(TWST Idia/Cater) so you'll dance with Cinderella

The Aftermath V2

Cater's skateboard fell from his hand and clattered to the ground. So much for going boarding after coming home. As he scrolled through the comments on the post, he realized he had something much more pressing to do than skateboarding: damage freaking control. And a lot of it.

See, the thing about the account that had posted this image of Vil with Idia and Cater holding hands in the background was that it was huge. It was called NRC_Student_Body. Though was an anonymously-run account, it typically posted benign photos of NRC students going about their daily lives. Science fairs, track meets, and student concerts—things like that were always featured. It was a good way to publicize a certain image of the school to outsiders, and Crowley endorsed it tirelessly.

And NRC_Student_Body was followed by pretty much everyone who wanted to be, already was, or had once before been affiliated with NRC. Students, their families, faculty, alumni, and hopeful attendees all ended up seeing the account's posts one way or another.

Whiiiich was why, despite the damning picture having only been up for a little while, it already had nine-hundred-and-twenty-five comments.

And Cater was hard-pressed to find a nice one among them.

The first comment under the post wasn't so bad. And, hey, it was from Trey! It read: trey_bakes: "It's about time! 🎉." Even through his misery, Cater could feel his heart grow slightly warm at that. Aw, was Trey the best, sometimes, or what?

The next nine-hundred-and-twenty-four comments, though? They were just straight-up cruel! Now, Cater, being a Magicam vet, knew better than to take comments like "ew ... i remember that red-haired guy was tagged in one of vil's posts. Wah't's he doing hanging out with that miserable looking tree?" and "Hey! That's the Ignihyde Housewarden! He really looks so depressing and gloomy! I'm surprised such an upbeat and cool guy like @itscaycay would date him!" seriously. Everyone had an opinion on everything, and bandwagon-hopping was just a way of life.

You just had to get used to people hating on your appearance, your S/O, your fashion sense, heck, even your taste in pizza toppings, especially if you were wont to order weird topping combos (not that Cater would ever know anything about that lel). He'd actually been bullied for his "formless ollie" one time by some skateboarding wannabe who, when pressed, couldn't even properly define what an ollie was!

TL;DR? People on Magicam were stupid. And mean.

Admittedly, Cater knew that those who'd commented on this particular photo-cameo of Idia and himself were mostly his NPC classmates, and he'd never really thought they'd write such obnoxious comments, but he'd obviously been mistaken.

Normally, he'd let himself fume for a hot minute before remembering that being a spotlighted influencer had its drawbacks and that he'd just have to roll with the punches. This time, however, was far from normal, since he'd somehow dragged Idia into this whole PR nightmare.

But ... TBH, Cater wasn't sure he could even call this a PR nightmare. Like, how could he ever see being photographed with Idia as the catalyst for the dismantling of his carefully-constructed rep? That was just the ramifications of the age-old adage: #HatersGonnaHate, right? That wasn't gonna dissuade Cater from hanging around anyone, least of all Idia.

Cater sighed. Hopefully Idia hadn't seen this post. Oh, who was he kidding? Idia was as chronically-online as him—OFC he had! Even if he didn't spend 24/7 on Magicam like Cater, this post had been up for two hours already, and he probably would've seen it by now.

And that realization caused Cater to pick up his skateboard—an instinct, not a need, ATP—and run to Ignihyde.

Idia trolled-and-was-trolled on the internet for sure—he probs also had to deal with hate befitting a Reddit mod BC he gave off those vibes, for sure—but had he ever experienced the cumbersome weight of being hardcore judged for just living his life on the cesspools of Magicam? Cater already knew that he was beyond self-conscious and was also hyper-paranoid that he was constantly being appraised and found wanting. If he really had seen this post, ooooh, Cater could already feel his Spidey sense tingling. Trouble.