'What the fuck?!'
Hearing the words 'Universal Hatred' go off in my head immediately worries me. I was fine with what I heard earlier since it didn't sound bad, but this sounds really bad!
Before I can even try to access the screen to see what I just got I'm interrupted as Inv plops down in front of me and starts carefully poking at my stomach.
"I-Inv?! What are you doing?!" I say to Inv feeling flustered by him poking me. I see him laying down on his stomach as he does this with a worried look on his face.
"J-Joey!! D-dat wasn fud!! Dat bery dagerus tu eaet!!" Inv says to me. It's nice to see him worried about me but I didn't exactly eat it. In the game you could just store egg bombs in your stomach pouch like any other item, so I don't really see the big issue here.
…
'Wait… is it safe to do that? That was only in the game… this is reality now…'
…
Letting Inv further poke at my stomach I think to myself. So far since coming to this world a lot of things have worked similarly compared to the game so this should also be fine… even if I do die to it being set off somehow in my stomach pouch that would just be another lesson learned, I guess.
'Besides, never know when I might need an egg bomb on hand'
Deciding that it's fine to keep the egg bomb in my stomach pouch I turn my attention back to Inv who's making worried sounds while poking me. Honestly it just tickles with how gentle he's being. I can also see tiny traces of purple starting to appear on his skin mixing with the normal blue. I wonder what that color means?
"Inv its alright, there's nothing to worry about" I grab both of Inv's paws with my own as I say this.
"B-bu it noat fud! I-it con go kaboom!!!" Inv stands up and makes a small gesture with his paws mimicking an explosion. Since my paws were still holding his, I end up being raised in the air.
Due to suddenly being lifted up I find myself kicking the air looking for ground.
"O-oh!! S-sory…" Inv quickly realizes what he did and puts me back down on the ground.
"I-its fine…"
Being easily lifted up by Inv like that shows how much stronger Inv is compared to me. Good thing he isn't attacking me or anything…
Wait a second!
"Inv! Do you uh… feel any hatred towards me right now?" I ask Inv this sudden question. Remembering what the passive's name was, I started worrying about its effects.
"Nu? Y wud I hat yu?? We pardners noaw!!!" Inv says back in confusion while tilting his head at a 90-degree angle. Other than seeing his neck twist like that I feel relieved hearing this.
'Alright cool, he doesn't hate me'
It would be stupid if I finally found someone just for them to start hating me because of some damn passive…
"Wut wong Joey??" Inv's head snaps back up straight as I hear him ask.
"Nothing Inv, it would take a while to explain. I'll tell you when I get the chance" I assure Inv. I'm not sure how to explain to Inv about what's even happened since even I have no idea how it all works yet.
"Ok… b-bu ta eg…" Inv looks back down at my stomach as he says this. Is he upset I stored it in my stomach pouch? I thought he would've liked me doing that…
'Wait… he said it wasn't food…'
A thought pops into my head that makes me question everything that I've known about Inv so far. This entire time I've been going off the knowledge I have of him from the game and what I've read back in my past life…
'There's no way… I need to find out'
"Inv, do you know what a stomach pouch is?" I ask this question. What he says next will confirm if my suspicion is true or not.
"Stamac poch?? Wat is dat???"
…
'Oh… oh shit'
Hearing his answer further confirms my suspicion. Does he actually know nothing about the Rain World mechanics? I should ask him a couple more questions just to see if I'm right.
"Do you know what the areas we sleep in are called?" I ask a more easier question.
'This one is super easy! He should definitely know this!'
"Umm… wut u meen ara we sweep en???" I hear more confusion filling his voice. Maybe he didn't understand me?
"Y'know the holes we crawl into that have the symbol above it? Uhhh hold on a second" I say to Inv. Thankfully there's a sharp piece of rebar laying nearby which I quickly pick up. I turn back to Inv and start walking back to him. While walking back I can see him noticeably flinch when he sees me holding the spear.
Wondering why he reacted like this for a second, I realize it would probably look weird if someone suddenly picked up a weapon and started walking towards you.
"Don't worry Inv, I would never hurt you" I casually say to him.
"O-o-ok!1" I watch in surprise as Inv's skin fluctuates between pink and blue for a second.
'Huh… guess he liked hearing that more than I thought…'
Arriving in front of him I start using the spear and start scratching the metal ground below us making a crude shelter symbol.
"This is the symbol I'm talkin about. They always have a hole next to it, and we can sleep in the areas connected to it" while saying this I place the spear back down on the ground. I'm still not sure why Inv flinched when he saw me hold a spear, so I don't want to worry him any further.
"Hmmmm…" Inv looks closely at the symbol. I stand there for a bit as I just watch in silence as he stares at it…
…
…
…
'How hard is he thinking about this? At this point I would expect smoke to start coming out of his head…'
…
Suddenly I can smell something similar to… smoke?