Hello, long time no see!
So, I randomly reread a few of @0perfectimperfections0 fics on a whim and had this idea come to mind from being reminded of when we created these other characters in this story. She has a post about them that I'll link when I find it. I wasn't planning to write this tonight but I'm salty about the apparently AI series UglyDolls is making and yeah. I wrote this.
The universe for this one is probably a culmination of things @0perfectimperfections0 and I have wrote together, honestly. I don't know what all has been posted so just - go with the flow XD. It's heavily redeemed Lou who has a chip and a lot of lore with a prototype rule book and a horrible creator-
Anyway, hope you enjoy my random resurgence to drop this and probably disappear again.
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Lou wasn't exactly sure how it happened.
He'd always liked to have his life in order. Scheduled. Expected. Maybe it was part of his programming. Or even if it was, maybe it was more that he needed the stability to hang onto. He needed a focus at all times. If he didn't, then he would fall into that pit of despair he'd spent silently hiding within. For years, his life had schedule. Order. His emotions fluctuated as they developed due to Ox's teaching - curiosity, sadness, anger, defiance, hatred, jealousy, loneliness - until he accepted that he was stuck forever and suppressed them. Emotions made things hurt. It was why he wasn't supposed to develop complex emotions in the first place.
Then Moxy and her friends arrived. He brought Ox back into his life to get rid of them. He handled the situation with his hatred as fuel and his inclination toward complete order was in control.
But it hadn't worked out the way he'd wanted. He hadn't succeeded. He'd failed in something other than trying to get through the portal. He hadn't done that since his training ended, the rule book burned into his brain and perfection in his stuffing.
Things changed from there. He tried to find order in cleaning. In keeping to himself. But even that didn't last. Somehow, those emotions he suppressed returned, and slowly, he became someone he hadn't thought he could be. Not with his creator breathing down his neck. Not with his orders. Not with his programming.
He became a doll with his own thoughts, feelings, wants, and goals. It had taken many trials to get there, but he didn't regret any of it. He had friends.
And then, he had siblings.
Two former prototypes. Henry Everett recreated them with data he thought lost. A month ago, Lou had been called to his office for what he'd thought would be just a chat, only to meet two dolls he'd only heard stories about: William and Grace.
William was the first. Brown haired, blue eyed, and a laid back attitude until someone tested his temper too far. He'd lasted months before he died of overload on his imperfect chip.
Grace was second. Red haired, blue eyed, calm and logical with a tendency to be organized tht was only matched by Lou. She was overwhelmed by her emotions after years of the grueling work of running the Institute. Beaten down by loneliness, she did what she thought she had to in order to end the pain.
Lou was supposed to have been the perfect combination of those two. But he hadn't been created by Henry. He hadn't had the same guiding hand those two did. No, he had the firm, abusive hand of Greyson Everett.
(Sometimes he wondered what he would have been like if Henry had been at the helm of his creation, but those thoughts were for another day.)
Lou, being twelve years old now, was technically the oldest of the three, and yet, from the moment he was wrapped in a bear hug by two sets of arms, his brain reeling, something had shifted. He'd felt it then, but hadn't understood until later - he was the little brother of the two.
That was very evident now.
Apparently, a schedule was a prototype thing. Once everything had settled down after their recreation, a few decisions were made. One of those decisions was that the three prototypes wanted to live in the same house. They had all existed in separate time frames, never overlapping, and they wanted to learn who each other were as siblings.
So, Lou's house was expanded, and here they were, living in a three bedroom home, three different personalities. He'd been nervous about it at first. Maybe they all had been. But after the first night, when board games and movies broke the ice and they were laughing together like they should have been able to, things became easy, and a routine manifested without Lou's concious knowledge.
It wasn't an official thing. It just happened and no one wanted to change it. It wasn't strict either, just following a general path. They all typically woke up early - another thing about a prototype - but there were days one of them didn't. Today was Lou's day to sleep a little longer than he normally would. Not by much, but enough that his brain was still trying to get into gear at just after eight in the morning.
"Look who's awake!" William called as Lou entered the kitchen, still rubbing his eyes. "Man, I thought you'd never get up."
Lou rolled his eyes, settling into his normal spot at the table as the smell of his older brother's cooking registered, waking him up more. "Whatever."
"Oh, grumpy. Must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed."
"Quit teasing him, Will." Grace chided from her seat, putting her book face down to save her page. "He rarely sleeps enough as it is. At least he doesn't snore like you."
"I do not snore."
"Keep lying to yourself." She smirked, then shifted her attention to Lou. "What do you have planned for today?"
"Just two classes and helping Ox with the paperwork. The quarterly reports came in yesterday." He replied. "What's the book for book club today?" Grace ran both a book club and art classes.
"We read Shadow and Bone this last week. It was really good. I think you'd like it."
"Hm, I'll give it a go when I have some time."
"You don't have any tonight?" She asked, lips twitching up in a smile that said she knew more than he did. He hated when she got that look.
"Mandy asked me to help her-"
"Aw, you have a date!"
"I do not!"
"You should get her some flowers beforehand. And don't wear your suit. Wear one of your sweaters. It's going to be cold later. And make sure you-"
Will cut in then, putting down plates of pancakes in front of them. "Calm down, sis. Breathe. Lou will be alright. This isn't his first date with Mandy."
Again, Lou argued. "It is not a date."
"Sure, dude." He said as he poured three glasses of orange juice for them. "Just don't act like a dork."
Once more, Lou rolled his eyes so hard he could have seen his stuffing, but decided to let the matter drop. It did no good to argue with his siblings about this kind of thing. It was best to just change the subject. "What are you going to do today?"
Will settled in the seat across from him with his own plate, immediately pouring a helping of syrup onto his pancakes. "Uh, I'm going to help a few dolls run the Gauntlet for practice, then go watch the hotdog eating contest at Wage's restaurant. After that I don't know. Probably go see what UglyDog and Moxy will be up to."
Grace took the syrup from him before he could overload his plate too much. "Don't get into too much trouble. Remember what happened last time?"
"There wasn't supposed to be glitter! I've said that a million times."
"Doesn't change that it took weeks to get rid of it all. I swear I'm still finding pieces in my hair. What made you guys have that idea anyway?"
"I am the fun boss. I supervise by joining in."
"That sounds like a recipe for disaster every time you say it."
"It doesn't always end like that!"
"The glitter, William-"
Lou found himself smiling as the two bickered back and forth. Two years ago, he wouldn't have been able to imagine this. The idea of friends would have been baffling in itself, much less having older siblings. Heck, he wouldn't have ever thought he'd be eating breakfast in his pajamas considering he'd slept in suits back then.
Yet it was reality. The three of them, sitting at the table, all in pajamas and teasing and arguing and joking like the family they were always meant to be.
Lou had made a lot of bad choices in his life. He'd lived in a way he hated for a long time because he felt there was no other way out. He suppressed his emotions because he thought they made him weak. That Lou didn't exist anymore. Those choices had eventually led him to where he was now. He just took the long way around, the straight way blocked by Everett's hand.
No matter how he got here, all that mattered was that he was here. Breathing. Living. Happy. So genuinely happy.
He was home.
