A combat doll with noise cancelling headphones.
It and its witch learned sign language together!
Neither of them are deaf - though the combat doll, with its headphones, may as well be.
But that's not quite true, is it?
Its life is faint ringing.
Its own breathing.
Its own heartbeat.
Everything it touches, every brush of friction - sound transmitted through its body to its still functioning ears.
Sound, it never fully, truly goes away.
No matter how much it wants it to.
Like the sound during its nightmares.
The sound of gunfire, of explosives, of artillery.
The screaming.
"Mama."
"It hurts."
"Help me."
None of it ever truly goes away.
Its witch signs at it.
'Hug?'
It signs back.
'Please.'