Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Consider for a moment: death. And dying. The concept of “game over” and 1’HKOs, if you will. Consider the last episode of a beloved anime, the final volume in a cherished manga, the end of service announcement for a longstanding online game. Devastation, anguish, and yes, death.  

So, yeah, basically, that was where Idia was at right about then, as he and Ortho hauled three of his twelve suitcases from his car and rolled them down the sidewalk. Idia’s new university apartment was, like, a million miles away from this stupid parking structure, and he suddenly wished he hadn’t packed so much stuff. Or that his stomach wasn’t swirling faster than the wind-related CC skills in Some Game 2.  

Idia, who was only lugging a single suitcase, panted and stopped abruptly. What was he doing?! Moving into a university apartment while his brother lived in an on-campus dorm?! Rooming with a complete stranger who may or may not be a serial killer—or worse, a normie?!  

Ortho, noticing his brother’s fifth freak-out-session of the hour, dropped the two handles of the suitcases he was pulling, and turned to him. “Brother, please stop panicking! I promise you that even though we’ll be living in different buildings this year, I’ll be with you as often as I can, so it doesn’t matter if you end up with a horrible roommate or not!” 

This did little to mollify Idia, who was still beyond triggered at the fact that he even had to have a stranger for a roommate at all. Freshman year, he’d managed to snag a single-person dorm; then, when he was a sophomore, he had been lucky enough to dorm with his younger brother, but during junior year, he’d discovered that Night Raven University reserved the dorms only for sophomores and freshmen. Juniors were allowed to stay in the dormitories as well, but only if there were any leftover rooms once the underclassmen had had their picks; otherwise, they were forced to find their own housing. 

This year, the freshman class had been unprecedentedly huge, and as such, all the space in each of the seven dorm buildings had been occupied, leaving no room for upperclassmen who might have wanted to live in the dorms, too.  

Idia, who had been utterly disappointed at the prospect of not dorming with his brother, refused to see this as a total loss; he could always just get an apartment off-campus and room solo. But then, he discovered that all the apartments off-campus were EXTREMELY FAR AWAY and would require him to wake up at, like, ten in the morning if he were to get to his classes on time, and guess who refused to rise before noon? Idia, and that was on a good day when he was feeling particularly perky (LOL). 

And so, in order to lessen his commute time, he had resigned himself to living in one of the gross university apartments on campus. OFC, he’d come to this realization way too late and by then, there were only a few available rooms left, so he’d been forced to … lease an apartment with a roommate—one he didn’t even know. 

And that is the harrowing tale of how Idia got stuck with a random roommate during his junior year of college. In order to describe how upset he was with the whole situation would require an entire novel, but everything before it was standard procedure. Idia was thisclose to asking his parents to donate a buttload of money to the school to try and bribe the administration to let him room alone, but alas, that Crowley refused to be swayed. 

Idia might’ve thought he was being noble, if it weren’t for the fact that he’d referred to himself as “magnanimous” about thirty times during the three-minute conversation Idia had had with him. Ridiculous.  

“Hey, brother,” asked Ortho, who was now several feet ahead of Idia, despite having a far heavier load than him. “Didn’t you bring your transportation drone to help us with this whole move-in process?” 

Ack! His transportation drone! That would make this whole trip of carrying all these suitcases way easier. How had he, technochauvinist that he was, totally forgotten about it? He was about to sprint back to his car to grab it when he realized something incredibly stupid. Like, mess-up-an-easy-rotation-in-a-turn-based-game stupid. 

In his rush to shove all his belongings into suitcases, had Idia—had Idia … packed his transportation drone into one of them? Like, as into one of the twelve suitcases that were so incredibly stuffed that the fact that the zippers stayed zipped was nothing short of a freaking miracle? 

Time to commit sudoku. 

“Ugh, RIP me,” Idia groaned as he hurried to catch up to his brother. “I may or may not have, uh, put the drone in one of these suitcases.” 

Ortho sighed, and the two of them made their way down the unnaturally quiet sidewalk to Idia’s new apartment. As Night Raven University’s campus was situated in the downtown region of the Isle of Sages, there usually was the hustle and bustle of pedestrians and cars, but Idia was thankful that just then, the world seemed to be silent. Gods, imagine if, while carrying all these suitcases, he’d also had to navigate between mobs of people. Gross, no thanks. 

Before long, the two brothers had arrived at their destination: Magic Kingdom East. There were four of these stupidly-named university apartments scattered around NRU—Magic Kingdoms North, South, East, and West—and Idia had ended up in the East one. This was kinda a huge “W,” ‘cause it was pretty close to the Computer Science and Engineering buildings, which were where most of his classes were.  

The two brothers picked up Idia’s keys from the front desk, entered the elevator—Idia, point blank, did not have the endurance for stairs—and arrived on the sixth floor.  

Ortho examined the small yellow envelope the keys had come in and read the writing on it. “Idia Shroud, Room 614.” He scanned the doors and hovered down the hallway, the suitcases in tow. “Right here!” 

Idia groaned as he followed his brother, dragging his feet as he went. This was actually the worst thing ever. In a few moments, he might very well meet his future, gag, roommate. It could be anyone. Ew, what if they were an extrovert who talked to him all the time? He’d seen a few of those in some of his gen ed classes, and he was ten thousand percent sure he would not be able to deal if they ended up as his roommate. His social battery would permanently be in the red. 

He sent a silent prayer to the gods that whoever his roommate might be, they’d be chill enough to leave him alone and let him do his own thing. Imagine having someone who always wanted to hang out living with you. He shuddered just thinking about it. 

When Idia finally caught up, Ortho handed him the keys, and insisted, “Cheer up, brother! Maybe your roommate isn’t even here yet, so you can set up your stuff in peace.” 

“Yeah, and then later have to deal with having a whole other person in the same space as me,” replied Idia, his mood still sour.  

He shook his head. Even when he played life simulation games, he’d never forced his little avatar to live with someone else. The loner hermit life was SS-tier, and he refused to deny anyone, even little CG models, it. OFC, had there been times where he’d let his life sim self insert happily have a cute existence with a roommate-turned-love-interest? Maybe. But there was no way that kinda thing could happen IRL.  

Duh. 

The key in Idia’s hands felt cold and uninviting, even more so than the locked door before him. The number 614 was emblazoned on it, representing not only the room number, but Idia’s inevitable doom. From next to him, Ortho looked excited, and upon seeing his brother’s encouraging gaze, Idia could feel himself straighten up with +100 Courage. Ugh, seriously, what was he gonna do without Ortho?  

He steeled his grip both on the key and on the suitcase handle. Okay, Idia, he told himself, You can do this. Just think of it as navigating the poison traps in Some Game 10; as long as you’re careful and confident, you can totally beat this stage. Admittedly, the stage in Some Game 10 had been called “Overcoming the Super Scary Monster’s Enormously Challenging Puzzles and Snares” and this one was just “Unlocking the Door to Your Future Apartment, Dumbass,” but still, Idia considered them to be of equal difficulty: extreme. 

Slowly, slowly, Idia inserted the key into the keyhole—mentally wishing that Magic Kingdom East had installed smart locks instead of this primitive system—and turned the knob. Then, he stepped over the threshold and … promptly tripped over his own feet. The floor tasted particularly disgusting as he crashed down onto it.  

But before Ortho could help him up, a shadow covered Idia, and he raised his head to see a different arm offering itself to him—an arm attached to someone he most definitely recognized, and it caused him to stiffen in panic. 

Now, Idia didn’t know many people on campus, considering his schedule went as follows: go to class, talk to no one, come directly home, and play videogames, but he still recognized a few people in his year.  

There was Leona Kingscholar, a fellow rich kid with a bad attitude, although his veered in a direction that made him extremely brusque and somewhat snippy. So basically? Idia was terrified of him. 

Then, there was Malleus Draconia, another fellow rich kid, who was mysterious and darkly handsome (not that Idia had ever noticed that). He reminded Idia vaguely of the main love interest in a number of otome games he’d played. 

Malleus always seemed to be tailed by another junior, Lilia Vanrouge, and for some incredibly strange reason, Idia felt as if he were a kindred spirit, even though the guy seemed pretty chatty, and Idia had never spoken to him before. 

Idia also recognized Vil Schoenheit, yet another fellow rich kid, even though most of Vil’s fortune wasn’t inherited, but he’d earned it from his job as a famous actor and model. He was also way way way gorgeous—like, if he were a videogame character and his appearance was offered as a purchasable skin, Idia would’ve bought it in a heartbeat just for the aesthetic. 

Oh, and also! There was that weirdo, Rook Hunt, who always seemed to hang around Vil. He gave off major creeper vibes, and to top it all off, he spoke French. Like, on the regular. Who did that?! 

All the juniors he recognized, Idia would have to admit, were total normies and about as relatable as the characters in The Real Housewaifus of Anime City, but if Idia had to choose one that he almost felt as if he could vibe with, it was Trey Clover. Admittedly, he bordered on being too normal for Idia’s tastes, but he seemed like a palatable character archetype. The only thing that stopped Idia from ever even considering speaking to him perhaps maybe one day possibly was the fact that his best friend was the most obnoxious extrovert known to mankind and the king of NRU’s social circle—AKA literally poison to people like Idia. 

And that best friend? Well, he was the one who was reaching out his hand toward Idia. Cater freaking Diamond. 

Please let Trey be my roommate and Cater’s just helping him move in, please let Trey be my roommate and Cater’s just helping him move in, Idia prayed as he simply stared up at Cater. Although, he realized that even if Trey was his roommate, Cater would probably still be around since they seemed to hang out often enough. There really was no good ending here.  

Unless … Cater was just in Idia and his otherwise unknown roommate’s apartment. For no reason. Yeah, that might be it! Cater must have somehow managed to get access into Idia’s locked apartment and decided to stand in it. Idia looked beyond Cater and saw a red-and black skateboard holder decorated with diamond patterns already set up near a wall. No, totally. Cater must have somehow managed to get access into Idia’s locked apartment and decided to stand in it and set up his skateboard holder. That made sense, right?

Right?! 

“KK, I was gonna wait ‘til you came to assign the bedrooms, but if you wanna sleep on the floor, that’s totes fine by me, too!” Cater said, finally just grabbing Idia’s arm and yanking him up. 

“I—I,” Idia began as he unsteadily got to his feet. He clutched his suitcase handle as if it were a lifeline. “Wh—what’re you doing here?” 

Cater looked at him as if he were the weird one. “Um, p’ sure we’re supposed to be roomies.” He took in the suitcases behind Idia and Ortho. “Probably.” 

Blinking wildly, Idia wondered if he had somehow been isekai’d into some parallel universe where Lady Luck made it her number one goal to harass him and make his life miserable. Then he realized that that wouldn’t even need to be a parallel universe, ‘cause his life was pretty much like that RN. He wished he was still on the floor so he could bang his head repeatedly into the dark-so-stains-and-debris-wouldn’t-show carpet in frustration.  

“Ohhh, so you’re my brother’s roommate, then!” cheered Ortho. His expression turned serious, as if he were iterating through his entire name database, which Idia probably figured he was. “Cater Diamond!” 

Nodding, Cater agreed, “Yep, Cay-Cay’s the name, and being awesome’s the game. You’re Ortho Shroud, right? And you’re Idia Shroud?” He turned to Idia, who, despite feeling as if he had been permadeathed into oblivion, gingerly bobbed his head. “Did we take PSY 101 together last year?” He snapped his fingers. “And PHL 101 the year before that?” 

Whoa. Idia was shocked Cater had remembered him. He’d always thought that he’d been too quiet for anyone to actually notice he was there in any of his classes. “Y—yeah.” A memory came back to him. “I—I remember that you got into an argument with the professor when he started lecturing about ‘true self’ or something.” 

Cater laughed. “LOL, yeah, good times. Anyways,” he gestured toward Idia’s suitcases. “This all your stuff?” 

“No, he has nine more suitcases in the car,” Ortho explained, because Idia felt as if his previous comment was all the socialization he really cared to do at the moment. His dialogue tree, as far as he was concerned, had ended. Ortho furrowed his brows. “Bringing them all here would go a lot faster if we just had the transportation drone.” 

“Transportation drone? Spill,” Cater said, his eyes widening. “That sounds super cool.” 

Ortho puffed out his mechanical chest. “My brother built a drone that can fly all his suitcases here at once without having to use an ounce of levitation magic.”  

“‘s no big deal,” Idia muttered, flushing and clutching his arm nervously. It honestly wasn’t. Building weak-sauce little drones that could transport stuff was a complete waste of his Lv. 100 Engineering and Robotics skills (so was going to college at all, but you need to grind out

more XP to unlock that story). But he guessed it was pretty nice that Ortho was so proud of him.  

As if as a testament to his lack of compsci smarts, Cater’s jaw dropped at Ortho’s revelation. “Wait, no way! That’s so cool! Too bad you don’t have it RN—it would’ve been way interesting to see it in action.” 

“We do have it on campus,” explained Ortho, “it’s just … in one of the suitcases.” His eyes lit up, and Idia’s stomach dropped. He did not like the look on his little brother’s face just then. “If you don’t mind, Cater Diamond, could you help my brother get the rest of the suitcases? I can stay here and unpack the ones we already brought and the ones you bring in to try to find the drone.” He appeared not to have registered Idia’s vehemently shaking head. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll find it before you get them all and you can actually observe the drone’s alpha test.” 

Cater considered the idea for a moment. “IDK … sounds like a buttload of work. But!” He waved his magic pen, said some manner of incantation, and Idia’s worst nightmare manifested before his very eyes: there, standing beside Cater, were four other Caters. “Me and my clones can handle it, no probs!” All five Caters stuck out their tongues teasingly and walked out the door. “But you guys so owe me!” 

Idia’s eye twitched as he watched the army of Caters chatter amongst themselves. Oh, gods, he was in for the absolute worst semester of his life, wasn’t he?

Later that night, after Cater and Idia (Idia ended up being very thankful for all the clones because not only did they make the whole moving-in thing go faster, but also because Cater talked amongst them while bringing the suitcases in instead of him) had hauled all his belongings inside—it turned out Idia had forgotten to pack the drone at all—Idia chose the rightmost room in their relatively small apartment for himself. 

He had then spent hours with Ortho setting up his PC and million-and-a-half other gadgets. Now, after Ortho had hovered to his dorm, Idia slowly settled into his gaming chair and booted up Some Game 1—the OG of the Some Game series. It was a great game, he thought, and it had sparked dozens of sequels, but he couldn’t help but lament over the aging graphics. Like, he could deal with 8-bit games and older animation styles. But Some Game 1’s CG models just looked super dated compared to them.  

He leaned in his chair, surprised to find that the back of it reached the edge of his mattress. The apartments in Magic Kingdom East were quite small, and the bedrooms were no exception. His and Cater’s were the exact same size—he had Ortho do a square footage scan numerous times—and all that could fit into either of them was an extra-large twin bed, a desk, and a nightstand-turned-dresser.  

Cater had absolutely freaked ‘cause the closets that came with each room were also exorbitantly tiny and there wasn’t enough space in them to fit all his “super on-brand threads,” but Idia’s entire wardrobe stuff inside the closet perfectly with an embarrassing amount of room to spare. What could he say? Fashion was just not his forte.

As it was with the rooms, the rest of the apartment was pathetically lacking in square footage. To the left of the front door was a bathroom, to the right was a kitchen—which Idia didn’t plan to spend much time in unless it was to use the microwave—and dining table, and before the front door was a small living space with a loveseat, low coffee table, TV stand, and armchair. Idia had his own TV set up in his room (don’t ask him how he found space for it), so he allowed Cater to sit his 32-inch TV in the living room across from the loveseat.  

The familiar start screen of Some Game 1 glowed on one of his holoscreen monitors. But before he could revel in what was to come, Idia heard a strange noise from outside his room and yanked off his headphones. He hadn’t unpacked his noise blocking headphones yet, so he was relegated to using his only regular high-end ones that 

didn’t have such capabilities. And as the audio of Some Game 1 hadn’t turned on yet, the ambient noise around him was very audible, and just moments ago, he could have sworn he heard a very familiar budget soundtrack coming from … the living room? 

Peeling back the door to his room, Idia peeked outside to see Cater lounging on the loveseat as he stared at the television. He hadn’t turned up the volume very high, but Idia would know those Hannah Barbera sound effects anywhere.  

The door clanged against the wall as he fully threw it open, his mouth ajar as he stared at Cater with wide eyes. “A—are you watching—” Cater held up a hand to silence him, and Idia immediately shut up. What was he doing? Speaking over what he knew was an important jumpscare in a film he’d watched, oh, a thousand times before? When Cater finally put his hand down, Idia finished, “C—Creepy Hollow?”  

As a super cheap-looking dissolve transition pooled over the screen, Cater grinned at Idia. “Yep yep! It’s one of my faves, actually. It’s so bad it’s good, y’know?” 

Idia couldn’t believe his luck. Okay, yeah. He’d probably rolled the worst roommate possible, but at the same time? RNGesus had blessed him with a roommate who also liked watching the same crappy, B-list horror flick as him? No freaking way. 

“Whee hee hee, I totally agree,” Idia said, taking another step out of his room, Some Game 1 and his general anxiety when it came to speaking forgotten in the high that it was to find a kindred movie spirit. “What it lacks in cool sfx and talented actors, it definitely makes up for in heart and plotline. And besides—all the goofy, low-quality stuff just adds to its charm. There’s a reason why it has five stars on KawaiiFlix.edu.” 

“So true,” Cater agreed, nodding. His legs had been splayed across the couch, but he brought them down and patted the now-open space next to him. “Wanna watch with? I only just started.” 

Idia didn’t need Cater to tell him that—just from hearing the audio, he could tell exactly how far into the movie he was. Instinctively, Idia bobbed his head and made his way over to the couch, but he froze before he could sit down.  

Wait—pause. For the second time that day, he had to ask himself: what was he doing? Like, seriously? Watching a movie, even if it was his favorite, with a normie chatterbox? Nope, nope, that was the kinda thing that he usually left to super brave shōnen protags and not introverted gamers, who, he just remembered, already had a game loaded on their PCs and couldn’t sit around to watch SS-tier (in his heart) movies anyway. 

He whirled back in the direction of his bedroom door. “U—uh, actually, NVM, I’m out. Hasta la vista.” Why had he said that last part?! 

“Aw, come on! I don’t bite!” Cater whined as he paused the movie. “Plus, if you’re a Creepy Hollow fan, you’re defo gonna wanna peep this, ‘cause what I’m watching RN?” He gestured toward the TV. “Is the Creepy Hollow Diamond Edition Director’s Cut that’s only available on DizzneeMinus! Which I have a subscription for, BTW.” 

Idia felt the blood freeze in his veins. How was he, a cult-level follower of all things Creepy Hollow, only just hearing of this version of the movie? A director’s cut? Diamond edition remastering? Was he supposed to be able to resist that?  

Seriously, was Cater some kinda Siren or something? Because he was saying everything Idia wanted to hear just then, and even though his anxiety was churning in his stomach with all the force of a great typhoon, he sat his butt down on the opposite end of the couch from Cater. He did his best to make sure there was at least five feet of space between them (which was strange, considering the loveseat was only four feet long but whatever).  

He had no idea how far people usually sat away from others when watching movies, and he so didn’t want Cater to think “ew, why’s this guy sitting so close? It’s not time to squad up, bro.” Or! Or! Or! Maybe he’d say, “Chill, dude, why’re you being so weird and sitting right next to me?” Gods, he totally would say that, though, if Idia was even another inch closer.  

However, all Cater did was glance at him from the corner of his eye, laugh, and turn the TV back on again. He looked amusedly at Idia, who was perched on the armrest. “Chill, dude, why’re you being so weird and sitting so far away?” 

Idia turned beet-red. SOS! Help! Mayday! Mayday! Someone call IX-I-I! Also? Kill him now. In his attempt to not be weird, he’d been weird after all? Was this not how two people were supposed to sit on a couch? He slid off the armrest and settled down on a cushion that was still two feet away from Cater. “S—sorry. My bad.” 

Cater chuckled again and looked back at the television. Idia, whose hair was bright pink now, followed suit.

And even though Idia usually couldn’t stop himself from being wholly engrossed in a freaking masterpiece like Creepy Hollow, what with the white bedspread ghosts and clearly papier mâché Frankenstein heads and all, but watching it with his new roommate was a weird experience, and he couldn’t help but observe him instead in his peripheral vision. 

Where did the guy get off, oozing so much confidence? And more importantly: what was Cater Diamond doing on a Sunday night watching a movie in his room instead of going out and partying with his friends and Magicam followers? Actually, wait. No, yeah, figuring that out was probably gonna have to be the main quest for tonight. 

Only Idia’s ears were actually paying attention to what was happening during Creepy Hollow, because, even as his head faced the screen, he watched as Cater’s eyes widened during the suspenseful scene in which the witch threatened to boil the MCs alive in a green-food coloring-dyed brew, and how he absentmindedly flexed his calloused fingers during long expositions that would’ve been boring had the movie not, y’know, been Creepy Hollow. 

He also noted how Cater’s hair would occasionally drift across his face and how he would gently brush it away. 

For a few minutes there, Idia even saw that Cater was fiddling with one of his earrings as he huffed amusedly when fake blood came spurting out of the pumpkin knight when someone lopped off his arm.  

If asked why he spent so much time intently looking at Cater, Idia’d probably say something like, “W—whoever’s, um, controlling my sim clearly has a thing for my roommate—super weird, right? Better hop on the EA forums and complain.” Or maybe, he’d be all, like, “Gotta scope the surroundings to make sure nothing can jumpscare you,”—however that was related. Whatever the case may have been, Idia was mildly surprised when he heard the weird, fake-Transylvanian-accented, Creepy Hollow narrator finally say, “And they all died. The End.”  

Gods, what was wrong with him? One of the greatest B movies of all time had been playing right in front of him and he’d somehow missed every minute of it? Ugh, yep, having a roommate was the worst. He had no idea how this was Cater’s fault, but it so was!

As the credits rolled, Cater rose off the couch and stretched. Through a yawn he said, “Can’t get much better than that, right? Anyways, I’m beat. My first class only starts at one tomorrow, but I gotta date at eight—breakfast date’s so not my idea of a good time, usually, but, hey, she’s cute, so I’ll deal. I should catch some Z’s, though.” He nodded at Idia. “Night, roomie.” 

Idia wasn’t used to anyone who wasn’t a visual novel character wishing him “night” (he pointedly noticed that Cater hadn’t said “good”), so he just mumbled, “G’night,” and shuffled back into his room. Privately, he thought that it was kinda weird how he and Cater’s classes both seemed to start at one the next day. Maybe Cater was just a night owl like him—putting aside the breakfast date thing—and had scheduled all his classes to be later too. Hm, so those were two things that Idia could relate to him with.  

Then again, Idia didn’t know why he was even looking for stuff to relate to at all. At the end of the day, Cater remained a talkative extrovert that, you know, barring movie tastes and potential nocturnal behavior, was basically built to get on Idia’s nerves and-slash-or freak him out. He really shouldn’t be letting his guard down so much if he wanted to protect his sanity. There had been a reason he’d tactically avoided Cater Diamond and chatterboxes of that ilk for so long. Sure, was it mega-weird that he and Cater had quietly spent an evening watching movies? 

Yeah … ‘cause that wasn’t something extroverts usually did, right? 

He supposed tonight must’ve been a some kinda glitch in the system. No way was this super-rare drop of “Chill Cater” ever gonna respawn again. 

In his room, Idia scooted into his chair and shook his mouse to wake up his monitors, and the Some Game 1 start screen greeted him in all its pixelated glory again. But before he could “press any key to start,” an email alert beeped on his phone, and Idia could feel his heart stop as he read it. 

He was about to let out a rather effeminate shriek of absolute horror when he heard, “Ex— freaking—cuse me? Rescheduled to eight in the morning?!” from the next room.  

Idia choked and swiveled toward the direction of the noise. Smash that freaking pause button right now. Di—did just Cater get the same email as him? He could feel his eye twitch. No. Nononono. Was he gonna have to suffer yet another class with Cater Diamond, although this time, with him as his roommate? At eight A.M.?! 

Yep, no. He’d been right: he was definitely in for the absolute worst semester of his life.