#hfc logic/morality

[fanders-fic-awards]

Mom Jokes

Hi guys! I saw a post about fanders fic awards and I couldn’t resist! This is a Logicality and Prinxiety oneshot, and is a fluff work. Enjoy!

It all started with Roman.

Roman came running down the stairs on a wintry day in his sweater, finding Logan reading at the kitchen table, Patton making hot cocoa, and Virgil sitting on top of the fridge. This didn’t phase Roman, who was used to seeing this every morning. 

Roman slid to a stop, a feet made more difficult by his socks (I’m sorry I couldn’t help it). As he was about to greet the others, a black and purple blur leapt onto his back. Roman swung around Virgil, who had jumped off the fridge, and set him down in front of him.

“Good morning, Hot Topic!” Roman said, giving Virgil a quick peck before grabbing his red and gold mug, containing cocoa. He took a sip.

“This cocoa is delightful, Patton!” Roman exclaimed, smiling at the fatherly side, who shrugged and smiled.

“I know how to please my kiddos, of course!” Patton bubbled, carrying dark blue and light blue mugs to the table. He flicked the book Logan was reading.

“Lo, the others are here!” Patton informed the intelligent side.

Logan looked up from his book. “Oh. Terribly sorry. Salutations, Roman.”

“Morning, nerd,” Roman quipped.

“Please tell me you aren’t going to drag me somewhere else in public today. We’ve been out every day this week,” Virgil asked. “Sorry,” he tacked on, “I haven’t had coffee, so I’m whiny. And have no filter.”

Patton laughed. “We actually are staying in today, my dark strange son! You aren’t the only one who’s tired.”

“I am quite grateful as well. We don’t have to shapeshift today,” Logan added on.

“Good news! I have an idea of what we could do today!” Roman exclaimed.

“Oh no,” Virgil said, “Roman, the last time you said that, I ended up with a broken arm and a new scar.”

Roman chuckled nervously. “Don’t worry, I wasn’t thinking anything like last time. I was thinking we could stay in and play board games, or watch movies.”

Patton smiled excitedly. “Ooh, can we watch The Princess Bride?”

“Patton-” Logan started, but Patton used such effective puppy eyes, Logan stopped and sighed, smiling. “Of coure we can watch that.”

Virgil and Roman quietly cooed in the background as Patton squealed and Logan smiled, almost somewhat foolishly.

“Hey Logan, cat-lover got your tongue?”

Logan flushed bright red at Virgil’s comment.

“Virgil, you know better than making puns in front of Patton! He will react at high frequencies!”

“Sure thing, mom,” Virgil said with a smirk.

Logan froze. Patton was issuing a high-pitched noise that quickly turned into all out squealing. 

“Oh my goodness, Virgil made a mom joke! Or, a dad joke… about moms!”

Roman glanced at Virgil with a knowing look. “This is why I love you, you know.”

Virgil grinned chaotically. “I know.”

Logan regained his composure. He turned to Virgil.

“You’re grounded.”

Virgil and Roman doubled over laughing.

Patton grinned cluelessly. “Kinda funny. I’m Dad and Logan is Mom!” Patton continued smiling for a moment before his expression shifted to realization. “Wait-”

Logan looked defeated. “I give up. Virgil wins.”

Patton looked at Logan hopefully. “Was Virgil implying what I think he was implying?”

Logan covered his face with his hands, but you could still see his red blush. “Yes, I suppose he was.”

Patton smiled excitedly. “Is he correct?”

Logan sighed. “Yes.”

Patton squealed yet again, and Logan risked a glance. Logan turned his head to be met with a kiss from Patton. Logan turned an even deeper red, though he didn’t pull away.

Patton pulled away a moment later when Roman and Virgil started whistling, a goofy grin on his face.

“Good thing too, ‘cause I’ve wanted to do that for a while now.”

At that Logan smiled, before putting an arm around Patton and steering him towards the living room.

“I think it’s time for a movie.”

The four of them sat down, turned on Patton’s requested film, drank hot cocoa, and talked for the rest of the day.

[thecorteztwins]

🔥 villains. 🔥 the hellfire club 🔥the difference between naive and unintelligent characters

Welp, this all got STUPIDLY LONG and I’m really sorry. Under a cut because HUUUUUGE.

🔥 villains.There’s just been a robbery! All the jewels in the museum’s vault have been stolen! The culprits are….Sabretooth and Magneto!Yeah, that doesn’t sound right, does it? Thievery isn’t really something either of them do, they’re not bank robber or cat burglar types at all. And Magneto’s not a fan of Sabes to my memory, it’s unlikely he’d work with him unless it was essential to his ACTUAL goals…which this isn’t. But hey, they’re both bad guys, so they must do ALL the bad things! No matter what it is, it’s in-character if it’s evil or unlawful, right?This is the logic that I see running both often in fandom, and also sometimes with canon writers. There’s a mentality that if someone is villainous or bad in ONE way, then they must be villainous or bad in ALL ways. I think there’s always been this misunderstanding, as people do tend to think in black and white a lot, but I think it’s also increased with the rise of purity culture in Tumblr, where people/characters/works are All Good or All Bad, and if the bad guys aren’t depicted as 1000% heinously evil then it’s APOLOGISM. An example in RP would be that more than once I’d had people expect Fabian to be a racist. I can see why, given that he expresses sexism, classism, a bit of ableism, and disgust with physical mutations. But not only does he never express racism, he never expresses racism DESPITE AMPLE OPPORTUNITY. Think about it—his main antagonists are Magneto (Jewish) and Quicksilver (Jewish and Romani), he once personally fights Bishop (Black and Indigenous Australian) one on one, he’s on one team with Shinobi (half white, half Japanese), and his allies/underlings in the second-gen Acolytes included people who are African American, Moroccan (and Muslim-coded), and Inuit. And he never, ever, EVER even THOUGHT anything related to race (or religions that are usually implicitly tied to race) about ANY of them. Given how blatant his other prejudices are, I think he would very much let the reader KNOW if he were racist, anti-Semitic, etc. An example in canon…look, I’m sorry to bring up this dead horse again, but it is the best example that I presently have—Sebastian Shaw making the “women’s work” comment. As with Fabian, I get why it makes sense on the surface. He’s a powerful man, the proverbial rich old white guy, and he’s part of an organization where women walk around in lingerie as a general rule. It seems like it makes sense, it does, I grant that. But then if you actually look at his history…for 40 years of canon, he’s been allies and enemies with many powerful women, and never made a remark about their gender, never relegated lesser or menial tasks to them, never treated any of them differently as partners or foes, he actually never even flirts with any of them, be they opponents or partners in crime  (except that ONE issue when Emma is in Storm’s body and he kisses her…yeah that was a weird issue, why does a telepath need a gun to switch bodies?) Which is pretty unusual for a male Claremont villain. And he actually reacts with “I…see.” the one time a comrade makes a genuinely sexist remark. He doesn’t agree with him, he’s more like “wow ok I can’t believe he said that but I guess I’ll let it go since I want to recruit him” So, it’s actually VERY odd for him to suddenly say something like that, once you know the character. Especially since, like Fabian, he had TONS of opportunity in the past and he’s also not a character that most writers want to seem sympathetic or likeable. So it’s unlikely the writers were just trying to make him look good by playing down some secret sexist tendencies all this time or something. It’s more likely he just doesn’t have them BUT IS STILL A HORRIBLE PERSON! He just doesn’t need to be horrible in every way! Most people, even the MOST terrible, aren’t horrible in EVERY WAY POSSIBLE.That’s also why I try to avoid having Fabian being too homophobic (beyond “I can convert lesbians”) or transphobic, despite the fact that I *could* justify it (since those things are very intertwined with sexism)—because he’s awful enough. Giving him additional bigotries just seems stupidly redundant and cheap. Especially since I think people actually hate a bigoted character more than they hate a murderer; like I feel like if Duggan ever graduates to Shaw making a racist or homophobic remark, I might have to close his blog, but it’s fine to have blogs for fictional serial killers. By the same token, a villain having good traits doesn’t somehow eliminate their bad ones, especially if the good and bad traits are unrelated to each other. A mass murderer supervillain is not “actually a good guy deep down” because he loves his family; it’s actually VERY common for even genocidal dictators to care for their own. Hell, not to go all Godwin, but Hitler was an animal-lover and had a beloved dog. You can certainly point to good traits to show that a villain isn’t ALL bad (which as I just said, I support) but not being “all bad” isn’t the same as “actually a good person and just misunderstood!” Like, Shaw being an egalitarian in a lot of regards or was good to Madelyne Pryor or loved his father, doesn’t change he’s a heartless, morally bankrupt monster who abused his son and sold out an entire oppressed species (his own, no less) for his own financial gain. Mystique is an incredibly complex character, far more so than Shaw, but her love for Destiny and Rogue and many of her other good points don’t change that she hunted down other mutants for the government, abused her human son for not being a mutant, has committed rape by deception numerous times (though I think that’s due to the writers not realizing that’s a thing), constantly tries to manipulate her daughter’s life and choices, and I’m pretty sure I recall an issue where she framed a guy for domestic abuse just for funsies?Basically, villains are people. They have individual different traits and beliefs and motives, and those things will drive them towards individual different types of villainy. One villain probably won’t do the same kind of villainy that another does. Likewise, someone being a shitty person in one way, or many ways, doesn’t mean they will be in ALL ways. Pointing this out isn’t the same thing as denying their flaws or defending them, but some people do do this and that’s wrong too. Nuance needs to be allowed for. Pointing out Shaw isn’t awful in every way doesn’t mean I think he’s a misunderstood woobie whose crimes should all be forgiven. Pointing out Mystique has done awful shit doesn’t mean I think she’s pure evil and all her complex points should be ignored. It just means I don’t think characters should be strawmanned by fans OR writers as paragons or demons, especially when it contradicts what canon has actually established (with the caveat that canon is dumb sometimes too, and also some characters canonically ARE one extreme or the other, but I’m talking about ones who AREN’T)🔥 the hellfire clubI’ll give two on this! One is “unpopular” just in the sense it’s not something I’ve ever heard anyone express, but I’ve never heard an opinion in opposition to it either. The other is “unpopular” in that it does directly contradict a popularly held opinion.The first is that I think it’s stupid that Grant Morrisson made The Hellfire Club into a strip club, and it’s stupid that writers since depicted it this way. The Hellfire Club is shown in the 80s and 90s as being, first and foremost, an elite social club for the wealthiest and most powerful people in society. It’s basically a big posh country club, and most of its members are just regular people. Super duper rich people, but still normal people, lots of old money and new money and big business owners and politicians and probably royalty/nobility. Most of what they’re doing is big fancy, stuffy galas and balls, that kind of thing. But under the surface, it’s hinted that there is indeed a much more sexual underside to it. The female staff wear very fetishy maid costumes, the female Inner Circles literally have dominatrix lingerie as their getups, and while we actually never see what goes on beyond the closed doors in the 80s, nor was anything directly stated, the hints are definitely there that it’s as libertine in the private rooms as they are prim and proper in the ballrooms. We don’t know WHAT exactly is happening, only that it’s dark and decadent and surely sexual in some kind of “abnormal” (read: kink shaming) way.And then it turns out it’s just a strip club where the dancers wear corsets? Really? REALLY? I’m sorry, you expect me to belief that these oh-so-forbidden and secretive sexual delights that are available only to the richest and most powerful people in the world are…a TITTY BAR WITH NO ACTUAL TITTIES EVEN OUT???? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! It’s so fucking juvenile! It feels like something a 13 year old made up while trying to come up with the mos edgy, shocking, “sexy” thing he could. It just…doesn’t work. It doesn’t work firstly because it completely took away the whole “upper class veneer” that is as much an essential part of the HFC as the sex. In fact, I think more so. Writers, artists, and fans all like to focus on ZOMG THE SEXY COSTUMES but thematically speaking, I think the fact it’s an elite organization exclusive to the super-wealthy is much more important; that should be what they’re really about as villains, but writers end up focusing way too much on the shock value of the kink, and that’s how you wind up with stuff like this. The second reason it doesn’t work is that…it isn’t even shocking. When what they were doing was kept hidden, the reader could imagine no limit of decadence and depravity. When it’s revealed, and revealed as something that’s frankly super and common and TAME (seriously, strip clubs aren’t edgy these days) that you can get anywhere else, you’re left wondering why exactly anyone gives a shit about being in the HFC if this is all it really is? We should NEVER get to see what the HFC patrons truly do in private, and we should definitely never get shown that it’s just watching a woman pole dance with Victorian underwear on. That doesn’t make the HFC look sexual, it makes them look like PRUDES!Honestly, I do actually love the sexy sinful decadent aspect, but it’s overtaken the “extremely rich and powerful people trying to rule the world from behind the scenes through political and economic manipulation” aspect (which is far more interesting and villainous) that I kind of wish sometimes they had been created without the kink or colonial cosplay aspects, and instead had just worn some 80s powersuits.Now, here’s the “unpopular as in contradicts the popular” opinion. I see the Hellfire Club described a lot, in canon and fandom, as an organization of powerful MEN, as a bunch of MEN who just want to control others, as a BOY’S club…but aside from Sebastian Shaw, all the most prominent and effective members of the Club have been women? I mean, think about it. The names most synonymous with “Hellfire Club” in fandom are Emma Frost, Selene, Jean Grey as Dark Phoenix, and Sebastian Shaw. Shaw’s the ONLY dude that really gets any focus from writers OR fans; the women are almost always utilized more by writers and remembered more by fans. Heck, in the London Branch of the Hellfire Club, NONE of the male members of the Inner Circle even got NAMES, while ALL the women did. Now, of course, individual women in an organization being successful in said organization and beloved by fans/writers, doesn’t mean the organization itself can’t also be sexist. And like most people, the disparity between the costumes of both the Inner Circle and the mere staff does lead me to believe that it was probably founded and run only by men originally, and I bet women probably weren’t even allowed in for a long time (especially given that it was established in the 1700s) But that’s my HEADCANON. That’s what I EXTRAPOLATE. But what’s actually on the page IN THE PRESENT is women that are on equal footing with men, or superior to them. They’re not just simply ALLOWED in the Inner Circle, they’ve been dominating it from the first appearance with Emma ruling it alongside Shaw over Leland and Pierce, and then Selene coming in to challenge Shaw and Emma (with Shaw being terrified of her) in a way that none of the other members (all male—Leland, Pierce, Von Roehm) could. Gender is never brought up by anyone, even the most despicable male HFC members like Donald Pierce. So while I believe it was founded by sexist men, the Inner Circle seems pretty egalitarian now.But of course, there’s the costumes. I absolutely think it’s a sexist setup that the men get to wear (super ugly) period cosplay while the women are in fetish lingerie. It seems to be the standard uniform, and the fact that they haven’t CHANGED it shows that there’s definitely still some sexism.Except…it doesn’t seem to be a rule in-universe that the women HAVE to wear them? We actually see female members of the HFC, such as Selene, wearing clothing other than that while hanging out there; there’s actually a scene wear Selene is wearing pants and a sleeveless turtleneck with gloves. Maddy also wears a lot of black leather when she’s a member, but it doesn’t look like the Hellfire Club ladies getup, it looks like all the other stuff she was wearing in the 90s. And when Selene, Emma, etc., AREN’T in the Hellfire Club…they often still dress exactly like that, or in a similiar manner. I think it’s pretty clear that no one is MAKING them wear the uniforms, they just LIKE them, they’re probably “encouraged but optional” or something like that. And Emma even has that WHOLE DAMN SPEECH about how this is her armor, how it empowers her, etc. That said, while I don’t think any other CHARACTERS are making these women dress like that, I do think the writers/artists are. If a real woman made the speech that Emma did, I’d be like “ok sure, you go girl, do what feels empowering for you”. But Emma ISN’T a real woman. Every word in her mouth in that panel is being put there by Chris Claremont, a horny man with a dominatrix fetish who is trying to justify it by selling it as feminist. That is what it is. But just because that’s the case on a meta level…on an in-universe level, no one makes these women dress like this, and that’s very evident, and while the way they’re treated by writers/artists is definitely affected by them being women, the way other characters, including the Hellfire Club men, treats them, isn’t. At least not til shitty recent stuff. (I’ve seen some people think SHAW made the women dress like that….yeah, sure, like he could make SELENE do anything? He’s completely afraid of her but somehow can make her wear something she doesn’t want? Emma and Selene dress like that no matter where they are and whether they’re presently HFC members or not, but somehow he’s making them do that? HOW DOES ANYONE GIVE THIS GUY THAT MUCH CREDIT?)Basically, I think people are TRYING to be feminist, but it often ends up feeling like SEXISM to me? Because it’s totally ignoring and erasing the power and agency that these women exert in this organization, and often even claiming that it’s actually the men who have all the control, when aside from Shaw it’s usually the ladies running the show. It just seems disrespectful to me. It’s like, as much as people are claiming to hate a lack of agency for female characters, they seem more comfortable with that idea than a situation where women actually HAD it. Maybe it’s because they’re villains, maybe it’s because the costumes really are distracting and unequal no matter how the writers try to justify it (again, I wish they’d just gone with business suits), but there seems to be an overall fandom determination to insist on women like Emma Frost and Selene as victims or simply accomplices to a greater (male) villain, rather than embracing them as the Top Tier Bad Bitches they were/are, and, again, that seems more sexist to me than not. But I worry people will think I’m sexist if I say that. But you know me, you know I LOVE agency for female characters, and how I rail against it when see them ACTUALLY lacking it in comics, so you know it’s not that. I think it’s just a part of the rise in purity culture that even “progressive” people would rather see a woman forced or coerced to be a victim than choose of her own volition to be a villain and be GOOD at it :/🔥the difference between naive and unintelligent charactersWell, firstly, obviously there IS a difference. Naivete is just a lack of experience or learned knowledge, neither of which has anything to do with intelligence. A naive character may make mistakes in a new situation based on their lack of knowledge about it, and that may LOOK stupid to those who have this knowledge, but it’s not the same thing. I think we can agree that, say, Tony Stark isn’t stupid, but if he had to navigate in the wilderness, he might do things that experienced hikers and campers and outdoors people know are SUPER BAD IDEAS. Because this isn’t something he knows about or has experience with.So, I think considering characters who are new to this world (as is common in comics—lots of people from other dimensions, planets, and times) as stupid because they don’t know a lot of things we take as a given, is erroneous. I think it’s pretty common for fandom to look at, say, Longshot or Thor, and deem them as basically being idiots because they’re not familiar with their new environments…when in fact, we’d all be acting the same if we wound up in Asgard or Mojoworld. Not that there’s not other reasons they can’t be idiots, but not knowing what a toaster is isn’t one of them.The big difference is that naivete is a temporary state, and I think both writers and fans forget that. The character’s naivete will gradually decrease as they learn more and more. So if you’re writing an Avengers fic where Thor has been on Earth for five years so far, he probably knows what a toaster is, can order normally at a restaurant, isn’t confused by normal sights like cars or traffic lights or computers, etc., but could still be confused if he went to a Midgardian country with very different cultural norms than the ones he’s learned in the United States. Likewise, I can keep Malcolm perpetually baffled by new worlds in RP since time is kinda wobbly here and can be static or move forward or back as we like, but if I were writing him in a linear story, he would have to learn along the way about the technology and norms of other worlds as he experiences them; if he didn’t learn, THEN he would be unintelligent, not just naive. If he touches a hot stove once because he didn’t know what it was, and it burns him, that’s naive. If he touches it twice to test if it does the same thing again, that’s curious and maybe even smart, despite looking stupid to others. If he keeps doing it every day by accident, then THAT’S an idiot. Also, even a naive character may still be able to deduce that certain things are bad ideas, dangerous, etc. For instance, let’s say my character is a normal everyday girl sucked into a fantasy realm. She doesn’t understand the language, and the people around her don’t look like anything humanoid, but when all of them go quiet and still when a larger, more decorated one enters, and they all give it a lot of space, she can probably deduce that this is someone of great importance, and she probably should do what the others are doing and not risk pissing it off. She may know nothing about these beings or their customs, but she still can use her powers of observation and common sense. It may end up being a TOTALLY wrong move—for instance, maybe newcomers are meant to come introduce themselves to the leader by touching them–but it was a good, sensible guess. Whereas if she’d just walked up to the being and given it a good swift kick, that’d be unintelligent to an almost unbelievable point, and no amount of “she’s just naive!” could excuse it.Oh yeah, and optimism doesn’t automatically equate to naivete either. To be honest, I think that extreme cynicism is just as naive in its own way as thinking everything is sunshine and daisies, and I’d like to see this explored more in fiction rather than the perpetual “happy positive people are dumb and naive and just don’t know better, whereas the grumpy cynics are always smarter and more experienced” that media is so fond of.TL;DR Not only is naivete not unintelligence, it also should be a temporary state. It’s definitely cute to watch a naive character stumble around their new experiences, but in gaining those experiences, they’re going to become less naive, and make few mistakes. Naive characters should also still be capable of acting in ways that are sensible, even if they end up being wrong for the new situation. And being positive doesn’t automatically equate naivete either, nor does negativity equate to the reverse (and can be naive in itself)

[fanders-fic-awards]

Breaking Point (HFC18)

Summary: Roman has absolutely no intention of ever revealing to his three best friends and housemates, who are now dating, that he’s in love with all of them as well.  Fortunately, things do not go as planned.  An extended metaphor ensues.

Relationships: Roman/Patton/Virgil/Logan

Warnings: brief mention of death

Word count: 1180

Roman heard the metaphorical ice creak beneath his feet the second he walked into the living room.  Patton and Virgil and Logan were already in there, cuddling on the couch sipping hot chocolate while Patton played some video game and the other two offered encouragement and advice.  Clearly they were having couple- well, triad bonding time.  Clearly, Roman should stay out of their way and go right back to his room.  Just like he’d been doing every other time he saw the three of them together in the past few weeks.  The warning signs in his head couldn’t have been any clearer: danger, thin ice! Stay away!

It wasn’t fair, he thought, as he hovered at the edge of the warm aura they always seemed to give off.  It wasn’t fair that they’d all somehow managed to get together during the few days Roman had been away last month.  It wasn’t fair that they kept trying to get him to do things with them anyway, as if they didn’t think it would be unbearably awkward, as if they didn’t realize his avoiding them was for the best.  It wasn’t fair that he found himself moving so carefully in his own home to keep them from noticing how completely, hopelessly in love with all of them he was, and had been for ages.

Yes, he should definitely go back upstairs.  Standing here admiring his crushes from the other side of the room wasn’t going to help anything.  Maybe he would be able to get over them eventually if he stayed away, although his romantic soul said he would more likely keep pining forever and leave a beautiful handwritten letter for them to find after his death, in which he would finally confess his true feelings, and it would all be extremely tragic because they would realize they’d loved him all along now that it was too late, but also if they didn’t feel the same way he wouldn’t be alive to get rejected.  (That last bit was the only reason he hadn’t decided to try writing them a letter before dying.)  He may have gotten slightly lost in the fantasy, which was why he didn’t realize they had noticed him leaning in the doorway until someone called his name.

“Uh… Earth to Roman?”

He jumped and looked up, feeling even less stable than before.

“Are you… feeling alright?”

“You were just staring into space, we got kinda worried!”

Oh, lovely, now he had all of them looking concerned.  He couldn’t very well tell them what he’d been thinking about.  “No need to worry, my dear friends,” he assured.  “Just daydreaming again, you know me!  Struck by inspiration on my way to the kitchen, and I couldn’t very well ignore it, could I?”  He turned in that direction.  It would be safer in the kitchen, less chance of the ground collapsing under him at any moment.  “I’ll just grab a snack and be on my way now.”

“Aw, Ro, why don’t you take a break and join us?”

Oh, come on, not now!  Not when he was already emotional over them… although, to be fair, that was most of the time.  “I can’t,” he pleaded without turning around, hoping Patton wouldn’t push it any further.  He could feel the cracks beginning to grow under his feet; he needed to get out of here.  “I’m- simply too busy at the moment.”

“At the moment?”  Out of the corner of his eye, Roman could see that Virgil was standing now.  “How about every time we’ve tried to do anything with you for the past month?  Did you think we weren’t gonna notice?”

“I didn’t- it’s not on purpose,” he protested weakly.

“It’s fairly obvious that you have been avoiding us ever since…”  Logan’s eyes narrowed as he looked over his shoulder at Roman, and the cracks spread.  “Ever since the three of us entered into a relationship.”

Virgil stepped forward as if to defend the other two from him, and oh, Roman was not prepared for how much that hurt.  “Do you have a problem with-“

“No!  No, I, of course not!”  He finally turned at that, hands up in a placating gesture.

“Then why?”  Patton sounded quite upset, and he felt horrible for causing it.  “We miss you, Roman, please just tell us what’s wrong so we can fix it!”

“It’s nothing!” he insisted.  “Really!  It’s just that- you’re all together,” he made a pushing-together motion with both hands to illustrate their current position, “and I don’t see anything wrong with it, I swear, it’s fine, but you- you don’t really want me in that, do you, we all know I would just get in the way of all your relationshippy stuff and it would be weird, so I don’t understand why you insist on constantly asking me to fourth-wheel you and making this so much harder than it needs to be!”  His voice broke, but he wasn’t going to cry, the conversation was going badly enough as it was.  He didn’t dare look any of them in the face.  Would that be enough to convince them, that burst of unplanned honesty?  Would they see, now, why they needed to let him stay away?

“…Oh, Roman.”

He opened his eyes- when had he closed his eyes?  And since when were they standing right in front of him?  Could he even move at this point without setting off a chain reaction that would ruin everything, or was he already doomed?  …Was he breathing right now?

Patton made an aborted move to touch his face.  Roman, feeling a bit dazed, made an equally aborted move to lean toward him, to let it happen.  Patton hesitated a moment and then closed the gap, brushing a tear away with his thumb before it could fall.  “Oh, Roman,” he said again, softly.  “You love us, don’t you?”

Crack.

The sound may not have been real, but to Roman it was like a gunshot.  It was the sound of the world finally, inevitably, shattering around him.  He squeezed his eyes shut again as he fell, bracing himself.  They flew open again in shock when rather than the freezing waters of rejection, he landed in the arms of three warm, non-metaphorical people.

“Wh…?”

“You’re an idiot,” Virgil muttered from his right side, hugging him tightly.

“Certainly not very observant,” agreed Logan from his left.

“We love you too, silly,” sighed a fondly exasperated Patton, who now had Roman’s face cradled in both hands.  “We’ve been trying to get a chance to talk to you about it and you just wouldn’t let us!”

“I- I thought…”  He blinked, shaking his head, and then laughed.  “I really am an idiot.”

“Yup.  But at least you’re our idiot.”

“Indeed.”

“We love you,” Patton said again, bumping their foreheads together for emphasis.  A bit late he added, “Be nice, you two.”

Roman thought- although he knew better than to say it out loud- that he could get used to being called an idiot, as long as it came with a side of being theirs.

by: @do-your-socks-have-holes-in-them

[fanders-fic-awards]

Ice Breaker (HFC18)

Summary: Roman has decided to take the sides out to the imagination, but things don’t always go as planned

Relationships: Patton/Roman/Logan/Virgil

Warnings: Hypothermia, Cold

Word count: 1110

Virgil’s POV

Roman had wanted to take them to the imagination all week, saying there was something he wanted to show them. Virgil was nervous about going, but went downstairs nonetheless, and they headed to the door to the imagination.

Once they were inside, Logan, Patton and Virgil all gasped in shock and awe. It was beautiful. The snow was glittering as if it was made of crystals, and it covered everything. There was a little path with less snow on it, and you could see prints of animals that had come through on it. There were woods on either side of it with tall trees and shrubbery all around that was covered in the snow so it looked almost like a blanket.

As Roman led them, they could see a little cabin up ahead with a frozen lake next to it. The cabin was made of a beautiful wood with gold accents added to it. From the window, you could see a beautiful fireplace with black brick and a royal blue mantel piece.

“This is amazing, Ro!” Patton said, mesmerized by the house and snow. They didn’t get much (if any) snow in Florida, so this was amazing to see this much snow in one place.

“I do have to say, you really outdid yourself.” Logan said, admiring the detail that Roman had put into this. Everything from the wood, to the lake, to their surroundings like the woods and path had the little quirks that everything had in the real world.

“Not bad, Princey.” Virgil said, still feeling anxious about the whole thing, but a tiny bit calmer now.

I’m glad you all like it. There are a couple things we could do. I think, though, that we should go ice skating. I think all of you would enjoy it.

“I’m cool with that,” Patton said, hearing Logan groan.

“That would be adequate.” Logan replied, seeming undeterred by the whole thing, though you could see a small smile forming on his lips.

“If you’re sure it’s safe.” Virgil replied, more nervous about this than anything else they could have done. Him? On ice? With sharp blades? In the middle of nowhere? There were so many things that could go wrong. Someone could fall and cut themselves badly. They could fall through the ice. Knowing Roman and knowing he wouldn’t do anything halfway, there would be freezing cold water under there. What would they do then? How would they get whoever fell through out? There were so many what ifs, but he trusted Roman. He just hoped that hope would be enough for everything to be fine.

A Time-skip Is Used..

Virgil’s POV

It turns out that ice skating was fine. At first he was a little nervous, but with the encouragement of the others, he was actually having fun.

Roman, of course, was amazing at skating. He had amazing footwork, and could do amazing tricks. Virgil had been worrying over almost all of them thinking about how he might fall and hurt himself. Stil, itl was pretty good.

Patton was having fun just making figure eights, but had gone in the cabin, saying that he was going to make some cookies and hot chocolate.

Logan, too, eventually got off the ice, and went into the cabin, coming out a little bit later with a book.

Virgil, howerer, decided to stay on the ice. With all the tricks Roman had been doing, Virgil was worried that the ice might crack underneath him (and maybe he liked skating, too, but not like he was going to tell the other sides that).

Turns out that Virgil’s fears were correct, though, when he noticed a tiny crack in the ice under Roman. It was small enough that if you weren’t paying attention to it, you wouldn’t see it, but large enough to break if someone went over it.

And that’s exactly what Roman was about to do. He was skating fast enough that he knew Roman wouldn’t be able to stop in time if Virgil told him, so, making a quick decision, he skated toward Roman, and pushed him back as the ice fell through under him, and he went under the ice.

The first thing Virgil felt, was that it was freezing. Then, there were hands on him, and he could feel them pulling, but their fingers slipped, and he sunk deeper into the water.

Virgil started becoming warmer, which confused him because he could have sworn he was cold a couple minutes ago. Then there were hands grabbing onto him.

He felt himself getting pulled upwards, but could barely feel the hands on him with how numb his skin felt. He started falling asleep, but felt strong arms give his body a strong shake, and his eyes fluttered open, not remembering when he closed them.

Virgil felt himself getting picked up, and the others moving him gently. He felt someone trying to take off his hoodie, and he grabbed onto it the best he could, though his fingers felt numb.

“Let go, Virge. It will only make you colder,” someone said, using a soft voice. Knowing it was one of his boyfriends, he let go. He wondered why taking it off would make him cold, but he let them take his clothes off and put him in some fuzzy pajamas. They then took him to the couch in front of the fireplace, putting blankets around him.

He felt one of them get under the blankets next to him, and put him on their lap, which Virgil didn’t protest to because of the warmth the other person was giving off.

After a couple of minutes, the Logan and Patton came in.Patton held a mug out to Virgil and Virgil tried to reach for it, but Roman (whose lap he was sitting in) gently pushed his hands down with one of his own, and took the cup with the other. Roman then gently moved, and put the cup up to his lips. Virgil tried to reach for it again, but Roman just put his hands down again and held the cup to his mouth. Roman tilt the cup up a bit and let Virgil drink from it, who was enjoying the slight burn in his throat.

After a while, the mug was empty, and Virgil was a good bit warmer. He snuggled up into Roman’s chest, and felt an arm on his back. Logan, after making sure that Virgil was warm enough to rest, started reading the book in his hand, brushing his fingers through Virgil’s hair. Virgil’s eyes slowly started to slip shut, and, he let unconsciousness drag him under.

by: @aphriteblack