"Cage the Elephant": "american rock band; genres: alternative rock, indie rock, psychedelic rock, garage rock, punk blues"

"Green Day": "american rock band; genres: punk rock; pop punk; skate punk; alternative rock; power pop"

"punk rock": "a music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced short, fast-paced songs with hard-edged melodies and singing styles, stripped-down instrumentation, and often shouted political, anti-establishment lyrics."

My qualifying leve was successful. We returned to Sam and got the reward. The next leve was not available right away, though; Mr. Davidson had not yet told Sam he wanted the work done. Sam told us he would call us when the leve was available. This is more convenient than having to go to the levemete each time, as in Eorzea, though less convenient since completing the leve here did not teleport us back to the levemete.

We had thought that if Mr. Davidson approved the job we would complete it after our diner work, but we did not get a call before bedtime. When we still did not get a call in the morning, we found other things to do. Husband went to gather fire shards; I could have gone with him, but instead I took the bus to Tulsa.

I do not know what draws me back to the game. Perhaps I am driven to look for differences between my Eorzea and the game's Eorzea. Perhaps I miss my Eorzea...it has not been long since we came to this world, but Husband believes we may not see my home again. Or perhaps it is as Husband says, that the game can show us how our skills can work in this world.

Rika was waiting for me when I logged in. She did not jump for joy, as she did when I named her; she simply stood there in the void. I wondered what she did when I was not logged in, whether she was bored, or had adventures I did not know about. Husband would probably say that she was not real and did not do anything without me. But watching her standing there, blinking, breathing, looking at me, it is hard to think of her that way.

Rika does not know how to do things. I remember Husband stating in Eorzea his impatience about needing to learn things he already knew; that impatience is now mine with Rika. She did not know how to go to an inn room until she went outside, gained several levels as a gladiator, and did several quests. I knew she should have been able to simply talk to the innkeeper, but she could not do that.

I watched the talk on the Novice channel. Much of it was irrelevant or irreverent, but some was questions that were clearly from people who had not played very long, and who had not lived in Eorzea. People would ask when they could get mounts, or when they could fly, or when they could reach the "PVP area". The answer was frequently that they needed to "follow the MSQ", or Main Story Questline. Which Rika had yet to do.

She did not know about retainers, the assistants we had in Eorzea who sold, held and gathered things for us. I could not simply have her hire retainers from the retainer vocate; she first needed to do a quest to learn what retainers were. Once that was done, she could hire retainers, though the hiring was very similar to creating a new character.

She could look at the market board, and see what was for sale. While I looked at the listings I noted the names of the sellers and how silly most of them were, even sillier than the names of other people in the game. These would be created by other players, people putting up goods for sale, as Husband did in Eorzea.

Which made me think. Husband and I seemed to be the only people in Eorzea he would call "players." Yet there were goods in Eorzea that we could buy from the market board, and things we listed for sale did sometimes sell. I do not remember any of the sellers' names in Eorzea. Were they retainers? And, if so, whose? And who bought our goods?

This is something I should probably ask Husband about, to see if he has a theory. After I tell him I have been playing the game.

So many things familiar yet new. Meeting the Sultana. Meeting Thancred. Learning to mine. Learning to weave. It has been long enough that I do not now remember not knowing how to make hempen yarn, and here I was doing it for the first time with Rika. I did not feel her fingers working as she spun, or her arms getting tired as she swung a pickaxe. Or her pain as beastkin fought her.

Husband would have experienced those things for the first time in Eorzea after having experienced it effortlessly in this game. Perhaps he also experienced fear. I am learning about him as much as about the game.

Husband called to say that Mr. Davidson had agreed to the job, so I met him at home to join him in a nap before a long night. The diner work was ordinary, though Mr. Hartman did have words for Husband about the music that was playing when he returned to the diner on an errand.

"I told you not to play punk."

"Come on, it's just Cage the Elephant. It's no more punk than Green Day."

"Green Day is punk."

"Green Day's not punk!"

Husband brought out his phone to check. From the look on his face, and Mr. Hartman's, I suspected Green Day was, in fact, punk.

The children were entertained watching them going through Husband's music, trying different songs to see which they could agree about. I do not know which songs were Cage the Elephant or Green Day. Mr. Hartman seemed to approve of the ones with less shouting.

We flew out to the Davidson farm after locking up the diner for the night. The moon was full enough that we could make out the land below and see slight movement. This will not always be the case; I should talk with Husband about what he called "night-vision goggles".

Our plan had been to use our bows with Quick Nock, but when we arrived I wondered if this was the best approach. "Must we use bows, Husband?"

"It's a battle leve, so it shouldn't matter as long as the targets get dead. Why?"

"I wonder if pigs will escape should our arrows not hit them. Perhaps we can use axes instead?"

"Hm. Tank aggro to keep them coming toward us rather than running away? Good idea, my love."

So as not to startle the pigs we approached quietly as Ninjas. Then, on either side of the group, we switched to Warrior, readied our battleaxes and struck. We hewed through all the pigs that were there, hardly giving them time to squeal. When we were done, and we were certain there were no more targets, we stood in an empty clearing with pig meat and pig hide in our inventory.

It was not battle. It was hardly effort. I did not feel as if I had done anything more significant than vacuuming. Hunting the cows was similar. I missed hunting the ovim in Amh Araeng. But this was honest labor which will earn us honest pay.

We stood in the clearing and held each other, as we often do after a task we have finished. Our armor hampered intimacy, but I at least was not feeling a strong need for it. We have sometimes felt passion after a fierce battle; we did not feel that then. We were content to Return and walk home and lie quietly in each other's arms after a job done.

I am not saving the world. I am not battling armies. I am living a peaceful life with a man that I love, doing honest work and making things.

I look at this and think there should be something more to say.