He welcome Daniel to his office as he had taken the position as he predicted would.

“Great! I have always wanted to do this!” Daniel greeted him in Spanish as this was both their native language. Miguel smiled it has been a while since he had anyone to talk Spanish with as St. Louis is not exactly a cultural melting pot.

“No te creo, you just wanted to be rich. You never had any passions or career goals” Miguel playfully greeted his old friend by hugging him and inviting him to sit in his almost completely empty office that only had a desk and three chairs.

“It was never about the money. It was about the fame!” exclaimed Daniel as he suddenly stood up just as soon as he sat down while summoning a magician hat with a puff of flash and smoke while making a grandiose pose.

“Dude, how many times I have told you not to do magic in public?” Miguel asked furiously as he make sure that no one near his office saw that but luckily, he was still in the middle of hiring and this floor was empty.

“Relax, is not like anyone would care or think it's real magic,” Daniel said as he sat down again and took out a bag of chips of Doritos too much on out of thin air again.

Miguel was not much of a fan of Daniel's crazy use of magic. The reason why Daniel could do magic whenever he went is that he as an active charm of skepticism which made whoever saw him do magic feel its fake but also had made a career as the Amazing Technomagician. The Amazing Technomagician was a brand he had made when he mastered his illusionary magic after training under Marcos. He was supposed to be training to become a Guardian of Earth, but Daniel did not enjoy the rigorous training and instead jump into show business in Las Vegas. He became famous for doing impossible magic tricks compared to the other magicians in Las Vegas because he was using real magic. He was world-famous. He even made multiple TV shows. Marcos made him wear the skepticism charm and make him brand himself the technomagician just in case someone in the supernatural underground community or Booyer Hunters would discover he was using real magic in public. At the beginning he had wanted to proclaim he was a real magician for his shows, but then he would probably would have been killed. The brand of Technomagician allow him to make impossible tricks but can be explained as engineering tricks. Daniel enjoyed his fame for seven years until his magic started to take a hold on his body for using it too much. Daniel money was running out due to his high lifestyle due to having a similar background as Miguel. The love of expending money, but terrible at managing it.

“Well, you are no longer a celebrity magician.  We both know that if you would prefer still do magic shows instead of being vice president of my company. I know you need money, but regardless I expect you to work” Miguel exclaimed as he snatched the Doritos of Daniel hand.

“Listen, a big chuck of my old animation team will move, but I still need to hire more creatives on staff. Also, as you know H.E. will fund my company, but will take over if I do not correctly budget the funds, they will take over the studio. I know you know how to run a business, a show business for sure, but you also have an MBA. I really hope you let me your business smarts so I can focus on the art part of the company.”

Daniel murmured a quick wind spell to clean his hand from the Doritos dust when that is when his personal assistant came into the office and gave them both documents that they needed to review.

“As you see, I spent some of my personal earnings to cover for the staff moving to Paris. The problem is that some of my artists did not want to move out here. Understandable as most people would not just leave their home cities out of nowhere. I currently have a seven million budget to sustain DragonTooth for over three years. HE expects for my company to be profitable or at least self-sustaining in less than a year otherwise they will take over.”

“Well, while I do not know anything about animation, I have been in the entertainment business. A seven million budget is ridiculously great for a starting company. I assume you would not like to micro-manage all the projects. So, I will need to hire different managers” as Daniel looked around the different files in the folder, “I will first need to hire a HR manager not sure how you have not gotten this far without one, then will have start with office management. I need to restructure marketing or sales yet. I will prioritize that later.” Finally, it seems that Daniel was getting serious about the job by reviewing all the paperwork in front of him.

Daniel enquired how long will it take for Miguel and his team to produce something. Whether he would continue with only animated movies, or if he would consider expand into cartoons, videogames, comic books or selling the right his intellectual properties to stream services for live action serialization.

“No, I will not have my work be turned into live action production. Let’s us be clear this is an animation company, I am aware that my intellectual property is unbelievably valuable, but I am not interested in running it with bad acting,” Miguel explained as he felt that as his work involved a lot of magic it would look ridiculous in movies as the current special effect cannot compete with what can be done in cartoon settings.

 “I am interested in making videogames and a series of cartoons. Comics… I am a bit iffy, as you know my magic involves animating my drawing. I do not feel I am qualified for that I guess look into hiring five or seven artists with unique art styles. I am not a fan of the marvel, or dc comic book style. I kind a like manga, but not that either. I want something new. Cartoons will be extremely expensive as you know my movies are revered for their hyper specific details and the flow of every scene. It would be horribly ambitious. I currently have twelve of my former staff, I would need at least three times of artist.”

Daniel was confused trying to figure out how his former studios had, so few artists it did not seem logical as Miguel’s past movies are extremely detailed, he has a vague idea of how many artists are hired by big companies as Disney.

“I will also need you to hire a bunch of computer scientists, the best you can hire. Not for IT, I need them to make a program to help with the processing. I asked Marcos one if he could make me one, but he told me he was too busy saving Iricua nation, or something like that. He did told me what I wanted was not a program, but an advance artificial intelligence to learn from my magic.”

Miguel could see that Daniel wonder how exactly his movies were previously made. He explained the storyboard artists make an extremely rough storyboard. Then, he would assign artists to do just a few hyper specific drawings on paper of the from random times from beginning to ending from the storyboard. After that he would use his magic to animate the drawing and at the same time use a special camera set up to record the drawings moving. This way it was possible for his movies to be hyper-detailed. Miguel knew one of his movies which he typically produces for over a year, other companies would take years to make something that was even less detailed. Not to mention the cost a movie of his caliber would cost alone would be impossible to produce if he did not cheat with his magic. Some companies think he has a special program that allows him to make his movie. His former business partner may have some of his former staff, but no one knew how the movies were made and he can no longer produce any of the IPs he got from him. The fans would hate the sudden drop of quality in the animation. It would be like being used to Michelin chef meals to being served rotten raw burgers from the street left on the fridge for three weeks. As Miguel keeps explain how he would get sick trying to animate a cartoon series as they are they are usually too long. The continuous use of his magic would hurt his body. An AI that could simulate his magic it would be helpful to produce cartoon series.

“Well, if you worry if cartoons are too long. Most streaming services have short seasons unlike our childhood series instead of forty to eighty episodes its only like twelve or thirteen at most. Also, if you make a stream exclusivity contract you make bank. I know I made big money when I made my documentary of the Amazing Technomagician, I end up a contract with HBO even when my fans were mad as you know most people have Hulu or Netflix.”

“No, I like the idea of limiting the season to 13 episodes, but I refuse for exclusivity. I know it would be the most profitable way, but it has never been about the money. I just want to share the magical worlds stories of Central, Urokus and Kilesti. The main problems are the funding and sharing them with the world.”

“Mr. Aguilar, there is a banquet from the Vice-President of MTM Group. This will be a fantastic opportunity to network with France multimedia. I head they will be top executives of Ubisoft, Vivendii and others. I managed to get us invited as you are sort of an intrigue among the media elite.” Explained from James as he sent him an email with his smart tablet he was carrying. From the email Miguel read that the event was happening that very same day. Hel would have to hurry home to change to a suit and make it fashionable late but not too late.

“Yes, a party! You know how I love those. I will be the center of the gala. Ovavn opurg Ohco asc odipa azalpme epur atseu!” Daniel exclaimed as he stood up, did the incantation, then a quick flash blinding them all. When Marcos recovers his sight, he sees Daniel on the floor with an expensive looking suit tackled by James.

Daniel was extremely angry after being tackled as James began helping him stand up and apologizing, he began to faint. James looked a bit worried as he wondered if his tackle had caused a concussion. Miguel told him that he would be fine, to plop him on the chair and bring some chocolate and coffee to Daniel who was extremely confused about his whereabouts.

“You got what you deserve. You use magic without care. Honestly, I get that Marcos' lessons are incredibly boring, but if you cannot learn to use proper spells for your life force available may be you should not do magic.” Chastised Daniel as he prepared to leave before walking out, he gave him a head pat.

Miguel wondered how Daniel was still alive. He probably used minor spells all day, today. He used a spell to clean his hands from Doritos dust which is a dumb use of magic as it cost life force. One of the reasons why the last spell nearly knocked him out was that was not a spell but multiple at once with a least two major spells. One spell for the clothes to disappear and the other for them to appear. A modification spell for speed and one for specificity. Apparition spells are disgustingly costly much that most magicians never try to learn teleportation as it is not only dangerous but you either die trying to teleport or after reappearing.  He decided that he could take a taxi for now to his penthouse to go change and wait for James to pick him up. He was not looking forward to this elite party. He sure loves to spoil himself with the riches that came from his arduous work, but he was never a social butterfly. He also hated rich people’s entitlement which make them act as if they were about the regular folk. He grew up as a child of an abusive family that would sometimes not feed him for days, so he felt he had little in common with those type of people who were born with a golden spoon in their mouths. He struggles to decide what wear as he felt he needed to give a good impression unlike his Vice President's extravagant suit. He had two choices for suits but decided to wear a simple but expensive black tuxedo from Miridas designer. There are multiple reasons for this suit as he had been paranoid on the danger that may happen in the party. He may not have clairvoyance as Marcos, but sometimes having magic allows you to feel incoming danger.  He changed as he waited for James to pick him off and feeling there was something acrid in the air. He walks to his wardrobe opens it and takes a small wooden music box. He opens the box which has a small glass eyeball. He moves his hand towards picking it up but stops just short of touching it. He decided that he does not need the eyeball that it was just his nerves. He closed the box as he heared James knocking at his door.