Magnolia

Magnolia awoke to a crash somewhere within her home.

She quickly grabbed her glasses and ran down to where she had heard the noise: the workshop. When she made it, she found her workshop much messier than she had left it earlier, with chairs knocked over and items strewn all over the floor and tables. By a window, she spotted a tiny brown creature, looking as if it was trying to knock a desklamp over to no avail. She could only assume it wanted to escape through the window, but had no way to get up there, so it was trying to create a path for itself.

"Hello?" she called. The creature jumped up, startled, then tried scampering away. Unfortunately, the creature wasn't very fast, and Magnolia had walked up to the table it was standing on before it could hide. To her shock, she discovered the creature to be one of the stuffed mirror dolls she crafted, presumably scratched up from its escape attempt. "Don't worry," Magnolia said. "I won't hurt you."

The doll stopped trying to run, but Magnolia could tell it was still suspicious of her.

(How does a doll with no facial expressions look so suspicious?)

Magnolia grabbed a few spare pieces of fabric and her sewing kit. "Hold on, let me patch you up," she told the doll. The doll flinched when she first started sewing the fabric onto their injuries, but they seemed to relax almost immediately. Soon, she was done patching them up. The fabrics she used didn't match the doll at all, but it looked charming in a way, she supposed. What she thought didn't matter though; the doll looked at themselves, seeing the multicolored patches sewn all over them, and they looked almost proud. When she offered to find more matching fabrics, they shook their head.

"So," she said once she was done. "What are you, exactly?" When the mirror doll stared at her in confusion, she elaborated, "Are you a ghost possessing a doll, or a normal doll that somehow came to life?"

The mirror doll shrugged.

Magnolia could feel herself growing tired. "Well, you should stay here a bit. I don't think you'll fare well outside by yourself," she told the doll, which hung their head in resignation. "You should rest as well."

Soon, Magnolia had set up a basket lined with soft cotton by her bed, which the mirror doll happily lied in. She then went into her own bed, falling asleep. She'd figure out what to do with the doll tomorrow.

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(Magnolia keeps the doll, of course. She names them Sweetgum.

She carries Sweetgum in a pouch wherever she goes, along with emergency sewing tools.)

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