Within the foyer of the Crystal Castle, surrounded by a beautiful display of shimmering holiday decorations, Athney Minvari began to chant a spell. While most of the general assistant's time was taken up by cleaning the castle, organizing the pantry, and happily obeying her Mistress's every whim, she had been studying up on magic during her free time. It was quite overwhelming. The multiverse had so many different types of magic from so many different universes, completely dwarfing the little knowledge she had previously had. And her attempts to study it like that... Didn't go well. After the second time she had to hypnotize Athney to calm her down after a particularly overwhelming study section, her friend Connie gently gave her some hypnotic suggestions to start small. And so Athney had begun working through a simple book of spells from another universe designed to help teach basic concepts of magic, at least in that universe. She liked practicing in the foyer when she could, surrounded by all of the beautiful decorations. However, there was one problem she'd neglected to consider. Two, technically. 

"COMING THROUGH!" "WATCHOUTWATCHOUTWATCHOUTWATCHOUT!"

Distracted as she was by her spell, Athney barely leapt out of the way of the two void creatures barreling towards her on a sliding crystal. Standing up, breathing heavily, she couldn't feel the spell's power anymore, and she sighed. "Great, now I'll have to start over again... What's th-" She looked up just in time to see a bolt of magic refracting back at her from the crystalline wall. A moment of panic flashed through her mind as her own spell launched towards her, and then it hit her. 

A feeling of pleasant blankness washed through her body, one of her favorite feelings usually. Her thoughts all faded into the background, replaced by a soft, soothing hum. A content smile appeared on her face... As did a strange texture. Her body became smooth and hard, strange joints appearing at her elbows and knees, and her eyes became vacant and literally glassy. Her spell of animation, meant to turn an object into a living being, had been not just reversed but empowered by the palace walls, and now she had been transformed into a lovely, mindless, Posable doll.

The doll stood in the foyer for quite a while, not a thought going through her dollified head. Eventually, however, the sound of large paws neared her. The tremendous wolflike snout of Zhevadeau the wolfbeast began sniffing her immobile body. A young woman, Zhevadeau's pet Beatrice, walked before the doll's glassy eyes and looked at them, confused. "...Are you Athney...? The assistant?" The doll did not respond. Beatrice smiled up at the massive wolfbeast currently sniffing the doll. The matching collars they wore flashed slightly as they communicated telepathically. <It must just be a doll that looks like her, my owner. Do you want to play with it?> <Yes! Play! Bring to our den! Fun!> Beatrice obediently picked up the doll, careful not to damage it, and followed her massive owner to their lair.

The doll was placed in the center of Zhevadeau and Beatrice's den, on top of the massive pile of 'toys' the two had collected. Ranging from chipped crystals to old clothes to broken statues, anything Zhevadeau thought looked fun was brought here and dumped in the pile. Zhevadeau happily grabbed the doll and began moving the arms up and down. <Be careful with that, my owner. It may be fragile.> <Ok careful yes!> As Zhevadeau enjoyed batting the doll's right arm around and around, Beatrice dug around in the pile and began pulling out various items. <Let me try, my owner. I have a fun idea!> <ok!> Carefully adjusting the doll's limbs and removing its outer clothing, Beatrice began to dress it up. Some funny candycane striped pants, a garish retrofuturistic shirt, a few of the colorful balls they loved so much, and a large mass of Zhevadeau's shedded fur on top. They stood back and giggled at the doll, now dressed up like a clown. <Silly! Silly!> <Yes, they look very silly indeed.> Zhevadeau started digging around in the pile. <More costumes! More costumes!> Beatrice smiled and obediently helped her owner find more costumes.

Over the course of the next hour, the doll was dressed up in a variety of embarrassing, hodgepodge outfits. The doll continued to smile happily. It was a doll. Dolls were meant to be dressed up. This was good. But while Zhevadeau and Beatrice were looking for stuff for a costume of one of their friends, a pink robot, Zhevadeau found a pretty crystal buried within the pile. <Oooooh... Pretty...> Beatrice looked at it. <Oh, yes, that is very pretty... Wait, didn't Connie tell us to get rid of that one?> <?> <She said there was something about it... Or maybe we found something about it... Made us feel weird...> <Sleepy...> <Yes, sleepy... It made us... made us sleepy...> <Sleeeeepy...> <Wait, no, stop looking at it! It's making us sleepy... making us so sleepy...> <So sleeeeepy...> <Have to fall asleep... No, have to get rid of it...> Beatrice sluggishly grabbed the pretty crystal and shoved it under the pile. <It's gone now... No need to sleep... Even if we are so sleepy...> <...sleepy...> <Sleepy...> <...sleeeeeep...> <...Sleep...> The hypnotic feedback loop continued to bounce back and forth between their minds, lulling them both into a deep sleep. Zhevadeau loudly yawned and curled up on her bed, and Beatrice softly yawned and snuggled up with her. Soon they were in a deep, comfortable sleep. The doll, of course, stayed awake. Dolls don't sleep. 

The doll stood in the center of the room for quite a while, still half-dressed as a ‘pink robot’. Zhevadeau's loud snoring didn't bother it at all. It did, however, attract something else… Slithering quietly into the room was a dark-haired woman, who instead of legs had a long brown snake tail with white and yellow rings. The naga had learned many things since being spirited away to the palace. One was, of course, that there was no pleasure better than obeying Mae and that she would never even dream of lying to her. Another less obvious one was that Zhevadeau's pile of ‘toys’ often contained very interesting things that the wolfbeast merely liked playing with. And the loud snoring was a wonderful indication that the stuff was free for the taking, as long as you were sneaky. And the naga was so sneaky, and so clever as well. And so she was easily able to acquire the beautiful doll in the center of the room without waking the beast… The doll reminded her of someone, but she so rarely saw anyone outside the Arboreum so she wasn’t sure who. Careful not to break the doll, she quietly snuck back to the Arboreum, where the others were waiting…

The naga proudly showed off the doll to her friends. The wood sprite inspected the strange outfit, the dryad observed the strange material it was made of, the flowergirl lazily opened an eye to look, and the slime just bounced happily around. The dryad looked at the naga questioningly. “What is this creature, exactly?” The naga chuckled. “It isss not a creature, it isss a doll.” The doll agreed. It was not a creature, it was a doll. The forest sprite started fiddling with the costume, and the naga hissed. “It issss not your turn yet! Assss the one who found it, I believe-” A flower was waved under her nose, “that flowergirl musssst go firsssst…” The flowergirl calmly nudged the now very sleepy naga away from the doll. She began gently placing flowers all around the doll's head. Soft roots began to slip inside, a relaxing floral scent filling the humming inside its head. A chorus of blissful whispers filled its head, telling it to lift its arm, to raise its hand, to move its fingers. The doll obeyed, stiffly raising its hand to the sky and slowly moving its fingers. The flowergirl smiled.

The doll was played with very much inside the Arboreum. The flowers told it how to move, how to pose, and how to think. It could not think, of course, but the flowers told it anyway. The dryad and sprite enjoyed removing its previous costume and adorning it in a lovely dress of leaves and branches and flowers. The naga curled around it, staring into its glassy eyes with her ring-filled ones and pretending it was a lost traveler she was luring into her thrall like she used to. And the slime just bounced around happily, bouncing on and off the doll's head and arms and legs and hands and everything else on it. The slime seemed to share a kinship with the doll, perhaps on account of its own nearly mindless nature. 

As they played, the artificial sun above began to flicker ever so slightly. The naga looked up from her fun in surprise. “What isss happening? Isss the sssun breaking?” The sun continued to flicker in an oddly soothing way, the light gradually growing dimmer and dimmer. The naga's eyes drooped. “I feel… sssleepy…” The dryad nodded. “Perhaps the sun is setting… It has been so long since it last was night here… We should sleep, sprite…” The sprite hopped into the dryad's warm, comfortable arms and gazed into her dimming green eyes as they drifted off to sleep. The naga tried her hardest to stay awake, but found herself suddenly realizing how long she had been awake for, and so she curled up next to a tree and let her eyes flutter shut. The slime melted into a sleepy little puddle, snorelike sounds coming from within. And the flowergirl… Well, she might have been asleep the whole time already, it was very difficult to tell. But dolls don't sleep. So the doll stayed staring blankly. 

Once all in the Arboreum had fallen into a state of relaxation, the sun slowly flickered again. It let out a bolt of electricity that quickly formed into the shape of a tomboyish girl, who grinned down at the doll. “Yeah, you should do perfect.” She zipped down and grabbed the doll, beginning to drag it out of the Arboreum. Her form was corporeal enough to move the doll, but not particularly fast. Luckily her little trick with the lights in there had knocked them all out, so she had time. She should brag to her Lady about that.

Several minutes later, the doll was brought to a small room in the back of the palace, where a curious machine was currently sparking and spinning around. “Okay Lill, I got something to help you adjust stuff!” Lillian looked over from her work on the machine, the screens still visible through her translucent green form. Her eyes widened as she saw the doll. “Terri, that's… That's a person! What did you do?!” Terri looked at the doll confused. “Huh, thought it was a doll. Anyway I just saw the forest guys playing with it and posing it, thought it'd be good for aligning your antennas and stuff.” Turning away from her own work, Lady Eliza Mesmer floated over and investigated the doll. “Hmmm… This is no mere doll. I can sense the psychic energy flickering within her. This is no ordinary trance the young servant is under… Her body has been transformed into a strange, artificial substance… I postulate it may be due to some arcane or occult energies…” She straightened up. “We can only hope this is reversible. In the meantime, however, I see no reason not to utilize her state for our mutual benefits. We gain increased precision in our methods, and she gains the satisfaction of assisting our scientific endeavors.” She gently reached her transparent hand inside the doll's head. <Listen to my voice, young Minvari. Let my psychic energies flow throughout your entranced mind. Until we complete our experiment, if I or my protégés command you to adjust your position, you will obey. Do you understand?> The little bit of sentience still buried within the doll's mind understood. Lady Eliza smiled. “Perfect. Now, come stand over here, young Minvari. This antenna must be set at precisely 71-point-22 degrees…”

The doll was surprisingly useful for the experiment. Under Lady Eliza's guidance, it was posed as precisely as the finest mechanisms. Its dress, lovely though it looked, was replaced by a rubber suit lined with metal wires on the outside, allowing it to conduct electricity safely. Although Lillian did wonder how conductive its ‘skin’ was, she did not wonder it enough to allow Terri to test it. Soon enough, the machine whirred to life, electricity traveling all over the doll's body. The three spirits backed away slightly as they watched a shimmering vortex appear in the air above the machine. Lillian stared in complete awe, Lady Eliza smiled in satisfaction, and Terri was incredibly tempted to stick her hand in. The doll, of course, continued to smile blankly. 

As Terri inched closer, a strange cacophony of voices emitted from the vortex, as if picking up from several dimensions at once. Exactly 2.2 seconds later, a stick flew out of the vortex and embedded itself in the wall, and the vortex fizzled away. 

Lillian hung her head in disappointment. “...I really thought it would work this time…” Lady Eliza gently gestured up with her finger, causing Lillian to instinctively look into her eyes, and smiled kindly. “Worry not, my protégé. You still accomplished a wonderful paranatural feat by even opening such a vortex. Do not let yourself fall into low spirits because it did not go perfectly.” As she spoke, her voice soft and hypnotic, she gently caressed the inside of Lillian's mind, sending waves of relaxation through her. Lillian smiled sleepily, allowing herself to be led into a trance by her lady. “Focus on my voice instead of the voice of doubt… Focus on my eyes instead of the stare of pressure… Let yourself fall, Lillian. Let yourself-” Terri obliviously interrupted her. “Hey, I got the stick out of the wall! I-” Lady Eliza silenced her with a soft click of her fingers, and she smiled back at her blissfully entranced protégé. “You see? You did not fail. We may now study what you found.” Lillian smiled sleepily. “Let us return to our laboratory, so to investigate this paranatural object.” Gently leading Lillian on an invisible leash, Lady Eliza floated out of the room, quickly followed by Terri. The doll, on the other hand, stayed there completely forgotten.

The doll had no concept of time, so it was unaware exactly how long it spent alone in that room, hooked up to the currently unpowered machine. It continued to smile happily, blankly awaiting the next person to play with it. The sound of hurried footsteps came from the hallway. “Athney! Are you in there?” The doll did not reply, but the person came in regardless. Riley, one of Athney's friends, looked at the doll and shook her head. “What did they do to you this time…?” The doll did not respond. Riley waved her hand before the doll’s face, but the doll did not respond. She sighed. “Alright, let’s hope whatever spell or effect you're under is something I can remove.” 

Riley extended her prosthetic arm, and it became covered in glowing runes while lights blinked on and off. She began to chant in a powerful, relaxing tone, her words reaching deep inside and waking up every last bit of resistance Athney has. She placed her palm on the d-Athney’s head, and a sensation like a warm shower began trickling down their body. The hard, smooth skin softened and became warm, the smile on their face became more sleepy and genuine, and their glassy eyes gradually stopped being glass. Athney blinked slowly. “...Whah…? What happened…? Wait, what am I wearing…?” Riley sighed. “Someone turned you into a mindless doll.” Athney blinked, then blushed, embarrassed. “...Oh… I think that ‘someone’ was me…”

Athney only remembered fragments of what happened while she was the doll, but it was enough to give Riley the basic gist of it as they returned to the foyer. “...So, yeah… uh, thanks for helping me break the spell…” Riley smiled. “What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t help you out like this? Oh, and that reminds me,” she handed Athney the magic book, “I found this on the foyer floor. I think you dropped it when Beatrice grabbed you.” Athney happily took it back. “Thanks! I should probably ask Connie or Mistress if there’s a better place for me to practice than the foyer… Probably should avoid something like that happening again… Might be worse next time…” Riley nodded. “Yep. At least this one wasn’t too painful or embarrassing for you.” Athney blushed. “Yeah… Can’t say I liked the way it felt, but at least I was happy and hypnotized…” She reached up a hand to fidget with her bow and winced uncomfortably as the wires on her outfit poked into her skin. “...I should get changed…” She was about to leave the room when a soft, powerful voice rang out, and she froze, growing lightheaded. She happily turned to see her Mistress, Mae Hypnowth, casually walking towards them.

Mae smiled at Athney and Riley. “Hello, my assistant and rebel.” Riley casually greeted her, not quite as entranced by her presence as Athney was. Athney smiled politely up at her. “Do you need help with anything, Mistress?” Riley cleared her throat and reminded Athney of the fact she was still wearing rubber and wires, but Mae didn’t notice. “Yes, assistant. I have found some wonderful dresses on my latest dreamwalk. I want to see how they look.” Athney nodded happily. “I’ll model them for you, Mistress! In fact…” She flipped through the book and began chanting the animation spell again, staring directly at the wall. Before Riley could stop her, a small bolt of magic impacted the wall, and reflected a much larger one back on Athney. Athney could feel her body stiffening, her skin growing hard, her eyes turning to glass, but she didn’t mind this time. Mistress needed a doll to be dressed up, and so the doll would be dressed up! It was what she was made to do. RIley shook her head in exasperation as Mae gently picked up the doll. “Thank you, assistant. This will be very helpful.” And as Mae carried the doll off to her room, the doll felt nothing but bliss, comfort, and true satisfaction at fulfilling its purpose…