#if the fangs act like straws he can technically talk while drinking

[motherofplatypus]

Since Mumbo is often depicted as vampire, time to answer the question: is he "Bite then suck the blood from the wound" vampire, or "His fangs acted like straws" vampire?

[gt-fluffy-vore]

Mindtrapped Chapter five: White Pain

Sanders Sides fanfiction

Warnings: Open talk of blood, blood transfusions, severe pain, angst but when is there not, self harm technically?

3183

Virgil forced his eyes open and immediately re-shut them against the excruciating pain. The first type of pain he felt was the stabbing, then came the throbbing, then the white-hot pain sunk in, and he didn't even try to hold back a scream. He clutched at the source of the pain and cried, and then suddenly something was holding his hands down.

"You can not disrupt the process or it may not take correctly." He forced his eyes open and there stood Logan, who was holding his wrists down, and Patton standing behind him chewing on one thumb nail. On a table in the back corner, there was a wet cat Roman with a couple of red stains in his fur. Virgil groaned against the pain and kept crying, struggling weakly against Logan’s grasp.

“Hey, it’s alright. Slow down a bit there, kiddo. Logan’s got you. You’re alright. I know it hurts, but it’ll heal better if you don’t touch it. Alright? Can you hear me? AngelStorm?”

“I hear you.” His voice squeaked with tears. “Wh-What happened?”

“You don’t remember?”

“It is not uncommon to temporarily or even permanently lose memories of traumatic events. But to answer your question, Virgil, you mishandled a kitchen knife and severed your left pedipalp as well as cut your upper chest. You… are you aware of what the death curl is?”

“Like what spiders do when they’re super hurt? Yeah?”

“You had partaken such a position when I arrived. We performed a skin graft on the inflicted area, but the wound has yet to accept the new skin. Until it does the process must not be interrupted.” Virgil slowly lifted a hand to the severed pedipalp and froze. His face went pale.

“You’re not lookin’ too great. Ya alright there, AngelStorm?” Virgil glared at him through unceasing tears. “Oh, right, no nicknames. Sorry! But really, how are you feeling?”

“Like garbage. How do you think?”

He hung his head slightly and he slowly sat on a couch nearby. “What hurts the most? You look really tired.”

“Yeah, no shit I’m tired!”

“It is going to take a considerable amount of time for the exhaustion to fade. You lost the majority of the blood in your body. An estimate of seven and a half liters to be precise.”

Virgil winced. “How many liters am I supposed to have?”

“Given your size, I would estimate ten or eleven.”

“Great.” He sighed through gritted teeth and sobbed once against the pain. He almost couldn’t feel the entire left side of his head. Almost. And every time he moved his whole chest burned. After another excruciating shift in position, he let his frustration get the better of him and screamed. “Jeez, how bad did it get?!”

Logan took this as a serious question. “As I previously mentioned, we performed a skin graft on the severed pedipalp. We also stitched the wound on your chest and applied an I.V. for blood transfusion.”

He looked down at one arm, where an I.V. was inserted. “I didn’t even notice that before.” He gasped again as the movement sent a throb of white-hot pain through the left side of his face. “Ow! Damnit!”

“Can’t we give him something for that? Or, I don’t know, get an ice pack?”

Logan nodded, already leaving the room. “Yes, I shall see if we have any morphine.” He returned a moment later with a bag full of a clear fluid, which he began attaching to the  I.V. beside the blood bag. Fifteen minutes later Virgil was asleep.

“That’s good, right? That he fell asleep so fast?”

“Yes. Especially given how much trouble he’s had falling asleep easily in the past. It is best not to disturb him.”

Logan made to leave. “But wait! I can stay here with him, right? As long as I’m quiet?”

“If you wish. And you as well, Roman. I personally find it a rather pointless action, but if you so wish, I simply advise you do everything possible to stay silent and not disturb him. He needs rest if he’s going to recover from this.” With a simple nod, he left.

Roman meowed loudly and left his table to curl up on the couch beside Patton, laying his head on Patton’s leg. “I know. I’m worried too…”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Virgil forced a few eyes open and stared as the room slowly came into focus. He opened his other eyes and stared. A dull ache had overtaken half of his face and his chest. More than anything he was exhausted. Not tired. Not really. But exhausted. A kind of exhausted more sleep couldn’t help. He looked down at the incredibly oddly shaped medical bed he was on, at the I.V. in his arm, the two bags hanging beside his bed. One was mostly full of clear liquid, the other an empty blood bag. He groaned. His head was pounding and he felt so weak he could barely lift one arm. Then the hunger kicked in, and he realized that despite his many attempts he still hadn’t eaten once today. And of course, now that he had time and wasn’t almost being eaten or being dropped from mid-air or cutting himself open, now he was so weak he couldn’t even move to get himself anything. He moaned loudly and heard a shift beside him. He looked over and there was Patton, still in the same spot on the couch he’d sat down on earlier. Roman, still stuck as a cat apparently, was curled up in his lap asleep. He noticed Roman’s fur was still stained with blood. But more urgently he noticed Patton blinking awake. “Oh! You’re awake!” He was whispering.

Virgil tried to force a smile but decided it wasn’t working between those stupid fangs anyway and gave up. “Yeah. I just woke up. What time is it?”

“Uh…” He glanced around and found a clock in the corner of the room. “Ten forty-five. Oh no!” He had noticed the empty bag and rushed to his feet. He rushed over and grabbed the bag. The I.V. tube was still full, but the bag itself had barely a fourth of an ounce left. He sighed with relief. “Sorry I freaked out a bit. I thought it was empty-empty!” Smiling at Virgil, he stepped over to a cabinet of some kind and pulled out a new blood bag, then stumbled and caught himself against the wall before continuing. He disconnected the old bag and started attaching the new.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Hm?” Patton looked up from the successfully replaced bag, stared blankly for a few seconds, then shook his head and blinked a few times before finally focussing on Virgil. “Oh, nothing.” He grinned. “Just a bit… tired. Logan said we took more blood from each other than you’re supposed to, but…” He shrugged.

“Oh.” He looked over at the new bag, then noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and looked the other way to see Roman slinking around the doorframe.

Patton noticed too. “Roman, wait! He knows you would have helped too if you could! Please?” After a moment, Roman turned back and curled up in the doorway, hiding his face under a paw. “Logan wouldn’t let him give you any blood. He said it wouldn’t be safe and the amount he could give wouldn’t… make much of a difference.”

“He wanted to?”

“Yeah! We all did. You… you really scared us. We thought… since we can die like this… we thought we’d lost you for good…”

He hung his head. Wow. If that wasn’t comforting… “It was really that bad?”

Patton nodded, tears already threatening to spill over. “Logan was… really scared. He wasn’t acting like it, but I could tell. You scared him — scared all of us — when we found you like that…” He sniffed and wiped his face. “But anyway! Can I get you anything? A blanket? Is the pain back? I could get you an ice pack or something. Or are you hungry? We never finished that-”

Virgil interrupted. “Ugh, yes, I’m starving!”

Patton smiled. A genuine smile. “I’ll be back then. Can you watch him, Roman?” Roman walked over and hopped back up onto the couch. “Thanks, kiddo.” He smiled one last time and left. When he got to the kitchen, Logan was already there, sitting at the table scribbling something down in a notebook. “Oh, Logan! I was just about to go find you in a minute. Virgil’s awake. I just came to make him… something. Got any ideas? We were working on a smoothie when... “

“I had the impression he doesn’t care for sweet foods?”

“He doesn’t. We just couldn’t come up with anything else.”

“Did he express any particular distaste for vegetable juice?”

“Oh. No, we didn’t even think about that.” Logan nodded once and they dumped the blender, rinsed it out, and started gathering ingredients. Once they were satisfied they blended the mixture, poured it into a cup, and grabbed a straw before heading back to the medical room.

Virgil glanced down at Roman, who was staring at him intently. “What?” In answer, Roman hopped over to Virgil’s odd bed and got up on his back legs, balancing against Virgil’s human waist and pawing at him. “What? Do you want something?” Roman shook his head and pawed at the I.V. tubes gently. “What?” Finally, he yowled, bit his own paw, and dragged it across Virgil’s arm, leaving a tiny trail of blood. He pawed at the tubes again. “Oh! The blood thing cause Logan told you no.” Roman nodded. “Why does that matter? I mean, if both of them are… giving me blood, then I don’t need yours too.” Roman gave him no response and instead curled up and tucked his nose under Virgil’s hand. After a while, Roman’s ears perked up and he hopped off the bed as Logan and Patton came into the room.

“Hey, kiddo! Logan helped me make you something so it’s not sweet.”

They both stepped up beside the bed. “Yes, we made vegetable juice. We used apples, carrots, kale, and-” He looked down. Virgil had grabbed the edge of his shirt and was staring him dead on, his other hand lifted just barely, fist clenching and unclenching.

Virgil didn’t even care how humiliating it was that he couldn’t even hold his own cup, he latched onto the straw and didn’t take a second to actually decide if whatever he was drinking tasted good or not; he was so hungry he didn’t stop for air until the cup was empty. Finally gasping for air, he leaned back against part of the bed and closed his eyes. “You really were hungry. Do you want more?” He nodded.

Patton left the room. “Roman, would you mind accompanying Patton while I ask Virgil a few questions? I am… uncomfortable leaving him alone should anything happen.” Roman left. “Virgil, how is your pain at the moment? Is the morphine strong enough?”

He nodded and reopened his eyes. “Yeah, it’s fine. I mean, it still hurts, but barely.”

He nodded. “Ah, I see Patton has replaced the blood bag already.” He stepped over and glanced into the cabinet thing. “As I assumed, that leaves only one left. After the last one, we will have to disconnect the tube altogether and you should be able to replenish your own blood over time. And that brings me to ask, how is your mobility?”

“I can barely move.” He lifted one hand about six inches before dropping it back down weakly. “I mean, I can move my fingers and stuff, but I can’t handle the weight I guess.”

“That is completely normal. With your level of blood loss, I was afraid…” He cleared his throat. “Under normal circumstances that percentage of blood loss would be lethal. I expect you will be unable to move properly for at least a week, maybe longer.”

“A week?! And I’m just supposed to sit here until then?!”

“Yes. I am quite sure Patton would be willing to entertain you and you can be moved to a different room if you wish, to make it less unpleasant.”

Virgil groaned. He liked Patton, he really did, just… a week of nothing but him? Non-stop? And he wouldn’t be able to move right until then? Then, what? He had to ask someone to make him something every time he was hungry? And what would he do when he needed the bathroom if he couldn’t so much as lift an arm by himself?! He sighed and leaned his head back and just then Patton and Roman came back. Patton tried to hold up the cup for him again, but he spoke up. “Wait. Let me try.” He slowly lifted an arm, inching it higher as it shook. It got about halfway there when it fell back and he cursed. “Hey, it’s alright. It’ll get better.”

“No! No, it’s not! It’s not alright! You say it’ll get better and that’s all well and good but what about now?!”

“Well, now you just have to rest. That’s the only way it’ll get better…”

“Rest. I’ve-” He tried to stifle a yawn and failed miserably- “I’ve done that already.”

Logan raised a single eyebrow at him. “And you will do more if you wish to heal properly.”

He groaned in response and after a long moment Patton held the cup up for him. He gripped around the bottom edge with his remaining pedipalp and let Patton hold the top. Now that Virgil actually took the time to taste it, this juice thing actually… wasn’t that bad. When he was finished Patton set the empty cup on a table and flinched when he turned back. Virgil had moved a few of his tarantula legs, which felt impossibly heavy. He felt a pang of guilt at seeing Patton flinch like that. How had he already forgotten that? Patton’s scared of spiders. He knew he couldn’t control it, but he felt like it was his fault. He was the one who had asked Logan to spike his adrenaline in the first place. Actually, that got him thinking… “If I freaked you guys out as much as you said why haven’t you changed?”

Patton gave him an odd look. “I have. You didn’t notice?” He half-turned and wagged a long tail covered in light blue, short fur that was half curled and perked up. Then he sat down and took off his shoes to reveal feet covered in fur.

“As have I.” Logan sat down as well and removed both shoes. A set of talons replaced what used to be human feet.

“The only one who hasn’t changed is Roman…”

“If my hypothesis is correct, however, animal shifts are less likely to change.”

“That… actually makes sense now that I think about it. I mean, it doesn’t make sense, but I C-A-T the connection!”

Virgil put on a poorly-executed smirk and Logan held back a snort and quickly changed the subject. “Virgil, have you regained any memories of the incident that caused this?”

He shook his head. “I remember right before it, and I think I remember someone… Patton I think… someone running off super worked up? But that’s it. It’s nothing to be excited about.”

“Well, that’s plenty to be excited about! You’re starting to remember something! Even just a bit is good, right?”

“If he wishes to regain said memories, yes. Even the smallest amount of progress is progress. I would not suggest dwelling on the subject until you are in a better state of health, however.”

“That might be easier if someone wasn’t forcing me to sit here and watch the wall.”

“Well let’s get you distracted then! What could we do… Oh! Oh! I just got the best idea! We should have a movie night! We haven’t had one of those since we’ve been stuck here!”

“That… is a considerable idea.”

Virgil answered with a shrug. “Whatever, just not Frozen again.”

Roman jumped up enthusiastically and puffed out his chest with a yowl. “Well, it’s decided then! Me and Roman will go pick out snacks and choose a movie and you can wheel Virgil’s bed into the living room!” With a grin, he jumped up and left the room, Roman right behind him. Logan shook his head and strapped the I.V. pole to the side of the bed before stepping behind it and starting to wheel it into the hall.

“Alright, first we gotta pick a movie.” They stopped in front of the movie shelf. “Got any in mind?” Roman nodded and hopped onto a partially empty shelf to knock a case off. “Oh? I thought you didn’t like that one.” He hopped back down and hissed at the case to assure him that no, he did not like it. Then he hopped over and tucked his head under a blanket, then grabbed it with his claws and pulled it in tight, so it sat on his head like a hood. He put his ears flat and hissed, and hung his head low. Finally, Patton understood. “Oh! You wanna watch it for Virgil!” He nodded. “Aww! That’s so sweet!” Roman jumped out from under the blanket and hissed, pawing at him, then sat down and perked his ears and tail defiantly. “Alright, alright, fine.  It’s noble. Is that better?” Roman nodded once and pawed at the case again. “Alright, I’m goin’.” He turned on the TV and the disc player, then slid the disc in and closed the disc drive. “Now let’s go get the snacks while it loads!”

They returned a moment later, just after Logan had gotten Virgil’s bed situated beside the couch. “We’re… we’re watching The Nightmare Before Christmas?”

“I too am confused by this. Is this movie not one of your least favorites, Roman?”

Roman turned his head away and Patton giggled. “He chose it ‘cause he knows Virgil likes it.”

“You chose a movie… you don’t like… for me? Well, now I’ve seen it all.”

Roman hissed and turned away from him indignantly. “Aw, Roman, he didn’t mean it. He meant to say thank you, right Virgil?”

“Yeah, fine, okay. Thanks.”

“See? Now come on!” Patton moved over to the couch and sat on the side closest to Virgil’s bed, then dumped the mound of snacks he’d brought. “Oh, Virgil. I didn’t know what you’d want but since you liked the stuff me and Logan made earlier, I thought maybe…?” He held out a large bottle of some kind filled with something orange. It had a collapsible straw built into the lid. “It’s carrot juice! And I got you a cup with a lid so you can try to hold it yourself if you wanted.”

Virgil reached out a shaky hand and gripped the bottle tight. After setting it down in front of him, he turned to Patton and hoped that he could tell he was trying to smile. “Uh… thanks.”

“Is everyone settled?” At their nods, Logan picked up the remote and hit play.