0 wobbles sometimes. Her feet are unstable due to the dolls poor condition. She has all of the soul as the orphan Maggie. If she read that I wrote the nickname she hates she would kill me. But…Maggie is forever lost in a different shell so even if she does read this she won't care. Maybe her soul was never really named Maggie but named Zero or, as she prefers to be called, Cero.
She's started to help me create 1 but she says that after we are finished she has to leave for a "mission." Every time I ask she becomes silent. It's her way of protecting us both but it does the opposite and forces us to drift apart. It makes me sad when she pushes me away.
The Scientist put away his journal and looked at the half made doll of 1. How would he turn out? 0 couldn't stop touching 1. She was curious, he knew, about what personality it would force out of him.
Finally 0 whispers, "I'll call us…stitchpunks."
"Excuse me?" The Scientist laughed.
"Stitchpunks. Every species with a soul, even the ones that humans created, needs a name." He stared at her. "Stitch because that's how we're made, and punk means inexperienced and young. We're new, inexperienced to the world. It only makes sense."
The Scientist laughed and picked her up. "Okay. Will you help me design the other stitchpunks before I breathe life into 1?"
0 smiled excitedly and nodded. "Yes!"