It was well into the night when Nathan stumbled into the Inn. He scanned the crowd and finally spied us.

“Hey buddy! Over here!” I waved him towards our booth.

Nathan grinned and slid in beside me. “Wow, spaz. You look like you were buried under a mountain of cake crumbs.”

Laurel mumbled something incredibly crude involving Nathan, his mother, a goat and a liter of lube. I was quite proud of her. Nate laughed in response and nodded. “Yeah, she was a freak like that.”

Laurel moaned, utterly stuffed. Her eyes had a half-comatose glaze. I pushed her shoulder, and she tilted, slowly going horizontal.

“She’s got the cake sleepies,” I grinned

She mumbled something and sighed loudly

“…And pie. And turkey. And roast.”

She made a satisfied sound and closed her eyes, almost instantly asleep.

“Well, now that Miss Sunshine is out, how’d your day go?” I asked.

“It was a bit more complicated than I thought it would be, but I set in motion a plan to upgrade the city significantly, while preventing ghettoization of the lower income areas.”

I blinked.

“That seems pretty high level conversations for NPC’s, Nate.”

Nathan nodded and flagged the waitress down, calling for mead.

“You’re 100% right. I swear it’s like they were learning on the fly. By the time we were done, I’m sure they were on my level.”

My eyebrows shot up, “That’s pretty impressive.”

“I know, right?” Nate happily took the flagon from the waitress that approached and took a deep pull. He smiled. “This is really good!”

“Slow down, champ. You’ll really get drunk.”

This time Nathan’s eyebrows rose, half in surprise, half in curiosity. “You don’t say.”

“I do say. Get that down you, and we’ll take some food to our new place.” I pointed my chin at the recumbent Laurel, “Help me get her up.”

Nathan drained his vessel and slammed it down with a loud ‘Ah!’

“Yes boss.” Nathan nodded as he slipped food into his inventory surreptitiously.

I managed to get Laurel on my back with the help of my dependable companion, Nathan, we trudged to the location of our new home.

***

As we walked through town, the golden lights of candles and lanterns escaped through windows, faintly illuminating the areas that filled the spaces between the street lamps which attracted halos of moths that battered at them with desperate, relentless passion. The cool evening breeze fluttered my clothing, cooling my alchohol-heated skin pleasantly. It was almost as if we were ack in the real world, returning from a pub crawl.

Nathan stopped and cocked his head.

"Wait. Hold up." Nathan hissed.

Turning, I saw him cock his head, and squint in concentration.

"What's up?

"Shh." He held his finger to his lips and listened carefully. After a few minutes, he faded from sight and whispered, "Be right back."

Hmm. I wonder what could have gotten him spooked like that. I looked around and saw only a stray alleycat pad silently across the street, off on adventures of its own knowing. Laurel squirmed against me, her breath a warm contrast against the cool night air tickled nape of my neck.

A few minutes later Nate reappeared, "Let's get moving."

I nodded, and bounced Laurel up to get a better purchase on her thighs, "What was it?"

Nate walked beside me, pursing his lips, "Ah, probably nothing."

"You sure?"

"Well, I heard a conversation from inside one of the houses, It leveled up my perception, so I thought it might be important."

"What was it then?"

"A housewife was talking to her husband, who is apparently a city guard." They were talking about the goblins, then moved on to us."

I paused, "Us?"

"Well, not us specifically. Players."

"Wait, what? NPC's arent supposed to be able to recognize that we're players."

"It's not that simple. They can see our menus and popups. And they noticed a distinct difference in behavior between NPC's and players," Nathan said as we walked.

"There's more, right?"

"Well the wife then relayed a story from one of the neighbors. Apparently a player barged in and started breaking all of her pottery, looking for coins."

I laughed, "Really? A Zelda reference?"

"Ah, yeah, but then she said something about players.... being cursed or insane or something. I think it might be best if we try to blend in with the locals."

I nodded, "I agree. I had already found a setting in the HUD that lets me shut off notification popups. They almost killed me today! I'll have spaz set it when she wakes up."

"Good idea."

We finally arrived at the location on the map, it was a fairly ordinary looking brownstone surrounded by a seven foot-tall stone wall which was secured by a wrought iron gate. Behind the gate an elderly man with a large curled moustache in a shabby looking waistcoat sat in a chair that sat in a meager looking shed, intended to keep the rain off of him.

I kicked the gate lightly, "Open up. We're home."

The old man sprang to his feet, straightened his clothes to no real effect, and cleared his throat.

"Ah you must be the new Master," He fumbled with a ring of keys the he produced from within his coat.

"That's us, and as you can see, the mistress of the house nees to lay down," I gestured to Laurel, who lay over my shoulders oblvious to her surroundings.

The man crowed as he held up the key he had been looking for, which he inserted into the gate, which clanked loudly, allowing him to swing it open.

"Welcome home, masters."