After teasing Melanie, I decided to give her and all the lab techs, as I've started to think of them, a quick demonstration on how to use a fire extinguisher. Of course, since this involved setting a fire, I had them follow me outside first. And, we picked up the security team on the way too.

"Alright, everyone." I address the crowd. "I want you all to understand that I don't expect you to fight any fires, ever. I'm only showing you this in case you have to one day. Your lives are not replaceable, so I want you to always be thinking about yours and your fellow's safety first and foremost."

"Just get on with the fun already." Apricot jeers, so I aim one of the fire extinguishers at her menacingly. "Go ahead and try it." She responds threateningly.

"Yeah, yeah." I roll my eyes at her and build a simple stone fire pit, my overcharged spark spell has a nice fire going in seconds. "These things are just filled with a powder similar to baking soda. When you pull the safety pin and squeeze the trigger, this powder will spray out like so. You want to sweep the base of the flames to smother the source of the fire."

"You're using... Lemmy's leavener, aren't you?" Melanie asks with a tired sigh.

"And, compressed nitrogen to propel it." I nod. "That's the non-burning part of air for you non-alchemists. Now, who wants to try it themselves?" I copy my now extinguished fire pit a dozen times over.

Apricot doesn't even wait for me to light them on fire; she just wills a blazing fire into existence as soon as I add the firewood. Amelia tried using her new water spell on the fire and just made it worse by decomposing the wood into even more flammable hydrocarbons.

"I told you that it was like liquid fire, Babe." I say while trying not to laugh. "What did you expect was going to happen?"

"Shut up!" She glares at me and engulfs the much-expanded fire in regular water. "I didn't know what would happen, which is why I tried it."

"How scientific." I nod sagely. "And, here comes everyone's favorite fire chief. I had a feeling this little demonstration would draw her out." At least, she's not charging in at a full gallop this time.

"Sorrel." She dismounts and disperses her water horse construct into mist. "Thank you for notifying the guards first this time." She tosses the paper airplane I sent to them earlier back at me.

"Adriana." I nod to her with a smile on my lips. "Care to give it a go?" I draw the powder off of my burnt-out logs and re-ignite them with a thought while holding out a fresh extinguisher. "Or, maybe you would prefer something a little more active." I pull a small glass globe from storage and bounce it in the palm of my hand.

"Is that?" - "You didn't!" - "Gimme!!!" Adriana, Amelia, and Apricot each have a different reaction to my little co2 grenade.

"It is, I did, and wait your turn." I laugh and hold the glass globe up out of the pixie's reach. "That little accident last night made me think of trying the same on purpose. This is just a proof of concept and was a total pain in the ass to make, but I figured they might be fun to play around with."

"Gimme, gimme, gimme." Apricot gave up and trying to jump for it and is now climbing me like a tree.'

"Sure... catch." Right before she reaches the grenade, I lob it towards the bonfire and conjure a large dome-shaped air shield around the area to catch any glass that shoots out.

"Noo!" She cries out as it sails through the air in a high arc. "Ah! Hahahaha. Again, again. No, let me do it this time. Please, please, please." She cackles after the fire was put out in an explosion of foam.

"Alright, Melanie." Eliot says to his fellow alchemist. "I think I understand where you're coming from now."

"Heheheh. Remind me to add a firing range to the gym when I build it." I chuckle wickedly and hand Apricot another grenade. "And, don't go crazy with these; I only made a handful while testing the second compressor."

"I'll take a dozen... to start with." Adriana is as enamored with the grenades as Apricot. "They're a bit dangerous for firefighting, but how can I not want some." She adds with a laugh.

"Sure, just let the mad grenadier get it out of her system and we can head down to the basement." I hold out another carbon dioxide bomb for Apricot, and another, and another. "Last one, Sweetie."

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"Nnh." Apricot whimpers, but chucks it anyway. "I am so glad we met." She states with a contented sigh after the last explosion goes off.

"You goof." I mess up her already messy hair before turning to my people. "Don't worry, I'll let you guys play around with some too. If you all help me show everyone how to use the fire extinguishers later, that is. They're going to be in every apartment, so I want people to know how they work."

"I think that's a fair trade." Cyril and his team all share the same grin. The alchemists are somewhat less enthusiastic, but I can still see the glimmer of excitement in their eyes.

"Mind if I call some people over?" Adriana asks. "I'll definitely be ordering more than a dozen of these. Also... what happened to your guards?"

"Trying out a new spell." I shrug. "And, these extinguishers aren't ready for sale yet, neither are they suited for large fires. But, the more people who know how to use them properly the better, so invite whomever you like." While we've been talking, I've been reclaiming all the spent leavener. I still have plenty left, but 'waste not, want not' is always a good policy to follow.

...

"..." Adriana reacted exactly how I expected her to when we got to the basement and she felt the supercritical water.

"I know the blast shield is there, but it was still really stupid of me to just leave the tank under pressure while unsupervised like that." I chastise myself for getting distracted and leaving a potential bomb in the basement. "Please don't make the same mistake in the future." I say while looking to the alchemists.

"I can assure you that we won't." Melanie says right away. "Especially not after seeing those glass bombs."

"Good because this is a lot more dangerous than those little toys." Orders of magnitude more dangerous. "Now, it looks like Adriana is going to be stuck here at least as long as Amelia was earlier. So, I'm going to go install all the ovens and fire safety stuff. Then, I should probably get started on dinner; this is the last time I'm going to feed everyone though."

...

"Hey." I greet Tess when she answers her door. "How are you settling in?"

"You don't need to keep checking up on me." She replies with a small huff.

"I'm actually here to install the oven." I say with a smirk. "I was just trying to be polite."

"Oh." Her cheeks turn pink, but just for a moment. "About time." Her brash nature takes back over after the short moment of embarrassment fades.

"Yes, I probably should have expected everyone to want to move in right away." I shrug and follow her into the kitchen area. "I've been asking everyone if there's anything they need or any changes they'd like to make. I think I have the basics covered, but I don't know if I'm missing something if no one speaks up."

"Uhm, I would like to change the colors a bit." She says almost shyly. "Everything is a bit bland right now."

"Of course." I bring out a big stack of paint samples. "Just tell me what you want where."

"Uh, this might take a while." She gulps and starts thumbing through the rainbow of colors.

"Take your time." I smile at her. "I'm all done here, but let me show you how things work. I didn't know whether you'd be able to use the enchanted part of the stove, so I used the touch activation rune. I also added an extra-large mana battery and a built-in collector."

"You're putting one of these in every apartment?" She looks between the stove and me incredulously. "I'm starting to think that you turning my life upside-down might be the best thing that ever happened to me."

"I want my people to be happy." I reply with another shrug. "That and I know I'd go nuts if I had to start a fire and warm up the oven just to brew a cup of tea or heat up some leftovers. Now, there's some fire safety stuff too, but I'll be going over that after dinner. Just don't play around with it for now."

"Thank you." She nods. "I'll let you know about the colors later."

"And, anything else you need, alright." I pat her on the shoulder before leaving.

...

"Hello, Arlene, Shea, girls." I smile when Gen's whole family swarms up to the door when they who it is. "How's everyone settling in? I'm just going around hooking up the ovens and checking on everyone to see if they need anything else."

"My own apartment." Christy grumbles under her breath, earning a glare from her mom.

"We have everything we need, thank you, Mister Sorrel." Arlene bows her head to me. Shea, wisely, keeps his silence.

"Well, I have something I need from you." I say as she leads me into the kitchen. "See, I have no idea how you do your job, or even what you'll need to do it. I have some ideas from back home that might help you out, but I haven't had the chance to work on them just yet."

"We just need basins, soap, maybe some washing soda, and water, of course." She answers. "That, and someplace to hang stuff to dry. And, ammonia if you need anything whitened."

"Oh, I think I can do a little better than that." I smile at her, thinking of how she'll react to something like a washing machine or tumble dryer. "And, we will be producing both washing soda and ammonia. No plans for soap, but I'll make some for you the next chance I get."

"If I might ask about the warehouse?" Shea ventures.

"You will have wares to house soon." I reply with a grin. "Aside from a few hundred kilos of soap for your wife, I'll be growing several tonnes of cotton and raw rubber for the weavers and alchemists. And, that's just the start. Oh! Don't play with that little one." I snatch the fire extinguisher away from Jolie, the youngest.

"I'm sowwy." She ducks behind her mother's skirt.

"It's alright; I just didn't want you to make a mess." I crouch down and smile at her until she gets over her nerves. "This is full of a powder meant to stop fires, and if you pushed that lever down it would have sprayed everywhere. I'll explain more after dinner and let everyone know how they work; maybe even let you try one if you promise not to play with this one, that is."

"I pwomise." It's hard not to just pull the cute little thing into a hug, but I manage to hold myself back to just a head pat.

"Good girl." Standing back up, I explain how the enchanted parts of the oven work before taking my leave. "...Oh, and please come to me if there's anything you need. Anything I can actually help you with, that is." I add with a pitying look for Christy

***