this intensely logical and oh-so-cynical person, who was so hard and spikey on the outside, had a huge, passionate heart hidden under all that armor, and when it peeped out, it was like a ray of pure sunshine.

 

As she worked, Lynn felt small tears forming in the corners of her eyes as she listened to her girlfriend sing, which in turn inspired her work; working mostly in blue, gray and white, she layered the facepaint on Ellie's cheeks to suggest the muzzle of the majestic beast. When she finished the piece, she held up one finger, then rummaged around in the facepainting kit, where she 'found' an iridescent unicorn horn on an elastic band, which she slipped over the birthday girl's head. Then the wordless clown brought out a small hand mirror (real, this time) so her client could see the result, inquiring as to her satisfaction with a shrug.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Heritage

[olopi]

GM

 

 

All things considered, Ellie was nice enough of a client-slash-canvas. She didn’t move her head in any annoying way, or talked, or even constantly looked around. Instead, she sat there fairly calmly, also looking towards Bubbles. Clearly, she’d had her face painted before. Judging by her expression, she didn’t care much about the other clown, but at least something was happening within her field of vision.

 

Meanwhile, as Bubbles explained, a few more girls gathered around her. Most of them didn’t seem to care for the explanation too much, even if the sound of music managed to keep their attention. A few did actually seem to care, and listened to what the clown was saying.

 

“My sister showed me Lilo and Stitch once. “

 

While Bubbles began to play, and managed to attract quite the crowd, Whispers finished up her work. Ellie looked quite surprised when she saw the horn, she looked quite happy. As she looked in the mirror, that didn’t change. “Yaay! This is good! Thank you!”

 

And with that, she ran off, towards the performance, clearly wanting to see it from up close too.

[Heritage]

Now that she had an audience, Bubbles wasn't quite sure what to do with them; it wasn't in her nature to lead kids in singalongs or act out Itsy Bitsy Spider. She finished out her song, and then threw a worried glance her girlfriend's way.

 

-I didn't come up with a set list. I assumed they weren't going to like me.-

 

-Well it's you're fault for being so darn talented; now you have to figure it out on your own.-

 

-But what kind of music do kids like?-

 

-I dunno, the Hokey Pokey? I've been off-planet for years. You've met my nieces and nephews; what do they like?-

 

Gretchen thought back to her encounters with Lynn's young relatives; for kids, most of them weren't too bad. Sometimes she actually even enjoyed talking to them. What YouTube videos did the watch? Then inspiration hit. 

 

"I think you'll know this one. If you do, feel free to song along or dance if you're so inclined." And then she started off a spirited cover of Taylor Swift's Shake It Off.

 

For a few moments, Lynn looked somewhat concerned, but then she decided just to roll with it and motioned for her next customer to advance.

Edited March 26, 2017 by Heritage

[olopi]

GM

 

Most of the girls stayed and listened. Some knew the song, some didn’t. All of them seemed interested enough in hearing it. Especially since, most likely, none of them had expected a concert at this party. Ellie pushed her way through the small crowd, pushing away those girls that didn’t get out of her way so she could get the best spot, right at the center. The others looked a bit irritated, but nobody dared say a word. Not against the person hosting it all.

 

Meanwhile, the first of the few girls that had been waiting in the queue took her place on the stool. She looked over at the concert, but didn’t seem to care much as she turned her attention towards Whispers. After a second or so of pondering, she had a huge smile on her face, and spoke, full of anticipation.

 

“I want to be a fairy!”

[Heritage]

At this point, Bubbles wasn't sure how much longer she could go on like this; eventually, the children would rebel and rip her limb from limb, and also she was getting bored. Knowing she couldn't actually hurl the children into the sun, at least not if they were still hoping to get paid, she turned once again to her girlfriend for advice.

 

-I don't think I can do this much longer. These girls are on the verge of going feral.-

 

-Okay, gimme a second to think of something.-

 

-Please hurry. I see a maniacal gleam in Ms Ellie's eye. -

 

-Okay, I got it. Tell them it's time to play a game, then reach inside the facepainting kit.-

 

As she said this, the very observant might have noticed a thin stream of vapor rising out of the bag. The singing clown brought her cover of Ms Swift's song to a rollicking finish, then yawned and stretched dramatically. "Boy, all that singing really tuckered me out," she said without any sort of conviction. "Who wants to play a game?" Carefully putting her ukulele back in its case, Gretchen stepped over to the bag, reached inside, and pulled out a long red ribbon about two inches wide and about two feet long.

 

-I know this one. We're going to play 'Hogtie Escape'.-

 

-No, you little psychopath; you're gonna play 'Blind Man's Bluff'! Just make sure none of the girls falls and hurts themselves.-

 

-Oh, okay...mine sounds like more fun.-

 

Whisper chose not to respond to that, instead attending to her next customer's request. Lynn figured most kids probably learned everything they knew about faeries from watching Peter Pan and the various Tinker Bell spinoff movies, which was all well and good, except she really was a faerie, and therefore had some rather strong opinions on the matter, despite being a lifelong Disney enthusiast herself. However, a compromise of some sort could certainly be reached, and to be honest, the changeling did have a bit of a soft spot for Tink...

 

So the wordless clown started by giving the girl's eyes up-swept eyebrows and a bit of a cat eye look at the corners, followed by sideburns made of green leaves, and then adding layers of green, yellow and brown to her cheeks, making her look half wild child and half cherub. The fae artist finished the facepainting by giving her client dark green lips and just a bit of brown on her upper lip and nose, somewhat reminiscent of a deer's snout. Lastly an idea struck her, and she reached back into the bag and 'found' a wreath of flowers and leaves to put on her head like a crown. Once again, the mirror was held up, but this time Lynn found herself being a little nervous; maybe this time she might have gone a little too 'Renn faire' on this one?

 

Meanwhile Gretchen was explaining the rules of Blind Man's Bluff to any who didn't know them, while tying the ribbon around the birthday girl's eyes.

 

"Let me know if I've cut off the circulation to your brain."

[olopi]

GM

 

Whsiper’s client looked a bit surprised when looking into the mirror. Clearly, she’d not expected this. She moved her head around a bit, some doubt building up in her expression. Then, one moment to the next, that went away, and turned into an upbeat smile. She moved her head around some more. And then, without replying, she walked off, moving around the crown on her head a bit. In the meantime, the third customer had already gotten onto the stool.

 

“Hello. A robot.”

 

When Bubbles’ concert finished, a few of the crowd walked off, to do other things instead or to queue for the face painting.  The girls that remained gathered around, as she explained the rules. None of them seemed to know it yet, a bit of a surprise. Still, once they began to play it all went well. It all went well, for about a minute, that is. When suddenly, an inopportunely placed leg (intentionally so?) got in the way of the birthday girl, and she, in one swift motion, fell to the ground.

[Heritage]

The silent clown nodded as she began to work; this was a somewhat unusual request for a girl, and she wanted to honor it appropriately. Was this child interested in science, or was there a favorite movie or TV show of hers that featured a robotic character? Then Lynn remembered the largely-forgotten movie Robots from back in the early 2000s; she'd snuck into a theater to see it when she was 17, and she always really liked it. Inspired by its retro, dieselpunk aesthetic, she has a vision of a sweet little robot girl rolling down the street with wheels on her feet like roller skates; cute, but still streamlined and built for speed, and not too girly, either. She decided to choose colors that complimented her client's dress as a clue to her personality, and hoped she would like it.

 

How did I get stuck entertaining these girls, wondered 'Bubbles' as she shook her head; it was like hiring a vegan to run a butchershop, or putting a pre-Marley Scrooge in charge of a charity fundraiser. Clearly mistakes had been made, and it was only a matter of time before things went all to hell.

 

And then the birthday girl pulled a faceplant.

 

-The Princess is down! I repeat, the Princess is down!-

 

-Oh s###! Check to see if she's okay; I packed a decent first aid, just in case.-

 

Crouching down next to Ms Ellie, Gretch cleared her throat. "Hey. Uh, are you alright, kid?" She gingerly turned her over, half expecting some absurdly shocking injury that would require field surgery.

[olopi]

GM

 

The facepainting wasn’t nearly done yet, but that didn’t stop everything else happening around it. Fortunately enough, there was no apparent serious injury just yet. The birthday girl’s knee was bleeding, and her hand was scraped open. Her face didn’t seem to get injured, even if the blindfold was starting to get rather wet. Not bloody, fortunately enough.

 

While Ellie was crying, a few of the girls backed off, and went somewhere else, and a few came closer to get a better look. The latter also went for Giles. Who had a bit of an amused smile on his face, contrasting with his overall stern expression, for a fairly interesting look. He crouched down next to Ellie, looking at her injures. “Oh no. Ms. Ellie, how about we go upstairs and take a better look at this?” With that, he also pulled off the blindfold, revealing, as expected, the reddened eyes of the girl, tears everywhere.

 

“GIIILES! GO! WHY D-D-DIDN’T YOU….”

 

He picked her up with ease, and carried her into the house. And just as he went through the door, somebody else came out. Another girl, a lot older than the others, probably in her mid-to-late teens. She made a beeline for the drinks on the table, only giving Ellie and Giles a quick look, her undercut and Misfits tee not quite fitting into the environment of the mansion.

[Heritage]

-It looks like the butler's on it.-

 

-I don't know why, but I don't like him; maybe your paranoia's rubbing off on me.-

 

-Ehhhhhhhxcellent!-

 

-I'm gonna keep an eye on him and the birthday girl, just in case.-

 

-How are you going to...the unicorn horn. You made it out of glamour. You really are devious sometimes.-

 

-Yep!-

 

Lynn sent her eyes and ears into the costume prop she made for Ms Ellie, switching back and forth between her own perceptions and her projected ones. It could be a little discombobulating at times, but it seemed like a good idea. Meanwhile, Bubbles approached the new arrival in the excellent shirt.

 

"Ms Sarah, I presume?" She indiacted her T-shirt with a nod. "You have good taste." Then she bowed at the waist like she was meeting a duchess. "Bubbles the clown, your humble servant."

Edited September 30, 2017 by Heritage

[olopi]

GM

 

Giles seemed to do his job. He’d walked up the stairs, and by the time Lynn first checked in on him, he was just opening the door to a bathroom. In the meantime, a few more of the girls had walked up to Whispers, looking at her, heads tilted slightly. They seemed to await something, as Bubbles had now moved away from entertaining them directly.

 

“Can you do other things than facepainting?”

 

Meanwhile, upstairs, nothing suspicious happened, as Giles treated the wound, disinfecting it and putting on a bandage. Ellie was still crying, whereas Giles didn’t really show any emotion whatsoever.

 

Meanwhile, Sarah looked at Bubbles, with a bit of a grin forming on her face. “So you’re the poor sods that were hired for this? I’m sorry for everything that happens today, Ellie’s … well, a bit difficult at times. “

 

“But thanks. Don’t get a lot of people who like ‘em around here.  “

[Heritage]

Brought back to reality by the curious party guests, Whispers made a show of shaking her head, as though to clear away imaginary cobwebs, and then nodded vigorously. She took a seat, folding her legs in such a way that she seemed to be sitting on an invisible chair, chin resting in her palm like a parody of Rodan's Thinker, fingers drumming on her cheek in deep thought. Suddenly her eyes brightened and she leaped into the air, arms and legs flung wide before she landed with a barrel roll next to her facepainting bag and pulled out a plastic bag filled with brightly-colored balloons. She fished out a nice long sky blue one, filled it very theatrically, and then twisted it into a graceful magic wand with a star on the end. She shrugged and held it out to the nearest child.

 

Meanwhile Bubbles continued to act in a very un-clownlike manner as she chatted with the birthday girl's older sister (?). "So you're into music? I was rocking out with the ukelele earlier. What do you play?"

Edited May 10, 2017 by Heritage

[olopi]

GM

 

Sarah looked a bit disappointed at that question, as he collected her thoughts for just a second. “Play? Nothing. Been wanting to start the drums for a long time, but I’m not allowed to. “Too loud” “too spacious” “too modern” “not sophisticated enough”, you get the drill. And the piano really isn’t my thing. So yeah, nothing. And listening’s another thing, relegated to just headphones. Plus, I gotta get my music first, and that’s easier said than done.”

 

 One of the girls grabbed the wand, and began to point it around. She shook it a bit, but looked a bit disappointed when she pointed it at one of her peers and the words “you are a frog now” didn’t have any effect. She looked at Whispers, a frown on her face. “I think it’s broken.”

[Heritage]

Gretchen nodded sagely. "Getting the parental units onboard is often a challenge."  She pulled a pack of gum out of her pocket, slid a stick out, then offered the pack to Sarah. "The trick is to find an instrument that you can both agree on, and to play the long game." She popped the stick in her mouth and chewed it thoughtfully for a while. "If percussion's your thing, that's a hard sell. No sane parent wants a drum kit in their house." Then she pulled out her phone and did a quick Google search. "Have you considered timpani? The kettledrums?" She handed the phone to the young girl to show her the Wikipedia entry. "It's percussion, but because it's orchestral, it gets more respect. You get to really wail on those things. Gets the blood pumping, work out a lot of aggression." She shrugged. "Just a suggestion."

 

Meanwhile, Whispers frowned and took back the wand she'd just made, tapped it on the palm of her hand a few times, and then blew on it like it was a microphone. Then she held it up to her eye and looked down its length, and then twisted it around a few times before straightening it out again. Finally she waved the wand around a few times before tapping herself on the head...which somehow caused a grinning frog mask to appear on her face! The mask covered her eyes entirely, which led to the wordless clown walking around in circles on wobbly legs as she waved her hands in front of herself, though Lynn's other senses were sharp enough that she suddenly veered away from any obstacles right before she walked right into them.

 

(Yes, she had conjured the mask, but she'd done her best to fudge its sudden appearance by waving her free hand around a lot, to give the impression there might have been some misdirection involved.)

Edited June 20, 2017 by Heritage

[olopi]

GM

 

“Oh, it’s not an issue of the instrument. Well, not the style of it, at least. I’ve tried. Everything from the piano to the bass guitar. Even the otamatone, yes. It’s not the fact it’s an instrument, it’s the “noise”. They don’t want any sound in the house. And there’s not much I can do there. I’ve even suggested soundproofing, but no.”

 

She looked, as one expects, fairly upset as she stated this, getting progressively louder, and starting to move her arms around just a bit. Then, she just took a long sip from her drink, while considering her next move.

 

Meanwhile, most of the girls continued to be somewhat amazed by Whispers’ continued feats of trickery. Most of them watched eagerly, some more bored, but all in all she seemed to be able to do her job just fine. As she was walking around, a few of the girls split off, one of them disappearing completely out of sight, the others walking around away from the group together. Something was off about it, even if she wasn’t sure what it was.

[Heritage]

-We may have a situation developing.-

 

-Oh?-

 

-Some non-typical preteen behavior; I'm gonna check it out. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for girls wandering off or otherwise acting suspicious. -

 

-Copy that.-

 

Lynn did her best to shift her perceptions from one girl to the other, using any of the glamoured items she'd given them as her eyes and ears; in the meantime, she did a number of humorous pratfalls as she tried to pry the mask off her face.

 

Not sure how to offer comfort to the musically inclined older sibling (Gretch never realized how lucky she was to have two adults in her life that encouraged her artistic expression), she blurted out what she hoped might be useful advice.  "You'll turn eighteen in a few years. Then your parents can't touch you. Until then, find a friend who likes music and jam at their house." The half-assed clown then abruptly turned and robotically marched off, hoping she'd somehow helped in her own curmudgeonly way.

 

 Too. Many. Kids.