Act 14: Investigations, Roof Running, and Toon Drawing

--- Josh ---

“Well at least they weren’t completely stingy with the information this time.” He sighed, going over the file once more as he glanced at the final target the Malice Doctor had given him.

His final target was a two story house being used by the (uncreatively named) Dealers, a gang mostly consisting of drug dealers who pushed their product across the southside of Santa Rosa.

The notable thing however was the fact that this was also the same gang that the police had been celebrating a big bust over a few days prior. (Meaning if I’m lucky, they're on their back leg and trying to keep their heads down.)

The house itself was a common enough design for the area, that he was pretty sure he could just look up a floor plan on a retailer site if he chose this one as his target. And having spent a fair portion of the afternoon watching the house he felt safe saying that there was neither much in the way of foot traffic nor actual inhabitants in the house save a handful of gangsters who probably lived there.

(Which gives credence to the whole laying low theory, and probably means that there’s less security than the Doc assumed when assigning this place… Unless they’ve bunkered down and there are actually more people than was originally expected.)

Making his way towards the nearest bus stop, he began flipping through a few news reports and forums on his phone. Checking to see if there was any Deviant activity connected to the gang, because even if they weren’t a Deviant gang, no gang would pass on recruiting a Deviant if they were able.

As a bus pulled up he found something about a possible M.A.D. making drugs for them, but there was no confirmation about the Deviant in question and whoever they were wasn’t active enough to be a Mask either. (Meaning that while they’re definitely something to watch out for, they probably aren’t enough of a threat for the gang to use as muscle, and would probably have more security than this house.)

Nodding at this he continued researching the gang for the rest of his trip, going through a number of forums fanboying over local Masks and eventually stumbling upon a rumor about a Traveler working freelance security for the southside gangs, though he was unable to find anything else about the rumored Deviant than whatever he was being both big and definitely not human.

(Ugh, well if he’s stuck off world I can’t really blame him for playing mercenary for the gangs. Especially since I’m kind of doing the same myself.) (At least until we can fund our own show anyway…)

Shaking his head, he dismissed the rumored Traveler as a threat, figuring that if they really were alternating between the gangs then odds of them crossing paths were low, especially at a location with little value beyond being a crash pad for the gang. (Meaning that the Dealers crashing there should be the only ones I have to actually worry about.)

They were dangerous, yes, but (they’re still more predictable than an unknown Deviant.)

Scene Consequences

-New information available about Gang Safehouse.

---

Getting out of school the next day, he started making his way towards the Saint’s Crossing. Only instead of simply walking or taking the bus like usual, he decided to try taking a more scenic route via using a fire escape to climb onto the roof of a nearby building.

“Alright, this is a Mask necessity.” He told himself, eyeing the roof ledge as he paced back and forth a bit. “And besides you’ve done this before with Zylah… even though she spent more time laughing as our broken legs healed than actually helping us learn how to roof run…”

He slapped his cheeks. “No, don’t think like that.”

Forcing himself to turn back to the roof ledge, he took a deep breath before telling himself, “Ten percent luck, twenty percent skill, and eighty percent power of will.”

Nodding once he took off towards the roof’s ledge and kicked off as he leapt towards the next roof, or rather he tripped over the roof’s ledge and fell towards the next building.

“Gah!” He gasped as he painfully hit the wall, before his reflexes kicked in and he latched onto the nearby window frames preventing him from falling the other four stories to the ground. “Fuck, that was close…”

Taking a minute to regain his balance, he began climbing towards the ground, both disappointed that he’d failed his jump and grateful he’d managed to catch himself. “Yeah, I’m going to need a lot more practice before I ever try this again.”

Scene Consequences

-Gained 1XP to Enhanced Acrobatics

--Currently: Lv. 1 (1/4)

---

Sitting at his desk and pondering the nature of his powers, he stared at a number of drawings he’d previously made.

(Okay, so when I draw with my Ink I get a sort of instinctive connection to the Cabaret, meaning that there’s probably a Wonderlander power there that I’m not quite grasping…) Leaning back in his seat he stared at the ceiling while keeping balance with his foot on his desk. (And given how it’s not a power requiring me to build something in Cabaret it’s probably the first step to drawing-) “Heh.” (-something out of the Wonderland.)

Normally that would make him excited, if not for the fact that despite the clear connection he was having a bit of trouble piecing together the best way to continue with training this power.

Twirling a pen in his hands, his eyes slowly drifted towards his stash of Malice.

Sighing to himself, he righted he wheeled his chair over and pulled the bag out from between his bed and his nightstand. “Guess this is the best way forward when I don’t know which way I’m going.”

Pulling out two vials of Malice he undid their tops before downing the strawberry copper and shivering as his heart rate spiked and the theme song of his powers began to play in the back of his head.

“Alright, let’s give this another try.” He told himself, lacing his fingers together and stretching them out.

Picking up his pen, he paused as an idea occurred to him and his eyes drifted to the ink carrying object. “Huh, I wonder…”

Building a bit of Ink in his hands, he coated the pen and twisted his powers a bit as he Toonified it.

Looking the pen over he found that not only was it black and white like all of his previous toonifications, but it was also notably bigger than it had been prior to said transformation. “Interesting.”

Twirling the pen across his fingers he couldn’t help but smile as he put the pen to paper, and began drawing.

Immediately he could feel a connection snap into existence between both him and the pen’s Ink as it touched the paper, almost as if it was his own Ink being put down rather than whatever Ink had been inside of the pen.

In fact as he continued to draw, he began to feel a faint draw on his own internal Ink Well. “Meaning, you’re using my Ink to draw with.” He told the toonified pen, giving it a considering look. “Wonder what else you’re doing with it?”

Deciding to find out he put the toonified pen back to the page and continued to draw for as long as the pen remained toonified, taking note of the fact that there was a considerable improvement to his drawing skills with the pen that he was sure had nothing to do with the Malice coursing through his veins.

“Oh, yes… You’re definitely going to earn your keep.” He smiled at the pen as he toonified it once more, finding he preferred its cartoon appearance to its more (boring reality.)

Scene Consequences

-Gained 1XP to Toonification and 1 unit of progress towards Ink Drawings.

--Due to experiment overlap gained 1 additional XP to Toonification and 1 additional unit of progress towards Ink Drawings.

--For using Malice Vials gained (Malicious D6 =) 5XP to Toonification and 1 additional unit of progress towards Ink Drawings.

---Ink Drawings progress (8/10)

---*Power Rank Up* Toonification Lv. 4 (1/10)

-Toon Pens added to Inventory

--Toonified Pens increase the power of [Drawing] based skills and powers by their Toonification level, but double the cost of these powers in exchange. (Skills Cost 1 Ink per Toonification Rank instead.)