Disclaimer: I do not own uglydolls. I also do not own the pictures, or the songs.

(This is a uglydolls 2019 fanfic)

(Its, Lou-centric)

(Warning there is arguing that might be a bit sensitive to viewers)

(I haven't uglydolls a lot, so forgive if some of the characters are ooc..)

(This takes place during the events of the movie..)

(qwertuno and In13579 And ZaneChan505 And SayaCielkill)

(Inspired by (mainly chapter one of) this TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles) fanfic, it's very good. I recommend giving it a read if your into the fandom:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11023173/1/Strings)

(Sorry for the late update, but I have things to do like online school and updating my other ugkydolls fics. so I'm not able to update as frequently as I used to, sorry. But I'll post again soon!)

(Hope you enjoy this little fic~😗)

"Life is a voyage some people try to avoid it
I seek to try and destroy it, I swear I feel like a toilet bowl
Shitting on everything I've ever said or I've done
You told me this should be fun
Thanks for the talk, are we done?"

***

Strings

/strɪŋ/

Noun

1. thread (a series of small objects) on a string.

2. hang (something) so that it stretches in a long line.

Strings. One word two syllables. A noun. Something that existed. A word that wasn't used often unless for puppet work or supernatural.

Strings could be used for a lot of things. Controlling dolls so they would appear more lifelike at shows, attaching themselves to the body and forcing limbs to do what the creator wanted.

But strings. Oh God, strings tethered things together. Without them, the world he knew wouldn't be as it is.

His sanity, his mind, his body, his whole being was made of strings.

Confused?

Well, let Lou explain.

"This is my masterpiece, a tragedy, I wrote it myself
It's full of irony and blasphemy, it's practically hell
But the perfect part about it is it's all that I've got
I'm over wasting time in life trying to be something I'm not"

All his life, he had the strings pulled for him. Nothing ever went this way, he was placed, forced to act like something he wasn't.

Friends left, friends were excited to go to the big world. No consideration of his feelings. But he held his tongue, congratulated them.

"I can't wait to go to the big world!" A doll shouts. "I bet it'll be good. I love. The fact we can go."

Lou heard that coversarion, he heard how he would never have the gift normal dolls have. He can't have something that others can.

And then the first snap. The first string of his sanity.

Snip. Snap.

He ignores the sudden depression threatening to drown him.

"'Cause fuck that shit
Yeah, I don't want be that kid
No, I'm not going to hang my head
And be another accident"

Lou and the uglydolls have a clash. A war. He has not been like this since the first snap. His strings are fragile, but his sanity is more than repairable.

"Rules are rules." He has just finished the song. His eyes are cold, strict. He is leader and has to set an example. "That's it."

"What rules?!" A pink doll. No, Moxy protests. She folds her arms as well.

Lou recognises it as a defence mechanism.

He has that as well.

A robot shows up with a book. He panics and shuts it. He says they can stay and then tells the pink doll that she is lucky that they even have a chance.

The strings tell Lou to just cast them out. All his life, dolls have left, but at least he had the facts to know only perfect dolls can go.

Moxy, Wage, Babo, Luckybat and Uglydog believe otherwise. But they mentiom a certain someone. A certain bunny.

Ox.

An ex-comrade. A friend. A brother who left him.

The strings feel Lou's pain and start to do the same thing they did all those years ago. He barely had any at the moment. They make that sound.

Snippy snap snap.

His strings have a bit of less control over his thoughts. But do not be fooled.

It is not a good thing.

"So long to the kid that I used to know
So long to the place that I used to go
I'm not an R.I.P.
I'm not another sick, sad tragedy
So long to the kid that I used to know
So long to the place that I used to go
I'm not an R.I.P.
I'm not another sick, sad tragedy"

The lesson the next day doesn't go as planned. Lou spends the day teaching the usual. How to be perfect, how to have a kid, how to have something he cannot.

Snapping. Snap. Sniping snap.

The strings of his mind that keep him together snap even more than ever. Dolls admire Lou, the blonde haired doll with ocean blue eyes speaks-

"So that 'Ugly and trash song?" Nolan (Lou thinks that his name.) interrupts. "Was to say you love me?"

Lou freezes for a second.

Snap? Snap?~

The string threatens to snap if he doesn't talk. He obeys immediately. The factory made him to be perfect after all.

"Of course I love you!" Lou blurts out, his fake smile there. "I love...all of you."

Oh how his pride is hurt by that. A sound makes him see smudges, stains, the uglydolls being...uglydolls.

SNAP. SNAP. Snap...

The strings fill their threat and his sanity detaches and hides from his grip. He is about to snap.

Hold on. Hold on.

The uglydolls are covered in a mess. Lou just wants to hose it off them. But his head turns to the washer.

It's Perfect.

Snap. Snap. Snapping so much.

Moxy turns around and smiles sheepishly. Lou wants to tear that smile off her face. He feels like she isn't alone. Loads of perfect dolls look angry.

"Sorry." She apologises, pink eyes sincere. "But don't kids usually like messes? Wait, was this part of the test?!"

Lou hadn't thought about that, but Moxy's vocabulary sparks an idea. Something forms. The strings are pulled and Lou finds himself talking without his consent.

He is a puppet waiting to be pulled.

"Yes." He answers smoothly, blank look going to a bright smile. "And you passed!"

Moxy and the others cheer as the washing machine open and they jump in all happy that they passed.

...Except, they haven't and never would.

It turns on and Lou smirks as they go around and around with the soap and water mixing with whatever they have instead of skin.

He turns around and explains that getting has consequences. He is not lying. He feels good.

Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap.

The strings remind him just the cost of winning this war will be.

"Do you ever feel like you're underwater?
Drowning inside like there's no tomorrow?
Life gets tough but you should know
That I don't plan on letting go"

The dolls are dolled up in those pretty clothes. Lou waits expectedly with an old friend. He and him had a little talk.

Snap. Snap.

A few strings take the opportunity to come loose and Lou's eye twitch as it did yesterday. His sanity is questionable now. But he had a little control.

Ox is back, but Lou's motive is far from pleasant. The uglydolls (and Mandy? That gives Lou a shock) have fallen faces as Ox explains his story.

"When I found out the truth about who we are and when we came from. I realised us uglydolls are nothing. Humans found us unlovable." Ox says this with despair. Lou feels a little sympathetic. "I blocked off the entrance so they can to lie cove. I'm sorry, Moxy."

Mandy gives them all a look and Moxy looks on the brink of crying. Lou takes her hand as he bend down.

"You don't belong here, Moxy. I'm sorry. You are ugkydolls."

The pink doll's eyes widen and she runs off. Lou smirks and does a little wave. His plan is done.

Snap. Snap. Snap. Snappy snap snap.

He doesn't know if his mind is even his anymore. The strings now seem like a different entity, they float in front of him as his hand reaches out to try and regain them.

But as expected, these things float away and he sinks farther into insanity. He is lonely once again.

It oddly doesn't bother him.

"'Cause fuck that shit
Yeah, I don't want be that kid
No, I'm not gonna hang my head
And be another accident (Oh-oh)"

The strings are angry, Lou can tell. He waits patiently for the spy girls. His reflection stares back. The strings.

Oh Gosh, the strings.

They hang above his limbs. You know, arms, head, legs. Hands, feet. Heck, they reach as far as the floor. He stands in the pipe.

The strings shriek, they wiggle, they claw at his mind. They yell commands the factory had long since put into him. Lou's body is not his own.

He is not able to cry, the tears are blocked as his mouth lifts and curls without his consent. The mental strings claw so much that Lou breaks both physical and emotional controls and lets pit a sob.

A sound. His own sound. Lou is not longer under rhe controls of the strings. But only for a seconds.

Metal seethes into his skin and burns. It feels like a branding, like fire piercing his soul and just not leaving.

The pain is over to quick that be questions if it even happened in the first place. But his reflection stares back with a demonic presence.

The strings have found where they think they belong. His mind, his body, his heart....

His very soul.

Lou does want to, but he cannot cry. He hears-

"Let is go!"

The next time he is aware of his own actions, he sees Mandy and Moxy being flown down the recycler.

SNAP. SNAP. SNAP.

The strings make him sure what his disobedience means for others he doesn't want to suffer.

They will make sure that they do.

"So long to the kid that I used to know
So long to the place that I used to go
I'm not an R.I.P.
I'm not another sick, sad tragedy
So long to the kid that I used to know
So long to the place that I used to go
I'm not an R.I.P.
I'm not another sick, sad tragedy"

The gauntlet. Oh God, the gauntlet. Lou dreads this as much as he dreads anything not being perfect.

He doesn't this. But he still smiles and watched his own body act accordingly to the factory's wishes. The strings let him have control as he had become more-

No.

He wants to say cooperative. But he can't. He has never wanted this. Never wants to be controlled. He wants to be normal. Not a leader.

He feels like a follower of something bigger.

"Mandy?!" 

Shock its course. She come with the others. Ox, Moxy, Wage, Babo, Uglydog, Luckybat. He loses count at the amount of uglies sitting down.

"We will run this gauntlet."

Lou didn't know who said that, but the gauntlet starts before he can. He gives a smirk instead. The strings have left for the moment.

He always did like a friendly piece of completion.

"'Til the roof comes down, and I can't get out
I'll be in this house, so, shut your mouth
'Til the roof comes down, and I can't get out
I'll be in this house, so, shut your mouth"

It's after the gauntlet. Everyone gasps as Lou is revealed. The picture has a red x. A sign that he isn't perfect.

Dolls whisper rumours. They question why. Only Lydia is brave enough to ask it to him directly.

"How?"

SNAP! SNAP! SNAP. SNAP. SNAP. SNAP. SNAP. SNAP. SMAP! SNAP! SNAP! SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!

The strings have no control over him physically. But the ones from his mind that keeps him sane go permanently.

Lou stares blankly at everyone's expression. Some have shock, some have fear like they don't know what it is, some have disgust.

His answer surprised them all.

"...I'm a prototype."

His sanity is no longer questionable now. But ox asks why. He responds with that he can't have something he longs for. That everyone is not like him.

He is the only doll of his kind. The strings try to regain control, they and the factory and everyone have made a monster, a demon.

An uncaged animal.

Lou sees the needle and the remote in his hand. An idea forms. He will not be alone anymore. He will have friends. Everyone will need his help if they want to do anywhere.

"Now." Lou's hair is messed up from is. "Let's see how you feel about being stuck here. JUST LIKE ME!"

To everyone's shock, he grabs the needle and the remote is pressed as the house starts to close in on them. Lou would not be alone again.

He is going to smash the thing that blocks happiness from. The thing that lets everyone but him have a dream.

He is going to smash the portal.

"So long to the kid that I used to know
So long to the place that I used to go
I'm not an R.I.P.
I'm not another sick, sad tragedy"

Lou finds himself there before he knows. The strings have not been detached, they still linger, waiting to seethe into him and Lou does not want that.

Deep down, he convinces himself that the portal is the cure. The strings will never bother him if he isn't alone. That's how the factory always made him.

Alone.

He reaches the portal and raises the needle. He doesn't realise a certain doll has run after him.

Snap. Snip. Snippity. Snip. Snip. Snip.

It feels like something is caressing his mind. A silk of threat attaching itself to Lou's mind, body, soul. His body freezes and he feels it isn't his.

Not again.

Lou takes a breath as dolls jeer are him, they don't want them to take away what they loved, what gave them their happiness.

But what about mine?-

-The sounds begins again.

Snip. Snap. Snip. Snap. Snip. Snap. Snip. Snap.

No, he cannot bear that. But before Lou can hear another sound, a voice he hasn't hear sounds. A simple one, a voice of an uglydoll.

The voice of Ox.

"So you did this for your own self-worth?!" The doll shouted as he held the needle with his ears (Lou slightly finds that funny). "YOU LIED TO THESE DOLLS! WE WERE BROTHERS!"

That makes something click. Lou suddenly freezes, but then he snarls. He pushes the needle against the bunny. Lou doesn't care anymore.

Snap. Snap.

The sounds combined with the shouting and jeering overwhelm his mind, they make Lou want them to just shut up and let him live on with his life.

Something connects with the inside of his body and Lou looks to see the strings and their metal hooks pierce him. He feels tears leak and he is now trapped.

There is a cling because Lou is not like the other dolls. He doesn't care if he is revealed. He rips his arms to reveal metal.

No dolls sees it except him.

The strings align with his mind and Lou finds himself speaking again. But this time the strings aren't pulled.

He's doing this of his own will.

Snap. Snap. Snip. Snap.

"You were going to leave me!" Lou yells back, his body pushing against the rabbit's. "JUST LIKE THE OTHERS!"

Ox murmurs something else, but it doesn't register. Lou pulls the needle up and bangs it against the portal. It smashes.

It is shattered.

His smile beams wide and his sanity is officially lost. Lou vaguely feels and heard the dolls defeating him, but he is lost in his own thoughts.

The bat grabs the needle and he is flung into the dog's mouth. Dolls jeer, dolls boo at his mere presence.

Lou admits that he pled for mercy off them.

As he is thrown in the washer, as the dolls sentence him to work as a cleaner, even as the dog guards him, he doesn't care one bit.

He had gotten to see the despair on their faces, what the uglydolls were capable of doing, what happens when you mess with a villain who had no chance to explain his actions.

Did he mention that the dolls never gave him a chance to explain the strings? Explain his past?

No? Well, they refused. Even the kind and sympathetic Moxy or Mandy never let him.

Not even his own brother, not even Ox let him plead for a second chance. And the ugkydolls claimed they were good.

What absolute hypocrites they were.

Snip. Snip. Snip.

Lou freezes and sees something he hasn't in months. Wires invisible to anyone but him appear to his sight. It seems like the factory had took notice.

Lou closed his eyes as the dog growled nearby. It senses the strings, but doesn't do anything. They plunge into his skin and he doesn't fight it.

They seethe and bury themselves. The objects connect slowly to his body. None of the mental strings come back, but the physical ones would always be here.

They soothe Lou and promise him power again. Like a supernatural force promising a willing victim to sell his soul to the devil.

Lou swears that they are sentient. The strings forced him to do things without his consent. But they have something he doesn't.

They have connection. They know things. They tell him this in their own language.

SNIP.

It translates to this. One word, one syllable that Lou once had. Everything that he had gained.

POWER.

The strings fully tie within his mind, heart, chest, body, but not the soul. Never the soul. It always remains untouched.

Snip? Snip?

Sometimes they sound like scissors, but the question it asks makes Lou answer with one word. One other syllable. One other main bad one.

"...Yes."

The strings become apart of him. The things that ruled his life once would always remain. He could never be rid of them.

Snap. Snap. Snip. Snap.

No matter how many times Lou attempts to have a normal life, to rid the things the factory cursed him with to force him to obey, they would never leave the thing they had grown to love and cared for on their own twisted way.

The STRINGS always remained ATTACHED.

(Hey ya'll, hope you enjoyed this~😁)

(Should I make a part two of this? Tell me what ya'll think. I would love to know!)

(Vote, and comment if you like this~😚)

(Hoped you enjoyed this little fic~😘)