I woke up to the sound of knocking on the door. Not from the main door to my room, but from the door to the bathroom that I shared with my neighbor.

“What the hell?” I grumbled in confusion.

A moment later, I was out of bed and wide awake. This was a bit different from how things used to be, but it seemed that adding a few points into vitality had made me a bit more of a morning person. Or at least, it made it easier to function in the mornings.

“What is it?” I asked, though there was no answer, just more knocking.

I grumbled and activated my armor, mostly because it was a lot quicker and easier than getting dressed in real clothes. Then I went and opened the door.

“About damn time,” Lenore said as she stepped out of my bathroom.

Lenore was dressed in normal clothes, if ‘goth chic’ could be considered normal. Black pants, black shirt, and a pair of black fingerless gloves. She had clearly showered and cleaned up as well, and now wore fresh eye-shadow and black lipstick.

“You’re my neighbor?” I asked in realization.

“Pretty much,” she responded, only to pause and look me over. “What the fuck are you wearing that for?”

I looked down at myself and my ‘Armor of the Enchantress’. “It’s clean. It’s fresh. And I can put it on fast when someone is knocking at my door.”

She smirked at that. “Fair point.” Then she shrugged. “It makes me wish I could just conjure my own clothes whenever I wanted.”

“Is that the kind of ability you could get?” I asked curiously.

Lenore nodded. “Yeah, but my specialization is in arms and armor. I might be able to get something for clothes, but it would probably be kind of a fucking waste when any weapons or armor I conjure would be a lot more powerful…and a hell of a lot more useful in the Labyrinth.”

“What other kinds of things can conjurers make?” I asked curiously. This was the first time she’d really mentioned her specialization.

“It could be just about anything,” Lenore told me. “I mean, I’ve been offered an ability to conjure furniture, and I know another conjurer whose specialization is all about making tools. I mean, things like hammers and fucking screwdrivers.”

“Arms and armor sounds pretty useful in comparison,” I pointed out.

Lenore nodded agreement. “Yeah. But I wish my shit didn’t come out looking so fancy… I mean, between that and the fact that I keep being offered things like swords, shields, and axes for abilities…” She paused at that and shook her head. “It’s almost like my class is trying to turn me into some kind of knight in shining fucking armor or something.”

“I have a hard time seeing that,” I admitted.

“Maybe a stalker,” Lenore mused. “Or a shadowmancer…”

“Good goth appropriate classes,” I observed.

“Exactly,” she responded with a smirk. Then she gestured to my armor and said, “You can get away with wearing that here in the Labyrinth zone, and even nearby, but not so much away from it. People will stare at you and might even freak the fuck out.”

“Good to know,” I said, not sure what else to say. I imagined that people would be more likely to freak out over players carrying weapons around.

“Anyway,” Lenore told me, “Grayson and I were going to head into town…just outside the Labyrinth zone, and we figured you might want to come with. Better food, lodgings, and shopping than what they’ve got here. It’s only a couple miles, so we can get there well before lunch.”

I considered for a few seconds before nodding my agreement. “Riel said that I needed to get my picture taken and get my permanent ID.” Then I let out a sigh and added, “But I don’t think I’ll be doing any shopping. You know, the whole broke thing.”

Lenore hesitated, then said, “You know, Red, Grayson and I were talking last night…” She gave me an amused look. “I was gonna wait to tell you until lunch, but…”

“But?” I asked when she left it hanging.

“We decided to give you a share of our loot from that delve,” she explained with a smirk. “I mean, you did fight monsters and helped us earn it.”

My eyes widened at that. “What?”

“We still have to sell it of course,” Lenore continued. “We planned on doing that while we were over there.”

“But…,” I started, trying to make sense of what she’d just said.

Not that long ago, I’d been thinking about how I could steal the unobtainium that we’d found. But after Pham died, I hadn’t even thought about it again. After that, a shiny rock just didn’t seem all that important anymore.

“Now, lets get going,” Lenore urged me. “And bring your staff. Just in case we run into any loose monsters on the way there.”

----------

I stepped into the restaurant and was immediately aware of multiple pairs of eyes turning to look at me. Some were just curious since I was wearing my ‘Armor of the Enchantress’ and I had my staff with me. None of those looks were of surprise since that kind of thing was apparently common in this area.

However, most of the attention that was directed at me was that of obvious attraction…or simply jealousy because of all the attention I was getting. I bit back a smile, but stood up a little straighter and added just a little more sway into my step as I walked to my table.

Lenore, Grayson, and I had walked a couple miles from the Moose Tow remote post into Moose Tow proper, as they called it. Apparently, the town on the outside of the Labyrinth zone was considered to be the main town, while parts that were inside were treated more like a suburb or something.

The walk had only been a couple miles, which after all the walking I’d done inside the Labyrinth, no longer seemed very far at all. It had been a relatively easy walk, with only a couple monsters showing up. These were some of those turtle rat things that had slipped out of the Labyrinth, but there weren’t many of them and they had been easy to deal with.

Now, we were in Moose Tow proper, taking care of a few errands and getting lunch. I took my seat at the table, then glanced down at the new ID that I’d just been given in the Warden’s office. This one, unlike the one that Riel had given me yesterday, had a plastic coating and my picture on it.

“I guess this makes it official,” I said, my eyes going to the name ‘Donna’ which were printed out at the top. There was no last name.

“A new life,” Grayson told me. “And a new identity.”

“It can be tough to adjust,” Lenore told me. “For some people more than others.”

“True,” Grayson agreed. “But as players, we have a lot of power and opportunity that we never would have had in our old lives.”

Lenore nodded at that. “Yeah, some things are way better off…” She hesitated for a couple seconds, then spat out, “Fuck cancer.”

From the vehemence in her voice, it was obvious that this was very personal to her. From the context, I assumed that this was how she’d died.

“Fuck cancer,” Grayson agreed, though his tone lacked the venom of Lenore’s. His voice lowered and he admitted, “I don’t even know how I went. I went to bed, just like normal, and then woke up in a respawn pool. Could have been a heart attack. Could have been murdered in my sleep.” He shrugged. “No idea.”

I nodded at that, a little surprised that they were both opening up a little about their past lives. Then again, we were out of the Labyrinth and in a good place to relax. If there was any place to let your guard down, it was a nice little diner like this one.

“I trusted someone I shouldn’t have,” I admitted, a little surprised at myself for saying as much. “He stabbed me in the back. Literally.”

“Ouch,” Lenore said with a since. “That fucking sucks.”

“Not as bad as cancer,” I responded with a shrug. “At least mine was over fast.”

“Giles,” Grayson said carefully. “He’s a good guy, but he doesn’t understand. He never died and then had to start over as someone else.”

“Maybe Pham will come back,” I offered, though I didn’t have much hope of it.

“I’ve never heard of any player coming back a second time,” Grayson told me. “Not even the ones who didn’t have to respawn to become players.” There was a sad note in his voice, one that matched my own.

“There’s always hope,” Lenore said, which sounded a bit odd when coming from a goth.

I looked over at the wall beside our table and chuckled. There were several art pieces depicting a cart being pulled by a moose or two. In fact, there was even a photograph of the same thing.

“I heard last night that some player actually did tame the moose,” Grayson told me. “At least until he left, but I don’t know if he used some ability or just had high presence.”

The mention of ‘presence’ made me think of the way that everyone kept staring at me, especially since I came into Moose Tow proper. Apparently, my high presence made me into a natural attention magnet, drawing people’s attention whether I wanted to or not. But since I kind of liked the attention, I didn’t really see that as a problem.

“Is moose tamer a class?” I asked curiously.

“Tamer is,” Lenore told me. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some kind of specialization for moose.” Then she snorted. “But I imagine that would be pretty fucking limiting.”

We chuckled at that as we all began looking over the menus. It was the typical diner food that I’d been expecting, a lot of breakfast items that leaned heavily into eggs, hash, and pancakes. After having spent so much time eating prison food or the stuff I’d foraged from Labyrinth safe zones, all of this looked absolutely delicious.

“Real food,” I quietly moaned. It had been so long.

Lenore laughed at that. “Yeah, I always enjoy the first meal after getting out of the Labyrinth.”

“So, do we have anywhere else we need to go when we’re done with lunch?” Grayson asked.

I hesitated a moment before admitting, “Yeah. I need to pick up some stuff.”

I blushed a little as I thought about the fact that I really wanted to get a brush and maybe some makeup. And since I was a chick now, that meant I’d probably need that other chick stuff…the stuff for that time of the month. I shuddered at the thought. I’d never gone through that, but I was already dreading it.

“At least you don’t have to buy armor,” Grayson offered. “Buying gear is usually one of our biggest expenses.”

“You could probably use a side weapon though,” Lenore offered. “Maybe a short sword or scepter.”

“The last sword was a bit much for me,” I admitted.

If I wanted to use a weapon like that, I’d need to slot more points into strength and dexterity. Probably agility too. And while those points would be useful, they wouldn’t help much with the mage build I was already working on.

Just then, I noticed someone else stepping into the restaurant. It was Stine, wearing a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt. He looked casual, and was dressed like a number of other people that I’d seen since arriving in Moose Tow. If I didn’t know better, I never would have guessed that he was a player.

My eyes locked on Stine as he strolled in, though I was sure it wasn’t because of high presence. In fact, I would have been surprised if he’d slotted even a single point into presence. No, I was watching him because of his chorded muscles and the confident way that he strolled through the room. There was a grace to his movements, one that reminded me of a cat that was about to strike.

“Nice on the eyes,” Lenore told me with a smirk. “Are you thinking of fucking him?”

I nearly choked at that, especially because I actually had been, at least a little bit. I turned bright red, wanting to deny it but knowing that this would only encourage Lenore to tease me more.

“Red is really living up to her nickname,” Lenore told Grayson with a chuckle.

I glared at her but didn’t say a thing. This whole situation was more than a little awkward. Ever since I’d been respawned as a chick, I’ve noticed that my perspective has been changing. I now enjoyed attention and wanted to look good. And of course, I was now attracted to men while women seemed to do absolutely nothing for me anymore. I’d been trying hard not to think about this, and to embrace denial for as long as I could, but Lenore had just thrown it in my face and made it impossible to ignore.

“Hey, Stine,” Lenore called out, waving to him. “Come on over and join us.”

Stine nodded, then started heading straight towards us. I leaned over and whispered to Lenore, “I’m gonna kill you.”

She just smirked. “Not if you die of embarrassment first.”