Hello, I'm key.
I've come to steal this girl.
She will be my precious.
ᴀ Sʜᴀᴅʏ SᴛᴏʀʏOnce there lived an apprentice tailor who worked in a toy shop, making clothes for dolls.
a poor young man
a skilled young man
This young man worked day in, day out just to get by. Sore fingers, little food or money. Slowly but surely, though, he began to master his trade. One weekend, he finally had enough free-time to take an afternoon off to explore the town. There, in the square, he saw the most beautiful young woman he had ever seen. Light hair, blue eyes, and a smile inside her heart. He introduced himself, and she introduced herself.
a shy young woman
a dying young woman
They grew closer and closer together, stealing those precious afternoons to spend with their love growing stronger. Every day, he'd bring her a new ornament for her hair, custom made from scraps around the shop. They weren't much, but she treasured them. When he was away working, she'd touch them and think of him. One joyous day arrived, when he got down on one knee and offered to spend the rest of his life at her side, with a simple white flower, rather than a ring. She stuck the flower in her hair and said yes.
a proud groom
a merry bride
Time was creeping ever onward, however, and they worried. The husband now owned the shop where he used to work and for a short time they could forget their troubles. Before too long, the wife became an expectant mother. The doctors told her that she would not survive, but her child's life meant more to her than her own, since her own was doomed to end prematurely either way. Pain and sorrow. She smiled up at her heart's true love and said goodbye.
a grieving father
a motherless daughter
In a fit of rage, he threw all his gifts and memories of her in a far corner, where they were neglected instead of cherished. A shadow was born there, though they knew it not. Time passed on again, and they slowly moved past their grief. The daughter brightened the life of her father and he turned his attention to her and her happiness. This family must have been cursed, however, for a war broke out in the land and the tailor was called away to fight in the middle of the night. As an apology, he made a quick little fox doll, after the manner of a warrior, and left a small note of explanation.
an unwilling recruit
another desolate youth
He was gone from this world by the very next day. The unknowing daughter woke in the morning, read the letter, and despaired, thinking to cast the doll into the fire. At last moment, however, she remembered that the doll was her father's last work, and instead, left it among her mother's old things; to rot in places forgotten, together.
a betrayed doll
a lonely shadow
The shadow approached the doll with a deal. The doll did not refuse. "I'm Kohana, and I'll protect you faithfully at your side."
"I'm Kitsune, and I'll make sure that you're never bored again."
The journey that followed was long and dangerous, but they had each other. One to know where to go, the other to keep them insane until they got there. They learned new, deadly skills in order to survive. A year passed, and they arrived. The dollhouse didn't cure their insanity the way they thought it would, though, so they stayed that way, preferring it to the the pain they'd known before.
━━━✦━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━PᴇʀsᴏɴᴀʟɪᴛʏKitsune is hard to describe to someone who has never met her ilk before. She's like a spring dawn that hides the scars of a past winter. She's as playful as a child, and acts like a madman, though she isn't. She's painfully, painfully sane. She just prefers to pretend that everything's all right, and sometimes even manages to convince herself that she is what she says she is. As Orson Scott Card said, "Perhaps it's impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be." That's certainly true for her. People who only know her causally never even notice the secrets behind her eccentric smile. Scratch that, people who have known her for years still believe that she's an escapee from a loony bin. You can't even blame them, really. It's all in the way she behaves. She's always smiling, but never quite looks you in the eye; that smile is reminiscent of a cat about to pounce. She'll chatter on for hours... talking to her flowers. She sings them "to sleep" every night before she goes off to who knows where. When others mistake her for a man, she thinks that it's hilarious. She'll continue the charade for months, never referring to herself with any pronouns that might give her away. She talks alternately so fast or so slow, that it's hard to tell what she's saying at all (unless you've had a lot of practice of course), and will randomly burst out into songs, rhymes, or catchy sayings for no good reason at all. "Don't judge a girl until you've walked in her tengu-geta!", she'd say. I could go on, but I won't.
Kit only ever lets this facade drop when she's around old, implicitly trusted friends. In these rare moments, she's just a talented young girl: kind, clever, and scared witless, but still trying to make the best of it.
Likes and Dislikes☑ gardening/nature
☑ dancing in the rain
☑ signing nursery rhymes
☑ flirting/pranking
☑ disguises
☒ boredom
☒ reading
☒ coriander
☒ weeds
☒ nosy people
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Kohana is easier to explain, if more cryptic than Kitsune will ever be. She speaks in riddles, or failing that, in the most obscure manner possible. It's her belief that if something isn't worth taking the time to understand it, then it's not worth saying to begin with. She rarely speaks to anyone other than Kit anyways, if only for the reason that she communicates telepathically (She can send words, feelings, and images into Kit's mind). She can sometimes get mad, too, if Kit tells someone else something Ko said. "If I had wanted them to know, I would have told you so!", she'd scream into Kit's mind (then reluctantly apologize later). Despite this, she has an overwhelmingly strong sense of loyalty and is usually very serious, though she does has a dry sense of humor and enjoys Kit's various antics. She still feels the heavy guilt of what they've done, though in her, it manifests in her withdrawn manner. While Kit became a bubbling, mischievous, and chattering child; Ko became a suspicious, protective, and enigmatic queen.
Likes and Dislikes☑ winter
☑ staying dry
☑ solving riddles
☑ cats and foxes
☑ Kit's hair
☒ boredom/being left alone
☒ disclosures of her thoughts
☒ being dropped
☒ the color yellow
☒ being used as a weapon
━━━✦━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Jᴏʙs ᴀɴᴅ Pᴀsᴛ-ᴛɪᴍᴇs
As mentioned above, Kit is both a tailor and an assassin. How can this be? Well, it's quite simple. When they were traveling, Kit and Ko had to pick up a few "questionable" occupations. I'll try to spare you most of the details. Suffice to say that they joined (I say joined) a guild that required them to eliminate their targets with "all necessary deadly force." Their tasks were slowly draining all willpower and joy they had. In order to forget their deeds, they pretended that it was all just a game. At first opportunity, they ran away as fast as they could. When they finally reached their current home in the dollhouse, Kit decided that she wanted to start a garden and a respectable little tailor's shop. She'd always had a knack for making things with her hands after all. She would have left the past behind herself, but occasionally a person will come around, having heard rumors of rumors of rumors about her less savory talents. They come, begging and pleading; for a cruel lord to be stopped, for a king to be put down, for a witch to be disposed of, and many such things beside. She never refuses. She's not that insane.
Everything she does is connected by those nails of hers. Just listen and you'll see. She grows many plants in her gardens: her own food, cotton, pretty flowers, and deadly ones. She uses her nails to prune, harvest, and chop down weeds. She sells the cotton to fabric maker, then buys back the cloth in order to make clothes. She sews every outfit herself, using her nails as needles. Sometimes, these outfits end up becoming the disguises that she uses on her assassinations. She uses the dangerous plants to make a poison that coats her nails, which she then uses to dispatch the target (Kohana was used only in desperate cases). Of course, she also knows how to make the remedy, so there's no danger to herself. The cleverest part is that she bred the plants herself, so there's absolutely no way that anyone else can make a cure unless they steal it from her (but, let's face it-who's gonna steal from an assassin? Who
could?). She takes great pride in her nails and would probably
go on a murder spree become an inconsolable mess if they were permanently harmed in some way.
━━━✦━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━RᴇʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴsʜɪᴘsKohana (her shadow)

Ever since they met, Ko has been like an older sister or mother to Kit. Though, she'd be a strange sort of mother if she was. She's always worrying about Kit, but never actually says it outright, so it seems like she doesn't care. Like, Kit will be about to jump off a cliff and Ko will say, "Do what you will, but what you will might make you a won't." (Kit: ..... Sooo, I
should jump?) As time has gone on, Kit has gotten better at deciphering what Ko is trying to say, though, some of their misunderstandings have been funny; the others, slightly less so. This is probably the reason it took them an entire year to find the dollhouse, even though it was barely a few miles away from where they started. (Ko: Follow the elder tree path to find the place made of wood. Kit: *proceeds to find the oldest tree, climbs to the top, then jumps to the next oldest tree, and so on*) Most of the time, Kit just admits that she has no idea what she's talking about and Ko says, "So be it." However, there is one language that they both understand: pranks. They both take extreme pride in a subtle, well-done prank.
Drust (owned by
darling girlfriend)

What do you call someone who's always alternately dragging you out of trouble or getting you into it? Kit met Dru outside of the dollhouse, back when Kit was still trapped in her guild. They literally bumped into each other, each trying to pick the other one's pocket. What followed was a short fight, a draw, and a life-long slightly-less-than-friendship but slightly-more-than-indifference. Dru's the one she turns to if she needs a bit of "magical" help (hehe thievery). Over the years, they've had a string of I owe you's that have led to several adventures. Seeing her is really nostalgic for Kit, as it reminds her of how she was in that one horrible year, but also reminds her of how much she's changed. Kit can get on her nerves, but then again, so can everyone. Dru greets her with a scowl, a hug, and the promise of a good story.
Dimitri (owned by
aaronzee)

Kit is closest to Tri in her little circle of, dare I say it, friends. Yes, he's the one she confides the most in. They make a funny pair together, since they're both quick to assume. The first time they met, she assumed he was a girl and he assumed she was a boy. This went on for half a
year before either of them realized their mistake. Of course, neither of them were mad about it, so they just laughed it off. Tri is always swinging by her house in order to take a peek at her garden. They share a passion of plants that few else have. Things got dicey when he finally asked about her poisonous flowers, but she decided to tell him the truth. He didn't run. He didn't scream. He just sat and waited for the whole story. She'll never forget the way that timid little doll boldly took her hand and said, "It's okay."
Arabella (owned by
aaronzee)

To say that these two are friends would be very wrong, but they get along surprisingly well, all things considered. Kit doesn't ever really share what's on her mind to her, but if Arabella happens to be around when she's confiding in another doll, she wouldn't really mind if she heard or not. It's just that Arabella is more of a tea-time friend, than a long-term one. Kitsune never uses any nicknames around her, though she wishes she could, as Arabella is a bit of a mouthful for someone who's used to shortening everyone's name- think about it: Kitsune shortened her own name to Kit and her own shadow's name to Ko. When she first met Arabella, she was slightly uneasy. Here was doll that was just as capricious as she. When they are together, they pretend to act very properly in a snobby, stuck-up way. These games are fun for Kitsune, but she really just wishes they could drop the pretenses. She also harbors a secret desire to touch Arabella's ears. Don't tell anyone, though, especially not Arabella!
━━━✦━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CʀᴇᴅɪᴛsThanks for reading my form!
A big thank you goes to everyone who let me use their doll(s).
The three 100x100 pieces were drawn by me.
The wonderful traditional piece was drawn by
tcddc4.