---

Earlier that morning...

==~==

Ramona stirred, trying to blink the bleariness of sleep from her eyes. She made a long, drawn-out sound, halfway between a yawn and a sigh, as she realized what had happened.

Up before the alarm again... it's been a week. Can't I get a decent night's sleep anymore...? She concentrated on the weight of the arm thrown over her chest, as well as the warmth of the bodies on either side of her. She smiled in spite of herself. Wish I could sleep in with you guys... but I guess that's not happening today. Slowly, carefully, she tried to lift herself out of the bed without waking her partners, only for the weight of the arm on her chest to suddenly clamp down in a firm-yet-gentle vicegrip, pinning her to the bed. She rolled her eyes.

"Katja," she whispered reproachfully.

"...mmno..."

"Katja."

"...moar... snugl..."

"Katja, I'm already awake, may as well make something of the day. Now let me up, before you wake Izzy."

Said bluette's arrival into the waking world was announced by a slender, but no less firm arm sliding around her midsection, doubly confining her. "Too late."

"...Zzy..." came the sleepy, yet obviously joyful reply. Ramona rolled her eyes.

"I still have a commission to finish. I have to get down to the shop." The slender arm pulled tighter around her waist.

"Commission-shmommission. You have until the end of the month to finish. Take a day. Spend some time with us~" purred Izzy. A happy sigh from the other side of her announced Katja's wholehearted approval of this plan. Ramona was about to protest, when the lips that were so close to her ear before suddenly closed around it, nibbling lightly. She gasped. Izzy, you bitch. Using my weak points against me... She huffed once more in halfhearted protest before resigning.

"Twenty minutes... okay...? I can spare that much..."

---

7:45 PM

==~==

Ramona glowered at her girlfriends from across the dining room table, though the glare was mitigated somewhat by the flush on her cheeks, and the relaxation evident in her posture. A whole day, wasted. Well... not that she really regretted it, but still, the job! Katja was busily ignoring her, stuffing her face full of her dinner, while Izzy simply stared back at her and smiled. Ramona valiantly tried and failed to muster up the irritation necessary, before giving up and digging into her own plate of breakfast. Satisfied, Izzy picked up her drink and walked toward the living room, planting a kiss on Ramona's forehead before slipping away. Ramona sighed, then looked over at Katja, a small smile gracing her face.

"You coming with me to the shop tomorrow?" she asked, chipper as she could manage.

"Hwhubt?" said Katja, mouth full of steak and potato. Ramona resisted the urge to snicker before reiterating.

"I asked if you were gonna come help me at the shop tomorrow. I'm obviously not going in tonight, but I'm still kinda behind on the Buster Sword commission, and I could use a little help on some of the details."

Katja pondered this for a moment, then finished chewing and spoke. "Can't. Got an appointment with a client- apparently he's training for a marathon."

Ramona pouted. "Any chance you could stop by later? When you're done...?" Katja smiled teasingly at her almost-pleading tone.

"We'll see how I feel then," she said, punctuating her sentence with a wink. Ramona resisted the urge to melt into a puddle. Of course, all good things must come to an end...

"Uhhh... babe?" called Izzy from the other room.

"Yeah?" "Huh?"

"Smaller babe."

"What is it?" called Ramona.

"Those girls you hung out with... when you were younger..." Ramona felt something in her gut churn slightly. "They were called 'Justice Heart,' right...?"

Ramona swallowed. "...W-Why do you ask...?" Silence for a few seconds. And then...

"...You're gonna want to see this."

Ramona rose on shaky legs and walked to the living room, where Izzy had the TV on, staring open-mouthed at the news report that was displayed on the screen. Ramona watched for a minute or two, silent, dumbstruck, as the information took its time to register in her mind. Then, slowly but surely, a wide, feral grin crossed her face. How very... interesting.

Izzy came up behind her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Is... everything okay?"

Ramona turned to her, still grinning widely. "Katja?" she called back toward the kitchen. "I'm gonna need the motorcycle real quick!"

---

Current time
Justice Heart Hideout

==~==

Any discussions and negotiations of duties or what-have-you was interrupted by the door of the hideout quite literally being kicked inward, revealing the petite redhead in motorcycle leathers standing in the doorway. She wrinkled her nose at the sight that greeted her.

"Jesus H.B. Christ, we were tacky when we were kids," she said, looking around at the decor, before focusing back onto the assembled former teammates before her.

"How's it hangin', bitches? Anyone wanna explain to me why there was a monster party and I wasn't invited??"

Vivian Everett

Vivian grinned as the others began to agree with her, pleased by her own success in that regard. it was a lot better than just sitting around while someone played dumb and waiting for something to happen, and she had always been a bit more on the proactive side of things.

Resisting the urge to facepalm at Courtney's antics, she instead addressed Isana's rebuttal. "hey could have assumed that we didn't keep in contact enough to know how to easily find each other, and it'd be stupid to use something that we could handle without breaking a sweat on our own." At least, if she was thinking as a villain anyway.

The other suggestion was one that she couldn't disagree with even if she had wanted to. In fact, she was quite glad since it meant she got to get out of couch shopping with Alice. "Sounds good to me," she agreed with an aloof shrug.

Of course, before she could address anything else the last member of their missing group showed up and made her presence known. Turning towards Ramona, Vivian couldn't help but scoff. "They probably figured you were too busy cosplaying as a Ren Fair to be worth bothering," she challenged in response. She didn't have a clue, though she did think it was kind of unfair. What made Ramona so special?

After a moment she glanced back to the others. "I'll check out some of the Dollmasters old hideouts. I should be able to tell if anything has changed." She knew those places better than the rest of them after all.....

Not Breaking Down... For now.

---

"OWIE!" Alice complained as Isana pulled on her ear. "That's my cute ear!" She complained further. Whatever droopy mood she was in seemed over with that for now. [color=FAEBD7]"Fine, fine! I'm following Isana...." Isana obviously wanted to go, and she did come all the way here after all. From her current state, she noticed Ramona come in. "Hi Ramona! Don't fight with them or I'll cry." She said with a happy smile while having her ear dragged.

She wasn't in control of her own body at this point was she? Isana had her by the ear after all! "Ahh! Wait, Isana. I'll call Keri up real quick and she can drive us home. She doesn't live all too far from here." She somehow made it out of Isana's grab and pulled out her smartphone. She went to contacts and clicked the one labeled "She-Devil", put the phone to her ear and waited a couple of seconds. "Hi Keri! Can you do me a favor?" A couple of seconds. "N-no... I don..." A couple of more seconds. "No, I just... Ride home..." A couple more. "No! I mean, I was going to faint..." You know by now? "I'm not on drugs!" ... "Just get to our old clubhouse or no tips next week!" With that she hung up.

She sort of realized what she yelled and looked to everyone. "Ahahaha... It's kind of common in my field and uhh, my manager just wanted to make sure."

The door to the lair would be slammed open, a less than pleased Fiona stomping her way in. Her heels could have broken the concrete if she chose to, and she came to a halt before the already gathered group. Taking in a deep breath, she mentally counted to five before placing her hands on her hips. Her blue eyes scanned the group in front of her, and she let out a small whine of annoyance. Admittedly, Fiona had little contact with a majority of the group since her wedding, and even that was a little much in her opinion considering how drunk a certain someone got.

Inhaling through her nose, she shook her head as she tried to think of what to say, though the glaring pinkness of the room was super distracting. "If there's a way to take care of the situation without getting me involved, I would greatly appreciate it," She said, not bothering to ask what was happening.

Isana's jab at the entire group made Emily snicker in spite of herself, Goldenrods antics annoyed her, but afterwards simply listened idly to the remainder of the conversation.

As Fiona entered, Justice 'Star' gave a shake of her head. "Nope, your on team mom Fiona. We are searching the Dollmaster's old locations tomorrow as pairs, so be sure to hire a babysitter. I'm sure the others can form teams on their own." Looking around the room Emily wanted to make sure there was nothing left to be dealt with. "That's all? Great. We'll be going to the docks. Talk to ya'll if we find something. Bye." Saving the other mom from the group conflict, Fiona would feel a light touch turning her around on her forearm as the pair left the room.

"So, how are the little ones Fiona? Your better choice of men than me?" Fiona was probably the poster cut out of the truly happy, successful ending of one of their group members - Emily was a little jealous, but she wouldn't try and decry Fiona of the bragging rights she had earned.

"Alright, how about you go fuck yourself Emily!" Elise shouted, dropping out of her pose and walking away from Courtney. She was fine when the bitch was just being crappy to her, but start slinging shit at Connor for no damn reason? That would get you on the fast track to her shit list!

"In case you've forgotten, you were the one who went after him. You snatched the poor idiot up when he was going through a rough patch, and then you threw him away because of it! But oh, wait, that wouldn't be fucked up enough for you, would it? No, first you had to have a fucking kid with him! A kid who you constantly try to keep to yourself, might I add... Seriously, he'd give his life for that kid, and you barely let him spend time with her!"

She gave a dry, humourless laugh as she watched her leave with Fiona.

"Then again, maybe it's good that you don't let him see her, because it's let me dodge around your goddamn spawn for ages now!"

And then she turned to Courtney and Ramona, a strained grin trying to cover the anger in her face.

"Alright you guys, maybe we should get moving! God knows you two are the only people who actually give a damn about the freindships we made way back then!"

”Huh nothing?” Cartwright mused aloud as she took note of the surprising lack of external reactions to her earlier display. Internally might’ve been different but Courtney wasn’t a psychic. But she was an officer who had been involved in a few domestic dispute calls. And certainly the display between her pal Elise and the other Emily.

Courtney glanced at Elise and nodded. Certainly it would be easier to resolve the situation by leaving and establishing breathing room among all. ”I’m all healed up so I’m like ready to jet.”

With that Courtney gestured to Elise and Ramona, ”Any objection to checking around the old school grounds?”

”We can make a bit of sport out of potential captures. Don’t think Ramona’s got enough of a ride so I’ll fetch a cab or something.” suggested Cartwright as she exited the building and began searching her purse for her phone to do just that.

Isana Seiger

---

"No part of you is cute." Isana bluntly stated as she began dragging Alice towards the door until the woman decided to use her own two good legs. It was then she notice just about the only member of Justice Heart she didn't entirely hate. Ramona. An old rival of sorts, same with Elise. Unlike Elise though, Ramona was a little different. She actually made attempts to not be a complete stranger and after what had happened...well, Isana couldn't hate her. She was still pissed about the whole thing - but at least Ramona had made attempts to make amends.

"And maybe you shouldn't have been too busy being a complete degenerate." Isana replied with a light scoff, lips forming into a small smirk. It was more of a playful jab than anything particularly hostile. "We all got attacked by a monster. You didn't?" Isana questioned. Curious, if that was the case then. Not that it mattered right now. She had a...ergh, date with Alice. That she was currently regretting every second of.

"Well, whatever." Isana sighed, rubbing the back of her head. "I'm taking Alice I think we're gonna go checkout that old abandoned theater. See if we can dig anything up." After that, it was couch shopping and her sleeping in all day and doing abso-fuckin-lutely nothing if she could help it. "...and maybe dump this one off at a rehab center." As much as she didn't hate Ramona, she pretty much still hated everyone else here and had no intention of sticking around longer than she had too. "Don't get into too much trouble, because I won't be saving any of your asses this time around." With that, Isana turned to leave, a final dismissive wave towards the rest of the others in the club house.

Ah, she was missing an event raid. Ah, sweet shiny loot, why must you be so limited...

What!? She didn't want any part in this! Fiona couldn't help but let out a whimper of defeat, though she hesitated when she couldn't help but notice the tension in the air. She couldn't say she disliked any of the other girls--as they were responsible for their own paths--but the hostility some had was rather alarming. So much so, that when Emily had decided to take her along, she found herself actually concerned as Elise hurled rather hurtful words at Emily.

Letting out a sigh, she scratched her cheek, only coming back into focus when Emily addressed her. Fiona searched Emily's face for a moment, wondering how she could answer properly. Maybe if she had gotten there sooner, she could have tried to sit them down to air out their problems. But did she stand a chance when she would be fighting years of resentment and bitterness? Fiona counted herself lucky; her normal life had been a blessing, and it was easily something that the others could have wanted, too. Did Emily resent her for it and was just pretending to be nice?

Shelving the thought, Fiona decided to respond to Emily. "Everyone's fine, Sarah was sick again but she's recovering well," She said, taking out her phone and shooting a text to her husband that she wouldn't be home for some time. But she found she couldn't quite let things go. Pocketing her phone, she looked at Emily. "You think it's alright to leave everyone like that?" She asked quietly.

The temptation to fire some sort of star as Elise's head was very, very strong. But Emily held back from that urge. Not out of any sort of love for the aunt of her daughter, but because Elise was tough enough she'd be able to take it and between a fight of her and Elise she was sure Elise would win.

And besides, Connor wasn't even worth it. There was a reason the courts had granted near-total custody to her, rather than that miserable boy. Anyone who believed romance could really ruin someone was a fool - maybe she had been the straw that had broken the camel's back, but nothing more. Emily's thoughts began to travel down that dark path until the other mother started talking about her own kids.

As the more responsible mom finished speaking, all Emily could manage was a shrug. "If SolarFlare somehow managed to settle down into Mrs. Corona, then I'm sure the ruckus in there can prevent themselves from murdering eachother utterly." Emily raised an eyebrow at her old companion, previously one of the more hostile people in existence.

Back to the all important subject of kids though. "... That's good to know, I'm sure that she'll be a strong girl when she grows up ... If Mary had been through that many illnesses I'd probably have gone mad." The woman sighed. "They grow up really fast, so enjoy them while they still appreciate you. Heavens knows Mary is more responsible than I ever was, but I'm not cool anymore. She always wants to be with her friends."

Emily paused, looking at the other woman. "Can you drive? My car ... well ..." It needed to be at least looked at after that previous fight.

Vivian Everett

Gritting her teeth, Vivian frowned as everything...well, to put not too fine a point on it, fell apart. "This is why I don't come to the group reunions," she huffed to herself. It wasn't like it was her fault that someone had decided to sic a bunch of monsters on them out of the blue. But fine, she was the asshole here.

She wasn't sure why she was surprised. She'd always been the outsider, different from the rest of then. Justice Heart had been a team from the beginning and she had been the outsider, defined by the fact that she had once been allied with the Dollmaster against them. They all liked to claim that they had moved past that, but it was times like this when her position was more obvious than ever. It wasn't like there was anyone standing here with her as the group splintered apart into pairs.

Holding back everything that she could have said, such as why certain individuals were even around when they didn't want to be associated with anyone else, she fell silent. She'd let some of the people leave before heading out herself on her motorbike, mostly because they were already in front of the entrance. Not that she minded too much. She was used to relying on herself, and she'd just have to do it again.

Isana Seiger

---

Isana walked out of the clubhouse, sighing tiredly as Alice walked behind her. Well tonight was a bust on all accounts. Nothing fun to fight, tomorrow was pretty much guaranteed to be terrible, and worst of all she had to -ugh- work on her off days. Blegh, she needed a vacation. A long, international, vacation really, really, far away from here already. At least Keri was relatively timely with the car and she didn't have to wait long.

Isana stepped into the car, giving Keri a brief wave but otherwise ignoring her as she got into the backseat with Alice. She leaned back in the seat, folding her arms across her chest and crossing her legs as they started moving, glancing idly out the window as Alice told them where they were heading, enjoying the momentary silence from what had just happened at the clubhouse. At least she tried to. She had to pry a certain lesbian off of her multiple times throughout the short trip. Thankfully she didn't have to put up with her long before they arrived at the abandoned theater.

Isana exited the car, gazing up at the tall, abandoned building.

"Try not to get distracted once we're in there, Alice. I'd rather not be here any longer than we have too." Closing the door on the car, she began walking up to the front of the theater, hoping it wasn't locked or blocked.

Carrie walked up to Vivian. The other girl seemed to be alone, which just wasn't right. Not to mention, it was damned dangerous. Sure, she'd never been the most liked member of Justice Heart, what with the villainy and all, but right now, they needed all the help they could get.

"Hey, Viv. I- I think we should work together on this one. Cover each other's backs and whatnot. I recall that was one time we were attacked over by the docks." She left out the fact that it was Vivian who attacked them there with a monster, and it was there Justice Heart turned her good. "If this is Dollmaster- and I will admit to being skeptical on that point yet- it seems she's going back to her old tricks. Maybe there's something left at the location that we can pick up. You know her better than any of us, so you know what to look for."

Exploring the Past

---

During their car ride, Alice spent a lot of time trying to lean on Isana lovingly though the other woman didn't seem all for it. It didn't matter much though, she loved everything about Isana after all. She was still being quite a bit obnoxious while sending a text to Vivian. Sorry about that, I'm sure you were looking forward to dinner too. I'll take you out sometime later! And maybe a bit more if you're interested too~~~ Hehehe." With that, she sent the text and tried cuddling to Isana.

"It disgusts me still how forward you are." Keri said, peaking back at her charge. It was obvious to Alice the woman was just trying to rile her a little.

"Come on Keri, you love me as I am." Alice said with a smile, looking towards the driver.

"Are you sure you're not on any drugs?"

"I am not! Never ever!"

It was about that time they arrived at the abandoned theatre. "Sure, sure. Now here's where you wanted to go. Why did you want to come here of all places?" Keri said as she pressed a button and opened the doors for Alice and Isana to get out.

"Old memories!"

"And I instantly don't wish to know any more. Get out, please. I've TV to catch up on." In the front of the car is a small monitor which flicked on to a show about a detective recounting his past investigations.

As the two exited the car, Alice looked back at Keri and mouthed, "We'll have some fun later, ok?" Keri's reaction was to turn the sound up in the car speakers. With a giggle, Alice turned back to Isana that said she doesn't want to spend too long in there. "You don't want to spend a long time with me in the dark? Geez, aim at a maiden's heart why don't you?" Alice giggled as she lead the way up to the theatre. "This will be interesting at least." She entered first.

Vivian Everett

Waiting to leave, Vivian came to a stop as she found herself approached after all. Seemed someone did want to take pity on her after all,or at least it looked like it might be that way. She shot Carrie an unamused glance at the mention of the dock attack before reiterating the plan that she had initially espoused. "If it is the Dollmaster, she wouldn't care about that spot in particular," she explained. "I'm going to go check out one of her old hideouts, see if anyone's been in there recently. Even if it isn't her, someone could be using her leftovers."

Personally she thought that she could handle it herself, but as long as Carrie wasn't expressing some deep seated desire to not be involved in this whole thing then she supposed that she could live with it. A second set of eyes to catch things she might have missed would be useful.

It was at that point that something else presented itself to her, causing her to cast her gaze to her default companion yet again. "I only have the one motorbike," she added. She couldn't remember if Carrie had drove here on her own, but this might be tricky if she needed to give her a ride too.

Fiona definitely appreciated Emily's compliment--she did have a point. Well, they had all been changed, for better of for worse, and Fiona only hoped that she was right. Perhaps once they got to the bottom of...whatever was happening, maybe Fiona would do her part for the team. How ironic, considering she wanted nothing to do with any of these shenanigans. Shenanigans, and yet she was roped into fighting for 'the greater good'. How good could it be if it continued to disrupt her life? Would she ever know what normal was? She had managed to fight fine, all things considered, though she was only so active because chasing around her kids took a lot out of her. That and she was unemployed; taking care of her kids only took so much time, and she had to keep herself fit for her husband! But she never imagined staying fit for this.

"I'm glad," She replied when she would mention her own daughter. She must be so big by now. When it came to the topic of cars, however, her face flushed red. "I-I can...considering I may have totaled my own..." Oh man, she still hadn't called the insurance or let Aster know. Geez, how could she be so irresponsible? "Lead the way."

---

Any good feelings Ramona had about returning to the hangout spot of her sordid youth was burned away almost instantly at the mood that greeted her when she arrived. First Vivian being catty, then Isana and Alice leaving in a hurry (at least they didn't seem pissed off at her like everyone else), followed by... well. It looked like nothing had changed between Emily and Elise. Ramona glared at the ground sadly as Emily swept past her, throwing one last barb practically over her shoulder as she stormed out with Fiona in tow. Ramona sighed- there were myriad reasons why Justice Heart collapsed the way it did, but Ramona's ire always fell on Emily first and foremost. It was her stupid decision to get knocked up that knocked everyone else down the slippery slope to where they were now.

She grit her teeth, then moved toward the last two she was left with. Without saying another word, she practically dashed over to Elise, wrapping her old friend in a tight hug. Aside from Isana, Ramona had always had the most kinship with Elise. "The Ken to your Ryu," she once referred to herself as, their friendly bickering over the "Strongest" title always having been good for a laugh. It would be nice to get back into the swing of that again.

"Hey, Flower Girl," she said, giving one last squeeze before backing up. "Saw you on the news today. Didn't think I'd given you permission to use my title," she laughed with a crooked grin. She turned to Courtney afterward.

"To answer the question that everyone's been askin', by the way? No. I don't know why I wasn't attacked. Maybe the dragon-girl thing scared 'em off?" She shook her head. "Anyways, as much fun as this is going to be, let's try and get it done ASAP, a'kay? I got swords to finish." At Courtney's suggestion of her taking a cab, Ramona shrugged. "I mean, I don't know if you guys remember, but I can move under my own power. If any of you can ride, you can take the bike. Though, don't tell Katja. Or wreck it. She'll kill me dead if she finds out someone else touched her baby..."

Woodcreek High - Courtney, Elise, Ramona
When they wanted to go to the old schoolhouse, the party may have forgotten the place had been renovated and was actually still in use - kids weren't around this late at night, but some lights could be seen in the building where janitors were still working. This was actually the school where Emily's daughter, Mary, attended.

There were a few locations they could go to - there was a small stadium for sports games and other school events, with seats added since the girls had been here. Nearby there was a small athletic facility, lights completely off. Inside were showers, lockers, and an area for storing various gym supplies and some weight machines. A tennis court was adjacent. The girls would likely remember fighting various sentient bits of sports equipment as they struggled to fight the dollmaster.

The school building itself had two sections - one expanded onto more recently - with the old side having a large auditorium and a library. Previously the dollmaster had scared students in a plot to fill fear feeding monsters with powers in the auditorium, but the library had also been a place where she had possessed children with 'evil' knowledge.

Standing outside of the fence to the school grounds, what would they do? Were they in civilian or magical girl clothes?

Abandoned Theater - Alice and Isana
The site of many plays and a hard battle with stage props, the Woodville Theatre had been abandoned as part of their adventures. After discovering the events that occurred on stage would have some (usually unfortunate) effect in the real world, the Justice Hearts had convinced the manager to give up on his family business and instead pursue his real dream of being a skydiving instructor.

Currently the front was covered with wooden boards with old KEEP OUT tape wrapped around it. Though they hadn't seen it in many years, the girls would likely remember the general layout.



Docks - Fiona and Emily
With both of their cars decently damaged, Emily used her spell and they traveled across town magical girl style. It was a pit embarrassing - but in the end, the pair of them arrived at an old, abandoned dockyard. Previously the dollmaster had released a tentacled monster here - Star Heart winced slightly at the memory not that she thought about how she'd been caught up in it before and instead focused on their surroundings.

Emily remembered that something had come out of a nearby sewer that was shut down for environmental reasons, but she figured a nearby warehouse would be the best place to explore first. Already in their magical girl costumes, she figured no one would question them as they actually looked busy. Bringing the other mom to the front door of the warehouse, Emily sighed. It was locked, of course. "Hey, Justice SolarFlare, mind blowing this thing open?"

It wouldn't count as property damage if it was abandoned, right?

Old Hideout - Vivian and Carrie
Caves - the easiest place for anyone to hide. It didn't take long for Vivian and Carrie to arrive a small distance, and the pair of them would find the front front steel gates were open - perhaps the pair had forgotten, but the old hideout had become a tourist trap - and it was still open with a yawning security guard outside as it approached its closing hour - one disappointed couple was shooed away - they had likely come to check the area out given the events only a few hours earlier, but closing time was closing time.

The pair would remember the general layout of the Dollmaster's lair. Beyond this gate was the trap room, with various traps having been 'partially deployed' with props and descriptions beneath them. There was also a gallery, showing the Justice Hearts in one of their final battles as depicted by a news crew - and group photo, taken the victorious day afterwards when they were all recovered.

What would the two do?

Isana Seiger

@Pyromania99@RabidAnubis

---

"Humph," Isana exhaled sharply. "I'd rather not have someone's hands touching somewhere they shouldn't." Isana walked up to the boards observing them for only a second before deeming their offensive existence to be obliterated from existence. She lifted her leg, slamming her foot into the object causing it to shatter instantly into several pieces. Not sparing a second thought, she walked forward and opened the door. If it was locked or otherwise blocked, the door would have received the same treatment - she'd send the thing flying off its hinges if she had too.

"Eugh...smells worse than I remember it here." Isana held her hand over her nose, the stale air not very pleasant to breathe in. That aside though, nothing seemed to be too out of the ordinary and pretty much was the same as she remembered it, though aged and run down. Upon initial inspection, everything seemed as it should be. They'd just need to look around a bit, hopefully report no trouble and she could go home and never talk to these fucks again.

"The easiest thing would be to check the theaters first." Isana thought aloud, recalling the layout of the building. "Check the three smaller theaters, I'll start the larger one before moving to the backstage area." Chances were, if there was anything funny going on, it'd be in one of those four areas. Or the restroom, perhaps. Nothing ever good happened in restrooms in mystery and horror games.

Vivian Everett

Entering the caves brought an instinctual shiver to Vivian's spine. Even though she had put that part of her life behind her, there was always some lingering trace of the Dollmaster's magic that seemed to make itself felt. That was why she usually avoided places like this, but now they had no choice in the matter. She could live with her own ill feelings, especially if it meant actually accomplishing anything of value.

Of course, a groan escaped as she drew near to find the gates and the guards standing there. Right, they'd made this some kind of tourist hunt for people interested in their group. Or a shrine for the Dollmaster, depending on your perspective.

There was just one problem, which she observed as a couple wasn't allowed to enter. They were going to have to do something about those security guards if they wanted to get inside. Fortunately she had just the idea as to how they could manage that. "Follow my lead," she told Carrie before approaching the guards. Time to swindle their way inside.

"Excuse me," she said with a happy smile, acting like the kind of person she decidedly wasn't. More like Courtney really. "I was here earlier, and I think I left something inside. Can I duck back in to get it? It'll be real quick, I promise."

@RabidAnubis@shagranoz