Just like he predicted, Idia is nowhere to be seen. Well, outside of a tablet, which Cater isn't about to just chat up. Kind of has a feeling if he tried he'd get muted, anyway. He's read (and reread) the doujinshi he borrowed enough that he's ready to return it, but how is he supposed to do that when Idia is nowhere to be found? It's so awkward bringing this thing to class with him and hiding it in his history book every day...what if Trein notices it? Yeesh!
But it's not like he can barge into Ignihyde again. Well, the chances of anyone catching him aren't terrible, but he'd still rather not go back there just for this reason. And it's not like he can ask Ortho to return it. Those young, robotic eyes must be protected! So, Cater finds himself stuck, only to be pleasantly surprised when Idia finally makes his return.
Cater's already-smiling face growing brighter, he approaches to greet him. "Morning, Idia! Hey, wait up after class, okay?"
And with that ominous note for poor Idia to dwell on, Cater goes and finds a seat, mercifully not claiming the one next to him and instead leaving plenty of space between the two of them.
Idia doesn't notice Cater's approach until he hears that bubbly voice, his attention fixed on his tablet screen. The greeting makes him startle with a yelp that draws everyone's attention to him, including Trein's scowl. A cold sweat prickles across Idia's forehead and down his back as he sinks further into his seat.
"Wha-- um, o-- okay...." No, he's not agreeing to the meet-up, he's confused by the request and Cater's quick veering toward an empty seat a somewhat comfortable distance away. Sure enough, Idia's thoughts chase themselves the entire class. Focusing is about as easy as it was last time he did the IRL thing, which is to say not at all. Why did Cater have to leave him hanging? So cruel!
So it's only fair that, once the bell chimes, Idia grabs his stuff and books it for the classroom exit. Haste buff, engaged! He wishes he could stack the buffs but he doesn't have the mana for double-casting (read: he's a nerd with a nerd's physique). You're not pulling him into a random encounter this time, Mr. Cater!
Cater looks over just in time to see Idia moving faster than he’s ever seen him move before. Startled, he curses to himself. Why did he think that giving Idia advanced warning would guarantee he’d get a chance to talk to him?
Scrambling to gather his things, Cater stands fast, hoping to catch up to him, but an impromptu blockade of friendly classmates stop him to chat. He’s able to dismiss them nicely with some ad lobbed excuses, but by the time he’s out the door Idia’s gone. In all likelihood, he’ll escape back to his dorm, but there’s more than one way to the mirror chamber. That leaves Cater with one choice: breaking out his unique magic.
Which is why, when four different Caters split up, one is bound to cut Idia off. Not hard to outrun you, nerd. “There you are! Geeze, totes uncool, ditching me like that.” The Cater plays with a lock of his hair. “Dislike!”
"EEP! SHOCKED EMOJI FACE!" Yes, he said that out loud. What a fucking nerd.
He was pretty sure he'd heard Cater's voice coming from the other direction, but then Cater appeared from his other side! How... OH! He'd forgotten about Cater's unique magic! This use of it is a violation of game rules! A foul worthy of disqualification! But he's semi-trapped now so what use is it to complain?
"You didn't wait around for me to agree and I didn't, so it's not ditching." Maybe this loophole will be good enough for him to excuse himself and make a break for it. His eyes dart nervously toward the Ignihyde mirror and he's clearly tensing, ready to run like the Pumpkin Knight is on his heels. Really, he'd rather be chased by his favorite movie monster than a Social Butterfly!
The Cater gives Idia a tsk tsk. Come on, man! Don’t try and make excuses. “The others will be right here so just hold on a second, okay?” He winks. Holding two fingers cutely to his face. “I’m tasked with not letting you escape!”
Fortunately, the real Cater arrives within a moment, huffing. He’s the only one who has any school supplies, giving away his status as the original. “Whew! That was a workout I wasn’t expecting. You have no idea how tiring it is using my unique magic. Thanks everyone, great job!”
The others laugh and give high fives and congratulations all around before disappearing. Cater shakes his head. “Anyway, I just wanted to give you back what you let me borrow.”
Cheater cheater cheater! Cater's unique magic is hax0r bullshit. Idia's lips twist into a sour pout, his golden eyes glaring at the copies as they celebrate. He huffs, ready to step into the mirror anyway, when Cater's words stop him in his tracks.
Borrow?
"Huh? Borrow what? Did I lend you class notes or something?" He doesn't remember doing that, but he's been so distracted it's entirely possible. Anyway, if Cater would hurry up and hand whatever it is over, Idia can scurry back to his room before anything else happens!
“What? No. You remember!” Idia clearly doesn’t remember, but that’s not stopping Cater from cheerily pulling the doujinshi from where he’d tucked it away in his History of Magic textbook. “Here you go! Thanks again—-this is some really good stuff. You’ve gotta show me what else you have sometime.”
That's a doujinshi. A really familiar doujinshi. A really familiar, extremely pornographic doujinshi. From Idia's sparse collection. And Cater somehow has it and he's holding it out in public and Idia is about to spontaneously combust.
"Are you crazy?!" he screeches, snatching the doujinshi back as carefully as he can without damaging it. "H-- how did you get this?! Why do you have it?! IRL and otaku life can't mesh in public!" Teal streaks creep through his hair. Oh he feels queasy.
Cater holds up his hands, taken aback by the outburst. “Hey, chill! Nobody’s paying attention rn but they will if you make a scene!” He doesn’t want to get caught looking like a porn peddler, either. Yeesh!
Judging by the reaction though, he frowns. “You really don’t remember? I asked you if I could borrow it back when I took you to your room. I saw it with your manga and you said it was okay.” So, maybe it was a bad idea to take advantage of a situation where Idia was clearly AFK from reality, but when else was he going to get the chance?
"I was in sleep mode! Non-functional!" Idia quickly slips the doujinshi into his bag, between his tablet and another book so it won't end up wrinkled. Ugh, now the social media fiend has seen one of his shameful dirty secrets! This day can't get any worse, can it?
He buries his face in his hands. "I swear I bought it for the art, I didn't know it was R-18 until I got it! A-- and I skipped that part!"
Cater chokes. He totally, absolutely doesn’t believe it. It very clearly advertises itself for what it is. There’s no way Idia didn’t know exactly what he was buying. That and he’d be skipping basically half the thing if he didn’t read it. Given how loudly Idia is protesting though, people are starting to notice as they head to and from their dorms, so Cater quickly takes him by the shoulders and starts to steer him toward Ignihyde.
“You know what? Maybe we should talk about it in private!” And then he’ll call bullshit.
Idia makes a noise like a whistling tea kettle boiling, only much quieter and a bit higher. He walks on his own power but doesn't move his hands from his face, forcing Cater to guide him all the way back to his dorm.
He's never living this down. Forget it, he'll have to delete this save file and start over with a new UN and stay in lurk mode forever. Cater Diamond was put in this world to torment him, he's sure of it. This is simply a facet of his terrible, horrible, rotten luck. The only thing it doesn't affect is his gacha draws, small mercy that might be.
Once they're back in his room, Idia promptly kicks off his shoes, goes to his bed, and burrows under every blanket and comforter he owns. Nope, not coming out of hiding ever again. He lives here now.
If they were just a little bit closer, Cater would he ripping the covers off of him. Instead, he just watches in silent frustration as Idia totally shuts down for a second time. “Oh no you don’t. There’s no way I’m going to let you pretend I’m not even here,” he decides aloud, clearing his throat.
“Well, since you’re busy, I’ll just help myself to the rest of your collection. I’m sure there aren’t any more R-18 ones since that last one was just a fluke!” Somewhat loudly, he heads over to the shelf where he found the last one. “Let’s see what other ships we’re sailing!”
Idia explodes out of the nest of blankets, frantically tackling Cater to the floor. His eyes are wild and his hair crackles with pink and green. He doesn't even realize he's straddling the redhead, pinning Cater's shoulders with both hands.
"Wh-- why are you doing this?! Are... are you gonna post my 2D shame to Magicam?!" He looks utterly mortified. "I'm not H, I swear!"
Well, that tactic worked way better than he expected. Maybe too well, in fact, as he goes totally sprawling. Cater lets out a yelp of surprise as Idia uses all of his gangly strength to take him down and trap him.
Partially because he might’ve bumped his head a bit on the ground and is therefore halfway dazed, Cater doesn’t try to escape him right away, staring up wide-eyed into those big golden eyes—-like the coins meant to help one pay the boatman on the way to the afterlife.
“Wh—-you think I’d do something like that? Harsh! Tell me how you really feel, why don’t you?” Sure, he’s constantly on Magicam but no way he’d stoop so low. “I’m not trying to bully you! I read the hentai too, didn’t I? I don’t think it’s weird at all!”
It's to be expected with these idiots interacting!
"I... I don't know, I'm not an extrovert or an influencer or... or... whatever normies do now! I'm an otaku/technomantic engineer dual class with the specs to match, this isn't one of my skill sets!"
He goes back to hiding his face in his hands, still planted on Cater's groin. His voice drops back to a more normal pitch and volume, though he still sounds distraught. "I really didn't know it was that... I-- I mean... I thought the one chara was his twin sister but then I saw it was the brother with the other guy and I'd never seen... I'm not... I...."
Oh my god. He…he’s totally a total virgin. Like 100%, probably hasn’t even held another person’s hand before level virgin isn’t he. In retrospect, Cater should’ve probably taken all the signs into consideration but it just seemed so unlikely. Maybe if he were a freshman or even possibly a sophomore…
Idia is clearly beyond mortified, and Cater feels quieter than he’s ever been before. Aside from feeling guilty he also feels…somehow charmed to know something this personal about his classmate. Later, it’ll likely trigger his instinct to run, but for now his own issues aren’t remotely on his mind.
“Idia, it’s okay,” Cater finally says when he passes the lump in his throat. “You are okay. Look at me.”
He sits up onto his elbows, a little nervous to sit up any more fully. His face, for once, is serious. “I’m not here to judge you.”
Idia falters, a quiet noise of distress not completely muffled by his hands. He can't see Cater's face, but his voice... he's never heard the redhead sound so serious. Cater Diamond, being serious and not the least bit capricious? Idia doesn't have the RAM to process that and there's no upgrading himself the way he can upgrade Ortho.
He should've gotten rid of that doujinshi (the artwork is so beautiful), it's not worth the trouble (it was so expensive), he couldn't stop blushing the one time he read the second half (he's never "played solo" after reading hentai before). He doesn't care about the meat sack that carries around his brain, his mind is what matters and what his mind wants it gets, but that one time his body and brain both wanted the same thing... he wanted to forget and now Cater's reminded him.
Idia's hands fall from his face, his eyes downcast and a little too damp. His face is splotchy red, his ears burning and more than the tips of his hair mingled pink and green, like flowers blooming out of a mountain lake. That thin sapphire lower lip trembles.
Cater’s always admired Idia’s hair. The way it flows and flickers, no split ends or cosmetics needed. And all these new colors he’s never seen, between last time and this time, it’s really all more beautiful than he could’ve imagined. The tears though, it’s hard to look at anything else and truly appreciate it.
Cater isn’t good at this. For his friendliness and easy approachability, he’s never let himself be the person someone can come to when they need a shoulder to cry on. He’s made sure of it. This is the last thing he could’ve expected. The last thing he could’ve prepared for. So when he instinctively lifts a hand to tenderly wipe the tears from Idia’s flushed cheeks, he feels clumsy. Is this even the right thing to do? This is usually the part where he’d say something silly, but that would be so wildly in appropriate he doesn’t trust himself to open his mouth.
At the touch of Cater's fingers, Idia flinches slightly but doesn't pull away. He closes his eyes, clearly miserable and burning with shame he doesn't fully understand. Feelings are horrible. They're illogical and messy and interfering and he's lived for so long crushed under the weight of so many negative ones, what's one more in the pile? He's forgotten what it means to be happy, forgotten that he ever deserved it. For what he's done, to his classmates... to his brother... he deserves misery. He'd tried to pretend otherwise but now he remembers that hubris has been his downfall before. Here he pays for that afternoon gaming with his classmates, laughing and finding the company of others to be just the slightest bit enjoyable.
He paws blindly for his dropped bag, digging out his tablet. Muscle memory alone lets him type into the text to speech app, the flat voice carrying none of the weight of the words.
Cater takes his hand back, wringing it as he slowly sits up the rest of the way. It puts them maybe a little too close, but he doesn’t dare push Idia away, not right now. When the tablet comes out, his guilt over the situation compounds.
“No, I’m the one who needs to apologize,” he finally says.
Way to go, Cay Cay. Vil would’ve found some graceful way to handle this. That’s why you’ll never be more than a second-rate Magicammer. Inexplicably, he lets out a fake, high pitched laugh.
“I’m really some kind of stupid clown, huh? Cracking all these jokes when you just want me to leave you alone. Aaaah, I’m sorry! I didn’t consider your feelings at all!” If he says it and sticks his tongue out like he’s just some big idiot, it’s not getting too real, right? It’s the best way Cater can think of to pull away without potentially making things worse. But even now, he’s not feeling all that confident.
Idia shakes his head slowly. He's not sobbing or anything, the corners of his eyes staying damp but not rolling down his cheeks. Pink still flickers through his hair, though the green is fading a bit.
[is ok. curious. horny teenage boi. pages stuck together? have spade drop cauldron on you.]
Is he teasing or serious? Who knows with Idia being in a weird mood. At least he finally scoots off of Cater to sit on the floor with his back against his bed, cradling the tablet in his hands.
It feels as if he’s walking a tightrope. One false step and they’re going to go tumbling. Even now he can feel himself wobbling, trying to regain balance. With his legs free, Cater pulls his knees up to his chest. His smile wavers awkwardly, and he knows he’s struggling to keep that mask on.
“No, of course not,” he says in more of a normal tone. “There’s nothing about you that I think is gross.”
Sighing, Idia fiddles with the edges of the tablet, obviously thinking. Having Cater in his room is weird, but having this Cater in his room is even weirder. He can't remember ever experiencing the other boy acting like this, not for more than a few seconds anyway. His fingers fly over the touchscreen again.
[u r acting diff. u didnt c me overblot. did u know? y u r being nice now? scared?]
There has to be a reason for this change. He wants to know.
Staring at the floor in front of Idia’s feet, Cater frowns—but then blinks in clear shock as Idia’s words sink in. He heard a bit about what had happened, but none of the people who had left for the Island of Woe had really given any details. It was kind of miserable. All this intel from campus but none of the actual plot!
“Wait, you overblotted? For realz?” He sounds clearly at a loss, but there’s no fear in his expression. “No wonder you’ve been so exhausted. Have you even given yourself a real chance to rest?”
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
REMATCH
But it's not like he can barge into Ignihyde again. Well, the chances of anyone catching him aren't terrible, but he'd still rather not go back there just for this reason. And it's not like he can ask Ortho to return it. Those young, robotic eyes must be protected! So, Cater finds himself stuck, only to be pleasantly surprised when Idia finally makes his return.
Cater's already-smiling face growing brighter, he approaches to greet him. "Morning, Idia! Hey, wait up after class, okay?"
And with that ominous note for poor Idia to dwell on, Cater goes and finds a seat, mercifully not claiming the one next to him and instead leaving plenty of space between the two of them.
/KEYSMASH
"Wha-- um, o-- okay...." No, he's not agreeing to the meet-up, he's confused by the request and Cater's quick veering toward an empty seat a somewhat comfortable distance away. Sure enough, Idia's thoughts chase themselves the entire class. Focusing is about as easy as it was last time he did the IRL thing, which is to say not at all. Why did Cater have to leave him hanging? So cruel!
So it's only fair that, once the bell chimes, Idia grabs his stuff and books it for the classroom exit. Haste buff, engaged! He wishes he could stack the buffs but he doesn't have the mana for double-casting (read: he's a nerd with a nerd's physique). You're not pulling him into a random encounter this time, Mr. Cater!
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Scrambling to gather his things, Cater stands fast, hoping to catch up to him, but an impromptu blockade of friendly classmates stop him to chat. He’s able to dismiss them nicely with some ad lobbed excuses, but by the time he’s out the door Idia’s gone. In all likelihood, he’ll escape back to his dorm, but there’s more than one way to the mirror chamber. That leaves Cater with one choice: breaking out his unique magic.
Which is why, when four different Caters split up, one is bound to cut Idia off. Not hard to outrun you, nerd. “There you are! Geeze, totes uncool, ditching me like that.” The Cater plays with a lock of his hair. “Dislike!”
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He was pretty sure he'd heard Cater's voice coming from the other direction, but then Cater appeared from his other side! How... OH! He'd forgotten about Cater's unique magic! This use of it is a violation of game rules! A foul worthy of disqualification! But he's semi-trapped now so what use is it to complain?
"You didn't wait around for me to agree and I didn't, so it's not ditching." Maybe this loophole will be good enough for him to excuse himself and make a break for it. His eyes dart nervously toward the Ignihyde mirror and he's clearly tensing, ready to run like the Pumpkin Knight is on his heels. Really, he'd rather be chased by his favorite movie monster than a Social Butterfly!
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Fortunately, the real Cater arrives within a moment, huffing. He’s the only one who has any school supplies, giving away his status as the original. “Whew! That was a workout I wasn’t expecting. You have no idea how tiring it is using my unique magic. Thanks everyone, great job!”
The others laugh and give high fives and congratulations all around before disappearing. Cater shakes his head. “Anyway, I just wanted to give you back what you let me borrow.”
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Borrow?
"Huh? Borrow what? Did I lend you class notes or something?" He doesn't remember doing that, but he's been so distracted it's entirely possible. Anyway, if Cater would hurry up and hand whatever it is over, Idia can scurry back to his room before anything else happens!
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"Are you crazy?!" he screeches, snatching the doujinshi back as carefully as he can without damaging it. "H-- how did you get this?! Why do you have it?! IRL and otaku life can't mesh in public!" Teal streaks creep through his hair. Oh he feels queasy.
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Judging by the reaction though, he frowns. “You really don’t remember? I asked you if I could borrow it back when I took you to your room. I saw it with your manga and you said it was okay.” So, maybe it was a bad idea to take advantage of a situation where Idia was clearly AFK from reality, but when else was he going to get the chance?
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He buries his face in his hands. "I swear I bought it for the art, I didn't know it was R-18 until I got it! A-- and I skipped that part!"
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“You know what? Maybe we should talk about it in private!” And then he’ll call bullshit.
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He's never living this down. Forget it, he'll have to delete this save file and start over with a new UN and stay in lurk mode forever. Cater Diamond was put in this world to torment him, he's sure of it. This is simply a facet of his terrible, horrible, rotten luck. The only thing it doesn't affect is his gacha draws, small mercy that might be.
Once they're back in his room, Idia promptly kicks off his shoes, goes to his bed, and burrows under every blanket and comforter he owns. Nope, not coming out of hiding ever again. He lives here now.
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“Well, since you’re busy, I’ll just help myself to the rest of your collection. I’m sure there aren’t any more R-18 ones since that last one was just a fluke!” Somewhat loudly, he heads over to the shelf where he found the last one. “Let’s see what other ships we’re sailing!”
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"Wh-- why are you doing this?! Are... are you gonna post my 2D shame to Magicam?!" He looks utterly mortified. "I'm not H, I swear!"
This icon is getting so much mileage
Partially because he might’ve bumped his head a bit on the ground and is therefore halfway dazed, Cater doesn’t try to escape him right away, staring up wide-eyed into those big golden eyes—-like the coins meant to help one pay the boatman on the way to the afterlife.
“Wh—-you think I’d do something like that? Harsh! Tell me how you really feel, why don’t you?” Sure, he’s constantly on Magicam but no way he’d stoop so low. “I’m not trying to bully you! I read the hentai too, didn’t I? I don’t think it’s weird at all!”
It's to be expected with these idiots interacting!
He goes back to hiding his face in his hands, still planted on Cater's groin. His voice drops back to a more normal pitch and volume, though he still sounds distraught. "I really didn't know it was that... I-- I mean... I thought the one chara was his twin sister but then I saw it was the brother with the other guy and I'd never seen... I'm not... I...."
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Idia is clearly beyond mortified, and Cater feels quieter than he’s ever been before. Aside from feeling guilty he also feels…somehow charmed to know something this personal about his classmate. Later, it’ll likely trigger his instinct to run, but for now his own issues aren’t remotely on his mind.
“Idia, it’s okay,” Cater finally says when he passes the lump in his throat. “You are okay. Look at me.”
He sits up onto his elbows, a little nervous to sit up any more fully. His face, for once, is serious. “I’m not here to judge you.”
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He should've gotten rid of that doujinshi (the artwork is so beautiful), it's not worth the trouble (it was so expensive), he couldn't stop blushing the one time he read the second half (he's never "played solo" after reading hentai before). He doesn't care about the meat sack that carries around his brain, his mind is what matters and what his mind wants it gets, but that one time his body and brain both wanted the same thing... he wanted to forget and now Cater's reminded him.
Idia's hands fall from his face, his eyes downcast and a little too damp. His face is splotchy red, his ears burning and more than the tips of his hair mingled pink and green, like flowers blooming out of a mountain lake. That thin sapphire lower lip trembles.
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Cater isn’t good at this. For his friendliness and easy approachability, he’s never let himself be the person someone can come to when they need a shoulder to cry on. He’s made sure of it. This is the last thing he could’ve expected. The last thing he could’ve prepared for. So when he instinctively lifts a hand to tenderly wipe the tears from Idia’s flushed cheeks, he feels clumsy. Is this even the right thing to do? This is usually the part where he’d say something silly, but that would be so wildly in appropriate he doesn’t trust himself to open his mouth.
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Apparently Overblotting doesn't cure depression. Oh well.
He paws blindly for his dropped bag, digging out his tablet. Muscle memory alone lets him type into the text to speech app, the flat voice carrying none of the weight of the words.
[sorry u shouldnt have 2 put up w/this]
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“No, I’m the one who needs to apologize,” he finally says.
Way to go, Cay Cay. Vil would’ve found some graceful way to handle this. That’s why you’ll never be more than a second-rate Magicammer. Inexplicably, he lets out a fake, high pitched laugh.
“I’m really some kind of stupid clown, huh? Cracking all these jokes when you just want me to leave you alone. Aaaah, I’m sorry! I didn’t consider your feelings at all!” If he says it and sticks his tongue out like he’s just some big idiot, it’s not getting too real, right? It’s the best way Cater can think of to pull away without potentially making things worse. But even now, he’s not feeling all that confident.
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[is ok. curious. horny teenage boi. pages stuck together? have spade drop cauldron on you.]
Is he teasing or serious? Who knows with Idia being in a weird mood. At least he finally scoots off of Cater to sit on the floor with his back against his bed, cradling the tablet in his hands.
[not grossed out?]
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“No, of course not,” he says in more of a normal tone. “There’s nothing about you that I think is gross.”
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[u r acting diff. u didnt c me overblot. did u know? y u r being nice now? scared?]
There has to be a reason for this change. He wants to know.
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“Wait, you overblotted? For realz?” He sounds clearly at a loss, but there’s no fear in his expression. “No wonder you’ve been so exhausted. Have you even given yourself a real chance to rest?”
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