YTTD HEADCANONS, ONE-SHOTS, AND OTHER STUFF

Dolls (Joe Tazuna)

SPOILERS FOR CHAPTERS 1 and 2! Lots of angst is packed into this one. Also, the Sara and Joe parts can be taken as platonic or romantic. Enjoy!

Joe Tazuna played with dolls. Nobody much cared. With all the reasons to bully Joe, it was just an extra fact to use against him. He was an easy target regardless of if he preferred dolls or trains. Before he got his dog keyring, the one he won at the arcade when he grew out of dolls, he went to Sara's house and played with dolls (that is, when they weren't batting each other with rolls of wrapping paper in a mock sword fight).

Sara didn't recognise the doll he'd brought in this time, though.

It had moveable joints and these wide hungry eyes. It looked like it came out of a McDonald's Happy Meal, a little toy from a fast food chain, but broken. Like it was made wrong and tossed off of the production line. She smiled, too, but like she was laughing at a sick joke. A sickly smiley person.

Joe sat on Sara's bed, and Sara sat on the floor leaning against the wall.

"I think she's pretty cool!" Joe insisted, brushing the plasticky brown hair out of the doll's face. The hair was rigid and smelled of melted plastic. He still combed his hand through it like nothing was wrong. "Her outfit's a little weird, but we're all a little weird."

"Ha ha... I guess so..." Sara shrugged. "She looks kind of posh. Like a queen. A poorly dressed queen."

"She's an important person."

"Is that so?"

"Mhm." Joe paused in hesitation, and he kept combing the doll's hair. "She's a Floormaster."

It was a word young Sara had never heard of before, yet it frightened her. It shook her to her very core. "A... what?"

"I made up the word, I guess. Dunno where it came from. She's a Floormaster."

She really wanted Joe to stop saying that word. "What does she do as a Floormaster?" Curiosity was a sick bastard. Hope was just as cruel.

"A Floormaster..." He frowned thoughtfully, "...Huh. I don't know what she'll do. I don't think I've got that far yet, ha ha."

"Nothing bad... right?" Her words were just spilling.

"Well... I think that they control a certain floor."

"Okay..." This was so unlike him. Sara was clearly getting nervous or uncomfortable, an occasion so rare that everyone around her joked that any signs of fear from her should be met with trumpets and angels. He hadn't stopped though. He hadn't asked her if she was okay. Yet. Hope again.

Joe went on with, "And they probably organise Death."

Hope shattered, curiosity still cannibalising her, anxiety peaking. He was continuing before she could even get a word in edgewise. "She'd probably give people roles that they had to follow. Someone with an important role would kill me off."

"Joe-"

"What do you think Sara?"

"Where is this coming from?"

"Does she look like the sort of person to fry someone's head off? Or push someone to kill themselves? Or-"

"Joe, don't-"

"-Or burrow tubes inside of me so all of my blood can drain out slowly and painfully?"

Sara looked up at Joe and she suddenly felt so incredibly powerless. Like he was being lifted by machinery to his death already.

She didn't even get to whisper "I'm sorry" before she woke up.

It wasn't the end of it though. The terrible thoughts in that nightmare, in that hellscape that looked strangely enough like her own damn room, that should have been sweated out and forgotten when she woke up were still there. No. She felt homesick and physically sick to her stomach. She moved slowly and shakily sat up, felt tears burn in her eyes since she'd been lying down for too long and hadn't given them the opportunity to fall.

Joe was stood in the glass, grinning and staring at her without any eyes. Not Joe. Faux Joe. "Hiya Sara."

"I'm sorry, Joe. I'm so sorry I hurt you..." she said, overcompensating for the words left unsaid in her dream.

"If you were that sorry you'd meet me. Say it to my face."

"I need to get everyone out first."

"Everyone minus Mishima, Kai and, y'know, me."

Sara didn't respond.

"Go back to sleep, Sara. Maybe that Sou guy will finally do you in."

She didn't say anything again, didn't lie back down, frozen and yet sweating bullets.

"You should have shot me when you had the chance. It wouldn't have been as painful. Or you should have turned the gun on yourself."

Sara lay down and stared at the ceiling, anything but the walking corpse.

"Maybe I should have left you during the first trial."

She covered her mouth with her hands and cried silently.

------

She was blind.

She didn't know how, she didn't know why. She didn't exactly care, either.

She didn't have to feign confidence to make the others trust her. She didn't have to help anyone right now.

She was alone and saw nothing.

"Hey, Sara!"

She froze and she suddenly felt alive. She could feel her body, her heartbeat and her fingers and her eyes blinking away tears.

"Don't leave!"

Joe's voice. Another cruel trick.

"That's not the Sara I know."

Just ignore it.

"I didn't mean to upset you just now."

But you did, Joe.

"I hate seeing you cry, y'know?"

"I wish this was real."

She felt arms wrap around her. They held her tight, a full-on bear hug.

"I don't know what came over me. I don't know what you're dealing with right now, Sara, but make sure you're doing okay when dealing with it."

"Joe, I wish you were here."

"I'm here right now. Just because I'm not here all the time doesn't mean you should spend too many hours getting upset."

"I need more time before I move on."

The hug weakened but was still present. "That's fine. Take your time. Just remember that even if I'm not right next to you, I still trust you and the decisions you make. I may not be the sign you need right now, I may not even be real, but I hope I can help you until you can find your real, actual sign to keep going."

The sudden self-awareness that Joe had got hit with was a dead giveaway. She was definitely going to wake up soon.

"Go beat up those Floormasters. We all trust you."

She felt his presence move on.

She figured that it was time for her to try and find the sign to move on, too.

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Word Count - 1116.