Still Life

[Loanien]

Feeling a bit of mischief spark up in herself Rabbit stayed silent as Ignis looked at her with a question on his face. It was just too much fun not to mess with humans once in a while, they were so easy to pick on.

So as he looked at her, Rabbit stayed silent, as if she really were just a doll and not some, well, something else. He had doubted her, so she was going to have some fun before she truly revealed what she was and how she was going to help him.

At first she had been a little skeptical on whether or not she should reveal herself right away, but now as she looked at his face she just wanted a little fun. Just a little bit.  

[The AcinaD]

Ignis


I laugh at myself rather loudly.

"Wow. I must really be lonely. Talking to and hearing dolls...heheh. Just like grandmum...maybe that's why she talked to Rabbit..." I muse to myself, chuckling in embarrassment.

"Grandmum was getting old, too..." I continue in my out-loud wondering.

"I'm just lonely. That's all. Just...lonely..."  

[Loanien]

Rabbit looked up at Ignis with a bit of a playful demeanor about her, she listened to his response feeling a bit of bitterness rise up in her.

He didn't know the first thing about being lonely, why she had been alone for most of her life, which was about ten of his lifetimes, or even more than that. To be truly alone one must have outlived everyone they've ever known, and still be alone, and still be living.

"She is one hundred and six," Rabbit said in a bit of a matter of fact tone.

One thing Grandmother had wished for was to live long enough to see her grandson prosper in life, so Rabbit allowed her to live a little longer than normal. Now that he was a professor she could pass on into the next world without any regrets, just respect, she was proud of him.  

[The AcinaD]

Ignis


"Wow. She is -was?" I answer simply with curiosity before realizing that I was indeed responding to a doll talking to me.

"So you were talking to me! I'd like i' if you didn't play dumb wit' me -you seriously think I'd believe in talking dolls? I barely believed I could make i' to graduate school!" I say with a slightly angry tone. I take the antique sword and re-sheath it and carry it with me to the master bedroom. I place the sword-cane next to the bed before beginning to unwind myself.

Like any other lazy young man alone at home, I throw off my shirt and pants and throw myself onto the bed. Oops. That doll I was supposedly talking to was...where is it? I look under my pants then find the small figure and grin with mischief as I take her and put her on my collar bone as I throw myself back on the bed. I think I just made a dust cloud explode everywhere. Maryann probably hasn't used this in a long time after being in the hospital for who knows how long!  

[Loanien]

"Are you implying that you are incapable of learning?" Rabbit asked when she was placed on his collar bone. A sorry position but she wasn't going to show him everything she could do just yet.

Watching as the cloud of dust exploded from the mattress Rabbit recalled that the past year that Grandmother had lived at the house she had slept in the living room on the couch. The women had been stubborn, regardless of how much Rabbit pestered her she insisted that the couch was just fine for her.

"Or is it that perhaps you feel you need to fill larger pants?" She questioned knowing full well what Ignis's past carried.  

[The AcinaD]

Ignis

I furrow my brow lightly.

"I learn just fine, thank you very much. Talking dolls are things of horror movies, no' my life, so it may just make sense for me to no' believe in it a' first, savvy?"

I frown when she talks about "larger pants", and instead of simply being angry at the implication that I feel overshadowed by my parents and others, I get self-conscious.

My face slightly reddens and I slip my lower half underneath the blankets. Hopefully there aren't bed bugs or something.

"I...I-I thought i' was 'larger shoes to fill', if I'm correct...but no matter my...trying to brush off th' subject. I've always felt tha' way, of course, with...oh, why should I be telling you? You think I'm an idiot after all. We don't like each other anyway, so good bye!" I throw the blankets over my head, leaving the doll still on top of the comforter.  

[Loanien]

Rabbit listened to his slightly flustered response, feeling the small change in his emotional status when he starts to slip beneath the covers.

"Different people say different things," she said with a soft voice. "I never said I didn't like you," she said with a slightly bitter tone in her voice.

Looking around the room with a slight sigh Rabbit's mood darkened a little bit, if he didn't want her here she could just leave, there were plenty of other people that needed more help then he did. Of course she couldn't leave though, she'd promised Maryann that she would help her grandson, though she did say something about cursing him if he was too mean.

"Don't you have any questions to ask me?" She said curiously. Usually the first meeting she had with people was a lot more drawn out, with questions like.

'How long have you been alive?' 'Can I make a wish?' 'Do you have magical powers?'

Only one person had ever asked her.

'Isn't lonely to always be by yourself?'

To that she replied yes, of course it was. The man that had asked her that was one of her best friends, but he died a long time ago. What would this new man ask?  

[The AcinaD]

Ignis

I peek my head out when she says that she is...okay with me?

"I...I'm sorry. It's true. There's been a darkness tha' has lingered over my life even before I left my home. Great expectations I could never fill, an unstoppable anger I could never extinguish led me to do...things. An' I did...horrible things. I'm so surprised tha' Maryann even bothered to love me anymore - maybe i' was her ignorance an' time away from me tha' kept her from hearing about wha' I had become, wha' I was already becoming when she was still around."

I rub my forehead in stress, then look curiously at Rabbit.

"So...so now I've...breached my main soft-spot...could you tell me how you...came to be? How you came to talk? Wha'ever you're still willing to tell me..."  

[Loanien]

Hearing him spew out his life details and such Rabbit felt a small side of herself twitch in excitement almost.

"Everyone has secrets buried under their skin," she whispered eerily.

Seeing him sit up and look at her he asked one of the most common questions she had ever heard from a human. At least one of the most common ones they asked her.

"Perhaps I'll tell you when we know each other a little more," she murmured. Feeling that she shouldn't give away her secrets until she knew that he wasn't going to leave her. "Let's just say someone very, very dear to me, didn't want to be alone anymore," she whispered breathlessly.

This was an answer that she had repeated many times, and every time she spoke of said person she remembered that he had left her alone, even though he promised he wouldn't.

"Broken promises," she said with a tinge of sadness in her voice.  

[The AcinaD]

Ignis

I frown slightly. I haven't given my life's secret details, but I've given enough that might make me upset if shared and she hasn't given me much. Then again, who would a doll share secrets with other than those she knows? Other toys?

I feel for her with her last statements.

"So th' bloke who found you decided he didn't think you were worth i' anymore?" I sadly chuckle and sigh. "Sounds like we both had parents who were faulty and never satisfied with us, hm? Correct me if I'm wrong of course. I've had more than enough promises broken by them. I wonder how your bloke brought you about -who isn't brought abou' by magic, after all?"  

[Loanien]

Rabbit stayed quite for a few seconds, she could trust this man, but she almost didn't want to, as if trusting him meant that she would have to care for him. Caring for him would mean that she would tell him everything, and then he would eventually die, and she would be left alone again.

"In time I will tell you everything I have been through, all the tales of magic, and myth," she said curtly.  

[The AcinaD]

Ignis

I smile softly to her.

"You'll probably know me pretty well soon enough. I always let loose a' home an' when I'm alone, so you'll know what's going on. I can't break my ties or promises wit' you - you're stuck wi' me for good. You were dear to th' most precious person in my life, so you will be my most treasured inheritance." I say assuringly...then begin to yawn.

"Oh dear...I...might zonk ou' on you. There's a whole new adventure coming our way -instructing in college an' high school in a few days. A' least I'm doing something possibly worthwhile in my life..."  

[Loanien]

Letting a smile tickle through her loose threads Rabbit chuckled softly when he mentioned that she would, in fact, be treasured.

"You know your, great, great, great, great grandfather was a teacher," she said with a small laugh in her voice. "Well he wasn't exactly your grandfather, but he was someones grandfather," she added with a tut. "He was a fun old guy," she mused remembering the man with fondness.  

[The AcinaD]

Ignis

I chuckle lightly, then yawn.

"I bet he was one heck of a teacher -unlike me. We'll find out how good I am soon. You'll be my official witness." I say with a wink and soon the wink turns into both eyes closing.

"You will keep my dear grandmum alive to me. Don't...leave me..."

I sleepily mutter as I sink into the bed.  

[The AcinaD]

Ignis

I wake up and stretch, still wondering if my grandma really was dying, if I was really in her house now, if I really was in America now. The lavender hue of her room is in my vision. The dusty trinkets and decor. It's real. I get out of bed and hobble toward the kitchen in search of food, and find...someone there?!

"Who...who are you?! What are you...how did you get in here?!" I yell from behind the corner, preparing my fists.