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Fingers that could shape false life, known around the world for the grace with which they sculpted each and every limb; Mister Gluskin was a king of his craft. Locked away in a spacious office, with limbs of ivory strew about him as he pieced each creation together. One part would click into another, joints forming and the body growing.
“You’re nearly perfect darling, just a few more pieces and you’ll be my truest masterpiece.” A large hand ran over the doll’s lifeless face, fingers brushing along slightly parted lips before pulling away to resume his work. He was so closed to finishing. All that was left was one finely-tuned heart, one that would beat with electric pulses only for him. Each and every doll before it had been a waste of materials, a waste of his time and efforts. With each one he made, he’d been forced to watch them leave, to follow the steps of every doll before them, over the threshold of his workshop and out into a world where they would become little more than whores for the rich and powerful—the elites that ruled over their walled-off city; Murkoff.
“But none of them were like you,” Eddie removed all thoughts of his old creations from his mind. Given the chance he would have loved nothing more than to strip them of their parts and had them hauled off to the underground landfill, where they were sure to be burned up on a pyre of garbage and filth, a fitting end for each slut he’d released into the world. “You’ll stay here with me and love only me, my sweetest darling.”
And so he took hold of the heart on the table beside him, making sure to keep one hand on the doll’s back so that its lifeless form could stay upright as it straddled one of the man’s muscular legs. The heart was pressed inside the porcelain body, into a small hole in its chest. It clicked into place and all at once the clockwork inside the doll’s body came to life. The clicking of the gears as the first started up slowly turned into silence as the doll’s eyes opened, revealing a milky blue haze. They were inhuman, as all doll eyes were, but to Eddie they were the most beautiful eyes he had even gazed into. Perfection, filling him with a love he hadn’t felt in what had been an eternity.
“Darling!” His face lit up all at once when the doll’s eyes met his own, staring blankly as it tried to take in the sight of the large man before it, before its eyes began to scan the world around them. “How are you? How do you feel? I do hope you’re not too overwhelmed—though I suppose my line of questioning cannot be helping matters!”
Eddie laughed softly to himself as he brought his hand up to rest on the doll’s face, bringing its gaze back to focus solely on him.
“I am… well. I am very well, master.”
“No, no, none of that!” How could this one think to refer to him as its master?! Hadn’t he programmed it better than that? Apparently it would need some adjustments. “You may call me Eddie, if you’d like; anything but that ridiculous title. You were made with love, to love, not for pleasure like the other dolls, so act as such.”
“Yes, ma—Eddie.” The doll maker listened as the doll upgraded its speech registry, soft clicks coming from the doll’s head allowing him to verify that the change had been programmed.
“Good. I’d hate to think my darling thought of themself as some mere slut. Only sluts refer to their loved ones as ‘masters’.” He sneered at the thought, pure disgust for his other creations coursing through him like fire.
But then he felt the cool touch of porcelain settle on his face, small hands cupping his cheeks as the doll tilted its head to the side.
“I am sorry, Eddie. I did not mean to upset you—I care for you too much to ever want you to be unhappy. Your happiness is all that matters to me.” Eddie felt himself relax into the touch, his back leaning into the plush chair he was currently sitting in as he listened to the doll speak in a soft voice. “Uhmm, I do have one question, though; what… what is my name?”
Eddie had to stop for a moment. He’d never really given it any though. Most of his dolls were gone as soon as they came to life, never once caring for a name, but this one was better, his programming making him more human than any of the ones who had come before him. Of course he’d need a name! How could Eddie have been so silly to forget something so basic? Especially considering how meticulous he had been in shaping him to look so similar to… well, that bit was unimportant. Allowing the slightest of smirks to grace his feature, Eddie spoke,
“Your name is Waylon.”