If all goes well Nik will be leading the biggest project that the Woods ever had. If everything goes well, every Wood will take part in this project. But still, it's quite nerve-racking, proposing an idea in front of this era's geniuses even if he knows half of them. The last time he saw all of them was when he was 13 and *Bang*
While Nik was in deep thought when he walked straight into a streetlight. Rubbing his head he looked around. He was quite a while away from his house. Thankfully his Aunt Mary's ice-cream shop was a few blocks away. He had his credit card with him and his Aunt's banana cactus flavoured ice-cream is known for calming people down. In fact it's scientifically proven that it calms you down. That's why one person is only allowed one a day or else it becomes a healthy hazard. Like seriously it could stop your heart. It only took a few minutes to arrive at his Aunt's "Creamistry iced" The ice cream store with the most flavours in the world and also probably the only shop that makes it's customers cry an a daily basis, but still get them to return.
The first thing Nik is greeted with when he opens the store is a roulette table. On each part of the wheel there is a different feeling etched into it. Yes, instead of flavours you could get feelings. But as you spin the wheel on the table all the slots gets closed, hiding away what is written on it. You can only know what you got after you ate the ice cream. Nik just so happens to walk in on a couple that bought some feelinged ice cream. Suddenly the man bursted out in tears. The girl laughed at the man.
"Look who got sadness"
Almost immediately thereafter the girl started blushing profusely. After the man saw her blushing he started crying harder.
"I can't believe you got lust and I can't even laugh at you, I'm going to take a video so I can laugh at you later."
The girl ran away...
After that commotion Nik walked to the the counter and ordered a banana cactus flavoured ice-cream and condensed milk and coffee flavoured ice-cream for his little sister when he gets home, since his little brother is out today. The staff opened a thick book that looked like a dictionary and searched banana cactus flavoured ice-cream. He mumbled "line 38 item 106" and then went to the side of the shop where there seemed to be endless and endless racks of ice cream. It usually takes a few minutes for the staff to get the ice cream. Apparently Aunt is upgrading the shop's tech side of things so the employees have to receive the ice cream manually.
Since it was going to take a minute for the employee to find his ice cream he went and sat at the table specifically made for those still deciding what ice cream flavour they were going to pick. In the middle of the table there is a 7 centimeter thick menu of every flavour you could possibly order. The chairs where also all top quality; you had to be careful or else you were going to fall asleep in them. Overall the shop was a bit fancy for a ice cream shop, but everything is top quality with the Woods, there was no place that didn't have an overall upgrade in quality after they touched it.
As Nik was chilling on his chair waiting for his ice cream, when the bane of his life walked by with a trolley of ice cream. He tried to hide, but she saw him.
"Nik? What are you doing under the table? I know my shop is known for it's cleanliness, but I do advise licking the floor, we really don't need another family member with a weird fettish."
The next thing Nik knew, Aunt Mary was picking him up by his hoodie.
"You weren't licking the floor? That's a suprise. How come you are wearing a hoody and a mask? Are you doing something illegal? Don't worry I won't tell anyone, but I think it would be better if you used your face changing mask."
"Aunty I thought you were in Russia"
"I was an hour ago, thankfully your Uncle Ross tweaked the family jets a bit. Poor Uncle Ross, Aunty Lizzy has been abusing him for her public airways, always asking for newer faster planes. He's been overworking himself lately."
"Why are you here now though?"
"My newest series of invention seems to be blowing up. Most of my feelinged ice cream just seems to be bought out overnight, especially the lust one. Who would have thought? Apparently they are a go to for bachelor parties and stripper clubs. In fact I'm especially delivering this batch to Uncle Bill with his strip clubs and all."
Aunt Mary is a strange creation. Her train of thought went like this:
I want to build a ice cream shop with lots of flavours-> build a few experimental facilities-> become a chemist -> build an army of chemists-> overwork them and create a ton of flavours-> use the people around you as taste testing dummies-> create an ice cream shop-> this way nothing can hold me back.
Aunt Mary is probably the only family member with an army of chemist now. Probably. Honestly Nik has no idea, there's just that many of them. In fact he should say probably not, some family members should be in the chemical production department and and chemical engineering department. And poison creation gets it's own department. Anyway.
"O, Nik you should totally try my newest creation. I'm extremely proud of it. It was really hard to make."
Without thinking twice Nik said straight up no.
"Why? I promise it won't taste bad."
"Promise?"
"Promise"
Without another word Aunt Mary picked ap a small box and took out a spoon that she always carries everywhere and stuck a spoon full of ice cream in his mouth. It only took a second before the ice cream was on the floor. Nik's facial expression was priceless, so of course Aunt Mary took a picture. Aunt has a hobby of amassing such pictures.
Giggling Aunt Mary said "I lied"
"Why do I trust you?"
"By the way how do you like my breast milk flavoured ice-cream?"
*Snap* Aunt Mary took another picture and there was a good reason for it. Thankfully there was a bathroom.
After that fiasco, Nik's appreciation for babies was completely on another level and the bane of his life just became a lot more bane. Nik stumbled out the bathroom and onto the chair only to be called by the employee to come fetch his ice cream.
"Anyway I know this is going to be discussed during the meeting, but since you're here I just wanted to ask, Will I like it?"
"If you mean you will like the chemical part of it, yes, you will love it. There's thousands upon thousands of more drugs you could put in your food. In fact there's a whole alchemy class that only focuses on mixing and experimenting with plants to create potions. And if you mean the cooking side of it, there is a chef class, plus a lot more ingredients than the real world. Whether you could mix those two together, that's up to you. The Dad said it's possible, but you'll need a special circumstance to activate a quest with special NPC. Anyway enough chit chat, if you want to know more you can find out at the meeting. Now excuse me while I fetch my ice cream, go home and hopefully never see you again."
Never ceasing to smile, Aunt Mary showed Nik out and waved him goodbye.
"See you at the meeting in like, two and a half hours."
Everything seems to be going great so far. Nik could tell Aunt Mary was extremely excited to go play Bliss Online. She had that smile that could scare away even the toughest of Woods. It's that smile that she showed when she thought of a new disgusting flavour to try on some poor Wood. Recently she got good at hiding it, but even if she tried to hide it, it usually showed when the flavour really did belong in hell. It just served to make her smile ten times scarier.
Nik ordered a lift and went home. He ate his stress relieving ice cream on his way home and just went with the flow of the ice cream. Honestly this ice cream is only one step away from being weed. But it's not, and it's not illegal since it has a weaker effect than weed that was made legal a decade ago. That's all that matters. It gets out of a person's system an hour after eating as well. So just don't go hold a meeting after eating one and you'll be fine. It only took a few minutes to get home via car. As he opened the door his little sister jumps at him.
"I spot an ice cream. Did you buy me one too?"
"Yes just not one like mine."
Nik took out the the container that the ice cream was in and gave it to her. Aunt Mary's ice cream containers is no joke. They could keep ice creams cool for a day or two. His little sister sighed and took the container. Even though she wanted a banana cactus flavoured ice-cream too, it's better than nothing, plus condensed milk and coffee flavoured ice-cream is still delicious. Nik may say little sister and little brother but they are both 16 years old. They are twins. So far Luna and Teo is interested in gaming. Like him they want to pursue a certain game role, but haven't decided yet which roles they want to pursue. No pressure though, a Wood usually find out at around 18, but know in which direction they are going in at around 13 and if all things go well they will join his gaming company.
Nik's branch of the family is really into gaming if you haven't noticed. Nik's father is a programmer. Apparently he met my mother when she was hired as a young pretty programmer. It was a rare sight. She climbed the ranks like no other and my father was surrounded by old dudes at work and she wasn't an old dude, so you know, stuff happened and then mother used him to climb the ranks even faster and then she wanted to leave him, but she realised she loved him and then she didn't leave and then he found out she used him and started doubting him, but soon realised he loved her when he tried to leave her and then they lived happily ever after. What a sweet story. It's a shame it gets shoved down Nik's throat on a daily basis at dinner. Anyway
"Are you and your brother packed yet"
"Yup brother packed before he left"
"Great, we should call a jet and leave in an hour."
Just as Nik said that, Teo came bashing through the door.
"Teo. I didn't know you where here."
"Just arrived, why?"
Nik was clearing his throat and waving his hands. Thankfully Luna got the message. She realised Nik didn't buy another ice cream and slowly shoved the container under a pillow. Teo was known for throwing tantrums when his sister gets something he doesn't and Nik was high. They don't mix well. Nik was doing his best to follow the conversation without laughing or loosing his concentration and Luna was doing her best to look innocent, but sometimes, it gets a bit overwhelming when someone barrages you with questions. It only a minute of Teo's constant attack of his excited questions about Bliss Online before Nik just started saying "mn", "yup", "definitely" When Teo got suspicious, he started asking Luna questions. It wasn't long before her innocent looking expression started to falter.
A tantrum later Nik was buying his little brother an ice cream too.