#giant roman sanders

[why-not-a-tickle-blog]

Dwindling Creativity

Thomas groaned, putting his head in his hands. He’d been brainstorming and writing and editing and erasing and rewriting and researching and writing again.

“I feel like I’ve used up all the creativity I have,” Thomas grumbled, shoving aside his laptop.

This pause, reluctant as it was, was instigated by Janus. Patton took over from there, leading Thomas to flop on the couch with reruns of the Office to give his mind a chance to rest.

- - -

Roman did not stop working when Thomas did. This was Important to Thomas, and Roman had to get it right.

Thomas’s statement about using up his creativity was very nearly correct. As they had worked, Roman had dwindled away gradually, until now the quill he was holding was nearly as tall as he was. He had to hold it in a two-handed grip, kneeling on the parchment and balancing the unwieldy feather against his shoulder. At least he had a magic quill that didn’t run out of ink, so he didn’t have to keep getting up and down to re-dip it.

He ignored the click as the door to his room opened, but moments later the quill was snatched out of his grasp.

“Hey! Give that back, you- you ruffian!”

Deceit raised an eyebrow. “Ruffian? I would’ve expected a more… creative insult.”

Roman glared at him, more tired and grumpy than truly angry. “Well—! Well…” his mind went blank.

Deceit let him flounder for a retort, twirling the quill in his gloved fingers.

All at once, his inability to come up with a properly applicable insult, a good rhyme, even a solid sentence, slammed into Roman. He crumpled onto the desk. “Just leave me alone, I’m useless.”

Deceit sat down in Roman’s chair. Roman wasn’t looking at him, and was surprised to be lifted by the back of his shirt. He let out a squeak, then decided he was too tired to flail or protest, and merely went limp.

“Useless?” Deceit drawled, his voice dripping with something like sympathy. Knowing him though, it could well be anything, or nothing. “My dear prince, you and I both know that’s far from the truth.”

He draped Roman over his other hand, resting on the table. Roman was laying on his stomach, across Deceit’s palm, his arms flopped over his pointer finger.

“I am useless.” Roman asserted. “I can’t even make a song. I’m supposed to be great at songs!”

Deceit stroked the feather over Roman’s back, the smooth, gentle pressure a pleasant sensation. “Or perhaps, you’re holding yourself to too high a standard considering the circumstances.”

Roman’s muscles loosened further as the feather continued stroking over his shirt. “It’s for Thomas’s mother’s birthday, if I can’t make something perfect for this, when else could it matter?”

“I’m sure you will make something perfect,” Deceit replied. “But it may take more time. Time which we have, the birthday is in three weeks.”

Roman dropped his head onto Deceit’s glove. It was cool, rather than warm as he might have expected a hand to be. The feather traced patterns over his shirt, almost like a back rub, melting away his protests.

“You need rest now. Distraction, to get your mind off of the song and give you time to return to your full strength.”

As Deceit said the word Distraction, the edge of the feather brushed over a small strip on skin on Roman’s side, where his shirt had ridden up. Tingles spread from that spot, making him shiver. It felt nice, nearly tickly.

Roman shifted to dispel the tingles, inconspicuously doing so in a way that made his shirt ride up slightly higher.

For a few moments, Deceit must not have noticed, still stroking the feather over his shirt, but then the tip of the feather was drawn across his lower back, crossing from his shirt to his bare skin. Roman muffled a small giggle, enjoying as tingly sensations ran over him again.

Deceit was saying something else, but Roman was becoming lost in the moment, relishing the soft, gentle strokes and the occasional sparks of tickles.

At some point, he had relaxed so thoroughly as to forget he was hiding his giggles, and let one fully slip out.

“Oh, so I have a ticklish little prince?” Deceit said fondly, smiling down at him with a glint in his eyes.

Roman’s first impulse was to protest, especially as Deceit was sure to grow condescendingly teasing, but his enjoyment of his situation battled that impulse, leaving him speechless and blushing.

His internal battle was interrupted by the feather slipping up the back of his shirt, wiggling over his whole back. Roman fell into giggles, kicking his feet gently. The stiff quill feather wasn’t the most effective tool for causing tickles at his current size, but his embarrassment had made him more sensitive than usual.

“Awwww,” Deceit cooed. “Enjoying yourself?”

Roman didn’t respond other than to blush a bit pinker, though he made no move to block the feather.

Deceit twirled the feather. The strange sensation of the spinning feather under his shirt startled a laugh out of Roman.

“It seems I’ve found quite a good distraction, haven’t I?” Deceit said smugly. “Take all your thoughts away and leave only giggles~”

Roman rolled over, trapping the feather underneath his back as he giggled. Deceit easily pulled it free and teased it over Roman’s front. Here his shirt was better covering him, but the feather coming at him, fluttering at his sides or his stomach or neck, and constantly changing spots had him caught in giggles. He batted at the feather playfully when it came within reach of his hands. Indeed, all his previous difficult thoughts had fled.

“A happy little darling,” Deceit murmured, his voice overwhelmingly fond.

Roman was sure his face was still pink, but he was losing the embarrassment, caught up in the fun and the non-judgemental affection. He shucked his shirt off, clicking his fingers to change the quill in Deceit’s hand to a longer feather with droopy, dangly vanes.

Deceit shook the feather over Roman, the little tips flickering over his skin. Roman curled up into a giggly ball, rolling back and forth in Deceit’s hand. So many little tickly points all over him. It was like being out in a summer rain, if every drop left tingles in its wake.

Roman soaked in the attention, the sensations, the love. His body filled with warmth and joy, releasing the excess with every laugh. His giggles were infectious, and Deceit chuckled at the adorable sight in his hand.

When Roman got breathless, he grabbed at the trailing ends of the feather to stop them. Deceit obligingly switched tactics to long slow strokes of the feather up and down over Roman. It was hardly tickly at all, returning to a relaxing massage-like experience, but Roman couldn’t seem to fully stop the remaining giggles.

Slowly, gradually, he melted into Deceit’s palm. After such a height of joy, tiredness draped over him like a blanket. His eyes slipped closed, and the giggles came further and further apart.

Roman didn’t notice the ever so gradual shift of the feather into a miniature fringed blanket. He barely noticed when it stopped moving and instead tucked around him. And by the time Deceit gently transferred him into his bed he was sound asleep.

[hootnhoney]

Some of my takes on the alien designs in @delimeful’s incredible fanfic, wibar

If you haven’t read it yet you’re 100% missing out. All of lime’s fics are top tier but this au specifically lives in my head rent free.

[ashs-random-writing]

Sharp pointed smile

One-shot

Ao3

—

Roman, a vampire from a fantasy world, gets magically transported into a new world where he’s tiny. Luckily, local borrower is willing to help him out

—

The house was larger than anything Roman had ever seen. It made his throat run dry. He had no clue where he was, what was happening, or why. He had just been at home a few moments earlier. Why was he here?

He looked around. Everything was so… big. He could only imagine what sort of beast must live in it

He was grateful that it appeared to be nighttime. The night was illuminated with strangely bright lights, ones that hurt his eyes. Perhaps they were magic. He looked away. The house seemed to be too smooth to be made of stone, but it looked sturdy enough. He didn’t want to see the thing that lived there

Something that gargantuan could probably kill him without noticing. Back home, he had had several people trying to kill him for what he was.

This was not home. He had no idea how people would react to him.

He looked warily at the lights, and the moon that was getting slowly lower in the sky.

He looked back up at the giant house. He would need to take shelter before sunrise, but he had no one to invite him inside, nor was this his home. He would probably burn to death in the sunlight.

He got closer to the house, hoping to delay his death by getting closer to shelter even slightly, only for part of the wall to open.

The door seemed cleverly disguised, even with his strong senses, and was barely perceptible.

A him-sized person was beckoning him closer, saying something in a language entirely unfamiliar to him, but seemed to be some kind of invitation inside, going by the fact that the invisible barrier disappeared. He let a small smile grace his lips

He got inside quickly, and said a quick word of thanks to the stranger as they closed the wall.

The stranger looked back at him with visible confusion. Roman wondered if they knew his language at all.

This place was strange. Like something out of an absurd play, or perhaps a children’s book.

They led him through tunnels in what had to be the walls of the house, and into a small room-type thing that reminded Roman almost of a cave. There were strange lanterns strung up in it, ones that had no fire in them. He looked at them strangely, were they magic? They weren’t as bright as the other lights that were outside, but they were bright enough.

He looked away from them, and back towards the stranger.

The stranger was staring at him, or really his fangs, and he braced for a scream or attack. That was how it always went when someone realised that he was a vampire.

After a few tense moments, nothing happened. They looked away and started sorting something in a corner.

Looking around a little bit more, it occurred to him that this was their home. He turned around to watch them

They were messing with scraps of spare fabric that were organised into the shape of a nest. Perhaps they were makeshift blankets.

They extended the nest and Roman realised that they were expecting him, wanting him, to stay with them. He didn’t know if they knew how dangerous outside was to him, but they seemed to know that being outside was bad.

He wondered if it had anything to do with the giants that he imagined must be around. His new ally (?) kept looking back at him.

They spoke after they finished making the nest big enough, using very unfamiliar words, and speaking faster than Roman could even piece together what was a word or what was a string of them

Roman stared blankly. They paused in what had to be consideration, before gesturing to themself and saying a single word. Roman deduced that it was probably their name.

He parroted it back questioningly, pointing to them. They nodded. Virgil. Nice name.

He gestured to himself and said his own name, which they repeated. He smiled.

The rest of the time before the sun rose, Virgil would give him the name for anything he would point at. Virgil was nice. It was only a matter of time before a shrill beeping sound made its way from the more open, giant part of the house.

Virgil put their finger to their lips to gesture for him to be quiet, and he immediately did so. Virgil beckoned him towards a peephole in the wall. He watched as a giant slowly made their way into what might’ve been a kitchen.

Roman watched it for a while. Something like that could crush him with one hand. Could kill him with no garlic, or wooden stakes, or even sunlight required. He shuddered, watching as it made food. He went away from the peephole.

The sunlight was coming in from the window, and, while it did not reach the wall, it made Roman nervous. Well, that and the whole giant that was eating something by the light.

Virgil’s face was full of many emotions as they also watched the giant. The giant left a while later, leaving the house all together. Roman sat down, and looked up at his new friend/ally

“What was that?” He asked, using a very similar string of words as he did when asking for a word

The answer was short, but Roman found the answer something he wouldn’t forget. The other words he had learned today would be forgotten, he’d need to refresh his memory on them, but this? He would remember this.

Human. The way Virgil had said it, with such an extreme tone, that Roman was sure that it would echo in his mind for years to come.

He nodded, repeating the word to himself. He yawned, and absentmindedly turned into a bat. Every time he slept anywhere that was open, he always turned into a bat. It helped him sleep, and it helped prevent people noticing him.

It was the kind of thing he’d never think to do before he was turned. He flew to a shadowy corner of the tunnel, and settled down, wings wrapped around himself. He could feel Virgil’s eyes on him, but he could hear no movement from them. They just left him be, doing whatever they were doing. Even his bat form was tiny here.

When he woke up, closer to sundown, Virgil offered him some food. He shook his head. Food was not something he needed, except for blood.

He had eaten before… arriving here, anyway. He wouldn’t need to for a few days. Was this whole thing some kind of divine punishment for his sins?

He hugged his knees. The giant was moving around outside the tunnel, seemingly completely unaware of him and Virgil’s presence. Good.

It was strange. If not for the size, it would look very similar to a normal person, but it was so large. Roman thought about the amount of blood that it would have. He could probably feast on it without it noticing, whilst it was sleeping. As the human left the kitchen, Roman tried to refresh his memory of words, with Virgil’s help.

After a while, Virgil started to take him through the tunnels. Roman was shown a lot of the house. It was like a twisted version of a normal house, but with more strange things like the weird lights. He frowned.

He didn’t like this.

The giant was still completely unaware of his existence. Roman was capable of making his body just the slightest bit lighter, to avoid heavy footsteps. It was crucial in hunting, and it would be even more crucial to avoid being detected by a giant.

The giant was lying in a bed, not yet sleeping, but staring at a glowing rectangle. Strange. Virgil kept practising his words with him when they got back to Virgil’s home-part-of-the-tunnels. Roman had a hard time with it.

He hugged his knees. He wanted to go home.

Virgil left a little while later, into the kitchen. Roman watched them do things that he had never seen anyone do before. Super risky climbing moves, carrying things that looked heavier than Virgil themself, etc. He wondered if this is what they did every time they needed food.

They made almost no noise throughout the whole thing. Had he not had enhanced senses, he probably would be unable to notice anything amiss, even from this close. They were certainly practised at their actions, picking up even the slightest noise from the human’s bedroom, if the way they constantly froze and looked up, obviously listening for more signs that the giant would awaken

Roman watched them for a while.

Routines carried on like this for the next week. Roman was getting hungry. Virgil had shown him every tunnel entrance and exit and where exactly they led. Taking blood from the giant would be easy, hypothetically.

Virgil didn’t know he was doing this. How would he even explain, he only knew a handful of words in their strange language. They tried to stay near him often times, like they were trying to keep him safe.

He liked to quietly ramble to himself when the human wasn’t nearby. Virgil sometimes just sat next to him and listened to him, even though they evidently couldn’t understand what he was saying. He knew a few more words in their language than he did before, but not enough to hold a proper conversation

Or any conversation at all, really. Virgil was nice regardless. When he was in bat form, he did notice that Virgil looked at him a lot. He couldn’t figure out why

He watched the human sleep for a few minutes, making sure that it was sleeping deeply, before diving down in bat form towards its exposed arm. He did a quick enchantment to make sure it would stay numb whilst he was feasting. He bit down, and the blood started pooling into his mouth. It was more than he could ever get from anything or anyone else.

Once he was sufficiently fed, he turned back into a bat, and hovered a little. On the giant, the wound was tiny, it likely wouldn’t notice anything amiss. He flew back to the walls. Virgil was waiting for him, evidently having watched his meal.

Their face was painted with concern, instead of the usual shock and horror that came with watching him feed. They looked out at the giant, and back at Roman, before dragging him away to their (now shared) living quarters

Roman didn’t understand the lecture he was given, but understood a few words, like ‘dangerous’, a word that Virgil often used to deter Roman from going to retrieve food and supplies with him. Roman found that he really wanted to do it more after Virgil discouraged him.

The lecture lasted a while, before they noticed Roman’s non-comprehending stare. They sighed, rubbing their head like they had headache.

—

Virgil had somehow managed to make friends with a weird borrower-sized vampire. They didn’t know English, and they seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

He had invited them inside without a second thought when he saw through a crack in the wall that they were outside. Of course, at first he had assumed them to be a borrower too, until they got to the more illuminated area of his living space, and he saw them more clearly.

They looked exactly like a stereotypical vampire, Victorian era clothing (or at least something close to it), and sharp pointed teeth

They flinched when they noticed him looking at their teeth, and Virgil looked away, forcing his anxiety down. They hadn’t attacked yet, despite being invited into his home, so they probably wouldn’t attack at all. No need to be hostile and potentially make them attack.

He extended his nest for them, and found them watching him with the type of wide eyes of someone who was entirely full of curiosity. He finished extending the nest, and looked at them

“This good, or do you, like, need to sleep in a coffin or something?”

They stared blankly, clearly not having caught a single thing he said. Oh, right… they had used a different language when they first entered the house, did they understand English?

He slowly pointed to himself and slowly stated his name, deciding that that would be easier than trying to hold an actual conversation.

They repeated the name, and then proceeded to mirror the gesture and give their own name. Roman. Cool.

They followed him around as he checked his supply stock, and pointed at things and asked what they were. Virgil always gave the name, even when they’d already asked for that name.

It was a while later that the human’s alarm clock pierced the small comfort he had offered to his new friend.

He gestured for them to be quiet, hearing the unmistakable sound of a human dragging itself out of bed. He and Roman watched the human walk around the kitchen, and Roman stepped away from the tiny hole and shuddered. Had they never seen a human before?

He didn’t know how they got here. They were strange.

They were very curious, and Virgil could admit that they brought a nice change from worrying about everything on his own. They liked to sit down and ramble about goodness knows what. Only when the human was out of the house or asleep, though.

They slept in bat form, tucked securely into a dark corner. Virgil would be lying if he said that he didn’t find their bat form at least a tiny bit adorable. That was probably weird, though

When he got back from borrowing, about a week later, and they weren’t in their usual position watching him, he started running towards the human’s bedroom.

He had noticed the way they’d slowly grown more pale throughout the week, and the way they’d looked at the human when it walked through the kitchen, at its veins. He had figured that this was a possibility, especially after he’d made the mistake of showing them every exit

Like he’d predicted, they were sinking their teeth into the human’s arm, and drinking

They flew back to the wall, with the tiniest bit of blood still staining their teeth. Virgil quickly checked that the human was still asleep, before closing the entrance and dragging Roman back to the bedroom

Once they were stood in relative safety, he sighed

“What were you thinking ?! If it sees you, you will die! It’s dangerous to get that close to a human, especially to bite one! And not to mention-” the lecture lasted a few minutes, before he noticed their wide-eyed, mildly confused stare.

Oh, right, they didn’t know English. He brought his hand up to his face and groaned

He knew they needed blood. He knew the human was the best source for this. He also knew how screwed they’d both be if they had been caught.

He just put away his recently borrowed supplies, and attempted to focus on the positive. They hadn’t been caught. The bite was small enough that it was unlikely that the human would notice

Roman once again followed him around until close to sunrise, when they went to their corner to sleep. Virgil quietly crept towards the human’s room and watched to see if it noticed anything strange.

The alarm went off as normal. Virgil didn’t think about how Roman would have half woken up from the sound and would be at least partially upset that Virgil was not there. The human groaned, slamming its hand down on the alarm clock and pulling itself out of bed. Virgil watched as it looked at its arm with a strange expression, before just going back to whatever it was doing before

Virgil breathed a sigh of relief. While the side effects of the bite seemed somewhat noticeable, the human would not spend any more time than it needed to dwell on it.

After a few more days, or rather, nights, Roman could say a few more words, and more words stuck in their head. They still practised words a lot, though now they pointed at the things and said the name rather than ask for the word

Virgil hoped that soon they’d be able to know enough English to tell him what was actually going on, why they were here, etc.

For now, he was happy that they knew enough to vaguely understand him.

He watched the human leave the house. College, apparently, was what it went to. He had heard about such things before, it was something important apparently, it was all parents talked about to their children.

It was enough to keep the human occupied for several hours most days, even when it wasn’t out of the house. Great for borrowing from. It had a lot of food in its house, most of which being non-perishables, seeing as it didn’t often have time to buy extra food.

It was perfect for a borrower like himself.

Roman was friendly, but they were a bit louder than most borrowers. It made Virgil paranoid, though they often quietened their voice when they knew that the human was sleeping, which was most of the time when they were awake.

They liked to talk. Words that Virgil couldn’t understand or piece together. They played with their hair a lot, running hands through it with their words, like they didn’t even think about it. Their hair was quite long, and a nice shade of dark reddish brown.

Virgil wondered if the myths were true, and vampires really couldn’t see their own reflection. He felt kinda bad, if that was the case. They had a very nice face.

He sat next to them for a few hours, thinking about what could happen if the human would find them. Roman would probably be trapped in something like a jar or something, and then they’d get hurt (or worse) in the sunlight.

If Virgil got caught, Roman would potentially be safe. Virgil could not be killed by sunlight, and would have the potential to escape. Therefore, it was too dangerous to let Roman borrow with him.

Roman still tried to follow him sometimes. They pouted if he said it was dangerous, but they stayed in the walls.

They were gonna need more blood soon. Virgil reluctantly admitted that the human was the best source of that if he didn’t want it all taken from him, but the human was so much bigger than both of them. The human was dangerous.

He didn’t want them to get hurt. But, they would need the blood. One night, at the time he knew for certain that the human would be deep asleep, he grabbed Roman’s hand and led them towards the human’s bedroom.

They followed with a tilted head. Virgil listened to the sound of the human’s breathing, making sure it was definitely still asleep. He slowly opened the entrance and gestured towards the human. Roman slowly took a step forward, and once Virgil didn’t stop him, he swooped down as a tiny bat, and bit into the arm, humanoid once more.

Virgil found it fascinating to look at. The way colour slowly came back to their face, the way they became much more alive-looking whilst the blood entered their body.

They flew back to him pretty much immediately, obviously scared that he would be mad again. He just grabbed their hand again and took them back to the ‘room’ they both lived in. They were smiling.

Virgil made sure that they were okay, and then he started gathering supplies for his own food.

Routines kept on like this for months.

Roman still wasn’t exactly fluent, but they knew the basics.

Unfortunately, the human seemed to have noticed that about once a week, its arm felt numb and had two little spots. It had put up cameras in its bedroom, which luckily didn’t pick up on anything, considering that Roman couldn’t be seen on footage or in mirrors, and Virgil never went actually into the room, but would absolutely cause some kind of trouble

—

Roman liked it there. For once, he could feed without killing anything or anyone. He had a friend! He had tunnels to explore!

The human was scary, of course, but Virgil always made sure that he was safe at feeding time. He sometimes watched it through the little holes in the walls when it was awake when he was. Sometimes it stayed awake during nighttime, meaning he and Virgil had to be careful and quiet.

Some days, it stayed out of the house until late at night, leaving Roman hungry. Like that night.

“Hungry,” he complained dramatically to Virgil, drawing out the word and flopping down onto the nest with a sigh

Virgil nudged him with a foot, and replied

“Sorry, nothing I can do about that. Unless, you want my blood, of course, but I don’t think I’d like that very much,” they joked, sitting down next to him

“Not your blood,” he agreed, lifting his head to reveal a small smile.

When the human came back, a few hours later, there was another human with it. Roman thought about the amount of blood they would have together, and felt all the more hungrier.

Virgil was watching the humans with the kind of nervous tension that they had if they had just dropped something whilst the human was in the kitchen.

Roman quietly walked closer, wanting to watch the humans too. At this rate, neither of the giants would sleep before the sun rose. He could probably wait another day, but it would mean that he’d take a more noticeable amount of blood from it.

He fidgeted nervously, hands running through his hair.

He looked to Virgil, who looked probably more panicked than him. Roman paused in thought

Virgil liked his bat form, he had found out, it calmed them down, and (though he would never admit so) it also helped Roman calm down to be held. He got panicked more than he let on; he missed his mansion, he missed his home, he missed knowing what was going on, he missed being able to talk fluently, he missed a lot.

But, Virgil was a constant presence, a constant friend that barely left his side, helped him stay happy, healthy even. They were the one good thing about this place, and they were great. If Roman had to pick between his mansion or Virgil’s friendship, he’d probably choose Virgil.

He turned into a bat and flew onto Virgil’s shoulder. It would be nice to see them relax a little, and he also needed the distraction.

Virgil looked towards him with a smile that Roman almost missed. They gently brought him into their arms, in a way that they had done a few times before, if the human had gotten too close to finding something out or if Virgil had only just managed to return to the walls when it entered the kitchen

Roman wrapped his wings around himself and settled in the hold. He had never been held like this before he met Virgil. People never trusted him, despite his attempts to be noble, to be a hero. Before he was turned, he was well liked, but what was he now? A monster.

Virgil had never judged him, as far as he knew. They were strange, but Roman had never been as glad of anything in his life/afterlife. He trusted that they’d wake him the second that it was safe to feed, and he started to fall asleep

Virgil’s hold was secure, a sense of warmth that surrounded his cold, and he was peaceful here. It wasn’t too long before Virgil gently jostled him awake.

“They’re both asleep now,” was said in a low whisper. Roman turned back to his normal form and stood up

Virgil led Roman, not to the human’s bedroom, but to the room where it watched ‘tv’ (a strange contraption that seemed to show plays and performances in strange ways)

Both of the humans were curled up on couches, instead of beds, and Roman looked between the two, and back at Virgil. Virgil was waiting for him to go forward and feed. He looked out of the window, he had about half an hour before sunrise.

He’d be okay to feed, if he was quick. He flew up as a bat, and towards his usual human. Its arm was uncovered, and he quickly sunk his teeth in after doing the enchantment.

The arm twitched beneath him. He froze. A small mutter that he couldn’t quite figure out the words of came from the direction of the human’s mouth. Roman looked up hesitantly. Giant brown eyes were staring back at him.

Roman’s own eyes quickly averted, towards the table in the corner in which the tunnel entrance where Virgil would be was. He couldn’t see them from here.

A hand wrapped around him, and he shouted, panicking and forgetting the words in the strange language, and using his native one

“Get away! Get away!” He screamed, feeling as though he had just been cornered by vampire hunters. He knew this was so much worse.

The other human woke up, saying something. Roman couldn’t figure out what it was; Virgil always spoke slowly to help him figure out what was being said. These humans did not extend the same courtesy to him. He hadn’t even nearly finished feeding before it woke up

He was weaker than he could’ve been. If he didn’t escape soon, that would be the least of his worries, he thought to himself, looking at the slowly lightening sky out of the window. He struggled in the hold, feeling himself be set down. No sooner than he had managed to look around, a large drinking glass was placed down over the top of him, cutting him off from the outside world.

His brain felt like it was running in circles. The humans were still talking, but through the muffling that the glass did, their fast talking, and Roman’s mile-a-minute thoughts, he couldn’t understand anything. He pushed against the glass, but it didn’t budge. Out of sheer desperation, he turned into a bat and flew around, trying to find any weak spots. Nothing. He turned back

The humans were talking.

Roman watched the window with nervousness he had almost never felt before. Usually, vampire hunters were easy to escape. He never usually had to worry about the painful disintegration that came with sunlight. He realised that he was on top of the table. The entrance to the tunnels would be almost directly below him

Virgil would be almost directly below him. Was Virgil gonna help him? What if they also got captured? Roman didn’t want to think about that

He sat down on the wooden table and sulked (though, he decided that this sulking, unlike most sulking he tended to do, was actually 100% warranted)

Cold tears fell down his already cold face. What was he doing ? He was going to turn into dust in less than an hour, he was captured, he was never going home. Either of his homes; the walls or his mansion.

The humans were talking to each other, Roman tried to listen. They spoke fast; he could only catch a handful of words. Things like ‘food’, and ‘vampire’ (a word that Virgil sometimes used in reference to him)

He sighed. None of this would matter soon. He knew this would happen eventually, he knew that something or someone would get the upper hand on him and he’d die. He just hadn’t wanted it to be here, to be close to his only friend while he disintegrated

The sunrise would be soon. He had to come to terms with it.

He shoved his face into his hands and sobbed. And then, noise from in front of the table, just out of sight. A voice- Virgil’s voice- speaking fast and loud. To the humans. Roman tried to listen but found that he couldn’t

Was Virgil saving him? The thought made something in his chest flutter, almost made his non-beating heart jolt back into rhythm. He chose to believe that it was anxiety, that he was scared for his friend’s safety (which, he was) and absolutely no other feelings were involved.

—

Logan had known that something had been biting him whilst he slept. Like clockwork, every Wednesday night, something was biting him, leaving his arm slightly numb and two tiny dots in his arm.

He had tried to put up cameras, but they didn’t pick anything up. There seemingly was nothing to pick up. It was entirely infuriating. Especially since it was always the same night of the week. No matter what. If he fell asleep during the day on a Wednesday, during his breaks, no bites.

It was a mystery, and Logan hated not knowing things. He had tried staying late at the library on a Wednesday night, and going to sleep late, but whatever was biting him was smart, and still bit him whilst he was sleeping.

His friends had joked that it was a tiny vampire, but Logan had rolled his eyes at that. Now… Now, he was considering it.

He had decided with his friend Patton to sleep late in a different room than usual, with Patton, to see if the whatever was biting him would follow him.

He was almost asleep by the time he felt two small pinpricks on his arm. He tried to make his arm stay still as to not scare away whatever the thing was and peeked his eyes open.

Without his glasses it was hard to see, but it looked humanoid. He muttered something to himself and reached out to grab it, and found that it shouted something in a language he had never heard before. Curious…

Patton woke up at the sound of the shout, and Logan grabbed his glasses as Patton did the same

“What’s going on?” Patton asked

Logan looked up for a split second “I found the source of the bites,” he said, looking down at his new find again

The closer he looked at it, the more the vampire comparisons looked more accurate. It was wearing a strange version of what one would expect of a vampire, in mostly golds and reds, though rather dirtied. It had long, dark red hair, about down to where their shoulder blades would be, and if Logan really looked, he could see two tiny fangs under its tiny top lip

It was clearly trying to get out of his grip, so he slowly brought it towards the table and, grabbing an empty glass on the way, placed it down with the glass on top of it. It pushed at the glass, but upon it not budging, it turned into a bat.

Contrary to the panic it seemed to be displaying, not once did Logan notice any breathing difficulties. Nor, any breathing at all.

Patton came closer, looking at the little thing

“It’s actually a tiny vampire?” He asked in bewilderment, before continuing “So, it was biting you for food? I feel bad trapping it, or- them? Like this, they were just trying to eat,”

Logan agreed with that sentiment, but didn’t want to risk them getting away before he got some answers. He and Patton talked in hushed voices about theories and things they needed answered for a while, finding that the vampire had sat with their back to them and head in hands.

He thought on the whole problem. This had been going on for months. Where had the tiny vampire been living this entire time? In his house? But where?

Logan was interrupted from his thoughts by a sudden shout from beneath the table that he was crouched at.

He looked down, finding another tiny person, this one looking slightly more alive, clearly breathing and, while they didn’t have much colour on their pale skin, it was certainly more than the vampire had. They were holding a pin like a sword, pointed up shakily at him and Patton

“Let- let them go! Please, they can’t answer any questions you ask, and they’ll die if they stay here once the sun rises, just let them go! Please..” they seemed desperate. They seemed terrified.

Their clothes were dirtied, clumsily stitched together, and clearly were once some kind of scrap fabric that they had found somewhere. A clear difference between them and the vampire, whose clothes seemed impeccably perfectly stitched with high quality fabrics, even when it was dirty.

Patton had started working to calm down the tiny person, and Logan looked up at the vampire again. They had clearly recognised the sound of the tiny person’s voice, going by the way they were trying to see them

Logan thought about the strange language that the vampire had spoken, then thought about how the tiny person had said that they wouldn’t be able to answer questions. Could they not speak English? Or were they perhaps just not fluent?

He tuned back into the conversation around him. The tiny person was shouting

“Stop- stop telling me to calm down ! I won’t be calm until you let them go! Please, just let them go, it’s almost sunrise,”

Logan looked out of the window. They were right, the sky was slowly lightening up.

Vampires died in sunlight, according to most myths. It made sense that they were so desperate. He looked down at the vampire, thinking.

He looked to the tiny person

“Okay, I’m going to let them out now, so if you’d just stop shouting, please,” he said, keeping his voice level to avoid any further stress on them

Their head snapped towards him, watching him like a hawk as he reached out to the glass. He lifted it up.

The vampire inside turned into a bat and speedily flew to their (friend?). They held onto each other as they reunited.

Both of their impromptu guests backed away under the table and disappeared. Logan looked under the table about a minute later and found no trace of them.

He and Patton looked at each other

“That was real, right? I’m not just imagining the two tiny people that just disappeared under there?” Patton asked, with a hint of uncertainty in his voice

Logan nodded without saying a word. Logan had a hard time believing it himself. He sighed. There was no proof of this encounter. There was nothing to indicate that it ever even happened. Nothing but his and Patton’s word. While his friends would be somewhat likely to believe them (with Patton’s lack of deceitful nature, and Logan’s completely serious demeanour) the rest of the world wouldn’t be so trusting

Then he asked himself the question: did he want to tell people? Both of the tiny people seemed downright terrified of him, what would they think if suddenly a lot of people were looking for them?

He went back to the couch and sat down. This whole day was strange, to say the least

—

Virgil paced back and forth in the walls. That was undoubtedly the most stressful, stupid, and dangerous thing he had ever done. He didn’t know what to do now.

Roman was out of the humans’ grasps, but now the humans knew that both of them existed, and it wouldn’t take long for them to figure out that they were in the walls. There were only so many places to disappear to when disappearing under a table

Roman was tracking his movements from where they were hugging their knees, sitting on the nest. Virgil was trying to think of something that could solve this entire problem.

He was supposed to move houses if he was seen, but Roman hadn’t fed properly, based on the sunken eyes, the gaunt cheeks, and the pale face. They’d move slowly. There was no guarantee that they’d find a suitable home before tomorrow’s sunrise if they started that night.

Roman obviously couldn’t drink this human’s blood again, and they couldn’t drink Virgil’s; that would kill him, and they couldn’t move house. So, what could they do? His mind was drawing blanks, and he groaned.

This was a nightmare of a situation. He sat down next to Roman, who rested their head on his shoulder. He turned his face toward them.

They’d been uncharacteristically quiet since they got away

“You still hungry?” He asked, already knowing the answer.

Roman responded with a short nod

“Any ideas on how to fix that?” He asked, once again knowing the answer

A shake of their head confirmed his thoughts.

“Well this sucks, huh?” He mused, an element of ironic humour in his voice.

Roman buried their face in his shoulder, and Virgil wrapped his arm around them. He didn’t blame them for not speaking. They had been captured by humans, they were less than an hour away from death until Virgil had somehow managed to reason with the humans to let them go.

A thought invaded his mind before he had the awareness to stop it. What if he was to… strike a deal with one of the humans? To give blood to Roman and Virgil could offer some small information every week. It was a crazy idea, but it was the only idea even semi-accomplishable.

He looked at Roman. His idea would be useless if he didn’t get Roman’s consent first. No use getting a deal with a human if Roman didn’t want it. Roman looked like they were about to fall asleep, he could wait.

They turned into a bat and fell asleep, still close to Virgil. Virgil waited a few minutes before slowly moving closer to the tiny hole in the wall. The humans seemed to have not moved much since they escaped. When Roman woke up, a few hours later, Virgil proposed his idea.

Roman was quick to agree, obviously incredibly hungry. They waited for the sun to set and went through the tunnels until they found where the human was

Virgil climbed up some nail stairs, so he’d have the advantage of being on a shelf, and therefore being less easily grabbable. Roman flew up in bat form, which Virgil insisted was cheating, but ignored just this once.

Virgil took several deep breaths before opening the wall. The human was on the other end of the room, and had not yet seen him.

Virgil motioned for Roman to stay behind the doorway for now, and walked further out on the shelf. He steeled himself and took another few deep breaths

No matter what he did, he would never be ready for this. This was the kind of thing that got people killed. He closed his eyes and shouted across the room to get the human’s attention.

A quick jolt from the other end of the room, and suddenly he had giant eyes on him. He tried to conceal the resulting flinch, and proposed his deal to his human.

It looked at him, with a contemplative expression

“What would happen if I were to say no?”

Virgil’s face fell

“If you were to say no, then my friend would die,” he said, trying to avoid emotions leaking into his voice

“Okay, then, bring your friend here, they can drink my blood. And in return, I get a question, yes?”

Virgil nodded ( this was a stupid thing to do, what was he doing- ) and he brought Roman forward

The human got its one question (what are you both?), and Roman got their blood.

Virgil and Roman set off to somewhere new the next night, not willing to stay near a human that knew what they were.

In the new walls, they both started setting up.

They were safe

—

Taglist: @a-chilly-pepper

[muppenthings]

The final part of the Sanders Sides "Giant merman" au story. It is the end of the au.

First -- Previous

CWs: while everything is kept very brief the story does mention abandonment, injury, person being called monster, mentions of self-neglect, kidnapping, being tied up, and death.

Part 4

On the local morning news, a cargo ship was reported to have had an unfortunate run in with a supposed whale; the hull dented, propeller and rudder smashed. The ship drifted at sea before it was successfully towed back to safety by the coast guard.

Logan chokes on his morning coffee. No way a whale could manage that. And with the state of mind that Virgil left the beach in… Logan worries Virgil’s gotten hurt.

He calls Janus. There’s a long pause. “You don’t have to worry about him anymore. We’ve got him.” And he hangs up. Leaving Logan even more jarred. He tries calling him again, but he’s been blocked.

Roman calls him next, having seen the news too (Patton is still sleeping cause he’s not a morning person). They both rush to Patton’s place, calling in to get the day off their respective work.

The trio then tries to figure out what to do. Janus had straight up told them that the company had Virgil. So, he was at a mainland harbor or something similar. Did he go willingly? Only one way to make sure. They find a map and start plotting, locating all possible harbors. They’re not abandoning their friend! Meanwhile Logan feels responsible and quite guilty.

Scene changes to a mainland harbor, where the company is keeping Virgil.

Janus is staring up at his sleeping form, his gaze travels to the side of his tail, a large gash adorning it. An injury likely from smashing the cargo ship’s propeller. He’d call for someone to look at it. 

One of his team members walks up to him. Janus asks if the sedatives shouldn’t have worn off by now.

The former shrugs. Probably. The mer was exhausted before so he’s probably just catching up on some Z’s.

Janus frowns. This wasn’t how he wanted things to go.

Part 5

Flashback to before the capture:

Janus had explained to the company board about the three friends and his own plan of the giant coming willingly. They had agreed to it.

Since they already had placed a tracker on the giant, they were confident that the giant wouldn’t escape even if he declined the offer. ((Virgil must drink freshwater, there’s a stream that he frequents on the mainland. The “tracking team” could easily figure it out and wait for him to visit it, thus plant a tracker from afar on him.))

But the board had completely lost their cool after hearing that the mer had attacked a ship; Seeing the tracker’s location along with the location of the cargo ship… They put two and two together. (The company has their own ship at sea, keeping an ear on the marine radio channels. Just in case) 

The board gives the instruction to just go ahead with plan B; which is to sedate the mer and tow him into their harbor. The mer was growing too unpredictable for their liking, it’d be safer for everyone to just bring him in. What they’d do with the mer was still being discussed.

Janus opposes but the plan is already set in motion during the early morning.

While he waits for his team to bring the sleeping mer in, he receives a phone call from Logan; talking about the cargo ship on the news, worrying about Virgil. Janus tells him not to worry about Virgil anymore; they’ve got him. He then blocked his number; the three didn’t need to be weighed by company business anymore. Janus may also be a bit salty because the trio didn’t keep him updated on Virgil’s status; they didn’t hold their part of their deal so he’s not keeping his.

End flashback.

Part 6

When Virgil wakes up, he’s not very cooperative. He’s tied up, confused, scared and angry all rolled up in one. He refuses to let anyone approach or tend to his injured tail. So Janus does a “villain speech” and basically shoulders the full responsibility for Virgil’s capture (he’d rather have the mer angry with him only so that his team could tend to his injuries and hopefully feed him). This allows his team to work better with the mer, but Janus isn’t having a good time.

A week passes

Somewhere during this, Virgil learns about the fate of the researcher that created him. The person he viewed as a parent, that he still views as a parent. Learning that she unfortunately died in an accident shocks him, but there’s also relief in knowing that she never abandoned him. That he was never an unwanted creature; she was going to come back to him. He starts bawling; for the loss of a parent, for the years of solitude, for being stuck in a place with unknown people, for attacking the ship. And above all, missing his humans. 

Virgil is so miserable. Janus considers contacting the trio again as it’s just not working. What Janus doesn’t know is that Logan, Roman and Patton have been scouting all possible harbors where Virgil might be kept. 

The trio ends up finding the harbor just as Janus gets the green light to get the trio involved again. He calls Logan, the ringtone echoing loudly in the back area, effectively getting them “caught”.

Virgil initially doesn’t want to greet them, recalling his actions towards Logan on the beach prior. But the two have a heart to heart and reconcile. Logan also addresses his guilt from not noticing the bad state Virgil was in.

Everyone has a talk. It’s eventually decided that Virgil can swim freely in the ocean again and spend time with Logan, Patton and Roman like they used to. But he has to return to the harbor for health checkups and to eat; so he doesn’t impact the area's ecosystem as much by staying in it.

In the end, Virgil is free and can spend his time with the people that he loves. He mends things with Janus too. Getting another human friend. And they lived happily ever after. :)

[general-gt]

Finally something that isn’t transformers g/t! Just a little thing I finally managed to pull together.

[ask-gt-roceit]

Tiny!Snake!Janus: *coils around Roman's finger*

Roman: Now I have you around my finger, does it mean you'll do as I say?

Tiny!Snake!Janus: *nips*

Roman: Rude!

-

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[jaratedeguadalupe]

Roman the type of mf to come to work on a horse on his birthday 

[an-organized-confusion]

I’m mostly going to paraphrase but me and co-conspirator thought about how some members of Team Z in the iZ!AU are dealing with the whole... being zombies thing.

Roman is going to box it up and compartmentalize it and try not to think about it for like a month... and then he has to again, in order not to go Full Romero. (Or if the brain he’s on is particularly rough.)

Virgil, having had a long history of a good therapeutic relationship for his anxiety issues with Patton... he’s a bit less of a mess. But lbr, nothing’s going to really prepare you to deal with any of this zombie nonsense.

Remus is like, “This is great! No more cancer! No more aching joints! My scars have healed-!“ Patton (or Logan in all honesty): They’re still there- Remus, insistent: “My scars have healed!“ Patton (or Logan): “But-?“ Remus, with more intensity: “My. SCARS. Have. HEALED!“

Janus? Janus is not going to say shit about it.

[januscorner]

I’m taking requests!

I do Moodboards, stimboards, art requests, wallpapers, gif sets, playlists, userboxes, and trades!

Just shoot me an ask of what you want, I’ll do characters, ships, songs, ocs, vibes, pride flags, kin stuff, etc.

For OC requests please include details about the character

I’m in the following fandoms but I might do some others:

Sanders Sides, Steven Universe, BRCU, Gravity Falls, The Owl House, Disney, Musicals, Bigtop Burger, Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss, Dead End: Paranormal Park, Ever After High, Monster High, Roleslaying With Roman, Total Drama, Kipo Age Of The Wonderbeasts, My Little Pony, Summer Camp Island, The Amazing World Of Gumball, The Amazing Digital Circus, Morel Orel, The World Of Mr Plant, Baby Sitter’s Club, Sanrio, Tangled The Series, Trolls, The Muppets, Giant Days, Lumberjanes, Ghosts, LOL dolls, Spiderverse and Battle Kitty

More info here!

I’m also doing a project of make characters based on songs! If you want me to do a specific one shoot me an ask!

I’m also also, making characters based on lesser represented Pride flags, feel free to request any

AO3 Unvale Art Fight Kin Help Blog

Userbox hoard under the cut

@/lgbtq-userboxes

@/cherry-blossom-labyrinth

@/hacker-the-simp

@/queerpridedits

@/jeweledviolets

@/burntoutuserboxes

@/ophelian-darling

@/sweetpeauserboxes

@/transmasculine

@/chronicallyleggless

@/butterscotch-goat

@/userboxvariety

@/satyrradio

And Me!

[confusedasever]

Omg it’s Patton being cute and Roman being an insecure gay mess what else is new lmao made this a bit ago but never posted it. I like have a giant stockpile of Sander sides doodles as stuff I found on Pinterest at 3am

Op: Rotten Heart (idk if that’s the og user)

[redandyellowbracket]

FINALS

It's the moment you've all been waiting for, folks! It's the final showdown between our two semifinalists for the title of ULTIMATE Red and Yellow!

On the left we have Sideswipe and Sunstreaker from Transformers. These terrific twins can transform into Lamborghini cars! They've defeated everyone who crossed their paths: their transforming adversaries, Knockout and Bumblebee; magical girls Kyoko Sakura and Mami Tomoe; the reason this bracket was formed, Red and Yellow from AvA/M; and most recently, they battled against Touhou's protagonist and deuteragonist, Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame, sweeping by pretty much exactly 70%!

And on the right we have Dick Simmons and Dexter Grif who, while actually maroon and orange, swept through their competition by the will of the fans and committing to the bit: basketball anime boys Kagami Taiga and Kise Ryota, Homestuck hotshots Aradia Megido and Sollux Captor, Rise!TMNT's very own Raph and April, and in the semis they battled and absolutely destroyed Thomas Sanders' Roman and Janus by a whopping 74.8!

Will the giant transforming robot twins come out on top, or will Grimmons take down one final foe and earn a title that would make Grif furious? Good luck to both of our finalist duos! And please, for the sake of myself and your fellow voters, be courteous in the notes.

[t4t-apexeclipse]

No but seriously imagine it:

You’re seeing Thomas Sanders in concert. Everyone is having a great time. Thomas seems a little excited. “We have a surprise for you guys.” Thomas says. All of a sudden Emile Picani comes out and starts singing “giant woman” from steven universe. When Emile gets to the chorus, someone else starts singing….

“Adam and Eve bought knowledge, for the small price of a little sin.”

Lights flash everywhere and you see thomas sanders singing giant woman along with emile picani, while the sanders sides are singing Forbidden Fruit. Everyone in the crowd is going wild and Crying. Then if things couldn’t get any better, Roman of Reston and Youngblood Ra walk onto stage and kiss, holding the gay flag.

[prodigal-explorer]

here are my current sanders sides height headcanon obsessions

i'm sure by now you all know that i do not have set-in-stone height headcanons for the sides (for the most part) because i don't really care and i like mixing it up! but here are my current favorite height headcanons for the sides that i just adore for so many reasons and implement into a lot of my most recent aus!

i can never decide whether i want roman to be taller or shorter than remus, but recently, i've been really digging the idea of roman being just a smidge taller than remus, and he holds it over his head ENDLESSLY while remus is like "whatever dude i'm older so-".

i usually really like when the creativetwins are among the taller ones (i'm 5'3 and i live a tall life vicariously through roman) but i think it's such a fun idea to have them be on the shorter end instead. they're like little balls of energy with huge personalities.

i'm always a sucker for patton to be really short because i usually make him an antagonist character and i LOVE the idea of people assuming that he's innocent and harmless because he's just a tiny boy and then they get totally blindsided when they find out the hard way that there are many more ways to do harm than physical brute force. i also resent the idea of small people always being seen as innocent/fragile and big people always being seen as scary/tough.

i've recently been obsessed with logan being the tallest in the group. like in most instances he's a very gentle giant, but when he loses his temper, he will LOOM.

i am a "virgil is super tall because of heightened anxiety" believer and truther. it is one of my favorite things of all time. i picture him being just a bit shorter than logan.

in terms of height, i see janus being somewhere in the middle. he's definitely the side that i'm the least sure about when it comes to height, i give him a different one every au LMAO.

FAT LOGAN. FAT VIRGIL. FAT JANUS. this, my friends, is the holy trinity. yes i know the fandom loves giving patton a dad bod. that's great for them. but guys. fat logan, fat virgil, fat janus. and i see them being like three different types of fat, if you know what i mean.

janus being like very curvy fat, he loves wearing bodycon stuff cuz he knows he looks SCRUMPTIOUS, but it's also a bitch for him to find well-fitting clothes because the fashion industry doesn't give a fuck about people with his body type. so he is really great with a sewing machine, mostly out of necessity, though he does enjoy it!

okay why don't more people make virgil super muscular. i see him as muscular fat. he's FIGHT or flight, guys!! he definitely has a punching bag in his room. i don't exactly see him as like a gym bro, but he definitely hits the weights when he needs to blow off steam or anxiety.

logan is somewhere between curvy fat and muscular fat, he's just a big guy! he is always very mindful of his size compared to others, mostly because he's worried about accidentally abusing his strength. but he literally never ever does.

the twins have islander bodies guyssss i know i saw themmmm. and by that i mean they're small and pretty lean, but they also have a bit of stockiness to them, especially in their legs. and they get endlessly teased by the other sides for their small feet.

[ashs-random-writing]

To Fly with Glass Wings

One-shot

Ao3

REBLOG>LIKE

--

Roman, a teenage fairy, was curious about the human that kept showing up in his forest. And, more importantly, he was curious about their devices. Perhaps going into their bag on an impulse wasn’t the best idea...

--

Deep in the forest, where most didn’t go, there was a magical town, filled with fairies. It was hidden from human eyes using magic, and it was usually bustling with activity

Roman walked around the small town. He was bored. He was so bored. He had done everything there was to do anywhere nearby a million times already. 

He groaned, sitting on the very edge of the town border, careful not to go past the runes that protected them all from non-magical eyes. Perhaps just watching the wildlife would help?

He watched animals skitter along the tree roots and fidgeted with the cuffs of his sleeves. He heard heavier footfalls, and immediately became more alert. A human made themselves known less than a minute later, completely oblivious to the town right next to them

Roman just watched them.

Humans were... interesting, though he’d never admit as much to anyone else.

Humans were, above all else, dangerous

But this one, with their strange clothes and weird make-up and purple hair (he didn’t think humans could have purple hair; usually they only had boring colours like brown and blond) was just sitting on the forest floor, strange wires in their ears that almost sounded like they were producing a song

Roman wondered how humans worked without magic. 

How did they cook, clean, keep predators away, travel- do basically anything- without magic? Like sure, they were phenomenally large, and that would probably help with predators and maybe travel, but the rest was confusing to him.

He flew upwards to sit on a branch, still within the town boundaries. He kicked his feet, and fluttered his wings, quietly watching the human scroll on one of their strange devices.

He could hear some of the music, and he danced slightly from his branch

The human came back every day for a week. 

Roman concluded that they had used some sort of artificial colouring on their hair. It was starting to fade into a more brown-ish colour

He wanted to know more about the small device they always had. It seemed to show the human things, and let them communicate through it and let them read, and Roman figured that something like that would probably cure his permanent boredom.

He watched the human more and more. The human, he was gonna try figure out their name, seemed to never notice the town just to the side of them, which meant that the magic was working exactly as it was supposed to

Though, Roman was told by some elders that he needed to tell people when a human was nearby, even though the human literally just sat there and did nothing

Either way, he did alert them and then went to ‘keep watch’.

Roman had seen very few humans in his time; most didn’t come this far into the forest.

He watched as the human got ready to leave like they always did, and he couldn’t help the disappointment he felt. The strange giant was the most interesting part of his day, and now he’d have to be bored for the rest of the day

He watched them put their small device in the bag they usually carried, and he lamented his inability to try it out. Except, the human’s focus drifted elsewhere, towards where a twig snapped as a rabbit had hopped onto it, before they distractedly left.

They left without their bag. 

Roman slowly left the safety of the town, making sure no one was watching him, before flying into the bag. He knew that he would need to leave before the human inevitably came back for their belongings, but this was likely the only chance he would get. Never let it be said that he didn’t evaluate risk, he just did the risky thing anyway

He tapped the screen on the device like he had seen the human do, and it lit up. Roman grinned, trying to make it go onto the other screen

All the human had to do was look at it and it would change, what was he doing wrong? Was it because he wasn’t human? Because that was discriminatory, thank you very much

He huffed, trying again and again, and, in his distracted state, he didn’t notice human footsteps until the bag was moving. He stumbled, falling over as the bag moved. He tried to move into a position where his wings would be safe, but the constant shifting of the bag and the bags contents were making it impossible

Horror slowly found it’s way into his feelings. The human was going to see him. The human was fascinating, but Roman was made of magic. The human would not be able to understand him, and what humans don’t understand, they get rid of

That had been drilled into his mind longer than he could talk.

Curse his own impulsivity and curiosity. 

The human walked for a while, with Roman trying not to get hit by various objects, and feeling something hit into his back. Eventually, they must’ve arrived at their destination, because the bag was set down, and Roman tumbled out

The human stared at him, and Roman got up from sitting on the ground, and moved backwards, trying his hardest not to tremble.

He surveyed his surroundings. He was pretty sure he was in a human house.

A hand started reaching for him, and he conjured a clear magical dome around himself as protection. The human had retracted their hand, but didn’t stop staring

“... I’m Virgil. What’s your name?” Their voice was softer when talking to him than it was when they talked through their device

Roman said his name, wary of the obvious trap, and forgetting that humans couldn’t understand him. 

The human (’Virgil’) stared blankly, and Roman kept as far away as possible from them. 

“I’m sorry, I can’t understand you”

Roman knew that, he wasn’t dumb.

“Can you understand me?” 

Roman nodded, looking at a window out of the corner of his eye. Virgil seemed to be looking at something behind him. Roman followed their gaze to his wings, which were looking different than usual. He felt the, now jagged, edges lightly and winced

Now that his panic had mostly subsided, he could feel pain. He mustn’t have noticed, because he was too busy worrying about what Virgil was gonna do to him, but it turned out Virgil wouldn’t even need to do anything to keep him there.

His wings would heal, but it would take months at best, years at worst. He couldn’t help the tears that were welling up in his eyes, and he couldn’t stop them from falling.

Great, he looked even more weak in front of a potentially bad human.

Roman messily wiped his eyes, and glared at the giant. Virgil put their hands up

“Hey, I didn’t do that to your wings! I haven’t even touched you!”

Roman sat down, bringing his knees to his chest, and half-heartedly observing the human

Virgil sighed

“Okay, I’m sorry for accidentally kidnapping you, but I didn’t know you were in my bag, and I’m sorry that you broke your wings in the process. I would have been more careful if I knew you were there. But, you can stay here with me until your wings heal, and I’ll help you with anything you need, yeah?”

‘Can’. Like Roman would want to stay in a human house for however long. Roman glared again. 

Virgil looked a little lost at his reaction

“I know it probably won’t make up for breaking your wings, but I am really sorry”

Roman turned away, and noticed that his shield had fallen at some point whilst he was distracted. He got up and looked around at the house. He knew Virgil was watching him, but he understood the curiosity aspect.

That was what had gotten him into this whole predicament after all. He was curious about everything in this house as well. He wanted to explore

-----

Virgil was having a major freak out.

He had found a nice clearing in the woods, where he could just escape reality and be on his own. There was no one watching him, no one judging and no one to tell him what to do.

So of course, it only took a week for things to go to shit. He had left his bag in the clearing, and somehow a fairy had managed to find their way into it. He hadn’t even known that fairies existed previously

He didn’t know if they had willingly got in, or if they had fallen in or something, but from the way they seemed terrified of him when they fell out, the second one was more likely

Their skin was a pale reddish-pink, with large, wide eyes and red hair. They had (comparatively) large wings that almost looked like they were made of glass. 

They seemed to put up some kind of forcefield to protect themselves from him, and he tried to diffuse the tension by introducing himself. The fairy seemed to introduce themselves as well, though whatever language they spoke sounded more like a melody than it did words

He noticed something was wrong with their wings after a few seconds of staring; they were an odd shape, almost reminding him of a broken window. 

They followed his gaze, and stared at their own wings, and reaching a hand out to touch the edges, all but cementing in his mind that they were broken. They turned to glare at him, with glowing eyes and tears running down their cheeks

Virgil had a feeling they blamed him for the damage caused, and honestly, he didn’t blame them for thinking that. But he didn’t mean to.

They sat down, crying for a while, before doing something that he figured was probably a way to distract themselves

They started looking around, seemingly inspecting things. Virgil figured they probably didn’t have a lot of the things he had. He had no doubt they had substitutes that worked just as well, or probably better, considering they had magic and based on the exceptionally high quality of their clothes, they obviously had some sort of tools

He let them explore the countertop for a while, discreetly videoing them. He wouldn’t show the video to anyone without their permission, of course, but... just having the videos wouldn’t hurt.

They refused to go near him. They seemed to be feigning stubbornness, but Virgil could see the way they trembled when he spoke, or moved too fast or got too close. He could tell they were scared. They were scared of getting hurt again.

Virgil didn’t know how to feel about that. He understood the fear, but he would never hurt them on purpose. 

They wouldn’t let him take them somewhere else to sleep, since he’d have to carry them, and just sat down when he asked, stubbornly glaring at him.

Virgil just sighed and brought them a blanket. They were still there in the morning, wrapped up in the almost comically large blanket, and still asleep. Virgil wondered what they would eat, and simply waited for them to awake (maybe snapping a few pictures here and there)

They eventually woke up, though visibly deflated when they saw him. He offered to get them some food, and they (after a while of what seemed like mental debating) nodded. They didn’t let him take the blanket away. 

Virgil figured he couldn’t let anyone else know about the little guy, seeing as they seemed scared of people, and he wondered what he was going to tell his friends as for why they suddenly couldn’t come over anymore

He felt so wrong, next to the fairy. Virgil was usually short, and now... now, he was tall enough to accidentally kill someone. He could trip and crush them. And they knew it.

The next few days were tense, but the fairy had started letting him a bit closer, though they wouldn’t stop glaring. He had dubbed them Little Red, as a sort of nickname until they could communicate their actual name. 

Little Red didn’t mind the nickname too much, he didn’t think so, anyway. They had been interested in his phone when they saw it, and Virgil had shown them different apps, pretending not to notice their tense, trembling posture when he moved too suddenly.

They played games on his phone every day, and they had started letting Virgil help them get to other places in the house than the countertop. They were still undoubtedly somewhat scared, and they still very obviously held a grudge of some kind against him, but they were getting somewhere.

They were very vocal, even though Virgil couldn’t understand them. 

Virgil was careful every time he carried them into the living room or into the blanket nest they’d claimed as their own. He didn’t want to cause another accident at their expense

They were curious about a lot of things, he noticed.

It made him a little calmer, to know that Little Red seemed just as clueless about humans, as he was about fairies. 

He noticed what they liked and disliked in terms of movies and tv shows.

They didn’t seem to like horror movies, but they were fine with things like The Addams Family. They liked animated films quite a bit, particularly disney, and would watch with rapt attention. Virgil didn’t usually watch animated movies, but he was willing if it kept Little Red a little happier

He waited for a while for them to wake up as he made food. Surprisingly, they didn’t seem to have a very big sweet tooth. 

Their blanket nest was in a corner of the spare bedroom, and Little Red had decided to claim the entire room as their own, despite being far too small to need all of that space. Not to mention only being able to use part of it with their broken wings. Either way, they didn’t need an entire room, but Virgil certainly wasn’t using it, and he kind of owed it to them, after kidnapping them and breaking their wings. 

Virgil’s only problem with them claiming the room, was that now he’d have no where to hang out with his friends

Virgil brought them breakfast and carefully avoided getting too close. They seemed to notice his phone in his other hand and stared at it. Virgil chuckled

“Sorry, not right now, Little Red, I have to go somewhere, maybe when I get back”

Little Red pouted at him, but ate their food. Virgil left them alone, leaving the door open in case they wanted to traverse the house, though he wasn’t too comfortable with that idea.

He didn’t want to think about how easy it would be to crush them underfoot. They knew where to and not to go, so there wasn’t that much risk, but any risk was too much, in Virgil’s eyes

Their wings hadn’t made any progress, as far as he could see, but then again, it had only been a few days. 

He got ready to go out and meet his friends

Remus and Janus were already at the movie theatre before him, annoyingly.

“How’d we get here before you? You’ve never relaxed on the idea that you might be late, and yet, here you are, a whole-” Remus checked his watch gleefully “- two minutes late!”

The movie lasted a while, and Virgil almost forgot the fact that he had an injured fairy to take care of back home. He hung with his friends, talking about everything and nothing, carefully avoiding any mention of what he had been doing the last few days

He wondered what Little Red was doing.

-----

Roman wanted to go home. 

Virgil wasn’t bad, per se, but he didn’t like that he needed to be carried places because everything was too big and his wings were broken. And, he missed his friends. 

He looked around at the room he was in. It was too big, it was too expansive. He looked around at the blankets he had nested in. They were too thick. 

He finally got to try out the strange device, however, and he had found so many things to do. The ‘phone’ had games and it played ‘videos’ and ‘movies’

The movies that Virgil had showed him were interesting, but he only liked some of them. The ones that looked not-real, they were really cool, despite their inaccurate depiction of fairies and magic in general.

They did get one key aspect of fairy culture correct, though; the blessings and gifts bestowed on children. Roman was gifted with an adventurous spirit and, like with most gifts, it came with an unfortunate downside

His sense of fear was rather dulled, whereas his impulsivity skyrocketed when there was some sort adventure to be found. Which explained why he was sat on the floor of a human house with broken wings.

His friends’ gifts were also a bit of a mixed bag. 

His friend Patton for example! He was gifted with a kind and pure spirit. This also meant that he trusted far too easily and got himself hurt by people with not-so-kind intentions in the past.

His friend Logan was gifted with a logical mind. It made him great at a lot of things, including stopping Roman from getting killed due to impulsivities. But it made it harder for him to understand his own feelings, and harder to make friends when viewing it through a logical lens

Great, now Roman missed his friends even more. He sighed, looking out of the window. He knew this situation was his fault, but, he really wished it wasn’t. He wished he could completely blame it on someone else, but, Virgil hadn’t done anything really wrong other than not letting him go. Roman was the one who flew into their bag on impulse

He groaned, pushing his head into his hands, and trying not to cry. Virgil was out of the house at that moment in time, and Roman knew he should be trying to escape

But a voice in his head reminded him that he had no way home when he didn’t know which way home was. Besides, he’d probably just get found by a different human, he noted bitterly

When Virgil eventually returned, what had to be hours later, Roman had not gotten any better at dealing with boredom. It would’ve been better if he had someone to talk to

Except, no. It wouldn’t. His sense of fear might’ve been dulled enough that he felt pretty much none after only a few days, but others didn’t have that. They’d still be scared

Roman scowled at the blanket that made up half of the nest. He wanted his bed, he wanted his house, he wanted his blanket.

There was a knock on his door. His stupidly oversized door that he couldn’t even open himself. He supposed that was probably why it was almost always left ajar. 

Roman sighed

“Come in” He shouted. The door opened, scraping against the carpet with a uncomfortable sound

Virgil was bringing him food, he realised. He almost didn’t want to eat. He hadn’t been outside in days. He hadn’t seen his friends in days. He hadn’t properly held a conversation in days. He just wanted to go home...

He didn’t care how boring it was, at least he had friends back there

Virgil placed the food down in front of him, seemingly watching him. Roman gave a half-hearted glare and started eating. Human food wasn’t as nice as the food back home, nor was it very flavourful.

He noticed that Virgil was staying in Roman’s room more than they usually did. Roman looked at them quizzically, wondering why they weren’t in their own, strangely decorated, room.

He verbalised his thought, and Virgil looked at him

“Hm? Oh, sorry.. Uh, I was gonna watch a movie in the living room, do you wanna come?” 

They always guessed what he was trying to say. 

Virgil was awkward most of the time. Perhaps that’s why they kept going into the woods for hours at a time every day, instead of partaking in social activities with other humans.

Roman knew that Virgil did have friends, having seen pictures of them, but also...

Actually, no he wasn’t going to finish that train of thought, it was rude. It didn’t matter how much he personally thought the human was strange, anyone could have friends

Roman wordlessly nodded to the offer and Virgil placed their hand on the ground next to him. Roman walked onto it, sitting on the palm, and drawing his knees up to his chest

He hated being carried. He hated feeling helpless. He was supposed to be an adventurer, he was supposed to be strong. Virgil placed him on the arm of the couch and started looking through movies on their tv

Roman wondered how the tv worked. Logan would probably be able to figure it out.

He watched the tv with full attention as it showed him a story of a princess who fell in love with a thief, and it was full of genies and tigers and magic. 

It was horribly inaccurate, but with how separated human and magical societies were, it was almost a miracle that they got any of it right. He yawned, but he didn’t want to leave to sleep before the movie ended. He had to see how it would end

He carried on watching, though he could feel himself begin to lose focus as he yawned again

“Are you sure you don’t want me to turn this off for now, and you can watch it tomorrow?” 

Roman shook his head, still watching the screen intently. Virgil sounded like they were supressing a laugh next to him, but Roman didn’t care. He could feel his eyes drooping, and he laid on his stomach, watching the screen still

He didn’t exactly know when he fell asleep, but Virgil wasn’t in the room anymore when he woke up. Roman groggily stood up, to peer out of the window

…Sunrise. Huh. Usually if he woke up this early, he’d go to sit somewhere high up to watch the sunrise and see the way the hills and trees would be dusted pinks, purples, oranges and reds.

What if his wings never healed? Would he be stuck with Virgil forever and not ever be able to sit on a hill or tree branch and watch the sunset, or ever fly around? Would he be cursed to forever live a life of pain and longing?

This was the part that Logan would usually tell him he was being overdramatic. But Logan wasn’t here, and Roman wasn’t even sure if he was being overdramatic anymore

He really didn’t know if he’d ever be able to go home

Virgil had told him that he could go when his wings were healed, but when would that be?

Roman just sat on the arm of the couch and thought about his friends until Virgil came into the living room, about an hour later. They looked exactly how he would expect them to look after just waking up

“Mornin’, Little Red,” They yawned “Sorry I didn’t take you to your room last night, it felt rude to pick you up when you were sleeping” 

Roman considered the apology for a few moments, before giving them a thumbs up. He wouldn’t want to be picked up when he was sleeping, honestly. He was most vulnerable when he was asleep, especially since he was a deep sleeper

They watched the end of the movie together. 

-----

Virgil felt bad for Little Red. He had seen them staring out of windows, and he knew they probably wanted to go home.

But...

He was so worried that they’d get hurt even more, or found by someone not as kind as him, or- or something else even worse, that he couldn’t let them go. Not until they could fly at least

He could at least be more certain of their survival chances if they could fly out of reach of predators. 

He watched them with almost as much attention as they watched Aladdin. They seemed completely enamoured by the film’s story, reacting quite dramatically with every twist and turn of it. 

Virgil had to admit, their dramatic tendencies reminded him of Remus, although Remus openly hated wearing red unless it was fake (or sometimes real) blood

Little Red kept yawning, still watching the movie, but very obviously starting to drift off

“Are you sure you don’t want me to turn this off for now, and you can watch it tomorrow?” He asked, trying to hide the amusement in his voice

They immediately shook their head, eyes still locked firmly on the screen. Virgil stifled a laugh, watching as they slowly succumbed to sleep. 

He turned the tv off, and turned towards them.

How was he gonna get them to their room? He carefully reached a hand out, but retracted it. He would probably lose any type of trust they had in him if he grabbed them whilst they were sleeping

Besides, they looked so adorably peaceful, in a way that he hadn’t seen them be very often. They had fallen asleep in front of him before, but this was the first time they seemed completely relaxed. 

He stared at them a few moments, before deciding to leave them be until morning

He left them for a while, letting them sleep, and went to his own bedroom

He laid in bed with his thoughts, as he stared up at his ceiling.

Why did he feel so guilty about this? He was protecting them!

They might’ve seemed upset, but it was better than letting them get eaten by a bird or something. As far as he knew, they had fallen into his bag. If they were clumsy enough to fall into his bag, then he didn’t trust their survival skills without their wings

After about a month and a half, he didn’t feel as guilty. He knew he was protecting them.

Their wings had started to slowly heal, the edges slightly bigger and smoother than the jagged edges they were when they had first tumbled out of his bag. 

And that was because Virgil was keeping them safe. Lord knows they weren’t the best at keeping themself safe, Virgil thought, remembering the time he found them trying to fight a house spider.

He had started keeping a more careful watch over them after that, deciding not to let them out of their room without his supervision. Who knew what danger they would idiotically get themselves into without him there? Besides, they had more than enough space in there, even with the door closed

 He knew that they didn’t see it that way, but Virgil was fine with playing the villain if it meant keeping Little Red safer.

They weren’t as vocal anymore, and Virgil missed the melodic tones of their voice. They ignored him a lot. They still watched movies, but they declined more often than not.

It was fine. He was fine with that. They’d thank him eventually, he told himself. They always watched his every move when he was nearby, as if they were scared he’d hurt them. But he wouldn’t. He would never. 

There was a camera in their room now, so he could help them if they got hurt without him there.

He knocked on their door, though didn’t wait on a response before opening it and closing it just as fast. They had tried to run out of their room quite a few times before, hiding from him. And as much as it was amusing the first few times, it had become annoying quickly. Besides, it was dangerous for them

They stared up at him with those wide eyes, and he crouched down and gave them their food. Little Red didn’t speak, and just grabbed a few pieces of food and started eating. 

Virgil stayed crouched there for a moment. What could help them see he wasn’t a bad guy?

“I’m going to go watch a movie in the living room, if you wanna come,” He asked, before adding “Aladdin, your favourite” 

They thought for only a moment before shaking their head

Virgil bit back his annoyance at the refusal, and just sighed. Why were they being so difficult recently?

He left, making sure to close the door behind him. He sighed, they needed to see that he was helping. They were sure to get hurt if he let them go, what was he going to do? Let them walk straight to their death whilst doing nothing to help?

He groaned, giving the door a glare.

-----

Roman wasn’t sure what had changed. Virgil had become more paranoid, more protective. Roman was well and truly trapped now. 

They wouldn’t let him out of his room now, and Roman supposed it was only a matter of time before he was in a cage for maximum security. He looked at the door, now closed and wondered when it would next open. He suppressed a sob and curled up on the blanket

Nothing he could do would ever sway Virgil's protectiveness. They wouldn’t let him out of his room, or out of their sight. Roman glared at the camera in his room. He hadn’t even known what a camera was, until Virgil. Now the knowledge of what it was just hurt him even more

He would never get a moments privacy. 

The lack of anything to do was genuinely hurting him, a lot worse than back home. At least then, he could climb to the top of the tree tops and dive down, only catching himself at the last moment. The lack of adventure was hurting him worse than his wings were

Roman curled up more. He had the spirit of adventure, he needed to be doing something mildly dangerous! He wasn’t even allowed to sit on the couch when they watched a movie anymore. Virgil would just hold him the entire time, so they’d ‘know for sure where he was’. 

And they wondered why he didn’t like them anymore. Sometimes they’d come into his room whilst he was sleeping, and he’d wake up in their hands. He missed when they were concerned with being rude. Now they told him how simply adorable he was

He glared at the camera again, knowing that the lens probably couldn’t get an accurate reading on his face. Roman had thought about doing some magic, to destroy the camera, but he could already picture the condescending ‘this is for your own good’ disappointed stare, and stopped. 

Nothing was going right for him. 

He sighed, letting the tears fall. There was a knock on his door, but he didn’t get a chance to respond before the door was opened. He supposed that was because of his escape attempts. If you could call them that, anyway

All he did was run out of his room and try to hide. Anywhere was better than being trapped in his room forever. His attempts annoyed the human. They would sigh, telling him that the ‘game’ would have to stop. But it wasn’t a game. 

None of this was a game. This was Roman’s real life, this was his nightmare, this was all too serious. 

Roman wondered what they wanted now. They had already given him his food, he’d already declined to watch a movie, what could they possibly want? He weakly glared at them, as they crouched down

“Hey, Little Red. I know you already said no to watching a movie, but there’s a movie you haven’t seen, that I think you’ll like” 

Roman ignored that they were using the same tone people would to entice a child, or dog, to do something and thought on the offer. 

There was no point disagreeing. He nodded his head.

Virgil didn’t set their hand down anymore and let him climb on. Now, they just grabbed him. He didn’t like it. He wondered what the movie was.

They took him to the living room, where the movie was already set up. Tangled, it was called.

Roman attempted to get slightly more comfortable in their grip, but the hand tightened around him just enough that he wouldn’t dare

The movie was interesting he supposed, but he kept being distracted, as Virgil kept fidgeting with him during the movie. He tried to stop them, but they didn’t notice. He didn’t even know if they realised they were fidgeting 

They kept gently grabbing his arms, moving them around slightly, rolling his torso between two hands, not enough that he couldn’t see the screen, but enough that it was completely distracting. When scenes got intense, the fidgeting increased. 

He could barely concentrate when the ending was happening. He quietly grumbled about Virgil’s rude behaviour, and attempted to watch the screen. He was lucky that the fidgeting didn’t hurt.

The only thing he could properly remember about the movie was that Mother Gothel was trapping Rapunzel under the guise of keeping her safe, but it was actually a ploy to use her magic for herself. 

Roman looked up at Virgil’s face from where he was in their hands. He wondered where he had heard that story before. Oh wait. 

He (very stupidly, may the narrator add) tapped the giant hand to get Virgil’s attention, before pointing at the picture of Mother Gothel on the title screen, and back to Virgil with a stubborn glare on his face.

They looked down at him for a few moments in which Roman had just enough time to evaluate the idiotic decision before they actually reacted

His heart stopped for a single beat as they shifted their grip on him with an annoyed expression on their face

“I am keeping you safe. You should be grateful, not comparing me to fictional villains” They grumbled.

Roman, still feeling mutinous apparently, tried to move in the grip, and muttered his counter argument

“Well, maybe if you weren’t acting so villainous..” 

They didn’t justify him with a response. Though, whether it was due to the language barrier, or their annoyance, was hard to say. 

Roman did notice that their grip was now uncomfortably tight, almost bruising. So much for safety, he thought, before the grip tightened even more

He let out a pained gasp, as the pressure increased on his wings for a few seconds. He could hear them breaking even more. The grip loosened, and Roman watched a few shards of wing fall onto the floor

He could hear frantic apologies from Virgil, but it was soon drowned out by the blood rushing in his ears. He stared at the shards, until Virgil touched his shoulder, dragging him out of his thoughts. 

Roman flinched back, shaking, almost instinctively raising his forcefield, like he hadn’t since that first day. It hurt, and- and he was still shaking, and Virgil was still there, still holding him

His forcefield had pushed away their fingers a bit, but he was still in their hand. He ran his hands through his hair. He was crying, he realised hysterically.

He almost started laughing, no matter how much he knew this wasn’t a joke. You know, for how much danger he was in, it still wasn’t an adventure. It was just a bad situation. A really fucking bad situation, that was entirely his fault, and the reason he’d probably never see his friends again

He tried to steady his breathing for a simple moment, but nothing was helping.

Virgil was still talking, still too big. Of course they were, humans couldn’t shrink (could they?)

Eventually, though Roman didn’t realise it as it was happening, he was left back in his room, alone. He never thought that he’d be so relieved to be trapped again, but it was better than being in Virgil’s hands. 

Roman gingerly touched his wings, wincing. 

What were his friends doing, he wondered. Why couldn’t he go see them? Why did Virgil get to decide what Roman could and couldn’t do? Why did Roman have to be so stupid as to go into their bag? Why did any of this stupid situation have to happen?

He sobbed, pulling his knees up to his chest. Everything hurt, and- and he was still trapped and nothing he could do would ever be able to fix it.

-----

Logan had been searching for his friend for almost two months. Roman didn’t seem to be anywhere. 

Logan knew that there was somewhere he could be, though he sincerely hoped not. It was the logical conclusion, however, to assume that Roman was taken by the human that he had been watching. The only reason they hadn’t already assumed so was that they wanted to make sure that Roman hadn’t just gotten lost before rushing into potential danger

The human never came back after Roman disappeared, after all. Perhaps they only came to steal a fairy and leave. Perhaps their peaceful demeanour had been a ploy to get trusted. Or perhaps Roman had done something impulsive and gotten himself captured.

No matter why the human had him, it was a very unideal situation. Especially given the nature of Roman’s wings. As much as a human could harm any type of fairy, very easily, they could harm fairies with crystal wings much, much easier. 

Crystal fairies’ wings were fragile, thin, and almost glass-like. Easy to break, easy to make the fairy in question much more trapped. 

It was a miracle that Roman’s wings had never been broken before, with the reckless stunts he pulled. Not that Logan could completely blame him, of course, no more than he could blame Patton for being too trusting. But it was incredibly unlucky for Roman’s gift to directly contrast his wing type

Logan was a stone fairy, so his wings were, as the name suggested, stone. The stone spread across his entire body the more he aged. At the moment, he was stone across his entire back, and down to his forearms. It was hard to fly with stone wings, so he could only keep low, and he could only really glide. It was hard to walk with the heavy weight on his back, so he, like the majority of stone fairies, used a walking stick so he would be able to balance. His own walking stick doubled as a staff to do complicated spells

There were accommodations for fairies who couldn’t fly well, but not as many as there should have been. With most buildings strung up in trees, only a few had ladders, and even less had ladders that were easy to climb with stone wings; a problem he had complained about many a time.

Roman was helping him figure out a plan of better accessibility to present to the council, before he disappeared. Roman was helping with the design and aesthetics, and the visual appeal, and Logan was helping with the accessibility, having experienced the issues first-hand, and having an idea of it should work logically. 

Roman was the youngest of their little trio, about one and a half years younger than Patton, and two years younger than Logan. He was kind, he wanted everyone to be safe, he wanted to protect people, he had wanted to be a knight when he was a little older. Roman wanted everyone to be happy.

And now, for the past few months, there had been no Roman. Logan and Patton were very worried. Logan tried to figure out how to find the human that he was certain had his friend, but was coming up short. There were hundreds of human homes outside of the woods, and not to mention, humans had those devices. Logan believed they were called cars? With a car, they could go pretty much anywhere. Roman could be anywhere

He sighed, looking for a spell that could help track his friend. Patton was looking as well, and they weren’t having very much luck.

Patton was a butterfly fairy, and so was able to fly a lot easier than Roman and Logan, not having to worry about fragility, or weight. Though he was eager to help wherever he could. 

Now, that eager, cheerful face with creased with worry, and tear streaks. Logan knew that Roman’s unfortunate disappearance was the cause. Logan was never the best at comforting people, usually Roman would help him. 

Logan gently patted Patton’s back, and weakly tried to comfort

“There, there. We’ll find him,” 

His words were clunky, he wasn’t used to comforting people, and that’s not to mention the lie he told. He had no idea if they would find him or not, and statistically, it was improbable, given how many human houses there were in the area alone. Logan attempted to remember how the particular human looked, from the few glimpses he had gotten

Purple hair, he could remember, but that wasn’t definite. Besides, there had been an increase in numbers of humans with coloured hair in recent years. Dark clothes, purple patches on them. That might have been a bigger lead. Not many humans wore patched clothing. What else could he remember?

They were pale, he remembered, and they had strange makeup under their eyes. He was pretty sure that was unusual for humans. 

And now, if he could simply find a way to figure out where this human lived, he could be reunited with his his friend. Roman would’ve figured an out-of-the-box, crazy idea that would’ve worked perfectly by now.

Logan couldn’t do that. 

He sighed, closing the book he had been reading for hours, and resting his head on the library table. There was nothing that could help. They could potentially track Roman, if they had an object that belonged to Roman and Roman been near recently.

And there lied the problem. They had only found the spell after a month and a half of the disappearance. He hadn’t been near anything recently enough. 

He groaned, prompting Patton to gently pat his back. Logan knew that, logically, the chances of finding Roman were low, but he forced those thoughts out of his mind. He would find his friend, dead or alive (though preferably alive), whether or not it took months or years. 

He carried on reading. 

This routine carried on for weeks more, until they finally figured out a way of tracking. Logan looked at the glowing blue trail on the ground, and started walking, his staff in one hand, Patton’s hand in the other. Like Logan had hypothesised, it led into the human town.

Only he could see the trail, so that wouldn’t raise suspicion, however, two fairies walking into human territory probably would raise a fair bit of suspicion. 

He waved his staff and casted the invisibility spell, before starting to walk. Patton let him lead him. The walk was slow, and they had to avoid several humans, so as to not get hurt. But, after several hours, they had found the human house where their friend was being kept

Logan looked at the window that the trail led up to. He couldn’t get up there, but Patton could. 

“He’s in there, but so’s the human,” Patton whispered down. Logan was glad that they both still were invisible

Patton reported back to him, when the human finally left. Patton looked upset at whatever he could see, and Logan was glad that he couldn’t see the state that Roman was in.

Patton used a quick unlocking charm to help with the opening of the window. Logan used a little magic from his staff to make it lighter, and he watched Patton go in to the room

He couldn’t hear most of the conversation

-----

Roman had been right. Everything got worse. With his newly re-broken wings, he absolutely refused to let Virgil touch him, at all.

Virgil didn’t argue as much as Roman thought they would. He could see the guilt on their face when they looked at his wings, but he didn’t feel any sympathy for them.

The first time, it truly had been an accident, but this time, they had been squeezing him, as a warning. That wasn’t as much of an accident as they claimed it was. He made sure not to speak anymore, not wanting them to hurt him again. He still had the bruises from where they squeezed him. 

He was starting to get ill, he thought. He was starting to grow ill from captivity, and Virgil didn’t even notice. His wings were still in the early stages of healing, and he had no chance of getting home on his own. His magic was weakening as he sat here, as he stayed in the corner, never moving

Everything that happened after the second breaking was a blur, he thought. All it was was a blur of scaredness, anger, and exhaustion. He hadn’t stood up in two days. All he did was sit down, watch the wall, and occasionally he would quietly sing to himself, though he hadn’t done that recently. 

Virgil barely bothered talking to him anymore. He could hear their hesitation when they knocked on his door. They didn’t check the camera as much anymore. It was like they were trying to make it up to him. It wasn’t enough. Nothing would ever be enough, until they let him go. And even then, it had taken months.

He was in pain every time he moved, because of them. He was away from his friends, because of them. He was unable to adventure, because of them. He was exactly in the wrong place, because of them. 

They brought him some food in, and they told him that they’d be leaving the house for a while. Visiting friends, Roman thought bitterly. 

Once the human had left, Roman heard the noise of a window opening, and he turned towards it in alarm. No one..?

An invisibility spell, he realised, feeling the distinct presence of Logan’s magic. Finally, he thought, seeing Patton fade into view, as he was approaching. Roman placed a hand on the wall and tried to lift himself up, but failed, falling back onto his knees. He looked up at Patton, who smiled down at him

“Hi, Pat,” He said, though his voice was raspy and unused “Did you miss me?”

Patton nodded with tears in his eyes, pulling Roman in for a hug. Roman accepted immediately, so glad to finally have someone to talk to, so glad to finally be going home, so glad that his friends were here

“What happened to your wings?” Patton asked quietly, and Roman looked away

“I... I don’t want to talk about it,” he mumbled, trying not to think about it. He shuddered, remembering how Virgil’s hand had slowly tightened until he was bruised and broken. He closed his eyes, trying to shake the phantom feeling

Patton wiped away a tear that Roman didn’t realise had fallen

“That’s okay, I’m gonna help you up to your feet, and I’m gonna carry you up to the window, is that okay, kiddo?”

Roman nodded

He was finally, finally going home. He was finally getting away from the human. He found himself back on solid ground, the grass under his feet. He stumbled slightly, but Patton steadied him. Logan was out there, looking almost the same as when Roman went missing. The only noticeable difference was that Logan’s wings had become almost overcome with moss, the way they did when he was stressed.

Logan pulled him in for a hug, and Roman complied. The hug was clumsy, Logan didn’t usually hug people. Roman cherished this moment more than any of his swords or daggers 

It took a while, but soon he was home. His bed was how he left it, people welcomed him back, though the people at the medbay were not all pleased at the state he was in.

Neither was he, honestly. 

It took a year and a half for his wings to completely heal. It took a lot longer for the emotional scars to heal

Sometimes, he did wonder about Virgil, though he tried everything not to.

And Virgil wondered about him. Wondered if he was still living. The human did, in fact, severely regret his actions, though knew better to try seek out the terrified fairy. He would look at the woods sometimes, wonder why they ever ended up in his bag to begin with

Life carried on, despite the events of this story. 

--

Taglist: @a-chilly-pepper

[camile-leon]

sanders sides

hello the special interest brain rot has hit once more and I’m writing it here because :)

okay so currently for characterizations:

Red “Roman”: Fanciful/Dreams/Passionate Side, However I feel is growing to be more representative of or taking more responsibility for C!Thomas’s Motivations. Presides over Left Arm, Brainstorm Mode, and Summons things very easily. Has a sword. One of the Primary Sides and Colors. Prince of the Imagination. Insecure and working on it. (?) Arc in progress.

Orange “REDACTED”: theorized to be Wrath or some form of Rage, based off of all of the ostrich sized Easter eggs. *See the “See/Speak/Hear” theory below*. Previously seen as the orange fruit (Thomas doesn’t like fruit? 🤔), and possessing Logan’s Eyes as he finished ranting his arc motivations to remus. Notable uses of the color include as text in the SvS redux game, saying “hello” using *upside down calculator* (👀) speak.

Yellow “Janus”: Deceit/Self-Preservation, and recently accepted, or, at the least working hand in hand with patton. Can silence/repress any of the sides, disguise self as any of the sides, and also can summon things when inside the mindscape. Has a shepherds cane. I feel like has a strong or at the least secure ego after being resisted on the mere basis of his presence alone and continuing to offer arguments without giving up. He responded after Roman made fun of his name yes, but like that was fair, and even though it hurt, it did give insight on how much Janus knows about Romans insecurity. Primary color.

Green “Remus”: Intrusive Thoughts, and by extension repressed thoughts?? Can conjure out of the mindscape, cast shadows over vision(?), allergic to soap. Carries a Mace. Duke of the Imagination. Chaos incarnate and ego doesn’t GAF. My theory is, because of the unique connection to repressed thoughts, he can bring out the repressed sides when out of Thomas’s direct consciousness’s “line of sight”. Maybe teams up with Janus for that ability? Idk.

Navy Blue (Dark Blue) “Logan”: Logical Thinking/Rational Thoughts/Local Librarian. Has incredible memory recall and database. Carries or Conjures Flashcards. One of the Primary Sides and Colors. Only side to not reveal own name. Closest contact with the orange side. Wants to use the chemistry degree. Mid Arc. Secure Ego is struggling because of arc.

Light Blue (Cyan) “Patton”: Morality/ the Feelings(??). Head honcho like Joy in Inside Out. Can use Nostalgic/Sensory memory. Can turn into a giant frog when overwhelmed? Possibly a primary color? one of the primary sides. Unstable ego/sense of Thomas’s self.

Purple “Virgil”: previously black color. Anxiety/Fight or Flight. Increases anxiety levels in whoever, eyeshadow levels indicate anxiety, can magnify and multiply voice, can also make things darker. Has built a more secure ego, but is still defensive at times. Pet spider. Theory is that paranoia is old version? Future version? Coexisting part that needs stability which makes sense.

color theory:

complimentary colors- the characters at odds to each other. Red green/Yellow Purple/blue orange. the first two groups don’t like each other like at all. HOWEVER, i think Logan and tangerine would work together??

also, Primary Colors- I think Janus, Logan, and a form of creativity(?) are the oldest. I think it took time before orange, patton, and Virgil were developed. But! I think the creative split happened latest, with remus and Roman being youngest in the group unless patton is cyan in which case I think that uses green so then patton is youngest which is SO FUNNY.

see, hear, speak: ???

Janus= can hide other sides entirely, can silence other sides entirely, I don’t think effects ears directly

Remus= can make other sides quieter? (Could also be just movie making and focus), can make the screen black, I don’t think effects other sides mouths directly.

virgil= can make voice louder/multiply, can make the screen black, I don’t think effects ears directly

orange= effects eyes “blinded with rage”, I don’t know anything else ʅ（◞‿◟）ʃ

now you may be asking why is a primary color getting the perks of the secondary colors?? I don’t know. It’s a darkside thing?? I Guess?? Catholicism!

I love psycho analyzing my faves <3

and this concludes my note to self theory notes.

thank you Thomas sanders for my favorite special interest, giving my therapist an in to understanding/communicating with my brain, and for still sharing all of the fun you bring to content in such a wide variety.

it’s very weird and para social but I would love to give you a hug one day, and to share the PowerPoint I made in middle school as a leadership project based off of you and the sides (of which I saved the very enthusiastic and uninhabited script of a first special interest). I aspire to remain even half as busy as all of your projects. Absolute wildest dreams would be to work with you on a creative project.

does anyone know where to send fanmail? Is it just Twitter?

[general-gt]

Finally posted a new work on Ao3. Warnings are in the notes