Act 28: Training Shadows and Ink

--- Joshua ---

He sat alone in a warehouse fiddling with a piece of paper beneath the table that Malice Doctor apparently left behind rather than taking it with him when he and his associates cleared out the warehouse.

On the paper itself he smudged out a series of small circles with his Ink before sticking his thumbs through, creating a number of quick little holes in an attempt to speed up whatever process let him form the holes in the first place.

Admittedly, he’d probably be making significantly more progress if he wasn’t doing this blind, under the table, and just with said piece of paper, but he didn’t feel like taking his chances with the warehouse being bugged and or monitored. Which after the one time Zylah rushed over, he was fairly certain was in fact the case.

(Still, it’s something to keep me busy until Zylah gets here.)

He looked up as the Warehouse door began to move.

(Think of the devil.)

“Good you’re already here.” Zylah nodded when she spotted him. “I hope you appreciate what I’m doing here given how hard it was to set up an entire day for this.”

“I appreciate it enough to pay you six hundred dollars for the day.” He reminded her, setting a small -which still tripped him given the amount- of money on the table.

His fellow criminal picked up the stack and flicked through it quickly before nodding and putting the money in a bag she’d brought. “With that settled, what exactly did you want to work on?”

“My next show has a fair chance of me getting in a fight with another Mask, so I want to work on my fighting.” He explained. “More specifically, I’m hoping to get a few of my Ink powers to a level I can actually use them in a fight.”

“Alright, well my shadows probably work differently than your ink, but hopefully the two will have enough overlap to come up with something useful.” Zylah told him as she tossed her bag to the side. “For now though, we may have all day but the sooner we get started the better.”

“Cool, just give me a second.” He told her pulling out a vial of Malice.

“Isn’t that cheating?” Zylah asked, adjusting a canteen she was wearing on her hip.

“I’m hoping this’ll maximize my gains today.” He explained before giving her a smirk. “Besides, aren’t we the bad guys, since when do we play fair?”

“True.” His fellow criminal smiled in amusement.

Scene Consequences

-Gained 1XP to Hole In The Wall

--*Skill Level Up* Hole In The Wall Lv. 2 (0/6)

---

“Wow, even with Malice you really do not know how to take a punch.” Zylah told him as he staggered back.

“That was a kick not a punch!” He argued, spitting out a bit of blood as Zylah paused to take a sip from her canteen.

“Same principal.” The shadow dancer dismissed with a wave before giving him a look. “No seriously, once you throw super strength into the mix it really doesn’t matter if someone is kicking you or punching you, it is going to hit hard.”

“Yeah, that… that seems like it’d be pretty obvious.” He admitted, mostly stalling for his jaw to quit aching. “Though admittedly I haven’t been able to put too much work into my own strength. I’ve mostly been using one of my other powers to hit harder.”

“Eh, you’ll find that most people that seem like they have ‘super strength’ are actually faking it with another one of their powers or the strength is caused by something other than their muscles.” Zylah shrugged. “The ones with real super strength are the ones whose biology has gone so fubar that they might not even be human anymore.”

“Uh, harsh.” He pointed out.

The shadow dancer just rolled her eyes. “See a fully transformed Malcontent and tell me they’re still human. They’re ‘s a reason some Arcane call them half-demons after all.”

He paused to consider that. “Do you think they’re actually…?”

“No.” Zylah scoffed. “They’re still human, even if they have some kind of weirdness going on with their transformations, but I mean between Madness, Magic, Malice, Ectoplasm, and Psionics, and whatever else there is at some point we’re going to lose track of how it all works. At which point it’s probably best to just focus on what you can actually do than being scared of all the people who can do something you can’t.”

“True.” He nodded with some consideration before smearing a bit of ink on his hand. “And speaking of what we can actually do…”

---

“Yeah, this isn’t the worst ranged option I’ve ever seen but it’s definitely nowhere near my top ten.” The shadow dancer noted as she smashed another one of his Ink Blots with a shadow infused kick. (Which I guess is how she fakes her super strength.)

“I just need to get better at aiming these things.” He frowned, throwing another ball of ink.

“You’re throwing them.” Zylah pointed out, easily sidestepping the blob of ink as it splattered against the wall. “Even if they hit, I doubt they’re much more effective than throwing a ball at someone, especially since they’re limited on how fast and hard you can throw them.”

“Hey, I’ll have you know these things came very in handy during my last heist when I used them to blind a guy trying to shoot me.” He argued, throwing a couple more Ink Blots, taking less time to aim them and rather just throwing them as fast as he could make them.

“Hmm, that is a valid point.” The shadow dancer admitted thoughtfully, as she less thoughtfully weaved through his assault without getting a single drop of ink on her.

(Actually with that dress you never know as black as it is you might be-)

Zylah met his eyes for just a moment before jumping through the air and spinning in a way that had her pass horizontally between two of his ink blots.

(Yeah, no, you’re not touching her.)

Panting a bit after pushing himself so hard, all he could do was glare at the shadow dancer as she walked over with a smug smirk. At which point the slight clacking echoing through the air reminded him that she was doing all of this in (fucking heels.)

(Admit it, that’s actually kind of hot. Mildly terrifying, but kind of hot.)

(I shall admit no such thing!) He told his teenage hormones, before shoving them out of his head.

(You know it’s true!)

“Alright, I’ve figured out what you’re doing wrong with this.” Zylah told him, as she took a drink from her canteen.

Giving the shadow dancer a slight glare before forcing himself to calm down, he eventually bit out a “And that is?” with only half of the frustration he was actually feeling at the moment.

“So your little ink ball… things, are a decent distraction but I don’t think they’ll be an actual ranged option without a lot -and I do mean a lot- of work.” Zylah began. “That said, I do think they’d make a good short range option to keep the pressure up when you need to get your feet under you in a fight.”

He quit hunching over and gave her a curious look. “What do you mean?”

“Well for instance if I were to push you off balance.” Zylah gave him just enough of a shove to send him back a step without actually hurting him. “You could use this moment to throw an Ink Blot at me, forcing me to back off rather than taking advantage of the opening. Even if it’s a blind throw, most people are going to want to avoid getting inked by you.”

(Inked…)

He considered it for a moment as he made another ink blot in his hand, before smiling as he threw the blot over his shoulder. “Yeah, alright I can see that coming in handy.”

“Now the trick here is that you’re going to need to work on your style enough to let you quickly rush back in, or otherwise take advantage of this counter opening.” The shadow dancer continued. “Actually, you’ll probably need to make it fluid enough to actually perform the reversal in the first place, because I really don’t see you pulling off with your… brawling.”

“You know what, I actually think I’ve got a way to make my style a little more… fluid.” He admitted, flexing his wrist as ink poured from his palm.

---

Zylah caught his Ink Knife on her shadow wreathed shin before spinning with the block to deliver a roundhouse to his stomach, sending him staggering back. At which point he threw out a small ink blot, keeping the shadow dancer back just long enough for him to shift his knife into a whip and swing it through the air forcing her even further back to avoid being hit.

“Alright, I think you’re finally starting to get the hang of it.” Zylah told him, before giving him a smirk as she stomped the ground with her foot. “Why don’t we raise the tempo a bit?”

Black mists began to pour out in a visible miasma from where the shadow dancer touched the ground as she began to move with a slight sway to her hips.

His danger sense flared for just a moment before Zylah was suddenly in front of him, leg raised for a heel drop.

“Oh shit!” He cursed just barely moving out of the way as she cracked the ground beneath her heel. “I thought you weren’t-”

The shadow dancer cut him off as she began to lash out with a series of kicks, each not only wrapped in shadows but leaving behind ribbons of shadows that he couldn’t hope to dodge in addition to her actual kicks.

“Shit, fucking, damn it!”

Zylah took a single step forward mere inches separating them as she put two shadow wreathed fingers to his chest.

“Mm, and you were doing so well.” Zlyah frowned as if disappointed before giving him a smirk as an unpowered shove sent him tumbling onto his ass. “Guess you’ve still got a while before you can be a proper dance partner.”

“Was that really necessary?” He asked her, feeling the numerous cuts her little ‘dance’ had given him slowly closing.

“Mm, no, not really.” Zylah admitted, stomping between his legs. “But it was fun.”

(I should just be thankful she didn’t stomp on me…)

(Or upset.)

(Be gone wicked thot!)

The shadow dancer went to take a drink from her canteen before frowning as she found it empty. “Hmm, what time is it?”

He blinked. “Uh, I don’t know?”

Zylah moved to her backpack before pulling out her phone. “Hmm, almost nine. You want to go ahead and call it a night?”

“We can.” He shrugged, before painfully rolling onto his feet as he remembered just how long it’d been since that vial of malice had worn off. “Yeah, I think I’m about done getting my ass kicked today.”

“Cool.” Zylah nodded, stretching her arms above her head. “Hey, if I pay for your meal do you mind grabbing a burger for me? I can’t really walk into a restaurant dressed like this.”

“Fine, but whatever I get I’m super-sizing it.” He warned her. “Fucking starving.”

“Yeah, next time we do this we need to bring snacks or something.” Zylah agreed as they made their way to the exit.

Scene Consequences

-Thanks to Malice Vial gained an additional (D6=6/3=)2XP to each skill.

---For rolling a Malice Crit gained 1 Malicious Madness.

-Thanks to Zylah’s Training gained 3XP to Brawling

--Thanks to multiple Zylah Trainings in a turn gained an additional 1XP.

--Thanks to Malice vial gained an additional 2XP.

---Currently: Lv. 4 (7/10)

-Thanks to Zylah’s Training gained 3XP to Ink Blot

--Thanks to multiple Zylah Trainings in a turn gained an additional 1XP.

--Thanks to Malice vial gained an additional 2XP.

---*Skill Level Up* Ink Blot Lv. 2 (3/6)

-Thanks to Zylah’s Training gained 3XP to Equip Ink.

--Thanks to multiple Zylah Trainings in a turn gained an additional 1XP.

--Thanks to Malice vial gained an additional 2XP.

---*Skill Level Up* Equip Ink Lv. 5 (0/12)

-Grown notably closer to Zylah.

-For using Malice Vials 7 Turns in a row gained 6 Malicious Madness.

--A/N: Technically I should’ve been keeping better track of this but I didn’t notice so, you’re getting a huge splurge of it now plus a bonus point for me missing this. So all in all you get 7 Malicious Madness this turn.