"Mother, no."

"But I think if I worked on the joint there I could-"

"Mother, no."

Mirabel sighed, pushing herself away from her desk. "I have plenty of time."

"No, you really don't," the metal woman said as she stood in the doorway, gleaming arms crossed over her chest as she adopted the classic, "I'm waiting for you and I'm not amused" pose. Her tail swished back and forth lazily as she watched her mother glance once more at the blueprints she'd been going over. "You still need to get dressed."

"I can change at Casita," Mirabel argued. "That will save me a few more minutes to go down to the workshop-"

"I had Sofia lock up the forge and hide the keys."

"…what?" Mirabel said, stopping in the middle of her office, a look of horror crossing her features. "But… but…"

"You are going to the party tonight even if I have to drag you there myself. And we know I can." She smirked. "You made me too strong, didn't you?"

"Apparently," Mirabel muttered in annoyance.

"Now come on, let's go. I have your dress picked out and Workshop has sent the dress you are wearing tonight along with the rest of your suitcases already to Casita. But you need to look nice… I don't want your mother complaining that I'm not keeping a better eye on you."

"Fine, Valeria," Mirabel finally said, taking a moment to roll up her plans for a new mobile horseless carriage that could split apart into a trio of bipedal warriors. The former jaguar, who now resembled a metallic jaguar woman, flashed her a smile and wrapped an arm around Mirabel, pulling her out of the room. "I hope you know you need to dress up as well for this!"

"Trying to scare me or fluster me, mother?" the Metabeast (as Valeria and the rest of Mirabel's upgraded creations had dubbed themselves) said with a shake of her head. "I already know I have to. So does everyone else. So knock it off, we aren't letting you spend any more time working. You want to be with your family, right?"

"Of course I do!" Mirabel complained as she entered her bedroom, Sofia already waiting. Long gone were the days where she acted like a mere bird, her duties to serve as a breastplate or a pet. Like Valeria she'd been upgraded and upgraded and upgraded again into a fully sentient Metabeast. Mirabel allowed her babies to choose their own forms beyond their animal bodies and nearly all of them had selected bipedal human forms. Some, like Valeria, had animal-like heads while others like Sofia had human faces.

Mirabel had never really noticed that the ones that had human faces resembled her much like human children would resemble their parents.

Sofia was sitting on the bed, legs swaying back and forth as she watched her mother and sister enter. Where Valeria had been made of Adamantine, allowing her to have a gleaming black color, Sofia had been given metals of red, gold, green, silver, and blue. The result was that, along with her small size, she appeared like a fae child, colorful and spritely but dangerous. Which she was. More than one rival of Mirabel's, who had hoped to break into Workshop in order to steal her secrets, had learned that lesson. They honestly begged Workshop to kick them out rather than deal with the 'colorful little shit!' anymore.

"So you got her out of the office?" Sofia chirped, a grin stretching over her face. "Do I owe Orlando any money?"

"No because she did try to convince me to let her down into the forge."

"Sweet!" Sofia said, pumping her fist. "Money money money!" She leapt onto the bed and began to dance… rather badly. "Gonna get a bluffing, gonna get a buffing…" she sang.

"Get off my bed if you're goinna do that!" Mirabel complained as she ran her fingers through her hair before walking towards the bathroom. "You'll ruin the mattress." She stepped inside and shut the door.

"No I won't and I already welded the window shut!" Sofia called out.

"You little shit!" Mirabel screamed.

"Think mom's mad about the window or that now she can't escape?"

Valeria shrugged. "With her it's always hard to tell."

"I heard that!" Mirabel called out as she began to take off her clothes, wanting to sneak in a quick shower before heading out. "Is everything ready in town? We won't get called back-"

"No one would dare," Valeria reminded her. "They all know once you get back home you'll be desperate to spend as much time there and will be upset if you are dragged away."

Mirabel sighed. "I know… but Angelica is getting ready to bring her son online and-"

"And they can handle it," Valeria assured her. "We haven't needed you at an onlining in 3 years, mother. You've built us good… we know how to build ourselves and make sure the little ones come online properly."

Mirabel sighed as she stepped under the spray of the shower, first turning the water to as hot as it would get so it made her skin redden before instantly cracking it to ice cold. It was a shock to her system and made her yelp before she sighed, pressing the top of her head against the wall and letting the icy water run down her back before finally stepping out. There was no need to actually wash, as she hadn't gone down to the forge that day, and she knew there would be a communal bath just before the party, so the shower was just to help ease the tension in her muscles from being bent over her desk for as long as she had been.

"I'm sorry. You know I'm proud of you all I just worry-"

"And you'd be a horrible mother if you didn't," Valeria told her.

"And grandmother!" Sofia called out.

"Ugh, don't remind me," Mirabel said; her creations all saw her as Mother, even the second generation, but some liked to needle her by calling her abuela. "And yet that won't get mama off my back about giving HER grandbabies." She rolled her eyes at that and turned off the shower, grabbing a towel with a drying charm (for when you really needed to get dry fast). "She never bugs Luisa or Isa about that."

~MC~MC~MC~

"Oh look Isa," Isabella said in a snide little tone, "I just happened to find these pamphlets about adoption! Look at all these cute babies who could use two mommies! This one is a mermaid, wouldn't that be nice?"

Ulika, who at that moment was reffing an arm wrestling contest one of her aunts was having with a rather large and boisterous human male who had arrived with a trader caravan a week back, looked over at Isabella and shook her head. "She just wants you to be happy."

"And I am happy!" Isabella complained.

"You sound like it," the man teased only to groan when Ulika's aunt gripped his hand a bit harder. "Damn it, Mursha! What?"

"Don't insult the Vine Weaver," Mursha said with a sharp smile that promised even more pain if the man pushed his luck.

"The… Vine Weaver?" he asked, glancing up at Isabella. "Her?" She smirked as she leaned forward on her bar stool, giving him a cheery little wave.

She knew she must have not been what he expected. Everyone always got so flustered when they discovered the "Vine Weaver" as the orcs had taken to calling her (just as the haflings called her The Lady of Plenty, the dark elves Queen Bounty, and the half dozen other titles she had racked up over the last decade) was a young Columbian girl. Everyone else in Ulika's village was an orc so finding her not only living there but an important member of said village was always startling.

(Not that one could call it a 'village' anymore, as much like the valley she'd grown up in the village had exploded in growth thanks to her using her powers to turn the lands around it into a lush garden of fruits and vegetables)

Isabella did her best to fit in. At that moment she was wearing the leather garments all other orc women wore, which showed off her toned tummy and muscular arms and legs. After 10 some odd years of eating improperly she had been forced onto a diet by Dryft and her mother and while she had seen certain parts of her get a bit more fleshy (she still didn't get why, after all this time, Mirabel would mutter about 'stupid huge chichis' when her breasts weren't that big at all) she'd also been able to put on muscle. Which was needed not only when she was surrounded by muscular orc men and women but also thanks to her sisters; Luisa was of course very muscular but Mirabel had bulked up herself as she'd finally hit her growth spurt back when she'd turned 16, shooting up like a weed. She had long cut her hair short, finding she loved how much time she saved having to only apply some gels to make it stick up into spikes. And she of course kept an axe on her at all times, even with her powers at the ready to aid her. But still… she was a human woman amongst green skinned orcs and despite living with them, hunting with them, and sharing the bed with the one she was SURE would be the next chieftain (even if Ulika always got flustered at that) she stood out like a sore thumb.

"It's okay, I get that a lot," she assured the man before returning to her drink, her good mood draining away as she remembered just what she was in for when she and Ulika headed to the valley. "But you just KNOW mama is going to begin asking us about babies. 'Are there any little orcs that need to be adopted? What about half orcs? Oh look, I found a spell that will let you two have kids even though it would mean one of you growing a penis and I know that makes you-'" Isabella stopped and began to gag.

"Should I be offended?" the man asked.

Mursha laughed. "Nah… Isabella just has a thing about dicks!"

"They are all floppy and veiny and… ugh ugh ugh!" Isabella gave a full body shiver. "I will stick with pretty things, thank you very much." She hopped off her barstool and gave Ulika a kiss on the cheek. "Can you wrap this up; we need to get going soon."

Ulika looked at her aunt. "Do you promise to play fair?"

"Of course."

"…give me the knife," Ulika said and the human's eyes went wide when Mursha revealed that she'd had a knife hidden under the table, ready to stab him in order to startle him and help her get the win. "Good. And if I find out either of you cheated I won't be happy at all." With that the orc woman got up from the table and gave Isabella her hand, the two of them happily walking out of her aunt's tavern, The Ugly Sow.

(The bar, once known as The Golden Delight, had originally been found in another city, owned by a snooty elf who had decided to call Ulika an Ugly Sow when she'd first come in and then actually tried to claim she was a thief and get her arrested for just asking to buy something. Isabella had promptly strangled him with some rose vines until he'd agreed to sign over the bar to them as an apology for being a massive entitled ass. Ulika had gotten Anton to help them magically move it and Ulika had decided that while she was utterly gorgeous the title was more than perfect for the bar)

"You know, it wouldn't be so terrible to take some time and… you know…"

"Of course I know," Isabella said, squeezing her hand. "But if we do have a child I want us to truly think it over and figure out what is best for us. Be that adoption or-" she shuddered, "biological with a potion that… ugh." She gagged again.

"Perhaps we should get you some time with a mind healer while we visit, to discuss this aversion you have," Ulika teased.

"I don't have an aversion," Isabella complained. "I can look at… that… all the time. It's merely the idea of taking something that gross and-" She swallowed hard. "Please, let's stop talking about this."

"Okay then… let's talk about the party." The two of them moved through the village, a few orcs waving hello to Ulika and fighting the urge to bow to Isabella; she'd begged them to stop doing that… along with leaving offerings at her door and writing hymns about her. She had even asked for those requests to be written down so that travelers would understand she didn't want to be constantly praised; it seemed like every day now she was getting some traveler coming to thank her for her help in feeding their family. A suggestion from one of the orc farmers, commenting that it was too bad she couldn't pass her gift along to the seeds, had made her wonder why should couldn't. She altered plants all the time… made vines strong enough to swing up, made thorns hard enough to piece steel… why not make the plants produce seeds that would grow as quickly as if she were there.

The result were magically enhanced seeds that could grow four times as quickly as normal ones and were far more resistant to drought and cold. The orcs sold them like crazy, farming them from the fields Isabella had helped them plant, and now many who used to be raiders or hunters now focused solely on selling seeds. It worked out well for all as it allowed many poor villages to pool their funds to get quick growing seeds that would see them through famines and the orcs got money to help improve their villages and homes.

The only problem was that so many people wanted to thank her. So she'd come up with her requests, covering what should NOT be done ('Please don't kiss my feet' 'Please don't try and catch my stray hairs and put them in amber to wear around your neck' 'Please don't offer me the soul of your first born, or your second, or your third!'). These had been written down but because the villagers had seen the flyers torn down far too often they'd finally decided to cut them into stone tablets.

For some reason visitors REALLY liked looking at those.

"Well, its Gabrio's birthday. I hear this year he asked for one themed around animals so Antonio is going to be busy." She paused. "Did you remember to wrap his gifts?"

"They are all nice and wrapped up," Ulika assured her; they had decided to get the boy a bunch of different toys from all over the world, so he could see how children of different cultures played. "But I meant since it is a gift ceremony what should we expect?"

Isabella frowned. "Ah… honestly I have no idea."

"What do you mean?"

"We all agreed that we can't ignore how special this is. Gabrio may very well get a gift tonight." She paused. "But he might not. At that's okay."

Ulika scoffed. "Of course it is! Little tyke has so much on his side. Even if your abuelo's blood doesn't give him a gift that just means we get the fun of finding his talents! And considering he has gods on his side…"

Isabella nodded at that. "Yes, though I'd prefer not getting Anton's husband involved. I don't even know if he's coming. Dryft might invite some of his family…"

"Giggles is coming, that's for sure."

"Giggles?" Isabella asked, confused. She'd once asked just how many sisters Dryft had and the capricorn had shrugged and began listing them off… she'd nodded off around the first 30.

"Adopted sister," Ulika said. "She's a zebricorn." At Isabella's blank look she clarified, "Think Capricorn but instead of a goat and a fish it's a zebra and a fish."

"Ah." Isabella frowned. "Giggles?"

"Apparently when Dryft's parents adopted her she was about 2 years old. They asked her her name and all she could do was laugh because she knew that she was destined to be with them… she can see briefly into the future."

"Similar to Bruno."

"Yes, actually," Ulika said. "So Dryft's parents just named her Giggles. She's very nice… goddess of merriment. And war."

"How is it that everyone in Dryft's family ends up war gods?" Isabella complained.

"Some families are just odd when it comes to deities," Ulika stated, glancing at Isabella.

"What?"

"Nothing…" she said with a smirk.

Isabella shook her head. "Well, anyway… we know this is a special birthday but it's still a birthday. Dolores is handling it of course but I have no idea if it will be like Antonio's 5th birthday or if they are going to do something completely different. We'll just have to see what we can do to help."

"Like the good aunts we are."

She nodded and squeezed Ulika's hand harder. "Yes… the good aunts we are."

~MC~MC~MC~

"And there we go," Luisa said with a smile, bending down low to sign the parchment a gnome had held up for her to sign. "Glad you enjoyed. But I really need to go now… it's my sobrino's birthday tonight and I need to get heading out."

"Of course!" the gnome said happily, bobbing his head as Luisa stood back up. "Thank you again!" He ran off as quick as his little feet would carry him, clutching the parchment close.

"You know," Saharah called out from the alley she was standing in, casually munching on a piece of fruit, "technically you aren't his Tia."

"Gabrio doesn't have any Tias so we decided that we'd step in. Have to make sure his Tios don't ruin him." Luisa smiled as she looked over at her mentor. "Did they send you to collect me?"

"I was in the neighborhood." Luisa shot her a flat look but the dragonborn merely chuckled. "With Bureau every city is in the neighborhood."

"True, true." Luisa moved away from the hotel she had been staying in for the last few weeks. She had her Bag of Holding at her side, packed fully with everything she needed, so there was no need to go back to her room to pack. "I would have made it just fine," she commented, rolling up her wrist to reveal her tattoo that allowed her to access Bureau. "I don't need you anymore to access Bureau and Casita."

"Maybe but I wanted to make sure your adoring fans didn't keep you distracted."

Luisa waved her off as they two ambled down the street. "You act like I get mobbed all the time."

"I had to cast three Notice-Me-Not spells that Anton taught me and I can still feel the magic straining to hide you from everyone who wants to shake your hand."

Luisa sighed at that, though it was all in good humor. "I did some work for the city and everyone is very grateful."

"I heard a bit about that. You… found some old books?"

"I was looking for material for a new song," she said, already feeling Saharah rolling her eyes at that; most of her adventures began with her trying to write a song. "It's the anniversary of when the town was founded and I wanted to perform something new to celebrate. Everyone does the same songs about how the founder Bridget Mournleaf founded the city after her betrothed died the day before their wedding, wanting a place where she would know love. I wanted something different and figured I could find some other tale."

"And what did you find?"

Luisa sucked her lips in, eyes darting about.

"What did you find…" Saharah repeated.

"So… uh… Bridget Mournleaf… didn't lose her betrothed and come here in grief. She… kind of… found him having sex with ghast."

Saharah stopped and just stared at Luisa with wide eyes.

"…how?" she finally asked.

"The book didn't get into it that much. It did mention that Bridget thought that might explain why he tried to get her to eat an all cheese and onion diet."

The dragonborn shuddered at that. "This can't get any worse."

"Bridget, when her parents informed her they didn't care and she still had to marry him because his family was important, stole her dowry and used that to found the town."

"I take it back, yes it does," Saharah muttered. "And you discovered all that?"

"Found a few books that referenced a few books, had to go through an old manor on the north side of town that had a carrion crawler in it that did NOT want me getting to the books some scribe had stolen but… yeah, I got it all. Wrote out the entire song… I really like it because it starts out like most of the other songs do, all mournful and said… and then after what everyone thinks is the chorus I reveal its all a lie and go into this more energetic set and tell how amazing Bridget was." Luisa smiled, shaking her head. "The town elders are thrilled. It's one thing for your town to be founded by a tragic hero… but a badass one? Oh, they are already talking about the plays they want to put on about the entire thing!"

"And I imagine you'll be getting a cut?" Saharah asked.

"I didn't ask." She held up her hand. "I know, I know… first rule of entertainment is get your money upfront but I honestly don't need anymore. I still am waiting to hear back from the traders I gave all those vampire relics to how much money I'll get-"

"I still can't believe you got kidnapped by vampires and somehow ended up with them PAYING YOU."

"They just wanted someone to tell their story. They are a sweet family who just want the villagers to know they are fine with cow's blood. It worked out in the end… they patrol the village at night to protect them from threats and the villagers protect their house in the day. Everyone wins!"

Saharah shook her head. "Only you, Luisa, only you."

"Oh really?" Luisa smirked "And what about the plus one you're bringing with you?"

"Not a plus one, just happened to be traveling to the same place." A woman said, suddenly joining them. She didn't bother to look up from the book she was reading; while Luisa after spending so long with the Dragonborn could recognize the characters on it where Chinese, she couldn't tell what they said.

"It's a funny story actually. Oh… Jazz, Luisa Madriga College of Lore Bard. Luisa, Jazz Chan, Mage of Silverquill."

"It's Jasmine but Jazz is fine." Jazz shrugged Luisa frowning a little in thought.

"Chan? Like, as in-"

"The dude who roundhouse kicked my great-great grandfather in the snout!" If Luisa hadn't had the bad luck to meet the entombed dragon in one of his moods, she'd say Saharah looked almost too happy to be talking about elders getting kicked in the face.

Jazz sighed in the fond tone of having corrected someone a hundred times before "I told you my ancestor never actually kicked-"

"How'd the two of you meet?" Jazz blinked and actually looked up from her book, pouting a little at getting interrupted.

"Funny story actually, complete happenstance. I happened to be playing at a village to win this ancient crystal flute they'd found and decided to just give away to whoever came in second. Jazz was there to be a spoil sport~"

"Trying to get people to properly preserve history in a museum is not being a spoilsport!" Jazz huffed, smiling fondly as Saharah recounted their meeting, Luisa looking between the pair wondering if she was just projecting seeing how Saharah openly smiled and put a wing around Jazz's shoulders.

"Anyway, day before the contest, I was at the local watering hole. I didn't want to knock anyone's socks off too bad, you know. Leave something for the other contestants to impress before I blow them away. So I was just doing the story of Shendu. And who happens to stand up right in the middle of me singing the dramatic battle and yells 'Jackie pulled out the SHEEP Talisman first, not the dragon!'?"

"I value historical accuracy." Jazz huffed lightly shoving the laughing Dragonborn off her.

"I tried to explain it made for a more exciting story-"

"To which I said 'I bet you tell the tale of the Oni Generals out of order'." "To which I pointed out putting the struggle for the seventh Oni mask in the middle of the fight between Tohru and Jade during the search for the fifth makes the emotions and tensions all the better!"

"And before either of us knew it we'd argued the entire night, and day, and the next night… and actually ended up missing the contest." Jazz looked vaguely embarrassed by that putting away her spell book.

"Eh, I was doing the contest more of bragging rights then to actually get the flute, though I did help Jazz talk the winner into letting a scribe examine the flute, see if it had any actual historical value ontop of being pretty. After that we ended up traveling together."

"We just happened to be traveling the same places." Jazz insisted huffing.

"Like you 'Just happened' to be passing by when I was dragged into a Shadow world by a fire God and you saved me with the power of our bonds~?" Saharah teased snorting lightly making Jazz have to wave away the small cloud of smoke.

"It was the power of my dance moves thank you very much. Need I remind you, the bard, needed saving from an enemy that could be defeated by dancing."

"I was tied up!"

Luisa laughed shaking her head at the pair "Should I just leave you two alone?"

The two just shot her a look before Saharah stated, "Well, you will have plenty of stories to share when we get back to Encanto."

"Very true," Luisa said as they stepped to the door that was linked to Bureau, disappearing from the city.