He wants to say something, but his only dialogue options are "..." and something like a tiny, strangled wheeze. Touching touching why is Mr. Cater touching him? And now Idia sees his pale, alarmed face in that front-facing phone camera. Oh, oh this is too much, there's another strangled noise coming out of him like a broken modem. Boom, headshot, killed by a n00b who didn't even realize they'd won the match with a shutout.

He can't breathe, it's like the days before his Overblot but worse somehow. He leveled up so much, he should be able to do this quest, but he's woefully under-equipped. Cater's finger reaches for the shutter button and Idia shuts down, just full-on CPU cord yanked out of the wall, no backup battery save. Down he goes into a tight crouch, arm pulling out of Cater's grip, his hands shaking as he struggles to pull his headphones over his ears. The noise-cancelling should block everything but why does he still hear that weird roaring static, punctuated by a loud, fast thudding? It hurts in his chest and his head, worse than downing a case of energy drinks on no sleep.