The Puppeteer (text/English) (Pixiv Fanbox)

Life is increasingly complicated and cruel for a puppeteer, thinks Isamu, who has spent most of his life doing puppet shows and surviving miserably because of it. It has been a vocation that has been inherited through generations within his family, and it is something with which he has been satisfied, because I am fully convinced of the great passion that puppets provoke when his father taught him about the magic of making happy children with the magic of puppets. However, reality and the present are not things that currently smile at Isamu, because times have changed, and in addition to the fact that due to the pandemic of a few years ago, artistic events where several spectators gathered in one place at the same time (like a puppet show), it is no longer easy and perhaps not even possible today to surprise or amaze a child with a puppet show. Children are no longer so easily impressionable, and their current integration with technology, cell phones, video games, etc., has made children no longer interested in more conventional forms of entertainment, causing Isamu's passion to cause him to he himself will lag behind in his social status. Today Isamu barely has enough to eat. He is fortunate not to pay rent since he continues to live in the family home, an old house of traditional architecture that is already very worn out that his ancestors have inherited for generations to reach him, but even so, every day it is more difficult to survive (or at least eat) with the proceeds of his passion: giving puppet theater shows. This adds more and more depression each day to Isamu, who each dawn closely contemplates the possibility of suicide. Everything is terrible, sad and depressing in Isamu's life ... What is the point of going and looking for clients to be hired to give his puppet shows? He cannot even do it publicly on the street because he needs a license to present his theater of puppets on public roads, a license that costs a lot of money, and, if on the few occasions when you are hired, perhaps out of pity, you see the children indifferent to the puppet performance, does it make sense to continue with said farce ? Isamu thinks as he gives one of the two roles that he was recently hired for, inevitably showing all that sadness that surrounds him on his face, a facial expression that is a constant on Isamu's face, and everything remained the same for most of the time. show until, behind the listless children, he saw a fresh new face among his dwindling viewers: a beautiful woman with black hair and green eyes who radiated happiness, energy and life. After the show was over, Isamu tried to get closer to her, but being too shy of her, and also because she seemed to be in a rush to get to another show, Isamu flinched and didn't approach her. However, at the next show, which would be the last one he was recently hired to give for, he got lucky again and met that woman again in the audience. Once he realized that the beautiful woman was present there again, he did some of his best movements with the puppets to impress the beautiful lady, forgetting for a minute his terrible situation and feeling young, inspired and full of life. something that hadn't happened for a long time. However, the children, who are increasingly cruel, especially today, barely noticed Isamu's existence while, on the other hand, at the end of the performance, that woman was excited and applauded Isamu's talents, something which, for Isamu, completely made up for the children's apathy. On this occasion, Isamu tried to approach the beautiful woman again to be able to talk or, at least, to be able to invite her to eat or have coffee on some occasion. However, Isamu could not get close to the woman, for the same reason as last time: she left there very quickly shortly after finishing the performance, which terribly frustrated Isamu. Days later, while Isamu was predisposing himself to rummage through garbage cans to look for food, when he turned around on a street he came across the beautiful woman. This time she was filled with courage and greeted her, although in an unnatural and somewhat tense way. The woman returned her greeting with a soft smile, to which Isamu proceeded to introduce himself to her. The woman reciprocated Isamu's introduction, and she introduced herself under the name Midori. Isamu, looking for a topic of conversation, and to ensure that they would see each other again, quickly offered Midori to participate in his next puppet show as the voice of one of his puppets, something that seemed strange or interesting to Midori and that After thinking about it for a very short time, she accepted the offer, curious about what that experience would be like. [Image 1] Then Isamu offered to meet him in a cafe tomorrow so that he could explain to her what that show will be about, to which Midori agreed, and after that everyone went their own way. Isamu was very happy, since he had achieved her goal of seeing her again on another occasion and talking but, on the other hand, what will Isamu do now? Since they haven't really hired him to give another show… At that moment, Isamu quickly returned to his house and started calling all of his previous clients and contacts. After several hours and a tiring day of calls, in which he even called some yakuzas for whom he had previously worked entertaining their children, a call in which they answered that they did not have a job for him for now but that, If one day he needed their services, he would not hesitate to call them, after all those strange situations and after Isamu repeatedly received a resounding NO for an answer, he found a client interested in him giving another puppet show and accepted their proposal, for what in that same night Isamu did not sleep at any time, because he spent the whole night writing the story of that new show and building a puppet that resembles his beloved Midori as much as possible. In the following days, before the day the show will take place, Midori and Isamu met for several days in a cafe to talk and rehearse the act. Every day that Isamu shared with Midori, he became more and more obsessed with her beauty, until it became increasingly uncontrollable that he began to imagine her, in his fantasies, all the time, as a small puppet being moved by him. , the puppeteer, as she projects her great beauty to the entire audience, a much more pleasant audience than those insensitive children who are usually Isamu's audience. This thought would accompany Isamu until the day came when they presented the show. Isamu began to make the puppets move and interpret the voices of the other characters while Midori interpreted the protagonist of the play, behind the curtain, through a microphone, which was connected to speakers on the outer side of the curtain making sound your voice. It was at that moment that Isamu saw Midori's face in the puppet, as if it were her and, in his obsession, he decided definitely that she should be his, she should be the woman with whom he should share his lifetime. After the performance, which ended well and in which it seems the children were more attracted to it by the innovation of Midori's voice in one of the characters and the complicated story they told in the show, the story of a princess. who was kidnapped and rescued by a knight, Midori thanked Isamu for giving her that opportunity, to which Isamu offered her to participate in “another of his plays” and meet to talk at his house about it the next day, at which Midori accepted, as she was satisfied with the experience that day. The next day Midori and Isamu saw each other in a cafe: they talked about how interesting the experience in the show was the previous day, they laughed and smiled at each other, but unfortunately for Isamu, the topics of conversation were ending until they reached a soft silence. This is when Isamu plucked up his courage and proposed to Midori, asking her if she wanted to be his girlfriend. This completely changed Midori's attitude, who now believed that Isamu was the type of man who was only looking for an easy adventure, to which she, with a gesture of annoyance, rejected him and told him that she was not interested, that she would have preferred a nice and sincere friendship before that. [Image 2] After that Midori got up from the table and prepared to leave there. Isamu, very psychologically affected by his unsuccessful attempt to declare his love to Midori, panicked. He took out something that he did not think would be necessary; a handkerchief with chloroform that he hid under the table in case she tried to get away from him, since he was now sickly obsessed with her, and, before she crossed the door to the outside, he subdued her with one arm from behind and with the other I cover his face with that handkerchief with chloroform. Once Midori was unconscious, Isamu gagged her and tied her up and began to think what he should do with her ... He had heard the myth of a green pill that dwarfs people and a purple liquid that makes people feed on light from the sun and be practically immortal and as resistant as plastic or resin without losing much of their flexibility, with the "disadvantage" of being paralyzed face and body and seeing their mind plunged into a deep ecstasy. Isamu, without being sure that these substances existed, called his mafia friends who had previously offered their services asking them if these substances really existed and if they could get them, an offer that they accepted in exchange for Isamu agreeing to pay them a large sum of money at some point in the future, leaving Isamu now seriously in debt to the yakuzas. After the call, his gangster friends came to the place to give him those substances, products that Isamu accepted with very little optimism since now he would remain in debt for a long time but, instead, at least, he will always have the beautiful Midori with him. forever. Shortly after Isamu's mobster friends left, he was already testing the green shrink pill on Midori, who, shortly after he woke up, was terrified to see how big Isamu had become since his death. perspective and how helpless she had become, being moved while she was little and naked, while Isamu pulled the strings as if it were one of his puppets. [Image 3] Isamu after a few minutes of laughing and smiling maniacally while Midori cried and screamed inconsolably, he realized that in order to better control her and see less resistance in her, it would be best to hypnotize her. Since he only knows the conventional form of hypnosis, while she was hanging from her, he wedged a knife right next to her on the table, something that terrified Midori greatly, and then tied her to the embedded knife from head to toe. Midori tried to lend as much resistance as possible, but it was all useless because of her small size and how defenseless she was now. That's when Isamu left her mobile phone in front of her carefully placed with a hypnosis video to convince her that she is a doll. Midori tried not to see or listen to said video when she realized what was trying to convince her, but at some point she completely gave in to the hypnotic pulse that the video supposed, which was reproduced in a cyclical way over and over again, until she was completely convinced of its new condition: the dolls do not think, they do not move, they do not put up resistance, they are only happy and cute, Midori thought as she smiled drowsily and foolishly and looked deeply into the void. [Image 4] The next day Isamu prepared a new work which he would record on his mobile phone to upload to the internet, in which the star would be the little puppet Midori. He prepared Midori in the same dress that he had made for that puppet that looked like her, with some modifications and extra accessories. She slowly and delicately dressed little Midori as she lay there smiling, carefully put that pretty red dress on her, and then one by one slowly and gently a little ornate white stockings, her delicate little gloves, a little red rose on her head. , a big red bow and, at the end, some small red ballet shoes that match the dress. Midori was just smiling and looking into infinity, while she began to recite some very basic lines that Isamu taught her to do that little improvised play. Days passed and Isamu continued to make small works that he posted on the internet, which began to cause him some success and even donations from some followers, who were impressed by the beauty and realism of his little puppet, which seemed to the public almost as real like a real tiny person. On the other hand, although Isamu was happy with her success and to continue with Midori, he was annoyed with feeding her and giving such detailed care all day and at all hours to such a small person. At the end of the day, Midori was still a biologically functioning human like any other human even though she was hypnotized, but she still had the same needs as a normal person, maximized by the fact that she is small now and cannot afford her own. basic needs. This convinced Isamu that the time had come to turn Midori into a puppet, a real doll, that she did not need to eat or so delicate care. Then Isamu proceeded to remove the injection with the violet liquid from his refrigerator and proceeded to carry out that process of transfusion of the violet liquid. [Image 5] In the end, Isamu was able to enjoy time and money and, when he was not occupying Midori for his puppet show, he decided to leave her displayed in a visible place in the house, as the work of art that Isamu considers it to be. At that point no one remembers Midori's name anymore (not even himself), it is just a small puppet to which he puts different names, outfits, hair colors and in general modifies his entire appearance depending on what the work he presents requires. . Meanwhile the little doll poses happily and flawlessly in a small glass box on a pedestal in the middle of Isamu's living room, along with some other flashy toys, impatiently waiting to be used again by its owner. [Image 6]