I suppose it must be approximately 3 months post experiment at this point, I keep forgetting to do these reports. I decided to call the doll Melody, after the songs it would make as mentioned in the previous report, and it seemed to be very pleased with the choice. It didn’t seem to be aware that it was even allowed to have a name, so it came as a pleasant surprise.
This was yet another example of something that the doll had never thought about before learning it was a possibility, dolls typically carry over a lot of knowledge from their previous lives, so it stands to reason that Melody would lack that, having been created entirely from scratch. It has shown itself to be rather curious about many things, but that doesn’t help for topics that it doesn’t yet have a frame of reference for.
I can’t help but wonder if education is the key to unlocking the secrets of this doll, how many of the questions I have about it could be answered if I simply give it the means to start thinking about them itself? Perhaps I should buy some books on various topics for it to read though, and see if any of them lead to a breakthrough.
There have been a few difficulties as far as having Melody run errands, but the doll seems to be handling the tasks much better as time goes on. It has become at least somewhat more comfortable with talking to people, once introductions have been made at least, although there have been occasions where it has perhaps gotten a little too comfortable. I may need to have a conversation with it about etiquette, as its aforementioned curiosity has led to it asking questions to the townspeople that were too direct or personal, which they sometimes took offence to. Luckily it has only resulted in a few very minor incidents, but the doll’s emotional issues have meant that I’ve been called out to collect a pile of sobbing body parts on a couple of occasions.
Despite all of that, Melody seems to be getting along well enough with the townspeople, who as far as they know is just a regular doll, and it says that it enjoys getting to go out and see different things. It seems to have taken a particular interest in some of the animals it’s encountered on its trips into town, in fact. There have been a few times where I’ve had to go out and search for the doll as it was taking a very long time to return, only to find it socialising with some of the local cats. I find it difficult to get too mad at Melody, finding things for it to do was the reason I started sending it out in the first place, and at the very least it completes the errands I set out for it before getting distracted, most of the time, anyway.
Even though there is still so much about Melody I don’t yet understand, the doll has proven itself more than useful as an assistant, even with its more unique quirks. I must admit that I have begun to grow fond of its songs, and am glad to have it around to help. I’ve also taken the time to double check the formulas I used in its creation multiple times now, and I’m certain there’s nothing in there that could explain how this doll turned out the way it did. Perhaps there are other factors I’m not properly accounting for? I shall continue to search for answers, and will be sure to report any discoveries I make.
I have been having some concerns about Melody since my report two months ago. The doll has continued to assist me, and has made some small improvements in regards to interacting with people, but a few weeks ago its mood started to shift. If I’m being completely honest, I’ve found it very difficult to get any research done recently, or look further into the ongoing questions surrounding the doll, as I can’t help but worry about what’s happened to it.
There haven’t been many outbursts like what was experienced when it was first created however, I would describe its current temperament as more… subdued. There are signs suggesting some form of depression, as it has shown much less interest in reading recently, and its songs have stopped almost entirely, but it's also exhibiting traits associated with anxiety, such as a mild level of nervousness even when it isn’t interacting with new people, and a tendency to fidget more than usual.
I have attempted to ask Melody what’s going on, but it would appear that even it isn’t sure what exactly is bothering it, just that it’s recently started to feel like something might be wrong. Such a nebulous statement doesn’t help much when it comes to getting to the bottom of the issue, but there’s a good chance the doll just doesn’t have a frame of reference to understand the emotions it’s feeling, or the issue that caused this shift in the first place.
The one thing Melody could tell me was that it started to feel this way after some innocent comments from the townspeople, apparently some of them have started to recognise what an unusual doll it is. I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised, I highly doubt that many of them have ever seen a doll before, but stories about witchcraft are commonplace among those who don’t understand them, and Melody certainly doesn’t match up with whatever image of a doll those stories would have provided them.
Truthfully, I’m not very experienced in matters of the heart, doll or otherwise. It’s one of the reasons I chose academia instead of joining the family business, so I’m not sure if there’s much I could do to resolve this situation on my own. I feel like the most I could do is try to find some kind of evidence that could point to the cause of the issue, and hope that’s enough to help Melody figure out the rest itself. I might need to head into town at some point and ask if anyone has noticed anything unusual, but the doll is out running errands right now, and if it gets home before me it will probably worry that something has happened to me. Perhaps in the meantime there might be value in looking over the books it was reading around the time this started, there’s a possibility that something it read is contributing to its mood.
[Sounds of footsteps, doors opening and closing]
Lets see here, there are a few small piles of books on the desk that don’t appear to have been touched recently, that would likely be a good place to start looking.
Melody started choosing out its own books not long before all this started, and most of the ones here line up with what it was already expressing interest in. Encyclopaedias of animals and monsters from various regions, several books on knights, which for some reason are the only aspect of politics it has ever shown any active interest in, there’s also an adventurer’s survival guide here, which is a new development, although I don’t know if-
…That’s unusual, it seems to have grabbed one of my old books on the basics of witchcraft from the lab… I can’t claim to understand the system Melody uses to sort the books it has and hasn’t read, but this book was in the middle of one of the piles, so if it did get around to reading it, it likely wasn’t the last thing it read before its mood started to change. That’s not what worries me though, as I’ve mentioned in the past, dolls can sense their own witches magic, and in some cases other forms of witchcraft if it poses a danger to them, but all dolls have a defensive mechanism built in that prevents them from feeling any more than that, as well as understanding it on any level beyond what they need to assist with simple tasks, as a doll using witchcraft itself has only ever yielded disastrous results.
I know for a fact that the same defensive mechanism was built into Melody’s fake soul, so it shouldn’t have even been able to take notice of this book unless asked to, let alone bring it here with the intention of reading it. The fact that it was able to do so suggests said mechanism isn’t working, which would mean that something went wrong during the creation process and the fake soul didn’t take to the body properly, but if that was indeed the case I highly doubt the doll would be able to function at all, let alone for as long as it has. So if the doll creation process wasn’t completed successfully, and Melody is still able to function, then that would mean the most probable explanation is-
…Dear god. Have… have I been mistaken this entire time?
I-I need to talk to Melody when it returns...
