Act 38: Blobert ‘Blobby’ Blobington, the Second. Of the Cabaret Ink Blobingtons
--- Joshua ---
“Ah, aren’t you just adorable!” Avery cooed over the newest addition to the cabaret. “Wook at you with your wittle googwy eyes!”
His latest dream preened under all of the attention as he watched the spectacle beside Doodle on the wall.
“So he really is a new Dream then?” He asked. “Not some weird power mishap.”
“Hmm, no, he’s a real Dream.” The Cabaret Manager nodded. “A bit, uh, simple in construction maybe, but, you’ve been a Wonderlander for almost two months now so, um, that’s to be expected.”
“Construction?” He repeated, have amused by the way Avery had said that.
“Uh, yeah, Dreams we’ve… we’ve got this underlying… stuff based on our purpose and the Madness fed into us.” Avery tried to explain. “It’s part of the difference between a Boss Dream and a regular Dream.”
“Which is why you’re more lively than Doodle or… this little guy?” He guessed.
Avery tilted his head from one side to the other. “Uh, something like that. I know some broad strokes about Dream production from the older Dreams and the, uh, old Boss but it wasn’t really part of my own ‘Function’.”
“Well, then how do we make a more well constructed Dream?” He asked. “I mean, if we’re really going to make this place something grand we’re going to need more Dreams to help us run everything.”
“Yeah… Yeah, we will.” Avery nodded, looking a little mixed about that idea instead of his usual excitement at building the Cabaret up. “Um, well… Certain uh, simple Dream will pop up as we fill things up but if you want to build up a Dream’s… complexity(?) You’re going to have to… I’m not fully sure beyond feeding them Madness since I’ve always been a Boss Dream… but I know the first step definitely involves naming this little guy!”
“Naming him?” He frowned.
“Y-yeah, like if you make a bunch of these little guys they’ll all be simple Dreams but… they’d all also be pretty similar if with a few of their own little quirks.” The Boss Dream elaborated. “If you, uh, if you want him to become more complex you’ve got to make him stand out amongst all of the other, uh, Blobs you’ll be making… if you make more.”
“Okay, that makes sense.” He admitted. “If I want him to stand out I’ve got to shine the spotlight on him.”
“Exactly!” Avery smiled, pointing at him
“Alright, well then if we really want him to stand out we need to give him a name that really stands out.” He figured, staring down at the little ink blob with a contemplative look before snapping his fingers. “Ah, got it.”
He coughed into his hand before picking the little blob up and holding him high in one hand. “I hereby dub thee, Blobert Blobington, the Second. Of the Cabret Ink Blobingtons! Or just Blobby for short.”
After a moment, he sat Blobby back on the counter. “Okay, now how do we know if that did anything?”
“I don’t know.” Avery shrugged, before looking at Blobby. “Feel any different?”
The little blob seemed to think about it for a moment, jiggling a bit to each side, before pulling out a knife and stabbing the air with gleeful glare.
“I’ll… take that as a yes…”
Scene Consequences
-Unique Dream: Blobert ‘Blobby’ Blobington, the Second. Of the Cabaret Ink Blobingtons.
--Blobby will always be the first Ink Blob Joshua summons with all other Ink Blobs you create being weaker versions of him.
---
“Alright, Blobby, the stage is yours, show me what you’ve got!” He called out to the little ink blob.
Blobby gave a determined nod before spinning in place and lashing out with an Ink Whip breaking several bottles placed around the alley. The little blob then followed this up by spitting out several small Ink Blots at the impromptu targets Joshua had set up before Ink Flowing a meter away and headbutting the ground to leave behind an Ink Tag.
“Good, very good!” He clapped. “Now, next test: Let’s see how you handle a Malice Vial… or rather me drinking a vial.”
There was some part of him screaming, (Bad idea! Bad idea!) whenever he thought about feeding a vial directly to one of his Dreams. (But that doesn’t mean I can’t drink one to see if it does something to the little guy.)
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And so with the taste of strawberries and copper on his tongue, a swinging song in his head, and a little jig in his step he clapped his hands and told the little Blob. “Second verse, same as the first!”
Blobby once more nodded before repeating his little routine and popping like a bubble halfway through.
He blinked. “That, uh, that wasn’t the Malice was it?”
(No… No, I don’t think so… But, uh, respawn him just to make sure.)
Once more Toonifying his Ink, he watched as a groggy looking Blobby formed in his hand.
“You, uh, you feeling alright little buddy?”
Blobby just slowly blinked up at him, clearly still out of it from whatever caused him to pop in the first place.
“Right, okay…” He looked around a bit before realizing that there was still Ink plastered on the bottles Blobby had shot a minute prior. Ink that had probably come out of the little Dream’s own mass until he hit a point of, “Pop.”
Small bubble formed beneath Blobby’s mouth where his mouth should’ve been before popping.
“Yeah, I’m just… I’m just going to send you back to the Cabaret until you’re feeling better.” He told the little blob letting the little Dream melt down into ink and slip through his fingers.
He was mostly willing to leave things at that given how the day had gone before he spotted the Ink Tag Blobby had left on the ground. Feeling the same connection between him and the tag as felt with his own he decided to try a slight flight of fancy and attempted to Toonify the Ink on the ground.
For a moment the Ink inflated, seeming like it would form something before popping and sending ink everywhere.
“Disappointing, but not unexpected.” He admitted with a sigh.
Scene Consequences
-For maintaining Malice Chain Bonus gained 1 Malicious Madness.
-Gained (1 + 1 Synergy + D6/2=4)XP to Ink Tags and Ink Blob
--*Power Level Up* Ink Tags Lv. 5 (2/12)
--*Power Level Up* Ink Blob Lv. 2 (0/6)
-Blobby Perk Revealed: Living Ink: Blobby can use any Ink Skill you have at a level equal to his current Dream Level (1) at the cost of spending his HP in place of Ink. Blobby does not receive any of Joshua’s perks unless otherwise stated. (This Perk does not apply to other Ink Blobs.)
--Note: If Blobby is resummoned too quickly after dismissal he’ll be stunned based on the number of times he’s been dismissed.
-Discovered Synergy Perk: Tag Spawn: (Costs 1 Focus & 1 Ink) Spawn an Ink Blob from any Ink Tag within active Range. (Requires: Lv. 5 Ink Blob and Ink Tag.)
---
Walking through the museum -and blatantly avoiding the Madness flow coming from the Baron’s exhibit- he kept his eyes on a swivel.
On the surface he was examining the various museum exhibits while writing things down in a notebook, all the while looking like a teen stuck doing a school project of some kind.
In reality he was searching the museum for any and all possible exits should his heist go sideways -(Which given how my job is literally to bring as much attention as possible here is pretty much a given.)- while drawing a map of the museum with said exits marked.
Unfortunately, his exits weren’t all that impressive, being one of several emergency fire exits. (Which aren’t exactly fitting for a star.)
He’d thought about secretly opening one -or more than one- of the windows during his actual heist and Ink Flowing to freedom, leaving his pursuers to cause property damage to follow him. Which was a fifty-fifty bet based on what hero he drew. Unfortunately, every window he found was a massive wall of glass that was more for light and decoration than actual airflow. (Though nothing stopping me from smashing through that glass in an emergency.)
(Nothing but Toon Physics of course.)
With windows out he ended up wondering about the other glass exit in the building. Namely the skylights above, but given how tall the building was he was pretty sure that was outside of his flow range unless he did some fancy acrobatics off the wall.
Something he felt confident he could pull off with his parkour skills and reflexes, though he felt notably less confident pulling that off while dealing with an annoying hero or having the police shoot at him. (Still, as long as they don’t send a flier after me that’s probably my easiest escape.)
Given what he knew about the heroes he’d place his odds at three out of eight for a hero being able to follow him that route if he could in fact pull it off.
(If we really wanted to be ballsy we could try walking out the front door.)
(And straight into the police? No thanks.)
(Eh, we can take them.)
What he really needed was an escape suitably dramatic and practical enough for him to get away in style. (I need to be able to just appear and disappear without a trace or at least a very hard trace to follow.)
He knew his Ink flow was the key, but he needed to know where to flow if he wanted this to work.
(The vents maybe? No, I don’t have anywhere near the distance needed for that and I have no way of knowing if they’ll hold my weight.) (The laws of comedy say they won’t.)
With mounting frustration he took another look around the museum, ready to call it a day. Only to pause as he spotted a door labeled ‘Employees Only’.
Acting like he was doing absolutely nothing wrong, he made his way to the door and walked in as if he did in fact work here. (I mean, I am going to do a job here so… Technically, I do!)
That was how he found himself in a concrete tunnel that was most definitely not on any map of the museum he could find online. “This must be how they move exhibits in and out of storage… Meaning these might connect to a loading dock…”
Scene Consequences
-Gained 1XP to Thievery for sneaking around the museum without getting caught.
--Currently: Lv. 3 (7/8)
-Joshua will have a number of options when it comes time to escape during the Museum Heist. (Depending on your… audacity.)