By some cruel twist of fate, Idia finds out that his current Discord crush is none other than NRC's resident party animal, Cater.
(Based on that one meme)
The meme that this story was based on is below and was done by red-panda-weeb on Tumblr and is found here: https://red-panda-weeb.tumblr.com/post/673945511738359808/in-honour-of-the-new-dialogue-and-twst-english).
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Moreover, this story has gone through many spelling and grammar changes. None of these have been updated on Wattpad, and all current content is on AO3, where this story is crossposted under the same title.
As soon as the bell rang to signify the end of Professor Trein's history lecture, Idia was up and out of his seat. As far as he was concerned, the only history that really mattered was the lore that came from video game flavor text. Very much sure that everyone was staring at him for shooting out of his chair so fast (they weren't), Idia bowed his head low and slunk out of the hall.
He mentally berated Ortho for making him come to class in the first place. Didn't his brother know that all the lectures given in this hall were streamed and put online? Okay, admittedly the video quality was so bad that it rendered the recordings practically useless, but still! At least then he could get something out of the class without having to interact with the rest of the student body!
Idia sighed and quickly scrolled through the notifications on his tablet. His sigh deepened when he saw that in the Discord section of his notification center, there wasn't a single alert saying that he had received a DM from a certain someone.
He clicked his tablet off when he realized that he was actually disappointed that notjustGirls hadn't responded to him. Idia only found his voice in voice chats and online forums, and messaging notjustGirls was ... fun. They and Idia had never voice-chatted, but their dialogue through direct messages was just enough to distract him from whatever game he was playing and keep him up all night.
It was bad.
Oh, but it was getting even worse, as Idia noticed himself also thinking about notjustGirls even when they weren't talking. He hadn't a clue what they looked like, but the only way he had forced himself to stay awake through Professor Trein's last lecture was to imagine chatting with them. They were entertaining and had a way with words, and Idia was certain that his and their conversations could never be dull.
Okay, admittedly, they were kind of a flirt and and and Idia was bad at flirting but apparently whatever awkward responses he gave amused them even though he didn't know what to say and it and and and ahhhhh!
He powered on his tablet again and opened their DMs. He cringed when he noticed that notjustGirls was online and there still was no alert that they had responded to his last message. Idia gulped. He had finally done it. He had bored notjustGirls to death, and now they were off conversing with someone much, much more interesting than him.
Oh.
He hadn't clicked "send" on his last message to them.
Whoops.
After the message was sent, Idia pocketed his tablet, trying his absolute best to make eye contact with no one. He desperately wished that Ortho hadn't decided that he wanted to take a hover instead of accompanying him to class. He had almost made it to the Hall of Mirrors when he felt someone tap his back. He groaned audibly when he noticed that standing behind him was the ever-exuberant and cheerful Cater Diamond.
"Hi Idia," Cater chirped, somehow turning the monosyllabic "hi" into a word that stretched on for five seconds. "Got a sec?"
"I—I don't really—"
"Aw, come on, hear me out, you'll like this! I won two tickets to NRC's annual robotics fair. No bet I'm gonna find it a total snoozefest, but if you want, you can have them and take your little brother or something."
"N—no, thanks, I've already reserved my place for the virtual version."
Cater sighed. "Oh well, looks like I'll have to find someone else who wants them. Ugh, but no one else even cares—" He laughed midsentence and pulled out his phone. "Give me a sec, my phone's been vibrating for a hot minute so I should really check what's up." As he read the notification, his eyes lit up, and he began to spend a few moments typing on his keyboard.
As he continued to type, Idia noticed his chance to escape. Surely, their conversation was over? Cater had offered him the tickets and he had declined, quest complete. As he turned away from the still-typing Cater, Idia pulled out his tablet to check the clock app and rejoiced. It was almost time for his favorite game's maintenance to end.
But, before Idia had taken even a single step toward the Hall of Mirrors, Cater exclaimed "Okay, and send!" As soon as he said this, an ominous ding sounded from Idia's tablet and a notification from notjustGirls popped up on the screen. His eyes widened as he whipped toward Cater, who stared back at him with an expression that was just as shocked.
