Prologue

Inside a fairly large double level home, a lone figure of a female was busy at work. She was of small build and appeared to be in her 30's. She was pretty as fair as must people were concerned; with kind eyes of hazel and curly black hair secured tightly into a single ponytail well she work on her latest creation. Her soft nimble fingers moving as if not truly attached to her well she sewed the two pieces of fabric together, one of bright blue and the other a more grayish tone.

She sighed out contently when the work was done, now she moved to pick out what eyes and what fastener her newest creation would have. She always liked her work to be original and took great care when it came to giving each one its own style. Pulling out the drawer where she kept all of the optics that she had designed earlier, her eyes scanned over each set for ones that would fit into what she was trying to capture.

When her eyes moved over the cooler tones; greens, grays and blues; she found herself drawn to a pair of deep blue ones. And why not, the rest of the design was of blue color and the inspiring for this one's look came from a well known object of blue. So with her mind made up and a smile on her warm face, the female pulled out the blue optics and went to work securing them onto her creation.

She held it out as arms length when finished to see if they looked right; hmm, perhaps a bit big as they were very round and large but she found it adorable. This one was going to be very small and cute in design; maybe because she had let her mother instincts take over her rational thoughts. It certainly could be the case as she found herself running her index finger over the soft fabric that made up this one.

There was just the matter of picking out a fastener to secure the small opening that was needed to breathe life into her creation. Her empty hand tapped impatiently at her dilemma; it had to be something that would hold but also looked nice with all the thought she had put into this one. Suddenly her eyes noticed the shiny polished look of the jeweled buttons that made up her party dress in the corner.

They were of white pearl with a brim of gold around them; simple but extremely beautiful to look at. Her smile almost exceeded her face as she got up to remove a single jewel from the dress and return to her work desk; her creation never leaving her hands for a moment.

Working diligently she secured the jewel onto her creations front where it would serve as its opening well being brought to life. She hummed a soft tone to herself as her fingers moved in and out to sew the fastener on; only stopping when she tugged on it slightly to see if it would hold. When it appeared it would, she pulled out another drawer to get the string that would her creation in place when hooked up to the machine her beloved father-in-law had made for her.
She had grown very curious when Julius had made one of similar design after reading a strange book from the town library about creating small being's using one's own soul. She had seen it as a miracle and even read the book herself; where she than decided she wished to do her own work when hearing of Julius's small rag doll creations. She had begged him to teach her how to create these designs and had now made seven successful creations.

She put a great deal of thought and care into each one and never stopped from her work until the designs were done and the creation complete. She had seen them as miracles; her miracles; because she had created them and brought life into them with her own soul. They were in many ways the children she thought she'd never be able to have. How odd it was to go from mourning her infertility to celebrating each day she got to spend with her creations, her only children.

When she got the string out and had just cut two pieces for the machine, she than noticed a small but quick movement of something sneaking into the corner of the room. The woman chuckled at the antics of one of her oldest child, the tall green colored male known for his rebellious nature and his signature head of dark green colored shoelaces. She lets him be for a few minutes until she felt the familiar tug of her skirt; his universal signal for permission to climb up.

"Hello there Earth," she smirked down as she set her newest design down to look at her oldest and first son. "What are you doing in here? I thought you were out in the garden with Uranus again." The tall male just shrugged his shoulders as he began to climb up his maker's long skirt. "We were but you know him. It's all cataloguing plants and dirt samples with that guy. Never anything dangerous or exciting."

The female chuckled as she returned her attention to securing the string to the newest wrists; not so easily done when working with something so small. "Perhaps you're just too independent for your own good young man." Before Earth could give a comeback to that comment on his behavior, he noticed the all too familiar look of his maker's concentration. It always meant one thing and one thing only; a new member to the family.

He quickly shimmied the rest of the way up the skirt to stand on his maker's lap well he tried to look over the front of the desk to see the design of the new one. Not so easily done as, well he was tall there was still a good distance between him and the desk. "What are you making this time, who's up there, hello?" Earth called out trying to get the female attention but, she was very focused in her work and was missing every word.

Earth huffed out in annoyance as he decided to do the one thing that always gained a reacting from her, "YO, HELEN!"

Indeed the reaction was immediate as the female gasped out and looked down at Earth with a small scolding face, "What have I told you about calling me that?" Earth shifted from one foot to the other in his all too readable tick of discomfort and embarrassment. "Sorry, mum," he finally replied meekly, "But you were doing that zoned out thing again." He than pointed up the desk to get her to understand what he was wanting, "Who you working on this time?"

The women smiled as she knew that well she hated for her children to call her by name, she had indeed been to distracted by the newest one to see that Earth wished to see what his newest sibling was going to look like; he had a unspoken love for seeing the creation process. Though she often found that he was more interested in the look and design of his unanimated siblings that increased ten fold when they awakened for the first time.

"Come here," she spoke softly to her son as she lowered her hand for him to climb into, "Would you like to see your newest brother?" Earth's eyes lit up and he nodded eagerly as he climbed into his mother's hand that lifted him to her shoulder so he could get a perfect view of his sibling and the show that was about to follow. He stared intensely at the small figure that would soon be his little brother as a deep warm feeling filled his chest and radiated through out his core.

"Blue?" he asked out at length for the color choice she had picked. "Yes indeed," his mother replied back as she hooked the small up to the soul transferring device, "You should know that I like my children to be colorful at times. And besides if his going to be named after a blue planet and for the god of the seas than blue would make sense now wouldn't it?"

Earth simply nodded as he knew very well that all of they were named after the planets of the human's solar system; though none knew why. He looked to ever detail his mother had put into this small one, his curiosity growing as he looked on. This one, this new male was of small structure with two blue pieces of fabric sewn to make up his body. His fastener appeared to be a pretty jewel button, and had excess pieces of fabric that tied at the wrist and ankle; creating a nice appearance of sleeves and jeans flares. The optics for eyes were a deep blue and the metal of his hands and feet were of gold and cream color.

Earth blinked in surprise as he looked over his brother's design again before he sighed out in an exhausted fashion before he looked over to his mother. "You forgot the symbol…again." Helen gasped out as she had indeed forgotten to add the symbol that would serve as newest child's name; something her often seemed to overlook when in the whirl wind of creating another one to join the family. "Oh, for the love of…" her voice trailed off as she didn't wish to finish that statement with her son right there.

So Helen simple pulled out a jar of waterproof paint from the drawer that she keep the art supplies in; this one being a deep dark brown; and carefully painted a symbol onto the small one's front, just below his fastener. After this was done she connected the cords that would lead from the talisman to her child's body. A strange head gear was pulled out from its hidden place under the desk as she moved into position.

Helen placed the small circular object – the talisman – into a device on the edge of the machine; she then picked up a piece of head gear and placed it on her own head.

"Wait... what are you going to do?" asked Earth nervously. He had seen her do this before but each time had been a different method; simple placing of the talisman to the body to what was happening before him now. His mother looked at Earth and smiled. "I would suggest you hold on tight dear."

Earth did as he was told and got out of the way. Helen then turned back to the machine and the lifeless stitchpunk that would soon be her newest child. She activated something, and the talisman started to glow green, along with the head set. The green light grew too bright, and Earth was forced to look away.

Suddenly, the light stopped. Earth opened his eyes after a moment and saw that his mother was taking off the head gear. She slowly reached out and untied the new boy, gently resting him in her hands. Earth quickly climbed down onto the bent elbow of his mother so that he could see more closely what was happening.

For a moment, nothing happened. The little stitchpunk wasn't moving. However, after a full minute of waiting... he blinked. Then slowly, slowly, he sat up.

"Hello, Neptune," said Helen, her voice full of love. "Welcome home my child..."

Neptune looked around as if confused. He looked down at his hands, studying them for awhile before looking on in wonder at his shiny jewel fastener. He then looked up at his mother and Earth, his head tilted slightly to the side.

"Can you speak?" asked Earth quietly; honestly wondering if this was the case because the other's had all spoken quickly after their birth. Neptune looked at him for a moment before smiling, opening his mouth, tapping at his button and saying one word:

"Shiny..."