"Every so often, I get a bright idea. Occasionally those ideas turn out to be not shit." – Kurt.

"I just love mornings like this." Val said from where she was sitting on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket. She was drinking her coffee and looking out the windows at the slowly brightening, snow filled sky. They had a minor storm the previous night and it had slightly abated to only some heavy snow by morning, thankfully without much wind.

Anna, who was sitting at the other end of the couch looked over. "What do you love about them."

"Probably that she gets to wake up to fresh coffee and sit on the couch next to the warm fireplace while I made the coffee and am stoking the wood stove for her?" Kurt guessed from where he was carefully placing a few more logs on the pile of embers before shutting the doors and adjusting the draft.

"Well, duh." Val said with a chuckle. "And you somehow manage to barely complain about it."

Kurt grumbled a little as he swept up the little mess he made from bits of wood and ash from filling the stove while Anna still seemed confused. "You could easily do all these things. Why does he always do them?"

Kristi was sitting in the armchair opposite Val but still close to the fireplace. "It's because he loves us and we don't want to step on his toes." She smiled as Kurt came closer and leaned in to give her a kiss.

"Damn right." He said after straightening up. "I'm going to go grab the mail from the past few days and bring in another load of firewood before I make breakfast."

He slipped into his boots and walked out to the garage where he hopped in his car. He wasn't adverse to walking down to his mailbox but taking his SUV had a one hundred percent increase in personal comfort. He was also glad he made the choice as the garage door came up to reveal nearly a foot of snow on the ground, just enough to be deeper than his boots were tall.

Kurt decided that he would wait until later in the day to take care of the driveway and continued down to his mailbox. As he pulled out onto the road, he saw some lights through the trees and figured it was his neighbor out in his little ATV

He pulled up alongside his mailbox and quickly brought everything into the cab of his car before rolling up the window to keep the snow out. There were a lot of envelopes and a couple small boxes that had accumulated over the past few days since he last checked. It wasn't until after he had closed the window that he noticed the lights from his neighbor's vehicle hadn't moved.

Out of an abundance of caution, Kurt drove on over, careful to stay in the middle of the road to avoid the ditch to either side. He didn't mind winter driving but hated the guessing game of where the road ended, and the shoulder began.

As Kurt pulled around the slight bend in the road, he found his neighbor in the very problem he wished to avoid. He pulled up alongside and hopped out, ignoring the snow overtop his boots.

"Bob!" He called while shielding his eyes from the little ATV's lights. "You need a hand out here?"

A window in the enclosed cab slid down and an older man stuck his head out. "Kurt?" He asked as he turned off his high beams. "The hell are you doing out in weather like this?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Kurt said as he came along side, using his body to keep the worst of the falling snow out of the old farmer's ATV.

"Ah, hell. The storm took down a tree last night and the fence went with it. I got that hole patched but wanted to run the property line to look for more before the cows find them." Bob explained. "I was using the spotlight to try and see the wire but wasn't watching the road."

Kurt looked around the short bed of the ATV and saw the back wheels off the ground as the rear differential was high centered on the bank. The front wheels had been setting on enough slick ice that there wasn't any traction to pull him out.

"Hang on. I got straps in my truck, I will give you a pull." Kurt said and quickly got the tow straps hooked up and the little ATV unstuck.

Once he was out of the ditch, Bob shut the engine off and walked over as Kurt unhooked the straps. "Thank you, Kurt. I was in a right spot until you came along. Weather like this makes me wish we had followed our kids out to Arizona." He sighed and kicked some of the muddy ice buildup off his wheel well.

"Ah not a problem." Kurt said. "Happy to help and all. Hey, let me give you my phone number now that I have one. It's been a while, how's the missus and the farm doing?" He asked while retrieving a pen and paper from his car.

"Oh, Betty is good. Had a little scare a while back with her heart but she's ok now."

"Her heart? What happened?" Kurt asked while handing over his phone number. He had met Betty a couple times and had found her to be the sweetest old lady he ever met. Peak grandma energy in his opinion.

Bob took the paper and stuffed it in his pocket. "It was one of the valves in her heart. We went to a specialist down in Grand Rapids and he did some magical mumbo-jumbo. Next thing you know, she's up and walking around like nothing was ever wrong. Course she can't be as active as she used to and things are left to me." He waved his hand at the tree line.

"Anything I can help with?" Kurt offered.

"Not unless you want to buy a few dozen acres off me." Bob said with a wry laugh. "That will help with the ole workload."

Kurt shrugged. "Sure, how much?" He wouldn't say no to a little extra land that was officially his.

Stunned for a second, Bob just stared at him. "You aren't serious?"

"Course I am. I have a job that pays very well now, and I wouldn't mind assuring I have a nice quiet home." Kurt admitted he was buying the property as a buffer. He didn't like the idea of having neighbors possibly being right on top of him at some point in the future.

"W-w-well I-I don't know." Bob said after a few moments.

Kurt nodded and smiled. "Not a problem. You just think about it. If you want to part with some land or even all of it, just let me know and tell me what you think is a fair price. You got my number if you ever want to chat or need a hand around the farm too." Kurt said and offered his hand to the man for a shake.

Bob took his offered hand. "Yeah, I think I will go see what Betty thinks." He said, clearly now having things on his mind with Kurt's offer. "Thanks again for the help."

Waving, Kurt climbed back into his car and reversed his way back down the road until he could pull into the drive. He stopped to collect some more wood after parking, then kicked off his now snow covered, and snow filled boots in the breezeway.

"Where were you?" Val asked after he dropped the mail on the counter. "We were getting desperate, and I had to make the second pot of coffee myself and Kristi was nearly going to start thinking about making breakfast." She teased as he dropped off the firewood in the stand near the stove.

"Ah my neighbor got his gator stuck and I helped him out." Kurt answered. "Hand on, let me get out of my wet pants and into dry ones." He then walked back to the bedroom and changed.

"I didn't know we had a neighbor." Val commented after he got back and pulled out breakfast ingredients while getting pans heating on the stove.

"Yup, older couple owns the farm around the corner. This property butts up to theirs on the north side." Kurt answered while getting diced peppers and onion sauteing in a pan. He was planning on breakfast burritos that morning.

"Oh, well that's nice." Val commented as she came to help with the hash browns and bacon.

"It might be." Kurt said. "I kinda offered to buy this parcel next to us. The one with the open fields. I would let it grow in a bit, so we have some more buffer space on that side since we have state land behind us and don't need to worry there."

"That would be nice." Kristi said from where she and Anna sat in the living room. "What are your plans for today, though?"

"Enchanting. How about you guys?"

"We are helping Anna and Penny move into their new place and taking them furniture shopping." Kristi said.

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"Figured we could go see if Dan can give us the hook up again." Val said. "We must have made him a decent commission by this point."

"Probably." Kurt said with a laugh. "See if Kristi wants to get some stuff for her game room and if you think of anything for that other guest room in the basement. I would like to get that finished at some point so we can start deciding on furnishings."

That got Kurt a kiss on the cheek and a promise to make sure Kristi was taken care of. They finished cooking, ate and then parted ways as the girls went to find Penny. Kurt went down to his basement and unlocked his vault to begin work on his long list of projects he wanted to finish. He was once again thankful that his work location was his home, and his work duties were pretty much whatever he wanted when not in a rift or on a mission.

*****

Kurt had decided on armor first, given how insistent his girlfriends were on the subject. The problem was that he didn't know what he wanted to do with the armor, which was why he was working on something else while wearing a set of standard Order armor.

The armor was composed of a fabric covered metal from what Kurt could tell. There was a sort of segmentation on the abdominal section with a couple of overlapping plates under the upper portion that allowed some flexibility. All of it was in a light brown carrier that was used as a base and used in conjunction with camouflaged pouches and green fatigues to resemble an adequate camo pattern. In short, it looked like shit.

There was the breastplate and gorget, also connected was the back plate via a wide, armored strap on the shoulders with a couple buckles on the torso. Then came the matching upper arm and leg armor. Both of which were also segmented at the shoulder and hips to allow for a greater range of motion. The lower portion of the armor was also tied to a sort of armored skirt that connected to the chest armor.

He had read the manual on the armor, originally to see how to put it on then to check the spec sheet. It turned out to be pretty decent stuff all things considered. Apparently, the torso armor could stop some armor piercing ammunition but not as much as a modern SAPI plate. He also found that the cover was removable along with the padding, which was going to help when he decided to enchant it all.

While Kurt was wearing the armor, he was working on a little experimentation project under the magnifying glass. Held in a very small, padded vice was a small, thin lozenge shaped piece of surgical grade titanium. It turns out that almost any metal can be ordered online at nearly any level of finish and in any shape one could ask for.

He was currently inscribing a series of runes into both surfaces of the oblong bit of metal and having an absolute field day with his tiny tools. He was finally using his micro gouges which allowed him to carve hair-thin lines in the material. It would also be his first experiment with encrypted enchantments and later his metal plating setup.

What Kurt was making could only be described as a telepathic communication device. The plan was for each of the devices to be able to let the user talk with others telepathically in a short range. He was also building an encryption into the enchantment that made his the 'master' version which would allow him to add or drop additional devices into what would become the network.

One side of the device was completely smooth, polished to a mirror shine after the gold was plated into the carvings. The other side actually had a couple small prongs that were razor sharp. The smooth, outward facing side, was the send and receive part to talk to other devices. The inside was the transfer and interpret side that let the user interface with it.

The reason the device was so small and shaped that way was because it was going to be implanted into the user. It would rest directly against the skull, just above and behind the ear, under the temporalis muscle. The muscles there were thick enough that it would conceal the slight bump, and it wouldn't interfere with using the device.

Kurt had gotten the idea for the device from the guild and how they implanted magical items in the prisoners they held. He had gotten the idea of how to implant it from Jay and how he had removed the guild devices from the prisoners. He just hoped that it wouldn't be too painful to put these in, assuming the demon could actually do it.

After a couple hours, Kurt had finished the three items and checked to make sure they all worked like they should with his inspection lens. He would need the girls' help to actually test them before he went to Jay to ask about implanting them. It wouldn't make sense if they only had a range of fifty yards when they could use other, less intrusive, means to communicate.

Casting a cleaning and sterilization spell, Kurt put each of the small chips into their own container to await experimenting. Then he moved on to the next thing he wanted to work on, his armor. He quickly took it all off and piled it on the bench while he went and pulled out one of his latest purchases.

Val had been very curious as to why he ordered a sewing machine and even more curious as to why he put it in his workshop. The thing she hadn't seen, given that Kurt had only just received that morning, was the silver 'thread' that he was going to run through it.

He had gotten the idea while reading one of the books Jay had liberated from the guild. It was a notebook from someone who had been experimenting with ways to enchant clothing and if it was practical to do. Naturally whoever made the notebook didn't have access to fine metallic thread and a sewing machine but did make a few observations on the possibilities.

Kurt was aiming for two primary functions for enchanted clothes. The first was durability where he hoped not to ruin so many sets of uniforms when on missions or in rifts. That also played into some potential for armor depending on how durable it was. The second thing was cleaning, he wanted to enchant the clothing to rarely need washing because it resisted getting dirty.

Pulling out the sewing machine, Kurt consulted his notes and the instruction booklet. He made the proper adjustments and set the stitch pattern he wanted to use. He then got out one of the uniform tops he had and flipped it over to show the back of the collar which he inverted to show the underside.

With a wax pen, he began drawing the enchants he wanted, using the slightly weaker line versions he had developed. He was limited in space and figured those would work just as well for testing. After finishing the enchantment outlines, Kurt made a few practice passes on some scrap fabric, making sure he could do the turns and that the machine ran well with the nonstandard thread.

After everything was set, he began to sew his first pattern. He found that it was a little harder than with the smaller test piece he used since he had to turn the entire uniform top. It also became apparent that he would need a lot more silver thread if he was going to do a lot of this. The machine used a massive amount of the stuff, and he only had a few bobbins of it to experiment with.

Soon he had finished with his durability enchantment and cut the thread to begin his cleanliness enchantment. This one was going to be a little more specific and the stitching even more cramped. He wanted this enchant to keep off a long list of contaminants which made it necessary to make sure all his bases were covered.

Kurt had woven into the enchantment a few things that were meant to repel things that were not part of the fabric. That meant he had been specific enough to block out any dirt, dust, mud and such but also vague enough to block any liquid except for water. He wanted the clothing to shed water like a duck but not to the point that it wouldn't blend in a wet environment. So, the enchant for water only applied to the interior of the garment, allowing the exterior surface to dampen slightly.

When he was finished, he made the same stitching into the waistband of some combat pants before putting them on his enchanting plate and activating them. It took a decent amount of power to do but he had been expecting that. In the end, he couldn't tell if there was anything different about them and folded them up for later testing.

Next Kurt moved to the armor, pulling the metal plates out of their fabric carriers. His initial thoughts were that it was rather comfortable and well-designed while being moderately lightweight. Still, there had been some issues with mobility, like with any hard armor. He examined the plates of metal, once more grabbing the spec sheet that it came with and looking down the list to see what it was made of.

These plates were made from a steel alloy that had a rather high hardness compared to most medieval and renaissance era armor. They were also completely bare, not a scrap of coating or wrapping around them. Whoever made these plates made no consideration for the wearer other than shape.

"Well, this won't due." Kurt muttered as he flipped through his grimoire. "God forbid you get hit by a bullet. Nothing like getting a face full of shrapnel and spalling."

He quickly found an enchanting formula that he could adapt to capture the projectiles and any fragments. That would be one of the several enchantments that he placed upon the armor plates. He also wanted to add an enchantment to harden the plates when struck which he would pair with one that made the metal more bendy. The counteracting enchantments would balance each other out and hopefully make a flexible and protective armor.

Using scrap paper, Kurt outlined his enchantment that he wanted to carve. It would be all three of those in a series of concentric rings with the flexibility enchantment in the center and the hardening enchantment in the middle. That arrangement would allow the best flow and transfer of energy between all three enchants which had to work in conjunction.

The good news was that it was easy for Kurt to carve and inlay each of the runic circles. The bad news was that he had to do it on eighteen separate plates for each set of armor. It was an exhausting and repetitive process only made bearable by the face he could activate the entire set at the same time.

After completing the enchanting and halfway through putting away his tools, Kurt had a strange thought. He had been unhooking his batteries from the enchanting plate and putting it away when his eyes landed upon the back plate.

The way the armor was shaped left a little extra room in the small of the back where nothing made direct contact with the body. He then looked at the battery in his hand, then back to the armor panel. "Oh yeah. This is going to happen." He said and quickly finished putting things away his tools then reassembling the armor.

He made a quick note in his grimoire about the idea before locking that away. He was going to test this armor and uniform before he did anything else to it. No reason to invest a massive amount of resources into something before he knew it worked how he wanted it too was his opinion.

Kurt stored the armor and uniform in his ring before heading out into the lower living room where he saw Kristi and Val. They were snuggled up on the couch, entwined with each other while a movie played on the screen.

"Hey. How did it go today?" Kurt asked and sat down on the ottoman across from them. He hadn't seen or heard from either of them since they left to help Anna and Penny that morning.

"Oh, it went well." Val said in a murmured tone. She then leaned in to give Kristi a kiss before pulling away to look at him.

"Hmm. Better than expected to be honest." Kristi said with a satisfied hum. "They were able to get all the furniture today since everything they picked happened to be in stock."

"How did it go with moving Penny?"

"Fine, her apartment was so small, and it was actually furnished except for the bed. That one we had to carry out, but it was a quick process." Kristi answered again.

Val sat up and leaned in to wrap her arms around Kurt. "So, you know what that means?" She asked.

"Not in this context?" Kurt questioned back.

Leaning in, Val whispered in his ear. "It means we have the whole house to ourselves again and we should take advantage of that… in the whole house."

Suddenly, Val was naked and running her hands under his shirt. He then felt another pair of hands reach around Val to begin petting at his arms. "Well, let's take advantage of this sudden development then." Kurt laughed and stored his own clothes in his ring, joining his girlfriends on the couch. His testing could wait for another day.

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