05/14/2025 Snippet, CALL OF THE MOON-BEASTS.

How to not blow your SAN check!

…

It took about five minutes for everyone to recover, or recover enough. Lillian managed it first, probably from sheer force of will. Emi and Wilcox didn’t so much stop wheezing as they forgot to, their eyes identically wide and a touch wild at this new, inexplicable room. As for Abbie… she was still coughing, and staring at the floor. She was staring at the floor hard. That was bad.

She didn’t react when Tobias put one arm around her shoulders, either. That was worse. “Don’t think about it, Major,” he told her. “It’s here, that’s all. The air is here, the room is here, the wet is here, the warmth is here. There is a reason for it all, and you could figure it out, but you have better things to do. So you do not have to think about it.” He shook her a little. “Where is the air, Major?”

He repeated it before she responded. “Here, sir.”

“Yes. And were is the room?”

“Here.” Was that a little bit more animation in her voice?

“Right. And the wet, the warmth?”

“Here.” She took a breath. “It’s all here. We all know it’s here. I’m not imagining it. You’re feeling it, too.”

“Exactly. So you’re not crazy, Major! And if you’re not crazy, and all of this is real, then… what?”

“Then I don’t have to think about it.” She finally looked up, and around. “It’s only something that’s happening. That’s all it is.”