Mari can do little more than watch the pathetic display before her. Her newly created doll, Naomi, has been reduced to tears after she said she wanted to treat it more like a person, and is now on the floor, lacking the willpower to do any more than weep.

Are dolls meant to be able to cry? It barely took anything to make it start, which is concerning. Mari just wanted to show Naomi that it deserves more than just being called a thing, but it’s had the entirely opposite effect, and she feels awful about hurting its feelings so badly. Is she being too rigid with how she views the doll? She had heard from Dolly that many dolls can be fairly delicate things, although she had expected that to be more of a physical issue. Mari clearly still has a lot to learn about dolls, so it might be best to be more flexible with it in the future, at least until she has a better grasp of how they work.

“T-This one is sorry… This one is… probably making t-to much noise… and bothering Miss” Naomi says between sobs that it is trying its best to repress. “T-This one will go… somewhere else… so Miss doesn’t get annoyed and start wanting to throw it away…” It slowly gets up and staggers towards the door.

“Naomi, wait!” Mari calls out before it can leave, Naomi looks scared at first but stops to listen. “I’m sorry, you’ve been a good doll, Naomi. I’m the one who messed up. I don’t know if I can get used to thinking of you as a thing, but if it makes you comfortable I’ll give it a shot, okay?”

“D-Does Miss really m-mean it?” Naomi asks with a hopeful look in its eyes.

“Yes, and I’m not going to throw you away either.”

“Oh Miss…” Naomi is looking a lot better, but the tears haven’t stopped. It suddenly leaps towards Mari and puts its arms around her, almost knocking her over in the process.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou! This one will keep working hard!”

“Woah, be careful Naomi!” She yells in response.

“A-Ah, sorry Miss!”

“It’s okay, just… make sure you ask next time, okay?”

“This one will do its best!”

“And… I want you to be patient with me as well, I’m new to this whole doll thing.”

Naomi smiles innocently. “It’s okay, this one is also new to it!”

Mari can’t help but chuckle a bit, and then she frees herself from Naomi’s grasp. “Okay, how about we get that sticker then?”

“Ooooooh, yes please!” Naomi says enthusiastically as Mari walks to the other side of the room and opens up a drawer. She pulls out a spare sticker, one that has a tiny mage girl making a grumpy face, and shows it to the doll whose eyes grow wide upon seeing it.

“So, how are we doing this?” Mari asks, unsure where Naomi wants her to stick it. It answers by simply leaning forward, drawing attention to its forehead.

“I guess that answers that.” Mari peels the paper off the back of the sticker and starts lining it up. The anticipation seems to be too much for Naomi, who starts to shake a bit before being told to stay still. Before it knows it, the sticker has now been applied to the forehead, and the shaking starts again after standing up straight, as it can barely contain itself.

“This one has done a good job for Miss…” It says with a beaming smile while starting to leave the room. “This one has been recognised as Miss’s thing…” a distant awawawa can be heard as it heads towards wherever it’s going.

Mari is left to continue on with her work, but before she does she looks at the sticker paper she’s still holding, surprised at how much of a reaction her doll had to such a simple gesture.

“Maybe I should stock up on these…”