#secret sanders gift exchange | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

starlocked01 · 1 year ago

Text

Your Average Petty Sinner

AO3 link (pending)

Summary- Patton goes through an Emo phase and decides to hang out with the most notorious kids at school, going so far as to try to date their leader.

Relationships- Janus&Patton (Moceit), Remus/Virgil (Dukexiety)

Word Count- 5.4k

Content Warnings- swearing, mild description of injury, mild sexual innuendos

This is my @sanderssidesgiftxchange gift for @lily-janus 💛💙 I really hope you like it! Also a shout out to @infinitesimal-dna for beta reading and putting up with my shenanigans.

“I just don't get it!” Patton frantically paced the small patch of faded pale blue carpet that was visible in his cluttered room, “I literally caught them with cigarettes and lighters in the bathroom- how did they weasel out of detention this time?”

Roman barely looked up from the script in his hand as he lounged on Patton’s bed, “I don't know. Remus didn't say when Mom picked us up. They weren't going to hurt anyone but themselves.”

“Lighters start fires- they could have caused a fire alarm and some freshman could have been trampled in the ensuing panic while the science wing burned down-” Patton whipped back to face Roman who remained unperturbed.

“And none of that happened. You saved the day, Padre. Why can't you just be happy about that?”

“Because they didn't get in trouble!” Patton crossed his arms tight over his chest and resumed his pacing, “why turn in the bad kids if they're just going to be let go?”

“Sounds like you want to put my brother in jail,” Roman snickered and briefly looked up, “I don't know why. Why do you snitch on them?” Roman countered

Patton bit down hard on his lip before taking a measured breath, “I am not snitching. They just keep breaking the rules in front of me.”

“I think you just want Janus to notice you. Trust me, he does, sweetie. Remus won't stop complaining about how much the goodie two shoes need to fu- leave them alone,” Roman replies, remembering too late the household ban on swears.

“SHH! Don’t let Mom hear you.” Patton whispered tersely, “you’re wrong. I don’t care what any of them think about me– especially not Janus.”

Roman snorted, “Yeah, right. That’s why you’re constantly tattling on him. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that when a boy’s mean to you that means he likes you?”

Patton stopped in his tracks and turned back to face Roman, “That’s… completely untrue.”

Roman rolled his eyes, flipping a page lazily, “Just keep telling yourself that, Padre. I bet if you just asked he’d go out with you.”

“I’m not gay and I don’t want to go out with him,” Patton countered, “will you please just be quiet? My mom would kick you out in two seconds for being a quote ‘bad influence’ if she heard you right now.”

“Mmm fine. Alright. I won’t talk about your obvious crush on Mr. Tall, Dark and Mysterious.”

“I am not- Why don’t you understand that not everyone has to like guys?”

Roman sat up, “I’m not saying everyone. I just know you, Patt. You don’t like girls. You’ve turned down like twenty of them since homecoming last year. So if you don’t like girls, that just leaves guys. I know you don’t feel comfortable bringing a bf home because of the witch, but you’ve at least got to let yourself consider the possibility.”

“Maybe I just haven’t met the right girl,” Patton replied, not sounding as convincing as he should have to shut down the conversation.

Roman chuckled, “sure. Because she’s actually a boy named Janus and you’re looking in the wrong places.”

“Roman!”

“Just ask him!”

“He hates me. And I don’t like him.”

“You absolutely fucking do!”

“Roman!” Patton hissed, flinching as he could hear his mother’s footsteps coming down the hallway. “Now you’ve done it-” he muttered as the bedroom door clicked and swung open.

“Patton, sweetie. What’s our rule for having friends over?” his mother asked from the door, a falsely sweet and disarming voice cutting through the tension of the argument.

Patton turned, “they need to follow house rules and not distract from school work…”

“That’s right. If I’m not mistaken, I believe I heard Mr. Prince here swearing. That is no way to speak to others, is it?”

“No, ma’am,” Patton replied, head hung in defeat.

She turned towards Roman, “Exactly. I’m sorry dear, but you need to leave and reevaluate your vocabulary and manners if you want to spend time with my son.”

“Sorry, Patt,” Roman murmured as he grabbed his backpack and walked past to leave, “tomorrow. Just do it.”

Patton sighed with exasperation, “Please, Mom, let him stay? He didn’t mean to-”

“You know the rules, Patton. I think it’s about time you got started on your homework,” she brushed him off, escorting Roman out to the front door.

Patton waited until he heard the front door shutting before closing his bedroom door to get started on his work, trying to tune out his racing thoughts about school.

___ ___ ___

Janus slumped against the lockers, ignoring the dirty look from Susan next to him when he accidentally shut hers for her. It wasn’t his fault her locker was so close to Virgil’s. He gripped the head of his cane to keep it from sliding into the throng of students that would trample and crack it without a second thought. The polished wooden cane had cost a fortune, stained black with a yellow snake carved around the shaft up to the handle. He'd refused to adopt a medical-looking metal bully magnet and protected his aide fiercely. Janus silently watched Virgil picking out text books for the next class.

“What a bitch, right?” he asked once Virgil had noticed him.

Virgil nodded sagely, “Yeah. Who’re we talking about this time?”

Janus smirked, “Mrs. Hansen, of course. It’s like she doesn’t even care that I don’t give a fuck about Physics.”

“She held you after class again? That bitch!” Virgil gaped, closing his locker, “that is so messed up. You should tell the VP that she’s not respecting your accommodations, right?”

“Like he ever cared the twenty thousand other times someone tried to make life harder,” Janus scoffed, glancing at the disturbance coming down the hallway and opting not to warn Virgil.

With all the subtlety of a tornado, Janus watched as Remus pinned Virgil to the lockers, dropping his backpack at Janus’ feet in his hurry to get hands on the boy. Virgil grunted in surprise, pushing back against the attack until he recognized the lips pressed harshly into his neck.

“Rem-! Oh my god!” Virgil laughed breathlessly, “I told you not at school, motherfucker!”

Remus looked up with a devious grin, “and? Your mother said she loved it.”

“Gross,” Virgil chuckled and pulled his boyfriend into a tight hug, “I missed you.”

Janus rolled his eyes, pushing the discarded backpack away with the tip of his cane, “It’s been all of an hour since you two last molested each other in front of the entire school.”

“Jealous, Jannie?”

“Utterly green with envy,” Janus sighed, noticing the crowd in the hall thinning rapidly, “are you done playing tongue hockey yet?”

“Never,” Remus laughed and turned back to Virgil, cutting off his protests with a filthy kiss.

“I’m honestly surprised you haven’t figured out how to make gay love babies yet,” Janus replied, carefully readjusting his treasured suede gloves. The crowds of students dissipated and doors shut as the bell for the next period rang through the now empty halls.

Janus nudged the pair, “Biology will have to wait. Let's get going.”

“Oh come on!” Remus whined, “just tell Mr. Sawan you got held back and we're helping you-”

“It's not a lie for once,” Virgil added, leaning down to grab Remus' bag.

“And they say I'm the bad influence,” Janus scoffed, grabbing his cane to start towards class. Virgil and Remus reluctantly followed, careful to give him space to walk.

Janus wasn't actually eager to get to class. Everyone always stared when he walked in late, despite arriving late by necessity every day. The scrutiny felt absolutely miserable.

As they neared the stairs down to the mathematics wing, Janus paused to let the couple go first. The last thing he wanted was to slip all the way down into a concussion.

“Hey!” A voice called loudly from down the hall, “aren't you supposed to be in class?”

Janus glanced over and swore quietly at the sight of the world's most annoying goody two shoes coming towards them.

“Patton. Where do you think we're going?” He asked in a lazy drawl.

“Yeah, calm your tits,” Remus added less than helpfully.

Patton frowned, glancing down at his chest for a brief moment, “I don't have- the bell rang five minutes ago. You're supposed to be in class. I bet you're out here trying to smoke and ditch class.”

“How? You stole my lighter yesterday,” Virgil snarked back, arms crossed tightly over his chest.

“It’s against school policy-” Patton started.

“What's against policy is a student trying to police other students. I literally cannot walk the halls when everyone else is running around,” Janus spoke up, standing up straighter. “We'd have made it by now if you hadn't interrupted us.”

“You liar. You're just messing around to get out of class,” Patton accused, stepping closer as if to intimidate Janus.

He laughed, “we have this discussion once a week! If I didn't know better, I would think you're going out of your way to flirt with me.”

An inscrutable look passed over Patton’s face, freckles melting into a soft flustered blush. “I am not!” Patton whispered hoarsely.

“Then we'll just be on our way,” Janus sneered, starting down the first step, cane first.

“Hey!” Patton gasped, reaching for Janus’s shoulder. Janus flinched at the unexpected touch, shifting to toss Patton as far from him as possible.

Unfortunately, this sent the boy careening down the flight of stairs.

“Shit!” Janus exclaimed, watching in horror and slight mesmerism as Patton came to a halt on the first landing.

“You killed him!” Remus cackled with glee at the possibility.

“Jan- what the fuck?” Virgil asked, not sure if he should move to help Patton or not.

Janus glanced down the hall, and seeing no one, made his decision.

“Virgil, help me get him to the nurse.” he instructed. “Remus, get to class and tell them Virgil and I cannot make it. Give as little context as possible, got it?”

Remus nodded and hurried to the class.

Janus hurried down the steps as fast as he could manage to the place Patton lay on the stairs.

“Wh- why?” Patton murmured, cradling his shoulder, “I- I wasn't-”

“Next time don't touch people without permission,” Janus snapped, reaching to pick Patton up, “can you walk?”

“I- I think so?” Patton winced, trying to sit up with both of the others pulling him up, “d-don't pull my arm, please.”

Janus nodded, “right, let's go, before you die or something.”

“Good going, Jan,” Virgil groaned as Patton leaned more heavily against him.

“Shut it, Vi. I didn't do anything.”

The walk down the rest of the stairs and to the nurse's office felt impossibly long and arduous, as Patton moved slower than even Janus. And he moaned in pain at each jostle to his arm.

“You're going to be okay,” Virgil chewed at his cheek, “it wasn't that bad of a fall.”

“I- I hope so,” Patton murmured, “why are the bad kids helping me?”

Janus rolled his eyes, “who said we're bad?”

“I- you always get in trouble,” Patton tried to explain.

“Yeah. Because you're always trying to get us in trouble,” Virgil scoffed.

“I don't expect you to understand, Patton,” Janus stopped as they reached the nurse’s office, “ but sometimes people just don't think like you.”

Patton nodded then tried to walk into the office, “thanks, I guess.”

Janus rolled his eyes, turning to head back to class, only to be confronted with the imposing figure of the school vice principal.

“What's this, then?”

“Oh- sir, I can explain,” Janus offered hastily.

“You will,” the man nodded, pointing towards his office, “If you please, Mr. Shephard.”

Virgil fiddled with his sleeves, “It was completely an accident. We were just helping Patton.”

“He fell down the stairs after slipping on a spilled water bottle,” Janus protested, already tired of walking, “I think he hit his head so we didn't want to leave him alone before he could get over here.”

“I see,” the man eyed the two, “is that so?”

“Yes. That's what happened.” Janus nodded emphatically. He watched the disciplinarian's face to see if he bought the story.

“Get to your class,” the vice principal barked, and the two wasted no time disappearing down the hallway.

___ ___ ___

Patton stirred and sat gingerly up in bed. A needle of pain shot through his shoulder at the weight pressed on it.

“Oh- f-”

“Patton!” His mother stood at the door to his room with a sour look on her face.

“I was going to say ‘fudge’,” Patton gritted his teeth.

“Honestly, when did I raise such a delinquent?” She shook her head and barged her way in, “bullying other students and now swearing? Certainly nothing I taught you.”

“Mom!”

“I won't hear it. Luckily, some of your classmates collected your homework assignments for you. Behave yourself with them,” she scolded.

“I'm not a bully,” Patton muttered, gazing up at the ceiling as though the stucco could offer him the strength to endure her accusations.

“For the record, no one said you were but her. I don’t know why she thinks that,” Patton looked back to the door sharply, finding his mother replaced with Virgil standing slouched against the frame, a book bag slung over one shoulder. “Hey- I hope it's okay I- let's not worry about how I knew your address. How… are.. you?”

“I've been better. The doctor poked and prodded me a lot yesterday.”

“Yikes…”

Patton nods, “I’ll be back in school by Monday. Unless I go completely loopy in the head. But I think the sprain in my shoulder is worse. Is Janus okay?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. He was tired from all the running around but like.. I don’t think he’s mad at you, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Virgil glanced back to the door before leaning closer to ask, “is she always like that?”

Patton nodded, “yeah… that’s my mom for you.”

Virgil swung his bag onto the bed, “alright, well, I’ve got your homework for the classes you missed.. And I thought you might like some music to pass the time? It’s the kind I listen to when I get really upset,” Virgil explained with a pointed look as he pulled a disk in a clear cover out of the bag with the school books, “just.. Let me know what you think if you do. I’m really sorry about what happened.”

“It’s not your fault, Virge-” Patton shook his head and then winced, “thank you, though.”

“No worries. I- uh.. Look forward to seeing you..? Yeah. Get better soon.”

Patton watched as Virgil exited his bedroom, confused why he of any of the kids at school brought him make up work. He examined the CD, turning it to read the sharpie writing, a list of songs with artists listed in incomprehensible initials. He turned the case over, noticing a small piece of paper tucked under the CD inside the case. Intrigued, he pried the case open and popped the CD out, laying it on the blanket. He retrieved the small folded paper from his lap, carefully picking it apart.

I didn’t push you down the stairs. I also did not try to help you after you tripped. If you tell anyone I did, I won’t hesitate to make you regret it. -J

Patton frowned, confused by the note. He tossed it aside and pulled out his portable CD player to listen to the mixtape without his mom listening in. He laid back, letting the beats and melodies wash over him. As he listened, an idea started to form, one of which he was barely conscious.

___ ___ ___

“Are you insane?” Roman stared far more openly than other students in the hall. Patton shrugged and pushed past his friend to his locker.

“I’m just trying something new,” Patton replied, hanging his backpack up and picking out books for the first class. He tried very hard to not express frustration when the bookbag caught on the spikes sticking out of one of his many new bracelets.

“You look ridiculous. You hate black! What is going on?”

“I can wear whatever I want, Ro. You sound like my mother right now.”

That shut Roman’s protests up quickly. Patton hummed to himself, reaching into the bag to pull out a brand new makeup pallet made of browns and blacks, picking the darkest shade to dab onto his eyelids.

“How hard did you hit your head?” Roman asked, staring in even more shock and disbelief.

“My head is fine, Roman. I told you I’m trying something new,” Patton explained.

“Oh Hey! When did you get hot, Pat-Pat?” Remus yelled, dragging Virgil behind him from down the hall.

“Woah- Patton, are you okay?” Virgil asked as they reached him and Roman at the lockers.

“Looks like Jannie knocked some sense into him. Hot damn!” Remus leered, earning a smack on the shoulder from Virgil and Roman.

“Guys, I am fine. I promise. I wanted to see how my mom would take it,” Patton offers, not so subtly searching the halls.

“Right. Suuuuuuure,” Remus giggled, “just remember that Virgie is mine,” he snaps playfully, “I don’t share and I certainly don’t do threesomes.” Remus winked, sending a shiver of disgust running down Patton’s spine. “Congrats, baby emo.”

“If you need to talk or something,” Virgil managed to offer before getting swept away by Remus.

Roman sighed, “Seriously, do you want to talk?”

“I’ll be fine, Ro. I’m still me. I just... I don’t know. It felt right this morning,” Patton offers as explanation.

“Well, you know where to find me. And if this is some ploy to get Janus to like you- it won’t work-”

“I don’t care if he likes me,” Patton protests, “this isn’t about him.”

“It’s not?” Janus asked in a smooth voice, standing behind Patton as if he appeared there from thin air.

“Janus!” Patton whipped around, “how- when did you- um, hi.” he stammered.

Roman laughed and clapped Patton on the shoulder, “good luck, Romeo. See you at lunch.” He walked away still laughing as Patton blushed and tried to shake the teasing off.

Janus watched curiously. He certainly would never have predicted that Patton would show up in an all black pretend-emo costume. Amazing really how people could still surprise him.

“I promise that Roman doesn’t know what he’s talking about-” Patton tried to recover his composure.

“He never does. Poor Remus got all the interesting and useful brains,” Janus sighed, examining his gloved hand nonchalantly. “Even if this were some ploy for my attention, I wouldn’t be interested just because you changed clothes and painted your nails.”

“That implies you would be interested in different circumstances,” Patton pointed out.

“Would I? I never said that. You understood my message, right?” Janus asked, changing topics quickly.

Patton nodded, “I- yes, I understood. You didn’t have to threaten me. Everyone thinks I broke my head and wouldn’t believe me saying either thing.”

“Correct. No use spreading rumors,” Janus smirked.

“Janus?”

“What?”

“Do you think I’m a bad person?” Patton asked quietly.

Janus took a moment to think over the question, “Why are you asking me?”

“Because I think you’re probably the person I’ve hurt the most.”

Janus laughed, “Oh please. Like you could hurt me. Since when do you care about my opinions?”

“I don’t know- I’m really trying something new here, Janus.” Patton worried his lip between his teeth.

“I see. I notice,” Janus nodded and turned to head towards class.

“Janus? Do I… seem like I have a crush on you?”

Janus stopped in his tracks, turning back slowly, “Do you have one?”

Patton shrugged his one good shoulder, “Roman says I must have one. I’m not sure. How do I figure it out?”

Janus studied the black clad teen he would have sworn had it out for him just two days ago. Who was he to answer this kind of question? And why wouldn’t he just ask Roman, the prince of failed relationships?

“I don’t know. Go on a date with me?” Janus was just as surprised at the words leaving his lips as Patton looked hearing them.

“Wait- really?”

“Yes. We can go out tonight. No need to make it formal. Just black, not black tie.” Janus nodded. It surprised him just how calm and collected he felt, proposing a romantic time together.

Patton hummed, “um.. I assume Virgil… gave you my address,” he replied diplomatically, “would you be able to pick me up.”

“Yes. 9 o’clock?”

Patton nodded, “yeah, that works. I’ll see you then?”

Janus smiled just a bit mischievously, “yes, you will. Good luck in school today. Everyone is going to notice.”

“Notice what?” Patton asked.

“This.” Janus smirked and leaned forward, planting a lipstick stained kiss on Patton’s cheek, turning to leave just as the first bell rang out.

Patton stood frozen like a deer, slowing reaching up to touch his cheek, “oh, shit-”

___ ___ ___

“Uh, Jannie?”

“Yes, Remus?”

“Where the fuck are we going?” Remus asked, hanging on the back of Janus’ seat.

Janus inhaled slowly, “We’re picking up my date for tonight.”

“Since when do you date?” Virgil asked, lounging in the back seat and scrolling on his phone.

“Since this morning,” Janus answered, “You two just made it look so fun I had to give it a try.”

“Ooooooooh,” Remus absolutely beamed, “so who’s the lucky virgin?”

“Come on, Re. Don’t assume,” Virgil chided, trying to pull his boyfriend back to the back seat. “Wait- I recognize this street-”

“Just shut up,” Janus growled, “You’re the ones who wanted me to date. He’s harmless and might even like me.”

“So you’re trying to go out with the guy who made our lives hell for over a year?” Virgil asked.

“I’m not being some sort of saint, I’m just curious about what Patton’s going through.”

“I’ll cancel the wedding bells,” Remus cackled as they pulled up to the door. The headlights swept over the porch, revealing Patton sitting outside in the dark. He popped up, rushing over to the passenger side of the car.

“Hey Janus- and… Virgil and Remus? What?” Patton squinted at the couple in the back seat, “is this.. A double date?”

“Somewhat. Get in,” Janus commanded, ignoring the snickering from the back seat.

Patton climbed in and sat down, confused but not about to back out now. Not when Roman would roast him for failing to go on the first date he’s ever been asked out on. Janus pulled out of the driveway and continued on in relative quiet.

“So… where are we going?” Patton asked, a little too bright for his dark exterior.

“You’ll see,” Janus replied cryptically.

Patton nodded and fell silent, watching the road slip by as they drove along.

“Woof. The chemistry is just bubbling,” Remus snarked after a few minutes of quiet, sitting back to cuddle into Virgil.

Virgil laughed softly, “give them time. I’m sure it’s just first date awkwardness.” He wrapped his arms around Remus and held him close.

Janus turned down a residential street and flicked off the headlights, “Well, Patton, since you’re exploring new countercultures, I figured it would be a good idea to bring you along to a protest.”

“A protest? At night?” Patton asked, fear glinting in his eyes, “what kind of protest?”

“One against ableism in the education system,” Virgil grinned, grabbing cartons of eggs from the floor of the back seat.

“Yeah! We’re gonna show that bitch what it feels like!” Remus crowed, opening the door before Janus could put the car in park and banging impatiently on the trunk. Virgil piled out as well as Janus parked and grabbed the latch to open the trunk for them.

“This… is illegal, isn’t it?” Patton worried, glancing around the street to see if they had been spotted yet.

“Very.” Janus nodded, “but, lucky us that the Virus have the dirty work covered. We’re just lookouts tonight. Mrs. Hansen has been violating my disability accommodations. That makes my life harder when I end up missing the beginning of class because of the crowds in the hallway. So we’re making her morning a bit harder.”

“Oh.. that’s why you three were in the hallway during class time the other day?” Patton asked, voice softening at the realization.

“Yes. Sometimes we wait until after the bell anyway but she still shouldn’t be holding me back like that,” Janus explained.

“I’m sorry- I didn’t realize that,” Patton offered quietly, wincing as Remus started chucking raw eggs at the car in the driveway.

“Relax, Patton. They’re just letting off steam. I swear they would have burned the school down by now if I didn’t try to aim them at productive activities,” Janus chuckled, glancing down the road for any observers.

“Right. So… this is a date… why don’t you tell me about yourself?” Patton turned in his seat to face Janus.

Janus slowly turned his head, “what do you want to know?”

“Um, I’m not sure. I’ve never done this before,” Patton laughed nervously, “maybe… when did you know that you’re gay?”

Janus snorted at that, “I still don’t know. You’re the first boy I’ve tried to date. You’d think hanging out around the twins would make that sort of question easy, right?”

“Right! Like, I’ve known Roman really well for years and he sure seems to know… some of what he wants. But I just don’t know how he understands what a crush is versus wanting to be friends.”

“Those two make it seem like you meet someone and suddenly they’re the only thought in your head ever,” Janus nodded to the couple who were busy laying out toilet paper strips in the shape of a penis on the hood of the car, “I’ve never understood it.”

“Do you.. Feel that way about me?” Patton asks, “since you’re the one who asked me out.”

“Frankly, I find your change of aesthetic rather intriguing. And you seem willing to challenge some of your bullshit ideas right now, so why not?” Janus shrugs, “maybe I just want attention and don’t give a fuck about who you are. You can never know.”

Patton looked down towards his hands, folded neatly in his lap, “I think I’ve been jealous of you all.”

“How so? You seemed adamant about reporting us to the school like a narc for the past year,” Janus challenged.

“Because things like egging teacher’s houses and smoking in the hallways can cause problems for people! But, I do like how you all express yourselves.”

“Really?”

“Right. You just… get to be weird and stand out in classes. You get away with a disturbing amount of rule breaking. It seems really freeing,” Patton sighed softly, “Maybe I’m thinking about it wrong. I’ve just always felt terrified of disappointing people, and in just one day I’ve been able to disappoint almost everyone.”

“So, you’re just dressing emo to make people upset, not to express yourself?”

“I mean- maybe partially?” Patton shrugged, “I never knew you all were this criminal-”

“Patton-”

“And… I think it’s maybe hot that you all stand up for yourselves despite what people think of you?” Patton says shyly, more of a question than an opinion.

“I didn’t bring you along to impress you with like that-”

“No?”

“I thought giving Virgil and Remus a target would give us some time alone,” Janus explains.

“Time alone to do what?” Panton leaned a bit closer.

“What we’re doing now, talking.”

“That’s all you wanted to do with me?” Patton asked, head tilted a bit.

“Did you want to kiss me?”

“Patton-”

Patton leaned in even closer until the backdoor slammed open, sending him scrambling back to his seat, blushing bright red.

“Drive- Neighbor might be calling the cops.” Remus replied, out of breath.

Virgil nodded and Janus jumped into action to get away from the crime scene.

“Looked like a productive date,” Remus teased as Janus slowed back down to avoid suspicion.

“Wow what a rush!” Patton exclaimed.

“Adrenaline wasn’t the point,” Janus reminded him, “Are you two ready to head home?”

“Yeah, Remus’ please,” Virgil nods.

Remus spent the car ride back to his place giving the lookouts a play by play of the night, with Virgil interjecting with certain facts and figures.. Janus soon dropped the pair off and the silence settled between him and Patton.

“I just… you guys get away with bad behavior all the time. I wish I could do that the same as you,” Patton spoke up eventually.

Janus sighed and pulled the car over again, this time near a park, “Do you even care about why we do that stupid shit?”

“Well, tonight was about getting back at Mrs. Hansen, right? For treating you badly,” Patton recalled.

“And skipping class is because it’s too overwhelming to sit still learning useless crap with a bunch of jerks who know nothing about what it’s like to try and navigate when your feet don’t just take you to where you need to go. They don’t care that it hurts to walk and it’s just safer to take my time with friends by my side to catch me.”

“I-”

“You just see me as some bad boy to upset people with. You don’t care how I feel about it, do you?” Janus challenged.

“That’s not true-” Patton tried to protest.

“I’m not some average petty sinner to disappoint your family with at the holidays. I actually have feeling and wants and needs and I just- I-”

Patton reached over to take one of Janus’ hands, “It’s okay. I-I didn’t want to use you, Janus. Not in the long run. Sure, I wanted to experiment and see if Roman’s right about crushes, but I don’t want to trap you in a relationship you won’t enjoy. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Janus looked away, trying to pull his hand free.

“Just remember that you asked me out tonight. So, I thought that kisses were something you’re supposed to do on dates. Can we try again without interruptions this time? See if… well, if we’ll like that sort of thing?”

“Are you even listening to me?”

“Yes, yes I am. You are not a manic pixie dream boy or the dangerous rebel to scare my mom with. You’re Janus. And I don’t know you very well because I’ve never tried to get to know you. But we’re on a date. It’s past curfew. I think you at least deserve a chance at something properly romantic, since defacing property was just the distraction to keep Remus and Virgil busy. It’s too late to get food anywhere. So maybe we can try a kiss and start over again in the morning?”

Janus blinked, trying to process all of that at once. “Um… no.”

“No?” Patton sat back immediately, “did I do something wrong?”

“Not necessarily, I just… you asking makes it very clear to me that I don’t want to kiss you, Patton.” Janus tried to explain.

Patton nodded, “okay. I- actually, thank you? I- I was so scared…”

Janus chuckled softly, “I don’t think we’re crushing on each other. I’m not sure why not. But I’m glad you agree.”

Patton nodded emphatically this time, “I very much don’t want to be the awkward one. I think… it would feel wrong or empty to try. And that’s not your fault-”

“I get it. I agree. We tried. Dating just… isn’t in our cards,” Janus laughed a bit more at that, “let me take you home?”

“Yes please. Maybe at school… we can just say hi?”

“That would be much more pleasant.”

Patton sighed softly and leaned back in the passenger seat, “I won’t tell about the eggs and toilet paper, by the way. Maybe I should ask Mrs. Hansen why she’s not letting you leave for class on time?”

Janus smiled, “That could be helpful. Maybe she just needs to see one of the responsible students concerned on our behalf.”

“Would have been a lot less illegal if you just asked me to do that in the first place,” Patton giggled, “It makes more sense than vandalism.”

“But throwing trash at her house is fun,” Janus grins, starting the car again.

“It may be fun. But there are much better outlets for the anger, I would think.” Patton grinned.

“Maybe you’ll be a good acquaintance after all,” Janus mused, pulling back out onto the road to take his definitely-not-a-date back home.

#sandersidesgiftexchange 2023 #sanders sides #moceit #dukexiety #patton sanders #janus sanders #remus sanders #virgil sanders #secret santa gift exchange #mild injury #mild inuendo #swearing #criminal activity #acespec characters

45 notes · View notes

tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors · 3 months ago

Note

Have you ever participated in the sanders sides secret santa gift exchange?

yes, twice! i dont do fandom events anymore (i ran the first dukeceit week and it burned me out on them So Very Bad) but i have a remile oneshot (Walk Me down The Middle) and people are always surprised by this but ping ping (the sound of our hearts) was actually my second secret santa lmao

#ask #Anonymous

21 notes · View notes

mscoffeesq · 5 months ago

Text

Vampire the Masquerade: Boston is Healing, Session 1

List of Player Characters, including the initial of their player to denote who played who.

(M) Sophia Blanchard - Toreador, Prince of the Boston Camarilla (Survived)

(Jaq) Cait Harkness - Salubri, Escaped to parts unknown

(R) Gabriel Sanders - Ghoul, Deceased (Killed by Malkavian Anarch)

(S) Aksel Palensen- Tremere, Deceased (Killed in Sabbat Raid)

(Jac) Roy Vestry - Gangrel, Deceased (Ambushed by a Sniper)

(R) Geoffrey Williamson - Gangrel, Deceased (Botched a Diablerie Roll)

(Jaq) Jessie Parks - Caitiff, Deceased (Killed in Sabbat Raid)

(R) Mama Mtshali - Nosferatu, Deceased (Killed in Sabbat Raid)

The Story So Far - 

The year is 2022. After a brutal Second Inquisition (SI) attack on Boston the population of Kindred in the city dropped drastically, down to about half of what it once was. The Camarilla, who control the city, lost a prominent Harpy, two Primogen members, and the previous Scourge in the attack. The Prince, Coth, is currently trying to hold his position and repair the city while other parties try and squirm their way into power- the Anarchs have been growing restless, and there are rumors that Sabbat forces have been making designs on the city. Even Clan Giovanni, who spend most of their time in Lynn, have been branching out after the attack to try and secure new territory. Coth has been meeting with the Baron, leader of the Anarchs, in order to broker somewhat of a peace between the two sides. Recently, the Prince has invited a select group of Camarilla to a party within Elysium for a very special, but secretive, event.

Session 1 - 

Gabriel decides to take a walk around his domain to check on things before going off to Elysium. There are currently mortals and ghouls putting up decor and equipment for an event. Some are wearing tiger masks of varying colors. The Keeper, Krow, seems to be talking to a woman, wearing old fashioned dress and heavy dark makeup, a large hat, and orange hair. The woman appears to be being scolded.

The Elysium is 3 floors, including a hidden basement area. Gabriel sits down at the bar, where a ghoul tells him that the vessels are being reserved for the event coming up. The ghoul offers a boon in exchange for the inconvenience: 2 free vessels the next time Gabriel comes in.

The ghoul mentions that a very special guest will be coming the following night. Gabriel goes to talk with the Keeper who begins to whisper to the woman before going off to her quarters. Gabriel decides to speak with the woman now that she's alone. The woman is supernaturally beautiful- almost like her features were sculpted to be perfect.

She introduces herself as Lucy, and offers her hand to be kissed by Gabriel. He notices that her fingernails are long and sharp, and look more like bones pushed out of her fingers to make claws. She says that she arrived in town last week.

Lucy asks what the crime rate in the city is, and how many crimes Gabriel could pull off without being noticed. He says it depends on the crime. She says that a friend of hers has arrived and leaves to meet up with someone Gabriel didn't notice.

Aksel is at the closed Boston Aquarium with his sire, Dylan, who asked to meet with him. Richard is wearing casual clothing, with something in his back pocket. Aksel has a plush penguin in his arms as he approaches his sire.

He gives the penguin to his sire as a gift, before his sire lets him know that a special guest is arriving in the city tonight. He says that it is someone higher up in the ranks of the Camarilla, and that a public announcement of their arrival will be the next evening.

Dylan also lets Aksel know that he will need to get himself proper attire, as he will be going to the event in his sire's stead. His sire also tells him that his groupies will not be invited to the party, so not to bring them. He also mentions an "accident" (murder) in a theater in town- and to keep an eye out for trouble. The party is scheduled for 9pm the next night.

His sire says that he'll be returning to his school for thaumaturgy and bids Aksel a good night. Aksel steals a crocodile plushie on his way out.

Roy is at his house, and hears a knock at the door. Immediately the door is kicked and someone is trying to get into the house. A bird flies into the room before the person manages to break in,

and it's Roy's sire and wife, Stephanie.

She is upset after an altercation with a raccoon who stole her ball with her hamster inside. On top of that, the bag she's carrying breaks and spills its contents all over the floor. Some birds come in and help clean it up.

She asks Roy how he's doing, and Roy says that he's been working on his book. She lets him know that there was a letter for him. It's in a black envelope, and written on very nice paper.

The letter is from Krow, letting him know of the upcoming event and contact information for him to get in touch with. There is also a threat to not embarrass anyone.

Stephanie is shocked to see the letter once she reads it. She suggests he go, because she believes it will be some sort of promotion. She also suggests bringing a gift, because the Prince likes gifts, and recommends a dove. 

Roy starts preparing his formal clothes for the next day.

Sophia takes Cait to her favorite club in town- the Delirium. Carl the bouncer of Delirium lets them in no problem. The bar is jungle themed, but also sort of like an idea of heaven mixed with a jungle. The staff wear animal masks and angel outfits with small angel wings. The wings don't appear to be connected to their clothes though, and move as if they are natural wings.

The club is very packed. The rules are that you can feast on anyone you want except staff, you just can't kill people. Cait uses Auspex and notices 3 other Kindred in the club, including the owner who seems uninterested in what's going on.

Sophia scans around the club and sees a gentleman who looks out of place and like he was dragged to the bar. Sophia taps his shoulder and introduces herself. He says that the owner has been throwing him off and says that her tongue is weird. 

Sophia grabs the man, Will, by the arm and takes him to meet Ember. Her tongue sticks out a bit but she pulls it back. Ember offers to take him to show him around the club. He notices her eyes. Will still goes with her, and points out another Toreador in the bar.

There's another woman in the bar who appears to be very drunk. Sophia passes up the opportunity to drink because she doesn't want to get too drunk and instead takes Cait out to dance. Sophia accidentally steps on a black envelope. The stamp on the envelope is a Krown with a cross on it. The letter is written in Spanish, not in English.

Ember stops the two of them, whispers something to an angel, and brings out a bottle to give to Sophia that smells extra sweet. Sophia and Cait go off back to Cait's apartment to see if her girlfriend can read the letter for them.

Cait's fiancée, Maria, is watching TV when they arrive. She translates it for them, but seems confused and concerned. She says that there's a party at the Langham Hotel. The invitation seems to be for someone named Isabelle or Isabella Ferrari. It also seems to mention the Friends of Night.

 Maria lets Cait know that her friend Sakura was there earlier and left a notepad for her. Sophia decides to leave the two of them alone for the night to go enjoy herself, but tells Cait they will be clothes shopping before the event.

Maria says that she should go in order to keep Sophia safe, but Cait promises to leave if things go south. She also tells Cait about an attack on the theater, where some audience members were disoriented and some were even still singing when they were found. Police said there were heavy casualties, but are stumped by it.

Gabriel goes to pick up a suit before the event. Something sensible that won't stand out too much. He also makes sure his car is working well.

Aksel makes sure that he has a suit ready to go, one that is used for occult gathering. He also attempts to steal a penguin from the aquarium but fails. He calls his mentor, Richard, to ask what the proper attire would be to make sure he is right.

Roy prepares his suit and then goes to find a dove to give the Prince as a present, but only manages to find pigeons. Even then he's not able to catch any.

Sophia enjoys a nice bath and the blood she got from Ember while making calls to set up a limo and new clothes for her and Cait.

Cait decides to call her sire, Deirdre, to ask about the Friends of the Night and the seal on the letter. The Krown symbol appears to be Lasombra, but she isn't familiar with the Friends of the Night. Deirdre also warns Cait to not be out by herself, as things haven't been safe.

As Sophia goes to pick up Cait, she notices a woman outside struggling. The woman says she's a friend of Cait's from school. Sakura had come over to hang out with Maria while they're out

tonight.

Sophia takes one of the coffees meant for Cait which she had to turn down, but Sophia spits it out in a bush once they're all inside. They continue on to the hotel, with Cait changing into

her nicer outfit Sophia got for her.

Aksel, Gabriel, and Roy arrive at the hotel together. They are catching up together when Sophia and Cait arrive. They talk together for a bit, when Gabriel notices Lucy arrive. Sophia and Gabriel notice that she's not going into the regular entrance to Elysium.

The desk attendant, Juliet, asks us for our invites. She is confused by the fact that Sophia and Cait's invite is different from the others. She takes Aksel and Roy's invitation no problem. When she gets to Cait and Sophia’s invite, she calls her partner Romeo to the desk. Romeo is very well dressed, and could be a Ventrue or Toreador. Romeo runs off, while Juliet questions us: Romeo comes back and sends them in, but does not give the invite back like they had for the others. Juliet gives the group five cards, one for each of them.

Sophia admits to Aksel that they weren't actually invited, and asks if Isabelle or Isabella Ferrari means anything to anyone. Roy thinks the name sounds familiar, they are an important Kindred, but he doesn't know for which clan. Aksel knows that they're an important member of the Camarilla. A high ranking society member.

Sophia wonders how the invite for such a high up member would have wound up on the floor of Delirium. Isabella Ferrari is the daughter of the Ferrari CEO. She always seems to be near a body of water in every picture. She has a tattoo of a name in German, possibly a company or something.

When they enter Elysium, Cait activates Auspex. She catches 13 pale auras (Kindred) among a lot of vessels. The Ventrue and Tremere Primogens also appear to be there.

Aksel goes to speak to the Tremere Primogen briefly before going to a powder room and then rejoining the coterie.

A bit later, someone approaches us who looks very rough compared to everyone else and is dirty and bloodstained. He plops down next to Aksel and introduces himself as Jakeup Cooper. Jakeup is confused as to why he's at the event. Sophia recognizes him and he recognizes her. She knows that he's a Gangrel.

He's usually seen conversing with an odd gentleman who visits Elysium now and then. He wonders where the Prince and Sheriff are, and points out that the dress code is odd. They all get into a tiff about tailcoats, before Jakeup points out to the Keeper who looks angry and ready to snap.

Jakeup wonders who the special guest is. Apparently, we're the only coterie at the event which is why he wanted to hang out with us. He claims that he doesn't want to talk to anyone because they're mostly Tremere or Toreador. He says that he spends most of his time by the harbor.

He asks us our names, and we introduce ourselves. Aksel performs a sleight of hand trick for everyone. The lights begin to dim. We get on the subject of kids (as in vampire children, who could be any age) because Jakeup mentions a kid he adopted. Aksel says he adopted 3 other people's kids, sort of.

The Keeper gets everyone's attention and lets the crowd know that the Prince is running late. She says that the special guest is here to speak with the group because of our special skills. A shadow takes the form of a person, who is supernaturally beautiful with a symbol tattoo that none of us recognize.

She introduces herself as Silhouette. She says she is looking for an object, a sort of black and silver key with three bits. All of us survived the attack, and are loyal to the camarilla. She wants us to search the city for the key, and promises a reward to whoever finds it. Gabriel and Sophia realize that she's heading to the large pool within Elysium after she finishes.

We ask Jakeup to leave so we can speak alone. Gabriel looks under the cushions to see if the key is under there. They talk for a while before Aksel goes off to get a drink. Suddenly, the doors are pushed open by the Prince, Coth, and his Sheriff, Emma. He starts talking with the Keeper, and asks where the special guest is.

The Sheriff whispers something to him, and he turns to look at us. Krow hands him a tablet which he checks before handing it back and walks over to our coterie and asks us our names. He's fairly familiar with Sophia, Gabriel, and Roy's sire Stephanie.

The dress code was apparently a request from Silhouette. He wishes us well, and recommends the blood for the evening. We are all talking again when the Prince suddenly comes back, and demands that the five of us go speak to Silhouette. Aksel asks quickly if the Prince's nickname, The Three Legged King, refers to his endowment or not, and if it's okay to call him that. The Prince seems to be okay with it and finds it humorous.

We go to meet with Silhouette, and there are tendrils reaching around her in the pool. She confronts us over the fact that most of us were not actually invited to the event, and wonders if someone was trying to get us killed. She invites us to swim with her. Gabriel jumps in and discovers that the tendrils are actually coming off of her dress.

She asks if we still intend to find the key. We discover that her name is Isabella. She asks if we're associated with the Camarilla, and we explain our ties to the faction. She asks for Romeo to be summoned. Isabella recommends we go to the Empyrium Theater, where the attack happened. She assumes that the attack was caused by something searching for the relic.

Romeo comes back with the letter Sophia and Cait had found and Isabella tears it up and destroys it. She asks that we not cause any issues in the city while she is observing things. One of the attendants says that Juliet needs Isabella's attention because of trouble in London.

Aksel remembers the conversation earlier and says that he adopted his brother's kids until they became adults. Gabriel dries himself off. By the time we return to the party, most of the Kindred are gone and only a few people are left.

Sophia and Cait run back by Sophia's apartment to change into more sensible clothing, and Sophia grabs her pistol. Gabriel runs back to his place to change and grab his rifle. Roys heads back to his place to change and sees his sire sleeping on the sofa, covered in bunnies. Aksel goes home to change, calls his mentor, and sets up a few things for his business.

Aksel's mentor says that he's familiar with the name Isabella Ferrari, and that she's a Lasombra Antitribu Archon. Richard says he's concerned about things with her in town.

Sophia finds a letter on her table. White with a rose design on it. The letter is written in messy cursive.

“Pleasure to meet you! This is weird, but I'm making my way to Boston. We are technically sisters and I'd like to meet you. I should be there in around 3 days, and I'm looking forward to seeing you. I don't really know how to end a letter,

Okay bye!”

Sophia is a little upset because this implies that Russel sired another vampire, who is on her way to Boston now.

End of Session 1 - 3 xp gained per player.

#vtm #vampire the masquerade #game notes #vtm game notes #toreador #tremere #gangrel #caitiff #nosferatu

3 notes · View notes

tss-october-ghostwriters · 1 year ago

Text

FAQ

What is this event?

To celebrate spooky month a bit more intensely we wanted to organize a little exchange of halloween themed fics for the Sanders Sides fandom (similiar to a Secret Santa just more spooky). You tell us what kind of fic you would like to receive, select some of the 31 prompts of the year & then we match you to another participant who's willing to write what you wished for.

How can I participate?

This is a fanfic exchange for the Sanders Sides fandom so as long as you can write fanfic for that fandom, you can sign up! We also need pinch hitters that are willing to jump in if a matched writer has to drop out. Betas and cheerleaders are welcome to simply hop into the discord :D

How do I sign up?

As soon as the sign ups are open (refer to the schedule for the dates), we'll post the link both on discord & on tumblr. You sign up first, then during the first check in you will have to fill out a few questions on what kind of fic you would like, what you don't want to receive (aka squicks & triggers) as well as what you don't want to write for someone else. For that we'll give you a list of 31 words that you pick from (at least 3, 10 at most). Your matched writer then writes something based on those words (if you pick more than 3, they get to choose which they want to include) & your preferences.

When does x happen?

The schedule is detailed in another post. There will be several check ins to ensure that if people forget or drop out, we can assign a pinch hitter in time.

How does posting work?

You post your finished work (min. word count is 2k) on your own tumblr/AO3. If you post on tumblr, tag this blog @tss-october-ghostwriters and use the tag #tssoctobersubmission2023. You can also add it to the AO3 collection TS Halloween Exchange 2023.

With both options, you have to notify your giftee in some way (tag them in the post, gift it to them on AO3 etc.). If you want you can also post a link of the fic in the self-promo channel on discord, although that is not required.

Since the surprise is half the fun we ask that you do not reveal who you're writing for until you post the final work.

#sanders sides #thomas sanders

3 notes · View notes

author-chan06 · 7 months ago

Text

Realized that I hadn’t watched the newest Sanders Asides— What Makes the Perfect Gift?— and went to watch it. It’s a really interesting experience to do so and see if it gives me any new memories and to see how my own life lines up to canon.

So here’s a list of the memories I gained or the differences between my memories as Roman and what the series said/showed:

I do remember giving Janus the socks, though actually after the exchange I gave him another pair— I snuck into his room— that had little snakes on it. (I saw him wearing them sometimes, but he always hid them)

We never did gain the facial hair and new haircut that Thomas has now. I already knew that but I figured it was important, as it always throws me off to see it.

We did not have an “annual” Secret Santa as they do. I do not know exactly what happened, but before the Split they did something of the sort— or so I have been told— and we continued it afterwords until we split again, into the dark and light sides. It is possible the dark sides did such a thing, but we did not. As Janus had been the one to organize the Secret Santa’s before, and Patton gave up after a failed attempt— he is bad at keeping secrets. Once we were all back together though, they did resume, the one in the video being the first, and surprisingly hosted by Logan? After that though, it switched between Logan and Janus hosting. I know there was another secret Santa shown before as well but that one simply did not happen. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the same card that Virgil made though, so perhaps they exchanged gifts alone. I never asked though, so I am unsure. And the Sherlock gift was actually something I gave Logan years after the Wedding.

I actually already knew about Virgil’s gift to Logan. As his boyfriend, they had told me about their gift and how worried they were that Logan wouldn’t like it, so I, of course, comforted them and assured them that even I wouldn’t have thought of such an amazing gift, and that Logan would love it. He did love it. Very much.

I took Mr. Fuzzy. Perhaps not my most… honorable moment. But Virgil didn’t want him, and well, despite my still winning insecurity regarding my brother and our confusing relationship at the time, seeing Remus more often was making it harder to beat down the feeling of missing him. I assumed having the gift he made would help… even if it was quite gross, though still well done. … It did help.

Janus, when we were kids, actually did have issues with his jaw becoming unhinged. It was absolutely terrifying the first time because I didn’t know how to help, but I eventually became the go to as I was now experienced.

I was the Ego. It was another of my secondary functions, and the ‘Bruised Ego’ headcanon that I see around is true. It also worked in the opposite way, as compliments would make me feel better, mentally and physically.

Janus was indeed cold blooded, I knew this from when we were kids. I had used to be his favorite body heater, as I alway ran extra hot. And this came back after everything started to settle. He especially liked to take Remus and I’s heat, since we were the most hot blooded sides.

All the dark sides are able to hiss and purr— and I can too. Possibly a left over of my time as The King? I do not know for certain, but it worried me for years, until I realized it didn’t matter when we all started hanging out again.

That air frier was used surprisingly often for actual cooking. By Remus. The meals were… questionable, but they actually were edible and eaten. And it lasted for quite a while, I don’t actually remember it ever breaking. So it actually turned out to be a wonderful gift.

This is not exactly a memory or such, but the end gives me a painful feeling. I think something happened with Nico? Perhaps we broke up at some point. My memories as Roman are still quite spotty, and a lot of them revolve around the other sides and, to a lesser extent, Thomas. I know some things about Nico and his relationship to Thomas but not a lot. I think a newer video might gain me more memories around that, or at least rule out things it’s not, but I’ll just have to wait and see.

(Ps. This reminded that I was such a horrible brother for a while, and I am deeply sorry about my words and actions. And I am forever grateful that my love was willing to hear me out, even if I didn’t deserve it, and that I got to make up for it, and make him feel loved, like she always should)

#romanroyals.speaks #fictionkin #kin memories #tw: incest #proshipper safe #comshipper safe

0 notes

aelwynabernantsorb · 1 year ago

Text

Oh I have never done this before I don’t know what I’m doing tangerine ily you’ve thrown me into the deep end here /lh/hj

Favourite colour: I always say yellow because it’s “the happiest colour” and I think that’s me trying to do some weird psychology shit to make myself happier and failing, but I do like pale pink. And this depends on who’s fronting so also just throw the whole rainbow in there, both for the gays and for my indecisiveness.

Relationship status: we’re horribly aroace except for one (1) lesbian alter, but romance would conflict with too much of our… Existence (?) too that we’ve steered away from it. Is our aroaceness autism in disguise? Maybe. Is it the label I’m sticking with? Yes. For now. So we are completely single and not ready to mingle because we also have anxiety. <3

Currently Consuming: well I am still in bed right now but the last thing I ate was like. The last half of an energy bar that was just on my bedside table at midnight after a ttrpg game, because if I went downstairs and woke my dog then all hell would break loose.

Last song: “Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want.” By The Smiths. I’ve been playing the same dnd character playlist on different shuffles for like a week. Probably more.

Three ships: IM GOING TO GIVE YOU OBSCURE ONES BECAUSE I DO NOT PANDER TO THE PUBLIC OPINION (/j) so, Barkshadow (Ragh Barkrock/Zayn Darkshadow from fantasy high) because cute and they deserve it and I don’t know if I created it but I certainly think I did, Evernant (Penelope Everpetal/Aelwyn Abernant from fantasy high) because crack angst ship and Aelwyn doesn’t deserve it but, like her parents, I take joy in torturing that girl. And finally Figayda (Fig Faeth/Ayda Aguefort from fantasy high) because it’s cute, the word gay is in the middle of it, and dating your principal’s daughter is a bomb ass power move from Fig I’ll have you know.

First ship: I don’t know what this is asking so I’ll write the first ship I ever read on ao3, which was Ginny/Luna, and I’ve forgotten the ship name and I read it on ao3 because there was nothing on Wattpad and young me was upset over it. I can’t remember any of the ships I read on Wattpad except Logan/Virgil from Sanders Sides because. I don’t know honestly, don’t judge me.

Currently working on: Oh god. Oh god. Not my wips. Don’t call me out about my mountain of wips. However, here’s a smaller list of what I’m actively working on:

My gift piece for the D20 gift exchange! Which I will not say on tumblr because 👀 you ain’t getting my secrets.

A Christmas Contrition: which is. Just a Fantasy High a Christmas Carol AU. Aelwyn is Scrooge and has to learn to be kinder and not focus so badly on her studies. Aguefort is Marley and is definitely messing with her but she doesn’t know that. Why did I write this? Good question! But I reached the 6k mark yesterday and am planning on having the first stave out on Christmas. So yay?

The Past Tense of Fly is Flu (Flew): Adaine is sick with a virus that attacks divinatory magic. Adaine, being the unknowing elven oracle, has a lot of that. You can guess how it goes (spoiler, it goes badly. But Aelwyn helps her so that’s a plus)

Little Sister: just a small one shot of Adaine age regressing after an argument with her father, and a confused and exasperated Aelwyn trying to get her out from under her fucking desk.

There are so many more but those are the main ones, and I’ll probably write some more pieces about my dnd and ttrpg characters when I have time (I don’t have time.)

Ummm @adaineabernantsfrog @wrenrix and @shipsthatcouldshowyouthestars I thinkkkk

tag game: 9 people you'd like to get to know better

thank you!! @pomegranates-and-onyx and @lowoliet!!! <3 I'm missed doing these tbh. I reordered the items so the sequence makes more sense xoxo

Favorite color: I usually say purple but I don't really feel that strongly

Relationship status: lmaoo I'm aro (greyro-ish?). I actually have long thought I would like to fake-date/date for fun, but just the other day went "I still haven't kissed anybody and I know plenty of ppl have a 1st older than me but tbh I don't think I ever will". Other than that, I've got a few friends I really like, a few friends I kinda don't, and some people in between. Solid nuclear family tho 👍

Currently consuming (eating, by the looks of the trend): Waiting on a response from a friend to see if her cookies (mint & chocolate) are tree nut-free. I hope I can eat them; they look great.

Last song: "Capital M-E" by Taking Back Sunday (I cheated a little b/c last night I listened to a bunch of random songs lol)

Current watching: Dan and Phil? Hbomb's latest video? theoretically, Death Note, Cunk on Earth, and Akira and Akira.

Last movie: Die Hard haha

Three ships: lawlight, tntduo … hm, Arthur/Eames from Inception is a favorited Ao3 tag I do regularly go back to

First ship: Not *too* sure either but I think it HAS to be Snowbaz b/c of the Fangirl -> Tumblr blog stalker thing & that book introducing me to fandom (whoops, that 'thing's not universal knowledge... after Fangirl I scoured Rainbow Rowell's blog which led me to gingerhaze.tumblr.com (he did the cover art) and b/c I couldn't read Nimona online I read his blog instead. b4 that I only went to youtube.com and minecraft.net) WAIT NO. I've always considered genderswapped Johnlock (SheJane) to be my first ship hahaha. (yes, it had to be genderswapped. reality was different back then)

Currently working on: sooo *twirls hair* there's these Hamlet scene analyses (plural)... that were due today.... also some Calc I think... my portfolio for a writing contest... Blind Justice Light Yagami drawing, if the motivation holds. And my Death Note fics I listed here :D

tagging @detective-horse-girl @l3mon-boy @cmstyles19 @sophaeros @i-could-bee-an-angel & seconding @drfurter well @novaliae I know you pretty well but you too of course :) no pressure to anybody if you'd rather not do it tho! & feel free to join in the fun and let me know u would like to foster mutual affection :D

69 notes · View notes

rubyredsparks · 4 years ago

Text

An Imposter’s Heart

Relationships: Anxceit (Platonic), everyone else is just friendships

Characters: Virgil, Janus “Deceit”, Patton, Logan, Roman, Emile, Remy, various ocs

Tags: Among Us, Video Games - Freeform, Magic, Friendships, Queerplatonic Relationships, Cursing, Platonic Relationships, Chronic Illness, Card Tricks, Mentions of Quarantine, mentions of burn scars, mentions of vitiligo

Word Count: 3175

Summary: Quarantine sucks, especially if you're a chronically ill streamer and let's player. But it's nice to have friends and partners there to support you all the way.

And to accuse of murder.

AO3

"Is this your card?" Janus smirks when he holds up an eight of hearts, his audience clearly freaking out when it inevitably becomes clear that it is in fact their card. “I thought so, goodbye.” He clicks the button that takes him to the next participant.

“Hello,” he says, tipping his hat. While it has become difficult in getting gigs booked when he’s an amatuer magician (he’s not so much amatuer but young) becoming a MeTuber actually has become a much more entertaining way of living his dream and fucking over other people’s minds with illusions.

It’s much more fun, and much more lucrative.

“You’re that— that magician snake guy. Uhh, Deceit, right?” the participant says, clearly recognizing him. “I recognize you because of your whole—” a hand waves in front, gesturing towards a cheek.

Janus has never been one to shy away from his scars or his vitiligo, embracing them as his aesthetic and as much of his character as he can. And Virgil says it reminds him of scales and he definitely plays that up with makeup, adding to the whole snake character.

Janus nods in the affirmative, “I’m just here wondering if you can guess how I do this card trick. Would you like to guess?”

“Yeah! My grandpa was a magician and really liked to do card tricks. Maybe I can guess it!” they say eagerly.

Janus chuckles, flipping a card back and forth with his fingers. He doubts it. This trick he came up with all on his own. “Wonderful,” he murmurs. He singularly flips one card between two hands, forming a diamond with his thumb. He does it a few times, making sure that his participant sees the card appear and reappear a few times.

“Oh! I know how you do that. You— you take the card and put it between your fingers on your other hand behind your palm—”

“Really?” Janus says, doing it again. He looks down at his hands, feigning looking them over, spreading his fingers wide and then turning his hands back and forth to show that no card rested behind his fingers. “How do you do that?” he scratches his head, biting down a smile when his participant gawks at him.

“No, really, how do you do that?” Janus says with a faux sincere smile.

“I cannot,” his participant says, ducking their head and logging off to show the loading screen.

He chuckles, logging off of Omagle. Turning towards his camera, he smiles mysteriously. “Thank you for watching, I hope to see you on the morrow.” With a flirtatious wave, Janus turns off his camera.

With a sigh, he slumps back into his chair, groaning at yet another video he has to edit soon if he wants to make his weekly update. Being a MeTuber, as fun as it seems and is at times, is utterly exhausting. Not to mention what his roommate and partner deals with on a constant basis.

While he has gotten a bit of a subscriber jump ever since he played a few games of Amidst Us with the Sanders Shows gang, he won’t even begin to explain the hoops and valleys that his roommate went through to get such a jump.

Virgil, or as called by his online persona Corpse Emo, has gotten a 3 million subscriber jump ever since the normies as Janus liked to call them got addicted to his deep and soothing voice. Generally anxious, Virgil had freaked out. A Lot.

But Virgil loves being a MeTuber, Janus knows. He loves reading scary stories and making conspiracy theories about cryptids and other spooky things. But Janus also knows that Virgil gets freaked out by large numbers and performing if he doesn’t have everything handled.

Which is why he’s a faceless MeTuber and just a deep, soothing voice that people love to listen to. Something that Virgil is able to handle and control, to an extent. He obviously can’t help the fact that he has an incredibly recognizable voice or hair or hands.

So he compensates by being the main source of income and stays home while Janus goes out and gets the groceries and food. The little shit is lucky that Janus cares for him.

He hears the door to Virgil’s recording room open, and he blinks lazily. Groaning, he pulls himself up and stretches on his way out, only wearing half his usual attire and layers. With a scratch to his cheek, he leaves to meet Virgil out in the hallway.

“Gamer bladder?” Janus asks dryly when he sees Virgil zip through to the bathroom. He looks much too freaked to truly be in need of the restroom, eye bags darker than usual, so Janus assumes that Virgil needs to de-stress and take a moment to himself. The needs of the people too great and demanding. Janus can sympathize, fans can be the absolute worst sometimes.

Virgil flips him off, closing the door with a sharp thud. “Go entertain my chat,” Virgil’s words come out muffled behind the door, “they keep asking when Snake-Eyed Deceit is coming back on to play. It’s so fucking annoying.”

Janus would believe the indignation if Virgil doesn’t sound so fond. “You know I’m not much of a gamer, Virge,” Janus reminds him patiently.

“Just talk to them,” Virgil mutters, and Janus imagines Virgil curling into their bathtub with his hoodie drawn tight around him, lights turned off to complete the room. “Play a game if I take too long. It’s proximity anyway.”

Janus raps on the door lightly, “Just remember to drink some water. Did you take your meds?”

“Yes, mom,” Virgil rasps out, voice scratchy. “Fuck off.”

With a sigh, Janus raps an affirmative on the wood door and meanders his way down to Virgil’s recording room. He taps out a few greetings in chat, and then moves Virgil’s character blob in game.

“Emo, you’re back!” one of Virgil’s streamer friends cheers, doing a little wiggle in game.

“Not exactly,” Janus says into the mic lowly. A glance down at the chat shows them exploding in greetings to him with which he responds back politely. Doesn’t hurt to try and get new followers.

“Oh, it’s the Snake guy,” another says, and this voice Janus knows all too well.

“Hello to you, too, Roman,” Janus purrs. “Or should I call you Valkyrome? What a particularly creative name. Combining mythologies. Tell me, did you want to be a Valkyrie as a child.”

Roman puffs up, voice flustered, “Perhaps, they are one of the greatest warriors in Norse myths.”

“Oh, yes, I’m sure,” Janus says. He moves into the customization section of the game, changing from Virgil’s signature black and cat ears to yellow and a top hat. He keeps the name however, too lazy to change that. “How is everyone? It’s been a while since I’ve talked to you all. Yes, hello to you as well, chat.”

“Salutations, Snake,” Logic or Logan says monotonously in greeting. “I’m doing well.”

“HI, JAN!” Cupcake Harts, otherwise known as Patton Hart, cheers. Janus can’t help but twitch at the exorbitant cheerfulness, grating on his nerves a bit. Nothing against Patton, but the relentless sunshine can burn just a tad overwhelming sometimes.

Nevertheless, fondness tugs at his heart, “Hello again, Cupcake.”

“Is Corpse okay?” he asks, concern lacing every word. “He didn’t sound so lively last round. Is the kiddo good?”

“The Emo will be alright, but he gave me permission to play a few rounds as his little character for a bit if that would be alright.”

“Of course!” Patton says happily. “We don’t mind, do we?” Everyone else starts to overlap with words of reassurance at that, and Janus smiles. If anything, Janus is glad that Virgil was able to make friends this year. It has boosted the man’s confidence much more than it had been even if there is still some of that self-consciousness and anxiety that lingers.

“Alright, let’s start.” Logan cuts through the cacophony and the game counts down from five to begin.

---

“CUPCAKE WAS FAKING TASKS!” Roman screams when the meeting is called up, repeating it as much as he can. He clicks to vote instantly, not letting Patton explain.

Janus snickers at that, knowing for a fact that he was the imposter along with Remy.

“Roman, kiddo, do you really think that I would fake tasks with so many people in the room? I mean I could be the imposter, but I was alone so many times with Jodie.”

“He was,” Jodie confirms, “I don’t think that Cupcake is the imposter, he could’ve killed me so many times in specimen.”

“No, no Jodie, I mean I could be the imposter but that doesn’t mean that I couldn’t marinate you. I could just be playing a long game.”

“Ugh, he’s doing that double speak again,” Roman groans. “Cupcake, are you the imposter or not?”

“No, but I mean I could be,” Patton says with a mischievous tone that made Janus roll his eyes.

Janus skips his vote quickly, “Let’s just skip, there’s only one person dead.”

A murmur of agreement follows Janus’ declaration.

“Let me postulate this, but I think that the imposters are Deceit and Sleep.”

“How dare you—?” Remy immediately starts in on Logan, false offense filling up his words and making him much louder. Incessant clicking from their keyboard as rage fills their heart. “I will have you know that I was nowhere near the kill. You know what, I think it’s Specs, actually, he keeps framing me.

“Well, let’s settle down now,” Emile, otherwise known as Dr. Stitch, tries to intervene. “It’s only the first round of the game after all.”

“Uh, no can do, doc, not when my integrity is on the line.”

“What integrity,” Virgil mutters, and Janus whirled around in Virgil’s desk chair to see him leaning on the frame of the door.

“Is that Emo??” Patton squeals happily, “Hi! Are you taking over for Deceit? The game’s just started.”

Virgil shakes his head even though the only ones who can see are himself and Janus, his thick purple-brown curls falling in front of his brown eyes, “Nah, let Dee have a turn murdering everyone, I know he enjoys it.”

“Liess and slander,” Janus hisses, purposefully elongating his ‘s’ to make him seem more snake like.

“Does that mean Dee’s an imposter!?!” Roman screams as the meeting panel falls away and the little characters start running around crazily.

“I’m not the imposter, I’m not the imposter,” Janus lies reassuringly, shooting a dark glare at Virgil behind him as the taller one stifles his giggles, hiding the amusement in his eyes behind his hair.

He settles into Janus’ lap, completely obscuring the screen and his view of the game. “Emo, please let me play the game.”

“Hmm,” Virgil hums, tucking his head underneath Janus’ chin, a feat in and of itself given the height difference, “no, I’m comfortable. I’ll just sit here and talk to chat.”

With a sigh, Janus continues the arduous task of running around in the game with the much difficult challenge of having an emo in his lap. Virgil, for his part, looks very content and Janus can’t help but run his fingers through curly purple-brown hair.

“Hello, Roman.”

Roman yelps, “Who said that? How can you see me?” The lights in the game have been turned off and have been for a while, and Janus is taking advantage of the fact that Roman has been left in the far left hand corner of the map where people rarely go.

“Oh, Roman, Roman, Roman,” Janus says, tongue curling on his name with a knife. Roman screams, protesting and shouting for Janus not to do it. “Sorry about that, Ro,” Janus says with a manic giggle as he slices through Roman’s character.

“Big yikes,” Virgil murmurs. “No, chat, I’m not gonna do that, stop suggesting it. Anyway, yeah, I’m gonna be having some major collabs soon with some artists and I have so many cool projects on the way. Thank you guys so much for everything. We wouldn’t have gotten this far without you.”

“Aww, is that you, Emo? Are you talking to chat while Deceit plays?” Leslie pipes up, running close and in circles around Janus’ little blob character.

“Yup,” Virgil pops the last letter, “and guess what?”

“What?” Leslie asks just as Janus’ kill cooldown hit zero.

Janus clicks kill and Leslie screams in protest, her outrage cutting off when the body flops down onto the map. Virgil snorts out a laugh, cackling as Janus smiles indulgently, running around crazily on the map.

A new meeting is called up, this time two people have been killed, clearly shown on screen as having died: Roman and Leslie.

“Guys, guys, guys. I think Remy is the imposter,” Patton is saying. He’s the one who reported Leslie’s body“I’m pretty sure I saw him vent in electrical.”

“Excuse me, Kingdom Hearts!” Remy interrupts rudely. “I wasn’t even in electrical this round. You should get your prescription checked.”

“We needn’t vote here,” Logan interjects sagely. “We are, after all, on seven. But, need I remind you that Remy has been suspicious two rounds now and this time two bodies have been killed. I believe it would be wise to vote him off.”

“Uh uh, glasses here. I know you’re Mr. Big Brain and everything, but I am telling you that it ain’t me,” Remy takes a large sip of whatever drink he has on hand to emphasize his point.

With almost agreed silence, everyone votes and it’s an almost unanimous decision to vote off Remy, causing him to squawk.

“Oh no, you guys really voted for him? You guys voted him off?” Patton is saying as Remy starts screaming curse words and regret.

“What do you mean? You’re the one who said that you caught him venting—”

Janus starts to walk off, the conversation dying out the further he went. He walks to a secluded side of the map, making sure that no one can see as he waits for the cooldown.

“Think you can pull it off?” Virgil asks.

“Without a doubt,” Janus responds.

“What are you guys talking about?” Jodie walks up, suspicion in her question.

“Oh nothing,” Virgil starts, “except this—” and Janus clicks to kill.

Virgil starts talking to both chat and the other players as Janus starts his murder spree quietly. The two of them work as partners, Virgil talking and distracting the players as Janus offs them one by one.

Janus accidentally kills a person in front of someone else, but luckily he didn’t seem to see. “Okay, so I think this was Dragon,” Jace is saying.

Dragon immediately protests, “What do you mean? Where’s the body?”

“Emo, you just walked into admin, right? Did you see Dragon run out?” Jace asks.

“Um, maybe, I think so, yeah?” Virgil says, playing dumb.

“Then it’s Dragon. They were the one to kill, I saw them run out of admin just as the body flopped. Emo, back me up here.”

“Wait, what? I wasn’t even near—”

“AND they were sus last round, so.”

Quite easily, Dragon is voted off, but the game continues.

“I don’t get it, I thought it was Dragon and Sleep,” Jace says.

“Unless it was a self-report,” Logan posits. “You could’ve been caught by Dragon or Emo and you just reported to throw suspicion off yourself.”

Janus called up the meeting button, and Virgil got ready to speak, “Well, we could always 50/50 it. One of them has to be the imposter, right? We’re sure we got out one of them earlier with Remy and if it wasn’t Dragon, then it has to be Jace.”

“No, listen, Emo, I am begging you. I am on my knees, literally in real life right now, don’t vote for me, I am innocent. Please, I’m literally on my knees right now! It’s not me!!”

“Patton, I’m trusting you here,” Logan says. “Do you really think it’s Jace and not Emo?”

“Emo wouldn’t do that to us,” Patton says, though a bit unsurely, “and here’s the thing if Emo’s the imposter then he’ll win and get his video, but if he’s not then we win as crewmate. Either way, it’s a win-win situation!”

“What? Guys! That’s not how this works,” Jace pleads. “Please, it’s not me! I’m serious.”

But too late, the votes come in and Jace is voted out, his character yeeted out into space. And the game continues.

Logan screams in realization, “Patton, I trusted you! It’s Emo, it’s Emo. Oh my goodness. Patton, run! Run!”

“Logan, I have been waiting for this moment my entire life—” Virgil says manically as Logan starts to lose it, running around and screaming at Patton that he trusted Patton and that they voted off the wrong person.

Virgil calls a sabotage and starts to really race after Logan.

“Logan, I was right!” Patton says, slowly trailing after them just to keep up with the conversation. “That means Emo does get to have his video. And I get to be in it! Either way, it’s a win!”

Janus loses it, laughing just as hard as everyone else when Virgil finally manages to click the kill button, the victory screen loading up just as quickly as everyone’s voices come back loud and cheery.

“Good game, everybody—”

“Emo, that was hilarious—”

“Patton, I trusted you—”

“YOU GUYS VOTED ME OUT???—”

Virgil smiles up at Janus from his perch on Janus’ lap, contentment swimming in those brown eyes. Janus is helpless to smile back, even if he’s a bit overwhelmed by the noises. He nuzzles the top of Virgil’s head, burying his face in dark purple-brown curls.

“That was an amazing game, oh my gosh—”

Virgil buries himself into Janus’ warm body, a catlike grin stretching across his face. “Good job, Jan,” he whispers, making sure that chat doesn’t hear the name.

“I think you should be getting that congratulations, little Emo nerd,” Janus says dryly. “You got the final kill of the game after all.”

“Hey, Emo and Dee cheated! They worked together—!”

“We were using one character, jackass! It’s not our fault you guys didn’t think it was us!” Virgil yells back in retaliation, laughter edging on his words. More protests and compliments and whatnot continued as the gamers started arguing over each other again.

Warmth wraps around Janus like a warm hug and he wraps his own arms around Virgil as he continues heckling and joking around with friends, a new game already started. Virgil squirms in his hold to sit in his lap properly so that Virgil’s back is to Janus’ chest, moving to get comfortable.

“Alright, we won’t play together again—” Virgil is saying. Janus just holds Virgil in his lap tightly, contentment curling around him and settling into his stomach like a warm meal.

Sometimes life sucks, giving you chronic illness or vitiligo and burn scars. But sometimes life doesn’t suck so much when you have friends by your side and laughter surrounding you.

A/N: @sanderssidesgiftxchange Hi, @emo-does-things!!! I was your Secret Sanders this year and I hope I was able to fulfill your wish! I honestly couldn’t decide between the two things that I wrote, so you get two fics! Happy Winter and I hope you’re staying safe and that you enjoyed this!!!

#anxeit #anxiet #virgil sanders #janus sanders #roman sanders #logan sanders #patton sanders #various ocs #among us #emile picani #remy sanders #sleep sanders #secret sanders gift exchange #my writing

5 notes · View notes

artisticallygay · 2 years ago

Text

Happy holidays, @stardustlv! I was your Secret Santa this year, I really hope you enjoy the gift! I decided to go all out on your "Logicality gay panic" prompt

And thank you to the mods of @sanderssidesgiftxchange for putting together and organizing this year's gift exchange!

I had a great time with this year's secret santa, and I hope to be able to do so again next year!

#artsy animates #sanders sides #patton sanders #logan sanders #logicality #patton x logan #logan x patton #animation #video #youtube #secret santa #sanders sides gift exchange

30 notes · View notes

loganslowdown4 · 1 year ago

Text

So I had a bit of a break down because

APPARENTLY I’M FEATURED FANDER?!?

Hey that’s me! And my X handle hah

(Face reveal IG? lol)

Anyway, I made a reaction video of the episode and my reaction to the featured fander reveal is … well it’s a bit of a shock

youtube

Love ya @thatsthat24 💙

#thomas sanders #sanders sides #what makes a perfect gift #reaction video #sanders aside #ts spoilers #still in shock #featured fander #roman sanders #logan sanders #patton sanders #virgil sanders #Christmas video #secret Santa #gift exchange #patreon livestream #a crisp $20 bill #Youtube

86 notes · View notes

loganisanobody · 2 years ago

Text

A Hot Cocoa Night

For @artistically-gay

Merry Christmas! Hope you enjoy!

Word Count: 573 (there are two drawings at the end as well)

@sanderssidesgiftxchange

Virgil sipped on his hot chocolate, warmth curling up from the cup to caress his face, the drink smooth and creamy against his tongue. He let out a soft sigh, relaxing against the wall and looking out the window again.

He was perched on the windowsill, leaning against the cold window even as the mug warmed his hands. Snow drifted just on the other side of the glass, soft but persistent, soothing in its chaotic constancy.

Christmas music, the well-loved-oldie kind like that from Bing Crosby, floated softly through the air from the kitchen. Accompanying it was a warm light, the only light on downstairs at the moment, and the soft sounds of baking and quiet laughter.

Virgil let out another happy sigh, the warmth and quiet soothing over his heart like the creamy chocolate coated his tongue. At that thought, he took another sip.

More lights, colorful and many, turned on behind him, and he turned to see Roman bent over to plug in the Christmas tree. The prince stood and smiled broadly at him, though even his energy seemed subdued, quiet so as not to disturb Virgil’s gentle peace. Virgil gave him a small, soft smile, then each turned away, Virgil to his window, Roman toward the kitchen.

Virgil heard a burst of giggles from the kitchen, the sound of the timer being set, soft footsteps back out to the living room.

There was shuffling in the corner, the sound of someone setting up the movie for the night. Virgil took a breath, and downed the last of his hot chocolate, just in time before it got too cold. Then he turned and slid off the windowsill.

Janus looked up from where he was fiddling with the TV and gave Virgil a smirk. Virgil stuck his tongue out at him, hiding his own smile. He took a moment to take in Janus’ change of attire - the snake boy was wearing his Christmas sweater, swirls of yellow and black over his chest and arms.

Virgil joined Roman in the kitchen, rinsing his mug before helping the prince gather snacks for their own movie marathon.

When they came back out, arms laden with food, Patton had returned with Logan and Remus from upstairs. Remus jumped up and plucked a cookie box from Roman’s arms, to which the prince let out a cry of offense. Remus simply cackled and scurried away with his prize back to the couch.

Roman and Virgil shared a look, rolling their eyes. At least Remus was dressed, wearing his sweater as well, the black and green of his usual outfit softened in shape and fabric.

On the couch beside him, Logan gave Virgil a small smile and a nod.

Patton jumped up and wrapped his arms around his dark, strange son, sending him off with a squeeze before going back to snuggle with his three loves.

Janus pretended to be busy with the remote, but Virgil saw him glance over.

Virgil smirked and gave his signature two-finger salute to the group, then went up with Roman for their own watch party, the two single (oblivious to each other’s crush) sides letting the foursome have their Christmas movie date night.

The warm, “creamy” feeling stayed with Virgil, even as laughter and screams filled his room (he had convinced Roman to watch Krampus with him).

It was a good night. Snow fell. Movies played. Sweaters warmed.

Virgil wouldn’t change a thing.

#merry christmas #sanders sides gift exchange #secret santa #sanders sides #christmas #baking #hot cocoa #movie night #intrulomociet #pre-prinxiety

18 notes · View notes

dante1138 · 3 years ago

Text

Merry Christmas @xoaningout !!!! I was your secret Santa for @sanderssidesgiftxchange this year!! I hope you like it!

[Click for better quality! I made the canvas way too big help!]

#dante babbles #my art #sanders sides #virgil sanders #remus sanders #dukexiety #sanders sides secret santa #sanders sides gift exchange #ITS 4000 BY 4000 #I HAVENT DRAWN IN SO LONG #I FORGOT WHAT SIZE MY CANVAS SHOULD BE

173 notes · View notes

look-ma-im-on-tv · 3 years ago

Text

Cry for Help

This is my gift for Sanders Sides Secret Santa Gift Exchange 2021!!! And GUESS WHAT? @lokiamorstuffs ??? IT'S FOR YOU!!! I'm so happy I got assigned my bestie/zucchini for this, and I really hope you like it! Also, @sanderssidesgiftxchange

Description: Hurt/Comfort Witch AU where Remus uses his hallucination magic to mess with the other sides. But lately, it's been worse, with his 'pranks' becoming harsher and more frequent. Everyone's frustrated at first, but his brother Roman figures out what's going on and calls on a special someone to help.

Ships: Intrulogical, a bit of heavily hinted Moxiety on the side but can be interpreted as really good friends or a QPR.

Warnings: Cursing, suggestive wording but nothing too explicit, maybe derealization a bit, fake gore description, fire, fainting, if I forgot any let me know!

Word Count: 3,524

AO3 Link

“Remus, would you please refrain from animating my breakfast? I have no doubt that it’s you, and it is not particularly amusing,” Logan said after his eggs and bacon had seemingly come to life, gained faces, and started screaming obscenities at him. It was very much Remus’ style, which explained why he was to the side of Logan, fallen backward over the side of the couch cackling.

Remus very frequently played pranks, putting his hallucination-style magic to good use apparently. It was pretty frequent, at least once a week, that he would have one of the other five members of the household envision an octopus on the dinner table, or, as in this case, inanimate objects coming to life and cursing at people.

It was a very full house, with witches Remus, his brother Roman, Logan, Patton, Virgil, and Janus all under the same roof. Of course, both of the twins shared ‘hallucination magic,’ which was a fairly common magic type to be given. However, Roman used their magic less for pranks, and more for putting on movies and shows they had written. Logan had potions magic, which he enjoyed thoroughly, especially since it wasn’t much magic as it was science.

Patton and Virgil had been gifted complete opposite magics, almost as an insult from the council it would seem. Patton had light magic, which meant he could instantly summon magical light anywhere, anytime. Virgil, however, had darkness magic which, if you could guess, meant he could put out any light, though only in a certain radius. That was a trick to prevent Darkness Witches from blocking out the whole entire sun.

Janus had telepathic abilities, which she was quite the master of. They could read nearly anyone’s, or anything’s, mind if given enough time. Logan despised this; he really preferred to keep his thoughts to himself.

They’d all been living together for a while now, Logan would guess that it was about 5 years ago that late-comers Remus and Roman moved in, and they had very much fallen into routine. So Remus’ pranks hardly bothered Logan anymore, and he’d even get a little smile out of it when Remus would give a huge, goofy, knowing grin before he put one of his plans into work.

Remus would always start bouncing in place or tapping his foot with anticipation before scrunching up his nose with the effort and subsequently falling back with a crazy smile and huge booming laughter when his ‘victims’ shouted with surprise. Every single time this happened; Logan had noticed the pattern a while ago. It was… charming.

“Yo, you there, Professor Sexy?” said a voice, only about an inch from Logan’s face, catching him off guard and nearly making him topple off of his stool. It was Remus.

Logan felt his face flush with embarrassment. “What?” He felt a bit like a fool.

“Didn’t mean for that little joke to throw you so off guard.” Remus shrugged. “Whatever,” he ended, walking away and back upstairs to his room.

Logan shook his head, grateful that no one else saw him, and got up himself. His food didn’t exactly look appealing after it had just had eyes and a mouth, so Logan scraped it into the garbage before putting on his jacket, grabbing his suitcase by the door, and leaving for work.

Virgil rolled his eyes, “You’re gonna have to try harder than that!” he shouted through the door. “Spiders don’t scare me, asshole!” He was very aware that the spiders crawling all over his chair and body weren’t actually there, though it helped that he could only see them, not feel them. But he still darkened the room so that he wouldn’t have to see them.

The little eight-legged creatures popped out of existence with a puff of smoke, and Virgil chuckled. Remus always forgot that he’d (mostly) grown out of his fear of spiders at about nine years old.

Virgil’s phone dinged! and he checked for the notification. [Patton’s Birthday Tomorrow!] a light blue notification showed. “What?” he questioned aloud. It shouldn’t be! He thought he had like, a month left. But he did pretty frequently forget and procrastinate. “Oh no… Shit!”

Virgil jumped out of his chair and ripped the door handle open to find Remus waiting. Perfect. “Hey!” he whispered, “I need your help! I forgot about Patton’s birthday tomorrow, and I don’t have a…” Virgil furrowed his brow, seeing a dorky grin on Remus’ face. The realization dawned on him. “You asshole! What is wrong with you!” A dark cloud surrounded them.

Remus laughed, “You should’ve seen your face! You were so worried!” Virgil just frowned. “Hey, didn’t mean to spook you that bad. You really love that guy, huh? It was just supposed to be funny. How ‘bout we hang out as an apology from my end?” Virgil turned back into his room and slammed the door in Remus’ face. He huffed. That didn’t work.

Patton then heard a knock on his door. “Who’s there?”

Without permission, the door burst open, and Remus came running through it. Patton screamed. His head was halfway disconnected at the neck, blood running everywhere and tendons trying desperately to hold it in place. “Hey dad-friend, got a little a-head of myself and I think it’s a bit of a proble-”

Patton was horrified, he fell backward to the ground, tears covering his face, sobbing. Remus instantly reversed the hallucination.

“Oh, fuck, I’m sorry!” Remus ran up next to Patton, resting his hand on his arm and offering comforting words. He concentrated to bring up the image of an enormous stuffed bear, right next to Patton, and he managed to make it feel real too. “That was way too far, I didn’t think it’d freak you out that bad.”

Patton brought a bit more glow to the room, as if he was fending off the dark imagery in his head. “You’re… you’re okay? You’re not hurt?”

“No! It was just one of my tricks. See?” Remus tilted his head to the side and rubbed his neck. “All connected.”

Patton’s tears subsided and he furrowed his brows at Remus. “That was a very mean thing you just did. That really scared me, and I don’t appreciate that.”

“I know, I know. I won’t do that again, okay daddy dearest?”

“Thanks for the bear. But I’m gonna continue my knitting. Alone.”

Remus stepped back and blinked. “Uhm, yeah. Yeah, okay.” He stepped outside and the door closed behind him. It felt like he had been stabbed in the chest with an axe. He wished Logan was still here. He was easier to be around.

Dejectedly, he tapped on Janus’ door, ready to smile and throw a handful of snakes in his face. But there was no answer. Duh, Janus worked the night shift. He hadn’t even come home yet. So Remus ran downstairs and started plotting how to get Roman when suddenly, he had an idea.

Everyone upstairs perked up their heads when they heard an ear-piercing scream echoing from downstairs. Roman jumped so high, they nearly hit their head on the ceiling. They thought they could smell smoke and ran out of their room. Sure enough, they saw dark grey plumes billowing up from the kitchen through the stairwell. Roman ran down the long hallway, knocking loudly on all of the doors and shouting, “Fire! Everyone, there’s a fire! Get out!” Once they got to the end, they turned around and counted heads. Logan left for work, Janus wasn’t back yet. Patton, Virgil, and themself were there. Remus.

“Get outside! I have to find Remus!”

“I think he’s downstairs!” Patton shouted. Roman ran downstairs, taking them two at a time and jumping past the last four or five.

“Remus! Where are you?”

“Over here!” He was stuck in a corner, his dark eyes lit up by the fire and frozen in fear.

“You have to get over here, we have to leave!”

Remus felt his eyes weighing down, closing despite his efforts. The sheer exhaustion was hitting him. “I… I can’t.” His limbs went numb and he slipped out of consciousness as he fell to the floor.

The smoke, the noise, the fire, the heat, it all disappeared. Roman looked around, confused. Everyone entered the main room, closing the front door with Janus now joining them.

Roman’s face scrunched up in anger. “Goddamnit! Another joke?” They crouched down next to their brother. “Get up you asshole! You think that’s funny?”

Patton leaned down next to them. “I think he’s really asleep…”

“So? He needs to wake up and learn that he can’t just do that shit!”

Virgil groaned. “So he’s really on one today?”

“What do you mean?”

“He was bugging me earlier. Made me think that it was Patton’s birthday tomorrow and I hadn’t gotten him a present. Scared the shit out of me.”

Patton rubbed his face. “Yeah, he paid me a little visit too. Looked like he had a… serious injury. I also heard Logan getting after him for something too earlier. He’s been much worse than usual.”

“From the sound of that, I might actually be lucky that I had overtime at work,” Janus chimed in.

Roman sighed, rubbing their temples. “He always forgets that he can really just ask.”

“Ask what?”

Roman stood. “For help. And attention. He gets this way when he feels sad and lonely. It’s a very…” they rolled their eyes, “unique way of expressing it. Usually I notice sooner, he’s never pretended to set the house on fire.”

“He’s been lonely?” Janus asked, setting down her things by the door. “I thought I would have noticed that.” They shook their head. “He’s just being his usual ‘funny’ self. It’s not like I don’t check what in the world is going on inside that mad head of his when he decides to act like this.”

“I don’t know about that.” Roman shook their head. “I’ve just… seen this pattern before. It couldn’t hurt to try and help, could it?” Everyone shrugged.

“A movie day tends to help.” They looked at Remus. “Uhm… do any of you think Logan might be able to get today off? I could go pick him up so he doesn’t have to wait for a bus.”

“Why Logan?” Virgil asked.

Roman laughed a little. “Remus messes with Logan the most, but only in tiny little, not-very-scary ways.” They paused. “Look, if I know my brother, and I do, believe me, Logan will be able to help a lot.”

“I’ll text him!” Patton offered. Roman suggested that everyone should set up some movies and blankets while they were gone, and once they got an ‘affirmative’ answer from Logan, Roman got into their truck to go pick him up.

“So, am I finally going to get any sort of definitive answer as to what is going on, or are you going to leave me in the dark as well?”

“Patton didn’t tell you?”

“Not at all. He was very vague as to the situation, just insisted that it was ‘important’ that I come back home.”

Roman sighed. “Remus is… well he’s not doing great right now. And I’m sorry if he pulled any especially rude tricks on you this morning.”

“What? Is he okay? What’s wrong?” Logan felt his heart rate shoot up.

“Yeah, he’ll be fine. He’s just sad and needs some attention right now.”

“Just sad? Are you sure he’s okay? He seemed fine this morning, nothing out of the usual.”

“He made Patton think that he had been decapitated, and made all of us at once see the house burning down before he passed out from the effort. He tends to do some pretty harsh things when he’s feeling lonely. He’ll be fine, but we need your help to give him some comfort is all.”

“Lonely…? If I-” Logan coughed. “Wait, why do you need me? There are plenty of people at the house right now, aren’t there?” While Logan would lo-be very willing to comfort Remus in his time of need, he figured he’d just be sitting there awkwardly and taking up space.

“You don’t realize either?” Roman laughed. “Dude, he is absolutely in love with you.”

Logan’s breath caught in his chest. “What?” He tried to laugh, blow it off like he didn’t care, but it wasn’t very effective and came off more as panicked breathing. “Really?”

“Uh, yeah. Have you seen the way he looks at you?” Roman looked over at him and their eyes widened. “Oh, god, I hope you’re not mad. You don’t have to or anything, I can take you back to work if you want-”

“No!” Logan couldn’t believe his ears. Remus… loved him? Was it another trick? “I… I want to help.”

Remus, the fun-loving, crazy, impulsive, hot-as-hell Remus loved Logan? What was he supposed to do? He couldn’t possibly… could he? I mean, sure he had fantasized about combing his wild hair with his fingers as they watched a horror movie, or being hoisted up onto Remus’ wide shoulders and carried around as a distraction from his work, or of strong, gentle kisses in bed, but it wasn’t like that! He couldn’t be with Remus, he didn’t love him!

Unless… oh. Logan realized.

Oh.

He really did love Remus. Every bit of him. His sparkling deep brown eyes, the dark freckles that, if you looked closely, covered every part of him with no pattern, the way he laughed.

Logan groaned and buried his head in his knees, scaring Roman. “You okay? What’s going on?”

“I… I think I feel the same way about Remus.” He lifted his head. “Are you sure he feels that way about me? Romantically?”

Roman gave a small smile. “Absolutely.”

They pulled into the driveway and Logan rushed out of the car, his every thought consumed by Remus right now. I have to help him.

He ran inside and to the couch, Roman following. “Is he okay?”

Virgil laughed. “Yeah, he’s still asleep. You sure look worried.”

Logan felt his cheeks tint red. “Yes… can I sit next to him?”

Virgil stood up, gesturing to the now-empty spot on the couch. “Go ahead. But beware: he drools.”

Logan sat down, there was so little room between the arm of the couch and Remus’ head that he ended up with his head on his lap. Logan oh-so-wanted to run his fingers through his dark curly hair, but instead, he had his arms awkwardly stuck out to the sides to avoid touching him too much.

“He’s not sick and contagious you know,” Virgil mocked.

Logan rested his arms slightly. “When’s he gonna wake up?”

Patton shrugged. “Dunno. He was using his magic on all of us at the same time. And it was pretty realistic too. He’s pretty tired out after all that.”

Logan looked down. He’d hardly ever seen Remus so… calm.

“We’ve planned out some movies while you were gone, so I suggest you get into some comfier clothes,” Janus said, referring to the suit that Logan had on, “and then you can settle down.”

Logan frowned slightly at the idea of leaving Remus still asleep and un-comforted. However, he did have to admit that a change of clothes would make this a lot more comfortable. So he slid his way out from under his head and quickly walked up to his room to change.

He came back down in a (hopefully attractive) tank top and sweatpants and reclaimed his spot just as they started a movie. Logan wasn’t really paying attention though. He just had too much to think about.

A couple of movies later, Logan glanced down to see Remus’ dark eyelashes flutter as he blinked. How long had he been awake? “Remus!” he said in a whisper. He spoke up. “Are you quite alright?”

“Yeah, just tired, Dr. Hottie,” he said, causing Logan to turn bright red. Roman paused the movie and everyone turned to check on Remus.

Logan spoke softly, “Yeah? I heard. You really pushed yourself there, I am not at all surprised that you fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.” He paused. “There’s a… rumour going around that you might be a little lonely.”

Remus laughed. “Oh yeah? And what are you going to do about that?”

“Well, we’re here to comfort you.”

“We-” Remus sat up and looked around. “Wow, you really brought the whole party, huh?”

“More like the whole party brought me, but yes. We’re all here for you.”

Remus looked like he was about to say something, but all that came out was a lightly broken sigh.

Roman gave him a gentle smile, “It’s okay. We’ve got you now. You don’t have to pretend to set the whole house on fire to get us here.”

“I… Oh, I did do that. Sorry, I guess.” Remus remembered the look of fear in his brother’s eyes before he passed out. “That was too much. I shouldn’ta done that. Doesn’t matter what I’m trying to do.” He felt the pressure of the blanket on his legs and the warmth of everyone around him, of Logan at his back. He touched his finger to his cheek to find a tear. His eyes stung. “Shit, sorry I didn’t mean to-”

Virgil cut him off. “You can cry. That’s fine. None of us are gonna judge you here.”

“It’s healthy to let it out,” Logan said behind him. “Trust me.”

“I don’t…” Remus muttered. “I’m gonna just lay back down.” With reluctant tears falling from his eyes, he rested his head down on what he now fully recognized as Logan’s lap, and smiled a little before quickly falling back asleep.

As time went on, people started leaving the couch. Janus went to bed, Virgil went to his room thoroughly over-socialized, Patton went to his tutoring job, and Roman returned to his room ‘because.’

Leaving just Logan on the couch with a sleeping Remus on his lap. He let out a deep sigh. His muscles were getting tired, and he really couldn’t find it practical to keep his arms hovering a ways away from Remus. He settled into it, resting one arm over Remus’ shoulder and the other resting on the arm of the couch.

Logan was watching the movie with vaguely more focus than before when he noticed his fingers running through Remus’ soft hair. He smiled down at him lovingly, pretending that this was something that happened all the time to prevent his heart from beating right out of his chest.

Remus groaned and turned over onto his back, startling Logan into pulling his hand away. “Nonono,” he mumbled. “That was so nice and cozy, please don’t stop." He was hardly awake at all, so Logan weighed his odds of embarrassment and continued.

Remus had a soft little smile on his face, barely showing the edges of his slightly crooked teeth. Logan promised himself that he wasn’t staring at Remus’ lips right now.

“Mmn,” Remus hummed warmly. “Can…” he laughed sleepily. “I can’t believe I’m asking this right now, but it’s just- damn you’re really so pretty, Logan.” He rubbed his face a little to try and wake himself up more. “Can-can I have a kiss?”

Logan froze up like a broken computer. He could hardly breathe let alone give an answer. After what felt like an eternity, Logan managed out a whispered, “Yes.”

Remus smiled, wrapping his arms around Logan’s neck and pulling himself closer, pressing their lips together. Logan felt like he was going to faint, or maybe wake up. He couldn’t tell.

Logan also felt a tear that wasn’t his own and pulled away gently. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. It’s a good tear. I’m happy to have everyone, especially you. It means love. And also that you’re super fucking sexy and kissing you is totally a dream come true.”

Logan felt like such a warm, safe space. He settled Remus’ mind when it was running at a hundred miles per hour but without shutting him down. He loved seeing the little smirk on his face whenever he would notice one of Remus’ illusions. And now he could finally admit it to him.

The two cuddled on the couch for at least another three hours before Patton got home and Roman left his room to check up on them. Roman conjured an image to the two of them of what looked like themselves being tv-style sappy and Logan buried his face in his hands. Remus just laughed and playfully punched his brother’s arm.

When the two got up so Patton could check Remus’ temperature and give him food and water, he gently reached for Logan’s hand and held him close. After Patton determined that Remus was safe, they all sat back down on the couch to continue watching some tv. Remus held his arms open, inviting Logan to curl up and cuddle, which he happily accepted, trying to ignore Patton’s “Awwww!” and Virgil handing Janus $20 behind the couch as if they couldn’t see. It was a nice calm moment to begin their crazy-in-love (emphasis on the crazy) relationship. And Remus didn’t have to set the kitchen on fire ever again.

#sanders sides gift exchange #secret santa #intrulogical #sanders sides #remus sanders #logan sanders #tss #hurt/comfort #fic #sanders sides fic #tss fic #bee's writing #ask to tag

35 notes · View notes

missfay49 · 4 years ago

Text

Just Listen

Summary: The fam-ILY gets together for a Christmas celebration.

Warnings: Logan and Virgil get in a fight but they make up, obligatory interaction with relatives, alcohol, food, Christmas, cursing, countdown, mention of past injury, struggling with recent hearing loss

Word Count: ~3000

Oldest to Youngest: Logan/Remus/Roman/Janus/Virgil/Patton/Alec

Other Characters: Aunt Patty and Uncle Mitch, Aunt Mel and Uncle Jim, Titi, Grandma Sanders, Grandpa Sanders, Maman, Nico Flores

DD:HH:MM:SS - Days : Hours : Minutes : Seconds

AO3

Once upon a time, there were seven cousins born of four siblings. The oldest sister and her husband had twins and named them Roman and Remus. The second oldest sister and her partners had a child and named him Alec. The youngest sister had one child and named him Patton. And their brother, the youngest of them all, had three children named Logan, Janus, and Virgil.

00:16:02:32 until Christmas Day, 7:58 AM

Logan, the oldest cousin, was leaning against the kitchen counter holding a fresh cup of coffee in one hand and rubbing his right temple with the other. He blinked against the early morning sun of Christmas Eve streaming in.

“You’re up early!”

Logan jumped at the movement to his right and found his aunt looking at him.

“Good morning, Aunt Mel. I made coffee.”

“Bless ya, kid,” she said, turning toward the machine. When she came back around to grab the sugar, he was gone.

00:13:25:17 until Christmas Day, 10:35 AM

“Who took the last piece of bacon?!”

Roman froze in his spot on the floor in front of the T.V. If he were just very, very still, maybe-

“J’accuse!” Remus shouted from the kitchen door over the sounds of chatter and clinking kitchenware. Roman spun around to see Remus pointing at him menacingly.

“You already had some!” Roman yelled back, pulling his plate close. Remus, not breaking eye contact even once, methodically kicked off his flip flops and set his plate gently on top of a bookshelf. He crouched a little and rolled his shoulders.

“Remus, no, my juice, Remus! NOOO-”

00:13:23:03 until Christmas Day, 10:37 AM

From his cozy spot beneath the sheets in the spare bedroom, Virgil heard a scream and a thump. And then several more thumps. He blinked and stretched, smooshing his face into the pillow. For one precious moment, he imagined he could go back to sleep but the dream was pierced by Aunt Patty’s shrill voice scolding someone down the hall.

He shoved himself up on his elbows and sent a hostile glare at the general brightness of the room. Things quieted down but it was too late - he was up. He stretched for several more minutes before finally straightening his clothes and stumbling out to follow the smell of breakfast.

00:12:40:54 until Christmas Day, 11:20 AM

Virgil shuffled past the subdued twins in the living room and into the kitchen, stopping at the door as his brain tried to process what was happening. His younger cousin, Patton, was furtively opening and closing all the cabinets, searching each and every one. Apparently he found what he was looking for, because he started chuckling to himself and reached behind some cups to pull out a huge plastic bag of cookies. He opened it and spun around on his socks, walking headlong into Virgil.

“Ah!” Patton nearly dropped the bag, and a couple cookies fell out onto the floor. Virgil laughed as they picked them up together.

“Whatcha doing, Pat?”

Patton waved him close, whispering.

“My mom keeps hiding the cookies. She said if I keep eating ‘em she’s gonna have to make more for tomorrow. That sounds like a win-win to me!” He took the floor cookie from Virgil and pocketed it. They took turns peering into the dining room where the older folks were talking.

“You do you, cuz.” They bumped fists and Virgil scooped some cold leftover eggs onto a paper plate to take with him to the living room. Remus shoved past him coming back into the kitchen.

Whatever Remus had planned to do in here was lost when he spotted Pat.

“Oo! Cookies!”

00:11:22:49 until Christmas Day, 12:38 PM

“What exactly are we watching, Roman?” asked Patton, popping a couple Tums into his mouth and flopping down into a recliner. Roman was still planted in the middle of the living room floor, but now Virgil was keeping him company, fast asleep on the couch with an empty plate in his lap. Roman didn’t look away from the screen.

“A Christmas Prince. It’s about a journalist that falls in love with the prince of a whole Christmas-themed country! And the bad guy’s not too bad lookin’ either.” Roman squeezed a pillow to his chest.

“Oh, right, I thought it looked familiar! Did you watch Jenny Nicholson’s breakdown of it?”

“Who?”

Patton smiled at the look of wonder on Roman’s face as he followed the characters on screen. At the silence, Roman turned around to look at him, distracted but curious. Patton waved him off.

“Never mind.” Better not to spoil it.

00:07:12:24 until Christmas Day, 16:47 PM

“Dinner tiiime!” Aunt Patty peeked into the living room. “It’s all ready, you guys hungry?”

“Yisss!” Patton launched himself out of the recliner with Virgil following slowly behind. Roman tore his eyes away from the current Hallmark movie with great effort, checking his phone messages.

Aunt Mel was in the kitchen with their little cousin Alec. Just as they passed through he let up a screech, making them all jump. Roman’s phone went flying.

“AAAAA DON’T WANNA WASH I’M STILL PLAYING!”

“AH, sweet Jesus,” Roman clutched his chest dramatically as the rest started laughing.

“Alright, keep it together, ya hooligans,” Aunt Mel teased them. “Alec, I’ve had too much wine today for you to be screaming at the water. You told me yesterday you love playing with the water-”

Auntie continued to help Alec wash his hands and the cousins tumbled into the dining room where Logan and the grandparents were already gathering. Logan braced at the incoming chaos.

“What happened to you?” He asked them.

“Didn’t you hear Alec screaming?” Virgil deadpanned.

“Oh,” Logan straightened his glasses. “Yes, that.”

The rest of the family came up from the basement talking heatedly about the Saints and the Vikings. Who was winning or losing at that particular moment was unclear, but dinner would proceed regardless.

00:04:47:19 until Christmas Day, 19:13 PM

“Defuse!” Remus slammed a card down onto the table. “Whew, that was close. I almost exploded in a fiery, kitten-y death!”

“Boom!” Alec cheered. Nearly the whole family was gathered around the kitchen-table-turned-game-table, even the grandparents and great grandma, Maman. Aunt Patty and Uncle Mitch were downstairs watching the end of the football game, and Titi was just a few feet away putting a new batch of sugar cookies in the oven. She shot a good-natured stare at Patton.

“Sorry, mooom,” “Sorry, Titiii” he and Remus chorused. “Patton tricked me!”

“Hey!”

“That’s okay, you two can help me decorate these later as punishment. Remus,” Titi pointed to the person beside him. “Help Maman with her turn, remember?”

“Oh, yeah!” Remus leaned over the centenarian. “You got any actions, Maman?”

“Quel est ce dessin?” She held her cards up to him and pointed.

“That’s a cat dressed as a taco, Maman. C’est un mème.”

While the game continued around the table, Virgil watched Logan discreetly. Sitting to his left, something was wrong with his oldest brother. He wasn’t sure what yet, but it was definitely… something.

“Nope!” Logan put a card down over Uncle Jim’s attack. Aunt Mel went next, then she helped Alec with his turn, and then, there it was; Logan’s brow furrowed ever so slightly. His eyes flitted back and forth between the players and the cards. He stared at their faces, but not quite at eye level. Patton’s, Roman’s, Grandma’s turns all passed the same - he was concentrating so hard. Why?

“Virgil?” Grandpa nudged him out of his speculation. “It’s your turn.”

Logan was staring at him expectantly.

“Oh.” Virgil glanced at two mismatched cats and drew. An exploding kitten. He was dead. “You’re turn, Lo.”

Logan spent a second longer waiting to see if Virgil was done, and then played his own cards. As they both watched Remus go next, Virgil leaned in closer.

“What is up with you?” He whispered. Logan didn’t take his eyes off Remus’ cards.

“Hey!” He kept whispering, jabbing Logan in the ribs.

“Ow!” Logan yelped, then lowering his voice. “What?”

“I asked you a question, don’t act like you can’t hear me.”

Logan squinted at him, then his face shifted. He looked stricken.

“I’m playing “See The Future”,” someone said. “Hand me the deck.”

00:04:22:44 until Christmas Day, 19:38 PM

VIRGE: what happened?

A new round had started and Virgil hoped that switching to text would let them continue their argu- debate without distracting the rest of the family.

BIG BRO: Nothing

VIRGE: bullshit

Logan ignored his phone, watching the game progress counter-clockwise this time. Virgil did not accept this strategy.

VIRGE: !

BIG BRO: Stop

VIRGE: tell the truth.

BIG BRO: (Seen)

They paused to take their turns, and when Virgil picked his phone back up, Logan was already typing. He tried to be patient, but the energy was clear in the way his foot tapped the ground.

BIG BRO: It seems my hearing has not entirely recovered since that explosion during chem lab a couple months ago. I’ve got tinnitus in my right ear. It is quite difficult to pick up sounds over the ringing when they’re coming from that direction.

BIG BRO: Or sometimes from any direction. So, I’m concentrating a little more. That’s all.

Virgil glanced between the texts and Logan several times, Logan staring with seemingly great intent at his cards.

VIRGE: THATS ALL?

BIG BRO: Calm down, it’s not a big deal.

VIRGE: have you been to a doctor?

Logan stopped to play another “Nope” card. Virgil was ready to scream at the delay. The chatter at the table seemed louder to him now and much, much different.

BIG BRO: Yes. And I’ve done plenty of my own research. There’s not much to be done unless I want to get surgery or start wearing hearing aids.

VIRGE: so wear hearing aids until you decide about the surgery

BIG BRO: They’re expensive, Virgil.

VIRGE: dads insrance must cover some of it and ive got some extra money

BIG BRO: No. Thank you. That money’s yours. You worked hard for it.

VIRGE: your e taking it

BIG BRO: That’s not the problem.

VIRGE: then what is.?

BIG BRO: (Seen)

VIRGE: why won’t you make it easier on yourself? you know none of us will care if you wear one. the explosion wasn’t even your fault, it was that other kid

Virgil sent the text and looked at Logan, waiting. Remus was nearly finished with his turn; Logan was next. The turns passed, but Logan didn’t pick his phone back up from the table.

VIRGE: why

Logan glanced at the text preview when it came up on the screen, still not moving.

VIRGE: i know you can see this

VIRGE: why

“Because!” Logan shouted, slapping his cards down. Everyone fell into a stunned quiet.

“Are you guys cheating? Mom says cheating is wrong.” Alec’s voice broke the silence a second later. Virgil stuck his tongue out at him.

“I assure you we are not cheating,” Logan smiled at Alec. “Virgil’s just being a pest.”

The game resumed, Patton taking an absurd amount of actions before drawing another Beard Cat card. Was it even legal to have that many cards?

Virgil leaned back in his chair, tired from the stress. His phone buzzed.

BIG BRO: This is my last semester. I’ll get one after graduation.

00:00:41:12 until Christmas Day, 23:19 PM

Roman carried two mugs of coffee into the living room as back-to-back commercials for 24 Hours of A Christmas Story played on the T.V. He handed one to Virgil and got back under the throw blanket.

“Thanks.”

“Whatcha doing?” Roman peered at Virgil’s laptop. There were at least a dozen tabs open. The current screen showed some kind of fancy earpods.

“Just killin’ time.” Virgil opened yet another tab.

“Yeah, it’s a bummer Janus picked a college so far away. But the train’s due in a few minutes! Then it’ll be officially Christmas.”

“I mean, he still has to, like, get here from the station.”

“Whatever,” shrugged Roman. He flipped through the channels. All commercials. He settled back on the Hallmark channel, laying down and closing his eyes while they waited for the latest must-have-product ads to end.

“Remember when we played dress up together?” Roman mused. “Mom taped all those toilet paper rolls together so we could have swords and we all fought over the two paper crowns from Burger King? Do they still make those?”

“I have no idea,” Virgil laughed. “That was so long ago, how do you even remember that?”

“Because I was a fabulous ruler! The kingdom prospered unendingly under my leadership!” Roman flung his free arm wide, not bothering to open his eyes. “It was glorious!”

“All you did was declare free love-”

“An important doctrine!” Roman jabbed at the air once before letting his arm flop back down and graze the carpet. “All Janus did was universally pardon thieves and liars, was that so much better?”

“Well, I was playing a thief. Maybe I’m biased.”

“You would…” Roman muttered. He didn’t finish the thought.

“Roman?”

A little snort was the only response. Roman was fast asleep, coffee untouched and the remote resting by his head.

00:00:00:03 until Christmas Day, 23:59 PM

00:00:00:02...

00:00:00:01...

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Virgil was stirring; he snuck like a mouse.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

in hopes that his brother soon would be there.

Christmas Day, 01:23 AM

“Wake up!”

Roman gasped. Someone was shoving him into the couch cushions.

“He’s here!” Virgil bounced on his shoulder again, almost knocking the laptop to the ground.

“Okay! Jeez, I’m up. I’m up!”

Virgil was already gone, shoving his boots on while a taxi drove away outside leaving two figures in the darkness with their bags. By the time Roman was on his feet, Janus was shouldering through the door with a backpack and giant suitcase, a cute boy following just behind.

“What is up, king?” Roman and Janus clasped hands and half hugged. “Who’s this?”

“Oh, you know.” Janus shrugged off the bag. “This is my boyfriend. Nico, this is my cousin, Roman.”

Nico stifled a yawn and waved. “Pleasure to meet you, Roman!” Virgil came in setting down two more bags and nudged Janus.

“I thought we all agreed not to bring dates again after what happened last-”

“Oh, sweetheart, you must be exhausted!” Roman interrupted as he picked up one of the bags. “I’ll show you where you’re sleeping.”

“Thank you so much, our stuff took forever to load off the train.” Nico started to follow him.

“Hands to yourself, Ro,” Janus hissed after them. “I like this one.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Roman grinned, disappearing around the corner into the hallway. Nico hesitated.

“What…?”

Janus waved him off. “I’ll tell you later.” When they were both out of sight, he turned to Virgil.

“It looks like half the county’s parked in our front yard. Is dad up?”

“He didn’t stay.” Virgil shrugged. “He got into a fight with Titi last night and left after an hour.”

“I see…” Janus sighed, looking down the hall for a moment. “Can’t break tradition now, can we?” He smiled up at his little brother. “Did you get taller?”

Virgil answered by way of a bear-hug, squeezing the breath out of him.

“I missed you, too, Virge.”

Christmas Day, morning-ish

“Merci, Maman! Thank you!” Everyone spoke over each other, unwrapping the sweaters she had made for each of them.

“Yellow was very, uh, popular this year, no?” She teased them. “I hope that you like them.”

“Mine does not have yellow, it’s gold.” Roman corrected everyone. Aunt Patty scolded him. Janus laughed.

“Don’t complain, Roman, yellow is just the superior color,” said Janus, wrestling his own sweater on.

“Yours is more black than yellow!” Roman pointed out. Janus’ head popped up through the collar.

“Did I say yellow? I meant ‘black’. Black is the superior color.”

“Black’s not even a color,” Roman called after Janus shimmying away to grab a cookie with Nico in the kitchen. He came back a second later.

“Why does this cookie look like it’s frosted with vomit?” Janus held one up, looking affronted.

“Don’t suppress my creativity!” Remus shouted from under the tree.

Christmas Day, sometime, who cares anymore?

Logan stood in the hallway, reading an email from Virgil, sent at three that morning. It was lists of hearing aids, their pros and cons, and prices. And another email from Janus a few minutes ago with links on how to get disability funding. That would explain Virgil’s note at the end...

I love you. Please don’t be mad. I told Janus.

He rubbed a hand over his face and chuckled. Had he really thought he was going to keep this a secret for even a day around those two? He pocketed the phone for now and walked through the house.

There was Patton and Roman watching a girl in a beret talk on youtube. Roman had a horrified look on his face. Janus was in the kitchen teaching Alec how to play chess, and not going easy on the kid at all. Logan peeked downstairs. There were Virgil and Remus and Nico, playing charades with the aunties. Remus was making some obscene gesture that had Aunt Mel on the floor laughing and spilling her wine, and Aunt Patty was yelling at both of them.

Logan wandered to the couch and plopped down. It’s a Wonderful Life, was playing on the television. Logan hummed along with the closed captioning as the characters celebrated saving George Bailey from false charges. The vibrations in his chest felt right.

For auld lang syne, my dear

For auld lang syne

We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet

For days of auld lang syne

The End.

@sanderssidesgiftxchange @kieraelieson

18 notes · View notes