[Xander – 13 years]

"Hi, Dad," I greet him as I enter the house.

He was waiting by the door, dressed casually rather than in a suit. I like that he wears casual clothes around the house rather than suits. It would feel too stiff for me here if he wore suits all the time. It would also make me feel as if I'd need to wear a suit all the time as well, even if he said I didn't.

And I hate suits. They feel awful.

"Hey, Xander," he says. "You were going to use your workroom here for the rest of your stream?"

After I finished talking with chat while floating over the forest (that was mostly to try and push through the anxiety I felt with it being so high), I told them I wanted to make Sig a gift for his successful first magic beast hunt. It has to be something special, too, since he one-shot something a lot stronger than him (comparatively).

Which is just awesome. So he deserves a special reward for that and I want to make him something to celebrate, in addition to the moose burgers just so he can try them. Dad said I can stream for as long as I like today after we got permission from Ms. Johnson for me to go hunting, so I decided I want to make it during the stream.

It's okay if Sig finds out early because of that. The gift isn't supposed to be a massive surprise, it's just supposed to be a celebration.

Before I returned home, however, I went to the Martinses' to process the moose. They weren't sure how to process a wyvern, so that's being held off on for now. Very few people in this world even have the ability to kill one, so it makes sense they wouldn't know.

I was stupid for asking.

"Yeah," I answer. "Well, I was gonna let Trenton entertain my chat while I took a shower to wash off the hunt and to change into fresh clothes, then I was gonna use the workroom."

"Close enough," he chuckles. "How was Trenton going to entertain them?"

"I dunno."

"Mind if I talk with your chat while you shower and change?"

"No," I answer. "But I'll watch the VOD back later to see what you said."

"That's fine," he chuckles. "It's just some talking with chat."

"Okay," I say.

"Katie'll have lunch ready for you when you in a little bit," he says.

"I already ate."

"You had three sandwiches, an apple, and half of a cheesecake," he says. "She's making you something proper."

That's a meal, a side, and a dessert. Should I have had vegetables other than the lettuce and pickle slices from the sandwich as well? Those were no-calorie, so they might not count.Though I guess I am also still really hungry, so I'll accept the extra lunch.

"Okay," I say. "The orb's gonna focus on you now."

"See you at the workroom," Dad says.

"Okay."

I head up to my room and shower and change into a good outfit for streaming with (with a blue theme rather than green this time), then return downstairs. Rather than being in my workroom, Dad's in the hall outside of it, talking with my chat about fishing. I don't like fishing.

"I'm done," I say once he stops talking, probably to see what chat says.

"Alright," Dad says. "Chat, I'm handing you back to Xander now."

"There's no hands involved," I say as the orb switches back to me. "All that's happening is the orb moving and changing who it's focusing on."

"It's a phrase," Dad tells me. "Likely which originates from handing paperwork or a child off to someone else. Hands would be used for those."

"Oh," I say. "Okay. Thanks for talking with chat while I changed. I'm gonna go in the workroom now."

"Alright," he chuckles. "Katie should be showing up with your lunch in just a few minutes."

I nod, then enter my workroom. All of the tools and materials I need for what I want to make for Sig are in here or in my stasis bracelets, so I don't need to go to the workshop for this. Greyson would also probably not be happy if I streamed from in the workshop, too.

While I have a section in there for me to use, it's his workshop, not mine.

Then there's also the fact that there's actually secret stuff there and the magi-artificial intelligence from the orb and the website might not know what to conceal.

"This is my workroom here at home," I tell my chat. "Nothing secret in here, so it's okay to show it to y'all. The workshop where I do most of my work has secret stuff inside, so I don't think I'm allowed to do streams from in there. What kind of secret stuff? Don't ask me that again, it's called 'secret' for a reason."

I grab some stuff off of the shelves in here, then pull some items out of my bracelets and sit at one of the tables in here.

"What I want to make for him," I say. "Is a bracelet with a stasis pocket enchanted onto it. But he'll complain about how expensive it is if I do that. And before you go 'well, yeah, wouldn't that be tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars even for a small one?', don't. My pricing is a bit different because my skill level is different. I'm an innate spatial and temporal mage. I have raw talent, and also plenty of practice and knowledge of the magics involved."

Even if it seems like I shouldn't. With my temporal acceleration, I have a lot more practical time practicing and using some magics than the real time spent.

"In addition," I say. "I have enough mana that I can break a wyvern's neck just by squeezing it with my arms around its neck. No magic involved. If I have that much mana – and I have more than you probably think – then I have a lot more mana to burn. And the laws of supply and demand means that price decreases as supply increases while while demand is down, if we ignore that I get to choose the demand… but that's a different matter. I ain't gonna make stuff for just anyone, so don't come asking me just 'cause you think it might be cheap. The answer will more than likely be 'no' since I don't know you and aren't friends with you."

I assess the stuff on the table, then nod.

"Alright," I say. "That's everything. So instead of making Sig a stasis pocket bracelet, I'm gonna make him an expanded space pouch with a chilling and freezing enchantment on it. That's a lot cheaper than a stasis pocket, even if it still uses pocket hare hide for the base."

The first few minutes of working on this are spent sketching out a plan using my glasses, which correct the lines once I'm finished. It makes them straighter and to the dimensions I actually want, that is. All of this can be seen for my chatters as well, so they know I'm doing the designing and my glasses are assisting me with the smoothness and dimensions.

Then, I prepare the button and the belt clip. Those technically need machines back at the workshop… but I have a lot of extras already. Making them in batches saves me time in the long run since I only need to set up for one batch on occasion rather than each individual time.

Once everything is ready for enchanting, I start setting in the enchantments. This takes me about forty minutes to do as I don't use temporal acceleration for it, and I make sure my viewers can see the plan I've created. As I do, I also explain some parts of it to them.

"This set here is just my standard longevity enchantments," I explain as I finish connecting a few runes and markings. "It increases the durability of the pouch, makes it more resilient to damage, resistant to heat, mold, rot, and some other stuff, it won't fade or wear easily, and some other things. I put it on most of the stuff I make."

The glowing lines seep into the leather and vanish from ordinary view. At least, I think it's from ordinary view since most people apparently can't see my enchantments unless I alter how I set them so that they're set onto the surface of the item, with a little bit of a different structure to how the mana was placed as well.

"This here is the actual space expansion part," I say as I work on that. "It's tricky, but I can talk a little as I do it. This runic setup defines how much to amplify the space by. Those calculations you saw me do were to determine that so I can get it to be a precise amount. Greyson's the one who made the program I used for that. It makes things super simple."

It's even on my regular phone, which is now the phone Greyson built for me. We changed it to that one from my old one since I do use a lot of magic. I can still destroy it by accident since Greyson still hasn't managed to make something which can resist even just 50,000 mana strength, but it's also durable enough to withstand a little bit of accidental force.

"This bit here creates the chilling and freezing effects," I say. "So when Sig puts items in, he can say 'chill', 'freeze', 'cool down', 'cool down, chill', and 'cool down, freeze' and it'll affect that item. How that works is if he says 'chill', the pouch will keep that item cold – at a solid thirty-nine degrees. It's recommended to have it at forty or below for a refrigerator and thirty-nine is a better number.

"If he says 'freeze'," I continue. "It'll store that item at zero degrees, or the freezer temperature. 'Cool down' will reduce the item's temperature while detecting if undesirable damage is caused, such as if you put hot glass into it with that. It'll cool it down and make sure it doesn't affect the integrity of the glass as it does. Adding on 'chill' to that will keep the item at refrigerator temps after cooling it down, and adding on 'freeze' will keep it at freezer temps. Anything not put in with those commands will be kept at whatever temperature the pouch is at. I might have added in a little extra cooling on here so it won't get hot if it's hot outside, but that's still in the upper sixties."

Chat gets confused about that, so I guess I explained it badly. Figuring out how to explain stuff like this is really difficult, so I figured I might do it badly.

"Basically," I say. "The pouch will keep an item at whatever temperature the pouch is naturally at – when factoring in the additional enchantment to keep it from getting too hot or too cold normally – unless a command is used. Then, that specific item will be kept at the indicated temperature."

Chat still seems confused, but one of the chatters gives me an explanation even without me asking.

[EleanorMakes]: they're confused because they didn't know you could make cooling containers only affect certain things

[EleanorMakes]: as an enchanter who can make spatial expansion containers, I've never heard of that, either

"Oh!" I say. "Welcome in! I haven't met very many who can make stuff like these yet. Um… I figured out how to do the enchantment like that on my own since I couldn't find anything online about it. It just makes sense that it can do that. A stasis enchantment is easier to place and you don't have to worry about targeting specific items that way. That lets you not worry about cooling or freezing until you get to your fridge or freezer or whatever. It's also more expensive, though. That's why I figured out how to do this. This costs way less mana to do, and doesn't require me to be as precise.

"And since I know Sig will complain about the price," I say. "I went with the cheaper option. It's also why its size only expands it up to a space that's twenty-one inches on each side. I wanted to make it twenty-seven inches on each side, but that would more than double the price. It would still be cheaper than the necklace he got me for my birthday, but making it a lot cheaper would reduce the complaining about the gift.

"It's this necklace, by the way," I touch it. "I think I've mentioned that before, I like it a lot. But anyway. Back to the pouch. If he wanted to store ice cream and a change of clothes in it, then the change of clothes would end up freezing cold if I had the entire pouch just be freezing. And this also saves the effort of trying to figure out if it should just be expanded space without a temperature adjustment, or one that's cold, or one that's freezing. That's just logic."

Oh. But if it's not something that's been designed by others before, then my own plans are probably the only ones known right now. To the public, anyway. Grandpa Adrian probably knows how to do this, too.

"I'll see about putting up a better explanation online later," I say. "Anyway, time for the security enchantments. There are several different sets I put on, but I weave them together as it's easier to do so."

These enchantments prevent those who either aren't the owner or who don't have the owner's permission from putting stuff inside or taking stuff out. Well, in theory. I can get around it with my own magic, but Grandpa Adrian says I'm an outlier and should not be counted when making statements like this.

So I don't tell chat that I can get around the enchantment. It feels weird to say that it prevents anyone, even though outliers shouldn't be included. I really want to say it just in case but know that it's not lying. Grandpa Adrian was very clear that leaving out outliers is not lying unless it's actually important for the outliers to be known.

Which it isn't.

Another aspect of the enchantment prevents the pouch from being stolen. Only Sig and those he allows to mess with it can, mostly. I put in some exceptions like with my backpack, so that it can be moved by someone else if necessary.

The last set of security enchantments I explain to chat are the ones which prevent shoplifting or someone attempting to frame the pouch's owner. Only stuff the user has permission to put in may enter. So anyone who has a pouch like this can't just take stuff off of the shelf in a store and put them in. They have to buy it first or receive permission from whoever has the authority to grant it.

Grandpa Adrian was very clear that I should always include this enchantment in spatial expansion and spatial pocket items. This way, I and those I make them for cannot be accused of stealing through them unless it's a lie.

I make sure to emphasize how it's impossible for an ordinary person to use them to steal. The pouch can tell if the item's allowed to be put in or not and will reject something which isn't.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Thanks for watching," I tell chat once I finish making the pouch, which I decorated with some silver runes, a blue buck, and an arrow pattern. "A lot happened today, but I think I might still do my World of Myst stream after lunch on Monday. I want to finish building the pie farm. So anyway. Bye."

I end the stream, then I change outfits back to my more casual ones before letting Dad and Mom know I'm heading out. Once I'm past the gate, I teleport to Sig's place.

Hunter's truck is in the driveway already, but I expected him to be here as Ms. Rachel told me he would be. Mr. Fuller's truck is just pulling into the driveway when I do, so I make sure to teleport to the curb before the house, past where his truck is. That makes it so he won't get startled by me appearing in front of him and potentially cause an accident.

"Hi, Sig!" I greet him when he hops out of the truck, then I give him a hug. "How did the rest of the trip go?"

"Great!" He answers. "We went to a place nearby to sell our catches and divide up the stuff. I'm keeping the skull of the buck, its pelt, and some of its other bones, once they're processed, and I'll be getting some of the meat as well. Some of it just raw, but they're also gonna make deer sausage and deer jerky with it! So that reduces how much I got from that, but it's cool! A gemstream buck is apparently worth a lot of money."

"The hide alone would have been worth about a grand," I say. "And the meat would run about forty a pound rather than the general twenty or so for a normal deer, I believe. The antlers would've been, uh… I don't remember that one. Or for the bones. But if you don't keep even half of the meat and they get the rest, that should cover the cost for processing what you do get, right?"

"Right," he says. "Thomas and Amelia – the other two kids you saw – also wanted some of its meat, so they're getting a little. I got some of their share because of that, too, but that mostly covered the costs of the processing. Well, we got paid now, but they aren't actually done processing yet. That'll be awhile. And that doesn't include the hares and birds we caught. The payday was sooo big! And I get to try some new meat, too! Though I don't really understand what's so special about them."

"Their bones have a gemstone-like magic in them," I tell him. "And ain't actually made of calcium or whatever it is normal animal bones are made of. It's more like a stone even if it looks and feels like regular bones. And if they're cut and polished, they turn shiny, like polished gems. So there's a jewelry factor to it. They can also be ground up and used as an ingredient to make materials for some stuff. The hide is fairly sturdy as well and can be used for fashion. So there's the aesthetics side of things, then there's the meat side of things."

"Right," he says. "Overall, my earnings from the hunt today is about a grand and a half! For the money I actually got, that is. Most of that came from the buck, though. It would've been, like, a third of that from my shares from other things. That's the most I've ever earned!"

"You had bonus pay with the testings because you were helping test the streaming stuff."

"Other than that."

"And you should've gotten paid for last month's earnings."

"That wouldn't have been anywhere near this."

"Sig," I say. "When you transferred over to Xanson TV, you did so exclusively. You also qualified for Tier 7 from your stats on the other sites, but that was reduced by three tiers as a safety net," to account for potential bots on the other site and people who don't migrate and such. "So you're at Tier 4, which gets a 65% revenue share, but you're at 70% since you went exclusive. And you have around three thousand subs. At $5 a sub. Even excluding ad revenue and other donations, you earned quite a lot. I don't have access to your information and stuff so I don't know what your actual earnings are, but even if not all of the payments are verified, you probably still earned more from your subs, ads, and donations than you did from the hunt today."

Sig's face goes completely neutral from his shock. Did he seriously think he wasn't earning that much? There's also no income tax on it due to our location and age. He's definitely got quite a lot in his account right now.

"To celebrate your first magic beast hunt," I pull out the pouch I made him. "I made you this. It's got an expanded space inside. And since I know you're worried about costs, I made sure to make this one so that it's cheaper than the necklace you got me, okay? So don't complain about the cost. And if you do want to complain about the cost… don't. You can afford it and still have money leftover. And it's a gift. I made it for you as a celebration."

I tell Sig about the pouch's features, but he doesn't seem to be fully paying attention. His brain is still filled with shock.

"Thanks," Sig examines the pouch. "I've gotta take a shower, I smell."

"You do," I nod. "Like the forest and smoke and blood. And other stuff. While you do that, I'm gonna play with Turtle a little. Your aunt said I could do that before I started making dinner."

It's been awhile since I last saw Turtle and I want to make sure he's really happy where he's living. He probably is when considering they still own him. They didn't return him!

But my old foster parents didn't return me, and I wasn't happy there. So it's best to check just in case. Especially since Sig's aunt is dating Turtle's owner. If they're being mean to the dog, they'll be mean to Sig, too.

[Sig – 13 years]

$5,918.47. That's how much I received in pay yesterday. Almost six grand.

There's no way Aunt Rachel doesn't know since she does get alerts for activity on my account and probably checked. The notification doesn't say how much the deposit was which is why I didn't know. I just assumed it was probably a few hundred at the most.

I knew that I had three thousand subs, but I guess it didn't fully sink in how much that translates to in money even with knowing how much subs are and how much I get from each.

Some of it has definitely got to get put into savings, but what do I do with the rest of it? That could buy me so much food. New clothes, too. Aunt Rachel's bought me some since taking me in, but her budget's limited and she could only afford a few outfits for awhile. Even after all of that, there's plenty leftover for magic lessons and video games.

And this is just part of the pay for what was only part of a month of streaming. Just how much will I get next month, when I will no doubt have even more subs and more opportunities for ad revenue, donations, and even merch sales?

"Sheesh…"

I log out of my bank account, then slip on some socks and shoes, then pull on a shirt since Xander's barbecuing out back. Now that it's cooling down outside, it's a little too chilly to go shirtless outside unless I'm running around a lot.

When I exit through the basement door, I find that Xander's grilling on the deck and Connor, Sam, and Hunter are playing with Turtle. Mr. Fuller is supervising Xander, though he's probably the last person who needs supervision when grilling.

Any issue which pops up, he could just magic away.

"Hey, Xander."

He's focused intently on the grill, where some burgers are sizzling. A spatula is held firmly in his right hand, ready for use.

"Hey, Sig," he says. "Your aunt said the fryer's okay."

"What fryer?" I ask before noticing the fryer set up off to the side. "Did you… bring a fryer?"

It has two baskets in it, fries in one and onion rings in the other.

"Burgers go better with french fries," he says. "And I'm making onion rings as well. Though there will also be a salad, too. Do you want cheese on the burger, or do you wanna do it plain since it's your first time having a moose burger? I've also got some sauce I got from Tate that I'm gonna baste onto some of them."

"Ooh!" I say. "Tate's got moose burger sauce? I'll try that!"

"Do you want cheese with it, too?" He asks. "I can still do that."

"Sure!" I answer. "Did you use temporal acceleration to do everything?"

"Some of it," he starts flipping the burgers with his spatula. "Makes it easier for me to do everything by myself, especially the prep work."

"You don't need to, you know," I say.

"I know," he says. "But it makes it so y'all can have fun while I do this. Why don't you go play with the others while I finish making dinner? Ms. Rachel has a watermelon Mr. Fuller said he's gonna cut. It needs to be kept away from the rest of the food, though."

To avoid its juices from contaminating them.

"Alright," I chuckle. "Lemme know if you want any help!"

Xander nods, then I hurry over to the others and tackle Turtle. He lets out some playful woofs as I wrestle him to the ground, then bonks his head against my chin.

"Hey, Turtle!" I chuckle, and he woofs at me again, his tail wagging.

"DOG PILE!" Connor shouts.

Turtle quickly gets up and bolts away from us as Connor jumps onto me, then Sam does the same. A moment later, Turtle charges in and jumps onto us as well, causing all of us to start laughing.

We continue wrestling around and playing with Turtle, Hunter included, until Aunt Rachel calls us over for dinner. The burgers are pretty good, and it's not until I'm almost done finishing it off that I realize that Xander probably used mindwave cow cheese for them.

There's no way the happy look on his face as he eats his five burgers is from the taste of the meat. It's definitely his "I love this food" face, though, which is why I'm sure of the origins of the cheese. The buns might have also been made with flour from their farms.

Wait… does Tate's barbecue sauces also use magic ingredients? It has to, doesn't it? There's no way Tate would make his own barbecue sauce and not make it something which would taste really good to him.

How well does snow-flavored magic pair with mind-flavored magic? What do those even taste like?

After dinner, we decide to ignore the cooler weather and change into swim trunks so we can swim a bit. Aunt Rachel tells us we'll get the chills from doing that but it's not as if we haven't gone jumping into a pond like this before.

Or when it's colder.

Xander doesn't join us at first, but we notice before he does that the temperature within and around the pool suspiciously warms up a little when he comes back out after changing. The dork just changed the temperature for all of us when he knows it doesn't bother us and has his own way of dealing with uncomfortable temperatures.

None of us complain, though – it does make things more comfortable, after all!

We goof off in the pool for a bit and play some games with Xander as well (since he doesn't like goofing off but does seem to be okay with just watching us). Then it's time to get out of the pool and Mr. Thompson shows up to pick up Connor and Sam.

"Can they stay the night?" I ask him and Aunt Rachel. "Pleeeeease?"

"Yeah!" Connor says. "Can we? We only got to hear about some of the hunting trip during dinner! And yeah, Isaac's not back until tomorrow, but we've done sleepovers without one of us before!"

"I wanna hear about the wyvern," Sam says.

"Wyvern?" Connor looks at him. "What wyvern?"

"The one Xander killed while streaming earlier," Sam tells him.

"It hasn't been processed yet," Xander says. "I need to ask Grandpa Adrian for how to do that. Wyverns are a bit too strong for most people to kill so there's really not any public knowledge on that. Dad only told me I had to be back in time for bed, so if a sleepover happens, I can tell about the wyvern before I leave. I'm not sure what you'd want to know, though."

"You goofball!" I chuckle. "You're invited, too! You'd just need to ask your dad!"

Xander suddenly looks stressed for some reason.

"Something wrong?" I ask. "I'm sure your dad would give permission! But we gotta get permission from Aunt Rachel, first."

Connor, Sam, and I all look at my aunt and give her our best pleading looks. She seems like she's going to say "no", though. She's also taking a really long time to respond.

"Pleeeeease?" I beg, and Connor and Sam do the same.

After about half a minute of us pleading with her, Aunt Rachel just smiles and snorts.

"Yes," she says. "The dads and I already discussed the possibility of this being asked and agreed that it'd be fine."

"Yes!" We cheer.

"I actually came to drop off stuff for breakfast!" Mr. Thompson laughs. "You boys have fun tonight, alright?"

"Xander?" I ask. "Do you wanna stay the night? I know you'll have to ask your dad-"

"He was included in 'the dads and I'," Aunt Rachel says. "He said it was alright for Xander to stay, too."

"He should've mentioned it to you," Mr. Thompson tells Xander. "Did he forget?"

"M-maybe," Xander says. "H-he didn't s-say anything."

Whoa. It's been awhile since I heard his stutter. Something has really stressed him out, hasn't it?

"Do you need some quiet space?" I ask. "You can use my room if you want."

Xander nods a bit, then gets out of the pool and heads into the basement.

"I really want to know what's wrong," I tell Connor. "But I don't think he'll tell us. He looks super stressed, though."

"Surprise changes of plans can do that to him," Mr. Thompson informs us. "Especially if they're last-minute. That's why I told Trey when we discussed the possibility that he should let Xander know. Xander had already left to hunt the moose, so I'm guessing Trey forgot because of the wyvern and then Xander making that gift for you."

Oh. I forgot that he doesn't like sudden shifts in plans. It really causes stress, though?

"Brrr!" We all shiver suddenly.

Xander must've released the temperature-regulation spell over the pool, probably by accident. The sudden shift really chilled us.

"Okay!" I say. "Time for us to get out!"

We all get out and head into the basement to finish drying off and change, and I'm glad my play backpack was in it since I don't want to go into my room. Not while Xander's using it as a quiet space. I can just use a change of clothes from there.

When we return to the back, Mr. Thompson gives Connor a hug and lets him know he's leaving, then Mr. Fuller says he'll be doing the same.

"See you in the morning," he gives Aunt Rachel a kiss.

"Ew! Get a room!" I snicker.

"This is my back yard," Aunt Rachel retorts. "If I want to kiss my boyfriend here, I can."

She goes to kiss Mr. Fuller again and Connor, Sam, and I all start staring at them intently.

"Stop that!" Aunt Rachel laughs, and we burst into laughter.

"See you 'round, S.G., Connor, Sam," Hunter gives us all fist bumps.

"Bring Turtle again!" I say.

Hunter and Mr. Fuller leave with Turtle, then the rest of us try to figure out what to do and decide to go inside and play a game while we wait for Xander to rejoin us.

This was an amazing day, and I'm glad I got to do it. Once I run out of the meat I'll be getting from today's hunt, I'll see if Mr. Fuller will take me hunting again. Aunt Rachel should definitely be more agreeable to future hunts, since this was a magic beast hunt and I received no injuries despite that.

And I think I enjoy hunting some of my own meat.

[Greyson – 10 years] → starts towards the end of Sig's PoV.

"Hey, Greyson?" Travis asks as we bake brownies together.

Baking without magic. Travis was very clear on that we won't be using magic for this. As much as I want to, it's his dessert baking session so it's his rules. Kale said he won't wrestle with me for the next five visits if I don't obey Travis's baking rules.

"I promise I did not use magic for the measuring!"

Which makes it less precise, but that shouldn't affect the brownies.

"No," he rolls his eyes. "I was just wondering… you said that the magi-artificial intelligence used to power the moderation and stuff for Xanson TV is from your own design, right?"

This seems random, but he must be getting interested in more than art and magic octopuses now. There is so much I can teach him about magitech, he should get a book.

"Mine and Xander's," I say.

"Yeah," he says. "That you adapted Xander's 'magic brain' spell into an enchantment, and he cleaned it up. Right?"

"Yeah," I nod. "I'm trying to get him to help me with that for Osburc as well, but Osburc really creeps him out for some reason."

Osburc told me that all he did was greet Xander and Xander muted him, so that wasn't very helpful. Hopefully, I can find out from Xander what causes Osburc to creep him out, but I don't know how to ask him that.

"With the magic brain spell," Travis says. "That can be used on a person, right? Would they then have two brains?"

"Yeah," I answer. "For the spell proper, it actually just sort of creates a clone of their own brain, without damage and made entirely of magic, so it's non-physical and can exist superimposed over their natural one. That's why Xander's worked all those years despite having severe brain damage. Because the magic brain didn't have the damage his brain did, but was otherwise a clone of it."

Though it wasn't perfect, so there were many issues with it.

"And you've never used it to help yourself?" He asks. "You've mentioned before you wish you could figure out how to make simulacrums so that there could be two of you. Wouldn't having a second brain in your head be basically the same thing? You can do everything else with telekinesis, right?"

Oh. This.

"Not much scares me," I tell him. "I'm paranoid a lot, yeah. And very wary of things. And I know there's some stuff which triggers a fear response resulting from trauma or my Autism. But actual, genuine, deep, primal fear?

"I've only truly felt that once," I tell him. "And that was when I figured out how to use the magic brain spell and used it on myself, then canceled it not even a second later. That was more than a year ago and I vowed to never do that again. Ever."

Which is why I really need to figure out how to make simulacrums. Having a copy of my brain in another body would be much better than having two minds of my own interacting with each other directly. There's a lot of difference between using one mind to control multiple brains than to have two brains with their own minds interacting with each other.

I'm satisfied with just one of my brains. There's absolutely no reason to allow me to observe my own mind from another copy of it. Ever. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.

It seems Travis isn't interested in new things, he was just curious if I'd ever use that spell on myself. Now he knows the answer, and he also knows that I'll never do that again.

"If we quadruple this batch," I decide to change the subject. "We'll have a lot more brownies. We can even make bigger ones to use as plates for the ice cream."

The ice cream is already in the machine, churning and cooling.

"If we make quadruple the brownies," Travis gives me a stern look. "We won't have room in the oven. You're just trying to get me to let you use magic to bake!"

Darn! He figured it out too fast!

"I can make one look like a magic octopus and bake evenly at the same time," I tell him.

Travis hesitates.

"Don't give in!" Cal says. "I know it's tempting, but you must resist!"

"And we could even make caramel to swirl into them," I tell Travis.

"Please give in!" Cal says, Kale laughing at the switch.

Travis continues to struggle with remaining firm. Caramel swirled into brownies shaped like a magic octopus is definitely something he wants. If he declines this one, I still have one more thing I can use to try and convince him.

"Alright," Travis says. "But only if you do all of the dishes. By hand. Without magic."

That's easy!

"Deal!"

Since I'm making a brownie shaped like a magic octopus for Travis, I'll make one shaped like a griffin for me!

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