Because Owen and Mog both grew up decently isolated from modern player society they sometimes go to eachother about things they don’t know to try and see if the other person knows it.
it’s common knowledge that Owen grew up feral, so he’s usually fine to ask Scott or Lizzie for help, but Mog technically did grow up around villagers so people overestimate his knowledge. So, Owen asks for him :)
“So, Owen. What do you need?”
“How do you politely ask someone to please leave.”
“Oh, that’s easy!” Scott smiled, “You don’t need to necessarily be polite if they’re being pushy, but you could say, ‘Hey, I have stuff I need to do so could you get going?’”
Owen nodded sagely in thanks, slowly retreating back into the underbrush and running until he smelled the waft of honey through the air, sweet and delicious.
“Mogswamp?”
The man’s crown poked itself up from a nearby garden, half sliding off of his head. “Oh - Wow, you’re back already? That was really fast.”
Owen stayed silent as he approached, pushing himself up to balance perfectly on the thin log that was the barrier of the garden.
“He says that you can say you have things to do and that you need them to go. Please.”
Mog looked delighted, his hands clapping together. “Oh! That’s so clever, blaming it on other responsibilities..wish I thought of that. Thank you for asking him.”
Owen nodded, glancing around shadily. “Yeah..um. Can I stay?”
“Of course, you don’t ever have to leave. You aren’t very noisy.”
Owen gave a slight smile at that response, as the beekeeper got himself busy once more with his garden, and the jungle dweller simply watched, looking over him.
Yes hello!!! Tanner telling Kayden to slap himself in the face again and Kayden grinning and doing it and Tanner savoring it Is a kink I did not know I had But maybe it's just T and Matt making it so compelling *sweats* (Tanner should go over there and do it himself; I'm sure Kayden would look up at him and offer up his face with a sneer and a lick of his lips)
anonymous asked: talk to us about kayden being SO willing to slap himself for tanner that seems like a thing you’d enjoy :3
“You having fun now?” snapped Tanner, hands shoved deep in his pockets as he paced back and forth, jittery, trying to cover his nerves. This was- this was a lot. This was too much. He couldn’t admit it outloud, wouldn’t admit it outloud, but he couldn’t fucking cope with this. He was a kid, they were all just kids, and he could feel the panic trying to strangle him as the reality of their potentially-deadly situation abruptly asserted itself.
Worst of all, it was real. It was all real, and a year’s worth of denial, of hating Kayden for what he had supposedly done, had just vanished in a puff of smoke.
“Tons.” Kayden bit out the end of the word, as though he was forcing it through his teeth, his jaw tight and eyes hard.
Tanner barely contained the laugh that twisted around his lungs like a thorny vine, a black, humourless thing. The reasoning behind the hatred may have collapsed, but that didn’t mean the hatred itself had – and right now, drowning in fear-anger-panic, it was the one thing he could actually cling to. “A lot of fun?” he asked, and even he could hear the poorly-suppressed hysteria in the words, beneath the fury of them. “Everything’s just so much fun, isn’t it?”
“God, Tanner…” breathed Sat, her face still tear-streaked and horror-stricken. She looked as scooped-hollow as Tanner felt, and it made something in his chest ache – but he ignored her, eyes locked on Kayden’s.
And Kayden… Kayden, the fucker, looked him in the eye right back, and slapped himself. He growled through it, through the pain and the flushing-red of his pale skin beneath the blow, sniffing, and still staring at Tanner with that loathsome, implacable defiance.
The roiling anger in Tanner’s stomach, abruptly, solidified into cruelty.
“Harder,” he ordered, voice quiet and all the more dangerous for it. “One more time, harder, so I can see it.”
There were exclamations from the others, surprise and horror, but he tuned them out. None of that mattered right now – nothing mattered, except for his anger, and the electric tension in the air, and the way Kayden was flexing his hand in a half-heartbeat’s worth of thought. Tanner was hyper-fixated on it, and time seemed to move molasses-slow for a moment, as he held his breath.
He didn’t actually expect Kayden to slap himself again, but really, that just made the crack of Kayden’s hand against his cheek all the more sweet.
One of the girls cried out, something shocked and indignant about it not being Kayden’s fault, and Tanner could hardly contain his laughter. “There’re a lot of things that are his fault,” he said, bitterly, teeth clenched tight enough his jaw was beginning to ache. “Just give me a minute to enjoy him brought down a peg.”
He might have been be talking to the girls, but all he had eyes for was Kayden – Kayden and his stupid fucking smirk and his stupid fucking hair and the stupid fucking look in his beautiful eyes, like he was angry-excited-hollow-sad all at once. The handprint on his cheek was blooming candy-red, and god, Tanner wished it was his.
Kayden smiled, all bared teeth and insolence, and Tanner’s hands curled into fists at his sides.
“Good enough for you?” asked Kayden, lazily, eyes bright and cheek red and teeth bared, like some creature out of Tanner’s nightmares come to haunt him on Earth for his sins. “Or you wanna hit me yourself, huh, Tanner? Make sure it’s done properly, because god, I’m enough of a fuckup as is, who knows if I can even hit myself ri-”
He didn’t get to finish the sentence before Tanner punched him in the mouth.
Raina yelped in shock, and Sat lunged forward to try and get between the two of them, but Kayden- Kayden just grinned, split lip and bloody teeth and faintly manic eyes, as Tanner stared.
He felt about as surprised as Raina looked. He’d never hit anyone before, not… not like this.
And then Kayden’s nose wrinkled into a sneer, and he bared his teeth, and spat a globule of bloodied saliva right into Tanner’s face – and it suddenly didn’t matter that he’d never hit anyone before. He was more than willing to learn, right here and right now, and Kayden’s face would do as his punching bag, because fuck that smug, sneering asshole, the bastard, who does he think he is-
Everything went red-rage-black after that, for a while.
By the time Sat managed to pry Tanner off Kayden, yelling the whole while and eventually shouting for Darby to help, Kayden’s face was a mess – as were Tanner’s knuckles. It was hard to tell whose blood was whose, crimson smeared across Kayden’s lip and below his nose, and from the cut across his eyebrow where Tanner’s fist had split the thin skin over the bone. Tanner’s hands were red-streaked, too, knuckles cracked and bruised from sloppy punches, bruises already rising to mirror the ones around Kayden’s eyes.
And he was still grinning. The fucker was still grinning, even as he scrambled out from under Tanner and stumbled upright on shaky legs, wiping the trickle of blood running down over his lip.
“Feeling better, huh, Tanner? Feeling powerful?” Kayden asked, the edge of a hysterical laugh to his voice. For all his bared teeth and curled lips, though, there was an edge of fear in his eyes that hadn’t been there before – and a miserable sort of resignation that Tanner couldn’t quite understand. He wiped at his nose again with a shaking hand, staring at the red streaked across his thumb as though surprised it was still bleeding. “Like father like fucking son. Should’a fucking known. Hah. Shit.”
Tanner’s insides turned to ice, the vicious rage cooling in a heartbeat to be replaced with horror.
“I- you provoked me,” he spluttered, trying to ignore the fact he was still on his ass in the dirt, with Sat pinning his arms behind his back and digging nails into his skin. He could feel the way she was shaking, just from her grip on him, and the sick feeling in his stomach soured further with the knowledge that he’d upset her so badly. “You knew what you were doing- you deserved that, and you know it-”
He regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth, cringed from them and the memory of how often he’d heard them – accompanied by the snap of his father’s belt, burning across his thighs. But they were out there, and there was no way to take them back.
All he could do was sag in Sat’s grip, panting as he slowly came down off the adrenaline high, and try not to look at the bruised mess of Kayden’s face, staring down at him. He didn’t want to see what he’d done.
“Spoken like a real man,” sneered Kayden, blocking the stream of blood from his nose with forefinger knuckle and thumb whilst he waited for it to clot, hissing as he nudged his nose. “Fuck.” The grin was sliding off his face, the same sharp, shocky anger-misery lurking behind his eyes beginning to tug at the corners of his mouth. “Daddy’d be so proud, Tanner. Make sure you fuckin’ tell him all about it when you get back – how you put the fuckin’ trailer trash bastard in his place, huh? Fuck you.”
He spat at Tanner’s feet, lip curled up in disgust, and stumbled over to where he’d left his backpack – slumping down on the rotting log next to it as though his knees had given way, as though he was trying very hard to hide that fact and was failing dismally. His hands were shaking, though whether from adrenaline or fear or something else entirely was anyone’s guess.
Tanner felt the grip on his arms loosen, ever so slightly.
“If I let you go,” said Sat, voice shaky and a little hoarse from yelling, “are you going to hit him again?” She sounded like she was about to start sobbing.
“…No,” mumbled Tanner, shoulders slumping, eyes on the ground. The shame was choking, now, winding around his stomach and throat, increasingly difficult to ignore. He didn’t want to hit anyone any more – didn’t want to do anything. He wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole.
The grip on his arms disappeared entirely, and he barely had time to bring them around to his front and rub at his forearms before Sat was there, glowering at him through tear-streaked makeup. He was entirely unsurprised when she slapped him, snapping his head to one side, one of her rings catching his cheek and opening a tiny, half-inch cut across his pale, freckled skin.
“Deserved that,” he said, quietly.
Sat just stared at him for a moment, jaw clenched and eyes hard. Then she nodded, once, and stalked off across the clearing to where Kayden was sat – leaving Tanner on his ass in the dirt, alone, as Raina stared at him wide-eyed. Darby made studiously sure she was looking at her journal, and only her journal.
Tanner stood up, on legs scarcely more steady than Kayden’s, and found his own log to sit on – careful to keep Darby and Raina between him and Kayden. Or rather, Kayden and Sat, since she had her arm around Kayden’s shoulder and her eyes narrowed in Tanner’s direction.
“So,” he said, quietly, heavily, wiping the drying blood off of his knuckles with the hem of his plaid shirt. It was difficult to speak through the guilt but, somehow, he managed it, voice raw enough that it almost seemed like he had been the one doing the screaming. “…What do we do now?”
Summary: One night, while combing through an entity's metadata, Kevin receives a mysterious and panicked email...
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Category: Gen
Fandoms: collinlock16 - Fandom, minecraft arg but the protagonist is tired, Collinlock16 - Oneshef (Web Series)
Relationships: Kevin (Collinlock16) & Original Female Character(s), Kevin (Collinlock16) & Somni (Original Character)
Characters: Kevin (Collinlock16), Original Female Character(s), x_SomniSolace_x (Original Character)
Additional Tags: Inspired by House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski, Psychological Trauma, Minecraft Horror, Doppelganger, i'll add tags as the fic continues, Psychological Horror, dark mode recommended btw, the author's barely disguised hatred for emails, Beta Read, i will NOT die like AwesomeG, I learned html for this
Author's note: HIII I HOPE YOU LIKE THE REWRITE!!! I'm going to keep the old versions of the chapters up on Tumblr for archival sake, but the ao3 version has been completely updated because I do NOT feel like making a whole separate book on there.
AO3 // 1 (You are here!) // 2 //
It was late. Kevin's apartment was dark as he clicked away at his computer, combing through the metadata he gathered from this last case. He yawned as he stretched in his chair, sending a quick glance at his desktop's clock; about 3 in the morning. So late that not even the crickets outside made a sound, leaving only the whir of his computer fans, the creaking of the building's old walls, and the slight whistle of wind through his shoddy bedroom window.
The metadata was from a worm-type of entity; one that created a virtual "hole" in his client's world that allowed some other entities to slip in undetected. Not super interesting, but still dangerous enough to warrant further investigation even after receiving his pay. It wasn't much, but it was enough to stock his fridge for the next couple of weeks and put the rest into savings for monthly rent.
A sudden blip! caused Kevin to jump in his seat a bit, his green fur prickling before settling back down when he realized it was just his computer; an email notification, to be specific.
Huh. Who the hell is sending him emails at this time of night?
Probably just a scammer, he thought as he rubbed at his eyes.
Amused and in dire need of a break from his data, he opened the email.
"... Well that's something," Kevin blinked in mild interest. It wasn't the first time he had received an email like this. Some of his more... dramatic clients or fans tended to send him YouTube links or server IPs encoded with binary. Though none of those emails were as long as this one was...
As if by second nature, Kevin copy-pasted the 1s and 0s into a converter while taking a sip from his energy drink. He hit the convert button and yawned once more before reading the converted text.
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: SOS- URGENT
PLEA?E HELP ?E ?? TRAPPED ?? ?Y ???ECRAFT W?RLD
? TH??K ?? DY??G
?Y B?DY ???T ?Y ?W? A?Y??RE A?D ?T? P?TCH BLACK ?? HERE
? CA? FEEL ?T BREATH??G A?D WATCH??G ?E
?? ?? TERR?F?ED PLEA?E HELP ?LL D? A?YTH??G Y?U A?K ?LL PAY Y?U WHATEVER JU?T PLEA?E C??E A?D GET ?E ?UT ?F HERE
???????LACEWRLD.?C
"...Hm."
The message wasn't hard to parse out, even if it was missing a bunch of letters. It had to have been a new client begging him for help; especially with the words trapped, terrified, and pay you whatever sticking out to him the most. But there was one thing that bothered him and gave Kevin pause.
Why would somebody this panicked sit down and send an email??? And, more importantly, how could they send the email in the first place if they were trapped in their game?
Kevin's face scrunched in thought, his mustache tickling his lip at the movement. Something was fishy here. He needed more information.
He stood up to stretch his aching muscles for a moment before quickly typing out a reply to the mysterious sender.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE:SOS - URGENT
Hey there, thank you for your message!
I would be happy to assist you ASAP! But before I conduct my investigation, I'm going to need some more information so I know exactly how to help you.
1. What Minecraft version are you using for your server?
2. Describe the problem with as much detail as you can.
3. Are you in active danger? If so, log off the server if you haven't yet. If you are not being given the option to quit, try using alt+F4, or, if that doesn't work, unplug your computer. Do NOT log back on until given the all clear.
I'm looking forward to your response!
—Big Kevin, Paranormal Mercenary
His office chair squeaked as he leaned back, taking another sip of his energy drink. Honestly, he should go to bed. Even with the high dose of caffeine in his system, he could feel his eyelids drooping, vision blurring and refocusing as he peered at his screen. Yeah... sleep sounded good.
He went to turn off his PC when that familiar notification sound blipped through his speakers.
"Damn, they already replied? It hasn't even been a minute..."
He opened the new email and, surprise surprise, it was completely in binary again. He sighed in irritation as he copy-pasted it into his converter.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE:RE:SOS - URGENT
1. VER???? D?E??T ?ATTER ?T? ??DDED JU?T GET ?? HERE
2. CA? Y?U FUCK??G READ
3. ??CE AGA?? CA? Y?U FUCK??G READ
?? TRAPPED HERE ?? MY H?TEL ? CA?T LEAVE ?T W??T LET ?E ?? ??T EVE? ????DE ?Y ?W? B?DY A?Y??RE WHAT ?AKE? Y?U TH??K ? CA? U?PLUG MY C??PUTER Y?U ?TUP?D A??H?LE JU?T GET ?? HERE
Despite the clear rage from the sender, Kevin couldn't help but snort. Yeah, he'd deal with this in the morning-
Blip!
"Fucking- another one???"
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE:RE:RE:SOS - URGENT
WA?T FUCK ?? ?? ??RRY THAT WA? RUDE ?F ?E PLEA?E HELP ?? JU?T ?? ?CARED ?LL ?EVER ?AKE ?T ?UT OF HERE AL?VE Y?URE THE ??LY PER??? ? CA? F??D WH? ?EE?? T? K??W WHAT THEYRE D???G PLEA?E
...Ugh. Yeah. Fine. He supposed he could understand that. He'll just charge 'em a little extra when the time comes for the rudeness and for a late-night investigation.
He drained the rest of his energy drink, turned on his recording software, and opened the link from the sender's first email. It was a good thing tomorrow (today?) was one of his free days from his day job.
________
>Reading world data...
>Joining server...
>I_AM_BIG_KEVIN joined the game
Upon logging into the mysterious Minecraft server, the first thing he noticed was the breathtakingly beautiful spawn; he was inside what he assumed to be some kind of indoor garden, with glass walls that formed a dome, showing off the world outside. He stood on the apex of a bridge over a small creek surrounded by trees and flowers of all kinds, including some modded ones that he recognized from a few modpacks he had once played around with.
The second thing he noticed, more importantly, was that the name of his Minecraft window changed as soon as he fully loaded into the server.
This is not for you.
"... Huh. That ain't ominous at all."
Alright. Where to begin? He didn't exactly have a ton of information to go off of since the client seemed a bit preoccupied. All he knew was that they were trapped somewhere and couldn't log off the server; if he remembered correctly, their email said something about a hotel in their world, wherever that was. There were so many buildings around that Kevin felt like he had been dropped into the middle of an actual city with no directions, map, or anything.
He let out an annoyed grumble, "I swear to god if this is some kind of prank or setup, I'm charging them double."
After a bit of contemplating with himself, Kevin opted to explore while running a scan with his antivirus in the background. He was surprised it didn't ping him when he initially joined the server; worlds that were clearly played in for a long time had a tendency to collect plenty of virus and malware-based entities over time, especially servers. So for this server to have nothing? It was both impressive and unnerving.
His feet clicked against the sidewalk as he wandered the barren streets. He passed a bookstore, a restaurant, a few office buildings, and eventually he found himself stepping foot into what seemed to be some kind of plaza with a large fountain surrounded by streetlamps.
"Oh wow."
What a well-loved world. He had to admit, the amount of detail put into every build here was admirable. Every block was placed with intent. Every park, and every corner store, and every skyscraper had a distinct style to it that made them stand out. Even the fountain in front of him seemed to glow with it's own story. Kevin didn't know how to describe it, but it felt... alive. Like the world itself seemed to breathe. It was nice. Calming.
He couldn't help but stare into the rippling water, enjoying the caustics of light forming mindless patterns on the tile below.
And then he noticed it, reflecting off the tiny waves. Embedded into the base of the fountain was an iron door; a stark anomaly in the the build.
It couldn't have been for decoration. It didn't match the block palette in the slightest, and the builder (builders?) of this place were meticulous from what Kevin could tell.¹
Intrigued, Kevin rolled up the legs of his trousers and stepped into the fountain. He splashed through the surprisingly warm water and stepped up to the door, spotting a stone button (another thing that, yet again, did NOT match the rest of the build) and pressed it.
The door swung open, allowing Kevin to step through it and into a rather plain stone stairway lit by redstone lamps in the walls. He arched an eyebrow, but descended down the cold steps, trying to ignore the way his legs left a sopping trail of water behind him.
At the bottom of the stairs was a rather short hallway. There was nothing in it save for a single iron door at the end labeled DO NOT ENTER with a wooden sign.
Well obviously he was going to enter it. Whoever built this fountain couldn't just put a secret hallway inside of it and not expect people to check it out.
He pressed the button beside the door, expecting it to open.
It didn't. And instead, Kevin was met with a server message in the chat.
>ERROR. AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED TO EXIT QUARANTINED ZONE
"What? The hell does that mean...?"
Quarantined zone??? He knew what that entailed, but his client's world didn't look or feel like a quarantine zone at all. And if the world was under quarantine, that suggested that whatever was beyond this door... wasn't. Did that mean it wasn't a part of this world? Or...
Hm. The more likely answer was that this was just some environmental storytelling or whatever it was called from the builders on this server. That did seem to be their thing after all; telling little stories with the builds.
Ugh, he didn't have time to be poking his nose into little things like this. His client was waiting for him somewhere in that hotel. He hoped he wasn't wasting too much time looking around. But then again, he had no clue where this hotel even was, so his client could shove it if they got too impatient. It's not like they were there to greet and guide him when he first logged onto the server.
Kevin was careful not to slip on his water trail as he turned around and left the way he came. The iron door closed behind him and he sat on the edge of the fountain to wring out the fluff on his legs, gunpowder and loose strands of old fur mixing with the water he squeezed out. Gross.
Once he deemed himself sufficiently dry, Kevin continued his wandering.
He found himself drawn towards the North. He held onto the hope that if he walked in one direction, he'd eventually find the edge of the city and be able to get his bearings. It seemed to be working at least; the buildings around him were shrinking and growing farther apart from one another, which told him he was approaching the outskirts of this place.
He was admiring a quaint flower shop when a thought crossed his mind.
Just who was his client anyways? Kevin paused mid-step in the middle of the sidewalk.
He didn't know anything about them. Not their gamer-tag, not their name, nothing. He supposed he had their email, but that wasn't concrete enough...
Oh wait. This was a server. He could just check the player list. Fucking duh. His lack of sleep was making him stupid.
...
"What the fuck?"
Kevin felt the hair on the back of his neck prickle a bit when he saw the empty server list. Not only was his client's username missing, but so was his own.
Was this a single player world? If so, then why the fuck did it have an IP address that he could join with? He paused the game and checked if it was open to LAN. And, of course, it wasn't.
"I am so confused right now."
"You and me both."
"OH HOLY-"
Kevin nearly jumped out of his skin and turned around to face the voice behind him, his fur puffed all the way.
It was a woman, who stood barely 3 feet away from him. She was short in stature, the top of her head only reaching the middle of his chest. Her dark, rusty-brown hair was styled into a slightly messy ponytail with a gold claw clip, and on her face rested a gold mask that completely hid all of her features. She wore what loosely resembled a colorful valet's uniform; a dusty pink mock turtleneck, a deep purple pantsuit, gold heeled boots that matched her mask, and over all of it, a bright red blazer with a gold watch chain draping from one of the pockets.
And, most importantly, above her head floated her name tag: x_SomniSolace_x
"Uh... hi?" Kevin took a step back and cleared his throat, "Sorry, I um, wasn't expecting to see anyone out here."
"Hello. It's alright, didn't mean to startle you," her voice was light and smooth, yet flat in tone.
"Right..."
A tense silence as the two stared at one another, Kevin's pale irises trying to peek through the gold mask of the woman in front of him. Finally, he decided to break it.
"Are you the- uh, the server owner?" he asked, and the woman seemed to perk up, holding out a well-manicured hand to shake.
"Ah- yes, that's me. My name is Somni. And you must be Kevin."
Kevin hesitantly shook her hand, "Yup. I'm the Paranormal Mercenary that got called in to investigate this server. Something about someone being trapped and being unable to log off...? The email wasn't very clear."
Somni visibly tensed, her free hand twitching a bit by her side.
"Oh. That. Right..." she let go of his hand, looking away from him in what he could only assume to be nervousness.
Kevin tilted his head, putting his hands in his pockets, "... You are the client, right? Your name tag matches up well enough to your email address, so..."
"Yes, I'm the client, I just-" she fidgeted with her fingers, "I didn't... expect you to get here so soon, I guess. I'm sorta unprepared."
"Ah, my bad... Well, I'm here now, and the sooner we take care of this thing, the better. So how about you give me a good rundown on what's like- going on? You mentioned something about a hotel in your email, if I remember correctly?"
"Oh! Yes, the Hotel. It- eh, how do I put this... It's... sapient, I think. It has a mind of it's own and does what it wants."
Kevin blinked. That was not mentioned in the emails at all.
"Really? What makes you say that?"
"Well, it can like- speak, I guess?"
"... Speak? Like how you and I are talking right now?"
Somni made a so-so gesture with her hands, "Ehh, sort of?? You don't actually hear anything, you just... feel it talking to you. I can ask it a spoken question, and I'll feel it's answer. It's more like a presence than an actual physical being."
What the fuck???
"That's... hm," Kevin's eyebrow twitched. He couldn't explain it, but there was something that just felt off. Somewhere, things weren't adding up, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"Alright, so this thing is talking to you... what has it been saying, exactly?"
The woman paused at his question and tilted her head to the side just so, seemingly thinking on what to say. Finally, she spoke.
"Like I said before, it doesn't speak in sentences like you and I do. But..." her voice trailed off for a moment, before it came back quiet and shaky, "... It's definitely upset with me, and I... don't know why. I can't figure out what I did to make it so angry. It- it froze me in place and I could just feel it, it hates me! I know it does! But I- I ca-an't-"
Kevin's eyes widened when Somni choked on her words, clearly distressed. He couldn't stop the pang of guilt that grew into a dull ache in his chest, intertwined with the hard twist of discomfort in his stomach at the whole situation; he was not good at comforting crying clients. Not at all. But it was the ones who were this distraught by the happenings in their world that needed him most. And so, he took a deep breath.
OK. It was Kevin Kindness Time.
"Hey, hey, I uh- bro, listen-" Fuck, he sounded so stupid right now, "You don't need to tell me like- I'm not gonna force you to talk. I know you're scared, but that's what I'm here for, right? To help you out? Get rid of this thing for you?"
He awkwardly stepped closer and patted her shoulder, mentally wincing at the way she tensed at the contact. But, she ultimately accepted it, letting her head hang as she took a couple of deep breaths of her own.
"... I'm not gonna like- force you to tell me anything about it, but I need to gather as much information on this thing as I can so I can help you. So, anything you're willing to give me would be- uh- y'know, helpful."
Somni only nodded, and Kevin wished he could see her face so he could properly discern how she was feeling, but oh well. If this entity- or, hotel- could cause this much panic, it was clearly a danger, and he needed to get rid of it as fast as possible.
"That being said," he backed away from Somni and put his hands in his pockets, fiddling with his items, "S'there anything else about this thing that I should know about before I- y'know, jump in?"
With an audible swallow, she nodded again, fidgeting with her fingers.
"I, um- Yeah. It's- um, main thing seems to be, like, making it's own rooms, I guess?"
"It's own rooms? Like, it's adding onto itself?"
"Yeah! But... what's even weirder is that the rooms themselves seem to be- oh what's the word- non-euclidean...? Yeah, non-euclidean. Like, the rooms it makes are bigger on the inside than the outside. And sometimes the gravity will change from room to room, so you're standing on the ceiling instead of the floor. I'm also... pretty sure I've seen a few staircases and doors that lead to nothing. It's... really bizarre."
Kevin blinked, mouth agape.
"Girl, are you getting fucking House of Leaves'd???"²
Somni stared at him, and he could feel the blank look from behind her mask.
"I- What the hell is House of Leaves???"
"... Don't worry about it."
________
¹▦The amount of HATRED I feel for Little Miss Buildaholic's world in particular burns hotter than any sun in the universe. Even just stepping foot into it is an ongoing project because of that ridiculous VPN and antivirus blocking all access, and it got even worse when she moved the world to a server box with the craziest goddamn firewall I've ever seen. I have to keep finding ways to work around her because she keeps updating it and ruining my hard work within hours. Countless Gorristers rendered useless because of the lack of signal. Dozens of teleporters cut off. With access so unstable, I do not have the TIME to "blend the doorways." Aesthetics be damned, can't this bitch make more industrial looking builds? It would make my life so much easier. And she has the audacity to call for MY help. Utterly ridiculous.
