All Dolled Up

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"You'd think that with all the data we have on the Dolls that, by now, at least, we'd have some solid information regarding the events of last night," says Donovan Mikael, the CEO of Aster Labs. "But we have nothing. Nay, worse than nothing. We hardly have any scraps of information about how last night happened. This is unacceptable, Ravenscar."

Lenoir nods her head. "Yes, sir. I understand."

"Do you?" Donovan demands. "Because seven personnel are dead. We have three, three escaped Dolls who are god-knows-where. The public is in danger, grave danger. And if we don't find the three Dolls, we will be, too. You're a smart woman, Lenoir. But please, do not believe for one second that these things will not run amok!"

She flinches at the use of the word things to describe the Dolls. Dolls are beings that they at Aster have created to benefit the human race. In fact, there's at least one Doll per household now, but yet.... some of them are not complete. Like the ones that escaped last night, they are not whole yet. There are more tests to run, more things to input.

Dolls are fabricated beings of a strange metal found in meteors, as well as the life-essence of stars used for their souls and nervous systems. The governments of the world have decreed that Dolls are not to enter any countries aside from the ones that used to be America, Canada, Europe, and Japan. The rest of the world hates Dolls. They are considered abominations and hunted.

Lenoir has been to Novopryme, the country that used to be called Canada by the Ancient Ancestors, and the Dolls that they have all have tattoos of their serial numbers and they're made more obvious difference-wise. But here in Heskait — what was once America — the Dolls are indistinguishable from normal humans.

Donovan Mikael leans forward and steeples his fingers. He watches Lenoir closely. She meets his cold, gray gaze and he sighs. Leans back in his chair again and pours himself some brandy. He takes a sip from his glass, and he looks out the nearby window.

"We have too much invested in this to lose it now," he says.

"Yes, sir," she says.

"You may go, Lenoir. But keep watch over the remaining Dolls, we don't want them to leave us before their time."

Lenoir nods and leaves the room, trying to hide that she was in a hurry to leave anyways. When she enters the office she calls hers, she sits down at her desk and pulls up the files on the three missing Dolls. As she sits and works, looking at the information on Payson, Mikya, and Thea, one of her co-workers walks up to her.

"What'd the boss man say, Lenoir?"

She doesn't even look up from her computer. "Enough, Dobrov. I need to focus."

He sighs. "Fine. But I'm just trying to look out for you. If you need me, I'm over at my station."

Dobrov walks back to his computer station. She sighs and resumes her research on the Dolls. None of these Dolls has been outside of Aster Labs before last night, so the very real possibility of one of them dying is prevalent in her mind.

Payson's file tells her that she is only fourteen, one of the oldest Dolls in all of Heskait. She's heard that some of them in Novopryme are in their early twenties. The fact that she knows that the ones in Novopryme are capable of reproduction is scary to her. In fact, at age fourteen, they are unlike humans and are still fully grown at that age. Hell, some are fully matured at ten.

Mikya's profile tells her that the Doll is thirteen, and is very close to Payson. The two are almost inseparable from one another. Mikya is also known to blindly follow Payson anywhere she goes, so Lenoir supposes that's why she went with her.

Thea is more of an outlier in this situation, though. Thea is also thirteen, and she is a quiet and reserved Doll, very respectful of her human counterparts. It isn't obvious why she went with the other two, but Lenoir theorizes that it's something to do with freedom. They want to be free. Why wouldn't they?

Lenoir stands up and walks up to the printer. She gathers her papers and then walks to the section where they keep the remaining Dolls. Payson, Mikya, and Thea had a few things in common, aside from being Dolls. But knowing that, she has to check in with one person they had in common.

So, she enters the solitary wing of the Doll House, as the others call it, oh so fondly.