#I've seen people joke about how it would be nice to have a slave

[gothicvalentine]

[bluetomorrows]

Clone High: It's About the Contrast

Something I've seen a lot of is Clone High S2 redesigns. People taking the new characters of S2 of Clone High and changing the designs, usually cause they don't like what we did get. Some of these are neat. I saw one that tries to combine their new designs with their S1 designs from when these characters were incidentals. A lot of them seem to take the personality out of the design. Most of them look hard to animate, but that isn't the point I'm trying to make.

People seem to really dislike these new designs. There are valid design reasons (some are a bit overdesigned, and they definitely clash with the S1 designs) but it just seems people are mad at them in concept. Especially Harriet Tubman. How could they turn Harriet Tubman into... this?

It's outrageous! And yeah, it is. It's supposed to be. That's the joke. In the 20 years since Season 1, the Clone High Fandom has grown and shipped and gossiped and a lot of people have forgotten that the incongruity of the characters is part of the joke. Joan of Arc was not in fact a goth girl who constantly thirsts over tall men. The same goes for several other characters.

Harriet Tubman isn't Harriet Tubman. She shares her DNA but she is decidedly a different person. That's the point of Clone High, the show is less about historical figures interacting in a high school setting and more about how these people might be if they were raised under different circumstances. Ideologically, Clone High is an argument against great man theory.

Gandhi changed the world. But when he isn't born and raised in British controlled India under very specific circumstances, he's just some guy. The same goes for Cleopatra, JFK, Joan of Arc,, Jesus Christ, and yes, even Confucius, Frida Kahlo, and Harriet Tubman. It's circumstances that create people, not people making the circumstances.

Imagine if you had the chance to have a conversation with the real Harriet Tubman. What do you think she would say? How would she act? I'm sure she'd probably be an interesting and nice person, but she wouldn't be a character fit for a wacky animated sitcom. You don't really expect former slaves to be bubbly like that.

It both literally and metaphorically takes the basic DNA of these figures and subverts and modifies their existence through modern society, or rather the tropes of teen dramas. Not just asking what would happen if these people were in high school but if they were ordinary people. Instead of being a hero whose life is in danger, Harriet Tubman is a girl who gossips and whose biggest worry is becoming a basic bitch.

Look at the S2 finale. The board of shadowy figures have assembled their great men and put them in competition. They'll weed out the best of the best to become the great men of the future. And out of about 100 clones, only one actually makes it to the end. Everyone else fails. The one clone who does make it, Joan, is born again into extreme circumstances. Being left for dead by her friends and suffering a psychic break. There is no such thing as great men, just extraordinary situations.

I think this theme of subverting these legendary figures is something that should be kept in mind when talking about the show. It isn't really a show about historical figures, just historically-themed characters. And that's okay. It's very funny when done well! It's a cartoon and it really acts like it. It was never asking to be taken as a serious drama and definitely wasn't asking to be a commentary on historical figures. It simply parodied its contemporary teen dramas a little too well and we got invested in joke characters and everything changed. The S2 writers were in a very unenviable place, and I applaud them for taking things in bold new directions. If you haven't watched S2 or even just watched a few episodes, I'd recommend giving it another chance. It's not perfect but it gets better as it continues. It has its own distinct feel and style while still understanding what "the point" of the original was.

Also Kahlopatra for life ❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

i'm cry laughing some people on twitter are now saying "izzy bashing" needs to be tagged in fics. how did these people ever survive watching this show where izzy is the CANON ANTAGONIST i'll never know

benefit of the doubt but i think most of them have gotten to this point gradually. when they first watched the show they were not attached to izzy the way they are now. i know for a lot of people it was blorbo at first sight with izzy but i've also seen izzy enjoyers say they didn't like him at first, and then fandom made them care about him.

like i'm pretty sure for a lot of ppl it started off with isolating themselves from ppl who made posts that they didnt like, like ppl who criticized ofmd for being based on two real people with direct connections to actual real-world slave trade (which is an incredibly valid thing to criticize abt ofmd).

another one that i think funneled a lot of fans towards being so delusionally attached to izzy was people pointing out or complaining about the disproportionate amount of fan content for izzy compared to prominent characters of color—which is a consistent issue in fandom no matter what the media, and is also a very easy one for people to be uncomfortable with whenever they see it get pointed out. people venting that "fans care too much abt this white man" often make fans who care abt that white man very defensive right off the bat, and then rather than engage with why they feel defensive or question if maybe their enjoyment of this character is fueled by implicit bias (which it might not be, to be clear! im not saying—and i have never said—that everyone who enjoyes izzy likes him for racist reasons), they stop listening to the conversation abt white favoritism and continue blorboposting as much as they want. it's incredibly easy for fans to brush off this convo as "just starting drama" and avoid the topic altogether because "fandom is for fun!" and they dont want to think abt difficult topics like racism and implicit bias, they just want to enjoy their blorbos in peace.

so they kept narrowing the takes they were seeing until they were in an echo chamber that kept moving more and more towards complete woobification of izzy hands. these people are now looking at the show entirely through izzy's pov, making posts abt how sad it is that none of the other characters are ever nice to him, how frustrating the show is from his perspective, how it feels to be deeply in love with someone who doesn't love you back. they've stared at gifs of con's micro-expressions and read angsty fanfiction and looked at endless izzy fanart and their entire ofmd fandom experience revolves around empathizing with this one character even tho the show itself continually makes him the butt of the joke.

at this point, telling these people to rewatch the show doesn't even matter. they've spent so much time over-analyzing every single one of izzy's scenes to the point where the emotional responses they get from these scenes are not the emotional responses anyone would have watching the show for the first time. they've warped the entire first season to fit their version of the show and are forgetting how often the show itself bashes izzy.

and the icing on the cake is the trolling. there's like, one or two people on here who go around sending anon hate and leaving nasty comments on instagram posts and harassing people on twitter for... like, i would say "for liking izzy" or even "for saying positive things about izzy" but like. i've gotten these messages, and the most sympathetic i've ever been to izzy was the post i made like "maybe he's mean bc he has chronic IBS. i'd actually understand him more if that were the case." so when i get these messages it's easier for me to just laugh them off bc it's so obviously just someone trying to make me upset, but people who do care about izzy (a lot of them being the same people who avoided engaging with the "why does fandom care so much abt white characters" convo) get these absolutely horrible messages about how they deserve to get hate crimed and they should kill themselves. and these fans who didn't want to even see vaguely negative posts abt izzy bc they just want to enjoy fandom in peace are now like "im targeted for just liking a character!"

so that's how we get to people saying that "izzy bashing" needs to be tagged. never mind that their definition of "bashing" almost certainly includes things that are not bashing but are just things that contradict the way they headcannnon him.

[ablednt]

responding to the dream stuff you've mentioned cause im confused on some things

wheres like, proof of his jokes? cause i've heard that he's made racist jokes but not what the jokes are, when he said it, and why each joke would be bad (the last part really only important for learning about why something is racist)

on one hand, yeah those jokes are horrible, but they are normalized and not specifically a "dream bad" thing. i havent seen dream specifically make that kind of joke tho

i vaguely remember hearing of this but also like. didnt he stream at the end of the month ?? at the very end, but still

most confused about this one, when has he ever mentioned this? i've never really seen anyone advocate for doxing, let alone dream

I just reblogged a carrd with proof of literally all of this sans the last one also for someone who "doesn't know a lot about the dsmp" you certainly are acting like you do lmao?

The last one is on his twitter somewhere, might've gotten deleted idk and idfc the rest of this should be enough for you anyway

Whilst I'm on the carrd though, here:

[ID A tweet from dream that shows a google screenshot, he is googling the word "slaves" on the toolbar the word shopping is circled in red. Underneath this screenshot there's a picture of the stonks meme but with a minecraft villager over it. End ID]

[ID tweets from dream2, a locked side account of dreams, in order they read:

"Look at all the offended people in the comments of this video, oh wait, there's literaly none

Native americans don't "own" screaming while flicking your tongue around. Of course war is offensive, people die. Saying "vive la resistance" is I'm sure offensive to french people. Plus, I literally have native american in my blood.

If you're offended, fuck off, literally could [sic] care less. It's not offensive and don't be a baby. Get off my account if you want to critique people having fun in a block game.

End ID]

When he streamed during pride month it was literally on a side account with less followers and for less than 2 hours and in response to criticism instead of admitting he dropped the ball or doing queer charity streams outside of pride month to make up for it he had this "joke" to make lol

[ID tweet from dream that says "I'm baiting the LGBTQ+ community into subscribing to me for gay content didn't you hear [there is an ear emoji here] open your ears weirdo. End ID]

In addition to all this on the carrd that I reblogged there's mention of him making pedophilic comments, using the r slur in a derogatory way (like idc if you're neurodivergent that's not how reclaimation works lmao), and the like. Moreover the rest of his smp members are all doing similar shit, making similar jokes, joking about rape and mocking George Floyd and a lot of other stuff.

So like lmao nice try pretending that some of the most hotly debated racists around right now are really hard to find any info/proof on. This is just embarrassing please do better.

[lovelystarlings]

Chapter Two - Hermione Granger

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When Camille was a little girl, her mother and father used to tell her the tale of Lily Potter; the woman who saved her son with love, the same son who defeated the Dark Lord and survived the killing curse. Camille never realised that Harry Potter was the same age as her, nor did she realise how young he was when he defeated the Dark Lord. So as she sat opposite him, she gained an insane amount of respect for him.

"I thought Fred and George were just joking around but, god you're him?" Ron spoke, his eyes wide in anticipation as he leant forward at the same time as Camille slammed her book shut and got up, squashing next to the two boys; much to the embarrassment of Ron who was heavily blushing once again.

"Have you got the, um, you know?" He pointed to Harry's forehead.

Harry nodded and pulled his bangs back to show the lightning scar that sat right in the middle of his forehead.

"Is that where the Dark Lord, you know?" Camile uttered out quietly, not wanting to offend the boy in anyway but curious, as any person would be, as to how he survived the ultimate curse.

"Yes," Harry replied, "But I don't remember it very much. Some green light but nothing else."

"Wow," said Ron. He sat and stared at harry for a few minutes than snapped his head back to the window, realising what he was doing.

"So you two must know loads about magic already." Harry spoke, looking at Camille, who hadn't really spoken to much.

"Oh yes," Camille spoke, her hands falling into her lap to fiddle with her cardigan ends, she hated small talk. "In France I was lucky to be tutored by the headmistress of my older sister's school, Beauxbaton's. My mother insisted I wasn't behind with my education, so she had me start reading and learning a year early." She explained, both boys leaning forward, her French accent making it impossible not to listen.

"Though I heard you had to live with muggles, how was it?" She spoke, instantly regretting her question when a look of despair flashed across the boy's face before he covered it with a mask of tranquillity. "Yeah that must have been terrible. My mums got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him." Ron began, Camille suspected that the Weasley's were one of the Sacred Twenty Eight, the twenty eight pure-blooded wizarding families, unfortunately the Delacour's were not a part of that twenty eight due to her grandmother being veela and her grandfather being a pureblood therefore leading to her mother being a half blood, breaking the Sacred Twenty Eight rules.

"Muggles are horrible -well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers or a wizard sister."

"Witch sister actually Harry, if you're gonna be a wizard you have to get the pronouns right."

"Five, actually" said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy, but Camille supposed so would she if she had five versions of Fleur, one was quite enough. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left -- Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good mark's and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."

He gently took the rat that had previously been asleep off of his lap to display to the group. "His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff - I mean, I got stupid old Scabbers instead." Ron's ears went pink. He seemed to think he'd said too much, because he went back to staring out of the window.

Harry began to speak about his experience with muggles, how he had hand me down everything, and how he lived in a cupboard under the stairs, and how his aunt and uncle practically treated him like slave, or rather a house elf, Camille thought. Ron seemed to cheer up at the news that he wasn't the only unfortunate one in the carriage, and when both boys looked at Camille, as it were her turn to share the pity party, she froze. Despite having the perfect life to others, she had suffered from anxiety since she was a child due to an event that she wasn't quite ready to share just yet.

"My parents have always favoured my older sister over me, and it hurts you know. It's always about her, and her feelings, and how she succeeds, and sometimes I feel like I shouldn't be here you know? Like if my parents don't truly love me than who will. I mean they do all these things for me so they look good and fair enough but sometimes I wish they treated me like Fleur, and not some random that lives with them. Even when Fleur's boyfriend rap-" She cut herself off, her eyes beginning to water as she remembered how her parents had treated her after that. Her sister was just a loving as always, but naïve to the hardships that some faced, as she had never faced them herself.

Looking up at the two she felt a hand on her knee, Harry's hand to be specific.

"You don't have to carry on, it's okay." He spoke, Ron nodding in agreement, trying to find something to distract the poor girl.

"Hey look! We're out of London!" The redheaded boy pointed out the window as the trio smiled at the endless evergreen that surrounded them. They were finally on their way to Hogwarts.

Timed past quickly, and at half past twelve a faint knock was heard on the door of the compartment, waking Camille suddenly from her sleep, the book that had been rested on her face banging loudly as it fell to the floor, Camille bending down to pick it up awkwardly.

A smiling elderly woman poked her head around the sliding door gently, Harry and Ron already starting to thorough through their pockets for change. Camille assumed this was the trolley lady. 

"Anything off the trolley, dears?"

Ron made the decision to stay sat down and pulled out a bag of sandwiches that Mrs Weasley had obviously made, the French girl melting inside at the sweetness of his mother. He stared at the girl strangely, as if he expected her to get up like Harry.

"I left my money in the trunk," she shrugged, before going back to her book. She didn't need to eat anyway, as her mother had told her countless times.

Hearing a gasp from Ron, she lifted her head to see Harry return, arms filled with everything you could think off; chocolate frogs, every flavoured beans, blowing gum, pumpkin pasties (Camille's personal favourite) and cauldron cakes. He had basically bought out the whole trolley, making Ron's sandwiches look inferior compared to his full course meal or rather dessert.

"Bloody hell Harry. Hungry, are you?" Camille spoke, but was silent soon after as her stomach chose the wrong to rumble loudly, most likely the result of skipping breakfast and lunch.

"Bloody hell Camille. Hungry, are you?" Harry spoke mockingly, after taking a huge bite of his pasty and causing crumbs to spray everywhere.

"Harry!" Camille scolded, whipping her napkin out of her pocket to wipe off the crumps that had landed in her lap. "You never talk with your mouthful, it's vulgar!" She muttered to herself, Harry and Ron began to laugh at her antics as she furiously wiped her dress down, and threw the napkin onto the seat beside her, stomach rumbling once again.

"Camille?"

"Yes." The girl said frustratingly, blowing a stray hair that had fallen on to her forehead away, looking at the boy who lived in annoyance. She despised bad etiquette. "Would you like a pastry, in return for forgiveness for my devastatingly terrible manners in front of a lovely lady like you?" An annoying tone of confidence dripped from his words as Harry held out his hand, in it a pumpkin pastry.

"Well," Camille spoke slowly, hand reaching over to Harry's, "They are my favourite."

"You too, Ron. I'm not just gonna leave you with a beef sandwich." The boy who lived spoke, pushing a pasty over to the ginger boy. It was nice feeling, Camille thought as the three sat there munching their way through the endless pile of sweets, Mrs Weasley's homemade sandwiches far forgotten.

The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills. Excitement built in Camille, making her rather giddy as she thought of their arrival at Hogwarts.

There was a knock on the door of their compartment and a round-faced boy with shaking hand entered. He looked tearful, and Camille felt the need to give him a hug.

"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"

When they shook their heads, he wailed, surprisingly loud considering they were on a train full of people, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

"Well I'm sure he'll come back soon," spoke Camille in a matter of fact way, "We're on a train it's not like he can get far!"

"Yes, I suppose he will." The boy spoke miserably, before leaving their cabin in a hushed manner, heading straight to the opposite compartment, asking them the exact same question he had asked them.

"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron, patting the rat on his lap aggressively. "If I'd brought a toad, I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought useless old Scabbers, so I can't really talk."

"He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look..." He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.

"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway."

He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toad less boy had returned, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes, her puffy brown hair and front crooked teeth noticeable. But Camille thought that she was quite pretty.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. Ah, thought Camille, so Neville's his name.

"We already told him we haven't seen it but we'll let him know if we do." Camille spoke softly, pitying the poor boy, Neville, she corrected herself, who still had tears pouring down his cheeks.

The girl however seemed distracted at the sight of a wand, a smile appearing on her face as she began to step further into the compartment, sitting herself down next to Camille. "Are you doing magic? Show us then." Ron seemed taken aback at forwardness of the brunette girl, who had made herself comfortable nest to Camille, even going as far to rest gently on her shoulder; Camille had found her new best friend.

"Uh-ok?" He cleared his throat. "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

Nothing happened, and Camille just had to let out a tiny giggle, not noticing the looks she gained from Harry and the girl beside her.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard - I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough - I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you." She spoke extremely fast, Camille having issues simply catching her name.

Hermione. Camille thought. That's pretty.

"Oh, w-well thank you I guess." Camille was just about as red as Ron's hair. She hadn't meant to say that out loud.

"Um you're welcome. I'm Camille." She locked eyes with the bushy haired girl, immediately looking away when she saw Hermione was as red as she was.

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered, his mouth once again stuffed with food.

"Harry Potter," said Harry.

"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course - I got a few extra books. for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.

"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad. Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You three had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

[panicatthehottopical]

Just Tell My Crush I Like Him

Summary:

This was it. This was the day Virgil was gonna confess...except he couldn’t. He promised the he’d confess today but he just didn’t feel comfortable so, he did the next best thing.

OR

Virgil rants with his crushes about his other crushes and none of them know he likes more than one of them

Pairing: LAMP

Warnings: Self deprication and a slightly sexual joke

Tags: Pining, fluff, angst, and a touch of chaos?

Chapter 1

If there was one thing Virgil could do, it was talk about his crushes for hours upon hours. During different days, Virgil would spend one on one time with different sides: On draining days- he'd recuperate in Logan's room, on emotional days-he'd bake with Patton, and on inspired days- he'd participate in a craft with Roman. At least, that'd how it started. A few days a month, he'd somehow end up with the other three, typically under those circumstances. Logan would invite him to spend time in his room as the other read. They would interact a bit here and there, sometimes sharing whatever they were looking at and debating the subject. Mostly though, days in Logan's room were just a relaxed way to spend time with each other. If Virgil was ever significantly distressed, Patton would ask Virgil to bake with him. Virgil accepted as the change of scenery and activity helped the anxious side calm down. In some cases, the baking even made him excited. After a particularly wonderful day, Virgil asked Patton if he'd like to bake. Now, he was definitely a tad bit nervous, but he knew it would make the other's day. Patton was certainly surprised but visibly excited. After that, baking became their thing: no longer as just a way to recover, but as a way to just spend time together. Virgil's first encounter spending one on one time with Roman was a bit different. Unlike the others who wanted to spend time with Virgil in those instances, Roman needed a helping hand and the others were preoccupied with one of Thomas's dilemmas. Roman didn't mind having Virgil be the one to help however, he was a bit weary due to never interacting with Virgil separate from the group. Their interaction was uncomfortable for a few minutes before they started playfully bickering as Roman led him into Imagination. Virgil leant Roman a second pair of eyes (not literally, Remus) as he observed the prince's painting. He had spent days slaving away on it and every second paid off thanks to the look on the shorter side's face. He-was-spellbound. The painting depicted a mixture of things the sides enjoyed but surprisingly the differences in interests complimented each other beautifully in the swirl of colors. Once Virgil was finally able to tear his eyes away, he complimented the prince and for the first time in his life, had no pointers to give. Roman didn't even try to contain his joy at the response. And yet even after receiving no helpful advice, Roman asked him for his opinion again, on another project. At some point Roman began helping Virgil with his drawing techniques while Virgil helped Roman with specifically dark or disney themed projects. Virgil helped when Roman created another castle in Imagination, only this time it had elements from every single Disney movie in existence: Pete's Dragon, Treasure Planet, you name it! (And let's just say Virgil made sure to leave a few extra surprises for Roman in that castle of his.)

Despite his effort to remain distanced from the others, Virgil found himself looking forward to every moment he spent with them. Light hearted conversations and banter with the others began to give way to something Virgil was extremely unfamiliar with. Conversations began going deeper and deeper and deeper still and this stirred something in Virgil that he didn't know he had the capacity for, love. Learning the though processes and dreams of the others along with their unfiltered care for him lead Virgil to fall deeply for them. The more time he spent with them, the more time he wanted to spend with them. Family meals and movie nights became more lively as they all became closer and he wouldn't trade that for any-well, maybe...no. He wouldn't trade that for anything. As they revealed personal things about themselves, Virgil began to as well. He was admittedly slower to open up but all three of them were patient, nonetheless.

Unfortunately, his feelings couldn't stay hidden. After a nice debate in the starry room followed by scrolling through tumblr and reading respectively, the silent agreement to avoid that territory was breached.

"May I inquire something?"

Virgil raised an eyebrow, "Shoot."

"I have nothing to 'shoot' at you, and even if I did, I doubt I would be inclined to do so."

"It's means ask away, buddy."

Logan loosened his tie seeming almost nervous as he spoke, "Do you possess romantic feelings for anyone?"

Virgil's body went ridged. Did he know? Virgil stuffed his phone into his pocket and kept his hands there as well. As much as he'd rather escape into the world of tumblr, if he held his phone any longer Logan might have noticed how much his hands had begun to shake from nervousness. Virgil tried to force his shoulders to relax as he shifted into a more comfortable position,

"What brought this on?"

Okay, that was good. Figure out how much he knows or thinks he knows and figure out a way to counter, just like any other debate.

"I've noticed an increase in the length of time you spend around Patton, along with more of a variety of expressions than you had previously shown when exposed to him, and an increase in the length and frequency of your time spent 'spacing out' or as Patton would say, during your 'daydreams.'

Virgil opened his mouth only to close it again, he had no idea how to respond to being caught but boy was Logan attractive when he did that. Shaking his head and snapping out of it, Virgil simply nodded. Logan gave him a small timid smile as he asked if the emo would like any advice, if he needed it, because despite not experiencing a relationship himself, Logan did have some helpful information about them in his pretty little head. "I'd uh I'd like that, thanks Lo," Virgil gave a two finger salute before slipping out of the room. It was a little earlier than he'd normally leave but not so early that he'd seem upset. This was a relatively rare occurrence, as he would spend every moment with Logan that he could, but what the heck it was a pretty weird day already and Virgil had a few things he needed to wrap his head around.

“And then he just winked at me! Completely unaware of how adorable what he just did was! I swear that one is gonna be the death of me!” The logical side chuckled at this, Virgil had previously explained the phrase and it was certainly entertaining to see it in use.

“And did you feel his hair? Softest thing in the world I’m telling you. I just wanna hug him and never let go.”

“He is quite endearing.” A content sigh escaped the shorter one’s lips, “You can say that again.”

The next to find out was Roman. The prince gently rested his sword on his shoulder as the walked, similarly to how a guard would in old movies. The atmosphere was intoxicating from exotic plants to mystical beasts, this part of Imagination was not to be missed. They walked along the stone path as the Prince strayed from their previous subject, “He’s just soooooooooo annoying.”

Virgil gave him a look, “Who?”

“Logan. It’s just.he. He just. He’ll correct some of my ideas which can be helpful but is sometimes just hurtful but then there are these other times,” he trailed off for a moment as a dreamy look crossed his features, “and he’ll give me this smile.”

“So you’re upset he smiles at you?” Virgil didn’t know whether to be exasperated or amused. “No well uhm yes? It’s just so annoying. Have you seen the way he flips his hair out of his face after working out?” Roman turned to look beside him, only to find that Virgil had stopped walking a few feet back.

“Wait I’m not the only one?” Virgil took a quick few steps and stood facing Roman.

“The only one what?” Virgil was too wrapped up in the fact that he wasn’t alone in this that he didn’t hesitate to answer.

“Not the only one that finds that extremely attractive.”

“Wait, you too? Yes he’s so freaking hot! And he, somehow doesn’t even know it.” Roman’s arms were thrown around in all directions as they fanboyed over the freaking hot guy who had no idea when he was being awfully distracting. They stopped by a creak along the path and Roman kneeled down to drink some. Virgil leant against a tree as he waited for his companion. Roman coughed for a minute or two before breathing steadily once more.

“You alright?”

“Yeah, choked on the water. Nothing shall ever defeat this prince! Nothing can choke me no manticore or spider people, I shan’t lose to this liquid again!” He claimed.

“You’d let Logan choke you,” Virgil smirked. Roman sputtered in response before increasing his speed as he stepped back onto the stone path, so that Virgil couldn’t see his blushing face. He muttered an embarrassed, “You’re not wrong” before attempting to distract the other. Virgil found his response surprisingly adorable as he sped up and fell into step beside him. He wasn’t gonna let Princey live this down but he’d let it go for now.

And lastly, Patton found out during one of their baking sessions. Patton had just finished washing the dough off his hands as they waited for the cookies to bake when he asked the question “Have you ever fallen for someone before?” Virgil was incredibly nervous at the question but quickly decided he do what he tried to do when Logan asked. He just has find out how much Patton knows and deny it. “Why? What’s up?” Patton sighed at the non answer, “It’s just, I have so many feelings. You know, I’m Thomas’s feelings, so does that mean that nobody else can have crushes?” Patton tried to dry of his sweaty hands on his apron, but it was no use. “I don’t think that’s the case. You know we can all feel other emotions so why would feeling-feelings be any different?”

“I have no way to be sure. There are so many things we still don’t understand about ourselves and other sides. I could spend my entire time pining and never know whether or not there’s even a possibility of having a shot.” Patton looked so lost that Virgil let his guard down just a tad, “At the very least at least two of us, other than you, have those kinds of feelings.” Patton’s eyes lit up, “Wait really?” At Virgil’s nod Patton started hopping up and down in excitement. After the initial excitement wore off Patton looked a bit perplexed, “How do you know? That the other person has feelings, I mean.”

“Well, we’ve talked about feelings like that before.” “Is it okay for me to ask who the other guy with feelings is?” Virgil thought for a moment, “I don’t think he’d mind me saying, he’s literally the side that covers romantic stuff.”

Patton practically squealed, “Roman!”

“Yep,” Virgil said popping the ‘p’

“I bet he’d be super romantic. Probably do all of those grand romantic gestures.”

Virgil would have laughed if Patton hadn’t looked so invested, “Yeah that’s actually like half of what he talks about.”

“I wish someone would do that for me.” Virgil frowned at Patton’s disappointment, “I’m willing to bet a limb that someone will.” Patton gave a small genuine smile, at that.

“So how about you?”

“Hm?”

“Would you like to be swept off of your feet?” “Depends on the person and how they do it. As long as they didn’t pressure me into anything or make me feel extremely uncomfortable, I wouldn’t mind it.”

“Wait, really? I thought you’d be against that kind of thing.”

“Nah, I mean I’m not dying for it to happen but I think it’s really sweet. Shows how much they care, ya know?” Patton smiled and ruffled Virgil’s hair, “Yeah, I think so.” The timer went off and Patton hopped over to the oven, earning a smile from V. Something was tossed onto Patton’s chest as he struggled to catch it, “Forgetting something?” Patton stared at Virgil with a puzzled expression before both of them said, “Mittens,” at the same time. The little guy had a habit of forgetting the oven mitts and burning his hands, while baking. Patton put them on his hands before pulling out the hot tray of goey cookies and breathing in the smell. The scent was a mixture of butter, flour, sugar, and chocolate, it was his favorite smell. Patton’s blissful expression caused Virgil to melt a little bit inside. They snacked on a few cookies and put the rest in a bowl, for later. The question from earlier got him thinking, “Hey, Pat?” “Yeah, kiddo?” “If you could date any of the sides who would you pick?” Patton looked away, a little embarrassed, “I’d probably pick Roman.”

“Okay yeah, I can see that.” “What about you?” Virgil had already kinda told the other two about two of his crushes so maybe it would be nice to have someone to talk about his last crush with? Well, he was about to find out. “I guess, Roman.” Patton was caught a little off guard but started gushing over how sweet Roman was and how he subtlety made sure all of the others were taken care of, in a way that differed from the others. Logan made sure they were physically taken care of, Virgil made sure they were safe, Patton made sure they were taken care of-emotionally, and Roman was extremely protective of them but tried to cover it up. They all had their ways of looking out for each other, one they all had in common was ranting. Whenever a side was stressed or confused or really happy, the sides would rant to each other and the receiving side, no matter who it was, always listened and helped where they could. Patton and Virgil had a new topic to talk about. Whenever Roman made something for Pat or did something out of the ordinary when with Virgil, they would meet up and talk about how incredibly sweet, dumb, and just overall ridiculous he was.

As amazing as this was, this was bad. This was so so bad! Virgil knew that Patton had feelings for Roman and Roman had feelings for Logan but he didn’t know if Logan liked anyone. It felt wrong hiding what he knew from his friends, especially since he hadn’t told them everything right off the bat. But, there was no way he could tell them that he liked all of them. He knew for a fact that they cared about him a great deal but that it was platonic, I mean he knew their crushes so how could they like him.

After a couple months of all of this, Logan forced him into a position he would rather not be in. Logan had informed him that while it was beneficial to confide in him with his feelings, it would leave him feeling unhappy if he did nothing about it. Something about it not being fair to let Virgil hurt and continue pining when he was certain Patton returned his feelings. What Logan didn’t know is that Patton liked Roman! Nonetheless, Logan had stated that either Virgil told Patton or he would. Virgil had till the end of the week to make a decision. And here’s the thing, he couldn’t ask for advice because Roman would think that he liked Logan and not Patton and would probably try to fix things but end up making them worse. He could tell Patton that Logan had said the same thing that he had actually said to him but change the fact that he would tell Roman instead of Patton but then Patton might try to confront Logan, in a kind manner which would just result in Logan telling him anyway. It was a lose lose situation so, he did the next best thing.

During a break between the movies of a nice movie night Virgil did the only thing he could think of. Moving the popcorn off of his lap and getting off of the couch, he double checked to make sure everyone that needed to be there was in the room. It wouldn’t be very smart to say something while Patton was grabbing drinks or Roman was in the middle of a song. Virgil stood up quickly glancing at all of them before staring at the floor, “Tell my crush I like him,” the second the words escaped his mouth, Virgil bolted out of the room. Even if the others hadn’t been stunned by the fact that he was telling them to tell his crush that he liked them, they still wouldn’t have been able to stop him from leaving. Logan was the first to break the silence by clearing his throat.

Chapter 3 is up on Ao3 :D

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25576879/chapters/62070481