#SHE JUST WANNA SHOW OFF HER DOLLS TO CIEL!

[kuratm]

after the tragic incident on the campania ship, sayu was sure she'd be back on the streets, either begging for food or curled up by the shoddy alleyway. at the time, she didn't care - after losing everything in one night, where else could she go? however, what she didn't expect was a reunion with smile - who was quite the powerful influence, apparently - and an offer to assist her dollmaking capabilities. some time passed, on top of trying to understand the logistics behind it all, and here she stood in a little but cutely decorated doll shop. things were looking up...surely, it will continue to improve. at the very least, she could make her found family proud.

speak of the devil...after carefully organizing one of the shelves, neatly putting each doll on display for future customers to see, sayu turns to find the young earl walking in, rather abruptly. before she could muster a reaction, or even say anything, his words froze the young dollmaker in great pause. "finished product"...does he mean if the shop was doing alright, along with its' owner? that had to be it, right? amethyst eyes blink for one moment before smiling and clasping prosthetic fingers in a giddy fashion. ❛ o-oh, smile! thanks so much for checking up on me~! ❜ she starts, her voice timid yet exhuming glee.

❛ actually, since opening this store, i was able to make much more dolls than usual. look right here... ❜ sayu takes one said doll - its' design creepy yet carrying an elegant, almost cutesy aura to it - and brings it over to smile, so he could see it closer. ❛ this one, i made it last night. hehe, she's cute, huh...? i hope the kids will like her... ❜ after clearing her throat, she puts the doll back on its' designated place before tapping her fingers together. ❛ um...i hope it's alright. i'll admit, i'm still getting used to all this... ❜

@kuratm ❤'d~

In the creation of his company, never did the young earl think he would form any sort of partnership. This was his creation, and he wasn't the type to share. However... There were quite a few rewards to reap from this transaction. Sayu's business was a small one, easy to manipulate if needed. But her dolls were the earl's true interest. Not to mention the machinery behind them...

The young earl stepped inside the store without his usual entourage--or, rather, without his shadow of a butler. He opened his eye and looked around at the vicinity. So... This is what she did with the funds he gave her. The atmosphere of the shop seemed eerie at best...yet somehow, she was still making a profit if his bank estimates were correct.

Before Sayu could say anything about his unplanned visit, the earl spoke. "I have yet to see the finished product of your store, so while I was in town, I decided to see it for myself." What creepy dolls... But if people were buying them, who was he to care?

[edenityy]

( chapter thirteen ! )

"Hey, can I take the top bunk?"

On the ground of Noah's Ark Circus, there is a small tent, one of many, that houses the members desperate to give a performance. Inside that small tent are Leah, Ciel, and Doll, claiming their beds and settling on for the night.

A separate small bed was moved into the sparse tent, despite the tight fit of three people rather than the preferable two. Doll was gracious enough to let the fatigued Leah Barrett have it, who shivers in her clothes amidst the cold February air and reluctantly keeps her eyes open.

"Go ahead," Ciel looks up at Doll who's already climbing the ladder. "I think I prefer the bottom anyway."

Sparing a glance for his fiancé, Ciel watches as she sets up her bed. Leah's efforts don't exactly show in her work though, as her bed looks nothing like what Anna is capable of preparing.

Once settled on her bed, Doll leans down on her arm to glance at the pair. "S'been on my mind for a while. You two speak some pretty fancy upper-class English, don'tcha?"

"Pardon?" Ciel asks, hearing the rustles behind him of Leah changing her clothes. "R.. Really? It's probably because we've been working in a house since we were little.." he tries to explain.

Placing a nightgown over her head, the brunette removes the pieces of clothing from underneath to not expose herself, regardless of how tedious it is. Leah's attempts at tying it are also a bit futile, leaving the fabric to loosely fall off her shoulders with some movements.

"Blimey. Anyhoo, you just gimme a shout if there's somethin' you ain't 'ettin! There's a long life of circus ahead of you!" Doll smiles brightly before excitedly shuffling some items around. "Oh righ', wanna 'ave some sweets? Them's from the popular Funtom Company! What'd you like, caramel, milk, or strawberry flavored?" she asks, holding out an assortment of lollipops between her fingers.

A weary smile crosses the Phantomhive's face. "Well um, I'll take caramel.."

Doll smiles before her eyes drift to Leah, sitting with an expressionless face as she looks at the floor. "What about you, Diamond? Want one?" she smiles, watching the Barrett lift her head to look at her.

For a mere moment, Leah's eyes seem to sparkle, but they are quick to dim down when her eyes trail lower to her stomach and thighs. "I'm alright.."

"Are you su—?" Despite Doll's kind attempts at trying to include the girl, she's cut off when Leah lies down and turns to face the tent wall, ignoring any further words directed at her.

Brushing off the encounter, Ciel and Doll enjoy their treats until they sleep for the night, trying to combat the February cold.

"..ah.."

"..Le.."

"Leah.."

"Leah!"

Currently shaking awake his fiancé in the dead of night, a nearby candle sits beside Ciel on the floor as he tries to keep his whisper yelling to a minimum. What would normally be no surprise to a servant, the young Earl is learning for the first time that Leah is a hassle to wake up.

A firm hand keeps a grip on the girl's shoulder underneath the fabric of her nightgown, Ciel's fingers rubbing against the lace details and silk. Shaking with a bit more purpose, he glances back to make sure Doll is still fast asleep, noting how she almost snores.

Shifting in her spot on the bed, Leah's eyes blink slowly as she tries to adjust to the darkness, as well as the small light flickering a few feet away from her. She brings a thin hand to her face and gently rubs her eyes, finally awake with a not-so-welcome reaction for her fiancé.

Trailing her blue eyes up Ciel's form, she settles on his face, and amidst her moment of recollecting her thoughts, Leah moves back with a quiet gasp.

"What are you doing?" she whispers harshly, grasping at the blanket to cover her body.

Ciel removes his hand from her shoulder. "We must talk. How are we meant to get into those tents?"

"I don't know, now get away from my bed! I'm in my nightwear, this is beyond scandalous!" Leah knits her brows.

"You don't need to prove your virtue to me. Now is not the time for that," the Phantomhive complains.

Fighting back a scoff, Leah purses her lips. "This is not about my virtue. If anyone were to see—"

"No one is going to see!" Ciel cuts off.

"I am an unmarried lady in my nightwear with my fiancé far too close to my bed. The thought alone is terrible so unless you plan on marrying me in this very moment, get back to your side of the room!" her voice speeds up towards the end of her sentence, slight anger flowing through her words.

Taking a moment to stare in exasperation, Ciel grabs his candle and reluctantly moves back to his bed. "You are so stubborn!" he complains.

"You are just as stubborn. And you wake me up at an ungodly hour and choose to complain about my behavior?!" Leah hisses, feeling irritated after being awoken.

The betrothed teenagers silently stare at each other for a long few moments, taking in their features in the dimly lit tent. Clearing his throat, Ciel glances away when he notes the glimmer in Leah's eye or how the candlelight shines on her pale skin.

"Just.. go back to sleep. We'll talk about this tomorrow," he stammers, rearranging his blankets in preparation to lay down again.

Slowly lowering the sheets from her form, Leah shivers when a wave of cold air hits her cheek. "You couldn't have considered that before you woke me?"

"Sleep!" Ciel almost breaks his whisper before blowing out the candle, listening to Leah's shuffling as she gets beneath her blankets.

Letting silence fall upon them, the pair get as comfortable as they can in the atmosphere they are struggling to become accustomed to, falling asleep as they listen to Doll's snores.

— ౨ৎ —

"Get up, Diamond!"

Standing atop Leah's bed, Doll bounces and repeatedly hits the girl with a pillow. After about three minutes of effort, it finally pays off when an irritated huff leaves the one being bounced around.

"What is wrong with you?!" Leah barks, sitting up in her place on the bed.

Dropping the pillow beside her feet, Doll hops down. "You got work t' do!" she stares with furrowed brows.

Holding back a nasty remark, the young Barrett reluctantly swings her legs off the side of the bed and stands, forcing her body to wake up. Waddling over to a corner, she crouches and pieces together an outfit while pouting at the muted colors.

Working quickly, Leah manages to wrangle on her clothes as Doll works on getting Ciel up. Her dress is a simple shade of off-white, accompanied by some browns, a grey scarf, and a brown coat. 'I want to go home.'

"Whatcha talkin' about, Smile?! I said, get up!" Doll raises her voice in response to the Phantomhive's mumbling, acknowledging the sound of Leah shuffling around behind her.

Sitting up with a scream, Ciel scrambles to get his eyepatch on before Doll is capable of seeing anything. However, he is unlucky enough to not notice Leah who sees a quick flash of magenta move before her eyes with a tilt of her head.

"Newcomers 'ave t' get up early an' prepare breakfast!" placing a hand on her hip, Doll stares down at Ciel. "You ain't got the time t' snooze!"

Hardly taking a moment to question the strange color she saw, Leah chalks it up to being tired and reluctantly leaves the tent. Stepping out into the cold air, she immediately shivers when a gust of wind blows by her, pushing her hair to the side and making her capable of seeing clouds of breath.

Doll is quick to follow behind, standing beside the taller girl outside the tent and giving a small smile. Glancing down, Leah flashes a feigned one but maintains a soft look.

This moment is short lived sadly, as Doll groans in annoyance. "You're slow, Smile! We're gonna leave you behind!" she yells, waving her fist.

"I'm going now!" Ciel sweats and tries not to yell back, still half-dressed and getting himself together.

Trudging through the circus grounds, Ciel and Leah struggle to hold overflowing wooden buckets filled with vegetables. The sound of voices fills their ears as they tremble, the Barrett nearly dropping carrots in failed attempts to simultaneously combat the cold that tries to seep through her coat.

'All that sword training and it didn't make me any stronger? What happened to that strength I had when I sent that man to the ground..' she puffs out her cheeks in thought, keeping a steady pace beside her fiancé who glares at the ground.

"What is your outfit?"

Flicking their heads around, the two nobles are greeted by Sebastian who smirks at Ciel's choice of attire. The boy is wearing a buttoned shirt — not buttoned properly — an unbuttoned coat, pants that expose his calves, shoes just barely tied properly, and unkempt hair. Even Leah managed to make herself more presentable.

"It seems that you remain unaccustomed to changing clothes on your own," Sebastian feigns a chuckle.

Turning his head back around, Ciel releases a sound of discontent at his butler's words. "I was hurrying."

"Oh dear," quickening his pace, Sebastian grabs ahold of the strings to Ciel's eyepatch. He carefully undoes the knot and replaces it with his signature one. "You are going to have a difficult time untying a dead knot on your own."

All around them, people gawk at the scene, Leah included, as they watch Ciel's face flush at the interaction and many eyes that watch him. Watching on the side opposite Leah, Doll bursts out laughing.

"Smile, Black ain't your mum!" she shows her teeth, the crowd joining in on the laughter.

Ciel stomps his foot. "No! It's— a habit.. Well, no just sometimes.." he struggles to find an explanation.

Glancing beside him, he watches Sebastian carefully rearrange Leah's attire and fix her scarf much to his dismay. The Barrett — wanting some semblance of home — gladly takes the help.

"Sebastian! Don't treat us as your master while we're here!" Ciel keeps himself a few steps ahead of the demon, trying to keep his voice low. "Leave us be!"

Finishing up his work on Leah, Sebastian closes his eyes in a way to internally bow. "Understood. I shall at once," he whispers.

— ౨ৎ —

Off in a corner on the circus grounds, the betrothed teens sit on boxes and work hard to prepare the vegetables they were given for breakfast. They have spent the last fifteen minutes simply peeling the potatoes and carrots, albeit terribly, but the young Barrett has moved on to chopping the carrots the best she can.

"I hate this. Why must you drag me into everything," Leah complains, doing everything she can to not cut her smooth hands.

Shifting his attention to his fiancé, Ciel gives her a look of disbelief. "I did not drag you into anything! This is all Sebastian's fault," he grumbles.

"You know, when I always come along with you on your little adventures it is because I want to spend time with you but this is not what—" Leah is cut off by Doll waltzing over.

"Smile, what're ya plannin' on makin' from them potatoes with peels thicker than the meat?" she asks before glancing down at a small piece of potato in the blue-haired boy's hand. "Smile! Whaddya think you're doin'?! You peeled that many?!" Doll shouts.

Staring with wide eyes and clenched teeth, Ciel's face flushes in embarrassment once more. "I— I'm sorry!" he apologizes loudly.

Doll reaches down and plucks the piece of potato from Ciel's hand. "Cor blimey, what part of this can we eat..?" Her eyes trail over to the carrots Leah cut. "Well, at least those aren't as bad."

Placing a hand to his chin in thought, Sebastian trains his gaze to the floor until he has an idea.

"It cannot be helped. I shall deep fry them as they are into crisps and make them into fish and chips," he picks up the bucket of potatoes from Ciel's side and begins to walk off.

Leah and Ciel both watch as Doll's eyes light up in excitement, walking off with the butler. "Cor! I love those!"

"This cannot be worth it.." Leah complains, standing from her spot on the box to follow behind them.

— ౨ৎ —

It's not long before Sebastian is capable of fixing the aristocrat's mistakes, serving breakfast in the mess tent with a welcoming smile on his face. The tent is filled with lively chatter as the people eat or fight for food.

Entering the mess tent with quick steps is Doll, dragging Ciel and Leah behind her as she forces them to follow.

"Look, we're going!" Doll acts mildly concerned.

Ciel, struggling to keep up while being dragged, hardly notices that his fiancé manages to slip from the girl's grip. "Going where..?"

"If we don't hurry we'll miss the meat!" she takes the Phantomhive into the crowd of people and shoves her way through. "Hey! Outta my way!" Doll shouts.

Left behind, Leah watches as the people fight to get what food they want for the morning. She stares at the food for a moment — at least what she can see through the bodies — and feels a sharp pang of hunger hit her stomach. Swallowing air, the Barrett walks off to one of the tables and sits with shaking hands, nervously rubbing her fingers as she waits for Ciel to return to her side.

Thankfully for the noble, there isn't much waiting that needs to be done as just within a few minutes, Doll and Ciel both take a seat at the table. Glancing beside her, she notes how Ciel is in shambles, lightly shaking with disheveled clothes and hair that is somehow worse than before.

"What? Looks like you only got bread in the end," Doll stares down at Ciel's bare plate before noticing there is nothing in front of Leah. "Diamond! You didn't get anything at all?" her smile almost drops.

"Yeah.."

"I'm not hungry."

Doll quickly slaps the smile back on her face, brushing off the aristocrat's words. Swooping her fork down to her plate, she begins to load some of her pile onto Ciel's plate.

"Well, that's that. I'll share some of my grub with you! You're skin 'n bones so eat up!" Doll hardly pays any attention to Ciel's thanks and shoves a fork puncturing some potatoes towards Leah's mouth. "You too, Diamond!"

Pressing her lips into a thin line, Leah diverts her head to the right. "I'm not hungry.." she lies, trying not to cry at the food in front of her face.

Ciel lifts his head to observe his fiancé's face. He doesn't understand why exactly she acts so strange around food, but he feels a small itch of concern.

"There ain't no way you ain't hungry! I didn't see you eat anything yesterday, you gotta be—" Doll doesn't have the chance to finish her sentence before Leah manages to run out of the tent. She turns to Ciel. "What's her problem?"

Keeping a light run, the young Barrett leaves the mess tent behind her until she finds a secluded area of the circus grounds. Coming to a slow stop, she listens to people pass by her spot while she attempts to not cry — until she does.

Placing a shaky hand over her mouth, Leah allows a stream of tears to slowly fall from her eyes and does her best to keep her breathing in check. However, it's hard for the girl as she nearly hyperventilates. This crying doesn't get to last long though, frantically wiping her tears at the sound of someone's footsteps getting much too close for her liking.

Stepping around the corner is none other than Joker, looking down at the brunette in surprise. "Oi, lass. What're ya doin' back here?" he asks before noticing the wet gleam on her tinted cheeks. "Are ya alright?"

Running the back side of her fingers across her cheeks, Leah tries to hide the embarrassment she feels at being caught crying. "I'm alright.." she whispers with an undeniable voice crack.

"Are ya sure? You can talk to me," Joker tries to persuade the girl but only receives a noise of discontent in return.

"I don't want to talk about it.." the Barrett clenches her teeth and wipes the last of her tears, struggling to meet the man in the eye.

Looking down with soft eyes, Joker places his real hand on Leah's head and gently rubs. "Well if ya need any help, just come to me or Doll." he reminds. "Why don't ya take a moment and go practice? Get yer mind off things."

A cold gust of wind blows over the pair, causing the brunette to wrap her scarf around herself tighter. Disregarding her wishes of wanting to go home and be in the warmth, Leah speeds off with a nod towards the practice tent and reluctantly walks into the chatter of the other future performers.

Dragging her eyes across the faces of the people, she feels a wave of anxiety at the prospect of interacting with any other them. Whether it be her lacking social skills or not wanting to get close, Leah instead chooses a spot off to the side for herself, trying to think of what she could practice.

'Well I can't do contortions in this dress..' she puffs her cheeks out in thought until she notices one of the balls used to balance. 'That'll do.'

Leah spends most of her time practicing trying to get atop the ball until she is capable, roughly getting an idea of how she is meant to balance. There was a temptation to run over when she caught a glimpse of Doll and Ciel, but she had decided against it after her small outburst from hardly even an hour ago.

Shakily balancing on a ball, her peace gets interrupted by a familiar tuft of ginger.

"Diamond! Could ya take these towels to the shower area? Ya don't gotta step inside, just leave it near the entrance," Joker asks, training his gaze on the Barrett who is trying her best at the circus antics.

Releasing a breath through her nose, Leah gently drops from the ball and takes a look at the towels in Joker's arms. "I suppose.." she replies, allowing the taller male to hand her the towels.

Setting off with a nod, the teenager keeps a steady pace and is once again forced to combat the cold, her naturally cold hands make it feel worse. Leah is far from content but takes deep breaths to prevent herself from throwing a fit or breaking down in front of a crowd.

The girl is certain she is close to the shower area when she hears a louder group of chatter, preparing to divert her eyes but the voices take her attention.

"Wait.. Please stop that!"

"But you're gonna catcha cold like that! C'mon!"

"Stop th—"

The young Barrett, being nosy, purses her lips while she listens to the voices, recognizing the sound of Doll and Ciel. She forces herself to divert her eyes though, reminding herself that she is a lady in far too close of proximity to undressed men. Leaning down, she places the towels on a nearby box and her eyes trail off against her will, landing on the mark now visible on Ciel's exposed back.

Pausing at the sight, Leah's breath hitches as she stares in confusion. This feeling worsens when her fiancé runs directly past her, leaving Doll behind him who desperately chases after him for only a few moments. Leah shakes her head and drops the towels down, lightly jogging in the hopes of catching up with Ciel.

'What was that on his back..? I've never seen anything like that before.' she thinks, giving Doll and the shower area one last look as she walks off.

At first, Leah struggles to find the boy, only being able to use a general idea of where he could have run. It's not until she can hear voices in the distance that she's almost certain she's found him.

"Anyways, we just need to investigate the troupe's tents and we can go home," Ciel says, allowing Sebastian to begin unbuttoning his shirt.

"I thought that you were patiently aiming to be promoted through the troupe?" questions the butler.

Tilting her head, Leah follows the voices to a secluded area.

"I can't mention something that takes so long—"

Turning the corner, the betrothed teens come face to face. Initially, there is silence until the Barrett's eyes trail down, noticing that Ciel is lacking a shirt. With widened eyes, she begins to scream.

Slapping her hands over her eyes, Leah begins to back away from her fiancé who now stares at her with an incredulous look. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she repeats, running away from the scene.

'No one can know about my time here! I shall die before this becomes known to anyone else!' Leah fights back her thoughts with a shake of her head, swallowing loudly as she tries to calm her thoughts and lightly flushed face.

— ౨ৎ —

Later that night, Leah recovers from the oh-so-scandalous scene and is found in a tent, working alongside Ciel and Sebastian to ready the circus troupes for tonight's performance. Both of the teenagers are finally given a window to take a break, the brunette's eye nearly twitching from the constant requests she had been subjected to moments prior.

"Ah.." Ciel sits down on a stool beside her with w plop. "Excuse me.. What should we do while the show is going on—" sharply turning his head around the room, the boy realizes that only a few people remain in the tent.

Standing up at this revelation, Ciel takes ahold of Leah's wrist running towards Sebastian who stands near William at a clothing rack. "Sebastian! His mark missed! We don't know when the next chance will come. Let's get through investigating that tent now! Have it be over within ten minutes!" he orders.

"Please don't pull me up so fast.. Anemia, remember? I may faint," Leah tries to remind her fiancé who now tries to tug her without as much force, noting how her face somehow manages to appear more pale than usual.

Fighting the feeling of lightheadedness, the trio move quickly but they only manage to make it a couple of feet from the tent before they are caught.

"Black! Miss Wendy twist'd 'er ankle, so she can't appear in the performance 'nymore. So Black, please go out in 'er place." Joker approaches them from behind, carrying Wendy on his back with Peter by his side. The show'll be fine if you do it, Black, so I beg of ye. It'll be yer turn shortly, so please get ready soon!"

Sebastian looks down and releases a huff of air, listening to Ciel groan beside him. "'Tis a pity, Young Master. We'll have to wait for another chance." he waits for a response but is surprised to meet silence. "Young Master?"

"We don't need to sneak into that place for long. On top of that, now might be the only time when that person is not in there. Leah and I have time. The tough part is just the venomous snakes," Ciel walks over or a paper taped to a board showing the day's schedule. "According to the program, your debut will end at nineteen-fifty and the encore at twenty. You'll catch all of the snakes in five minutes from now, then appear in the show. Finish your debut at nineteen-fifty, and once you've gone into the back and released all of the snakes, you'll return for the encore. I'll investigate the rest. Let's go!"

Turning around with haste, Ciel runs for the tents with Leah in his shadow who occasionally stops to catch her breath. Now approaching the first-string member's tents, they come to a stop.

Placing an arm out in front of Leah, the Phantomhive stops her from moving any further. "Wait until we are finished. I don't want you to get hurt," he warns, knowing that his true intention is so his fiancé won't question Sebastian on his capabilities.

Giving an exasperated look, the young Barrett doesn't bother fighting, allowing the men to take a few minutes to handle the snakes before she follows in after them.

"All right. You go straight to the show tent. You'll be suspended if you're tardy," Ciel orders.

"Certainly, Sir," making his way to the entrance of the tent, Sebastian opens the flap and looks back. "I will be back at once."

Both of the teens fall upon a comfortable silence and move about the grounds, picking one of the first tents to graze their eyes. Entering, they notice a lack of decor but corsets hang up from the top of the tent, signifying Beast's quarters.

Walking in with quiet steps, Ciel walks towards a suitcase with a framed photo sitting atop it. "This tent looks quite austere." he picks up the photo. "Hm? A photo of children? Are they from the troupe?"

Leah glances down at the photo as well and recognizes some of the familiar faces. "I shall play lookout for you as you search!" she announces.

"You complain about never being told anything but deliberately put yourself in a position where you won't get to learn about our situation?" Ciel questions, turning to show a raised brow.

"Oh, hush! I don't care anymore, I just want to go home.. before any more of my dignity is taken from me," sighs Leah, walking out of the tent and crouching in a corner covered in shadows.

Most of Leah's time spent waiting in the shadows is bleak. The only comfort she receives is the sound of crickets or the trees rustling, saving her from the silence of her thoughts. It's not until she notices Beast approaching her tent that she starts to panic, realizing Ciel is about to be discovered.

Stepping out from the hiding spot, Leah sprints Beast's direction and tries to flag her down. "Excuse me! I need help!" she lies.

Beast turns her head with knitted brows and clenches the blanket covering her chest tighter. "What are you doing over here?"

"I um— got lost! I needed to find the show tent but I fear I just have no sense of direction!" Leah tries to explain, raising her voice to alarm Ciel so he can hide.

Giving a blank stare, Beast turns to point a finger in the tent's general direction. "Over that way," she says.

"Thank you so much!" stutters the Barrett as she runs past her and ducks past another corner once she knows Beast has entered her tent.

Leah continues her lookout once more, knowing it's nearly over when she catches a look at Sebastian leaving the tent to return for the encore. But that means that she now has to panic upon hearing the voices of the first-string members getting louder and runs for Ciel who leaves Beast's tent, ducking behind two boxes to get past the circus troupes.

The pair stay silent to not give their location, the brunette staring at Ciel who appears lost in thought. However, this silence is breached when Doll shines a lantern over their heads, staring down at their crouching figures with wide eyes and face devoid of any expression.

"Hey. What're you doin' there?"

[freckledfenrir]

just rambling I’m bored

Sometimes I wonder if Doll lived in modern times if she’d like end up opting to always go to an all you can eat buffet, whenever she’d go out to eat. She can eat a lot as shown in that one manga panel, and I just feel like she’d love the ability to eat as much as she wants for the one price of the buffet. Like I know in the anime adaption her plate of food wasn’t stacked too high (at least in comparison) but in the manga in the other hand it’s stacked.

I also think she’d probably love those food challenges where if you eat X amount of food in Y amount of time you get the meal for free (although sometimes you just get a shirt or something it really depends on restaurant to restaurant) Like we don’t know the exact amount of time it actually took her to eat that whole plate of food she grabbed, but based off Ciel’s remark “what already?”, after she said she’s done and ready to head to practice. It’s safe to say she ate it rather fast. So I feel like food challenges would be up her ally.

I still find it sweet though that she’s always willing to share her sweets and food with others, since I feel like that’s her way of showing others she really cares about them. She did it for both Snake and Ciel.At least I assume Doll gave Snake the candy, I mean Doll is the only one who mentioned the Fantom sweets even stating “these are hands down my favorite sweets”. So I really do feel like that’s one of her own ways of showing, hey I care about you and wanna be your friend.

I just love it though when we get characters who aren’t afraid to be themselves and are happy being themselves. Doll is just happy being herself and isn’t afraid to be herself either. She’s such a positive ball of energy and I love it.

[worksinprogress1]

As the sun was setting over Veilstone, the three newly-promoted commanders stepped out of the Team Galactic HQ. According to Cyrus, they were now officially Team Galactic’s most trusted and essential members. To Saturn, neither his promotion nor that of Mars and Jupiter had been a surprise. He’d seen how Mars had shaped Team Galactic’s image. He knew of Jupiter’s technological skill and competence in battle. As Cyrus’ right-hand man, he’d had chances to work with both of them, and there was no one he’d rather be promoted alongside. Saturn supposed that meant it fell to him to establish some loyalty between them now that they were united by rank.

“Wow. Our first night as commanders,” Saturn said, looking to the two women. “We should hang out. Do some team bonding or something.”

“That’s probably a good idea. Got anything in mind?” Jupiter asked.

“Wanna play truth or dare?” Mars suggested.

Jupiter wasn’t too impressed. “Oh, adults don’t really-”

“Oh, come on, Jupiter, let’s do it. Now that we’re professional law-breakers, we can do basically anything, so we might as well see what ‘anything’ looks like. You go first.”

“Hmm… Well, you used to be like a small-time thief, right Saturn?”

“Yep.”

“I dare you to show me what you’ve got.”

Saturn smiled. “You got it.”

Jupiter had made it sound impressive, but really all Saturn had done before was shoplift and hack people’s devices to pull pranks. Nothing but thrill-seeking to soothe his adolescent mind. He’d have to come up with something better than that to impress these guys. After a little discussion and plenty of input from Jupiter, though, they came with just the thing.

Saturn led the trio to the Veilstone City department store. As they’d planned, they scouted out what they wanted and made sure there were no security cameras, as well as locating a window facing the wooded area at the edge of the city. They each took two newspapers from the stand at the front, and Saturn swiped a TM for hydro pump before the trio met up in the bathroom.

“Alright, everyone knows where they’re going?” Saturn said, locking the door.

The female commanders nodded.

“Good.”

As planned, they set to work on the distraction. Back in the day, Saturn would just slip something into his pocket and go, or at worst pull the fire alarm. But with Jupiter’s skuntank knowing flamethrower, why miss an opportunity? He and Mars created a giant pile of unfolded newspapers as Jupiter taught the creature hydro pump as a safety mechanism- no need to let this get out of control.

Jupiter’s skuntank set the paper ablaze, and the fire alarm went off within a second. The fire wouldn’t last long, but it was big enough to force them to the side of the room and tall enough to reach the cieling. Fifteen seconds and an uncomfortable amount of smoke later, Jupiter commanded her Pokémon to put out the fire. Thirty more and the bustle from behind the door quieted down as people hurried out of the building.

“Alright. Now, be quick,” Saturn whispered to them, “fire department could be here any second.”

With that, they were off. Saturn shoved his pockets TMs and rare candies and headed for the window. Mars took to the dolls section and loaded her arms with feline Pokémon plushies. They were far too big- anyone who saw them escaping would know what was going on.

“Put those back,” Saturn whispered, “and get Jupiter. Quickly.”

Jupiter was lingering a bit too long, selecting jewelry and tucking pieces she liked into her clothes. Mars, after throwing back the plushes, pulled her over to the window by the arm. With everyone at the window, Saturn took out his bronzor and had it lower him to the forested areas of north of route 217. Once he landed, he looked back to see the fire truck pulling up to the building and the two female commanders coming close behind him. Saturn’s heart pounded. His life flashed before his eyes a little. He ran deeper into the forest until he hit the oceanside and stopped, panting. What was he thinking? Committing arson for a thrill was so much worse than he’d ever done, for the team or otherwise. He could be put away for years. He’d never felt so alive.

“You okay?” Jupiter asked. Mars was still trailing behind.

“Heh. Yeah. Man, this is probably going to be good practice for later, isn’t it?”

“Definitely.” Jupiter said. “I mean, you’re the one who would know, but I’d guess that we’re going to be pulling stunts that make this look like nothing.”

What a thought. What a crazy, horrifying, delightful thought.

“Probably,” Saturn said.

Mars caught up with them.

“Sorry to make you leave everything behind,” Saturn said to her. “It’s just, you know, if someone saw us leaving, we’d need it to look like we were panicking and escaping a potential fire. We can’t make it obvious we’re stealing.”

“It’s okay! It was fun! Now it’s your turn to ask.”

“Mars. Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

Saturn wracked his brain for a question that would be fair to a young teenager but still interesting. “Um, have you ever had a boyfriend?”

Mars laughed. “You’re really bad at this, you know that? ‘Course I have. I was rich, I had status. And good looks and charm, of course.” She turned to Jupiter. “Jupiter, truth or dare?”

“Dare.”

“Hmm... well, since Saturn gave me a bit of practice stealing... I dare you to teach me how to shoot a gun!” Mars exclaimed. “And not at a shooting range, either! Let’s do it somewhere we’re not supposed to be.”

“You got it,” Jupiter replied.

The trio took a short trip back to Jupiter’s house to drop off their stolen goods and retrieve a handgun, some bullets, and some old paint cans, then escaped to the wooded areas of route 214, where they hung up the cans for target practice. With the forest illuminated only by the mostly-full moon and the glow of a few volbeat and illumise, it was a beautiful scene that would give any responsible firearm owner a heart attack.

Jupiter in front of their set-up, gun in hand. “Alright. Now, I’m not the best teacher since I usually just go by muscle memory, but there’s a few things I can tell you. One is that there’s going to recoil, so position yourself accordingly. Use two hands and plant your feet firmly.��� Jupiter adjusted her stance. “Second, don’t point a gun at anything you don’t intend to shoot. Now, just watch me for this next part.” Jupiter took off the gun’s safety, cocked it, aimed, and fired, the jolt of recoil travelling through her body but leaving her in place. The bullet went through a paint can, splattering the tree’s trunk in violet.

Jupiter handed the gun over to Mars. “Now you try it.”

Mars took the gun and stood where Jupiter had been. She adjusted her posture awkwardly, cocked the gun and groped for the trigger. Then she started trembling. “I can’t do it,” she whimpered, gritting her teeth.

“Why not?” Saturn asked.

Mars took a deep breath. “When I was ten, my dad took me into work for the first time. Maybe he wanted me to learn how Team Rocket worked, I don’t remember anymore. He had to leave me alone for a while, and I saw this rocket grunt carrying a skitty. I’d always wanted a skitty, so I followed him. He took her to this room that looked like a surgical theatre and put her in a cage. Just as I was about to steal her, I heard someone coming, so I hid one of the cupboards. I remember hearing some workers talk about using her tissues for the Mewtwo project. And then I heard the voice of a girl demanding that they give her back her skitty. She didn’t sound any older than I was. She didn’t have any Pokémon, so they didn’t even have to take her on properly and- and-” Mars was getting higher and more quavering.

“They shot her,” Jupiter finished. That was the thing about guns. They were pretty much useless outside a war zone unless you were aiming to hurt someone with no Pokémon to protect them. That’s why there was a stigma against owning them.

“Yeah,” Mars continued, “I hate everything Team Rocket does. The world shouldn’t be like that! I want to be ready to do anything for Cyrus because he’s going to make it better, and if I can do this, I can do anything!”

“Listen to me, Mars,” Jupiter said, “that little girl is going to be back once the world is remade. And her skitty. Or at least, a lot of little girls and skitties. Everything will be alright. And thanks to that? Anything we do now doesn’t matter. It’s temporary. The only people who matter are Team Galactic. Everyone else are just tools and toys to us, NPCs in a video game, soon to be deleted and here for us to have fun with.”

Mars took a deep breath. “You’re right. It’s temporary. And fun! Did you hear those people freaking out when we started the fire?”

“You bet I did,” Jupiter said.

“And I’m getting pretty good at crushing punks with my Pokémon!” she sounded less like a little girl now and more like a criminal, never mind the fact that half those “punks” were her age. With a sadistic smile on her face, she stepped forward and shot the gun one-handed. The recoil threw her arm back.

“Two hands,” Jupiter chided. “If you let the recoil get you that much, you’ll end up shooting high. But you’ve got the spirit.”

“Right.” Mars got into a proper stance and fired off several more bullets. One hit, drenching a tree in red. She laughed. “Got one!”

The commanders took turns shooting until they ran out of ammo and the trees were well-painted. Then, they went back to Veilstone.

“Mars,” Jupiter said, “truth or dare?”

“Dare.”

“Figure out a way to get us onto that rooftop,” Jupiter said, pointing to officer Jenny’s house. It was something like two in the morning and any police cars there might have been around the Veilstone department store had cleared, so the chances of being caught were pretty small. Mars found a way to climp up using her fence and the other commanders followed suit.

Mars looked over to Saturn. “Truth or dare.”

 “Truth.”

“What do you think the new world is going to be like? You know, since you’re the one who’d know.”

Saturn hesitated. “Umm… pass. Jupiter, truth or dare?”

Jupiter gave Saturn a concerned glance, turned to Mars, and handed her a few bills. “I’m too hungry for either. Mars, go get us some snacks. Whatever you like is fine.”

“Okay!” Mars said. She slid off of the roof and headed for the corner store.

Jupiter gave Saturn a suspicious glance, turned to Mars, and handed her a few bills. “I’m too hungry for either. Mars, go get us some snacks. Whatever you like is fine.”

“Okay!” Mars said. She slid off of the roof and headed for the corner store.

Jupiter turned to Saturn. “Are you hiding something?”

Saturn chuckled. “Only that I have nothing to hide!”

“…Oh?”

“It seems like people assume that because I was friends with Cyrus, I have the first clue what’s going on in his head. But the truth is, he’s a mystery to me, too. I kind of can’t wait to see what he’s capable of. He’s strong, and smart, and things like the judgement of others and conventional morality might as well not exist to him.”

“He’s a cold, pretentious, miserable asshole.”

“Uh-huh. He is. Are we crazy for putting the fate of the world on someone like that?”

“Eh. Maybe. But you don’t need to be smart, or self-aware, or anything else to get rid of cancer and earthquakes. And we’d be waiting forever if we waited for a well-adjusted person who was willing to start a doomsday cult. If the new world does suck, we’ll handle it the same way we’re handling this one.”

Saturn smiled. “...by plotting to destroy it?”

“If it comes to that!”

Saturn laughed. “Yeah, fair. It does worry me how far he’ll have us go, sometimes, and some of the things we’ve already done, and what the new world will be like. But I should try not to worry. It’s out of our hands. Thanks, Jupiter”

“No problem. Now let’s not bring this up with the young one,” Jupiter said, pointing to Mars as she made her way back.

The other commanders helped her up, and then the trio spent a while just joking around and talking about their lives. The game of truth or dare dissipated, as games of truth or dare often did.

“Hey, I think I thought of one more thing I want to do now that we can do anything,” Saturn announced during a lull in the conversation. “I’m gonna show off my new body to my transphobic parents!”

Jupiter’s eyes narrowed. “You sure you can handle that? I really don’t want to have to comfort someone for the third time tonight.”

“Yeah, it’ll be fine. They’ll be able to accept me in the new world. Might as well get a before-and-after. Let’s go.”

Lacking any Pokémon that could transport them long distances, the trio found a fisherman at one of the ponds on route 214, hassled him for a magikarp, and evolved said magikarp with rare candy for their ride to Jubilife City. The sun was beginning to rise as they arrived at the doorstep of Saturn’s family home.

“Alright, here goes,” Saturn peeled off his hoodie and handed it to Mars. Underneath it, he was wearing a T-shirt, which showed enough of his flat chest, lean arms and broadened shoulders for the shock value he was going for.

Saturn knocked on the door and leaned on the doorframe, a smug smile on his face. The female commanders hid in the bushes. An older woman answered the door. Her face fell immediately when she saw him.

“Venus...? Is that you?”

Something in her voice told Saturn that she wasn’t horrified so much as relieved to see him again. He straightened up and wiped the smirk off his face. “Uh... yeah.”

“Is... this,” she gestured at his body, “why I haven’t seen you in three years?”

“Y-yeah.”

The older woman hesitated, seemingly trying to process the information. “Okay. Okay. I don’t like this, and I don’t get this. But if it means having a relationship with you, I’ll try to get it. Please, come in.”

Saturn glanced back to the bushes. “Sure, mom.”

With that, Saturn disappeared into the house. Before the door shut, the two female commanders heard his mother ask, “So, what’s your name now?”

For a moment, Mars and Jupiter didn’t say anything. It was a rather awkward situation as they couldn’t just go back to Veilstone without taking Saturn’s ride back with them.

“He’s not gonna leave us, right?” Mars whispered to Jupiter.

“I don’t think so,” Jupiter said. Had it been anyone else, then yes, getting something they’d hate to leave behind was a risk factor for leaving Team Galactic. But she had a feeling that Saturn wouldn’t leave no matter what. “Let’s grab some breakfast. I’ll shoot Saturn a pokétch message so he’ll know where to find us. I have a feeling it’ll be a while.”

[tumblunni]

OH MAN GEEZ IM FUCKIN EMOTIONAL ALREADY black butler: book of circus spoilers below:

oh god, the ways they expanded the story for the anime are SO FUCKIN SAD I kinda like that they made it so you actually do see the circus crew kidnapping children this time. I mean, I dont think its made to make them any less sympathetic, but it definately reminds you that the playing field is even here and they’re morally complicated rather than just poor innocent victims of mr evil protagonist. Also its REALLY GORY and REALLY PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR

Its so messed up, seriously These poor kids are being sent to kidnap other kids, by a creepy asshole murder pedophile fuck. And they dont know WHY theyre kidnapping kids, they don’t know what happens to the ones they hand over. And they’re all JUST FUCKING KIDS, they’re fucking children who’re all heavily disabled in different ways and LITERALLY owe their life to this horrible villain man. And they dont know why they were saved and why these other kids are.. going.. somewhere else. And they really dont know whether to trust their ‘father’, but its pretty clear they all have their suspicions that the kidnapped kids might be dying. But they dont have anywhere else to go if they disobey their father, and he’s fucking with their heads so they all feel like they’re the only onw with doubts and they cant even question it or everyone will turn on them and they’ll get kicked out on the street again and never see any of their siblings. And they all VERY MUCH know what its like to be dying on the streets. And this time they’d had a chance to know what its like to have prosthetic limbs and medical help and be able to eat three solid meals a day and wear pretty clothes and have a family. Having all that taken away will hurt even more than if they’d never known what it’s like..

So I sympathise with them, I really do. And I really believe they could have been rescued, and could have been redeemed, and ultimately we shouldnt be blaming them for what they did, only blaming the man who forced them into it and gave enough illusion of choice that they were able to feel guilt about it... BUT STILL that was REALLY FUCKED UP AND DISTURBING AND SAD AND DISTURBING AND SAD

seriously they PUT ON A FINAL CIRCUS SHOW for every single kid they kidnap part of it is about luring them in so they trust them, but also it seems they take it way too far for it to just be that. They almost got caught because they spent so much time doing their performance for this poor lil matchstick seller girl! and its equal parts heartwarming and DISGUSTING because this poor kid is like.. I dont even know if they drug their victims or if she was just going insane from having to see them killing the policeman that tried to save her they’re just horribly gorily fighting the policemen, stabbing a fucking knife through some guy’s eye, and the kid is sitting there having a complete mental collapse, laughing as if this is all part of the show. And we get this twisted vision of her point of view, seeing the nice clown man doing a funny show smacking mr teddy bear with a mallet, as the dead body of the policeman falls at her feet. And then they bundle her into the carriage and thats just the end. We dont find out what happens to the kidnapped kids, any more than the kidnappers know... We just got to learn so much about this poor kid, and that poor policeman, and have a bunch of heartwarming moments of them becoming friends, and then she just turns the corner for like five minutes and the policeman is like ‘wtf is that flute music’ then sees a fuckin ENTIRE CIRCUS IN AN ALLEYWAY and gets stabbed through the goddamn eye trying to reach the kid in time. And she’s so out of it that she couldnt even see him. His last thoughts were probably seeing her glassy eyes staring right through him... And we know that he had a daughter that this street urchin reminded him of, and we know she had a sick little brother who really needed the money the policeman gave her, and an abusive mother that’ll probably be forcing that poor brother to go out panhandling now her daughter is gone.. And just... GAHH my fucking emotions my sadness and also A LOT OF FEAR so much blood

and I KNOW HOW IT ENDS i know that the kids don’t fuckin go to a happy place with a nice new dad and ‘father’ only spared those few kids so they could be pawns he could manipulate into capturing more kids, and test subjects for his evil science team’s freaky bullshit and they dont even KNOW that they’re test subjects! they dont know that their prosthetic limbs are MADE FROM THE OTHER KIDNAPPED KIDS WHO NEVER CAME BACK god, im already imagining how they’d fuckin animate the poor ringleader guy throwing up as he realizes his arm is made from someone else’s bones and then he just DIES they all just die horribly in service of this disgusting fucking child murderer pedophile that they thought was their father half of them never learn that they were the villains all along, the other half get to know it just in time to despair utterly as they’re killed off too

and evil bastard’s trump card that kept them all obeying him it DIDNT EXIST he fucking held it over their heads that their other siblings were still out there somewhere, at his ‘orphanage’, and they had to work with him so he could send money back to them so they could all be happy too when really he’d killed them long ago, and for all we know they could be the ones that joker’s prosthetic arm was made from T_T and ciel’s fuckin only chance to do something to help the people he completely failed who all died hating him and thinking he’d betrayed them, that they were the good guys and he was the villain... that last chance was a fucking lie he tried to save the ‘other kids’ and the fucking ‘orphanage’ was an empty abandoned building full of nothing but maybe a stray doll they left behind before they were all horribly murdered so we just end on our protagonist being the absolute villain of this arc, and the actual villains being sympathetic kids, and him laughing like a madman as his last chance of redemption blows away on the wind

oh, and he fuckin personally murdered a bunch of kids too, even though he didnt kill all his villain friends with his own hand. he found some of the kids in the lab that were test experiments, the few who hadnt been killed yet. the few who’d had to watch potentially HUNDREDS of friends be dragged kicking and screaming to that operating table, and see every second of them being eviscerated into pieces. And ciel just sees himself in them, they’re all so catatonic that they cant even see him and all he can see is himself and he knows from personal experience that a kid can come back from that, but he knows how much of a monster he’s become and he thinks the kids would be happier if they could die as they are instead of losing themself so he just sets the whole building on fire and i end up crying for him even as he’s committing a horrible act! fucking moral ambiguity: the show

and god, even this episode’s goofy friendship fun parts were horrifying too! it starts off with the whole ‘ha ha ciel doesnt know this kid is Doll, cos she ~looks like a boy~ when she’s not in costume’ random stupidness but its still cute cos she’s being so kind to the newbie, and you can learn a lot about her character from it how she’s trying to be all smiley and goofy and giving him candy and saying how she’d never even tasted it before, and now he can stay here and be her lil brother and never get hit by anyone and never go hungry and she knows the goddamn price she has to pay for all this, and she wants to keep ciel innocent of it she doesnt know he’s already just as corrupted, and he’s really a spy sent to take them down and then just DEAR GOD THAT SCENE THAT IS NOT OKAY but it was absolutely fucking necessary I think, to keep the moral ambiguity and not make us just hate ciel forever she fuckin.. accidentally triggers a ptsd flashback in the poor kid he’s never been homeless before so he doesnt realise its a group bathroom, and then freaks out and tries to run. but she’s just teasing him as part of her cool big sis persona, and doesnt realise he has an actual reason to be scared. So they end up fighting and she accidentally reveals the scar on his back to everyone the fucking brand that was burned into him when he was kidnapped and enslaved and the episode just ends with our usually unflappable protagonist curled up in a ball under a towel, shaking and crying and his only comfort is the demonic butler he’s using to enact his revenge, and all he says is just ‘you’re better than this, you’re a badass’ ciel never really has any form of actual sympathy, does he? the only person who knows about what happened to him is this morally ambiguous monster minion guy. and the whole hook of the series is that we never really know if Sebastian actually gives a shit about ciel or any of the other humans, or if he’s just waiting for the poor kid to fuck up and leave an opportunity to devour his soul. I wanna believe that Sebastian does have some sort of fatherly affection for ciel, or at least they both care about each other in a sort of.. mutually evil way. But even if thats true, its not like sebastian is gonna really be any good to talk to in a time like this. he;s just gonna sass ciel for showing weakness. he just has this fuckin motivational speech of ‘yo ciel youre a fuckin evil bastard, remember? get up and continue your evil bastard ways’. and somehow it actually kinda works and actually kinda feels affectionate in context :P BUT STILL SERIOUSLY POOR CIEL he could have turned out a lot better than this if he had someone in his life who could actually give him a goddamn hug but I guess thats not really what he wanted, even though its what he needed instead he wished for the power to enact revenge on the one who killed his family and enslaved him and he set off on this long horrible path of becoming an evil bastard to track down this other evil bastard when he’s only fuckin ELEVEN and he’s happy to throw away his soul, and doesnt care if sebastian betrays him in the end and he burns in hell forever, as long as he can stop that evil bastard from doing the same thing to more children and this arc is so fucked up cos he failed so horribly to stop some OTHER evil bastard from doing the same thing to more children and he’s become so twisted and antiheroey and cynical that he missed his chances to redeem those poor other twisted kids, and maybe he could have done better in stopping the real villain if he had.. and the only fuckin thing we got out of this arc was that the bastard kidnapping these children was a copycat criminal of the one who did it to ciel, so we at least finally have one clue that might lead to a resolution someday but EVERYONE DIED and ciel’s even more fucking traumatized! and he’s jumped off the deep end and become full antihero evil bastard and all the character development he had during the arc has been negated and fuckin completely reversed cos of how it ended and he lost a bazillion friends and he was betraying them the entire time, and they died resenting him, or resenting him AND learning that he was right and they’d been working for the villain all along, and then he couldnt even save their other siblings cos they were long dead and just THIS FUCKING ARC IS SO FUCKED UP GAHHHHH

I guess sometimes you just wanna watch depressing cinema, yknow? I do hope that someday this series actually ends with at least a bittersweet ending, not an equally fatalistic one that means everything was all for nothing. i want the poor circus kids’s deaths to actually mean something...

Also, randomly and incidentally, I want the giant creepy pedo incesty shipping fandom to die in a fire. Before I even started watching it, Black Butler was famous as ‘that pedo anime’, everyone acted as if Sebastian x Ciel was canon and they kept teasing it in every episode or something. BUT NOPE. NONE. NICHT. NON. NAG YDW. Where the FUCK did they even get it from, seriously?? We don’t know if Sebastian is gonna betray ciel or not in the end, but im PRETTY FUCKING SURE that he doesn’t have a boner for a fucking ten year old! I know the idea of a demon servant is a common romance novel thing, but seriously wtf is wrong with you... I know I’m mad that this arc ended so horribly, but still I feel like the various moral ambiguity discussions are super interesting and I would have regretted if I’d never read any of this manga just because of some awful fanbase members.

ANYWAY IN SUMMARY bunni cry over episode