“Miss! This one found the photo book!” The figurine doll was dragging a tome along the desk, approaching its witch as he was hunched over the desk, painting a miniature with extreme precision.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he finished his stroke before the doll disturbed his workstation, setting aside his brushes as he looked to what the it had found now. “Oh, yeah, that’s my year book.”

“This one hasn’t seen Miss before he made it!” It flipped the book open, tabbing through the pages until finding the class photo. “Which one is Miss?”

“Uhm, lemme see… over there, in the middle left.”

“Miss looks so different!”

“Well, I was sixteen.”

“Miss had long hair!”

“Yeah, I cut it down after I moved out on my own, a little much to manage if you don’t have anyone else helping.”

“Couldn’t a doll brush Miss’s hair?”

“I suppose. It was hard the first few years after I left the coven, though, didn’t really think about that.”

“Why was it hard?”

“Well, it’s not like witches can just get office jobs. Back in the old days you’d go find a village and set up shop outside of it, sell potions and spells. Now humans have doctors and pharmaceuticals and computers. Less business for witches.”

“But Miss’s spells are so powerful!”

“Magic isn’t something that comes without cost dear doll. Nothing is. Magic just tends to be more upfront about it. Humans are content to take medicines that’ll kill them ten years from now, than a potion that’ll hurt for a week.”

“What does Miss do to be able to buy so many dolls anyways? This one has begun learning personal finance after seeing how shops work.”

“…did you log into my bank account?”

“No, it guessed the password wrong too many times and the bank says it’s locked now.”

“So that’s why I couldn’t buy lunch…” He groaned, pointing over to another workdesk filled with bottles. “I sell enchantments human technology hasn’t figured out yet. I also enchant machines to help prevent them from breaking down.”

“Miss makes machine dolls??”

“No, no, it’s not as involved as making a doll. It’s more like, an animate broom. No real thoughts or such, just a certain pre-determined set of actions.”

“But the maid dolls giggle about having no thoughts?”

“I’m starting to think they’re bad influences for you.”

“They’ve taught it a lot! Right now they’re teaching this one how to find dates for Miss, because he’s too lonely.”

“Okay first of all-“

“Miss spends all of his time in the workroom! He doesn’t even visit the other dolls now!”

“I thought you were going talk about my yearbook?”

“It was a conversation opener, much like what Miss should study if he wants to find a partner.”

He blinked, stumbling for words for a moment. “There’s a lot of sudden things that have opened up here I’m not exactly sure where to start. Are the other dolls gossiping about me?”

“This one is confident that the maid and servitor dolls do nothing but gossip, Miss.”

“Okay, fair. What about the other figurines?”

“Most of them are busy reenacting the stories they’re from. This one is going to school now with some of them!”

“You’d think I’d have noticed that… okay, maybe you have a point, I stay in here a lot. But that doesn’t mean I need to go on a date.”

“Miss should find someone who can complete him! But none of the dolls know who Miss prefers. Boys? Girls? Both? Neither? Dolls?”

“I am not going date my dolls.”

“Some of the new figurines want to date Miss though!”

“How would that even work? Most of you aren’t more than a few inches tall.”

“This one has seen many depictions on the internet-“

“Forget I asked. Before you go spreading anything scandalous around, I like girls, thank you very much.”

“Miss should date another witch then! Miss knows many cute witches from his coven.”

“I thought we had a conversation-no, I’m not dating a witch either. Do you know how hard that is? Witches are constantly competing with each other.”

“Maybe it could be a rivals to lovers story!”

“When witches fight, it usually ends up with one of them suffering some horrible hex, or getting turned into a cat or something. Not interested.”

“Miss could make a cute cat though.”

“I’m not dating a witch.”

“Maybe a cute girl from the city, then?”

“Witch-human relationships are also very fraught. There’s a lot of power imbalance that makes these things very difficult.”

“It’s sure Miss could find girls who think that’s attractive.”

“I’m changing my computer password.”