Act 24: Training and Advice

--- Joshua ---

Sitting in a meditative pose, he forced himself to focus as he tried to draw on his Toon Time without actually using it. An exercise he hoped would help him develop a greater control for whatever mental muscle allowed him to use his powers.

A few moments prior, he’d tried doing the same with his Madness Field figuring that even if he had a more instinctive grasp of it, it still required something resembling focus to use. At which point he learned that his field was less a power of will and focus, and more a matter of building up Madness and letting it loose on the world in a general direction.

Not something that actually helped him all that much with developing the power, but it did provide a certain insight into his powers in general. Especially when he compared that result with a couple of his other active powers, slowly working away at whatever ‘mental switches’ controlled his various powers in an attempt to maintain a general sort of focus with all of it.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t something he could exactly test without pushing it against something and hoping it worked.

The rusty squeaking of a wheel alerted him.

(And there’s my test.) He thought, uncrossing his legs and hopping to his feet. “Was wondering how long you were going to take.”

“There are a few things I have to work around, but it’s whatever.” Zylah shrugged walking into the warehouse. “Still, you ready to do this?”

“As ready as I can be.” He nodded, stretching his arms out.

“You said you wanted to practice your fighting, right?” The shadow dancer asked, double checking their purpose here.

He considered it for a moment, before admitting, “Sort of. I’ve got this new power I figured out, and I’m trying to figure out how to use it.”

“Oh, and what power is that?” Zylah inquired curiously.

“It’s a sort of enhanced reflexes thing.” He half-lied, figuring it was close enough to the truth that he could pass it off if he had to, while still generic enough that no one would give his Toon Time a second look. (What’s more that kind of is what my enhanced acrobatics are… Though, now that I think about it, why does that power only work when I’m in the air?)

“Reflexes are a common enough thing.” Zylah told him, interrupting his thoughts. “Are you just trying to get used to having them in a fight or what?”

“It seems to be a bit, uh, conditional.” He answered a little unsurely.

“On what?”

“Uh, that’s the point of the training.” He grimaced.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Mmhmm…” Zylah gave him a considering look. “Money?”

“Uh, here’s two hundred.” He told her handing over a handful of bills.

Zylah counted it before it disappeared into the shadows of her dress. “Alright, have you figured out your theme, yet?”

“My theme?” He frowned, wondering where she was going with this change of topic.

“Something I’ve noticed with those of us who use Malice, is that each of us seems to have a ‘theme’ of some kind.” Zylah explained. “For instance my theme is ‘Shadow Dancer’, which is why all of my abilities tend to lean themselves towards manipulating shadows or quick and agile movements.”

“Um, I guess my theme is Ink?” He offered, knowing that his theme was actually [Cartoon] but also knowing that he had no intention of letting that get back to the shady organization the Malice Doctor worked for.

“Themes seem to be… two-part in function, or the one’s I’ve encountered have been at least.” Zylah elaborated with a shake of her head. “Usually it’s some material or element, followed by a role of some kind.”

“So your element is [Shadow] and your role is [Dancer]?” He figured, wondering if this meant his own theme was [Ink Toon] or something. (No, that doesn’t feel quite right…)

“Right.” The Shadow Dancer nodded. “If you look at it this way it becomes significantly easier to piece together what you can do and how you do it.”

“I guess that helps some…” (At least once I figure out how to mix [Toon] and [Ink].)

“Hey, you’re paying me to help you, need to make sure you get your money’s worth or else you might not come back.” Zylah shrugged, before rolling her shoulders. “Speaking of, the fighting thing?”

“Yeah, let’s see if I can’t figure something out.” He agreed, raising his fists in front of his face.

Scene Consequences

-New Perk Unlocked: Mental Conditioning (II)- Increases Max Mental Health and Focus by a small amount each tier.

-Thanks to training with Zylah gained 4XP to Brawling.

--*Skill Rank Up* Brawling Lv. 4 (1/10)

-Thanks to Malice Vial gained (1 + (D6=2)=3)XP to Toon Time.

--Thanks to Zylah’s advice gained 1 Bonus XP to Toon Time.

---*Power Level UP*: Toon Time Lv. 2 (0/6)

-Grown a bit closer to Zylah.

---

“Alright, Toon powers…” He sighed, sitting in his room and spinning his pen in hand as he contemplated Zylah’s words. “What kind of stuff fits the ‘Ink Toon’ theme...”

Slowly his eyes drifted to the door of his room before sliding back to the pen in his hand.

“Hmm, there’s an idea…” He admitted, before getting out of his chair and making his way over to his wall, where he put his pen to the wall and paused. (Actually, if I’m doing this to my wall I might want to use my regular Ink rather than something that can stain the wall.)

He knew his Ink from his hands dissolved, or at least was invisible to others, he wasn’t so sure if that was the case with Ink from his Toon Pen.

Shaking his head, he proceeded to rub his hands together as he coated his palms in ink before rubbing it into the wall while thinking about doors or holes, hoping his power would take the clue from his intent to do what he wanted.

And at first it seemed like it was, as his Ink turned into a round hole and seemed to set into the wall, but after a moment he realized while the wall was accepting the ink he couldn’t push his hand through the hole.

(Though it does have a bit more of a rubbery quality than the rest of my wall, so this is doing something.) He frowned before shaking his hand out as he took a step back and looked at the large fading circle on the wall. (Just going to have to keep trying until this does what I want, I guess.)

(Just need to keep at it, until you make it work.)

Scene Consequences

-New Power Progress: (1/4)