Act 42: First Hire of The Cabaret (I)

--- Joshua Durand ---

“Okay, so how is this whole Boss Minion thing going to work?” He asked, clapping his hands as him and Avery sat in the main room of the Cartoon Cabaret Doodle, Blobby, and Fishy all watching from the side lines.

“Um, okay, so first we need to decide what kind of Boss Dream we’re making.” Avery answered with determination despite looking excited and nervous in equal measures. “What role we want them to fill and then how we want them to fill it.”

“What do you mean?” He frowned, his arms crossed over the back of the chair he was sitting reverse in. “Wouldn’t a Boss Dream just… do their job?”

Avery made a so-so gesture with his hand. “Yes, and no. While they will do their job, there are different ways to do said job like… take the bar for instance. You could have a dream that specializes in talking people through their issues, or one that can make drinks super fast, or even one that doubles as a bouncer of sorts.”

“Right, and I’m guessing there’s a reason we can’t make a Dream able to do… all of that? I mean, my brother does all of that and cooks half the time.” Admittedly, Chris was cheating by using the Rule of Cool, but (I’ve got my own Rule of Toon.)

The Cabaret manager’s face scrunched up a bit, “Well, um, that would be… complicated… And Boss Dreams are, uh, they’re already really complicated compared to worker dreams… and well… I can’t make a Boss Dream and you haven’t made a Boss Dream before…”

“So making one that can do its job perfectly is probably beyond me at the moment.” He sighed as he got what his most anxious Dream was scared of saying. “Okay, so we keep things simple and focus on one thing at a time for now since reopening the Cabaret is the main goal here.”

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“Exactly.” Avery nodded, looking more than a little relieved that he got it before continuing his explanation. “Once we’ve got that together, we’re going to be weaving a lot of Madness together. More than we have before and more than I can by myself.”

“Well, I’m getting fairly good at manipulating my Madness even if I haven’t done too much for building the Cabaret up myself.” He hoped at least.

“Based on what I saw during your show you should have this in the bag… with a little, uh, help.” His first Boss Dream assured him. “That said, you’re going to have to focus on what you want the Dream’s job to be, how you want it to do it, all while thinking about what you want it to look like.”

“That all sounds easy enough.” He figured, before frowning once more. “Though you mentioned something about the Cabaret filling in gaps the last time we talked about this.”

“Uh, yeah…” Avery grimaced, before going silent for a moment as he seemed to think about something. “You remember when we restored the kitchen or any of the other rooms even? We were just throwing Madness at it to clean the place up and get old things moving again.”

“Yeah.” He nodded, fully aware that while he was rebuilding the Cartoon Cabaret, he was just restoring the Wonderland he’d gotten rather than building it up himself. (But I’ll get there eventually…)

“Right…” Avery nodded back, while not quite meeting his eyes. “Well given how, uh, all of these jobs used to be… filled, I’m hoping that if we fill this place with enough Madness eventually the old crew will… Maybe, hopefully, come back…”

“And if they don’t?” He felt the need to ask.

“Then… then it’s no different from how it was when you found me.” Avery admitted without meeting his eye.

(You mean when I found you getting plastered by yourself…) He couldn’t remember much of his first visits to the Cabaret but he could remember that much.

“Look it-it doesn’t matter.” The Cabaret Manager told him more firmly than what he usually got out of the Dream. “What matters is that we can still rebuild.”

“Alright… if you’re sure.” He sighed before looking around the Cabaret. “So where should we begin?”

“We definitely need someone for the Foyer, the Bar, and the Projector but if you want to work on the Kitchen we can do that, um, waitstaff is kind of pointless without a kitchen, and while it won’t help the Cabaret right now having someone in the dressing room could help your shows. Though I think any of the positions could help you in one way or another.” Avery shrugged. “It’s your choice where we start with everything Boss.”