Showroom

Grace’s heels clicked on the tile floor as she straightened her suit jacket and walked to the Holly Dolly Showroom. Today was the day. After years of development, testing, and programming, the Holly Dolly’s were finally ready for sale. Her pet project was finally going to be released.

“Shouldn’t you be skipping, boss?” Jennifer asked, her voice almost coming from nowhere.

“Not in these heels,” Grace said.

“Got you a change of clothes,” Teresa said, coming up on Grace’s other side, and handing her a complete Holly Dolly costume on a hanger.

“Very funny,” Grace tossed the colorful dress and tights set away as the trio crossed into the bright showroom, the first of its kind. A dozen dolls sat on alphabet blocks scattered around the hall, all cute and ready to be played with.

It took a lot of work to get here. Compressing and simplifying the Android coding down to something that worked for a simple toy took a surprising amount of doing. Grace spent so many nights working that her boyfriend had to leave her. She didn’t blame him, but thought he was a sucker for pursuing his musical passion. Meanwhile, Grace was one of the youngest VPs in Silicon Valley. If everything went right, she would be one of the youngest CEOs. Victor was getting anxious to go into space, and someone had to replace him. Adding one more successful product to the company's portfolio would certainly put Grace in contention.

Scanning the room, she noticed one thing wrong. A small thing, but she would fire whoever made the mistake. One of the Holly Dolly’s didn’t have an accessory. The specialized attachments were a major selling point! She grabbed a hairbrush from a table and walked to the empty handed doll, about to hand off the pink plastic tool.

Then she stopped. Grace couldn’t hand over the brush because it was stuck to her mitten. Frowning, she tried to pull it off when a familiar voice called:

“I’ll take that one.”

Holly Dolly’s blood froze and she turned. Owner was there, pointing right at her, looking right at her. “My kids will love to play with her,” he said.

The toy blinked and walked to him, “Oh, Owner, I’m not...what I mean is, there’s been a mistake. I’m a...” Holly Dolly couldn’t say what she wanted to. She froze entirely, looking at him with her mouth agape like she had just run out of batteries.

“It’ll be our pleasure, Mr. Marks, to sell this toy to you,” Jennifer said, picking up Holly Dolly on one side.

“I’m sure you’ll love to own her,” Teresa said, taking the other side. Together, they hauled the frozen doll and set her back on the sitting block. The toy box was so big that Holly Dolly’s feet couldn’t touch the ground.

“What are you idiots doing!” Grace hissed. She had to crane her neck to look them in the eye, as if she was a toy. “I am not for sale!”

“Well, if you didn’t want to be sold, you probably shouldn’t have dressed like a Holly Dolly,” one of them said, but Grace was so startled she didn’t know who. She looked down and saw she wore the full Holly Dolly default costume, with all its cute bows and adorable buckle shoes.

A voice came from nowhere, and Holly Dolly sat in sudden attention. “Holly, play the skipping game!” Miss Erin called. The toy didn’t need to be told twice, and set about skipping around the showroom, smiling as she did.

“Stop this!” she cried out through a smiling dolly face. But no one did, and her subordinates talked specs with Holly’s Owner.

“Holly Dolly, freeze and fall down!” Mister Aiden called from somewhere.

Holly sucked in her breath, but dutifully obeyed. Her arms and legs went rigid mid-skip, her body thrown all out of balance, and she fell with a plush whump to the floor. Her legs stuck up in the air, skirts thrown back, and a stocking striped butt shown to the world.

“And she absolutely obeys all commands given to her by anyone. Holly Dolly’s are designed to be the most subservient toys we make...” someone went on, continuing to make a sales pitch.

If this was real life, Grace would have leaped up then and there, and put an end to this public humiliation. But no one could tell her stomach was tying in knots, because Holly kept smiling like a good doll.

“We need you, Holly!” A third voice, this of Miss Violet, came, and arms picked up Holly Dolly and put the toy back on her feet. And in a white wedding dress.

“No, please, Miss Violet, I...” Grace begged.

But the teen girl didn’t care, swinging her Holly Dolly to face a bear in a tuxedo. It was all happening again. The dopey stitched smile, the cute round ears, and the black plastic eyes. He couldn’t even move! He wasn’t like Holly Dolly, the most advanced toy the world had ever seen. But the two were equal in the eyes of her little Owners.

“Grace!” A new voice snapped her out of the wedding, and turning she saw Victor at his desk. Grace took a seat, her striped legs dangling off the block, thankful for being saved.

“You wanted to see me, Mister Victor?” She asked in a sweet toy voice, all while begging herself to stop. But it was too late. Too much. She had been a plaything for too long.

“Yes, Grace, I did. I wanted to tell you that we can’t have a toy as one of our Vice Presidents anymore.”

“But Mister Victor, I escaped. I’m not a...” Her voice fell off, her mouth unwilling to frame the words.

“I know, and you did great by not revealing yourself. But you are clearly not human anymore. You mindlessly obey, you can’t type with those mittens, you skip wherever you go.”

“Tell me not to skip, and I won’t anymore!” Grace pleaded.

“Holly Dolly, how are you going to be CEO by being told what to do?” Victor sighed and pushed a button.

Someone came behind Grace and wrapped the satin and electronic C+C bow around her, affixing the central jewel at the base of her neck.

[Hello again, HD824. It’s time to wake up.]

--------------------

Grace opened her eyes slowly. The collar was back around her neck. She still wore her Holly Dolly suit. And she sat in a room she didn’t recognize. With her head aching, mind reeling, she looked to a blue screen with a spinning, notched sphere.

The Demi-AI spoke to her, both in Grace’s mind, and the speakers in the wall.

“G.A. Subroutine-slash-HD824, we need to talk.”