Act 26: Powers, Paper, and a Projector (AKA Turning Toons and Project Projector)

--- Joshua ---

Several hours after still failing to figure out how to get this Hole In The Wall power to work, he found himself staring up at his ceiling while trying to figure out what he was doing wrong.

Part of him was tempted to just take another vial of Malice in the hopes of cracking it, but a more practical part of him pointed out that (we’ve almost got this, we’re just missing one little, obvious thing.)

The only problem was that he couldn’t figure out what that obvious thing was.

He felt a slight migraine coming on, and let his eyes drift close in the hope of making whatever was going on with his head would fade.

When it didn’t he couldn’t help but growl as he climbed out of bed to try and find something to make the ache behind his eyes go away. (Maybe I should take a vial of Malice for the headache if nothing else. If I’m lucky the healing boost will cancel out the headache.)

A piece of paper crinkled under his foot and knowing that it was going to annoy him as much as the migraine he reached down to pick it up before noticing a small hole torn in the thin piece of paper.

(...)

(...)

(You figured it out didn’t you?)

“It cannot be that easy.” He sighed, before taking the page over to his desk.

(Sometimes it is.)

Instead of applying his Ink to the wall he applied it to the paper, going through the same thought and intent that had almost let him walk through the wall as he made a large black circle on the piece of paper.

Raising it into the air he pressed his fingers against the page before watching as it disappeared through the hole and appeared on the other side of the paper, with neither side showing anything other than a black abyss despite him eventually sticking his whole arm through.

“Right, so I can’t make a hole in the wall but I can make a hole in a piece of paper.”

This revelation did nothing to help his headache.

Scene Consequences

-New Power: Hole In The Wall Lv. 1 (0/4)

--Create a Hole In The Wall allowing you to walk through. (Costs 1 Ink)

---Max Wall depth and duration are based on Power Level at 1 Inch/Min per Level. (Note: Smaller Depth increases Duration.)

---

Knowing how upset Avery had been by him spending Madness on his hat, he decided to go ahead and invest some resources into the Cabaret in the hopes of making Avery feel better about following his decisions.

“Okay… got to be… careful with… this one.” The Cabaret Manager told him as they struggled to keep an [Excited Madness] under control. “Just have to… get this… near the… stage… Boss…”

The Madness between them suddenly zagged, causing him to crash into one of the tables as he just barely managed to maintain his grip on the thing.

“You… already… said that.” He reminded the Dream, before glancing over his shoulder. “How much… further?”

“Just… a few, gah… more… steps… and… Let go!” Avery shouted.

He let go of the Madness and watched as the Cabaret Manager essentially punted it into a beat up projector hanging from one of the ceiling’s catwalks. (Did not know those were up there.)

When the two collided there was a moment where electricity seemed to crackle where they touched before there was a sudden flash of light as the projector began to spin, looking a good bit newer than it had before they’d chucked the Madness into it.

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“Cool, so the… projector is… working.” He gasped, trying to catch his breath as a light flickered on showing an old black and white countdown looping on the wall.

“Yep…” Avery nodded back equally as winded.

“What’s this thing do again?” He asked, pointing a thumb at the screen.

“Um, well, without a few uh, other bits all it really does right now is let the Cabaret see what you’re uh, up to in the real world.” Avery explained. “Which when we get things open, should let us make a fair few resources whenever you put on a show.”

“Don’t I already get Madness from my shows?” He couldn’t help but frown.

“Eh, sort of?” Avery made a so-so gesture. “Right now you’re pulling resources from the people who, uh, watch your shows. This though will let us make Madness off the Dreams of the Wonderlands, and once we get the filming equipment set up again, we should be able to keep making a small profit off your old reruns in between your shows.”

“Nice.” He nodded, thinking about how (my diehard fans are of course going to want to watch and rewatch my performances, over and over again.)

That thought actually brought up a question that left him frowning. “Hey, doesn’t the fact that you guys have this thing mean you should’ve been making Madness even without the old boss?”

Avery grimaced before shaking his head with a sigh. “No, uh, or yes but… Without the old boss all we had were re-runs… And even with the massive number of shows the old boss put out, after a couple decades people got tired of seeing the same old shows. Especially not when there were all these new and exciting Wonderlands popping up left and right.”

The Cabaret Manager ran a hand down his face. “Eventually we were just barely paying the costs to keep this place running and then… I uh, I don’t really want to talk about what came next, Boss…”

He briefly remembered the first time he’d seen Avery when he was sitting alone at the bar drinking himself away and decided to leave the matter be.

“That’s fine.” He assured his Dream with a pat on the shoulder. “We’ll turn this place so far around that you won’t have to worry about that ever again.”

Avery gave him a tired smile. “Heh, that’s the plan, Boss.”

Scene Consequences

-The Cartoon Cabaret’s Projector has been restored.

--Avery is now more aware of Joshua’s adventures going forward.

--When Cabaret opens, Projector will increase Madness gains from Shows.

--New Cabaret Upgrades unlocked.

---

After returning to the waking world he curiously felt the need to double down on his training so that his next show could really blow the socks off of whoever saw it. And as such he proceeded to down yet another vial of Malice, filling his head with that sweet symphony as he couldn’t help but sway his hips ever so slightly to the tune.

“Alright, let’s give this idea a try.” He told the space around him as he stretched his fingers out.

Rolling his wrist, he brought forth his Ink Whip and began spinning it through the air as he looked at the various bits of debris laying around the alley he was practicing in.

Eventually picking a random bottle he threw out his Ink Whip much like he would to pull something towards him, only instead of pulling the bottle towards him he instead tried pushing his Ink. Which resulted in him throwing the bottle into a brick wall and shattering it instead of what he was actually trying for.

Frowning, he went to pick up a different bottle -(because there are way too many of these in this alley)- and Toonified it, which as far as he could tell didn’t actually change all that much besides making the colored bottle significantly less transparent.

He waited a moment for the bottle’s Toonification to wear off before setting it on the ground once more and taking a couple steps back.

With the Ink Whip still wrapped around his wrist, he sent it out once more to latch onto the bottle without pulling it towards him.

Forcing himself to remain loose, he tried to listen to the Malice and Madness flowing through his veins, hoping the two would give him a hint as to how to do this as they tended to every other time he consumed a vial of Malice during his training sessions.

(You’d think this would be easier since this is technically my third vial to-)

Something inside of him lurched, and a bulb of ink was sent flying down his whip before colliding with the bottle in an explosion of Ink that he’d believed his Ink Blot more responsible for than his Toonification.

“Okay… closer, but still not quite right…” He told himself as he shook out his aching wrist.

Quickly grabbing a third bottle, he went through the paces of the exercise once more as he tethered the bottle, sent ink through the tether, and the ink then- (exploded against the bottle…)

He couldn’t help but sigh as he ran a hand down his face trying to figure out what he was doing wrong here. As he did this his eyes caught sight of the remains of the last bottle, and curious of what he was seeing he picked some of the glass shards up.

Shifting through the shards he found that about half of them had taken on the same odd opaque glass of his Toonification while the other half still retained the more transparent nature of their ‘real’ selves.

“So there’s definitely something here, but… maybe I just need more control over my Ink to pull this off?”

Scene Consequences

-Thanks to Synergy gained 2XP to Toonification and Equip Ink

--Thanks to Malice Vial gained (D6=6/2=3) XP to each skill

---*Power Level Up* Toonification Lv. 5 (1/12)

---*Power Rank Up* Equip Ink Lv. 4 (4/10)

---For rolling a Malice Crit gained 1 Malicious Madness.

---Potential Power Upgrade discovered: Toonifying Tether (Requires: Lv. 5 Toonification and Equip Ink)