Fanfic / Darling Doll Daughter

2 Following

Herta#10201 would like to file a complaint as her involvement here was entirely involuntary. The Herta has yet to acknowledge.

An excerpt from Darling Doll Daughter.

Darling Doll Daughter is a Honkai: Star Rail Fanfic by Synopsynthesis.

A Self-Insert Fic where the main character wakes up in Herta’s Space Station as Herta Puppet #10201, one of the few Herta puppets who has actually achieved true sentience and can only adapt from there.

This page is currently under construction; any contributions are appreciated.

Darling Doll Daughter contains examples of:

• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Ruan Mei makes an appearance at Herta’s Space Station far earlier than her canon appearance.
  • Screwllum makes an appearance in hologram form when Herta needs his help in retrieving Herta #10201 from the Simulation Universe.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Unlike in the game, Welt seems to play a bigger role in the story. His first appearance during the Doomsday Beast battle is what turns the tide of the battle rather than just him appearing and knocking Stelle out.
  • Rather than Stelle, he is the first one to try out the prototype Simulation Universe.
• Big Damn Heroes: Just before Ruan Mei can modify Herta #10201’s memory, The Herta arrives in the nick of time to prevent her fellow Genius Society member from modifying her puppet’s memory.
  The Herta: What do you think you're doing with my puppets?
• Blatant Lies: When Stelle and March ask Herta #10201 about whether the puppet knows who they are thanks to their respective amnesias, she lies straight to their faces that she doesn't. For Stelle, she doesn't see the point in telling the chosen Trailblazer that she is destined to save the universe according to Elio's script as well as not wanting to inflate her ego. For March 7th, she hears slow and malevolent laughter that could or could not be real.
• Bound and Gagged: Herta does this to Stelle when the Trailblazer initially refuses to go with the Astral Express.
• Call-Back: When an Intellitron was harassing Herta #10201, Arlan warns him that if he forces any of the Herta puppets to answer automatically seven times, it will automatically trigger their Attack Anything Everything Module. When March and Stelle are pestering the Overseer, said module is nearly activated and the latter has to deactivate it herself before accidentally attacking them.
• Catfishing: One of the researchers on the Space Station had fallen victim to this. Herta #10201 takes his cellphone away in response and revokes his external connection privileges as a result.
• The Chosen Many: Kafka all but outright states that Herta #10201 will be chosen to be a Genius by Nous just like her creator.
• The Chosen One: Herta #10201 herself refers to Stelle as the 'probable saviour of the universe'.
• Control Freak: Ruan Mei's deep seated need for control rear it's ugly head when she tries to tamper and modify with Herta #10201's memories. Herta #10201 is a personification of what she hates— an external factor completely outside of her control that she feels the need to quickly amend.
• Deal with the Devil: Kafka wants Herta #10201 to give them access to the Stellaron and therefore allow the birth of Stelle on top of making the puppet promise to make a choice that she will not regret when the time comes. In return for her cooperation, Kafka offers protection from Polka Kakamond when the Genius targets the protagonist in the future.
• Didn't Think This Through: Herta #10201 curses her lack of foresight in thinking that the story as she knows would remain the same despite her existence being an entirely new variable who is already changing the story line by increasing the security system to hold up better in the face of the Anti-Matter Legion invasion when she is confronted by Kafka and Silver Wolf.
• The Dreaded: Polka Kakamond. Despite being a mechanical puppet, Herta #10201 feels a shiver run down her spine when Kafka offers her protection from the Fourth Genius with the implication that Herta #10201 will become a Genius who is targeted by a woman who has already murdered many of her peers. Herta #10201 is understandably unnerved at the news.
• Driven to Madness: The tortured souls that make up the Doomsday Beast. Herta #10201 describes the Doomsday Beast as a creature that lacks intelligence specifically because the shattered minds in it are incapable of processing higher thought processes.
• Eldritch Abomination:
  • Herta #10201 all but calls the Doomsday Beast this. A monster constructed of countless maddened and tortured souls, forced into a single entity that is completely different from their original physiology. Countless minds from countless backgrounds forced to become a part of a killing machine united by war and a desire for destruction.
  • The Aeon of Destruction Nanook. Just One Glance from just even it's proximity is enough to completely set off her systems into going into haywire and for the next two chapters she is reduced to a talking head on a table as her body undergoes repairs from the damage.
• Everybody Lives: Unlike in the original game, all of the researchers survive the Anti-Matter Legion attack thanks to Herta #10201 making preparations in advance to prevent mass casualties. People are injured, but unlike in the original attack no one dies.
• Everyone Can See It: A platonic example. Everyone who sees The Herta and Herta#10201 interacting can immediately tell that the latter is like a daughter to the former, though the individual in question dismisses it claiming that she's merely The Herta's science project until the original loses interest in her.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Despite the fact that Herta sees Ruan Mei as her equal and allows the woman to have free reign on her personal space station, she isn't happy when she catches Ruan Mei in the act of modifying Herta #10201's memory.
  • Herta #10201 knows that the birth of the Trailblazer is necessary in preventing the Destruction of the universe, but she refuses to let it play out like it did originally where several researchers die.
• Flat "What": Dan Heng says this after witnessing Welt reconstruct his body.
• Foreshadowing: When Herta #10201 comes up with the idea to have the Trailblazers visit the Herta Space Station occasionally rather than forcing them to stay for an extended period of time-- especially Stelle who managed to earn Nanook's gaze, Stelle herself brings up that she had never agreed to join the Astral Express and defiantly states that maybe she doesn't want to leave the station, a sentiment that the former initially dismisses. Several chapters later, Herta #10201 is chasing down Stelle who had initially refused Himeko's offer, resorting to tying her up and forcing her onto the Astral Express despite Stelle's objections.
• I Choose to Stay:
  • When given the choice of what to do in their new life, Herta #10201 accepts that they will likely never return home and see their family again and chooses to fully commit to their new life by accepting the modified light cone that The Herta gives them to fully assimilate into the HSR universe.
  • Himeko offers Herta #10201 an invitation to join thanks to the Kiana curio being bound to her, but the latter refuses since she sees belongs to the Herta Space Station.
  • Stelle tries to pull this off after Herta #10201 chooses to stay, but the protagonist is able to convince her to join the Express.
• I Hate Past Me: One of the reasons Herta #10201 decides to undergo Death of Personality is because she was not proud of who she was in her previous life.
  Herta #10201: And, if I were to be honest, I didn't like who I was either. Pathetic and unmotivated, moved only by whims and only for brief periods and a token amount of effort.
• Innocently Insensitive: Herta realizes too late that she accidentally shows up one of the space station’s scientists on his own specialty when she was creating a drone beret after the incident with Ruan Mei.
• Jerkass to One: Herta can be abrasive at times in a similar fashion to The Herta, but she nurses a special dislike for Ruan Mei who had paralyzed her during their first meeting, leaving her at the other Genius' complete mercy and unable to do anything as she tried to tamper with her memory.
• Losing Your Head: After the battle with Nanook, Herta #10201 has to be taken in for repairs and is reduced to being a talking head on top of a table, much to her displeasure.
• Motor Mouth: After leaving a tense meeting between her creator and the adults of the Astral Express, Herta #10201 finds herself being subjected to question after question by March 7th that nearly triggers her Attack Anything and Everything Module that she manually has to turn off herself before she ends up accidentally attacking the younger members of the Express and Stelle.
• Nepotism: When Asta wonders how a proposal titled 'To Develop an Edible Nutrient Paste Alternative for Five-Star Restaurant Meals' from the Herta Department of Implement Arts got through the proposal process despite how lackluster the topic is, Herta #10201 scoffs and states that more than seventy percent of the staff in that department are from the same family.
• Noodle Incident: The Herta mentions that Herta #10201 is hardly the first person to have transitioned from another universe where the Star Rail verse as they know it is fictional.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Adler has this reaction when he realizes that he had crashed into Herta #10201; considering that getting on Herta's bad side could easily affect his job on the Space Station, his expression is understandable.
  • When the researcher obsessing over Ms. Daiqing realizes who had snuck up behind him and was interrogating him about the person who was cat fishing him.
  • An intellitron trying to badger Herta #10201 to borrow a Herta doll to study backs off when Arlan warns him that forcing her to give him seven automatic replies to his annoying queries will result in her whipping out what is essentially a small armory out on him.
• The Perfectionist: Asta laments that Herta #10201 has very high standards for her inventions. The individual herself confirms it herself shortly after.
  Herta #10201: Why would you settle for anything less than perfection?
• Professional Butt-Kisser: Much to her exasperation, Herta #10201 finds herself dealing with this from many of the scientists and people at the Herta Space Station as a result of them thinking she might be the real deal or hoping to squeeze themselves into her good graces of the Genius Society member.
  • Capote proves to be particularly irritating and the doll proceeds to dump him onto Asta to get rid of him for her when all attempts on her end to drive him away fail.
• Properly Paranoid: Herta #10201 is wary of why Ruan Mei has made an appearance far earlier than she was supposed to, even before the Astral Express arrives in the midst of the invasion of the Anti-Matter Legion. Her wariness is validated when Ruan Mei freezes her in place and tries to tamper with her when the former feels that She Knows Too Much and wants to fix that.
• Refusal of the Call: Stelle initially refuses Himeko's offer to join the Astral Express. It isn't until Herta #10201 gives her a pep talk that she gets on and even then she has the last laugh by kidnapping a Herta doll and taking it alongside the AE crew to Jarilo-VI.
• Reincarnate in Another World: What kicks off the story is the main character reincarnating into the universe of Honkai Star Rail.
• Remote Body: Herta# 10201 is one of Herta's puppet bodies with only the soul and consciousness within said body being what differentiates her from the rest. It also turns out that she has been given the privilege to maneuver the other puppets as well, something she does in Chapter 11 thanks to her original body being disassembled and her reduced to a decapitated head.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Dan Heng asks Herta #10201 if she is the reincarnation of Madam Herta's daughter in a past life. While he gets the fact that she is a reincarnator right, he's completely wrong about her being related to The Herta in that way.
• Secret-Keeper: Other than Herta's close circle of Geniuses, Welt is the only other person outside of the circle who knows about Herta #10201's true origins and her metaknowledge.
• She Knows Too Much: How Ruan Mei feels about Herta #10201 and the knowledge that the puppet has thanks to their previous life that she decides to personally go to the space station long before she’s supposed to canonically appear.
  Ruan Mei: My apologies. Usually, it would be well below me to resort to such means, but after hearing about concerning matters from our common acquaintance, I found that I have to take matters into my own hands.
• So Proud of You: The Herta shows shades of this towards Herta #10201 when the latter suggests that rather than having the Astral Express stay at the Herta Space Station stay for an extended period of time against the Crew's wishes, the Trailblazers should instead stop by for periodic consultations instead so that while the Express gets their journey they will still have an ongoing collaboration. Herta #10201 also throws in that since Stelle drew Nanook's gaze just hours after waking up, she'll likely draw the gazes of other Aeons if she travels around the universe rather than staying in one place which would give her and her creator more research.
• Spit Take: Arlan does one when Herta #10201 tells him that the Anti-Matter Legion will be invading and that she needs his help in fending them off.
• Starting a New Life: Herta #10201 decides not to dwell on her past but to keep moving forward after seeing a certain relic that resembles the fragments of a broken sword.
  Right, I had no choice but to move forward, to live with the burdens and blessings I had been given, and to make the best out of today to make a better tomorrow. To dwell on what has passed and to discard the olive branches handed to me—that was nothing if not a betrayal of the path I walked and to anything and everyone that had pushed me along the way.
• Stress Vomit: Stelle throws up after witnessing Welt reconstruct his body in a very graphic fashion.
• Take a Third Option: When The Herta, Welt, and Himeko are arguing about having the Astral Express stay at the Herta Space Station for an extended period of time with the Astral Express arguing back that it isn't in their nature to stay in a single location for a long extended period of time, Herta #10201 interjects with a proposition that seems to satisfy all parties.
  Herta #10201: Is there a reason why they can't visit from time to time? The Nameless are a traveling band, yes, but on that same note, they are also freely capable of leaving and returning whenever they want. If we schedule periodic consultations, they can have their journey while we get our collaboration. Besides, that one [Stelle] managed to draw the gaze of Nanook within hours after waking from amnesia. Who is to say exposure to the rest of the universe wouldn't have them interacting with even more Aeons?
• Take That!: The Herta makes a jab at transmigrators who keep insisting that their new reality is a game or fictional and rely on their foreknowledge to get them through their circumstances rather than adapting to their new reality.
  The Herta: Truthfully, I hold very little interest in this 'the world is a game' angle. Frankly, it's nothing new: I can name perhaps two dozen individuals who appear out of nowhere and make that claim, making predictions that come true as much as they do not, and knowing things they really should have had no business learning. Most of these people are full of themselves, unable to distinguish reality from fantasy, and unwilling to compromise when faced with situations outside of their predictions. Sure, they may occasionally bring interesting problems to solve, but by and large, they are the least interesting sort because they are the least interested in reality.
• Tension-Cutting Laughter: After a tense argument between Herta, Himeko and Welt regarding having the Astral Express stay on the Herta Space Station for years in the name of research, after Herta #10201 interjects with a with a third option that would satisfy both parties, The Herta breaks out into laughter both at Herta #10201 being able to solve the dilemma between her and the adults of the Express and the fact that she came up with a brilliant idea.
• That Man Is Dead: The Herta warns the main character that if they accept the light cone, they will likely be fundamentally altered as a person. But Herta #10201 decides to go through with accepting the lightcone from Herta because she has accepted that she will likely never return home and see her family again as well as that she never liked who she was in her old life. And that if she’s going to start over in a new universe, she might as well commit to it completely.
• Troll: Sometimes Aha loves to mess with Herta's puppets to the point that The Herta is forced to purge and perform a factory reset and start all over again. Herta #10201 shudders at the fact that she nearly underwent Death of Personality if her creator hadn't realized that she was different from the others.
• Unable to Cry: Herta #10201 realizes that she is unable to cry after being saved from Ruan Mei by her creator.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The Herta doesn't have that much of a reaction to Herta #10201's soul originating from an entirely different universe where her reality is a game where he comes from. In fact, she seems downright scornful of the people in the past who made similar claims in the past, citing that them using their knowledge and failing to adapt to their new circumstances makes them uninteresting. She seems more interested in Kiana's story and the imaginary tree
• Unwitting Test Subject: One of the reasons the protagonist decides against choosing The Herta's war machine as a new body is because she realizes that if it becomes known that she is a creation of one of the most famous Genius Society members, then she will likely become this to the IPC or any other party interested in her because of who her creator is.
• Wham Shot:
  • Ruan Mei making a surprise appearance well before her canon appearance at the end of Chapter 5.
  • Kafka and Silver Wolf walking into the break room that Herta #10201 is resting in shortly before the invasion of the Anti-Matter Legion.
    Kafka: Good day, Miss Overseer. We would like to have a little chat.
  • Kafka strongly implies that Herta #10201 become a Genius who will be targeted by Polka Kakamond in the future.
• Wild Card: Ruan Mei sees Herta #10201 as this and takes drastic measures to try and correct that.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Herta #10201 has accepted that they will never see their family again or that they can go back to their old life.
• You Didn't Ask: Herta #10201/Overseer is not happy when she realizes that she had a Remote Play Module that would have allowed her to take control of the other Herta puppets around the station, which would have been really useful against the Anti-Matter Legion and that her creator had kept silent about it.
  Overseer: Why are you only telling me this now?
  The Herta: Why didn't you ask about it before? You already knew the puppets could be controlled remotely. You only needed to ask.