The Doll, Lila, and Malina stood before the entrance to Malina's room that lay at the end of the first floor of Lunarie in isolation. The fresh uniform that The Doll held rested neatly folded along her arm. Malina and Lila both closely watched The Doll, a barely disguised concern for her etched on their faces.
Neither of the two had mentioned anything about what happened in the forest. Yet the concern etched on their face made it evident that they hadn't forgotten. Those concerned gazes hadn't left The Dolls' form since the incident happened.
Malina held The Dolls hand tighter than normal, something she hadn't stopped doing since the three left the forest. The Doll sighed and said, “Is this truly necessary? I told you I was fine.” She knew the question would ring on hollow ears yet still felt the need to ask yet again.
Malina gripped tight on The Dolls hand as she turned around and responded, “This is the second time you've had an incident like this happen. I'm not leaving you alone.” She then ran her hand across The Dolls cheek and gently said, “I don't want you to break.” She then pulled away and moved to open the door, dragging The Doll with her.
After Malina finished speaking, Lila added on, “W-We also want to know what's wrong with you.” The Doll decided not to give this a response, not sure if she even could with The Strings influence.
With a slight creak, the door to Malina's room opened revealing the princess chambers at Dreadwood.
The Doll wasn't sure what she expected Malina's room to look like, but this certainly wasn't it. The first thing that caught her eyes was how the room was shockingly dark; every piece of furniture and cover was a dark shade. The second thing she noticed was a vast collection of stuffed animals, their various colors and quality standing in stark contrast to the darkness surrounding them.
Some of these stuffed animals looked as though they were years old by this point, with stuffing coming out from various spots and stitches covering their surface. Meanwhile, other stuffed animals looked brand new, as if she had just acquired them yesterday.
The third and final thing The Doll noticed was the mess. While every stuffed animal was neatly arranged with careful precision, the rest of the room looked to be in immense disarray. Sheets and pillows were strewn across the floor. Crumpled-up pieces of clearly discarded paper lay across her desk. What little books she possessed were in various places around the room lacking any form of order.
The sight made The Doll shudder.
Despite the obvious mess, Malina simply walked over to her bed and plopped down onto it, still wearing her messy uniform, only increasing the disarray the sheets were in. This left The Doll awkwardly standing over Malina's bed, who had yet to let go of her hand as she heard Lila shut the door behind them.
The Doll looked at the mess of Malina's uniform, then transitioned down to her, examining her own, which was covered in dirt and dents from rolling along the forest floor. Seeing this, she suddenly felt incredibly uncomfortable being in such an improper uniform.
Shifting in place The Doll brought her gaze back to Malina and asked, “May I go change my uniform now?" As she said this, she raised the clean uniform up slightly to remind Malina of its existence.
Malina's gaze fell to the uniform, then back to The Doll as she rolled her eyes, saying, "No," as she suddenly pulled on The Doll's hand. The sudden jerk caused The Doll to fall on top of Malina, who practically sank into the soft bed. The Dolls face was now inches away from Malina's, allowing her to see every detail. This close proximity allowed The Doll to see Malina's face shift into one of delight as she said, “I want to stay like this.” Then, with her free hand, she wrapped herself around The Doll in a motion that resembled a hug, pulling The Dolls body tightly against her own.
The Doll wasn't quite sure how to respond to such an act, so she merely remained still, hoping Malina would be satisfied after a short moment of this embrace.
It was Lila who came to The Dolls rescue as a sound that The Doll could only describe as embarrassed sputters filled the room. This sound caused The Doll to turn her gaze to Lilas's direction, followed reluctantly by Malina.
Lila's face had completely shifted to a brighter tone, which she desperately attempted to hide by covering her face with her hands. When both their gazes landed on her, Lila hastily looked down and rapidly said, "Th-that's not what we came here for.” She then took a deep breath as The Doll mentally prepared herself for what would inevitably come next. “AND IT'S HARDLY PROPER!” Lila shouted out in the high-pitched scream that The Doll had grown used to hearing from Lila in moments such as these.
Malina's face twisted into a pout as she said, “Fine.” Before reluctantly releasing her grip on The Doll allowing her to move.
Without wasting a moment The Doll got up and walked towards the bathroom before Malina changed her mind. She was more than eager to get out of this dirty uniform that she had been forced to wear for far too long.
Opening the door to the bathroom, she immediately noticed the mess of dirty clothes strewn along the floor matching the messy look of the room outside. As The Doll actually moved to enter, she had to move clothes out of the way with her foot in order to avoid stepping on them.
As soon as she turned around to close the door, she heard Malina from behind her say, "Don't lock the door if something happe—" Before Malina could finish speaking The Doll abruptly closed the door, muffling her voice. This didn't stop the girl, however, who shouted, “NO LOCKING” The Doll found this level of concern for her well-being unnecessary but relented in leaving the door unlocked.
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Sighing The Doll turned her gaze to the sink only to be met with various little lifeless eyes staring back at her. There were dolls lined neatly across the top of the sink as well as the accompanying shelves meant for cosmetics. The cosmetics meant to occupy those shelves meanwhile were resting along the top of the sink, all practically indistinguishable from each other in the mess.
The Doll figured that Malina must be used to having maids take care of her mess.
Doing her best to pay it no mind The Doll looked for a place to set her clean clothes while she undressed only to find that there was no place that she could. It seemed she would have to at least organize Malina's sink. With her free hand she began picking up the cosmetics strewn about on the sink.
After the sink was in a more presentable state The Doll placed her clean uniform on top of it as she reached down and took off her gloves. She then moved to put them neatly on the sink on the opposite side of her clean uniform only to slip slightly on a silk pajama top on the floor that she hadn't noticed.
This was getting annoying.
Irritably, the doll placed the gloves on the sink and squatted down to pick up the top that she had slipped on, neatly folding it. Then she picked up the accompanying bottoms, also folding them neatly. Before The Doll noticed, she had already picked up every piece of discarded clothing on the floor and neatly folded it, placing it in the corner of the bathroom for Malina to take care of later.
Now that the bathroom was more orderly and The Doll ensured she wouldn't trip again, she continued to undress, unbuttoning her tunic and taking off her shoes and stockings. Now that she stood in only her undergarments, she turned to look at her reflection in the mirror.
In its reflection she saw the black and white colorless world she had grown far too used to. Yet in that colorless landscape she saw one thing that caused her to stagger backwards. Her own eyes now held a blue hue identical to the color she had only been able to see in The Strings previously.
Moving her hand up, she touched her cheek as if to confirm that this was real. She watched her reflection do the same as her hand touched her cold cheek. She felt around, and the mirror followed her exact movements.
This was real.
The Doll could see color in her own eyes.
I look beautiful.
She felt a single teardrop roll down her cheeks at the sight. The Doll felt an emotion she couldn't describe seeing color in her own reflection for the first time in all these years. A smile began to grow on The Doll's face, an expression she hadn't seen herself make in far too long.
This feeling was it happiness?
The Dolls reflection was almost perfect, yet when she looked closer, she saw no tear fall from her eye. Her face in the mirror remained completely dry. The Dolls smile dropped completely, yet her reflection kept smiling.
This wasn't her reflection at all; it wasn't her color.
This was The Strings.
I thought this would make me happy.
The Doll closed her eyes tightly, wishing the sight away.
Wishing The Strings out of her vision.
It wasn't until a knock on the door accompanied by Malina's voice that The Doll opened her eyes. "Dollie, you've been in there for a while." Upon opening her eyes, she saw the blue hue in her eyes replaced by its typical dull gray.
This was how it was meant to be, and this is how it will always be.
It was foolish to hope otherwise.
Seemingly dissatisfied by The Doll's response time, she heard yet another knock before finally, "I'm coming in there.” Then The Doll heard the door begin to open behind her.
The Doll immediately looked down, remembering that she still hadn't changed into her clothes, so she turned around and pushed against the door that was already being opened forcing it to stay closed. Fortunately for The Doll while Malina was very skilled in magic physically, she wasn't much stronger than The Doll allowing her to object, "I'm still changing, Malina.” She said between breathes of exertion.
Rather than stopping, Malina continued to push against the door, responding with a simple, “I don't care.” The Doll should have figured this wouldn't stave off Malina.
The Doll was slowly losing ground against Malina. “You should care. I'm hardly in a proper state right now.” She said, hoping that Lila may intervene with the knowledge that The Doll was improper.
The Doll heard Lila speak up shortly after this, “Pre-prehaps we should wait, Lady Regius.” She then let out a slight shriek, likely from the look Malina gave her, and added on, “I-it doesn't sound like anything's wrong.” Following this was a groan from Malina as the weight on the door seemed to let up.
Relieved The Doll let up on the door, moving to take off the undergarments of the old uniform. After finishing this, she grabbed the clean uniform resting on the sink. While doing this, she heard some inaudible dialogue outside the door, likely Malina and Lila talking about something, but it hardly mattered what. It should only take a moment to finish getting dressed, and she would find out afterwards.
Just as The Doll slipped on her stockings, she heard a crashing sound eerily close to her. It actually sounded as though it came from the door just to her right.
Turning around, she saw Lila on the ground with her foot wrapped in what appeared to be a blanket. Meanwhile Malina crouched overtop of her as if she were moving to help her up. At least until she looked up and saw that the door to the bathroom had opened up after Lila tripped.
The Doll and Malina's eyes met, and an awkward silence filled the bathroom for a second before The Doll quickly moved her hand to hide her exposed chest. Lila looked up from the ground shortly afterwards, shock evident on her face, before the loudest, “SORRY!” The Doll had ever heard filled the room.
The scream knocked some sense into The Doll as she quickly ran to the door, slamming it shut with her free hand. After doing this, she just stood there for a moment, breathing heavily before slumping down and sitting against the door.
Her heart was racing.
Why was her heart racing? It was hardly a big deal; they were both girls. Maids who had dressed her in the past had seen far more for much longer; this was nothing. She began taking deep breaths in an attempt to control her breathing as she calmed down.
She kept telling herself it was just a little bit embarrassing, nothing more. Yet no matter how many times she told herself this, there was this foreign feeling kept attempting to creep up on her.
The Doll put her head down into her knees.
What was wrong with her?