I doubt any of us dolls will ever really 'get' how Treesa thinks. The other day she compared kids who try to give their dolls makeovers to some rare, undiscovered new species that scientists are always looking for in remote places like the rainforest. She said there's evidence they exist, if you spend enough time at flea markets and thrift stores you'll see plenty of dolls with cut hair and marker tattoos. But Treesa can't remember ever meeting anybody who's done that to their doll.
My first owner tried to 'customize' me. When Treesa found me at the thrift store my hair was already chopped short, but that wasn't the worst of it. My body AND my hair were also smeared with silver paint. I knew when I got to the store that the chances of someone buying me were probably pretty low. By the time Treesa bought me I'd already been at the store for several weeks and had just about given up hope of getting a new owner.
I saw Treesa a lot while I was at the thrift store. She likes to visit the store once or twice a week, when she can manage it. And I looked forward to seeing her. The other humans who walked into the toy department ignored me after just a quick glance. Treesa was the only one who really looked at me. Every time she came to the store and saw me, still hanging from the rack in my plastic bag, she'd stop and look at me just long enough to make me think today was the day. Today she'd take me home with her. But then she'd go back to searching the racks for any new stock she hadn't seen yet, and my hopes would drop like a stone. What I didn't know then was Treesa was just biding her time.
Finally, the day Treesa had been waiting for came. The store has regular sales during the week to clear out older stock. Things are color coded to show when they were put on the shelves, and on the same days every week the older colors are discounted. When my color tag finally went half price Treesa bought me and took me home.
After she got me out of the bag Treesa grabbed a Magic Eraser and took me into the bathroom. "Let's get you cleaned up a little," she said. My guess was she wanted to clean off the silver paint, and I wasn't sure she'd be able to do it. The paint was kind of...sticky, and I was worried it would just stay stuck to me. I also worried what would happen to me if Treesa couldn't get the paint off. Would she decide I wasn't worth keeping and throw me away?
It turned out I didn't need to worry about the paint not coming off. When Treesa stuck me under the faucet and turned the water on the paint just rinsed away. I was relieved, but Treesa was really disappointed. She LIKED the way the silver looked in my hair and on my face. THAT'S why she bought me. She was only trying to get off some of the excess paint on my torso, but because she didn't want to risk the paint transferring on to any of her doll clothes or other dolls she had to rinse it ALL off.
After that Treesa wasn't sure what to do with me. Because of my haircut I just looked weird to Treesa without the silver. But Treesa's no hair stylist, and she didn't know how to fix me. So she did an online search for ways to PERMANENTLY color a doll's hair. She found a technique that used shaving cream, a drop of fabric softener, and a tube of liquid watercolor paint. She couldn't find silver liquid watercolor at the store, so she picked a nice blue and just used less paint, trying to get a silvery tint. It took several applications, but eventually she got something 'close enough' to what she wanted. She tinted my bangs, and a section of hair on top of my head to try and give me a color streak. It's kind of subtle, but for Treesa it means the difference between keeping me and putting me in a box for yard sale.
Treesa named me Platinum, because of the silver paint. She thought about just naming me Silver, but decided she liked Platinum better. She said Silver sounded like I was, 'one noun away from being a comic book character'. Like I said, I don't think us dolls will ever really 'get' Treesa. But I don't really care what Treesa calls me, as long as it means I get to stay.
Stay Shiny, Platinum
(P.S. Yes, that was a Firefly reference. One of Treesa's sisters isn't quite a Browncoat, but she's pretty close.)
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