"You're cheating!" Mia whined as Ivy pulled her out of her corner.
"Nope. I'm just good at the game," said Ivy. Rosy laughed softly and helped Ivy pull the drooping Mia to her feet. Mia had spent the past several hours hiding and talking with Rosy. How strange. This all felt very unlike the Mia that Ivy was used to. There had been a while when Ivy was the only girl in the whole city that Mia seemed happy to talk to. Now that was changing.
This was probably a good change. Mia had to learn to communicate and find allies. That would always be a useful and important skill. But what had caused the change? Perhaps it had been Ruby. Ruby was the first friend that Mia had made all by herself. That must be it. Here was more evidence that Ruby had been good for Mia. If anything ever happened to Ivy, she would leave Ruby and Blossom in charge of protecting Mia. Ivy was fairly sure she could trust them to at least try to protect Mia.
"Okay! Now let's play again!" cried Mia. "You'll hide with me this time, Rosy! Oh, and I want Ruby to count!"
"You know you don't have to do exactly what she says, right?" Ivy said to Rosy. Rosy just laughed again and shook her head.
"Oh, I don't mind. Honestly, I'm having a whole lot of fun," she said. Ivy was also having fun. Death-games could be really fun when you removed the death part. The one thing that Ivy was slightly worried about was Mia getting too attached to all of her new friends. The way dolls acted with each other when they were on break vs when the games were running could be very different. Emotions could be helpful. But attachment was useless at best and dangerous at worst. But it was also a very tempting thing. Even Ivy had to watch herself and her emotions. Painful as it was, it helped to remind herself that she could lose everyone who she cared about. That made loss easier to accept.
Ruby began counting and the other dolls scattered, looking for places to hide. A handful of new dolls had joined the game and were happily playing along. Ivy glanced around, half hoping to see Lu. But Lu was probably spending the break with her own friends. Besides, hide and seek might not be Lu's favorite pastime. Ivy picked a fairly obvious hiding spot, where she could keep half an eye on Mia. Mia was still chatting happily with Rosy.
The two of them really did look like they were having the time of their lives. Ivy couldn't help but smile. Everything about this day so far had just been so perfect. It was hard to imagine it getting any better. But there was a part of Ivy, the tired part that really wanted to go home and spend the rest of their break doing nothing but sleeping. Blossom was the winner of this round. That didn't surprise anyone. She really did seem to just disappear into thin air from time to time.
"We will now crown Blossom the official queen of hide and seek!" Mia announced after Blossom had finally been found. "But I don't have a crown, so you're just going to have to pretend that I gave her one!" Applause rose up from the small group. Mia let out a sigh and looked up at Ivy with a happy but tired look on her face. She made her way over to Ivy and leaned up against her.
"Are you alright? You look tired, Mia. Maybe you should take a nap," suggested Ivy.
"B-but it's still the day! I don't want to miss the fun..." Mia trailed off and sighed. "But I am tired. So, so tired. Maybe a nap will be good for me."
"Look at you! You're being sensible for once!" Ivy laughed. But Mia didn't smile or look up.
"Your powers?"
"Y-yea," Mia's voice had become a faint little whisper. Instantly Ivy took hold of her shoulders before the child collapsed to the ground. Well, this was just great. They finally had a break. But Mia wasn't going to be able to enjoy it for the next several days. Ivy lifted the child into her arms.
"Mia, look into my eyes. I'm here for you. Everything is okay." Mia didn't answer her. There was nothing but pain and terror in her eyes. Right now, she was feeling all the awful things that her powers protected her from, and she was feeling them with full force.
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Ivy tried to slip away quietly before anyone noticed that something was wrong. Mia needed to get to bed. Sleep was the best thing for her when she was like this. Her pain and her fear couldn't reach her then. It really was what was best for her. Mia whimpered softly as Ivy tucked the blanket around her.
"I'm sorry. This sucks, this really sucks," was all Ivy could say. Just a few minutes ago, Mia had been so full of life and joy. Now everything that she didn't want to feel had come crashing down on her. "Sleep. It'll be easier if you sleep." Mia didn't answer her. "I love you, kiddo." Ivy reached out and took Mia's hand. She was cold.
She could use some extra blankets. Ivy headed back to her own room and brought Mia her blanket. Then she went all through the empty apartment collecting the extra blankets that belonged to dolls who had been shattered. She bundled Mia up, wrapping her up snugly under several layers of blanket. "I'll be back to check on you soon. Just wait for me. Don't worry, things will get better. They won't stay like this forever." Ivy was telling herself that as well as Mia. Downstairs in the main hall, Blossom was waiting for Ivy. She greeted Ivy with a concerned smile.
"Is it her powers?" asked Blossom.
"Yeah."
"Poor girl. I hope she gets better soon."
"Yeah. Was there something you wanted to talk about, Blossom?"
"Yes! I-is now a good time?"
"It's as good a time as any. What's wrong?" asked Ivy. Blossom responded with a long slow sigh.
"I just thought I should warn you about something..." she trailed off.
"What is it? Tell me! Blossom, you're freaking me out. Did something happen?"
"I-I can't be sure. But when I got up this morning, I overheard two girls talking. I-I think that they said they saw people wandering through the streets last night and they were wondering why." Blossom's words were enough to make Ivy's nonexistent heart stop.
"Do you think they saw us?"
"That's what it sounds like to me. I just thought you should know, and you should warn Ruby too. You two have to be careful. Do you have any idea what will happen to you if the overseers catch you?"
"No, not exactly. But I can imagine. Thanks for the warning."
"A-are you sure you want to keep doing this, Ivy?"
"Of course! We're making progress. That's a good thing," said Ivy. "I can't tell you how wonderful it feels!" Ivy said honestly.
"Can't you see that you're fighting a hopeless fight?" Blossom demanded. That caught Ivy off guard. Blossom's voice was nothing more than a bitter and almost angry whisper.
"B-but we're making progress, Blossom."
"What are you moving towards? Freedom? What does that even look like? Does it mean leaving the city?"
"What else would it mean?"
"How could we survive without the humans? Did you ever think about that? We aren't built for the natural world," whispered Blossom. Fear filled her face as she spoke. Ah, this explained a lot about Blossom. Was this why she had left the rebels and no longer wanted to help them? "Do you really think we'd be able to take care of ourselves, Ivy?"
"I-I don't know," admitted Ivy. "But I think it's worth a shot."
"Ivy, please be logical. We are glass, we risk death each day. We need the humans to repair us. How could we live without them?" The fear in Blossom's voice had faded into sadness. It was a faint, empty sadness. Blossom's brown eyes had lost all light. They were dull and distant, much like Lu's. "Can't you see how pointless this all is? The humans hate us, but they don't need us. We need them. We are fully at their mercy."
"So, do you want to live like this forever? Do you just want to live through this nightmare over and over again, forever? Is that what you want, Blossom?"
"I don't have much of a choice. I'll lose either way. We were made for the humans. Lying to ourselves won't change that fact. Either we do what they want, or we die pointlessly." Blossom was shaking now. With a deep breath, Ivy was able to calm herself.
"You really want to talk me out of this don't you?"
"I don't want you to have to go through what I did, Ivy." Ivy slipped her arm around Blossom's shoulder. This girl was no fool. Blossom had lived through many rounds of the game and had a ton of experience. All the words that were coming out of Blossom's mouth made sense. Ivy spent so much of her time worrying about what was useful and what was useless. But Blossom had decided that everything was useless. No matter what they did, it would hurt them in the end. "H-how can we beat the people who created us? H-how can we live without them? No matter what we do, it's useless. So why don't you just play the game? If you play it enough, it won't hurt. Everything will become numb. Everything will fade away."
Those words burned into Ivy's mind. Useless. Everything was useless. Now Ivy found herself staring down at her own hands. These had been made by a human. Every single part of her had been built by a human. Was her body really her own if it didn't belong to her? Did she have anything? This wasn't the way to think. Ivy shook and pulled Blossom into a tight hug. The only thing that she could be sure of was that they both needed some comfort right now.