[center][img]https://i.ibb.co/vc24KW4/Daphne-header-avi-2.png[/img]
[img]https://txt.1001fonts.net/img/txt/b3RmLjg4LmIwZWM5MS5Ubmx0Y0dnLjA/nebulo.demo.png[/img][/center]
[color=Lightgreen][b]Location:[/b][/color] Backstage, firebreather room
[color=Lightgreen][b]Interactions:[/b][/color] Talon
[hr]
[color=Silver][i]“Just don’t screw things up”[/i][/color]

Daphne stared at the text, coming to a halt. Even through text she could feel the animosity. It made her stomach turn uncomfortably. 
Her fingers hovered over the screen for a while, even typing up half a reply, before deleting it. 

[color=Lightgreen][i]I’m not….I’m not going to screw up.[/i][/color] Daphne thought. She looked up from her phone an…

[color=Skyblue]“Hey girl, you’re blocking the line”[/color] A irritated voice came from behind her. A woman holding a two year old boy by the hand stared at her. Daphne quickly put away her phone and apologized, letting them pass her. 

[color=Lightgreen][i]Okay come on Daphne, get your head together.[/i][/color] She really needed to not let Viktor get to her this much. She was going to stick to her plan, at least the part of the plan she’d actually thought out. 

[u]A couple of minutes later 
[/u]  

Daphne walked past several rooms backstage. She’d changed into her [url=https://i.pinimg.com/564x/ef/44/a5/ef44a579e012509de603242ad7532651.jpg]costume[/url] making her more inconspicuous, blending in with the other performers. Some of the doors were conveniently marked with name tags of acts. It made finding the room of the fire breather much easier. 

[color=Lightgreen][i]Found it![/i][/color]  
Now all she needed was to find a way ins…

[color=Gold]“Drinks and snacks on the house! I’ve got soda’s, popcorn, hot dogs, corn dogs, any dogs”[/color]
The vendor laughed at his own joke, slowly passing by each of the rooms. Her mind raced to think of a way she could use this to her advantage. 

Daphne walked up to the man not knowing what she was going to say until she opened her mouth. The vendor beat her to it. 
[color=Gold]“Hi there, what is up, what's cooking good looking? Plant girl right?”[/color]

[color=Lightgreen]“Yeah…”
“ I uhm… the big boss sent me to help you out, he said you needed a pair of extra hands”[/color]

[color=gold]“Needed help?”[/color] The vendor looked perplexed for a moment before appearing as if a lightbulb clicked on in his head. [color=gold]“Ohh yeah. You're the relief. Wow, the [I]big boss[/I] sure is one hell of a guy!”[/color] The vendor smiled as he removed his apron and set it on the concession cart. [color=gold]“The prices are on the side of the cart and no, you cannot snag a bite for free. Anyway, thanks for the relief and seeya later missy!”[/color]
Daphne stood next to the cart stunned, she was totally surprised her impromptu plan worked. She put on the apron over her costume and looked at the cart. It was stacked on each side with something sticking out of every nook and cranny. There was no use in trying to organize things, it would be a waste of time. When she approached the room of the firebreather, pushing the cart to the door she started to feel nervous. 

A light knock.
[color=Lightgreen]“Hi there, snacks on the house!”[/color] She said in her most cheerful voice. There was no reply, so Daphne began to list some of the tastiest snacks on the menu. Still nothing. She glanced around. There were still a couple of people in the hallway. Just barging into the room would be suspicious, anyone here could be working for Kobra. Daphne remembered Batman’s briefing. 

She pushed at the door, it wasn’t locked. Daphne had an idea. 
[color=Lightgreen]“Two hot dogs with extra ketchup?” “Coming right up Sir!”[/color] She made sure she was loud enough for the other performers to hear her. Daphne prepped the two hotdogs and made her way inside the room. There was no one inside. She set the hotdogs on a side table and looked around. 

The room was just a regular room. One corner was used to prepare props the firebreather used for his acts. What was she even looking for? The supplier probably wouldn’t leave evidence just laying around. The room smelled vaguely like sulfur. Daphne made sure not to move things around unless she absolutely had to. 

The sound of footsteps approaching the door drew her attention and she glanced over her shoulder. Oh no….
Her heartbeat jumped up and her first thought was to hide. She quickly inched closer to the walls of the room getting out of the immediate line of sight. 

[color=Lightgreen][i]Alright, just stay calm.[/i][/color] Daphne was considering her options. She briefly considered lying to his face, making up some kind of reason on why she was in the room. Who was she kidding? She couldn’t pull that off, hiding was the next best thing. There was a standing closet a few steps away from her. This needed to be quick. She ran to the closet, pulled open the doors and pushed herself in, squeezing her body between a row of costumes hanging from a rack. Daphne carefully pulled the doors shut and put her hand over her mouth. 

[Color=orange]“Who the heck left this cart at my door?! And where's Tommy? Sheesh, that dude is gonna get fired quicker than the last guy.”[/color] Daphne could easily hear the Firebreather's voice behind the door. In the next instance, the man entered his room as if he expected someone to be waiting there. More specifically, Tommy who manned the cart.

[Color=orange]“Huh? What's this?”[/color] He sounded like he noticed something off. 

Daphne stayed quiet. She looked down at her phone, quickly muting it. That would be the worst way to blow her cover.
[color=Lightgreen][i]I hope the Team is doing a better job than I am.[/i][/color]
So far she had nothing on the firebreather and she was stuck in place.

[Color=orange]“Hotdogs! My fave! I… you gotta be kidding me! Ketchup?! I fucking hate ketchup!”[/color] The Firebreather grunted muttered a few more curses before speaking again. [Color=orange]“Now I gotta wipe it all off… Wait a hot minute. Wait a hot minute! This… this stuff was staged! Those losers are trying to butter up to me now that they know I got a new gig in Metropolis! And even then, they screw it up. After this show, I'm leaving this shit show and I'm eating these hotdogs too! Ha!”[/color]

Despite being scared Daphne had to muffle a laugh. Who talked to themselves like that? She listened to what he was saying. Did this mean he wasn’t their guy? It seemed pretty difficult to be a secret supplier hiding at a circus if you were no longer part of said circus. 

The firebreather finished the hotdogs and left the room, locking the door behind him. She could hear the lock clicking shut and flinched inwardly. Daphne pushed open the closet doors and stretched after being stuck there for a while. She approached the door and checked the handle, yes it was definitely sealed shut. The teen heroine browsed through the room, looking for something to help her pry open the lock. First she tried a letter opener, next a clothes hanger. It wasn’t budging. Probably because of her poor lock picking skills. 

That left her with only one solution, something she’d been dreading, but held out as a contingency plan. Ask for help. It would defeat the purpose of her trying to prove herself a worthy member of the Team, hopefully the information she gathered would make up for it. There was one member on the Team she was sure wouldn’t say a word to anyone. She started to type up a text message.