Colby yawned, still exhausted—more mentally than physically—from yesterday’s events. Even watching paint dry would’ve been better. His Core was still sore, and he couldn’t reliably form a new Core Construct, at least not for the next couple of hours, so he decided to test out the brining power of Cheesecuzzi.

  Inside his Core, he found the mobile Core Constructs and Cheese Press still inside of Cheesecuzzi, snoozing away as they enjoyed the relaxing hot tub.

  Colby sighed and walked up to them, clearing his throat.

  “Five more minutes,” Cheese Bowl signed.

  He was not wasting any more time.

  Doing something he thought he would never have to do again, Colby walked to The Cheesetastic Fridge and grabbed an ice tray. He was going for the classic bucket of cold water trick, but he didn’t have the patience or the bucket for the ice to melt. So, he flipped the ice tray over them—except Cheese Press, because Colby didn’t want to further sour their relationship.

  The result was just as expected. It was like having small little rocks dropped on your face.

  Cheese Bowl, Cheese-lander, and Curd-Cutter shot awake. They raised their limbs, taking a fighting stance.

  When they realized the attacker was him, they lowered their arms for a split second before raising them again at him. Cheese Bowl and Cheese-lander started swinging their arms at him, while Curd-Cutter rubbed his string-limbs together, producing a fight theme for the occasion.

  Pottingham went back to sleep while Temp-tation glared at Colby. She crossed her limbs and pouted.

  Cheese Press trembled—or was it the water jets shaking him—afraid of garnering Colby’s anger.

  Colby folded his arms and glared at them—except Cheese Press.

  “You’ve had enough fun. Now I need Cheesecuzzi for the Gouda.”

  “Only if you win,” Cheese Bowl signed.

  “Yeah!” Cheese-lander signed. “You’ll need to beat both of us.”

  Colby sighed, “Fine.”

  “He’ll never win in a two against one!” yelled Cheese Bowl.

  “Don’t worry, guys,” signed Cheese-lander. “We’ll avenge your ruined sleep.”

  Colby sighed even louder.

  Curd-Cutter strummed his arms together even faster, increasing the tempo of the battle theme.

  Colby and the two Core Constructs brought their hands behind their back and threw them.

  Two rocks.

  One paper.

  Colby had won.

  Cheese Bowl and Cheese-lander dropped to their knees, forgetting that they were still in the hot tub and nearly drowning themselves. “We lost. This is impossible. No wonder he is the creator. He is unbeatable.”

  Colby pinched his eyebrows and sighed, “Can you please get out now?”

  One by one, they slowly got out of Cheesecuzzi, dripping brine all over the floor. As for the immobile Cheese Press, Colby picked him up. The Core Construct trembled in his grasp, spraying Brine everywhere.

  “I-I’m sorry. P-please don’t hurt me. I-I-I promise never to sleep again.”

  “I’m not mad at you. Relax.”

  That did little to calm Cheese Press. Even after being placed down in his own little corner in the Core, he continued to shudder.

  Honestly, Colby was too tired to deal with Cheese Press’s anxiety right now. It would be a problem for more-awake him.

  When he walked back to Cheesecuzzi, he found Pottingham still soaking inside, snoozing. With another sigh, he lifted the lazy metal pot and placed him down on one of Stove’s burners.

  Annoyed at being dripped on, Stove shot out a puff of flames, which actually did more than be a nuisance for once. The heat helped to evaporate the droplets that had been splashed all over him.

  After preparing some fresh batches of pressed Gouda, Colby brought them over to Cheesecuzzi.

  “You ready for your first brining session?”

  “Boy, am I ever. I promise not to disappoint,” she signed.

  Colby lowered the cheese into the brine, watching the wheels bob up and down. The jets pushed them around, spinning them in lazy circles, nudging them from side to side, until they finally settled, having found an equilibrium.

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  Now, all he had to do was wait until they were fully soaked. That was something that he should’ve considered when constructing Cheesecuzzi.

  “Can you tell whether a cheese has been fully brined?” Colby asked.

  “I’m sorry, darling,” Cheesecuzzi signed. “I only know how to brine the cheese and make them feel good; I can’t tell when they’ve had enough or not.”

  As expected. That was his mistake. He had been so hyperfocused on speeding up the brining that he forgot about such a crucial aspect.

  In his defence, adding such an intention would further dilute the intentions used to create Cheesecuzzi. At best, it would just make the brining process slower. At worst, she’d be useless, and he’d have to come up with a very believable excuse for why he had to scrap her.

  But that was okay. After countless hours handling cheese, he had honed his cheese senses to the highest degree. He’d identify when the cheese was ready with skill—and by skill, he meant trial and error. And maybe Temp-tation because she was built for measuring things—mostly heat—but he was sure that some of that intent probably translated into identifying when a cheese was perfectly brined or not.

  After grabbing Temp-tation and explaining the situation to her, she begrudgingly agreed to help. Still upset over the uncouth wake-up call, she sat on his shoulder and, with her arms crossed, stared at the floating wheels of cheese bobbing up and down within the hot tub.

  Now, it was just wait, wait, and even more waiting. The time didn’t fly by. Saying that time crawled would be generous. It was agonizing, staring at the floating wheels of cheese relaxing in the hot tub.

  His only reprieve was when he made Ms. M’s daily order of chèvre and chèvre with candied ginger. It was just as he was mixing in the small chunks of candied Butterfly Ginger, when Temp-tation bounded up to him.

  She waved her hands in a frantic motion, signing that it was done.

  At the same time, he received a notification.

  Congratulations! Cheesecuzzi has reached Level 2!

  Colby abandoned the chèvre and rushed over to Cheesecuzzi. He peered into the hot tub, watching the wheels soaking up all of that delicious saltiness. It definitely looked brined, but he would only know after it was aged and tasted.

  Now, he just had to let the cheese dry—some would take days. Fortunately, after all of that waiting, his Core was less sore. Meaning, it was time for another new addition to the family.

  This time, he had a better idea of how the Core Construct would fashion. It was going be a fan, a very special fan whose entire purpose was to dry the cheese.

  Colby knelt down, touching the floor of his Core. The area around his palm melted into a shiny, pearlescent goo that snapped to his hand when he stood up.

  He imbued the intent to make a fan that would speed up the drying time. Because he was running low on Core Capacity, the fan couldn’t be too big.

  The goo slowly morphed, becoming cylindrical. At one end of the rod, a thin disc expanded before fattening up into a solid circular base. From the side of the opposite end, a nub protruded out, stretching into a hollow circle that was perpendicular to the rod. Within that hollow circle, three little blades—not as sharp as Curd-Cutter—emerged.

  This was a lot easier than Cheesecuzzi, even the name had came naturally to him.

  Colby stepped away from the goo. It slowly lost its pearlescent shine and solidified into a plastic-like material. The blades were made of metal—a type foreign to him—but that wasn’t. Neither were the internal mechanisms of how the fan operated. What was important was the fact that it was imbued with the intent to dry cheese.

  Colby cleared his throat. “Everyone, meet The Fantastic Cheese Fanatic. Or Fan for short.”

  Plastic noodle-like limbs sprouted from the cylindrical rod of the fan. He waved and signed, “Cheesed to meet you.”

  Everyone slapped their faces, while Curd-Cutter played that annoying, sad trombone tune.

  “I thought it was great,” Colby said, smiling down at The Fantastic Cheese Fanatic.

  “Thank you.”

  “Now let’s get drying.”

  Colby placed Fan on Stove’s top—where he had placed the soaking wet cheese wheels.

  “You know what to do,” he said.

  The fan’s blades began to spin, drafting a cool breeze over the cheese wheels. His mobile Core Constructs hopped onto Stove and stood behind the wheels, happily enjoying the breeze.

  They froze as they watched his limbs start to shake.

  “Fan-cy meeting you all here.”

  They slapped their faces, Curd-Cutter played that tune, and the cheese became slightly drier.

  “Why are you standing so far away? Come closer, I have something to dis-gust with you.”

  Another slap, another trombone, and more dried cheese.

  Yes, the Core Construct was working. It was one that he was the most proud of and the most attuned with.

  The Fantastic Cheese Fan:

  Level 1

  A fan that specializes in drying cheese. To speed up the process, dry humor—mostly in the form of bad puns—is used.

  (Each level slightly decreases the time to fully dry the cheese.)

  Colby smiled.

  Good, while the cheese dried, he’d take the rest of the day off and let his Core rest. Tomorrow, he’d start with the aging Core Construct or Constructs as his parents kept implying.

  The next day, when Colby entered his Core. Fan was still running, and the cheeses were almost dry. But the mobile Core Constructs were nowhere to be found.

  Colby walked around his Core, even dipping his head inside the cave-cellar mix before eventually looking inside of Smart Waiter. Within the delivery system, he found all of the mobile Core Constructs huddled up and nearly squeezed to death.

  “Please, make it stop,” Cheese Bowl signed.

  “Please. Please. Please. I’ll do anything you say,” Curd-Cutter signed.

  The rest nodded in agreement.

  “I don’t get it. Make what stop?”

  “The puns! They’re horrible!”

  “What do you mean? I think they’re pretty good. Anyway, I’ll come back later to check on the cheese, then maybe we can finally start aging.”

  “No!” His Core Constructs signed as Colby exited his Core.

  When Colby returned later in the day, he found the wheels of cheese completely dry, but Fan was nowhere to be found. He looked around the Core searching for him, even asking the other Core Constructs, but they all shrugged or shook their heads.

  He peeked inside Smart Waiter, and he wasn’t there.

  Desperate, Colby checked inside The Cheesestastic Fridge and then finally Cheesecuzzi.

  “Hello there, darling. What brings you here?”

  “I’m looking for The Fantastic Cheese Fan.”

  “Well, he ain’t here, darling. No point wasting your time searching here.”

  “Right… Turn off the jets.”

  “But the brine.”

  “There’s nothing brining right now. Turn off the jets.”

  Sighing, Cheesecuzzi did as told.

  As the bubbles slowly died down and the layer of froth disappeared, Colby gasped.

  Submerged within the hot tub was The Fantastic Cheese Fan.