“I can’t believe you talked me into this job.” Tricia said, posing boldly in her pink leotard, staring at the store’s entryway. Her voice came through a speaker, as it would have if she really had been a Space Babe.

“Are you still on about that? Can’t you bitch about something else?” Mae responded, an odd electronic quality to her voice while she, too, stood and stared into the far distance.

“Like what? Being turned into a toy by a maniac toy store owner sort of overshadows everything else going on in my life.”

Neither of them could move, and talking was spotty. Mae had calculated there was some relationship to their autonomy and the proximity of human persons. And while they faced the entrance, their vision fell off rapidly, making even nearby shelves blurry and out of focus. Which made the toy moonscape even more important and real to the new dolls.

“We could focus our attention on rescue and escape.” Mae responded, looking out into the distant toy store, watching a particular form of color walk. Shorter than others, with a burst of red on top. She calculated it growing larger in her field of view, indicating it was moving closer. Mae sighed. She really had to stop processing like that, but it was hard. Soon after the toy store owner had gleefully transformed them, he told her that she was a robot. It had done something to her processing array.

“So cute! Grampa really did good this time!” A voice boomed high above the dolls; they couldn’t see the face of the speaker, as their eyes were focused forward at a pink t-shirt. A shadow raced across the landscape, scooping Tricia up like some kind of monster. Mae couldn’t even flinch, and Tricia never made a sound, though her eyes managed to go wide.

“Let’s see…” the voice said, “I think you should be called Calypso Starbeam, a brave adventurer and space explorer of the Saturn Corps. You’re not afraid of anything, and always ready to fight for the good of the colonists of Alpha C.”

The girl placed Calypso back into the display, having to adjust her stance a few times before she was confident the toy woman would stand on her own. Then, it was Mae’s turn. Nimble fingers wrapped around her, firm but not squeezing, as she was carried into the air. Her fear chips worked overtime as she came face to face with a teenage girl with a poof of red hair and freckles.

They looked eye to eye in a way that was both intimate and distant, as if the girl was looking right into Mae.

“Your designation is Zee-Three-En, but Calypso calls you Zen. You’re the last of the 3N bots manufactured by the Zenon corporation, programmed to assist. But your processors got damaged a few years ago and you’re permanently stuck with your sarcasm module turned on. But you’re still loyal to Calypso, who bought you a few years ago, saving you from the scrap yard, and you’re always ready to follow her into the fight.”

Mae’s eyes fluttered as she assimilated this new information. She didn’t even realize what was happening before it was halfway done. It was the oddest sensation, more odd even than being turned into plastic, as she felt a wave of tingles inside her processor. The Mae personality was set aside, replaced by Z-3N “Zen”.

She was placed back into the moonscape by the time her qualia processors came active again. The interstellar giant looked at them with adoration, as she had bent down to look at the space explorer and her robot companion.

“I’d buy you right now and make you part of the collection, but Grampa likes it more if he gets to sell you to a stranger. So, if we don’t see each other again, I wish you many great adventures. You two are going to love being such cute dolls.”

The giant waved then and walked away, leaving Calypso and Zen confused.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this mission. Now, we’ve got to deal with all these interstellar giants.” Calypso said, on alert for any other entities heading their way.

“Query: Are you still on about that? Query: Can’t you complain about something else?” Zen responded, feeling that she had said this before, for some reason.

“Nope, pretty much just this. We’re like toys to these giants, and I’m pretty sure they have mind-altering powers.”

“At least, we’re not actually toys,” Zen said, staring into the far distance, never calculating how odd it was she was neither she nor Calypso moved at all.