1668/A-doll-able Explanation

A-doll-able Explanation
Date of Scene:	16 June 2024
Location:	Dorms #1
Synopsis:	Amy's a doll. Yaling has questions.
Cast of Characters:	Amanda Faust, Yaling Yao

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Amanda Faust has posed:
    After Mamoru teleports everyone back to the dorms, Amy finds herself naturally splitting off with Cure Suzhen to head back to the girls' dorms. "Um, so... do you wanna go to your room, or...? Does your roommate know about magic? And uh, d'you have your backpack with you or something for me to hide in? Although I guess you could just pretend to be carrying a doll..."

Yaling Yao has posed:
Once they are back at the school, Cure Suzhen lets the henshin fade off of her after thanking Mamoru (and Koji if he is still there), before looking at Amy to talk with her. "I don't have a roommate", she explains matter-of-factly, before getting her schoolbag off her shoulders and lowering it on the ground so Amy can climb on it. It's one of those rectangular ones meant to be hung off-shoulder.

"Are you sure you will be comfy in there?", the green-haired girl checks, rummaging around a bit so at least the softest items are forming a barrier for Amy to set in. "If you don't have the keys to your room, we can go to mine", she offers, putting her bag back on delicately after Amy has settled in, then walking towards whichever room the dollgirl has indicated for her.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinks as Cure Suzhen changes back into Yaling Yao. "...You were at the dance with Cho! The Princess Prom. I'm glad she found someone. Uh, how's she doing?" Amy wonders, and then looks at the bag that will be used to carry her.

    "Guh. Rashmi had a much bigger bag than this. Does your fairy ever ride in it? ...Do all Cures even have fairies? Anyway, I can manage for a couple of minutes. I don't have muscles to get uncomfortable at the moment." Amy climbs in a bit awkwardly. "Um... honestly? It'd be neat to see another room, if it's alright." She ducks down out of view for transport past the eyes of her dorm-mates.

Yaling Yao has posed:
"Sure, you got me!", Yaling asserts when Amy indentifies her. "We had a fun time at the dance, so we have seeing each other ever since. Things are going well, you know, with the student council, the general school stuff, and youma chasing", she shrugs nonchalantly.

Movement that ends up stlightly stirring BaiBai just as Amy talks about her, and the silver-white snake looks down at the doll with her warm honey eyes. "I have seen many curses for as long as I have been alive, but things like these are always among the most cruel", she comments, uncoiling slighty to tap Amy with the tip of her tail unless Amy shows she wouldn't like that.

"My name is BaiBai, but you might also know me as Lady Bai Suzhen, and I was once a Xian before first becoming a simple spirit and then a fairy", she gives a quick introduction to the redheaded doll.

"So, yes, Shifu is my fairy, but she is more my mentor than my mascot", Yaling adds, as Amy might recognize from the appellative the green-haired girl had recently started addressing BaiBai with. Once, they are at the dorm room, Yaling unlocks the door and lowers her bag onto a sofa, letting Amy climb out of there onto a soft pillow. "So, uhm, anything... I can offer you?", she says hesitantly.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    A fun time at the dance and seeing eachother after... Amy smiles. "Like me and Hannah! I'm happy for both of you."

    The snake moves. "Ohmygod I thought that was a toy." And then it talks. "Oh! You're her fairy?" Lady Bai? "I think I've heard that name somewhere before, maybe..." She looks fascinated.

    A cruel curse... Amy tilts her upper body slightly to one side to imitate a shrug. "It's... I've got a tolerance for things like this, I think. Having to deal with a different body. I know, what a specific and useless talent, until it's not. Although yeah, it's starting to get to me a little..." And yes, she knows what a shifu is.

    She ducks into the bag and waits until they're in the dorm room.

    Doll-Amy climbs out of the bag. She smirks briefly, "What, like tea or something? I don't think I can drink, either... But seriously, conversation is nice. It's..." She looks at Lady Bai. "I'm starting to realize the predicament of fairies, and similar creatures."

    She stretches, but doesn't feel any better, of course. So she stands up and paces on the bed. "It was just a youma at the market... although, one that has been around awhile I guess? Not just some mere monster of the week. Supposedly it'll last a few days, at most." She taps her chin. "Mamoru-san changed back faster. I wonder if I got a bigger dose of curse, or if maybe that same tolerance makes it harder for me to reject the curse?"

    She looks at her hand. "Hmm. If this happened to you, would you really like, go crazy or something?" She looks up at Yaling curiously. "Or would you just say, 'I guess I have to deal with this, everyone cursed into a doll does, after all. You figure out how to survive.'?" There's a weird emphasis on that last sentence, like she's quoting something.

Yaling Yao has posed:
"You and Hannah? I don't know if I actually saw you at the prom, I am still meeting people here" Yaling repeats, having not actually had the opportunity to know the latter due to their encounter having come in the middle of a rather strenuous battle whose focus was to survive and stop Hannah from getting killed more than anything. "What was it like? Have you been together long?", she says, a lot more interested now that Amy has awakened her latent romance streak.

BaiBai blinks and then nods, a sigh as she perceives there is quite a story to be told there, but one she is steering away from. It is not the type of story one usually finds themselves wanting to tell in her experience.

"I know how your kind lives as well", BaiBai tells Amy once she shares her observation about fairies' viewpoints. "I had lived as a human does once, with my Xu. We ran a pharmacy back then, the two of us."

"I can purify you", Yaling brightly offers, before stopping to reconsider. "But you saw how it works at our concert, I make it rain, so if I fail, it won't be very good for a wooden body." If that doesn't work, there must be something else to make it better.

Yaling ponders Amy's question, preparing some tea for herself. "I wouldn't like it, but I could get used to it. Being dependent on others to do things wasn't an oddity for me before I met Shifu."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Ah, right. This girl doesn't know her either. Amy scratches her head... what's the harm? "I'm Amanda Faust, grade 10. Amy for short." She holds out a hand to shake. "Nice to meet you."

    Purification... "Thanks. I may as well let it play out through the weekend. It's kind of a novel experience, too... If I wake up on Monday still like this, I guess I'd better look for a cure."

    Haven't the Cures mentioned something about a wish? At Yaling's words, Amy looks her over, picturing her in a wheelchair. Or perhaps bedridden? "I see. I guess it's easy to forget there are many ways to be trapped in a body that isn't... comfortable. I'm sorry... I'm glad Bai-san was able to help you."

    She takes a breath -- or the sound of one, anyway -- and clasps her arms together, up above her head, looking up at the ceiling. "As for me an' Hannah... she... she swept me off my feet at the dance last summer, and..." She drops her arms back down, and looks away from Yaling, down at the bed. She'd be blushing if her cheeks weren't painted porcelain. "She... she acted like I was something special. Like I... d... deserved... to be treated... like someone special. Like I..."

    Amy drops to her hands and knees on the bed, the little bowler hat tumbling off her head. "Like I... a-and she can't even see me, she's blind, a-and yet she acts like I'm s-special and cute and... w-what am I doing? There's no way I deserve her, b-but, she's insisted, and..." She pulls herself into a sitting position. "And... her caring for me is so nice, I... I can't give it up, even if I don't deserve it. I... I can have one nice thing in my life, if I'm going to risk dying in battle all the time."

    "I never had that. Someone who, when she's around, you know things are going to be alright. Who makes you feel loved, and safe... How can I not love her back? Of course I do! I... I don't understand how her life is better for having me in it, but she seems to think so..."

Yaling Yao has posed:
Yaling likewise holds her hand out when Amy extends hers, grasping ut delicately and trying to hold back her usual energy. "Nice to meet you, Amy-san! I'm in Grade 9, and my family name is Yao", she finishes the introductions, her head bowing towards her guest. "You were the redhead and the blonde, then?", she guesses after cross-referencing Amy's description with what she remembers. She doesn't say anything in particular at Amy's turning down her offer. She definitely gets it, considering the disadvantages if it doesn't work.

Captivated by the tale of Amy's romance, Yaling keeps silent, the only indication of her thoughts that she can't keep a smile off her face. When Amy finishes speaking, the green-haired girl exclaims "You tell it like it's a fairy tale, the valiant knight coming to rescue her soulmate out of the tower she is trapped in and bring her to kingdom where they will live happily ever after.

"But this princess is a bit too harsh on herself", Yaling adds. "If the knight wants her, it's certainly because she can see her beauty inside even if not outside, and that's what matters the most to her. So the princess should grab her courage with both hands and shout her love for the knight until every part of herself is convinced they deserve to be together."

She takes a sip of her tea. "I typically prefer sporty romances, but there is nothing wrong with the classics. And your story has that written all over it. So, don't worry, Amy-san, because Hannah-san must have a very good reason for her opinion of you."