"...Huh." The voice of Kyla's biggest crush came through the Discord call just after Jon disconnected. "That was unexpected. You think his computer crashed?"
"Hope not..." Kyla thought a moment. "I mean... games crash all the time, but... for it to crash Discord and the rest of his computer too?"
"Maybe his computer just didn't have the specs to handle the game?" Jay thought out loud. "There's no knowing. I imagine he'll be back on call soon enough, once his computer reboots."
"Maybe, we, um, we should text him?" Kyla suggested.
"Maybe YOU should text him, Ms. Leeson," Jay challenged.
"M-Me?" Kyla flustered audibly somehow. "N-no, I-I... uh... y-you're better at... writing-"
"Kyla," Jay reprimanded. "Please. You said you were going to try to be better at this, yes? Jon's a friend. You can tell things to your friends, can't you?"
No, Jay, I can't, Kyla thought. You'd know by now if I could. A long pause. Kyla sighed heavily. "O-okay, then... then I'll text him!" Kyla pulled out her phone. "Th-thanks, dad," she joked.
"Anything for you, honey," Jay finished their verbal handshake, then went back to streaming his old game. He'd already started a match by the time the group text he shared with the gamer group pinged.
Kyla wanted to ask if she could play with him again, but by the time she looked up from her phone the moment had passed. She resolved that it'd be better if she waited for Jon to hop back on call, so she gathered her patience, and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Jay finished a match and started a new one. Kyla was still waiting.
And waiting.
And waiting.
Finally, the waiting was reprieved a little when Karyn finally joined the Discord call. "Good. God. It should be straight criminal how much homework Mr. Oiler hands out!" she complained bitterly as a way of saying hello.
"I thought it was easier than usual this week," Jay commented, without looking up from his game.
"We all know you thought it was easy, Galaxy Brain," came back Karyn's backhanded compliment. "But I'm ready to relax after all that. What are we playing tonight?"
Jay was doing the Gamer Lean right then, so it fell to Kyla to fill her in. "W-we, uh... don't know yet."
Karyn was taken aback. "But you texted Jon quite a while ago, in the group text. You haven't figured anything out by now? Where is Jon, anyway?"
"Computer Problems," Jay quipped as the intensity of his game lulled again. "I'm fairly certain his computer crashed, quote, a while ago, end quote, just before our dear friend Kyla texted him about it."
"He, uh, hasn't responded to anything. Since then." Kyla explained. "I'm, um... actually... starting to worry a bit about it... I'll try calling his cell phone?"
Kyla dialed, and after a few moments of ringing it just went to voicemail.
"Okay... that is weird," Karyn mentioned with slight worry. "You guys think he's alright?"
"Uh..." Kyla bit her lip.
"I think it'd be somewhat paranoid to think otherwise," Jay replied matter-of-factly. "There was no sign of trouble or anything; he simply disconnected abruptly. Besides, short of actually going over to his house I don't think we have any good ways to check up on him from whereweareNOWNO!" Jay stopped talking, swiftly went back into the Gamer Lean, and focused on his game once again.
"You two may not, but I do," Karyn replied to the call. "I have his little sister's phone number; she can go check on him. She owes me, anyway, for stuff earlier this week. I'll call her now."
"Y-yeah... you do that..." Kyla replied. Then, muttering under her breath, she added "Maybe then we can all play together..." She sighed, watching Jay continue to play without her.
"Jon? Bro?" His gothy rebel little sister Zoe was knocking on his bedroom door. "Jon, C'mon, dude, your geeky nerd friends think you're dead or something! What's up?"
No response. His room sounded empty, in fact.
"Dude, if you don't say something, I'm coming in there, and you can't stop me!" Zoe tried her best to sound threatening.
Nothing. Zoe sighed, and pushed open the door.
... Jon's room actually was empty. Huh. Zoe had been sure he was up here earlier; actually, he almost never closed the door if he wasn't actually in his room, did he? "Jon?"
Apart from the door thing, by far the biggest abnormality of the room was Jon's computer. Instead of Jon's usual desktop, ARCADE PORTAL flashed on the monitor. ENTER THROUGH HEADPHONES flashed after that. It was like some older arcade cabinet, by the aesthetic of it.
"Wait... These?" Zoe picked up Jon's headset from where it rested on his chair. Still plugged in, curiously; Jon was usually fairly meticulous about putting them away when he was done. Zoe thought she heard something through the headphones (static, mostly, but still), so she thought to try them on and give her biggest lead a listen before she called Karyn back.
Of course she didn't expect to literally vanish from where she was standing once she put the headphones on.
