Today I was walking outside and the grass was so dry it was CRUNCHY when I stepped on it, and I was like "I bet I could describe that all nice!" and then it was "why not make an entire fucking oneshot to go with it" AND THEN IT WAS "yeah let's make this really short oneshot as an excuse to describe fucking crunchy grass"- but now we are no longer describing crunchy grass because i got WAY too into the storyline itself. even if the story is basically just "curious wants his daily dose of vitamin d because the hotel doesn't have enough fucking windows"

     so now we have, uh, this au i've had stuck in my head for a while- i've planned a fic for this idea but since this ain't gonna spoil anything, we're fine. plus, this bit of ✨fucking minor detail✨ isn't going to hold any significance to the plot. yay, useless content! (i hate this particular oneshot so much omg-)

     now that the introductions are over, enjoy- i guess?

~

     It was the midst of the summer heat. The poor air conditioning had been running for so long it had been failing at random times and leaving the hotel in an uncomfortable state of a sticky humidity. The temperatures were slowly climbing their ways to a hundred degrees, and as the days passed the air conditioning had been running less and less.

     Curious was getting the worst of it- his family had moved in from higher North when he was four, and he'd never managed to get used to the blaring Southern heat; even now, as they were in an abandoned island surrounded by water and forest, he seemed to be sweating his own skin off as the air conditioning broke down again. 

     He grumbled a swear word under his breath as he pulled his collar a little, unfortunately still in working hours and unable to change out of the collared shirt and only leave the tank top underneath. Wearing black by itself was already bad enough in these temperatures.

     The Rooms was surely a lot cooler- the branch of alternate reality that had somehow connected to their Hotel always had colder temperatures, but he couldn't go in unless there was a player before him. The entities there were nice enough- but the first person to enter was always tagged as a target by A-90, as were all the others that followed; Curious still didn't know how they were able to single him out and keep his head on his body.

     No, he was better off alive- even if it meant he had to sit through all this heat. He could hear distant noises approaching- were the players finally going to unlock the Rooms door or something of the sort?

     A small shattering of lights, immediately followed with a series of screams told him otherwise. Curious checked his watch.

     1:57 AM read the time, which meant it was only three minutes until he was on break. Curious peeked his head out of the entrance to the Rooms maze- he'd heard a slight shimmer, that probably meant the players were dead.

     Yep. A blue glow surrounded the room as two bodies laid mangled on the floor. Ambush seemed proud of himself, an almost maniacal grin on his face as the blue glow started fading away. Curious stepped out, mumbling a small "hi" as the players both suddenly glitched away. Curious could hear a small static noise from behind him, and a hand tapped on his shoulder as he turned around.

     "Hi!" There was a flicker of a smile on Guiding's face, like he was trying not to grin too hard. "I'm never going to be able to get used to all of this 'go in that dude's head and tell 'em some stuff before you leave and let them slowly revive' crap. It's honestly kind of creepy- but like, Void said, so oh well."

     "Yeah, it was already scary enough talking to people in the first place," Curious muttered, more to himself. "That rainy void is... uncomfortable."

     "It is uncomfortable..." Guiding's head perked up as a ding rang through the hotel, but relaxed after a second. "I think that's just Screech with the reception bell."

     A second ding rang through the area, then a third, then a fourth. "That's Screech."

     "Well," Guiding said. "I'm probably going to go change into something more... manageable. It really is warm in here, geez..."

     "See ya!" Flipping up his sleeve to check a watch, Guiding walked off- presumably to his room. Curious waved a goodbye before turning to Ambush- but Ambush had left as well.

     Well, that's nice. Curious didn't exactly mind not having company- while he did like talking to Guiding when he was bored, it wasn't that often that he was actually able to start a conversation like his light counterpart could. Guess I won't have to interact with people, then.

     Curious stretched himself out, mindlessly walking through the hotel. The air conditioning seemed to still be broken- he honestly couldn't figure out how Seek was able to run in these conditions, even without the fire...

     There was a small crunch under Curious' feet as a wave of warm air washed over his body. An overwhelming scent of greenery filled the area, and a few small bugs could be seen skittering around. He'd somehow made his way to the greenhouse- and it was even warmer there...

     But as Curious took another step, a second crunch sounded from beneath his feet. He jumped a little, surprised at the sound, only to see a footprint in unnaturally dry grass. Instead of being the normal green, though- it had taken on a reddish tint, and was unnaturally dry.

     It's probably the heat, Curious thought as he prodded the grass with his foot. Each poke into the dry, withering grass earned him a satisfying crunch. He'd stayed there for- well, a good number of minutes, until he realized he was being a complete idiot and what the hell was he doing?

     But then something stirred up in his head- like a memory, but unrecallable- it was a sort of feeling he used to be accustomed to, but had been stripped away from his life so long it was almost unrecognizable. And since it'd been so long, Curious wasn't able to identify it.

     That was annoying. Looking out the window, there was a strange pang of familiarity that had never been there before. A sinking feeling came through his gut, but it seemed more like he missed something rather than anything else.

     He couldn't remember just exactly what, though, so he moved on, aimlessly wandering around- only to find that his subconsciousness led him to the same window he'd been staring at- the same one he'd felt an odd sense of familiarity with.

     Okay, fine, I'll observe it, he thought to no one in particular. But Curious' mind drew a blank as he just stared at it, unsure of what he was supposed to do.

     Lifting a hand, he tapped at the glass, earning nothing but an unsatisfying echo and a sigh from himself.

     I want to go outside, his brain seemingly spat out at him, but Curious didn't listen to it- it was his own idea, after all.

     But then he paused. Outside? Outside was where you didn't know whether you could even survive or not, didn't know how the society was like, didn't know what you needed and what you didn't need. Void had a good grasp on what it was like and would tell them about it, but he refused to go out for some reason. What did this childish voice in Curious' head think he could do?

     Something pulled at the back of his head, something strangely childish, but Curious shook it away as he started to walk out of the Greenhouse.

     But the window had felt so interesting...

     Curious told his brain to shut up, but it didn't seem to work. With another sigh, he sidled back to the window, hoping no one was around to see his stupidity and indecisiveness.

     The only thing he did was stare at the window like a complete idiot, but he didn't want to leave. It was weird, how much that pane of glass and metal lining seemed to mean so much, and it felt like he was back at home...

     Of course he was back at home- the hotel was where he lived, what was he thinking? There wasn't any other place he could remember staying before then, and it was probably going to stay that way. Curious shoved the thoughts to the back of his head, but they sprang right back at him. Most of the time, his thoughts could stay right where he wanted them to. But today, his subconsciousness was pulling at his memories, trying to tell him something he didn't know.

     It made him feel like he wasn't where he was supposed to be, that the hotel was never meant for him, that he belonged somewhere else that was right in his grasp but far away and unreachable at the same time.

     And the window was reminding him all about it. Somehow, the window was telling him everything he needed. Curious, suddenly thinking of something, shifted his focus to what was happening outside instead of the window itself and- oh.

     It was a society. In the distance, beyond a thicket of trees and a rushing body of water was a city that spread as far as Curious could see. There were tall buildings, dots of light scattered across their walls, small shops, houses, streets, and people.

     But it was only so far that Curious could observe from his standpoint at the window. He figured that since he couldn't do anything more, he'd just leave it be.

     Outside nagged at his head, telling him that he could do more if he wanted to. But that was impossible, wasn't it?

     Maybe it's possible, Curious' subconsciousness said. Maybe you just need to try.

~

pov: curious wants to touch grass?!?