The Plushie Factory: Part One by battlesunn |  |
Alice's Escape
PLUSHIES. FOR YEARS they have enchanted and charmed generations of pets. From
Chias to Tonus, almost every pet has played with a plushie at least once. But
have you ever actually stared at a plushie, and wondered "What's the story behind
those cute little button eyes, soft stuffing and colourful fabric?" Well, that's
exactly what this story's about! This is the story of a Mynci, Neo4793475aa,
(who liked to call herself Alice) who decided enough was enough, and left the
plushie making world forever...
BEEEEEEP! The sharp tuned work buzzer
went off, rousing Neo4793475aa, the red Mynci, out of her slumber. She sat up
in bed, rubbing her eyes fervently. All around, more and more unwanted pets
were yawning, and slowly getting up, still lingering in their more pleasant
dreams. Neo4793475aa, who referred to herself as Alice, had lived here for almost
all of her life. She had never really had a real home, or an owner for that
matter. With bleary eyes she surveyed the room around her, grimy, dusty and
cramped, it had served as Alice's home for, well forever. Old, abandoned cobwebs
were splayed sloppily in the corners, the sun leaving small, warm shafts on
the floor, cast through the small smeared window. Alice stood up, and walked
resolutely towards the window, placing her small, worn paws on the cracked sill,
Alice observed happy pets and their owners, playing in the grass and pointing
up at the large, gray building where Alice and thousands of other pets resided.
The plushie factory.
Alice groped around for her work bag and trudged
into a single file line of a hundred other pets, all carrying identical handbags,
each full of the materials for plushie making. Three rolls of black thread,
five long, thin needles, a case containing one hundred black button eyes and
a pair of sharp scissors. The plushie factory, or Neo plush, to be exact, was
Neopia's biggest plushie tycoon. Each plushie was made with tender loving care,
according to the labels stitched onto each plushie's wing/tail/flipper. In reality,
each plushie was made with reluctant paws, and even more reluctant pets.
Alice and the other pets walked into the huge
workroom, and each slid into their own desk. Alice stared sadly at the note
left on her desk. It contained the information for her work that day. The note
read:
You are to make four (4) Wocky plushies.
One red, one blue, one green and one yellow.
When you finish, you may return to your dormitory.
Alice almost groaned aloud, she hated making
Wocky plushies! They were the hardest kind, with their silly neck ruffs and
fluffy tails... she glanced enviously at heeedd235blue's, (or Rupert's) instructions,
he had to make four easy Gelert plushies. Alice looked back at the pile of coloured
fabric sitting on her desk, a roll of red, a roll of blue, a roll of green,
a roll of red and roll of pink, for those cursed neck ruffs! Alice sighed, better
to get them done sooner than later. Alice picked up her scissors, and a roll
of blue fabric. Silently she began to cut out the Wocky body pattern, stitching
the two sides together and sewing on the eyes. Stuffing was her favourite part,
the easiest part. After stuffing, she grudgingly began on the neck ruff. She
took a quick peek at the other worker pets, Rupert had already finished two
Gelert plushies, and poor 005general5444 was struggling with a complex NeoQuest
plushie. Alice stared back down at her unfinished Wocky plushie. 'Ah well,"
she sighed, glancing back at 005general5444. "It could've been worse!"
Just then, the forepet, a grumpy electric Bruce,
came bustling by to Alice's workbench, to check on her progress. He stared angrily
down at Alice's half done Wocky plushie.
"Neo4793475aa, you have not even finished one
plushie! I need these done and shipped back to the toy shop by six O clock,
NST. Pick up the pace!"
"Yes sir."
"Good!"
The forepet scuttled off, on his way to go bully
poor 005general5444 about his sloppy NeoQuest plushie. Alice growled angrily,
she hated the Forepet! She hated how he always called Alice by her real name.
It made her feel like a number, not a pet. She stabbed her needle and thread
ferociously into the plushie's unfinished ruff. Eventually, she finished her
assignment. She stared, in a satisfied kind of way, at her completed Wockys.
The stitches were uneven, the ruff was slipping down, and the eyes were un centered.
Alice didn't care. She tossed her plushies into the large box, filled almost
to the brim with thousands upon thousands of mottled plushies, the different
fabric hues swirling together to create one giant mass of intense colour. Alice
loved the sight of a finished plushie, it meant that she was one step closer
to being finished, and being able to retreat to her room and entertain herself
for the remainder of the day.
Without bothering to be dismissed, Alice scuttled
swiftly up to her dorm, and quickly grabbed the window seat. Alice loved the
window seat, she could stare out of it and pretend that she wasn't here, she
could pretend that she lived with anyone of the owners in the park across from
the factory. She smiled as she watched a young Lupe pup tumble around with his
toy plushie... her eyes widened. She could just make out the plushie's features.
It was one of the ones that she had made! She knew, her plushies always had
bad stitching, and as a kind of signature, Alice always dribbled a bit of ink
on the plushie's leg, in the shape of an 'A'. Watching that Lupe roll around
with and hug the plushie, made Alice feel happy inside. Something that had been
created at her hands was bringing joy and laughter to a fellow Neopet. When
she thought about how her plushies were traveling all over the place with young
Neopets, it made her feel as though a part of her was free and seeing the world
as well.
"Still staring out that old window, huh Alice?"
Alice snapped out of her peaceful reverie in
an instant. She whirled around to see her best friend, 69365heeee77, (Brad)
standing behind her. Brad was a blue Scorchio, he had spent two months in the
pound, and had then been forced to come and work here. The same thing had happened
to Alice, and all of the other unwanted pets that lived here. Brad smiled warmly,
he was like a brother to Alice.
"Someday Alice, we'll all escape. Did you hear
about the latest game? It's called plushie tycoon, which means that thousands
more plushie factories are popping up, with paid workers! Some even use machines!
You hear that Alice? We might get to leave!"
Alice lowered her head sadly. "Aw come on Brad.
If anything, they're gonna need more workers with this development, not less!"
She pounded the window sill in frustration. "We'll never get to leave! Never,
never never!"
Brad put a comforting paw around Alice's shoulders.
'It's OK. One day, one of us will escape, and then we all will."
Alice looked up at Brad with large, questioning
eyes. "But when?"
Brad stared at Alice. "Maybe tonight."
Alice jumped back in shock. "Brad, no! You can't
leave! You've been like a brother to me! Please don't leave!"
Brad began laughing joyfully. "Oh Alice! No!
I don't mean me! I mean you."
Alice's jaw dropped. "What do you mean?"
"You've been here for so long, Alice. You're
always staring out that window. You deserve a home. I've been scrimping for
a while, and I managed to get you an Eyrie morphing potion. You can fly off
tonight, and then head on up to Faerieland, and get yourself a job."
Alice was in shock. 'An... an Eyrie morphing
potion? But, I don't want to be an Eyrie!"
"Alice, it's the only way. Go on, get yourself
a life, and don't come back."
He handed Alice the potion. "Drink it now! Drink
it now, and fly away for good!"
Alice accepted the potion, holding it in her
hand like it was a cherished relic, Alice uncorked the bottle, and gulped it
down. Almost at once, a strange sensation came over her. She fell to the floor,
clutching her head as two great feathery wings sprouted from her back. Her pugish
nose elongated into a diamond hard beak, her curly tail short out and grew a
little tuft of fur at the end. And lastly, her saucer shaped Mynci ears grew
pointy and furry, and pricked straight up. She took a step back, unused to such
large paws. She turned back to Brad.
"Thank you, I'll come back, I promise!"
Brad stood back and watched as the huge purple
Eyrie flapped her massive wing and sped off into the night.
To be continued... |
