Listening to music helps pass the time, but does little for my anxiety. To help try and brush it away I unlock my phone and go to the notes app, and start adding my ideas down. Like a cape name, I manage to come up with a few but none of them feel right.

After transferring bus lines and an hour of travel, I arrive near the coffee place that I'm supposed to meet Cranial in. I'm thirty minutes early but I go in and head up to the counter.

"Can I get a dark chocolate mocha?" I ask the barista.

"Sure, that'll be 3.95. Can I get your name for the order?"

"Oh, uh… Willow." I respond,

"That will be out soon for you Willow,"

Damn that euphoria spike, I didn't expect that at all. A few more minutes of waiting I hear my name and grab my coffee. Continuing to tap away on my phone, I message Cranial. Asking how I'll know it's them, a swift response from them tells me they'll be wearing a non binary scarf.

After twenty anxiety fueled minutes, I see someone with a non binary scarf walk through the doors. I flag them down, and they give me a nod before moving to the counter to presumably order something. While they're ordering something, I start doing breathing exercises to help calm down for what's basically a job interview. After another few minutes of waiting, they finally sit down across from me.

"So, do you have a cape name or are you still trying to figure it out?" Cranial asks. They have shoulder length dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. Their face is neither feminine nor masculine. And they're wearing a gray windbreaker with jeans.

"I have a few ideas, but none of them fit. So for now, you can just call me Willow." I mumble.

"It's nice to meet you Willow, I'm Jamie in civies, Cranial in costume." Cran-Jamie says. Their voice is pretty androgynous, but that makes sense based on the scarf. "So, you want to join Toybox? I assume you have proof that you're a Tinker?"

"Ah, yea. Yes to both." I respond, and pass over the other casting device. "It's modified to use special equations I invent to produce effects, my power keeps calling them spells." At the word 'spells' they look up at me, giving me a look I can't discern the meaning of.

After a few minutes of looking it over Cranial finally says "Well, it's clearly Tinker Tech but I can't figure out how to use these 'spells'."

"Ah, that's because I didn't link it to you. I wanted to make sure my tech couldn't be used if it was stolen, so I made a way to avoid that. To give a brief description of my spells, I made one that changed my gender and another that made the clothes I'm wearing. The reason I need Toybox is because I want to sell my tech to trans people. Hopefully not for a ridiculous amount of money but enough to make more and live off of. I can make other things, armor and combat spells but this is what I want to start with."

They continue looking at me, before finally speaking, "Interesting. Well, I can offer you a… let's call it a trial period, for the time being. We'll give you limited access to our resources, maybe set up a collaborative project or two with other Toybox members, and after that you can decide whether or not you want to move forward with a more long-term arrangement. Does that work for you?"

"Yes! I-I mean yes, thank you very much." I respond, with probably too much enthusiasm.

"Alright then, follow me." They say, standing up and heading for the door.

I get up and follow Jamie, and after five minutes of wandering around Portland they lead me to an alleyway. Stopping at a dead end they pull a device, it looks like a garage opener, and points it at the wall. And a fucking portal opens up with a quiet vroooom, the portal is a square with a blue outline, leading to a hallway lined with doors. Jamie steps through the portal and waves me to follow them.

"You're gonna send me home when we're done, right?" I ask.

"If you want us to," they respond

I don't know how to respond to that, because I honestly might not go back. I step through the portal, and after a few seconds the portal snaps closed. I follow Jamie into an empty room, and they tell me I can build my tech here. If I need material they'll charge it to a tab that I'll have to pay back with a percentage of what I make. I ask them if Toybox can set my prices because I have no idea what I'm doing. Then I ask for cheaper smartwatches and older smartphones. I'll bring my shitty laptop after I get home, gonna upgrade that as soon as possible. Jamie gives me an estimate for the costs of the materials and then an estimate on how much I can get for an instant gender swap, based on what the American healthcare system charges overall.

—

After what's probably a few hours I ask Jamie to send me home. They give me a portal device, and explain how to use it. I connect it to my phone and use my address to pop into a place I know no one is, my closet. Stepping out of my closet I see my bedroom door is still closed, which means my mom didn't come in again without my permission again. I grab the shitty laptop and move over to my desk, ready to work what could probably be called technomancy on it. Checking the clock I see I still have an hour before my mom is home, so I set an alarm and get to work.