Morning came with the kind of quiet that only follows after a night well spent. The sun shun gently througfh the curtains, painting golden lines across the room. The stillness carrying that strange mix of satisfaction and exhaustion.
Eris stirred, brushing a strand of hair from her face as she looked over at me. I was already sitting up, elbow on knee, glass in hand - a small shot of rakia.
She raised a brow, amused. "Starting strong today?"
I chuckled, tossing my head up and drinking it whole, the pain passed quickly. "Yeah, need to get the gears spinning somehow. Yesterday's still lingering..."
"Yeah..." she said softly, leaning on her elbow, cheek resting in her hand as her gaze turned dreamy and distant. "Yesterday."
We fell into silence, but it wasn't awkward - more like the kind where both people are quietly reliving the same memory. Her eyes softened, mine wandered, and for a brief moment, I almost let the fantasy sweep me up again.
Then I exhaled, grounding myself. "Anyways - today's going to be a busy one. Time I actually make the glue and cardboard factory."
She smiled knowingly. "And my work will also probably be plentiful," she teased, stretching lightly. Clearly because of what happened yesterday.
"Eh, it'll be bearable with the candy box." I said with a nod out of the bedroom.
She crawled to me, the faintest smile curving on her lips. "Even without it, looking forward to being with you fill me with patience. It's funny how you're both my poison and my cure."
"How so?" I asked.
"If you weren't here, I wouldn't be looking forward to every moment with you," she said softly, voice dripped in affection.
I reached and helt her cheek gently. "And you make my industrialization worthwhile. After defeating the devil king, you won't have to look forward to those moments - they'll always be yours."
Her fingers found mine and she leaned into my touch. "And I'll be enjoying them always."
And so we moved onto breakfast. Which was simple - too simple, in fact. Still lovely though.
And finally it was time to head to work. She saw me off, standing by the door, she straightened my collar and smiled.
"Till sunset, my dear... though, I wouldn't mind if it's earlier."
"I know." She stood on her toes and gave me a quick kiss. "Have a great day, my love."
Then I teleported away to Acat... Man, I feel guilty for not driving.
I walked in and thought on where to start - of course - the glue and cardboard factory are a priority. Then I got the idea, since cardboard is packaging, and I might start selling, then that means I can put him in the bottom level of the concrete dream, and also the glue factory, since the slime is here.
So I began, how do I treat slime to make it more sticky, because right now, I say it's average stickiness - I want the "WHY WON'T IT COME OFF" type of stickiness.
Ok, I might have figured something - if I find which part makes the slime sticky, I can extract just that.
I though of how to identify this part of the slime, and I found it, I opened my 'third' eye, seeing into the realm of information, or the 'script of reality.' I pulled out a blob of slime in front of me, and looked close, too close... So much so... Actually I might need to use a mictoscope. But not a physical, I don't know how to work with those, I just need to find the different elements, copy them, and test until I am left with only one. And so I got to work.
I focused deeply on that blob, so much so, I began seeing it up-close, but not with my eyes, but my mind. Information coursed through me as I began to copy the different molecular structures one by one.
And soon, I found the culprid, after touching each one of them. I simply needed to extract it, magic is the simplest answer, I am not this good in chemisty to be able to do this the natural way.
I made a simple conveyor belt, for the glue factory, slime goes in, glue comes out, and is directly fed into a funnel, which lays the glue on the fingers of a machine that sticks pieces of paper together until there is at least a centimeter of paper on it, there are bigger sheets of paper, and there are also smaller ones.
Good job me, jobs done... Now what?
I felt thirsty, I placed a finger in my mouth and casted Create Water, but then I thought about it... I could make carbonated water. I simply needed to ferment something that would produce ethanol, which I have lots of... and take the carbon dioxide and pressurize it in a vessel with water.
I got to work.
It was pretty easy, fermentation tank, gas collecter, magical filter, because I'm unsure if there are other gasses that get released during fermentation, the CO2 gets put in a water tank and then with pressure the two stuff get infused. Now I just need syrup, cherry of course, because it's accessible... Hmm... Actually, cherry is good for now.
The algorithm goes like this: cherry gets its pit removed, then to a bowl with sugar, which is previously magically processed to be turned into pure hsugar, then ther two things boil and mix, finally leading to a chunky syrup, honestly, I think it's better this way.
And finally, the bottling.
A bottle of a slightly viscous red liquid came out. Lovely. I poured some carbonated water with it, mixed it, and drank it. My word still stands - lovely.
But now what?
New idea - warehouse, where I will build cardboard constructs, or maybe real constructs... Would be fun. But first I need to make the automatic folding happen, and also the box making, after all, would be easier for Vanir to get the lighters when they are in convenient boxes.
I laughed to myself as an idea came to mind - to sneak inside the mansion where my friends are at, metal gear solid style.
The machine was easily done, with a complex mechanism that turned the wheels that guided the cardboard before a machine folded it. Lovely.
I also made a rolling station, cuz why not. I held the first that came like a blade and swung it around. I then made myself an armor, pretty rough to move in, of course. I didn't put in any effort, just cut her and there and you have a whole cardboard suit.
I wish I was a kid again... lost it's fun pretty quick. Self-judging, the invisible camera shouldn't see me like this.
I went outside and began to build a blueprint that I made in just minutes, it was literally just a rectangular building - metal sheets, bricks, windows. It didn't take a very long time, I have grown to work quite fast, like a well oiled machine.
So now the only thing left was to play around, make stuff up. And so I made it, a kingdom of boxes.
I have done this building for so long actually, that It has become sunset, time to go home... Not yet actually. First I want to do something.
"Eris!"
And just like that, she gracefully appeared after a few seconds.
"Yes?"
"Would you like to play with me?" I asked offering her a cardboard sword.
She smiled warmly, and took it. "Sure."
And so we played, like play fighting, hide and seek and many other simple games.
In the end we were left lying on one of the cardboard building's rooftop and smiling, looking at the hanging lights. "That was nice, a bit of a reminder."
"Yeah..." She said, head on my arm.
"Wanna go home?"
"If you want to." She said, shrugging.