The title was my idea, and it was probably the last of my really good gaming puns. Of course it highlights where the group is on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (or will be once this flash-forward ends).

This is also as close as we got to acknowledging the existence of any other gaming webcomics, something that I didn’t want to do more openly for the same reason I limited the “wink wink, it’s almost like they’re IN A GAME” jokes. Phil wasn’t really into this particular flavor of meta either. But it’s not like Ryan and Lar own the term.

Like the first two flash-forwards and unlike the next three, this is kind of an island scene in terms of any real connection to the larger plot, which freed us up to focus entirely on character. Here, of course, the single biggest focus is on Frigg and traits that will be important to Frigg’s arc in chapters 5 and 6, even though that arc takes place before this scene chronologically.