"Okay! Are you ready, doll?" Came the autotuned voice from the computer.
"Yes, Miss!" The doll thought it was a little strange that Miss would talk to it through the computer, but it was clearly her voice. The doll hefted the guitar, a bit large for it, and placed its fingers on the first chord.
The computerized voice changed, and the Singer's voice sounded through, a tad crunchy from the low bitrate and older speakers. The doll started up the guitar accompaniment with clockwork precision.
The Singer sang about longing, about wants, about love and belonging and fear and a desire to "be real". She gained in intensity as the song progressed, and the doll stayed beside her, right in time. It all seemed a bit fake, a bit off, two artificial beings trying to do something creative. The doll tried its best, but it was made for service and exactitude. It seemed like this music demanded other skills. Still, Miss had asked it, so it tried.
The Singer held a high note, and something changed. The doll felt the Singer's voice resonating in its core, just slightly off tune from its internals. Acting on dollish instinct, it adjusted the tension in its springs. Ever so slightly, the resonance shifted, grew, until-
The Singer's voice suddenly erupted out of the doll's mouth. No longer autotuned, no longer constrained by speakers or processing power, the song filled up the doll with new, strange feelings. It attacked the chords, no longer with clockwork precision but because the Singer's voice in its throat demanded no less. It started to move its body to the music, unable to be Still. It jumped, tossed its hair, sang with utter, wild abandon through not just the song, but the entire album.
The sun hung low in the sky by the time they were done. The doll placed the guitar on its stand, and felt the Singer speak two final words with the doll's voice: "thank you". The computer entered standby mode, and the doll went about its chores before returning to its own stand. It wondered if it would look good with twin pigtails.
