In the early, dark hours of the morning, within the deepest and quietest parts of a forest edge of Kingdom Nadiria, the lanky entity paddled its feet to yet another destined location. In its black bubbly hand, it clutched the handle of a sealed jar containing pinkish-blue smoke that floated around as if it were alive. Attached to the jar was a note that read 'Doll 88.'
It halted before a manhole cover adorned with a handle. With a pull, the entity lifted the handle, revealing a ladder leading into what seemed like an endless abyss, a very faint glimpse of light notable at the very bottom. It began to descend, and each step held a significance of life or death…
Following the minutes of darkness and lifelessness, the lengthy and lonely descent was finally accompanied by emerging sounds of life. It neared the bottom, and lights of life seamlessly revealed a giant underground society—or rather, one huge industrial factory, illuminated by white electric bulbs and silver stations. Silver skywalks spiralled around the walls, with silver walkways crisscrossing between them mid-air, akin to a double helix, stretching far and wide a couple hundred meters. There was no surface, at least none visible, for the very bottom of the grand infrastructure held disconnected silver skywalks, which seemed to have gone through some kind of accidental destruction. The walkways led to doors on the walls that emitted faint white light, leading to rooms where similar entities of various shapes and sizes worked diligently behind conveyor belts that transported scattered human body parts. Like automated machines, the entities skillfully gathered and stitched together the incoming parts—hollow and with thin exterior. The way they would reflect incoming light rays made them seem more plastic-like than real flesh, and they were each a size fitting of a child. Each room contained a taller, fatter entity as an overseer, and they would animatedly express frustration when others slacked off or connected the wrong body parts. In some rooms, the atmosphere was quieter and darker than in others. Within these small spaces, two or more entities engaged in examining conscious, seam-skinned souls with the precision of scientists wielding paper and pen. These poor folk bore labels on their foreheads, each marked with the title 'Doll,' followed by a corresponding number. Each and every one of them was a child—or, at least resembled one—and each and every one of them wore expressions mirroring that of lost and confused children. The examining entities would extend their hands and place random objects over the fingers of the oblivious souls. Upon contact, those objects would undergo instant transformation, manifesting as diamonds, flowers, coins, and other delightful things. Sometimes, certain objects would light up with flame and unceremoniously ignite the entities' cloaks. While the others worked desperately, some entities loitered lazily around, and some sat side by side of each other on the walkways, staring with awe into the distant glimpse of light that the manhole provided, as if stargazing.
Our main entity finally reached a staircase, walked toward one of the doors, and entered a room with multiple workers. It handed its jar to the monitoring entity, whose large oval eyes gave an unsettling stare. The jar was examined and taken away into a backroom, and our entity joined its coworkers behind the conveyor belts, diligently stitching body parts…
Some time passed, and our entity began a short break from its workstation, strolling down the skywalks. It halted, looking upwards into the distant darkness as sounds of commotion echoed in the background...
Above and away from the abnormal setting, lies a normal beach just beyond the forest trees. The waves were gentle, and the atmosphere peaceful, with distant seagull cries. A lone being, resembling the dark entities, sat on a chair with one leg crossed over the other. What distinguished him from the others was his blank, white, almost glowing skin, in contrast to the shadowy forms of the entities. His pitch-black eyes, circular with faint dark rings around them, gave off an expression of tiredness and lifelessness. He wore a black coat adorned with a stand-up collar. Black trousers and boots completed the ensemble, and a dark hat shaped like a 'U' sat on his head. Five sharp claws, covered in shadow-black fur, extended from his hand, and he held a black, slightly cracked metallic sphere reflecting nonexistent white smoke, forming a greyish hue. His index claw tapped the ball continuously in a slow, rhythmic pattern as he gazed at the gently rising sun, its reflection on the sea a beautiful sight for any being to witness. Behold, for it was the hauntingly mysterious entity who would go by the name—Nadiria.