With an exaggerated yawn, BarbieSlave got out of bed the next morning, and went over to her closet to choose her outfit for the day. Sauntering over to her closet, she threw open the doors to find… nothing. And not nothing as in nothing out of the ordinary, but quite literally, nothing. Barbie took a deep breath in an attempt to steady herself, but she could still feel her eyes bulging and her heart thumping crazily. With an agonized shriek she dove into her empty closet, desperately tossing apart empty boxes and wrappings that had been left on the floor. Her desperate frenzy yielded nothing but a gargantuan mess, and she sunk to the floor in despair. Amidst the wrapping, suddenly, Barbie saw a scrap of fabric. Pulling on in, she could see that her old bag marked “trash” was still lying on the floor. Desperately, she yanked it open to find a jolly jacket and anti terror pants.

With a heavy heart, Barbie put them on, feeling ludicrous now, as well as depressed. Luckily she kept her shades downstairs, so she put them on as she tentatively ventured from her house.

The street was busy, tons of ATers were out and about. McDonalds was open, and Barbie almost went in to catch up with Drake and the others, as well as have a coke, before she remembered her predicament. Stifling a sob, she hurried past the alley that housed Darky’s shop, the stadium where the AT awards were going on, and BunBun, before she came to the coastline, where the Black Nancy was docked.

Hurrying onboard, she encountered Bilious talking to Jadeth on the deck. Hesitantly, Bilious said, “Ahoy! Can we be helping you?”

Barbie realized that they couldn’t even recognize her with her abysmal outfit on. Hesitantly, she revealed what had happened, “I just woke up, and all my clothes but these were gone.”

Jadeth winced in sympathy, knowing how awful she would have felt if such a thing had happened to her.

Bilious mused over it for a moment, then shouted, “Yo, ho, ho! All hands on deck! All hands on deck!” In a more subdued voice he told Barbie, “Don’t worry, we’ll catch the culprits, and make them walk the plank!”

“Thanks. I hope you’re right,” Barbie replied, trying not to break down.

***

While the crew of the Black Nancy convened, Cerradwyn and Ryos stopped into .Arriana.’s Grotto for a rate. Sidling up the counter, Ryos was first to ask after a rating, but the moment she stepped up to the counter, she heard a hiss, and a harsh voice from behind the counter snarled, “GET OUT! We’re closed today!”

Ryos deemed it appropriate at that point to make a mad dash for the door, but Cerradwyn, ever curious, inched closed, trying to make out if that was, in fact, Ari behind there. If it was, it was a very out of character Ari, who was one of the nicest people in AT.

She took one step closer, attemping to glean an idea of who it might be, but a red and black covered hand snatched her up and yanked her into the darkness of the back room.