[Sig – 13 years]

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeello everybody!" I greet my chat once the stream begins. "Wow was this past week and a half since the last stream full of stuff! There was Xander's pumpkin-picking party, Xander's Halloween party, trick-or-treating itself, then the Barbecue With a Dragon!

"I do want to clear something up," I say. "I noticed some comments on XESocial suggesting or even saying that the Barbecue With a Dragon was an XSL SMP meetup in disguise to exclude the girls from the SMP. In case you didn't notice, one of the guys from the server wasn't there. All three of the Brits weren't present, and Abby wasn't there, either, despite being Kenzibri.

"Yes," I say. "There were six of its ten players present. Two of us lived here, and the triplets were coming because it was literally their great-aunt bringing the meat for the party and it was originally just going to be a plan for Xander and Niels to meet. And Niko? I didn't know he was coming out literally until when I saw him here. The Barbecue With a Dragon was just Xander not wanting to have his cousin come out all the way from Sweden just to give him some meat. Axel and Leif came because, y'know, their great-aunt was taking their brother here, why not come with her? And Niko came because he felt Xander might be doing something special, if he were paying for the pavilions to get upgraded. He didn't actually know about the Barbecue With a Dragon.

"And something Niko and I learned that morning," I say. "But his mom and my aunt are apparently cousins. They haven't spoken since they were little, though, and Aunt Rachel didn't even know her cousin had a kid.

"So yeah," I say. "This wasn't 'us excluding the girls' from a meetup. I didn't even know anyone else from the SMP was going to be there until Niko and his parents showed up here, and Xander didn't know about Niko coming, either. I didn't know the triplets would be until I saw them. And you can ask Abby, but I actually joked in the SMP's chat server about it being an unofficial meetup and Abby said she'd honestly thought about buying a ticket to come out for the barbecue but didn't because she thought it'd be weird."

Some of the chatters try to claim this is just me trying to cover for excluding the girls, though a few mention that Abby's already shut down those comments in her chat. Seems some of them asked her or she saw the posts on social media or something and decided to address it on her own.

"To those of you still being idiots," I say. "Do you really think it would've been difficult to get Kyle out here if we were excluding the girls? The triplets were literally flying over in their dragon forms, and the Kingdom of Britain is on the way here from Sweden. They could've made a quick stop on the way over!"

Looks like some people just want to be jerks.

"Anyone else who keeps pushing that false claim is getting timed out for two weeks," I say. "I'm not gonna really discuss the parties, but I will say that they were fun! And getting to be a merboy for a little bit was also fun! It's not something I'll want to do all the time or anything like that, but the experience was nice. Though it's also a little uncomfortable when I'm in it for too long. An hour was about my limit before I started itching to get switched back, though I kept playing with Carter for awhile after. Apparently, some of the others feel the same way with their wolfkin forms. I haven't really noticed it with my snow leopardkin form, though."

Which makes me curious about what the cause is, but Xander told me he's not sure. He doesn't like being in merboy form for very long, but that's just because he doesn't like fish. Alternate forms don't make him feel weird on their own, no matter how long he's in them form.

The others have admitted that being in their wolfkin forms for more than a day or so has the discomfort effect on them, and Carter suggested that it might just be them not being used to it. He doesn't have an issue sticking to it for entire weekends.

I talk with chat about being a merboy for a few minutes, and show them some of the pictures and videos from when I was in that form. Carter won every race, but he's just a naturally-better swimmer than me. Even Coach Adam's hellish training program hasn't brought me up to his level.

After that, I show a few pictures from the Halloween party, pumpkin-carving, and stuff, then a picture of Niko and me hanging out. Niko's already posted proof that he's part-dragon online, so I show a picture of me and him in his dragon form at Xander's.

They actually flew here in their dragon forms (with Aunt Tracy riding on her husband's back), and left in it as well. That picture's from the farewell, and Niko used his tongue to mess up my hair before taking off.

One thing I don't tell my chat about is that we're actually talking about doing an XSL SMP meetup at some point. An official one where everyone who's able to attend can. That has to work around jobs and school and stuff, though, so it takes more planning. The earliest we're looking at is probably during winter break, but it might be sooner if schedules can line up for that.

Though whether that will include the new members or not is uncertain. Xander's already let us all know another batch of nine new members will be joining us this month – two weeks from today! Why they're joining us the day after everyone comes back from a week-long festival, I don't know, but that's what Xander decided.

Another group of new members joining us isn't public information yet, so I don't tell my chat about that, either.

Once I finish talking with chat about the past week and a half, I log onto the server and find myself in the cove. I send a greeting in chat, then make my way to Central Plaza. Upon arrival, I find Abby hanging out with Olivia near the fountain. I haven't officially met Olivia on the server yet as our paths have just never crossed, though I've talked with her a few times on the chat server.

Meeting Abby here was planned, meeting Olivia was not, but it sounds like they're in roleplay. Olivia probably just wanted to hang out with Abby, which is fine! We can probably work that into what we were planning.

"Yo!" I call out as I approach. "Seen any Federation sticks around?"

"Nope!" Abby answers. "They might be in hibernation or something after last week's festivities."

"I wouldn't count on it," I tell her. "Just when you least expect it, an Agent or the Manager will show up! You two have fun with whatever you're doing! I'm gonna stock up on some supplies, then get back to lootin'!"

"Can I join?" Abby asks.

"Excuse me?" I respond. "Join? A pirate crew? Ma'am, Axel said you did nothing but complain while on the previous boat, and I've heard from a credible source named 'Lexi' that you do nothing but complain about your living situation. You really want to live on the seas?"

This is what we were planning – Abby's actually intended on joining my crew for awhile, but the roleplay she's doing is that she's gotten tired of the rules and stuff here and wants to try living more freely. The farming life just isn't for her so she wants to give it up and try piracy instead.

"Ugh," she says. "Not really, but I'm sure it'll be easier than digging up turnips every day!"

"There are turnips?" I ask.

"Yup!" She answers. "So? Can I give the more free life a try?"

"You can do that on your own, you know," I tell her. "Don't need to resort to being a fugitive. Just find something you enjoy which earns you money, and bam! You've got it made!"

"You and Axel seem happy whenever I see you," she says. "So I'd rather give it a try."

"Alright!" I say. "But you've gotta pass the initiation test! First, you have to help me loot a village! Do a good job, and you'll get to join! Fail, and you'll get thrown overboard!"

"I'll do my best!" She says.

"What about me?" Olivia asks, a sword appearing in her hand. "Can I join the crew, too?"

"That a threat?" I ask.

"Nope!" She answers, and I can hear her grin. "I'm just ready for whatever defenses those villages can throw at me! You can't see it 'cause my armor's invisible, but I'm geared up and ready to go!"

We can set our armor to being hidden, or to display a different thing than what we're actually wearing for defenses. Most of us use it to show off our avatars' skins rather than showing the armor. It's more fun to show off our skins than to show off the same old armor everyone knows.

We might sometimes make our armor visible again, and I'm sure I might make mine visible if I get something which looks really cool or if I do a cosmetic change on mine. Or if we're doing some big battle in the server's lore.

"Sure!" I say. "Though the trip might be along – we've got a ways to go to find a village which hasn't upgraded its defenses yet! Axel and I might have looted every waterside village within ten thousand blocks at least once or twice… Anyway! Lemme get some more stuff, and we'll be off!"

I buy some smoothies from one of Xander's shops. They're actually one of the best food items available to me right now so I like buying them as I get low. It's this one specific smoothie, not smoothies in general.

Not in terms of refilling hunger or whatever, but because of an effect it grants – Projectile Resistance III. When fighting against archers in the villages, that's a massive boost. The admins have also been adding archers to the villages, so an additional defense against them is good.

More smoothies acquired, I lead Abby and Olivia to my ship and we set sail. We stick to the roleplay for a few minutes, but we really do have to go pretty far to take on a default village rather than an upgraded one.

"I really regret not buying a ticket to head out there," Abby tells me once we drop the roleplay for a bit. "When news hit that Xander'd paid for enchantments to keep pavilions warm in winter, I figured there might be something going on. Then I decided it was probably just him being generous to the town or something. I've heard claims that he donates food to the boys' home he used to be at on the regular."

"Every week, yeah," I say. "He really likes that they took care of him for a few years and wants to give back. Some of it he buys, some of it he makes, and some of it comes from his greenhouse."

"Did you know?" Olivia asks. "About the real purpose of the barbecue, I mean?"

"Nope!" I answer. "Xander kept it a secret even from us! I got surprised with Niko's arrival. Then with finding out that we were cousins. Then dragons showed up? I didn't know what to do! I actually froze up a little… it was Axel crashing which broke that. I busted up laughing. Didn't know it was him, though. Took me a moment to put the pieces together and realized it was Xander's cousins."

"Seriously?" Olivia asks. "Not even you knew? Aren't you two dating?"

How it got out that Xander and I are dating, I don't know, but I've learned that our fans know. I ignore most of the comments about our relationship since I'm not supposed to talk about it much, but this one's fine.

"Yeah," I answer. "But it's not like he has to tell me everything. And he's got plenty of secrets in his head. Some of them are because of his magitech stuff. That one was just because it was supposed to be a surprise for everyone and he didn't want word of it getting out."

"Not that it stopped different magical peoples from showing up," Abby snickers. "From the way it looked in those pictures, some of that was planned."

"That was Grandpa Blaze's fault," I tell her. "The old phoenix didn't keep it a surprise from the nonhuman people, so a lot of them decided they wanted to make an appearance and join the Barbecue With a Dragon. It's kind of a shame you decided not to come, it would've been cool to have all of us Kenzibri members together!"

"Yeah," she says. "It just felt weird to me, though. I'm not from that area and just popping over to meet some kids at a barbecue… yeah. Just felt weird."

Oh, right. Abby's five years older than us. I guess it would be weird for her to fly out to meet us at a barbecue as a surprise or impromptu meetup.

We talk about the barbecue and all the things she missed by not coming out for it until it's time for us to return to roleplay.

Rather than looting the village with them, I supervise and make judgments. Once we're a decent ways back out at sea, I call the ladies over to me.

"Olivia," I say. "Excellent job with the looting! You didn't kill anyone who didn't fight back," none of the NPCs attacked, so she didn't attack anyone. "And you even thought to steal their doors after luring their livestock to the ship and stealing all of their food and even their crops! What a power move! You're officially in!"

"Yes!"

"And Abby!" I plop down a chest. "This is an upgraded chest, it has extra space. Put your entire inventory into it."

"Why?"

"You killed a villager for no reason!" I say. "You're out! So dump everything into the chest! That way, it's not lost when you go overboard!"

"Yes!" Olivia pulls out her sword. "To the plank with you!"

"Inventory first!" I laugh.

"But I'll drown!" Abby protests.

"There's an island right over there," I tell her. "No trees or anything, but I'm sure you'll manage to survive. Make it to when I come back in a couple of weeks, and you can try again! Oh, but you'll get a bed before going. Make sure to set your spawn. Any tricks, and you'll become an enemy of the crew!"

Abby tries protesting, but eventually gives up all of her gear, accepts the bed and smoothie, downs the smoothie, and jumps off of the side of the ship. Olivia chants "Jump the plank!" over and over until Abby's jumped, then cheers when Abby hits the water.

"Ten out of ten!" Olivia tells her. "See ya!"

Abby waves to us, then starts swimming to the island. I actually got permission to log on invisible yesterday – so anyone who was streaming/online last night didn't know I'd popped on. The island was prepared then, specifically for when Abby failed this. It'll be the punishment for anyone who fails the test from now on.

That's right – Abby losing was preplanned, as was her getting sent to an island for two weeks (really, just one as she likely won't be playing next week due to the holiday). This is to essentially force her character to get over herself. After time on an island by herself, she'll be much less likely to complain about the living conditions as a pirate – which are obviously going to be worse than the ones she complains about in town.

"Alright!" I tell Olivia. "Let's start heading back! Axel just messaged me and said some of the towns have upgraded their defenses again and is requesting backup!"

He apparently got chased out of the town by the village's security, which hasn't happened to use yet. The admins might have upgraded things a little too much, but we'll find out once the three of us try to take it on together.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

If we rely on my awesome skills, then it's too much and then admins will tone it back down a little.

"To the village!" Olivia swings her sword.

[Xander – 13 years]

"Hi, Niels," I land in the designated landing zone on his island.

Niels is hanging out on a bench facing the landing zone for some reason. I think he was just talking with his chat. It's a nice place to look at when not doing much else.

"Hey, Xander!" He says. "How'd the rest of your weekend go after we left?"

"Good," I answer. "I went to the workshop to work on something, then for a walk through the mage district and got lunch, then to get dessert, then I went to a birthday party. After that, Dad and I watched a documentary, and Mom joined us with dessert. Then yesterday, I did more work at the workshop, hung out with Sig and them for a bit in the afternoon, then came back home and made dinner with Mom. It was calm and relaxing after the parties and stuff, and I really liked that. Though I think I'll still be taking the full week to recover and to prepare for my stuff this weekend and the festival next week."

"You doing anything during the festival?" He asks. "Going to the fair or something?"

The festival grounds are having rides and games and stuff again, though most of the rides which move fast won't be active. It's too cold for that since they aren't enchanted to keep the passengers warm.

"I wasn't planning on it," I tell him. "But I know Sig and them are. I might join them for a little bit, if I'm feeling okay to. But I probably won't. How did the rest of your weekend go?"

"Not bad!" He answers. "One of our cows gave birth last night, so we had to make sure the calf was warm. They might be sun cattle, but they can still get cold, especially when they're younger. It's less of a concern once they're older, since they know how to control their magic better and can use it to regulate their temps more easily."

"Oh," I say. "The calf is okay?"

"Yup!" He answers. "There are sometimes issues when they're born, but it ain't too common. And while some of the cows like to give birth in a secluded part of the pastures or woods or something, we can usually smell it easily enough that even if they abandon it, we can find them fast."

"That's good," I say, then switch my main hand in the game to the inventory slot with a writable book in it, which I wrote in and then signed so that it can't be modified. "I came up with a task list for you. This ain't like what the Master of Trials issues, it's just a list of optional tasks for you. If you complete them all by the time I begin streaming again after the break, then I'll give you a reward."

The Master of Trials hasn't approached Niels and me yet. I'm not sure why he hasn't approached Niels, but I think he won't approach me for two reasons. The first is that I just don't participate in the roleplay and his role is as part of the server's lore and roleplay. The second is that I think he's nervous about interacting with me.

"Sure!" Niels says.

"Okay," I say. "Is there something I can put this in? There are teleport scrolls to go with it."

"Sure!" Niels gets up and after a few moments, plops down a chest.

I put the book and relevant scrolls into the designated chest, then step back. He opens up the chest, then a moment later, breaks and collects it. Nothing except the chest dropped, so he probably pulled everything out of it first. When we're building stuff and he wants to move chests to a different spot, he sometimes breaks it and then just picks up the stuff that fell since it's faster than clicking them all into his inventory.

"Let's see," he looks at the book. "Build three villager houses in the main fairy village, each one themed to the design we've been doing."

That's the first task on the list. So far, we just have temporary houses for them, as we've been building shops and the Fairy Elder's house. That's what we decided to call the head of the village, which is just a villager we locked into a bed in there and set to the rancher job. We might change him for a different one if we decide a different job's outfit looks better for the role of Fairy Elder.

It's time we finally get some proper houses for the regular fairies, though. The ones not getting jobs right now. Since Niels plays for even longer than me, and sometimes on weekends, too, I'm sure he'll manage to get this done. Even if he doesn't, I might still give him the reward if the effort was good with the time he had.

"Second task," he says. "Ensure the main fairy village is well-stocked with a variety of food. There needs to be at least one chest's worth of supplies per villager and must be in villager chests."

"One of the scrolls gives access to my farms," I tell him. "It'll take you to the waystone for the main one, and there are teleport pads around it leading to the other various ones."

This is mostly so he can get acquainted with the farms aimed at actual production, since he's only helped me with making the regular farms look more nature-like. Those ones are mostly for aesthetics and not production. The crop farms can easily be used for it, but the animal farms need a lot of breeding for that while my production animal farms always have a ton of animals in them.

A round of breeding and a round of culling of as many adults as there are new ones is how I do it, to keep their numbers up. If I need to modify that for more frequent breeding, then I do.

"Third task," he says. "Go to each of the designated zones and build a small camp, as if there had been travelers there who left it behind for future travelers."

"Yeah," I nod. "I was trying to be descriptive on that one. Those are on the ground below, and it's so that if someone is traveling down there by foot, they have places to spend the night. They're gonna turn off sleeping through the night some time after the Harvest Festival ends. And-and I know no one's really come out this way, but I thought it'd be a nice thing to do. The camps should be a little bit secure, but easy for players to get into."

This one is mostly so we can get a good idea of a design for them. The admins have a few ideas and tested them, but I wanted to ask Niels in case his idea for a design is better or includes something the admins might have forgotten. Once a design is finalized, the admins will create more of them near to where others explore and travel.

They'll be safe zones, where monsters can't spawn or enter… sometimes.

"Okay!" He says. "I can do all of this! Might even get it done by the end of this weekend! I take it you'll be checking on them when you log onto the server in two weeks?"

"Yeah," I nod. "Though if you manage to get it done before I stream this Friday, I'll check then. But I don't think you will, since you've still got school and farm work and all that. And sleep. And a life outside of the server."

"Alright!" He says. "I'll do my best! I'm guessing the three scrolls labeled as 'Travelers' Camps' with numbers are the three locations?"

In addition to those, there's one which will allow him to warp back to the main fairy village, which will allow him to return once he's finished down there. That way, he doesn't get stuck and can't return.

"Yeah," I answer. "They should be spaced out enough that a player can reach them by walking before the day ends if they leave not long after the new day begins. Chat helped me know how many blocks someone can walk in that time."

Though I still looked things up and did the math on my own, too, just to make sure. Chat was being honest this time, so I didn't put them in time-out again.

"I'm gonna go now," I tell him. "Bye, Niels. I'll try not to bother you while you're doing the tasks."

"Lemme know if you want any help with anything!" He tells me. "I'll be willing to stop to do that."

"Okay," I say. "Bye."

"Bye!"

I fly back to my island, then try to decide what to do next. There's a lot of time left in the stream and I don't feel like making more nature-looking things right now.

Abby is probably stuck on an island by herself right now. That was part of the plan for her roleplay, but it means she probably won't have much to do. I grab a backpack and stick some things into it, then fly over to the island where Sig was setting things up yesterday.

It's not a very large island, just a little bit of grass blocks and a small sandy beach around its edges. No tree for getting wood from, and no shipwrecks or other loot things nearby. Basically, she'll probably be bored out of her mind if she actually plays for very long until it's time for Sig to return.

Especially since her spawn is set to the island, regardless of whether or not she has one set with a bed. The admins did that so that she can't escape the island unless she asks or someone rescues her. They'll change it back to the natural spawn point at Central Plaza the rest of us have once her time on the island is up.

"Hi, Abby," I land on the shore.

"Hey, Xander!" She says. "Whatcha doing?"

"I got you a survival pack," I put the backpack on the ground – as an item, not a drop. "It has food, wood, and some other stuff in it. And if you want to just make yourself a regular boat and leave, you can."

"No, thanks!" She laughs. "If I do that, I'll never manage to join Seb's crew! But I won't reject a gift from the Fairy King! Can use the stuff to build something here while I wait for rescue."

She called me the Fairy King. She's in roleplay.

"Okay," I say. "I'm gonna go check on everyone else now. Bye. Lemme know if you want rescuing and I'll come back."

"See ya!"

I fly off and try to decide who to check on first. Maybe Lexi, since we're friends. She'll probably be at the village near Central Plaza, so I make my way there.

[Luke – 13 years]

"So I texted Xander an invite to my birthday party," I tell Seph as we leave school. "But he rejected it."

My birthday is next Friday and we're not doing something massive for it. This will be my first time having more than just Parker attending. Tyler, Parker, Seph, and Cyrus will all be there and I had hoped to Xander would attend as well.

Unfortunately, he doesn't like me enough to agree to that, even if he's inviting me to his own parties and stuff. Maybe next year, he'll come!

"Are you surprised?" Seph snorts.

"Well… not really?" I answer. "But I was still hoping. You still okay with going to Cyrus's for today's hangout?"

After talking with us for a few minutes at the barbecue on Friday, Cyrus's parents wanted to invite us to hang out at his for our homework today. I think their real motive is to learn more about Seph, since they seemed impressed with him. He's also shaking a little, so I know he's nervous about meeting them.

Even if some people were wrongly using Xander's barbecue to try to make connections with people for the sake of connections, some used it for other reasons. Seph hasn't wanted to go to Cyrus's place since becoming friends with him, so they haven't gotten to meet him. He's a pretty good hunter and a genius mage, though, so they want to.

Their business is one he might have dealings with in the future, if he becomes a professional magic beast hunter like Tyler. Once he becomes stronger, anyway. Scouting out future talent is something they like doing.

If said future talent is someone who managed to get a scholarship/sponsorship to an academy which doesn't accept them, that's even better.

The fact that their son has become friends with him only increases their desire to get to know him. It's natural to want to know your kids' friends a bit, so you know who they're hanging out with.

"Y-yeah," Seph answers. "But you're sure they won't ask me to do a demonstration like Cyrus did?"

"They won't," Cyrus says from behind us, causing Seph to jump. "They just wanted to get to know you, that's all. It doesn't have anything to do with your scholarship and hunting and stuff. I mean, they are curious about that, but that's not it."

I noticed him coming up because of his electrical signal, but he really is quiet when he moves. Even his response to Seph's question was quiet.

"Because I'm your friend, then?" Seph asks. "They met me on Friday…"

"Well, no," Cyrus says. "Because we're friends and they've only met you the once. So they figured, we could invite you to hang out at my place. Bridget's staying after school for a bit, so it'll just be us and my parents."

Seph seems to relax a little at that, but only some.

Ooooh. I see what's going on – he's not actually nervous about being asked to demonstrate his abilities. He's nervous about hanging out with Bridget and getting judged by her parents.

"Come on," I say. "Let's talk as we go. It's cold!"

There's still an inch of snow on the ground, too, and I'm sure that's not helping at all.

"Aren't you rich enough you can afford the warming underclothes?" Seph asks.

"They constantly warm you," I tell him. "So they're not good to wear indoors. You'll end up really hot and sweaty after about ten minutes. And they don't protect what they don't cover, so my face'd be cold still, anyway."

"Let's go before he turns into an icicle," Cyrus snorts.

We get on our hoverboards (and Seph on his bike), then make our way to Cyrus's. Parker would be joining us, except he has a dentist's appointment and can't make it.

Hot cocoa and mulled cider awaits us at Cyrus's, which I am more than grateful for. We take over the dining room with our drinks and snacks to work on our homework, silence filling the air save when one of us needs help or doesn't understand something.

Which isn't often. Seph and I are both at the top of our class, and Cyrus isn't far behind. Mostly, we're just double-checking to make sure we didn't do something wrong.

"I wanted to ask you," Cyrus tells me once we finish our homework. "Were you getting bothered at the barbecue? It seemed like people wouldn't leave you alone, and I heard you were there for the entire thing."

"Yeah," I groan. "People my parents have turned down deals with before were coming up to me, people who have nothing to do with our field were coming up to me, scientech company heads were coming up to me, and ordinary people were coming up to me. I get wanting to make a connection with someone like me, but seriously, give a guy space to breathe! If it weren't for Tyler being in town, I would've spent basically all of Saturday locked up in my office, working on something just to destress from the barbecue."

People really don't know when to shut up and I couldn't just tell them off like Xander can. He doesn't have to worry about appearances.

"What about you?" I ask. "Your family's not as powerful as mine, but it's still pretty influential. I saw you getting talked with a few times."

"Yeah," he nods. "Mostly from regular hunters who'd heard about my family's company. They were wanting tips and stuff. Told them to check out the company-sponsored training sessions," he gives Seph an envious look. "Be glad you're not a part of the social elite. You got to wrestle around and throw snowballs at the barbecue."

"Speaking of having fun there," I snort. "Did you guys get the feedback form card?"

Not everyone received them, but I know quite a few of the boys at school were talking about them. Xander had party bags for everyone who attended the barbecue, and even made enough for the number of people who wanted one. How he knew to prepare that many, I'm not sure.

What's interesting about them, though, is that not everyone received a card with directions for filling out a feedback survey. They were in the party bags, but only some of them.

Even though it seemed random for who received the cards, each person who received it was greeted with their name when they accessed the page using the code on the card. They weren't random at all, they were specifically selected. I'm not sure how many people received them, but I'm sure he picked people from all class levels.

And somehow, managed to ensure each person received the correct card.

"Yup," Seph answers. "Already did it, though I ain't sure why Xander wanted feedback on that."

"Just Xander being Xander," I shrug, and look at Cyrus. "You?"

"Yeah," he answers. "Filled it out after noticing the card once we got back here. If something like that ever happens again, bothering people over business connections might get banned. Not sure how that'd be enforced, but Xander'll probably have a way."

"No doubt about it," I snort. "On either of those. He got pretty annoyed when people interrupted him doing stuff so they could try and forge a connection. The number of times he asked if there was a point to them bothering him or if they were just bothering him to bother him was kind of funny. If it weren't for Adrian King stepping in, I think he would've eventually snapped. Anyway! We're here to hang out and I'd rather play something now that our homework's done. If we're gonna talk, we can do it during that, yeah?"

I don't mind sitting around and chatting for a bit, but after spending the whole day in school learning and then some time working on homework, I want to do something a little bit more fun. Seph will probably get bored if Cyrus and I start getting into a conversation like we were leading into, too.

"Sure," Cyrus shrugs.

"Yeah," Seph agrees.

"We-" I begin. "Oh. Bridget's home."

"She is?" Cyrus asks as Seph starts fidgeting.

"Yeah," I answer. "I can feel her electrical signals approaching. Speed suggests she's on her hoverboard."

We wait for Bridget to arrive and she comes over to the dining room after putting away her hoverboard and jacket.

"Hey, nerds!" She grins at us. "Surprised you're all sitting at the table, not out back throwing snowballs or something. Or are you planning on doing extra studying?"

Is that banter or an actual poke at us? Getting called a nerd like that could go either way. I'm not familiar with Bridget enough to know, and am still a bit inexperienced with joking around with people who aren't Parker or Tyler.

"Hey, Seph," Cyrus turns and leans in, then whispers something into Seph's ear while covering his mouth/Seph's ear with a hand.

Seph's face turns bright red.

"Cyrus?" Bridget asks.

"Seph has something he wants to show you," Cyrus gets up from his seat.

"N-n-no, I don't."

"Do it," Cyrus tells him as he walks around the table. "Bridget hasn't seen it yet and she'll love it."

"Oh?" Bridget asks. "What is it?"

"Something impressive," Cyrus stands right behind her, apparently wanting to be in front of Cyrus to watch the trick. "Go on, Seph. She'll love it."

Seph shakes a little, but holds up his hands. Wisps of bluish-white light form above his palm as mana exits his body and begins to coalesce in the air. Concentration fills his face as he crystallizes a small mana crystal, and Bridget's jaw drops a little. She's definitely impressed that he can do that.

Which isn't a surprise, considering how difficult it is. Most people are, especially since many of our classmates can't. Seph really has some amazing talent.

"Wow," she says. "That is impressive. It-ack!"

Cyrus did some sort of move on her to flip her to the ground.

"Might be nerds," he tells her. "But that doesn't mean we can't get you!"

Bridget starts trying to wrestle her way out of the pin, and I notice that they're both wearing a strength-limiting bracelet as they do. Did they get those from Xander on Halloween? I didn't think they'd be on the market yet.

A bit odd that they'd be wearing them here, though. Especially Bridget. It's not as if… oooh! They wrestle around on their own all the time, like how Parker and I do. With Seph hanging out today, they probably wore them in case he wanted to join in.

As if he'd do that with Bridget wrestling, but it looks like she wants to be friends. She'll have to get out of Cyrus's lock first, though.

"Kids!" Mr. Sunfang laughs as Bridget attempts to flip her brother over. "Not in the dining room! You're going to break something again!"

I think we all forgot that he was nearby, watching us.

"Alright!" The twins immediately separate.

"Come on," Cyrus tells us. "Let's head to the game room. Bridge, you coming?"

"Sure!" She answers, then looks at Seph. "You play table tennis?"

"Um… just a couple of times," he answers. "At Luke's. I'm not very good at it."

"We can team up," she says. "Us against the two mega nerds."

"Who're you calling a mega nerd?" Cyrus moves towards his sister again, only to slam into a barrier.

"Not in the dining room!"

"Come on!" Bridget laughs. "Before Dad starts whupping butts. You'll love our games room, Seph.

"Yeah," I tell Seph. "Let's go so Cyrus and I can show her what mega nerds are capable of!"

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