emerald-head2000

[emerald-head2000]

Drowning

Trigger warning: Implied metaphor for alcoholism, mentions of brutal death and torture in history

Song credit goes to Luluyam and her song Drowning

According to Sally Coulthard in her book titled Floriography, Historians suggest that during the pre-Roman times, the people of Sardinia would give criminals and their helpless elderly an intoxicating drink made from a flower called the hairy buttercup. This drink had an odd side-effect that would forcefully contort the consumer’s face to smile. After that, the Sardinians would execute the sentenced criminal and/or elder to death by either beating them to death with stones or throwing them off a high surface (p. 9).

Of course, Hildegard would never let this dreadful information get out to her prototypes. Especially to poor, little Number 9. For a prototype teaches better with a bright and beautiful smile on their face. So what if she has to with hold a tiny bit of information?

[emerald-head2000]

Ugly Dolls 2: Meet the Maker

Chapter 6 (9, 10, 11, ... 12?)

No words were exchanged between the four prototype siblings. The three in good condition were too stunned to do so, and the fourth couldn't blame them. His disheveled blonde hair, his faded and shrunken uniform, the prominent eye bags. He knew he looked nothing like the high-standing brother they molded him into. It took a few minutes for one of them to finally speak.

"Num-Number 12! You-uh... You look... *ahem*... swell..." Number 11 managed to say, walking to the youngest doll with a forced smile on his face and arms wide open. It took a few, long seconds but the oldest doll reached him and gave him a loose hug. Funny, Lou could swear 11's hugs felt tighter and warmer than this.

"You too, 11." Lou quietly responded. The other two dolls and robots looked on, still stunned at all what they were seeing. Mean while, unbeknownst to them, a certain green bunny had caught up to them and was watching as well from behind a near building. 

"Hey!" Ox jumped at the sudden, whispered voice popping up behind him. "What's going on? Why haven't you talked to those dolls, yet?" It was Moxy accompanied by Mandy, Babo, and Ugly Dog.

"They're occupied with Lou and they made it clear that they don't wanna to use their time on me, but I still want to know why they need him." Ox gestured to the prototypes and robots. "So, I'm going to keep my distance for now. Any way, where are the others?"

"They went off to do their own thing. Same with the rest of the town. I guess they saw no point in hanging around if the visitors don't want to talk to anybody." Mandy answered. That made sense. Everyone was there to witness Ox's interaction with said visitors and it was anything but friendly. One of the new dolls spoke up.

"Uh, 12? I'm sorry but I think it's safe to say that you clearly aren't 'swell.' What exactly happened to you and your institute?" It was the blue dog. 

"Why are they calling each other numbers? Don't they have real names?" Moxy pointed out and Ox was wondering about that too. Wait a second... Ox took out the photo and showed it to the others.

"Poppet (9), Conan (10), Bernard (11)." Ox whispered. "Those must be their names."

"Oh! But... that still doesn't explain why they're not using their names." Mandy had a point. Ox thought to himself. 'So, if Lou had their names written along side their numbers on the back of this picture, then he himself should already know their names at least, right? Or had it been a while since he looked at the picture? Or is it just a prototype thing that we don't understand?' A voice interrupted his train of thought, pulling the spying dolls' attention back towards the prototypes.

"That's... um... it's a long story." Ox took note of how Lou lowered his head, his gaze averted away from the other dolls. His posture also stiffened up with his hands clasped tightly behind his back, the way they used to back when he was the leader. 'He's trying to appear as professional as he can, but he's clearly uncomfortable. Maybe I should-' Before he could decide what to do 11, or Bernard, piped in.

"Well, I'm sure Hildegard will understand if you tell about it honestly during the meeting today. You knew about that, right?" 11 tired to appear assured and confident in Lou but the only response he got from the blonde was him silently shrinking back in on himself even more. The bear's eyes and smile twitched for a split second before he took in a deep breathe. "Okaaayyy? Well, don't worry! At least you know now and it starts in..." He checks his watch, his optimistic demeanor wavering even more. "17 minutes..." With that, Lou's nervousness immediately shifted into shock.

"17 MINUTES?? Oh god! I'm so sorry for not knowing! L-let's go!" Lou started off in the direction of the flower but was stopped by Number 9, AKA Poppet.

"Hold on! You think you're going to present yourself to Hildegard looking like this?" She gestured to his entire body. She had a point.

"Number 9, we don't have time." 11 reminded her, walking up to Lou."He's already going to be in serious trouble for, well, whatever happened to this institute. We could at least make sure he doesn't end up being late on top of that."

"And how do you expect Hildegard to be willing to listen to him when he looks like this, Brother?" Lou now found himself somehow caught in the middle of their argument, yet ignored by the both of them at the same time.

"9, we are wasting time as we speak!" 11 forcefully grabbed Lou by the shoulder and began dragging him to the flower. Lou felt a slight sting as 11 grabbed him but he didn't dare say anything. "Come now, everyone! We need to get going!" The bear commanded. 

"Um, 11?" A quiet male voice spoke up, stopping 11 and Lou in their tracks. 11 turned to see it was 10. "I know we're in a hurry, but surely we can spare just a few minutes to fix 12 up just a bit, right?" His words earned a cold, hard glare from 11. It didn't help that he was literally a bear. "Look, 12, what do you think? Do you want to freshen up a bit before we go?" 11 whipped his head to face Lou. It was then that he finally noticed the pained expression on the younger doll's face, and the vice grip he had on his shoulder now. Bernard was struck with a mini heart attack and he immediately let go of him.

"Y-yeah. I think I need that." 12 finally spoke. 11 contemplated for half a second then sighed.

"Puppets? May we please have a few minutes to fix up 12?" The two robots looked to each other for a moment, then looked back at the group.

"We will give you 6 minutes." Without a second to spare the dolls started off running. Though, 9, 10, and 11 went in the direction of the mansion while Lou deviated.

"12 what are you doing??" 9 yelled.

"I-I don't live at the mansion anymore! You'll have to follow me!" With that, 12 resumed running with his siblings begrudgingly in tow. If he doesn't live at the mansion now, where could he possibly be living now?? Though, Ox and the others knew the answer to that question as they discreetly followed the dolls.

Lou was terribly lucky to not have walked far from the shed, but he also could feel the shame bubbling up once more now that his siblings knew where he was living now. And of course, they did not like it, if their slack jaws and wide eyes glued to the shed were any indication.

"12, what-" 11 started but Lou cut him off.

"I know but we literally have no time! Please let's just do this already!" 11 and the others complied as they hurried into the shed with Lou. Effortlessly, 9 spotted a chair in a corner and pulled it out for Lou to sit in. She then proceeded to take out her refurbishment supplies from various pockets and got to work on Lou's face and hair.

"12, where are you keeping your clothes now?" 11 frantically asked.

"They're in my dresser beside the bed." 11 and 10 wasted no time in taking out various uniform pieces and inspecting them. If they could just find one of each piece that was in pristine condition, they would be golden... 

There were none that he could wear. All his clothes were either faded, shrunken, torn, or all of the above. And on top of that, 9 could not for the life of her get Lou's hair to fully cooperate. She managed to style it closely to its original form, but there were still several tresses of hair that refused to straighten. By now, Ox, Moxy, and the others had caught up to the prototypes. Though of course, the prototypes locked the door, so they opted to listen in from outside the shed and look through the window whenever they could. As they watched them work on Lou, an ache of guilt began to grow in Ox and Moxy's hearts, for they were now realizing that Lou's perfect appearance wasn't just a weapon for him to use against the other dolls. For him and other prototypes, it was a shield against whatever danger this Hildegard posed. The green bunny jumped at a suddenly loud groan.

"UGH!! 11, how much time do we have left??" 9 shouted as she threw her comb to the floor.

"We have 4 minutes left before leaving." 9 proceeded to bury her face in her hands to muffle a furious scream. She then took a deep breath. 

"Alright, alright, alright. This will have to do and at least your face is cleaned up." She turned to the other dolls as she pocketed her supplies. "Have you found anything he could wear?"

"I'm afraid not! 12, what have you been doing that could do this to all your suits?? Do you know how hard I worked to tailor these to your-" 10 exclaimed as he picked up a pile of shrunken clothes. 11 interrupted.

"10, please! We don't have time!" 11 was now sifting through the pile he mentally labelled the "good" pile until He finally settled on an ensemble. He took a deep breath. "Okay, I think these will do. Here, 12. try them on." He handed Lou an ensemble of clothes. They were all wrinkled and frayed with the colored pieces having lost their pigment greatly. But the fade wasn't as obvious as the rest of his clothing and at least they weren't shrunken, which meant more breathing room. Lou noticed that 9 had hung the blankets around the frame of the top bunk bed, creating a makeshift changing room out of the bottom bunk.

"Thank you, 9." He timidly said to the pink doll as he climbed into his "changing room." As he did that, 10 selected the cleanest dress shoes he could find and used a random rag to wipe away whatever dirt was still on it. After changing, 9 did a final smoothing of Lou's uniform and hair while 10 handed him a small vial of cologne to apply. And with that, Lou... still wasn't up to the standard that would satisfy Hildegard. Though, Ox had to admit, he did look pretty close to how he looked before... being put in the washer. Something 10 had said then peaked his curiosity. '12, what have you been doing that could do this to all your suits?? Do you know how hard I worked to tailor these to your- ' Huh, was 10 the one responsible for making Lou's suit? All his suits? Was that the reason why Lou was so terrified to enter the wash? How come Ox didn't learn all this before?

"He definitely could be better." 9 said in a flat tone, pulling Ox out of his contemplation.

"Yes, well, we're basically out of time and let's be honest, it could be worse." 11 had a point but no body felt comforted, especially Lou. Wordlessly, the blonde exited the shed with the others following. The uglies rushed around the corner of the shed to avoid being seen.

"How do you feel, 12?" 10 asked as Lou walked on. Posture straight as an arrow, hands behind his back, strides perfectly even and steady, his face... blank.

"I am alright." They soon met with the puppets along with the guiding exposition robot and they made their way to the flower. The walk was silent, awkward, but also very quick as the group of prototypes and robots were taking great, fast strides out of the town. To the point where the uglies struggled to keep up with them without being noticed.

"Why are we spying on them again?" Ugly Dog asked, exasperated by all the running and stopping the group was doing.

"I want to know why they need Lou! Who this Hildegard person is!" Ox answered, though his focus was somewhere else completely. 

"Well, I think this the perfect time to ask them." Mandy said but Ox didn't seem to have heard her. Both groups of dolls soon arrived at the landing area below the flower. The uglies looked on from a distance as the Puppets summoned another platform of blue light for the prototypes to board. Lou took one step on to the platform and all of a sudden a surge of panic struck Ox.

"W-wait!" The green bunny yelled, running up to the group. "Hold on! Where are you guys taking Lou?"

"It's like we said. We have important matters concerning the Maker." Bernard answered bluntly. "It has nothing to do with you, so if you'll please excuse us." The moment Lou stood fully on the blue light, the surface began beaming up to the flower. The group's backs turned away from Ox.

"Wait! Will it take long? Will you comeback? Hello??" Despite his words being questions, Ox was actually pleading with the prototypes to let Lou stay. This whole situation felt very off to him and regardless of how things were between him and Lou, Ox knew he didn't want anymore harm to be put on Lou. The repeated cycles in the wash and harassment already felt like too much. But it was too late. The blue light continued up and none the prototypes or robots seemed to have acknowledged Ox at all. Accept Lou who turned to face his old friend one last time before leaving. And to the bunny's horror, the doll looked deathly terrified. More terrified than he had ever seen him before. It was 8:51am when the prototypes disappeared.

[emerald-head2000]

Ugly Dolls 2: Meet the Maker

Chapter 5 (New Arrivals)

"IN COMING! IN COMING!"

Dolls all around Imperfection were initially confused at the announcement of a new neighbor, knowing that their mayor had the town speakers deprogrammed to give that notification since new dolls were arriving almost everyday now via the new slides. Where as before, it usually happened once a week or so. Still, they over looked those odd details and started flocking towards the area where the new citizen would arrive. The pretty dolls were having to catch up with the excited uglies as they were still new to the concept of celebrating a new neighbor.

Ox and his friend group were hesitant to join them as they already had their own mystery to solve, but he still had to be there to welcome the new comer as mayor. It was up to Lucky Bat, the group's voice of reason, to get them to make a choice. 

"Come on, let's go out there, introduce ourselves, and give them a tour of the town. You know, the usual." The red doll proceeded to walk towards the Ox and placed a wing on his shoulder, who was visibly conflicted about what to prioritize first. "We have plenty of time to figure out who the dolls in the photo are."

He did have a point there. Was investigating said photo that wasn't even theirs really more important than welcoming a potentially brand new friend? Ox carefully placed the picture into his pocket and turned to the others. 

"Lucky's right. Come on guys. Let's get out of here." And with that, he exited the shed with his friends in tow. Moxy stood still in her spot, wanting to know who the pink doll was and why she felt so connected to her, but even she wasn't immune to feeling left out and proceeded to run after them.

The landing area was already stuffed with clamoring dolls who were eager to meet the new doll. Despite some citizens stepping aside for Ox and the group, they still struggled quite a bit to get to the clearing. Still, they managed to make it through the crowd quick enough for Ox to take out his watch to do the count down.

"New doll! Comin' in hot!" he announced as was customary. "Come on Willard! You know the drill!" Though, of course, the orange tortoise took his sweet time despite the encouragement of others to hurry.

"IN THREE!"

"You go, big guy!"

"TWO!"

"What happens if he doesn't catch them?"

"ONE!"

... Nothing happened for a few seconds until something slowly appeared through the pipe door.

The prototypes and puppets stop at a strange door where the thin, stream of light was beaming through. It was made of a dark brown twine, which had the dolls in particular very confused as they were expecting the typical iron door. They could hear the faint sound of a lively crowd outside in the distance, which was even stranger because there shouldn't even be a crowd of, well, anything in Prototype 12's institute. The dolls should all be out in the Big World with their respective children. 11 was about to open the door until he was stopped by one of the puppets.

"What is it?" 

"Outside is a 150 foot drop." a puppet explained in a monotone voice.

"Wait, what do you mean? How do you know that?" He tried to appear assertive but was promptly ignored as the puppets stepped in front of the group and looked down. One of them tapped its foot against the floor of the pipe, which summoned a solid platform of blue light below their feet. They gestured for the prototypes to join them, which they did albeit hesitantly because they didn't want to be any closer to them without a way out. Once the whole group had boarded, the door flew open as the bright platform floated closer, a faint blooping sound emitting from it. The sunlight practically blinded the dolls.

There was no ugly doll shooting out from the pipe like everyone expected. Instead, there was an unknown, circular object descending from the pipe above at a medium speed. The crowd was mostly silent, save for a few confused murmurs here and there. Finally, the platform reached the ground and disappeared upon impact. Now standing before the mayor was a grey teddy bear, a pink human-like doll, a blue dog, and two tall robots who were evidently different from the exposition bots standing on each side. The new comers stood silently with their hands behind their backs and their expressions confused. The grand gaggle of dolls, both ugly and pretty, surrounding them were too stunned to say anything to the foreign dolls, as well as Ox and his friends but they were gawking for different reasons.

The bunny put away his pocket watch and pulled something else out of a different pocket. Sure enough, the three dolls were some of the same ones he spotted in Lou's picture. He looked back up at the strangers and locked eyes with the bear who's eyes widened upon spotting him in the crowd. Odd, Ox knew they'd never met before, yet the bear seemed to recognize him. Did Ox just not remember the encounter? No, Ox shook his head. Now was not the time for investigating! He was being rude by just standing there without giving a proper welcome. He walked forward, stuffing the photo back in his pocket.

"H-hello! Welcome to Imperfection, friends! What're your names?" He tried to maintain a cheerful tone but it didn't seem to ease the visitors' uncertainty.

"I'm sorry, what did you call this place?" The pink doll asked, looking rather shocked, even offended it seemed like.

"Imperfection? Why?" Ox wasn't sure what there was to not understand. The name was pretty literal.

"Imperfection? This is supposed to be Institute #12! An Institute of Perfection!" The pink doll was growing more frantic. Ox tried to interject, wanting to calmly explain to her the whole story but she gave him no room for it. "There shouldn't be any area in the factory called Imperfection! Where are we? Where's-" 

"Number 9!" The grey bear doll interrupted, giving her a fed up glare. She herself seemed rather irritated by the bear but complied with his implied command. She took a deep breath, fixed her hair, and was all of a sudden back to a professional demeanor. The bear cleared his throat and continued.

"I do apologize for her behavior. We are on a bit of a tight schedule and we can't afford to... uh... make pleasantries, I'm afraid." While Ox was glad that he at least was more polite, he did notice the slight displeased look on his face when looking around at the mishmashed crowd. "We are here to find a certain a doll who should be here. Blonde hair, blue eyes, teaches the pretty dolls who are, uh, sent here. You know who I'm talking about, yes?" Unfortunately, Ox didn't have much of an answer for the grey bear. He knew he was talking about Lou, but the blonde wasn't assigned a specific spot he was supposed to clean, he just went off on his own accord to get himself away from everyone else.

"Lou? I'm... afraid not. But we can find him together. And while we look, I can give you folks a tour of the town for when you decide to ret-"

"There is no time." One of the unknown robots interjected, rudely shoving aside the grey doll. Now that Ox was face to face with this new robot, he realized how much taller it was compared to the Exposition robots. It also had this eerily happy expression on its large, round screen of a face. It... kind of scared him. 

"It is as Prototype 11 said. We are here on a strict schedule due to matters that concern the Maker." As it spoke, the robot leaned down closer to Ox. Its voice distorting almost into a robotic growl. "Now, we will ask again. Where is Prototype 12?"

"Uh-um, well I just thought-"

"I can help you find him." Ox yelped at the sudden cut in of an exposition robot's voice. "Come, follow me." The robot proceeded to roll away with the group of strangers following, Ox having to step aside as they almost walked into him. Like he was no longer there.

"Hey! Hold on-" Ox felt a metal hand forcefully grab his shoulder. It was another exposition bot and, to Ox's shock, he looked about as scared of the unknown robots as him. Maybe even more so. He turned to the mayor and shook his head.

"You must stay away from them! This means we're in trouble!" He spoke in a hushed but urgent voice. However, those words only convinced the bunny to go secretly follow them, leaving the citizens of Imperfection puzzled.

Again, Lou was lost in his own thoughts while sweeping, trying to think of ways to cover up the ugly dolls' take over from Hildegard before too many of them enter the big world. Though, he knew deep down that was basically impossible not only because of his new status as an outcast, but also because of the specific aspects of the company Hildegard is in charge of over seeing, including what dolls have been shipped out and customer reviews. Still he had to at least try and do something to prevent it. He'd be severely punished if she found out. And... he knew what awaited everyone else if he didn't.

"May we please hurry this up? It's already 8:37 am! We only have 23 minutes left before the meeting!" A familiar women's voice interrupted his train of thought. It couldn't be... He quietly set his broom against a wall and peaked his head around the corner of a building he was hiding behind. It was prototypes 9, 10, and... 11?! With two PUPPETS??

He had to stifle a gasp. He couldn't believe it. His family was here! In Imperfection! His emotions were shifting between joy and absolute terror. On the one hand, he had missed his siblings terribly and seeing just one of them again was considered a luxury to him at this point. It had been over 15 years since they last saw each other, after all. On the other hand, them being here, within what used to be his institute, meant that he was already too late. Especially since they were being escorted by puppet robots! Now that they were all here, then Hildegard could now see in full the state of his school! And the prototypes... he knew what they must have been thinking right now. They all worked so hard to make him into a perfect teacher and leader. So that he would never have to worry about facing Hildegard's wrath, unlike some of them.

Lou followed them while staying out of sight. 9 and 10 slowed down a bit to take in their surroundings while the Puppets and 11 continued on. They were simply too flabbergasted by their surroundings to walk any quicker. The misshapen buildings, paint-splattered houses of the pretty dolls, THE FLOODED GAUNTLET!? How could they see the used-to-be institute as anything other than a disgraceful hellscape!? Prototype 10 spoke in a low voice in order to not draw any more attention than they already have from the local dolls.

"Look at the state of this place! This used to be a quality control center, right? What happened to it?" There was clear shock filling his voice.

"I think we all know who's responsible for this mess..." 9 also spoke in a faint, seething voice. When her voice grew quiet like that, dolls and prototypes alike knew to be careful around her.

"Focus, you two." 11 called back in a normal volume. "We are here to retrieve 12 and get to the meeting on time. That is all. Don't get distracted." 

A meeting? Hildegard hadn't set up a meeting in over 15 years! Why was Lou only finding out about this no- He froze. He checked both his wrists. Then patted himself. Oh god... he lost his watch. His very expensive and important watch! First the suit, then his freaking institute, and on top of that he was going to be late to the meeting that would address his mistakes? He knew what awaited for him once he attended, but he would also regret it if he didn't. He had to pick which mistake he'd rather be punished for... He walked out of the shadow he sheltered himself in. He tried to address them in a professional manner, like he was taught to, but there was no way for him to succeed at that right now. Not when he was nervous out of his mind. The atrocious state of his appearance didn't help in the slightest.

"9, 10, 11. It's... It's so wonderful to see you again." The time was now 8:40am.

[emerald-head2000]

I'm Back!! (kind of...)

Hello, I am back from my vacation and ... I've kind of developed another temporary hyper fixation separate from Ugly Dolls. To anyone who doesn't recognize the new character, he's Bobby from Kpop Demon Hunter. Yes, I am now one of the many, many, many people who's fallen into the KPDH trap, but for good reason. If you haven't watched this movie yet, please watch it! It's on Netflix and I promise you, it's a fantastic movie and Bobby has stolen my heart I’m sure you guys will enjoy it!!

But anyway, back to Ugly Dolls. I'm still in this fandom and I'm still focusing this blog on my Ugly Dolls works. It's basically the same situation as when I became obsessed with Arthur Christmas last December. Despite me hyping up this movie, I don't plan on doing much with my new obsession with it (I'll leave that to the thousands of other members of the KPDH fandom) and I will get back to making more Ugly Dolls content in due time. So, for now, I’m afraid you’ll still have to be patient with me. I hope you guys understand. Alright, see ya guys!

[emerald-head2000]

Wall Flowers and Weeds

8/8 illustration posts

I wanted it to be more but I couldn't find the time or the energy to continue. I'm really sorry for that. On an unrelated note, I'll be busy getting ready to go on vacation with my family, which begins next week. So, you probably won't hear from me for a good bit. Okay enjoy and byeee!

Lou (full comic)

Wall flowers and weeds are beautiful too...

unless their fake like Hildegard's love...

[emerald-head2000]

Wall Flowers and Weeds

(7/8 I think) Page 3

[emerald-head2000]

Wall Flowers and Weeds

(6/8 I think) Page 2

Lou

Edit: Yo, sorry for the immense change to this comic page but I noticed an inconsistency with the robot's dialogue boxes and felt the need to correct it.

[emerald-head2000]

Happy Father’s Day!

Beware if you spot a bear cub in the wild, for the parent is likely near by even if it’s not immediately obvious…

And some bonus Pride Month art:

I’m sorry it’s not the next page of my pride month comic for Lou, but it takes quite a bit for me to complete a full on comic. And of course I had to make sure I did something for Father’s Day since I did something for Mother’s Day. I promise I’ll get to the next page soon. Anyway, give love to whoever has been a terrific father figure to you! Have a lovely day!

[emerald-head2000]

Wall Flowers and Weeds

(5/8 I think) Page 1

Lou

[emerald-head2000]

Wall Flowers and Weeds

(4/???)

Ugly Dog, Lucky Bat, Babo, and Wage

[emerald-head2000]

Wall Flowers and Weeds

(3/???)

Kitty, Tuesday, Nolan, Lydia, and Ox

[emerald-head2000]

Wall Flowers and Weeds

(2/still not sure how many I'll actually draw)

Michael and Meghan

[emerald-head2000]

Apparently I got to 250 likes! 😲🤩

Thank you guys so freaking much!!🥳

[emerald-head2000]

Wall Flowers and Weeds

(1/how ever many I end up drawing)

Moxy and Mandy

[emerald-head2000]

Happy Pride Month, My Buddies! 🏳️‍🌈

Sorry for missing yesterday. I was trying to narrow down what I wanted to do to celebrate this month, which I managed to do!

Here’s a sneak peak of what to expect:

The theme is flowers! … That’s it. Just… a whole lot of flowers. 🌺 💐

I’ll try to post these works in an orderly manner, but forgive me if that doesn’t end up being the case. Alright, you guys have a good day!

[emerald-head2000]

Ugly Dolls 2: Meet the Maker

Chapter 4 (March of the Prototypes)

At 8:05 am, the intersect of the twenty doors suddenly went from being devoid of life to rumbling from the sound mechanical clanging as iron doors shot open. Behind each of them was a doll in black uniform, stepping into the large and circular room of iron while particles of dust floated about due to the atmosphere's disturbance. The light at the center of the area illuminated the area upon sensing the dolls' movements. They all faced each other, still yet on edge, not a word was exchanged. For what could be said when you haven't seen your family for over fifteen years and were abruptly forced into a reunion you aren't prepared for? Actually, the awkward silence made them realize that some one was missing. They all turned to the door labeled "12" and waited.

Two minutes passed, then three, then six. It was now 8:15 am and no sign of Prototype 12. None of the the prototypes have ever been so late to a meet up at the intersect before. They were all getting worried as to what could be keeping him, especially Number 3. However, Hildegard was never one for patience or forgiving tardiness. Not even by one minute. So even though it took only a ten minute walk to the conference chamber, it became a routine for them to leave their institutes at least 40 minutes before the time of the meeting. And they couldn't afford to make any exceptions, not even for each other.

Wordlessly, Prototypes 1 and 10 nodded to each other and started walking. Two lines were formed behind them, the rest of the dolls lining up in numerical order. They struggled at first to walk in unison but the practice was never really forgotten, and within minutes their steps became one just like before. The corridor was now filled with the sound of synchronized foot steps. However, the chime of three different watches did startle the various dolls, causing a brief falter within the lines. Prototypes 9, 10, and 11 checked their watches.

"Notification failed to send to Prototype Number 12. 9, 10, and 11, please fetch him. Two puppets will be sent your way to accompany you."

The three dolls stepped out of line and looked at each other as the others continued off without so much as a glance back. Well, almost all the others. The three of them kept their voices hushed. 

"So, that's why he was late. But the factory's network should be top-notch! Hildegard always makes sure of that! How could the message possibly fail to be sent?" Number 9 was frantically stroking her hair, trying to calm herself down.

"Maybe he some how destroyed his watch?" Number 10 tried to hide his worry but it did nothing to ease 9.

 "But there's nothing a prototype could do to cause that!"

"9, please! Questions will have to wait, I'm afraid. I'm sure there's a good explanation but right now let's just quickly get him and arrive to the meeting on time, alright?" 11's intervention seemed to do the trick of getting 9 to control herself but barely. The group was soon joined by a pair of tall, thin robots known as the puppets who began to walk beside the group to the twelfth door. Until they were stopped by a little, pastel-purple doll with green eyes.

"Uh- uhm... May I go with you guys?" Number 3 asked timidly. While the puppets stared her down intensely, 11 couldn't help but empathize with her. He knew she wasn't just concerned about him being late. The bear kneeled down to meet her eyes.

"Number 3, Hildegard asked for us, specifically. It's best for you to go back in line with the others, okay?" She lowered her head, disappointed by 11's words. She knew her request would be denied but... she felt a large paw lift her head up by the chin. "Hey, come on. You'll get to see him again at the meeting. Just be patient, okay Mahal?" She was comforted by the use of his favorite endearment term for her, despite it being against the rules. It seems like he hadn't changed all that much. One glance at the other two prototypes and robots said otherwise for them, only meeting silence and hardened gazes. 

"You should listen to Number 11. You don't want to get in trouble, do you?" Number 9 warned. She didn't mean to use her threatening tone on the younger doll but time was ticking. And thus Number 3 fixed her demeanor and silently went back in line while the others continued on. 

As they walked back, 11 shot a disapproving look at 9 but the tall, pink doll allowed no sign of regret to shine through her button eyes. All the while, Number 10 stood between them, his bright, yellow-green eyes down-casted and blue tail tucked between his legs from the tension. Once they reached the door, one of the puppets placed its hand on the scanning pad beside it, followed by the sound of air suctioning into the open pipe before them. Due to the extensive darkness, the dolls stuck close to the puppets, taking cautious steps as they proceeded downward into the cold, metal space. They soon came across a dim light that was only a few several yards away. The time was 8:30 am.

[emerald-head2000]

Ugly Dolls 2: Meet the Maker

All Chapters

Prologue

Chapter 1 (The Photo)

Chapter 2 (What To Do)

Chapter 3 (Curiouser and Curiouser)

Chapter 4 (March of the Prototypes)

Chapter 5 (New Arrivals)

Chapter 6 (9, 10, 11, ... 12?)

You can also find this fan fiction on Wattpad. It goes by the same name.