The world had changed, was still changing. The Bird Siblings had just survived a very uneventful encounter with a fear tiger. All around the world, various people were encountering monsters, and some of them were busy being eaten by monsters. But on the even side of Reedwodehouse Road, specifically at 904 Reedwodehouse Road, the home of Dr. Edward Edwards, there was a gathering of the neighbors. While everyone had heard the announcement, not everyone really listened to the announcement and had no idea that there were monsters running around the neighborhood, the forest was a bit harder to deny. However, when Dr. Edwards had come around knocking on all the even-numbered houses between 902 and 922, everyone that answered their door, from the Howards who were the most resistant to the idea that anything significant or strange had happened to the Everclears that had just finished evicting a grumpy fairy turtle from the kitchen sink when Dr. Edwards came around, had accepted his invitation to come over to his house for an impromptu potluck meal and gathering to discuss the current state of the world and what if anything to do about it.

“I think today is the same really as any other day. I mean. I can certainly understand that that strange prank of an announcement has some people concerned. And Sure there seem to be some trees where the road used to be, though really that just serves the people who were parking their cars on the street and not on their driveways like proper human beings rightly. But this talk of monsters, That is just nonsense. Anyone claiming to have seen a monster must have been imagining it, right?”

George Howard looked at his wife for confirmation. Mindy Howard raised her head up from the book she was reading.

“Absolutely. Oh and Howard dear, did you try the Everclears' pasta salad, it is really good, remind me later to ask them for the recipe."

George had not in fact tried the pasta salad. But he knew his wife did not praise food lightly, and so he headed over to add some to his plate.

Across the room, Susanna Everclear, the creator of the previously mentioned pasta salad and a firm advocate for, yes there are definitely monsters but we aren't all doomed had just finished telling the story, for at least the fourth time, about she has dealt with the grumpy fairy turtle in the kitchen sink.

“Wow. So you just hit it with a frying pan over and over? That is so cool!”

Although Betty Nets had heard the story three times, she was honestly still excited about it. She thought it was so cool that somebody actually fought and defeated a monster. When her family had discovered a giant spider in her grandmother's bedroom, they all just fled the house. It really was a good thing that Dr. Edwards had invited them over, otherwise, they'd all still be sitting terrified on the front porch. Betty was hoping that the potluck meeting never ended. Maybe Dr. Edwards will let us sleep here tonight.

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“This whole thing feels so unreal, and it also kinda like a game or a story, but it is happening here in reality. The system message talked about staus screens, that's game talk, but we don't even have access to these status screens. We are living in a world that has not only gone crazy but this new weird strange unreality is broken, it doesn't even work properly, Whoever gave that announcement must have broken everything, you all heard the announcement, they are clearly incompetent."

"It could be worse. We could have been on one of those worlds that got destroyed."

"Maybe we were, maybe we all died, and this is the afterlife."

“We should explore the forest, maybe there are elves! ”

“Is everyone just going to ignore Tom's stupid comment about this being the afterlife?"

"Yes.”

George was eating the pasta salad. It was very good. Mindy was reading her book. Dr. Edwards had gone upstairs to his office and was typing up on a typewriter note of everything useful or informative that anyone has said. There was a sense of calm Dr. Edwards always felt whenever typing on a typewriter. it had to be a typewriter though, pen and paper, or a keyboard just do not feel the same way.

back downstairs someone was telling George and Mindy about a monster they had seen. George would have said something rude about how they must have imagined it, but he had a mouth full of pasta salad and he had been properly thought that it is rude to talk with food in your mouth. Mindy didn't say anything because she was reading her book.

Tom had given up on his afterlife theory. or at least given up on convincing people to take it seriously. He had located Sam, Susanna's husband, where he had been hiding in the corner, attempting to avoid conversation. Unfortunately for him, Tom had already talked to almost everyone else.

“Hey you're sam right, were neighbors, well we are all neighbors here, but your house is like actually adjacent to mine. I heard about the monster. Tell me all the details."

"Um, there was this turtle fairy thing in the kitchen and Susana hit a bunch of times with a frying pan, then she leveled up whatever that means."

"It probably means she leveled up."

"Yes, but what does that mean. In a game when you level up you are stronger or get more abilities, the game tells you in what way a higher level is better, but all that is in games. What does it mean to be a higher level in life, in reality? Maybe if we could see out status that we were teased about, one could know, but as it is, is being a higher level good, bad, irrelevant? Maybe we are all supposed to evolve into giant bugs, and your level just marks how far away you are from the change happening."

"Wow, that's pretty far fetched. Don't try to convince anyone on that, they weren't even willing to consider my afterlife theory."

And so the people of the even side talked and ate pasta salad and other pot luck delicacies, and while they didn't come up with any great plans, or even agree about the existence of monsters, they did all have a great time, except for sam. Some of the gathering, again not Sam, even thought to themselves, definitely a contender for best neighborhood gathering.