Verity and Liam's Place, MHA #6, Monday Morning

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity watched the screens depicting Skywalker's last walk with a rictus that only barely passed itself off as a grin. She darted her eyes over to Liam, who was watching this with way too much satisfaction. She had been watching the whole thing, nodding right along with it, and then those gates had slammed shut and something within her had snapped.

At first, she'd been afraid that something really had snapped. That was a real danger when you were a porcelain music box ballerina. But no, it had just been her mind coming back to herself - and boy, she'd nearly snapped again when she realized she was made of porcelain - and realizing that she was watching a man walk to his own gruesome death.

"No!" she cried as the machine started up.

[Open for him who lives here, but also to anyone wanting to visit/intimidate. Liam modded with permission]

Comments

[firstofitskind]

Liam cocked his head at her in confusion.

"It's only what he deserves," he said, as casually as one might say 'we're out of milk'.

(Not that they had milk so much as a piece of plastic shaped like a milk carton, but details).

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity looked at Liam, helpless and confused. "No, I mean...we're, uh, only getting audio," she said, weakly.

[firstofitskind]

Liam’s face was kind of stuck in a perma-scowl, but if it hadn’t been made of plastic, it would have been a concerned frown right now.

“They never show this part,” he said gently. “It’s too scary for good toys to see.” Not too scary for them to hear, apparently, though.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Right, right," Verity said quickly. "It's just - for a toy as bad as the dean, you almost want to make sure, right? We can't take any chances with the, err, happiness of the island."

Oh god this was horrible. This was like living with the Covenant and having to pretend that everything was a-okay.

[firstofitskind]

Liam supposed she had a point, there, but still... "The Toymaker would never let him escape," he said confidently. The Toymaker was just that, after all. He could make them, and he could unmake them as easily as- well. They didn't breathe, but there were some toys who could pretend to.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Oh no, never," Verity said again, sweet and agreeable. "Just like he would never, ever make a mistake. So glad we have the Toymaker to watch over us."

One of the mice - red and plastic - bustled in and stared at her. Verity tried not to shudder as it regarded her like it could see into her soul.

[firstofitskind]

The mice of this reality were, if anything, even bigger gossips than their normal counterparts. Best not let on that you were no longer under the Toymaker's control, Verity, because even being a Priestess wouldn't protect you if the mice decided you needed to be turned in.

Liam nodded along with her words. "He knows what's best for us. And what's best is to stay happy and have fun! And follow orders!" A statement which was said with a cheerfulness distinctly at odds with that aforementioned perma-scowl, but never you mind that.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Oh yeah," Verity said. "Super-fun. Can't wait. I've got a whole day planned of, uh, dancing," she said.

Normally, that idea would fill her with joy. Right now though it was just one more layer of awful.

"And you...?"

[firstofitskind]

"Patrolling town on the lookout for bad toys, of course!" Liam informed her. It wasn't fun in and of itself, exactly, but it made him happy to have a task he was so very, very good at.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Oh, right, of course," Verity said with another of those weak little laughs. God, she sounded like a one of those pull-string toys with only a handful of catchphrases. "Did you, umm, help find the dean?"

[firstofitskind]

"... No," Liam admitted. "But just because I didn't help this time," he added quickly, "doesn't mean I'm not useful!"

He wanted so badly to be useful, you see.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Of course it doesn't!" Verity protested before she realized that maybe this wasn't something she should be encouraging. "I, uhh, really admire the way that you take your time and make sure that a toy is truly bad before just accusing them. That's a sign of good police work."

[firstofitskind]

"You really think so?" Liam asked her. "I always do my very best."

[arboreal_priestess]

"I know you do," Verity said and that was true, oh god. He'd keep doing his best and trying so hard and why the hell did that have to put them on opposite sides? Why hadn't he woken up with her? "You're...you're such a good toy."

[firstofitskind]

"I'm so glad you think so!" Liam said earnestly. "You are too. The very best." Because of course Verity would never be a Bad Toy, right? Right?

[arboreal_priestess]

Yeah, well, about that...

"Liam..." She shouldn't ask. But still. She had to. "Liam, are you sure. Are you one hundred percent sure that all of this is right? Just? All of it?"

Three of the Aeslin mice playing in the living room stopped and turned to stare at her with unblinking plastic eyes.

[firstofitskind]

"I have my orders," Liam told her. "Of course it's right. Following orders is what I was made to do." He was toy soldier, after all. "Toys that don't follow orders deserve to be punished."

... Yeah, coming back down from this was going to definitely be A Time.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Yes, of course, agreed," Verity said quickly. "I just needed to check. You understand. We can't afford to be complacent."

[firstofitskind]

"I do understand," Liam said, nodding in what he meant to be a totally reassuring manner. "It's good that you're so good about being on the lookout for traitors! We can't let them interfere with all our fun."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Yup, fun," Verity said, pretending she couldn't hear the murmur of the mice, all of whom were still watching her. "We'll hunt for traitors all day and then come up with something really fun to do tonight. Like the very good toys we are."

[firstofitskind]

"I could watch you dance!" Liam gushed. "That's so much fun, because you're so good at it!"

Normal!Liam enjoyed dancing too, admittedly, just... not with as many exclamation points. And also he preferred dancing with her, now that he was reasonably good at it.

But toy soldiers didn't dance. At least. Unless they were a very specific subset of toy soldier. Which Liam was not.

[arboreal_priestess]

Liam didn't have nearly enough points of articulation to really be able to dance.

Of course, being porcelain, neither did Verity, but she could twirl around and around and around to the tune of her music box and apparently that counted. "I would love to dance for you!" Verity exclaimed, lying and hating herself for it.

[firstofitskind]

He kind of managed it, during those times when the Mandatory Fun (always announced at random times, with little notice) was a town-wide dance.

(Or, at least, he had memories of kind of rocking his whole body back and forth awkwardly, anyway)

"I look forward to it!" he leaned over to- well, the intent was to kiss her on the cheek. But given that his neck and head didn't actually move independently of his torso, it was more a kind of... gentle bumping in to her.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity kept a frozen smile on her face all through the gentle bumping and even returned it with an awkward bump of her own. "Well, now that playtime is sorted, I'm gonna go out and patrol the island. Which sounds like a super-fun time!"

She had to get out of here. And maybe scream.