Ok, I really shouldn't be doing this, abandoning exam studying and stuff, but I can't help it! The idea for this was just floating around in my head for ages now and I think my head is going to explode if I don't whip out my laptop and start writing something NOW. So yeah. I did. At four o' clock in the morning, no less.
This will be a longer multi-chapter fic, which I don't usually do. No, scratch that, this is probably one of the first continuous fics I've done that will probably be longer than five chapters. So yeah, I feel like a newbie right now...
I'll still be updating for Love Letters of course, as well as for this. The next chapter will probably be this Friday/Saturday when I finally finish my exams, the last of which are on Thursday. It'll probably come out after my 'D' chapter. And the ending for this is going to have tragic bits. Bit please don't let that put you off because I, as the author, guarantee a happy ending. Even though some stuff is going to happen that will probably make some people hate me for a chapter or so...
Also, this is probably extremely random, but WHOOT! Pop out the champagne in celebration, according to the numbers on the archive, this fic is the 300th Rozen Maiden fic. I feel honoured XD
Wow, *looks back at author's notes* I just realised how long I've been ranting. Well, enjoy the prologue, though nothing much really happens, and I'll get back to trying to frantically memorise Commerce notes ;_;
Disclaimer: I don't own Rozen Maiden or any of its characters.
Die Lebendsliste
Prologue - Langeweile des Kaninchens
Boredom of the Rabbit
You will find as you look back upon your life
That the moments when you have truly lived
Are the moments when you have done things
In the spirit of love.
- Henry Drummond -
Boredom, Laplace mused one day as he drifted aimlessly through the field of N, must be one of the only real threatening enemies he had. It could very nearly be fatal.
The anthropomorphic rabbit was a being that, much like Rozen, transcended both time and space. Unfortunately, living a life with no real prospect of death meant that his existence lost the thrill, the desperate excitement that came with mortality. He had all the time in the world and nothing to do with it. Unlike those humans, who had to rush to be able to fit everything in their short and transient lives.
Still, Laplace considered, he'd always managed to find entertainment in watching the struggles of others. He was a connoisseur of games and riddles. He loved confusion and mystery, fragments of the truth unfurling bit by bit like an intricate spider's web. This was how he spent his time; laughing at the ignorant, amusing himself by toying with others, playing with Fate. Oh, the look on his victim's faces when he spouted those meaningfully meaningless puzzles, that feeling when he gloated down at their befuddled expressions, thinking if only you knew…
He liked to think of himself as an artist; he lived for the exhilaration of watching the riddles he spun unravel themselves like woven tapestries. Laplace could not predict the future; but that was where the fun lay. It was like writing the beginning of a story and letting someone else write the rest of it. The players wrote their own ending. He merely initiated and observed.
Normally, though, Laplace would have found himself amply entertained by the proceedings of the Alice Game. Rozen's search for perfection provided more than enough ground for what would almost definitely turn out to be a fascinating show. The Rozen Maiden dolls themselves were utterly intriguing, the way they seemed nearly human in the way they experienced emotion. Their actions would usually be a source of great amusement for the anthropomorphic rabbit.
Recently, however, things seemed to have changed. It was like the stillness following a storm; after Laplace's previous intervention in the Game, it was as if everything had died down flat. After the fake Enju doll was vanquished and Rozen restored the remaining four Rozen Maiden still eligible for the title of Alice, instead of continuing to fight as the demon rabbit would have wished, the dolls seemed to have resumed a long and dreadfully uneventful state of stalemate.
Even Suigintou had ceased in her ages-old pursuit of Shinku's Rosa Mystica, and now spent more time peeling pieces of apple with her sickly medium than trying to kill her sisters. Kanaria had always been a rather dull one to Laplace, and he rarely bothered taking notice of her.
No, what interested him more was Shinku and her medium. Sakurada Jun, a truly curious boy. His skill was more than enough to match Rozen's, and with a bit of training, there was no doubt that Sakurada was quite capable of being the great doll-maker's successor. But even more interesting was the growing relationship between the boy and his contracted fifth doll. Laplace was no fool; it was quite plain for him to see that the feelings growing between the proud doll and the Sakurada boy were more than just a medium's affection, or a servant's loyal devotion.
Unfortunately, though, nothing much was happening at the Sakurada house either. That would have to change.
Laplace chuckled – a sure sign that trouble was on the horizon. A door appeared before him, melting out of the darkness of the N-field, and swung open, revealing an image of a bright, cosy living room. Shinku was sitting there next to Suiseiseki on a green couch, speaking to her medium. Laplace watched as she flicked her head to the side, her long curls flying through the air and landing an impressive smack on the poor boy's cheek. Looking more closely, another two figures caught his eye. The lifeless bodies of Souseiseki and Hinaichigo.
There too, was another possible source of amusement for him. After the Shinku and the others had returned, Souseiseki and Hinaichigo's Rosa Mysticae were left wandering in the endless expanse of the N-field. Kirakishou had found them, but she held no interest in them, and so had entrusted them to the rabbit.
Laplace occasionally played chess, or engaged in some other form of amusement with the seventh doll of the Rozen maiden, but spending so long cooped up in the N-field had turned her a little strange. She alternated between abrupt fits of unsettling insanity during which she would laugh and giggle crazily for no apparent reason at all and rampage across the N-field, ravaging and destroying anything unfortunate enough to be within her reach, only to subside just as suddenly into times of relatively peaceful normal behaviour.
Experience led Laplace to conclude that she was usually just best left alone, unless she approached you first. She was also one of the few that he didn't speak to in riddles. They shared an odd sort of acquaintance; they weren't friends, but they weren't enemies either.
As if summoned by his thoughts, Kirakishou herself unexpectedly appeared out of the darkness and stood beside Laplace, watching the scene through the door expressionlessly. She spoke softly, obviously in one of her periods of normality.
"What are you plotting this time, Laplace no Ma?"
The rabbit merely continued to observe the Sakurada living, where Jun was now handing Shinku a cup of tea. His scarlet irises flickered across the Souseiseki and Hinaichigo's bodies, an action not unnoticed by his companion.
"I do not plot, Kirakishou. I merely begin the theatrics. After that I just watch the players create their own tragic tale."
"Are you going to return those lost souls?" the seventh doll asked, watching her sisters with a gleaming yellow orb. The pale white rose in her other eye shifted out of its socket as if to peer inspect the image more closely.
"Perhaps. You have no objections?"
Kirakishou's one eye flickered with something like irritation.
"I wanted a body. One of those bodies would have been fine."
"You know as well as I do that your Rosa Mystica would be incompatible with the other Maiden's bodies."
Rozen had discarded Kirakishou's physical body in the process of making her, and had instead created her Rosa Mystica to be slightly different – more powerful than the others' so she could exist with a form in the N-field. Unfortunately though, because she was a creature of no substance, she had no way to leave what had effectively become her prison. The other dolls' bodies were unsuitable for her Rosa Mystica – it would quickly reject and probably destroy any physical form and revert to its original state in the N-field.
"Oh, don't sulk, Kirakishou," Laplace murmured. "Something fascinating is about to happen." He glanced at her sideways. "Who knows, you may gain something out of this."
Kirakishou's mouth split into a wide, disturbing grin, her eye glinting with anticipation. The rose trembled disconcertingly in its socket. A frightening giggle bubbled up and escaped her lips.
"Be sure to give me a good show, Laplace."
The demon rabbit let slip a rare full smile as he stooped in a sweeping bow, and she knew for certain.
Things were going to get very interesting indeed.
Ok, so both Kirakishou and Laplace were probably really OOC just then. But then they're both two characters that I rarely write about, and I wrote this in the ungodly hours of the morning when I probably had no idea what I was writing or doing, so please go easy on me ;P
And also, the bits about Kirakishou's Rosa Mystica were introduced quite early. It'll be explained more in later chapters, the role of the Rosa Mystica as well as how Kira-chan's is different to the others.
Otherwise, bye for now~! Commerce calls for me...
Thanks for reading~! :3