Yeah, ehm, well, I must have been high on something when I wrote that. :-)

*arr = $h{'key'} is the obvious solution to Y that should have crossed my mind.

$h{'key'}[0,1] may not be invalid syntax but it's definitely not what I meant.

The solution to X is that I simply make a method to set the things I want to show to the subs instead of adding magic to manipulating the object.

My question was totally unclear and I apologize. Seeing that I got helpful and not bashing replies confirms my deep conviction that the Perlmonks community is one of the most mature, tolerant and wonderful communities to ever inhabit the cyberspace.