"Astonishing," Mina said a short while later. "You've become a seamstress now?"
Carl shrugged. "It's just this stupid system thing."
"Yes, but should it not be seamster since you're male?" Mina giggled a little.
"Look, I don't think we need to take it that seriously." Carl stepped out of the car and turned back. "Let's just go get you those clothes, and—"
"Ah, you'll excuse me for being a bit blunt, Carl," Mina said, her blonde eyebrows lowering, "but I'm quite capable of being fitted for clothing on my own."
"Oh, I just figured you might wanna throw stuff in my inventory."
Mina gave him a very direct look, and her cheeks turned a slight pink. "Carl, there are certain items of mine which will never need to be touched by anyone but me."
"Oh. Ohh." Carl's expression turned embarrassed, and he looked away. "Yeah, uh, yeah. Definitely not. I'm gonna wait out here." Sammy made me stop doing her laundry a while back, but this is way more awkward since Mina's not actually related. Whoops. Hope she doesn't take that the wrong way.
Mina slid out of the car onto the side of the road and stood nearby. "And, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like the sheet to use as a sack," she said quietly, looking down at the ground.
"Inventory. Yeah, sure, of course," Carl said, grabbing the cloth out and handing it over. "Dismiss. Take your time, I'm not going anywhere."
Mina accepted the sheet, then gave him a quick hug. "Thank you, Carl."
He gently ruffled her hair out of habit.
She drew back and wrinkled her nose up at him while she gathered her hair back into place over her shoulder.
She could probably use a hair tie. Or a scrunchie. Wonder if they even have those in-game. I'll check it out at some point.
"I'll return soon," Mina said. She hefted the fabric in one hand while walking over to the entrance, opened the door, and then disappeared from sight after glancing back at him one more time.
Carl sighed. She seems to be doing way better than last week. Really glad. I kinda wanna ask how she's doing in real life, but it's feeling like this is sort of her escape for now. Don't want to bring back any bad memories. He moved to lean against the wall. Sweet kid, though. Cute, too. So awful she had to grow up with this. Seems like she's got such a bright future with how smart she is.
A car drove up slowly with an older woman inside who looked like she wanted to park nearby, but the sides of the streets were fully lined with cars now.
Don't really need to be taking up a parking space, I guess. "Inventory." Carl walked over to Mina's car while gesturing to the woman, then deposited the vehicle into his inventory. "Dismiss."
The woman stared at him for a moment before pulling into the spot. "That's quite a skill you've got there," she called over the side of her car.
Ah, shoot, now I feel like I'm flaunting my dev account abilities with the inventory size. Carl smiled awkwardly.
"Thank you very much," the woman said. She walked up to him and brought up a decorated leather purse with bronze clasps from over her shoulder. "I was in a hurry, and you've really helped me out. Here." She handed him a ten-mark coin.
"Uh, thanks," Carl said, hesitating a moment before putting it into his pocket with the rest. Starting to feel like I should get one of those coin pouches. Can't put coins into my inventory without them just going into the infinite coin dispenser. What a stupid… Gah, it's like they don't want us to…play using…dev accounts… Okay, maybe I'm not supposed to, but it's probably fine as long as I don't break any… Well, as long as I don't break any more rules. Which I'm not gonna do, of course, since I'm not here to play the game, I'm just trying to think.
The woman had already gone into the shop by the time he emerged from his thoughts, but it didn't bother him.
No, he couldn't be bothered by anything right now because he'd just had yet another genius idea.
That lady just gave me ten marks for basically being a valet. Mina's gonna need a lot more marks from the sound of it. I could…
Another older woman drove by, clearly looking for a spot to park.
Yeah, I bet this could work. Old people love this slice of life stuff here. He waved to the old lady, then walked up and put the first old lady's car into his inventory, clearing the spot.
The woman stared at him for a moment, just as the first one had, then pulled into the spot.
A blue status window appeared.
New class acquired:
Parking Garage now rank 1!
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
1 unused skill point remaining
Carl frowned. "Dismiss."
"My, what a great skill!" the new old woman exclaimed as she raced out of her car with the spryness that all old people seemed to have here.
Makes sense. Who's gonna wanna play with whatever disabilities they've got in real life? "Happy to help," Carl said, giving her an expectant smile.
"Oh, you're such a dear," the woman said, reaching into her purse. She counted out five marks and passed them over. "Thank you. It's so difficult to find anywhere to leave my car when I come here."
"Yeah, kinda weird there's no parking lots," Carl said. Super weird, now that I think about it. Some stuff in the city is pretty modernized, like the roads, and they've got tons of cars, but they don't even have sidewalks or parking lots. Even the curbs are just lines on the street. So lazy. Roger, again, I hate to blame your department with how busy you are, but c'mon. This is almost as bad as the physics bug with the soft surfaces.
"A lot to park cars in?" The woman gave him a confused look. "Where would you put such a thing?"
Carl scanned his surroundings. "Hm. That's a good question." Really not much free space, either. Just tons of stone buildings everywhere. Kinda cool aesthetic, at least, since they aren't all the same color stone now that I'm a little farther in. "What if you just magic it in somewhere?"
The woman gave him a skeptical look. "I think the Weathers have better things to be doing with their time than solving our parking problems."
"Actually, I—"
"Anyway, thanks again," the woman said, breezing past him and into the shop.
This thing with the in-game Weathers is starting to get a little annoying.
A younger woman came out of the seamstress shop and started when she spotted him standing next to the door. She took a circuitous path around him despite his friendly wave, jumped over the side of a car parked nearby, and drove off.
Perfect. Carl walked over and put the first old lady's car down in the vacated spot. He noticed another car pulling away across the street and followed up, putting the second old lady's car in the newly-vacated spot.
A blue status window appeared.
New class acquired:
Valet now rank 1!
1 unused skill point remaining
"Dismiss." He sighed as he walked back across the hot pavement to stand in front of the shop again. Wonder how long she's gonna be. Not that I'm in a rush. He glanced at the in-game clock. Almost fourteen o'clock. Pretty awesome being able to…
A new, terrifying thought occurred to Carl at that moment.
Wait, if the time scaling really works like this, and Bobby's been playing as much as she has… He started doing mental arithmetic, and his eyes widened. Wouldn't she be like, almost thirty? The idea of it left him reeling. She'd be all grown up. What do I even… He brought his hands down to his beard, unable to recall that he'd raised them to his head. She hasn't been laughing at my dad jokes as much lately. And she's been getting better at her programming work pretty…
He began to rub his beard. No, if she was really twice her age she'd be way better at programming. I mean, sure, there's lots of people who are older and are bad at writing code, but she's my daughter, so that's not gonna happen. And probably there would've been other noticeable changes too. Yeah, there's no way.
Carl was zoned out fully at this moment in order to more effectively focus on the issue at hand. Yeah, there's definitely no way. I'm positive I'd have noticed. She'd have changed a lot if something like that was going on. Anyone would. And—
"At last! Coffee-seeker, we meet again!"
—I know I don't pay attention to ga—
"You. Coffee-seeker. Hey."
Something poked him in the arm and disrupted his thoughts.
"Huh?" Carl looked to his side. A muscled, tan-skinned woman with short, dark hair wearing light armor and, most noticeably, a pair of bracers with metal hooks jutting from the sides stood next to him.
"I am Plautia Cornuta," the young woman said, one hand at the sword belted around her waist. "I apologize for my earlier rudeness," she continued, bowing her head. "If you'll teach me, I would learn your footwork technique."
Carl frowned. "Huh?"
The woman crossed her arms. "Don't you recall our previous encounters? The Sword Shatterer herself asked—"
"Lady, we've never met," Carl said firmly, annoyed that he'd been interrupted when he was thinking about his daughter, who mig—
"I'm sure it was you," insisted Plautia Cornata.
"Listen, Cornata—"
"It's Cornuta—"
"Listen," Carl said, raising one hand to more forcibly interrupt since he didn't particularly care, "I'm pretty sure I'd remember if we'd met." He looked more carefully. She does look a little familiar, now that I'm actually looking. Eh, she's probably just got one of those faces. "And I don't know whatever footwork technique you're talking about."
The woman pressed her lips together, seeming annoyed.
"Carl, I've… Oh, hello," Mina said as she pushed through the door of the shop with a shoulder, her face flushed and the cloth she'd carried in formed into a sack that she held with both hands. "An acquaintance of yours?" she asked, looking at him.
"Nope," Carl said. He frowned down at the scowling woman. "Like I said, you're mistaken. Inventory." He walked into the street, heedless of the traffic, and pulled out Mina's car. "Let's get out of here." I was wrong, people in this city are pretty annoying too, just in different ways.
"Hey, get outta the street!" shouted an annoying older man in a car just behind who was standing up to gesticulate.
Mina gave the Cornata woman a last look, then strode over to hop into the car and moved to the driver's seat, twisting the top of the sheet-sack and setting it on the seat next to herself.
Carl squeezed in beside her, taking over holding the clothes sack shut. He waved to the odd woman who was still glowering at him, and the car took off.
After a minute or so of driving, Mina turned to him. "If you've marks remaining, shall we perhaps find somewhere to eat?"
"Yeah, sure," Carl said. "I don't have much left, but… Actually, keep your eyes out for somewhere that might sell coffee."
"What do you say to tea instead?"
"I guess."