i wanna feel lethal on the inside, i wanna read american psycho again

> Dave: Say hello.

You swallow thickly with your back pressed up against the wall. It's just dawned on you that you didn't account for other nonhuman things being able to access this game, and you are freaking the fuck out.

Your head is racing. Questions fly through your conscious at a hundred miles per hour, but the most prominent one pops up almost after every single question: What the hell is that?

You've never seen anything like it before, and though it is humanoid, you didn't get to peek at its face. If it even has one. Fucking hell, you are not ready for this at all.

Your hands find their place on the back of your neck, impossibly cold, but somehow still sweaty. You take a deep breath. Slow your heart rate down, slow your movements, your breathing, your thoughts, anything to just calm the fuck down. You end up being able to do everything except slow your thoughts down, as per usual, and with a carefully practiced, cool demeanor, you shift your weight from the wall to your feet. You're hyper aware of your surroundings, and you can faintly hear the thing breathing from the other side. Slowly and carefully, you step back out from the wall and re-assess the situation.

It's not so bad when you're calmed down(for the most part), you think. But, it hasn't woken up yet, so you're not sure if it wants to kill you yet. You ready your strife specibus just in case, but don't pull your shitty katana out yet. Because you don't know shit about what's going on, and you don't wanna assume anything and get killed for it.

You walk under the threshold to the two walls cradling the humanoid and hold your breath. Your memory flashes to the two things it wrote on the wall. It's at least a little human, if it knows basic English. Maybe a little more than basic English. You take a silent step.

You can now hear the muffled sounds of other people(other people???!??!) talking coming from him. Upon closer inspection, you note that he has a gray pair of what look like earbuds slung around its neck. They're not in its ears, though. You feel a little comforted by the fact that this thing isn't stupid. You think you should have taken your headphones out of your sylladex thirty minutes ago. Maybe when you first found the writings. Maybe you should have told your friends about what the fuck is happening. It's not like you have any idea. You take another step, letting yourself be heard a little more.

You're now about two steps away. You can see a little bit of its face, and you're starting to think that this thing isn't an 'it' anymore. Their(because you're not gonna try guessing at their gender, given that they're quite obviously not human) eyes are closed and their face is only half visible due to them resting their cheek on their knees. They have a light dusting of freckles(?) on their cheeks and a few lighter and smaller scars litter their jawbone. They're snoring a little bit, mouth hanging open loosely. A part of you wishes that was you right now.

Maybe they're more human than you thought. They might actually be someone in a weird cosplay of a fandom you haven't heard before, but your prior knowledge shuts the idea down, because you have a feeling that any kind of face paint they would have been wearing would have worn off by now. The path you followed was really fuckin long. You're lucky you had the energy to traverse it.

You think you should say something. If you don't, and this motherfucker wakes up, it'll seem really weird if you're just staring blankly at them. You take another subtle deep breath. You got this, just say hi or some shit, it's so easy, bro. Your heart starts going crazy in your chest all over again, but you really don't have a choice at this point. God damn it.

"Um," you squeeze out of your throat, hoping it was loud enough for them to hear. They shift in place, but don't move or acknowledge that they heard you. You're suddenly reminded of how fucking cumbersome this whole situation would be if it was just another human in front of you. You pretend that they are a regular person, just for your sanity.