#hes probably also always way too calm about being envenomated

[thereareeyesinsidethetrees]

random thought before we try to sleep (keyword try)

i think ford would be really good at foraging and tracking and such. he knows all the cues for when you should be on guard because something is about to happen. he has a generally good idea of which mushrooms and plants are edible and which ones arent (a lot of this is from personal experience- he’s learned how to be more careful about it over time).

he’s a hide-and-seek god- both at hiding and seeking. he’s good at listening and figuring out where things might be. he’s good at making sure you never find him (some people always do anyway). he can find his way into places you didnt even know existed or that youd think would be impossible to get into. the niblings love it most of the time, but sometimes it’s really not a great thing. especially when he’s decided to hide outside

fortunately, stan is very good at seeking

[tyrannysaurusfloof]

Snake Bite - 1

Summary:  Virgil should be more concerned by the random snake in his room, and the fact that it bit him. He should. But his family are good at calming him down, and there’s one Side in particular that doesn’t want to feed his concern. Characters: Virgil, Roman, Patton, Logan, Thomas and Deceit Relationships: Platonic LAMP, Platonic LAMP/Thomas Warnings: Mild Panic Attacks

--

My first full length Sanders Side Fic!

Part Two || Part Three

--

It started with his missing headphones.

Virgil couldn’t put his finger on where they had gone, couldn’t see them by casting a glance around the room, and the very idea of that sent his usual bought of anxiety through him. He always left his headphones somewhere he could just out a hand on them, because he always needed them like that.

And now, they were gone.

His first thought was Roman had had something to do with it. The Creative Side had been in an argument with Virgil earlier that day, but even during their worst arguments, he hadn’t hidden any of the things that Virgil used as coping mechanisms. So now, not only did he had the anxious gnawing in his stomach that his headphones were gone, but Virgil also felt guilty for blaming Roman immediately, when the Side had never done anything like that before.

The easiest solution would be to ask, but Virgil couldn’t move. He needed to control the rising panic inside him before he tried to step out of his room, and the thought of even approaching any of the other Sides in a state like this only sent him to his knees. Panic was never good, eventually the feelings would leak from him to Thomas, and he could really do without that happening now. He was finally relaxing, editing done and everything on track, Virgil didn’t want to derail that.

He could find his headphones. They may have just fallen off something into the organised chaos that was his room. Having things micro-organised was really Logan’s department, and having a chaotic mess of a room was something shared between Roman and Patton. His room was a little eclectic in style, but it wasn’t a mess. He always knew where things were, which was why his headphones being missing was such a big problem.

Virgil took a deep breath. He was going around in circles, and that wasn’t good for his mounting anxiety. Shoving down his thoughts for the moment, he began to methodically search his room, moving things, sifting through them and then putting them back in complete order. When the entire room was done and it was only the closet remaining, Virgil wasn’t as calm as he would have liked to be. There was no way his headphones would have gotten caught up in his closet, meaning they weren’t in the room, meaning he had probably lost them, meaning he would have to try and get more, meaning he wouldn’t have his best coping mechanism until he did, meaning he was only going to ruin everything with heightening anxiety, meaning the other Sides were going to hate him, meaning Thomas was going to disregard all he had said when they had decided to accept him, meaning-.

When his knees hit the floor, Virgil managed to draw in a large breath and get a grip on himself. That…that train of thought was dangerous and had nearly overtaken him. If the headphones weren’t in his room, he reasoned, then they could be out in the common area of the mindscape. Or he may have left them with Logan when he spent time in the Logical Sides room. Taking another deep breath and keeping the breathing techniques Thomas had learnt throughout his struggle with anxiety in the back of his mind, Virgil opened the closet door and stuck his hand inside to rifle through the clothes in there.

Only to draw it back with a shocked exhale of breath when it caught something sharp. It almost felt like a bite, but there was nothing in his closet that could have bitten him. Then again, Virgil was pretty sure there wasn’t anything in his closet that was sharp either, so he pulled the doors open wide and began to throw the pile of clothes around trying to see what it was.

A snake, yellow and black bands running the length of its scales, came darting out from the warm pile of clothes, hissing in warning as Virgil scrambled backwards.

“Fuck!” He cursed, looking around for something heavy as the snake coiled in on itself and hissed again, poised to strike. The only thing to hand was a large book, something Virgil was pretty sure he had taken from Logan for…something or other. Right now, it didn’t matter. With his fight or flight instincts kicking in, Virgil wasn’t about to run, knowing that if he did this snake would either find somewhere else in his room to hide or it would sneak off to one of the other Sides’ rooms. Grabbing the book, he slammed it down as hard as he could, panting hard. His hand was stinging, but when he examined the bite mark - only after deciding it was safe to take his hand off the book - it was two small pin-pricks.

The door to his room burst open, Patton and Logan bursting in and Virgil swore again, jumping out his skin.

“Are you alright Kiddo, we heard a loud noise and-…is that a snake?!” Patton squealed the last part of the sentence, rushing further in and dragging Virgil backwards on instinct.

Logan glanced between the creature and Virgil, panting, sweating and clearly close to panicking. “Is it dead?”

“I don’t know.” Virgil whispered, “Can we just get rid of it?”

The Logical side had no arguments for that, disappearing from the room for a moment only to return with a sack and some tongs. He carefully lifted the snake into the bag and carried it from the room as Patton bombarded Virgil with concerned questions. Had the snake bitten him? How had it gotten in there? Was Virgil okay? Did they need to get a doctor? Was it venomous? What kind of snake was it? Virgil was trembling when Logan came back, Roman following him to find out what all the ruckus was about.

“Patton.” Logan said firmly, “Virgil needs some space.”

“I’m sorry!” Patton exclaimed, shuffling backwards to give Virgil space, his hands still hovering in front of him, wanting nothing more than to pull Virgil into a hug.

“Were you bitten, Virgil?” Logan inquired, less enthusiastic and over the top as Patton, crouching down in front of the anxious side. Virgil nodded silently. “Let me see.”

The pin pricks were stinging, but other than that there didn’t seem to be much damage. There was a small part of Virgil that was screaming at him just to just cut off his entire hand because if any venom got inside him it would be bad, but cutting off his hand would also be bad, so he ignored that voice and listened to Logan’s voice of reason instead.

He was wrapping Virgil’s hand in a compression bandage, carefully and calmly explaining the purpose of it not only for Virgil’s benefit, but for Patton’s. Roman was kneeling at Virgil’s other side, trying to sooth him as much as possible.

“It couldn’t have happened to a worse person,” He muttered when Patton shot him a quizzical look, “If any venom was injected with that bite, Virgil’s increased heart rate will have it travel around the body faster. The key is not to panic, which is easier said than done for Panic at the Everywhere.”

Logan looked mildly surprised. “Very impressive Roman.”

The Prince looked offended, “I deal with villains all the time, and some of them come in the snake variety, Logan, I have to know what I’m doing.”

“Can you all…do you think you could…just…could you step…um…” Virgil couldn’t get the complete sentence out, his bandaged hand still gripped in Logan’s own, Roman’s hands on his shoulders and Patton sitting close on his other side. All of them were touching him somehow and it was having the opposite effect from making him calm.

“Of course.” Logan realised it first, released Virgil’s hand and stood, gesturing for Roman and Patton to do the same. Patton did reluctantly, but he smiled softly when Virgil rose to his feet too, shaky but able to support himself.

“We shall monitor the bite, and if it shows no signs of envenomation, then I think you shall be fine. Besides, being inside the mindscape will mean he will heal quickly from a bite.” The logical side continued, “Do you need anything?”

“No.” Virgil whispered. He desperately needed his headphones and the chance to get out of his room because of the fear of something else being hidden in there, but he didn’t verbalise any of that.

Not that he had too.

“Well Kiddo, why don’t you come with me and we can set you up somewhere with a nice audiobook, while Roman and Logan check the rest of the room for any other nasty creepy crawlies?” Patton suggested, smiling broadly as he read exactly how Virgil was feeling.

“Snakes cannot be classified as a ‘creepy crawly’.” Logan countered before Virgil could reply, “For one, it refers to insects, specifically those with legs. A snake is neither of these and-.”

“Logan, we get it.” Virgil interrupted, and Logan looked surprised but stopped talking. “Sorry, I just…I wanna get out of here.”

“Of course, please do while Roman and I search the room.” Logan nodded.

Patton led Virgil from the room as Roman materialised his sword from nowhere and began to search the room, Logan making sure he put things back in the right place so as not to cause any more undue stress to Virgil when he came back in.

In the yard, the sack inside the rubbish bin trembled, before springing open and Deceit tumbled from it in the least graceful movement he had ever done. His head was aching and he really needed to go and lie down after being hit by such a large book.

A sinister smile spread across his lips.

The plan was in action.