"I'm back. Whew. Feels good to be back home. Did you get my mannequin from Milly's apartment?"
"Yeah, I got the little weirdo. All of your puppets are here and ready. I don't think I missed anyone. Milly, Nikki, Leland, and Cash. That's all of them, right?"

"That's all of them. Thanks for all of your hard work, Black Wolf."
"It's been a long week for us here in the Pit. Do you know what's been going on?"

"Elder Presence filled me in this morning. I passed through some pretty gnarly places on my way back. It's going to take a lot of work to get everything back to normal... guess it's not our job to fix everything, right?"
"You're right about that. Thank god. I'm so tired."

Miss Planner normally did a pretty good job of keeping her precious puppets happy and well-maintained, but sometimes life got in the way. Her assistant Black Wolf had a spare key to her apartment and was responsible for keeping track of her puppet's whereabouts and activities just in case something happened. If only she could bring them all with her on the Razors' Edge with all the paint, tools, and spare parts she needed to make them perfect... but she couldn't, and that was that. So, Miss Planner had a lot of maintenance to catch up on. She put on some calming new age music, lit some candles, and began examining her puppets' bodies.

"Black Wolf, can you get the lacquer out and grab a couple different brushes? I'm going to start with Leland since his body's the simplest."
"You've got it."

"It's been a while since I did Leland, so I'm going to have to spend some extra time on him. Hmm. He's pretty depleted."
"He was fighting on the front lines the whole time you were gone."
"And we're going to have to work on keeping him from doing that in the future... at least he's still walking on his own two feet. I'm going to set everyone to doll mode."

'Soul Snake.'

"You can do that pretty fast now."
"It's the Rampage at work. My powers keep getting stronger and stronger. I might have to switch to that experimental super-Rampage I was telling you about. Just kidding."

"That garbage Tracy cooked up that's almost guaranteed to kill you or transform you into a monster? She makes me want to strangle her sometimes. I don't understand why you haven't fired her yet."
"Oh, come on. She's not that bad. Granted, she is a bit on the quirky side, but her heart's in the right place."
"Hah. Keep telling yourself that."

Miss Planner set herself to the task at hand. Before long, she was humming along with the music and working at a speedy rhythm. Black Wolf's help made the process go much more smoothly.When he wasn't bringing everyone's mood down with his non-stop complaining, he made a pretty effective assistant.

"Wow. You really fixed him up good."
"He wasn't as damaged as he looked. His shell was perfectly fine. We're making good time. Thirty minutes? Not bad. Let's wake him up."

'Soul Snake.'

Leland shuddered. The acolyte shook his shoulders and blinked his eyes open. He took one look around the room and suddenly sat up as fast as his plastic body would allow.

"Hello, Miss Planner."
"It's nice to have you with us again, Leland. How are you feeling?"
"Better than ever."

"Can you grasp your hands for me? Give me a smile. A frown... Anger. Sadness. Hmph. Looks pretty good! Hold my hand. Now give me a fist. Hold this pen. Nice! Great. Can you walk around for us?"
"Of course."

Leland stood up from the chair, tested his limbs, and then circled the kitchen a few times.
"Looks perfect. Let's put your personality back and send you home."

'Soul Snake.'

"Agh. Feels weird."
"That's normal. Hey, Leland, before you go... did you take care of that mortgage paperwork you were telling me about last time?"

"I got my refinance done at the World Alliance Bank with the banker you recommended. It's all official."
"What a relief. Good job. I'll see you tomorrow, okay? I used a different lacquer this time, so let me know if you notice anything weird with it."
"Will do. See you."

Leland went home and Miss Planner got right to work on her next puppet: Nikki, a young woman with blonde hair, tanned skin, and beautiful green eyes who worked in Miss Planner's research division as support staff. She had a terrible personality, but she was nonetheless quite effective at her job.

"I don't feel like I should be watching this."
"What, you've never seen a naked woman before? She doesn't even have anything interesting to look at. Hey, does this color swatch match? Which of these two looks better?"

"Hmm. The left... matches better. Can you at least put her panties on or something?"
"No. I want the skin tone to be even everywhere. If you're not comfortable, I can do the girls by myself..."
"I'll help. Let's get this over with. I feel bad for them."

Miss Planner's focus never wavered. She gave each of her lovely dolls the personal care and attention to detail they deserved. They were her snowmen, blank slates she could form as she pleased, their minds weak enough to be easily molded but stable enough to last.

"Phew. Okay. Almost done. Milly's still in great shape. I'm just going to give her a new paint job and clean up her joints."
"Of course she's in great shape. She wasn't out there killing rioters. She's just been sitting around at your stupid notary office."

"Hey! Milly works just as hard as anyone else. Don't talk about her like she's some kind of slacker. Can you grab my scraper? The little black one."
"Here you go."

"I'll make sure to get the knees nice and clean... Ah, that reminds me. How's Black Smoke doing?"
"He's still on crutches, but his voice sounds a lot cleaner. Barely any of that nasty choking noise he makes. I bet he feels a whole lot more human now."
"Good, good. Ah. This lubricant's out. Can you get me more from the top drawer?"

"Why do you keep this up here? Can you even reach it?"
"I have to use a stepladder, but yes. I put it up there with psychokinesis. Hehe."

"You're ridiculous. You have no idea how much you annoy me."
"That's no way to talk to your boss..."

Black Wolf watched Miss Planner work, helping as needed and doing his best to stay out of the way. He couldn't help but pester her a little here and there, but Miss Planner just laughed him off like always.

"There we are. All done. Hmm. What do you think?"
"It's perfect. I can barely tell it's all paint and plastic."
"Well, it's time for the best part. Let's see her in motion."

'Soul Snake.'

"Wakey wakey, Milly!"
"Ah. Welcome home, Miss Planner! You don't know how much I missed you!"

The brown-haired puppet had a cheerful smile on her face, but her eyes were soulless and empty.

"You know the drill. Show me your hand movements. Good. Big arm movement. Kick... now stand. Do you feel more flexible? Actually, can you test out your full range of motion really quick for me?"
"Hmmm..."

Milly contorted herself into various strange shapes. She walked around on her hands, curled herself into a tiny ball, stretched out like a snake, and hopped around like a rabbit.

"I feel... yeah. Slightly more flexible."
"I got your sockets nice and clean. But that's pretty much all I did. We're going to do your next maintenance a little early, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am!"
"Did you have fun watching the mannequin while I was gone?"

"We had lots of fun, Miss Planner. He still can't do much, but he's very affectionate..."
"Of course he is. He's my special boy. Can you stick around for a little bit, Milly? I might need some extra help finishing up here."

"Sure thing, Miss Planner."
"Now... I hope you didn't think you were getting away without your maintenance, Black Wolf."

Miss Planner gestured to a kitchen chair and Black Wolf sat down with a scowl.

"Ugh. This is humiliating."
"You took a lot of damage... you're dented like the inside of an old laundry machine. What were you doing?"

"I told you already. I was running around fighting sludge monsters and rioters all week. I'm surprised I didn't run out of power after the first couple of days."
"Well, that's because your body is nice and efficient... none of the other puppets are as optimized as you are. Don't worry. I'm going to bring you back to peak performance."

"Can't wait. Make sure you fix my shell. I'm pretty sure I got a few holes punched in me fighting those stupid Devils of Evil."
"I'll take a look. Now sleep tight. I'm going to put you in doll mode now. When you wake up you'll be a brand new you."
"Goodnight."

Black Wolf clenched his fist and squeezed it hard. His vision blurred. He stopped thinking. Then, the tiny Miss Planner took his clothes off and got to work.