Property of Elizabeth: CH12 - Black Roses

[To read the first chapter, please refer to the story guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XUQoCpKv_ZadAHPhMoKZ7NAF7uB5L5CboQfaguypZZg/edit?usp=sharing ]

Elizabeth’s space behind the dress shop served many purposes. There were the fun rooms on the first floor which housed the dungeon space, the dollhouse, the petplay space, and the nursery, and then the second floor housed living quarters for a few maids, a sewing room, a mannequin room, as well as Elizabeth’s own bedroom. Though the space was vast, as the street shop had been expanded backwards to accompany these rooms,  there were still limitations for how many could properly stay with Elizabeth in the shop. This was by design, since like the space of the property, Elizabeth could only fit so many in her world and life all at once.

“How many dolls are you the Owner of?”

“Dolls specifically? Three.”

“Oh, I see. Do they live with you?”

“Some stay overnight in the dollhouse from time to time, but they each have their own homes nearby, much like yourself.”

“Gotcha… I was wondering if my situation was… out of the ordinary.”

“Ownership isn’t something I take lightly. Near, far, you are mine. The fact that you come to me when summoned says as much.”

“True.”

“If you would like, you’re welcome to speak to some of my other dolls. Though if it saves you any amount of worry, those who live with me are special in their own right, but occupy a different space in my life. I do not waste time in giving titles to people I do not care for. You are you, and that’s what I like about you. There is no competition for Alexis.”

“I appreciate that.”

“I do think you would benefit from speaking with Shiki at some point. We have had similar conversations.”

“I will be sure to do that.”

Elizabeth gently massaged Alexis’ head as the two sat in the dollhouse, Elizabeth on her chair, Alexis on the floor between her legs. The dollsuit was supposed to be ready today, but there was a hiccup in transporting it, so it was sort of a free day for the two. A lot of Elizabeth’s plans involved the suit, and her energy was unfortunately exhausted for coming up with a new routine on the spot.

“Adelle, could you bring Shiki in here?”

“Uh, sure! I can take over the shop.”

“Much appreciated.”

The two sat in silence, Elizabeth continuing to play with Alexis’ pink hair.

“You know, that flower shop next door was going out of business when I first acquired this shop. She was a very sweet lady though, so I asked her if she could find me Black Roses. To my surprise, she told me there was no such thing.”

“Oh… there isn’t?”

“There are roses that are a very dark red, but no truly natural black breeds. The roses my sister had found for me were dyed, artificially made. After a moment, I asked her again and presented my dress to her. ‘Dresses are artificially made, yet they exist. And so do black roses. If you can find me black roses, I will leave the magic of their making to you, just as my customers do for my dresses.’ And to my luck, she had experimented with dying natural roses and could fulfill my wish… so I fulfilled her’s by buying her property from her landlord and gifting it to her. In exchange, we have this lovely expansion for my building behind her shop, that we now sit in.”

“Oh… you own this building? And the one next to it?”

Elizabeth nodded.

“The takeaway, my little pink haired doll, is that your hair is a very pretty pink, and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that you dye it that way, but I may prefer for that to remain a mystery to me, much like my roses.”

Elizabeth tugged her hair back a little.

“Though you’re a natural doll, and I suppose that’s all the magic an Owner could ask for.”

She placed the softest kiss atop Alexis’ head before Shiki walked in. Shiki was dressed as Elizabeth, which was a first for Alexis to witness.

“Adelle summoned me.”

“Shiki, I’d like you to meet Alexis, your new doll sister.”

Shiki looked to Alexis, who started to stand before Elizabeth pressed her back down to the floor between her legs.

“Oh, the new Bimbo doll?”

“We’ve decided to go a more universal route. I decided to add her to my personal collection.”

Shiki smiled, though it was obvious there was some insecurity behind it.

“I think you two have some common ground. Come sit with us.”

Shiki sat on the floor beside Alexis and Elizabeth moved her legs to accompany both, so she could play with both of their heads at the same time.

“Shiki, Alexis, you’ve both presented concern with the importance behind living here vs not. This stems from traditional partnership roles, and I understand the concern of importance. If you two were to live here, you would have a living space separate from my own, just as Adelle, Aliyah, and Mizy do. They live here out of mutual necessity in our roles and duties to each other, and even if I had a larger space, I would still prefer to have my own space be separate.”

Shiki looked down in a somewhat guilty tone, since she likely heard something similar to this already. Alexis took note of the insecurity, and it made her feel a little better seeing her feelings were validated in the other doll.

“You two are amazing dolls. I own you for many reasons. I would appreciate the freedom to play with each of you together, separate, or not at all without judgement. So it’s important that you two like and understand each other.”

Elizabeth snapped her fingers beside the two doll’s ears.

“Now stand up before me.”

Both stood up in front of Elizabeth. Elizabeth looked to Shiki.

“I am in your head. I am your thoughts. You will do with your Bimbo doll as you desire.”

Shiki froze for a moment, closing her eyes and breathing in, then out. Her look changed suddenly to a look Alexis had only really seen from Elizabeth in the past. With the violet wig and the dark dress, her red hues were almost interchangeable with Elizabeth’s in that moment. Elizabeth sat back in her chair, quietly enjoying the show that was about to unfold.

“Tell me, Bimbo, what do sluts say?”

“Where would you like me, my Owner?”

Shiki clasped Alexis’ hand in her own, bringing her close to her mouth so she could steal a deep kiss, bringing the blushing pink doll closer into her waist. This felt… wrong… but right… Alexis whimpered at the strange kiss, Shiki biting her lip on exit as she looked into her eyes.

“On your knees, in your ‘good girl’ pose.”

Alexis dropped to her knees, leaning back, tongue flexed out with her mouth wide open, trapped in the first pose Elizabeth had her practice so many times before. Shiki crossed her arms behind her back, leaning over to look at the poor, pitiful girl on the floor.

“Aw, so silly! I bet I could put aaanything in your mouth right now and you would take it.”

Alexis couldn’t refute that, especially since she couldn’t bring herself to come out of this pose. Shiki crouched down to Alexis’ level and leaned in to her open mouth, tracing her tongue around the doll’s quivering lips. Elizabeth chimed in.

“Return to self.”

Shiki snapped out of her trance, blushing a little with where she was in the session. She leaned up immediately, though admittedly she enjoyed being where she was. Alexis was fairly attractive, after all. Elizabeth couldn’t help but laugh at both of their reactions to such a scene.

“You two are both my dolls, and yet you fulfill such different rolls that I can use you for two sides of a scene together.”

Shiki looked off to the side… that was definitely a valid demonstration of that point.

“I think you can now appreciate each other’s abilities better too. In fact, Shiki, weren’t you discussing with me recently that you would love to experiment with taking on my presence for a longer term, say, a weekend?”

Shiki nearly jumped, nervous about such a topic being brought up now.

“Y-yes… my Owner…?”

“Hm. Fun thoughts. Alexis does use Miru quite a bit.”

The thought lingered in Alexis’ mind throughout the rest of the evening. It seemed Shiki didn’t live very far from her in the grand scheme of the city. It wasn’t walking distance, but it was close enough to develop a friendship. The two spoke on the way out of the shop, though it took a miracle to break the ice after that scene.

“West district isn’t very far from my place. We should hang out sometime.”

“Oh, yeah… I don’t really do much aside from work and… come here I guess.”

“Hah… we are similar after all…”

“I mean… I can’t become Elizabeth at the snap of a finger.”

“I can’t either, really.”

Alexis was a little surprised to hear that. Shiki took notice.

“We practiced it a lot. Sure, we had hot sessions where we did hypnosis, masking, play, but in order to actually develop that, it took a lot of studying her, writing in her voice, acting. I did classes, sat in on her sessions, and learned all that I could. The idea of becoming so obsessed with a person that you become them, yourself is really hot.”

“S-so.. so when she said those words… were you aware of everything you were doing?”

“Are you aware of what you’re doing during triggers?”

“W-well yeah, I guess. I decided when I was given them that following her command, no matter what, should be the forefront of thought… so when I’m given those commands, I don’t think, I just blindly trust in her and perform the action for her.”

“Ding ding ding! You’ve got it.”

“So you just allow your training to take over? But it’s so specific…”

“I’ve been her doll for about seven years now… Imagine how many sessions I’ve seen… how many tricks I’ve learned… how many phrases she has…”

“Oh… it is like Miru then.”

“Oh, no, Miru is just insanely talented at reading people… and very lonely. I had to train… and it’s the training process I’m into.”

“That makes sense…”

The two came up on the bus that took them their respective ways.

“By the way, your doll suit is probably coming tomorrow.”

“Y-yeah… you’ve seen a lot of dolls get their suits… what should I expect?”

Shiki looked at her and smiled, just gently waving.

“Niiiiiight, dolly.”