Work Text:
“Hmm…”
Togawa Sakiko, dressed in the attire of her stage persona Oblivionis, sat at the table in the dressing room of the provided studio space. Ave Mujica was to rehearse the latest revision of their stage play intermissions and Sakiko had arrived before the others for her own reasons. She was not alone, however, as she was jointed by Ave Mujica’s lead singer, Doloris.
Well, ‘Doloris’.
The figure that stood behind Sakiko, looking over her shoulder as she read the sheet of lyrics it had handed her, was not Misumi Uika. Instead, it was a tall puppet cast in the broad form of that Doloris. Its body appearing in a texture between puppet and skeleton, with the joints of its gangly limbs being possible to read as either doll joints or the connecting points of bones. Framed by a head of hair imitating the true Doloris’s was a skull like face whose eyes, or lack thereof, were blocked by an unfurled steel folding fan. The outfit that this false Doloris wore was a close replica of the true Doloris’s stage apparel, resized to the doll’s long, lankly proportions with the addition of a long black cloak that covered its shoulders and back and draped down its sides.
The doll lowered its head to Sakiko’s ear and whispered, its voice a raspy distortion of Uika’s. “It is poetry to your ears, isn’t it? My dear Oblivionis?”
Sakiko winced, and looked back down at the lyric sheet. These lyrics were not the haunting and thought provoking lyrics worthy of Mujica that she had come to expect from Uika, but a rambling, barely coherent mess. They were barely lyrics actually. In some places one would stretch to even call them complete thoughts. There was only a single through-line Sakiko could piece together: Doloris singing praises to themselves, casting themselves the only one who could lead the other dolls to salvation.
Reading over it again, Sakiko shook her head. “This is no good. I can’t write music to this.” Usually she wrote the music first and Uika wrote lyrics for them, based on her themes. This wasn’t an ironclad rule: Uika had written lyrics that Sakiko has written music for, such as Imprisoned XII. But...nothing like this.
The doll didn’t relent. Instead, it rose back to looming above Sakiko and started to laugh. “Hah, hahaha! Oh, my sweet lovely Oblivionis, how you test me, how you jest me! I know it has enraptured your heart, as has always the words of the supreme Doloris, who knows not (only) sorrow! I will endure your tests, and accept your composition to my lyrics in the morrow!”
...was the real Uika this stubborn?
Sakiko knew the only way she could deal with this was to be firm. “I am not playing games. I will not write a song to these lyrics, they are unworthy of my, our vision of Ave Mujica.”
The doll loomed around her, lowering itself back to Sakiko’s level as it approached the other side of the table Sakiko was sitting at, the steel fan covering its eyes meeting Sakiko’s own eyes. Sakiko could hardly tell from its unchanging skull visage, but she got the impression that the doll was indeed smiling at her.
After a moment, the doll spoke. “It is not like you to play hard to get, o goddess. Have I, your greatest knight, displeased you?”
“Yes. You have.” She didn’t flinch. She couldn’t flinch. She had to be as blunt as possible and not show the doll any let, lest it find an excuse to think that Sakiko could be convinced to accept its...’lyrics’ and thus keep at its pursuit. Lest her own dream be compromised by letting others dictate her path again.
“I live for you. I will die for you.” The doll continued. “I will kill for you. I, your greatest champion, will always do anything you ask-”
“Then please leave. Go home. I will call for you when I need you again.” Sakiko punctuated her words by raising her finger and pointing to the doorway out of the dressing room.
In response, the doll raised back to its feet. “Ah. I am wounded. But...for your sake, let me ask but once: Are you certain you wish for me to leave you, Oblivionis? You are our goddess, our savior...but you can do (are) nothing without us too. You need me-”
“Please leave!” Sakiko cut it off. She knew there was the truth in its statements. That she needed her ‘knights’ as much as they needed her. But she didn’t want to confront that now, not from Doloris.
The doll stopped and gave a dramatic sweeping bow. “As you command, great holy one. I will weep and reflect on my actions.” The doll then turned and left the room. Sakiko could only sigh and put her head in her hands.
“Saki-chan?”
Not too long after the false Doloris had left the dressing room, the true Doloris had entered. Unlike Sakiko, Uika had not yet changed into her stage apparel and was still wearing her casual attire. Sakiko quickly rose her head out of her hands and tried to act like nothing had happened.
Uika stood across the table from where Sakiko sat, where her false counterpart was standing mere moments before. “I wanted to get here before everyone else because...I’ve been writing lyrics on my own again. I wanted you to look over them and-”
It was then that Uika noticed the lyric sheet that the false Doloris had given Sakiko before, now sitting right in front of her. Clinching her own lyric sheet, she leaned over and gave a glance over to read them.
Before Uika could fully read over what the doll had thought passed for lyrics, Sakiko shook her head and pulled the lyric sheet off the table, quickly tucking it into her bag sitting next to her. “Ah, you don’t need to worry about that Uika. You said you were writing lyrics on your own again?”
“But, Saki-chan…? That was…your handwriting, wasn’t it? Were you writing lyrics yourself?”
Despite the conversation she had with the false Doloris still being fresh in her mind, for reasons she couldn’t quite place…
...Sakiko could say nothing for where the lyrics actually came from.