To designate something, I just need to think about it right? I thought about myself, and the result…

Really? I couldn't check on my body while using the Avatar. I briefly wondered why 'Clothing' was listed instead of individual articles, but there was something more interesting. Under Active Effects, I guessed Extrasensory referred to my ability to see even though this doll didn't have real eyes, while Psychokinesis was how the doll was being moved. At the very least, I couldn't seem to move objects other than the doll just by thinking about them, so that was the most likely meaning. Clicking the words didn't tell me anything, so I pressed the 'Body' button instead.

What appeared was an extremely detailed anatomical model of the Puppet followed by another status screen. It's… too much. I think my saving grace here was that the puppet was actually a rather simple creation. If I'd tried to look at a flesh and blood body first, I might have turned away on the spot. Even then, it took me a few minutes to wrap my head around what I was seeing. Most of the information was collapsed, but as soon as I thought about something, information appeared directly without the need to touch the screen. Everything was described, the composition of individual parts, the materials used, any damage, no matter how minor or the source. The only limit seemed to be whether I knew to look for it. The only thing I'd truly come to understand was that it's good I didn't click the 'Design' button in the 'Creatures' menu.

I backed out and then looked at the other options. For some reason, 'Heart', 'Soul', and 'Evolve' were greyed out, but 'Mind' and 'Spirit' were not. I didn't really understand the difference between a spirit and a soul, or a heart for that matter. The physical heart should have clearly been under body, so this button should have described something… Immaterial. Since I was possessing the doll, it should have been my heart, mind, spirit and soul, right? Yet I only had access to half the options. Just to test, I clicked the greyed out 'Heart' button but got no response. Instead of clicking 'Mind' next, though, I selected 'Spirit'. Because I wanted to know the difference, mostly.

The result was the same as with the 'Body' button. On the surface, at least. In reality… I had no idea what I was looking at. I'd never seen a spirit portrayed before, so it was just a bunch of incomprehensible lines. Instead of information popping out at me as I thought of it like before, the screen stayed static, giving me no context to work with. The only thing I could really tell was that there weren't any problems. No, there was one more thing. The spirit seemed to be the medium that allowed me to possess the doll. As soon as I noticed it, clarity sprang forth, and the lines snapped into focus. There was an odd sort of flow, not tied to any physical part of the body, but occupying the same space. Two arms, two legs. But also strange points where the spirit seemed to congregate briefly before continuing to flow forth. It vaguely reminded me of something I heard about in a commercial, and quickly dismissed as foolish. Maybe I was in the wrong, back then. However… I felt that this doll's spirit was even more simplified than the body. It made me nervous about looking at the real thing.

Now that I knew what to look for, some information popped up for me to look through. To roughly summarize, the spirit seemed to be a manifestation of intent, or something similar. The doll had a spirit because it had a purpose, and these flows allowed it to carry out that purpose. Whatever a heart or soul was according to the interface, they weren't needed for the doll. Or maybe they would have interfered with the purpose of being my avatar. I still felt like there were some things that I couldn't understand without looking at a more complex being, but for the moment I was satisfied. I backed out and selected the 'Mind' button.

I was vaguely expecting a diagram of the brain, or something. What I actually got seemed to be just as confusing as the spirit visualization. Which was understandable. A brain would be part of the body, and more than that, this doll didn't have a brain. Instead, the doll's mind seemed to be a very simple list of commands and bits of information. Looking at it… The doll should have been able to follow simple orders and carry out tasks even when I wasn't possessing it. There was also some small capacity to learn complex commands that it couldn't currently perform. For example, it seemed to have learned how to dress after observing me take that action earlier.

That… kinda creeped me out. Was the doll alive, in some way, watching everything I did using its body? Was it trapped in a nightmarish existence? But nothing in the 'Spirit' or 'Mind' tabs gave that impression. Perhaps awareness was in the 'Heart' or 'Soul' that the doll lacked. In order to confirm, I needed to look at the missing tabs. Which was impossible, so I had no choice but to dismiss such unproductive thoughts and back out.

I gave a tired sigh and stretched a little. The Evolution tab was terribly complex, and it was probably less complex than the Design buttons in the Crafting and Creature tabs. Even though I couldn't actually click the Evolve button that the interface was named after. It occurred to me now, at such a late time, that if I waited long enough someone would probably post some handy, well researched guides on every tab and subtab. However… the next tab was 'Magic'. There's no way I could stop without looking at this, right? A bit of excitement washed over me as I pressed the button.

I looked up into the sky with tears in my eyes. What a ridiculous letdown.

Cipiteca396

Say hi if you've managed to read this far. o/