Genie Out (Patreon)

People don't appreciate the effort that goes into altering reality. It's heavy work and takes a lot more time than anyone expects it to. "Just like magic" sounds nice when you are not the one doing the magicing. This wasn't a simple "win the lottery" alteration. Chance is magic to begin with. Nor was it a miraculous healing. That's just moving atoms. This required tracing back in time, finding decision points and following them forward. Lots and lots of dead ends. An infinite number, in fact. The real miracle here was finding a key event in such a short time. But now, just shy of four hours reality time, his work was done.

Now Mason had a chance meeting with Jaxtyn in middle school. They started to skate together, smoke weed, skip school. He got busted shoplifting a few times, which was the originating event for his parent's divorce. He never went on to high school. No one tried to convince him to. He managed to get a job for a local delivery company, which made him enough money to move out of his mother's apartment to "live his life as he wanted".

As the genie left Mason, having done some finishing touches on his body, Mason was left hotboxing in his car, tired after hauling supplies all night. He wasn't sure he liked being an essential worker, oblivious to the fact his wish to "get out of this fucking lockdown" had been granted.