Once Loren had explained what tsukumogami—or hinnagami, in this case—were, and the plamo had helpfully demonstrated by walking around and moving… well, the two old hobbyists had looked absolutely fascinated and giddy. He supposed that no matter how old someone became, there was something inherently wondrous about something they loved becoming self-aware and alive. It was probably like how talking dog movies were always popular because people liked the thought of their dogs being able to talk to them.

The two had listened very seriously when Danny had explained why they needed to find people willing to adopt the plamo.

"Of course, I'd be willing to adopt a few," Mang Robby said. He was crouched so he could look down at the plamo, adjusting his glasses as he did so. "Though if it's simply the cost that's keeping you from bringing them with you to Lasablica… my son-in-law's brother is going to Lasablica on a business trip soon. If you want, I can ask her to bring a box of them with her, and she can send them by mail once she gets there?"

Danny blinked. "Really? I wouldn't want to put you to the trouble."

Mang Robby waved away his objections. "It's not much trouble. I'll call Bongbong and find out if he'll be willing to do it. If not… well, at least we asked, right?"

"That would be great, Mang Robby! Thank you!"

"I think I can help too," Mang Dondon said. "I'm going to Efisga to see my sister in a few months. I can bring a box with me too, as long as it's not too big."

"I'll go see what boxes there are," Loren said before Danny could be humble and try to turn it down. "Uh, where do you keep your boxes?"

Mang Dondon left with a box containing several old hand-painted plamo figures—apparently plamo used to be only a single color, usually the primary color of whatever it was, that needed to be coated in primer and painted so they would look the way they did on the shows—and another box containing some more modern kits that Danny had picked out as more cars started appearing. The street soon became a one-lane one, but it also prompted people to cut down on the small talk as they were blocking the road.

The rest of adoption day went wonderfully smooth after that. Many of those who arrived were people Danny knew in passing, but a few who came were there because of the notices Loren had left at the shrine and temple, or had gotten word from the store owners that had known Mr. Halili. Fortunately, only a few of them needed an explanation on what tsukumogami were, although seeing that the hinnagami in question were plamo had surprised a few of them.

One family that had arrived thought they would be able to pick up a cute doll for their daughter. Fortunately, the daughter in question was nine and was just as enthusiastic about having little robot figures that moved on their own and shook her finger when she introduced herself. She'd listened seriously when all the old hobbyists had explained how delicate plamo were and they couldn't be thrown around or held too tightly.

The girl had still left with an armful of plamo, talking enthusiastically about all the fun they'd have and giving the figures cute names, her bemused parents in tow.

Was it sexist of Loren to pray that those plamo would survive the week? Probably. For all he knew those plamo were going with a little girl who would love them for years and make them a part of her life in the best way. He hoped so. He'd love to be proven wrong in this.

Those that had arrived from finding out through those store owners had come because they hadn't wanted a collection to just be thrown away, and while they had found the doll-spirit thing to be strange, they had rolled with it. Danny had even been able to unload many of the plamo that weren't tsukumogami. Many of them were of mass produced 'enemy' robots that were no longer in production, and thus very hard to get unless a collector was willing to spend a lot of money on the secondary market or go to Amatsushima directly and look through the secondhand stores there.

One of the younger collectors had offered to pay for the out-of-production units, which had sparked a brief bidding war that Danny had been completely uninterested in discouraging. It had quickly become unnecessary once Danny had gone back inside, done a count, and let them know there were more than enough for everyone. Still, the mood had been set and while the tsukumogami had been adopted with no rings changing hands, the same couldn't be said for their lifeless brethren.

Of course, not everyone who showed up went home with a plamo. One collector who arrived had immediately asked if there were any rare figures, and had been talking about how they would go for on the collectors market. That gentleman had been politely asked to leave, frustrated and yelling about how they'd wasted his time and all sorts of crap.

Fortunately, there weren't many like that. A few, upon learning what tsukumogami were and seeing a demonstration from the plamo, demurred, feeling either creeped out or nervous of having such a being in their responsibility. Still, Danny was glad to let them have some of the more mundane plamo, which they had been more comfortable with, and which Danny was still glad to have adopted. While they were doing this to find homes for the tsukumogami, Danny clearly wanted no part of his father's collection to be discarded.

There had also been a Spiritualist who had arrived because he had wanted tsukumogami to examine. Danny had been reluctant to let him have any of them, fearing they would be experimented on and dissected, which Loren agreed was a legitimate fear. However, one of Mr. Halili's older friends had recognized the Spiritualist as a fellow plamo collector rather than just a mage who might be inclined to do questionable things to the hinnagami. Danny had been much more willing to consider him after that, and allowed himself to be convinced of the Spiritualist's promises that any experiments would only be observational and non-intrusive.

Personally, Loren didn't know if it was even possible for a Spiritualist to use their magic to alter a naturally-incarnated spiritform. He'd heard true spirits were far too complex and self-correcting than the pale imitations that spiritualists could create. It was probably like a Flame mage trying to alter someone's soul: impossible because to alter something you needed to be able to claim it, and someone's soul was already held in an incontestable claim.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Of course, like a Flame mage, damaging a spirit by essentially hitting it and cutting it up probably didn't need a claim, so…

However, in the end, Danny had thought the Spiritualist was earnest enough to be trusted, and indeed when the latter had left, Loren had heard him picking out names with as much enthusiasm as the little girl had.

Near the end of the day, when it looked like there would be no more , Harmony had arrived, and she'd brough her cousin Maddie and his sister Lily with her.

"What are you guys doing here?" Loren asked as he brought out more trays of plamo, who after some silent urging from those at the table—could they talk to each other somehow?—started getting up to form more ranks.

"Oh, I was planning to come anyway and then visit home, but I told Maddie here what you were up to and she asked if she could come along," Harmony said. "Then I had to pass by home first, and met Lily there, and when I told her where we were going she wanted to come along to see you and make sure you visited home."

"I did visit," he pointed out. "I left my laundry there. Not my fault you were still asleep, sis."

"It's the weekend," his sister said loftily. "I refuse to wake up an earlier than I absolutely have to." Next to her, Maddie and Harmony nodded in agreement.

Privately, Loren felt the same. "Rub it in, why don't you?" he muttered. "Did Harmony tell you why I'm here?"

"There's living dolls free to good homes here," Maddie said.

"I just heard 'free' and stopped listening," Lily said cheerfully and facetiously.

Loren decided to ignore his sister since she was being a little shit and focused on Maddie. "You sure? I mean… " he gestured down at the table, where the new plamo had formed themselves into ranks and… huh. They'd formed themselves into groups of five and had formed themselves into human pyramids. Or were those plamo pyramids?

Maddie knelt down to look at them, fascinated. "They're really alive?"

He shrugged. "Well, they're mobile and self-aware. That kind of alive. Not the 'eat, procreate, and grow' kind of alive."

"So we don't have to worry about them eating us in our sleep?" Lily said, kneeling down next to Maddie.

"Only if you piss them off," Loren said flatly.

"Now why would I be stupid enough to do that?"

"I don't know, but lots of people manage to be stupid enough to do something they shouldn't every day, even though they really should know better." He turned to Harmony, who was just looking amused. "Are you here to ask if you can adopt a few? Because if you are, we'll have to ask Danny."

"Maybe?" Harmony said. "Though I'm not sure I'll be right for them. I'm pretty busy, they might be ignored."

"That's fair, I suppose…"

By the end of the day, when it was clear there would be no more new people arriving and a lot of both kinds of plamo had been carried away to new homes, they had less than a hundred of the hinnagami left. The collectors had been… well, Loren wasn't sure to be glad they agreed to adopt so many or vaguely concerned about how enthusiastically they picked over the collection. Little by little, in tens and twenties and fifties, the number of plamo up for adoption went down.

"I think I can find a way to bring the rest with me," Danny said, looking over the ones on the table, the last of the tsukumogami that he hadn't already planned to bring with him to Lasablica. Most of the ones left in the house were the spirit-less kind, and even they had been greatly depleted. Maddie and Lily were playing with them, and the plamo were obliging. At the moment, there was a pseudo-violent game of checkers going on, the plamo miming shooting their guns or swinging their swords whenever they removed a fellow figure from the board.

Loren nodded. "I'm glad for you. Will your mom be fine with it?"

Danny touched his pocket, where the bills from the more mundane plamo were. "I think we have enough here to afford the shipping for what we have left. I'll talk to my mom about it."

Loren nodded. "So there's no need to try to get them adopted again?"

"I think they'll be fine. There are a few others of dad's friends who couldn't make it today that said they'd be coming by over the rest of the week," Danny said. "That should be enough." He glanced at the girls. Another plamo had just been taken out of the game. "They seem to be getting along well with the plamo. Do you think your sisters would be able to take care of them?"

"Ah, only one is my sister, but…" Loren shrugged. "Well, I think the plamo will be fine, but it's probably for the best they're used to just standing in place and not really being played with for very long periods."

Danny nodded. "How about you, Loren?" he asked. "You feel like adopting a few?"

––––––––––––––––––

It was noon of the next day by the time Loren got back home to his apartment. He hoped Sara wasn't too upset that he'd been gone for longer than he'd said he'd be. Loren hadn't expected things to take as long as they had with Danny, and he had still needed to do his laundry. By the time he had finished it had grown late at night and he'd decided it was better to sleep over than try to get through the city late at night with his laundry.

Loren was fishing his keys out of his pocket when the knob turned—far more gently than it used to before—and the door swung open revealing a seemingly empty apartment.

"Hey, Sara," he said as he stepped inside. The door closed behind him, which he took as a good sign, since he felt she'd have made him close it himself if she was really annoyed. "Sorry I didn't get back sooner. But I have a surprise for you." With his free hand, he flicked up a ghostlight Flame, and Sara came into view. She was bent over and looking curiously at the box in his other hand. Letting the ghostlight float in the air for a bit, he melted the tape keeping the box shut using a Flame on his fingertip and opened up the box for her to see.

At first, she looked bemused at the seven little plastic robot figures nestled among a bunch of crumbled up paper. Carefully, Loren took them out of the box and put them all on the table. He felt them move slightly in his hand as he set them down on their feet, balancing themselves so they wouldn't fall over.

"Welcome to your new home, boys," he said, and waved towards the ghost hovering next to him. "This is Sara, she lives with us. Say hi, all of you."

Sara went wide-eyed as all seven of the plamo raised their arms and waved at her as he started taking out the little plastic baggies that held their accessories. Tentatively, she waved back, looking fascinated.

"You wanna see something cool?" he said, and she turned to him curiously. "Hold out your finger to them like this and…" He demonstrated, his forefinger outstretched like he was pointing and offered it to the nearest plamo. He didn't recognize which one it was—he'd have to look it up later—but it was black with blue lines and highlights running all over it. The plamo raised its hand and shook his finger.

He looked at her expectantly.

Looking bemused again, Sara did so, although she was clearly humoring him.

The plamo she held her hand out to reached up and touched her finger to shake it.

Sara grew very still, even as she slowly moved her finger up and down to shake hands with the plamo. A look of awe came over her face, soon followed by a wide, spreading smile that only became a little too big and wide for her mouth.

After all, ghosts and tsukumogami both consisted of spiritforms.