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No, Collin didn’t want to go to college. He preferred staying at home, playing his haunted version of Minecraft. Sure, it was a little unsettling at first, but now, it’s what he likes to spend his time doing.
Instead, life had different plans. After floating in the limbo between high school and whatever came after for too long, Collin decided to bite the bullet and enroll in college. He got a dorm and everything.
Take that, Zac, “disfunctional adult” his ass.
Collin pulled his duffel bag into the small room, sighing lengthily. He really hoped his dormmate wasn’t a complete loser.
His roommate had settled in already, taking the right side. Their stuff was clean and tidy. Yellow bedsheets, a leather bag on the dresser, and a few books were the only things Collin could see that could belong to his roommate.
Collin claimed the left side, dropping his duffel bag and suitcase on the twin-size bed.
He can do this.
~
Turns out, having a few moments of fearing for your life a couple months ago helps wonders with social anxiety. That and simply not caring. Talking to people in class was easier, now.
Collin was on his dressed bed, texting Zac, when his roommate came in.
He was tall with clear muscles, but enough fat to soften it out. His hair was black and curly. His face was angular and lean with thick-framed glasses. He was wearing a black T-shirt and jeans, but had a few thick, silver rings and thin bracelets.
“Hey, I’m Dominic,” the guy said with a nod. “Call me Dom.”
Collin nodded back, “Collin.”
“My number’s here if you need it,” Dom said, putting a yellow sticky note on the desk. “You usually have people over?”
“No,” Collin said. “You?”
Dom shook his head, “No. Good.”
“What are your classes?”
~
After a month or two, Collin decided that liked his roommate. He seemed just as much of a recluse as Collin was. The room was usually peacefully quiet, just the occasional rustle as either changed position.
Bored of scrolling through his phone, Collin sat up and reached into his backpack. He pulled out his laptop and mouse. Hopefully Zac was on so they could play together.
Collin booted up Minecraft, waving away the usual “warning: you’re going to die if you play this” messages. Finally, he was in.
Zac wasn’t on, unfortunately, but Collin kept himself busy. He patched up another hole in his backyard, put his fences back where they belong, and dropped off another gift at the Lapis house.
“You play Minecraft, too?”
Collin looked over and saw Dom peeking at his laptop.
“Yeah? Why, you wanna play?”
“Sure.”
Dom got out his laptop and set up at the desk.
They exchanged usernames (what kind of name was d3rlord3?) and booted up a new world together.
It was nice. Dom wasn’t the worst at building so their houses didn’t look hideous, and whatever haunted Collin’s game decided to leave them alone for now.
“You mind if I invite someone?” Dom asked randomly. “He saw I was playing and asked to play together.”
Collin shrugged, “Sure, what’s his gamertag?”
After inviting him (TheMostMayo???), they got back to building. Dom’s friend, Avery, joined and the two, without speaking, decided to live together.
Huh.
TheMostMayo: So you guys are roommates?
collinlock16: yeah
d3rlord3: Don’t be *too* jealous, Aves
TheMostMayo: >u0
TheMostMayo: You’re still on for bedwars Saturdays, right?
d3rlord3: Yeah, of course
colinlock16: whoa re you?
Collin groaned, nearly throwing his laptop across the room.
“Collin?” Dom asked. “What’s up?”
“This asshole thinks he’s me,” Collin said with an eye roll so intense it hurt. “He’s been bothering me for a long fuckin’ time.”
Dom just hummed.
d3rlord3: Hey, Colin?
colinlock16: ye s?
Collin waited for the next chat. He heard Dom typing. This had to be good.
colinlock16: yes?
This better be good.
colinlock16: whati sthat?
colinlock16 was killed.
colinlock16 left the game.
colinlock16 has been successfully banned!
The gamertag “colinlock16” has been successfully blacklisted!
colinlock16 has been sent to see The King!
You do not need to worry about “colinlock16” any more!
d3rlord3: There we go.
Collin stared at the back of Dom’s head. What the hell did he do? Collin owns the server! How the hell did Dom get admin?
collinlock16: wh… how…
TheMostMayo: Thanks, Dom!
d3rlord3: np
Collin blinked. This was normal?
collinlock16: how did you do that without admin???
d3rlord3: Secrets.
Collin decided to let it go with a breath. He wasn’t gonna pry into shit that didn’t concern him. That “Colin” freak was gone, now.
~
The three of them slowly became closer in real life, as well as in Minecraft. Avery was a talkative ball of energy, while Collin and Dom were happy to listen. They had a class together, too, which was nice. They would often spend time in Dom and Collin’s dorm, playing Minecraft or going through Avery’s sad, sad attempted-dating texts.
Collin liked it.
Their server together was nice, too. Two small, wooden houses next to each other. Collin made sure to put a fence around their property prematurely.
Though, one time when Collin was making their mine, he was going to try a new style: a staircase down into a main mining room, where several strip-mining doors could be worked on.
When he showed Dom and Avery, they both just… stared at it.
d3rlord3: It looks good.
He had taken a while to type that.
TheMostMayo: Yeah!
Collin glanced at Dom. He was tense.
collinlock16: i can change it
His phone went off with a Discord message.
AveryTheMayo
heyy
if you could do literally any other design with the mine that would be great TuT
collin
i mean i can yeah
can i ask why
AveryTheMayo
you can, you’re not gonna get an answer tho >u0
Collin laughed airily and put down his phone.
collinlock16: k i’ll change it
d3rlord3: I appreciate it.
~
That was the only strange experience while playing with the two. Sure, there was the occasional ghoul or Entity that showed up, but Collin swiftly dealt with them before the other two were any the wiser.
But, of course, Collin’s worlds can’t be peaceful all the time.
He had been making a nicer entrance to the mine, Avery had been decorating the surrounding area, and Dom had been expanding it deeper.
Assimilation joined the game.
AndreW2002 joined the game.
collinlock16: wtf???
d3rlord3: Hello?
TheMostMayo: ???
AndreW2002: no not here bad seed
Collin moved to look around and stumbled upon two new characters.
One looked like a male version of Hatsune Miku, the other was completely black save for one eye on their face.
collinlock16: wtf are you doing in our world??
Red text appeared at the top of Collin’s screen.
We have taken refuge here. Comply and you will live.
Collin sighed.
collinlock16: ok
collinlock16: make sure your house at least isn’t made of dirt
He turned and walked away.
d3rlord3: What did they say?
TheMostMayo: You heard them??? HOW???
collinlock19: red text at the top of my screen
collinlock19: one of them said they’d be living here for a bit
d3rlord3: I’m fine with it
TheMostMayo: I don’t think we have much of a choice >~<
Collin turned to look back at the two new people. The Entity looked like it was speaking to the male Hatsune Miku, their hands fluttering over their cheeks and shoulders. The more human-esque one’s eyes were darting around, their fingers twitching—not nervously, more from excess energy.
They could stay, Collin supposed.
~
Eventually, the two new players introduced themselves. The Entity was Assimilation and the male Hatsune Miku was Andre. Apparently, they were fleeing from a top-secret organization.
Collin just welcomed them to the world. He was already having property disputes with a different Entity, so what’s housing two escapees?
~
Though his new friends weren’t exactly normal, Collin figured that those were the kind of people he attracted. Hey, and Dom solved the biggest pain in his ass, so they couldn’t be all bad.