Act 21-Frights, Friends, and Unintended Consequences

--- Joshua ---

Having crashed as soon as he’d gotten home, he found himself in an odd sort of mood when he woke up the next day.

On the one hand he’d successfully completed his goal for the night, earning eight hundred dollars in a single go after selling the car, and leaving him with almost a thousand dollars saved up. Far more money than he’d ever owned himself, and all without having been caught by either the police or the Dealers.

On the other however he’d also taken a step further into working for whatever shady organization was supplying him with Malice. Something he just knew would bite him in the ass one day. (Not that there’s really anything I can do about that at the moment…)

Figuring this moral quandary was not something he’d be getting an answer to just yet, he instead forced himself out of his bed and into his living room where he found his brother frowning at a news report half way through cooking breakfast.

“Everything alright?” He couldn’t help but ask.

“It’s not something you need to worry about.” His brother sighed, turning the TV off before he could get a good look at it.

“You sure, because you seem pretty worried about it.”

Chris thinned his lips before shaking his head. “Just more trouble in the city is all. Apparently, the gangs decided to go on something of a rampage last night, tearing up several streets.”

(Oh…)

“Huh, they know who it was?” He asked, despite knowing the answer already.

“No, just that there was a high speed chase, a lot of gunfire, and even more property damage.” His brother answered with a shrug.

“Well, at least no one was hurt, right?” (As long as no one was hurt there’s nothing anyone can really complain about, since all of that’s just par for the course in this city.)

Chris grimaced. “There was someone hit by one of the stray bullets but they’re going to live so that’s… whatever that is…”

“Yeah…” He swallowed, wondering just “who was caught in the crossfire?”

Chris blinked before giving him another shrug. “Uh, don’t really know, just some guy out for a walk too late in the night.”

“Yeah, uh, you really shouldn’t be out late in this kind of city…” He agreed, just a little numbly.

“No you shouldn’t.” His brother nodded before going back to making breakfast.

---

Running a hand through his hair, and deciding he needed something to distract himself he remembered a number he’d gotten a few days prior and pulled his phone out before dialing it.

“Yo, who dis?” A feminine voice answered after a few rings.

“Uh, my name’s uh, actually I’m looking for the GM?” He answered with a grimace as he realized he probably shouldn’t give his name until he knew exactly who he was dealing with.

“And you’ve got her.” The GM acknowledged in a patronizing tone.

“Oh, uh, this is Josh.”

“Josh who?”

He couldn’t help but frown at that. (Could’ve sworn I told her my name…) “Uh, the, um, Wonderlander from the other day.”

“Oh, the Cartoon Kid!” The GM laughed.

“Um, I’m not a kid…” He felt -no- needed to point out. “Or at the very least you don’t sound that much older than me anyway.”

“Yeah, no, I was taking a shot at what kind of title you’re going to get when you make it big.” The GM explained. “And given how you’ve got cartoon powers and some ‘bad guy’ energy going, I figure ‘The Cartoon Kid’ was a good working title for you.”

“Oh.” He paused, before legitimately considering it. “The Cartoon Kid… Meh, I’m not really feeling it. Makes me sound like a villain from an old western.”

“Point…” His fellow Wonderlander conceded. “Still, Titles are important if you’re going to be in the Mask game so you’re going to need something that really gives off a ‘Boss Battle’ vibe, you know what I mean?”

“Yeah, it needs to be something that stands as a Memorable Monster Moniker.” He agreed wholeheartedly, the idea of a (stage name) igniting something within him. “Something that when heard offers an immediate Vision of a Villainous Visage!”

“Ah, but it’s not just the title that makes a boss memorable.” The GM reminded him, getting into it almost as much as he was. “It’s their name, their fighting style, their story, music and everything coming together in a fight for the ages!”

“Ooh, yeah, I definitely need my own theme music!”

Scene Consequences

-Grown a bit closer to the GM.

-Josh has established a line of communication with his fellow Wonderlander, The GM of the Gamers’ Guild.

--In addition to standard socials, you can now write in questions to ask the GM about the local Mask scene and being a Wonderlander/Madness User in general. (Note: She will not offer any information that might harm the Gamers’ Guild.)

---

“Okay, and you’re sure this is how we funnel a unit of Madness into Doodle?” He double checked as Avery flitted about behind the bar.

“Well, um, there are a couple of other ways, but, uh, given what we’re working with…” The Cabaret manager shrugged, before setting a mug full of an ominously bubbling purple liquid on the counter. (Maybe feeding him a Frightening Madness first isn’t the best idea…)

“Alright, but uh, how is he supposed to drink it?” He felt the need to ask as gesturing between the glass on the counter and the doodle on the wall.

“Oh…” Avery frowned for a minute before snapping his fingers. “You got a pen?”

He blinked, before checking his pockets and pulling out an already toonified pen.

“Thanks.” The cabaret manager nodded accepting the pen as he tried to figure out, (Why the fuck did I have a random pen in my pocket?)

Avery proceeded to take the pen and draw another mug on the wall, at which point he picked up the bubbling liquid and proceeded to pour it into the cup on the wall. (Da fuq?)

“And there you go.” Avery nodded with a smile. “Bottoms up!”

Doodle saluted the cabaret manager before grabbing the mug by its handle and downing it in a single go.

The 2D dream licked his lips and sat there for a moment.

Then his eye twitched.

His whole head twitched next.

Then his entire body began to spasm as his face twisted and he began to spin in place, before finally seizing and collapsing onto his back.

He and Avery were both quiet for a moment.

That moment steadily grew longer.

He swallowed. “Uh, did we just kill Doo-” The doodle on the wall exploded in size becoming ten times larger with a fierce visage upon his face. “Sweet mother of fuck!” He cursed falling out of his chair as Avery screeched before leaping to the other side of the cabaret.

Picking himself off the ground he stared at Doodle sitting on the wall and looking no bigger than before as he stared back with an innocent expression and a halo over his head.

He swallowed again before a smile slowly worked its way onto his face. “Can you do that again?”

Doodle’s expression became noticeably less innocent as he grew a set of devil horns and popped his halo.

Scene Consequences

-Gained 1XP to Ink Doodles.

--Currently: Lv. 1 (2/4).

-New Doodle Power: Jump Scare (Cost 1 Ink)- Doodle performs a Jump Scare on an unaware enemy, inflicting [Intimidated] on them.

-New Skill: Scare Tactics- Determines the user’s ability to inflict Fear based debuffs through either their immediate actions or preset environment.

---

“This is getting ridiculous…” He couldn’t help but groan to himself as he felt his instincts screaming at him to (run for fucking life already!) as he walked past Jon Whitaker once more.

At first it had just been odd, but after the dozenth or so time of walking past him or seeing him with his mom at the crossing, it went from odd to (annoying as fuck.)

What’s more he still couldn’t tell why his instincts were screaming at him like this given how Jon was literally the nicest guy he knew. (Annoyingly so even! I mean he taught the guy who pulled a knife on him how to actually use a knife!)

He paused to consider that.

(Alright, maybe he’s a little dangerous, but still a nice guy.)

Shaking his head at that thought, he decided to take a detour from his actual route and instead follow the other teen for a bit, in the hopes of either desensitizing himself to whatever was going on here or finding out why his instincts were screaming at him.

(Bad idea. Bad idea! Bad fucking idea!)

Well, he’d been ignoring the little voice in his head telling him that he’d had a bad idea for weeks, so he saw no reason to start listening to it now.

Figuring that following from the rooftops would be a safer bet at avoiding detection he turned down an alley before climbing up a nearby fire escape and making his way to the roof. Where he then proceeded to Toonify himself and catch up to Jon by leaping across the rooftops using his enhanced acrobatics and parkour skills.

After a few minutes of this he noticed the other teen pause in front of an alleyway before seemingly sighing and turning down it.

Curious as to what was going on -and pointedly ignoring the voice begging him to (Please just drop this!)- he leapt to another rooftop to get a better view before peering into the alley below, where he found Jon slamming a man’s skull against the brick wall. (Wait what?)

Another man rushed Jon with a punch that the other teen easily side stepped before (stomping the man’s fucking kneecap in) and earning a scream that was swiftly muted by a backhand.

Jon tilted his head before turning to a third man and slowly making his way towards him.

The man pulled a gun out and aimed it at Jon only to have the teen blur forward, rip the gun from his grip, and then proceed to beat the man with it as his victim slowly sunk to the ground.

Dropping the gun, Jon rolled his shoulders before cracking his neck at which point the teen tilted his head back and looked him dead in the eye. Which is when he decided that it was much better for his health if he was anywhere else but here as he promptly turned around and ran from quite possibly the scariest teen he’d ever seen. (Including the one that had caved his skull in.)

All the while making a mental note to trust his instincts whenever they warned him about something dangerous. Well that and to stay the fuck away from Jon Whitaker of course.

Scene Consequences

-Power Revealed: Dangerous Detection Lv. 1 (0/4)- Allows the early detection of threats in the immediate vicinity, the higher an enemy’s threat level the lower the skill check for this ability to trigger.