Parvenu: [5] Son & Heir/Sun & Air

"Before we get too much into the clothes changing thing, maybe we should make sure that Lex can make himself smaller. If he can't, the rest is kinda pointless." Paul cautiously suggested.

"Lex? Do you need my help, or do you think you can do it yourself?" G asked seriously.

"I think I can get it. Do you have any problem with me just aging myself down a few years?" Lex asked cautiously as he loosened the sash on his robe.

"No. That sounds right. Let's just see how you look before we call anything decided." G responded professionally.

"Before anyone says it, this might end up looking a little weird. Hands and feet don't always age down at the same rate as the rest of the body. I'll work on fine tuning once I've settled in on a final form." Lex cautioned them.

"You were a horse a couple minutes ago. I doubt that I'd even notice if your feet were big." Paul said honestly.

"Just do it. I'm about to pass out." G implored his twin.

"I'm going to have to do the long version of the spell. I'm too tired to be able to concentrate on doing it the silent way." Lex said honestly.

"Would it make it easier if I made diagrams for you or something?" Paul cautiously asked.

"No. I've got everything I need." Lex said confidently, then began to cast his spell, careful to enunciate clearly.

* * * * *

"Do you think I could use a spell like that to make myself look older?" Lucky quietly asked Paul as they watched Lex performing the spoken long version of his spell.

"I don't think so. From the way I understand it, Lex can change himself with a spell like this one because his shape was originally defined with sorcery. It probably wouldn't work the same on you. In fact, it probably wouldn't work at all." Paul said slowly as he watched what Lex was doing, trying to make some sense of it.

"The only way it would work is if we encased you in an illusion, then the spell that Lex is using could change how people see you." G said informatively as he also maintained the majority of his attention on what Lex was doing.

"We might try that sometime, just to see how it works out." Paul said with a grin.

"I'd be interested to see if Lucky would be able to cast a high-level sorcery like that." G said honestly.

Before anyone could say anything more, Lex began to shrink.

There was a long moment of silence before Paul finally said, "Okay. That's just freaky."

"Did I get something wrong?" Lex asked with concern, then took on an expression of surprise at the higher pitched, 'younger' sound of his voice.

Paul glanced down at Lex's perfectly normal looking feet for an instant before answering, "No. It's just weird seeing you looking more like G than G does."

"What does that even mean?" G asked curiously.

"Whenever you do something brilliant or really funny, this is the way I see you. This is what's behind your maturity and the image you work to put forward for everyone to see. This is the real you that I love so much." Paul said with a gesture at Lex.

"Yeah. Hang on. Hold that thought." Lex said tursely as he made a quick series of gestures.

Paul stared at Lex's altered appearance but didn't react otherwise.

"Who's that? He looks familiar, but I can't quite place him." G finally asked.

"Can't you guess?" Lex asked playfully.

"I'm about twenty seconds from laying down on that bed right there and letting you get your own stuff ready for school tomorrow." G said frankly.

"You don't have to be crabby about it." Lex said with a sideways glance at G, then continued, "My features are half-way between 'young G' and Lucky."

"So that way you look like a member of the family, but you don't look 'exactly' like any one person?" Paul slowly reasoned.

"That's the plan." Lex confirmed, then cautiously asked, "But how does it look?"

"Why don't you go into the bathroom and see for yourself?" G asked reasonably.

"Because I want to get it as close as I can doing it this way, before I move on to the 'fine tuning' stage. It's easy to get lost in the detail work. If this doesn't work, then I'll scrap it and try something else... maybe I'll try reverse aging Dad... I mean D."

"Just go ahead and call him dad. He's already accepted you." G said simply.

"Take it from one who knows, calling him dad makes him really happy. Holding off until you're sure you're ready will only leave you feeling regret for the time that you wasted." Paul said firmly.

"Lex, if you're waiting for my approval of your disguise, you've got it. As far as I'm concerned, you guys are my Cousin Lex and Cousin Lucky who've come to live with us cause Dad's got money and the schools here are better than what they've got back where you come from... wherever that is." G said seriously.

"I'm from Virginia, if that helps." Lucky quietly contributed.

"I guess that I can be from Virginia, too. I can be from there as easily as being from anywhere else. Anything's got to work better than the truth." Lex said reasonably.

"Can you remember how you did it? I mean, will you be able to change back to Cousin Lex in the morning, or do you need to write it down or something?" Paul asked cautiously.

"G minus four years, then add in half a Lucky. It may take a few times doing it for me to cement the fine details into place, but the basic recipe isn't that hard to remember." Lex said consideringly.

"Good. Then what about clothes? How are we going to handle that?" Paul asked seriously.

"I guess that since I'm this size, I should borrow something of Lucky's." Lex said hesitantly, obviously not thrilled with the resolution.

"If you go back to your full size and put on one of our uniforms, then you could use Lucky's clothes altering spell and size yourself back down." Paul carefully suggested.

Lex thought for a moment, then slowly shook his head as he reluctantly said, "If I did that, then Lucky would be the only one without a uniform. In fact, he'd probably be the only one in the whole school in civilian clothes."

"While that's true, I don't know if there's anything we can do to fix that." G said honestly.

"If it comes down to it, I'll borrow some of Lucky's clothes for tomorrow and we'll both go to school like that until we both have uniforms." Lex said firmly.

Paul turned to G and quietly asked, "Do you think you could make an illusionary uniform?"

"I've never tried, but I'm sure that I could. But there's no way that I could sustain an illusion like that for an entire day. In fact, it would probably fade away as soon as I'm out of their presence." G said seriously.

"Right. But if you could do that, then Lex probably could too." Paul said in a leading tone.

"Do you not remember all that we've just gone through so I wouldn't have to go to school in illusionary clothes?" Lex asked slowly, prompting Paul to explain his reasoning.

"Just hear me out." Paul hurriedly implored, then explained more slowly, "If you can whip up a uniform, then Lucky can probably follow your example and whip one up for himself. Since you did the sorcery and you'll be wearing the clothes, you won't have to worry about them disappearing when you walk away."

"Or, if they do for some reason, at least you'll have some regular clothes on underneath." G added with a slow nod.

"Sounds good. If Lucky will let me borrow something of his to wear, then I can do the sorcery to make my clothes look like a uniform and then Lucky can mimic the spell for himself." Lex slowly reasoned.

"What are the chances that you'll go back to being full size and tear up Lucky's clothes?" Paul asked seriously.

"I'm gonna teach him the clothes changing spell so he won't have to worry about that." Lucky hurriedly announced.

"That's right. You've already done two complete transformations with that spell and your clothes weren't damaged at all." Paul acknowledged.

"Do you want to go ahead and do it so we can see that everything works the way we're expecting it to?" G asked reasonably.

"Are you sure you aren't too sleepy?" Paul asked with a mischievous grin.

"I was saying that I was too sleepy to waste time on guessing games." G said sternly, then added, "And I still am."

"Right." Paul confirmed, then turned and asked, "Lucky, do you have some clothes that Lex can borrow?"

"I don't know where Aunt Beth put my suitcases." Lucky cautiously admitted.

"Should we go check the guest room?" Paul asked uncertainly.

"I don't think she'd put him there. If anything, she'd expect him to stay out here with us. Let's check in the living room before we do anything else." G said slowly.

Paul gave a shrug, then led the procession out of G's bedroom.

* * * * *

"You called it." Paul said as he walked to the suitcases placed beside G's couch.

"It just proves that your mom really gets us. Not only can she predict what decisions we're going to have to face, but she also knows what we're going to decide." G said with a smile at the realization.

"Great. Just what every guy wants to hear." Paul said reluctantly.

"What kind of clothes do you want?" Lucky asked as he moved one of the suitcases to the seat of the couch and proceeded to open it.

"Just whatever you've got to spare, a shirt and some pants, I guess. If everything goes right, no one's going to see it anyway." Lex said uncertainly.

"What are you going to do about underwear, socks and shoes? What about a coat? It's cold out there." G asked with increasing concern.

"It sounded so simple, but Lucky's going to be doing good to have everything he needs. There's no way he should have to worry about completely outfitting me, too." Lex said darkly.

"I've got everything you need, but it's the wrong size." G said as a reminder.

"So you size up, get dressed, cast Lucky's clothes changing spell, then size down and cast your uniform illusion." Paul said thoughtfully, then looked around and asked, "Would that work?"

"I was kinda hoping we could... I mean, I have these shirts and I thought we could do like a 'brother' thing and dress the same." Lucky mumbled uncomfortably.

"We can still do that. I can borrow G's clothes, size down, then put on your shirt before we do our illusions. That way, underneath all the magic, we'll still look like brothers." Lex finished triumphantly.

"You know where the clothes are. Why don't you get what you need while I pick out an anime for us to watch while we're going to sleep?" G asked as he started walking toward the shelving beside the big screen TV.

"Okay. I'm going to get everything but a shirt." Lex said before hurrying away.

* * * * *

"I'm not being silly, am I?" Lucky asked quietly into the silence that followed.

"About what?" Paul asked curiously as he devoted his full attention to his younger cousin.

"Wanting for Lex and me to be the same. I mean, it's kinda stupid." Lucky reluctantly admitted.

"The things people want don't always make sense, but they still want them. The thing is, we don't mind doing a little something extra if it'll make you happy. If Lex wearing your shirt instead of G's will cause you to feel closer to Lex, then all of us are for it." Paul said honestly, then added more quietly, "You and Lex showed up here at the same time. If there's anyone who can help him to feel wanted, needed, and accepted, it's you."

"I wasn't trying to do that. I was just trying to make Lex into the brother that I always wanted." Lucky quietly admitted.

"That's no problem. There's no reason that you both can't get exactly what you want out of this situation." Paul said honestly.

* * * * *

"How does this look?" Lex asked as he walked into the room bare-chested, but otherwise dressed.

"Familiar." G said with a grin.

Lex puzzled over that for a moment, then slowly said, "I have to be this size until Lucky can show me the clothes changing spell."

"I know, but when you ask me 'how do I look?' and you look 'exactly' like me, what am I supposed to say?" G asked reasonably.

"Lucky? Are you ready to teach Lex the spell?" Paul gently asked.

"Yeah!" Lucky immediately responded, then just as suddenly asked Paul, "Will you watch me to be sure that I'm telling him how to do it right?"

"I'll watch, but with as good as your spell has been working, I'm pretty sure that you've mastered it." Paul said confidently.

"What do I do first?" Lex cautiously asked.

"You do it like this." Lucky said, then began to demonstrate a series of complicated gestures as he started speaking the words of the spell.

It was strange to Paul that, even though he already knew the spell, primarily because he was the one who had taught it to Lucky, somehow the spell suddenly seemed 'foreign' and nearly incomprehensible to him.

"Where did you learn a spell like that?" Lex asked with astonishment at the complexity of it.

"Paul taught it to me." Lucky said simply.

"Do you want to go ahead and try it?" Paul cautiously asked, honestly not knowing if Lex had been able to glean enough of the spell to be able to replicate it.

"I don't think I can." Lex said honestly.

"Maybe I didn't do it right. Can you show him?" Lucky asked Paul hopefully.

"Yeah. But later, when we have more time, I'd like to take a good look at your casting of that spell again. There's something different about it, but I'm not quite sure what it is." Paul said cautiously.

"Did Lucky not cast it right?" G asked hesitantly.

"I think he did. In fact, he may have cast it better than I did. It looks like he somehow instinctively broke down the spell and rebuilt it in terms that fit better with his own style of magic." Paul said uncertainly.

"So it won't work?" G hesitantly asked.

"It should work just fine for Lucky. But I'm really not sure if someone else could use it or not." Paul said honestly.

"Paul? Will you show me the spell?" Lex asked hopefully.

"Yeah. I'll go slow. Try to follow along with me as I do it." Paul said before preparing to teach one of the first spells he had ever learned.

"I know how to learn new spells. I've been doing it for years." Lex informed him with a teasing grin.

"Says the guy who's less than a week old." Paul retorted, then before Lex could respond, began going through the long version of the clothes changing spell.

When they were finished, Lex cautiously said, "That wasn't anything like the spell that Lucky was using."

"Actually, from the inside, the way it manipulates forces, it's exactly the same. But as far as the way he casts it, I'm with you. They're completely different." Paul said frankly.

"Let's see if it works." Lex said seriously, then added with a grin, "Going down."

With a few rushed gestures and a quick recitation of the words, Lex was easily able to replicate the spell to make himself look younger and otherwise alter his appearance.

"That answers the question if Lex can do basic magic. The clothes changing spell seems to be working just fine." Paul said as he watched Lex's casting of the spell critically.

"Then I guess it's time for the shirts." G added.

"You don't have to if you don't want to." Lucky said timidly.

"I think it's a great idea. Who knows? Maybe sometime tomorrow we'll have a chance to do some kind of a big sorcery 'reveal' and do some showing off. It'll be even better if we're dressed the same underneath. It'll look like we were planning for it." Lex said happily.

"Let's see if you can get the uniform to look right first." G said frankly.

Lex pulled the red t-shirt on over his head, then said, "Yeah. Let's find out."

"Are you going to need any diagrams or flames or anything?" Paul asked cautiously.

"No. This is mostly about manifesting a predetermined illusionary construct. I don't need any diagrams and I think the flames would probably distract my visualization." Lex said honestly.

"Do you need some time to craft it before you give it a try?" G asked seriously.

"Would you?" Lex challenged.

"No. With all the practice I've had in class with crafting clothing, I think I could probably manage something like this off the top of my head." G said confidently.

"Let's see what I can do. Worst case scenario, I'll have to get an actual uniform out to use as a model." Lex said frankly.

"Go ahead." G encouraged.

"Do you want me to do it with you?" Lucky asked hesitantly.

"Let me try it on my own first and get the bugs worked out. If it goes well, then I can recast it with you." Lex said seriously.

Lucky accepted the answer and waited to see what Lex was going to do.

After a long silent moment, Lex began the definition phase of his spell, which was by far the most detailed and time consuming part of it. Basically, he was describing, in magical terms, every aspect of the uniform that he wanted to appear to be wearing. Not only did he have to convey the size, shape, color, and texture, but also the behavior of the uniform in reaction to his movements.

G watched and listened with interest and nodded a few times in agreement with the choices that Lex made.

At one point, Paul glanced down at Lucky and was surprised to see him enthralled in the spell casting, as though he understood every word of it, even though Paul himself didn't.

G motioned to gain Paul's attention, then gestured toward Lex, indicating that something was about to happen.

Between one second and the next, Lex was festooned in the finery that the students of the Arcadia Academy had come to look upon as normal.

"That looks great!" Lucky enthusiastically exclaimed.

After a moment more to examine Lex's handiwork, G finally said, "It really is excellent. I doubt that I could do better myself."

"And since G's the sorcerer that was chosen for the work study program, you know that he's the best." Paul said seriously, just in case anyone didn't get what a compliment that really was.

"What do you think, Lucky? Do you want to give it a try?" Lex asked curiously.

"Let me see if I can do it myself, first." Lucky said slowly, obviously not completely secure in his decision.

"Yeah. Go ahead. Show us what you can do." Lex finally said encouragingly.

Lucky started with a hand sign that Lex definitely had not used. He held it for a long moment as he seemed to collect his thoughts.

The others remained still and silent, so as not to distract Lucky from what he was attempting to do.

As Lucky began to cast his spell, Paul looked to G and Lex to see if they showed any signs of comprehending what Lucky was doing.

"That's not sorcery." G said quietly, in response to Paul's inquisitive look.

"It's not wizardry either." Paul said to confirm what his companions already knew.

"But what is it?" Lex finally asked.

"I think it's Lucky's interpretation of your spell. When you do it, one plus one equals two. When Lucky does it, seven plus negative five equals two. He gets the same answer, but he takes a different path to get there." Paul carefully explained.

"Except that G and I use one plus one apples while Lucky is using the arctangent of zebras times grapefruits. He's not just restating the spell, he's approaching it from a completely different framework. There is nothing here that I recognize." Lex fought to explain.

"Let's just make sure that Lucky gets every chance to learn what he can do with the ability he naturally has. Don't try to make him be like everyone else." Paul implored his brothers to understand.

"How's this?" Lucky asked as he turned to show off his school uniform.

"You three kinda make me wish I could do sorcery." Paul said frankly.

"Do you mean that with all your alchemy and plotters and stuff, that you can't make a uniform for yourself?" G asked teasingly.

"It looks great, Lucky. I'll let the two masters of sorcery critique it, but just looking at it as a regular person, I'd never know that it wasn't real." Paul said seriously.

"Paul's right. It looks good." G hurried to confirm, then continued more slowly, "But I'd still like to take a closer look at it, just to make sure that there isn't a seam showing or a blurry button that needs to be fixed before we say that it's completely done."

"Look at mine, while you're at it. I think it's pretty good, but since I'm wearing it I can't see it from every angle." Lex said seriously.

"Yeah. Just give me a minute." G said as he focused on the fine details of Lucky's uniform.

Paul made a gesture before reaching through a portal hanging in the air and putting his hand inside it, up to his elbow.

He kept watch on what the others were doing while he searched for the book that he wanted. Once he had it in hand, his attention was completely on the table of values in his textbook.

"What are you looking at?" Lucky asked curiously, when he noticed.

"I was just thinking that if I could plot the volume of a cylinder as a starting point, I could use alchemy to give it weight and my wizard's light tricks to get the colors right." Paul said thoughtfully.

"I was just joking." G said flatly.

"So was I." Paul said simply, then continued, "Now I'm not."

"Do you really think you can do it?" Lex asked cautiously.

"Let's find out." Paul said as he closed the textbook and put it back in his locker.

"Can I do it with you?" Lucky asked hopefully.

"I don't know how it's going to turn out, but you can follow along if you want to." Paul said casually.

"Just a second." Lucky said as he quickly dispelled the illusion that he had just created.

Paul waited a moment, and once he was sure that Lucky was prepared, he began to slowly and carefully go through his casting of the spell.

Although he didn't exaggerate his movements, he did make them purposefully and distinctly, so there was less of a possibility that Lucky would misinterpret what he was doing.

Likewise, he did the long-form spoken version of his improvised spell, carefully enunciating every word clearly and correctly so that Lucky could follow.

To his credit, Lucky maintained the cadence and precision of the spell he had never heard or seen before.

Lex and G watched intently, unable to decipher the majority of what Paul and Lucky were attempting to manifest.

After a certain point, a smile found its way onto Paul's face as his casting seemed to become more casual and easy going.

"Hey, that's the clothes changing spell!" Lex announced when he recognized it as a component part of Paul's greater spell.

"So you're doing the rough creation of the uniform by plotting intersecting cylinders, then deforming the cylinders using the clothes changing spell to conform it to your body." G slowly reasoned.

As G was saying the words, both Paul and Lucky were suddenly wearing something that looked very much like school uniforms.

"It's going to need some detail work, but it's actually better than I expected for a first try." Paul said honestly.

"Try this." Lucky said, then began a spell all his own.

Paul hurried to follow Lucky's lead, before the boy could get too far ahead of him in the spell casting.

"I can't even guess at what Lucky's trying to do." G said honestly.

"I've got an idea, but we'll have to wait till he's done to see if I'm right." Lex said slowly, carefully watching every move of what Paul and Lucky were doing.

"Do you think you could do Paul's spell?" G asked curiously.

"Not if he's using alchemy. I don't have any talent for that." Lex said frankly.

"I don't have a talent for alchemy. That doesn't necessarily mean that you don't either." G said seriously.

"I guess you're right. Even though I look like you, I'm not an identical copy. There's no reason that I couldn't have my own distinct magical abilities." Lex reluctantly agreed.

"How's that?" Lucky asked as soon as he finished his casting.

"I... I don't know what you just did." Paul said honestly.

"Whatever it is, it fixed all the janky parts of your uniform. It looks real now. I don't think I could tell it from a regular uniform." G said seriously.

Paul looked down at himself, then at Lucky and asked, "What did you just do?"

"I cast the illusion on top of the alchemy plotter spell." Lucky said simply.

"How... I'm not a sorcerer. I can't do illusions." Paul said disjointedly as he fought to understand what they had just done.

"It must be Lucky's reinterpretation of my spell." Lex said slowly, obviously uncertain if he was missing something in what he had witnessed.

"Do you think you could cast that spell again?" G asked curiously.

"I know that I couldn't. Not without Lucky guiding me through it." Paul said seriously.

"So you can't bring the spell up on one of your stone walls?" G cautiously asked.

"No. Not one word of it stuck in my head. It's like listening to someone speaking a completely foreign language. I can parrot along behind him, especially if he goes slow for me, but I can't remember words that I don't understand the meaning of." Paul said slowly.

"No matter how you look at it, Lex and Lucky both have adequate uniforms for tomorrow. Lex can use sorcery to create an illusion that should get him through just about anything." G said seriously.

"Yeah. And Lucky can use alchemy, sorcery or a combination of both to make his uniform." Paul said with a smile down at his younger cousin.

"Right. So is there any reason that we aren't watching anime and settling in for sleep right now? I feel like I'm about to die." G asked firmly.

"What do you think, guys? Are you both ready for tomorrow?" Paul asked curiously.

"I feel pretty good about the uniform. I can't say that I'm looking forward to Dr. Williams evaluating me." Lex said frankly.

"The evaluation isn't my fondest memory of my time at this school, but it wasn't too bad." Paul said honestly, then thought to add, "At least I can see the point of it. It's not some stupid thing you have to do for no reason. They really do need to know about your magic, your nature and your control before they start trying to teach you things."

"Besides, Dr. Williams already knows who and what you are. He's probably going to be one of the easiest people to talk to because you won't have to hide anything from him about your origin or explain things that you can't be honest about." G said frankly.

"What should I do about Corabeth?" Lex asked nervously.

"Tell her the truth." G said simply.

Paul nodded, then said, "She's totally into you. If you explain that you can't be you at school. That G's twin brother, who no one ever heard of before, can't just suddenly appear out of nowhere. I'm sure she'll understand. Corabeth's cool like that."

"You can still be yourself when it's just the two of you together." G said simply.

"And that gives you another reason to spend time alone with each other... I'm thinking that's probably a good thing." Paul finished with a grin.

"Does anyone have anything against vampire movies?" G asked as he looked at his selection of anime videos.

"Is it very gory?" Paul asked cautiously.

"No. It's just a little creepy. It's actually the story of a vampire princess." G said happily.

"That should make for some interesting dreams." Paul chuckled as he settled into his usual place on the couch.

"Is it okay if Zah Zah watches it with us?" Lucky asked hopefully.

"Sure. Did you leave her in the bedroom?" Paul asked curiously.

"No. I undid her when I changed into a Pegasus." Lucky casually explained.

"Why don't you go ahead and take your shower and get ready for bed now? When you get back in here, you can summon Zah Zah to watch the video with you." G suggested.

"Do you want to go with me, Lex? It'll be faster if we go together." Lucky asked hopefully.

"Sure. I guess." Lex said uncertainly as he looked to Paul and G for guidance.

"If you're wanting to wear your red shirts tomorrow, be sure to hang them up straight so they won't be wrinkled." G cautioned them.

"Have fun." Paul added with a grin.

"Lex, are you going to need any pajamas before you go in?" G thought to ask.

"Maybe having an always clothed form wasn't so bad after all." Lex grumbled.

"If you think about it, that was part of you not being 'real'. Having to put up with bathing and choosing what to wear is worth it, isn't it?" Paul asked, obviously rhetorically.

"Or, I could sleep as a unicorn, then I wouldn't need to worry about showering or clothes at all." Lex said with a smile at the thought.

"Yeah, you could graze in the back yard and we could feed you carrots when we're done with school for the day. You wouldn't have a single care in the world." Paul said in a leading tone.

"Yeah... No. I really do want to be a person." Lex said decisively.

"You know where I keep everything. Take whatever you need." G said seriously, then thought to add, "If you get done before we do, we'll be using Paul's bathroom to get ready. Just relax in front of the TV and we'll start the video as soon as everyone's ready."

* * * * *

While Paul and G did have some fun in the shower, it wasn't anything too intense or too time consuming.

As they walked into the living room of G's suite, they found Lex, Lucky and Zah Zah sitting together in front of the television, fast asleep.

"Even asleep, Zah Zah looks creepy as hell." G said frankly.

"Yeah. Um... I don't think hell had anything to do with it. This one's all on Lucky." Paul said in hell's defense.

"How can something that's not alive even sleep?" G slowly asked.

"I'm pretty sure that no matter what answer we come up with for that, it's not going to make us sleep any better." Paul said honestly.

"Right. I'm definitely too tired to worry about it." G said as he placed a DVD in the player.

"Is your alarm set?" Paul thought to ask.

"Of course. But it probably wouldn't hurt if you set yours, too. Waking up in the morning might be a little rough." G said as he joined Paul on the couch.

"Yeah. And the Wudewas are a little fuzzy." Paul said before snuggling into G's shoulder.

To Be Continued...

Editor's notes:

Wow! That was just plain one of the best chapters ever!

You can see that each of the boys has his own skills and abilities, and they can each adapt their own unique talents and knowledge to wind their way around all sorts of totally impossible outcomes.

If you add to that, the fact that when they have finished, the result is much better than what any one of them could have done alone.

They really are a family!

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher