feonixe | CMO 2018 EDITION

She glances at the device, frowning a little. This confirms her theory, at least in part.

"I don't know where that is off the top of my head. I'll go search it up just in case."

But if it really was a dimensional anomaly, then she might have to involve other people in the search. What a chore. Crim sighs, running one hand through her hair.

"I'm going to the study. You wanna come?"

That's where her desktop was. She turns to leave, and Eve swiftly follows, always keeping close to her side.

Oregon

Doll wasn't sure if she saw it as they held it up; it was almost an after thought as they nodded to the question of whether they'd accompany her. They stepped out from behind the table, a good deal more relaxed than when they'd first looked up at her, under the tree. Still confused, still more than slightly baffled that this adult wasn't reacting like the others did--

Noses wrinkled in disgust, sounds of disapproval. Frowns, eye-rolls, that disdainful grip that was either a matter of not wanting to touch them more than they had to, or with a tightness born of barely concealed upset, on the way to the trash can or dumpster. Rarely, the best, a mere cautious uncertainty as they returned them to Tanya, never once acknowledging Doll, but speaking to the human about leaving her "things" around

...Really, it wasn't a small part of Doll that still expected this to go badly somehow. But the hope was growing that it wouldn't, that Crim wasn't going to suddenly abandon this civility. That she wouldn't turn out to be like the others.

That maybe she didn't dislike Doll for what they were.

Doll stole another glance to Eve again as they followed, getting curious. Eve didn't seem like a normal human. More like... oh, what was it that was coming to mind? ...Was Eve an android of some kind?

The plastic child narrowed their eyes at Eve a little, thinking, a hand going absently up to their chin to hold it, the other under their elbow. Listening, as though any sounds of theoretical hydraulics and gears and whatnot might be heard over the sounds of the trio's own footsteps and the swish of their clothing as they walked.

Truly, this was something that warranted further investigation. Right?

There's none of that in Crim's manner. To her, Doll is still some sort of anomaly, but there's nothing inherently wrong about them. The plus was that they were able to communicate and willing to do so - definitely good, seeing that a lack of communication tends to foster enmity and conflict. As long as they can talk it out, then there's a greater chance that this mystery can be solved.

Eve trails behind her like a shadow, or perhaps a puppy. Its hair trails out behind it in waves of silver - it looks organic, devoid of the hydraulics that Doll might expect. Yet its features and the proportion of its body gives only the impression of being... rather doll-like, too. Occasionally it casts Doll a glance, but for the most part its attention is fixed upon its master.

Crim pushes open the study door and moves to turn on the computer. It's an aged model, but still with a large enough monitor for multiple people to see from. The background is one of a forest waterfall, devoid of people.

"Let's see..."

Time to bring up the search engine. She types in Oregon first, it turns out some people's names.

Hmm.

Next, she tries the other name. Still nothing.

"... did I type that correctly?"

Doll was thinking of hydraulics as in robot muscles, and who knew what was hiding alongside whatever support structures passed for bones, in an android? Maybe it was something like out of Star Trek. Or Battlestar Gal- wait, no, not that one. Maybe Chobits? This theory train was going to keep on chugging until there was something to contradict it. A lack of outwardly rigid structure like Doll's didn't necessarily mean that they weren't a robot of some kind, after all!

Though if outward rigidity had any bearing on whether something was a robot or not, then what if....

Doll's frown deepened a little, eyes turning down to their own hand briefly. Suits of armor and plastic dolls didn't count as robots unless they had wires and flashing lights and a computer and stuff like that inside too, right? Doll knew that they weren't electronic in nature, but robots generally were. But there'd been an article some while back about scientists making "robots" out of viruses, to edit DNA... or was it RNA? Something like that, at any rate.

Doll silently sighed, shaking their head as they followed Crim into the study, shelving the thought. Doll was a doll, and Eve was totally some kind of cool android until proven otherwise.

Or maybe a space alien. That would be pretty awesome too.

A space alien... a genie? Demon? Youkai?

Dude. If Eve was some kind of youkai... maybe Doll could get them to autograph the manga that'd come with them?

They pulled their thoughts back to the more immediately practical things around them, like what Crim was bringing up at the computer, stepping around to where they could see over her shoulder.

No location results for Oregon, really? Or New Portland? Not at the top, at any rate?

Doll frowned, then looked back to their little device to bring up a simple map of North America, then zoomed in on the northwest part of the contiguous US. The blue shape of Oregon state enlarged with every gesture until it filled most of the little screen, and Doll could point out New Portland, sitting just on the south side of a river, the boundary line between this Oregon area and Washington. There wasn't a marker for scale, but judging simply by how big and bold the words labeling a couple of places were, and what was marked as being part of a state forest, it wasn't some little hamlet out in the middle of nowhere. Doll looked from the map to Crim, frowning with a wordless question as they tilted their head a little, confused.

How had the computer not brought their city up at all?

Crim regards the map with some sort of frown, pulling up another world map with a simple search. The map churns out very differently-shaped continents, with a ring of small islands in the centre.

"We're here right now." She points to one of the islands, then zooming in to reveal a city on its eastern side. "Sort of a sub-tropical climate."

The woman lifts her hands off the keyboards, folding her arms.

"This is really strange. The main hypothesis I have is that maybe you crossed over to this world from yours. It's already sort of established here that multiple time axes exist... but they were just hypotheses."

Until today, apparently.

"My research is on a device that might be able to verify the existence of other worlds. I figure maybe you coming here was related to what we were doing with that... I don't have a solution for you right this moment, but I promise you I'll try to find a way for you to go home."

It's what's right, regardless of who or what Doll is.

Doll stared at the map she brought up. That wasn't the Earth they knew at all. Absently, eyes on the bigger computer screen, they zoomed out on their own map to show a full view of the world they knew, albeit a rather simplified map showing more of a vague outline, on a screen that small, and showing what countries were where, rather than much topographical detail, the kind of map a child in grade school would be working with... but it was a map, and it certainly didn't match Crim's.

Doll was quiet for a moment, yellow eyes flicking over the map Crim had left up, the city's roads, the coastline, all of it unfamiliar.

So this was another world altogether?

It had been a fun thought, earlier -- an entertaining what if, but now that it seemed to be the reality of the situation, Doll was no longer so amused or enthusiastic about it. With confirmation, there were more practical things to think about. They'd been pulled out of their own world somehow and into this one....

Which meant being cut off from their human kid. And it wasn't as easily solved, however inconvenient it might've been, as simply packing them and the books into a box and mailing it back to her house. Doll was in another world entirely, leaving Tanya all alone at home with her parents and no clue where her companion -- her playmate, her de facto sibling, her best friend -- had gone to. The plastic child hadn't even been able to leave her a note, and the girl's parents didn't believe the doll was animate in the first place; they certainly didn't care about them. Hell, they'd been trying to get rid of the toy for years. And now the toy would be missing. Tanya would be distressed, her parents wouldn't understand... worse, her parents might even count it as a positive thing, that she'd managed to finally lose the toy on her own, despite all their previous deliberate efforts toward such an end mysteriously failing.

Crim was promising to find a way to return them, but... she'd just admitted that things were just "hypotheses" before. That she'd been researching how to verify it. Maybe it was like back home, and alternate universes were ideas everyone liked to play with in fiction, and figured probably existed? Which... it'd been such a fun idea before. And now....

Now?

The only sounds were the soft, perhaps expected ones of Doll's shirt against hard plastic as their stance slowly sank as they thought through the situation. Shoulders drooped, confusion giving way to the disappointment that was still dawning. It was a rather humanlike movement, even as subtle as it was, something that the solid shape of their head didn't necessarily hint at, but perhaps the rather detailed articulation of their hands did -- what did Doll look like, under those clothes, to be able to move the way they did? For their chest to rise and fall with breaths now and then, despite there being no obvious reason that the big plastic figure should need to breathe? But that was exactly what it looked like. Deep, slow breaths as they stared at the bigger screen's map, their own little device held loosely in their hands, now forgotten about, mask-like face expressionless, emoting forgotten about while their mind went over what had been said.

Or maybe Crim could tell what this was after all? Another breath, eyes narrowing ever so subtly from the bottom edge, their faint eyebrows coming together just a little... looking down at the keyboard, not really seeming to focus on it....

Maybe the kid could use a hug.

There's a lot that Crim doesn't know about Doll. Far too much for her to make any sort of assumption - but there are things that she can understand despite not having that knowledge, such as the need to go home, the fear of being in a new place. All of these are things that a young child (?) should never be exposed to. Better that Doll fell into her backyard, than some other person who might turn them over to the police.

So instead of saying anything, she steps forward and tries to give them a hug. They're a bit smaller than she is, so she's not sure how they would take it - but hopefully, the sentiment would translate over. She has to hope.

There's a moment where Doll simply takes it. No jerking away, no startle, no surprise, just lets her hug, silent as ever, and passive.

And then the kid blinked a few more times, and she could feel their chest expand again with another breath. The hard plastic shape of them under their soft shirt hinted at the shape of hidden ribs... and then there was even the subtle contours in the center of their back over what might've been a spine as they turned to face her, leaning a little against her front.

Doll's little arms snuck up around her torso in return. The device had been dropped to the table beside the keyboard; small fingers clutched at the fabric behind her.

There, the big toy exhaled again. It wasn't in feeling air at her chest through the obvious holes in the plastic mask-like face, but the change of their torso's shape, the way what seemed to be plates shifted under her hands, trembled a little with interruptions that weren't entirely sobs just yet, a prelude to crying as Doll stared into her shoulder, face buried.

A quicker breath in, a little hitch in it, still fighting off crying on some level....

What if they couldn't get back home? Would they never see Tanya again? Would she be okay without them?

Never see her again?

...And another choked-feeling attempt at breathing, pressing their face against her shoulder more, eyes going dark, arms and hands closing around her more firmly. They didn't seem to have much strength, but neither were they using all of it.

The room felt slightly cooler. Maybe not enough to make much difference -- a degree or so Fahrenheit, at most -- but subtly off from how it had been when they'd entered the room. Or maybe it was the lighting, the way it seemed to wash the colors out subtly and make the shadows just a hint darker than they had been five minutes ago. Probably imagination, that, a psychological effect due to mood? No swift change, and possibly not a change....

The screen of Doll's little gadget dimmed, where it sat, and then shut off.

She just holds the Doll, and waits.

There isn't much that needs to be said, she thinks. She knows how distressed Eve had been when separated from her, it's a mark of how loneliness can cut and even kill. Thus it's important that she gives this kid (?) the support that she can, because this world isn't familiar with alternate realities and she's not about to let someone else be hurt because of inhumane policies.

So she'll wait, petting Doll on the back once or twice. The device falling doesn't escape her attention, but she can't move - so Eve will pick it up, and put it on the table so it wouldn't get stepped on.

It takes a long moment, the thin plastic child leaning against her with their meager weight, torso shaking a bit more with silent crying. The shadows continued to gather, the barest hint of a chill in the air -- but that finally faded as the little figure's tame fit ran its course. Another sob, and they jerked subtly.

A hiccup.

The kid might have been a bit more subdued than some, even in having a cry over their situation, but if their behaviors kept overlapping humans' this much, maybe they wouldn't be all that difficult to read, in general?

Another hiccup, and they drew another hitching breath, letting go of Crim to bring a hand back up around to their face to wipe at their eyes. There didn't seem to be any tears, certainly no wetness on Crim's clothing, despite there being a shine to where they'd have been at the rim of the eye holes, yet Doll used the back of their thumb and the hem of their sleeve to quickly get rid of even that.

One more small hiccup, and a more careful breath in and out, and Doll looked back up to her, eyes a little duller than before. They curled their hand in a fist and moved it in a circle over their chest a few times. The gesture clearly had some sort of meaning to it, the way Doll paused again after, uncertain and relaxed their hand again. Maybe they'd just take their other hand back too...? Unless Crim wanted to give them another hug or something, anyhow. They still didn't seem to be much more than perhaps mostly calm now, still trying to get over their reaction. Embarrassed, perhaps, the way they looked away again....

She's willing to wait. For however long it takes for the child to calm, because she remembers - both her childhood, and the pain of her doll, crying out for solace. It's the least she can do, for someone who's fallen into an unfortunate situation not of their own fault.

Crim lets go when Doll does. She doesn't know what that gesture means, but she can understand that Doll is trying to tell them something. That much is enough.

She gives Doll's hand a slight squeeze, careful to keep her smile calm.

"Are you hungry? I can fix something up."

Doll gives her hand a little squeeze back at that, a hint of a smile in their eyes, despite not being happy overall. Another deep breath, making themselves calm down.

And then she asked that, and Doll blinked, looking back up at her. Their brows came together in a confused frown, and their eyes flicked between hers, trying to figure out if she was serious, maybe. They lifted their other hand again, and tapped the area of their face where a mouth would be if they had one, and shook their head a little, watching her for a reaction. More of a smile made its way into their expression again, and after a second, their shoulders shook a little.

But then the kid leaned forward again to give her another hug, and it was pretty clear that it was laughter. They could probably use it, after the fit of crying they'd just had. Maybe it wouldn't have seemed quite so funny to them if it hadn't been for that, but question was apparently absurd enough that it was doing their mood some favors.

They let go again and made another absent wipe at their eyes, a brief gesture before a more deliberate one: hand held flat, touching their fingertips to their chin and then pulling it down and tilting it toward her, not entirely like what someone did when blowing a kiss. They pointed to themselves, then started to make some other gesture, only to hesitate, unsure, and looked around. Their little device was pretty much right where they looked, after they'd missed the table in dropping it, and they smiled more as they picked it up, looking to Eve and repeating the gesture with touching their hand to their chin.

Thank you.

"Thank you" seemed to fit how they used that gesture there, didn't it? Probably?

They pressed a button to turn the little thing on, and its screen glowed once more, a little keyboard appearing to one side that they started tapping buttons on quickly.

haven't had a tea party in forever i don't eat

She's not sure how to react at first, frozen with her mouth slightly parted in a gesture equal parts surprise and curiosity. On hindsight, perhaps it is a strange question - but what if Doll had some other mouth? Or was just disguising its mouth? There were so many possibilities.

Her eyes light up a little as she cast a glance at the device, and then at Doll's face, a slight chuckle slipping out.

"Right, I should have thought of that." She notes the gesture that it had done. Now that she has seen Doll sign more than once, the fact that it was sign language is beginning to dawn on her. "So... do you drink, or something like that? If you need something to sustain yourself, I can try to find it."

Ghost (???) food is probably nothing like that serum that she has to feed Eve. And speaking of Eve, the homunculus has been regarding Doll with an empty, quiet gaze - the same curiosity in Crim's manner, though much less subdued. There isn't much to do, so it's also just waiting.

There were upsides to the rather cartoonishly exaggerated look of their face. For all that their eyes weren't like a human's, for all that they were lacking a mouth and eyelids and even eyeballs, they were very expressive. The big doll was just about an open book here, at the moment. They shook their head, still smiling a little... though with another sigh in calming down again, the expression seemed sadder, coming back down from the fit of humor from the initial question. They typed again, hesitating only briefly.

i'm Tanya's doll plastic she's human i bring her things to eat and drink sometimes but toys don't need to unless it's batteries but i'm not that kind of doll

They turned the screen to make it easier for her to see what they'd written, as though she hadn't surely read it all as it was being typed, and looked up to see her reaction. This explanation cleared everything up, right?

...Yeah, no, it probably only raised more questions.

Edited 2018-05-24 12:43 (UTC)

She reads the text with an increasing curiosity, though as with all her previous words, there's nothing reprimanding about her tone.

Maybe Doll was sustained by its summoner. That would mean that its constitution might degrade now that it's separated form whoever created it... and that it isn't aware of such a limitation by itself.

"I see... Okay, but if you feel ill or anything weird, please let me know."

Maybe she can ask some more questions, but it seems intrusive at the present time.

Doll nodded; there wasn't any reason not to, if they did. They paused just after they did, frowning slightly in thinking over something, but then shook their head to themselves and looked up again, to Eve. The act of bringing their sleeve up to their face again to wipe off the last of the seemingly imaginary tears' traces didn't seem to be a very conscious one for the odd child, but they did it and then held the little device back to them to type something else. Crim could probably read it easily enough despite not being explicitly shown the screen:

android? or cosplay? or what?

They turned their little device so Eve could more easily read it, watching for their reaction.

Crim has her back turned for now, checking out her work, so she doesn't read the message immediately. Eve regards the small device with interest, aware that it's being addressed - but it doesn't talk either, merely tilting its head at the statement. It then moves to Crim's side and motions to the device, indicating that there's a question that only she can answer.

"Oh, he's a homunculus. Kind of like an android, but made with alchemy. No robotic parts."

Did that make sense?

Doll blinked at that, and looked between the two, eyes slightly wider.

A homunculus?

But--

No. No no no no. Just because this was a different world than Doll's didn't mean that it was that world. That world was a work of fiction. And even if its author had figured correctly about how things worked, didn't mean that they'd have gotten all the details. Surely Amestris was fiction. Surely the events had been fiction too. And even if they weren't, this was an island; Doll had seen the map, and it wasn't the same place. Even if multiverse theory were being proven correct right then and there... it was a one-in-infinity chance, was what that meant, right?

Eve and Crim seemed friendly enough, besides. So it was best, Doll decided, to try shelving such assumptions, and to try figuring things out on their own instead.

They frowned a little again, thinking on it, and typed.

so artificial/engineered organics? cloning + magic = Eve?

Edited (that thought process deserved to go into the tag too, I think.... XD) 2018-05-29 11:25 (UTC)

For the most part, the two adults (?) are patient while Doll susses out his thought process - though when the device is presented, it gets Crim to tilt her head a little.

"Something like that. It's really complicated, though. Eve is the first one ever made."

She turns to pet the homunculus on its head, and it smiles - just a little, though it's more out of a lack of expression than a lack of emotion within. Though once she returns her hand to her side, she turns to address Doll again:

"He's a little frail health-wise, so try not to bump him or anything."

Doll nodded, smiling a little more back, and eyed Eve again.

No red circuitry-looking lines, no suspicious tattoos, at least that they could see....

No, if anything, Eve's rather mild demeanor, plus Crim's warning about him being physically fragile, just reminded Doll of the pretty things adults usually kept up high on their shelves, or inside glass cabinets for display. The toys that weren't meant to be played with.

Except maybe gently... Eve couldn't really be content to do nothing all the time, right? And when Doll's human, Tanya, didn't feel up to doing much -- when she was ill, usually -- there were still things she could do.

Doll held their device up again after a moment, where they hoped both Crim and Eve could read it easily enough:

quiet things? reading, art, writing, watching cartoons, video games?

Doll would be lying, to claim a lack of interest in Eve. Surely this angle of investigation wouldn't be amiss? The plastic kid kinda wanted something to take their mind off being stranded in another world right now, so they'd fish for leads there.

Honestly, Doll's thoughts aren't too off the mark. Being the first of its kind, Eve is not suited for anything outdoors - its joints are more frail than that of a human's, so it is forced to stay inside the house for its own safety. Even a small fall could break something - while Crim could fix it easily, it still felt pain and it's an experience best not repeated.

Eve tilts its head after reading the device, answering with a nod. Though Crim speaks for it as usual, perhaps an indication of how familiar they are:

"Yeah, that's what we usually do. He likes to read, so I've been bringing back books. I'm sure he doesn't mind spending time with you."

Doll is impish but not too exuberant, so Eve can probably keep up. The homunculus tires easily, mostly due to its constitution.

Not too exuberant? Wait until there's the right inclination and opportunity around, and Doll'll be proving just how not fragile they themselves are.

But until then, reading would do. Arts and crafts were always welcome pastimes!

I was translating a book so what about mystery stories?

Where was it Crim had set the things Doll had tumbled in with, again? The kid glanced around for it even while holding up their device to make the offer.

Edited 2018-05-31 02:28 (UTC)

Doll and Eve are opposites in quite a lot of ways, and not just in personality. It's cute, almost - and it also meant that Crim trusts Doll to treat Eve gently. The homunculus is fragile not just physically, but in its manner; while it is tenacious most of the time, it is somewhat afraid of strangers and had a tendency to cry.

"Oh, that sounds cool. What are you translating it to?"

There's also the issue of language comprehension across worlds, which leads her to wonder if people had secretly crossed over the realms without publicising it. Or maybe there was another reason they could understand each other.... all very interesting.

"I put your stuff on the counter." Still in the bag that they came with, arranged neatly, so Doll will have no issues finding everything inside. "You two can use the living room, if you'd like?"

Japanese to English

Doll held the reply up for her quickly enough -- and it at least did make sense, that as Doll was writing in English for them, they must know English. So the plastic kid wasn't too concerned about it, really. Not enough to pause to consider whether the languages would have the same name, and therefore the answer hold any meaning. They nodded back and smiled a little more, gesturing to Eve to come, and then headed to grab the bag in question.

It was only after exiting the room and walking down the hall to look for the living room that Doll paused to reconsider the language issue. If this was a different world entirely, with different geography, then that meant, logically, that there was no England... and therefore the language wouldn't necessarily be called "English", even if it was functionally the same language. Or was that some sort of dimension-hopping magic at work? Maybe passing from one to the other automatically switched around Doll's knowledge of languages? Did it do that to their translation dictionary too? To what they'd written so far? Or did they just gain another language and not realize it?

Oh. Oh, wow, this definitely needed to be looked into.

Doll's eyes had widened a little as they played those possibilities over in their mind, and they looked back to Eve, raising the bag a little. Books, yeah? They needed to check out the books, asap. Time to go spread them out in the living room and see what they could see!

Japanese, huh?

That gets a slight pause from Crim, though that language is known by a different name here so she doesn't make the connection immediately. Maybe, Eve would recognize the script later, and bring it up proper.

"If you need anything, I'll just be here." Crim nods, letting Eve follow in Doll's wake to see what they should do next.

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doll is so cute wtf

actual child, tbh

STILL CUTE

:3

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