Act 15: Doodling, Challenges

--- Joshua ---

Given how the main threat of targeting the Jewelry store was found in the junior heroes that frequented the mall of said store, he decided to spend his Saturday morning going over the mall’s various ads, as well as the Heroes’ Guild’s PR schedule in the hopes of figuring out what time would let him side-step the heroes’ attention. (Or that was the plan at least…)

He couldn’t help but grimace as he came to the conclusion that outside of school hours -(Which I can’t take advantage of without getting Chris on my case.)- there was always at least one junior hero at the mall. With said heroes switching out every four or so hours, on the weekend meaning if he went at the wrong time he could be picking a fight with two of the junior heroes at once.

(Unless I hit the place at night… though I’m not sure if I can run to the store and back before the alarms draw attention to the Mall…) Meaning as counterintuitive as it was he’d have to hit the Mall during the day when there was a Junior Hero present. (Or risk Chris’s wrath by cutting school.)

As his brother used to do that himself, he was under no delusions about Chris letting him off the hook on that one. (Which would just make everything else harder for the next month or so…)

Thinking things over he saved the PR schedule, figuring at the very least if he did decide to hit the mall it would tell him which of the city’s five junior heroes he had to deal with.

(Speaking of, I should probably look into them and the real heroes at some point. Especially if I’m going to be running into them any time soon.) He knew a bit about them, but since none of them were Madness users he didn’t actually have much about them other than their names and the obvious bits of their powers.

He was about to start looking into that when a knock on his door drew his attention as Chris checked to see if he was awake or not.

“Ah, good you’re up already.” His brother nodded. “That means you can help me and Maddie with the weekend rush.”

Scene Consequences

-New information available on Jewelry store Job.

---

“You know I’d expect them to take their families to an actual restaurant on the weekends.” He couldn’t help but admit as he grabbed a plate from Chris. “I mean this is a bar.”

“Yeah, well, people like drinking and since they’re friends with everyone else who comes here.” His brother shrugged. “Might as well invite the wife and kids I guess.”

“Still, surprised you can keep up with this many orders by yourself.” He digressed watching Chris move between a handful of grills and fryers with extreme efficiency.

“What can I say I’m just cool like that.” Chris smirked at his old pun, before shaking his head. “There’s only so many food items and most of the people are regulars so I already know most of what I’ve got to cook for the morning rush. Just need to keep it warm until the food is actually ordered.”

“Makes sense.” He shrugged taking a second plate of the pancakes and eggs that made up half of their breakfast menu. “Still there’s probably another four or five orders out there.”

“Eight if all the regulars are here.” His brother corrected.

Scene Consequences

-Gained (6d6 = 20) Dollars.

---

As the rush finally died down he found himself sitting down at the bar next to Maddie as Chris began to clean everything off for the two or three hours they had before their afternoon to night rush began.

“Not this shit again.” Chris groaned, drawing his attention.

“What’s up?” He blinked, before following his brother’s gaze to the bar television where a commercial featuring a red-headed woman was running.

“Hello and welcome all you gamer boys and girls!” The woman greeted with a mad grin. “It’s time of the year again, as we of the leet Gamer’s Guild bring you our famous Halloween Dungeon!”

(Huh, almost forgot they do that.) Despite it being one of the city’s biggest events in recent years, he’d never actually tried his hand at the dungeon. Half-because he had a brother with super powers and half-because of said brother’s over protective tendencies.

(Maybe I should give it a go this year?) He knew a number of Deviants came to the city each year to give it a go, so he doubted he’d stand out too much. (Could be a good rehearsal for my big debut.)

“Come on, you could do to get out of the bar for a bit.” Maddie teased his brother as he tuned into their conversation.

“Maybe, but I’m not running into a Wonderlander’s idea of a funhouse.” Chris argued with a frown. “Honestly, that thing just brings in problems every year.”

“You didn’t think that the first couple times we ran that place.” Maddie pointed out.

(Ah, she’s trying to talk him into going to the dungeon.)

“You’re right, but that’s because I didn’t notice the crime spiking each year until after the fact.” Chris admitted dryly.

“Oh, well… That’s a point.” Maddie sighed, clearly disappointed.

“The dungeon causes crime to spike?” He asked, cutting into their conversation.

Chris blinked as if just remembering he was here. “Uh, yeah, with all the tourists coming to town it makes everything harder to keep a lid on. But, uh, that’s not something you need to worry about.”

“I guess…” (Though it might be something I can take advantage of.) He figured, turning back to the the TV.

“-come on down to play. We guarantee one insanely good time!”

Scene Consequences

-Gamer’s Guild Dungeon is now available until Act 30.

---

Sitting alone in his room, he decided to focus on his Ink Drawings, feeling like he was on the verge of a breakthrough if he could just reach out a little further, be a little more creative, (or barring that take a vial of phlebotinum.)

He shivered as the Malice hit his system and music began to play in his head with an odd sort of clarity he couldn’t help but hum along to as he picked up his toonified pen and began sketching on a sheet of paper. An act that quickly resulted in an image of the Cartoon Cabaret that could pass for a black and white photo of the Wonderland.

“And this is where we were yesterday…” He mumbled to himself, contemplating just what it was he’d spent so much time working towards over these last couple of weeks.

Something tugged on the edge of his consciousness as his mind began to drift, his pen doodling out a little cartoon figure in a little black suit. “Hmm, was half expecting to draw Avery…”

The doodle shrugged.

He froze.

The doodle stared at him.

He swallowed.

“H-hello?”

The doodle waved excitedly.

“Okay, um…” He swallowed once more, because (this is big.)

Setting his pen down for a moment, he couldn’t help but watch in fascination as the little doodle frowned at the pen seemingly too close to its personal space before shoving it away and sending the pen rolling across his desk.

“Oh, this is really big…”

The doodle gained a smug look, before the ink empowering it seemed to finally dry leaving the doodle set into the page.

With shaking hands he proceeded to pick up the pen and draw the little doodle a second time, his hands seeming to instinctively want to recreate the same figure.

Peripherally he noticed his original doodle seemed to fade from the page as his second came to life before drawing a laugh out of him as it gave him a ‘how do you do?’ kind of bow.

“Now this is an act worth staging.”

Scene Consequences

-For using Malice Vials 3 turns in a row 1 Malicious Madness sent to the Cartoon Cabaret.

-New Unlocked Power: Ink Drawing at Lv. 1 (0/4)

--Spend 1 Focus to create an Ink Drawing that can move a short distance from it’s drawing place, interact with overlapping objects, and that Josh can see through the eyes of.

---Ink cost varies on drawing complexity and duration.

---Max connection distance is based on: P. Lv. + Ink Tags Lv.

---Max move distance is based on: P. Lv. + Creeping Ink Lv.

---Max interaction strength is based on: P. Lv. + ???