the thmgau rewrite

End of a Campaign

The rest of the show went on without a hitch. No puppet attacks, no audio malfunctions, no accidents. As the group walked backstage to the sound of the audience cheering, Juniper stretched its arms.

"Whew! What a performance!" Juniper grinned.
"Yea, I see why y'all like doing this now." Cherry chuckled. "Maybe I should get into acting."
"We can't have 3 theater kids in the group! 2 is more than enough!"
"We should probably take these costumes off, huh?"
"Yeah, probably. Let's go do that."

The group went on to the dressing room as Natalie sat on a block backstage, browsing her phone. Allie walked up & sat next to her.

"Is your arm feelin' any better?" she asked.
"A little. Probably gonna be bruised by tomorrow morning," Natalie chuckled.
"Well, you better rest up. Maybe skip class or something."
"I'll be fine. It's not an animal bite, so risk of infection is low or something."
"Alright, well, at least get a bandage on that or something. Looks bad." Allie said, walking off.

The group comes back from the dressing room, in their normal clothes.

"Alright, I am starving!" Nora stretched her arms. "We should head by Arby's or something."
"Yea, absolutely. I could go for some curly fries."
"Hold on," Leslie said. "Before we go, I wanna do something."

Leslie walked over to Natalie & sat by her.

"Hey, Nat."
"Oh, uh, hey."
"I just wanted to say, um.. thank you for fending off those puppets earlier. You were very brave to do that."
"Well- They were gonna hurt you, &.. y'know, I can't let my rival die. Y'know."
"Yea, yea. Your 'rival.' If there's, uh, anything I can do to help with the bite or anything else, I'm a text away. Alright?"
"..Alright."

Leslie got up, waving at Natalie.

"Have a nice night!"
"You too."

Reconvening with the group, Leslie did a little twirl. "Alright! Let's go get some Arby's!"

-

It was a quiet night in the puppet shop. There were barely any customers, especially at this time of night, so Alph was sweeping & cleaning the shop. He had the news up on the TV as well, so it wasn't completely silent. As she swept, she took a glance up at the TV to see what was happening.

"A performance of Beauty & The Beast at the University of Cincinnati has been hijacked momentarily by 5 puppets. After a fight with an unknown actor, the puppets fled & their location is currently unknown. The following clip is a recording from the audience of the hijack happening."

The clip started playing on the TV. A person stood onstage as 5 puppets climbed up onto the stage & started attacking the person. Alph recognized the puppets instantly.

"No- It can't be.."

He continued watching the clip. Another actor ran out onto stage & started tussling with the puppets, pushing the green one off the stage. Alph could see his face clearly. It was Sotry.

"That's not Sotry, is it?"

Dropping the broom, Alph quickly ran behind the counter & opened up the back room, flipping on the light.

The puppets were gone.

The only things in there were the usual, & a small stack of posters that Alph had never seen before, sitting on the work desk.

Alph grabbed one of the posters & ran.

-

The group was outside now, heading to Cherry's car. It was quite dark out, but the street lamps were on, so they could see fairly well.