#nmh au

So. Imagine this, you've newly moved into a rental home with two other people you barely know for college. Aside from a few text conversations about leasing and rent, you haven't even spoken to each other, beyond casual small talk that is. It's only been a week since you've arrived here.

And everyone is already getting on your nerves. 

Tango didn't have to imagine that. He had a housemate that was rarely home, somehow. Even though it had only been a week, he'd only seen Skizz once. That wasn't much of a problem, he just assumed it was a schedule related thing. At least he did his share of the chores. 

Etho was a bit more of an issue. Tango didn't even know what major he was taking, not that it mattered because he didn't seem to go to class at all. If he was taking night classes, he could at least have the dignity to not make insanely loud noises at 2 am. That most likely wasn't the case however, considering he left with at least a camera and an emf reader each time. Amateur ghost hunting, maybe. To each their own, Tango guessed. Though it was definitely weird that Tango could hear Paramore blasting from his room. And that every time he went to ask Etho to turn it down, he had headphones on.

It's the little things that build up, it wasn't enough for Tango to consider moving out yet. Especially with how hard it was to find a place to stay. Though one would wonder how much it would eventually take. 

Well, Tango didn't know anything about that at the moment, with rent prices everywhere and all. 

It does get annoying when the people you live with leave all their things around in your common areas, however. Even if it's something extremely minor, some people have pet peeves. Tango wasn't sure what the object on the ground in their living room was. A talisman, maybe? It looked a bit important. Though it could just be part of Etho's hobby. He didn't know much about Skizz yet, but he wasn't going to interact with Etho this early in the day. It seemed like Skizz was home today anyway.

Tango bent down to pick the circular object up, at least it had a chain it was hanging off of, so he didn't risk getting cursed or something. He almost laughed at himself for thinking that, he normally didn't believe in anything related to the occult.

He headed down their short hallway sandwiched between the bathroom and their respective rooms. Hearing music from Etho's room again only strengthened his lack of desire to open or even knock on his door. Knocking on the door of the room next to his. Tango waited for a few seconds, getting no reply. 

Weird, he knew he heard his housemate moving around in there. 

He knocked again.

Yet again, no reply. 

Tango called out to his housemate, "Skizz? I know you're in there. I think one of you may have lost something. It'd be nice if you could open up..".

Silence, only sounds of... scuttling? Maybe Skizz had a weird walk. Wait, that's a bit rude. Still, it was getting a bit annoying. Tango was contemplating opening the door outright, but what if it was locked? Oh well, knocking and saying it verbally might do the trick. He raised his fist to the door a final three times. "Hey man, please open the door."

Absolutely nothing.

Tango had been defeated by common courtesy. There was only one option left, he definitely wasn't trying Etho's door until he exhausted the opportunities. Ah, one more verbal notification for good measure. 

"Alright then..I'm opening the door, I hope you don't mind." Absolute radio silence. Sighing, Tango put his hand around the doorknob, giving it a turn to the right. 

The door opened inwards, creaking a little. The scuttling sounds still haven't stopped. 

And Skizz was nowhere to be seen. "Huh? What? Wh-?" Tango stammered, certain without a doubt that a person was moving about in the room. 

Not on the floor that is. Regrettably, Tango realized that the scuttling sounds were coming from the ceiling. He really didn't want to look up, but he did.

And there Skizz was, yep, on the ceiling. Tango definitely couldn't rationalize anything he was seeing at the moment as normal. Skizz was most clearly crawling on the ceiling. On all fours, a vacant look in his eyes. His face snapped down rapidly in Tango's direction, who was frozen in fear at the moment.

"Oh! Hello!" 

Tango wasn't sure how he snapped out of it, but he closed the door with the most force he thought he had ever used in doing quite literally anything before. He wasn't quite hyperventilating, but his breath was rapid. Heaving for a few seconds, he let himself catch his breath against Skizz's door for a moment. 

"What the fuck." Was the only sequence of vocabulary he managed to get out of his mouth.

"Welp, guess he's your problem, Etho!" The final words of a recent discussion among housemates, Tango looked almost triumphant when he said that to Etho. Well, at least that's what he thought. 

Etho couldn't really complain, he thought that was a reasonable agreement. Considering the fact that Tango was the one who found Bdubs laying on their back doorstep about a week ago. They had let the man in moss stay in his room ever since, with the main justification, between both Skizz and Tango, that he had the biggest room. At least he slept soundly, even though Tango kept telling his housemates that he (allegedly) sleepwalks with his eyes open. 

Nothing that bothered him specifically, he didn't really mind. How much could you care about people you've known only a little more than a month anyway? Tango wasn't an annoying guy, he just seemed slightly uptight. 

Whatever, compsci majors or something, Etho thought. The guy has 8 am classes, the maniac. 

Okay, maybe Etho was a little annoyed that he actively vocalized his suspension of belief when it came to the supernatural. Ah well, to each their own, as long as he didn't complain about him being awake at 3 am. He did at least seem a bit interested in Etho's video recording equipment. 

He thought that maybe he was complaining about Tango a little too much. He was simply letting his thoughts wander aimlessly. 

Completely truthfully? He was procrastinating. Who could blame him though, programming is hard. He'd rather be sitting at his desk, (which he was doing now), and combing through the footage of his latest escapade (which he wasn't). The toils of a college attendee.

Etho picked up his phone to check the time, noticed that he could have just looked at the bottom right corner of his monitor, and laughed at himself before actually looking at the information he needed. 

1:35 am.

Ah. That's late, and he hasn't even started his assignment yet. Well he had time? "No! You'll forget about it until you have 3 hours to turn it in, Etho, do not do that." He thought to himself, doing a few minor wrist stretching exercises. He then placed his right hand on the mouse,

and then he opened up the video editing software on his computer.

Whoops. 

Though he quickly realized that he couldn't even focus on doing something he liked at the moment. His thoughts were simply too scattered to properly collect. He felt like he was thinking about a thousand things at once.

Etho looked over at his now roommate. Truth be told, he himself didn't know why he didn't question letting Bdubs stay with them either. It wasn't like him to act completely off of gut feelings, yet he did so this time anyway. Why was he so familiar to him? Etho felt like he could trust him even though he was quite certain they had never met before. Not even as children.

And yet, his presence was slightly comforting? Like being around a lifelong friend. Whatever, he just did something nice. Much to his housemate's dissent. Not much to think about other than that, we'll send him on his way…. eventually.

Why did he feel like kicking himself for thinking that?

Tango is just a normal guy. Literally just a dude. He's so tired. He's just a guy trying to live in this economy.

Etho has a yt channel related to ghost hunting. All his equipment is cheap and fake but his footage isn't.

I'm not telling you why Skizz isn't home, yet.

Bdubs is (probably obviously) not human! What is he? Who knows. I sure don't!

Skizz wakes up at 6 am, Etho goes to bed at 6 am.

Just because nmh is BEST centric, doesn't mean the other characters don't exist! Almost the entire cast aside from a few people go to the same uni.

The southlands is a dnd group in which Martyn keeps missing sessions.

The fairy fort gang work at a cafe, some on different shifts, some on the same. Martyn keeps missing sessions because he also works there, he just hasn't told his dnd group yet.

Grian works at a hot topic. (Because I thought it'd be funny)