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Jamie sat at her desk in the dimly lit basement she had repurposed as her lab, staring at the machine that stood next to her as if trying to read its thoughts. "What do I need to fix to get you to behave..." she muttered to herself, tapping the eraser end of a pencil against her forehead as she thought. While she knew where each and every tool and piece of equipment was in the lab, to anyone else the place would look a mess. Or it would if anyone else was ever allowed down here. She worked alone, to make sure there was no one to slow her down. Well, no one other than her mostly-useless "Assistant." She glanced at the toy doll on her desk briefly.
Drab concrete walls were lined with papers adorned half-finished sketches and mathematical formulae, and in one half of the room tables were covered in notebooks and dormant computers. The other half of the room was empty save for a small circular platform, upon which sat an ordinary-looking red apple. The two halves of the room were marked by the tall silver-colored device which took up Jamie's attention.
She stood, brushing a lock of blonde hair from her face as she walked towards the machine. At just under six feet in height it was still at least six inches taller than her. It looked by all accounts like a tripod-mounted telescope. The three study legs were swarming with cables, all supporting the main body: a long silver-looking cylinder that was a foot thick and pulsed with a bluish-white light. At the end of the cylinder were several lenses and a laser emitter. This machine represented countless hours of Jamie's hard work, and would be her magnum opus. She would decide on a name later, but for now she simply referred to it as the Observer.
Jamie paced the Observer in a circle, inspecting it slowly from as many angles as she could in the dim light. Eventually, she spotted a connection which looked loose. She thought for a moment that she should fully power down the device to make the fix, but that would take at least 10 minutes so she simply reached out and pushed the adapter into the socket. The hints of a satisfied grin quirked the edges of her mouth, and she walked back to her desk, following the trail of cables running from her device to the only active computer in the lab.
"Nothing to do but try the next test." She entered some commands in the control console, and watched as the light emitting from her machine started to glow brighter. The Observer whirred to life, and a beam of blinding white light erupted from it and encased the apple. Then, it started to grow. The small fist-sized fruit quickly grew to the size of a watermelon, and didn't stop until it was the size of a yoga ball.
Jamie watched with interest, though she had seen this process very often these past few weeks, but her mood shifted to frustration as the light from the machine dimmed and she was able to see what else had shifted, the apple was now a bright yellow color, with tints of green. "Oh you have got to be..." she let out an annoyed breath, unable to hide her disappointment. "I swear I will take you apart piece by piece and make another from the ground up, would be faster than all of this effort to fix what should be a simple problem."
Jamie let the fantasy of the device wash over her to calm her temper. The Observer was the pinnacle of her research into the manipulation of the nature of objects. In essence, by altering the nature of an object she could make it grow, shrink, change color, change material, or transform in just about any way she wanted.
She had mastered transformations in inorganic materials, but organic materials were causing a headache. Whenever she sent something organic through, it took on the properties of whatever was last sent through. She looked down at her yellow apple and sighed.
She set both down on the platform, and started the Re-calibration process. Re-calibration was her one of her safeguards to reverse the effects on organic. It scanned the two objects on the platform, identifies which features are "wrong" based on the snapshot it took during transformation. For now, one bright flash of light later, Jamie was looking at a perfectly ordinary apple and banana. She picked both up, and made her way back to her desk, contemplating all the while.
"How do I stop the residual effects?" She wondered aloud for what must have been the dozenth time that day.
"What do you think?" Jamie asked, glancing at the small toy doll sitting on her desk. The figurine was about eight inches tall, with plastic joints and perfect blonde hair. It wore a pink and white cheerleader's costume, with the top cut short enough to expose a bit of its plastic midriff. The doll was held up by a small plastic stand. It had a small plastic base, and a clear plastic pole reached straight up from the base before reaching a clasp which held the doll firmly around the waist, holding it a few millimeters off the ground. It was, all told, a perfectly ordinary toy, but it had been a passable test subject these last few weeks. Testing on something with human proportions was useful practice, and the Observer had even identified it as human a few times, though it didn't fix her current dilemma.
Jamie continued after a moment of silence "Do you think if I alter the conceptualization matrix that may limit the alterations?"
The doll gave no response.
"Its worth a shot. Though I will have to run my favorite lab rat through a few more tests. You don't mind do you?"
The cheerleader kept silently smiling.
"Wonderful, and besides if I can work out the bugs in the next week or so, I'll still be in the return window to get you back to the store and get my money back," she half-joked as she winked at the doll.
She quickly typed in a few edits to the Observer's code, and let it compile as she picked up the doll and walked it over to the test platform. She picked up the apple and distractedly took a bite as she set the toy on its stand down in the fruit's place. Then, making her way back to the computer, she set the device to grow.
Once again, the light grew blinding, and after only a minute or so the doll stood as tall as Jamie herself did, held up by the plastic circle cinched around its waist. "Okay cheerleader," Jamie called out as she already typed in the next commands into the Observer, "now let's make sure it can still handle multi-object coordination."
Jamie was going through the motions here, and honestly didn't need all of the tests, but she was having fun with her "Assistant" so why not enjoy it while she worked. This time, she set the Observer to only shrink the doll to normal size, and keep the stand unchanged. The light flashed again, and as expected, the doll shrank. But this time, the doll's clothes remained human-sized, leaving the plastic toy lost in a pile of rough pink and white fabric clothing.
Jamie rolled her eyes as she groaned "Of course that would somehow break the identification conditions..." She quickly typed out what she thought would fix the problem, and set the machine to compile and finish shrinking the base. She walked over to the test platform while she waited, fishing her now-naked assistant from her clothes. She set the doll down on the platform, and kicked the clothes off to the side of the platform.
But her eyes were drawn up to the large plastic base, and the clamp that had held the doll until it shrank away. She looked down to the doll, and then back to the clamp. "You know... you do gain mass as you grow, so in theory the strength of this should increase as well. That's only logical, but by how much?"
The applications of such an idea ran through her mind, and she knew she had to test it. The circle of plastic was about at her waist, and so she leaned down, grabbing it with both hands, and pulled. It didn't move. Frowning, Jamie tried again, harder this time. She got it to move only a few centimeters before it snapped shut with an audible *Clack.* Jamie had never prided herself on her strength, but this was embarrassing. She grabbed the plastic hoop, and leaned her entire body weight into the pull, puffing in exertion before finally the front half of the ring swung open, sending Jamie crashing onto her butt on the ground.
She winced, looking up to see the cheerleader doll, smiling at her from the platform. "Oh as if you could do better, you've been stuck on that thing for weeks," Jamie said dismissively as she stood. The clamp was now open. "At least we can confirm the strength of materials increases with size." Jamie's curiosity was piqued as she examined the base, completely unaware of the beeping of the Observer as the updates were implemented. The whir as the machine stirred to life.
Jamie stepped onto the pink plastic base, and investigated the inside of the stand. Cheap materials, but clearly even they... a blinding white light illuminated the platform. Jamie spun around, adrenaline spiking as she realized what was happening. The light filled her vision, and she raised her hands to shield her eyes as she took an involuntary step back. All she heard over the whir of the machine was the sound of plastic colliding on plastic, and a sudden force around her waist that knocked the air out of her lungs. She tried to step away, before realizing that she was stuck! She was held off of the ground, only able to touch the platform on her tip toes. But that was the last thought she had before the light reached its peak and she felt the world start to shift.
Her skin tingled as the light enveloped her. She couldn't see anything but she could feel her body shift, as if waves and waves of mild electricity were passing through her body. It was not painful, in fact in a way it could be described as mildly pleasant, but above all it was strange. The one thing that was constant was the pressure around her waist which held her still.
When the light faded, and her thoughts began to move a bit faster. Jamie looked up to see a naked woman standing a few feet in front of her. "Hello? What..." Jamie started before she noticed the plastic sheen to the skin, the long blonde hair. "Cheerleader!?" Jamie called out in alarm. Had the machine reset the doll to human size?
Only then did she look at the room around her, and realize the truth. The room around her seemed like it was a cathedral built for giants. The walls stretched up until they looked like skyscrapers, and the Observer stood far in the distance like a mountain, its lens-covered face pointing directly at her. Everything seemed so... massive was an understatement, but it was the only word that came to mind.
It was impossible to accept, but the machine had shrunk her! She couldn't be more than eight inches tall!
Her heart rate picked up, and she tried to back up only to realize once more that she was stuck. She looked down, at the plastic ring wrapped around her, hoisting her up and holding her in place. She had gotten stuck on the doll's base. "Oh great..." Jamie said, trying to defuse her own alarm, as she tried to push the ring open. "Well it's toy-sized now, maybe I can..." but the clamp didn't budge at all. She couldn't find the leverage, stuck as she was. The clamp may had shrunk, but so had she, and her strength with it.
"No, no, no, no!" Jamie said in frustration, realizing she was stuck. But she took a breath, and forced herself to look at the situation logically. She had anticipated an accident may occur with the device, so she had programmed in a safeguard. If 10 minutes passed and the Observer received no new updates or commands, it would automatically try and reverse the last change it had performed. She just had to wait a few minutes, then the machine would grow her, she would break this stupid plastic base, and figure out a way to never end up in this situation again.
So, Jamie took stock. There wasn't much else to do. She looked to her left where the doll's clothes had shrunken down again. She couldn't reach them, not that they would do any good. To her front her assistant had her back to her. She realized now that the doll was only a few inches away, not a few feet, though it felt like the latter to her.
"Don't suppose you wouldn't mind coming over here and helping would you, cheerleader?"
Silence.
"Didn't think so, why do I even keep something as useless as you as an assistant anyways..."
Jamie let the small attempt at humor fill the silence, but the next several minutes felt like an eternity. The infuriating pole holding her up forced her up on her toes, and was not particularly comfortable for someone not as light as a doll.
But beyond everything, beyond the panic, and rationalization, was the embarrassment. Here she was, one of the most brilliant minds of her time, and she was stuck by a cheap plastic toy. It was humiliating to be stuck like this, and moreso that she knew it was her own fault. She placed her chin on her hands as she waited, trying to not face the fact she was doll-sized.
When she did, however, she realized her skin felt a bit strange. She looked down at her hands, and noticed they were smoother than she remembered, and a bit shiny, as they slightly reflected the dim lab light. It was as if they were completely free of blemishes or defining features. Her panic resurfaced. The doll was the last thing which was altered before her, what if some of the doll's skin was applied to her!?
She could still move, and didn't notice any other major changes, but she made a note to use the Re-calibration feature of the Observer to fix whatever changes occurred to her. Hopefully the safeguard reversal may do just that...
"See what you did to me, doll?" Jamie huffed "I blame you for this one." She couldn't see her face, but she knew the cheerleader was smiling.
She was relieved to see the Observer start to whir to life as she was having these thoughts. Ready to be normal-sized again, she nearly burst out of her skin with anticipation. The light started to fill her vision, but it was noticeably dimmer. The doll in front of her blocked the direct light, which she appreciated. She closed her eyes, waiting for this to be over.
This time, she didn't feel that strange tingling, and she wondered if it was a result of returning to her normal form. She didn't feel much of anything new when the light eventually receded and she opened her eyes.
The Observer stared down at her like a mountain, in her massive lab. She was still doll-sized!
"What!?" Jamie shouted in alarm, redoubling her efforts to escape the plastic stand. "What ha-" but her words cut off as she looked up. A gigantic woman with plastic skin loomed directly above her. The doll!
Jamie couldn't help herself "You stupid doll! You blocked me, or the machine recognized you instead of me, you ruined everything!" The helpless rage did nothing, but before she could even start to consider her next course of action, she noticed a twitch in the woman above her.
Slowly, as if waking up, the plastic giantess above her raised one hand to its face, as if inspecting it, moving its ball-jointed fingers slowly back and forth.
Jamie was too stunned to speak, frozen in place as she watched what was unfolding above her.
The giant doll, or rather the human-sized doll, took a step forward with it's ball-jointed legs from the platform. It was soft, like a fawn taking its first step, and it looked like the doll may fall over, but it steadied itself as it took a few more steps. Each one shook the ground from Jamie's perspective, but her mind still reeled from what was unfolding in front of her.
The doll turned around, looking down at Jamie like some kind of Titan. The doll's face had changed, gone was the painted smile, now it had joints around its mouth. Its eyes drew her attention though. They were still fake, but they looked at Jamie with some kind of intensity that made her feel as if they were aware of her. But that was impossible, all of this was impossible!
"J- Ja- Jamie?" The voice was echoey, as if it was coming from inside an empty room, and light as a breeze. But there was no mistaking the words. The doll's mouth moved with them, slightly out of pace with what was said.
Jamie was silent.
After a few moments, the doll continued, the voice becoming more confident with each passing second "Jamie, what is? How is?" A long pause, as the doll looked around the room. When she made a full rotation she looked down at the trapped scientist, and the doll's eyes seemed to burn with mischievous energy.
"Oh come on Jamie, I finally get a chance to respond to all your side comments and now you have nothing to say?" The doll placed a hand on her hip, before looking down at herself, and adding "And couldn't you have given me any new clothes, it's not nice to leave people naked!" The doll laughed, a strange sound to say the least, as she strolled over to a desk and grabbed a lab coat, wrapping it around her shoulders.
Jamie was finally in control of herself enough to speak, somewhat. "I- you- How is this possible? You're just a doll?"
"Oh that's another thing that bothered me, you liked to call me 'Assistant' all this time and you never even bothered to give me a name? Just 'Doll' or 'Cheerleader,' do you know how demeaning that is?" It was impossible to tell, but the tilt of the doll's head almost made it look like she was amused. "I have a name in mind, but I'll keep it to myself for now"
"But you ARE just a doll! I bought you only a few weeks ago! And this has to be some kind of bad dream!"
"Oh come on, you're smarter than that. But as your assistant let me provide a hypothesis. Your safeguard program was fairly generalized, but focused on humanoid shapes, to cover the widest range of scenarios. As a result, and your own minor alterations from the Observer already, it decided to reverse the first humanoid, plastic item it saw." She gestured at herself, clearly proud. "Add to that a reversal of your changes, and I came out much more human. So, how did I do? Does that agree with your theory?"
"I-" Jamie came up short. It wasn't exactly how she would put it, but it wasn't wrong at all. "How do you know that?" She asked, genuinely stunned.
"Oh come now, I'm your assistant, and since you never share your data with anyone else, I'm one of the most well-informed people with knowledge on the Observer out there! For the time being I may just be the world's smartest doll"
The giantess walked over to Jamie, who tried to shy away, but couldn't move. The woman was like a building, and she reached down a massive hand, grabbing the plastic base she was stuck on. With her pinky, she unlatched the clasp around Jamie's waist and the shrunken woman collapsed onto the plastic, still looking up. "What are you-" she started to say before her assistant wrapped her hand around the entire lower half of her body and lifted her into the air.
Jamie couldn't help but let out a yelp of panic as she was suddenly lifted far into the air. The woman held her up to her face, and Jamie felt like a mouse in a lion's paw as the massive eyes stared down at her.
The doll laughed again, "Oh come on Jamie. There's nothing to be scared of! This is exciting isn't it!"
After the vertigo passed, Jamie replied "This- this is certainly a breakthrough, but return me to normal size and we can figure out what caused this!" Before adding 'and potentially how to reverse it' in her mind.
"Oh no, no, no. We have to test this now!" The doll reached down and grabbed the plastic stand and the doll clothes off of the ground. "You've always belittled me for being a bad assistant, so now's my chance to prove myself!" The assistant's voice was upbeat in its own echoey way, but Jamie detected an sharper edge to it underneath.
"I didn't mean all of those things, I didn't mean-"
"To use me like a lab rat? Oh don't worry, that's all water under the bridge now! But you know what they say, turnabout is fair play!" The doll chimed as she walked over towards the desk, every step sending a quake through Jamie's body as she hung there in the air.
The assistant-turned-researcher stood in front of the desk, and mused to herself. As she took in the machine, Jamie took a chance.
"I can teach you how to use it if you reverse my changes now!" Jamie said, trying to sound genuine.
"Oh, no need, I've been on your desk basically every time you've used it on something other than me, I'm an expert!" The doll cheerily replied. "But first... Test 1, how accurate is the Observer to previous profiles." She set Jamie down on the desk, and Jamie half-considered bolting for the keyboard before realizing she wouldn't be able to get down off of the desk at her size.
The doll-woman set down a set of clothes in front of Jamie. A set of plastic sneakers, a short pink and white skirt with built-in underwear, and a short-cropped pink and white top. A perfect cheerleader's uniform.
She looked as if she was smiling as she gestured to Jamie. "The clothes and you shrunk together, it only makes sense to see if they were shrunk proportionally, right? So the best way to test it is for you to wear them!"
The words were said with such earnestness it took Jamie a second to process them fully. "No, no way." She said, crossing her arms. "I'm not going to put those on, that'd be humiliating!" Jamie said with the confidence she usually showed.
Her assistant pressed to her mouth in mock offense, "I'm hurt, that's my outfit, and I think it's quite nice!"
"If it's so nice why don't you put them back on?" Jamie wanted to push further, but was trying to keep her emotions somewhat in check. "This is unnecessary, just change me back."
"Oh, that's not my job." The voice coming out of the plastic face was a bit more cool. "Right now, I'm the researcher and you're the doll. And the way I see it, dolls don't get to pick the clothes they wear, do they?"
Before Jamie realized it, she was being lifted up again, as the doll gingerly the clothes from Jamie's body. Jamie tried to squirm and resist, but she may as well have been trying to push back against an ocean tide for how much she was able to resist the giant fingers of her captor.
"S- stop this!"
"Oh come on, dolls love to play dress up!" The assistant replied, as she set the clothes to the side, and grabbed the cheerleader's outfit. Forcing Jamie's arms and legs into position, she placed the doll's clothes onto the scientist's body.
Jamie's face flushed a bright red as she looked down at her new outfit. The pink and white outfit was rough, not particularly comfortable, and horribly embarrassing to wear. The amount of skin it showed also gave her a new appreciated for her plasticized appearance, her glossy skin completely free of freckles, tan lines, or blemishes of any kind. She didn't even appear to have a belly button any more.
"Well you just look perfect, little cheerleader!" The giantess said, clapping her hands together in delight.
Jamie tried not to let her embarrassment show as she said "It fits fine..." she muttered. At her size it was barely audible over the whir of the machines.
"I think it fits perfectly, it suits you!" The doll said, before grabbing Jamie's clothes off of the table. "Test 1 is a success, time for Test 2! But first, just to make sure you don't get lost..."
The doll picked Jamie up, and moved her backwards. When Jamie looked behind her to see what was there, she tried to kick free and escape. But she was helpless to resist as the doll placed her back on the stand, and locked her in place with a satisfying *click.*
"Now, don't go anywhere!" The doll said distractedly as she typed away at the computer, before walking over to the platform and setting Jamie's clothes down.
Jamie tried to kick away from her restraints, or see what the doll was doing. But the stand was so tight around her waist she couldn't even twist around. She was forced to stare pretty much directly forward as her doll did something.
After a minute or two, bright white filled the room and Jamie heard the doll walking back and forth from the platform, before in her vision she appeared, smiling and carrying a bundle of clothes. "Your clothes are normal-sized at least! Time to test the inverse hypothesis, if a separate change can give proper size calibrations."
"That's- that's literally one of the first things I checked!" Jamie said, unsure herself what emotion that brought out in her. But she was reaching the end of her patience with this entire ordeal.
"Oh, well, doesn't hurt to double-check these things. Besides, I always wanted to know what human clothes felt like to wear!" The doll set the clothes on the ground, and went to remove her lab coat. "Ah, no no. No peeking!" She said playfully as she grabbed the base Jamie was on, and forcibly turned her around 180 degrees away from her.
"Wait, stop, don't put on my clothes! Listen to me, cheerleader!"
"Oh I'm not the one wearing the cheer uniform, besides, I'm already done! How do I look?"
Jamie once again felt her platform spin around, facing the giantess. She looked like a mannequin wearing Jamie's clothes, but the outfit fit her perfectly, she even saw the bra strap peeking out from under the top. Jamie's patience was at it's end.
"Okay, Test 2 is a resounding success. For test 3 I was thinking..."
"No!" Jamie's tiny voice called out, and she tried to radiate confidence as much as anger. "No, I'm done with this, you are a TOY! A doll! A cheap test dummy I bought! You are going to walk over to the Observer right now and change us back!" Jamie regretted the outburst, but she committed to it. She crossed her arms, and tried to not think of how ridiculous she looked making such demands, dressed like a cheerleader, and stuck on a doll's stand.
Jamie had expected the doll to react more strongly, but instead she kept the same placid body language. "Oh, okay Jamie. If that's what you want I can do that" the doll said with a smooth tone.
Jamie was shocked, she hadn't expected it to be this easy. Maybe the doll had some lingering knowledge that Jamie was her owner.
"But... are you sure you want to do that?" the doll said a hint of curiosity in its voice.
"Of course! Do it now, you're my assistant aren't you?"
"Are you positive?"
"YES! A million times yes, how many ways do I have to say it!?" Jamie said, heart racing at the thought this might be over.
"Okay then!" The doll's voice was calm, but the eyes... they were fake, but Jamie swore she saw an excited glint in them. The doll typed something at the control console, and picked Jamie up, stand and all. "I just set the Observer to start re-calibration mode, let's get ourselves fixed up!"
Jamie's heart felt like it was going to leap out of her tiny chest. That was it? This was it! With each massive step of the doll towards the platform she was one step closer to freedom! The doll stood on the platform, wearing Jamie's clothes, while holding Jamie's stand on her palm, the researcher's cheerleader outfit one of the only points of color in the room.
The Observer began to light up. The anticipation was killing her!
But then the doll spoke, quickly and quietly as the machine whirred to life. "Okay Jamie, here's our final test. Re-calibration looks at two objects and fixes the discrepancies it detects. Let's see which one of us the Observer thinks is a human, and which is a doll?"
Jamie's thoughts stilled at the words. Wait-
The Observer's light blinded her. Immediately, sensation rushed over her in a crushing wave much more intense than when she was first shrunk. It flowed over her skin, but concentrated at her elbows, knees, neck, and other joints. She held her hands out to block the light, and closed her eyes, but after a few seconds she felt as her eyes were forced open, staring directly at the light currently changing her. She tried to yell out to the doll to stop the machine, but she felt her mouth close and twist into a big smile, and no words came out.
The change may have lasted only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. When the blinding light faded, Jamie was forced to stare directly forwards at her hands which were held out in front of her. Something was wrong. Her skin still had the same plastic sheen, but more than that she saw that at her wrist and elbows she now had balled joints! And the room was still just as massive as before! A million other sensations told her something had happened, but all of that faded as she felt something massive behind her take a step, and carry her somewhere.
She was carried to a mirror set to the side that Jamie had used as a test object a week or so ago. In the mirror she saw the reality of what had happened.
A woman was standing there, in Jamie's clothes. Her blonde hair was not as vibrant as it had been a moment ago, but her facial features were so similar to Jamie's own that she may have been or sister, or even her twin! In the woman's hands plastic stand, and on that stand was a pristine cheerleader doll. Bright blonde hair, wide smile, painted on eyes. The hands were stretched forwards but to any observer it would be indistinguishable from any ordinary doll.
Jamie wanted to look away, but she could only stare forward at the mirror, she couldn't even blink! She tried to call out but the woman behind her beat her to it.
"It seems like, the Observer realized that, deep down, you were really the doll, isn't that right Jamie?" The woman smiled widely, giddy with herself.
Jamie wanted to scream out! The woman had planned this! No, the doll had planned this! She swapped their clothes so the Observer wouldn't be able to distinguish them! Between that and the size and the plastic base she was on...
"But I suppose Jamie doesn't suit you any more, does it? You never asked for my name, but I think Jamie suits me just fine now, don't you think cheerleader?" The new Jamie smiled, and reached down to set one of the new doll's arms to their side, and set the other in a raised motion that approximated a thumbs up. "I'm glad you agree!"
The former-woman could only try and resist, but her limbs weren't responding to her! Instead she had to endure being literally toyed with by this doll who thought she was a person!
"If I were you, doll. I'd be humiliated. I mean, imagine it! You always thought you were smarter than everyone and yet here you are, having lost your humanity to a child's toy?"
Jamie had a thousand responses fly through her mind, but none made it through her plastic lips.
"Hmmm, I suppose I should try and break your habit of talking with inanimate objects," the new Jamie mused. "But I think we can both appreciate that you've lost your usefulness as a test subject. I'll give you a chance though, just pipe up if you don't want me to treat you like the doll you are?"
Silence.
"Good to know, then I know just what to do with you!" The human Jamie walked out of the room, and came back with a bright pink and white box. The new doll's imaginary heartbeat skipped.
"I know you recognize this, its your doll box! Let's get you packed up!" The woman lifted the doll off the base, but it didn't help her move any. Instead, she was set down into the box in plastic lining, as twist ties were wrapped around her arms, chest, and legs to keep her secure. "Can't forget these!" she added as she placed two small pom-poms into each of the doll's hands.
Inside, doll-Jamie was trying to figure a way out of this situation. Surely the woman wasn't actually planning on doing that!? But she could only stare and smile forward as the plastic lining was set into the cardboard box. Doll-Jamie was nice and snug, her only view of the world through a thin sheet of plastic that rested at the front of her box. Even that didn't last long, as she felt her box get lifted, and darkness swallowed her as she was placed into a purse.
The next while passed quickly and slowly all at once. The boxed doll felt rumbling, heard the sound of a car engine and papers shuffling, but couldn't see anything. But, she decided, this had to be a test! There's no way her former doll would so casually get rid of her, this is a test to see if she would believe it when she changed back! She'd find a way out of this one.
Jamie the doll felt her world lurch at the same time it was illuminated with fluorescent light. She was set on a sales counter, and in the distance she saw shelves and shelves of toys.
"Hi! I'd like to return this doll, I have the receipt right here!" A familiar voice said.
The doll saw out of her box as the receipt was shown, and scanned. $14.99 plus tax, that was how much she had paid for her test doll just a few weeks ago.
"Okay, that's taken care of. Will that be all ma'am?"
"Oh yes, thank you!" the new Jamie said, before picking up the box and looking down at the cheerleader inside. "Just make sure she goes to a good home with people who will treat her like the good toy she is, she's a very smart dolly after all!"
Sure enough, the returned item was very quickly reshelved in a row with a dozen other indistinguishable dolls, ready for an owner and a new home. A perfect doll.
Jamie is a brilliant, somewhat reckless researcher, whose latest invention is poised to make her famous. She works alone, save for her "Assistant," a small doll in a cheerleader outfit which she uses as a test dummy for her new invention. However, when a few quirks of her machine get out of hand, Jamie will be in for a few tests she didn't anticipate, and can't control.
This story contains themes of permanent inanimate transformation, humiliation, role reversal, loss of control, and objectification.