Carl passed the invitation paper to the armored woman at the gate. Sure are a lot of freaking gates in this city. This one's a lot more elaborate than the others though. Got those cool wolf heads on the—

"You can go," the woman grunted, passing back the paper.

"Thanks." He retrieved it and tucked it into the pocket in his purple toga-robe thing in case he needed it again soon. After adjusting his toga-robe, he clomped forward in his sandals. "These things are so freaking uncomfortable," he grumbled. Wish I could've at least worn my sunglasses.

"You look so handsome though," Vol said. She was wearing a long, flowing, dark-blue-with-purple-highlights dress that came up over her head and ended just above her feet. Her mouth was covered as usual, now by a matching purple cloth. "If you're not careful, your wife's gonna get jealous of all the women throwing themselves at you tonight."

Carl rolled his eyes. "Uh-huh."

They continued along the wide, well-lit, winding stone path that led to the so-called villa which, to Carl's inexpert eye, may or may not have actually been a villa, but also: what exactly was a villa again since he'd forgotten the exact characteristics? Noise carried out to them at a louder volume the closer they came, and there were several other purple-dressed people standing around the arch of the entrance with cups and small plates with food.

"So we're really not trying to do anything in particular?" he asked again.

Vol snickered. "Nah, all we have to do is go in and be visible. Just don't get lost. I don't wanna have to hunt you down if you get stuck head-first in the ground somewhere."

"Hey, that was only like, two freaking times, okay?"

"How the fuck did you even manage it one time? Normal people fall down the same way they go up, Carl."

"I—It was a bad throw when you tossed me over!"

"Okay, but you jumped the second time."

"Stupid physics bugs," Carl grumbled as they passed through the arch, the stand-arounders having decided to move out of the way as they approached.

Past the stone arch was a massive swimming pool which Carl might have described as Olympic-sized if he knew exactly how big that was and how big this pool was. Pretty freaking huge though.

The entire area was open to the evening sky. Light-colored stone tiled the ground in between short, decorative hedges. The wall of the villa extended all the way around, and he could see tables and chairs set up intermittently throughout the parts of the courtyard not occupied by the swimming pool and hedges. Around the edges and on the far side of the pool were doors to the insides of the villa.

"Nice place," Carl remarked. So this is where Mina's sister hangs out. Sure would be a shame if anything were to happen to such a nice place.

"Eh." Vol was looking around. "We've probably got a while before anything fun's gonna happen. Eat some food, talk to some people, whatever. I'm gonna go check out some legs." She set off towards the right side of the pool where the heads of a trio of man and women were visible among splashes of water.

I thought Mina was bad with her car stuff, but Vol's really got a one-track mind. Carl shook his head. Alright, maybe I'll rustle up some food. Looks like a big buffet kinda thing over there. He started towards the big table of food on the far side of the pool. Could just jump across, but I don't wanna look like an idiot at this party we're crashing by landing on my head again. So annoying.

He passed by a quintet of purple-wearing people sitting around a small table laughing about something or other. One of them waved to him over a big mug of what he assumed was probably beer, and he waved back to be polite. Seems like a normal enough party. Fits the Roman-y setting, that's for sure. Feels almost like I'm back in Italy. Everyone who said to do the full Italy tour for our honeymoon was right; that was a great trip. Except when Annie got super sunburned towards the end. Gotta remember to reapply that sunblock.

His musings were cut short as he caught sight of a young blonde woman in the distance. Given how everyone here had darker hair for the stupid city-wide discount, he was pretty sure he knew who it was.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Carl's jaw clenched. He forced himself to turn right and take the bridge over the swimming pool, which indicated to him that this was an adult party based on the lack of any form of swimsuit from the people frolicking about in the water. Vol said not to make too big of a scene before we got to the good part if I could help it. Not sure what she's planning, but if it's her, I gotta imagine it's gonna be crazy. Really thought she'd fall for it when I tried to bluff her into telling me earlier.

The after-real-noon had been a bit of a blur. He'd been assaulted by the tailor and his measuring tape for a short while—after yet again going through the explanation that he was not, in fact, related to whoever the heck these stupid Weathers mages were—before the old man's assistants had rushed out of the back and started furiously sewing, hemming, stitching, and whatever other things tailors did when they were tailoring. There had been a lot of that done to a big toga-robe, and then he'd put it on, and it had fit him perfectly.

There was some business with the sandals, which he was extremely uncomfortable wearing, and there was some talk of undergarments—not underwear, specifically, though he'd decided to try some of that out as well since it seemed like it would be more comfortable—which had needed some deciding on since he just wanted to wear regular pants and a shirt, and that was apparently Frowned Upon.

Vol had come to fetch him at some point, and they'd gone to get their nails trimmed and treated, which she assured him was crucial for the evening. Then he had to get another haircut and beard trim. He couldn't tell the difference, but Vol said she was having trouble controlling her passions, and they'd had a good chuckle over it until she'd gotten distracted by the legs of some gladiator walking past and started catcalling him, conspicuously disappearing into a side street with the man and returning by herself with an obvious smirk visible despite her bandanna several minutes later.

After that vaguely amusing episode, Carl had a near-meltdown worrying about Mina, and they'd rushed back to the workshop to find that she seemed to be doing a little better. She didn't talk still, but she didn't cry when he went up to check on her. He'd sat with her for a while in silence, feeling like he was lending her strength by being there, and, after leaving her a selection of the best foods he and Vol had chosen while they were out, she'd grabbed the edge of his shirt as he was leaving and given him a look which, according to his Dad Sense, was the I Need A Hug look.

She seemed even a little better after that, and then when he ruffled her hair, he noticed another small improvement when she smiled slightly.

Carl Weathers was truly a dad among dads.

He wasn't about to let that minor success go to his head though. That was how a dad might become complacent and stop being the best freaking dad ever.

Carl reached the food table. Wow, they've got a ton of stuff. All looks pretty good too. As he surveyed, he happened to glance at the core on his shoulder. Been quiet lately. Maybe too quiet. Feels like it's up to something. I haven't even heard it giggle in a day or two, though it was crazy annoying again yesterday when we were dungeoneering.

He picked up a ceramic plate and grabbed a few different types of meat skewers and a couple onion-y, vegetable-y skewers to balance them out; he might be in a game, but that didn't mean he was gonna stop thinking about eating healthy since he needed to maintain not only the lifestyle of staying fit but also the mindset of remaining in peak condition at all times. He was already forty nine, and every decision he made now was one that might help him live a little longer to be there for his girls and Annie.

While he was in that line of thought, Carl had a related one. He glanced from side to side for no reason. "Inventory." Taking a selection of various items he suspected Mina might like, he tossed them into the Mina's Presents page. She and her sister might not get along, but she'll probably like eating food I stole for her with how good it looks. "Dismiss."

He nodded to himself with satisfaction. She's starting to recover, so I've just gotta stay the course. Then I can log out and get on with my real-day. He started over towards one of the somewhat nearby empty stone chairs that faced back towards the entrance. I mean, not that I'm in a rush to leave if Mina really needs me, but it's getting a lot harder to stay now. I miss everyone so much.

The lonely father settled into the chair and set his plate on the small stone table before he took a bite of one of the meat skewers, finding that it was actually a veggie skewer and had no flavor to him. He sighed.

I miss Bobby and how cute she is when she gets stuck on a tough problem, and how she comes over and sits on me when I'm in the chair in the den even though she's probably a little too old to still be doing that, and how she keeps PvPing even when Annie tells her not to and I have to kinda agree-while-not-agreeing since the noobs gotta be kept in check.

I miss Sammy and her tackle-hugs that make me never wanna skip deadlift day so I don't die falling over, and her crazy ways of sitting in chairs while she watches basketball and messages her friends on her phone, and how excited she still gets from simple stuff like Rocky Road ice cream—which I should definitely pick up more of on my way home real-tonight to celebrate being back, even if nobody else is gonna get it.

I miss Annie. Everything about Annie.

I gotta do something when I get out about how stressed she is. This stupid Rebecca thing, and her school stuff, and now the yoga thing… Must be something more I can do to help her out. She's always trying to do nice things for me when I get really stressed, and I feel like maybe I could be helping her out a little more. Somehow. Gotta—