[TOY] Plaything

[skinstealer]

POLKA DOT: No, just…heard something about more toys spawning around certain seasons, but not anything about seasonal toys themselves.
TIMOTHY: About the same here…though something about what I heard seemed to resonate with my head.
TIMOTHY: Something about being lonely and upset this time of year…
 

Timothy shakes his head. 

TIMOTHY: B-but! I’ve always dismissed it as nothing.
WILLOW: I wouldn’t dismiss feelings that easily…
WILLOW: This is mainly thought to be, well, legend, but…I believe it.
POLKA DOT: Like the Store?
WILLOW: Even more disbelieved than that. Apparently other settlements listen to these weird, abstract feelings we get more, but there’s not a lot of “researchers” out here that operate aboveground.
WILLOW: People in charge don’t seem to like them much…
 

She gathers her thoughts, the character on her screen raising one of its hands to its cheek.

WILLOW: Basically…their work says that all toys come from another world, sort of.
WILLOW: Or…we’re based on feelings and experience from somewhere else, is more accurate.
WILLOW: People play with toys and go through life with them, and those feelings come here…or, well, the Store.
WILLOW: They’re not always from a single toy’s experience, and are more just…mushed together from lots, common threads…
WILLOW: Researchers say that the form a toy takes reflects what those experiences were, as well as having some impact on their memories and personality.
WILLOW: And, well…
WILLOW: For me, that comes in the sense of being a “special model”.
WILLOW: I showed up here in December of last year, but I’m a model corresponding with a holiday in October. 
WILLOW: Something about candy, and monsters, spooky things…I know some settlements celebrate it.
WILLOW: So…
WILLOW: I’ve figured out from a lot of self analysis that part of my deal is…being outdated. Out of season.
WILLOW: Some kind of gift found in a discount bin months after when I would be desirable…
TIMOTHY: But that doesn’t define you, does it?
TIMOTHY: You’re still you!
TIMOTHY: I don’t know if it’s a good idea to say you’re not desirable or anything!
TIMOTHY: Everyone has worth, at least to me…
WILLOW: I’m not sure.
WILLOW: People seem to think the ghost thing is cool, and I do play into it, just…
WILLOW: It does serve as a reminder that I’m out of place.
WILLOW: Born out of being unwanted.