[Xander – 13 years]

It's my last World of Myst stream for the week since it's Friday, and I'm feeling really indecisive right now because of my attempt at making the pie shop at spawn.

The oven wall definitely looks weird, but I think it fits for a bakery. Pictures I looked up of real bakeries show that they often have massive ovens which take up an entire wall and even go deep into them. With rotating racks. That's not something I can do in this game (as far as I can tell) so just making a bunch of ovens and setting them against part of the back wall of the baking room should do in place of that.

Though it really does look weird. At least it's not an entire wall, since I do have a hallway on the right-hand side of it leading to the ingredient and finished product storage. To the right of that is another part of the bakery room with counters and stuff for some work that's not done in the main part.

Hm… I want to decorate the room so it doesn't feel as open, but I'm not sure what to do. I should definitely set up a table in the center of the main section, though. Some of the small bakeries I saw pictures of had those taking up part of the room, but in the middle with walking space around them.

They had them set to the side rather than in the center, but it would be odd to not have anything taking up the space on the other side. I can't make a mixer so I can't use that like in some of the pictures. So I should probably just make it take up the center of the room.

"Do you think I should make the storage room bigger?" I ask my chat as I enter the storage room. "Or do y'all think it's fine?"

Chat says they think the storage room is fine. It's just barrels lining the walls (I used solid blocks in the corners since those are inaccessible) and a few lanterns in the ceiling. A few gaps in the barrels allow views of the windows and access to the hall, which also has the "office" set off of it.

As I move some stuff from my backpack to the storage barrels, the sound of a bell rings out. It sounds like a call bell, so I'm guessing whoever did that has one in real life.

When I go out to the front, I find a bell resembling the call bells sitting on the counter, Lexi on the other side. She shouldn't mess with other people's things.

"Did you put that there?" I ask.

"I did!" She says. "Was that alright? I'll remove it if it's not."

"How'd you get that?"

"You can get it by trading from villagers," she answers. "I would've called out to you directly, but figured I'd give you the bell."

"How much for it?"

"Free!"

"It's a gift?"

"Yeah!" She says. "This is a shop, right? You've got stuff displayed."

"Yeah," I nod. "I haven't put in the book yet as I'm not quite ready, but there's gonna be a book on display to look at which says how it works. Um… I don't know how to do the mechanics stuff, so it's just gonna be simple. See those barrels? Oh, right! I added in some mods. I don't know if you saw that."

I didn't want to add in mods, but Dad talked me into it to make the shops work better. The game doesn't have money on its own, even if there are things the villagers will trade for, like gems. The first mod Dad convinced me to add in was just a simple one which added in coins.

But it's not how the developers made the game, so I wasn't really sure if it's okay or not. Fortunately, the developers responded to my inquiry and said they love it when users mod their game, as long as it doesn't add in certain content.

None of the stuff on their list is something I'm interested in adding, so it was okay to add in the mods.

So I added in the coins mod and another one which lets me set up a "security zone". I've already set it up, and it creates a log anytime someone enters it other than the designated users. For the security zone, I only set myself as a designated user as it's my shop.

And everything except the customer area is the security zone. All I have to do is look at the log and I'll know if someone came into the back. If stuff goes missing and isn't paid for, then they stole from me.

I even had the materials to set it up so that it lets me know who put items into or took items out of things and what they put in. I'm super glad Dad found that one for me without me even asking. He already knew about it when he suggested I add in mods.

And it's a good one.

People who steal from me will be punished. Even if they're my boyfriend.

Lexi might have seen that mods were added, since the SMP had an update today to include it so she had to update to sign on to it. The chat server – which was autocreated on Xanson TV when I made the server – also has a channel for logging updates. This one just said "added mods" because that's what I did.

"I did!" She says. "Though there's no record of what the mod was."

"It's a coins mod," I tell her. "Oooooooh… fuck. Um… so yeah, the shop won't be ready yet."

"What's wrong?"

"Uh… the coins can't be crafted," I tell her. "Well, not normally. So the mod adds in coins for use between players, for shops and stuff. But to prevent just any random player from making coins, it's not something which can be made by just anyone, only designated players. It does add them as rewards for completing Bounties, and they can be found in some chests."

All Bounties now award coins in addition to their regular rewards. It's an additional reward, not a replacement one.

"Okay," she says. "Once I have some coins, what do I do with them to buy stuff here?"

"I'll create a noticeboard showing the costs of each item," I tell her. "It's baked goods. Mostly pies, but I might make cakes or donuts, since they use most of the same ingredients. They get stocked into the barrels there. You then put in the appropriate amount of money. The items will be sorted based on that, too. So if it's being sold by the stack, they'll be in a full stack. If it's being sold by the half-stack, then they'll be in like that. And so on. You swap the stack for the right amount of coins. Leave it in the same spot, okay?"

"Will do!" She says. "So you're doing this to earn money?"

"Yeah," I nod. "And then I can use that to buy stuff from you and Seb! Well, maybe not Seb, since he's a pirate, but from you! Like armor and stuff! And then, you can use that money to buy more food from me! There's also going to be an animal products shop. Milk, meat, wool, feathers, eggs, and so on. And-and maybe another shop or two."

Rather than doing a meat shop and a dairy shop as separate things, I decided to just bundle it all up into one shop. That makes more sense, even if it means the shop will have to be a little on the larger side to hold everything.

"That's pretty neat!" She says. "Want me to help you build them? I like building things and if these are going to be shops for everyone, I'd love to help out! Though I'll have to figure out what type of shop to do for myself."

Right. I'm not the only one who might want a shop. Lexi would probably want to sell stuff she produces, and Sig would probably want to sell stuff he steals.

That, or he just likes stealing from the villages and shipwrecks and doesn't care about selling things.

"Um… oh," I say. "I was thinking of only me. Sorry…"

"It's okay!" She says. "I've just been doing a lot of building, you know."

"But you've been building up spawn," I tell her. "Like the warehouse."

"I enjoy building!" She says. "And 'the mechanics stuff', too! So it's not problem for me to help you build them – or even for me to build them entirely on my own! Do you have a pricing idea yet for your stuff?"

"Depends on the item and how many ingredients go into it," I tell her. "I have a spreadsheet I made for that, to make it easier for me to keep track of. For most pies, the slices will be one or two copper each, while a whole pie will be five or fifteen, depending on which price the individual slices are. A savings of either three copper, each."

Some pie slices restore more than others, which is why they cost more.

"It's important to have it so that some items can be bought individually instead of as a batch," I say. "So that's going to be set up. And then you can buy slices in a batch, and pies individually or in a batch. How much will be based on how many can fit in a stack of relevant coins."

"Are there coin tiers?" She asks.

"Yeah," I answer. "But no substituting. Dad and I were talking, and he suggested making it so that coins don't convert to the next tier and can't be crafted into them, so I made sure those were the settings. Instead, you have to go to the bank to get them converted. There'll be a custom NPC there which does the conversions once, um, once I get that set up. You give them a full stack of coins and you'll get one of the next one. Or you give them one of a coin and get fifty-eight of the previous tier back, which is ten percent less."

Dad and I talked about a lot of stuff for the server, stuff which he claims will help the other players with lore, give people a reason to do some stuff, and extend its longevity. He's not actually one hundred percent certain on that last one since this is new to him, too, but he said he thinks it'll help. When there's an incentive to do things in a game, people are more willing to stick with it.

Even if the incentive is only in the game and not in real life. My incentive is in real life, since it means I can play a game with others and actually get to choose what I do while understanding it. I'm not sure about them, though.

"So the coins are worthy fifty-eight of the previous tier," she says. "But converting them to the next tier tacks on a ten-percent fee."

"Right," I nod. "That was the explanation Dad gave me. He said it'll make people think twice about converting to the next tier just to convert. And like I said, don't pay with the wrong tier of coin."

"I won't!" She says. "So I'll have to find them in chests or receive them as rewards from bounties?"

"Oh…" I try to think. "Um… uh… that would actually really restrict them a lot more than intended, huh? I could just give you some for making buildings at spawn since you're doing work for the community, but that wouldn't really fit into lore, would it? You and Seb are really into doing lore and roleplay and me just giving money when I don't have any for stuff wouldn't make any sense with that. Especially since it's not like I'd be the one asking you to do it. Well, for the shops, it would. But not for the others. Those are just builds you're doing for the server in general, without being asked."

"That's fair," she says. "And no worries! I can do some bounties and look for chests, too! I take it you wanted to run shops like this so that you can get gear without having to do a lot of combat?"

"Seb dug straight down in his first run and fought a powerful boss," I tell her. "And I went mining and got teleported over a hundred thousand blocks. Mining is really dangerous. And if I leave the fairy islands' zone at night, I might get attacked by a ton of mobs, too. And I ain't good at fighting like Seb is."

The area around spawn is illuminated enough I don't have to worry about being attacked by monsters. Lexi put up lights everywhere, using torches, fence posts, and wood blocks to make a sort of cheap streetlight. Eventually, they'll be replaced with lights which look more natural, like the fancier streetlights she put up at the path between the buildings she's constructed so far.

That's why it's fine for me to build here for awhile rather than return to my islands every in-game night.

"Fair enough," she says. "So! Do you want my help with constructing the other shops? You can pay me in goods directly, too! For the animal goods shop… I see you munching on steak and potatoes sometimes. How does three stacks of those sound?"

"Three stacks of those… I don't know if that's a fair deal or not, so I'm not sure."

"Don't think of it in terms of values of the products," she tells me. "Think of it in terms of that that's what I'm asking for it."

"Oh," I say. "Um… okay."

"Were there other shops you were wanting to build?" She asks.

"Yeah," I nod. "A jam shop, for selling jams. Maybe other goods in jars. And then another shop for selling juice and smoothies."

"Alright!" She says. "Seven stacks of jam for the jar goods shop and seven stacks of smoothies of your choice for the drinks shop! Does that sound like a deal to you?"

If that's really what she's asking for them, then I guess it's alright.

"Yeah," I answer.

"Alright!" She says. "Then I'll work on those, too! You can pay me when they're done! I'll do the basic structures first, then ask what you want changed, alright? That way, you can get an idea of the space necessary and tell me if you want more or not, and if you want different blocks used, and stuff like that. Alright?"

This might be for the better. She'll probably think of stuff for the shops that I won't. I'd need to tear stuff apart and rebuild if I messed up like that and realized I needed more space for things.

"Um… okay."

"Cool!" She says. "I'll get started on those, then! See you!"

"Bye," I say.

Lexi leaves the shop and I mute my in-game voice.

"Hold on, chat," I say. "Gonna send a message real quick."

I send Mom a message through the DMs on the chat server's service. This is easier for me since I can use my keyboard rather than the smaller one on my phone. It doesn't take her long to respond, and it's an affirmative response to my request.

I make sure to send her a thanks.

"Okay," I say once I do that. "Back to the game. I'm gonna finish setting up the shop now."

[Sig – 13 years] → starts during Xander's PoV.

"What do you mean, 'do you just sit on your ass all day and play video games'?" I frown at my chat as the message vanishes, deleted by Aunt Rachel as I read it. "Excuse you? You're lucky the automod hasn't realized yet that that's unacceptable, but I'm gonna tell you something: you're fucking blind if you think that. You can literally see my abs, which aren't easy for a thirteen-year-old to have. That's not something who sits on their butt all day would have. I'm an extremely active kid. I'm playing this because I'm bored, most of my real-life friends are unavailable, and I'm getting to hang out with others, including someone who is literally on another continent. I post a video every Wednesday of my progress in training magical abilities.

"Yes, I've only done a few athletic-type streams and a single upload of physical stuff," I continue. "But that doesn't mean that's not something I do often. I'm actually recording another physical activity video tomorrow. It's a secret on what's gonna be in it, but I've already booked the same security facility as I used last time, just gotta pay when I arrive."

Which I can afford thanks to streaming. I really blew up, which I knew last month, but I didn't really realize what that meant until I saw how much money was in my account. Most thirteen-year-olds who have that much in their bank account were gifted it or inherited it. I earned it.

Just by entertaining others.

"And in case you didn't know," I say. "I go over to Xander's every school day and do a fitness session with him. And Coach Adam? Only knows the meaning of 'hardcore training'. I climb trees, cliffs, and buildings, I go swimming, I wrestle with my friends, I ride my bike all the time… I am not lazy. Last weekend, I went hunting. For magic beasts. If you know anything about that, you know that they fight back.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"You see that shelf?" I point behind me. "My aunt's boyfriend helped me buy it and install it. Why? So I can display the skulls of things I catch entirely on my own, like the lightstep hare skulls on there. Remember that big bruise I had on my chest last month? From one of them tackling me. I had no help with that. Nor did I have any help with that gemstream buck seen on Xander's stream last week.

"This is Kenzibri," I say. "Where Adrian King himself has made it so that most kids grow up being active and have reasons to enjoy it. What I do when I'm streaming is not what I do all the time outside of it. I'm a physically-active kid. Don't judge someone based on the fifteen hours a week you see them when there are more than ten times that where you don't."

Aunt Rachel only timed them out for two weeks, but I change it to a ban. People who will ask something like that are not welcome in my chat.

With that done, I return to sailing in the game. As I do, footsteps behind me make me jump in real life.

Those were steps in the game. But I know Xander wouldn't have teleported to me as he seemed uncomfortable with the idea of using commands when I made a suggestion the other day.

"What the-?" I turn my character around and look at… "What in the…"

Standing behind me is a nameless player with a body which is entirely green, apart from some brown, vine-like patterns running up their legs and arms, their eyes a vibrant blue. A flower has sprouted on their head, though that's probably a hat of some sort.

Can't be a player, there's no nametag. Some sort of mob I haven't encountered yet? Maybe it's from the second mod Xander added. The first one was easy to figure out since some chests now have coins them in, but I don't know what the second one is.

"Aaargh!" I switch to my sword for my main hand.

"I am the Manager," a gender-neutral, slightly-robotic voice comes from the other figure.

Mobs don't talk. This is definitely something modded.

"The… what?"

"I am the Manager," they repeat.

What kind of mod is this?

"The Manager of what?"

"I am the Manager," they repeat.

"Ooookay… what do you manage?"

There's quiet for several long moments, and I just look at chat and mute my in-game sound.

"Chat?" I ask. "Why do you all look confused? Though I can see some of you are amused, which means either Xander or Lexi has already encountered this mob."

"I am the Manager," the Manager says. "And you are in violation of the rules. You repeatedly steal, loot, and pillage. Cease this at once and turn yourself over for punishment."

"Nah."

I attack the mob… only for my sword to go right through it.

"Huh," I say. "That's not what I was expecting."

"I am the Manager," they state. "I am above expectations."

"Yeah, yea-" I freeze. "Wait. I didn't unmute in-game."

"I am the Manager."

"Are you responding to me?"

"Yes."

I look at chat again. This is actually creepy now. Xander added in a mod which creates mobs which can hear us? And even react to…

"No," I say. "No way. Another player?"

"I am the Manager," they state. "And you have chosen violence. A bounty has been placed on you. Prepare for judgment."

The Manager vanishes.

There aren't any other members on the chat server apart from Mr. Caldwell and Ms. Katie, though maybe it's set up so that in-game admins are hidden from view on there so that players can't message them directly? That would make sense. The server has a ticket system for when needing to file a report or make a request or something, and I guess preventing people from contacting admins directly would make it easier to track stuff like that.

So Xander didn't just add in new mods, he added in someone else to act as an NPC, maybe more.

"No pirate fears a bounty!" I swing my sword. "Let's return to the looting! Yo-ho, yo-ho, I live on the seas! I haul the ropes and hoist the sails and do it all myself! I climb the masts and look afar to see what I can find! And when I find a ship or town, I take all that can be! Yo-ho, yo-ho I live out on the seas! A force of nature is what I am, they'll know my ship until the end and when I raise my flag up high they know it's time to give in to fear! There's no blade which I fear for it's a pirate which I be! Sing it with me, chat!"

After locating a few more ships and villages to loot, I return to my cove. Yesterday's stream was spent working on it and the cliff face is now fully filled out. Now, it's a proper cove with an entrance in the cliff face, a semi-arched entrance, and land beyond the water within. Though the area between the walls of the cove, the original cliff, and the new cliff is still hollow… but I did mob-proof them.

Just in case there's a mob which can break through walls.

Chat recommended I texture the walls so they don't look plain, so I'll probably figure out how to do that during a stream or two over the next couple of weeks. Then, I'll work on creating the veil to conceal the entrance.

"Oh!" I exclaim when I accidentally use a coin on the ground instead of click use on the chest right beside it. "That's awesome!"

The coin was placed on the ground. I start adding more coins to it, quickly creating a coin pile. This mod is amazing! Did Xander add it in for the pirate lore? There's no proper pirate who doesn't have chests full of jewels and coins, after all!

I break the coin pile and make a smaller one by the chest, then put the rest of the coins into the chest. They're mostly bronze, but I did find a few silver ones as well. Sadly, it doesn't seem I can craft the bronze ones into silver ones to save space, but at least that lets me make it look like I've got a lot of them!

"Let's head to spawn," I tell chat. "I wanna loot the warehouse Lexi made to get some more stuff for my base!"

It takes me about ten minutes to reach spawn from my base, so I have to make sure I do this with plenty of time to return back to my cove. Even if everyone else on the server will leave my ship alone… I'm not sure they'll leave the horse and chickens alone.

Stealing from a pirate is fair game, after all.

"Wait," I say after telling that to chat. "This means they might steal my ship, too… well, not Xander. But Lexi might! Or the Mana-gak!"

Footsteps behind me again.

"Please turn yourself in," the Manager states. "You will be given a fair trial."

"My answer hasn't changed from an hour ago," I swing my sword at them. "Begone, strange plant creature!"

"You have sunk two more ships and looted one more village since then," the Manager says. "Your bounty has been increased. Cease your life of crime and turn yourself in."

"Shoo!" I continue attacking. "Lemme attack you!"

The Manager vanishes.

"Persistent, aren't they?" I ask. "Alright! Let's go loot blocks from the warehouse!"

When I reach spawn… there's a building which definitely wasn't there before and Lexi is working on another. The first one is well-decorated outside of it, and has a hanging sign with "PIES AND MORE" on it.

"Oooh!" I say. "A pie shop!"

"Gotta have coins if you wanna buy," Lexi tells me.

"A pirate buys nothing!"

"These are Xander's shops," she tells me. "You don't pay, he'll use his powers as the king of the fairies to obliterate you."

Xander would probably get really upset if I stole from him, so I definitely won't steal. But for a lore reason not to… I'll go with the kind of the fairies thing. That's definitely not something which has been discussed before and is probably just Lexi's in-character way of trying to warn me off of it, but it's something I'll roll with.

"Got it!" I say. "I'd probably get poisoned with food stolen from the fairies. Aaah, crap! I left all my coins back at my base! Hey, got any on you?"

I can definitely steal them from her if she does, she probably doesn't have any gear on her.

"You know PvP's off, right?" She reminds me.

"Yeah," I say. "Which is a shame. I would've loved to see what kind of loot the Manager drops, especially since they showed up twice to ask me to turn myself in for trial. Oh! The Manager's a new-"

"An unknown," Lexi says. "They showed up and offered me money to build a bank, though I'm going to build the stuff Xander's asked me to. No clue who the Manager is, but I guess they have deep pockets."

Wait. The money. Coins being useful in my pirate lore is probably just a side-effect of Xander wanting something tangible as currency in his shops. The goof. And the Manager is probably his way of allowing Lexi and himself to earn it without looting chests.

Though Lexi definitely loots them, too. Xander is probably the only person in the world who views that as stealing when it's intentional design by the devs so that we can acquire basic things more easily.

"Maybe they work for the Federation?" I ask. "They did ask me to turn myself in, and the Federation is after me!"

"Good luck," she says. "And don't steal from the king of the fairies!"

"I won't!" I tell her before heading off to the warehouse to grab some blocks. "Vines would do for the veil, right? But it can't be just vines or that would be obvious."

I go through a lot of the chests and find some with similar colors to plain stone, which would probably work to help texture things. I also grab vines, some moss, some dirt, and a few other things, then make my way back to the cove. Once I'm there, the goods are put into some chests near the entrance, and it's just about time to sign off so I can meet my friends for the hangout.

"Alright, chat!" I say. "Let's talk for a bit before I go! Anyone got big plans for the weekend?"

[Greyson – 10 years]

"-and apparently," I say. "The firewalls made by a god are superior to the ones made by me."

"What does that have to do with bananas?" Finn asks.

"Bananas are delicious."

Finn groans as he slams his head into his hands.

"Greyson," Cody says. "Your parallel thinking caused you to switch what you were saying without realizing again."

I don't know how Cody knows I have several trains of thought going at any given point in time, but he's figured it out and can apparently tell when I accidentally switch which one I was talking about. When one's mind is dozens of times faster than a normal person's mind and they can have several thoughts at once, it can be a bit difficult to keep the mouth on the right track.

"Oh!" I say. "What was I talking about?"

There are four potential things, if I rule out the ones I know I wouldn't have mentioned anything about, such as some of the more secret stuff for Xanson Technologies.

"You were telling us that you were attempting to convince your dads to buy you fifty bananas but they were refusing," he says.

"Oh, right, yeah," I say. "So the whole reason I wanted to do that was to make banana bread for my birthday breakfast! But they were saying that fifty bananas was excessive and they'd buy two bunches of them. Only ten bananas! A fifth of what I wanted! I mean, I guess that'll be enough for banana bread for everyone… but it's still not a lot."

Especially not if I want leftovers to bring back with me to eat for breakfast here at school sometimes.

"You can do bacon and eggs to go with it!" Cody says. "That'll add to it!"

"My dads also make us have fruit with breakfast," I tell him. "So there'll be that, too. And they don't count banana bread as being fruit! I said it's not fruit, it has fruit in it, but that didn't count. It apparently has to be fresh fruit."

Though if I eat separately, I can get away with not having any fruit. If I don't want fruit with my breakfast that day, then I don't want fruit with my breakfast that day. I sometimes make breakfast and then eat it while taking a bath so that I can avoid eating with everyone else and get around the "fruit with breakfast" rule.

That doesn't always work, though. Dad still sometimes manages to sneak fruit onto my tray, which is really impressive. He doesn't know any magics which would let him yet he can fool even me, a master empath.

When he fails to trick me and I notice it before I reach the bathroom, I find myself with extra fruit and veggies for the other meals at home.

"My parents are like that, too," Finn says. "Always gotta have fresh fruit and fresh veggies at least once each every day. Not canned, none from a jar, not in a stew, not baked, fresh."

"Ugh," Cody says. "I'm glad my parents don't do that. We still eat somewhat healthy, but it's not a 'fresh fruits and veggies every day' sort of thing. If we have pizza, there are veggies on it!"

"That was my argument, too," I say. "But it doesn't count."

We all go quiet for a few moments.

"So what was that about a god making superior firewalls?" Cody asks.

"My birthday present to Xander," I tell him. "I made him a new phone and he put a firewall on it. It was a magitech phone this time, so he actually knew how to do coding. And I guess he made it a firewall to prevent accidental downloads from including viruses. Now, though, I can't hack it!"

"Magitech can't be hacked," Finn says.

"It's only a little difficult," I tell him. "The internet's more difficult, but that's because my great-grandfather keeps buffing its security anytime he notices I've gotten through. But Xander's phone? Well, let's just hope Grandfather Adrian never realizes it can keep me out. I used to hack Xander's phone all the time to change my name and send him messages and then delete them after he sees them just in case someone had bugged his phone, but now I can't! It's like he took his phone completely out of existence for my hacking! I can't even find it when I try! Yet his messages and still come through and it still receives stuff. That just straight-up defies logic… but it's magitech, so that's probably why."

If Grandfather Adrian figures out that Xander made a firewall which can block me, he'll probably ask him to do that for the internet, too. It runs as both scientech and magitech, but the actual systems behind it are purely magitech.

Some things must never be done and keeping me from hacking is definitely one of them.

"Oh!" I say. "Our ride's here!"

Cody's dad and Finn's mom are both here as they wanted to drive their sons to my place. I told them I already arranged a ride for us and they wanted to meet the ride.

Cody, Finn, and I watch as the griffin who's come to visit a few times approaches, then he lands in front of us as I hop up and walk over.

"Hi!" I pet him on the head. "Thanks for coming!"

"I'm sorry," Mrs. Greenwood, Finn's mom says. "Your ride is a griffin?"

"Yeah!" I nod. "I wanted to teleport us there, but you nixed that… so I asked one of my griffin friends if he'd take us instead!"

Their parents don't feel safe with teleportation magic even though it's completely safe. This was discussed when I returned on Sunday and they were dropping their sons off after taking them out for dinner (separately, not as a two-families thing).

Not being granted permission to teleport them is why I arranged an alternative when the griffin came to visit a few days ago. Why does that make Cody's dad and Finn's mom nervous?

"No," Mrs. Greenwood says. "Absolutely not. Griffins are monsters-"

"Magic beasts," I correct. "It's perfectly safe! I tamed all of the griffins within five hundred miles of my home to make sure of it."

"Nope, nope, nope," she says. "I am not allowing Finn to ride a griffin."

"But I already get to ride them!" Finn says. "He takes us for one anytime he comes and visits!"

Mr. Woodman and Mrs. Greenwood look at Professor Mitchell.

"We determined it was safe," Professor Mitchell tells them. "Especially when considering that Greyson himself is several times as powerful as they are and they're technically his tamed beasts. They also aren't monsters, so they're not inherently desiring human flesh. They're just proud beasts which don't like humans, which is a little bit different."

"I'm still not sure that's safe," Mr. Woodman says, then looks at Cody. "You are not riding to Dragon Falls on a griffin."

"Awwww!"

"Lakeview," I say. "I live in Lakeview. And that's on this side of Dragon Falls, not the other. So we'd be riding to Lakeview, not Dragon Falls. A close place."

"It doesn't matter," Mr. Woodman says. "No."

"Well, I'm going to ride him there."

Reluctantly, Cody and Finn get into their respective parents' cars, and I climb onto my griffin. Once the cars are moving, the griffin follows behind them, running on the road to keep up. He's not speedy, but he's fast enough to follow a car and there are zero laws about riding griffins on the road.

I checked just in case letting them ride with me was rejected.

"Greyson Henry King," Grandfather Adrian's voice enters my head almost immediately. "What are you doing?"

Whoa. You noticed this fast. I'm not breaking any laws!

"Just teleport home."

But then I'll get home hours before they arrive!

"Which will give you plenty of time to catch up with your family and prepare for your guests."

That's a fair point, but I want to ride a griffin home.

"Then have him fly."

No, I mean like this! This is a lot of fun!

"Get off the road."

"Aww…" I pull my griffin over. "Sorry, buddy. Grandfather Adrian's overruled me, so we can't use the road. Let's just teleport there."

The griffin turns his head to me just before I teleport us to my backyard, startling the Cals, who are setting up the grill way too early.

"Jeez, Greyson!" Cal exclaims. "Just show up on a griffin, why don't you?"

"Hi, Cal, Kale!" I say. "I wanted to ride him through the sky with my friends, but their parents didn't feel it was safe. So I was riding him on the road, but Grandfather Adrian apparently found out super fast and told me not to do that. So we teleported. You're home already?"

"Burst water pipe," Cal tells me. "Isn't affecting us here, but the school doesn't have safe water so they sent us home early."

"Oh," I say. "Why're you setting up the grill now?"

"To have it ready for when it's time," Cal answers. "I take it their parents are bringing them, then?"

"Yeah," I answer. "Cody dad is driving him, and Finn's mom is driving him. But it takes hours to get here, so we've got hours to wait."

"Why don't you go get your room prepared for guests," Cal suggests. "We can help, if you'd like."

It might be hours before Cody and Finn show up, but preparing for their arrival now won't hurt so we go to my room.

"This is… not what I expected," Kale says as he looks around. "It's a lot neater."

"Greyson's a master of organized chaos for his working stations," Cal tells his boyfriend. "But he likes things neat, clean, and organized. That said, is that a bomb on your desk?"

How could he mistake a puzzle cube for a bomb? They look completely different!

"A puzzle cube Xander made me last time I visited," I tell him. "I haven't reset its state because it looks really pretty when it's in the solved state, with the glowing lines and whatnot."

"And you left it here instead of taking it back to the academy?"

"Cody doesn't like things glowing when he's trying to sleep," I say. "And it'd be rude to leave it glowing because of that. Having friends is useful, but having roommates is restricting because you have to be courteous to them."

My room will mostly be used for changing and sleeping in while Cody and Finn are here, so we create some beds out of blankets, with pillows. There's time set aside for me to go to the workshop while they're here, and their parents will take them to explore the sights during that time.

I really want to know what Xander got me for my birthday, because he said he got me something when I asked. It's always been something cheap and simple, but I love them anyway because he knows what I like and takes that into consideration.

As the Cals and I finish setting up the blanket beds, Travis and Henry get home from school.

"Don't be mean to my friends," I tell Henry. "And no ruining the birthday celebrations. Got it?"

"Greyson!" Cal scolds, but Henry just nods and goes into his room. "That was mean!"

"It's best to be careful," I say. "He may have apologized and felt guilty last weekend, and sad and guilty when he saw me just now, but that doesn't mean he'll be nice to me again. So he needs to be reminded until there is no longer reason to think he does."

Cal just sighs in response, but he knows I'm right.

With this done, we change into our swim trunks (with them going to Cal's room and me telling them not to kiss too long so I can get into the pool), then we go swimming. Travis joins us, and the Cals throw us as high as they can. That makes Travis nervous but accepts that I've created cushioning magic on the off-chance our brother and his boyfriend mess up.

Which they don't. Papa earns a lot of money and was able to afford a place with a huge backyard. When he had the pool installed, he made sure it was massive.

As we play, I eventually feel my friends' minds and their drivers', too.

"You mean their parents?" Cal asks when I let him know they're here.

"Cody's dad and Finn's mom."

We exit the pool and quickly dry off, then head to the front to greet them. Papa's already at the door, having gotten home a couple of hours ago, and is talking with them.

"Hi, Cody!" I say. "Hi, Finn!"

"Hi!" They say, each with a present bag in their hands.

"These are for tomorrow," Cody says. "Since that's your birthday."

"Yeah," I nod. "Birthday presents get opened either at the party or on the birthday. This year, they happen on the same day."

"At the party," Cal tells me.

"Okay…"

"I'll get the grill started up to make dinner," Cal tells me. "Why don't you show your friends your room, then they can change into trunks if they want to go swimming."

"Let's swim!" I tell my friends. "Papa, how come you haven't let them in yet?"

He was already talking with them for over a minute by the time we got here, and that's just rude. Let my friends in!

"They can come in," Papa tells me. "Their parents wanted to make sure this was the right place and actually see you first."

"Oh," I say. "Well, you've seen me. Come on, guys! Oh! This is Cal, one of my brothers, and this is his boyfriend, Cal. It's 'Callum' and 'Caleb', by the way. But they both go by 'Cal', and did even before they were friends. Alright! Lemme go show you my room, then you can change and we can go back to the pool with Travis! He's waiting for our return, so let's not take too long."

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