"I don't know, Mina, it doesn't seem that fast," Vol called down, continuing to sit atop the car while they paid the fee to enter and drive during the remaining hour or so of practice time.

The gladiator-guard checking them in looked up over the car with an odd expression on his face before he accepted the offered marks and waved them on.

"Patience, Vol," Mina called back, already seeming to have gotten the hang of talking to the frequently-impatient woman. She closed and re-latched her door before driving through. "She's quite an individual," she said softly. "Wherever did you encounter her?"

"Eh, we had coffee a couple days in a row. Then we went out of the city this morning and killed a bunch of monsters for fun. She's pretty cool." Though she did let me land on my head those times, which wasn't cool.

"I've only known her a short while, but I've grown quite fond of her," Mina said, continuing to smile.

"She really does grow on you, doesn't she," Carl agreed.

They exited the short tunnel and entered again the staging area for the drivers, finding it to be the same as the previous day, with cars scattered around, and drivers being annoying standing everywhere, an—

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY!" Vol shouted.

Mina started giggling. "Oh my, I do like her."

Carl was laughing along. "It's really awesome when she's pointed in the right direction."

"YEAH, YOU. DON'T MAKE ME COME DOWN FROM HERE." Vol continued, obviously referring to a single armor-wearing woman continuing to stand in their way.

Mina angled the car to the side and drove around her on the left.

As Carl watched, a hand came down off the roof to slap the woman on her helmet, sending her reeling. He laughed a little harder. Now this is what I was expecting to see when I started getting into the more game-y parts. Gamers being gamers. At least some things never change.

"ALRIGHT, LET'S FUCKING GOOO!" Vol bellowed.

"I'm gonna wait here with Vol," Carl said as he unbuckled his seatbelt. "Have fun, okay?"

Mina leaned over and gave him another quick hug. "I believe I shall."

He tousled her hair a little, though it had mostly no effect since she was using the hair tie he'd gotten her. She really is adorable. Kinda mad she's not my kid. I bet she'd have fit in great with Sammy and Bobby. She'd probably be a whiz with all the scripting stuff and be able to help Bobby with that, and I can easily imagine her helping Sammy with math homework or sitting around watching basketball with her.

They separated, and he frowned as he got out of the car, wiping the expression from his face by the time he'd turned back so he could give her a reassuring smile. "Alright, Vol, we'll wait here."

"Nah, I'm gonna stay here," Vol said, waving him off while she continued to sit, cross-legged, on top of the car. "Haven't ridden around the track yet. Seems like it might be fun."

"Gonna be pretty windy. You'll probably get knocked off."

"You worry too fucking much," she said, looking over at him. "Doesn't it get tiring?"

Carl shrugged. "Whatever. Have fun." He waved Mina towards the track, and she seemed all too happy to take the prompting and zip off.

The light blue car circled the track, gaining speed as it went. There was only one other car on the track at the moment, and she passed it halfway around the track.

As the car again approached the staging area, he began to hear a faint noise that grew louder as it approached.

"—OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…" Vol was shrieking with both arms held up over her head as she passed.

Carl chuckled and shook his head.

When they were halfway through the lap, she started to stand up on top of the car. Amazingly, she remained in place and seemed to have no trouble maintaining her balance. She turned to him with her arms still raised when they passed.

On the next lap, she stood on one leg.

On the one after that, she did a handstand.

Then she did a one-handed handstand.

"How's she doing that?"

Carl looked around, realizing that every single person who'd been standing around the staging area was now gathered around to watch Vol's antics.

Vol leapt off the car at a certain point halfway around the track, flying high up into the air. She came down to land back on the car as it came around the other side, bringing cheers from the surrounding drivers.

That's pretty impressive. How the heck's she even getting the timing and the jump and everything right on that?

The car sped by again, and Vol waved to them, beckoning them follow.

A few minutes later, Vol was hopping back and forth along the top of a lane of slower moving cars while Mina lapped the other drivers.

Now that's some expert-level gaming.

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"Mina! Why didn't you tell me your car was that fast? That was amazing! Why's your car so much faster? Can it go any faster than that? Why haven't you raced before?" Vol paused her breathless interrogation just long enough to turn her head to the other side of the car. "And you! Carl, what the fuck? Why didn't you tell me how fucking fast her car is?!"

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Mina leaned against the side of the hood of her car and beamed.

Carl laughed. Can't believe I ever thought Vol wasn't cool. That was some of the funniest stuff I've seen in a while. Thought I was gonna die laughing when she kept trying to get the other drivers to go faster and they were swerving to throw her off. She's got absurdly good balance. Wonder if that's what Ir'alith was like that time I was driving with her.

"Who are you?" demanded one of the other drivers. They'd swarmed the car when Mina had stopped, having long since pulled back off the track to conserve their fuel while she continued trying to squeeze out the last bit of speed.

"I'm nobody," Vol said. "But she'll be the queen of this track soon," she said, pointing to Mina. "Get ready to show some fucking respect."

Mina flushed and tilted her head down.

"I'd believe it after today," said one of the other drivers. "If your car's sturdy enough to withstand blows, I don't know how I'd find victory." There were varying murmurs from the other drivers.

Mina shot Carl a pleading look which, from years of being a dad, he recognized as a Please Rescue Me look.

Carl cleared his throat noisily. "Lunch?" he asked since it seemed both of them liked eating game food.

Vol's head snapped around to him. "It's like you're reading my thoughts! Get in, let's go. The rest of you, clear the fuck out for Her Majesty!"

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"Go left here!" Vol called down.

Mina turned onto the appropriate street. "It was a significant oversight on my part to not include a mechanism for this manner of conversing," she grumbled.

Carl had held his door open a little for the duration of the drive since the car lacked retractable windows and yelling loud enough to be heard was awkward. "Gives you something to work on now, at least."

"I've quite enough on my plate at the moment, I believe."

"Oh? What kinda stuff you working on?"

"Well… I've… I've the natural maintenance on my steamcar, of course. And then I've been researching the possibility of creating a lightning-magic motor, though it's proving to be considerably more difficult than—"

"Turn right on this street!"

"—steam… Do you suppose she prefers to ride atop my steamcar rather than inside of it?"

"Yeah, pretty sure she does."

"How intriguing. Perhaps I could fashion some manner of rigging or harness upon which I could install chairs for additional seating."

"Eh, I think that'd take the fun out of it for her."

"Stop here!"

"Ah, you might be correct. I'd not considered that possibility."

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"Didn't know they had actual restaurants," Carl commented. He took another big bite of his spicy, probably-pork sandwich. "Mmm, really good."

They were seated at a table which was much larger than the three of them should have required in the squat, stone building just outside of D-one. Most of the rest of the diners, who numbered around ten, were wearing purple robes or dresses, which seemed like it was probably epic gear or something. He vaguely recalled hearing something about purple on clothes, but it seemed like forever ago, and the days here were so freaking long.

Mina sipped her soup, then cut a small slice of her meaty salad and stuck it into her mouth. She murmured her approval.

Vol was apparently a glutton, having ordered the entire menu for them as soon as they walked in, claiming she would finish whatever they didn't want. "Not sure what you mean by restaurant," she said around a giant bite from a bone with unidentifiable meat on it, "but this place is fucking great."

"Wouldn't it be simpler to remove the cloth while eating?" Mina asked.

The older woman gave a disgusted sigh. "Yeah, don't tempt me."

"Vol's famous," Carl said.

"m'not," she protested in between gulps from her second bowl of soup.

"What would someone like Vol be famous for," Mina said, stroking her chin. "How old are you, Vol?"

"Not saying."

"Twenty seven."

Vol glared at him across the table, the severity of which was undercut when she reached for her third sandwich off the platter and stuffed it under her bandanna while maintaining eye contact. She shifted her look to Mina. "Seriously, I'm nobody. And if I wasn't, I'd rather be. I've seen what fame can do."

The girl gave her chin another stroke and wrinkled her brow. "Yes," she said slowly, her expression changing to a grimace. "I believe I know precisely what you're speaking about. On another topic, how were you able to remain upright atop my steamcar whilst I drove around the track? Was it some form of magic, perhaps?"

There was a lot of chewing required before Vol managed to, with the help of an entire glass of wine, swallow whatever colossal bite of sandwich she'd been battling when the question had been asked. "Nah, I can't use magic," she said at last. "Just great balance and a little trick."

"What's the trick?" Carl asked. He eyed another of the multitude of sandwiches but decided to stop now, instead sipping his water. She was right, this place does have great food. Actually, every place I've tried so far does. Maybe there's a really high skill floor for the cooking where it auto-corrects your flavors if you mess up.

"Not saying."

"C'mon."

"Nah."

"How have you eaten so much!" Mina exclaimed.

In total—not that Carl was particularly keeping track, but he'd grown accustomed to doing calculations whenever he ate with his daughters in order to ensure that they'd always get to eat their favorite things in the optimal quantities—Vol had consumed five sandwiches, two large bones with meat hanging off, three smaller pork shanks, two bowls of soup, four salads, and an entire jug of wine. And she'd done it in the same amount of time as it had taken them to eat their meals.

If it was real life, it would've been an impossible feat, especially considering her size and build, but in the game, it just meant that she was really enjoying all the food. That was totally understandable considering that Carl himself had consumed a bowl of soup, a pork shank, and two sandwiches, and they'd all been incredible even if he couldn't particularly identify any familiar ingredients. Annie would have a field day in here. Probably log out loaded up with enough recipes for years just from tasting stuff.

"Felt like it," Vol said. She pointed to the untouched platter of steaks. "Either of you want any of these, or…"

"I'm just gonna get a bite of this one to try it," Carl said, starting to slice off a corner from the juiciest-looking one and then taking a bit more than just the corner since he was in a game, and it wasn't like the calories were gonna count or anything. He took a bite. Gah, it got a little cold. But maybe… He focused, attempting to—

The piece of meat erupted into flame.

"Ah, shoot," Carl said, shaking his head. "Really thought I had it."

"Carl, please. It's impolite to use magic during meals. Especially when dining with those less capable."

"Oh. Uh, sorry. What do I…"

"Well, naturally you'll need to… Perhaps I should manage this."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea, Mina. Thanks."

"You can both use magic?!"

----------------------------------------

"Vol's a genius."

"She's quite remarkable in a very specific field."

"Yeah, but I never would've thought to just order all of that again and pack it into my inventory. Now we've got food for a long—"

"Hey, Carl, pass one of those big bones up to me! Could use something to chew on."

"Do go on."