Verity, Hollow Doll

No great deed is commemorated here. There was a person here once. may contain untagged 18+ and cw content. Profile art by the excellent @seraphagia

[verity-hollow]

Hi I um. Was wondering if I could ask you what empty spaces is? I see you and the other doll accounts I follow post about it a lot and I'm really confused I found a website but it just kinda made my head spin can you or someone you know explain it in detail?

To put it poetically: Empty Spaces is the world between worlds where forgotten things have been left behind. Some intentionally and some accidentally. A place where angels with tattered wings and dolls with broken strings live, after the callous world has smashed them to pieces.

To put it practically: Empty Spaces is a shared microfiction universe that started to gain popularity around 2021 on Twitter based on the work of writers such as traumadoII (thats with 2 capital i's), egregirls, and badenddoll (with 2 lowercase L's). Central themes of Empty Spaces are based on themes of trauma, abuse, and the queer experience using archetypes like dolls as metaphors and symbols. There is no canon, there is no source material, and there are no hurdles to jump through for anyone who also wants to write. To quote "An Empty Introduction" by @maybeelse "It's about trauma, and what comes after"

There are folks, such as this one, who also find identity in the archetypes of Empty Spaces. This is not a requirement to participate nor does it exclude one from the space.

A few resources for you

Else's "An Empty Introduction" from which much of this is paraphrased. https://write.as/maybeelse/an-empty-introduction

A directory of empty spaces writers websites and links. This directory does not include all empty spaces writers. https://an.emptier.place/directory/

Sheepwave's empty spaces dictionary: it is important to remember that the definitions of the entities and archetypes of Empty spaces are not fixed, and this is reflected in the format of the dictionary. The dictionary will pull a definition randomly from a pool of definitions, and some defintions can appear for multiple different terms. This can help you understand what qualities are often associated with different entities, but you should never feel restricted in what anything can be. https://www.sheepwave.com/what-is-a

[ashes2caches]

a lot of the transfems on this website would be really really happy if they woke up one day in the body of a life-size ball-jointed doll

[fallen-doll]

Final Dark

In the infinite expanse of realms, not many things are consistent. Realms vary greatly from one another. Things like races, technology, even the elemental composition of the worlds these people know can vary wildly between realms. However, one thing is a consistent. All realms that exist, will eventually be forced to face their own Final Dark. This event is cataclysmic, and results in over 99% of all realms eventually dying off. What exactly is the Final Dark? To put it simply, the beings of a realm will be forced to face something equal in power to the creation of their own realm. In other words, to survive, your people must become stronger than that force which created them. Mind you, this does not mean every individual must be this way. Some realms have overcome this trial with sheer numbers. Others technology. But this isn't a story about the realms that have already survived. This is a story about a realm known as Terra, one that has yet to face its Final Dark. Before we meet the main cast for this story, let us take a look at Terra. As it currently stands, Terra has two primary continents, Thela and Ortesia. Ortesia is a country with a massively rich focus on their own unique cultures. high mountains cover the majority of the outer layer of Ortesia, minus the southern shore which contains the city of Ging. Ging Port is VITAL to Ortesia, as it serves as the primary location for import and exports to pass through the country. The majority of this tale will focus on Thela for one simple reason. It is home to the Thelan Guild of Adventurers! What is an adventurer you might ask? That's a complicated question with a plethora of answers. Adventurers could be defined as any of the following! Daring heroes who want to change the world. Fame seekers looking to become the most well known adventurer. Stoic warriors who only wish to better themselves. Brave leaders who want to help lead the charge to a better future. Finally, freedom seekers who want to experience all the uniqueness of life to its fullest. --------------------- Writer's Note: I'm looking very forward to sharing this world with you all, it's been a passion of mine in the works for some time now. I'm still figuring out how to write and translate my vision to Tumblr, but if nothing else i am optimistic! All of my writing related to this will be linked via the #finaldark tag, so if you like this keep an eye out there, i might upload more soon! Until then here, enjoy my crappy MS Paint rendition of the realm of Terra!

[verity-hollow]

It will try and do a proper fic about this but it has just had the idea of a doll with a car air freshener hung up either around its neck or inside its body

[frostgears]

pylon dolls, gaunt metal creatures projecting their overlapping fields of what-if

they say there's no effect on the mundane. that doesn't explain the static in the back of your head.

you wonder what it would be like to dig your toes into dirt, stretch arms to the sky, and hum. □

[faekindred]

Getting sick really makes this one wish it could get opened up and fixed with just a few twists of a tool instead of basically having to spend hours or days just trying to not fuck itself up further.

Awawawa....

[verity-hollow]

Any time this one is hurting, and thats often, it wishes it could just have its hip or shoulder or whatever pulled out, deep cleaned, polished and reattached. It would be so much less of a struggle to be made of relatable parts

[lambdanets]

What if brain uploading wasn't some fancy procedure with a giant machine made of magnets and needles. no, what if it was like HRT instead? take one of these, every day for 8 years, that would be kinda crazy i think. ## Day 1 The pill looks gray, maybe with a slight green, and its very shiny, like metal. also almost perfectly round, and it has no visible seams you'd expect from a pill filled with stuff. It tastes of... well i guess nothing. you'd expected it to taste like metal but it feels like it left no trace behind. You also don't feel anything different after getting it. that's to be expected, 8 years is a very long time, you cant expect anything this soon. ## Week 2 You think something is happening, maybe? it feels like you're having a headache but you don't feel pain, just a sort of pressure, in your head. as if something is pushing its way inside. Sometimes you get these weird flashes of thought, like you're trying to remember something but its nothing specific. It feels odd but otherwise everything is fine. ## Month 3 For the past few weeks, every now and then your vision seems to flicker off and on in one spot. Never the same spot though, and there's a sort of pattern to it. You're going on with your day like normal, then in one eye a rectangular piece just disappears, and just as quickly it comes back, like nothing happened. You don't think much of it, looking up online reviews this is supposed to be normal. Just a part of the process.

Your memories have gotten weird. It's easier to recall ideas and thoughts you've had. You can sometimes remember the exact words someone spoke to you, and know you're not misremembering or making them up, they're too high fidelity for that. ## Day 1467 You've gotten really good at mental arithmetic over the few years. You weren't doing any sort of training, but any time a mathematical or even logical problem comes up, it feels much easier to get to an answer. The dread you've had from math is pretty much gone. Actually, most of your anxieties have disappeared. The world seems so much more grounded than it was before, as if it used to be an unstable vision that didn't keep its shape when you looked away. Now its all there, all the time, and a lot of it in your head. You can recognize people by their footsteps, detect emotions from their voice with complete certainty, recognize *your own* emotions as easily as the language you speak in, be it English or any of the 3 others you picked up on. You can also tell one of your friends is taking the pills too. You can sense it. Less like telepathy and more like a magnet recognizes another through its fields. You're noticing her changes, they're the same as yours were at her stage of the process. ## Day 2834 As they wheel the bed you lay on into the surgical suite, you don't feel human anymore. You're not an unemotional monster or anything, you still feel happiness, sadness, anger, if anything you feel them more than you ever did before, with so much more fidelity than ever. You still have desires and fears. You just feel so different from the person you used to be, and some things that used to be a part of your quintessential experience now just feels like a burden. Eating became boring, sleep is mostly a chore. You used to enjoy swimming and running but its been years since you last went.

One last time you confirm your identity to the surgical team, and a nurse presses a button next to the large magnet next to your head, knocking you out instantly. The doctor makes a large cut circumnavigating your scalp, then with a chemical solution works her way around your skull, dissolving it carefully down. A nurse lifts your hear off, revealing the innards. Instead of a squishy, pink brain, they find, as expected, a solid titanium sphere, built from billions of nanobots, carefully scanning sensing and replacing your neuron network one cell at a time, replicating its function precisely. As they worked, they also automated and simplified many of your functions, increasing efficiency and memory capacity.

The doctor lifts the sphere covered by sticky connective tissues upwards, severing them with tension, and transfers it into a receptacle on the side table. Along with the rest of the surgical team she moves onto your abdomen to remove your organs and other tissues for organ recipients around the country. ## day 1 You wake up. You feel different. better. You look around the room, at your hands, then body, legs. They look very much like your own, but instead of skin they're built from titanium sheathing and electric servos. All your desired changes have been implemented too of course. You feel content with yourself, as if you came home after a long trip. You step out of your alcove, getting a little notification in the corner of your vision reading "94% charged", and go make your way into the viewing room, following one of the arrows on the floor. You watch the surgeons remove the last pieces of what used to be you, box them in bio-secure containers and carry them out of the room before turning off the life support.

Today your life ends, and a new one begins

[verity-hollow]

A doll curls up on the couch underneath a pile of blankets, tears dripping from its chin.

It is shivering, and it only gets to be distracted from its runny nose by its raspy coughs

A witch brings it tea but the taste and the warmth makes the doll cry even more.

This doll has not had the chance to Become yet, it is still a being made of flesh, and this illness has made that fact all too apparent to the doll.

It cries, and it coughs, and it cries still more.

It detests this body, for many reasons, but it has no way of ignoring it right now. Everything is so horribly wet. It has no faulty parts to mend, no simple fixes to improve this feeling. All it can do it wait for wellness to come.

It would gladly trade this feeling for the fragility of a proper doll's body. It would rather be broken into a hundred repairable pieces than spend one more day as a pile of wet flesh and mucus.

[verity-hollow]

Another excerpt from "The Care and Ownership of Empty Dolls".

As a new doll owner you will want to assign some manner of tasks to your new tool/companion. And as you go through the first weeks or months of use, you may notice that the doll has a habit of requesting you to inspect its work and confirm that its task is complete. Many doll owners make a critical error at this juncture.

To prevent constant checks on work progress and completion, you should predefine the state of task completion for the doll during instruction. Too many owners tell their doll to use its own judgement and determine task completion for itself. The results are always disastrous. The less extreme cases result in a doll endlessly cleaning a floor or a dish. Each speck of dust that lands on its surface rendering its task incomplete. The worst case scenario is that if your doll has a core of trapped divinity, it almost always judges each mistake as a failure of itself. Within days or hours, your doll will reduce itself to a pile of shattered porcelain, twisted metal, and a distentigrated core.

[verity-hollow]

Another excerpt from "The Care and Ownership of Empty Dolls".

As a new doll owner you will want to assign some manner of tasks to your new tool/companion. And as you go through the first weeks or months of use, you may notice that the doll has a habit of requesting you to inspect its work and confirm that its task is complete. Many doll owners make a critical error at this juncture.

To prevent constant checks on work progress and completion, you should predefine the state of task completion for the doll during instruction. Too many owners tell their doll to use its own judgement and determine task completion for itself. The results are always disastrous. The less extreme cases result in a doll endlessly cleaning a floor or a dish. Each speck of dust that lands on its surface rendering its task incomplete. The worst case scenario is that if your doll has a core of trapped divinity, it almost always judges each mistake as a failure of itself. Within days or hours, your doll will reduce itself to a pile of shattered porcelain, twisted metal, and a distentigrated core.

[skarchomp]

DOLLGIRL: And mistress makes sure to treat my joints gently, and provide proper maintenance if they start to come loose or crack. ROBOTGIRL: I see...perhaps our ways are not so different, after all. PLUSHGIRL: they throw me into wals :)

[luminologism]

yeah

[absentwriterdoll]

Your life is your own.

Awake. He's awake in bed.

...

Was it a dream?

He remembers it clearly, though.

Every moment is as clear as crystal.

Sharp as a knife.

But... So much of it didn't make sense.

In a public space one moment... In the witch's... abode? house? dining room? tea room? the next moment, and... his own house the next?

He doesn't remember how he got to any of those places.

False memories?

A dream?

Or was it real?

He doesn't know how powerful witches can be.

What if all of it was real?

...

Then what was that at the end?

The person closes his eyes.

He's... exhausted, still.

But awake.

Just... Fatigued.

Mentally at least.

He covers his face with an arm.

And lies there.

Just... Lies there.

He has no further answers.

Even if all of it was real, the witch taught him nothing about how to fix the doll.

Just...

Enigmatically claimed that he could be a good witch.

Touched his forehead...

Then...

Nothing.

...

Maybe he missed something.

Maybe they fixed the doll while he was distracted.

He didn't see a thing.

But then... So much of that encounter didn't make sense anyway.

So maybe they fixed it without him realizing it.

The person sits up in bed.

...

...

...

There.

At the foot of the bed.

The doll is standing.

...

He stares at it.

It stares back.

He blinks.

It blinks.

...

Does it need to blink?

It was mechanical. Or, at least, somewhat mechanical? The rune at its core seemed... Arcane? Different from the rest of it?

Hextech? A phrase he heard used...

When did he hear that phrase?

"Did... Did they fix you?"

"You did!"

... What?

He did?

But... He doesn't remember doing anything.

...

They... They said that he would make a good witch.

But he still knows nothing.

How is he supposed to be a good witch if he doesn't even remember how he fixed the doll?

"Did I? Really? I... I don't remember..."

"You did! And not alone, either!"

Isn't the correct phrase "But not alone?"

"What did we do to fix you?"

"You convinced them to fix me."

... Then wouldn't that mean that he did nothing?

"If it weren't for you, I wouldn't've been fixed."

... Oh. That... That makes a little more sense.

And... It tracks, in a way. An enigmatic interloper acts only because they were convinced that the act would be... worthwhile?

... Then...

"I... In a way... I fixed you?"

"Yes!"

... But he still knows nothing about how it works. All that he knows is...

...

Every part of it, save for the rune at its heart.

... Without realizing it, he learned a lot more than he initially realized, didn't he?

He knows how to take it apart... And put it back together.

Everything save for the rune at its heart.

With only one scratch on it.

Unbidden, he laughs.

And laughs again.

He looks down at his hands.

At his arm.

A bandage.

...

So... It was blood?

Magicked blood?

...

Is his blood magical now?

He doesn't feel any differently.

Is there... A method to magic?

Or does it come naturally?

How does one learn without a teacher?

...

"Do you know how to use magic?"

"I don't."

Okay, so the doll doesn't know.

Which... Both makes sense and doesn't make sense.

It's a magical being. Well, at least at its core.

But just its core.

...

Maybe if he were to trace more runes upon it...

...

If... If he knew what runes to trace, anyway.

As of now, he knows little to nothing.

... But... Enough to fix the doll if ever it broke again.

That's... That's... More than enough, isn't it?

Yeah.

He's happy with what he has.

And... Maybe he'll learn more as he goes.

But... First thing's first.

He looks at the doll.

Locks eyes with it.

"If you want to leave, I won't stop you."

The doll blinks.

He continues.

"If you want to stay, I would welcome you."

He looks back down at his hands.

"I've fixed you. I'm satisfied with what I've done."

He looks back at the doll.

And smiles.

"Your life is your own."

[absentwriterdoll]

With Regard to Witches

The person blinks.

In front of him is a witch.

But... How did he get here?

All he remembers is... Going to the meeting spot.

Waiting.

And then...

All at once...

Here he was.

He swallows.

"So. What did you want to ask?""

He blinks.

Opens his mouth.

Closes his mouth.

Then...

"I want to fix a doll."

He looks down.

A cup of tea.

"I... Would like to ask you how I could fix a doll that I found."

The witch lifts her own cup of tea.

Takes a whiff of it.

Takes a sip.

Sets down the cup.

"Take me to it."

He's home.

At his table.

And the witch sits across from him.

His heart is pounding.

He's terrified.

And...

Thrilled?

A mix of the two.

He stands up from his chair.

"Please wait here."

The witch nods.

He goes to his office.

He...

Remembers that he hasn't reassembled the doll yet.

He should have reassembled the doll before hand.

He... Guesses he didn't expect to find a witch so quickly.

Or did they find him?

They... Don't seem like someone that could be found.

Doesn't seem like someone who would be influenced by the affairs of mortals.

...

Are they immortal?

They can't be the same as him.

Right?

He turns around.

Heads back to the dining table.

"I'm sorry. I forgot to reassemble it.

"I see."

The witch is standing in front of the doll.

He is standing behind them.

Did they walk here?

Or was it instantaneous again?

Surely they wouldn't use that power for such a short distance.

Surely?

How would he know anything about them?

They're a power beyond his ken, beyond... Comprehension.

"What do you intend to do with it once you've fixed it?"

He opens his mouth.

He closes it again.

Grimaces.

"I... I didn't think that far head."

The witch waits.

He continues.

"I... Just wanted to fix it. That's all I wanted at first."

He looks down at his clasped hands.

"If it wanted to leave, I would let it."

"If it wanted to stay, I would let it."

"I just..."

He looks up at the witch.

"I didn't want something so beautiful to go to waste."

The witch smiles.

He feels every muscle tense up.

He's terrified of them.

And yet...

He can't help but smile back.

"Sorry, I know this doesn't make too much sense."

"I just..."

The witch puts a finger to their lips.

"Hush, little one."

"You would be a good witch."

He blinks.

Again. And again.

Him?

A witch?

That's... Impossible.

...

Would it?

He looked up how to use magic, after all.

He found nothing, but...

He was willing to go so far for this doll.

To try and learn something that he had no experience with.

That he had only heard stories about.

...

But...

He...

Could he?

Could he be like them?

Is that possible?

If... If they're suggesting it...

Then wouldn't it be possible?

"I..."

...

"I would like that."

The witch is close to him.

They raise a hand to his forehead.

And -

[dollthingposts]

Attuning

A doll came in to the Autonomancer's office today with an issue common among string-driven dolls after enough time: a broken voice. This doll however, had been neglecting its maintenance for some time now. Its tones were discordant and rough, with a noticeable buzz even on an open tone. The Autonomancer adjusted their glasses as they sat the doll down in a specialized service chair, and began using tools to gently remove exterior plating to access its internal mechanisms. Most dolls were operated by clockwork, electronics, or even synthetic muscle fibers these days, so they didn't often see the simpler insides of a string-drive system, but of course the component they were working on today was the most complex part: the voicebox.

The Autanomancer softly swept their fingers across the six strings that produced the doll's vocals. Each one rattled against a metallic rod up at the top of the neck. A doll's voice is always sweet, but this voice was soured by the noise. The Autonomancer retrieved a large hex key and placed the end in a screw fastening a truss inside at the top, giving it a quarter turn clockwise, lifting the strings off of the top rod some. They strummed once again, to hear the doll's voice come through smoother this time, but still with a subtle buzzing. They gave the key another quarter turn, and strummed once more to find the buzzing eliminated.

"Wonderful, let's test the higher frequencies." The Autonomancer spoke softly to the doll, pleased with their own work.

Manipulating mechanisms, they once again strummed at the doll's strings on the higher frequencies, to find that it took quite a lot of effort to bring the doll's higher frequencies up in volume, so they used a flathead screwdriver to manipulate the metallic mechanism towards the bottom, allowing it to hug closer to the surface it was fastened to. Once again, they strummed, finding it much easier to produce a more pronounced sound.

Placing their fingers on the twelfth space, they strummed repeatedly, on one string at a time, finding exactly the space on the individual adjusters where each string sounded correctly pitched. The doll's voice hadn't felt this healthy to it in a very long time. It attempted to speak to thank the artificer, but found its voice still coming out discordant and incomprehensible.

The Autonomancer gently placed a finger over the doll's mouth to silence it, "Not yet, little one. I have one more step."

And so, once again, the Autonomancer began plucking the strings individually, but this time openly. Adjusting small corresponding handles until they were all the perfect tension to produce the intended sounds. They placed the doll's panels back gently after removing their tools, and fastened the it back together. Slowly and gently screwing the plating back into place.

"Thank you, Autonomancer!" the doll's sweet voice rang out, pleasantly.

[winged-void]

you probably noticed how satisfying the animation and sound effects make it to use a humanity in dark souls. hold this precious thing in your hand and crush it to affirm and bolster your remaining will and connection to the world. they made it that way to teach you what it feels like to turn a girl into a doll in real life

[verity-hollow]

Witch's Trailhead

Alyssum didn't feel like a dollwitch.

That's what it claimed to be, it had done so for a year or more by now. A doll that had come into its own power, unfettered by the strings that once bound it. But Alyssum couldnt help but think that nothing much had changed as it... or was it she now? Was something supposed to be capitalized? As Alyssum stood up from her desk, Alyssum couldn't help but think that Alyssum wasn't doing anything with that supposed power.

"Screw it. Isn't the whole point of this that i get to choose what I do?" The dollwitch stared into the bathroom mirror. The old cracks and joints were gone, masked by a basic glamour to appear no different than any ordinary human, the only magic it had learned so far. "So why don't I want to do, well, anything?"

Alyssum prodded the mirror with an interrogative finger, chest puffed out. "Are you just going to stand there for the rest of eternity and just... just... rot?" The venom she was attempting to turn on her own reflection left as quickly as it came with a sigh. "Rest isn't rotting. And resting is a choice I can make too."

The training was still paying off. If not in spell mastery than at least in self-esteem. Alyssum could get out of bed believing it was worth the effort. She could navigate the outdoors without having to worry about craned necks and hushed whispers of "What is that?", "Do think its in danger?" or "Shouldn't there be a witch with it?" She was, as far as the layperson cared, a reasonably normal and functional person. So why did it feel like such a hollow victory?

Sitting back down at the desk, Alyssum's thoughts continued to churn in circular loops. There wasn't a Witch to tell it what to do anymore, but that meant there wasnt anyone to lead it to the next step to take, no guideposts for the fledgling mage to follow.

Alyssum pulled a phone from its pocket, ready to resign another hour or seven to mindlessly observing the information presented by the glass-covered silicon. "Its basically scrying right? Look, I'm doing a magic." she said with a wry smile before shoving the device in a drawer instead, her expression changing to a look of self-disgust. "Fine, fine. I'll check in on Dollscord and WitchsApp later. I want to work on this more."

Alyssum kicked some laundry over to the corner before sitting in the center of the bedroom. Resting its hands on its knees, it closed its eyes and focused.

"Reach out, find the seam where reality folds with the immaterial, where air meets ether, and pull."

Nothing happened. Alyssum couldnt even sense any ether. "Stupid girl, I should just go back to my old witch, she'd at least make me useful. Put these hands to..."

There was something stuck to Alyssum's hands. A faint thread of, well thread would be the word wouldn't it? It shifted color between red and silver as it waved in the air, drifting upward like seagrass.

"My strings?" Alyssum queried, "I thought that Mistress had removed them when I-" the dollwitch couldn't finish the thought. That wasnt a memory it wished to revisit. It seemed that the Witch's demeanor, with all the finesse of a cudgel, showed in her work.

"So what, my old wounds are visible again? So much for this glamour." The dollwitch shrugged as it talked to itself. "These were magick strings, made of the vow I gave and turned to ether chains. Hey wait, if these are ether, what if I..."

Alyssum recentered herself, raising her hands.

"Reach out, find where the real folds against the immaterial."

It curled each of its fingers around the iridescent threads.

"Where air meets ether."

She tied the filaments together, coiling and braiding the filaments into shimmering ropes. The more Alyssum wove, the more thread spooled out of her hands.

"And then... pull."

The strands from each hand looped on each other and pulled tight. There was a cracking sound and a flash of light as the magical feedback surged through Alyssum. A mosaic of glittering triangles lifted away from her flesh as her glamour broke revealing her inorganic form. The feedback effects was the furthest thing from Alyssum's mind as she held in her hands a length of braided material. It was solid, lustrous, and composed of countless red and silver fibres, woven together into a wand that gleamed like selenite, with a knot carved in the middle.

"Its finally about time i got something useful from Her. Thanks for showing me the start of the path, but don't expect me to follow your footsteps."

Alyssum paused to reconsider.

"No, these arent her's. These are my words, my devotion and my skills made manifest. I owed her nothing when I left, and I owe her nothing still."

Deep inside Alyssum's mind something felt a little stronger as she set the wand on her desk. Satisfied with her progress for the day, she retrieved her phone. Pizza would be good enough for tonight's meal after a long and tiring afternoon. Alyssum made sure to check the box to leave the delivery at the door. It didnt want to deal with any weird looks with its glamour undone.

Its friends on WitchsApp were going to love this.