Dollfete! And a new arrival~

I just came back from Dollfete this weekend, with lots of loot! And also, we have a new arrival. :) So we have lots of pictures to keep you updated!

Firstly, here is Ducky who met a friendly little unicorn.

Hiyori at Dollfete. Trying on the new stuff that I just bought!

And then box opening pictures for our new girl. She arrived on Saturday while I was in Bangkok for Dollfete, so I only got a chance to open her up today!

Here she is! I haven't thought of a name for her yet. 

I gave her the stuff I tried on Hiyori at Dollfete because they suited her so well.

And here is Hiyori wearing the other princess dress and shoes I bought at Dollfete.

My MoriTime order also finally arrived today. 

The bigger package is a dress for Ducky, and the smaller one is the outfit that I had in mind for Tsukika.

They were late with my order, so they sent me a gift of some additional necklaces as well.

Kiki in her new outfit. When I saw this on MoriTime's Etsy shop I knew she had to have it!

My babies posing together. Aren't they sweet?

Finally, some news!

Hello everyone! I don't have much to update, other than that we will have new arrivals soon! Mio is moving on to a new home, and the buyer will complete her layaway in a few days, so I will be able to pay off the Yo-sd SWD Nana I have on layaway. Not sure what her name will be as of now. Halcyon is still off getting his face-up, and I have not heard from AngelToast yet. Fingers crossed that he will come back early next month. 

Apart from that, Fuyumi, who is still with EccentricRomance getting her customization done, got her new eyes a couple of days ago. So I met up with EccentricRomance yesterday to try them on. It was night time by then and I didn't manage to get a good photo, but I think they looked lovely.

In the meantime, while we wait for updates, here is some Ducky! I took some photos of her lounging on my bed to cheer my friends up but this ended up being the only shot I liked.

P.S. I hope you guys have been keeping up with Halcyon's story, and liking it! More will come soon, promise!

The taste of rain.

The rain is unending.

It is everywhere, in his hair, making rivulets down his back, soaking through the material of his pants. He is tired of this rain. But it will not go away.

It had been sunny before he set foot in this wretched place.

He has always disliked the rain.

The day she left, it had been splattering on the roof tiles. She had always liked wet evenings, they soothed her, she once told him. On days like that, he would normally find her propped up in bed, just listening.

Drip, drip.

The sound echoes in his ears.

The day she left, he had run out into the storm searching, calling for her. The only reply had been the roar of the thunder. He had stood out in the deluge for hours, waiting.

Rain is the best camouflage for our tears, she used to tell him. She would smile wistfully as she said it.

That day, he understood all too well what she'd meant.

Now, he has come all this way. The rain on his lips feels as though it may be bittersweet on the tongue. He has been searching since that day. He has been to every nook and cranny, to every precipice and every pit. He has walked the edges of both realms, desperate for any hint, any clue.

He is close now.

His tongue runs across his lower lip, tasting.

This rain, it has the same flavor as that day. It tastes of tears.

...

So near, yet so far.

The ceremony, I repeat.

For several moments, she blinks up at me in incomprehension.

The ceremony, she echoes, and I know else I have said before has been lost on her. I hold the sheet of parchment towards her. Her countenance hardens, almost imperceptibly. There is hurt, creeping into her eyes.

Guilty.

I am, because I already know. She belongs with me, but she is not mine.

Guilty.

She is, because her heart is elsewhere.

Her expression, when she looks up at me again, is wary. We are silent.

Why?

The question we both want to ask, it hangs in the air. Unspoken. Perhaps, we are both afraid. Perhaps, in giving form to those words, we might inadvertently bare ourselves. So we are silent, it is our shield. The space between us. We need it to protect ourselves from each other.

I watch her, my face schooled into a gentlemanly blankness.

It has already been too long by the time she finally regains herself. Her lips part. I will go, she says.

To the ceremony, to that place she would not have chosen to return to, to come before that person she cannot bear to look at. So near, and yet so far - for both of us.  I already know.

I cannot help but admire her strength.

I know she will be beautiful, on that day. She will brave the sea of rumors that will surely swirl unrelentingly around her, the sideways glances, the speculative whispers. She will grasp tightly the hand of her child, and stride with her head held high.

She will stand by the man she has always loved, a man who now belongs to her sister. She will look on, as they are enthroned together, Emperor and Empress of the realm.

She will be proud, strong and beautiful.

She will keep the tears inside.

I will look on.

There are always things we wish we did not know. If only we were truly ignorant of the extent of our ignorance.

If only I had known, how not to know.

...

I don't own you.

You are free to be with anyone, she says, I don't own you. Her gaze is indifferent.

But I don't want to, I reply.

I only want to be with you. That's what I wanted to say to her then, but I could not allow those words to escape from me. There is a hint of something more, of implications. As they waited on the back of my tongue, there was the faint taste of begging in them. I detested that; myself. So I'd swallowed those words back down as I met her gaze, feeling as though I might choke on them.

She had glanced away then, a strange expression on her face.

What had she been thinking, in that moment? Something, a memory perhaps, had flickered briefly in her eyes.

She turned her back to me. She was perched on the window ledge, her feet tucked up beneath her. I often found her that way, gazing out, but not seeing. Lost somewhere in her thoughts, her sunrise-colored hair falling haphazardly over her shoulders.

It is that view of her back that has been burned onto my mind.

It is that sunrise hair, the nape of her neck, and those pale, slender shoulders.

I don't own you, she says again. Only, she doesn't. I am just replaying those words over again inside my head.

But you do, I think. Did.

Still do.

I close my eyes and breathe deeply. These wounds are old, but never old enough. The scars that nobody else can see, are the ones that just don't seem to go away.

...

He is coming.

"Hal, are you sure about this? I hope you understand what you are getting yourself into."

Those were my father's words to me on that day. But that day, I had already made my choice, and no matter the cost, I would follow through with my decision.

A decision I am still paying for, to this day.

It has been six years now since I made my vows, stepped off onto this path that was dictated to me by the late Emperor, that ultimately, I myself chose to follow.

I have followed her here, to this forsaken place. That woman I swore to dedicate my life to, my wife.

She is here.

And I have come to take back what should have been mine.

...