dust covered curiosity [open]

◄

Loaded and filled to the brim with towers of spines and labels, clumsily aligned with the fervor and dicey dissonance of a toppling building, reaching to the cobwebs filling every nook and cranny. Shreds of paper and yellowed sheets, dog-eared and lopsided, with codes and invisible ink and seemingly incomprehensible texts - all the mark of a professional spy, all propped up by the strings of a marionette. Pale lambent jade eyes that were nothing more than eerie glass orbs whose pupils were nearly the same shade as the irises, an empty doll-like stare that looked at everything but saw through it all. A small shape hunched over by the books, lit oh-so-dimly by the waning light of a lantern. Atoll-like eyes focused on the pages in his even paler and fragile fingers, folding the corner of the page a little over. He was barefoot, long tails for a scarf drifting behind like melted angel wings, and virescent feathers for hair hanging over his face.

Every sound deadened, not even the faintest of breaths could be heard. Nothing except him and a ghost of a shell. Nothing but a blank space, save for the distant cautious steps of another. Lazily tracing his fingers over the pages and jotting away in a worn-out notebook, a pen with plum juice for ink slipped, tapping the ground with a dark spot, and rolled across the creaking varnish and pale boards. Not as soft as carpet, but not right for wooden planks. An inaudible sigh as Ain shifted his slumped figure to crawl and reach it, arms outstretched.

Creeeeeeeeeeak!

Too loud. Much too loud. So much for being able to move like the orphanage's resident ghost. If he were lucky, the other person he heard in the attic didn't hear him nor see him in the bleak abyss of the attic. Not that he were ever that lucky in the first place. It's not the old fart, that's for sure. Plan J then.

"Surprise, surprise~ Is that a pesky lil' troublemaker I see?" Words that never suited the soft delicate voice that spoke them. "Unless..." Ain began to sniffle, eyes watering and glistening with droplets of tears. "Unless you're a meanie who's here to rat me out..."

Taunt, taunt, provoke away. All of the mocking was there to stay. Repeat that mantra and keep them at bay.

PINN ツ

◄

Sticking his tongue out at the other, Ain's fingers darted for his writing utensil, clipping it onto the fabric of his scarf. Skin not quite as white as a sheet, not transparent enough to be considered a phantom or the incarnate of death, with a big azure eye scrutinizing over him like how the sky was always above and there and watching everyone's actions, hawk-like (or maybe cat-like?), and carefully groomed hair of sparking charcoal; of the same height and weight as himself, should he dare to assume, but the most particular was the deep pit of black covering half of the boy's empyrean gaze. "Wellllll," he started, shifting back into an upright position, gesticulating like any child of his supposed apparent age, "There was this super duper cool shiny relic that's extremely hard to see, and I wanted to keep it all for myself!" Not a single sign of the tears he were to wail out from before were visible, blinked away with the worthlessness of trash and back to their unassuming, stoic state.

Empty giggles and laughs with all the ridicule and vitriol that anyone would expect from a villain, yet as dainty and chiming as a bell in melody - an infinity of dissonance all wrapped up in the frame of a child with such a face of a porcelain doll, free of blemishes or scars, and fern locks so carefully stylized. Short in the back with two at the front and a strand of hair licked at the top into an angel's halo, a so-called masterpiece of the gods for a boy too effeminate and cute to be considered male. So hushed, so quiet. "Now that you know about me and my secret lair, I can't just let you go." Ain tilted his head in the direction of the scattered papers and mess he had behind him, of books and sheets with nothing seemingly important on them. He placed his index finger on his lip, speaking more mouse-quiet than before, as secretive as can be. "You must die~" Innocent as can be while passing by a slip of a threat, as casual and normal as asking someone how their day was.

(( it's okay! i get not waiting, and i apologize for my dumb scrawls of writing too __(:3 J ))

PINN ツ

My heart will never suffer Let me build
a huge house for you Let me make a garden to walk in for you
And when the first days of spring awaken the violets into beautiful bloom
I will embrace you with new garments gorgeously groomed

Oh, a pen.

His single eyed gaze followed the other's movements, briefly noting the childish act of sticking out his tongue. With the discovery of the pen and the reason for being on the floor, his blue eye traveled back up. While aware of being scrutinized himself, he made no show of discomfort. There was nothing but calm laced with curiosity. As the green haired boy began to speak, his lips parted and curved into a small 'o'. The reasoning was a lie, that much he was aware of, but he chose to play along. "I am surprised anything shines up here. You must have found an artifact worth keeping."

Sunshine pulled his attention away from the orphan and to the mess behind. Had he been writing? What for? Curiosity glimmered in his eyes, but he forced himself to return his gaze to Ain as he was threatened in a soft voice. He blinked once, his features flattening with consideration. With a small hum on his lips, Sunshine stood up. "No, thank you." He finally said, as if he had been given a choice in the matter. Thin fingers laced behind his back as he stepped closer to see what Ain had been doing.

"What were--" he was about to voice his curiosities, but he was stopped as soon as a false siren split through the air. A single blue eye pulled up to see one of the Blackburn children sliding down a pile of who knows what. "... Dessert usually comes after dinner. Do you mean snacks? I can live without those."

\o/

◄

To think someone could not care about dessert.

The child drew closer, shaking dust off their bedraggled and over-worn garments, hooking one finger through a small tear towards the hem and toying with it absent-mindedly. They watched the one-eyed boy curiously, studying them with a long stare, with no regard towards coming off as unsettling or rude. To be fair, they were all odd within this small group. "I didn't know that a doll had it's own doll to play with..." Wren chuckled under their breath, shifting their shortly-spanned attention to the pages scattered around them on the floor. Between the handwriting and their lacking ability to read, they couldn't make out what the scribbles meant. Curious that someone had to come all the way up here for some silly papers.

"You don't have to be so cold, little doll." they responded in a syrupy voice, picking up one of the papers squinting at the incomprehensible text all over it. "This one looks like a little balloon." the child poked at one of the letters, it's frame holding close resemblance to an 'O', which didn't occur to the Blackburn until a while later. "Are you reading about balloons? I like balloons too. " they shoved back the paper in the face of the transparent figure, then towards one-eye, eager for the two to see their discovery. "See, see? It's just like a balloon."

PINN ツ

◄

Straightening up with the stillness of a doll, crisscross, Ain gripped his ankles and rocked from side to side, swaying with each tick of the nonexistent clock. Like a haughty cat, he threw back Wren's words tauntingly, "Yeah, don't you know, dummy? A voice wielding indigo flames, white clothes of no substance clothing his body like a dress - all of it as meaningless as counting one, two, three. "Letters have a long history of being symbols and shapes from way way way back when. If you can't read it, you're definitely an idiot!" Not that anyone except him could read what he had written. An amalgamation of shapes and symbols neatly aligned across the papers, uncannily straight even without lines to guide them. Unflinching and immovable from his position, he flashed a blank-faced smile towards Wren, making a shooing motion with his hand at the Blackburn, as though to chase away an annoying dog who couldn't stop yelping and barking at every single little thing in sight. Wren probably wouldn't listen to him, but hey, whatever, there wasn't anything lost with them staying for now. More victims for him to play with at the tips of his fingers.

With a flick of his wrist, the marionette snatched another sheet of paper, hand flying across the parchment as he quickly wrote something up, with the flicker of a light bulb going off in his mind. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Sunshine backing away. Cheshire grin widening, Ain moved closer, faces so close that their breaths were mingling with one another, just to test Sunshine's reaction to it. The moment didn't last much longer than a few seconds before the doll-like child backed away, holding his newly written text in front of him.



Childish as it was, incomprehensible to the English language lied a teasing message, topped with the small doodle of a heart. Literate or not, they weren't going to crack his intricately woven codes.

PINN ツ