Phantom Doll - Part II

[DollSpace]

Ok, so here we go, keep on keepin' on, I suppose... Slowly getting into more robotic territory to keep those on the board happy *giggle*! Also a note: when I envisioned these characters, they were in high school, but this story works almost as well if you imagine these characters as university-age kids, too. ^^ They're not supposed to be all that young, hehe...

PHANTOM DOLL - PART II

And that was how it all began. With a simple request from Rylie, Jeremy eased her into a standing position, where she walked, a little stiff-legged at first, out into the hallway.
"We've moved?" she inquired almost immediately.
"Yeah, after...umm, after Kylie died, mum didn't want to see much of our old house, or anyone who was really connected to our old life," Jeremy explained.
Rylie looked down, and Jeremy could've sworn she looked a bit sad. It didn't take long for her shining smile to come back, though. "So you're Jeremy then? I remember you when you were so young, like K-k-kylie was...," she said, losing her composure for only a moment. "Can I see your room?"
Jeremy was a little confused at the forward manner of the robot, much more accustomed to personal computer-like bots, whereas this one looked like she could be human. "Umm, sure, ok, it's over here," he said, and led Rylie over to the door.
Rylie scanned the room and immediately pounced on the bed, making it groan slightly under the slightly heavier-than-normal frame of Rylie. "Ooo, this bed is soft! I bet you have no problem falling asleep at night!"
Jeremy just weakly nodded, letting a shock of black hair fall in front of his eyes, not mentioning the agonising lonely nights, and then the nights he cried for both his sister and his father. He wandered around the room a bit before being suprised by a Rylie pounce, landing them both on the bed, face to face. Rylie looked a little bemused at the whole experience, with perhaps just a glint of professional mischief in her eyes, whereas Jeremy's face was filled with embarrassment, fear, and awkwardness. His arm quickly shot out to the button behind her ear and deactivated her. The happiness in her eyes turned to surprised hurt, but then the light in her eyes turned to dark and that was it. For now.

The next time he turned her on was a few weeks hence. Everything had been gone through in the attempt to make new friends; even his looks were changed a bit, with his black hair now sporting frosted blonde tips. Nothing worked. So now, he decided to turn to Riley. He'd been able to drag Rylie into his own closet, but unable to gather up the courage to turn her back on until just then. He propped her up on the bed, in a seated position, and sat down next to her. Then, he depressed the button behind Rylie's left ear, causing another episode of slight whirring, and then opened eyes.
"How...how could you just..." Rylie sputtered out.
"How could I what?" Jeremy was confused.
"How could you just turn me off like that? I'm not a plaything, you know. I'm a sophisticated piece of equipment!" she said and giggled.
"Piece of...equipment? Look, I'm sorry I turned you off so suddenly, it was just that...having someone else here in my room, heck, on my bed, was a little weird at first. It's been over two weeks since I flipped your switch last. It's early June!" Jeremy explained.
"I don't know, I just felt...I felt sort of hurt when you just decided it was up to you whether I was on or off. I'm sentient, I can take it," she explained.
"Sentient? You're a robot! How can you be sentient?"
"Trust me; I could pass the Turing Test with my eyes closed!" she said, proudly.
"T-Turing test?" Jeremy asked, again confused.
"Never mind, never mind. Come on, let's do something!" she said and hopped off the bed in her simple outfit of jeans and a white t-shirt with white socks. She played with her hair for a bit, letting it hang loosely since she had no hair ties around, and then wheedled Jeremy again.
"Why aren't you moving? I wanna go places, see things, do stuff!" she said.
"I...I can't bring you outside! Mum would kill me if she ever found out!" Jeremy explained.
"Is she home?" Rylie asked.
"No, but what if one of the neighbours sees me outside talking to a girl that just happens to look suspiciously like you?" Jeremy asked.
"Is your mum very friendly with the neighbours?" asked Rylie.
"Well, umm, err, not really..." Jeremy trailed off.
"Then there you have it! They may be confused but they won't care, and your mum almost never talks to them anyway," Rylie pleaded.
"No, no, no! We need to stay inside... Let's watch TV or something... We can play a video game? I bet the technology's increased a lot since you've been deactivated," Jeremy told her.
Reluctantly, Rylie agreed and waited with a dour look as Jeremy hooked up his Revolution Station Game System. He grabbed a simple car racing game and put it in. Rylie's look turned almost immediately from dour and disappointed to happiness and anticipation. "Wow," she said, "these graphics are incredible...but, how's the game play?"
"Find out for yourself," Jeremy said as he tossed her a controller and briefly outlined the buttons and their functions.
It wasn't long before Rylie beat the racing game, so they went through all sorts of first-person shooter games, more racing games, role-playing games, and even emulators that let you play old-fashioned games like Pong and Space Invaders. They went through them all so quickly that Jeremy hardly noticed his mother's car rolling down the driveway.
They both jumped, startled when they heard the front door slam. "Oh, no, Rylie, I've gotta turn you off now. Mum can't catch me with you yet!" Jeremy said worriedly.
Rylie looked disappointed again and asked, "Are you sure? Come on, your mum won't mind..."
"No, I'm really sorry, too. I really enjoyed playing games with you all afternoon and talking and, yeah..." Jeremy's train of thought got interrupted by his mum's footsteps on the stairs, so he made a move towards Rylie.
"Not yet," she said, and darted at Jeremy, giving his cheek a quick peck, before rushing into Jeremy's walk-in closet. Jeremy reached up, almost like he was about to caress her ear, and slowly depressed the on/off switch that was there. The sparkle in Rylie's eyes faded away and she slowly moved into an almost slouched position as a soft whirring down of her systems was heard.
"Who were you talking to?" Sandra Quinn asked as she poked her head in the door to check with Jeremy on the events of his day.
"Video games, mum," he said, and it seemed all the explanation she needed as she turned and left the room.

To be continued...

[ButchyBoy]

I feel for Rylie already. Good story so far

[UserJesse]

loving the story thus-far Ryn...more more!

[Magoo]

more please

(You know you've got a good story when someone who has gone back to lurking comments...)