This Heavy Heart

Perfection Equals Pain - Part 1

Very sorry about the long wait again! In the runup to Christmas, I had to deal with a lot of sickness, art commissions and appointments ... so the work went rather slowly! My most sincere apologies! Lou's backstory will take a few chapters to tell, and this is the first part! I hope that you enjoy this most recent update! 😁👍

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This chapter is dedicated to Annoyingsister2004, one of the greatest friends that I've ever, ever had! 😃😁 She's a pretty awesome author, check out her fanfics! 👍😊 Especially the one that she's working on at the moment; it's called 'Rip Off' ... it's fantastic! 🤩🤩
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"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."

Friendship Proverb
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Lou sighed, leaning back on Lucky's couch. His eyes looked distant as he recalled way, way, WAY back ...

"The first thing that I can remember is waking up in a strange, glowing, humming machine."

Flashback

A brilliant flash of light.

A rippling surge of energy running through his limbs.

Lou's eyes snapped open and he sat up with a jerk. The blonde prototype breathed loudly and rapidly as he looked around. Lou was inside a sealed metallic chamber of a machine of some kind.

A zinging, grating electronic sound was heard above him. The doll looked up. Overhead, the machine ceiling was full of glowing, humming panels; and what looked like a sort of zapper was fixed to the panels.

It was fizzing and crackling. Lou gulped and looked extremely frightened, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks.

The perfect prototype doll shuddered at the memory.

"It was very scary. I didn't like it."

All the dolls in the square looked at each other in confusion. They vaguely remembered the Factory machines that had made them, but not one of them was like this one. They looked at Ox, who just shrugged; and then listened on.

"I'm actually a bit claustrophobic, to be honest."

"Well, that would make sense", Moxy whispered to Mandy. They both shared a glance, remembering how Lou absolutely freaked out in the washer.

Over in Lucky Bat's house, the aforementioned Uglydoll frowned at Lou.

"Really? I can open the window if it's a bit stuffy in here?" he said, starting to get up. The blonde doll quickly shook his head, putting a hand out to stop Lucky Bat.

"No, no! It's all right, I'm fine with the windows closed ... besides, this is a private therapy session. I wouldn't say this in public, you know?" Lou said pointedly.

Lucky Bat nodded understandingly. Some of the pretty dolls began sniggering at the pure irony of that, but were soon silenced by powerful glares from Ox and his closest friends.

"All at once, the machine suddenly shut down and I was taken out."

Lou scrabbled over to the right wall of the chamber, and started to pound on it. "Hey? Hey! Let me out!" The noise of electronic humming and grating suddenly stopped and the right wall opened with a clang.

The boy doll fell back with a startled cry, and then screamed as a human hand entered the chamber. It was as big as Lou himself, grabbed the aforementioned prototype and dragged him out of the machine.

Lou struggled desperately but the hand's grip was too strong. He blinked in the strong electric lights as he saw that a tall brown-haired man in a business suit, similar to the one that Lou wore, was holding him. A black haired man in the same kind of outfit was standing next to the other chap.

"I was held by two strange creatures. Something inside me told me that these were humans."

The name badge on the blonde man's chest read "Production Manager". The other name badge, on the black haired man; read "Creative Engineer".

The prototype boy doll looked uneasily between the two men, fidgeting a little bit. The guys tried to smile encouragingly at Lou.

"They then explained to me that they worked for the Factory that made me, and were here to explain things to me. About my new purpose."

Lucky Bat looked very confused and held up a wing to pause Lou's revelations. The prototype stopped and raised an eyebrow at the other doll.

"Hold up! What do you mean, your new purpose? I thought that dolls only had one purpose: to make kids happy and be loved by them?"

A shadow of long-buried pain passed over Lou's face at that moment, and he was silent. Lucky Bat then suddenly realised exactly what impact that question had had on Lou. He flushed in total embarrassment and shame.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Lou! I didn't mean to phrase it like that! I deeply apologise, Lou ... I'm sorry ..."

Ox tuned out his bat friend's apologising as he turned to look at Moxy and her friends. They were all wincing in sympathy, as was Ox himself. The rest of the dolls just looked uncomfortable and awkward.

"Right where it hurts", Uglydog whispered.

Moxy and Mandy, in particular, were actually now feeling quite a bit sympathetic towards Lou. Seeing him more like a normal doll, than an enemy.

Back in Lucky Bat's house, the blonde prototype had finally succeeded in stopping the flow of nearly endless apologies from Lucky Bat.

"It's okay, Lucky Bat, you don't have to say sorry that many times!" Lou said, rolling his eyes a little.

"Especially since the number went over 50, a minute ago." The bat doll flushed.

"Sor-I-I mean, okay! We'll move on!" Lou sighed, and then resumed his revelations.

"You see, normally dolls just have the aforementioned purpose, but prototypes are different ... they get special purposes."

Ox then heard Nolan snort loudly, and turned to frown at the green and brown haired doll.

"Yes? Nolan?" he said, dryly. Nolan huffed a little.

"I mean ... it's just typical of prototypes to have 'special purposes'!" the former 'ugly' doll said, illustrating the words with his hands. "Special ... like Lou?" he added sarcastically.

Nolan just folded his arms and pouted. "He ain't so special. I'm betting that running the Institute was his special purpose ..."

"Nolan! Hush now!" Mandy's quiet but cross voice cut through the former's complaining tone. The other dolls looked quite surprised at that. Mandy hardly ever raised her voice in public, and NEVER in defence of Lou.

Nolan looked sulky, but shut up. The multitude of pretty and uglydolls then went back to listening to Lou's voice. He sounded more subdued now, and depressed.

"Prototype dolls have a general purpose too, really. To help a new kind of designed toy reach the p-perfect form ..."

The prototype seemed to then stutter and sniffle a little. Lucky Bat looked sympathetic and patted Lou on the back. Lou swallowed, took a deep breath, and went on.

"Before our coming deaths in the Recycler!"

Dead silence then fell ... both in the town square, and Lucky Bat's house.

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