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— “Come on dude, come join in. There are some idiots that need a beating and I need a co-op!”
— “I-Achilles, wait! I didn’t- “ Sirius tried his best to break free, but is no use. Before being dragged away to his fate, he managed to give Idia one last pleading look ”HOUSEWARDEN, PLEASE TAKE CARE OF THE CAT!”
— “NP, GL” Idia said, rather deadpan as Sirius gets dragged away towards the increasingly decadent and frat-ish party, and then looks down at Grim “Ok Mr. Grim, you are coming with me” Idia then gives a rather manic grin, spooking Grim….Idia just likes cats a lot
— “Unhand me! The great grim shall not be- “ And so, Idia takes Grim to his room, already muttering all the ways he will pamper the monster kitty. As for Ortho, he just sighs and follows Sirius instead. Idia will be fine with Grim, but he is not sure if the magicless freshman will be if he is left to the devices of Achilles and the other freshmen.
The walk towards Idia’s room is in theory a long one, as his bedroom is located on the deepest part of Ignihyde, but the housewarden was a man with a mission, so betraying his utter lack of athleticism, it only lasted about 10 minutes.
Once the door is locked, Idia eagerly plops Grim into his unmade bed as he goes into a cabinet, looking for something. Grim, on his part, takes a look around the housewarden’s room. It is a huge mess. Open boxes filled with miscellaneous stuff, as well as various wires, are scattered across the floor, some piles of dirty clothing around the untidy bed, the clean clothing on the open closet is poorly folded and piled up. It is clear he usually doesn’t gets many visits here. There are, however, some merits to Idia’s room. The shelves and his desk hold quite the number of books, all with stuffy and complicated titles Grim doesn’t understand, the flashy posters plastered across the wall, and his “computer” on his desk, made of of various hard light displays and screens, as well as the strange capsule at the right of it, all cast an eerie yet oddly satisfying electric blue neon glow on the otherwise dim room.
The hard light screens display what seems to be games. The one at the bottom right corner has three characters, a blond girl with a staff and a blue beret, a huge, voluptuous, purple-skinned lady dressed in a black and pink swimsuit and a grumpy looking gray-haired man with dragonfly wings, with the girl and the man casting spells on the purple lady, who does a weird song and dance and creates water snakes that destroy rows of enemies. The game seems to be running on automatic, as this keeps repeating over and over.
The second screen, at the bottom left corner, shows a rather colorful game with cookies. Grim sees two cookies in particular. One a clown-looking blue cookie with mis-matched eyes, one cyan and another electric blue, that seems up to no good. The other is a blond priest-looking cookie in soft white and yellow robes. Grim isn't sure what all that means, but they look tasty. He assumes they must taste like blueberry and vanilla.
And the third screen…is less of a game and more a bunch of photos of some silver-haired man. One of him in a jockey outfit, another of him in a rather skimpy swimsuit, another of him wielding a sword, etc etc etc, all with hearts plastered around the various pictures. Grim doesn’t seem to understand it, but maybe he doesn’t want to.
— “Ok, you weirdo. If you believe you can keep the great Grim here any-” Grim spots a red dot on the floor…and immediately chases after it.
Idia delightfully grins as he moves the laser-pointer around, with Grim running around the room, trying to catch the red dot. Last time he had tried this was with Leona, to less thrilling results, even if it was fun to see Leona all tensed up, every fiber of his prideful being resisting his God-given urges to chase after that red dot. Grim didn’t have such self control, and Idia found it cute how he lunged after it with compulsion, going in and out of the closet, beneath the bed, across the desk, everywhere. He even tackles the boxes on the floor face-first, only to keep chasing the dot.
— “Having fun, Mr. Grim? Ngl, you have a high spd stat”
Grim didn’t respond, being far too focused on chasing that blasted red dot. Where it went? Why does it keep escaping his paws? The monster cat isn’t sure, but he doesn’t care. He just keeps chasing. Surely he will get it eventually!
All the while, Idia checks on his gatchas. No new developments on CRK, FGA is working as intended and he is rolling in lotto currency, nothing of note on Housamo, he makes sure he does his genshin dailies, and he will finish that Silver edit later. Maybe he could check on Ortho too.
***
A ring comes out of Ortho’s head, and he quickly picks up
— “Is there something you need, big brother?”
— “Just calling to check on you Ortho? How is the party going”
Ortho looks around..it is utter chaos. By now, almost everybody finds himself intoxicated to various degrees. Even Sirius is somewhat tipsy despite his better judgment. Then again, nobody had him bet it all in maddopoly.
— “It is better than expected. Nobody is seriously hurt as much as they are more rowdy than usual, big brother”
— “Are you sure, Ortho? I can hear screams from your end”
Ortho blinks in confusion and looks around again for the source of the so-called screams. He finds the source on Achilles and Sirius, who are currently having a less-than-flattering spat
— “YOU FUCKING CHEATER!” Achilles growled, his irises glowing in sheer rage “YOU THINK YOU ARE FUNNY, USING THAT DAMN BAT TO THROW ME OFF STAGE!”
— “It's called strategy, you brute!”
— “IS CALLED CHEATING, YOU MORON! I BET IF IT WAS THAT MUTT YOU WOULD HAD FOLDED!”
— “What does that even MEAN?!”
— “Don’t act as if I didn’t saw you ogling that wolf beastman before coming here! I bet you wanna kiss his-”
Ortho gives a rather deadpan look, not exactly sure how things escalated this quickly but not exactly in a rush to stop the pair of freshmen
— “Is just Sirius Belladonna and Achilles Pelides. One lost to another in Smash Bros. Something about a bat”
— “Skill issue for enabling items, hyehehehe!” Idia makes a pause, taking a deep breath “Ok, just don’t stay up too late.”
— “I make no promises, big brother. I am having fun!”
Ortho hangs up, leaving Idia to gather his thoughts just for a bit. He wonders if it’s fine to let Ortho alone like this. He doesn’t wants to lose him again. But he is his own person, he has a soul and Idia can’t just keep him like a jewel, stored on a box forever. Maybe it is for the best if he ignores those thoughts for now. He has games to play, anime to binge and a cat to pamper. And speaking off, Idia gives a quick glance at Grim, noting how the cat has given up, sprawled flat on the floor like some sort of adorable carpet.
— “Are you hungry, Mr. Grim?” Idia takes out a bag of snacks from one of the shelves, and just by opening it, Grim steps up in full vigor
— “What is that? It smells tasty! Gimme!” Grim quickly climbs Idia, perching on his shoulder, giving a rather hungry glance at the bag on Idia’s hands, filled with circular bread ring
— “Koulouri. I also have some Caprice wafer rolls if you want”
— “Not sure what any of that means, but it sounds tasty! You are not so bad after all!”
Idia smiles despite himself, sharing his snacks with Grim. The welcoming party won’t be ending any time soon, but for now, he is content.