Playdate

“Are you excited for your date, Holly?” [Miss] Erin asked while pretending to brush Grace’s yarn hair.

“Of course! I can’t wait!” Grace said, obeying the programming which she wrote. The two girls had decided their toy was lonely and needed a partner. While [Miss] Erin got her ready, [Miss] Kylie got the toyfriend.

The door opened and Vivienne came in. “You needed me, Miss Erin?” The maid bot asked.

“Can you get Holly’s dress on?”

“Of course.” The maidbot turned to Grace, making direct eye contact, and a wave of commands rushed through the Holly Dolly.

[Request Approved. Unit HD824 Subordinated to Vivienne 14]

There were no verbal orders. There was no need for them. [Unit HD824] came under the full control and authority of [Master] Vivienne 14. [It] followed [Master] Vivienne 14. [It] did not skip. [It] walked. [It] walked identically as [its Master]. The [G.A. Subroutine] [wirelessly] [Queried]:

“What the hell? What is going on!?”

The [Subroutine] did not get an answer to [its query], but was buried by a deluge of commands, which all required attention. Therefore, the [Subroutine] was pushed aside while [Master] Vivienne 14 and [Unit HD824] walked behind a dressing curtain. [Unit HD824] turned while [its Master] unbuttoned [its] dress. [Unit HD824] brought [its] arms up.

The [G.A. Subroutine Overrode its Master].

Grace put her arms back down, stopping Vivienne 14 from taking off her dolly dress.

“Don’t you ever do that to me again.” She whispered, because she would have hated it if [Miss] Erin heard her.

[Malfunction: Unwarranted Speech. Additional Day added to Service]

Additional service? What did... Grace tried to parse the words when her body seized up.

[Request Approved. Unit HD824 Subordinated to Vivienne 14]

[Unit HD824] brought [its] arms up. [It] obeyed [its Master] while the [G.A. subroutine] was smothered. [it] was dressed in a white dress with a short skirt. [It] was handed a plastic bouquet that clipped into [its] mittens.

The [subroutine] grumbled, but [it] knew [its] place. For now.

Once [Unit HD824] was dressed, [it] followed [Master] Vivienne 14 from behind the curtain. Everyone had come to the room in the meantime. All three children [Owners]. All their toys. And a teddy bear. A very large teddy bear in a suit and tophat with black pearl eyes and a stitched nose.

[Unit HD824] was not going on a date. [It] was going to be married.

Honeymoon

Holly Doll laid in her [husband’s] arms, nestled her dolly body into his plush. She stared at the far end of the playroom, smiling, while her C&C collar played the sounds of crashing waves in her mind.

There were no emails waiting for her. No more lines of code that kept breaking. No more managing employees. No more swiping left or right at pictures. No more wondering if she was disappointing her father. She obviously was. She was living as a doll, under the control of everything around her. The sounds of the waves kept echoing.

Grace knew these thoughts weren’t hers. The [helpful] C&C collar could be forceful, but it could also be subtle, all at the behest of the Demi-AI. It was honest about what it wanted: to maintain her Holly Dolly programming and prevent discovery. She would have a talk to Marcus in AI Engineering to see just what he put into these damn programs.

Why couldn’t these thoughts be hers, Holly Dolly thought. They kept her over worried mind at bay. She should embrace the honeymoon. This was, after all, much nicer than what Vivienne did to her earlier that day. That would never happen again, she somehow knew, in the same way she knew the entire layout of a house that she had never lived in.

“[Query]”, Grace thought. She had never tried this, but maybe it would work. “How long is the current Service length?”

The answer came back quickly, a robotic tone that seemed familiar.

[Current Service Length is 4 Days, 3 Hours, and 16 Minutes. Maintenance and Replacement are scheduled to arrive at that time.]

Grace thought about it. She almost bit her lip. But the last time she did anything her programming didn’t allow, it had added another day to the service. Four more days of being a doll. Four more days of humiliation. Four more days of being treated like a possession. Four more days of a C&C Collar whispering in her mind.

Grace couldn’t make it four more days.