Robyn turned around, her new mechanical body whirring slightly. She looked at Eli, one of her closest friends, and thought about how fun it would be to have him be the first subject of her new kingdom.
“It says here that since I found this letter, I’m the new owner of this place, and I can ask other people to help me run it.”
“I don’t think that’s how it works.”
“Sure it is, it’s got an official stamp, and everything!” She held up the paper, pointing to the stamp. “Plus, it turned me into a rabbit princess, didn’t it?” She gestured over herself.
“Oh, yeah, I guess it did,” Eli said, scratching the back of his head. “So, what do you want to do with it now that you’re in charge?”
“Well, the first thing I want is to get enough people here to put on a play on the stage over there.” She reached down and picked up an old piece of paper that had fallen to the floor, and stamped it. “But the FIRST first thing I want to do is get you to sign this, so I can bring in my best friend as my kingdom’s first subject!”
“Subject?” Eli shook his head. “Come on, I’m your best friend, can’t I get a better part in the play than that?”
Robyn thought a moment, and decided it wasn’t that unreasonable. “What would you want to be?”
“I’d wanna be important! Maybe a knight! Or a prince!”
“A prince?” Robyn raised an eyebrow. “Are you… in love with me?”
“No, a prince doesn’t have to marry a princess,” Eli said. “They could be brother and sister. Or friends.”
Robyn shrugged. “I guess that makes sense. So, if I write down here and say I’ll let you be a prince in the show, will you sign?”
“Yeah,” the boy nodded. “Will we get to have some of the snacks if you get this place running again, by the way?”
“You’ll have as much food as you can eat when you join,” Robyn said, writing up the very basic ‘contract,’ saying the signer would get the role of ‘prince’ as long as they worked in this place. “Just sign here, please.”
Eli did so, and immediately his skin was converted to pieces of solid white plastic, with gaps around his joints to allow for movement. Underneath, his limbs were turned to metal, with a battery, motor, and cooling system in his chest. His feet now resembled rabbit’s paws, and a little spherical tail had popped into existence just above his now-featureless rear. All of his original clothing was gone, and had been replaced by a gold-trimmed blue shirt with puffy shoulders, and a small golden crown, through which two long rabbit ears stuck out. His eyes, now made of glass, had turned green just like Robyn’s had. His nose looked like a pink triangle painted on the end of his little snout, with little buck teeth poking out of his mouth.
“Oh, I get it now,” he said calmly, looking over himself. “You weren’t actually gonna offer me food because I won’t need to eat. That’s a good one.” He smiled up at her. “Thanks for keeping your promise.”
“No problem,” Robyn said. “You look like we could be brother and sister now.”
“Yeah, I’d wanted to match your look for this.” Eli looked around. “So, what next?”
“We recruit more people, of course!”
“Oh, right!” Eli nodded. “I have just the idea for the next person…”