Chapter Text
To say that winter is a hectic time of year for students and teachers alike would be a gross understatement. This was especially true for those attending Night Raven College. The all-encompassing bubble of stress that seemed to constantly cover the entire school since the start of the term meant that this particular time of year was only that much more exasperating.
It had been an eventful and trying season for the students and staff, with multiple overblots and catastrophes in the rear-view mirror of the academic vehicle being unceremoniously driven by Dire Crowley. It was no wonder the headmage’s bags were already packed for a vacation, for better or worse; without him behind the wheel, the well-worn car that was NRC might not actually go careening over a cliff before the year was up.
Regardless, with the first semester of the academic year coming to a close and winter break just around the corner, students were all feeling the pressure of their impending finals.
“I’m sure I don’t need to remind you all that exams are less than one week away.” Professor Trein scratched his cat, Lucius, behind the ears as he spoke to his class of juniors. “To help you prepare, I’ve created a practice quiz - a game - to go over everything we’ve learned this semester. The game will take place next class, and you’ll be participating in teams of two.”
While some students already started to glance at each other hopefully, Professor Trein nipped their excitement in the bud. “Don’t go looking to group up with your ‘bestie’,” he said. “I’ve already assigned the partnerships, to give you more of a challenge and encourage collaboration. I urge you to study well together and prepare before next class.”
“Mreow,” Lucius agreed.
A few boys were already groaning in protest. Idia Shroud sat in his usual spot at the back of the classroom, completely swallowed up by the hood of his jacket, wishing he were anywhere else.
Great. Now I have to be social with some normie in my free time? Ugggh, exams are annoying enough. Why can’t the break come any sooner??
Professor Trein began to read out the team assignments. Idia prayed silently that he wouldn’t get paired with anybody too “extra”, though compared to him, everyone in the class was just that. Under most circumstances, he wouldn’t even be here in person… but the headmage mandated that Idia physically attend a certain amount of classes per term in order to receive full credit. He was already cutting it dangerously close with how often he opted to use his tablet instead, and now that the semester was ending, he had no choice but to drag himself here. Of all the days.
“Team number four: Idia Shroud and Cater Diamond.”
WHAT.
At the front of the room, Idia saw the back of his fellow student’s head, orange hair swishing as he turned around in his seat. As soon as Cater’s green eyes locked on his, Idia wanted nothing more than to cast an invisibility spell on himself.
Not him. Anyone but him. WHY HIM!?
Cater smiled cheerfully at Idia, clearly not at all upset about this news. The blue-haired boy had been so sure that whoever got stuck with him would be just as disappointed in the arrangement as he was. The Ignihyde housewarden wasn’t exactly “well-liked” by most of his peers.
Cater Diamond. Resident party boy, influencer, and the most extra of extroverts. I can feel my HP draining already…
“By the way,” Professor Trein added. “As a little incentive, there’s going to be a prize for the team who scores the most points. You will each win a gift voucher for a meal at King’s Valley Bistro. So it is in your best interest to study hard.”
This seemed to excite a portion of the class. Idia merely rolled his eyes. That was just one more thing he didn’t care about.
As soon as class was dismissed, Idia swung his backpack over one shoulder and hurried from the room as quickly as he could. This was the last class of the day, which meant that all he’d really been thinking about for the last hour was going home to get his dailies in. It was the one thing that helped him recharge after a full day of being around people.
“He~eyyy, hold up!”
He cringed, recognizing Cater’s distinct voice coming up from behind him in the corridor. He’d been hoping the diamond boy wouldn’t follow him, but this was just his luck.
Cater rushed in front of Idia and stood there, blatantly blocking his path. The blue-haired boy shrank back out of instinct, eyes widening anxiously. “A-ah… w-what…”
“So like, we have to win this thing.” Cater gestured with his index finger to emphasize his point. “King’s Valley Bistro is to die for. I mean, I’ve never eaten there, but they’re a huge hit on Magicam and everything looks sooo drool-worthy…”
Idia looked at the floor. Maybe if I stare at this one cobblestone long enough, I’ll become one with it. Become a stone. Stepped on for all eternity. Anything to get out of this conversation.
Cater blinked. “Did you hear me?”
“U-um… I… o-o-okay…” Idia stammered from between his thin, blue lips.
The diamond folded his arms, scrutinizing his classmate. Idia Shroud was always so mysterious and quiet, but they weren’t complete strangers from one another. Though they had never shared any classes before this year, a few school events had brought them in close proximity in the past. Still, he barely knew anything about this slightly taller young man with the flaming blue hair. And Cater was in the habit of collecting as many acquaintances as possible, especially those who were different from himself. It kept life interesting.
“I can’t study today,” Cater said regretfully, jutting out his lips exaggeratedly. “I’ve got another cram sesh on the sched. for alchemy.” He rolled his eyes. “Low-key snoozefest. But do you wanna hit up the library tomorrow or something?”
Do I want to? No. Am I gonna have to? Iiiiit’s lookin’ that way.
Without a proper excuse to get out of this, Idia awkwardly shifted from one foot to the other. “Fine. I mean, um… s-sure… I guess…”
“Sick. I’ll text you if anything comes up - wait, are we friends on Magicam?” Cater began to scroll on his phone. Idia tried to remember a time when he’d seen Cater without that thing in his hand… and came up empty. Then again, he was not about to judge someone who was reliant on a device. He himself was already itching to finish this conversation via his tablet, or to hide fruitlessly beside his android brother.
But that would probably just make things take even longer. “I don’t know,” Idia responded instead, rather sullenly.
“You… have a Magicam account, right?”
“Of course I do.” Not that Idia used it often. It was mostly for looking at Premo pics and sharing gaming screen shots, memes and the like.
“What’s your handle?”
“Gloomurai.”
Cater squinted, trying to figure out how to spell that, but then an account popped up quickly. The profile picture was some video game character that the diamond did not recognize, and the feed was full of a bunch of random stuff… none of which alluded to this necessarily being Idia’s personal account. There were no pics of him what-so-ever.
He showed him the screen. “This you?”
Idia nodded.
“Alright… added!” Cater smiled again, revealing his protuding snaggletooth. “Add me back later okay? Catch you to~mor~row!”
The diamond sailed off in the other direction, wisps of orange hair floating at the nape of his neck, and Idia released a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.
♦️💀♦️💀♦️
Now that Idia was alone in his room, he transitioned from keeping his thoughts in his head to thinking out loud, as per usual.
“Maybe aliens will take over the planet,” he pondered, tossing his bag carelessly aside and beginning to change into more comfortable clothing. “Maybe there will be an outbreak of Magicpox. Maybe there will be a sudden infestation of rabid squirrelmonkeys and they’ll have to shut down school forever.” He pulled on his favorite comfy hoodie for lounging and flopped backward onto his bed.
The ceiling was familiar to Idia by now. He’d spent many an hour staring at it, memorizing each crack, every deviation in the paint pattern. Sometimes tracing over the familiar spots was a comfort, especially during depressive episodes.
“… Or maybe I’ll have no choice but to get this whole ‘quiz game’ thing overwith.”
He groaned exaggeratedly and reached for his phone, arm flopping around until he felt the familiar shape of it beneath his fingertips. The first thing he saw was the notification on Magicam.
CayCaySlays is now following you.
Idia opened up Cater’s profile. “Dude, he has a ton of followers!” He scrolled a bit. “And he literally posts every day, multiple times a day… what a showoff.” He scoffed, looking back at the top of the profile where the avatar was. Unlike the rest of his ’cam feed, which documented Cater’s entire life and was speckled with selfies, his profile pic was a candid shot that had been taken of him outside in the garden at Heartslabyul, looking up toward the sunshine with a smile on his face.
“This guy is just naturally photogenic. I guess I don’t blame him for being super vain.”
Idia’s thumb hovered over the Follow Back button. Did he really want to be bombarded with all these posts every time he opened the app? It wasn’t like he regularly checked Magicam, anyway…
“I’ll just unfollow him as soon as the quiz thing is over. He probably won’t even notice, not with that follow count.”
Just as he started second-guessing himself on whether or not to commit to the action, a voice interrupted his thought process.
“Nii-san!” Ortho floated into the room. “I’m back!”
Idia squeezed his eyes shut. “Ortho, why today, of ALL DAYS, did you have weird, mysterious plans while I was in class? You left me to the wolves!”
Ortho blinked in confusion. “Wolves? But there are no beastmen in your history class…”
“Not what I meant. Agh, this is the WORST…”
The humanoid gave pause when he registered that his brother in a horizontal position. “I thought you would be doing your dailies by now. Why are you in bed?”
Idia heaved a dramatic sigh, allowing his arm to flop over the side of his bed and letting his phone slip from his grip and slide to the floor. “I’m never getting out of bed again.”
Ortho was used to his brother saying things like this, especially on days where he actually had to attend class in person. Still, the humanoid had to make sure this was just typical Idia behavior and that nothing was actually wrong. He ran a quick scan. “Hm, I detect no changes in your vitals, so you don’t appear to be sick.”
“I am sick,” Idia lamented. “Sick of everyone expecting me to mingle with the normies during end-game grinding before the final boss fight. Making me show up in person is just cranking the settings up to hard mode! It’s totally unfair and major noob behavior, like, do they just expect me to switch gears like unlocking a new weapon pack that’s outside my character class and forcing me to give up all my specialized stats for the sake of a group raid on mini-boss that I could easily own all by myself without-”
The run-on sentence ran, and Ortho took the opportunity to pick up Idia’s phone while he rambled. He looked at the screen, seeing that Cater’s Magicam profile was open. He interrupted Idia’s ranting to ask, “Nii-san, are you friends with Cater Diamond-san?”
“PSH. Uh. Hard no.” Idia shook his head, gritting his jagged teeth at the very idea. “They’re making us team up, like I said. I bet he isn’t even going to message me, he probably just wants more Magicam followers. There’s no way that guy is actually happy about being my partner. Uggghhh, why did it have to be him???” Idia tugged on his pillow and smashed it over his own face, groaning.
Bloop!
Wait a minute… he knew that sound.
Idia slid the pillow away and eyeballed his brother. “Ortho…”
The humanoid cheerfully held out Idia’s phone back to him. The icon next to Cater’s handle had changed, indicating that they were now mutuals.
“I followed him back for you!” Ortho chirped, his eyes giving away the smile that couldn’t be seen.
“WHAT. WHY- W-W-WHY WOULD YOU…!” Idia grabbed his phone and stared at the screen, trying to figure out a way to go back in time.
Ortho only tilted his head. “You said you and Cater Diamond-san are assigned partners, correct? And your account settings don’t allow private messages from those you aren’t following. Now you can work together!”
Idia didn’t say anything, his yellow eyes large with dismay. He simply continued to stare at his phone screen, trying to come up with a way out of this whole thing. Any way.
“Nii-san? Are you okay?”
“Fine,” Idia said monotonously. “Completely unrelated, but… next time you take out the trash, make sure you take me with it.”