So, it looks like the Phantom Blot will strike. Russ might not be able to "spend time with the toons" but he could still get analyzed.
However: If Phantom Blot's scheme hasn't happened yet to according to our IC knowledge (we haven't found anything yet), I would prefer if we assign Russ to hang out with the toons and deal with reacting to PB the turn after next, rather than trying to preemptively search for him.
So, it looks like the Phantom Blot will strike. Russ might not be able to "spend time with the toons" but he could still get analyzed.
However: If Phantom Blot's scheme hasn't happened yet to according to our IC knowledge, I would prefer if we assign Russ to hang out with the toons and deal with reacting to PB the turn after next, rather than trying to search for him.
I like that, but only because it's forcing Russ into the villainous end of the Nemesis dynamic. Secret agents are supposed to seek out their nemeses. By having Russ not do that, we're putting him on the villain side. Which means that he might actually get the psychological help he needs from his monologue!
To that end, I propose a write in for Doof personals next round:
[ ] Coach Agent Russ on proper nemesis behavior and dynamics, and inform him about the healing power of backstory monologues.
And we SHOULD! This knowledge has thrown Russ off so hard, that he's LOST Tooned In, and gained a malus in its place! He still understands the Toon Force, but the knowledge that everything he knows is wrong has crippled his ability to use it without second-guessing himself. He needs some reassurance or he could shatter.
And we SHOULD! This knowledge has thrown Russ off so hard, that he's LOST Tooned In, and gained a malus in its place! He still understands the Toon Force, but the knowledge that everything he knows is wrong has crippled his ability to use it without second-guessing himself. He needs some reassurance or he could shatter.
Hm. You know, I just thought that Charlotte Dickens is probably modeled after Miss Marples, in the same way her brother is modeled after Sherlock Holmes.
The Avenge-Your-Family-Inator!:
After reading some memoirs from Golden Age supervillains you decided to try one of the classics evil schemes. However halfway through building it you realized that, besides Grunkle Malf, you're the only Doofenshmirtz with anything venge-worthy in their backstory.
Neither of you want to deal with Drusselstein right now, so you had to look into your adopted extended family to find anything to avenge.
Mechanically: If a King or Prince has directly harmed a (non-talking) ocelot with their actions on a previous turn, they will get a -20 to a random roll next turn. Or you can spend a PA to configure it to give a +5 in retaliatory actions against those who harmed someone Heinz considers family.
Promotion Inator: A hero unit of your choice will roll 100 for all future rolls.
Demotion Inator: A hero unit of your choice will roll 1 for all future rolls
Promotion Inator: A hero unit of your choice will roll 100 for all future rolls.
Demotion Inator: A hero unit of your choice will roll 1 for all future rolls
Eh, I believe that "Bad Joke" is a Bonkers trait referring to his complete lack of comedic timing and his inability to naturally harness the Toon Force like others.
That said, good job Bonkers! You actually made a successful joke with that "Wahoo!" bit! It was really bad timing for us personally, but that was part of the joke.
You know, you're a pretty good mad scientist. Way better than Xaney and Shego, and light years ahead of those Love Muffin chumps. You used to rely on luck for things to work out for you, but no more!
Behold: The Average-Inator!
Any rolls above 50 are reduced by ten
Any rolls below 50 are increased by ten
Many people wonder what exactly is going on inside the head of one Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, if anything at all for that matter. That said if they did, they probably wouldn't be too surprised by what they saw. Let's see some examples...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Alright everyone, we did it!" Joy shouted to the other emotions in headquarters. "We took over! And you know what that means..."
"Building more traps?"
"Petty revenge?"
"Writing a musical?"
"Mourning Perry the Platypus?"
"Yes yes, all good options, we can do those later. I was talking about..." Joy told the others before Doof looked out his window and onto the city. "Decorating! We rule over the tri-state area after all, we need it to look the part!"
"But I thought we only got two and a ha-"
"Tri-state area!" Anger cut off Sadness. "Shego just doesn't realize it's RIGHTFULLY OURS yet!"
"Do you think she didn't get our last message?" Fear asked. "We should send another one, or two, or twelve..."
"Honestly I'm more concerned with the fact she went ahead and claimed green before we could," Disgust told the group. "I get it's her thing and all but please, we wear it so much better."
"You know what I say?" Anger told them as he approached the console, putting down his newspaper that read Go Green or Go Home on the cover. "I say we go green anyways! It's not like Most Hated Enemy Shego has sole possession of it, it's a color!"
He taped on the console and an image of the DEI logo appeared in the corner of the screen that represented Doof's vision before it turned a distinct shade of bright green along with much of the room.
"But that might send the wrong message! We don't want people thinking Heinz is friends with her." Sadness said as they all approached the console. "How about this?"
As sadness pressed various buttons the colors once again shifted, this time to purple, the green retreating to become highlights.
"I like it!"
"People should be less likely to get the wrong idea with this."
"It's... passable..."
"Still get the green so I'm good with it!"
After that they moved on to the buildings and spent the next three hours arguing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ooh..." Joy said as Doof read the news. "A Tech Gala! We should go!"
"A Gala run by Syndrome? Blech," Disgust asked. "No thank you."
"But Heinz could show off some of his Inators!" Joy said. "Show off his villain cred and all that."
"Can't" Sadness interjected. "Invite only, and he didn't send us one."
"He WHAT!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Do you think this might be a bad idea?"
"Nope"
"No way"
"We have never done anything wrong in our entire life!"
"What about that time with the toile-."
"WE PROMISED TO NEVER SPEAK OF THAT AGAIN!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Alright, let's talk to that lizard guy," Joy said as Doof walked though the Gala crowd. "He looks cool."
"But that Doom creep is right there," Disgust responded. "Oh God, he looks even worse in person."
"I'll be fine," Joy assured Disgust. "What's the worst that could happ-"
"DOOM IS LOOKING RIGHT AT US!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"We- we did it!" Fear cheered as they watched Doof escape the area. "We actually did it!"
"And Shego didn't betray us," Said Disgust. "Pleasant surprise, I might have been wrong about her..."
"It's too bad about that Gwen lady." Sadness said after examining a memory. "I don' think that was part of Shego's plan."
"I still wanna know who that Drakken guy she mentioned was..." Anger was still grumbling about that. "Does she have another mad scientist in her life? We won't play second fiddle you know!"
"We can worry about that later!" Joy said as Doofania appeared on the horizon. "Look! We're almost home! We can get some rest and show Shego around and then talk about- is that a volcano?"
Sure enough, a giant volcano was now in the middle of the city, but something was off...
"Wait a minute..."
Doof examined the 'lava' up close.
"Is that?"
He brought a bit of it to his mouth, and the rest of the emotions were knocked aside as Anger assumed full control and fire spread everywhere.
I'm not sure what a toon's emotions would even look like. Sure they got them and can go from one to another at drop of hat normally but that level of crazy is a bit much for Nwish425.
Have toon emotions be so externalized that their internal worlds are utterly bleached out with only the lightest pastels present. Like a blank canvas with or white sheet of paper.
They have a internal world but their whole existence is about presentation, playing to a audience, they are all focused on the out not the in.
Unbalanced by design. Off kilter. Screwy. Bound by the toonforce.
Their emotions could be dead eyed robotic bureaucrats going through the motions on autopilot following flow charts to whatever is "funny".
I don't think this is in anyway true but is perhaps the most negative potential way of looking at it.
Not sure if it was pointed out. But for Russ to accept Doom as a Toon. To accept Toons as Murderers if only as a possibility... He would need to consider the Toon Force.
Toons can do anything so long as it's funny.
But who determines what counts as funny?
The audience?
Who then counts as the audience? Does the performer not also count as the audience? Does the performer's opinion not matter?
My current headcanon for Doom is that he makes his personal kills in remote locations, with limited audience, exactly because he can then weigh in his cruelty and bring his twisted murderous sense of humour to fruition, in those circumstances.
That would honestly explain a lot about how he can use his Tooniness to kill people - something that should be *impossible* for the Funny Folk.
Humor is very dependant on the Audience in question - the more people you try to entertain (especially if they happen to hail from different backgrounds), the harder it naturally gets to "hit the hight notes". But let´s consider the fact that Doom only ever ACTUALLY killed/tried to kill people with his Tooniness when he either had not even half a dozen viewers or was "off-screen" - that would naturally give him more leeway in "choosing his repertoire"
So yeah, Doom can probably use his Tooniness for genuine evil because he essentially "condenses" the audience that needs "pleasing".
Now, ND might operate on similar rules or maybe his Negaverse origin is throwing the Toonforce for a loop, like Russ tries to reason to protect his positively.discriminating views on Toons.
So the loss of innocence was expected. Didn't know that also meant loosing Tooned In, but narratively it makes sense. Gonna need Chat With Bossman and Technor therapy to fix that one. Also oof Bonkers, you fucked up. You have Dennis level Intrigue.
On another note, Phantom Blot is here to play! This should be good.
Yeah, after this mission Russ needs the full nine yards of R&R - Bossman-Talk, Psychoanalyzing and (PB permitting, of course - but even then I´d be willing to postpone their showdown for a bit, since Russ quite clearly isn´t on top of his Nemesis game right now...pretty sure that PB would be ok with letting his Equal Number cool down a bit in order to make their eventual Duel of Fates all the more splendiforous) his Spending time with the Toons PA.
He definitely is more than a little shook right now, since his Tooned In trait has gone off-kilter (wouldn´t be surprised if he now counts as legitimately traumatised from a shrink standpoint)
Well, both PB and Doof are hammy "Glory Days"-flavored villains that take/took Nemesis-Fights very seriously in their different ways - it makes sense that at least in that regard, they would just *Get* each other instinctively, despite being a mastermind Toon and...well, *Doofenshmirtz* (although Heinz legitimately is getting more and more competent in a way)
I think the way Doom works is that....Well, Toons can't kill because murder isn't funny. Or, it is, but only if the sucker bounces back. Hence, they can't kill humans. Doom, however, has figured it out. It's not that he's working for a smaller audience..It's that he's mastered the art of Dark Humor in a way no other Toon was twisted enough to consider. Be honest: When you saw Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and you heard Dolores mention a Toon killed Eddie's brother by "dropping a piano on his head"...You chuckled. Yeah. We all did. That's not a problem. It's funny. It's horrifying, when you think about it, but, in the moment, it's FUNNY, and that is Doom's power.
I think the way Doom works is that....Well, Toons can't kill because murder isn't funny. Or, it is, but only if the sucker bounces back. Hence, they can't kill humans. Doom, however, has figured it out. It's not that he's working for a smaller audience..It's that he's mastered the art of Dark Humor in a way no other Toon was twisted enough to consider. Be honest: When you saw Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and you heard Dolores mention a Toon killed Eddie's brother by "dropping a piano on his head"...You chuckled. Yeah. We all did. That's not a problem. It's funny. It's horrifying, when you think about it, but, in the moment, it's FUNNY, and that is Doom's power.
