Act 41: Checking In With Friends
--- Joshua Durand ---
He stepped into the Cabaret with a faint skip to his step, because even if the Malice Doc was starting to play shadow games with him that didn’t change the fact that he’d just had another successful show and could not wait to get Avery’s thoughts on arguably his first real performance on the public stage. (A massive step into the resurrection of the Cartoon Cabaret to be sure.)
Which is why he found it a bit odd that rather than swarming him in excited chatter about how things had gone or how best to use his freshly collected Madness he instead found Avery fretting over a kitchen pot over by the bar with a curious Doodle and Blobby nearby.
“Uh, what have you got there Avery?” He found himself asking as he made his way closer.
“Oh, Boss!” The Cabaret Manager smiled in relief. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“You usually are.” He pointed out as he tried to take a peek at what was in the pot before blinking. “Is… is that Fishy Friend?”
The fish Dream sat up in the pot of water, his lower half still inside it as the Dream gave him a silent nod of acknowledgement with the half sticking out of the pot.
“Yeah, once he got dismissed from your last show he… showed up here.” Avery explained. “Only, uh, we didn’t have anywhere for him to swim so… things got tense for a moment.”
“Oh. I figured he’d be okay given how he did in the museum out of water.” He admitted with a grimace.
“Heh, I guess Madness thought it’d be funny to give me a panic attack when he started air drowning…” Avery smiled, looking more than a little stressed before side-eyeing Fishy Friend as if there was something wrong. “Speaking of… I don’t suppose you’d be willing to make him his own little… aquarium, Boss?”
Before he could answer, Avery leaned forward with a half-panicked look and whispered, “We need to get him an aquarium before he realizes I put him in the fish pot.”
“Fish pot?” He repeated with a frown.
“From the kitchen…” Avery elaborated through his teeth.
“Oh. Oh…” He cringed, before coughing into his hand. “Yeah, let’s, let’s get on that…” (I… I can take a Malice Vial later to make up for the cost.)
Not that he needed to worry about that given how much Madness he could feel bubbling within him.
“Thank you…” Avery almost wept in relief before looking around. “Where, uh, where should we set him up?”
He took his own look around the Cabaret before shrugging. “At the bar where everyone else gets their drinks?”
“A-alright.” Avery nodded before moving to collect the necessary Madness and weave into shape.
After a moment of watching this, he remembered something important. “Hey, this actually reminds me of something I wanted to ask you after I finished with my museum show.”
“Which was fantastic!” Avery assured him.
“I know, went way better than I thought it would.” He admitted. “But in the middle of the show I, well, accidentally made Fishy Friend.”
Avery grimaced as the Madness in his hands fought him. “I’m aware.”
“Well, so far every Dream I’ve made has been by… accident more or less.” He tried to explain, aware that he was making a face similar to the Cabaret Manager’s. “Anyway, you said if we’re going to re-open the Cabaret we’re going to need more Boss Dreams, right?”
“Right.” Avery nodded before pushing the Madness into the bar counter and causing the segment by the wall to turn into a large aquarium connected to the rest of the counter. “We’re… going to have to do that…”
He sighed, running a hand across the back of his neck. “Yeah, and I have no idea how to do that.”
“Well, making a Boss Dream is… it can’t be an accident like a normal Dream.” Avery began with a complicated expression. “It’s, it’s going to take time and a lot of Madness… From there we’ll have to… work on each Dream for the specific role we want to fill and… If, if we’re lucky we might be able to… fill the gaps made while the Cabaret was shut down but…”
“But?” He prodded, easily noticing how off the Cabaret Manager was acting.
“That might be getting my hopes up again…” Avery confessed not looking his way as the Cabaret Manage pulled a tab on the bar and the aquarium began to fill. “And I… I’m not sure I can do that again…”
He couldn’t help but wince when he realized what the old Dream meant. (He’s hoping I can bring his old crew back…)
They were both silent for a moment, as he licked his lips before swallowing. “If, if we can… I will.”
Avery gave him a weak smile. “I know Boss.” Before taking a deep breath and letting it out. “What matters though is getting the Cabaret open again… In which case… Just pick a role you want filled and we’ll get it filled. Just… Just give me a bit to steel myself, please?”
“Of course.” He assured the closest thing he had to a partner in all of this. “Just let me know when you’re feeling up to it and we’ll… take care of it.”
“Thanks boss…”
Scene Consequences
-Fishy Friend, was not in the Fish Pot long enough to realize what it was.
-For consuming a Malice Vial just for the Resources gained 2 Malicious Madness due to maintaining the Malice Chain.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
--A/N: The big value here is that consuming a vial is a free action that can be used like this to maintain the chain bonus without having to do a training action every turn.
-Can now spend an Action to create Boss Dreams (Note: This will be a mini-event of sorts.)
---
“So what exactly is your Deviancy?” Annette asked with little preamble as she sat across from him at lunch.
“Shh!” He couldn’t help but cringe at her bluntness, his eyes quickly darting around the cafeteria to see if anyone had heard her.
The other teen just rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, no one can hear me over all the screaming and yelling of everyone else.”
He gave her a frustrated sigh. “I know they probably can’t hear us but still…”
Annette gave him a skeptical look. “Given how many times I’ve seen you use your powers around school, I didn’t think you’d be this paranoid about it.”
“Yeah, well… you’re the one who pointed out how stupid I was being.” He reminded her without meeting her eyes.
“I did…” Annette admitted, pointlessly stirring her food with a plastic fork before eventually taking a deep breath and asking -a bit more kindly, if just as bluntly- “So, what is your Deviancy? If you don’t mind talking about it…”
He frowned before giving Annette a cautious look and seeing that she wasn’t quite looking at him. She already knew he was a Deviant, and hiding that fact was pointless, meaning the question became (how much do I tell her?)
On the one hand the less she knew the less she could connect to normal him to toon him, which given the way she’d reacted to him using his powers on their bullies was definitely something he was in favor of.
On the other… Pretty much every other he knew had had their own Deviant things going on, some of which were a lot more active and interesting than anything he could show off at the moment. (It’d be nice to be the most interesting one in the conversation for once.)
Besides… (You need to start building your crew somewhere…)
While Annette wouldn’t normally be his first pick for a crew… she was someone who knew about his powers. Enough so that (she might be worth bringing around to my way of seeing things…)
At the very least their public situations were similar enough that he had somewhere to work there. (You just need to make friends with her. Actual friends.)
He glanced at Annette's way and would’ve had to be blind to miss the disappointed slump she gained, one he knew she usually fend off by getting angry rather than sad.
The fact that she wasn’t lashing out at him already said a lot.
“I’m a Wonderlander.” He finally confessed.
Annette’s wide eyes shot to him.
“I can… I can make things… funny… Make physics act the way they would in an old cartoon. The kind from the old Tex Avery days.” He explained.
“Like… the Looney Tunes?” Annette asked, interested even if she was still figuring out what he meant.
“Basically.” He nodded. “It’s… I’m connected to this place, The Cartoon Cabaret, it’s like one giant cartoon bar filled with cartoon characters putting on shows.” Or it would be by the time he was done.
“And how are you connected?” The other teen wondered, more in fascination than skepticism.
He considered that question as he ran his tongue over his teeth, before deciding that this was probably a good place to start… bending the truth towards how things were for the normal Wonderlanders he’d heard about. “I, uh, I go there whenever I fall asleep and I remember everything that happens there… At first I thought it was just me and my imaginary friends, you know a normal kid, but… After a while I realized they weren’t so imaginary… And whenever I changed something in the Cabaret… I was changing myself a bit too. Nothing drastic, just… little powers here and there, the kind of things a kid could pretend were real, until finally…”
“Finally?” Annette repeated, clearly desperate for more.
He looked around them as he reached into his backpack before pulling out a pen and drawing a little doodle on a napkin. Once he was finished he slid the napkin towards Annette.
“Until finally… My dreams started following me into reality.”
Annette stared down at his napkin in wonder as Doodle waved up to her in greeting.
Scene Consequences
-Grown a lot closer to Annette.
-Annette is now aware that Joshua is a Wonderlander connected to the Cartoon Cabaret.
A/N: Just to be clear, the Questers on SB specifically said to share the fact that Joshua is a Wonderlander.
---
“So, how’d your thing go?” Cameron asked after they’d met up at the fight club, the place looking less crowded than the last time he was here.
(I guess with the tournament over, there’s less need for people to come around.) He figured. (Without those, this place is probably more like a boxing gym than anything else.)
“Mm, not as well as my boss hoped but I’d still call it a massive win in my book.” He decided after a moment of thought.
Cameron’s face scrunched up a bit as she looked around the club. “You said you were in like a theater club or something, so, uh, how does that translate?”
“Uh, the show itself could’ve done better, but I nailed my performance… for the most part.” He tried to explain without explaining what his performance was. (Need to figure out where she’d stand on all of that still.)
(The fact that she invited you to a fight club is probably a point in your favor.)
“Cool, so that means it was worth skipping the tournament for?” Cameron wondered, hands behind her head as she started moving a bit faster.
“Uh, yeah…” He nodded, feeling a bit awkward about it given how Cameron had specifically invited him to said tournament. “Um, how did you do at… all of that?”
“Eh, well enough.” The other Deviant shrugged. “Made it to the final four. Had some weird power reactions with this one new girl but nothing as bad as when I picked a fight with TPK in the gamer’s guild.”
“You fought TPK?” He blinked, thinking that had been just him. (Then again as much as that girl liked fighting) (and flirting) (I really shouldn’t be surprised.)
Cameron laughed. “If you want to call it that. She was hosting this battle royale thing and slaughtered everyone in like a ten v one.”
(I am suddenly feeling much better about how easily she curb stomped me.) He decided, rubbing a hand over where she’d nearly decapitated him.
(Just let the cartoon violence desensitize you and it’ll quit bugging you.)
“Ah, here we go.” Cameron grinned as she started messing with a console next to one of the rings.
“Uh, what’s up?” He frowned.
“Well, since you canceled on me with the whole Tourney thing I figure that means you still owe me a fight.” The other teen explained.
“Huh, but-” Whatever excuse he was going to come up with was cut off as he found a large hand wrapping around his torso before tossing him into the center of the ring.
More on reflex than anything conscious he was able to right himself and keep on his feet after the sudden change in position.
He raised both his hands in front of him as Cameron stepped into the ring with him. “Can we please talk about this for a second?”
“Don’t worry, we’ll keep it simple this time with just our fists.” The other teen told him as she hit her knuckles against each other. “We can start bringing out the fun stuff next time.”
(Kid, why are all the women in your life trying to kick your ass?)
(I really need to figure that out…)
Scene Consequences
-Grown a bit closer to Cameron.
-You can now challenge Cameron to Spars for XP to random combat skills.
-Gained 1XP to Brawling, Mobility, and Toon Enhanced Strength.
--Currently: Brawling Lv. 5 (3/12), Mobility Lv. 4 (5/10), and Toon Enhanced Strength Lv. 3 (3/8)