His first time

"Everyone remembers their first, so let's continue the trend! From his first Crush... to the girl who took his virginity!"

"No. Fuck, not her. Please..." David tried to turn and run, only to find Motley's lanky form blocking the way.

_"Now, sir... don't you want to see an old friend again?" The jester's painted grin leered at him. "A former peer of our Ringmaster, they parted on less than stellar terms. But though sparks will surely fly, they might just rekindle something truly special. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for... Katie Webber!"

Kat woke on a bare wooden floor. Ok, so she hadn't made it back to her own apartment after the Rave. Still dressed though, so at least whoever had brought her home was a gentleman. Head pounding and eyes screwed shut as she fought the wave of vertigo, she lifted herself up and felt around in the gloom. Lights flickered, and through her screaming hangover she made out the general shape of the room. It looked cramped up and tight, like a shed that someone had started homesteading in. A bed took up one end of the room, and a dressing table filled another side of narrow room. The door was open, but the light of the bulbs around the mirror didn't penetrate the darkness beyond.

Fuck waiting around for her mysterious companion to show himself. Kat was going to go out and find out where the hell she was and whether she had been kidnapped or saved from a night on the street. If her host really was something close to a gentleman, maybe she could score something to take the edge off before she hit the road too. Her head was pounding in the way she usually preferred to drown with a few rounds of Hair of the Dog.

"Not sold on this addition either, Sir? Oh dear me." The ceramic face was implacable as ever, it's wide smile and empty eyes unchanging even as Motley's voice took on a tone of theatrically exaggerated sorrow. "Why ever not?"

David scowled. "She ruined my life!"

"Now, dear ringmaster, don't you think that's a bit far?" Motley paused, seemingly thinking, before they burst back into their performance. "Really, she only ruined a year or so! In any case, you'll have plenty of time to hash this all out, here she comes now!"

David wasn't sure what he'd expected Katie to look like these years later, some kind of superficial, bitchy gold-digger? A well manicured trophy wife? Certainly not the pale, thin woman dressed in a miniskirt and an oversized leather jacket. Black tape X's offered the laughable suggestion of modesty to her bare chest, and lurid tattoos snaked across her skin. Her eyes were hollow and sunken, and her heavy eye-shadow couldn't conceal her even heavier eye-bags.

"The fuck is going on? Where am I?" Kat's voice echoed as she staggered into the ring, "and who the fuck are -" only to find Motley's harlequin patterned arm coiling, long and boneless, around her mouth, gagging her under a wrap of red and blue patchwork.

"Well now, Katie, I see someone didn't read the welcome packet. Don't you fret though, because I shall explain once we have All of our guests! In the meantime, can I trust you'll behave?" The hollow eye sockets bored into her terrified eyes, an unblinking stare that held until the woman nodded. "Good! Now, an introduction if you would be so kind!"

The now familiar glazed look came over her. "Hey, I'm Kat Webber, I'm 26 and I'm unemployed. I was taken while I was face down in a gutter after a night out in Manchester," Kat paused and gave a glassy-eyed frown, "Wait, what? I -" but the compelled introduction pressed on, carrying her with it. "I've had a number of partners, but I'm not looking to settle. I still think about the Master often, usually while drunk."

"Well Ringmaster, I know you weren't a fan before, but you seem shocked. What's the matter, not what you expected? People change," their Porcelain mask barely muffled their chuckle, "Or so I'm told."