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Story: Cosmo

Hawk held up his hands. “You’re all very confusing. And… Don’t talk. One at a time. Cosmo, you start. I do know what cars are.”

“Oh fuck.” Cosmo stared at his brothers. He didn’t even know how to process someone whose life experience ended with “I know what cars are”. “Maybe we should start with supper.”

Corbin nodded. “That’s smart. Let’s start with supper. Then I think we’re going to have to have show-and-tell.”

Cullen tilted his head. “Do they have a last hundred-year wrap-up thing on the History Channel?”

“Do we get the History Channel?” Cosmo wasn’t sure…

“We can get a free two-week subscription. Surely he can learn everything he needs to know in that time.”

Cosmo thought Corbin had a great idea. However, he was going to hold off on getting anybody the last anything game until they figured this whole thing out, because surely this was sort of like introducing scary frogs to Australia.

Or possibly like introducing dragons into the Land of Summer.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it caused so many problems.

Cullen shook his head. “Roast and potatoes and I made Yorkshire puddings.”

“Yum.” Cosmo winked at Hawk. “Do you know what those are?”

Hawk drew himself up with mock pride, he thought. “I do indeed. They are the perfect vehicle for gravy.”

They all sat, and he was super proud of Corbin when he handed the knife to Hawk to carve.

Hawk beamed. “Thank you, Corbin.” He carved perfect slices of roast beef, and Cosmo thought everyone was impressed. “Now, explain to me video games.”

“Okay…this is a challenge. Let’s see.” Cosmo frowned. “So, they’re like movies and games all smooshed together.”

Cullen nodded. “And you get to tell the people in the game what to do, but it’s all done in the computer, so you can only do what you can do. Like you can invent stuff, but you’re playing a game.”

Hawk tilted his head. “What kind of game?”

Corbin held his hands open wide. “Man, there are millions of them. All sorts. Puzzles, strategy, first-person shooters. Time management. Old-school. Driving. All sorts.”

“And people like them?”

Cosmo nodded to his lover. “Yeah, they’re fun. And some of them can even be challenging, but for the most part, they’re just fun. You can do them together. You can do them separately. It’s very social.”

Hawk pursed his lips. “And you’re worried about dragon magic manifesting these fake things into reality?”

“Yes. Yes, exactly.”

Hawk really was incredibly smart for all of the things he didn’t know.

“Well, I can tell you that manifestation magic takes an enormous amount of energy. But I’ve never seen anyone manifest something into reality that wasn’t already, well, in reality.” Hawk pulled at his sweater. “This I manifested. I needed clothes. But clothes exist in this realm as a physical thing. I cannot manifest passion. I cannot manifest time. If you have the ability to manifest things, which many of us on the Lunastra can, in my experience, the only things that can be manifested are things that are in reality.”

Cosmo stopped for a second. “But guns are real. So, they could manifest guns.”

“Yes, if they wanted to,” Hawk concurred. “There’s precious little need for them, though. We heal from guns, and we manifest food and grow food so we don’t need to hunt for food.”

“Same with cars. Huh?” Corbin sounded so serious, eyebrows knitted. “I think, that the kids need to be very careful with the video games, Cosmo, don’t you?”

“I think that’s… I think.” He closed his eyes, and he thought about it, hoping that some sort of a vision would come and tell them exactly what to say.

But it didn’t.

“I think that their parents have to make this decision, but I think that we need to speak to them. And it is up to us whether we provide anything new.”