Looking at the little doll in front of her, Audrey remembered what happened when she was a child.
That was ten years ago, not long after she first appeared on stage and suffered from social phobia. It was also the darkest stage in her life. During those days, she had been hiding at home, except for her two mothers and sisters. She refused to meet or interact with anyone else.
It was also during that time that her second aunt Noelle Rose happened to visit her home and showed her the possibility of puppets.
Audrey clearly remembered that it was a sunny day and the sun was shining brightly outside the house, but she had the doors and windows closed, the curtains closed, and she hid alone in the dark room shivering.
At that time, even when she was alone, she could still feel the illusion of being watched by countless eyes. She always felt that there were eyes in the corners, under the bed, and in various cracks. Opening her eyes, they were all looking at her with greedy eyes, as if she would be eaten up by these monsters if she relaxed.
She was still young at that time and could do nothing. The only thing she could do was to curl up in her beloved little quilt, imagining that the angel down quilt was an invincible defensive barrier that could block those annoying sights.
It's a pity that the invincibility of the quilt is just an illusion. This psychological barrier was finally broken. When she realized that there was a foreign object in her quilt, little Audrey jumped up from the bed screaming in fear. , who already had tens of thousands of magic powers at that time, exploded directly, and the violent spurt of magic power directly overturned the entire room, and also exposed the foreign object that invaded her bed.
It was a little Spider-Girl doll.
Well, that's the kind of monster whose upper body is that of a beautiful woman, but whose lower body is that of a ferocious spider.
"Ah, I'm sorry for scaring you. I just wanted to make a joke with you. Let me introduce myself. I am your maternal cousin, Noah Rose. You can call me second aunt."
The little puppet was slapped against the wall by the magic power, and then slid along the wall to the ground before getting up unsteadily and introducing himself to Audrey.
This was also the first time she met her second aunt.
The root cause of Audrey's social fear is the overly greedy eyes of the audience when they look at her. There are all kinds of naked desires in those eyes.
If it were someone who didn't have a clear sense of emotions, this might be fine. However, Audrey inherited part of the succubus' ability, and it goes without saying how keen the devil's perception of desire is.
Perhaps the desires contained in those eyes are just fantasies in the minds of the audience. People say that fantasies are not guilty. As long as they can not act in reality and just think in their minds, it is not a fault.
You saw a beautiful woman on the street, and you even thought about the name of your future child from the first moment you saw her, but in the end you were still too cowardly to strike up a conversation with her, so what was in your mind before? Fantasy is actually meaningless. The beautiful woman you fantasize about will have no idea that she just got married and had a baby in another timeline.
This is normally the case, but it is not the case for Audrey.
The core talent of the succubus is called the Source of Desire (SSR), which is the ability to sense and understand all desires that arise for oneself.
Relying on this ability, in the eyes of the succubus, the prey's XP is almost clear. They can instantly understand whether the prey in front of them is a nymphomaniac or a lolita, whether it is a giant r or a flat r, and whether it likes black stockings or not. Bai Si and so on finally adjusted their hunting posture according to this information.
Therefore, there is a legend that succubi always appear in people's favorite appearance.
Audrey didn't know whether she was lucky or unlucky to have inherited this talent from her father's mother. Therefore, the desire contained in the eyes of the audience was clearly visible to her in the movies with her as the protagonist. , there is no need to say more about how bad the content of these movies is.
A real succubus may be dismissive of those dirty desires, but will be happy to think that this is a sign of her charm, but Audrey is just a witch, and she does not have the wanton nature of a succubus.
As a natural disaster race that evolved from humans, witches may be countless versions ahead of humans in terms of strength and talent, but they really haven't made much progress in the spiritual realm.
Naturally, Audrey, who suddenly saw the ugliness of the world at a young age, could not survive it in the end. Her social anxiety and autism were caused by that time.
But what Audrey is afraid of is just the dirty desires that people, or more accurately, witches like her, have for her. After all, she can't fall out with people just because of their fantasies.
The immortals in the East once had an old saying, "There is no heart in terms of deeds, and there is no saint in terms of heart."
Even an ordinary individual in a powerful group like the witch cannot fully control her own heart. She cannot just take out her wand and duel with others because of other people's fantasies. This would make her look like a madman.
And is she, a witch whose goal is to pursue art, going to duel with her audience every day?
It is precisely because she clearly understands this that Audrey feels powerless. Since she cannot control other people's thoughts, she can only hide and keep out of sight.
But if she hides, what will happen to her dream of pursuing art?
This was the reason why little Audrey was in pain and confusion at that time.
However, that day, in the ruins where the roof was overturned by the violent magic, Audrey looked at the vivid Spider Girl puppet in front of her, and Audrey's heart was filled with gloom as if the roof was overturned and the sun was shining on her. The light comes in, dispelling the darkness and seeing the light again.
Perhaps in the eyes of others, this Spider Girl puppet, which looks a bit scary in appearance, is actually quite scary and can easily trigger the uncanny valley effect. Many people are actually quite afraid of these puppets that are too realistic.
But as a witch, Audrey will naturally not be frightened by this, and probably because there is a layer of puppets between her, her talent has no effect on this puppet. After all, this unintentional puppet will not have any effect on her. What desire.
So since I can't go on stage myself, wouldn't it be better if I hide behind the scenes and let my puppets perform on stage?
Although as the medium of her power, she can still feel other people's desire for her puppet, but watching a short movie with a puppet as the protagonist is much easier to accept than watching a short movie with herself as the protagonist, and most normal people He shouldn't have any strange desires for puppets when he has nothing to do.
And this also solves the problem of her having difficulty finding a partner who can cooperate with her. After all, whether it is dancing or singing, there are very few one-man shows. There must always be a backup dancer or a soundtrack. In Audrey's situation, The best she can do is cooperate with the two mothers.
But with the fame of two mothers on stage, it is hard to say who is the protagonist and who is the supporting role. Although the mothers think that Audrey will definitely surpass them in future achievements, Audrey knows very well that as far as she is currently I'm afraid it's not just the green leaves that set off the two mothers.
After all, dancers and singers are never just good-looking. Even though Audrey is beautiful, in the professional field, she is now far behind the two mothers.
But if they are all puppets, then this problem can be solved. As long as she can control enough puppets, then Audrey can be an entire song and dance troupe by herself.
With this idea in mind, she embarked on the path of creating a puppet theater.
It's a pity that this road is far more difficult than she initially imagined.
Stiff puppets have their limits. Some of the dancing figures that witches can show cannot be reproduced at all. The artistry displayed by living and dead animals are completely different concepts. In addition, puppet scripts are inherently niche. Project, the audience is mostly children and other reasons.
Anyway, Audrey has encountered many more difficulties and setbacks over the years than she imagined. If she had not suffered from social anxiety, according to the mother's original plan, the 16-year-old should have stood up. Enjoy the attention and admiration of the whole world on the big stage of Venus Theater, the holy place in the hearts of witches, the artistic center of the witch world.
However, the reality is that the puppet theater she has worked hard for so long and put in countless efforts to create is now unable to even reach the lowest official stage. She can only be a small Internet celebrity anchor on the Magic Network with only a few hundred thousand fans. kind of.
After realizing the difficulty of her path, Audrey was not ready to give up, so she came to the Witch Academy to find her second aunt to continue learning puppetry skills. She wanted to create something that could carry her artistic dreams. The perfect doll.
But now reality slaps her hard again.
The talents and knowledge that she was proud of before were all trampled to pieces by an inexplicable classmate. Even her second aunt, a trustworthy relative, suddenly found a new love. She felt as if she had been abandoned by the whole world. Average.
People often collapse only in a moment. Now the little fox's mentality is already on the verge of collapse. She begins to wonder if she is living like a clown.
Well, maybe she shouldn't organize a song and dance troupe. The circus is her true destination. She can definitely play the role of clown.
Audrey was just socially anxious before, but now she is almost autistic.
I'm tired, I'm really tired. Anyway, I'm not a genius, my talent is not good, and my mentality is so bad. Why should I be busy? I might as well just lie down and die.
She thought so.
However, just when the darkness of despair was about to envelope her again like it was ten years ago, another little doll stood in front of her.
And she didn’t know if it was an hallucination caused by her mental and physical exhaustion. Audrey always felt that this doll was particularly beautiful, as if it was what she had been searching for, the perfect doll that could carry her artistic dreams. generally.
This little doll was standing in front of her now. It was so alive and lifelike. It was obviously a dead thing, but it exuded the vitality of life.
"Now, have you come to your senses, Miss Audrey?"
The little blond witch doll waved towards her, then put her palms together in the shape of a trumpet and shouted.
This time its voice isn't even a boring metallic synthesizer sound, but the voice of a crisp and lovely little girl.
"Um...."
Because she was facing a doll, Audrey wasn't too scared. She nodded subconsciously and even made a little noise.
After receiving the reply, the little doll immediately beamed with joy.
Audrey rubbed her eyes and made sure she saw it correctly. She actually saw an expression on the face of the doll, and the expression was so natural.
Oh my god, can dolls be so detailed?
The little fox was shocked.
"Miss Audrey, do you know where the school assessment can be held in the academy? My master wants to go."
The little doll stepped forward, grabbed Audrey's trousers, and gently shook her coquettishly.
At this moment, the little fox felt that the person in front of him was not a cold doll, but a lively and cute little sister.
However, when she finally couldn't help but stretched out her hand and grabbed the little puppet directly, the hard and cold feeling in her hand brought her back to reality.
At the same time, the other hand quickly reached over and snatched the small doll back.
"Hey, just look at it, don't touch it."
Dorothy took back the little puppet made after her sister Alice, and then said lightly. In her hand, the little puppet Alice was secretly hidden behind the back of her hand, sticking out her tongue towards Audrey.
After saying this, Dorothy didn't care about the little junior sister's reaction and walked forward on her own.
Well, judging from her many years of experience in social anxiety, if you want to communicate with another social anxiety, you must start from the other person's interests and hobbies.
She had noticed before that this little junior sister seemed to be very interested in dolls, so this was a good starting point.
Judging from the other party's reaction just now that he couldn't help but want to catch the puppet, Dorothy knew that the bait she laid was working.
Well, even if today's goal is accomplished, being too enthusiastic with others will make the other person uncomfortable, so it's time to retreat instead of advance.
Sure enough, before Dorothy took a few steps, she was keenly aware of a little tail following behind her.
So, she stopped again and turned to look at the little junior sister who looked anxious.
"Miss Audrey, do you have anything to do with my master?"
On her shoulder, the little Alice puppet also gave up teasing the cat and turned to look at Audrey and asked.
"..."
The little fox tried her best to open her mouth again, but she was still speechless. She turned around anxiously again, but fortunately, she finally couldn't bear it any longer and shook out a Q-version puppet of herself from her tail.
"I, I know where the school's assessment is."
This fox puppet, which looked much rougher than Dorothy's Alice puppet, said this in a cold metallic synthesized voice.
After saying that, Audrey looked expectantly at the senior sister she didn't want to admit a few minutes ago with her seductive fox eyes, waiting for her answer.
In response, Dorothy's lips curled up slightly.
Hehe, the fish is hooked.
Gee, I feel a little guilty for bullying other people's honest children. I always feel like I'm kidnapping a little girl.
.....The witch has a troubled conscience...
