Act 43: Funny Falls And Family

  --- Joshua Durand ---

  “You know, given how it’s technically a holiday I’m kind of surprised by just how many people are here.” He admitted, as he took a break from fleeting around the bar delivering the various snack trays that Chris was cooking.

  “Eh, Thanksgiving isn’t for a couple more days.” Chris shrugged, a faint Madness flickering around him as he used his powers to cook far faster than was normally possible. “Place usually clears out on the actual holiday.”

  “Unless people need to get drunk to deal with their families.” Maddie noted, a wry grin to her face.

  “Typically that only makes it worse.” Chris disagreed, smacking a hand against the counter and knocking over a spice canister on the other side of the kitchen and sprinkling just the ‘right’ amount of spice on something.

  “Having to spend an hour with everyone sober makes it worse.” Maddie scoffed, crossing her arms. “I can guarantee it’s going to break down to questions about when I’m getting married, or about how there’s this nice guy they know who totally isn’t secretly an asshole. All while comparing me to our more ‘successful’ relatives who aren’t bar waitresses, never mind that they’re all addicted to Prozac and their husbands are cheating on them.”

  “You know I get the feeling it would be a lot easier if you just skipped their Thanksgiving and stuck to ours.” He couldn’t help but point out.

  “Oh, I am absolutely vegging out with you two and pizza, but I still have to at least show up or I won’t hear the end of it for months. One hour of judge-y suffering is better than a hundred.” Maddie assured him.

  “Mm.” Chris’s face twisted but he didn’t say anything else, his brother always getting a bit… odd when it came to other people’s families.

  (Not that I can blame him, even if Maddie ‘s more our family than her ‘family’s.)

  Scene Consequences

  -For helping out around the Crossing gained: (3D6=14+Crit D6=17) Dollars.

  ---

  “You know I always forget we’ve got a catwalk up here.” He admitted, as he and Avery crouched around the projector slowly weaving Madness into it because of all the complicated parts within it.

  “Not really much reason to be up here without the projector… Especially with how rusted the walk actually is.” Avery pointed out, half distracted as he fed the film Joshua was creating into the old projector.

  “Should we fix that?” He wondered, taking his eyes off the projector and looking the catwalk over, namely the parts of it that were missing several steps. “It’ll make it less dangerous to mess with the projector?”

  “It’s not that dangerous though?” Avery frowned, fiddling with a bit of machinery.

  “Let’s see you say that after falling off this thing.” He scoffed.

  The Cabaret Manager blinked. “I have though? It’s uh, fifty-fifty if I fall off while turning the projector on.”

  “And you don’t see that as a reason to fix the catwalk?” He couldn’t help but ask.

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  “It’s just a couple bumps and bruises.” Avery shrugged as if it didn’t matter. “We’ve got more important things to focus on then something that’ll only last a minute.”

  He gave the Dream a skeptical look before remembering, (Oh, right… He’s a toon, he probably can walk off a two story fall.) “Still… Once we get some Madness to spare I’ll fix that.”

  “You’re the boss.” Avery told him before standing up with a reel in his hand. “I think that’s the last of it.”

  “So, we should be able to record my shows for replay now, right?” He double checked.

  “Yep. Though, uh, I couldn’t really get your recordings of your old shows.” The Cabaret Manager grimaced. “I’m pretty sure it’s something we can do but… We might need a Boss to actually manage the projector for that…”

  “Makes sense.” He nodded, not entirely put out as he put on a grin. “This just means we can make sure our grand opening has a show worthy of the event rather than our warm-up routines.”

  “Right.” Avery grinned back.

  Scene Consequences

  -Cabaret Upgrade: Film Reels

  --Upon opening the Cabaret gain a passive Income based on the total number of ‘Shows’ Joshua has put on. (Each show has its own Genre/Madness type.)

  ---

  Having an extra couple of days off thanks to Thanksgiving, he decided to work on something that had been a bit of help during the whole mess a couple days prior. More specifically the part where he’d had to run across the rooftops from a dragon under the GM’s control. Something that had made him realize just how valuable his ability to get around on the rooftops was.

  (That dragon really lit a fire under your ass didn’t it?)

  Which is why he spent most of his day running and jumping across the city rooftops. And when he began to grow bored of that, he started to add his Ink Flow into the mix. Be it simply grasping the flow and moving between rooftops, or taking a swan dive off of the roof and using his Ink Flow to catch himself before he hit the ground.

  Or that was what he was doing until he ran out of Ink mid jump down town and actually hit the ground… after rebounding off of a brick wall… with his face… which he also landed on…

  He twitched once before collapsing onto the ground. (Ouchies…)

  (You know you’re really lucky you have a healing factor kid.)

  Gritting his teeth as his various bones popped back into place, he decided that rather than simply waiting -(in pain)- for his Ink Well to refill he’d just pop a vial of Malice instead, filling his head with that sweet sweet symphony as ink began to once more flow through his veins.

  “Alright, let’s be a little smarter about this, this time around.” He told himself as he stood back up, cracking his neck.

  More on instinct than actual thought, his eyes began to roam his surroundings, mapping out a path for him to maneuver across. Taking note of a few key points here and there, namely of a crane that was working on building something in

  After a simple jump he ink flowed to the edge of a fire escape, before kicking off of it and grabbing a ledge of a window sill on the opposite building. At which point he flowed to the roof, and took a brief moment to reassess his path.

  Jumping off of the roof’s ledge, he landed on a street light before flowing to a light on the opposite side of the street and then onto another rooftop. A quick climb up a ladder connected to a water tower gave him enough height that between his next jump and an ink flow he was able to land on a building next to the construction site.

  And while he wasn’t quite able to scale the scaffolding unassisted, he was able to ink flow between several support structures as he slowly made his way up the tower until he was level with the crane cabin.

  With one more quick flow across a gap several hundred feet in the air, he was able to hop on top of the crane’s back where he quickly walked up to its end, putting him high above everything else around him.

  He couldn’t help but laugh as he twirled on the edge, before raising his arms and letting out a loud, “Woo!” as his heart pounded in his chest.

  This was when a strong gust of wind knocked him off the crane.

  “Oh shit. Oh shit! OH SHIT!!!”

  Scene Consequences

  -Consumed 1 Malice Vial for a bonus of 2XP.

  --Gained 1 Malicious Madness for maintaining Malice Chain.

  -Gained 3XP to Mobility and 3XP to Ink Flow, thanks to training bonus.

  --Currently: Mobility Lv. 4 (8/10), Ink Flow Lv. 3 (7/8)

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