❝I ᴄᴀɴ ᴅᴏ ɪᴛ WITHOUT ʏᴏᴜʀ
ʜᴇʟᴘ!❞
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║❧Ｇｅｎｄｅｒ；Demigirl (she/zey) ____║
║❧Ａｇｅ；Technically ageless , appears 19 .║
║❧Ｈｅｉｇｈｔ；11.5 inches, tall. _____║
║❧Ｐｅｒｓｏｎａｌｉｔｙ；Mathilde is ║
║ a tough, headstrong individual. She's always_.║
║absolutely determined to fend for herself and_║
║prove that she's not just a pretty face! _ ____║
║❧Ｓｔｏｒｙ；Mathilde's story is not ____║
║necessarily her past, but her memories. _ ___║
║Sometimes memories aren't the best source, _ ║
║but they can be the only thing we have left..._║
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❝ The sun was starting to peek above the horizon by the time I decided to leave my room - and look for my sister, Maja - igniting the mist with pale, fiery light. As I made my way down the stairs (in no rush), I traced the mortar joints of the cool stone walls with my finger. The house always seemed chilly, every wall made out of the broad, chipping stone bricks. Once I got downstairs, I went to the kitchen, where Maja usually was at this hour. It was, however, empty and lifeless. The short and stout wood-burning oven was asleep; full of charcoal and ashes, it's flaming warmth long gone. Each pot and pan was hanging on it's hook, untouched. Maja must be sleeping late, I thought, it wouldn't hurt to check her room.
❝ I smothered a miniscule spark of panic. Maja was fine, nothing to worry about. She's in her room, I told myself as I turned the corner and opened her door. She was not in her room. Soon, I had searched our small house, only to find nothing - not even a trace - of my sister. She never went anywhere without telling me, she didn't want me to fret over nothing. Yet here I was, probably fretting over nothing. But what if it was someth-
❝ A knock at the door. I thought it would be Maja, coming back from the market, apologizing for forgetting a note. I walked towards the front door, but didn't open it yet. She would call my name, or say she forgot the key.
❝ "Maja, Mathilde? You guys up yet?" That wasn't Maja. My heart sank as if it was hit by a cannon ball.
"Who is it?" I replied.
"Mathilde? It's Severin! I was invited over for breakfast?" He said sheepishly, "I can leave if there was a change in plans..."
❝ Severin was Maja's partner. Somehow. He can be nice, but I find him annoying and whiny. He wasn't what I wanted to deal with at that very moment. But, Maja would've been mad if I told him to buzz off, so I opened the door grudgingly.
"We don't have anything ready." I grumbled, as I opened the door. He smiled at me before skipping through the doorway like an idiot and taking a seat in the front room.
"That's fine, I don't need to eat right now. Where's Maja? The market?" He asked nonchalantly, leaning back in the chair.
"She's, uh..." I trailed off, adding in a whisper, "I don't know - where she is..."
A look of alarm dawned on his face. "You mean, she's missing?" He exclaimed as he jumped out of the chair.
"Ye-yes..." I said. I couldn't let his cowardice get to me. "Yes," I repeated, more steadily this time, "And that means I have to find her."
❝ I couldn't just hide and wait when my sister needed me! I was not weak, I am not weak! Maja wouldn't have disappeared by choice, I figured someone must have taken her, stolen her from me. Whoever the crook was, I knew I could find them. I would track them down and get my sister back.
"What? No!" Severin scoffed, "Especially not on your own! You'll get hurt and I can't let that happen!"
"Excuse me? I'm going whether I have your permission or not!" I snapped back.
"Well then I'm coming with you! I'm at the very least more intimidating!"
"No! You're a coward, afraid of you're own shadow! I can do it without your help!" I slammed the door behind me.
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❝Yᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ONLY ᴏɴᴇ I'ʟʟ ᴇᴠᴇʀ
ᴀᴄᴄᴇᴘᴛ ʜᴇʟᴘ ғʀᴏᴍ,❞
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║❧Ｇｅｎｄｅｒ；Genderless (he)______.║
║❧Ｐｅｒｓｏｎａｌｉｔｙ； Fawkes is_║
║a pleasant little bird. He's always sweet and __║
║kind to dolls he meets. Unless he sees this doll_║
║as a threat, then he hides under Mathilde's ___║
║scarf and lets her take care of the problem. __║
║❧Ｏｒｉｇｉｎ；Fawkes was originally a_║
║small, golden music box, adorned with a ____║
║miniature songbird in mid-flight that spun as _║
║the tune played. The music box was then left,.║
║forgotten, and after a long time, turned into a ║
║shadow, a morphed version of the tiny bird.__.║
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❝Ｉ ｈａｄ ｂｅｅｎ ｇｏｎｅfor days, feeling weaker with each step. If I would have gotten more from the market, brought more from home, found a clue to where Maja was, I believe I would have been fine. But I had searched the house, there had been no clues. I had rushed out of the village in a blind fury, not thinking to grab anything more that a full canteen and a few small meals from the merchants. Rushing into things, it was (and still is) one of my flaws.
❝ After a week or so of searching the overgrown forest and thickets that surrounded my village, I stopped in a relatively safe spot, in a broken ellipse of sturdy pines. There, I let myself rest for the longest time I had that whole journey. Only when I woke up, I wasn't in the same place as before...
❝ It seemed like a box. A giant, cardboard box. This was bizarre. This was terrifying. Other things were in the box, too. Trinkets and toys, but much too big for any conceivable person. It was surreal. Just then I heard a sound. A small,twinkling tune, like a wind chime. I turned around to see a bird. Luckily, it was a normal size. But it was still odd, it had a swirling gloom around it, it almost looked like a silhouette. It called again. Just then, a realization dawned on me. I wasn't sure why, but I had to take the bird with me. I had to stay with him, and he had to stay with me. Chirruping, he hopped closer and tilted his head. I held my hand out for him to perch on, and he did just that. He wanted to help.
❝ "Alright..." I muttered. "But, you're the only one I'll ever accept help from, and just this once."
❧Note that the borders fit together on my screen, but it doesn't work on all screens.
