26 )
.
Gastovice was so into virtual reality games, he became part of them. It was a real surprise when he could enter and leave them at will, and when he returned, he was in whatever armor or clothing (or lack of them_ that he had in the game.
If he was a muscle bound barbarian when he was in the game, he would be just as muscle bound and just as strong and would deflate till he became who he was. If he was a smaller creature, he would inflate and change to become normal.
In the changes, his clothing became piled where he stood and would reappear with the equipment of the game. He had tried many times to carry the equipment into the game but they just became part of the clothing pile. He had quite a collection. Within the games, he always got the equipment he needed on entering.
Many of his games had become so real that many times they would call on him to solve a problem, fight a battle, give guidance to others. He could never be killed in the games. All effects were gone the instant he returned. He had several sets of badly damaged armor and weapons to show for those events.
Being called by a game does create problems. Reappearing wearing inappropriate clothing was why he was before the judge right now.
The preliminary case was to see what evidence was against him. There was plenty, including pictures. He was caught trying to get dressed again, and having weapons in a place weapons were not allowed. They were going to put him away for a while. The fact that he had his own armory in his house also went against him as such things were supposed to be registered and catabolized as to what exactly he had.
He had told his lawyer all about the games he played and where they were in the games. His lawyer said he was considering using an insanity plea.
The court broke for lunch. He told his lawyer in no uncertain terms that if he was not found in his cell, to have his name called out loudly "Gastovice by and by" and he will return immediately. The lawyer and jailer laughed.
as soon as they turned their backs, Gastovice was called by a game. He was a barbarian warrior and was facing the greatest champion of the empire that was trying to take over his land. Gastovice knew that if he was called back before the battle was over, he would lose his hard earned land.
The jailer came back to the cell and saw Gastovice's clothing on the floor. No Gastovice. A call went out and the area was searched. He was an escaped prisoner. His lawyer was called. He was shocked but surprised when he remembered what Gastovice said.
He went to the court room and was going to announce that his client was gone, but then called out "Gastovice by and by".
Instantly, the door opened and a seven foot all barely dressed barbarian entered the room wielding a sword, carrying a mangled shield. There was no way he could possibly have gotten through security.
The barbarian stopped before the fence and exhaled. He deflated, shrinking, becoming a smaller man who set the sword and shield down and grabbed the loin cloth which had suddenly become too big for him.
The big barbarian had deflated into a barely covered Gastovice. A blanket appeared and a court guard draped him with the blanket to cover his shame and then carry away the weapons.
Gastovice looked to the lawyer, "I beat the imperial champion one moment before I was called back!"
Gastovice was ordered to relocated to a safe location where his games and activities would not cause a problem. His armory was sold to cover court costs and ended up making him wealthy.
Gastovice continued to play his games, but this time in a compound where he grew vegetables and had several people to watch over him. His newly acquired weapons were removed each week and sold to cover expenses.

27 )
.
Gabby was a whole eight years old but he already knew what he wanted to be. He wanted to be a mechanic. He spent his time at the mechanic shop.
Culvert arrived from somewhere else. He started working in the shop of the old mechanic and proved his worth within a month. Culvert took apart a bunch of old machinery and put them together. He would do special dances while shouting out prayers and incantations. He somehow got machinery to work that the old mechanic could never deal with. Culvert had strong magic.
Gabby tried using the incantations and dances and they did not work for him. The old mechanic made him be calm and work slowly, silently, and think out what he did, trying to memorize what went with what. It was frustrating as he wanted to learn the magic that Culvert used.
Try as he might, Gabby could not remember the dances or incantations, or when they were supposed to be done. Culvert would not let him nearby, saying he will mess things up.
Over time, Culvert took over the shop and the old mechanic retired. Culvert took time to teach Gabby how to do things, but would never teach the magic. Culvert never worked while Gabby was nearby. They always worked separately.
Culvert had a fiery temper and could be set off at any time, though he worked hard to control it around Gabby unless Gabby really deserved it.
Gabby finally got a chance to work right with Culvert. He was going to really learn magic. Side by side, they worked. Culvert hit pinched his finger and leaped up and down in the dance, shouting and cussing in pain. A bit later, he could not get a part to fit and started cussing so badly that it hurt Gabby's ears. After some wiggling the part slipped in. He tried a part and found it was the wrong one and started cussing. He hit his hand on a part and started screaming and dancing up and down. He pulled the part out and put it in backwards and it went in fine. After a bit, they got the machine working.
Finally Gabby cornered Culvert during a calm moment. "You mean to say there is no mechanic magic?"
Culvert looked a bit ashamed. "I am surprised you believed in magic. No, there is no magic. I simply have worked on a lot of machines and made replacement parts. I get frustrated, and am a bit clumsy so I end up losing my temper often."
Gabby learned how to work on all the machines and soon was getting machines working that Culvert had difficulty with. Gabby cursed and danced around in a good imitation of Culvert. He really did not have the anger, but found it seemed to help in solving problems, like magic.
He would take over after Culvert retired and would take in children to learn the job. He kept the ones that looked at what he did as magic.

28 )
.
The people were cursed. Every once in a while, a demon got into a child before birth. The demon could influence adults into doing stuff they normally would not do. The parents were immune to the demon, but other adults were not.
The child developed normally and learned normally. They learned what was right or wrong. The demon had the effect of adding a "run response" so the child would run off and go with anybody who was interested. Then the demon would apply its powers on the adult diverting them from normal. If it got far enough, the demon would leave the child and enter the adult and would become a permanent part of the adult. By the time hormones kicked in, the child was permanently free of the demon, but was susceptible to other demons. Parents were immune to their own demon, and had some resistance to other demons. It was common that if a child lost the parents for some reason, a parent already with a demon would be the ones to take the child in. They had to pay attention to the effects of the demon at all times, but could raise it as their own with some safety..
Because of the demon within the child, the parents had to watch over the children themselves, and had to keep them under careful control and watch until they grew out of the demon and became a normal child. If the child died, so did the demon.
If a demon child disappeared. parents would hunt for the child, have everybody else hunt for the child, not for the child's sake, though that could be one concern, but more for some stray adult that might get caught by the demon inside the child. Protect the population at all costs.
.
There is a public service announcement about child abduction and where the mother talks to someone and then realizes her child is gone. I decided to give a different reason for why they would search for the children.

29 )
.
In the drawing program I use, there is a thing called a block were you group a number of drawing elements together so they become one thing. One can double click on a block and it will pop up so one can work inside the block. If one does things like change the default fonts, line colors or line thickness, and then close out the block, when one goes back in it is back to the default settings.
He visited many universes. In some he was like a god, others he was king, wise man, pauper. depending on the rules of the universe. He experimented in many universes, making small and big changes to see the long lasting effects.
At first he was exploring different universes, but slowly started returning to the same ones. He found many universes back where he left them. He made changes and left. He returned sooner and the changes were gone. He had a lot of universes to work with so he did not take time to try to figure out why the changes did not stick.
over time, he narrowed down the universes of interest. He spent time in one of the changing universes and after long periods of time, he stepped out and when he returned it was back to normal. He did see some changes on a different level. The rules changes was what was not staying in place.
One day, he entered one of those universes, changed one rule, remembered he forgot something so came back out, then went back into that universe. The changed rule was returned to the default. He now had time, so he examined the changes of the rules and what had permanent effect. He then did this with a couple other universes. He could permanency cause changes to societies, he could use horticulture methods to change life forms, he could change the landscape to effect the weather, but he could not permanently mess with the laws of those universes, as they would revert once he left. He also saw the effects on societies when he changed the rules. Things they were able to do easily, suddenly became impossible, then became possible again.
He started changing the rules of the universe to do "work" he really wanted done, changing them to make his work easier, then when he left, his work would be on display, permanently done. those works would look utterly impossible to do.

30 )
.
An advertizement for advertizing on a local talk show says that if you advertize on this show, your customers will come to know you, and you will get to know your customers too. then, of course there was the TV show Cheers, where "everybody knew your name."
He was a magician who became a talk show host. He was the best talk show host in his listening area, but his style was not good enough for any position in national radio.
He made good money as he had something that his advertiser liked. For one thing, his listeners visited his advertiser. He turned down more than he accepted so the quality of advertiser were top notch. the other thing had to do with his magic. He cast a spell on his advertiser. when their advertisements went over the air, the listeners learned a little more about the company than the actual advertizement gave. they got an impression of how trustworthy they were. They got an impression of their personality. They got an impression of their business practices.
At first, these were pure impression, back of the mind hints Over time at listening to the advertizing, one got bits and pieces of more information. Long time listeners got impressions of family life and off work activities when they here those that advertized for long times. It was an accumulation of knowledge.
When customers came to the establishment, or the advertizer went to the customer's home, they knew all about the customer. They knew their financial status, their paying habits, likes and dislikes, and of course, they knew their names. These were not stuff that was known well enough to voice, but it was enough to be able to do honest business with the person. Once they actually did business, they remembered all that information. They remembered it even after they stopped advertizing.
The host was well known for his quality advertiser and quality customers. His advertizing style did not work for national advertiser so that was a second reason for only being local.

31 )
.
The hunting party was on a wild planet. By the rules they were hunting by, they were using low power weapons that one had to be very close to the animals to be able to shoot them.
To get the animals close enough, they had to call them using the proper animal calls. As they traveled around, they had varying amounts of success and failures in calling animals. None of them could never quite get the calls right. While the hunters had fun, there was a bit of frustration in that they could not get more animals within range.
One of the hunters named Barry, caught a cold. It was something from the planet so there was no cure or real treatment for it. He had to out last the cold.
They were calling an elk like animal. Each hunter tried their best with the methods they had available. The Elk were keeping their distance from the hunters. It was decided that the elk were too far away so the order went out to be silent and hope for them to wander into range.
Berry was sniffling really bad, his eyes watering and his nose running. Not able to take it any longer, he took out a tissue and started blowing his nose really loud. He was told to keep quiet, but he had to blow so he kept blowing. Soon, elk were bellowing back Within minutes, a dozen male elk were prancing well within range, challenging Berry for his snorts.
Later, they were after an Ostrich like bird. again, their calls seemed to chase the birds away. Berry got gassy and started burping loudly. Quickly the birds came around, calling in response.
Berry had the cold for a week. He was still gassy, but now he was farting quite a bit. He ends up calling a couple moose with his body gasses, and attracted a skunk like creature by the smell.
Time after time, Berry's cold gave him the ability to call different animals that the other hunters had failed in calling. the tone, tenor and duration was just right to call the animals. Because of him, the hunting party ended up having an excellent hunting trip.