The doorbell rang, and the Magenta doll that had once been Jane’s father quickly answered it. “Hello, Erma!” The doll said with a painted-on smile.
Erma grinned. Despite knowing Jane had to be anxious about her family becoming them, these dolls some incredible examples of magic in action, including perception-hindering magic. Not only that, it proved she was right about being able to hear the voice of the cosmos when it spoke. It was vindication at last.
“Hello miss, uh…” It dawned on her she had no idea of the cat girl maid’s former identity. “…doll.”
“Mistress Jane has been expecting you. Please, come inside.”
The doll guided Emra into the apartment’s kitchen, while Erma examined her carefully, watching how the doll moved, walked and talked. She’d love to take a closer look at the magic behind their animation, but first things first, she had to make sure Jane was okay.
Erma handled the presence of three animate cat girl dolls pretty well, considering she was one of the few people capable of realizing they were not supposed to be that way.
“Finally, you’re here,” Jane huffed. “You sound like you what’s going on here than anyone else thanks to your woo-woo crystal stuff, so lets get going! Help me figure out what happened to my family!”
“You got it, Jane,” Erma nodded, calmly. “I saw a bunch of other rubber cat girl maids out there as I got here, so my soul was able to pick up the changes in our dimension on them. Your family was affected by the same spell as them, a spell to make everyone in its reach into blissfully obedient dolls.”
Jane shook her head. “Okay, so about what my family guessed, great. Any idea who did it or why?”
“Well, when I tried to trace the resonance for the ‘master or mistress’ part of the spell, it was kinda all over the place. I think whoever cast it originally got caught in it herself, and is now one of her own dolls, looking for a master, so now the dolls will just think the first person they see, uh, that isn’t another doll, is their master. So, you.”
“Great!” Jane spread her arms wide in exasperation. “That’s just fantastic! So we can’t even go to the guy that started this mess and make him fix it!”
Erma looked over Jane, seeming a little distracted.
“Ugh, what?” Jane groaned. “Is there something on my face?”
“No, no,” Erma said, pulling a purple crystal out of her pocket. “Not on your face. On your soul.”
Jane sighed. “Look, it’s cool that your magic crystals can pick up that a girl is sad when she’s had her life turned upside down, but-“
“No, it’s not just that,” Erma shook her head. “I’m noticing residue of the spell on you. I guess you were just on the edge of the spell.”
Jane’s eyes widened. “W-wait, does that mean I’m next? Am I gonna turn into one of these grinning goofs the next time I go to sleep, or something?”
The dolls seemed to breifly pause, their smiles looking a little less genuine, as if the thought of not having a human mistress to serve filled them with dread.
“No, I don’t think so,” Erma said. “Not unless you really wanted to.”
“Why the Hell would I want to?” Jane spat.
Erma shrugged. “I heard being turned into a mindless golem can be a really Zen experience.”
Jane stared at Erma, unamused, for several seconds. “Okay. So, what DOES the magic residue do, then?”
“Kinda hard to tell for sure,” Erma said, staring at her crystal. “I think the part of the original spell that made people into dolls joined with the spell that makes you their mistress, and that they have to obey your orders.”
“So what does that mean?”
“Hard to say,” Erma said. “Does anything weird happen when you ask the dolls to do something.”
“Besides them obeying no matter what?”
“Yeah.”
“Nothing!” Jane said impatiently.
“Hmm…” Erma held tighter to her crystal. “I wonder what would happen if you gave an order, or asked for help, from someone who wasn’t changed.”
Jane thought for a moment. “I mean, didn’t I already ask for help from you, Amy, and Yuna? I pretty much ordered you to help me when you first got in here.”
“Oh, right.” Erma pulled a blue crystal out of her pocket, and set it on the table in front of her, before sitting quietly for a few moments. “Hmm. Maybe the spell didn’t do anything to me because I was already willing to help.”
“So… what? If I gave you an order and you refused, the spell might do something?”
Before Jane had a chance to experiment on Erma, the doorbell rang.
Jane sighed. “That’s probably another one of the girls, I’ll get it.” Erma, feeling a call from the cosmos, followed.
When she opened the door, she found not one of her friends, but a pizza delivery man, flanked by two rubber catgirls in different shades of green, and two more in shades of pink.
“Uh, hello,” he said, looking at a receipt. “There was an order to apartment 35A, but it seems to be a mistake, since that one was rented out by my new maids, here.” He gestured toward the green ones. “They told me you’re the only human living in this building. Would you like this pizza? It’s already paid for.”
“…Sure.” Jane said, taking the box from his hand, considering if she wanted to test it on him. Before he moved away, Jane called out; “Hey, would you give me your phone for a second?”
The man looked back, confused. “Uh, No?”
Then his body suddenly stiffened, and his posture straightened. His skin turned into a bright, shiny rubber, taking a bright yellow hue.
Jane and Erma were both shocked, unable to look away as the changes continued, though all the rubber maids were undisturbed.
The man’s shoes and socks vanished, while his clothing seemed to fuse to his skin, turning black at the same time. His pants reshaped into a short skirt that seemed to be a natural part of her new body, while below that skirt, a long thin tail grew out. Her fingers and toes ballooned up, looking more like paws, though her hands at least retained thumbs. The man’s mouth and nose swelled up together, before fusing shut, becoming a little snout with a painted-on smile, while her eyes flattened to paint as well, and became a bright blue color. Her ears turned triangular and moved up the sides of her head, and her hair vanished.
“So sorry, Mistress,” said the newest doll. “My bad. I don’t know why I didn’t want to do something easy like that for a great mistress like you. Here’s my phone, like you asked.” She swiped to unlock the phone, then held it out toward Jane.
“Uh, no that’s okay, it was just a test,” Jane stammered. The new doll looked a little disappointed, but took the phone back.
“Is there anything else you need from us, new Mistress?” The other four cat dolls said cheerfully, turning toward Jane.
“Just… clean your rooms, I guess, and come back later.” She turned to the former Pizza guy, still stunned. “I guess you can finish your route.”
The five dolls bowed, and walked away.
“Woah…” Erma whispered. “You might wanna be careful with what you ask people from now on.”