flameinthedarkness

In pink and everything, huh? The pure, unrestrained envy in Idia's pitched voice has him smiling for ear-to-ear. He's already opening the window to send it as a gift over to his friend's account. No matter what kind of cred he's get for having them equipped, what kind of guy would he be if he didn't recognize how badly Idia wanted them? And he's doing all of this for him, coming on stream and all that...

"I don't know what to tell you. Some of us are just better," he teases, mouse circling over the "send" button as he muses, "Guess I'll just have to put it up for auction."

"Ahhh, so annoyed you got them, but GG." Any cross between joy and irritation that Idia had for Cater getting them... ehhh, he can't really complain if RNG went Cater's way, he'll just farm for them more... but... maybe a little bit of him hoped that...

And those hopes were dashed as Cinder spoke, "Oh." It out before he could even try and cover the disappointment in it. It just getting out. But... no, that's fair. They were really sought after items, every set collector wanted them, they would sell for a really high price. It was only right that Cinder sold them. But... Idia's stomach instantly felt heavier, weighing him down. But, he still had a chance, right? "H-How much you want for them? N-Name a price, I can pay it."

Offline, Cater feels his face grow hot with regret. He was kind of expecting some kind of outburst, but the despondent oh was just...so sad. His chat is still going faster than he's used to, but they can see what he's up to and at least are only jokingly calling him cruel. Still, he actually does feel kind of like a jerk now. He presses send before the bit can go on any longer, the coveted ears zooming their way over to Gloomurai's account.

"I'm not really good at that stuff," he says, trying to sound casual and laugh it off. "Anyway, you can't put a price on friendship."

Idia's trying to do the maths in his head, recalling what he had put away in the bank as well as what he had on him, or trading it for materials instead he can offer, stuff he knows Cater will need later on. It was tough to get those too, but not nearly as tough as the ears were, it would take a few farming sessions to get his supply back up again but he could.

Then he noticed those ears pop into his inventory, staring at them for a long moment as Cinder continued to speak, shocked to see them just... set like that. "W-What?! Are you sure?! People pay real madol for these! You have any clue what these go for?!" ...he needs to pay him back somehow, and more than just the gear he rolled for Cinder.

A few moments later and a large donation comes through the chat for Cinder. Larger than the ones Gloomaurai has done before.

"Of course I'm sure, I'm--"

Idia's donation goes through and Cinder's stream avatar all but freezes, eyes blown wide at the very real shock it maps from Cater's face. "W-Whoa, really, I just wanted to tease you a little bit, they were already yours as far as I was concerned, you really didn't have to do that. Aahhh!"

Totally involved in his conversation with Idia, he's totally stopped looking at chat as they react to the mega donation and how apparently "cute" the two are in their interaction.

"Whatever they're worth, all that matters to me is how much you'll enjoy them."

Is he a jerk? That kind of money...he's got to tell Idia it's too much, right?

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Just take it! Just take it, ok?! Madol I got! These ears I didn't! I would had bought them if I could in game, but you can't!" Who cares if he lets that slip, Idia's really not thinking that Cater has no clue who he is and how much he's worth. He's just so happy to have those ears!

"I've been look for them for so long to complete the set! They're impossible to get! WTF is your luck?!" A good thing he doesn't have a rig following him right now, or able to see Idia rocking back and forward in his chair with... just too much heightened emotions.

"Thank you so much~!!!!" This totally makes his night! It makes his week! To finally get them!

OH SHIT! He almost forgot! "Hold on! I rolled stuff for you! You'll still need to get the chest and pant pieces from quests, but I got the gloves, boots, and helm! Here!" A trade window popping up for Cinder for the event items... which are jester themed. These were the pieces Gloom said would suit him.

They're definitely saying maybe a bit too much for stream--but Idia sounds so happy that Cater's worry starts to fade a little. Anyway people are spamming emojis and the change in topic to more skins and away from money helps him get back to a sense of normalcy.

"Ha! OMG, look at those, they're perfect! Okay, okay, give me a second, I'm gonna get these on." A minute later, and Cinder's in-game avatar is predominantly more jester-like, and he laughs as he spams the jump button. "Woo! Starting to really feel like myself in here. Clowns and cats in the chat, everyone!"

That gets a laugh out of Idia, wide and happy at Cinder's call for the emotes. Sorry Cater, still not hearing the real thing, only modified. But that joy still comes through, Gloom also adding to the emotes in chat.

"Ok, hold on, hold on, let me change too then." Hunting through options, the rest of the set ready to go and popping on at one go for how Idia has it set up, before adding the kitty ears, the full set activating so a matching tail is added to the outfit too. "Finally~!" Throwing in a pose to go with it, forming a heart with the characters fingers in front of it's chest.

"How it look?" Amazing, he knows it, but tell him anyway.

Gloomurai shows off the new kitten gear and Cinder lets out an appraising whistle. "I think you're definitely the prettiest girl going to the ball," he agrees with a reassuring nod. Honestly, that getup completely puts him to shame...but he hardly cares. What matters is how happy Idia is, how much fun they've been having together playing.

Alright, Queen of Hearts. He's gonna have to really give you some mad respect if that was you lookin' out.

The chat is full of hearts and envy, and Cater's pretty sure this is the most fun he's had on stream in a long time. Having someone to do all this with really makes the time fly--which, shoot, it's closer to curfew than he realized.

"Okay, okay, I think I have a bit more time to work on these quests before I have to start wrapping up for the night."

Ah yeah, curfew, don't want Cater to get caught. "Event will be running for awhile still, but lets see what you got left..." Idia spying on the stream to make a plan.

"Ok, your second and third one we can do at the same time since we're in a party. I can pull and AOE the enemies so they dead real fast, and that's in the same area you have to gather those flowers. Two birds one stone. Then you'll have enough time for goodbyes and be all good." After all, Gloomurai has been in chat long enough to know how this all goes.

"Or if you'd rather, quest four is easy enough to do in that time, but none of the others." Giving Cinder options.

"Let's do the first option. Efficiency, right?" Name of the Ignihyde game, not that he's about to put that information out on a public stream. Especially not when NRC is an all-boys school and Idia's effectively roleplaying as a girl. "Gotta make the best of this party while the streamers are still flying!"

So, off they go! It's clear that Cinder's starting to get the hang of how the game works even if he still has a lot to learn and a very, very long way to go to get his character up to a heavy-hitting level, but his stream has always had a fun and easygoing vibe so he's not about to make things competitive.

Like Gloomurai projected, there's still plenty of time for him to wrap up the stream once they've finished the two quests, so he gives Idia a chance to say goodbye to the chat before logging out of their party and powering the game down to switch his channel to chat mode.

"K k!" Easy done! Maybe because Idia is fully leveled, even if the gear he's now in is not top tier, plus he just knows the game's mechanics inside out. And... he is having fun, but also mindful to watch what he says, both on dropping any hints and his own language. That had been why he had muted himself during those spins... the gamer salt too real during them.

As things wrapped up, Idia's nerves hit him a bit again, saying bye to chat via voice chat before logging out of that... and needing a moment to just... muffle scream into his hands... after making sure everything IS OFF and no way he can be heard. What the hell did he just do?!?! Though... it had been fun, but gaming with Cinder was fun. And... ok, maybe it was fun also interacting with chat like that... a bit... a tiny bit... ok it was! He admits it! But ehhhh! So much pressure too! Having to be mindful of how he spoke, it almost too easy to slip into normal chatting with Cinder, well, Cater. But... he thinks he did ok?

He won't show back up in chat other than maybe a 'o/' as Cinder plans to head off. And later PMing Cater,

(-“-;)

Once it's back to just him talking to stream, they do a bit of reflection on the fun of the day, Cinder thanks Gloomurai again for making it an extra fun stream, and as he usually does: pulls out his guitar to play a little song before sign-off. Tonight, he chooses something from Premo, a slowed-down acoustic of one of their popular hits.

The final goodnights over, Cater shuts everything down and goes immediately into preparing for bed so he can check-in before lights out, so he's flopping over into bed with his phone when he sees Idia's message. Already, his face lights back up again. He still feels like he's riding a high from how fun the night was.

Doing good? :)
I had a blast tonight btw

ill survive...

Before adding,

it was fun

And again,

thanks for the loot. really. I been trying to get it for so long. made my week.

srsly you're so welcome
I'm glad I was able to find them for u
what weird timing, right? God-tier luck aside.

[He still feels a little guilty about even making Idia think he was going to just sell it to the highest bidder.]

You deserved them, really. You've been helping me so much.

Ok... that's too much.

omg stop it srsly. i just told you about a game, thats all.

Stop it, stop it, really, he can't deal with praise. Well, only from Ortho. Ortho is different.

Cater hesitates as he reads the message. Really, he is being too careless, isn’t he? He had a lot of fun, but it’s just that: something fun. Neither of them should think too hard about it.

lol sry I meant like you’ve helped out Cinder a lot.

There. That feels better. Less personal and more…career oriented. Not that he views this as a career or anything.

The other channel members seemed to have a good time too.

If Idia knew those thoughts... no, he wouldn't know how to deal with them. Or able to wrap his head around them. He's trying just to enjoy the fun, not think too much about it. Distractions. Distractions, that's it. And if he did know, he wouldn't want to think about it too much. But... hmm... if he had to question this all, what they were doing...

Idia wouldn't know.

He... just wants to enjoy the time he's got left. The way he wants to enjoy it. Not forced into stuff others want him to do. And right now... yeah, Cater, and Cinder, was something he enjoyed.

oh. oh i get it

Oh, ok, yeah, ok, he's fine with that. Also,

also srsly keep the donation, i did mean it

And

yeah... i had fun too... more than thought. like. with chat and all. though had to mute to not swear in ur stream 人(_ _*)

LMAO ur potty mouth 💩💩💩

Cater breathes. Okay, cool. This feels better. Back to that teasing, nonchalant sort of dynamic they've had going.

I think a lot of the ppl who watch are pretty like minded so it helps
if you ever wanna hop on again with me lmk? I don't know how often I'll game like this on stream but it's def an open offer

didn wanna ruin the mood u set DX

yeah? id like that sometime

Then a chuckle to himself.

tho next time gotta surprise you with full rigged up character XD

OMG if you do that you gotta really sell the character

He's trying to decide if he really thinks Idia would go through with it or not. That would be a trip--but at this point, he kind of wants to see it. The fact that Idia still seems interested in potentially playing on stream again is more than enough to bring a smile back onto his face. It's good to know that the fun they had tonight wouldn't just be a one-off.

get into the Gloomurai deep lore

dont you dare tempt me to make an oc. i'll do it. i will.

A moment to think... actually considering it...

hmm if i did would shorten my name I think. or i donno? Gloomurai is a lot to say vs Gloom. I bet that account is taken though. Oh! I need to get back into game and do screenshots for my page too! THANK U AGAIN!

This is probably the happiest he's ever seen Idia--and he wishes, in that moment, that he could see what he looked like in person. That he'd witnessed the initial shock of the item drop, the realization he'd been gifted it, and now again.

I'll let you get to it! Flamingo duty tomorrow so I should get some sleep. Will grill you on Gloomy's backstory tomorrow :P

dont u fucking encourage me on that XD kk ttyl o/

Yup, back on to game and getting all the best shots for a write up on the outfit, as well as a special mention a friend helped him get the last piece. Not quite a name drop though, which... Idia feels a little bad about... deleting, typing it in, then deleting again. Ehhhh... does he want those two things connected? It may make his game play more annoying, for people to think he's a girl. He knows he will get attention for it if he does, but... Cater really did help him on that, and he really didn't have to so... yeah, Cinder's name and link to his stream page going up as well as a thanks.

The rest of the night... ehhh, he gives in, grabbing a sketch book and starts drawing up designs. It will take him time to design up and rig a model but... he can't help, he really can't. In fact... huh, maybe those ears are good inspiration. Oh, and if he's going to do this he needs to claim a name too. Gloomurai is good and all, but that's... chat him. Let's start fresh if he's going to do this. Gods, is he really going to do this? Well... save the name anyways, just in case, if not Idia can just leave it to collect digital dust, and he's right that Gloom and Gloomy is taken so... eh, lets l33t this; G1oomy. That works.

This does mean he's up far too late letting the creative juices flowing, only getting to bed when it is very, very early into the morning and telling Ortho to just let him sleep. He may even send Ortho in his place to record classes so he doesn't have to wake up to even use his tablet. He'll catch up on it all later. And with Cater later too... plus he has to get all his stuff done to free up the weekend, right? That 'date' Cater joked about.

When Idia isn't in class the next morning, Cater isn't surprised. Especially with his new cosmetic, it figured that the guy would stay up all night enjoying them. Still...there's a part of him that still feels a cold shudder of disappointment sink down through his body when the younger Shroud brother is in attendance.

Well, Cater sits with Ortho regardless, offering a friendly greeting and asking after Idia. Ortho's always such a cheerful kid, always so adoring and devoted to Idia, Cater can't help smile hearing him talk.

Not expecting a response until later in the day, Cater still shoots him a message at his first gap between classes.

So how late did u stay up working on chara design?
The fans are desperate for content!!! lol

Edited 2023-02-08 06:13 (UTC)

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