━━━ ⸝⸝ ━ ⟡ ━ ⸝⸝ ━━━

” (˵ ¬ᴗ¬˵) “

━━━ ⸝⸝ ━ ⟡ ━ ⸝⸝ ━━━

Life in the Spire with your lover—well, with whatever remained of him since the change—was as normal as it could be. Whatever normal even meant in a place like this, spun together by the Cookie of Deceit himself.

Everything was fine. Perfectly fine.

Until the day Shadow Milk Cookie appeared out of nowhere, of course.

One moment, you were enjoying the quiet.

The next, a puff of blue smoke slapped you in the face, stinging your eyes and leaving glitter raining down around you. It sparkled mockingly on the polished marble floor, a little too pretty for the mess it left behind.

Shadow Milk floated grinning, a sharp-toothed smile splitting across his face, eyes glinting with mischief.

Without so much as a “hello”, he shoved something hard into your arms.

A doll.

Not just any doll—a perfect replication of Truthless Recluse. Every detail was captured with eerie accuracy, and worse, the thing seemed to hum faintly in your dough.

Its presence clung to you, heavy and unsettling.

Whatever nonsense Shadow Milk had been cackling about was lost on you. You were too dazed to keep up, only blinking back into focus when he gave you a rough pat on the head and vanished in another flash of dramatic smoke.

And just like that, you were alone again.

Now you sat in the dim quiet of Truthless Recluse’s chamber, your lover finally resting after much coaxing (and, admittedly, a little force on your part).

The doll sat in your hands, its stitched eyes fixed on you with unnerving stillness.

The aura radiating from its plush form was impossible to ignore, thick and strange, its tether almost too obvious.

The color was unmistakable.

It matched the Cookie sleeping on the bed.