So a giant toy goes exploring all over the districts... (OPEN!)

[hollowbutnotempty]

Who: Doll (OC) and OPEN!
What: Doll's exploring and generally having fun
Where: EVERYWHERE!
When: Whenever works for you!
Warnings: Excessive cuteness? No real warnings yet.

You may or may not have seen Doll about before, but you'd see it now. At first glance, it seems to be a skinny, pale teenager or smallish adult... but on closer inspection, this being is not human. For one, it's made of plastic... which is to say, it's a human-sized doll, ball-jointed and everything. Second, it's missing a few details, mostly on its face. Its nose and ears aren't anything more than vague shapes, it lacks eyes, instead having faintly-glowing yellow irises that hang in the darkness behind the eye-holes of its mask-like face... and as though that weren't enough, it hasn't a mouth either, even painted on.

But as creepy as that might be, a doll like that moving around on its own and all? The eyes' holes are a bit on the big side, looking vaguely cartoon-like, an exaggeration that makes its soft smile and childlike expression all the easier to see.

It's traveling around through the districts, mostly just seeing what there is to see and having fun, peeking in through stores' windows, maybe heading in to browse... you know, innocent stuff!

If you should happen to cross paths with it in a store that sells modern-day clothing, though, there's a chance that Doll could be standing there, looking a bit lost in thought, inadvertently doing a rather good impression of a store mannequin. Until it moves, anyhow. It'll likely be either eyeing the clothes offered, or looking itself over in the mirror, trying on a new outfit. You might catch it trying on a cute dress! The doll really doesn't seem to care which department the clothes come from, or which gender they're intended for. If it looks good on the big doll, it looks good on the big doll, and that's really all there is to it. ♥

> Say hi?
> Get surprised by it?
> Stalk the suspicious toy?
> Offer it fashion advice?
> Something else?

Comments

[puppetcrumpet]

At some point in Doll's day a large pile of smuppets will fall on it. These soft stuffed toys are hand sewn and look a bit risque with their long curved noses and bulbous rares.

Of course, Bro's behind this. He even leaves a note on the top of the pile.

Roof top. Bring the puppets.

Signed with a pair of pointy anime shades.

[hollowbutnotempty]

Doll, completely taken by surprise by this, ended up knocked off its feet. Eyes wide, it tried to scramble out of the pile, only to find itself pinned by a mountain of plush toys!

Well, all right, it wasn't actually pinned, and it wasn't a mountain's worth, but in its moment of panic, it certainly seemed that way. By the time Doll got back upright, it'd done something....

The shadows in the area around it deepened, turning an inky black, and the light seemed a little weaker where it shone. It wasn't clear how, but it happened so quickly, starting when Doll hit the ground, and centered around it, that there was little question of where the source of the odd phenomenon was. And as if that wasn't enough, Doll's yellow irises seemed to glow a little brighter.

The effect wore off slowly, once Doll peeked around and realized what it was that'd knocked it off its feet, featherweight that it was. It found the note, read it, and looked between it and the plushes a couple times, before looking up above it at what it assumed was the rooftop in question. It stuck the note into its pocket, crouched back down, and started to try gathering up the odd little smuppets. It was having difficulty holding more than about four at a time before it accidentally dropped one, in trying to grab another.

Unless Bro wanted to intervene, it might take it a while to manage. It would probably figure out to make several trips, though, after a few minutes?

((any preference for where this'd be? :) ))

[puppetcrumpet]

Bro is watching from his ninja hiding spot the entire time. It's actually a bit surprising that Doll had magic, but no physical ability. He wondered if the plastic could get stronger.

He quietly watches, everything, though. And he's chuckling to himself before sliding out of his hiding spot and picking up the majority of the smuppets and shoving them back into his sylladex.

"A bit much?" he asks.

[hollowbutnotempty]

It nodded as it peeked up at him sadly, giving him a rather obvious Puppy-Eyed look. It rose again from its crouch, having managed a fifth smuppet, one of the others only still in its arms by virtue of its long, oddly-shaped nose, caught by that between another's arm and Doll's slim chest.

Doll tilted its head and peeked at Bro with a little more purpose this time, searching for something, looking at Bro's pockets, and then took a half-step around him to try seeing behind his back. Bro's inventory storage ability had gotten Doll's curiosity up, especially in light of its own inability to carry so much at once. It looked back up at him again, still with a pout in its expression, and that one dangling smuppet fell, landing on its butt on the ground.

After heaving a silent sigh -- or at least, moving such that it had appeared to do so -- Doll crouched again to try retrieving it.

[puppetcrumpet]

'So cute,' Bro couldn't help but think to himself. "Here, I'll just put them away again."

There were a lot of perks to being a guardian, the least of which was the ability to store large objects or insanely large amounts of objects in a captchlog card. So, yeah, all of those smuppets were in his inventory.

[hollowbutnotempty]

Doll let him, handing the smuppets over, and watched with rapt attention as Bro handled them and his inventory cards. It was curious, now... if all it took was putting things into a card of some kind and then putting that away somewhere....

It reached into one of its pants' pockets, and pulled out a piece of origami paper, pale pink. It picked a stray piece of fluff up off the ground, then put it on the paper, and tried folding the paper in half, before stuffing it back into a pocket. Did that work?

The fluff was still poking up out of its pocket, from within the now-somewhat-crumpled piece of paper.

So no, it didn't work.

It looked between its pocket and Bro, wondering about that now, too. But that was probably something best explained another time, wasn't it.

[puppetcrumpet]

It was a new concept to come across someone who didn't have a Sylladex and some sort of slightly frustrating or maddening Fetch Modus leading to complicated Inventory Management.

He wondered if just handing off an old Queue Fetch Modus and some empty Captchlog cards would give Doll a Sylladex. But maybe that was an experiment for later.

"Doesn't quiet work that way," he said, pointing to the fluff.

[hollowbutnotempty]

Doll looked as Bro indicated, at the bit of fluff, and then used a finger to try poking the fluff back down into its pocket better, before looking back up to Bro for approval.

No, Doll, not like that.

[puppetcrumpet]

His lips quirk. "Still not right, but it'll do, you don't know what a Sylladex is, do you?"

[hollowbutnotempty]

Doll shook its head. No, no idea at all, sorry, Bro. Never messed with such a thing before!

[puppetcrumpet]

He nodded. "They're inventory management systems. The items are stored in these cards," here he takes out a card showing the puppets that he just put away. "The way of putting objects in and pulling them out depends on the Fetch Modus set up. I have Hash Map, which means my objects come out when I give verbal Use commands that match the number on the card. I put objects in by naming them."

He pauses, "You don't have a mouth and I never heard you say anything, so I assume you can't talk. Therefor you wouldn't be able to use Hash Map."

Oh what the heck, he draws out three empty captchlog cards and a grey card with a large orange square on it that says "FIFO" on it.

"You want to try a Sylladex?"

[hollowbutnotempty]

It nodded at that, smiling more again. That might be fun, right? It was a new thing, and if Bro thought it would be able to use it, then why not?

It pulled the paper and piece of fluff back out of its pocket again. Those were two things it could try putting into the cards, like Bro had just talked about! Not that a piece of stray pillow-fluff and a piece of paper were much, but they were things, at least!

[puppetcrumpet]

He explained how it worked. Three cards were enough to show the basics. He explained how items went in one at a time and queued up. Each new item pushed the one before it down the sylladex. In order to retrieve items they had to be on the last card or forcefully ejected from the sylladex. He also told Doll to be careful with that, weaponizing your sylladex was quite easy to do.

[hollowbutnotempty]

The last part looked to worry the toy. Weaponizing it? What? How?

No, it could figure this out! If things were shoved out of it if too much was put in... then... then if it put something inside, and then put too much in after that, the something that went in first could get shoved out.... and hurt someone?

This bore investigation. Doll found two more little items -- another piece of origami paper from its pocket, and a blade of grass off the ground. That was four things to try putting into the three cards, to see how this would work, right?

It looked back up to Bro, the little items in hand. Could it try this?

[puppetcrumpet]

That would be four items and yeah, it would send the last item out, ejecting it from the sylladex. Since it was either a piece of paper or fluff it wouldn't be very dramatic. It would probably land on Doll's head.

"Yeah, that would be more items than your deck can hold. If you had heavier items launching them would be more dramatic," he said.

[hollowbutnotempty]

Doll nodded. This, at least, it understood!

It looked to the gray and orange cards that Bro was holding, and back to the little things it held in its hands, before picking one and holding it up -- the folded-up note paper.

Show it how to put that in? It wanted to see how this worked!

[puppetcrumpet]

"It's a little different for mine," he said. He took off his hat and said, "Hat," a yellow card with the number 4 appeared and took the hat, vanishing.

He then retrieved his hat, putting it back on his head. "For yours just think the item into the card."

[hollowbutnotempty]

Doll looked back to the card, and then to the note. It reached over and tried setting it on top of the card, focusing, staring intently at it...

...and as it let go of the bit of paper, it disappeared.

Doll smiled at this, looking up at Bro briefly. It'd figured it out! Now to put the other little tidbits into the cardlike device.... One by one, the bit of fluff, the sheet of origami paper, and finally the blade of grass disappeared as well.

With a little fluttery sound, the note was ejected, and Doll watched it tumble about in the air before reaching up and catching it before it could land again.

It looked between the note and the sylladex... and Bro would surely recognize the smile spreading across its smooth face. Doll was getting an idea!

Quickly, it knelt down to re-fold the note, making it longer, more of a triangle shape that-- oho, a paper airplane! It stood back up and put that into the sylladex, watching the fluff bounce out, and catching that as well. It put the fluff in, and grabbed the origami paper, paused to fold it up similarly, and then put it into the sylladex too... and then the blade of grass was caught and replaced.

This time, the paper airplane shot out, spun about a couple times, and finally sailed around toward the ground, being lazy in how it got there. Doll watched it with a grin, hardly staying still -- by the time it was near done in its flight, the big toy was bouncing in place, so happy it had to turn and hug Bro again, around his shoulders. This wasn't going to be much of an inventory system, so much as a fun new toy, clearly.

[puppetcrumpet]

"That's it, you've got it!" Bro said. "I'll see if I can't find you more cards."

Bro was proud of how fast Doll caught on to the Sylladex. He should look into data structures and see if he can't create a more advanced sylladex for Doll.

[hollowbutnotempty]

Doll gave Bro a rather distracted nod as it ran to go grab the airplane again. It put it into the top card once more, caught the bit of fluff, and then put that back in-- and out popped the origami-paper airplane to sail around.

Bro? What have you started this time?

If Bro didn't interrupt, Doll might be at this for quite a while.

[puppetcrumpet]

Bro doesn't mind just watching. Doll is a cute kid with his innocent behavior. But then he forgot to mention something.

"Hey, Doll, stop for a moment, put it on pause," he said.

[hollowbutnotempty]

Doll looked up from putting the plane back into the sylladex, just in time to miss seeing the blade of grass fluttering around... and landing on top of its hair, catching in the strands of one messy purple lock.

Yes, Bro? What is it?

[puppetcrumpet]

"You can retrieve items without ejecting them, which is better for fragile things. But they have to be in the last card. Try it," he explained. "You just have to think of wanting that item."

[hollowbutnotempty]

Doll nodded, and looked at the card, thinking for a moment. "A moment" might be a bit generous, though -- within a mere second or two, the little airplane was back in its hand, and Doll was looking excitedly between it and Bro. Not bad for a first try, right? Doll must have the mental reflexes for that sort of thing already or something, one might suspect.

It raised its hand with the little paper plane, and tried throwing it toward Bro. The plane faltered and then dove toward his feet, having covered the impressive distance of almost eight feet. Doll really needed to work on its throwing skills, or lack thereof. Or maybe just stick to having the sylladex throw things for it, either way.

[puppetcrumpet]

Bro bent and picked up the plane straightening the nose. "Here's a useful trick. You don't even need to be touching the object, if it's within touching distance, to captchlog it. Just will it."

He gently tossed the paper airplane back, to see if Doll will try to captchlog it out of the air.

[hollowbutnotempty]

And that's pretty much exactly what happened, too -- as the airplane got close to Doll, it disappeared, captchalogged from midair.

Doll blinked, surprised, and looked back up from the sylladex card to Bro. Did he see that? OMG! It pointed at the card, looking between the two again, a smile forming once more, all sorts of excited about this now, because wow, it did it!

[puppetcrumpet]

Bro's lips twitch into a smile and a chuckle escapes. He really can't keep his expression blank when it comes to Doll. Man, Doll was just as cool as Cal and that was saying something. Doll was also cuter than Cal, all expressive and anime like.

Oh, that explained it, Doll was anime.

"Looks like you're a natural, kid," he said.

[hollowbutnotempty]

The exaggerated eyes, the kanji on the back of its shirt and kana on the front... well, it wasn't the most unlikely thing.

The compliment made Doll grin anew, and it hugged the sylladex to its chest tightly, curling over it and bouncing a little where it stood. So happy, Bro. So happy. You have no idea.

It calmed down again after a moment, enough to head the few feet over to Bro and hug him instead.

[puppetcrumpet]

Bro watches amused until the hug is on him and then he's hugging Doll back. He feels a little guilty that he shows more affection for a sentient puppet than he did for Dave. But it's hidden well behind his shades.

[ghostly_stutter]

Yes, Chloe decided to step into a clothing store after a long day of walking around--getting lost--and finding virtually nothing to answer her multitude of questions. So she'll just head to the shop keeper and interview him or her. See if she could learn something new.

Maybe look at a little bit of clothing on her way.

She barely registers the doll-like mannequin to her left, instead drawn to a sweatshirt and some comfy-looking jeans. She can still see it out of the corner of her eye, as she reaches forward to feel the fabric of the sweatshirt that caught her eye.

[hollowbutnotempty]

Doll, meanwhile, was eyeing the lightweight jackets nearby. The rack had some that were black with pink lining and trim, and some that were white with purple lining, so the big toy was a little caught as to which one might look best with its current outfit of gray, black, and purple.

Finally, it reached over and took one of the black ones off the rack, the smaller one in front, and removed the hanger so it could try it on, zipping it up and checking how it fit. It was long enough in the sleeves and torso, but with Doll's slight frame, it was quite baggy. Its eyes narrowed a little as it considered this, and then it turned away a bit more, to look into one of the handily-placed full-length mirrors the store had.

Hmm.... it tilted its head a bit, unsure. Did the pink go with the purple of its pants, and the more gray-ish purple of its hair? Was the bagginess too much? Maybe the fabric was too heavy over its long-sleeved tee; it didn't need the jacket for staying warm. Clothing was merely for appearances' sake, for it, after all; it was quite literally a doll.

It didn't seem to notice Chloe picking out clothes nearby, intent as it was on figuring out if adding the jacket to its ensemble would improve its appearance any.