Interlude IV Dollmaker

There was a somber mood this evening at an elegant lounge, there was an evening of mourning to its inhabitants. There upon a stage, a pianist took their sit. The pianist was a tall almost skeletal figure dressed entirely in a black coat that came down to its feet. it raised four pairs of arms and began to play a requiem of farewell, its face was covered by a black mask with the peak of a bird. It played a song of farewell with mechanical precision, its head moving from side to side as if barely connected to the rest of its body.

"Is such a sad day signore. Magnolia went so far away and yet, we can all feel her bitter end." A pierrot stood upon a spotlight at the side of the piano. A dainty and petite figure, wearing a half white and half-black striped suit, the clown wore a mask that covered their entire head with a white comedian mask and a half-black tragedian mask. They walked unnaturally stiff and with every step, they took the bells hanging from their mask ringed.

"Signore, she was confident that she would get our stolen treasure back, and yet lovely Magnolia she has been lost to us, how sad, how sad." The clown monologues on stage and whispers could begin to be heard all around in that darkness.

"How lovely she was, never did I imagine a mere delivery man could have stopped her, my heart indeed aches tonight, retribution will be demanded, but for tonight let us remember her, Magnolia was so sweet and always so stubborn, her dancing will remain with us forever, oh magnolia how I love you so." In the center of the lounge, a man sat alone. He was a man whose handsome features made him look so much younger than he truly was, tall, handsome but elegant. He was not muscular but a dandy gentleman with clean perfect skin and black short hair perfectly comber and almost shining hair, his features were of a young man but he had a fairly smile and trimmed mustache still making it clear he was an adult man. He was wearing a tuxedo with a red scarlet flower upon his heart and white gloves on his hands. The man took a sip of wine with a quiet tender sadness in his eyes.

"I will make this right, oh magnolia how sad that I will not see you dance ever again, such a tragedy could make a man go mad." He took his wine and then, in a sudden fits he crushed the glass upon his hand, red wine and his own blood falling upon the table. Still, he didn't flinch, there was no pain in his expression only a quiet tired sadness.

"Signore, Signore Valentino. Please do not cry." A wooden hand reached for their shoulders, and from the darkness, many arms began to embrace him, all of them wooden human figures, all of the dolls with no face, their movements not unlike those of machines but they reached to the man desperately.

"You all don't worry, please continue to create, continue to enjoy yourselves, you all so much beautiful like that, the ugliness of life it Is I who must face it, so for now, all of you my beloved, forget such sadness." The sound of cheering could be heard, and the dolls all began to laugh, to scream in joy. The man stood up on the wooden hands and retreated returning to the darkness of the lounge.

"I will have revenge, no one who steals from us gets away give me time and I will rob them of everything they are, that way they can all join the audience in our show." He looked back a the end of the lounge where rows of the elegant chair were filled with broken dolls, they were each the size of a person, but they had no clothing and couldn't move. They were just dolls and yet, the way that Valentino Bramante looked at them with such spite made each doll recoil as if wanting to evade his gaze but their limbs could not move, they have no strings after all.

"Signore, you have a guest upstairs." A doll came forward wearing the attire of a waitress, in black and white lace. It looked more human than most of the dolls, but its empty wooden face had a knife pinned to its center. Valentino turned around coming closer and slowly he embraced the doll by her waist.

"Tell them to leave, tell them Im in such a time of grief all I want is to spend the day with the people I love." He slowly moved his gloved hand on the white wood of the doll's face, the doll looked down.

"Signore, it's your father." The doll said and in a panic he threw her away from a hit, the doll crashed against a table and fell down remaining, the room was then exploding with voices, dozens of whispers all over the darkness. Valentino grabbed the bow tie of his tuxedo and arranged it nervously.

"I see... I'll be there then, all of you do not worry please enjoy the show and I will join you soon enough." There was sudden applause as he walked away into the entrance of the lounge, the doll wearing the attire of a waitress slowly stood up and gave quite a dull applause as well. The sound of the piano ramped up again as the pierrot stood on the stage and began an opera upon the darkness, the shadows danced and applauded with a mechanical tempo wishing to simulate a joyful applause.

Valentino Bramante composed himself, recovering the confident air he always carried into every room as he left the dark long below his home and stepped into the light again. He walked past a gallery of paintings to reach the backroom, the place reserved for private family matters, knowing that by now his father must already be there.

"So dull, I only wished to be surrounded by my beloved ladies, fathers scowl is the last thing I wish to see today." Before stepping into the room he made sure the flower on his chest was arranged properly by staring into a mirror near the door and then stepping inside suddenly smelling the odor of sulfur. It was a smoky room, with all windows closed, the wooden walls covered in paintings and a marble statue of a woman without a head at its center. To the side, there were already three people sitting, two men in brown suits with long coats and fedoras and at the center a woman sitting with her legs over the table. She looked young and had manly air to her, she was wearing the same suit as the other mean, but she had her coat open over her shoulders and her shirt was open showing some cleavage. Her black hair was falling to the right side of her face covering most of her right eye and finally a cigar in her mouth, Valentino had never seen her without a cigar and he always quite detested the smell of cigars.

"You sure took your, always taking so long to doll yourself up, anyway the Don is here."The woman said as she finished splitting some cards to the other men it seemed they had started to play poker while waiting.

"Must be important if you are here too, capo Giovanna."

"Yes, you could say so. The don is soon to arrive so why don't you join us on a game?"

"I pass Im not in the mood at the moment."

"You really need to get out there, but I suppose all you really want to do is to have at it with your dolls." He visibly looked at her with disdain as he moved to sit down on a sofa opposite the other three. He never liked that woman her rude and unfeminine behavior disgusted him deeply. He was sure she was aware, but if there was something to be said of the capo it was that she hardly cared about anything but gambling and liquor.

The door was suddenly opened again and the air in the room turned dense as if it had been sucked away. The smell of brimstone and fire washed over Valentino as he stood up. Giovanna threw the card on the table as the other men sighed in bitter disappointment, she had cleared the house just in time. Through the door came a man so tall and broad he could be called a giant to make his way into the room.

He was the godfather of Risco Infernal. A tall statuesque man wwith a black suit with a long red overtop suit jacket and a deep dark red scarf that came down on both sides of his neck surrounding a blood-red neckerchief with a cold black solid gem at its center. The man was certainly in the older years of his life but thought his hands were hard and his beard was silver white they looked imposing. His serious face was like that of a statue, the man had horns befitting of a demon as well, long curved horns like those of a mythological satyr, he took a long breath of disappointment and from his mouth, he let out a thick cloud of smoke.

"Don Federico, your little boy is already here." Giovanna threw her card on the table as one of the men at her side groaned, seeing all of his money banished from the table.

"Father, what a surprise I haven't had the pleasure in a long time, is rare to see you out of your grand casino."

Don Federico Bramante raises his hand, to stop him from speaking, the many rings upon his hands glittering.

"Valentino, I heard that one of your dolls is now in the possession of the Ocassio family, they took it all the way to the inner circle, not only that but another one was completely ripped to pieces there, you do understand how much a liability this is, your strange past time is becoming more and more of a nuisance."Valentino crossed his arms looking visibly annoyed.

"Well, this is indeed my mistake someone managed to leak information on my newest beloved and they managed to steal her before I could bring her to my atelier, how this came to be that I still ignore. All they can really do with her is to use her to find my atelier, but a small group like the Ocassio are no threat to me, if they come here they are not leaving." Valentino looked around the room staring at the painting and the beautiful statue at the center of it all.

"This is a sanctuary, after all, mere philistines are never welcome."

"The kid has a point, if we really want to I can just ride to Kafe Ocassio and I will have them dead and buried by sunrise, hell I might just give the place to my little sis, she has so many boyfriends these days she could do well with another side gig with how much she pampers them, one can never have too much green after all." Giovanna snuff out her cigar on the wooden table, Valentinos eye twitched at the sheer rudeness of her gesture, but when she noticed she just winked at him.

"In any case Father, I will take revenge for sure, not only did they take her from me, but someone killed my dear Magnolia, to think that she will never be able to dance again is simply unbearable to me, I will ensure whoever did this will be stripped away of all humanity, I'll ensure they will beg for the kind of death, it is the least I can do for Magnolia who I loved so dearly."Valentino grabbed the rose upon his chest, his hand shaking.

"Enough." The don spoke coldly, spitting black smoke from his mouth, the rows of teeth he sported looking more the teeth of a wolf than a person, the tall man walked forward towards his son who looked up as he only reached his chest withhis eyesight.

"Your obsession with these dolls is becoming harder and harder to hide, the people in the city whisper of it, the anti-devil corpse are looking into it. Now because of your mistake, they could easily sell that doll to the syndicate or the Cartel, hell they could even sell it to the anti-devil corps to have them knocking on your dolls, that is what the Ocassio wanted, now they have an ace on their hand we can't ignore. Sorry, Giovanna but we can't risk touching them anymore, if that doll gets on someone else's hand it could start a war." He walked past his son toward the center of the room.

"Father, I'm tired of having to walk on eggshells all the time, you have the wrath of the demon Satanas inside you and I have the prince of Lust Asmodeus, no one in this city can threaten us, if it comes down to it I will rip the life out of every single Ocassio member and have their dolls displayed on my museum that is a promise you know I can keep, they will not risk making us their enemy first."

"I do not want a war, not ever again. You can't even imagine it, as you were born after all of the families came to a standstill but still. I rather not have to show my anger again boy, you never think about our family, all that ever matters to you are the dolls you make, but your selfinesh will cost you too."

"You already said I was not going to be your heir, if that's the case I shouldn't need to bear that burden anymore, I only wish what all the people of Risco Infernal wish for a life enjoy to the fullest, a life of beauty and love, that is what our city stands for."

"Love, what a delusion, you can't ever love someone that is why you do nothing but play pretend all day, enough, I will not amuse you anymore!" The godfather breathed out smoke as he punched the statue in the middle of the room, his fist crashing with such intensity the marble statue broke to pieces and flew back towards his son.

He remained in place as debriefs of stone flew towards him, and were stopped just in front of his face, Valentino showed anger for the first time as he looked back at his face with quiet contempt. The stone had stopped and the debrie was all standing still in mere air, there was a glitter around it, small but unbelievably firm string had trapped all the stones in a net, stopping a single speck of dust from reaching him and on his back was the source of the strings. A demon had grown of his back, a weird wooden monstrosity with three heads and many arms, an entire torso had simply grown out of Valentinos back as if it had always been there, the three heads each had a sculptured expression on the wooden surface of its heads, one of anger, one of pleasure and one with its mouth twisting in sadness.

"Father, please leave at least till you calm down." Valentino closed his fist and the stones were pulverized as the strings tightened cutting them to pieces, the growing demon on his back moving its arms like a puppeteer.

"You may be the underboss for now, but you must still have to lower your head to the godfather, and obey our rules as that will protect us and our might, if not you will be punished the same as anyone else." The eyes of the Don were glowing red and it was just smoke that came from his mouth, but an intense flame that vanished from his breath in just a moment, but let a wave of heat into the room.

"If you don't mind me intruding Don Federico, but let's keep the domestic violence for later, you have a date with your wife today no? We really don't want the Madame to get upset if you came late, I think your stubborn brat got the message just fine he just won't admit it outright." One of the men accompanying Giovanna was covering his face with his arms, a piece of the statue flew straight into his head, but the capo grabbed it just in time with one hand and now she just threw it off to a corner of the room without much care.

"Hmm, I suppose I can't go on a date in a bad mood again...Valentino you are not allowed to step into the inner circle for any reason, I will leave the matter of the Ocassio to Giovanna here, in fact, you are not allowed to pursue any other woman till we have this situation under control."

"Father a man can't control who he falls in love with, I can't simply promise such a thing." At his comment, the Godfather walked towards him stepping into the debris on the floor and crushing it under his foot.

"If you try to make another doll, I will personally crush your new love with my bare fists, till there is nothing left for you to make a doll with, are we clear?" He breathed smoke into his face as he began to cough.

"Yes, I will refrain from making any moves for now, I suppose Giovanna can more than handle them." Valentino put his hands on his back, the wooden demon on his back moaned as its heads all shook in a fit of disdain, but their figure disappeared as they crawled back into his back, disappeared into his slim form like a simple magic trick.

"Well, then I have work to do so will leave you and your dolls alone for today." Giovanna stood up and the men on her left put on a long grey coat over her shoulders while the other man gave her a big and wide red hat with a black feather on its center.

"Its always a pleasure, capo Giovanna, father, please enjoy your evening I will return to my atelier and consider our future options." The godfather simply groaned as he walked past him to the exit, Giovanna followed him giving Valentinogiving him a hard slap on his shoulder and walking out of the room. He remained there in silence his fist shaking, till he could no longer hear their footsteps.

"How dare they, of course I think of family, but my real family is not them. Father they are waiting for me on the dark depths, that is the family that truly matters to me." He walked out heading with an anxious step through his museum and back to the atelier below.

"Hello everyone, sorry I had some nuisance to take care of but there is nothing to worry about, let us continue with our day and not worry about such trivialities." With his hands raised he step into the lounge as if standing on a podium, the dolls all gladly welcome them, there was music as some of them played and the stage, continue on with a play. Valentino looked at them, though they had no faces he could only imagine them smiling.

"Yes, this is truly a wonderful place, no need to worry about the cruelties of the world outside, not its ugliness, my beloved family let us continue what we do best, let us make art and beauty" He raised a toast with a glass of wine.

"Be assured everyone who does not understand our art will come to after all the people outside the stage get only one role left to play. The audience should applaud." And the sound of applauding was heard, coming all around them. Valentino looked at the ceiling at one of its most masterful creations.

Upon the ceiling of the lounge, there was a painting made of dolls, all of them strapped by string to walls and ceiling, hundreds of steel bodies of what once were humans in a display.

The audience did as told, making their little stage resound like a colossal theater and Valentino finally smiled again as he let adoration wash over him.

"If all the world is a stage and men are merely players, then I will become the director and make the most beautiful play that will ever be told."