Act 20: Coats, Arms, and Hideouts

--- Joshua ---

“Your savior is here.” He called stepping onto the main floor of the Cartoon Cabaret and striking a pose to show off his entrance as he accepted the accolades of his Dreams for bringing back so much Madness in a single outing to the land of the waking.

A tumble weed rolled past him as he realized the Cabaret was empty.

“Where’s Avery and Doodle?” He frowned, before scowling at the tumbleweed caught on a table chair. “And who spent Madness on a tumbleweed when we’re barely keeping the lights on?!”

The tumbleweed hopped off the chair before rolling out of sight, his glare following it the entire way.

Shaking his head, he gave the cabaret another once over. “Seriously though where are those two, my fragile ego demands validation!”

A faint scream from the cabaret stage reminded him that he’d added another room to the cabaret a few days prior. (Feels like it’s been months longer than that.)

Making his way to the dressing room, he opened the door to find Avery fighting to keep a wardrobe closet closed as Doodle watched on with a frightened expression.

“Uh, what’s going on?”

“Oh, uh, h-hey b-boss!” Avery greeted nervously, still struggling to keep the wardrobe closed as it seemed to shake in place.

“Uh, I’ll repeat: What’s going on?” He asked cautiously.

Doodle made several exaggerated gestures on the wall seeming to depict a monster and a fight of some kind.

“Oh, come on it’s not, it’s not that bad.” Avery lied.

Whatever was in the wardrobe seemed to disagree as it gave a particularly violent attempt at escape sending the Cabaret manager stumbling forward a step before he leapt back slamming the wardrobe shut with his back and giving Joshua a nervous grin.

“Yeah… what’s in the closet exactly?”

“Um, j-just some clothes.” Avery stuttered, still struggling.

“Then you won’t mind stepping aside and letting me see what’s in it?” He pressed, causing the closet to quit struggling against the cabaret manager.

Avery gave the wardrobe a wary look. “I’m uh, I’m not sure that’s a good um, a good idea boss…”

“And I’m sure you’re just exaggerating.” He argued, shooing the dream out of the way. “Besides I’ve got this new thing I need to find so I can show it off and then you can- gah!”

Something tackled him from within the wardrobe sending him flying half way across the dressing room as it creeped and crawled all over his body.

“Boss!” Avery cried, rushing over and pulling at the thing crawling all over him. “Get off of him you mangy, moth bitten, dish towel!”

The thing seemed to hiss at the manager before settling down and wrapping itself around him.

He blinked, sitting there while wondering (what just happened?)

“Oh, Boss, is it hurting you? Are you okay? Do you want me to get some scissors so we can cut it off of you?” Avery asked, fretting all over him.

Ignoring the panicking cabaret manager for a moment, he glanced down and saw that he was now wearing the Ravenous Tailcoat the GM had gifted him. “Huh, was wondering where this got off to.”

Avery grimaced. “You uh, you know what that… thing is Boss?”

“Yeah, it’s a gift from a friend, though it is a bit more lively than the last time I saw it.” He admitted, climbing back onto his feet. “So, what do you think?”

“If that’s a gift from your friends I don’t want to know what your enemies get you.” Avery muttered, still eyeing the coat warily. “But uh, I do like the gloves though. They match mine!”

Scene Consequences

-Can now upgrade Ravenous Tailcoat and Classic Toon Gloves by feeding them Madness. (Upgrades are based on Madness used.)

---

He knew he was cutting it close with his deadline, but at the same time he felt like he could squeeze in just a bit more training to make sure he was ready for whatever he came across before his heist. And so with that in mind, some part of him had had the brilliant idea to try and put all of his enhanced strength into a single limb and see if that helped him at all.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

His smarter part had argued that, (strength is a full bodied thing you can’t just focus all of it into a single limb, because the base amount is the same either way, at best I might pull something by pushing it the wrong way.)

His more… cartoonish part however pointed out that, (our power is Madness and you’re a cartoon. Tie a cinder block to that logic’s legs and throw it off a dock, because we can pull off any show we put our mind to.)

Figuring there was no harm in trying, -(especially since my healing factor can fix any damage)- he decided to give his idea a try.

Which is why he was currently standing in the middle of one of his usual training spots while slowly tensing his various muscles one by one trying to get just a little more control over them.

(Alright, I think I’ve got it.) Nodding to himself, he raised both of his hands into a boxer stance before punching the side of a metal dumpster in a series of blows that left a few small dents but no major damage.

Frowning he took a step back before focusing on the muscles going into his punches and delivering his strongest punch yet.

The groaning of metal could be heard echoing throughout the alley as the dumpster’s metal gave out beneath his immense strength.

Sadly he did not hear this because all he heard was the snapping of his arm echoing throughout his head as it gave out beneath his immense strength.

“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck!!!”

Scene Consequences

-New Potential Power Upgrade Discovered. (Requires Perk Point or Lv. 5 Enhanced Strength and special training to unlock.)

--Critical Impact (1 Stamina): Cause D6 damage to self, but double Strength value of next Unarmed attack or skill. (Can be upgraded.)

-Gained 1XP to Toon Enhanced Strength.

--Skill Level Up: Toon Enhanced Strength Lv. 2 (0/6).

---

Collapsing on his bed he couldn’t help but run groan into his hands in a mix of frustration and anxiety.

Since he was doing some last minute prep before his heist he’d decided that it’d be a good idea to try and find some places to hide after said heist, whether that be to stash his stolen goods or to give him a moment to switch from Toon to Reality.

Admittedly this meant he’d spent the last few hours retracing his steps from the day prior as he tried to spot anything new along his handful of escape routes, but having gone over the routes pretty thoroughly the day before most of what he’d found were ideas rather than actually good hiding spots.

The first of said ideas was a follow up to his sewer escape plan, with him taking advantage of the city’s maze-like pipeworks to hide from any gangsters desperate enough to follow him into the abyss. The obvious problem with this plan was (I really don’t want to spend who knows how long in the sewers.) He doubted anyone did.

His second idea was less a single point of interest and more the idea of hiding out on one of the rooftop patios for the various apartment buildings between the gang house and the Saint’s Crossing.

On the surface this was pretty much a matter of hiding in plain sight, with his transformation offering him anonymity and the patios offering him a reason to be there that wouldn’t immediately make him stand out. The problem with this idea though was that it didn’t give him much to work with as far as stashing the goods once he got them.

Not to say he couldn’t hide them on the rooftops for a couple of hours if he had to, just that there was a fair chance of them being found by the apartment dwellers unless he broke the door to said patio, which might just draw attention to it instead if he was unlucky. (And when have I ever been lucky? I mean really, my big break has me stuck as a lab rat for some shady organization that I can’t even name.)

Running from there, his best and final idea was to find an abandoned building somewhere and hope that there weren’t any homeless trying to turn it into shelter for the night. If this worked out then there were decent odds that he could lose anyone following him pretty quickly, as well as possibly getting a hide out for any future capers he might run.

Of course there were two reasons why he was reluctant to follow through with this plan of action, the foremost being that most of the abandoned buildings he could think to look for were on the other side of the crossing in comparison to the gang house. Meaning that if he wanted to hide and stash everything he’d probably have to travel twice as far while carrying his ill gotten gains. Something he wasn’t sure he wanted to risk.

The second reason why he didn’t want to try finding a hideout just yet was because he knew that the Malice Doctor and associates were going to be watching him through his heist, meaning if he found someplace to hide out and used it then they would know about it too. (Which would defeat the point of having a hideout.)

Running his hands down his face as he looked up to stare at the spinning ceiling fan above him. (It might just be best to go with my default option of hiding out here at the crossing, after all the Malice Doctor already knows where I live, and the Crossing should have enough of a reputation as a cop bar to keep people from looking too closely at it.)

(I don’t really like bringing any heat on the crossing, but at the same time it should be far enough from the gang house for me to ditch anyone following me. And since Chris usually respects my privacy I don’t really have to worry about him or Mads finding anything I stash there as long as it isn’t too obvious.)

A chiming from his pocket broke him out of his musings and despite knowing what it was, he still pulled his phone out of his pocket to stare at the final alarm telling him to get ready for his big heist.

Sitting up he couldn’t help but sigh to himself.

“Guess this means no more stalling, huh?”

Scene Consequences

-Due to synergy gained 2XP to Street Smarts and Slyness.

--Currently: Slyness Lv. 2 (3/6)

--Skill Ranked Up: Street Smarts Lv. 4 (0/8)

For ranking up a skill please Select a New Perk/Upgrade.

[]- Street Kid (I)- Slightly increases all Rep gains with people featuring a [Street] background and/or profession.

[X]- Mental Conditioning (I)- Increase Max Focus and Mental Health by a small amount.