"Thanks for coming!"

"Had a good time, thanks for having me."

Tobi packs, which consists of stuffing dirty clothes into a front pocket of her suitcase and tossing it in her trunk; she says her goodbyes, and departs.

The Carolinas are largely rural, and very scenically so, if you like rolling mountains and misty forests. Witches cluster mostly around the population centers, like usual, but there's decently high numbers even out in the sticks. Most of the girls are territorial, but as long as she avoids hunting around Charleston she'll get warnings rather than an outright attack. Boone is great for nature things, the railroad is probably more enjoyable for small children but isn't that bad as an adult, and Charleston is as pretty as promised with an enormous, sprawling outdoor market selling all sorts of crafts, ghost tours (the local girl apparently likes to crash these), and general city attractions. Myrtle Beach isn't super crowded this time of year, but is definitely geared towards large beach-going crowds, while the Outer Banks varies more and has the small, interesting little nooks like Raine described.

Tobi hits as much as she can in a week.  Magical girls crashing ghost tours sounds hilarious, and she takes a few in the hopes of being spooked.  Wilderness is fun once in a while but she mostly sticks to population centers, purchasing little souvenirs, sleeping in motels, enjoying the sidelong glances drawn by her gaudy matte-gold jeep.

Some day she's gonna have to figure out some way of making money, preferably before she burns through all her lottery winnings, but today is not that day.

The Charleston magical girl seems to have figured out some truly innovative tricks for pranks. Nothing as blatant as levitating things, but stuff moves when people aren't looking, there are soft spooky sounds, occasional flickering lights out of the corner of your eye...

The other magical girl must notice she's there, because the spookiness increases around her and gets every-so-slightly more blatant and horror-show-esque.

(The guide looks eminently long-suffering.)

Tobi has a good time being terrified.  She tries to catch the other girl's eye so she can wink, but she's too good for Tobi to spot her.  She contents herself with a knowing smirk at the tour guide at the end of the journey.

The tour guide has the distinct look of someone not paid enough for this.

She laughs, and departs.

In a few days, lounging somehow solemnly in a pleasantly seedy motel, she calls Mal.

"Hey."

"Hey. Holding up alright?"

"Not bad.  I'm out in Charleston.  There's supposed to be a local girl who haunts a ghost tour out here.  I've been trying to catch her eye, but no luck so far.  How's the League?"

"We've been doing well. Haven't managed to recruit any more girls yet, but I'm not too surprised. They tend to come in bursts, and we're close to saturation point for the area anyways."

"Did you ever hear from Bryce?  Or Raine?"

"Got a couple texts. Mostly confirming numbers and then that they'd contact us in an emergency, or we could contact them. Pretty impersonal."

“Bryce didn’t want to talk?  Seemed like she was going a little crazy with only Raine to talk to.”

"Didn't hear anything like that from either, but the texts were very - something I'd expect from a particularly impersonal editor. They weren't like that in person?"

"Like, uptight and brusque?  Not really.  Raine seemed friendly.  Bryce was I guess reserved, except one night when we got to talking and it seemed like she was in a bad place.  She talked like every magical girl other than Raine was, like, waiting to pounce, so I guess if she still thinks that she could be nervous or something.  I was hoping Bryce would eventually just wanna talk to someone else and figure out we're not all bad.  The whole thing kinda sketched me out a little, to be honest."

"That does sound concerning. How did Raine talk around and to Bryce?"

She frowns, thinks.  "Now I think about it, Raine had a lot of horror stories.  Every other magical girl she told us about was some creepy witch farmer.  Like, lots of us are territorial, but we're not all that bad, you know?  I didn't see her - trying to put Bryce down or warn her off me, or anything, but I guess she could've been hiding it."

"There could be other things going on, but - that doesn't sound like a healthy situation, no. I'm not a social worker, so I don't have a lot of specific experience, but in general - it's good to try to leave someone like Bryce an out of the situation, for when she's ready to take it. She might not realize she can leave."

“Well, I gave her the League’s info...”

She frowned.  “I gave Raine the League’s info.  Because Raine thought Bryce would agonize too much over whether to contact you if she knew about the League.  Shit.”

"I'd probably try to make sure Bryce knew how to contact us? Or at least someone other than Raine. But I haven't actually talked to them."

"Yeah, I'm gonna head back that way and talk to Bryce directly this time.  God, this feels more and more fucked the more I think about it.  Raine used to be a nomad, she's gotta know we aren't actually all that bad, and she's feeding Bryce horror stories.  Jesus."

"Bryce might react poorly if you suggest she leave right away; having an open door is better than someone trying to push you through it."

" - I mean, if you say so.  But if Raine actually never gave Bryce the League's info, and Bryce finds out, I can't imagine her sticking around that long in any case."