#dollmaker au

Who took ruby and the others, how will Yang react to coming back to her room to see broken glass and her missing sister-like doll and others?

“I promise, I’ll help you and the other two that were with you, and then we can get you home.” 

Ruby wished she could tell the woman who took her that she had been at home already as she was placed on a small wooden shelf. The other two dolls that were with her had been placed on shelves as well, each separated from each other. Ruby watched as the woman walked off and took in the sight of the room. The room itself wasnt very big and reminded Ruby of the dollmaker’s workshop with tools on a small workbench and a few doll pieces strewn around. 

The woman finally came back and took off her mask, her cat ears stood up after having been flattened down for a while. “There we go, that’s better. Now, which of you to work on first…” 

Ruby watched as the woman picked her up and smiled as she placed her on the table. The sound of metal hitting wood filled her ears as the woman used a small hammer to tap against Ruby’s wooden body. The woman worked quickly as she pulled pieces off of Ruby and was careful to put things back where she found them. 

“Now where is that… there it is!” The woman turned Ruby over and sighed. “This… is not going to feel comfortable. I suggest you brace yourself however you can for this part.” 

Ruby had no time to question what the woman meant as she felt the hammer slam into the middle of her back. A scream left her lips as she felt pain run through her body. “Aaaargh!” 

“I told you it was going to hurt.” The woman smiled and sat the hammer down. “How do you feel?” 

Ruby paused for a moment as she realized the woman was not only talking to her, but actually heard her. “You… hear me?” Her voice was hoarse as she spoke and her jaw moved stiffly as she spoke. Feeling had started to come back to her as she moved her stiff arms. “What… are you… doing to me?” 

“I’m trying to help you.” The woman helped turn Ruby over as she inspected her body. “Though, from the looks of it, the dollmaker did quite the number on you and your friends here. I’m still trying to work out how I’m going to fix you completely.” 

“And… you are?” 

“You can call me Blake,” Blake replied with a smile. “And your name?” 

“R-Ruby.” 

“Its nice to meet you Ruby.” Blake started to walk around the room, searching for the rest of the tools she needed. “You’ll want to keep still for a bit and dont move so much. I know you’re anxious to get back to normal, but the process is a bit… painful.” 

“Right… painful…” Ruby’s eyes took a few moments to focus on the ceiling above her as she moved her arms and hands. The stiff movements only confirmed that she was still just a wooden doll even if everything else seemed to be going back to normal. “Where… are we?” 

“We’re in my workshop.” Blake smiled and picked up a book off the bookcase and started to flip through a few pages. “Alright, I’ve destroyed the wind up keyhole on your back, removed the nail that seals the spell, and now all I have to do is…” Her smile disappeared as she silently read the last instruction. She slammed the book close and groaned as she leaned up against the wall. “I knew I was forgetting something.” 

“Forgetting what?” 

“Nothing too important, I’ll make do with what I have.” Blake rushed over to her desk and started to rummage through the drawers. “I know I have it here somewhere…” 

Ruby sighed and relaxed on the workbench, her wooden limbs knocked on the surface of the table. She was still confused about everything that was going on though she still couldnt figure out the questions she wanted to ask to get the answers she wanted. Once again, she was roughly flipped over and pushed down onto the workbench as a needle was inserted into her neck. 

“Now, try to remember who you were before all of this happened. Any and every detail you can.” 

Ruby slowly nodded as her veins started to burn from the liquid Blake injected her with. Her skin started to change from wood back to flesh and her skin paled a bit as the makeup and paint started to smudge. Tears ran down her cheeks as her body burned with heat as she took each breath. 

“You’re doing good,” Blake reassured Ruby as she pulled the needle away. “Just keep thinking about who you are and let the tonic do the rest.” 

Ruby gasped once her transformation was finished. She moved her arms and winced as soreness settled in. “I’m… fixed?” 

“Yeah, you’re fixed. I’ll let you rest up and then I’ll bring you back home to your family tomorrow.” 

Ruby slowly turned her head and looked at the other two dolls on the shelves. “What about them?” 

“I’ll bring them back to normal as I did you. Though, it may take a while longer since I wasnt exactly expecting to find more than one doll that she made.” 

“How did you know about me?” 

Blake sighed and started to walk out of the room. “That doesnt matter. Right now, we need to make sure you fully recover.” 

Ruby sat up and moved off the workbench, her legs giving out as soon as she hit the floor. “You have to tell me.” 

“I’ve been following the dollmaker around for a bit after a friend of mine went missing.” Blake sighed and put a hand on the doorframe. “Since then, I’ve made it my business to make sure to right any wrongs that woman makes.” 

“At least let me help you fix the other two.” 

“No, not going to happen.” 

Ruby slowly steadied herself as she leaned against a wall and braced herself with each step. “I owe it to them.” 

Blake pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes for a moment. “I’m going to get you some food and then you’ll need to sleep while your body adjusts to being human again. Tomorrow… we’ll talk.” 

[ID: Black and white sketches of Roman, Patton, Janus and Remus holding dolls.

Roman has short hair, freckles, and a few beauty marks. His right hand has a birthmark. He's wearing a t-shirt and several bracelets, and is holding a teddy bear with its ear half torn off.

Patton has short hair and wears glasses, a hair clip and a sweater. He's smiling with his eyes closed, and in his arms, he's holding a large cat stuffed animal.

Janus has short hair parted in the middle, and is wearing a large brimmed hat, a frilly choker, a translucent capelet, and a long-sleeve button-up. He has several ear piercings, snakebite piercings and is wearing black eyeshadow. He has dermatillomania scars on the left side of his face. In his left hand, he's holding a needle up to a Raggedy Ann doll, which he's holding with his right hand.

Remus has a fauxhawk, a few beauty marks, a scar running through his lip and mustache, several facial piercings, and several ear piercings. He's wearing a leather jacket with spikes on the shoulders and a mesh shirt underneath. He's smiling. In his left hand, he's holding up a Medusa doll. /End ID]

I'm having a blast with this AU actually!

If you haven't seen my other posts, here's a quick overview of this AU:

They all run a stuffed animal hospital, which, if you don't know, is just a fancy way to say people send their dolls/stuffed animals/toys in general, & they fix them.

Roman & Patton both do repairs to stuffed animals, mostly for children. They write little letters & progress updates & take pictures & such of the toys doing hospital patient things ((with like little stethoscopes & stuff. like Doc McStuffins)) while they do the repairs so kids'll be entertained & less stressed without their toys.

Janus works with humanoid dolls like Raggedy Anns, baby dolls, etc.. He also sews doll clothing & makes/paints custom props.

Remus does doll repainting! People can give old dolls/doll parts ((or he just buys them himself. he has a very sizeable collection)) & he makes new dolls, or modifies them on commission. If you've ever seen Monster High doll repaints or the doll modifications where they make American Girl dolls look like specific kids, he does that sort of thing. He mostly specializes in fantasy/horror-inspired dolls.

Not gonna go into much detail on Virgil or Logan since I didn't draw them here, but Virgil works at Build-A-Bear & Logan does restoration on vintage dolls.

have some of my doll!chase :3 i have more drawings coming up of these guys, first inspiration ive had in months haha. also maybe this is a future pin design...

- so basically after that, Marinette feels horrible, enough that Hawkmoth targets her, (Gabriel may worst worst dad ever but I hope he would have enough decency to not akuma his son), so she turns into the Dollmaker.

- she creates two life sized dolls, one referred to “Dollinette” who’s super chipper. In stead of her usual attire, Dollinette wears a pink dress, white socks, black Mary Janes and a black coat. She was tasked with watching the Ladybug earrings so she wears her hair down to cover them.

- because Dollinette isn’t Marinette, the ladybug earrings go back into their inhabited form, meaning Tikki is gone.

- Dollinette is basically Marinette 2.0. One of the first thing she does is ask Kagami if they can start over, mentioning it was Adrien who asked her to come with him on the date.

- then she apologizes to Adrien, stating “you can accept the apology, but I don’t expect you to forgive me. And that’s okay” before heading to her seat.

- She pretty much apologizes to everyone. Even if she didn’t cause their akumatized form.

- she doesn’t go after Lila either.

- it’s almost uncomfortable how chipper she is.

- when either doll is cut, rather than bleed, red yarn leaves the cut. If it isn’t patched up, they return to a more standard doll format.

- The other doll is called “Mygalomorphae” who is tasked with finding the Chat Noir ring. Once found, Dollinette hands over the earrings.

- Mygalomorphae wears a black body suit. The boots and gloves are black with silver web marks. She wears a pointed black mask. Her eyes are pure white. Her canines are also elongated so they look like a spider’s mandibles. Her hair is in Marinette’s signature ponytails, but they’re longer and sharper looking.

- Unlike the Dollmaker and Dollinette, Mygalomorphae doesn’t talk.

- Both Dollinette & Mygalomorphae can see through each other’s eyes if needed.

- She’s also extremely smart, as a drawing of Chat Noir’s ring was enough for her to realize Adrien’s ring matched the design perfectly after looking through Dollinette’s eyes.

- It takes until Mygalomorphae is chasing Chat Noir before anyone realizes that the Dollinette looks almost identical to Mygalomorphae.

- And now they know who was akumatized.

- Dollinette’s sweet exterior shatters when then class turns against her, voicing Marinette’s true feelings about her classmates, like Adrien knowing Lila was lying and won’t do anything or Alya not sourcing her facts.

- “it’s not like Marinette has Jagged Stone in her contacts or can talk to Ladybug like how she got you that interview or something. Oh wait. She could.”

- Dollmaker is one of those akuma’s that still look like themselves, like Lady Wifi, so ignoring the long hair, tear stained cheeks and outfit, she still looks like Marinette.

- She doesn’t really care if Hawkmoth wins or loses. Her whole goal is to just avoid Adrien without missing school.

- She specifically created Dollinette to have more free will than Mygalomorphae so she didn’t come off as robotic.

- Dollmaker is the only one of the three who can communicate with Hawkmoth, meaning both Dollinette & Mygalomorphae are free of his influence.

Set × amount of time after the ending of the last one:

Yang can't keep the loss of Ruby in anymore and breaks down crying and holding the "doll" in her arms. Apologizing and telling her everything she wish she could have told her sister before she went missing.

Meanwhile Ruby wishes she could tell her sister how she's here, Yang had found her, about who did this to her and the other two "dolls" in the room she had bought with her. But all she can say is those preprogrammed words/phrases Yang had given her.

Ruby could only watch as Yang started to break down in front of her, her body still stiff from the transformation she went through all those many months ago. Though, it felt more like years now. It was hard to keep track of time, though from how upset Yang was getting, it had to be long enough. All she wanted to do was hug her sister, try to comfort her and tell her that she was here…

Yang wiped a few tears from her eyes and walked over to the doll and held her tight. “I miss Ruby so much. I never should’ve yelled at her like that and should’ve been a better sister.” 

I’m right here! she wanted to yell out. You found me! I havent left. You have to help me. None of the words could come out, only the singular phrase that always came out once her string was pulled. 

“I love you.” 

Yang sighed and pulled away from the Ruby doll and looked at the other two she had picked up as well. While neither doll looked familiar to her, she couldnt help but wonder if they too happened to look like any other children or if they were only modeled to be this life-like for collectors. Either way, it was hard to pass them up as a set and it meant that she was a little less lonely, even if their eyes had a creepy amount of detail to them. 

Yang shook her head and went back to her desk to wrap the present she had gotten for Ruby for her birthday. Even though she wasnt here, Taiyang and Qrow still wanted to do something for her to try to bring some sort of joy. Even the authorities werent sure Ruby was still alive and had quit looking for her. She looked at the calendar and sighed. “Happy birthday Rubes… please be okay out there…” 

Ruby wished she could tell Yang how much she missed her as she watched her sister finish wrapping up the gift and leave her room to go downstairs. At this point, she’d give anything if it meant being able to be herself again. She never should’ve walked into that toy shop. She should’ve just stayed out and ran off to somewhere else, maybe have listened to Yang. Anything would’ve  been better than being turned into a lifeless, motionless, doll-

A window shattered as a rock crashed through it. Ruby could only watch as a figure in all black climbed into the room and quickly took a look around. The figure seemed to pause when she saw the dolls and moved closer, making sure to be gentle as she moved them. A smile came across her lips as she pulled her mask down. 

“So, you’ve had a run in with her too. Dont worry, I know how to fix this.” 

Ruby wished she could scream and call out for Yang as the girl picked up the other dolls and started stuffing them into a backpack. She wished she could bite or move once she felt the girl pick her up and take a look at her before cramming her in the same pack. She heard the girl one last time as darkness filled her vision once the pack was closed. 

“You’ll be safe with me. I’ll get you home safe.” 

Part 1

Part 2

[ID: Black and white sketches of Virgil and Logan.

Logan has a short, afro-textured undercut and freckles. He's wearing glasses, a long-sleeve shirt, and a chew stim necklace. In his right hand, he's holding up a vintage doll. He's smiling.

Virgil has medium-length shaggy hair that covers his right eye. He's wearing a Build-A-Bear Workshop uniform, which consists of a long-sleeve shirt, an apron and a lanyard. He's wearing eyeshadow under his eyes and has multiple ear piercings and a lip ring. In his left hand, he's holding up a stuffed heart. In his right, he's holding up a deflated teddy bear. His mouth is slightly open. /End ID]

okay now here's Logan & Virgil bc my mind's still caught up on this AU hgfdk

Logan restores vintage dolls! He majored in anthropology in college and became interested in historical toys specifically, so he took up dollmaking as a hobby. After graduating, he decided to merge his hobby and his career and started doing vintage doll restoration.

Virgil works at Build-A-Bear Workshop, and hates his job. Mostly Maybe he enjoys the kids, sometimes, but don't tell anyone, okay. He also works at a Joann Fabrics and Crafts, because college tuition is expensive. He doesn't actively work on toys for the stuffed animal hospital, but he does a lot of supply runs, helps with decisions regarding materials, etc. He's more helpful than he'll admit.