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Idia had a summer tradition, and it worked for him. He worked on whatever his parents asked him to do at S.T.Y.X, and when he was done, he gamed till his eyes crossed, passed out, rinse and repeat. Somewhere in there was eating or drinking whatever Ortho brought in for him while he was distracted.
Even with his parents' inevitable testing after having overblotted, this summer should be relatively the same.
Unfortunately for him, Ortho had other ideas.
"Idy-nii," Ortho called as he spun Idia’s chair around. "We're going on a trip."
Idia didn't look up from his controller as he leaned over and took a drink from his straw. "Nope, we’re not. I don't do trips; too many people. Game Over."
"Yes. We are." His brother said again, using the firm tone Idia had learned meant. ‘I’ve decided, and you have no choice.'
Idia groaned and finally looked up. “But I have livestream tickets for the Premo concert next Thursday, and my waifu has an event the week after. I’m totally booked.”
“No you’re not, and if you don’t go I will disconnect everything you touch from the internet!”
“You can’t do that!” Idia’s eyes widened as he realized that, yes, Ortho COULD do that. "You wouldn’t!”
“We're going somewhere new. It'll be good for you."
"I go outside. I went outside on Tuesday."
"You went to get a package from the front step and came back in under ninety seconds."
"That still counts."
"It does not count, Idy-nii."
There was no winning this argument, and Idia knew it the second Ortho pulled up the itinerary on a floating screen with his usual calm efficiency. Flights, booked. Hotel, booked. A whole week, already blocked out, already non-refundable…he’d done it on purpose.
"Pyroxene," Idia read, squinting at the destination. "Why there?"
"Epel's from there! I thought maybe we could visit him, if his schedule works out.” Ortho pouted, “The vacations for both of us! It’s pretty, and you got to go over the winter, and I didn’t. " Ortho's expression brightened even further, if that was possible. "Also, it's far enough that you can't just walk home early."
"I would never do that."
"You did that at the beach last year, when I tried to get you to go to the pool the year before…"
"...Those were special circumstances."
"You said the sand was freaking you out."
Idia did not have a response to that. The sand in his swimsuit had been a sensory nightmare, and he’d had nightmares about it gumming up his machines for weeks.
He tried to negotiate his way out of it; eventually trying to barter with a shorter trip, or even better, just staying home while Ortho went and reported back with photos. Ortho knew his brother too well and had well-structured arguments for every excuse.
It didn’t matter; it never mattered when Ortho got something into his head. Three days later, Idia found himself standing in an airport with a portable charger in each pocket, trying not to throw up.
He slept through the flight, thank the seven, but once they got out of the airport, it was so crowded. Idia spent the walk to their hotel hunched into his hoodie, following Ortho.
Everything changed when he nearly tripped over some snot-nosed kid and had to look up. It was then that he saw the banner.
It was impossible to miss; brightly colored, HUGE, and strung up over the entrance to what he was sure was a convention hall. Below the banner, a steady stream of people in costumes were filing in and out of the doors, several of them carrying enormous bags. Idia spotted no less than 20 characters he recognized immediately among those costumes.
Idia froze and pulled out his phone, frantically googling.
Ortho didn’t notice he’d stopped until he turned around to say something. "Are you hungry, Id—" Ortho floated back a few feet to where Idia had frozen on the sidewalk and tugged his arm. “Are you ok?
"Is that a… convention?"
The android's eyes flickered with light as he accessed the internet himself. “It does seem to be. Pyroxicon’s 20th anniversary; A convention by fans, for fans featuring anime, video games, and fun for the otaku generation."
"Pyroxicon. The stop on Premo’s tour before my livestream for their work on the opening of ‘Mahou Shoujo Divine Pantheon’. Where the voice actress for Meg is going to be signing autographs…"
Idia started to vibrate, chewing on his nails. He paced back and forth, golden eyes flicking over the crowd and mumbling to himself.
“...I’ve never been to a con before,” Idia said slowly. He was eyeing the door of the building with a longing he reserved for gatcha games. “But am I ready for Extreme level crowds? If I had a cosplay I could hide…No one would recognise me…”
"We were going to try and meet up with Epel today," Ortho said. “I haven’t texted him that we’re here yet…”
"I know. I know we were. It's just—" Idia gestured at the building."It's right here. I didn’t know we’d be near it. One of the booths is going to have the limited edition statue from—"
"Idy-nii, didn’t you preorder that?"
"That’s so different than picking it up in person!"
"One hour," Idia said as he crept toward the entrance with more energy than he’d shown all month. "Just to look around. That's it… and maybe see when autographs are…and if they’re crowded"
Ortho sighed as he looked at the large building. He sent a quick message to Epel that maybe tomorrow would be best. Getting their badges was easier than they'd thought.
Idia knew it the second he stepped through the doors and the noise and color of the place hit him all at once—cosplayers everywhere, Signs directing him to Artists Alley, the high energy of hundreds of nerds there to immerse themselves in fandom for a few days. People who gamed like him— well, not as good, but as obsessively. For some reason, the crowds around him felt less oppressive than anywhere he’d ever been.
"Okay," Idia admitted, forty minutes and one entire bag of merchandise later, trailing after Ortho toward a booth selling character keychains he had absolutely no intention of walking past without stopping. "Maybe more than an hour."
"I already texted Epel. He said it’s fine; one of the cows is giving birth and he needs to help his mama," Ortho said with a shrug. He was just excited that his brother was actively doing things. Idia’s anxiety had spiked wildly when they’d entered the dealers hall, but someone in an AI cosplay from 'Sled Over Heels' had steered them to a quiet room off the large hall. Idia had been so excited over the costume and talking about the long-forgotten anime that they’d made it to the room without mishap. Idia had marked it a safety zone in his head and returned whenever he felt overwhelmed. It was fascinating how being surrounded by his niche seemed to make things easier for his brother.
“This is crazy! Absolutely insane…I’ve been invited to cons under my gamer handle for years, but I always freaked out and decided not to go.” Idia whispered as they followed the map they’d been given to line up for the concert. He sounded shocked, and Ortho’s mind whirled with the possibilities. If he could make a map of conventions with things Idia might be interested in, he could get him to leave his room…Maybe even socialize eventually!
Ortho quickly revised his text to Epel. “Maybe we can get you a cosplay before tomorrow, Idy-nii…” Idia looked at him, blinking. “Tomorrow?”
Ortho nodded. “I scanned the schedule, and the autograph session for Meg's voice actress is tomorrow. We’ll need to come back.”
“A cosplay…” Idia looked around at all of the brightly colored costumes and nodded slowly. In a cosplay…maybe he could do more. It would be like being in disguise. “Yeah…we can try tomorrow too.” A wide evil grin spread across his brother's face. “Maybe I’ll enter the gaming tournament.”
Ortho watched Idia’s plot of mass annihilation and smiled to himself. It wasn’t the way he’d planned, but mission accomplished. Idia was…not quite socializing but he was walking around a crowded building without hiding—He didn’t count the frequent ducks into the ‘quiet rooms’ as that was what they seemed to be for. He had actually talked to the Ai cosplayer.
Maybe tomorrow he would actually make friends?
“...Absolutely trash these n00bs. They’ll never know what hit them…”
Or... maybe not.