Ragdoll

Dr. Bronte/Mittens

She rolled her eyes. "Already dead, really? That's a bit melodramatic."

"That's enough Jane," Sully said a bit sharply.

The doctor held her tongue.

"Mind if we join you? I'm sorry about her; she can be pleasant when she wants, but since the operation-"

"I'd prefer it if you didn't apologize for my actions when I'm right here," she snapped, taking a seat.

Madison/Hush

Madison listened to the entire argument. She didn't say anything. She had learned where her place was.

Now though, a small part of her mind piped up saying: your place is different now. She was more than the trash she had been made to believe she was for years. Still...old habits die hard.

"I think I might like Thai food," she said quietly, taking a seat next to Alasdair. He frightened her a little, but the only way to finally be a person again was to dive right in. Right?

**Jaden, if you mean one of the doll fights, I plan on Jonah leaving soon because he has to make a speech at the arena and he was planning on doing it before the fight. That way you can come back in.

Jonah

Jonah ate his meal in silence, watching the others carefully as they took their orders, and silently ate also. Every once and a while, there was a few words spoken between them, but for Jonah's sake, he didn't have reason to trust them yet. Alasdair seemed to be in a particularly bad mood also.

"Alasdair, we will have to leave soon."

"Hm." Alasdair grumbled, eyes always staring at Jane.

"It is already five o'clock and I have to say my speech at six. I don't plan on being late."

"Hm."

"I am sorry that I have to leave early from this affair, but duty calls." Jonah said with a grim smile. He put a wad of bills onto the counter and looked to the one they called Sully. "Use the money to pay for the meals, you can keep the change mind you, and I am sorry for the trouble we may have caused you. Amelia," he turned to look at Amelia briefly, "you can stay with these people if you like or you can come with us."

Amelia looked at them briefly and nodded. "I would prefer to come with you." A guilty sense of relief settled through Jonah.

"Okay then, I had better be off. It was nice talking to you all." Jonah put on his hat and tipped it briefly.

--------------------

~Incognito

Alasdair

Alasdair stared up at Jonah rather impishly. He had calmed down quite a bit seeing as he was not used to the company of other ragdolls. Although mittens was sure not the nicest of people, in which he knew all too well now, he was intrigued by Hush, the doll who sat beside him, and Amelia especially who seemed quietly alone.

Leaving at such a time just didn't seem right. He wanted to stay.

"Jonah, I'm sure we can stay for a bit more. You don't let me around much to speak with people."

Jonah's nostrils flared, lips pursed. He seemed relatively uncomfortable, as if he had been waiting since the start to find a way out.

"I dont have much time, Alasdair. Let's go."

"You have plenty of time. Calm down."

"This is really not the time..."

"Alasdair," Hush murmured. "Is that your ragdoll name?"

Alasdair turned his eyes towards the other ragdoll, curious. He wasnt used to people questioning him on anything in a decent manner. Only Jonah was ever nice to him for only Jonah let him be himself. He never listened to orders and would surely never degrade himself to being... whats that word again? 'Owned'.

"No," he murmured, standing up slowly. "It was my name before this. I was Alasdair Holbrook. Now, I'm winter." His eyes jetted towards Jane, fiercly. "And I'm cold. Not melodramatic."

Madison/Hush

"What made you decide to become a ragdoll?" Madison asked quietly. "You still remember your life before, right?"

"Of course I do," Alasdair said.

Madison bit her lip, thinking hard. She couldn't remember the last time she had her own life. Even before she was a ragdoll she was owned. "I never had a life before..." she murmured.

Dr. Bronte/'Mittens'

'Cold, not melodramatic.' Don't make me laugh. Jane focused on her noodles, keeping her face carefully blank. She'd seen it all too often in other rag dolls. All they wanted to do was angst, angst, angst about how terrible their lives were now that they'd been converted to these fibrous shells. And while she could understand a need to vent occasionally, allowing what they now were cripple them was stupid.

She thought back to the day she'd been turned and shook her head vigorously in an attempt to clear the thoughts from her mind. She'd had a wonderful life with a promising future, but it was gone now. No point wallowing in it.

"Is something wrong?" Madison asked quietly as Alasdair snorted. Dr. Bronte glared at him.

"No. I'm perfectly fine." There was a good deal of bitterness in her voice.

Alasdair

"And yet you speak with malice," Alasdair chuckled. "Yet you seem to think so lowly of me?"

"Alasdair, we aren't starting fights here," Jonah stated, putting his hand on the ragdolls shoulder.

"I'm not starting any fights, Jonah. I'm just making conversation." He turned his eyes back towards Madison. "I didn't choose to be this way."

"You... you didn't?" She asked, confused.

"I died," he murmured, a humour in his voice. "Cancer. Kind of a relief, really. Too much money for operations I couldn't afford. I guess this is sort of my hell? Not that I have it at all bad off thanks to Jonah. I'm quite comfortable, moreso than in human form."

"Than why... why dont you seem happy?"

"I wanted to see my mom," he shook his head, a smile showing as he turned his eyes down towards the table rather embarassed. No matter how much he hated answering questions truthfully, he always did. Truth was always much more interesting than lies. "Now I don't know if I'll ever have the chance. I am far from unhappy though... much better than before."

"Alasdair, really. It's time to go."

"I am quite content speaking with Hush here. How bout I meet up with you at the apartment?"

Jonah's eyebrows furrowed. "You know I don't like that."

"Oh well," Alasdair waved it off.

Dr. Bronte/"Mittens"

"And yet you speak with malice. Yet you seem think so lowly of me."

Did I say that I thought lowly of you? she thought angrily, but she didn't say anything out loud. The few noodles remaining on her plate writhed like worms as she pushed them around with her fork. Alasdair's story interested her a bit, however.

"I think I remember you," she said suddenly. "You were one of the first ones, weren't you Alasdair?"

Alasdair

"Yes, actually. I was..." His eyes hardened a bit.

He watched as Jonah shuffled from foot to foot as if waiting for the ragdoll to change his mind but Alasdair had been very adament on staying exactly where he was. Finally, he sighed and turned to leave, passing Alasdair a few bills.

"That should be enough for a cab home."

Alasdair nodded, turning his eyes towards Amelia. "Going with him?"

She looked back and forth between the two, unsurely before replying. "I think I should stay here."

Alasdair nodded. "Than we shall both come along and find you at the apartment."

Jonah then left. For the first time in a long time had Alasdair been left alone in the 'real' world so it felt. Jonah was usually his force. His protector when it really should have been the other way around. It didn't much matter to him though. He was excited by the ideals of freedom.

Back to the other ragdolls...

"And you know this because...?"

Madison/Hush

Madison listened to Alasdair and Jane talk about Alasdair's conversion to this state. She couldn't imagine being turned for a good reason, even if he hadn't chosen it. At least he was alive.

You were dead long before becoming a ragdoll. Madison told herself. Your life had been going nowhere before and stayed going nowhere.

She remembered the day she was turned and shivered. It was one thing not chosing this fate, but how she had been forced... Madison shook her head. She didn't want to think about those days. She had a chance now.

Dr. Bronte/"Mittens"

The doctor met Alasdair's eyes, looking slightly miserable. "Because I worked on Project Ragdoll. I was one of the ones in charge of working the material into a usable form."

Alasdair looked shocked. "You... you're the reason for this?" He started to get to his feet.

"No," she said sharply. "I was the one person keeping this from happening before it did."

Alasdair was still frowning, so she continued. "I was on the committee, so they needed my permission to commercialize the process. I said no. That's when they decided to stage my death and put me in this body. So no, it's not my fault you're like that."

Alasdair

He hadn't known what to feel towards the subject, but sat back down, restless. So she was like Jonah, or had been. Put her higher in his books, for sure, but he was still unsure of what to think of her. He tried to keep himself civilized.

"I see," he murmured, pressing his hand to his mouth. "Then you're on our side."

"Do I have a choice now?" She asked, waving it off.

Alasdair smirked. "Either way, it's nice to have another ragdoll fighting, though there really isnt much we can do in the political world."

Kieth-

Pain... the idiot professor turned it on. Now instead of making it through the motions of my punishment with ease, I cringed and cried at every obstacle that hit me.

I really, really... HATE pain.

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OMGosh it was so freaking short. Sorry about this.