Miriam paced, playing with her fingers, in Claudia’s office. She tried not to look at the other toys—no, the toys. She wasn’t a toy. She just wore a toy suit, made from the same colorful plastic. She startled when Claudia came in. The executive, who had been with PlayTrends Toys nearly since it was founded, was surprised, too.

“Miriam? What…?” She trailed off, unable to find the right question.

“Claudia, I can explain…” Miriam began…

Just ten minutes ago, she had been with Justine, brainstorming ideas for the upcoming launch of the Galactic Gems line. It was going well; there was already a growing buzz for the toys; interstellar female robot heroes fighting the bug empire with the power of ancient gems.

While they put ideas on the board, an intern came in with a new prototype from Bill, one of PlayTrend’s lead designers. It was a plastic purple jewel that kids could wear to feel like they were one of the Galactic Gems with lights and sounds. Justine thought it would be a hit, but Miriam wasn’t sure as she pulled up manufacturing information and saw the MSRP estimate. But Bill was a genius, so Miriam tried the costume piece on, just to see if she could come up with any more ideas to market it.

It was a fun piece, as she activated it through her phone. Immediately, she could imagine the way it would enhance a play session. That changed when Justine took a turn with the phone. Miriam thought she had tried every button available, but she found a whole new one. The gem suddenly burst with light and the transformation sequence noise sounded.

The red undersuit wrapped around Miriam in an instant, its red nylon threads hugging her body. Then the plastic armor materialized in gleaming glory, jetpack and all.

Commence several minutes of panic as Justine and Miriam tried to get the suit off, to no avail. They called down for Bill, but he was at lunch now. The only other person who could maybe help was Claudia, in charge of the Tech and R&D division.

“…so I came here, and Justine went to Bill’s studio to look for more information there.” The whole time she spoke, Claudia circled her, inspecting her, running her hand across Miriam’s smooth plastic armor.

“This is incredible. You look like a scaled-up version of a Galactic Gem toy. You even have the same mold lines, and the same screw placement, but with giant-sized screws. Can you pick up your right boot for me?”

Grudgingly, Miriam did so, and Claudia laughed.

“You even have an extra-sized manufacturing stamp.”

Miriam blanched. “Can you get it off?”

“Do you mind if try something?”

Miriam shook her head, and Claudia approached, pressing a pair of buttons on Miriam’s control panel. There wasn’t a sound, or light. She just froze, every joint through Miriam’s body locking into place. Each and every Galactic Gem toy came with a two-button Stancelock feature, meant to help players put the toy into a static, long-lasting pose. Every one, and apparently, Miriam, too.

Claudia tilted her head. “Can you move, Miriam?”

The woman couldn’t even blink. It was like she, too, had become molded plastic. And within her frozen body, her hope wilted and her cheeks flushed as she listened to Claudia, who grinned like a child on Christmas morning.

“Oh, this is fantastic! You’re fantastic! I’ll need to talk to Bill, see what he did. Just imagine it, a whole line of toys that play back! We’re going to make a fortune with this tech!”