"Good morning, Tamara," said Elizabeth. The woman greeted back and asked: "Do you guys still need help?"
"No, everything is sorted out. Many of the festive decorations had to be put away, but I guess nobody is too sad about it."
"It looks quite cosy now, indeed. The kitchen is sparkling clean again, too. Giselda just started preparing drinks for breakfast. I'll go right back to help her, please don't wait too long to follow, okay."

"Sure!" Eternia called after her, before turning to Yuki who wanted to follow right away. "Yuki, listen, I have to go out shortly, okay."
"Huh?! Where are you going, sister?"
Elizabeth was also bewildered. "You don't plan to pay lady Mir a visit, do you?"
"Am I crazy?! Of course not! No, I have other plans."
"The dragon musn't know that I'm here! At least... for as long as possible," Yuki whimpered.
"Don't worry, she won't know. I'll be right back!"

Shortly after Nareen was done combing her hair and brushing her teeth, so she left the bathroom and wandered over to the kitchen. There she got startled.
"Whoa! A visitor?! I'm still in my nightie! How embarassing! Hello!" she hastily greeted the young woman with the black hair who sat next to Yuki at the table and listened intently to the chatter.
"Geez, Nareen! Once again you don't recognize your roomie?!" Eternia exclaimed.

"I'm really starting to get worried about your memory!" Eternia then giggled happily and let her fingers run through the wavy, raven black hair she wore in a loose ponytail.

Elizabeth snickered while covering her mouth. Giselda laughed openly.
Nareen sat down and stared at her friend. "Eternia? Is that really you?! Why did you change your hair again?"

"This is her natural hair," Yuki explained, and Eternia nodded. "Yes, I want my sister to feel more comfortable here, so I re-styled myself a bit."
"You also wear a new outfit..."
"That's what we got the new clothes for, didn't we? We put most of it into the giant wardrobe. Feel free to poke around and see what you can find!"

"Wow!" Nareen was impressed. "I never would have thought us to have the same natural hair colour! I truly thought you were a blonde."
"Pfff!" was Eternia's only remark.
"In our clan, my sister is the mistress of disguise. Nobody can change their looks as fast as she can!" Yuki proudly exclaimed.
"Clan? What is this clan you keep talking about, anyway?"
"Family," Eternia said quickly, "She means family."
"Oh, is that so?"

"Oh? Where are you going, Elizabeth? Aren't you hungry?"
Giselda looked up from the toaster when she heard Nareen ask that. "Toast will be ready soon, don't you want to stay?"
"No, thank you both, you two. I'm not hungry."
"Hmpf, Tamara said the same, even though she helped me so much."
"Well, I'll keep her company, then, until your are done with breakfast. See you later!"

When Elizabeth entered the livingroom Tamara was waiting for her already. The young woman seemed to have paid the new wardrobe a visit, too.
"Hmmm," said the vampired, "May I assume that you didn't ask Eternia before going for a new outfit?"
"Of course I didn't," the woman said offhandedly.
"A tad bit summerly, don't you think? It's still winter."
"On the other side of the portal it is not."
"Ah, so my guess was right. An upheaval is coming."

Tamara called her dog to her side and stroked its fur, lost in thought. "Yes, a lot will change here, very shortly."
"To the better, as I assume?"
"Only time will tell."
"I suppose Eternia will still not be able to escape Mir's wrath, or do you think otherwise?"
"Surely not."

The vampired snickered. "And what side are you on, ninja? Will you stand by your lady or by your best friend?"

"I'll stand on my own side."

Whew, that was it! After all those years I even expanded the story by two more pages, using the last handful of old photos laying around. How would the story have continued? Nareen and Eternia would have noticed a strange mist which would have cut them off bit by bit from the "real" world and would have sucked the dollhouse and almost all dolls into a world exclusively inhabited by dolls, Dolltopia. That was to remove myself as boss. Nareen would have bid a tearful farewell from the dollhouse to stay with me, since the doll didn't cope well with so much posing and I wanted to remove her as a main character. Perhaps Eternia would really have opened a store, and Elizabeth would have moved out eventually.

But it never came to that. We moved to a new place and I recieved a dedicated doll toom, new and big dollhouses, a much better camera and my first sewing machine. Furthermore, I had dozens of dolls by then. So I decided to do a reboot, this time without breaking the third wall. The dolls were supposed to be living, breathing beings with a finished house in a crazy world, but without a puppetmaster. And it was supposed to look really cool. Sadly the learning curves vor sewing, furnishing doll houses and the various crafts were quite tall, and many of you will know the hurdles you set for yourself, when you want to do something REALLY, REALLY well - one day you can't pass them anymore, you just can't get finished, it's never good enough, you entangle yourself further and further in details. "Just a little bit more! One more location prop! Sewing just one more piece! Just a quick..."

When yet another move was pending I managed to shoot a ton of moving outtakes despite suffering from a badly broken leg, and in 2016 the new Dolltopia started from a new doll room from a different German Federal Land. Sadly it was suffocated by Real Life (TM) quite quickly and only now, years later and living in our own house, do I have the motivation and feel ready to tackle the hobby anew. Even now I don't have everything I need, but I will improvise, just like I did back then. I know, I do have MANY things. A giant collection of items, dozens of characters, locations, furniture, countless clothes, shoes and wigs. Last but not least our 3D printers allow me to have many things I didn't dare dream of back then or for which I had to browse countless Asian stores or buy useless sets just to get one specific item.

Why didn't I mention what was up with Eternia's past in the last chapter? What's up with Mir and her son? Who is Arashi and the clan Yuki spoke of? What is Eternia so afraid of and what are the problems Tamara sees coming for her friend? And will Sol ever score a date with Eternia?
Well, I didn't talk about that because these topics will be the central theme of Dolltopia!

So if you want answers to those questions read the current Dolltopia story, which will be continued in 2023. I mentioned recycling parts of this archive. That means mostly re-using jokes and absurd situations, mainly from the Christmas party. I doubt you will be bored, since there's tons of new stuff going on. On the other hand, many things you might have liked about this story will be kept. The characters still have roughly the same connections and motifs - Tamara is still the best friend, Eternia is still on the lookout for a boyfriend and Brian still dates Suiseiseki and has a weirdo sister. Dark Delight is still THE band in Dolltopia. And even the Seekers will shop up again, at least as guest stars.
So, hope to see you in Dolltopia!

Dolltopia Archive 60 <-- # --> back to Stories & Comics