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#like yeah how DO you deal with that sort of cognitive whiplash? i feel like
taxinealkaloids · 1 year
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harrianthe + sewing (variations on a theme)
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pippa-frost · 7 years
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Fic: Ice Cold (Part IV)
Hi! Here’s the third part! This is already explained in the first part, but this is based on a post made my @ec-sanderssides and also, in this other amazing post here!
As always, i’m tagging a lot of people cause you’re all soooo nice and amazing and i love it when people tag me in fics (i LOVE fics, so seriously, if you’ve got a fic PLEASE TAG ME) and fanart, so it’s only fair i do the same! (i hope you don’t mind! Please let me know if you do!)
I’ll be tagging the same people for both my fics and fanart! (please tell me if you rather not be tagged in one of them!) cause this way i don’t forget anyone and i just keep adding anyone who wants to be tagged without missing someone! :D
But if you just want to be tagged in something specific and not in other stuff please let me know! <3
@eriysa-p @fluffbird @yoshimicherryopal @gayhannaford @caristars @extremepenguin10@skylions-den @demonickittykat @the-diaries-of-a-nerd @cochroachkappa-blog @what-even-is-thiss @deafinatelyfangirling @fugitive-angel @corystssides@tiny-mudkip @parsnipit @romananalogicality @analogicalhell @starlight-sanders @dan-yuna @wingedchickadee @ana-logical @diplomatic-arsonist@killerfangirl3 @princeyandanxiety @pattonscardigan @pfftwhatnoimhuman@agentflash18 @ec-sanderssides @frustratedwaffle@inalandofmythandtimeofmagic @thagrinbery @prplzorua@ohmehgawdnotagain @analogically-prinxiety @beautiful-crimson @prinxietys@prinxiety-fandom @prinxiety-logicality-ss @starrykid @organizeddiscord @ts-sideblog @sanderships @toxicsanders
(Please let me know if i forgot anyone! I’ll keep tagging more people as soon as i can!)
This one is the same as part III only fro Logan’s point of view, so sadly it doesn’t move on much with the story, but hopefully it’ll explain things? Don’t know D: And it turned out soo LONG!!!!
Also, i’m falling asleep as i post this...
They’re in the middle of Tangled when it happens. The sound of breaks being hit in desperation making them all jump before the loud honk even registers in their minds. Morality is the first to jump and scream, followed by Roman. He can’t say the sudden scare didn’t affect him as well, he did yell, but he was way faster in getting a hold of himself than the other two.
The three of them get near the ‘screen’ that shows them Thomas’s visual field. Morality, of course, is a mess; Roman a close second. While one worries, the other fumes, neither of them being of any help. So, he makes sure to calm them all down. Sure, he is in fact, angry. Transit rules are there for a reason; who knows what the man now approaching them was doing not to see Thomas crossing the street; he was going through a crosswalk, crossing an otherwise empty street. This hadn’t been their host’s mistake.
However, no matter how much he’d like to give the man a piece of his mind and a good teaching on transit regulations, Thomas is their priority. And right now, that means keeping him calm.
“He’s okay, he’s okay, it was just a car” he explains to the others. Roman doesn’t listen to him, choosing to keep ranting; which, okay, he can understand that, but there’s something called priorities.
Luckily, Morality does calm down enough to focus on Thomas and soon goes to calm the boy down instead of panicking alongside him.
The man is soon next to them with a chorus of apologies, for which Logan cares little to nothing about. This is Thomas.
Princey is still pacing and swearing to somehow hurt the man when Morality tries to appease him. It was an accident.
“Yeah, well” he can’t help but let some of his own anger show now that someone else has taken on the role of peacemaker “it could have been more than just an accident! Traffic rules were made for a reason, Patton!” However, he has to concede eventually. Patton does have a point after all, while it certainly was a big scare, Thomas is physically unharmed.
He focuses on listening to the man, Marcus he now knows, talking to Thomas. After all, they should be going to the police station after this, no matter how much Morality might want to resist to the idea.
While he does have his attention on the man speaking to them, he can still hear the others behind him. He assumes Princey’s finally letting go of his anger by the tone of his voice as he addresses Anxiety.
He recognizes, however, Patton’s worried voice. Not his normal worried. His low, uncertain kind of worried; and it causes some sort of alarm to creep up his back, enough for his hearing to slightly sharpen towards them.
Therefore, he’s perfectly capable of hearing Prince’s worried call.
“I think something’s wrong” the fanciful side says and Logan turns around in confusion.
The sight that greets him is one he will never forget. He knows so because he hasn’t been able to forget the first time Roman got his first migraine or Patton his first fever.
And while at that precise moment he had yet to figure out this was something of the same nature as the other two, he knew just by looking at the youngest side that it was in the same level of graveness.
Virgil is sitting on the floor with his legs bent, his back resting against the lower part of their couch. He looks just as he had looked a few minutes prior while Patton was caressing his hair; except he isn’t slouched in borderline sleepiness. His back is straight as a string, his whole demeanor tense. And, worst of all, he’s still. Not the let’s not move so they can’t see us kind of still, but the one that doesn’t leave any space for blinking or switching or breathing.
He makes his way towards him as he takes the whole picture in. Anxiety’s expression is one of pure shock; his mouth is a thin line, his jaw clearly tense, his face is no longer pale but grey and maybe just the smallest hues of blue, which quickly leads his eyes towards any other patch of visible skin. His hands are grey as well and he’s willing to bet he’ll find his nail beds to be tainted a pale purple.
His eyes are wide open but glassy and unseeing, and that’s what scares him the most.
Morality is crouching before the anxious side, Prince soon doing the same.
“K-kiddo?” Patton asks “L-logan… what’s happening?” and he touches Virgil’s arm. Somewhere in his mind a voice tells him Patton shouldn’t touch him, it’ll hurt him, but he’s too busy trying to ignore the evidence to ask himself why “He’s freezing!!”
Logan isn’t all that surprised.
He gently pushes the other two aside, kneeling in front of the younger persona, forcing himself to swallow through a lump in the middle of his throat as he stares directly into vacant eyes.
“Virgil?” he dares ask. There’s no answer. He didn’t really think there would be. He just… he just seems to be… is… “He is…He’s frozen…” he manages to make out, having to forcibly convince himself of what the obvious explanation is “I-I don’t… I don’t know if he can hear us... I think it was because of the abrupt scare”
What other explanation was there, after all. When you get a sudden fright, you freeze. Anxiety just didn’t get any further from that point. And there’s a good point that their youngest isn’t really conscious to begin with. If his theory is correct, this is practically the same that happens to him, and he usually passes out soon after getting hit by it. The pain is too great. That’s what scares him the most about this. To Anxiety, this probably hurt like hell.
Still, he forces himself to think, they’ll cross that bridge when they get there. Right now, they don’t even know if the side can hear them.
“What do you mean?” Roman demands with a desperate tone. While el príncipe can be estúpido, Roman is no idiot, and he knows he is probably somewhat aware of what is happening, but doesn’t want to admit it.
“Maybe…” he says, because there’s still a chance he’s mistaken. He really wants to be mistaken “You know… how we all… I always thought that he might have one too”
“What are you talking about?!” the fanciful side cries, louder this time, wilder.
“Frozen in fear” is all he says. What more of an explanation do they need?
Patton’s answer to that is a loud, deep sob.
While he is startled, he is not surprised by the visceral reaction. Ever since getting used to their little… problems, a common question was whether Virgil would ever suffer from them as well. Sure, he did get panic attacks as a side effect of what he is and represents, and they did get quite bad as a result of sudden unexpected frights such as this one, but they hadn’t seen him having one of those in a long time, so they weren’t truly sure whether he still even had them. There were a lot of things they didn’t know about him after all. Besides, these things weren’t of day to day occurrence either.
Patton had confided in him, out of worry and need of a second opinion, that when checking on the other side after a really big scare, while he would say he was fine, he was always in bed and Patton was sure a little sick as well or at least not feeling very good. But he was never able to prove it, Anxiety ushering him out as soon as he could.
Deep inside, he knows all three of them had been wishing the youngest was the exception to all of this; after all, he was indeed the side that got the most whiplash from being a side. Logic was fine with knowledge, Morality happy with his emotions and Roman proud of his creativity. He never believed anxiety was any of those three. He was anxious just for existing, while he knows he wasn’t necessarily unhappy, he did have the more amount of cons to deal with it. That’s why it made sense that he hopefully wouldn’t have a specific, traumatic way of his nature showing like they all did.
Of course, Anxiety would probably think it was just obvious that he would get something like this even considering all the other things. This time, Logan would be lying if he told him it was having a cognitive distortion.
Patton sobs quietly after that, next to both of them, still holding tightly onto the younger’s arm. He isn’t about to try and console Morality when not even Roman is making any attempts at doing so, instead, he just carefully detaches the oldest side’s hand from the other.
“It probably hurts him to be touched by us” he says lowly in response to Patton’s heartbroken eyes glancing at him in question, trying to ignore the renewed tears that fall at his words.
Roman, after a few seconds of staring at the floor as if it had done him great offense finally stands up and starts pacing, as any angered beast would be in face of a troubling situation.
He looks at him for a moment before letting his eyes wonder behind the pacing persona to make sure that Thomas is handling everything on his own. Their host is currently calling Joan so he lets himself worry about what’s currently the biggest problem and the vision field fades under their lack of interest.
He stands up as well, not without first making sure Patton is somewhat alright or at least keeping himself together, they can’t help Virgil if one of them is having a breakdown. Patton is quietly crying with one hand gripping Virgil’s hoodie like a lifeline, but pulling on it towards himself so his hands isn’t near their friend’s t-shirt and skin.
Once he’s fully standing Roman halts his pointless wondering, turning towards him with more emotions on his face than he cares to recognize right now.  It’s the same expression he has when Patton gets a fever, except maybe stronger? Angrier? It’s obvious none of them had wanted to believe this could happen.
“What do we do” he waits for an order. If anything, he can appreciate his level headedness that makes him look for the solution before dwelling too much on the problem itself. He knows Morality enough not to take it personal for him not being able to do the same.
Besides. This is Virgil.
“We need to get him in the tub. I’m guessing this is very much like what usually happens to me, if not quite so literal maybe” after all, one was frozen in fear (he theorizes) while his is a brain freeze, he thinks maybe Anxiety’s is more of an internal thing, but then again, that might just be wishful thinking, a mistake he’ll allow himself to make on the grounds that he’d rather believe Virgil isn’t suffering as he himself always does until proven wrong. He really doesn’t want to believe Anxiety might be in that much pain, so no matter how irrational, he’ll ignore it. At least for now “I’ll cover him with a blanket so you can scoop him up without hurting him. You’ve got to move him carefully, there is a chance his body might be rock solid, and if it isn’t then the movement will cause him pain” he knows it does “We need to take him to the bathroom”
They both make their way towards the other two then. Logan kneels down as Princey hands him one of the blankets they’d been using while watching the movie and he wraps it around the youngest as best a he can with Morality’s help.
As soon as they’re done, Princey takes his place by Anxiety’s left side before gathering him in his arms. While he isn’t exactly limp, he can see the dark side’s stiff body offering the slightest of resistance to the movements, he isn’t literally frozen solid, which does make breathing a little easier.
Prince is careful in his task, moving slowly and carefully, making sure to have him in as comfortable a position as he can as well as not moving him so much. He knows he’s the one who does the same for him whenever he finds himself in a similar situation, but he’s pretty sure Prince is being even more meticulous in his task this time.
To say they’re all currently a bit rattled and unsure would be an understatement.  
They do a confusing way towards the restroom, with Roman moving as slowly and swiftly at the same time, or trying to that is, having Patton and himself doing some kind of unproductive dance of two steps forward one step back around him as a result.
Once they get there, Logan hurries to the tub, ready to receive the youngest trait. Roman carefully lowers him, Patton having already kneeled next to them, unwilling to take his eyes off the anxious facet.
“Alright” Roman sighs, sounding as if he had been holding his breath so far “we got him on the tub, what now?”
“Now, turn on the water. Cold. We gotta get him warm again” he says, trying his best not to let the obvious tone show. They’ve done this for him. They should know. They do know.
“Why cold?” Patton whines.
“We’ve been through this, Morality!” he isn’t able to hide his exasperation anymore. Patton has done this for him all the other times; he’s explained it to him personally several times when discussing what to do whenever Thomas gets a brain freeze. He can’t just forget “It’s the same with me; if we do it with the water even just a little warm, it’ll hurt him”
“Okay… okay” Morality answers less than happy, but it’s Prince who finally steps forward and gets the water running; and he forces himself to take a deep breaths. He isn’t above not being able to see that he too is letting the current situation get to him. But he has to be better than that right now.  
“Patton” he says firmly “you go get some towels and dry clothes” while having stuff to do is usually the best way to handle Prince, it is also a good way of keeping Patton from stressing too much when not even keeping himself plastered to the person he’s worried for at the time is able to keep him somewhat at ease. There’s a bit in which the latter doesn’t say anything even though Logan can see he’s heard him and eyed him from in his peripheral vision; and he can’t help the little bit of anger that seeps into his tone as he calls for him again.
He can already feel the water through his pants and shoes, and while it is unpleasantly cold, it is nothing compared to how Anxiety currently feels against him. He has the younger side sitting in front of him in a position much like the one he had against the couch, between his opened legs, and his back resting against his torso, low and sideways enough that he can see part of anxiety’s face as his head lies against his left shoulder.
Roman let’s himself kneel on their right side, just where Patton had been before, restless energy still practically palpable around him, his body twitching as if battling whether or not to reach for their youngest.
A few seconds go by before Patton comes back with a chair that has some clothes that belong to anxiety as well as several towels on top of it, before setting it down behind roman and then settling himself on the other side of the tub, his hand gripping its border anxiously he dare say, probably waiting for the moment to touch anxiety again.
While Patton’s eyes hardly blink, never leaving Anxiety, Roman instead has his face set in a serious expression, glancing from the nervous trait to Logic, asking him if he’s needed to turn the water warmer with his sight.
When Logan feels the water already in the level of his wait, he gives him a curt nod to which Roman quickly gives heed.
“There. That’s okay” he says before Roman can turn it hotter than he should. Patton has gone back to sniffing and quietly wiping his tears next to them, not saying a word. Finally, after a few second of more tense silence, it’s Roman who breaks it.
“Do you think he is… you know, there? Can he hear us?” he asks with little to none of his normal confidence.
“I wouldn’t think so. He’s way too cold” which, for lack of a better word, duh. But he can’t really get himself to care for his lack of a better explanation when he can’t say he cares about anything that isn’t Virgil right now “I’d think he probably passed out as soon as it happened”
That certainly is what usually happens to him, after all. And he’d rather believe Virgil isn’t currently aware of the pain his body must be feeling.
“I…” Morality suddenly draws a quivering breath “I hate this” he mutters in a broken voice.
“Morality…” Roman begins.
“No!” he’s interrupted by the latter “It’s just… just so mean! He already has enough on his plate as it is, why couldn’t it just be panic attacks? Why more?”
“We don’t get to decide, Patton” he says in the gentlest way he can. He knows Patton knows this, and it’s something they’ve discussed before. But he can’t think of anything else to say.
“I… I know” he says curtly, maybe angry, maybe sad, Logan can’t really tell right now “I just… I just really hoped he wouldn’t have one” he manages through wobbly lips. They can only drop their heads at this.
“We know…” Roman says in a low voice “I had actually believed it just wouldn’t happen; since we’ve all dealt with them for quite some time now. I thought, hey, if it hasn’t happened until now then it won’t happen at all…”
“I think it’s safe to say we all believed that to some extent” he answers as he gives a nod towards the water handle for Roman to increase the temperatute a little more again. The water is now at the level of his stomach “Roman, can you go get the room ready, please?” and with a curt nod the fanciful side is out of the room.
Seeing as they’ve never really spent time in each other’s rooms –they can’t allow themselves too- especially Anxiety’s considering they’ve only come to know it a little while ago, any kind of interaction had always been done in the common space of Thoma’s mind. The mind palace was an specific part of it. And they had rooms there as well. It’s where they would stay whenever anything like this happened. After all, they needed taken care of. Roman would probably arrange the room Logic would usually use whenever a brain freeze came around to bite him. One thing he could be grateful for was that given the amount of times he had had to do it, Roman would make the room perfect for tending to Anxiety.
As Roan busies himself with that, Patton takes charge of managing the water temperature. The tub soon gets filled and lukewarm. Time passes with them silently looking over Anxiety; Logan has had his eyes on him this whole time, hyper aware of any changes on his body, Morality doing the exact same thing.
Logan notices that he’s finally breathing a little deeper, so at least he can be sure this is working. Even if he knows that there’s no way it isn’t, proof makes a weight lift from his should a bit. But it stills doesn’t tell them anything about how anxiety currently is.
So, when their youngest suddenly, painstakingly and slowly blinks, it had both him and Patton jumping in anticipation.
“Anxiety?” he asks, being right next to the youngest face he’s the first to notice, followed not a second later by Morality’s own calling.
Anxiety’s eyes still seem vacant but they’re not so much glassy as they are watery right now. His eyes are probably burning right now. While he wants nothing more than to get an answer from the side in his arms, he dreads the idea of Anxiety finally becoming aware of his body.
He blinks again, and they have to know. He has to know.
“See if he’s aware of anything” he tells morality, nodding at him as a sign for the heart to arrange himself in front of anxiety to make sure. After all, he’s only able to see part of the persona’s face and expression “just-” he says as Morality sits in the corner of the tub, moving his body so he’s directly abode anxiety and in front of his face “yes, like that”
“Virgil..?” Patton asks vulnerably just as Roman gets back into the room with a hopeful ‘Anxiety’ at seeing he might be responding. They both wait with held breaths as Anxiety seems to breathe out somewhat shakily. Patton looks full of hope and goes to cup the kid’s face before halting and looking at him for approval to which he gives a little nod before asking Prince to turn the water warmer. Virgil isn’t as cold right now and if he’s just waking up then Patton being there, touching him and holding his gaze will probably help mitigate a full blown panic attack. He really hopes so. He doesn’t want to think what that, in Anxiety’s current condition, could entail.
Just touching Virgil seems to make Patton sag in relief. He sees him wiping Anxiety’s cheeks as tears fall from his eyes, which Logan really hopes are just from his eyes finally being able to unfreeze and not as a response to the sudden situation.
“Kiddo…? Can you hear me?” the oldest side manages between new tears “you there?”
All three of them wait with batted breaths for a few seconds, before Virgil finally shows that he’s listening.
“..ah’d…?...” he barely manages around a rough and cracked whisper.
Morality’s face deforms in something between a smile and a wince, and a sob escapes his mouth, before putting his forehead against Virgil’s with his eyes closed.
“It’s okay, kiddo, you’re fine, you’re okay, we’ll have you all warm and cozy in no time” Morality’s voice cracks as he tries to comfort, not moving back from their touching faces.
“Anxiety… are you okay?” Logan finally asks after a few moments of the latter blinking slowly and in silence. He wants- he needs to make sure “Are you in pain?” to which Patton does pull back in order to study Anxiety’s response. But all they get is the anxious persona closing his eyes in return.
“Ann? Kiddo?” Morality asks with a worried voice.
“Is he okay?” Roman asks with the same tone.
“He’s most likely in pain” Logan deduces. That, or incredibly exhausted. Well, he most certainly must be both, but he just doesn’t know which one was the winning force behind the closing of his eyes.
“I brought the towels…” the Royal man says after a while of waiting for some kind of change in Anxiety. Logan thinks he might have just passed out, which would be understandable given the pain he must be in and how exhausted his body must be.
“Good. You can turn the water a bit hotter” he finally says.
“You sure?” he asks, having knelt down in his previous place, holding Anxiety’s hand and looking at him in worry “He’s still really cold. What if it hurts him?” after all, the dark side is in pain.
“Trust me, it should be fine” he assures. The water isn’t all that warm yet and Anxiety was even responding if only for a few seconds, so he’s all the more excited on getting the boy warm again.
“Alright”
“Anxiety, kiddo” Patton tries “open your eyes for me, please?”  
“Anxiety?” Prince asks, clearly hoping they’ll get a reaction again. Logic watches out for any changes in his expression as well. There’s a chance he might not be sleeping yet. But, while he really wants to see Anxiety look at them again and answer them, he’s also aware of how much Anxiety might actually need to rest right now.
“His eyes might be hurting” he explains, trying to convey that he hasn’t necessarily lost consciousness “They probably are, he had them open this whole time” and he makes a mental note to make sure Roman got the eye drops.
“It’s okay kiddo” Patton says after glancing at him and then deciding to keep trying anyways “I know you must be scared but you’re doing great, everything’s fine, you’re doing so good. Just let me see those eyes and you can rest them for a while okay”
They wait expectantly to finally be rewarded by a sigh. Apparently Anxiety was still aware, and Patton had gotten his way. To be fair, he often did with the youngest.
“There you are…” Patton smiles warmly as Anxiety opens his eyes tiredly once more. He stares at Patton for a second before sighing heavily and closing his eyes again. They all wait a little more before Patton looks at him with concerned eyes.
“It’s okay, Morality” he says softly, much more relaxed now that he knows Anxiety is at least somewhat fine.
During this whole time Virgil’s stiff body had periodically relaxed until, he doesn’t know how much longer after reassuring Morality, it starts to quiver weakly. Soon, it’s shivering with a vengeance. He has to tighten his hold on the youngest persona so he doesn’t move from his current position nor his head fall sideways.
“Well” Prince sighs with a smile “This is good right?”
“Yes, it very much is” he answers followed by a deep and relieved sigh from Morality who had started caressing said side’s hair only a few minutes prior.
As he glances at the other two he notices something change from the corner of his eye. Glancing down he can see a slight frown on Virgil’s features and soon the three of them are startled by a low groan which has both Patton and Roman leaning over the tub to look right at Anxiety.
Slowly and probably still pretty difficultly, the aforementioned opens his eye.
“s-too…p” they hear him stutter. He instantly knows what he’s referring to. He knows the drill after all. Morality smiles at seeing him awake while Roman looks at him with a worried expression.
“Stop what? Does something hurt?”
“S-stop.. mo-movvvin’…” the side manages around chattering teeth and probably uncooperative jaw.  
“Sorry, Hot Topic” Roman looks at him with a sympathetic expression “no one is moving you, that’s just you shivering” to which Anxiety groans again. Roman ruffles his hair and for a second Logic panics, wanting to stop him in case the movement hurts him.
“It’s a good thing” he tells Anxiety is what he hopes to be a comforting tone. The latter groans once more, sounding so petulant that it gets his lips to quirk up.
“Can we get him out now, Logan?” Patton asks him with worried eyes but definitely no longer at such a loss as before “I don’t want him in the water so long and it’s already been at least an hour. Plus we can’t have you cold too” and while he’s warmer now, he can’t deny that he’s pretty cold. Of course, this doesn’t matter, Anxiety is their worry right now, but he gets the eldest’s point.
“Hmm, alright, but” and he glances at the other “Prince, you have everything ready?”
“Yes, my finest work yet if I do say so myself” the latter smiles proudly. It’s obvious the worry and dreadful veil that had been covering them was finally evading.
“Alright then” and he maneuvers Anxiety a little bit away from him so Roman can have an easier way of taking him. Prince does so, waiting for a second in place so most of the water falling from Anxiety’s clothes falls into the tub, Logan himself standing up as well. Morality is fast to cover the youngest in several towels, trying to dry over his cloths as much as possible before Roman moves to sit him on the chair. Morality has taken all the clothes and towels out of it, leaving them instead on the washbasin cabinet. Then he’s grapping Logan in several towels as well.
“I brought some clothes for you as well” he points to where Anxiety’s clothes are-he hadn’t seen them- as he gets out the tub with Pattons help, his shoes squishing as he sets foot on the floor tiles. Normally he’d be really faced over the mess they’re making, but right now, while a little part of him is really aware of how everything is getting wet under the lot of them, he can’t say that he cares.
With a towel over his shoulders, he and morality go to hold Anxiety in place along with Prince.
“Prince, can you go make something warm for him to drink or eat? We need to warm him up from the inside” the latter spares a glance at Anxiety as if not all that fond of leaving, before looking at Logan with a nod and leaving the room.
He and morality start undressing the youngest, Morality whispering encouragement after encouragement as Anxiety just lets them do their job with falling eyes. Logan isn’t really sure he’s really paying attention to them. They dry him and put him in dry clothes, hands never leaving him.
“Now you change” Patton commands him with a stern tone as he grabs some extra blankets he had brought along with the clothes. Logan gives heed, changing as soon as he can so they can hurry and take Virgil to bed.
Once tightly wrapped, Anxiety is taken into Moralities arms, his eyes having finally slipped closed somewhere along the line. They both leave the bathroom, Morality suddenly stopping to talk to the bundle in his arms and he sees the now wake side glancing up at the emotional facet through tired eyes.
“Aw, hey there, kiddo” Patton coos “someone is ready for a long nap, huh?” he finishes with a laugh.
He walks past Patton to make sure the room is truly ready. He has to say, Roman did outdo himself. The bed has the heating blanket on and what seems like thousands of layers of blankets and covers lying over it. There are a lot of pillows as well and a heater on the floor facing the bed. The room is pleasantly warm. If he hadn’t been in the tub as well, he would probably find it just this side of suffocating even.
He throws back all the blankets so they aren’t in their way to put Virgil down, just as Patton enters the room. Anxiety is fast asleep, it seems.
Morality comes to lower him as near the middle of the bed as he can, Logan hovering around him wanting to make sure that everything is done perfectly. They lay him down, with blankets around him and all, which Logan finds the best decision in case the heating blanket is too much for his recently unfrozen skin, laying him on his side so he can be warmer. The heating blanket under him has been on for all this time now, and Anxiety gives a deep relieved sigh as he makes contact with it, prompting them to look at each other in pride of a job done well along with a giggle from Morality that seems to take away all the fear the latter had had until that point along with it.
Logan takes his place on the bed by Anxiety’s right, facing him, and pulling some blankets over them both. Roman enters then, with a different shirt (his having been drenched by taking Anxiety) with a tray sporting a bowl of hot soup on it between his hands and Morality climbs into bed behind Virgil, a hand shooting straight to his hair.
“It’s okay kiddo, we’ll figure it out later” he hears him whispering.
“Well, I guess my soup was for nothing” Prince says in a low voice. However there isn’t much disappointment there instead of relief “Well, there’s more for when he wakes up” he says nearing them “Is he okay?”
“He should be” Logan answers as Prince sets the bowl of soup down on the table next to Logic.
“Poor kiddo is all tuckered out” Morality smiles softly “But as soon as he wakes up we’ll make sure he eats all that wonderful soup” to which Prince merely laughs before going around the bed to place himself on the other side of Patton “Logan, you should eat that soup. You where on that tub a long time and it would get cold anyways”
Logan opens his mouth to argue but it is a fair point, so he takes the soup and starts eating. It’s actually quite nice, both in warmth and flavor.
They stay in silence for a long while, Logan quietly eating, Morality carding his fingers through the sleeping trait’s hair, and Roman watching over the three of them.
“What are we doing about this?” the latter is the one to finally break the silence after who knows how long.
“The same we always do” Morality says firmly “We take care of him just like we take care of each other whenever this happens”
“We have to be careful when he wakes up. There’s every chance he will panic once he does” he says, now almost done with his soup “I was surprised he didn’t before, but he was probably too out of it” to which he sees Roman nodding to himself.
“I hated seeing him like that” Morality whispers with a tight voice “It was so different from you, Logan” he explains “I’m not saying worse, but… he was just staring into space, it…”
“It was freaky” Roman says with a firm voice before adding with a less confident version “It was terrifying”
“We’ll just have to make sure to be on alert for any kind of things similar to this”
“Alright” Roman sighs “I have to say…” he suddenly mused “If this was going to happen anyways, I’m glad it happened now, it’ll be easier to care for him now that we are closer”
“That is a good point”
“But I still don’t understand, why did it take this long to happen? I know this was scary, but it’s not the first time we have a scare like that. I had assumed after not happening until now, it just won’t happen ever”
“I don’t know, Morality” he answers “But that’s something we’ll have to discuss, we have to know what he felt and come up with a plan for now onwards”
“Just like with us” Roman added
“Exactly” he confirms “We all had to learn how to deal with ours, we’ll just need to do the same. From now on we have to keep a close eye on him. There’re thousands of things than can cause Thomas a jump scare, there’s a chance this could happen even with just one kid suddenly trying to surprise him, though I highly doubt it. I imagine it must be something gradual, similar to our respective phenomenon, after all, there are some few brain freezes so weak that they barely affect me, the same with you two”
The other two lose themselves in thought after that while he finally finishes his soup. He has half a mind to go get a second plate.
How doesn’t know how much time goes by when Anxiety suddenly moves, closing into himself with a little whine. Morality is on him immediately, shushing him and asking him things to see if he’s awake, caressing his hair and arm with Prince curiously peering from behind him trying to see Anxiety’s face. He groans.
“Anxiety?” he asks in a low voice, trying not to disturb him. Anxiety’s breathing starts getting faster, obviously starting to panic.
“Kiddo? Hey, hey, it’s okay, we’re all here, you’re fine, it’s okay, breath for me, alright?” Patton encourages as Virgil opens heavy eyes to glance around. It takes him a while, eyes closed in concentration as Patton counts for him in a breathing exercise, but eventually he’s breating regularly again, obviously exhausted.
“Good morning, Hot topic” Roman asks with a smile to which Virgil gives him a tired glare, making the other scoff a laugh “He looks fine enough”
“…’ut up, Princey…” the youngest mutters.
“How are you feeling?” Morality asks gently after giving Prince an exasperated glance.
“Tired…” the he seems to whine “…’at happened…?” he says, still not having moved from his position, probably, Logan thinks, too sore to try.
Prince and Morality both look at him with concern, unsure of what to respond. While he understands their reluctance at the thought of telling him what happened, not knowing would only make him panic more.
“You froze” he states “we think it was for that sudden, unexpected fright” he waited to let that information sink in before continuing, but was interrupted.
“…I know”
Wait. What?
Anxiety was looking anywhere but them with a dejected tone.
What did he mean he kno-
“You do?” Patton asks with a sympathetic tone.
“Yeah… I mean… how did I get here?” Virgil finishes, finally looking at the oldest.
“Oh” Roman answers instead “We brought you here, it was very similar to what happens to Logic, you know, so we did kind of the same” and was seconded by Patton nodding behind him.
Logic looked at them all in silence, studying. He knows Anxiety’s smart. Very smart. So he isn’t above thinking that he might have just figured it out himself. It his body after all. But just as Anxiety is smart, he is, well, anxious. And that is what often clouds his judgment. The first time Thomas ever got a scare big enough to prompt a panic attack, Virgil had been too deep in terror to really recognize what was going on around him, let alone what had actually happened. And once they had finally calmed him down enough for him to listen, the panic had left him too focused, or well, unfocused, to truly understand what they were trying to explain. That time, it had been really hard to clarify what had caused him to be in that situation without setting him off all over again.
He knows for a fact, that no matter how tired Anxiety’s body is might help against his panicking nor how much Anxiety has matured since then can help him analyze the situation with a clearer head, there’s no way he could actually be this… calm about it.
It doesn’t make sense.
“But what did you do…?”
“We put you in the tub, just like we do with Logan when it’s really bad, then we dried you and put you to bed” Morality explains with an open smile, trying to keep things as smooth as possible.
And then…
“Oh….” The youngest mutters to himself, before adding in an even lower voice “…I had never thawed so quickly before…”
Then it does.
“…you WHAT?!”
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redscullyrevival · 7 years
Text
Dragon Keeper: Rain Wilds Chronicles Rundown
@sonnetscrewdriver
Plot/Narrative/Setting
Oh my god there are so many characters - MY TIME TO SHINE.
I love gigantic casts, I live for them
So this was exciting
Gonna be honest and admit I’m relieved to have returned to a third person narrative. I’m of the personal opinion that Hobb writes better as an outside narrator although I wouldn’t say she structures better.
Overall Dragon Keeper was a good set-up story and it moved a lot faster than other Elderling books! 
Reading Liveship Traders you knew that the separate story threads would eventually meet and that was grade A thrilling - but it was also nice to have a large cast congeal within this first book. I’m boring and love interpersonal stuff (shout out to Golden Fool!) so all the slight overlap of scenes being reiterated from different character’s perspectives has been a blast for me. 
I’m really digging the idea that this is an atypical Quest of sorts; it’s a group of misfits setting out into the unknown, yeah, but even more specifically it’s a group of socially and mentally battered souls leaving the constructs that made them how they are behind.
The BIG THEME in Fitz and the Fool stories is change and Liveship Traders’ BIG THEME was a subset of that, specifically about personal inner change manifesting in outward change and vice versa.
I mean, look at how the physicality of the characters in Liveship Traders directs and alters their inner change. 
Liveship is a series about the connection between physical and emotional/cognitive change and I have no doubt that will continue in the Rain Wild Chronicles. We can already see it everywhere; most obviously with the malformed dragons and their heavily touched keepers and more subtly with the trek up river, changing what is and isn’t known about the narrative’s physical space. 
Anyways
I am actively fighting envisioning a fantasy version of The African Queen with Dragons though. I don’t know why my brain does what it does. 
Alise
Oh boy!
What a flake!
LOL
I love her, I love most everyone we know this by now, but what I really enjoy about Alise is her up and down nature.
She’s emotionally flighty, which is a hard gamble; sometimes reading her experiences is like getting whiplash but that’s what makes it, her, great in my opinion.
Alise is very smart and very perceptive and she wars with herself over her desires, her fears, and then being pragmatic. 
Her situation isn’t as complex as Sedric’s but it’s pretty close and I hope the two can bond in an alliance against Hest. 
Thymara
Whats with this sassy lost child?!
Thymara is a bit dull in all honesty, she’s very serious, but her attitude and guardedness is understandable. 
I feel for her.
She doesn’t seem to be very in-tune with her own thoughts or understanding of herself; she very much views her life as filtered through how others see her. 
Hopefully she can loosen up a bit and actually fully grasp the freedom laid before her, embrace the wild.   
Captain Leftrin 
Such a grand old soul.
I adore how he thinks of his ship and how deeply perceptive he is. 
Because his chapter bits are mostly narration he comes off as seeming like a stoic quiet type of person - a kind of gruff Studio Ghibli persona lol.
He’s gotten himself into a pretty pickle though. Can’t wait to see how that turns out! 
I’m in love with Tarman by the way; being the oldest liveship around and having those creepy painted on eyes and vibrating communication - oh ho ho I love it! 
I LOVE IT. 
*gurgle*
Sedric
Sedric is great.
Its kind of hard to explain but he walks the line between being selfish and then pitiful. 
Like, his motivations are clear and true for him, but he also is selfaware enough to be honest with himself at times. He knows Hest is manipulative and can be cruel; but he can’t live in the open; he wants to prove himself and make his fortune; but he genuinely doesn’t want to hurt or have harm come to Alise.
Dude’s got a lot going on! 
I’m desperate for Sedric and Alise to be open with each other, but I don’t know how soon that’d be possible...
Tats
A nice kid.
A good kid.
A nice good middle of the road kid.
Yeah, I need some more time with Tats I think but he’s pretty swell.
Sylve
Sylve has surprised me in only good ways.
She is the youngest but also possibly one of the smartest keepers.
I love the inversion of her and her dragon Mercor’s relationship; in a lot of ways he seems like her keeper.
Godbless Mercor by the way, I’m irrationally pleased Maulkin survived. 
Rapskal
RAP-A-TATSKAL IS MY BOY!
Haha
God I hope he doesn’t do something stupid.
He probably will, but lets hope it isn’t deadly ya know?
A ray of sunshine with the best dragon who has the best dragon name. 
Heeby is like an excited puppy! I want her to fly. 
Greft
What a big creepy jerk.
He isn’t wrong about saying fuck the establishment, but he is still a manipulative turd. 
Sintara
Reading Sintara is a bit of a challenge because like with Tintaglia her self understanding is eye roll inducing, which I know is the point; dragons are suppose to be a challenge to humanity on a social and biological level, dragons view humans like how humans view other animals. I get that.
BUT DAMN sometimes I want Sintara to shut up lol
I don’t know how dragons are suppose to change, will they become more like humans? Will they go in the opposite direction? Interesting!
Highlighted Passages
Or is it that you look at her and see that those rules were wrong, and wonder how many other babies could have grown up to be Rain Wilders?
Should a child ever have to thank a parent for being alive, thank her father that he hadn’t allowed her to be exposed?
As homes and businesses were rebuilt, as trade took on a new shape despite war and piracy, everyone else had tried desperately to make things go back as they were before. Everyone except Alise. Having glimpsed a possible future for herself, she had struggled wildly to escape from the suffocating destiny that sought to reclaim her.
The gem of her satisfaction was when Hest appeared, nattily attired, but hollow eyed and pale.
Thymara kept her mouth shut, horrified not by his wild dreams but how closely they paralleled her own yearnings.
“Don’t trust them. Don’t think of them as especially noble or of a higher morality than humans. They aren’t. They’re just like us, except they are larger and stronger, with potent memories of always having their own way. So, be careful. And whatever you learn of them, whether you find Kelsingra or not, you must record and bring back to us. Because sooner or later, humanity is going to have to coexist with a substantial population of dragons. We have forgotten all we ever knew about dealing with dragons. But they have forgotten nothing about humans.”
She wasn’t sorry, not at all, and yet she could not keep herself from apologizing. When had it become so ingrained in her to apologize whenever she wanted something for herself?
She didn’t like how he assumed he had the right to talk to her in such a tone, to keep her standing here when she wanted to leave.
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