Idia's voice comes out a rough, raspy whisper. He sounds like he's fighting the flu, which would definitely lend credence to his reasons for absence. It doesn't feel good to speak, either, but he has to try. Cater's spilled so much, Idia owes him that small effort.
"Doesn't matter why you did it. You still initiated a quest nobody else ever bothered to do. You tried to be a healer and a tank all at once for me. The PCs who Overblotted... they didn't want me KO'ed but they also didn't want me to TPK everybody in STYX, maybe globally. My HP and MP weren't in danger here, but you still went for the Talk option instead of Fight or Run."
It's a lot, but even with his voice on the fritz there's still a gentleness to it that says so much more than the words themselves.
Every word is loud and clear despite the state of Idia’s voice. He nods weakly against his chest to show that he’s heard him but it isn’t until his tears start to ease their intensity that he’s able to find his own voice again.
“I’ve wanted to be your friend since freshman year.” Against his better judgment. Against his own self-preservation instincts.
He starts to ask why, but stops himself. He knows the answer. Like calls to like, who better to understand loneliness than the lonely?
"Already on this story path, so we make the best of it. There's no save states in this game. Gotta see it through to the ending." For reasons he can't explain, he presses his face into coppery hair, still holding Cater tightly. "You joined my party for realz, so we go together, 'kay?"
There really isn’t any going back, not anymore. If it already hurts to leave, all he can do is stay. It’s hard for him to think that things will work out, that there won’t be any pain, but all they can do at this point is support each other along the road forward.
His eyes close as tension leaves him. Cater holds his arms loosely around Idia, the embrace much softer as exhaustion starts to really set in. “What role am I in the party?”
"You spec yourself. Gotta find where you fit in." Idia sighs, the sound transforming into a quiet yawn. "Too low on battery anyway. Shutdown imminent." After all, he's been awake since their fight.
He'll think about the implications and consequences later, but for now Idia topples over onto his side, pulling Cater down with him onto the bed. A little squirming and he gets his legs up there too, but instead of curling up the way he usually would he keeps the other boy firmly in his arms. Looks like Cater is an Ignihyde for the rest of the night.
Cater would've been fine passing out on the ground, so it's a pleasant surprise when he's dragged along to share the bed. Even if he were shy, he's way too tired to make any kind of protests, and before he's even fully adjusted his legs alongside Idia's, he's out like a light. It's so late that it's not going to be nearly enough sleep--but a solid handful of hours is better than what either of them have been getting for the last few days.
What awaits Cater in his subconscious, however, ends up being far more than he bargained for. The fire-haired Housewarden sits over him, eyes gleaming, throwing a blush pink glow over both of their naked bodies as he graces Cater with that rare, shy smile. Cater reaches up to run his hands through those beautiful, flickering strands and then up to cup his face, brings their bodies together, merges their lips...
It's not like it's the first time he's ever had a wet dream or woken up with very real stiffness between his legs, but it's all about context in this case. When the inevitable wake-up call happens, there are certainly going to be a lot of surprises.
Thankfully, Idia's dreams are peaceful for once, more vague feelings of calm and nebulous soothing voices in a soft fog. It might be that his mind is too worn out from the caffeine and adrenaline crash to form anything, but it could also be that he's content holding someone and being held in return.
Apparently, Idia Shroud is a cuddler.
His phone alarm goes off first, followed by the chime of Ortho's pod cycling into waking mode. After a short while, the privacy screen retracts and the little robot emerges. Confusion flickers through his eyes when he doesn't see Idia at the computer, only to turn to incredulous surprise when he spots his elder brother in bed, finally fast asleep, with Cater Diamond held tightly to his body. Only his instincts to allow Idia as much sleep as possible while recovering from illness keeps him from flailing and shouting in surprise.
His brother... has formed a close connection with someone? Even more so than Ortho imagined from Cater's frequent visits! The younger Shroud giggles softly, taking a moment to record the image in his memory banks for the future before leaving for his own classes.
Idia sleeps on, unaware of how his legs have tangled with Cater's during the night. His face is calm and slack with deep sleep, much of the tension around his eyes finally gone. With his lips slightly parted, he's drooled a little on the pillow, but thankfully he doesn't snore. The alarm continues to chime, louder but not blaring obnoxiously.
Despite being a heavy sleeper, Cater's phone addiction has trained his brain to waking up at the sound of alarms. Heartslaybul doesn't allow for snoozing, so with a groan he reaches over to try and turn off the alarm...only to discover several truths at once.
That's not his phone going off.
He's not in his dorm.
He is fully cuddled against the body of one Idia Shroud.
He is fully erect.
The last one puts a much bigger sense of urgency into him than the facts preceding it. Gulping, the only thing keeping him from fully launching out of bed is how peaceful Idia's face is. First off: awwww! Second off: he absolutely can't afford to wake him up. Both because he's sure that Idia desperately needs this sleep, and second because he has to take care of his own situation without Idia finding out.
The events of the night before come rushing back to him along with the dream that followed, and it's with a measure of reluctance that he tries to detangle himself from his (newly official) friend and climb out of bed. He wonders if he can even turn off Idia's alarm or if it's locked to his own fingerprints or something.
The reason Idia never says "Oh, I'll nap before this early morning raid" is due to the fact that alarms rarely wake him. If Cater is a heavy sleeper, Idia sleeps like the dead once he does go down. Cater has little difficulty extracting himself from Idia's hold, the embrace more one of position than effort now. The most he does is roll onto his stomach a bit and hug his pillow instead.
The sleek phone resting on the contact charging pad continues to chime, though the "STOP" button is clearly visible and not behind any sort of lock. Fumbling through unlocking his phone to shut off an alarm isn't something Idia has the coordination to do on sufficient sleep, much less what little he's gotten recently.
Whew, and stage 1 of "take care of your incredibly inconveniently timed boner" has been cleared! Cater breathes a sigh of relief as he turns off the alarm. Idia deserves a full, uninterrupted sleep. He, on the other hand, is going to have to make due with what he's got.
Thankfully he'd silenced his phone before he came over, because he can see it blowing up with texts from members of Heartslaybul from where he'd abandoned it on the floor. Oof. Cater winces and picks it up, but leaves it on a higher surface for now while he darts into the bathroom. Important thing's first.
He'll figure out how to explain his walk of shame later. For now, the shower is going on and his clothes are coming off.
Infrequently as he bathes, Idia's bathroom setup is pretty nice. There's no mirror, only a suspicious set of empty brackets on the wall, but the shower is roomy and the soap and shampoo are barely scented but expensive. Not unexpected considering Idia is both a Housewarden and the Twisted Wonderland version of a trust fund kid, but Cater gets to benefit for now. The temperature controls are digital and there are multiple settings for the showerhead, making it easy to get comfortable for whatever the user might need.
Ignihyde is both incredibly awesome and...so, so overwhelming. Cater's glad he's as good with technology as he is, even if he's no builder or programmer, otherwise the controls would feel so alien. Once he gets started, though, he finds it easy enough to navigate.
Letting warm water envelop him makes him feel embraced by Idia all over again, and he can't stop his mind wandering back to those fantasies. There's a big part of him that says stop it, what are you doing? but try as he might, the faces and noises Idia made in his dream keep slipping back in as he tries to switch to other, more anonymous fantasies.
For the sake of not taking way, way longer than necessary in the shower, Cater caves temporarily to the insistence of his desire, biting his hand to muffle the moans that rise from his throat as his legs start to feel like they're full of jelly. Even though Idia didn't seem to be waking up any time soon, he's not about to test his luck.
Idia's not waking up, but oh will Cater get an eyeful when he emerges from the bathroom. The Housewarden rolls over again in his sleep, sprawled out on his back with the blankets almost on the floor. His loose t-shirt has rucked up most of the way, revealing narrow hips, a flat but undefined abdomen, and a slim chest crowning somewhat prominent ribs. One pale rosy nipple peeks out just past the hem of the rumpled shirt.
A nerd physique, definitely, but for Cater's newly awakened appreciation for his friend it's a goldmine photo op.
Cater's feeling much better by the time he's slipped back into his clothes, clear-headed and ready to deal with whatever nonsense the day has in store for him...when he steps out to get a total eyeful of Idia. In that moment, he totally believes that Idia's got sick hax0r skillz. Because no way, no WAY he's he walking out into that scene and feeling his dick twitch in appreciation.
He doesn't have time for this--both to get aroused again and also to process how he's getting aroused to begin with. Cater snatches his phone, intent on leaving...but he's weak. He stops and takes a picture. He might, um, need it later. For something.
But for now, it's time to dash his way back to his dorm, get put together for class, and assuage Riddle's guaranteed anger at discovering him having snuck out after curfew. He'll text Idia once he's escape the queen's wrath to let him know that he had to bounce, but promise to be back after class.
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"Doesn't matter why you did it. You still initiated a quest nobody else ever bothered to do. You tried to be a healer and a tank all at once for me. The PCs who Overblotted... they didn't want me KO'ed but they also didn't want me to TPK everybody in STYX, maybe globally. My HP and MP weren't in danger here, but you still went for the Talk option instead of Fight or Run."
It's a lot, but even with his voice on the fritz there's still a gentleness to it that says so much more than the words themselves.
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“I’ve wanted to be your friend since freshman year.” Against his better judgment. Against his own self-preservation instincts.
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"Already on this story path, so we make the best of it. There's no save states in this game. Gotta see it through to the ending." For reasons he can't explain, he presses his face into coppery hair, still holding Cater tightly. "You joined my party for realz, so we go together, 'kay?"
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There really isn’t any going back, not anymore. If it already hurts to leave, all he can do is stay. It’s hard for him to think that things will work out, that there won’t be any pain, but all they can do at this point is support each other along the road forward.
His eyes close as tension leaves him. Cater holds his arms loosely around Idia, the embrace much softer as exhaustion starts to really set in. “What role am I in the party?”
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He'll think about the implications and consequences later, but for now Idia topples over onto his side, pulling Cater down with him onto the bed. A little squirming and he gets his legs up there too, but instead of curling up the way he usually would he keeps the other boy firmly in his arms. Looks like Cater is an Ignihyde for the rest of the night.
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What awaits Cater in his subconscious, however, ends up being far more than he bargained for. The fire-haired Housewarden sits over him, eyes gleaming, throwing a blush pink glow over both of their naked bodies as he graces Cater with that rare, shy smile. Cater reaches up to run his hands through those beautiful, flickering strands and then up to cup his face, brings their bodies together, merges their lips...
It's not like it's the first time he's ever had a wet dream or woken up with very real stiffness between his legs, but it's all about context in this case. When the inevitable wake-up call happens, there are certainly going to be a lot of surprises.
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Apparently, Idia Shroud is a cuddler.
His phone alarm goes off first, followed by the chime of Ortho's pod cycling into waking mode. After a short while, the privacy screen retracts and the little robot emerges. Confusion flickers through his eyes when he doesn't see Idia at the computer, only to turn to incredulous surprise when he spots his elder brother in bed, finally fast asleep, with Cater Diamond held tightly to his body. Only his instincts to allow Idia as much sleep as possible while recovering from illness keeps him from flailing and shouting in surprise.
His brother... has formed a close connection with someone? Even more so than Ortho imagined from Cater's frequent visits! The younger Shroud giggles softly, taking a moment to record the image in his memory banks for the future before leaving for his own classes.
Idia sleeps on, unaware of how his legs have tangled with Cater's during the night. His face is calm and slack with deep sleep, much of the tension around his eyes finally gone. With his lips slightly parted, he's drooled a little on the pillow, but thankfully he doesn't snore. The alarm continues to chime, louder but not blaring obnoxiously.
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That's not his phone going off.
He's not in his dorm.
He is fully cuddled against the body of one Idia Shroud.
He is fully erect.
The last one puts a much bigger sense of urgency into him than the facts preceding it. Gulping, the only thing keeping him from fully launching out of bed is how peaceful Idia's face is. First off: awwww! Second off: he absolutely can't afford to wake him up. Both because he's sure that Idia desperately needs this sleep, and second because he has to take care of his own situation without Idia finding out.
The events of the night before come rushing back to him along with the dream that followed, and it's with a measure of reluctance that he tries to detangle himself from his (newly official) friend and climb out of bed. He wonders if he can even turn off Idia's alarm or if it's locked to his own fingerprints or something.
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The sleek phone resting on the contact charging pad continues to chime, though the "STOP" button is clearly visible and not behind any sort of lock. Fumbling through unlocking his phone to shut off an alarm isn't something Idia has the coordination to do on sufficient sleep, much less what little he's gotten recently.
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Thankfully he'd silenced his phone before he came over, because he can see it blowing up with texts from members of Heartslaybul from where he'd abandoned it on the floor. Oof. Cater winces and picks it up, but leaves it on a higher surface for now while he darts into the bathroom. Important thing's first.
He'll figure out how to explain his walk of shame later. For now, the shower is going on and his clothes are coming off.
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Letting warm water envelop him makes him feel embraced by Idia all over again, and he can't stop his mind wandering back to those fantasies. There's a big part of him that says stop it, what are you doing? but try as he might, the faces and noises Idia made in his dream keep slipping back in as he tries to switch to other, more anonymous fantasies.
For the sake of not taking way, way longer than necessary in the shower, Cater caves temporarily to the insistence of his desire, biting his hand to muffle the moans that rise from his throat as his legs start to feel like they're full of jelly. Even though Idia didn't seem to be waking up any time soon, he's not about to test his luck.
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A nerd physique, definitely, but for Cater's newly awakened appreciation for his friend it's a goldmine photo op.
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He doesn't have time for this--both to get aroused again and also to process how he's getting aroused to begin with. Cater snatches his phone, intent on leaving...but he's weak. He stops and takes a picture. He might, um, need it later. For something.
But for now, it's time to dash his way back to his dorm, get put together for class, and assuage Riddle's guaranteed anger at discovering him having snuck out after curfew. He'll text Idia once he's escape the queen's wrath to let him know that he had to bounce, but promise to be back after class.