Mari would be lying if she said she didn’t think a situation like this wasn’t going to happen at some point, but she had still hoped that wouldn’t be the case, let alone so soon. She left the dolls alone for just a few hours and they’ve already gotten themselves into some kind of situation that has Naomi all worked up. Hopefully it’s nothing serious, but this is the first time Naomi’s climbed into a cabinet like this, which has her a little concerned.

 

At least she’s managed to figure out that the dolls are likely the source of the emotions pulsing through her mind. The obvious distress that Naomi’s displaying lines up with some of the feelings Mari’s been detecting. That means the other emotions, which seem to be coming from the laundry now that she’s closer, are almost certainly what Leona’s feeling.

 

“Okay Naomi, what happened this time?” She asks, clearly a little annoyed about the interruption.

 

“Th-this one was sh-showing Leona what to do… a-and it started asking questions… that th-this one couldn’t answer… and then it.. it… BWAHHHHHHHhhhhhh…” was all that Naomi could manage before the doll’s sadness got the better of it. Mari feels some of the emotions being sent at her intensify at the same time as the outburst, confirming her suspicions about where they’re coming from.

 

This was the last thing Mari felt she needed at the moment. She already had her hands full between her job and taking care of both the house and her dolls, but now she’s at risk of being rendered almost useless anytime one of them gets upset, which has been happening much more frequently than she’d like. She can only hope it’ll happen with Leona less often, but the events of the morning so far haven’t exactly filled her with hope on that front.

 

“P-Please don’t… hate this one… for being such a b-bad sister…” The doll barely succeeds in saying while also sobbing its heart out.

 

Mari just sighs and reaches into her pocket to pull out a small sticker sheet. She’s learnt to keep one on her at all times around the house for exactly this sort of situation.

 

“C’mon Naomi, you want a sticker?”

 

Naomi holds out a sticker clad arm while continuing to sob into its knees, and Mari peels off a sticker of a smiley face before affixing it to an empty space in between a unicorn and a red sports car. Mari ran out of the nicer stickers she’d gotten from conventions and online artists pretty quickly after Naomi entered the scene, so in the interest of keeping economical, which considering how many she goes through is really quite necessary, she’s been bulk purchasing the generic sticker sheets they sell at the supermarket instead.

 

Naomi doesn’t say anything after retracting its hand, but the sobbing does slow down a bit, which Mari takes as a sign that the sticker helped somewhat.

 

“I’m gonna go talk to Leona, okay Naomi? I’ll be back soon.”

 

“Uh huh…” Naomi manages to say before Mari leaves through the kitchen’s back door, which leads into a hallway that takes her right to the laundry room.

 

This place’s laundry room is much larger than any Mari had seen before moving here, although she supposes this place is built to house much more than one woman and a couple of dolls, and she’ll likely need the room to be this big once she has more dolls. When she opens the door she finds Leona standing in the middle of the room, staring at the floor tiles while mumbling something to itself, she can tell right away that this doll is where the other emotions were coming from.

 

“Leona? You okay?”

 

“Can this one really do it, Miss?” It replies without looking at her.

 

“Huh?”

 

“...Can this one really do the Laundry? What if this one does it wrong? What if this one ruins Miss’s clothes?” The doll’s pained expression suggests it’s spent a lot of time thinking about this.

 

“I’m not really sure what you mean Leona, did Naomi show you how to use the washing machine?”

 

“It did, but there are many buttons on the machine, and a number of settings to set the dial to. It’s only a matter of time before this one makes a mistake, this one doesn’t deserve the responsibility…”

 

“I don’t think you really need to worry about that… Look, if you don’t think you’re ready for the laundry, why don’t you do another job for now, like washing the dishes?”

 

“...But what if this one drops a plate and breaks it?”

 

“Okay, then what about mopping the floors?”

 

“Someone could slip and fall, and it would be all this one’s fault…”

 

“...Vacuuming the bedrooms?”

 

“This one would eventually bump into something with the vacuum, and leave a mark on Miss’s precious furniture…”

 

Mari sighs, if Leona has been like this all morning then she can understand how Naomi ended up in that state. Luckily she knows exactly how to resolve the situation.

 

“Okay Leona, would you have an easier time working if I gave you one of these stickers?” She asks as she pulls the sheet back out of her pocket, but Leona seems unphased.

 

“What good would stickers do? At best they’d merely mask the mistakes this one’s going to make…”

 

Damn. That was the only idea Mari had.

 

It works every time for Naomi, why is this doll so uninterested in them? Mari’s been away from her work for longer than she’d like at this point and doesn’t exactly have time to figure out a solution for this doll, so she’s starting to get pretty frustrated.

 

“Well what do you want then?”

 

“This one just wants to not cause any problems…”

 

“But you haven’t even done anything yet! How do you know you’re going to screw it up when you haven’t even tried?”

 

“It’s okay… This one understands if Miss hates this one for all the mistakes it will make in the future…”

 

“That’s not what’s going on here Leona! I just-”

 

“Mrrrrrp…” The two of them are interrupted by a grumpy squeak coming from the doorway. It seems that Martin was napping nearby, and has come to investigate the sounds that have woken him up. His sudden appearance gives Mari a chance to take a breath and calm down.

 

“What are you doing here boy?” She leans over to pet him as he approaches, but she also takes notice of something else. Leona has moved for the first time since Mari entered, and its gaze is now directed quite intensely towards the black cat that just made himself the centre of attention. The doll’s eyes follow the cat’s every movement as he rubs himself along Mari’s leg, it’s clearly taken an interest in him.

 

“...Do you want to pet him?” She asks.

 

“I-Is that okay? But what if this one-”

 

“Just hold your hand out.” Mari says flatly, to which the doll complies.

 

Martin looks over and starts sniffing Leona’s hand for a few seconds, before starting to rub his head against it. The cat’s never been the best with strangers, but maybe it’s different when it’s not a human? He’s never seemed to have much of an issue with Naomi either.

 

“I am petting the kitty.” Leona states matter-of-factly.

 

Mari can see the energy returning to Leona’s face as it pets him. The expression reminds her a lot of when she first put a sticker on Naomi, which gives her an idea.

 

“Hey, would you be willing to try doing some work if I put you in charge of taking care of Martin?”

 

Leona’s eyes light up as it continues to pet the cat. “Really, Miss? Th-this one would do its best!”

 

“Okay, you’re on stinky boy duty then. I really need to get back to work, but make sure you start giving things a shot before giving up, and ask Naomi for help if you start worrying about making mistakes again. It’s been working here for a while already.”

 

“Very well, this one will try to ask for help next time.”

 

Mari isn’t exactly hopeful that it will do that considering Naomi’s track record, but she’s at least made some amount of progress with the new doll. Leona continues to pet Martin while humming a small tune to itself, which Mari takes as a sign that things here are okay for now. She then heads back to the kitchen to explain the situation to Naomi, and make sure this doll has calmed down as well. She also asks it to keep an eye on Leona, and to give it some simple tasks to do if something like this happens again. The doll agrees, but only after receiving a second sticker, this one being a smiley face that’s wearing sunglasses.

 

After all that, Mari’s head is finally clear, even if the situation has left her a little exhausted. No more errant emotions filling her mind means that she can finally head back up to the study and resume her work. She can’t help but wonder about what this means though, Leona’s self doubt is a fairly different problem to the emotional issues that Naomi has going on, and it took an entirely different solution to calm the new doll down, meaning that not only does she have to keep stocked up on stickers, but also makes sure that Leona gets some dedicated Martin time every now and then. A small feeling of dread fills her as she considers the possibility that all dolls just have some sort of issue like this, and each one requires something different, and seemingly completely unrelated to the actual issue, to calm them down. Then she thinks about how many dolls she estimates she’ll eventually need to keep this place in good condition.

 

“God dammit. I’m gonna have to make a fucking chart, aren’t I?”