Fanfic / Shattered Doll

Shattered Doll is a dark ChalkZone fanfic written by DarkHououmon. The story can be read here. It takes place after You Belong To Me.

It has been a couple of years since Mint had reformed himself and become a regular member of the team. One day, he and the others stop Skrawl from completing his latest scheme. In the meantime, Snap uncovers a machine and accidentally destroys it. It later turns out that machine has been causing all sorts of trouble. At the same time, Sandra, a relatively new zoner on the block, has a popular restaurant open called Sandra's Alcove. When she finds out that Snap destroyed her machine, she makes a promise to make him pay for it. And she never backs down from a promise...

Things get intense when Snap gets caught up in an explosion that kills everyone in it except for Snap and Sandra. Zoner after zoner begin to blame Snap for the ordeal, and the frantic friends must find out who the real culprit is before Snap is given the death sentence. But how can he do that when he cannot remember what had transpired?

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Tropes used in the story:

• Affably Evil: If it weren't for her cooking zoner meat and acting unreasonably angry when a promise is broken, Sandra is a decent person.
• Ambition Is Evil: Sandra's heinous actions are performed largely out of her desire to make her restaurant as popular as possible.
• And I Must Scream: Having his neck broken, still able to feel horrible pain, and being unable to move or defend himself when Sandra approaches him, Rudy certainly isn't having the best of days.
• An Arm and a Leg: Doofus Rudy loses an arm to Sandra.
• Anyone Can Die:
  • The Doofi are killed by Sandra.
  • Revealed in a later chapter, so was Howdy.
• Apologetic Attacker: Sandra really doesn't want to hurt Snap more than she has to. She tries multiple times to make him back down. It doesn't work.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Subverted. Rudy attempts this on Taima, but it fails.
  Rudy: I am so sorry for what happened to your sister. Really, I am. But this behavior of yours..it's not going to make things better. Do not soil the memory of your sister by acting this way. I don't think she would appreciate it if she saw you acting like this, now would she?
  Taima: How dare you...
• The Atoner: Dr. Gelcro starts off as a mild antagonist who believes that Snap, and eventually Rudy and his friends, are conspiring against ChalkZone. When he realizes his mistake, he spends the rest of the story making up for it.
• Ax-Crazy: When Sandra finally loses it, she becomes this. It's more terrifying than it sounds.
• Backstory: Sandra was created by Mint as a gift for his cousin. She was intended to be a healer, but his cousin had other plans for her. As a result, her mind was a bit messed up during creation, and may have contributed to her developing her twisted sense of the world. She was caught killing zoners in the first place she lived in, so she ended up in ChalkZone City, where she set up her machine so that she could continue her activities without being chased out.

• Berserk Button: Don't ever break a promise with Sandra. Ever. On top of that, don't ever admit that you broke a promise. You will regret it, as Rudy learned the hard way.
  Sandra: You...you broke the sanctity of a promise...?
  Rudy: W-Well..I...
  Sandra: Filthy heathen.. I will see to it you never have a chance to rot the promise's purity!
• Beware the Nice Ones: Sandra is actually a pretty nice zoner, but due to her obsession with promises and her twisted logic, she can be downright maniacal when push comes to shove.

• Big Bad Friend: Sandra does not consider herself this, but when Snap finds out, he is understandably devastated and enraged.

• Big Friendly Dog: Subverted. Dr. Gelcro is a husky zoner, but though he isn't evil, he isn't very nice. He becomes more affable after he realizes the truth about Sandra.
• Bittersweet Ending: Sandra is stopped and is locked away forever. The zoners get closure for their lost loved ones. Sandra's place is torn down and replaced with something more beneficial. However, Rudy does not fully recover from his injuries. He regains the use of his arms, but his legs remain largely useless. He has to remain in a wheelchair for possibly the rest of his life. Rudy accepts this fate.
• Blatant Lies: Under the influence of Sandra's machine, the police do this with the trio when they attempt to learn more about the signal.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality:
  • Sandra sees nothing wrong with murdering innocent zoners and feeding their meet to other zoners. She regards eating a loved one as the highest level of respect that could be given. But she finds breaking a promise to be inexcusable and will go out of her way to punish those who do it if she finds out.
  • Also, her hiding her actions of killing and eating zoners isn't done out of fear of being arrested. Instead, she believes that another zoner will steal her idea of using zoner meat, as if it's the most normal thing in the world.
  • The fact that she regards killing Doofus Rudy and feeding him to Snap is a way of not only giving Doofus Rudy a true purpose, but also as a way of making amends to Snap says volumes about the way she views the world.
  • Mosaic does express some sadness to when Dr. Gelcro kills a bird, but only because she thought it was a waste not to consume the meat.
• Break the Cutie:
  • From nearly dying in an explosion, to being the sole survivor of a mass murder, along with being blamed for said murders and harrassed by zoners, as well as finding out that Sandra, a zoner he considered a friend, was responsible, Snap doesn't exactly have a great time.
  • When Rudy's neck is broken, Sandra asks if he can still draw. Overwhelmed with emotion, realizing that he can neither draw nor defend anyone anymore, Rudy breaks down crying.
• Call-Back: There's multiple references to the previous story, You Belong To Me.
• The Chase: A bunch of enraged zoners, thanks to Sandra's influence, chase Rudy, Penny, and Mint.
  • In one chapter, Rudy and Ripclaw are chased by an insectoid zoner.
  • In chapter one, Snap lures away the Beanie Boys to help his friends.
• Chekhov's Gun: The machine that Snap destroys later on comes back and plays a large role in what's been going on.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Jyker appears in one scene earlier in the story giving a brief but chilling conversation with Sandra. He is almost completely forgotten about until near the end, when he helps put Sandra in jail.
• Chekhov's Skill: Sandra's amazing ability to cook up tasty dishes that has many a zoner flocking to her place. It later turns out that she has been killing zoners and using their meat in unique recipes.

• Cliffhanger: A number of chapters end this way. Some examples include
  • Chapter 5 ends with Snap following Sandra in Shrapnel Tower, only for him to get caught in an explosion in the process.
  • Chapter 24 ends with Sandra being caught in the act by Doofus Rudy.
  • Chapter 33 ends with Sandra breaking Rudy's neck.
• The Conspiracy: Sandra loves to use zoner flesh in her recipes. She fears that someone will steal it, so she goes out of her way to make sure no one figures it out. The machine she constructs causes zoners to think differently, hindering their ability to notice when zoners go missing. Even when something suspicious does happen that has the zoners talking, no one is able to say anything conclusive thanks to Sandra's interference.
• Control Freak: When Snap is locked with him, Taima does not wait long to establish dominance over Snap. He hurts Snap more whenever he is not submissive to him.
• Creepy Good:
  • Mosaic can be seen as this, as she can be intimidating to anyone who just met her. At one point, she is suspected of being the culprit. Her loyalties, however, lie with Snap.
  • Dr. Indigo. He is a creepy doctor who has an underground facility where he experiments on animals. He is the one who helps the protagonists learn of the tumor inside Snap's head.
• Dark Fic: Complete with graphic violence, disturbing imagery, and cannibalism.

• Deconstructed Trope:
  • Invoked by Penny, who informs her friends about the realities of invisibility and transformation. With invisibility, they would become blind as the light would pass through their eyes, giving it no time to bounce in the retinas to form an image. With transformation, they would have to deal with the bird's mind, and flight would be utterly useless because transformation doesn't magically grant them the animal's skills.
  • Used to a terrifying effect in the ending. Just like with criminals in real life, placing Sandra in isolation only worsens her sanity issues, and she becomes far more animalistic and dangerous than before.
• Determined Expression: An expression that is given often in the story. Understandable, given the circumstances.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • When Sandra finds out that her machine was destroyed by Snap, instead of confronting him about it, she instead chooses to torment him because she feels it was the best way to teach him a lesson.
  • She feels that anyone who breaks a promise is filth and should be killed.
  • When Snap is locked a way in jail, he experiences hardships from everyone, including the guards. But the most pressing is Taima, who blames Snap for his sister's death. He gives Snap regular beatdowns and asserts his dominance whenever he can, including force feeding Snap.
  • The whole reason Sandra breaks Rudy's neck.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: When Snap confronts her, Sandra does all she can to get Snap to understand her point of view because she really doesn't want to hurt him.
  Snap: You're a monster... A sick twisted monster... I can't believe I ever called you a friend.
  Sandra: Please, Snap.. It doesn't have to be this way... Please, just listen to me...
• Easily Forgiven: Averted. Though Snap is willing to give Taima another chance if he proves himself, he makes it clear that he cannot forgive him yet for what he has done to him.
• Eaten Alive: Snap is subjected to this by Sandra, who begins to eat his flesh while he is alive.
• Emotion Control: The machine, which plays a role throughout the whole story, can influence how a zoner, and even human, feels and acts. Sandra uses it to help hide her horrendous deeds, but not for the reasons one might think.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: When Sandra gets really angry and loses her sanity, she sounds like this.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Doofus Rudy is shoved into Sandra's machine and ripped apart by the blades until all that remains is a hunk of flesh.
• Feathered Fiend: Subverted with Dr. Crobat. He's a bird, but he is an ally and, for most of the story, the only doctor who believes Snap to be innocent.
• Foil: Mint and Sandra share a lot of similarities, especially since Sandra is Mint's creation. Both have their own way of seeing how ChalkZone works, both are steadfast in their beliefs, and both wish the other side would consider their point of view. Both refuse to see flaws in their thinking and believe that others just don't get them. However, while Mint is able to reconcile in the previous story and drops a lot of his negative traits, Sandra never learns her lesson, and even by the end of the story, she still holds strongly to her beliefs.
• Foreshadowing: Early in one chapter, Snap thinks about how great it would be to have a zoner with healing powers around because he feels it would make things so much easier. Later, it turns out that Sandra has healing powers and she has been using it for anything but helping.
• Force Feeding:
  • Taima takes a spoonful of food, takes a bite of it, and then shoves the spoon, with food still on it, into Snap's mouth and then holds his mouth shut to make him swallow it.
  • Sandra does this to Snap as well, only it's even more disturbing. She bites off a piece of her own flesh and then puts her mouth against his, shoves it in with her tongue, and keeps his mouth closed until he swallows it. She follows this up by chillingly asking him if she tasted good.

• Good Is Not Soft:
  • Although Mint has gotten better over the years and is much friendlier, he still retains an attitude when it comes to enemies and those getting in the way.
  • Mosaic is not to be trifled with.
• Good Powers, Bad People: Sandra has the power of healing. But rather than use it to help zoners, she uses it to harmful ends. She uses the characteristics of healing to induce tumors and cause internal bleeding. She uses this power to give Snap a tumor so he would not remember what was going on.
• Hated by All: When the zoners find out what Sandra had been doing, none of them side with her.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Both Dr. Gelcro and Taima perform this when they find out that they had been fooled.
  • As do the other zoners who had previously tormented Snap.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Doofus Rudy puts himself in danger in order to give the others a chance. It ends badly for him.
• Hero Killer: Sandra. Not only does she kill off several of Rudy and Snap's allies but she very nearly succeeds in killing Rudy himself. If she had crushed his neck a little more or if she had more time to deliver the final blow, Rudy would have died.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Sandra has been messing around with zoners’ minds and the security systems so she can sneak into the hospital and kill patients for meat. Later, she decides to actually hunt, so to speak, and manages to kill Doofus Penny when catching her off guard.
• Hypocrite: Sandra is angered that the protagonists won't try to listen to her side. But she never once attempts to do the same for them.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Sandra's restaurant uses meat from sentient zoners as the major ingredient. Sandra indulges in it, while most of the zoners are unaware they're committing cannibalism.
• Jawbreaker: In retaliation for Mint biting part of her ear off, Sandra does this to him.
• Jerkass: Dr. Gelro. When Snap is being dragged off to prison, he does nothing to help, and does nothing to hide his happiness for it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: But despite his bad attitude, Dr. Gelcro does still care about others and expresses concern when he finds Mosaic injured. He even comes to the others' aid when he realizes he had been wrong.
• Kid Hero: Rudy, Penny, Mint, and Snap all qualify as this.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: When his sister, Galena, dies in the explosion, Taima tries what he can to get back at Snap. He organizes a mob to antagonize him while he's in the hospital, and when he is locked away in a cell with Snap, he torments him without regret, even going as far as dislocate his ankle out of spite.

• Man Bites Man: Unlike Rudy and Penny, Mint is willing to use his teeth to fight if he has to.
  • When Sandra initially fights, she uses her claws, tail spikes, and mostly her healing powers to fight. But when she learns about Rudy breaking a promise to Penny, she loses it and bites him. In the throat no less. And crushes it.
• Manipulative Bastard - Sandra. She’s even more manipulative than Skrawl was to Mint in the first story. And she is even better at it. The fact that she escaped suspicion for a long time before anyone caught on is a testament to that.
• Mind Manipulation: Sandra achieves this using the signal. It allows her to continue harvesting meat without anyone realizing what was going on.
• Motive Rant: The mob trying to lynch Snap are not shy about explaining why they are making the attempt.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Saying that Taima did not take too well to finding out that Snap was not responsible and that he had been hurting an innocent zoner is an understatement. He makes up for it later.
  • This extends to the other zoners as well, who feel remorse for their treatment of Snap, as well as Mint and the others.
  • Penny is mortified when she realizes that her revealing Rudy broke a promise to her nearly led to his death.
  • Mint feels this way when he discovers that he is Sandra's creator.
  • Arno is not happy when he finds out what his fireworks had been used for.
• Neck Snap: When Sandra loses her temper, she clamps her jaws around Rudy's neck and crushes his vertebrate. Rudy survives, but cannot move, let alone protect himself.
• Never My Fault: Even when faults are pointed out to her, even when multiple characters point out how much her logic doesn't make sense, Sandra still refuses to admit that she is wrong. She attempts to justify everything she does, including how she had slaughtered countless zoners just to get back at Snap.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: A bunch of brainwashed and crazed zoners do this to Mint, even taking away his prosthetic leg so he can't fight back.
  • Later on, Sandra does this to multiple people, especially Snap.
• The Nose Knows: Mosaic figured out something was wrong with Snap when her nose detected an unusual smell. Her nose also helped her figure out that Sandra was responsible.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Sandra believes herself to be this.
• Nothing Is Scarier: The signal. It cannot be detected by any of the five senses. It is an invisible force as transparent as air. It has been causing zoners, and at times even humans, to act strangely.

• The Promise:
  • Early in the story, Sandra makes a promise to make whoever destroyed her machine pay. The fact that Snap was the cause or that it wasn't intentional does not change her mind.
  • Later, Rudy makes a promise to stop Sandra. She does not take it very well.
• Rationalizing the Overkill: Sandra attempts this multiple times in regards to her treatment of Snap and killing of zoners. It does not work.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Sandra is on the receiving end of multiple of these. She does not budge.
  Sandra: I didn't do anything wrong! Why can't you see that?!
  Snap: You killed zoners, Sandra. You murdered them in cold blood. You need to pay for what you have done. You have not only killed zoners, but you hurt others as well. Have you ever stopped to think of how they might feel, knowing what you have done?
  Sandra: They would thank me...
• Sanity Slippage: By the end of the story, Sandra has completely snapped. Her isolation doesn't do her any good, making her more feral than sane, and she kills a female zoner who was bringing her food and rips her body apart and starts eating her.
• Serial Killer: The body count that Sandra possesses is too great to keep track of.
• Shaming the Mob: Rudy, Penny, and Mint express their displeasure towards Taima and the mob that he is leading. Although their words eventually make them stop, it wasn't out of shame. They only stopped because the trio promised to find out who had killed their loved ones. This doesn't even stop them for long.
• Sickening "Crunch!": The protagonists hear this when Sandra snaps Rudy's neck in two.
• Slashed Throat: Penny's throat is slashed from Sandra's tail spikes.
• The Secret of Long Pork Pies: Sandra’s restaurant is a big success and the zoners absolutely love her food, especially her meat. It later turns out the meat comes from other zoners, most notably frightened was, as, according to Sandra, fear makes the meat taste better.
• The Speechless: Mosaic, the crocodile-like zoner that serves as Snap's guardian while he's in the hospital.
• Took a Level in Badass: Doofus Rudy, of all people. Not only did he put pieces of the puzzle together faster than any other civilian zoner, but he threw his own arm at Sandra to stop her from hurting Mint.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Mint is much nicer now than he was in "You Belong To Me".

• Undying Loyalty:
  • Rudy and his friends share this with each other.
  • Mosaic develops this towards Snap.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • After she fails to get Snap to understand her point of view, Sandra’s mentality begins to take a dive. She eventually loses it and she proceeds to try to eat Snap.
  • Very apparent in the trial. When she is sentenced, she immediately goes crazy, trying to plead for a retrial and then attempting to lacerate Snap.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Sandra and her restaurant are popular in ChalkZone City. This changes when the zoners learn the truth about her. Sandra winds up in prison with no one taking her side, and her restaurant is torn down to be used for something beneficial.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Sandra believes herself to be this. She may be trying to kill Rudy, but she does so because she believes that keeping a promise is an honor not work broken. She may have tormented Snap and framed him, but she did so because she wanted him to be a better person. She may have killed zoners, but she truly does believe that eating a loved one and letting them become part of each other is the best way to honor them. Not that it does her any good later on.
• Would Hurt a Child: If her tormenting Snap mentally didn’t clue you in, then her breaking Rudy’s neck, killing the Doofi, ripping Penny’s throat open, and dislocating Mint’s jaw certainly would.
• You Taste Delicious: Sandra admits to Snap that she thinks he tastes good.