I imagined I'd no longer have to live off of $5 Taco Bell craving boxes at some point when I started taking these jobs, but here we are.

Winning these jobs have been worth it so far, at least. Managed to refine my paper folding abilities to create a protective barrier with the texture/qualities of Papier-mâché-- so the next time a mountain lion tries to bite my head off, I'll be a little more prepared.

Still, I need to figure out my money situation sooner or later. I'm finished with high school in only a few months-- which translates to only a few more jobs-- so I'll need to get actually employed eventually. I'm sure my talents could land me basically anywhere I wanted, but I doubt there's anything that'll pay me enough for just making origami all day. Maybe I'll do some handyman work in the mean time?

I also doubt these jobs will keep transporting me to wherever the location is for free. It'll be much easier if I'm just able to buy a plane ticket wherever I need to go, so my objective should at least be to cover those expenses.

Life's changed a lot in just the past month.

Sometime after the job, Viktor contacted me about some sort of business venture he needed some funding for. At first, I thought he was just trying to scam me out of some money, but as it turns out, he's trying to start some sort of Contractor base of operations. I agreed to help him check out and renovate the place on the condition that he paid for my flight and stay there.

Goshen, Indiana is an awful shit hole, but Viktor's right in that it's a hotspot for insane supernatural shit. There's not even a local police force anymore, just warring biker gangs running the streets (one of which is the Sons of Salem). Pretty wild.

After I got to the farm, I met with Viktor's business partner for this venture-- a mysterious man named Guy Webber-- who's honestly a pretty respectable figure. Not only is he a world class scientist, but he's also a genius in his own right. And also apparently a wizard or something? He immediately handed me five hundred bucks and told me he'd cover any expenses needed for cleaning up the place when I arrived, so he's clearly got an eye for fellow talent at least.

Speaking of, the location. It's some run down farm on the outskirts of town, full of broken junk and walls that are barely holding together. Even with my skill, it took a week to get up to code-- but you know what they say about fixer uppers. Some gang members stalked us during the night at some point, but Guy managed to do his (figurative) magic to take care of them.

Despite everyone contributing a bunch of money out of their own pockets, we had still came up short for our initial payment for the farm. We ended up having to agree to a deal in the end to make up for the last portion, but afterward, we were in the clear. That let us focus our efforts on converting the farm into an energy farm with a mixture of my knowledge, Guy's science, and Viktor's technology put together, so now the place pays for itself!

Oh yeah, we also had a boy's night afterward with some of the other Contractors invited (including Lawrence and a tattoo artist named Gull, who fixed my burn marks and gave me a magic goose tattoo) and killed a cryptid Chain Raccoon or something. Was pretty cool, and the reward was an insane $100,000 total (that we split amongst ourselves). Pretty sure this is the most amount of money I've had in my bank account, period, which is... Mind boggling. Out of all the ways I could've started hitting it big, I never expected killing monster raccoons would be one of them.

I'll be staying at this farm for longer than I anticipated, on account of Viktor apparently now being wanted and needing to live in a hole I made for him. I'll probably move in permanently at some point, which'll be a pain, but for now? Life's been turning out pretty good. 

Time flies. More life changes. Now I'm finally eighteen, which means I finally get some legal independence.

First thing off the chopping block was simply getting a job. Can't really do much without any actual personal income, after all. I debated just doing some handyman or repair work initially, but with my talents? I decided to actually start making money off my art.

Surprisingly, when you're one of the greatest artisans in the world, it's not long until people's eyes notice your portfolio and start paying what it's worth. Even landed a stable job as a designer for an indie game company, which is pretty sweet.

Next thing was actually budgeting the money I got. A lifetime of poor spending habits has admittedly resulted in some... less than stellar decision making, but I've managed to figure out a good enough plan for my finances. Enough to get my by at least.

Last thing was officially moving out into the Farm. Guy offered to let me stay there for free, permanently, which makes sense-- considering I've basically renovated the entire place-- but nonetheless, I'm grateful to finally have a place of my 'own' to stay-- and especially a place to work on my designs.

I think I'm finally making a breakthrough on these Trifold Frames I've been sketching out... Should have them all ready in time for the next job.

It took some time, but I finally finished the design of my wings.

Before taking these jobs, the idea of someday soaring through the sky using my own art was only that. A dream in my head. Something I'd never get the opportunity to bring into fruition.

Now? With the resources I have, it's just a matter of finding the right inspiration and sparing the time to work on it.

Adopting a modular design for the wings turned out to be the key for making them as efficient as they are now. I ended up extending the wingspan and size of the design so that it takes up more space-- in exchange, I'm able integrate far feathers into the wings. With over double the amount of feathers, there's much more surface area to channel the user's power. Since of the feathers are perfectly identical, it's even able to repair itself midflight in the event of any damage.

I should have enough to piece together a few of these and offer them to some of the Firm. In fact, it's probably only a matter of time until other people decide to take interest in these...

I've been stretched a little thin over the past month, but that's not to say things haven't been good.

My body seems to be shifting more and more from emerging victorious on these jobs now. I may or may not have accidentally nicked my hands while trying to add spikes on the hide of mythical dinosaur-hide armor for Lanie... but even if it did happen, the cuts ended up mending themselves without any scarring-- so who's to say it happened in the first place?

Speaking of, I also worked on tailoring Lanie a new wardrobe. While I wouldn't say fashion is my area of expertise, I would say I am capable of producing the highest caliber dog suits in the world. I'm able to use the materials I conjure from my blueprints as well now, which makes the process all the more easier. In the end, I offered it all to her pro bono-- the opportunity in it of itself was more than enough for payment this time, and apparently, I had a few more rewards lined up for me...

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[I'll go in depth over doing Offr / interaction with Guy / murder mystery help / town work later]