A/N: Before we start, I want to try a new thing in this chapter, just as an experiment. Idk if I'll do it in future chapters or not.
The song I listened to while I was writing this: (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman by The Kinks (it's in the media ↑↑↑)
--
Lucky Bat perched himself unsteadily on a makeshift swing he'd hung from the ceiling. It wasn't very secure. He couldn't ask Babo to help with the installation. Not this time. Not for this.
The bamboo shades were shut, what little light that was able to slant through illuminated shelves of various brick-a-brack, his groceries and personal belongings intermingling with natural substances that were useful to him as a healer. The feeble light glinted off of a boudoir-style set of three mirrors large enough they nearly scraped the ceiling.
Directly in front of Lucky stood a massive machine hobbled together with all manner of materials: gears, wheels, rubber bands. Anything he could get his wings on. The most prominent feature was a series of paper fans attached to robot arms, which churned the air furiously, enough to make the yellow cape which he wore snap in the breeze.
He took a deep breath. Okay. Here goes... Screwing his eyes shut, he crouched as low as he could on the swing without losing his purchase and launched himself into the air. Gritting his teeth, he pumped his wing muscles like he'd never pumped before, until they fairly screamed for mercy. But he didn't slow up, continuing to go as hard as his body would let him.
It worked. His body was hovering in place, not exactly an impressive height but he was flying. He was flying!
...For about three seconds. Then gravity kicked in and he smacked headfirst into the floor. Whimpering faintly, he flopped onto his back. And to make matters worse, I bit my tongue, too. He was a bit dazed, but at least he hadn't fallen as hard as Wedgehead.
He didn't understand it, flying seemed to come so easily to the other winged Uglies. Though that didn't sting so much as the fact that it also seemed to come easily to Ox, who had no wings whatsoever!
No matter what he did, Lucky just couldn't keep himself off the ground for more than three seconds. He'd poured over books about lift and thrust. Done enough complex calculations to make him seasick. He'd donned his cape in an attempt to give his small frame some more drag (Well, okay, plus the added bonus of looking cool). And now the wind machine was another failure.
It had been that way since the day he'd come hurdling out of the giant pipe. He had tried to fly then too. It ended pretty much the same way as his most recent experiment. Publicly, at least, he had resigned himself to keeping both feet firmly planted on the ground. Which wasn't so bad, really. It was peaceful. And it gave him a sort of serene, contemplative quality. He was, after all, quite literally "down to earth."
Still... From time to time he just couldn't shake the feeling that.. That some sort of.. Mistake had been made with his wings. That they were supposed to be bigger, like Ice Bat's.
But that was a ridiculous notion. There was no supposed to be in Uglyville. There was only is.
Without really meaning to, he allowed himself to slip into a daydream. His wings were the standard size for a bat, maybe even a little bigger. He was flying over the top of Uglyville. And oh, all the houses looked so different from the top! He still wore his cape, which billowed dramatically behind him every time he dipped or rose. He burst through a puff of steam trailing from his teahouse, and loop-de-looped through the sails of the mill atop Wage's bakery just like Peggy did every morning.
And then Moxy was there.. Falling, plummeting toward the earth. Why was Moxy out in the middle of nowhere, falling toward the earth, and why wasn't anyone on the ground making a move to save her? Well, it was a daydream so that didn't really matter. What mattered was that Lucky Bat just happened to be flying by at just the right moment and caught her up in his wings.
Lucky was in the midst of trying to figure out how he was going to use his wings for flying and for holding onto the one-dimensional Moxy at the same time when the door to his teahouse creaked open.
"Moxy," he murmured, still in a daze.
"Nope, it's Wage," the orange doll replied, striding into Lucky's house. Babo trailed behind, casually taking handfuls of bite-sized cookies from his pocket and tossing them into his mouth.
Lucky started as reality snapped back into focus.
He hastily brushed himself off, scrambling to stand. "Wage!" He exclaimed nervously, fitting his face with an expression of a doll who wasn't just caught lying in the middle of the floor in a yellow cape. "And Babo too! What brings you to my humble abode?"
Wage stopped in front of the wind machine, drinking in the odd craftmanship with her eyes. Babo reached over her shoulder to poke one of the paper fans dangling awkwardly from the side of the machine. At his touch, the robot arm holding the fan detached, falling with a crash to the floor, not unlike the way Lucky had moments before.
"Woah!" Wage cried, leaping out of the way.
She jerked her thumb toward the slap-dash contraption. "What's this?"
Lucky's stomach dropped. For some reason, he could never bring himself to reveal to his friends that yes, he actually wanted to fly, he just couldn't. "Um-" He stammered, thinking fast. "The Daily Ugly says its supposed to get hot today?"
Buy it, Lucky willed his friends mentally. Buyitbuyitbuyitbuyit--
Wage gave him an odd look. "Right..." she said doubtfully. But thankfully she didn't question it further.
"I came because Moxy said you have some almond butter." She speared Babo with a look. "For some reason, mine seems to have gone missing."
Babo shrugged, a hint of a smile on his face. "It's inexplicable."
Lucky nodded. "I've got some around here..." He spotted a small jar on a cubby recessed into the wall. "Is this enough?" He asked Wage.
She nodded. "It will be if I can actually hang onto it long enough to use it," she said wryly, giving Babo the side eye.
Babo changed the subject. "Is that cape a part of your costume?" He asked Lucky. Wage huffed.
"Err..." Lucky replied. Let's go with that... "Yeah. My costume." He hoped it didn't show on his face that he wasn't sure what Babo was talking about.
Wage raised a brow. "You don't have the slightest idea what Babo's on about, do you?"
Dang.
Wage slowly shook her head. "The Masquerade! It's tonight, remember? Doll, for being the mayor's assistant, you'd think you'd know these things!"
Lucky facepalmed. Of course! The Moonlight Minigolf Masquerade! Ox had been hyping it up all across Uglyville for weeks! He'd completely forgotten about it!
Well, in his defense, just about every day in Uglyville there was a different party or contest happening. Sometimes more than one. And Ox made it his personal mission to hype up all of them.
"I can't believe I forgot! I don't think I ever made a costume!" How could I have forgotten? He thought back over the past week. Parties. New dolls. Planting trees. Stacks of paperwork nobody liked to think about when they were planning something fun. Yeah, no wonder I didn't remember...
Wage swept her gaze over Lucky, top to bottom, to top again. "So you forgot the Masquerade... Why are you wearing a cape for no reason...?"
Babo looked at Wage blankly. "Why are you wearing an apron and nothing else?"
Wage shrugged. "Touché."
"I went as a superhero last time," Babo said. "It's a real easy costume, especially since you already have it."
"Yeah, maybe you're right," Lucky mused, "I was about to head over to Moxy's house--"
"Uh-uh," Wage shook her head.
"--Maybe I'll ask what she thinks about it." Anything that gives me an excuse to see Moxy-- er, I mean, to fulfill my promise to Ox, and--
Wage's words hit him. He turned to the orange doll. "What did you say?"
"I said, 'uh-uh.' " She repeated. "As in, nope. Don't think so. You can't. She's not home. That's why I couldn't just borrow from Moxy in the first place. She's on the committee to help with setup; she's gonna be at Ice Bat's until sundown."
Lucky smiled. He could picture it easily. Longing for the Big World had never stopped Moxy from throwing her whole self into whatever was going on in Uglyville. "How nice.." he sighed, still surfing the last pleasant dregs of his earlier daydream.
All at once he blinked, coming back to himself. "Wait, no it's not! I promised Ox I'd try to talk to her today about that Big World thing!"
Wage hummed. "So, you're the latest recruit to try to get Moxy to see reason. Might as well, everyone else in the city has tried, seems like. You're the only one left." Wage unscrewed a plastic takeout container, scooping some of the sweet spread into it. "If you blow it, we'll really be out of options, I dunno what we'll do." she remarked casually.
"Ah..." Lucky began to sweat. What is this.. Sudden cloud of doom I'm feeling?
"Nah, Uglydog hasn't said anything yet!" Babo chipped in. He patted Lucky Bat on the head. "Don't worry, if you blow it there's still somebody else to fix things!"
Lucky whipped around to face him in disbelief. "That doesn't make me feel any better!"
Wage turned to leave. "Well, I just stopped by for this. I'd better get back to the bakery, I've got a double batch of muffins in the oven. Good luck," She turned to meet Lucky Bat's eyes seriously. "You're gonna need it," she deadpanned before slipping out the door, Babo in tow.
"Y'know, that almond butter looks awful heavy, I can help you carry--"
"Fat chance, blobby."
"Hey, I'm just trying to be helpful!"
"Sure. I believe that like I believe..."
Their voices faded away as they reached the main road.
The doomed feeling resurfaced again. Lucky hugged his wings closer to himself. He shed his cape, draping it over what was left of the wind machine. He'd have to go back to the drawing board later. Right now he had other matters to attend to.
He crossed to the small window port overlooking the streets of Uglyville, snapping the shades open. Dolls filled the main road. Some of them were toting power tools or large, mechanical-looking contraptions that would've looked right at home next to Lucky's wind machine. Out of the masses he picked out the forms of Sporko and Uglydog rolling a giant tire down the street. Or rather, Sporko was rolling a giant tire down the street and Uglydog was running backwards on top if it as it rolled. Likely because of the night's activities. Or it could have been run-of-the-mill Uglyville weirdness. Whatever the reason, there was an unusually high amount of dolls traversing the streets, even for Uglyville. Simply put, the roads were packed. And traffic was moving along at a crawl.
Ice Bat lived on the other side of Uglyville. If he was planning to get there any time soon, he'd best get started now.
At least it's a nice day for a leisurely stroll. Smiling to himself, the red bat set off for Ice Bat's cave, steering his course to get there by way of one of his favorite spots.
--
Strawberry ice cream burbled over into the basin of the milkshake fountain. A crowd of uglies hung close to it, waiting eagerly. Five Eyed Steve stood to one side, hocking single-use paper cups for a button. A quick glance to the clock at the top of Ugly Bank told Lucky it was 8:57. He'd happened by just in time to see it change flavors on the hour.
He paused near the lip of the fountain.
8:58.
"I hope it's chocolate this time," a doll behind him murmured.
"I just hope it's not butter brickle again," somebody else replied, "last time the all those chunks splashed ice cream all over me."
8:59. The crowd held its breath.
When the Ugly Bank clock gonged, the flow of pink milkshake gradually dribbled to a halt. Dolls leaned forward, trying to be the first to notice whatever color the new flavor was going to be. For a moment the fountain remained quiet, giving the remaining milkshake time to drain from the basin. Lucky could feel the waves of brainfreeze-inducing cold radiating off the fountain as the new batch began to flow, pale green and thick.
"I think it's mint chip!" A doll cheered.
A different doll dipped a fuzzy appendage into the fountain experimentally, bringing it to her lips. "No..." She said dejectedly, "It's matcha." She threw down her paper cup and walked away, a couple of others following her example.
Lucky shrugged, picking up a few discarded cups and filling them to the brim milkshake.
"Mornin' Lucky!" A familiar voice twanged behind him.
He turned to see Ox weaving through the packed streets. He was flanked by Tray and Uppy, each with one of the massive ice cream catapults in tow.
"Oh, good morning, mayor Ox," Lucky answered demurely. He offered Ox one of the paper cups. "What's the plan for today?"
Ox wrapped one of his ears around the milkshake, both of his hands preoccupied with spreading open a complex blueprint, which he showed to Lucky Bat. "It's gonna be a busy day, there's so much to do!"
He says that every day, Lucky thought to himself with a small smile.
The mayor continued, "Right now I've got an entire afternoon booked up with preparations for the masquerade tonight! We were planning on using these," he gestured to the catapults, "for the last hole. It's gonna turn out great, trust me." When he was through talking, he sniffed the cup, not an easy feat without a nose. "What flavor is this anyway? Pistachio?"
"Matcha," Lucky answered, "It's powdered green tea." Ox took a sip of milkshake and grimaced. "... It's sort of an acquired taste..." Lucky added.
Ox handed the cup back to Lucky Bat. "An acquired taste which I have no plans of acquiring." He wiped his mouth. "So how did your talk go with Moxy?"
"Oh, um..." Lucky's ear flaps lowered sheepishly. He scratched the back of his head. "Actually, I haven't had a chance to talk to her yet.
"Oh." Ox's ears drooped.
Seeing the disappointment on his friend's face, Lucky hastily added, "--But I was just on my way to see her when I bumped into you!"
Ox instantly brightened. "Oh, is that right? Well, don't let me keep you! Here, why don't you take the catapult to Moxy's? Quicker that way, you won't have to wait for traffic." He motioned for Tray to wheel it over.
Lucky smiled awkwardly. "Well, thanks, but actually, Moxy is at- oh!" He cried in surprise as Tray lifted him into the air.
Tray hefted him a few times like he was a sack of flour, testing his weight. "Let's see," she hummed, "to get to Moxy's house from here, for someone your size, the angle should be..." She continued to mumble to herself as she adjusted the amount of slack holding the launching mechanism back. Lucky found himself carelessly tossed into the spoon-like dip that was usually filled with ice cream.
"As a matter of fact, I'm giving you the day off, so don't feel like you have to rush back to work," Ox was saying. "Take your time."
"I- I- This is all very thoughtful, but you see, Moxy isn't--"
"Don't be too hard on Moxy, ok? We don't want to break her heart, just nudge her in the right direction," Ox went on. "Forcefully though. Keep in mind, what you say could be the difference between Moxy's future happiness or misery!"
Lucky shifted. "But Ox, what I'm trying to tell you is-- AAAAAHHHHH!!!"
"I believe in you, Lucky! If anyone can convince her, you can!" Ox waved as Lucky Bat sailed away.
--
It was funny, none of his fantasies about flying over Uglyville ever ended with him skidding to a stop on his face.
His impromptu flight had added an extra fifteen minutes onto his time, what with Tray's aim being exceptionally good and landing him on the front stoop of Moxy's house. Eventually though, he had managed to limp his way across town. He was at the moment just ascending the steps to Ice Bat's front porch.
He hesitated before knocking on the door.
What will I say if Ice Bat answers?
What will I say if Moxy answers? His scalp prickled with an onset of irrational panic. He was beginning to reconsider his offer to talk to Moxy.
He shook his head. You're being unreasonable, he said to himself, if Ice Bat answers, all you have to do is ask for Moxy. And if Moxy answers, all the better! Just ask her if she can spare a few minutes in private, you don't even have to go into the house.
Nodding to himself, he took a few deep breaths to quell his nerves, wiped the sweat from his wings, and knocked.
As it turned out, it was neither Ice Bat nor Moxy who answered, but Wedgehead instead.
Lucky froze, not having anticipated this outcome at at. "Uh.." He stammered.
Wedgehead placed her hands on her hips. "It's about time you showed up, I called hours ago!" She thrust an armload of precut boards onto Lucky Bat. He staggered under the weight. "C'mon, I'll show you where the work is!"
His breath came out in visible puffs as he stumbled after her into the cave. The walls sheened with real ice crystals. He somewhat wished he had worn his cape there. Or like a scarf, or something.
As they got farther from the entrance, the ice crystals were replaced by whole stalactites and stalagmites lining the ceiling and floor. Here and there, an openings to various side caves yawned open, providing Lucky Bat brief glimpses of some of Ice Bat's other furniture: her flat screen tv, a floor to ceiling wall of vending machines, a life-sized replica of mothman, and of course the ice chest she slept in.
He followed her into a high ceilinged atrium. Moxy and Ice Bat were sat down in the middle of the floor, surrounded by more boards identical to the one's that were killing Lucky's back. A large wooden structure stood in the center of the room, though it was tough for Lucky to tell what it was.
Ice Bat held up a blue sheet of paper. Likely the instructions, Lucky assumed. She squinted at it, flipped it upside down, squinted harder and then flipped it back the way she'd had it originally. "Fit tab AA into slot 2B. What do you suppose that means?"
Wedgehead peered where the blue doll was gesturing, then glanced over Ice Bat's shoulder at the paper. "You left out a widget. We've got to take it apart and start all over."
Ice Bat groaned. "This is the third time!"
Moxy turned to Wedgehead, surprised. "Wait, there were instructions?? I've just been gluing stuff together.." She stepped aside, revealing a surprisingly well-built, albeit asymmetrical, wind turbine.
Wedgehead jerked her thumb to where Lucky trailed behind her, still half-buried in wood. "That Bjorn guy from the help desk finally showed up, so maybe we can actually get something done."
Lucky wobbled forward, knees buckling from the strain of carrying so much. The pile of wood in his wings was taller than he was, so nobody could really see his face.
Ice Bat crossed her wings. "That's funny, I remember Bjorn being taller..."
Lucky absolutely couldn't hold onto the load for another second or he was going to tear. He fell forward, sending planks skittering across the icy floor.
Moxy laughed a little. "Oh, Wedgehead, that's not Bjorn, that's Lucky Bat!" She offered Lucky a hand up. "Hi Lucky, didja come to help out?"
"Er... something like that," Lucky murmured, rubbing his head.
Wedgehead put her hands on her hips. "Then that means Bjorn still isn't here!" She growled in frustration.
"He's always late," Moxy giggled. "You'll get used to it."
"Meh..." Ice Bat shrugged. "I'm starting to think making a Scandinavian furniture themed hole was a mistake in the first place." She rolled her stiff shoulders. "We've wasted enough time on this one. Let's just paint what Moxy's got and call it good."
Everybody grabbed a bucket of paint and something to apply it with. Lucky selected a small ergonomic paintbrush that contoured to the shape of his wing.
Moxy chose to paint with an airbrush. She went at it with her usual enthusiasm, splattering glittery pink paint everywhere. Lucky had to jump to the side to avoid being hit by it.
Ice Bat flew to the very top of the turbine, holding a paint roller with her feet. She left a strip of glossy white paint behind her, running from the bottom of the structure to the top. "So how're your guys' costumes coming along?" She called down as she hovered near the ceiling, "What're y'all coming as this year?"
"It's a surprise," Moxy smiled cryptically. "How 'bout you, Lucky?"
Lucky thought about that for a moment, his paintbrush dripping red onto the icy floor. He recalled what Babo said, about his cape being a quick and easy costume. "I've got something in mind, but I haven't decided yet..."
"I'm with you," Wedgehead nodded. "I still have no idea what I'm coming as."
Moxy asked, "Don't you have any ideas at least?"
Wedgehead nodded, slopping a wide stripe of yellow paint across the structure. "That's the problem! There are too many good ideas, I don't know what to choose!"
"You guys had better decide fast, or you won't have time to make anything," Ice Bat advised.
"I know, I know," Wedgehead replied. "What're you going as, Ice?" She asked.
"Well..." Ice Bat began. She ducked behind a stalactite and disappeared.
The dolls remaining blinked, looking blankly at one another.
"...I was thinking of wearing my Frostbite costume," she said, reappearing in a white cloak cinched around the waist with a belt.
"Ohhh!" Moxy, Wedgehead, and Lucky said at the same time.
A while back, Ice Bat had made herself a superhero costume and gone around Uglyville fighting evil, proclaiming herself, "Frostbite". Well, actually, she'd ended up not so much fighting evil, more like doing random good deeds. Things like helping dolls across the street and putting buttons in parking meters, and so on. There really wasn't much "evil" to fight in Uglyville, and for that reason both the outfit and the alter ego had been hung up just a few days after they'd been created.
"Should've seen that coming," Moxy grinned. The others nodded in agreement.
Ah, that's right, Lucky mused, if I come in my cape, Ice Bat might think I'm copying her. He didn't want to anger one of his friends. But what other costume could he scrounge up on such short notice?
"So this is my first time doing this-- I mean, obviously," Wedgehead laughed a little. "For a costume, do you think it would be better to go with something practical? Or flashy?"
"Either would work, but I would go with flashy," Ice Bat answered. "Dolls usually go all out with their costumes."
"You're gonna have such a great time tonight, Wedgehead," Moxy gushed. "Well, if you stick around long enough to go," She amended. "Today's the day I get chosen to meet my child, you know!"
"Moxy--" Lucky began.
"--But since you've only been here a day, you'll probably have to wait awhile before that happens to you," she concluded. "But you'll have a blast anyway! The Masquerade is a lot of fun! The best part though? Is always the finale, wait 'till you see it!"
Ice Bat nodded, "Yeah, the finale this year is gonna be sweet!"
Wedgehead tipped her wedged head. "What happens at the finale?"
Moxy, Ice Bat, and Lucky Bat shrugged. "No one knows," Moxy said cheerfully.
Wedgehead turned, looking at the three of them with a deadpan stare.
"The finale is always a surprise," Ice Bat explained. "Ox is in charge of it himself, he always keeps it under reeally tight wraps. I doubt anybody but him could tell you. Well," she amended, "there might be one other doll who could..."
"OHMYGOSH Lucky!!!" Moxy grabbed Lucky Bat's shoulders, shaking him slightly.
"Yes?!" He squeaked.
"I just realized!!" She squealed.
"I wonder what made you realize," Ice Bat said flatly.
Moxy squeezed Lucky's shoulders a little tighter. "YOU helped plan this whole thing, didn't you??"
"Oh!" He straightened up some. "I suppose I did, now that I think of it, yes."
She leaned forward eagerly, their faces nearly touching. "What's the finale gonna look like this year? Fireworks again?" Lucky opened his mouth to respond, but Moxy interrupted, on a roll already. "Or something BIGGER??? Lasers? Confetti cannons??"
"Well..."
"OR, LIKE, A KAREOKE SINGALONG OR GLITTER BOMBS OR--"
"Moxy, let him answer already," Ice Bat interrupted.
Moxy removed one of her hands from Lucky's shoulders to rub the back of her head. "Right. Sorry."
"Oh.. You know Ox," he replied, a little flustered at their sudden close proximity, "He's pulling out all the stops. There's a big fireworks show planned for the end of the night, and an afterparty at Ugly Café. I helped design the fliers." He wasn't sure why he'd felt the need to share that last detail. Though, he had a working hypothesis that it had something to do with Moxy's face being a few inches away from his. It was making the connection between his head and his mouth go a little staticky.
"Wow!" Moxy exclaimed, "That sounds Ah-MAY-zing! I hope I have time to see it before I go to the Big World!"
"Er, Moxy, about that..." Lucky began. The way his morning had gone, he half expected to be cut off again. In fact, he was kind of counting on it, it would buy him a little time to think of what to say. Not this time. The one time he wouldn't have minded an interruption, Moxy only looked at him with her wide, expectant eyes.
"What is it, Lucky?"
Lucky Bat cringed. There was so much hope in that look. So much childlike innocence. He found himself having a hard time saying anything that might hinder that.
No, scratch that. At that precise moment, Lucky found himself having a hard time saying anything at all. When he tried, it felt like his heart was beating in his throat. It didn't help matters that she was still right up in his face. He bit his lip, looking at his feet.
Ice Bat and Wedgehead stopped what they were doing to look at the pair as well.
"Something wrong, Lucky?" Ice Bat asked. "You don't look so hot."
Wedgehead smirked. "Well, we are in an ice cave, after all."
Ice Bat looked at her blandly. "Was this really the best spot for a literal joke?"
Moxy tilted her head. "Lucky? You still in there?" She asked gently.
There was a time and a place to crush somebody's dreams, and this wasn't it.
Lucky sighed, cursing his own cowardice. "Will you help me reach that spot up there?" He raised a paintbrush.
--
Lucky yawned. It was late, the moon and stars hung in the sky over the park like jewels. He was usually fast asleep by this time. In his opinion, the Moonlight Minigolf Masquerade would've worked just as well at noon. Whatever activity mayor Ox was cooking up for tomorrow, Lucky hoped it involved naps.
The others who had helped with setting up had gone home to change into their costumes. In the end, he'd decided to come in his cape after all. Babo was right, it was a quick and easy disguise, not to mention something he already had. He'd added a yellow domino mask to the ensamble and come as Frostbite's sidekick.
Ice Bat wasn't mad like he'd thought, thank goodness. She was thrilled. Every once in a while she would approach him to bounce a few superhero names off of him.
"Lucky Star? Nah, doesn't quite fit you, does it?"
"Fortune 500. Fortune 500 sounds cool. You know what? It sounds a little too cool. The sidekick is not allowed to have a cooler name than the hero."
He hadn't caught sight of Moxy yet. He'd been hoping to pull her aside before the tournament kicked off.
I've got to stop procrastinating and talk to her. The night's almost over.
Only one problem with that, though. Even if Moxy was there, by this point the square had gotten so crowded that it was unlikely Lucky would even notice. It had taken a while, but slowly, the venue had filled up as one by one, the whole town arrived in their costumes.
A doll hidden under a mop of curls who just so happened to be wearing a victorian-style hoop skirt and a tiara passed in front of Lucky Bat.
It's got to be Moxy, Lucky thought. He reached out, placing a wing on the doll's shoulder, guiding them slightly off the path with him. "Excuse me," he began meekly.
They came to a halt, or rather, somewhat lurched to a halt, in front of Lucky. The bottom half seemed to stop much sooner than the top. For a tense moment, Lucky was afraid they would actually topple over. If they had, Lucky would've felt very guilty for having pulled on them in the first place.
Slowly, still moving with that odd sort of lurching motion, the stranger turned to be face-to-face with Lucky.
"Xafgjhkjdhshghjhlkjlpoiuyt!" He greeted cheerfully.
Lucky Bat's mouth dropped open. "Gibberish Cat?! But.. How?" Lucky was the first to admit he wasn't the tallest of uglies, but even he had never had to crane his neck to look at an uglycat before.
A muffled voice came from somewhere near the skirt region. "Down here!"
The sparkly pink dress drew open like a pair of curtains, revealing not just one, but a wobbly stack of four uglycats, with Gibberish Cat at the top in a curly wig and a tiara.
Lucky shuffled back a few paces. "Sorry to have bothered you," he apologized, "I thought you were somebody else."
"Gjkigfhdjj0eriuyte237lsnqwdf," Gibberish Cat reassured him, somehow getting the bodice of his dress closed again. The tower teetered away, allowing Lucky to notice that the cat on the bottom was wearing high heeled shoes on all four feet.
He turned his attention back to the swarms of dolls milling around the park area. Maybe she's already shown up. She might be golfing already. He took a quick survey of the area.
--
Dollver was stuck in the sand trap. His can of soup disguise glinted in the light of the moon as he swung his neon orange putter wildly, trying to get it to connect to its color-coordinated ball.
Not far behind him stood cook, dressed as that famous chef, Gingham Ramsay. The sand from each of Dolliver's swings always managed to spray him right in the face.
--
Five-Eyed Steve lay facedown on the putting green, using his golf club more like a pool cue.
--
Wedgehead had clearly gone with the minimalist approach with her costume, clad in nothing but a tiny rhinestone-studded party hat. She wiggled her hips, lining up her swing as she prepared to putt into the next obstical: a giant, pink-frosted donut standing up on one end. Putting a little more force into her swing, she sent it up a curved ramp and into the inner track. The ball swirled round and round the inner ring of the donut hole like a penny in a funnel, before finally dropping into a small cup suspended from the center.
A voice blared from a set of speakers, "HOLE IN ONE!"
Wedghead pumped her fist in the air victoriously. The noise of the crowd was too loud for Lucky to hear what she was saying.
--
Lucky's eyes stopped on another likely prospect: a pale blue zombie costume. The seams were deliberately left a little slack, allowing polyfill dyed in neon colors to hang out. One button eye was hanging on by nothing more than a single thread.
Of course. Moxy always jumped into everything with both feet, if she was in costume, she'd never come as something that was a dead giveaway for her, like a princess.
A zombie, however? That sounded like more like it. And the handmade rainbow gore fairly screamed Moxy.
Lucky tried to move in that direction, but it wasn't long before he found himself stuck behind a knot of dolls. For some reason, traffic in that area seemed to have stopped. I wonder what the holdup is. He stood on his tiptoes, but the crowd was full of dolls much taller than he was. Lucky glanced back and forth. Nobody was looking at him. Straining, he flapped his wings and raised himself off the ground. As usual, he was able to hold out for about three seconds, long enough peer over the throng and catch sight of Willard at the very front. He was wearing his roller skates, dressed as a blue ugly hedgehog. He glided along at speeds that would put molasses to shame.
Lucky sighed. This could take a few minutes.
--
Uglydog, Peggy, and Ice Bat stood in front of a hole labeled "Through The Uglywormhole". Paper machét stars and planets hung around a glowing fake moonscape full of cardboard craters and dunes, complete with footprints and a flag with the universal logo on it. Putting too close to a crater would result in one's ball being captured by one of the many uglyworms who were lying in wait. Or, that had been the plan. Due to a mixup, ugly lobsters were standing in for the uglyworms.
Ice Bat was the only one of the tree actually doing any golfing. Uglydog and Peggy, dressed as a lion and a zombie respectively, were instead facing each other, posture competitive.
Peggy shook his head, "Please. I could beat you with one hoof tied behind my back."
Uglydog scoffed. "I love ya', man. You know I do. But you're wrong on this one."
"Nah, man, you're in denial," Peggy retorted.
Uglydog raised his one eyebrow. "Care to put your money where your mouth is? Five buttons say I can make this shot backwards and with my eye shut."
The pegacorn narrowed his eye, bearing his teeth in a grin. "Oh, you are on!"
Uglydog slowly sauntered up to the golf tee. He looked from his royal blue putter, which he'd momentarily set aside, to his matching golf ball, waiting on the ground for when Uglydog was ready to take his turn. He studied both of them for a moment.
Then he turned away from the golf course and faced the real object of his intention: a small wicker waste basket put out by Ox for the uglies to throw whatever food wrappers they had from the various concessions stands. The basket was nearly full, mostly of paper cupcake wrappers from the treats Wage had baked up for the night. A few dolls had accidentally missed the basket, littering the surrounding grass. Uglydog picked up one of these and slowly backed up to where Peggy and Ice Bat were standing.
He made a grand show of turning himself around and squinching his eye shut tight.
"Not too late to save yourself some buttons," Peggy jeered playfully.
"I could say the same to you, amigo," Uglydog simpered. "You can still call off the bet if you're getting nervous. Just admit I'm a better shot than you." He tossed the wrapper up in the air a couple of times, catching it in his paws each time.
"Ach-OODON'TMESSUP," Peggy pretended to sneeze as Uglydog began his swing.
"Gesundheit," Uglydog smirked, casually lobbing the wrapper over his shoulder, eye still closed. The wrapper bounced off the far rim of the waste basket and dropped in.
Uglydog swaggered back to the front of the space themed hole. "You don't have to pay right away," he addressed Peggy, breathing on his paw and wiping it on his chest. "Take your time."
Peggy tossed his mane. "Amateur." He scooped up a crumpled wrapper from the ground. "Make way for the champ! Hahaha!" He hollered, rocketing himself high into the air. When he was high enough that all was visible of him from the ground was a pale blue blur, he took his shot. The wrapper sailed in a parabolic arc through the air before landing in the same waste basket Uglydog had just shot into moments before.
"Ha! Eat my dust, Uglydog!" Peggy said loudly, returning to the ground beside them with a loud WHOOSH. His contrail knocked Ice Bat off balance, and as a consequence she hit her turquoise ball a little harder than she'd intended. Several lobsters popped up to snatch it, but instead it riccocheted off all of them in a zigzag pattern, causing the craters to light up and make 80's era pinball sound effects. From there it rolled into the hole, giving Ice Bat a score of two under par.
"Alright!" She cheered.
Uglydog stood on his hind legs, crossing the front two across his chest. "Of course, you realize what this means?"
Peggy nodded. "There ain't but one way ta' settle this."
The pair's two collective eyes locked, deadly serious.
"EPIC. RAP. BATTLE," the two chanted, each striking a dramatic pose.
"You realize this is a golf tournament?" Ice Bat interrupted, waving her wing between the two of them.
Peggy cracked his neck. "You leave me no choice, Uglydog. I challenge you to an EPIC (GOLF) RAP BATTLE."
Ice Bat shook her head. "No, just putting the word 'golf' in front of it doesn't make it any better."
Right about then, Lucky Bat showed up, panting. He wiped his brow. "Mox--" His face fell. "Oh, Peggy, it's you."
Peggy scoffed. "Yeah, nice ta' see you too."
"No, ah- well- I didn't mean for it to come out like that," Lucky Bat replied, becoming flustered. "It's just that- I've been looking for Moxy all night."
Uglydog and Ice Bat exchanged a knowing look. Lucky pretended not to notice.
Peggy cracked a grin. "Nah, it's cool, I was just messin' with ya, Lucky."
"I think I heard Moxy say something about coming in a space suit," Uglydog spoke up.
A space suit, huh... At least now he knew what to look for. His eyes glossed over the crowd. Ice Bat was saying something, but he wasn't really paying attention. A space suit... Maybe a pink one? No, he'd already made that mistake with Gibberish Cat..
Suddenly Lucky stiffened, feeling something soft brush up against his side.
"So," Uglydog swished his tail back and forth like a cat, sidling up to Lucky. He stood up on two legs to sling an arm across Lucky's shoulders. His legs weren't very long, but that was alright because Lucky's shoulders weren't very big either. "Suertudo. Just what is it that you're dying to tell Moxy?" He wiggled his eyebrow.
Lucky gulped. "Um-"
"Y'all look like you're enjoying yourselves!" Ox bounded up to the group. A small tricorn hat was jammed down between his ears, and his 'X' was covered over with an eyepatch embroidered with a skull and crossbones. It was anyone's guess how, but somehow he'd found a way to come in a peg leg and a hook as well.
Ox adjusted his hat. "Will I be seein' you at the after party at Ugly Café? We're givin' away prizes for who comes in the best costume." He handed Uglydog a brightly colored flyer.
"Count me in," Peggy cheered.
"Eh," Ice Bat yawned. "I'm pretty tired already, I might bail."
"I dunno about the rest of you, but Slick Dog is always down to party, amirite, Suertudo--" Uglydog cut off abruptly. He spun around, looking everywhere, but the bat was nowhere in sight. "¿Qué demonios? Where'd he go?"
--
Lucky pressed himself closer to the windmill he was hiding behind. If Ox sees me, I just know he's gonna ask how it went with Moxy! He edged in the other direction, trying to put as much distance as possible between him and Ox. When the mayor was out of sight, Lucky let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
If there was one upside, it was that at least now he had something to go on. All he had to do was find an ugly in a space suit, and he'd found Moxy.
Fortunately, now that he knew what he was looking for, it didn't take any time at all to pick out a telltale antennae sticking up over the heads of the uglydolls.
Unfortunely for him, it proved to be a little too easy. Right off the bat he spotted two dolls on completely different sides of Ugly Park, both of them wearing space suits.
Well, this is a predicament. Let's see, which one looks more like Moxy? The blue one is a little too tall I think... Unless she's wearing stilts, ooh, that does sound like something Moxy would do. Wait-- Complicating matters, before he could decide he noticed another space suit mingling with the crowd. And another.
That's 4, 5, 6... 9, 10... Lucky lost count at thirteen.
Does everyone in Uglyville have a space suit lying around?!
...
...I guess I'm just going to have to pick one at random...
Hemming and hawing for a moment or two, he eventually decided to pursue the first suit he'd noticed, a dark green one with gold trim. He set off in that direction, winding his way around the other golfers.
--
He followed the space suit all the way to a golf green shaped like a giant staircase. It was one of the holes he'd helped Ox brainstorm. The trick to getting past it without adding to many strokes to your score was to chip your ball over as many of stairs as you could at a time.
Some dolls caught on quickly, and all around golf balls were popping up into the air like Jiffy Pop. Lucky had to keep an eye out so he wouldn't get beaned as he hopped down the oversized steps.
Others hadn't quite grasped the concept behind the hole. They kept hitting the ball as if they were on a flat green, and every time, just like physics demanded, it bounced off the riser of the first step and right back to the tee. The doll in the green suit fit into the latter category. They hit the ball one handed, only to watch it return to them, so to counter, they hit the ball harder, which in turn only resulted in the ball returning faster, which drove them to swing harder still, to the point where it looked more like they were playing racket ball than minigolf. Lucky hated to imagine what the player's score card looked like by now.
A doll Lucky couldn't see from his position directed a question at the one in the space suit. "Okay, smart guy, now will you let me explain this to you, or are you planning on standing here all night?"
"I'll get it," the doll in green replied, sounding not the least bit phased. Also, now that Lucky thought of it, sounding a little muffled, as if their mouth was full of cotton.
As Lucky Bat approached, already he had a feeling he'd struck out. It certainly didn't sound like Moxy. Still, he continued on his path anyway and hoped she was coming down with a cold or something. He'd have crossed his fingers if he'd had any.
The doll was stooped over the golf tee, making it impossible for Lucky to see anything from the angle he was at except for the green antennae on the top of their head. However, as Lucky got close to the bottom, the doll raised their head to see who was coming.
No such luck. It was Babo, munching on a black and white cookie.
"Hey," Babo greeted, "went with the cape after all, huh? The mask is a good touch." He took another wild swing, yielding no better results than the previous eighty times.
Lucky began, "You know, you're supposed to--"
"Nah, don't tell me! I'll get it..." Babo swung his hardest yet, causing his navy blue golf ball to ricochet off behind the three of them someplace, rolling out of sight.
"Whelp. Now ya' done it," the voice from earlier said. It was Wage, wearing a paper mask of Babo's face over her own and a green t-shirt that said "I'm Babo™" across the front, with a stylized cartoon of Babo underneath.
Babo shrugged, still not bothered. "I'll find it eventually."
Wage scoffed, shaking her masked head. "How come you never get angry, it's downright unnatural! You're too relaxed, gives me the creeps."
"Wage!" Lucky exclaimed, "You're not wearing an apron!"
"I'm wearing one underneath this," she corrected.
No longer having a reason to grip his putter, Babo could now have both hands free to dig more baked goods from his pockets. Just in case he were to find the ball, he left his club slung over his shoulder, along with a few other clubs he'd found laying around. It never hurt to have a spare or two. "How'd Moxy take the news? Would she listen to you at all?" Babo asked Lucky.
Lucky scuffed his foot. "Well... she didn't... not listen?"
"You haven't said anything to her yet," said Wage. It wasn't a question.
"No," Lucky sighed.
Wage turned to Babo. "I told you he was gonna chicken out. Pay up." She held open her palm.
Babo dug around in his pockets, pulling out a vacuum cleaner, a rubber boot, a charcoal grill, and finally his wallet. A small moth flew out of the billfold when he opened it. He turned it upside-down and shook it, but nothing else came out. "I got nothin'," he shrugged. "Literally. Would you take an IOU?"
"Right now I can't even seem to find Moxy, let alone talk to her," Lucky lamented, drawing attention back to himself. "Uglydog said she came in a space suit like yours, Babo."
Wage put a hand on her hip. "Yeah, her and half of Uglyville." She gestured to a cluster of uglies passing by, every one of them wearing space suits in different colors.
Lucky cringed. "Yeah," he said with some chagrin, "I probably ought to get back to searching now." He started to walk away, but he didn't get more than a few steps before Wage appeared in front of him, cutting him off.
"Now don't go away looking like that," she scolded in a way that came off as gruff and yet also a little motherly. "It ain't as bad as what I said, okay? Just, I dunno," she gesticulated to try and get her point across, "try not to look so hard at the costume itself. I mean, that's the point of a masquerade, right? Everybody's... masquerading. You should look for dolls that act like Moxy. Because lord knows, there ain't too many dolls out there like her!"
"You've got that right," Lucky said, a trace of a smile returning to his face.
Wage's tone softened. "You'll find her. You're supposed to be the wise one, right? How about taking some of your own advice and don't give up on yourself so easily."
She was right and Lucky knew it. So maybe it was a setback that dozens of dolls were wearing the same costume as Moxy, but so what? No matter which way he looked at it, there were still hundreds of dolls that didn't come dressed in space suits. Maybe he had a chance after all.
"Thanks, Wage," he smiled. "I needed to hear that."
"Pshh, naw, it was nothin' anybody else wouldn't've said, don't thank me," Wage waved him off.
The kind moment was cut short as the two were nearly knocked off the path by a doll running past the two of them at top speed. By sheer coincidence, that doll just so happened to be clad in a lime green space suit with pink accents.
"OUTTA THE WAY!" A feminine voice hollered as the doll sprinted past, putter held out like a Calvary sword.
Lucky stared in the direction the doll had charged. "You think...?"
"Worth a gamble," Wage nodded.
Lucky bid farewell to the two friends and followed in the wake of the chaotic doll.
--
Lucy stumbled down a fairway between a taco stand-themed hole and a stand actually selling tacos. Dolls were getting the two confused, it was a messy sight. He let out a puff of air, weariness and disappointment taking it's toll.
The doll in the lime green suit had turned out to be Tray, and she'd nearly bowled him over when he had tried to approach her. She kept going on about "EXTREME MINIATURE GOLF," and how "THIS IS WHAT A CHAMPION LOOKS LIKE," and other things Lucky couldn't quite make out. Lucky shook his head. Tray was a good friend to have in your corner, really she was. But she truly did become a different doll when she was competing. In anything.
What time was it? When the competition started, the moon had already been high in the sky. Surely it was after midnight by now. Maybe that's why he was dragging so low.
Maybe I should have said something at Ice Bat's cave after all... He thought glumly. He may as well admit it: He could be running around all night and never cross paths with Moxy. The tournament was ending, and he hadn't even had the chance to golf.
If the situation was reversed, and Moxy was the one looking for me, she would never give up!
Well, you're not Moxy.
No, I'm not. He was seriously considering giving up at that point when he saw it: a short uglydoll in a pink-on-pink spacesuit.
He didn't dare to hope.
There's no way. I mean, it's just way too obvious.
Still, if he didn't look, and it turned out it actually was her, he knew he was gonna be kicking himself.
Okay. I'll try one more time. Just one more, and if it's not her, I'll see if I can't at least play the windmill hole.
Holding his breath, he tapped the doll on the shoulder. She turned.
It's not her. It's not her, don't get your hopes up, it's not her--
Wedgehead. Three strikes, you're out. He dropped his gaze to his feet. Despite his best efforts to keep his expectations low, he'd been hoping it would be different this time.
She flashed him a grin. "What's up, Lucky Bat? I got it right this time, right? You are Lucky Bat?" He nodded. "Good!"
Lucky smiled weakly. "I'm doing good... Well... Okay at least... Or I should say.. Can't complain..." He trailed off.
Wedgehead hummed. "So, I take it you haven't found Moxy yet?"
Lucky's eyes snapped to her in shock. I didn't say anything out loud, did I? I don't think I did..
She laughed at his expression. "Ice told me you were looking for her."
Ah. He shook his head. "Actually, I feel like I've found everybody in Uglyville besides her," he smiled sheepishly.
"Aw, cheer up, Lucky!" She held out a sprinkled donut. "Want one? They're passing them out for free at the donut hole."
"Thanks." He took it, nibbling at it mindlessly. He yawned. "I don't know, Wedgehead," he said hesitantly, "maybe it's time I throw in the--"
Over the chatter of the crowd, the loudspeaker crackled to life behind him. "Another hole in one! This is unbelievable!! Folks, we may be witnessing a record in the making!"
Lucky Bat turned. There, standing at the next-to-last hole, was the party hat-clad Wedgehead.
Lucky's eyes widened. "Wait a minute..." He whipped around to face the the one in the space suit. "If you're Wedgehead... That means--" He took off, nearly stumbling over his own feet as he ducked and dodged his way through the mass of uglies.
"S-sorry ma'am! Oops, excuse me! U-um, I'll pay for that later! Gahhh!"
--
The final hole of the Moonlight Minigolf Masquerade had a little bit of everything in it. Ox had wanted to really end the night with a bang, and what better way to keep the party going than a super-duper-hard last hole as the ultimate challenge to golfers? The green was hard to even visualize, surrounded by pinwheels and cannons and miniature trains and slides and M. C. Escher-style staircases to nowhere. It was nearly impossible just from the sheer amount of obstacles a doll would have to putt past to get the ball into the hole. Getting onto the green with a score in the single digits required such precise timing that a freak lightning storm would have been more likely. The whole competition long, dolls had been attempting to complete the challenge. A scarce few managed it, though most were still trying with no luck.
Lucky didn't so much run as stumble up to the last hole. He doubled over, resting his wings in his knees. "Mox...*hah, hah* I... You.. *hah*--" He wheezed. He felt like his little fleece lungs were ready to burst. Too much running... All at once... Gathering his strength, he raised his head to look at the doll in front of him.
Sure enough, there stood Moxy, not three feet in front of him. What Lucky had assumed all night long to be Wedgehead turned out to be a full length Wedgehead body suit. He had to hand it to her, from the back view, she was nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. If he'd been looking more closely earlier, he might have noticed the zipper running along the side seam. Pinned to her chest was a large white button that read, in capital letters, "I AM WEDGEHEAD." In the place where Wedgehead's eye would've been was a window, which Moxy's face peered out of. She grinned sweetly at Lucky as she lined up her shot. "Hi, Lucky Bat! Awesome party, right?"
Lucky swallowed, finding his mouth had suddenly run dry. "M-Moxy, I've been looking for you all night, there's something I really must..." Lucky trailed off a as something clicked in his head. "...Er, Moxy? How did you get that costume? Wedgehead only arrived yesterday."
Moxy grinned. "Oh, from Octavia, she spent all morning sewing this for me!" She motioned to the oversized octopus, dressed as Cthulhu. Octavia waved at the pair and then proceeded to sink a putt in front of the giant taco stand obstacle.
He blinked. Setting that aside, he tried again. "Moxy, if I could just have a minute of your time--"
Moxy was stooped over a pink golf ball, an expression of intense concentration on her face. "Just one second, let me take this shot first."
"But I--"
"Just one more," Moxy interrupted. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Poking her tongue from the corner of her mouth, she raised her putter (pink, of course) above her head and brought it down with a yell.
S W A C K ! !
Moxy didn't just hit that ball, she whacked at it with all of her strength. And Moxy had more strength inside of her than she let on. The ball rocketed of the tee at lightning speed. The force and speed of the swing caused it's flight trajectory to go off course. It ricocheted sideways off of a giant gong, took a quick spin through a foam rubber Penrose triangle and bounced back towards the golf tee, still heading with incredible speeds--
"...Moxy," Lucky was saying, "There's something I've been meaning to ask..."
Moxy at last gave the red bat her full attention, a cheerful yet oblivious expression on her face. "Yeah? Go ahead!"
Lucky wrestled for a moment, trying to find the right words. "Do you--"
--straight into Lucky Bat. He fell to the ground. Stars swam in his vision.
The bounce off of Lucky's head caused the ball to change the angle and speed of it's flight. It dropped neatly into one of the ice cream catapults, which Babo's Bird (who had been standing by) cut loose. The ball vaulted right over the sand trap and some of the other more difficult obstacles, landing squarely in a track that resembled a marble run. It followed the track through a loop-de-loop and over a seesaw, ending in an oversized funnel. For a tension-packed moment, the ball stalled there, circling round and round the outer rim of the funnel as onlookers held their breath. Ever-so-slowly it circled closer, closer to the center in microscopic increments. Lucky and the rest of the crowd let out a collective breath of relief when it finally dropped though the middle. From there the ball continued in a straight line, gently bumping a small domino in its path and setting off a chain reaction of dominoes that branched away from the ball's path. Each domino that fell was a bit bigger than the previous one, until the last massive domino fell, creating a bridge over the trap door that the ball was crossing at that exact moment. The ball hurdled off the end of a ramp, sailing neatly through a series of flaming rings that hung from a spinning mobile. It landed at the bottom of a corkscrew-like track, where its inertia pushed it all the way to the top, onto the golf green. It rolled along slowly before dropping into the hole, triggering a mechanism that shot fireworks into the night sky.
Multicolored light bathed the moon and stars as fireworks exploded far above the festivities. Dolls stopped what they were doing to watch in awe. The remaining citizens of Uglyville that weren't already gathered around the last hole began to make their way there.
Lucky looked off to the side and saw that Ox was running up the physically impossible M. C. Escher stairs toward them (and down them. And upside-down, sticking to the undersides of them). Lucky shrunk back into the crowd a ways, trying his best to stay camouflaged.
Ox ran up to Moxy, grabbing her wrist and raising it in the air. "Uglies and gentledolls, we have a new record!"
The uglies burst into applause. Over the din, cries of "You go Moxy!" and "Atta doll!" could be heard from a few of Moxy's friends.
Ox held up a lopsided crown, studded with colored golf balls where the jewels would normally be. "May I present to you, Uglyville's new Queen of Minigolf!" He placed the crown on Moxy's costumed head. The party hat that was attached to the Wedgehead outfit stuck up through the middle.
"Three cheers for Moxy!" Uglies everywhere shouted.
Moxy whooped as the throng of dolls lifted her up onto their shoulders. "YEESS!" She threw her head back and laughed. To the huddle compacting around her, she added, "I owe it all to Lucky Bat! I never would have made the shot if it wasn't for him!" Moxy pointed at him. Dolls swiveled to look where she was gesturing.
Lucky found himself also being hoisted into the air. Another cry went up, "Three cheers for Lucky Bat!"
"This calls for a celebration!" Ox announced. Everything called for a celebration with Ox. "Everybody head to Ugly Café for free pie! It's all on me!" This was met by more cheers and applause from the surrounding dolls. The sea of uglydolls holding Lucky aloft began to move, flowing in the direction of Ugly Café.
"Congratulations, Lucky! See you tomorrow!" Moxy called as the crowd carried them away in separate directions. He could hear her voice faintly as it drew farther and farther away, "Maybe it'll be the day!"
--
So in the end, he hadn't talked to Moxy at all about the Big World.
What was he going to tell Ox?
Times like these he wished he still had his worry stone. He'd given it away to Wage, it seemed like she needed it even more than he did. The last time he saw it, it had been worn down to little more than a nub.
He walked through the front door of his tea house, pausing at just inside to scan his shelves. He preferred to have things out where he could see them, but the drawback of that was that his more personal effects were all jumbled together with groceries, toiletries, and the like.
He spotted the item he wanted, and of course it was on the uppermost shelf. He dragged a crooked ladder which he had for just such an occasion under the shelf he had his eye on. He would have to scale it nearly to the ceiling. Rubbing his wings together, he set to climbing.
He didn't stop by his poster of Gibberish Cat hanging by one paw from a tree limb. The place where the caption was meant to be was just a jumble of consonants, but Lucky found it oddly inspiring anyway.
He kept going past his Rubix cube.
Farther still, past his 8 ball.
Just a little bit further, past a small army of maneki nekos. (What? It's not hoarding if its figurines, right? Anyway, they were lucky and he was also Lucky, so that settled it.)
At last he reached what he was looking for: a wide, shallow bowl, the sort restaurants used for communal bowls of tortilla chips. But this one was brimming over with fortune cookies.
He was flattered that his friends saw him as such a wise person, even if he couldn't quite live up to those expectations. Actually, if he was being honest, most of the time he was making up stuff as he went along. Fortune cookies were just eloquent and vague enough to make him sound zen, plus the advice inside hardly ever steered him wrong.
He kind of wished he really could tap into that wisdom without having to pretend. Well, that was to say, by 'kind of', he meant he really, really wished he could.
But that will never happen if I keep using fortune cookies as a crutch. I've got to wean myself off of fortune cookies.
He padded over to the tiny window, searching the stars for answers. None were forthcoming. Why is it that wise people are always supposed to be looking at the stars? It all just looks like pinpricks to me... He couldn't make out any of the pictures that were supposedly up there like millions of connect-the-dots puzzles. Even if he could, he doubted they would say much about his current problem.
He sighed in defeat, taking a fortune cookie from the bowl and cracking it open.
A day is a span of time no one is wealthy enough to waste.
28 19 8 83 20 57
Well. That didn't really accomplish much, except making him feel worse about himself. He tried again.
All things are difficult before they are easy.
42 13 109 7 34 81
Ah, that's more like it. Today hadn't gone quite as he'd hoped, but tomorrow would bring a fresh start. An opportunity to pull Moxy aside would present itself, he just knew it.
With some effort, he managed to scramble back up to his swing. He flipped upside down and settled in for the night.
Lucky turned his gaze back to the button moon.
I've got a good feeling about tomorrow.
He smiled at the thought that Moxy was likely telling herself the same thing. Maybe even while looking out at the same night sky. Granted, their reasoning couldn't be more different, but it still gave Lucky a warm feeling.
--
A/N: Yes, it's true. Nolan will be a wee bit younger than Wedgehead in this version. And to think, it was super cool finding out they shared a birthday, too. *Sighs* ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Ah, well. A worthy sacrifice.
I've always regretted that there wasn't more time to get to know the uglies before they went barreling into the plot. In "lovable band of freaks" sort of ensemble-focused stories, a lot of the fun is getting to know the characters and their individual personalities and weirdness, but so much of Uglydolls got left on the cutting room floor that by the final product, between the uglies, Mandy, Lou, Nolan, and the Spy Girls, there's barely time to focus on anyone for too long. As a result, we barely know anything about some of the main characters, Babo for instance.
I can see why they did it the way they did though, it is only a 90 minute movie after all. A large part of me thinks Uglydolls was more suited to be a tv or streaming series instead of a movie, then they would've been able to establish individual character arcs and the like (plus it would've given the plot points that were already there more time to breathe).
In other news, the majority of this book I've planned as third person omniscient, but occasionally there will be a "character arc" chapter like this one where much of it is third person limited. Particularly these opening chapters as we take a brief pitstop in Uglyville.
Oh and just to clarify, Lucky works under Ox, the same way Mandy and the Spy Girls work under Lou.
I've noticed that Lucky takes a lot of the brunt of the slapstick comedy in the movie for some reason. Wage hits him twice when she's trying to convince Moxy there is no Big World, then clocks him with a packing peanut when they arrive in perfection, and Babo falls on him when he's having his freakout about Perfection's neatness, among other things.
If you're curious about what Lucky's wind machine looks like, there's a picture of it in my art/crack book in the chapter titled Question.
The milkshake fountain is something that is mentioned in the novel version of Uglydolls. In addition, many of the activities which Ox plans for the city are inspired by events mentioned in the novel.
Dunno if the narwhal/shark-looking doll that shows up in the It Doesn't Get Better Than This song has a name, but he's Bjorn now bc "Swedish fish". Yes that is the entire reason, no I'm not sorry 😂. He doesn't have a large role in this story, just one of the background characters, but I thought I'd mention it.
Moxy's "I AM WEDGEHEAD" was inspired by a moment in the comic anthology Eat Dat! that made me freaking lose it, where Ox dresses up as Wedgehead to get a free sample of tacos 😂. He even says a deadpan, "Hello. I am Wedgehead." (I mean, I thought it was funny.. Guess you had to be there 😂😂😂)
Similarly, Wage's Babo costume was taken directly from one of David Horvath's "Ugly Guides."
Wow, this author's note got really long without me realizing it 😅😂 I have a feeling that may happen a lot with this story, lol 😂😂🤣. Anyway, hope y'all enjoyed!