"Hold on a sec, I'm gonna…" Carl pointed to the upper level. Vol made no move to stop him, and he stood out of his chair and ascended the stairs quietly, peeking over the top.

Mina was curled up in her recliner, seeming to be fast asleep. Her face was puffy, and her eyes were ringed with red.

He snuck closer, activating his Dad Stealth as he tip-toed across the floor to retrieve her scarf, which looked like it'd probably fallen off and onto the floor in her sleep along with her hair tie. Huh, her burns are healed. That cut on her face too. He eyed her forearms, chewing the corner of his lip as he considered his memory of the reddened patches of skin. Game's way too realistic about this stuff. Glad it's not as realistic about how long stuff takes to heal at least.

He reached out and gently stroked her hair, pulling a few strands back from her face in the process. She shivered lightly at his touch, her expression turning to one of distress. Reminds me of when Sammy got convinced there was a monster under her bed and couldn't sleep. That was a real ordeal. He folded up the scarf and, employing Dad Stealth at its highest level, slipped it under her face.

Mina's brow furrowed in her sleep for a moment, then she nuzzled against the cloth and started to smile slightly.

Carl let out a small, satisfied sigh. He set the hair tie on the arm of the chair and headed back towards the stairs. Should see if I can find a light blanket or something. Still feels wrong not being able to tuck her in, even if it's pretty hot out.

Upon reaching the main floor of the workshop, he retook his seat, finding his new friend tapping her chin as though deep in thought.

"So you've never been to the arena," she said after a moment.

"Nope."

"You're sure?"

"Yup, haven't gotten around to it yet."

"Carl, I think you're probably the only fucking person who's ever come to Onyxfell and not gone straight to the arena."

"Mina hasn't either. We got here and went straight to the race track."

"Huh."

A few minutes passed in comfortable silence.

Now that I think of it, someone like her might be the perfect person to ask. "Hey, Vol, how are you coping with the time scaling?"

"Uh, what?"

Carl shifted to look over at her. "You know, how you end up living through way more time than you normally would. Doesn't it mess with you?"

"Uh…" Vol turned her head towards him with a confused, surprised expression. "You…noticed that?"

"Well, yeah, be kinda hard not to."

She rubbed her forehead. "Wow. Um…" She let out a long breath. "Huh. Okay. Uh… Huh. Huh."

Carl frowned, feeling like maybe this was another one of those situations where he wasn't quite being understood in th—

"It's hard sometimes," Vol said, bending her right leg and draping her left up over it. "I mean really fucking hard. I'm twenty seven, but I've probably seen two or three times that many years."

Whoa, that's crazy to think about. Wait, so she's like…older than me in mental years? He grimaced as he tried to do the mental gymnastics to work out what that meant.

"Never really talked about it with anyone," she mused. "Sort of just got used to it after a while. Can't imagine things being any other way now."

"Sounds dangerous the more I think about it. Why even have something like that?" Now this has to be something we're liable for. Hardcore gamers getting PTSD from being logged in for two or three times their whole lifespan is gonna—

"Not sure I'd say dangerous," Vol said slowly. "It's still more useful than anything. Probably wouldn't be who I am today without it."

"So you wouldn't, for example, be upset at the people who created it?"

Vol gave him a look like he'd just said tea was better than coffee. "That doesn't make any sense. I still chose it. It's my life. I've been living it as best I can."

Carl scratched his beard. Guess that's a good point. Nobody's forcing people to play. Probably some clause in the EULA where you waive your right to complain about this anyway. Ugh, alright, that kinda just reinforces the fact that I'm definitely logging out as soon as Mina's feeling better. Don't wanna go home tonight and be ten years older or something. Already been… His eyes widened. It's already been like, four days! And that's game-time, which means it's actually more like five days…

He sighed unhappily. This is the longest I've gone without seeing the girls or Annie since I had that awful two week business trip a couple years ago. I mean, it's not really the same with the time scaling since they won't know I was gone, but it still feels pretty bad.

A memory came back to him.

"Daaaaaaad!" Sammy raced across the floor towards him, nearly tripping as she lost her balance after yet another growth spurt. She leapt at him with her arms spread, and he had to quickly drop his briefcase and suitcase to catch her despite his exhaustion.

"Hey, sweetie," he said, squeezing her tightly. "I missed you!" He gave her a kiss on top of her head.

"No more traveling!" she said.

"Daddy! Daddy!" called Bobby. She ran up and hugged his side, pressing her face against him. "You can't leave anymore!"

"Yeah, no more trips!" Sammy said, finally releasing her hold on the back of his neck and standing with her hands on her hips.

"No more!" Bobby said, moving back to mimic her sister's pose and adding an especially adorable frown on top of it.

"They really missed you," Annie said, walking over with a kitchen towel over her shoulder. She slipped through the girls' hallway blockade and tilted her head up.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

He leaned down to give her a kiss, and she extended it by pulling his head down farther.

"Gross!" said Bobby.

Sammy scrunched up her face.

"And so did I! I've got burgers in the oven, and we'll be ready to eat soon," Annie said, turning to walk back towards the kitchen with a noticeable sway of her hips, which he knew from experience meant she wouldn't be done welcoming him back until much later that night, assuming they could stay quiet enough.

He—

"Carl, you can use magic, right?" Vol asked, interrupting the fond memory of how the girls had dragged him around the house while catching him up on the details he'd missed at an extremely boring company event-slash-conference, and then how Annie had once again prepared her incredible hamb—

"What kinds of magic?" Vol asked, again interrupting Carl's recollection of how juicy and—

"Can you make soulfire?" she asked, propping herself up on her arm and looking over at him. "What about portals? You're strong enough to do that, right?"

Carl sighed. Being a great dad is hard. The girls and Annie'll be there tonight, but Mina really needs me now. Should probably try to focus more on being here, otherwise I'll start getting depressed, and then I won't be in peak condition when I finally do get home. And that'd be way worse. He nodded to himself. Yeah, can't let game stuff affect real life stuff. Not going down that path again. Gonna just make sure Mina's okay and then get back to it.

He focused on game stuff a little.

It wasn't going to be for long, and he had to do something to stop feeling guilty about not logging out right away to get back to his family.

Mina was family too, though, and he was going to be there for her now, even if it was tough.

He was Carl Weathers, and he was the best freaking dad ever.

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"Okay, so no portals. Or any real magic."

"Nope, just started learning stuff pretty recently. This is about the most I can manage."

"Making water's useful. Let me… Yeah, right in there. Thanks. Was getting thirsty."

"You're really having fun with your inventory, huh."

"It's so fun. I don't know how I'd live without it. Look, I put a whole fucking bed in it!"

"That's pretty smart."

"I know! And look at this, I put an oven in so I could cook something if I—"

"Is it still hot?!"

"Well, yeah, I'm not gonna fucking wait around for it if I'm taking out my emergency oven."

"Kinda afraid to ask, but what would you need to be cooking in an emergency, Vol?"

"I don't know, but it seems like something I might need. Also got this giant ice chest."

"What the—Why's it so freaking big!"

"I don't know, why wouldn't it be? It's just sitting in my inventory until I need it."

"Guess that's true."

"Got all these pillows too. Oh, oh. Let me open the door, this isn't gonna fit inside. Look at this."

"Vol, why do you have a building in your inventory?"

"Why not? Isn't this great?"

"Maybe? What are you gonna do with it?"

"That's what makes it so great! I don't have even the tiniest fucking bit of an idea! I could just take it out and whack someone with it for a laugh if I wanted to."

"Suddenly feeling like I haven't been making the best use of my own inventory…"

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"Nah, more like this."

"Like…this?"

"Yeah, now you're getting it."

"Cool. At least I'm learning some kinda practical skills while I'm here."

"I don't know if I'd really say you're learning anything yet, Carl. Don't trip on your Maximus, that's just a basic kick."

"You're not really motivating me to keep at it when you talk like that, Vol."

"Uh, well… Am I supposed to? You asked me to teach you some fighting moves, so I'm trying. But if I'm gonna be blunt—"

"Please don't."

"—your coordination isn't great. Reminds me of this idiot I met a year or so ago who thought he could fight just by shouting the names of his skills."

"Er… You can't?"

"Wow, you sound just like him! That kid was such a fucking idiot, too. Can't help but laugh a little."

"Gee, thanks."

"Um, I… Well, I'm not saying you're a fucking idiot, Carl. Comparing the two of you… Can't even do it, honestly. This kid was probably one of the dumbest people alive. He was wearing this bright, shiny white armor when he tried to sneak up on me—"

"Shiny white armor, you said?"

"Uh, yeah, why're you scowling like that?"

"Just reminded me of someone. What happened with this dumb kid?"

"Eh, I just threw him in a random direction. Wasn't gonna waste time on it, if you know what I mean."

"Makes sense."

"But getting back to you, I get the sense that you're not taking this seriously. Like you think fighting is just a game or something."

"Hm."

"Fighting's not a game, Carl. Doesn't matter how strong you are if you don't have the skill to use that strength."

"Hm."

"Gonna need to take this more seriously if you really wanna learn anything and aren't just wasting your own time."

"Yeah, you might be right. I guess I wasn't taking it that seriously. Time to focus up."

"That's a good kick, Carl. Here, try this."

"Why do you have a table in your inventory."

"Carl, I have a fucking three story building in my inventory, and you're caught on a table?"

"Alright, so I'm kicking a table."

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Carl's Dad Sense, currently activated past its limits as a result of Vol's coffee, blipped. He came to a stop from their latest training exercise, in which he attempted to punch a table while Vol held it upright. He'd already failed to kick it a number of times, each attempt striking something in a soundless impact, but he didn't feel like he was actually striking the table. It was good practice regardless, he felt, and the fact that it was very quiet was also something he appreciated since he wasn't trying to wake Mina up.

But now she was up.

He was certain of it.

"Break time," he announced as he pointed upwards, breathing a little heavily from the exertion.

Vol shrugged and tossed the giant wooden table back into her inventory.

Still can't believe she's got a freaking building in there. Where'd she even get it? Guess inventory sizes here must be way bigger than on the live servers. He walked over to the bathroom and grabbed his towel to dry his face off. Hate this level of realism. Why not just not add in the part where you get all sweaty after doing stuff?

Carl walked over to the stairs and started going up, being sure to make an adequate amount of noise as was required by proper Dad Protocol when there were teenage girls under his watch. "Hey, Mina," he called when his head poked over the landing, "how you doing?"

Mina was sitting on the arm of the chair with her hands on the sides of her head, staring down at her legs, where her scarf rested. She made no attempt to reply.

He moved closer and set his hand on her far shoulder, prompting her to lean towards him.

She sighed and leaned towards him, allowing her hands to fall to her lap.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" he asked, rubbing her shoulder a little.

"Carl," she said softly. "you must…" she cut off and buried her face into his side, beginning to sob.

"Hey, hey," he said gently as he sat on the chair and pulled her to him, giving her a big hug. "Hey, it's okay. It's okay, Mina."

She continued to cry, laying limply in his arms.

He continued to rub her back in small circles as he held her.

Sometimes being the best dad was just being the best shoulder to cry on.