“Beepbeepbeepbeep! Beepbeepbeepbeep! Beepbeepbeepbeep!” the foul beast perched on the princess’s bedside shrieked into her ear, as it did every morning - a curse the princess could not be rid of no matter how desperately she tried. She thrashed in her bed, refusing to open her eyes. The beast would not wake her.

“Beepbeepbeepbeep! Beepbeepbeepbeep!” it wailed incessantly, its only goal to rouse her from her slumber.

“Dolls… dolls… deal with the foul creature… it torments me once again!” the princess barked, trying to raise her voice over the constant shrieking plaguing her, striving to be ever so slightly louder than her tormentor - to no avail. No doll came forward to drive the beast away, and so the princess turned in bed, covering her ears with her large pink pillows.

“Dolls! she yelled, stubbornly keeping her eyes shut - the beast would not wake her. She would conquer it and return to the gentle land of slumber. There is no need for the princess to be awake at this hour of the morning. Whoever had cursed the fair lady would inevitably be found, she vowed, just as the shrieking was forcibly stopped. The princess sighed a breath of relief just before she felt a hand on her shoulder.

It was cold, smooth, and unyielding. Even in comparison to the lady’s fair skin, it was a yet brighter shade of white. The princess visibly relaxed as the hand touched her, beginning to melt into her blankets and bed, relieved that slumber would be so easy to return to with one of her dolls by her side. The porcelain hand began to gently shake her shoulder, though, surprising her.

“It is time to wake up now, Princess Dahlia. You have very important events scheduled. It would do you no good to sleep the day away.” The voice sounded caring and sweet, never raising its tone as the smooth hand continued to gently shake her shoulder. The princess knew that what was being said to her was true. Her dolls were trained never to lie to her, after all. They were the pinnacle of obedience and grace, as any doll serving a princess should be. But - she so desperately wanted her sleep to be more important than the day that was planned for her. A princess’s sleep is necessary!

She rolled over in her bed, looking up at the doll trying to rouse her from her rest. Her porcelain body shined in the sunlight peeking through her curtains, casting rainbows on the walls as she moved. Her long, dark blue hair, meticulously tied into braids, framed her perfectly crafted face. No pores, no wrinkles, no blemishes were possible with a doll. They would never grow stubble like the princess sometimes did. They could be the height of feminine perfection.

“Come on, Dahlia. If you’re late to class again, Professor Flannery is going to be pissed. You know how much she hates you running late.”

Anger surged through the princess. How dare one of her dolls talk to her like that! The rude tone, the course language, and the most grave offense of all of course, not addressing her as “Princess”. She needed to get up now. She needed to make sure she had programmed her doll to behave properly!

But as she sat up, she realized she was not actually looking at her doll anymore. There was a person in front of her, with long, beautiful locks of dark blue hair. Her lips were not the perfect red of painted porcelain, but were instead with a matte black lipstick. Gone were the modest and beautiful maid clothes, replaced with a black denim miniskirt, a mesh undershirt, and a heavy metal band shirt taking their place.

Dahlia was awake now, and groaning in protest of this injustice. Her head throbbed as she sat up in her bed, looking up at her friend, Alyssa. She sighed, and her shoulders dropped in an exaggerated form. Alyssa closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, shaking her head.

“I swear, getting you up in the morning feels almost impossible. I don’t understand how you can be such a heavy sleeper.” Dahlia rolled her eyes. Stretching, she slowly climbed out of her bed, her legs hanging over the bed frame. Her hand subconsciously went to her face, rubbing against her chin, and she once again felt the intimately familiar feeling of sandpaper. The course roughness that could only come from her stubble growing back in. Her mood darkened ever so slightly.

“Well, no one asked you to wake me up in the mornings. A princess needs her sleep after all.” Her reply didn’t sound quite as snappy as it had in her head. She was too tired to muster up actual snark towards her roommate, to give her even the slightest lashing for the crime of waking her up. It was too much effort knowing that she would need to spend this morning in front of a mirror, again, making sure there was no stubble left over.

“You told me that if you were late to class again, Professor Flannery was going to dock you from an A to a B. I’d find that excessive were you not late twenty times, and we both know that the alarm clock always fails to wake you up, Princess.” Alyssa, however, was a self-taught master of snarky comebacks. It was part of her charm. Even if you were her friend, she was always capable of finding something to give you a bit of grief over.

Maybe that was why the doll in Dahlia’s dreams was always her. Maybe the snarky punk woman who was easily capable of getting up in the mornings would be better as a doll. She could reserve her snark for others, and treat her Princess with the utmost in affection and dedication. Dolls were so good at that, and the way in which they would meticulously and completely worship their Princess whenever she’d commanded it…

Dahlia shook her head as she walked into the bathroom. She could not continue that line of thought, could not continue fantasizing about her friend and roommate like that. Alyssa already respected her wishes to not make remarks whenever she had morning wood or started to get horny, and she was committed to never letting Alyssa know that she was ever getting turned on thinking about her. She was pretty sure Alyssa wasn’t a lesbian, or bisexual. She wasn’t into women, and definitely not perverted women like herself.

“By the way, you were sleeptalking. Pretty loudly. I could hear what you were saying and everything.” Dahlia froze, her stomach freezing over and doubling, tripling in weight. She remembered what her dream had been like. What if Alyssa had heard her? Alyssa didn’t know that Dahlia was into dolls, not like that. She had obviously seen her own collection of dolls, but Alyssa always just assumed that was a hobby.

“You were making a fuss about dolls. Honestly, it was a little odd. I know some girls who still have a couple of their childhood dolls, but you’re like a doll fanatic. Maybe I just don’t get it.” Alyssa popped into the bathroom, with a bottle of mascara in her hands. She stood next to Dahlia, the two of them sharing a bathroom mirror. Dahlia scooted over a bit, before grabbing her pink razor and splashing her face a bit with warm water.

“I just think they’re wonderful. Dolls can be so beautiful, you know. You can see the care and craftsmanship that goes into the really nice dolls too. Their hair, their face, their clothes. That kind of thing.” She did her best to recite the script she had figured out for situations like this - try and make it seem like a normal hobby. Not mention things like how turned on she gets when she feels the sensation of porcelain on her skin.

“I guess. They always kind of creeped me out. The uncanny valley thing.” Hearing her, Dahlia smirked ever so slightly. Then, she applied the shaving gel to her face. She hated using the stuff - having to use products made with men in mind always made her feel a little awful about herself - but the fact that it kept her from nicking her face was more important.

“Didn’t you tell me your older brother made you watch Child’s Play as a kid? Are you sure that didn’t have any kind of effect on you?” Alyssa was in the middle of doing her mascara on her left eye when she froze momentarily. That brief moment of vulnerability that sent a shiver down Dahlia’s spine. It was always great to revel in those moments when she would get the upper hand over Alyssa, when she could win.

“Nah, come on. Be real. There’s no way something like that could mess me up.” Dahlia couldn’t tell if she sounded less confident or not. She had returned to doing her mascara, applying it perfectly with the practice of someone who had been doing their own make-up for years. It made her a little jealous, knowing how her first, and only, attempt at mascara had gone.

“You wouldn’t be the first person traumatized by a scary movie they watched as a kid, you know? It’s pretty normal.” Seeing her roommate's endearing attempt at a jab, Alyssa chuckled, finishing her mascara on her eye before nudging Dahlia with her elbow.

“Speaking from experience, are we? What movie still keeps you up at night, Dahlia?” Dahlia fidgeted a bit. She had pushed her, and now Alyssa was putting her on the back foot again.

“This isn’t about me, you know. I’m not the one who is creeped out by dolls.”

“But I don’t really believe you about the scary movie. If only I knew someone who suffered from that.” Dahlia sighed. She was not going to find any purchase, not anymore. She had to tap out now before Alyssa really dug in.

“Actually, nothing really. I didn’t watch horror movies until I was about 14. At that point, they were pretty scary but they never really bothered me.” Alyssa shrugged, going back to her mascara, apparently finding the answer sufficient. Dahlia went back to shaving her stubble slowly and carefully. She hadn’t been untruthful with her response either. She truly hadn’t seen a horror movie until she watched Oculus with a friend of hers, and Oculus hadn’t really freaked her out.

She was never going to admit, though, that it had been a preview for A Nightmare on Elm Street - from a VHS she had watched as a kid - that had terrified her.

---

Dahlia flopped onto the couch and pulled out her phone to check the time. It was 9:10 in the morning, and her class was at 10:00. There was just enough time for Dahlia to do the other important part of her morning routine. She tapped her screen, opening an application that would give her the much needed dopamine to get through the day, especially Professor Flannery’s English Literature course.

“Commander, I'm waiting for you. Please start today's work immediately.” Dahlia sighed longingly, a smile gracing her lips as a game opened up on her phone.The blond woman on her screen felt almost menacing as she held out her handgun, her dark green cloak fluttering behind her. Most of her body was seemingly made up of some kind of high-quality plastic, with only her top and some tactical gear covering parts of her body. Her electric blue and green eyes were striking, but Dahlia especially loved the fact that she had doll joints on her legs and arms.

“Oh Welrod…you definitely make my morning a bit better~.” Dahlia had eagerly downloaded the gacha game when she had heard from an internet friend about the premise. Combat dolls named after firearms felt, at the time, like it was perfectly designed to be a Dahlia trap. It had been the game that she had put the most time into over the others, and truthfully, had also been the game she had put the most money into. Sometimes she shuddered thinking about the money that had been spent, a lump sum that represented years of small purchase after small purchase.

She had managed to stop her spending, but she still loved playing the games - and she especially loved the girls. It didn’t matter that most of them didn’t have the doll joints like Welrod did. Well, it didn’t matter too much. - it just made Welrod that much better. The way that Welrod looked at her was even more stimulating. It was so easy for Dahlia to slip back into fantasies about having such an unrepentant weapon under her heel, knowing that she could command those hands that would effortlessly kill to instead minister to her.

However, she had to wrap this up quicker than normal. She could not be late to class because Welrod turned her on. That would be basically impossible to explain. She collected her log-in rewards, and then wistfully bid Welrod goodbye as she closed the game to then open another gacha game. Then a third one. Then a fourth one. She had five different gacha games that she would play, although not all had the same amount of time devoted to them. Some of them appealed to her a lot more than others, while a couple of them had promised something appealing but had failed to deliver how she had wanted. The truth that Dahlia was struggling to come to terms with was that there really wasn’t a gacha game that had truly spoken to her. Welrod was the closest they had come, but nothing had scratched her exact itch.

Alyssa walked by at that point, looking over. The sight of Dahlia curled up on the couch with her face buried in her phone wasn’t at all strange. When she wasn’t forcibly busy with something else, she was usually finding something to do on her phone. Alyssa turned around, sitting on the coffee table in front of her roommate. Dahlia looked up at her, as she closed the final gacha game that she had to log into.

“You’re never going to get to class if you’re too busy being distracted by anime girls. Come on! You haven’t had anything to eat either.” Alyssa reached forward, allowing Dahlia to grab onto her arm. She pulled her up off the couch, and moved to the front door. Dahlia pocketed her phone, grabbing her backpack she had packed last night and throwing it onto her back.

“I was just logging in. That doesn’t take too much time, you know.” Alyssa rolled her eyes, opening the door to the dorm room.

“Yeah yeah, you little gaming addict. We’re going to grab something quick along the way. Come on.” Alyssa walked out the door, and Dahlia swiftly followed suit. As she was closing the door behind her, however, her phone chimed with a notification. She briefly considered taking a moment to check what it was, but her roommate was waving to her from near the stairwell, so she quickly ran over to her. She couldn’t risk the possibility of being late again.

---

Dahlia sat down at the cafeteria table, her tray of chicken tenders and fries in front of her. There were three other women at the table already, and all of them waved at her as she joined them. She sighed as she opened up her phone, getting ready to open up her gacha game so that she could see Welrod again - she truly needed it after the English Literature class she just had. It was then that she noticed that she had gotten an email to her personal email account earlier that morning, something that was quite the rarity.

“Come on Dahlia, it’s been like thirty seconds since you sat down, the least you could do is tell us how your morning has been.” The woman sitting to her right patted Dahlia on the back with a grin. Her blond hair had been cut and had been gelled into a rough mohawk, with the sides of her head shaved down. She had, at this point, a couple of piercings in her nose and one in her lip, although she was considering getting a second one at some point.

“Come on, Chel. I was just checking my email. I wasn’t able to do it earlier.” Chel laughed as she opened up the email. Her real name was Chelsea, but she had gone by Chel ever since her mother had called her a “pathetic excuse for a daughter” and dropped her off at college.

“I mean, usually you’re just gawking at the girls on your phone with their tits out or whatever. And you usually wait until you’ve got some food in your mouth to do it.” Chel stretched before grabbing the cheeseburger in front of her and taking a huge bite of it.

“As if you can talk, Chel. Half the time you’re snatching the phone from her to drool over the same girls, except you make a bigger ruckus about it. Who can forget the famous Chel moment where you yelled ‘Holy shit she has her whole pussy out!!!’ to the entire cafeteria?” The brunette blew a bubble out of the gum she was chewing, popping it as if for emphasis. Chel blushed pink and looked around, before chuckling, stretching herself as far back in the chair as possible.

“Don’t act like you’re better, Alexa. You were the one who joined the cheer team here once you learned that they also showed up to the girls’ games. We can all tell you’re more enthusiastic when it’s Janine at the plate rather than Ryan”. A sharp pop was heard from the other side of the table, as another chewing gum bubble was blown out. Alexa spit out her gum into a napkin, before furiously shoving a fry into her mouth.

“Try not to hurt yourself, Alexa. One day Janine will notice you, and you’ll have the buff, sporty girlfriend of your dreams. Just make sure you bounce extra-high so she’ll see you.” The final girl at the table picked at her salad with a fork, taking small bites. Her dreads occasionally got in the way, the treacherous hair trying to claim her salad, but she was now experienced enough with it that she could easily get her food out of the way.

“I will. You just watch, Pat. We can all have the girl of our dreams! It won’t just be you.” Alexa gently flung a fry at Pat, but she deftly intercepted the projectile with her fork and flicked it away. Dahlia had always known Pat to be particularly indefatigable, which was something she deeply envied. She always felt like an impassable mountain, larger than any of the people who would jeer at her or fling names at her from down the hall. It was something Dahlia had never truly been able to emulate.

“Yeah, it’s okay to be a little jealous. I’ve got a rockin bod and the best girl ever. But it’s not like you all aren’t hot either, so you’re halfway there.” This comment elicited a chorus of laughs from the table, as Dahlia finally opened up the email on her phone. It was from an address she didn’t recognize, with the subject of the mail simply reading “An Incredible Offer Just For You!”

An Incredible Offer Just For You!
witches-workshop@stygiangames.com

Hello Dahlia,

We are pleased to announce the release of our newest indie title, The Witch’s Workshop! A free-to-play title, you’ll be able to play the role of a new witch inheriting her Mistress’s workshop after she mysteriously goes missing. Create and raise a wide variety of different doll servants in order to get to the truth of your Mistress’s disappearance. Players who sign up using the link provided in the email will be able to claim a free SR Maid-class Doll today!

In addition, as part of our first planned update to the game, we’ll be releasing the game’s first ever SSR Doll, in addition to PvP gameplay between different Witches! As promised before, PvP gameplay will be just for fun, and have no wider implications on the game balance, so please continue having fun with our game!

Sincerely,

The Crew at Stygian Games

Dahlia read the email a couple of times, and then a few more times past that to make sure that she wasn’t dreaming. A game about a witch and her assortment of dolls!? It was a game so laser targeted to be for Dahlia that it instantly made her suspicious. She hadn’t heard of the game company before, and having a game advertised to her through email in this way was strange. She had wondered how they had gotten her name as well, before realizing it was attached to her address.

“Hey Pat, can you check this out for me? See if it’s legit?” Dahlia slid the phone over to Pat, who raised an eyebrow as she grabbed it. She quickly read over the email, pulling out her own phone as she chewed a piece of lettuce.

“I think I’ve heard of Stygian Games before. Yeah, yeah okay that’s where I remembered them from. They made a fairly big splash for being a women owned indie games company. So that’s legit, if this is the same company. Looking for contact info…oh no wait. Here is the game on their website. Yeah this looks legit, Dahl.” She slid the phone back over to Dahlia, who eagerly picked it back up and tapped the link. She knew what tonight was going to be devoted to.

“Although, girl, you remember what we all asked you to do, right? To cut back on the gacha games. The last time you got super invested in one of those, you spent a lot more money than you realized.” Pat looked at her, her face awash with concern. Dahlia waved her hand nonchalantly, as if to dispel her friend’s looming worry.

“I’m…aware. That was really embarrassing of me, so I’m making sure that it won’t happen again. I promise I’m going to be responsible, okay?” Pat still didn’t look certain, but Chel patted Dahlia on the shoulder, a wide grin plastered onto her face.

“Come on, no need to give her grief. If Dahlia said that she can be responsible, we should trust her. She’s not a child, you know.” Dahlia relaxed a little as Pat shrugged, going back to her salad.

“Sorry, didn’t mean anything by it. Just worried about one of my friends is all.” Dahlia nodded and the smile finally returned to Pat’s face. Dahlia looked down to see how much of the download was left. It seemed like it would take at least another five or so minutes, depending on how reliable the university internet felt like being. She got up, the sleeves on her black sweatshirt finally stretching out after being bundled up for so long, and puffed out her chest.

“Chel’s right. I’m a big girl now. I can absolutely manage.” The others at the table started laughing in a chorus - naturally, the jovial atmosphere made Dahlia join in. There were some concerned looks from some of the other students in the cafeteria - without a doubt, they must have been wondering who was disrupting the fragile peace that existed between students while out of class. The group of girls eventually stopped laughing, restoring the peace and quiet, and went on to actually eating their lunches instead of just gossiping.

Noticing that the download had finished, Dahlia immediately opened the game, only to be greeted by another download. Dejectedly, she slumped her shoulders and began to nibble on another one of her fries. The splash art on the loading screen was, at least, something pleasing to look at - a half-constructed doll sat on a bench, surrounded by magical tomes and potions. She wasn’t merely a porcelain doll; rather. she was covered in blue designs, many of which looked like different kinds of magical circles. The doll looked completely serene, completely unbothered by anything around it, but Dahlia figured that it wasn’t even aware. It was just an incomplete doll, waiting for its witch to come back and finish creating it. It would be an erotic image even if the doll wasn’t entirely naked, with its shapely porcelain breasts plain to see.

“What kind of games does Stygian Games make, Pat? Just curious.” Dahlia asked, refusing to tear her eyes from the screen, entranced by the doll girl artwork. Pat lifted her fingle for a moment, then grabbed her phone and reopened her browser to get back to the webpage she had checked previously.

“Let’s see…I remember one of their previous games. Tales of Love and Lust on the Planet Zenon. It was pitched as a return to old text style adventure games, you know, such as Zork, but I ended up surprised by how well written everything was. They seem to mostly do adventure game fare, but usually with queer love stories as the focus. It’s kind of odd they’re doing a gacha game now.” She rambled as she looked at Stygian Games’ website on her phone.

“Someone had a nerd phase as a kid, huh? I think I played Zork like, once. Never got very far in it. It’s just text.” Chel chimed in, putting her feet up on the table. Her big leather boots landed on the table with a loud thud, causing the table to shake from the impact. Alexa glared daggers at her for a moment before going to finish up her lunch.

“Had? I’m still a nerd. I have a yearly replay of the game I commit myself to doing. It’s a classic for a reason.”

“‘Classic’ usually just means it's a game that the boomers can’t let go of. I don’t think most of them are that good.” Dahlia replied, not looking up from her phone as the game’s download was finalized. She tapped the screen as quickly as the splash screen came up, excited to finally be able to play the game she had spent all lunch waiting for. Pat’s face crumpled up, her mouth now as thin as a line, and she stared her down.

“I will enjoy my boomer games just fine, thank you very much.” Pat snapped back, before gently smiling and laughing lightheartedly. Dahlia would normally join in with her, but her eyes were glued to her phone. She was eagerly going through the tutorial for The Witch’s Workshop, enraptured as a porcelain doll in a long maid outfit explained how to play the game. The maid’s art was animated, and Dahlia felt her heart quicken as she watched the doll move - with each new UI element introduced, her arm and hand’s ball joints would glide effortlessly, perfectly.

“I fear we may have lost our dear Dahlia to the doll dimension, Pat.” Chel chimed in with a grin, then leaned to her left in order to peek over Dahlia’s shoulder.

“She’s been entranced by a doll maid. We may never get her back.” she continued, chuckling lightly. Her looming shadow made Dahlia snap out of her trance, and realize the outside world existed again. She looked up, seeing Chel’s grin, and chuckled herself, shrinking back a bit.

“A-ah. I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.” She pulled the phone a bit closer to herself, looking around to make sure that no one was mad at her. It was a subconscious defense mechanism that she had developed over the years, but she found no anger or disdain from the faces of her friends. Chel was grinning wryly, Pat was smiling widely - desperately holding back her laugher - and Alexa was giggling herself. Dahlia relaxed, her body remembering that she was among friends.

“Alright, Dahlia, you can’t have the dolls for yourself, let everyone see.” Chel said, laughing. Dahlia smiled too, passing her phone over to her. Chel stared at the doll girl on the screen, lifting the phone over and showing Pat, who took the phone in turn.

“Oh, wow. It's really well animated. I guess it’s not super surprising given how much care they usually give their art, but I wasn’t expecting this much effort.” she remarked, her voice clearly suffused with wonder. She then passed the phone over to Alexa. The athletic girl took a quick look at the phone, a glance so cursory it seemed almost out of obligation, and shrugged ambivalently.

“That’s a maid, alright. Not my thing though.” Dahlia snatched the phone from her hands just as she was about to give it back, wanting to immediately get back to the game. She was just about to do her tutorial summon, and could feel the anticipation building up in her body. The hairs on her arms and neck were standing up, and she could feel her heartbeat intensify. She wanted to see who she could summon, see what dolls were hers to get - what doll she was going to become obsessed with.

“I’ve got class at five, so I’m gonna bounce. Don’t forget to head back to your dorm when the Student Center closes, you know.” Chel patted Dahlia on the shoulder, making her jolt a bit as she was brought back to reality. She shook her head a bit, pushing out the excitement she was fostering in her chest, then waved her friend goodbye. Chel reciprocated, but, as she was about to exit the building, decided to turn around and sit back at the table.

“Hey, Dahlia, if you’re so excited about this game, why don’t I download it too? You know, we can be friends in-game and stuff. I think these games make that important, right?” Chel took out her phone with glimmering eyes, and gazed towards Dahlia. She nodded enthusiastically, sparing a glance at everyone else.

“Yeah…we could play it together. I’ve never really done that before, so it would be nice…” Her voice almost seemed like a whisper towards the end, as she struggled with her thoughts. She was overjoyed that her friend was eager to share her interests, scared that her friend would eventually find her fascination with dolls creepy, and at the same time, excited. She saw an opportunity in this, something that spurred her on to make a suggestion.

“We could all play. If we’re all playing together…we can probably all keep each other in check to make sure none of us are spending money.” The rationale made sense to Dahlia, but from the uninterested look on Alexa’s and Pat’s faces, she didn’t think it went well.

“Sorry, I don’t play gacha games. They’re not my thing. I think if I missed the chance to get a really good character, my head might explode.” Pat said, now having transitioned into flipping through social media on her phone.

“I mean…I suppose? I’m not into dolls at all…like I prefer real women. But if it would help Dahlia out, I guess I can.” Alexa pulled her phone out nonchalantly - Dahlia beamed as she sent her friends the link she had gotten in the email. Chel stood up, putting one of her feet on her chair as she waited for the game to download. The game downloaded quicker for her than it had for Dahlia, and she grabbed her phone once it was done, pushing her chair back in.

“Alright, I really have to go to class. Peace!” With that, she ran out of the doors and onto the campus. Then, Alexa then stretched her arms up and pulled herself out of the chair.

“I’m going to head out too. I still need to head back to my dorm room so I can pack up my cheer uniform for practice tonight. I’m also pretty sure my roommate needs help with one of her projects because…well you guys know about Cindi.” Dahlia had met Cindi once. She was so archetypally a bimbo cheerleader that Dahlia was genuinely bewildered by the fact that she had even been accepted into the college. She was pretty sure that it had to be because one of her parents was a wealthy alumni. Dahlia and Pat waved goodbye to Alexa, who left her table in the opposite direction of Chel.

“Hey, do you want me to walk you back to your dorm? I’ve got nothing else to do until my class tonight, and I figure you don’t want to sit in the cafe the entire afternoon.” Pat looked at Dahlia, who nodded affirmatively. It wasn’t a particularly long walk, and she could get back to her game as quickly as possible.

“Yeah, thanks Pat. It means a lot that you offer.” She quickly gathered her things, reluctantly putting her phone in her pocket, and watched her friend as she did the same. Dahlia had never been accosted to and from her dorm room, but she never felt particularly safe making the walk alone. Pat was the one who most often offered to walk her back to her dorm room, something Dahlia was thankful for.

The walk to the dorm room was completely uneventful. The weather was nice, and the two women filled the time with idle chatter. Eventually, they got to the dorm room, and Dahlia went to open the door. However, Pat put a hand on her shoulder before she could reach the handle. Dahlia looked at her and saw that she wore a frown of concern.

“Listen, I know you told me that you will be able to handle it. But if it ever gets too difficult to manage, if you find yourself struggling to keep your impulses under control, you’re always welcome at my place. We can do a cold turkey session. I’ve still got an SNES we can play the good stuff on, you know?” Hearing her friend’s kindness made Dahlia smile and lock her in a warm embrace.

“I promise you I won’t let it get that bad, and if I break that promise, I’ll show up at your place and you can force me to play Zork in order to detox.” They both shared a moment of jovial laughter, after which Pat took her leave, waving goodbye from across the hallway. Dahlia waved back, before opening the door to her room and immediately running over to the couch.

---

Hours had passed by since Dahlia had gotten home when Alyssa walked through the door. She had not just been playing The Witch’s Workshop for that time, but spent a considerable amount of time admiring the art, sometimes in her bedroom. The dolls that she was able to summon were all Rare or Super Rare in rarity. The game currently had no Ultra Rare dolls in any of its banners, which struck her as odd. Usually a gacha game releases with some “chase” characters that are meant to entice new whales into dumping a lot of money on the game. Here, however, the only active banners had what would be the equivalent of 3 and 4 star characters in its pools.

Dolls were divided up into different classes, which were characterized by professions or roles. There were two different maid dolls, named Maid Alpha and Maid Beta. It was the blue haired Maid Beta being the doll that Dahlia was staring at wistfully, kicking her feet as she laid down on the couch. There were no dolls that had actual, proper names in the game yet - only dolls with their roles and designation. There were aspects of this that she found very appealing, especially when it came to the three different combat dolls that game had, but it was difficult for her to vibe with “Cheerdoll Alpha” in the same way.

Alyssa walked over to Dahlia and sat down in front of her, on one of the couch’s unoccupied cushions, making her look up from her game.

“Stuck in a game again, Dahlia?” Alyssa smiled, knowingly, as Dahlia shrunk back, straightening herself on the couch and adopting a regular sitting position on its farthest cushion.

“Y-yeah. It’s a new o-one.” she stammered her words out, holding the phone a little bit closer to her chest. Alyssa raised an eyebrow, slowly leaning over to get a better look. Dahlia shrunk a little bit more, trying not to be blatant about what she was doing.

“Hey, Dahlia. You don’t need to hide it from me, I’m sure it’s nothing that embarrassing. Come on, let me see.” she pressed, scooting over on the couch, getting yet closer to her. Dahlia sat there frozen in thought, debating whether she wanted her roommate to see the game. Part of her was screaming about potentially being seen as a freak by her roommate, not wanting to risk making the living arrangement awkward. She was scared that Alyssa becoming more familiar with her fetish for dolls would result in her roommate being disgusted with her.

Dahlia swallowed this down, and passed over the phone. Alyssa took it, looking with interest at the screen, before passing it back to Dahlia, still smiling.

“Oh, I see. It’s a doll game, right?” Dahlia nodded quickly, hoping the conversation would quickly pass painlessly.

“I know I said I found dolls creepy earlier, but you don’t have to be scared about it. I’m not going to judge you for this.” She nodded again, a bit slower, looking back at the phone.

“Thank you…” Dahlia whispered, her voice barely audible even in the quiet room. Alyssa frowned, gazing at her anxious roommate with concern before pulling out her own phone.

“I’m sorry, I guess I didn’t realize this was a sore spot for you. Why don’t you tell me what the name of the game is, and I’ll play it just to show that I’m not judging you for this, okay?” Dahlia blinked, looking at Alyssa with a confused expression. She hadn’t been expecting this reaction from her roommate, and wondered briefly if this had been some kind of a set-up. Pushing that thought aside, she sent her the download link she had gotten, still too nervous to say anything.

“Sweet, thanks Dahlia. Maybe you can help me with this game at some point, I’m not that familiar with playing video games. For right now though, I’ve got to study for a test tomorrow.” Alyssa got up, walking into her bedroom. Dahlia sat on the couch, stunned at what had just happened, and mindlessly tapped the screen.

“Do not worry, Witch. You are more than competent enough to handle the trials and rivals in front of you.” The doll’s voice was dry and direct, the strictest form of professionalism, but it still made Dahlia smile as she stood up and stretched her back. Maybe this would all be okay at the end of the day, and she would have something fun to bond with her friends over.

After all, what was better than dolls?