Well, if he's using fancy science magic [She understood approximately none of the alchemy discussion, but it sounds like magic and she heard the word chemistry, which is a science.] then, like, you can create a puppet with magic. Or, like.

[She pauses for a second, because she really, really doesn't want this to be true but she feels like it should be brought up.]

You can, like, create? A person-thing with magic and it's, like, subject to your whims or whatever. She's, like, smarter than most of the ones I've known but also they're usually, like, broccoli or whatever? Maybe if you make them out of smarter stuff then they're, like, more people-y.

[She's actually describing something more like a golem, but you know. They an awful lot like Homunculi too.]