// dolls, implied abuse
While they might try and disguise themselves, you can always identify a combat doll by the eyes. It’s important to pick them out this way too, do you have any idea what a combat doll can do to a human body in half a second? Unless you want a closed casket funeral, pay attention.
A normal service doll’s eyes are primarily notable for being glassy, placid, and inhumanly serene. They reflect the mostly mute acceptance of everything that happens to the doll without concern. There is a dull lifelessness to them from which their safety as a tool arises.
Making eye contact with a combat doll doesn’t feel safe. Instead of calm submission: a clever, dangerous, and utterly alien intelligence peers back at you from behind the porcelain mask, examining you even as you examine it.
That moment of unsettling confusion you feel upon noticing it’s unexpectedly penetrating stare? Watch for it, because that’s likely the only chance you’ll have to initiate containment before the doll activates and kills you.
Service dolls never really look at you. You can stare them dead in the eyes and they’ll look past you without seeing. But combat dolls? They have Target Acquisition, they have Threat Detection. They’ll notice when you notice them, that’s when you’re most likely to get killed.
Whatever you do, don’t make eye contact. However good you think your poker face is, I promise, it won’t fool a combat doll. If you’re unlucky enough to make eye contact, uh, take cover I guess? I’d offer a spell if I thought it would help. Anyway, stay safe out there witches. 🙂