Act 31: A Hunger For Knowledge And Power

--- Joshua ---

As the Hungering Madness -which made his stomach feel hollow just looking at it- rippled through the Cabaret’s kitchen, once dark and rusted utensils regained some of their shine as the dust cleared out and the lights above flickered on.

He pretended not to notice the way Avery perked up and looked around before letting his shoulder fall. An action that even if he hadn’t noticed the Cabaret manager doing it before, he was pretty sure Avery had done every time they restored part of the Cabaret.

“Okay.” He clapped to draw the Boss Dream’s mind from the memory of things lost. “We’ve got a kitchen now… What exactly does this do for us?”

“Well, if we, um, had someone to staff it…” Avery frowned, running a hand over the counter before shaking his head. “If we staffed it, the kitchen would let us cook up dishes for our guests… Which uh, would make us a little bit of Madness while also getting them to keep coming back if they like the food.”

“All of which sounds very good.” He nodded, liking the idea of anything that would up his Madness generation beyond his current levels.

“Yeah…” Avery agreed, messing about with the stove and turning on a burner. “Hey, is there anything in the ice box over there?”

Looking to his side and seeing a large metal fridge, he opened it as asked and found the thing empty. “Nope.”

“Nothing in the pantry either.” Avery sighed, closing a cabinet door. “Was hoping I’d be able to cook something up for you but… looks like we’ll have to restock the place if we want anything.”

“That’s a shame, but it’s about par for the course right now.” He had to admit, before a thought occurred to him. “Uh, hey, Avery?”

“Yeah, boss?”

“If there’s no food… what exactly have you been eating?” Now that the thought had occurred to him he found himself increasingly concerned for his cabaret manager.

“Dreams… don’t really need to eat the way you waking folk do.” Avery explained as if piecing it together as he went. “We can live off just the, uh, ambient Madness of our Wonderland, though if we leave it the rules do change up a bit which is why the kitchen is so profitable.”

“So you don’t need to eat at all?” He frowned. “Or maybe what I mean is, there’s like no benefits to you eating or problems from not eating?”

“I mean, I can eat but it’s more of a… want than a need?” Avery shrugged a little unsurely. “Honestly, it’s been long enough that I legitimately can’t remember the last time I ate and I’m feeling fine.”

“Hmm…” That ‘feeling fine’ reminded him very much of the drunks who thought they were still sober. (Not the best analogy, but it is like those people who get so used to feeling bad that they can’t remember what it’s like to feel good.)

“Alright, well if it’s a want you’ve got, then the moment we get this place stocked up I want you on three full meals a day.” He told his Boss Dream, before thinking about it a little more. “Same goes for any other Dreams in my employ.”

“You really don’t have to go that far Boss.” Avery tried to assure him.

“Nope. I’m the boss, I make the rules. That’s a rule now. You have to eat.”

Scene Consequences

-Wonderland Kitchen has been repaired and can be used to craft Madness Dishes that grant a bonus for the rest of a Turn when consumed. (Note: Dishes cannot be made or consumed mid-event outside of a Rest.)

--When staffed the kitchen will increase customer satisfaction and retention while also slightly increasing Madness income.

---Note: If guests do not like the food available it will instead decrease customer satisfaction and retention. Madness income will be unaffected.

---

Checking his phone and seeing that he had a few hours until his meeting with the Malice Doc, he decided to try testing out his newest power on his way to said meeting.

“Right, okay… so let’s see if I’ve really got this down.” He told himself as he stood on the edge of the roof eyeing the next ledge over.

“First focus on the spot… then…” He reached out to his powers looking for whatever sensation was newest, before finding an odd spot that felt almost like fluid flowing between his fingers and, “grab on.”

The world around him disappeared in black for a moment as he felt a splash of water ripple over him before immediately drying as the world returned around him and he found himself on the next ledge.

“Oh-ho, this is definitely going to be helpful.” He grinned trying to use his power to get to the other side of the rooftop only to find himself coming up a fair bit short.

“What?” He frowned, comparing the distance to what he could remember of the trainyard. “Yeah, no. I remember going a lot further than this the other night… Was that just the malice amping me or…?”

Figuring that it would probably be best to run a few experiments with this power before he tried to use it to make his way to the meeting, he started using his newest power to move around the rooftop making a few mental notes.

“Alright, so without Malice I can jump about… five meters… I think?” He felt like he was pulling that number out of the air, but he also felt like it was right. “Let’s see… how can I up that distance?”

(Maybe my tags? I mean I can feel those from a fair distance away, so maybe I can use that to amp my other ranged abilities.)

Thinking about it for a moment and deciding that it couldn’t hurt, he placed one of his tags on the roof before making his way to the other side of the rooftop. A fair distance further than he could seemingly flow by default.

Rather than focusing on simply moving, he instead focused on his connection to the ink tag he’d placed down before grabbing the flowing fluid as the world faded to black and finding himself still coming up short of his destination.

“Okay, so that idea was a bust… I guess it’s time to try it with the Malice.” He told himself, before pulling out a vial of said super serum and sipping it down, starting up that sweet sinful symphony.

“Woo. Now let’s try that again, shall we?” He asked no one in particular as he shook out his limbs.

Once more he tried using his (Ink Flow) to move about and found that he could in fact travel a fair bit further than he could without the Malice. “As expected.” Though when he tried to latch onto the idea of how far he was going he felt there was some kind of static keeping his thoughts from accurately gauging the value. “Hmm, less expected…”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Deciding to not let that get him down, he instead decided to try his hand at his tag experiment again because some part of him was telling him that he was close to… something there.

Of course given the increase in distance the Malice vial had already given him, he felt it was best to try increasing the distance a little more than he had before. Which is how he found himself about two rooftops over from where he’d laid down his latest tag.

Focusing on both his Ink Tag and the Ink Flow, he grabbed onto both powers as he moved in an attempt to flow to his tag, only to find both of them slipping through his metaphorical fingers.

Only this time with the Malice flowing through him he could actually feel what was going wrong as it happened. First the moment he started flowing through reality he lost track of his Ink Tag thus losing track of where he was trying to go. Then with no actual end destination in sight, the… pressure -lack of a better word- of his Ink Flow increased to a point where he could no longer hold on, spitting him back out into the cold hard reality of the situation.

Not trusting himself to have figured out the problem on his first try, he gave it a few more goes before coming to the hard conclusion that, “Yep, just don’t have enough control over these to do this right.”

Scene Consequences

-Power Synergy: Gained +2XP to Ink Tags and Ink Flow.

--For consuming 1 Malice Vial gained (D6 = 5/2)* for 2XP to Ink Tags and 3XP to Ink Flow.

---Malice Chain Bonus: Gained 1 Malicious Madness.

--Total: 4XP to Ink Tags and 5XP to Ink Flow.

---Currently: Ink Tags Lv. 4 (4/10)

---*Power Level Up* Ink Flow Lv. 2 (2/6)

-Perk Revealed: Tagged Flow (Requires: Ink Tag and Ink Flow Lv. 5)

---

With that sad revelation made, he figured there was little he could do to fix the problem beyond training up the powers to a point where he could use them the way he wanted. Something that would’ve taken significantly more time than he could afford to waste if he didn’t want the doc’s people knocking him on his ass again.

Which is why rather than any hardcore training he instead made his way to the warehouse for his meeting. (Though I guess using Ink Flow to get here might count as training…)

Stepping inside he found the Doc sitting at the usual table with his usual bodyguard while going over a number of files on the table with a look on his face.

He gave the bodyguard a curious look to see if he was going to tell the Doc he was there and only received a blank look for his trouble.

“Ahem.” He coughed.

“Take your seat.” The Doc told him without bothering to look up.

With a roll of his eyes he did just that. Though despite remembering what he saw last time he peeked at the doctor’s files, he still risked another peek as a small act of rebellion. Most of said pictures were of a cordoned off space around a torn up statue that looked like the site of a Mask fight of some kind, as well as other photos of a number of dead creatures that had been killed in a grisly number of ways.

“Someone had fun last night.” He couldn’t help but notice as he took his seat.

“More than a little fun.” The Doc admitted. “But nothing that ultimately changes your situation.”

“And that’s being a distraction while you send Zylah out to do your actual dirty work.” He remembered. “Got an idea when and where you want this distraction to take place?”

“Due to this event and the other things tied to it, your services won’t be necessary for another two weeks.” The Malice Doc informed him. “As long as you do it on the given date, the only real restriction on location is that it must be in the downtown area.”

“I’m guessing if the area has to be a big enough distraction then it’s got to be a place with a lot of foot traffic during the day.” He figured, tapping his fingers on the table.

“If you require a better idea of the scale of the distraction we want we do have a few targets of acceptable size.” The Doc told him, digging out a file from beneath the rest and handing it to him.

Opening it he found pictures and quick dossiers on, “A bank, a museum, or a… hospital? You want me to rob a hospital?”

“You can’t say it won’t earn a response.” The criminal doctor shrugged. “Besides we’re not asking you to harm anyone, just to cause enough of a distraction to draw attention to your location.”

“And what exactly could I steal from a hospital that’s worth the trouble?” He scoffed.

“Drugs.” The Malice Doc answered as if it were obvious before snapping his fingers. “Speaking of.”

The bodyguard set a box on the table that likely contained this week’s Malice supply.

“Like last time you’ll have one week to scout your locations before telling us which location you intend to hit so that we may set up contingencies for you.” The Doc told him. “Do you have any questions or will you be taking your leave now?”

He couldn’t help but frown at the obvious dismissal.

(I know we’ve got to listen to him, but are you really going to let him push you around like that?) The devil on his shoulder asked him.

(No. No I’m not.)

“Actually, I did have one thing I wanted to ask you about.” He admitted, reaching into his own Malice case and pulling out the vial of what he was more than convinced was Blue Malice. “I got into a fight with a Deviant the other night and found this at the scene.”

The Malice Doc gave his bodyguard a curious if unhappy look.

“One of our dealers let a customer OD when shopping for new clients.” The guard explained.

“I see… Sloppy.” The Doc frowned before turning back to him. “That is a vial of Malice as I’m sure you’ve surmised given how you’re showing it to me. More specifically it is a vial of the Blue Strain that specializes in enhancing the user’s more… elementally inclined abilities.”

He raised a brow. “Meaning?”

“Meaning for you it would enhance your… ink abilities however those may manifest.” The Doc elaborated, before explaining that, “The Red Strain we typically give you is more closely connected to physical enhancements such as your healing factor, enhanced strength, and transformative abilities.”

“So what you’re saying is if I’d taken this Blue Vial instead of the reds, it would’ve given me more ink powers instead of the physical ones I’ve been developing?” He asked, purposely not pointing out all of the ink powers he’d developed in spite of this little manipulation.

“Possibly, though given your relatively newness to your powers it was decided that enhancing your physical abilities would offer a superior foundation to anything the other strains could offer you at this time.” The Malice Doc answered.

“So that means there are other strains than red and blue?” He pressed.

The Malice Doctor stared at him for a moment before leaning back saying, “Yes, at the moment there are four core strains. Red, Blue, Green, and Black. Green typically enhances more esoteric abilities, while I’ve no idea what this would represent for you, in other subjects this would include things such as phasing through walls, creating constructs, or generally disregarding the native physics of our reality.”

“Uh-huh…” He nodded, not wanting to admit that he could do all of that in one form or another.

“Black Malice,” The Doc continued, “is something we explicitly wanted to avoid exposing you to a pure dosage of until we’d formed a baseline of your natural abilities due to the fact that it most commonly enhances abilities of a more mental acumen. Something that could have truly interesting effects on any dormant Madness abilities you may possess.”

He frowned remembering the big point of his experiment was the fact that he was a possible Madness user. “Why not give me that from the get go if you only went after me for my Madness genes?”

“As I said, we require a baseline to know just what you’re capable of otherwise we wouldn’t be able to properly judge any other Madness potentials we recruit.” The Malice Doc explained. “Once we truly know what you’re capable of, we’ll be able to see how the Black strain interacts with your development.”

“What about Blue and Green?” He wondered. “Are those staying off the table too?”

The Malice Doctor paused to observe him once more before shaking his head. “No, if you wish to purchase Blue or Green Malice we will not stop you, given how any influence they have on your Madness abilities should be minimal at best.”

“Alright.” He nodded, glad he’d gotten something extra out of this little meeting.

“That said, if we’re going to start adding other variables to your experiment we’re going to need a more thorough understanding of your current physical abilities.” The Malice Doc warned him.

“Meaning?”

“I hope you had no other plans for today.”

He sighed. “No, this was the last of it.”

Scene Consequences

-Gained 5 Vials of Red Malice.

-Can now buy Blue and Green Malice.

-New Mission: Criminal Distraction: Scout a heist location to perform after Turn 40. Location must be chosen by Turn 36 at the latest.