<div style="text-align: center"><div class="bbImageWrapper lazyload js-lbImage" data-lb-caption-extra-html="" data-lb-sidebar-href="" data-single-image="1" data-src="/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Ffotos.fotoflexer.com%2F09518e1458688a3b7deb0f4ff0da061e.jpg&amp;hash=253a782d8ecd8a016966a5d6c9b67bb7" title="09518e1458688a3b7deb0f4ff0da061e.jpg">
<img alt="09518e1458688a3b7deb0f4ff0da061e.jpg" class="bbImage lazyload" data-src="/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Ffotos.fotoflexer.com%2F09518e1458688a3b7deb0f4ff0da061e.jpg&amp;hash=253a782d8ecd8a016966a5d6c9b67bb7" data-url="http://fotos.fotoflexer.com/09518e1458688a3b7deb0f4ff0da061e.jpg" data-zoom-target="1" height="" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" style="" title="" width=""/>
<noscript><img alt="09518e1458688a3b7deb0f4ff0da061e.jpg" class="bbImage" data-url="http://fotos.fotoflexer.com/09518e1458688a3b7deb0f4ff0da061e.jpg" data-zoom-target="1" height="" src="/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Ffotos.fotoflexer.com%2F09518e1458688a3b7deb0f4ff0da061e.jpg&amp;hash=253a782d8ecd8a016966a5d6c9b67bb7" style="" title="" width=""/></noscript>
</div>
<br/>​</div><br/>It was as though the treasures that lie hidden beneath a blanket of dust in the attic had been hermetically sealed from the rest of the house, and kept that way for a very long time. At least it had remained that way, until the panel in the floor opened and the folded stairs pulled downward to the next floor by an unseen hand, most likely the person that heard him fall and came to investigate the strange noise.<br/><br/>For Thing 1, the  loud creaking sound of the stairs as they were unfolded was the first time he heard any other sound besides the rain against the roof. Other signs of human life were muted to silence since the toy doll was relegated to the only home he knew-- the cardboard box he'd been placed in so long ago. Now his old home lay in shreds,  with the remainder of the contents of the box spilling out of the remnants of the box and across the attic floor.<br/><br/>His newborn hearing  detected the faint strains of music from the television as they emanated through the opening in the floor, and then the creaking sounds of male footsteps followed soon after.  When he looked again, there appeared to be a man in the attic waving a flashlight back and forth as he searched for the source of the noise.<br/><br/>Thing 1 blinked his bright green eyes wide open when he saw human hands and then feet coming up the steps, staring curiously as he made a chattering noise like an animal might. He didn't know why, but the man seemed very familiar to him. As if he knew him intimately at some point in time, but couldn't identify exactly when. A lot of time had passed between when the Paine boys were children, and now, so recognition didn't set in right away.<br/><br/>As the faint glow of his flashlight grew brighter and larger until it loomed over him, Thing 1's eyes squeezed shut. When his lips parted, he could feel the breath that he'd just taken for the first time only moments ago. He had a voice somewhere inside him, but right now he just didn't know where it was. All that came out was a soft gurgle, then a hoarse trill that made his ears vibrate with the sound.<br/><br/><b>"Mmm...ahhhh...ssss."</b><br/><br/>An old armoire and mirror  that would probably be in today's day and age considered an antique, was his respite to avoid being seen. But there was nowhere to hide, as he pressed himself into a trembling mass of muscled flesh with his back against the attic wall.  Thing 1 couldn't figure out how to make his legs work better, so for now he just crawled, dragging himself as far away from the flashlight as possible.<br/><br/>The man on the other end of the flashlight could see everything, because Thing 1 didn't have a stitch of clothing on.  As a doll, Thing 1 used to have a head made of un-glazed bisque porcelain with a matte finish, which gave it a realistic skin-like texture.  It had been painted a realistic skin color more than once to create a realistic skin tone, and facial characteristics like his blush and dimples when he smiled.<br/><br/>Real human hair was sewn into its scalp, styled in soft dark curls. His body was once made of wood, because if Thing 1 had been made entirely of bisque, its fragility, weight and the rough play of Maximus Paine, would have surely shattered him to pieces. His lifelike emerald green eyes had been constructed of glass, and perhaps that was what Maximus found so unsettling about the doll.<br/><br/>It always looked like Thing 1's eyes were following his movements. That was considered creepy, and precisely how Thing 1 got its first nickname.<i> Creepy thing. </i>His eyes were real, moist with confused tears, and his head was made of flesh and bone, brains inside.  His dark brown hair had a touch of midnight black in it, and the strands were lush and curly,<br/><br/>Muscle and sinew made up the rest of his body where the wood used to be. Marks where the ball joints once connected his hands to his arm, arms to shoulders, feet to legs, legs to knees, knees to hips were still there as freshly healing wounds.  Marks that were once part of the doll's existence, either from wear and tear or from childish neglect, were transferred to his pearly flesh in the form of black and blue bruises, and a childish scrawl stained his skin from a blue permanent marker just above his right hip near his waist.<br/><br/>A single word read:<i><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#0080ff">"Mine."</span></i><br/><br/>And it appeared from the man's surprised jump back into the antique dresser, that he was just as frightened as the doll turned man was. He was trying to talk, to explain himself, but he didn't know what happened to him, or why he was not the same sixteen inch doll that he was an hour ago. He didn't have the right answers to give, even if he wanted to provide them.<br/><br/>The man holding the flashlight would notice some similarities though, if he looked close enough. The doll and the young man in the attic were one and the same being, except one was porcelain and wood, the other flesh and blood.<br/><br/><a class="username" data-user-id="2503" data-username="@vices and virtues" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" href="https://blackdahliaroleplaying.com/members/2503/">@vices and virtues</a>