#but also poor Virgil

[gumnut-logic]

“Hold still.”

“’irg’l, ‘m fine!”

“You’re not fine! Hold still!”

“’S only a bl’d nose.”

“I need to check it anyway. I hit you hard.”

“Lucky sh’t.”

“Hold still!”

Gordon let his shoulders drop and held still. Virgil was beside himself over this. It was obvious. It was only a blood nose, for crying out loud. It wasn’t like it was his first.

The scanner’s yellow light flickered over him and Gordon flinched. So damned bright.

Of course, this just set off Virgil even more. “We’re going to the infirmary.”

“’irg-“

“Now.”

Okay, that was an elder brother command. Gordon wasn’t stupid enough to disobey that. His shoulders dropped just that bit lower and Virgil’s gentle hand wrapped around his arm and led him from the gym.

“I’m sorry, Gords.” It was said with so much guilt, Gordon rolled his eyes.

Ow.

The hand on his arm tightened.

It was a lucky shot. There was no way in hell Virgil could best him in hand to hand. If Virgil pinned him, maybe. He had the mass and the strength. But Gordon was fast and his smaller stature a major advantage. His big brother couldn’t catch him on the best of days.

Except for today, apparently.

The infirmary loomed as they exited the elevator. It did that. Gordon hated any medical setting…for good reason…and the infirmary on the Island was no exception.

He was deposited on the bed with a firm but gentle nudge, told to sit upright and to tip his head forward.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he knew the treatment for a nosebleed.

Blood tasted awful.

He closed his eyes a moment.

A soft touch to his face and blood was dabbed off his skin. A quiet rumble of query.

It repeated and a frown formed in the air.

A hand on his shoulder. “Gords?”

“Hmm?”

Ow. Virgil’s fist had definitely left a mark on his sinuses.

“You with me, Gordon?”

“Mmmmhmm.”

A rustle of instruments and a finger peeled back his right eyelid. A sharp flicker of light hit his retina and he flinched away. “’irg!”

“Hold still.” Strong hands made him do exactly that.

His reward was another finger peeling back his other eyelid and that retina being equally assaulted.

“’irg!” He squeezed his eyes shut and groaned as that caused his whole face to echo the pain in his nose.

Virgil didn’t answer, but he didn’t let go of the now firm grip he had on Gordon’s shoulder. A hum started up and Gordon let a breath out as the scanner flickered over him again. “’irg’l, ‘m fine!”

His brother still didn’t answer, but the bed under him shifted, its head rising under his right hand.

“Lie down.”

“’irg-“

“Lie down.” Okay, there was something in his brother’s voice that bore no argument. Gordon opened his eyes and found worry in his brother’s.

Those brown eyes blurred a little.

What?

He dragged his feet up onto the bed, his exercise sweat pants riding up above his bare feet. A shuffle and he had to admit it was a relief to have the back support, top half of the bed up as far as it would go. His head was throbbing. He must remember not to try and stop Virgil’s fist with his face ever again.

As to why his brother had managed to even touch him was a worry in itself. Virgil was good, but he wasn’t that good. Gordon had been dancing around him for years. As his co-pilot, Gordon saw it as part of his duties to help his brother with his hand-to-hand. Of course, between himself and Kayo, they helped all the brothers, even Scott who had his fair share of training in the Air Force. But Gordon had always had a special thought for Virgil. His brother was a wall of muscle, ‘built like a brick shithouse’ was the popular phrase. But muscle didn’t necessarily equate to good self-defence and Virgil was a softy from way back. There had been incidents with the occasional over zealous fan, but also one of Gordon’s nightmares was what would happen if someone with less kind intentions got a hold of any of his brothers.

Virgil was too damned nice for his own good.

So, Gordon took it on to look after him.

But today…why had he let Virgil hit him?

“What happened?” The deep voice of his eldest brother and Gordon realised his eyes had slipped closed again. Opening them was a mistake. The lighting in the room had apparently taken on nuclear fusion in an attempt to compete with the sun.

He groaned and shoved his eyes closed again.

“Gordon?” Virgil’s hand landed on his arm.

“You suck.”

“And you’ve got a concussion. I’m sorry, Gordon.”

What?

“Report, Virgil.” Great, the Commander was out which meant Scott was upset. It was only a bloody nose, for goodness sake.

Virgil’s sigh was a mix of worry and regret. “My fault. I hit him.”

There was silence for a moment. All Gordon could hear was his heartbeat in his sinuses.

“You hit Gordon?” Gordon should be proud at the amount of disbelief in his eldest brother’s voice. Or worried at his lack of confidence in Virgil’s skill.

One or the other.

Maybe both.

God, his head hurt.

“I shouldn’t have let him spar. But he was upset after today and I wanted to help.”

“Why didn’t you call me?”

“Because I wasn’t much better, Scott!”

Oh, shit, Virgil. “’S not your fault.”

There was a lack of an answer and that worried Gordon more than anything Virgil could have said to him. He threw out a hand and scratched at a shirt. Fingers caught his, but they weren’t Virgil’s. “Sco’, ‘s not his fault!”

“Gordon, rest you have a stage two concussion. You know that is something you don’t mess with.”

Yeah, well, Virgil has a lot of muscle behind his fist.

Gordon let a breath out between his teeth and relaxed into the bed. Virgil was obviously pissed at himself and he would have to talk him around at some point.

Gentle fingers touched his face again. Soft cloth wiped a cool liquid across his skin.

“The bleeding has stopped.” Virgil’s baritone was quiet and worried. “However, there is some swelling….and there will likely be bruising.”

Swelling? Bruis-….aww, hell, he was supposed to be going out with Penny tomorrow night. A charity gala, it was important to her.

Hell.

“I’m so sorry, Gordon.” Little more than breath.

This just sucked.

He knew the results of an impact to that part of a face. He’d had to do it enough himself.

Then something else occurred to him.

“Did you break m’ noze?”

Silence.

“’irg?”

“Not broken. Hairline crack.”

“’uck!”

“I’m sorry, Gordon.”

He flung out a hand again and this time managed a handful of cotton t-shirt. He dragged it closer. “’Snot your fault!”

Virgil didn’t answer, but his fingers were pried from that t-shirt and held for just a moment, only to be let go as Virgil moved away suddenly.

Gordon flailed, reaching. A footstep and those hands returned with something cold. Towelling, cold as ice.

Gentle hands gathered his and moved to his face. The cold pack melted into his skin and gave him some blessed relief.

“Hold that there.”

“’Snot your fault.”

Again, there was no answer.

A finger brushed hair from his forehead.

God, Virg.

“Rest, Gordon.”

He wanted to yell at his brother. It was a lucky shot after a sucky day. It wasn’t anybody’s fault.

“Rest.”

A blanket was draped over him and its warmth became something he hadn’t realised he needed.

“Grandma’s on her way back from Auckland.” Scott said it to the room at large.

Oh crap.

“Good.”

Gordon mentally went through what he had in his own fridge in his rooms and came up with very little. Maybe he could coerce Virg to grab him something otherwise he might expire from his grandmother’s ‘curative’ efforts.

“Don’t worry, Gordon. I have a stash. You’re covered.”

Actually, come to think of it, Virgil would probably go out of his way to do anything and everything for him over the next few days.

There was both glee and worry attached to that thought.

“Rest.” A hand returned to his forehead and stroked away what was likely a phantom hair. Virgil always had the urge to touch.

To heal.

Too good for his own good.

Those fingers slipped away again.

Gordon let himself sink a few more millimetres into the mattress.

Scott was still in the room. He could hear his breathing. Virgil was beside his bed.

He was safe.

His head hurt.

It had been an ass of a day.

Too tired to get out of the way of his brother’s fist.

Stupid move.

Stupid.

Virgil murmured something.

Scott whispered in return.

Gordon let himself drift.

-o-o-o-

[rushingexpress]

my memory can be wack, but just listening to "where, oh, where is thomas?" just reminds me of the great discovery and it's wild, seeing an actual screenshot of:

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO THAT BOY?

[halfhissandwich]

Sanders Sides, but the sides are CHILDREN???

[quackkaz]

Janus : Truth or dare?

Virgil, kinda doubtful : Dare.

Janus : I dare you to kiss the hottest person in the room.

Virgil : Hey, Roman?

Roman, the comment building up his ego : Yeah?

Virgil : Can you move? I'm trying to get to Logan.

BONUS!!

Logan : *confused*

Janus, thinking : They are so cute together. Sadly, Logan is oblivious. Anygays… Ship~!

[wolves-etc]

hello please have some "actually a half-vampire just not aware of it" anton au thoughts

(virgil is human and clueless because I refuse for this to be otherwise)

goldblum figures it out and takes anton aside the second time he's brought in for questioning like "dude, are you okay? you got fake fangs instead of using your real vampire ones, you don't need those, you can just— wait, why are you crying—"

(goldblum's either a vampire himself or, to borrow a thing that's too good not to borrow & because it fits the gleefully-open-minded-about-fringe-shit vibe, he dated a vampire once)

@darkfinch had this LOVELY idea for the vampire intiates to stick together as a community post-canon and to my mind, what makes that better here is if most of 'em turn out to be real vampires to some degree - or Something Else, or just Aware of this shit. they're in it for the fun, for the local community, for the "yeah this is bullshit but some of it's fun bullshit and it's funny to see how bad at it the leader is."

when they manage to corner anton (freaking out quietly in his loft) (his whole world shattered in pieces around him) (goldblum gave him a number to call to answer some questions but the poor guy's petrified) half of them are like "we thought you knew and were just trying to blend in!" and half are like "we were trying to figure out how to tell you!!" and it's just this mess of supportive-but-worried chaos.

...and anton, betrayed, off-kilter, already primed to question the programming of the last year or so has some people to help set him on the right track.

this ALSO sets us up for a thing. :) a thing where maybe goldblum looks the other way (an actual acknowledgement by the still-shitty cops in this shitty cop show of how awful the situation is) or there's a terribly unfortunate powercut and a few of the initiates get to pay virgil a visit.

they admit it to anton while very drunk a year or so later and he laughs so hard he cries <3

[an-organized-confusion]

Some more Gymrat!AU blather from me before I go to bed...

So in that AU, the twins and Virgil are in the Insomniac Trio, yeah?

This does mean all three of them have had their moments of ridiculous sleep-deprivation-induced delirium.

I think especially but not exclusively, Roman is prone to getting the munchies when it’s Pretty Bad. Because, fun fact, your body cranks up the hunger hormone (ghrelin) when you haven’t had enough Zs. Think it’s ‘cause your body wants energy and if you aren’t getting some sleep, well...

Co-conspirator suggested that at least once, Virgil mistook an opossum for a dog. Shenanigans ensue.

Don’t get me started on Remus over here... :,D

These three are disasters, they all are.

(Obviously, it aint all sunshine and rainbows...)

[all-pacas]

I finished my Rome book and have now begun one about Pompeii. I’m 65 pages in and I already love it: yes, it covers the volcano, but most of the book is about “this is what the town and daily life of it would have been like, actually.” Fascinating stuff. Things I’ve learned so far:

- The streets in Pompeii have sidewalks sometimes a meter higher than the road, with stepping stones to hop across as “crosswalks.” I’d seen some photos before. The book points out that, duh, Pompeii had no underground drainage, was built on a fairly steep incline, and the roads were more or less drainage systems and water channels in the rain.

- Unlike today, where “dining out” is expensive and considered wasteful on a budget, most people in Pompeii straight up didn’t have kitchens. You had to eat out if you were poor; only the wealthy could afford to eat at home.

- Most importantly, and I can’t believe in all the pop culture of Pompeii this had never clicked for me: Pompeii had a population between 6-35,000 people. Perhaps 2,000 died in the volcano. Contemporary sources talk about the bay being full of fleeing ships. Most people got the hell out when the eruption started. The number who died are still a lot, and it’s still gruesome and morbid, but it’s not “an entire town and everyone in it.” This also makes it difficult for archeologists, apparently (and logically): those who remained weren’t acting “normally,” they were sheltering or fleeing a volcano. One famous example is a wealthy woman covered in jewelry found in the bedroom in the glaridator barracks. Scandal! She must have been having an affair and had it immortalized in ash! The book points out that 17 other people and several dogs were also crowded in that one small room: far more likely, they were all trying to shelter together. Another example: Houses are weirdly devoid of furniture, and archeologists find objects in odd places. (Gardening supplies in a formal dining room, for example.) But then you remember that there were several hours of people evacuating, packing their belongings, loading up carts and getting out… maybe the gardening supplies were brought to the dining room to be packed and abandoned, instead of some deeper esoteric meaning. The book argues that this all makes it much harder to get an accurate read on normal life in a Roman town, because while Pompeii is a brilliant snapshot, it’s actually a snapshot of a town undergoing major evacuation and disaster, not an average day.

- Oh, another great one. Outside of a random laundry place in Pompeii, someone painted a mural with two scenes. One of them referenced Virgil’s Aeneid. Underneath that scene, someone graffiti’d a reference to a famous line from that play, except tweaked it to be about laundry. This is really cool, the book points out, because it implies that a) literacy and education was high enough that one could paint a reference and have it recognized, and b) that someone else could recognize it and make a dumb play on words about it and c) the whole thing, again, means that there’s a certain amount of literacy and familiarity with “Roman pop culture” even among fairly normal people at the time.

[pattonsfam-ily]

My poor baby isn’t in pain anymore but he’s still not feeling great :( he’s exhausted so I’m just letting him rest today -Roman

[analoceits]

i love DLAMP as a dynamic however i find it viscerally boring when theyre all boyfriends that have a completely normal relationship but also boring when they are just besties. i need them to be Insane and weird.

moceit is in an on-and-off again that could be straight out of a sitcom with how bullshit the dramatics are. they are so divorced and also married. this somehow does not effect the rest of the polycule.

janus keeps trying to break up analogical. virgil and logan both think this is him flirting. this pisses virgil off, and makes logan blush. logan and janus have made out abt this before. virgil and janus almost did but virgil panicked, bit him, and ran away.

moxiety and royality are both very VERY cute qprs. prinxiety arent dating or a qpr but they do occasionally make out. usually after sparring or after heated arguments. no one knows why, and no one plans to ask.

virgil one time, for sillies put out official polycule roles for everyone on the fridge. patton was the cook, roman was twink, janus was gender transer, and logan was tax-filer, before virgil scratched it out and replaced it with "poor little meow meow". the chaos after shouldve been expected.

(janus's official role is Gender Transer bc her being genderfluid made both virgil (bigender, she/he) and logan (transfem, they/she) realize they may Not Be Cis.)

remus isnt in the polycule but he has Something going on with every non-roman member of the polycule. no one can quantify exactly what, but it is Something. roman covers his ears and goes "LALALALA" when anyone brings this up.

roman AND janus both have an official Boyfriend Leaderboard. they are both permanently at the top of each others leaderboards because "mutually assured destruction". somehow, this causes very few problems.

remy has had a Thing with all of them. all of them really want to ask abt adding him to the polycule, but none of them know abt remys Things with the others so they dont know if its appropriate yet. remy knows and finds this fucking hilarious.

[darklinaforever]

So ! I need to say that !

Hades & Persephone's relationship is canonically a loving and quite healthy relationship in the context of Greek mythology which represents a form of balance for the world through the cycle of the seasons. Persephone is not a victim of Hades either... Anyone who has studied Greek mythology can actually explain it to you.

That's a bad vision of the original myth due to a too modern interpretation. It's not the modern era that romanticizes this basic relationship. This was already the case in Greek times...

It even seems to me that Hades and Persephone were often represented on the vases given to newlyweds (pretty crazy, since Hera was literally the goddess of marriage) because they were always described as having a loving, supportive and harmonious marriage.

And if you're looking for a real culprit in the union of Hades & Persephone, there's literally Zeus, who authorized the marriage between the two after Hades came to ask him. Hades didn't kidnap Persephone as soon as he saw her. He first asked to his father, Zeus, for her hand in marriage, as in the Greek traditions of the time.

In some versions of the myth, it even seems to me that Aphrodite is the one who provoked Hades' love for Persephone by sending Eros to plant an arrow in her after being upset by a refusal. But for now, I'm not sure of Aphrodite's real involvement.

But regardless, in the original myth, the one blamed is actually very clearly Zeus. He is the one, once again, having authorized the kidnapping of Persephone, which in Greek traditions translates into an engagement, and who has caused the whole messy situation with poor Demeter.

As for the grenade episode, it doesn't seem to me that we can know the original version. So the whole "Hades forced Persephone to eat the pomegranate" thing is also bullshit.

There doesn't even seem to me to be any indication of Persephone having been mistreated in any way by Hades in the myth. It's again bullshit.

I'm making this post because I've had yet another person explain to me that Persephone is a victim of Hades and that our modern age romanticizes the relationship between the two.

"Yes. Like Persephone gets bastardised. Persephone was Hades's assault victim. People try to "modernize" her by making her want Hades (all while making Demeter to be in the wrong). Mina was Dracula's assault victim. People try to "modernize" her by making her cheat on Jonathan for Dracula."

Except no. Persephone is not a victim of Hades in the context of Greek myth. That's a stinking modern vision. Kind of ironic, when you argue that it's the modern view that stands in for the real version of Persephone being a victim of Hades when... well no. It's the modern era that makes Persephone a victim of abuse at the hands of Hades, (this all reminds me of how people make Rhaenyra a victim of grooming in her relationship with Daemon) while that is not the case in the context of the original myth. As I explained above, this interpretation is modern bullshit. And it is very important to transcribe the myths in their ancient context to understand their various messages, otherwise you will miss the point.

But I won't elaborate further because @cthonisprincess has already explained it very well. I invite you to go and see these reblogs below which detail the whole affair of Hades and Persephone in much more detail :

I even recommend this video :

My god, I can't believe that in 2024, people are still at the stage of demonizing Hades, even though he is one of the rare decents gods, and still claiming that Persephone is an assault victim of Hades... This is a shameful distortion of the original myth and a real bastardization of the goddess Persephone.

Also... we're literally talking about a myth. The goal of a myth is to be reinvented according to the times. So what does it matter that there are adaptations of the myth that differ from the said myth, or rather from the biased vision that some have of making Persephone a poor victim of the evil Hades ?!

@aleksanderscult

[prince-rowan-of-the-forest]

Roman and his People Pleasing.

Putting this one out here for peer review.

I want to talk about Roman and how he has so much trouble forming and standing up for his own opinions.

We can start with how difficult he finds accepting Virgil.

In the third Sanders Sides episode ever, where Virgil first shows up. Thomas pretty much tells Roman to get rid of Virgil. From this point onwards Roman is mean to Virgil, he tries to argue with him, get him to leave etc. Logan even points it out by saying that the others have all had moments of seeing eye to eye with Virgil.

In Accepting Anxiety, Roman only comes round to Virgil after everyone else has. He's still fighting on the front of Thomas' previous request to get rid of Virgil and doesn't catch up on the fact that they're now accepting him until everyone else has. At which point he does almost a 180, there's still slipups, but after Accepting Anxiety Roman and Virgil's relationship becomes one of the most solid in the series.

Now fast forward to when Janus shows up, Roman immediately wants to listen to him and bring him in (ofc this results in him being kind of used and a lot of shit later) but especailly in the courtroom episode it's clear he agrees with Janus, he's genuinely having fun in the courtroom (up until he realises how serious this is) and he seems to genuinely enjoy talking to him. Obviously this is pretty different to how Roman treated Virgil and I believe this is him trying to 'make up for' being in the wrong about Virgil by treating this other darkside the same way he should have treated Virgil from the beginning.

And then Patton pretty much shuts Roman down and reaffirms that Janus is the bad guy, so Roman immediately goes back to disagreeing with him, acting like he did towards Virgil in the beginning, he gives up on going for what he thought was right in the first place (which was correct btw) and thus tries to fight against Janus instead, which then leads to him believing that he's not Thoma's hero anymore.

This poor guy just can't win, clearly doing what they tell him is wrong, but he also gets chastised for doing what he believes is the right thing.

Honesly poor guy.

This guy has such a good concsiencs and is a very good judgement of character but he's such a people pleaser that he keeps making the wrong decisions and pissing everyone off.

[tentacle-therapissed]

Thinking a lot about the significance of Patton representing both c!Thomas’s feelings and his morality. Because it’s been made very clear that c!Thomas’s way of dividing the facets of himself cannot be universally applied to everyone, and the thing is that one’s morality being based on their emotions is very much not the case for everyone. There’s a reason ethos and pathos are two separate appeals in the rhetorical triangle, yet in Sanders Sides the pathos guy also represent c!Thomas’s ethics.

Think about it; every Side has their own unique moral code based on what they represent. The fact that they all have different viewpoints on what they believe is the best thing to do is the reason they have arguments like SvS in the first place. But despite this, Patton is the only side who actually represents Thomas’s morality. Roman and Logan both personally believe it is best for Thomas to go to the callback but encourage him to go to the wedding anyway because that’s what Patton believes is the right thing to do, and therefore that’s also what c!Thomas believes is the right thing to do. One’s ethics could just as feasibly be based in logical reasoning (what is the best course of action based on facts, statistics, and probability?) or self-preservation (what is the best course of action to fulfill my needs and desires?) or even idealism. But Thomas’s are based on his feelings. See a cute dog? Adopt it, the poor thing needs a home. Friends need help with something? Oh, you love your friends, they’re so wonderful! They deserve everything you could possibly offer them. Homelessness is sad, volunteer at your local soup kitchen. Violence is disturbing, shut it down!! It doesn’t matter if what you’re doing isn’t logically sound, or if it’s creatively unfulfilling, or if it serves to your own personal detriment; You should do what feels right. And considering natural law is the basis of Catholic moral theology, it makes perfect sense for him to associate his morals with an intrinsic part of him like his emotions rather than a conscious thought process. Plenty of us do not subscribe to natural law theory, however, and if I were making my own Sides I very much would not have my morality Side and emotions Side be one and the same.

But it’s not just Patton, is it? Roman represents Thomas’s hopes, dreams, and passions because most of Thomas's passions, career, and hobbies are creatively focused. But every Side also has their own motivations. Their own passions. Their own reasoning skills. Their own fears. Their own anger. Yet not all of them represent Thomas’s passions. Thomas’s reasoning. Thomas’s fears. Thomas’s anger. What would happen if Thomas’s passions were more aligned with Logan’s role? If his ethics were more aligned with Janus’s role?  If his punctuality was more aligned with Virgil’s role?

And what would it look like if c!Thomas’s anger was somehow most aligned with Logan’s role?

[papaziggy-devblog]

I think we could all go for something a bit lighthearted

Who are your favorite Yanderes and why?

OOOOHOHOHOHOOOOOH Cracks &Knuckles

Lets go

FRIEND (@stnaf-vn ) MY BBG4LIFE. Just look at him... An absolute emotional trash fire and I love him, I giggle and kick my feet when he goes all angry and I get all giggly when he's all sweet. Plus out of all of them I think he'd tolerate my gremlin behavior the best

EZRA (@restartheartvn ) Pretty sure this mfr already has my address, IP, SSN, Mother's maiden name, Longitude, Latitude, Blood Type, Where I went to Elementary School, My favorite pet's name, The street I grew up on, How old I was when I lost my first tooth, and when my last period was... and that kinda hot ngl ovo

KROW (@thekrows-nest ) LOOK AT HIM HE'S JUST A LIL GUY AND I LOVE. He's an artist too! Art dates! And he's shorter than me! NOW I CAN BE THE TALL ONE! On top of that I did weight lifting so I can still carry him round like a princess even is he is stocky... I wanna pepper his face in kissies and help him bandage his fingies uvu

VIRGIL (@wouldyoustayvn ) My beloved elf husband~ So pretty~ So poofy~ I love -v-. His whols aesthetic is also just super appealing to me and I love the whole he's self aware and can be in ANY of your devices angle... It makes me wanna torture him by being purposefully horrible with said devices. :)))

ADAM (@unknownhermit ) Ahh yes, one of my most recent obsessions... Just look at him... poor little confused and conflicted psycho serial killer... Also I too have deep seated trauma of a similar nature that leaves me waking up panting in a cold sweat so we have something to bond over <3<3<3 I wanna bunt foreheads and have him pet my head and tell me everything's gonna be ok (Even if its not RIP)

There's more I could go over... But I think 5 is a good number to end it on uvu

[skeletinmoss]

Ruffled feathers

Ships planned: Prinxiety, Logicality, Dukeciet

Warnings: Human traficing, abuse, injuries, imprisonment, captivity and all that comes with it, restraints

Patton and Virgil are brothers in this one

Thanks @lovelivingmydreams for being my beta. It was very much needed since english is not my main language

His hands were itching from the cuffs, he was sick of them for a long time now, and moving his hands so fast made it worse. His wings ached unable to be spread, pressed together in tight restraints. Funny, like he could have escaped without them. And now his throat hurt too. Bastards. He only wanted them to stop yelling at Patton, it wasn't his fault he needed to use claws to get his point across.

He almost missed the moment smoke filled the room.

It took Virgil a couple of minutes to fully understand what just happened. His head was still a little fuzzy after the electric strike. The same guy that just knocked out their captors helped him up and lifted him in a piggy back position. The guy took him and Patton outside, where two other men in gas masks circled them, pointing their ( how was it called again?) guns at their surroundings. And next he knew they were inside the van.

" Roman, I told you to wait for the signal, " the fourth guy, who was also the driver, berated the first one. " He was using a shocker! " justified their savior as he was taking off Virgil's muzzle and the bindings off his wings along with the handcuffs. The other two helped Patton with the same. And Virgil almost relaxed in their presence, that is until Roman and the rest took off their masks, " What? I was supposed to let him hurt the poor creature? "

Humans. Taking a defensive stance, Virgil covered his brother with his wings and growled. He was ready to show them why he had that muzzle if they dared to touch Pat. Humans were the whole reason they got in this situation. He interacted with so many shitty ones he was pretty sure being assholes was their race trait. Humans took them away from their forest, locked them in a cage, fed them some garbage and drugs, and the most infuriating they cut their wings! And they had the audacity to complain about ' ruining the best part'. And now him and his brother were locked with another bunch of them. He knew better than to trust them. he saw what they can do. And so he hissed at their every movement. He wouldn't be hurt by them again.

The team looked at the unfolded wings in awe and understanding. Roman was not surprised by the sudden aggressive change in avian's behavior. They expected the victims to be hostile in such situation and trained accordingly. It was best not to touch them, that's why they took the opposite corner of the van.

No wonder the traffickers were interested in them, both seemed to have rare colorations. The older one had black as his main color, which was one of the rarest, with purple and cyan as his other colors, also a pretty rare thing to see. The younger one, who looked more concerned than scared, was more close to regular brown wings but also had a bunch of blue and white feathers instead of orange or red. The saddest things was the state of those wings, both birds had their long feathers cut, weren't groomed and had some patches of feathers missing no doubt from all the stress. They were in such a bad state the whole team was wondering if the traffickers really were planning to sell them.

The dark one was so on edge they didn't have a choice but to leave both alone so he could relax. Thankfully their enclosure had cameras so the team could check on them. The team got into the the security room and stared at the screen. And sure the second they left the avians alone both relaxed and cuddled up on the mossy floor. So cute.

Both talked, but in their native language which none of the humans knew. Judging by other clues both were making sure the other one was ok. Even cuter scene happened when they discovered the bathroom.

The bathtub was build more like a pool with warm water, both avians jumped in as soon as they saw it and started to preen each others feathers. As they were busy with cleaning up Roman took it upon himself to bring them the new clothes. He knocked on the bathroom door and got a loud hiss in return. Rude. But he calmly opened the door ( which got him another hiss), put down a box of clothes and left. He hurried back into the surveillance room to see their reactions. They were hesitant to approach the clothes at first, so they focused on finishing up the bath. The first one to make a move was the Sweetie, but his moody brother covered him quickly from the supposed danger and took it upon himself to inspect the new object. Of course there was nothing dangerous and he allowed the young one to come closer. They both studied the things they were given and judging by their faces quite liked them. Both chose a hoodie with an open back that allowed them to move their wings freely. Both also chose comfortable pants, the rest of the clothes they folded neatly and placed outside the enclosure in the same box they came in.

" They are adapting great, " commented Janus following a chuckle from Remus, who was still excited about two naked butts he saw. His boyfriend clearly didn't give him enough attention today. Logan gave a nod. This rescue mission was their most successful one, ignoring mild insubordination from Roman. Both avians were rescued without any additional injuries. He was a little disappointed with himself at the fact that he couldn't track them earlier. Now they needed intense medical care and therapy. " Look at the Stormy Night. He's acting all tough, but he's as sweet as his brother, " it seemed like Roman already got a favorite. He always did, and when as the time came to release them back into the wild he would whine at the sight of them leaving. Every single time.

Jan ran his hand through Remus' hair, who now took the place on the floor between his legs, "What do we do now? " " I would suggest taking them to Emile, but considering the state they are in it would be best to let them get used to the new environment and people, " answered Logan. " Can't we just put Sugar Tits inside the enclosure instead of throwing them inside the van again? We don't stress the bird butts and they relax after talking to a non human. Like triple win! " " Not now. Emile can't come here because of a family emergency. We will have to monitor them until he can".

During next couple of weeks Logan documented the patterns in the avians behavior.

The one they nicknamed Moody was protective, yet in front of any of the humans present he acted very cold towards his brother. As the Nerd hypothesized this was directed on making them think they weren't that close, so they would not hurt one to punish the other. Honestly the fact that he thought this was necessary infuriated Logan the most. The younger of the brothers was more open to the new people. After only two days he started openly showing interest in anything new. Logan tried to explain to the best of his ability, thinking there was a language barrier involved. Which was not actually true. Both avians could pick up on languages very well. And had learned several human tongues from their previous captors. Patton really wanted to talk with the new humans, but couldn't do so because he didn't want to disclose the same with Virgil. Virgil didn't trust them at all, and he was hoping they would spill something important in front of them if they thought they couldn't understand them.

He also grew worried around one particular human. Princey, as he started to call him, was more irritated with him out of all of the humans and V just couldn't understand what he was doing wrong. They weren't trying to run away, they did behave. Why send such disgusted looks?

He was the most terrified when he started to feel sick. " Virgil... Are you ok? " Patton asked as Virgil stared at the pill he just spat out. He took the bread from Patton's hands and threw it on the floor. Not again. No wonder he was feeling like shit! They put something in the food! As to prove his thoughts the door opened and in came the humans.

They fucked up. They really did, and for the first time Remus was the one to say " I told you so", though he wasn't happy about it either. He knew that giving the guy medicine inside his food would turn out bad for them if he found out. And wouldn't you know it, the first pill and he found it. Worst part was that he was the go-do guy in this situation. That was probably because of his kinks for biting and stuff which was absolutely fucking involved in capturing an avian and separating him from his brother. He got plenty of it as he dragged the winged man towards the van, his brother crying in the background, held by Roman.

Remus pressed Moody into the floor with his legs, while holding his wings with his hands. Jan-jan took care of the avian's legs and arms so he would be easier and safer to transport. He very much appreciated when the avian relaxed understanding his helpless situation, his hands might have gone numb otherwise. Got a wing in the face a couple of times though as they were on their way to Emile. " Relax, Snappy bird, we're taking you to the doc~" Remus purred sealing his words with a sound slap on the guy's buns, which he quickly regretted because the avian started resisting again.

They should have started with bringing birds to Emile, and now they were paying for their decisions ( mostly with Remus' flesh). " Oh my goodness, what happened? " Emile sprinted towards the van. Logan got out the driver seat and opened the back doors. Snappy started to shift again, but went completely still seeing the fawn in front of him.

" There. We're ok, aren't we? " the new figure spoke in avian's language, quickly going back on the human one to ask the reason for their visit. " He got sick and the dorks tried secretly feeding him the meds, which he found. As I told you all would happen! " declared the human on Virgil's back.

" Are you feeling bad, Sweetie?" the fawn asked motioning for the human to let go. As soon as the weight was lifted off him, Virgil crawled away in the other corner. " It's ok. Please forgive them. They were concerned about your wellbeing, " the fawn said as he approached and sat down.

" I'm Emile. Can I have your name? " " Are you with them? " the avian asked with venom on his tongue. " I am, but I'm concerned about your understanding of the situation. They don't hurt me, don't worry. We're actually good friends, and I help them heal other creatures just like you." He reached his hand forwards, " Is it ok if I touch you? "

Virgil showed his fangs, " You can try. "

Emile however wasn't impressed and just touched the avian's forehead with the back of his hand. " Yup, you're burning, " he declared and picked up the confused man, bringing him to his office. He gave the bird an antipyretic medicine and started the overall checkup.

" My goodness, your wings look awful! " the doctor gasped and got some sort of ointment from the cabinet. He generously applied it on the spots that missed any feathers and at the base of the wings. " Now, I know you have a brother. So I'm going to give you this thing, ok? You and your brother need to apply it once a day after a good bath. Can you do that, Sweetheart? " he asked.

Virgil nodded. The medication started kicking in and he suddenly felt exhausted. He almost fell asleep on his way back. He didn't purely out of spite and hissed at humans a dozen more times.

Patton was hysterical. They took Virgil! They took him away! In his frantic sobs he didn't even care if they found out about the language thing, he started pleading.

" I'm sorry! Forgive him for whatever he did. Please! Don't take him away! We're sorry! " he cried. He unsuccessfully tried to get out of the hold.

Logan took avian's hands in his own, " We're not taking him away. He needs medical care. We will bring him back. " " Promise? " the avian uttered quietly. The technician gave a firm nod.

He waited another minute for sobs to die down, while holding avian's hands.

" Now, if this is resolved, we need to talk, " he said. And Patton anxiously squeaked and hid himself behind his wings.

Not minding at all, the human continued, " First I want to apologize for our decision to hide the medicine in the food. We were hoping he wouldn't find them this quickly and would feel better without interacting with us, " he nodded for Roman to let go off the avian as now there was no need for it. Sweetie peeked curiously from behind his wings.

" Seeing as you in fact do understand me, allow me to explain ourselves a bit better. We are a special rescue team, that specializes in rehabilitation of humanoid creatures found sold on the black market, " the technician continued. " Usually we take our time to infiltrate the organization and remove the victims safely and quietly. Sometimes if that's not possible we pose as buyers, for some instances we actually pay, but usually we scam them."

Actor nodded along, " Yup! Bad people deserve no money! "

" In your case we could do neither. It is thoroughly my fault. We didn't know about you for the longest time and when I was able to find any information it was obvious that we needed to intervene as soon as possible. I need to mention that we never had any experience with such terrible treatment, " Logan looked at their new friend with pity.

" Yeah, " Roman added, " Usually those guys try to make you look pretty for the buyers. Not torture you. "

Patton didn't understand everything the humans told him, but at the end of the conversation he felt reassured, safe even. He asked them to keep this conversation a secret for now. He didn't want Virgil to get mad, it would be better if he opens up at his own pace.

He sat on the mossy floor waiting and, like humans told him, Virgil returned. He looked tired, his huge wings mopped the floor behind him and he carried a small jar in his hands. His eyes seemed dazed and focused on the jar rather than his steps and this focus was the last thing keeping him from the firm grip of the dreamscape. As soon as his bother hugged him he lost that focus and relaxed in the familiar hold fast asleep

Next chapter

[quackkaz]

Virgil : A mosquito tried to bite me and I slapped it and killed it. And that got me thinking… Like it was just trying to get food.. What if I went to the fridge and it just slammed the door shut and snapped my neck? How would I feel?

Thomas : …Are you okay?

[idontknowreallywhy]

Father’s Day… The Aftermath?

This little Father’s Day snippet was satisfyingly complete as it was and was never meant to have a tbc, but if anyone is interested in a ‘how Scott reacted’ introspective then err, read on? Oh yeah and there is some EOS and The Tinies too :)

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“Gordon Tracy and Alan Tracy.”

The brothers skidded to a halt as the disembodied voice floated out of nowhere… well, probably the stairwell speaker but, in eeriness terms, as good as nowhere.

Gordon decided to go for charm

“Hey EOS, my favourite niece!”

“I am your only niece, Gordon Tracy.”

“Heh, that makes you his least favourite too doesn’t it?”

“Shut up Alan, I’m bonding here.”

“I believe the appropriate phrase is ‘Good luck with that.’”

Hearing John’s deadpan style in that childish voice was never not going to be creepy. Also the knowledge she could open Four’s airlock while he was 3 kilometres under… brrrrr.

“Can we help you, EOS?”

“What did you do to Scott?”

They exchanged a glance. She sounded… annoyed? Worried? The AI didn’t always select the right tone for the emotion she had decided to project and thus it wasn’t always safe to rely on it, but EOS had a definite thing about their eldest brother’s welfare. Recently, non-family members who upset him tended to have a subsequent run of poor social and financial luck… she admitted nothing and John couldn’t prove it but Gordon had heard Virgil and John fretting about it.

“Nothing… bad?” Alan ventured.

“Why?” Gordon took the direct approach.

“He hasn’t moved in seven point eight two minutes. Scott always moves. Was your missive an especially lengthy one?”

Alan’s fingers dug painfully into Gordon’s arm and he yelped and shoved him into the wall.

“Eight minutes”

“Gords, did we screw up?”

“No! It was a nice thing! We said a nice thing!”

“Yeah but… maybe we should have hung around…”

“This is how it goes! We write the mushy thing in the card, nobody says anything out loud that he can argue with and he is happy. Why mess with a system that works?” Gordon could hear an old teenage defensiveness creeping into his own voice and his throat suddenly felt dry as memories of certain times he had not been… pleasant… to his eldest brother floated to the surface.

“Eight point five minutes. Perhaps I should contact John.”

“No! Don’t… John can’t know… we’ll go. We’ll fix it.” Gordon croaked. “C’mon Al.”

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Still true.

Scott Tracy was pretty good with words.

He could instinctively summon up the ones that would land perfectly on the right side of the line between trite, unbelievable nonsense and courage-inspiring reassurance. He could charm the press, silence the Board, encourage a nervous member of staff. Given time, he could write a pretty cracking keynote address. If he wasn’t given time, he could give a decent (if slightly less structured) speech on a variety of topics.

Yes, Scott Tracy could make words work for him. With strangers, anyway.

With family it was different.

Especially Gordon and Alan. Ever since he had to be better than just a brother there was always too much blocking his ability to be coherent. Too much exasperation to persuade or correct. Too much worry to convincingly advise. Too much overwhelming need to wrap them up in his arms and never let anything near… to let them stretch their wings without a fight.

About a year in, when it became clear this was it - that he was all they had and it was down to him to make sure that being orphans didn’t leave them too messed up - he’d started binging books on successfully raising teenagers. It didn’t help that most recommended completely different approaches and that Gordon had seen his attempts at ‘calm parenting’ coming a mile off and laughed in his face.

He’d messed up and lost his cool almost every day. The three of them had had more blazing rows than he could bear to remember. YOU’RE NOT MY DAD!!! And they were right. And there were plenty of occasions where the moral high ground had not been his, where he felt like he was the younger brother, not even sure if he was right but begging to be heard. Outnumbered and desperate for one of them to be on his side for once. Begging for someone to understand why this was so damn hard. Virgil and John had helped, of course they had. But they were still big brothers, mediating between the grieving teenagers and The Legal Guardian.

Scott had spent too many hours slumped in the corridor outside one of their rooms, waiting for them to be ready to come out and receive his apology, to ever believe he could merit a “bestest dad”.

A little voice whispered that his dad had yelled a lot too. But Scott had been hard work, he knew that. And even if Jeff Tracy would have yelled at Gordon and Alan for the same things he was at least their Father. It would have been different.

He’d been a stand-in, a substitute.

Better than nothing, sure! And they’d turned out ok - in what must have been a mixture of luck and their good genes, he’d managed not to ruin them completely.

He realised he hadn’t been blinking enough and the two words were burning into his retinas as his eyeballs watered.

How could… how could they say this?

Surely now he was back, now they had a real father again, this was the time they’d realise how much better it could have been if he’d been here instead? Scott had expected that kind of fall out - the regrets, the if-onlys. This… didn’t make sense.

Maybe it was the shock of having the man but not quite the Dad back yet. Maybe after all that build up the fact they hadn’t rescued the exact same person they remembered was disappointing. Maybe Scott should have been better at managing their expectations… or at managing his own.

Maybe when he was well. Which he would be. It was just a matter of time then everything would become as it was supposed to be.

And he’d better get rid of this, because if Dad saw it, it would break his heart. Because if today had taught Scott anything it was that being a father had meant a lot more to Jeff Tracy than his eldest son had ever realised.

In a minute he’d burn it.

In a minute.

He would just look at it for one more minute.

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