Storyteller / Shared NPC
Well, at least the man agreed nothing illegal or past bedtime. Still left a lot of wiggle room though but Wyatt figured that might be the only deal they were going to be offered.
"Considering how late it is, I think for now you two best be off for home before Addy finds that you're gone, and so we should conclude our business."
Wyatt nodded, "Sure, g'nite, sir." A get away suited him just fine.
He stepped closer to the two boys, "The deal is that you two will owe me a favour or two in return for me forgetting that you didn't pay for your tickets and my silence in relation to this little trip to the theatre. When the time comes, I will let you know exactly what I want you to do. After you do what I ask we will call it even."
Favor or two, huh? Well, how bad could it be? Wyatt nodded yet again in compliance.
Holding out his hand, the man continued, "Do we have a deal?"
Wyatt glanced at Weedy but couldn't come up with anything to say on the matter, least not in front of this authority figure. Then he stuck out his hand and shook the man's, "Yes sir, deal."
"Deal!" Weedy agreed after his friend. After all, if Mr. Simons demanded something unreasonable, he could always back out, right? And maybe the tasks would actually be something exciting? Or at least interesting, which wasn't much of a goal for Weedy, what with all the manure shoveling and harness polishing he did for Addy.
He glanced at Wyatt and shrugged, then looked back at Mr. Simons. "I have my horse, if you need us to make deliveries or something. And Wyatt really likes to sweep!"
Joking, of course, and he gave his friend a big grin.
Brendan retreated back to the door with Caroline as they prepared to make their exit so that Miriam and Arabella could leave and opened the door for Caroline, holding out his arm and chuckling at Caroline's parting barb to Arabella. As the door closed behind them and they headed out of the theater into the night, he shook his head. "If that girl don't beat all. Wonder if she ever dreams about bein' strangled. Once I had a dream Granny Miggins finally got everyone riled up enough to come after me and I woke up in a sweat right about the time I should've been dyin'."
"Honestly, I would not to know about all her dreams. Some of them might be quite.........well something," Caroline rolled her eyes," And if you dreamed about Granny, that's not a dream, that's a nightmare."
He exhaled to try to blow the memory away and looked down at Caroline. "There I go, gettin' all dark like Arabella. Let's talk about somethin' else."
"Yeah good idea. Wanna just go back over to the saloon, I don't have to work tonight so we could just sit at a table like customers and have a few drinks n' just talk. Arabella cannot be one of the subjects then."
Soon they were back on Main Street's boardwalk. Almost all the theatre goers had dispersed by now.
"Work is fine for killin' time, but it's a shaky way to make a living."
Ben smiled, "All right boys, we have a deal. Now you best be off home before Miss Addy finds out you're gone."
He was about to walk away when he thought of something, "Oh...by the way if anybody asks where you were tonight, I'll deny everything. If you're smart, which I think both of you are since you managed get into the theatre without being seen, if anybody from the theatre company says they saw you, just tell them that it was no big deal and get away as fast as you can or you might end up working for them instead of me. The last you want to be seen doing is waiting hand and foot on the likes of...Miss Arabella Mudd for instance."
The last remark was mainly to the put some sort of fear or at least a bit wariness into the boys. He wasn't sure if any of the actors in the theatre company had seen the two boys up in the rafters. It was most likely they hadn't but just in case, he wanted to make sure that boys were aware of the consequences and being one of Arabella Mudd's "slaves" was the best example that he could come up with at short notice.
@ [Bongo] @ [Wayfarer
"Yes, sir!" Weedy nodded enthusiastically, eager to be away from this all and back in the safety of Addy's barn. While the rewards of their transgressions had been more than they'd expected, Weedy vowed to himself that he'd never misbehave again! He didn't like the way it felt, and the threat of catering to Arabeller? Heck, no!
"C'mon!" He nudged his partner in crime, then high-tailed it back to the barn!
Brendan grinned at Caroline's suggestion. "You an' me sit in the Stardust like normal people? I like it. As long as you're not sippin' that fake stuff you normally have Ralph serve you. You know what? Drinks are on me." He gestured grandly, then cut his eyes sideways at Caroline.
Suddenly for some reason he was a little nervous. He and Caroline had gone to the theater together like they were a real couple. Would Caroline think this had been a step too far in their relationship? He didn't see any reason it should be, and imagined that she would have gone to the theater with Lieutenant Greene if he'd asked Caroline. But women were funny sometimes.
"Not that drinks wouldn't've been on me anyway. You know, me bein' a gentleman and all." He laughed a little bit, trying to cover his nervousness. "But since you're not workin', they're on me so we can both have as many drinks as we want."
OOC: We can end here or play out their evening, up to you. Or even have them pop over to a different thread if we don't want to clutter this one up.
OOC: Yes, that is probably a good idea, the theatre thread needs to start ending pretty soon, it's done it's job.
When I post next I will make a brand new thread.
"Everybody can feather their nest, but it's not just anybody that can lay an egg!"
Arabella and Miriam dropped Frances off at her little apartment above the general store, which she had returned to after her recovery from the stabbing at the women's refuge. Then the actress, still flushed from her (perceived) success on the stage tonight, dropped her special friend off at the Kaufmann home (after a surreptitious snog around the side of the house) and the Mudd girl started to walk back toward the hotel where all the actors had lodged, when not on tour, over the past few months.
The street here was empty, deserted.
It reminded her of something... yes, the theatre after hours, when the limelight was extinguished and the hollow auditorium echoed at every footstep on the hard floor boards. It was that eerie emptiness which, like a vacuum, seems to pull in something other from outside the normal realm of reality.
She stopped and looked around the empty street.
"Hello? Mister Strangler? Are you there?"
She waited a second in the silence... and then carried on walking.
"Guess my neck's too scrawny to be worth bothering about!" she reasoned out loud "Or you're an admirer of my acting. Couldn't blame you there." she giggled.
She stopped and turned again, surveying the empty street and the dead faces of the closed up houses that looked out onto it.
She sniffed the air.
What was that smell?
It'd come to her.
"Well, night Mister Strangler. Mebe see you tomorrow night." she chirped out loud to anybody who might be lurking in the shadows between the houses.
And with that, she happily walked back to the hotel.
@[Nobody]
OOC: Unless someone objects, think this thread has basically run it's course. I will send it to Archives if no one posts here in the next few days.