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a-small-batch-of-dragons · 1 year

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Prompts: Hi! Umm firstly I just want to say I adore your fics! Especially the sanderside and Merlin ones 💜 Secondly, I don't know if you are taking promps right now but if you are I've had a idea bouncing around my head for a hurt/comfort Roman fic for... well longer then I care to admit 😅 I was thinking one were Roman in attempt to make amends he paints/draws everyone something representing how he thinks of them? In a kinda abstract but very positive way! (Extra points if everyone has already apologized to eachother but no one has apologized to him and he thinks he doesn't deserve any) and everyone loves the paintings but sadly Roman didn't do one representing himself so they can't have a set! except he very much did and it isn't flattering. I'm thinking some form of broken/rusting crown/sword and colors of brusing or some such. Followed up with realizations of how not great Roman is doing and much comfort. Sorry if this is to much but it feels like something you'd do really well if its not your vibe no worries and I hope you have a wonderful day! - ultrageekygirl

Hello, first of all I have to say I really really love your writing even if I don't leave any comments. I've had to have read all your work about 3 times now but I haven't much counted. I was wondering if maybe you could write some hurt/comfort with Logan? Like how he can't get a word in edge wise and it's no fault of the other sides they just don't seem to notice? And slowly he just learns to stop talking and contributing. And like maybe Roman notices and they have a heart to heart late at night? U don't like have to do this if u don't want to it's just an idea I suppose. -a dutiful reader

Read on Ao3

Warnings: self-esteem issues, self-doubt

Pairings: dlampr, can be platonic or romantic you decide

Word Count: 5741

Out of all the things that Roman could be doing right now, he finds himself staring at the easel in the corner of his room.

It’s just gone sunset and everyone’s split up after dinner to wind down for the evening. Dinner hadn’t been anything spectacularly good or bad, not really. No one got into a fight, no one was celebrating anything, it was the perfect small-talk-and-eat meal.

He tries not to feel too disappointed and then not to hate himself for feeling disappointment.

Deciding that there are far too many thoughts buzzing about his head for him to even think about going to sleep, he gets up and goes over to the easel, unfolding it and setting it up in the middle of his room. He snaps his fingers to get out of his prince costume and reaches for the paints and brushes on a nearby shelf.

As he sets them up, the buzzing begins to solidify.

Everyone has been—well, not quite walking on eggshells but wary around each other. As though the smallest thing could set off another argument that would lead to a massive disagreement that could shatter whatever tenuous peace they’ve achieved. He knows it’s making Virgil antsy as hell and it probably isn’t too much of a stretch to believe that it’s wearing on everyone else too. Patton, at least, who can very much tell that something’s up with Thomas and so something’s probably up with the Sides too. And Logan, who’s never been one to hold his tongue if he truly believes something is wrong. Janus…Janus probably knows too. He can hear every lie in the Mindscape and Roman knows that there have been a damn sight more flying around lately. And Remus…well, Remus thrives in chaos.

Chaos abounds.

He looks back at the easel, chewing on his lip.

What if…what if he helped?

Not in any obvious way, not in any proactive way, not anything that would actually do that much, he’s learned his lesson when it comes to making big swings, but…maybe just to let them know he doesn’t have any hard feelings about anything that’s happened? That he still loves them?

A white canvas appears on the easel and Roman reaches for a brush.

———

He finishes Patton’s first, maybe just because Patton and feelings go closely together, maybe because he found himself reaching for a light blue color first, or maybe just by chance.

“Um, hey, Patton?”

Patton looks up from a book in the living room, smile coming a little slowly to his face but no less genuinely. “Oh, hey, kiddo! What’s going on?”

“Can I show you something?”

A flicker of surprise crosses his face and he stands up quickly. “Yeah! Yeah, kiddo, you can show me anything. Is it in the Imagination? Where are we going today?”

Roman blinks, slightly taken aback by the sudden enthusiasm. He must pause for a second too long because Patton’s looking at him in concern.

“Roman? You—you okay?”

Snap out of it. “Yes, yes, sorry, I just—“ he scratches the back of his head— “I guess it’s been a while, huh?”

“Since you wanted to show me stuff? Yeah, kiddo, it’s been a while, but that’s why I’m so excited! I want to see what you made!”

A smile tugs at the corners of his mouth and he bows, gesturing elegantly up the stairs. “Right this way, then.”

Patton beams and they make their way upstairs. He almost reaches for the door to the Imagination before Roman reaches out and shakes his head, tangling Patton’s fingers in his and leading him further down the hall.

“It’s in my room.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Are you…disappointed?”

“No! No, no, I still really want to see what you’ve made, I…” He shuffles a bit as they come to a stop. “Okay, maybe I’m a little disappointed.”

Something twitches in Roman’s chest. Has he really been so stingy with Imagination time? “After I show you, we could still go in the Imagination, there’s a, um, there’s a new forest that I think you’d like.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, sure.” He smiles and pushes open the door. “Come in, it’s right over here.”

Patton walks in and stops, his eyes glued to the canvas. His mouth drops open and he grabs Roman’s arm. “Roman—oh, kiddo, did you do this?”

“Yeah,” he says a bit sheepishly, scratching the back of his head again, “it’s, um…it’s you.”

His eyes widen even further. “It’s me?”

Roman gestures to the canvas, upon which an almost anatomically correct heart has been painted in soft blues, yellows, and purples. Surrounded by paint splatters that look almost like shadows, the heart seems to pulse in a mysterious blue aether when it catches the light just right.

“Yeah, Padre, that’s…well, I guess it’s kinda how I see you.”

Patton turns to look at him, his eyes reluctant to leave the canvas, staring up at Roman. Roman swallows.

“You…you’re—“ god, this is so much harder out loud— “you do a lot of work that goes unnoticed sometimes. Like just keeping us understanding that we’re having feelings and emotions but we’re not our feelings and emotions and—I don’t know, you just—you feel like a constant to me, you know?”

Silence follows his comments—that were not said to Patton’s face directly, he’s not brave enough for that—and Roman winces, worried he’s said something wrong or not said enough or maybe the colors are just wrong.

“I mean maybe it’s a bit too literal with the whole heart thing, so—“

A sniffle and a tight grip on his arm and Patton shakes his head wildly. “No, no, kiddo, it’s—it’s beautiful.”

“…you like it?”

“Oh, sweetheart, I love it!” Patton claps his hands and reaches out to squeeze Roman’s shoulder again. “It’s—it’s—well, gosh, I don’t have the words to describe it!”

The heaviness flickers as Roman smiles in relief, sagging a bit into Patton’s touch. “I’m happy you like it.”

“How could I not? Oh, kiddo, thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“If you want help moving it, I can—“

“Moving it?” Patton looks up sharply. “What do you mean, moving it?”

“Well, it’s yours. You can put it wherever you want it.”

“Can we hang it in my room?”

“Yeah, Padre,” Roman says, trying to hide how giddy he is that Patton likes it so much he wants to hang it in his room, “we can put it in your room.”

Patton squeals excitedly and snaps on a pair of gloves as Roman carefully covers it with a sheet. They pick it up and walk it down to Patton’s room, carefully propping it against the bed as Patton looks around for where to hang it.

“Can I put it right above my bed?”

“Sure. Hold that side?”

“Here?”

“Yes. Let’s just—is that height right?”

“Looks good, yes.”

“Alright, and then let’s just…okay, there. That should be in the right spot.”

They step back to look at it and Patton throws his arms around Roman. “Oh, kiddo, I really do love it.”

Roman chuckles. “Still want to go to the Imagination?”

“Can I stand here and look at it for a little longer?”

“Sure, Padre.”

———

He finishes Logan’s next, probably because he was too lazy to wash all the blue off of one of his brushes and the buzzing decided it liked how it looked. He takes a bit longer with this one just because keeping his brushstrokes so even was much more time-consuming than he’d anticipated, but it’s worth it when he steps back to see the result.

He knocks on Logan’s door.

“Come in?”

Roman swallows and opens the door, smiling a bit when he sees Logan glancing over from his computer. “Hey, Specs. Can I borrow you for just a moment? Won’t be more than ten minutes, promise.”

“Ah, Roman, hello.” Logan glances at a clock. “Yes, I suppose I can spare ten minutes. What is it you need?”

“I want to show you something.”

Logan covers it well, but he falters a little as he gets up, quickly adjusting his tie. “Is this in the Imagination?”

“No, no, just in my room. Promise.”

“Alright.”

He tries not to fidget too obviously with his hands as he leads Logan back to his room, opening the door and gesturing for him to go through first. Logan accepts with a nod and goes in, glancing around before his eyes land on the easel.

“That’s it,” Roman says quietly as he shuts the door, “that’s what I wanted to show you. It’s for you.”

Logan doesn’t say anything, still looking at the canvas. A still body of water surrounded by mountains of galaxy, a single drop falling from some unknown height to make ripples that look as if they were molded from the fabric of the universe itself. Roman comes up hesitantly behind him, trying to get a glimpse of his face.

“It’s, um…it’s how I see you.”

Still nothing. Shit. Maybe he needs to explain more?

“You’re—you’re really clever, Logan, and not just in that you’re smart and you know a lot of things, but you—you get a bunch of stuff that goes way over my head and you always seem to know how it, like, fits? Like into the whole universe, you can just find the right place for a piece of information to go like you’re solving a puzzle and you make it look so—so—so natural.” He fiddles with his hands. “And I remembered that thing we were talking about with drops of water and how if you add another drop it’s still just one drop.”

Nice going, dunce. How are you connecting that to what you just said?

“A-and I know I’ve been—we’ve been—well, really, I’ve been pushing you more and more to the side and I know that’s not fair of me and I wanted you to know that I don’t just see you as there to provide the footnotes for a conversation or be just an encyclopedia or anything s-so I—“

Logan swallows.

“I—I mean—“

He cuts off when Logan turns to face him slowly with the softest expression he’s ever seen.

“…Specs?”

“Roman,” Logan says quietly, “this is magnificent.”

He swallows. “You…you like it?”

Logan just nods, looking back at the painting. “It’s extraordinary. The way you’ve used color and shadow to draw the focus to the center of the ripples, the way your scale has come together…”

Roman smiles helplessly as Logan begins to explain all the things he finds technically fascinating about the painting. He glances at the clock by his computer.

“Logan? I’m sorry, I don’t want to interrupt, but I did promise I wouldn’t take more than ten minutes.”

Logan just pauses and looks at him with a smile. “I think I can extend to fifteen.”

He really has missed getting to listen to Logan talk. He really needs to be better about that.

———

Virgil’s up next and Roman decides he’s never going to look at purple paint again unless he’s throwing it at a wall. He shakes his head and glances at all the tiny brushes and sponges and spends a good half an hour in the bathroom trying to get them all clean.

He texts Virgil when he’s done.

Me: hey are you really busy?

shadowling: no what do u want

Me: can i show you something?

shadowling: sure where

Me: my room

shadowling: k be rite there

Roman lets out a breath and glances at the painting one last time. This’ll be fine. This will be fine.

God, he hopes this is going to be fine.

A knock at the door. “Open up, Princey.”

“Coming!”

Virgil jerks his head at him. “Hey. What’d you want to show me?”

“Um…”

“Do not tell me you asked me here for no reason.”

“No, no, I just—oh, just come in.”

Virgil raises an eyebrow but does, stepping through. “I swear, Roman, if you just go the out of my room so Remus can put shit in there again, I’m gonna…”

His eyes land on the painting and his words trail off into silence. That’s…that’s probably a good sign, right?

Roman glances over again to see the massive spider in the middle of an expansive web dried just right, crouched in the middle of a shadowscape that seems to extend past the boundaries of the canvas. Silver glints off of some of the strands of the web, glitter packed carefully in tight little lines to catch the light just right.

“It’s for you.”

“Shut up.”

Roman slams his mouth shut. Okay. Maybe this isn’t a good thing. Is the spider too literal? Maybe he should’ve gone with something else.

“Shut up,” Virgil repeats, even though Roman hasn’t said anything, “shut up, Princey, you did not—you did not—“

He smacks Roman’s shoulder.

“You made this for me?”

“Y-yeah, it’s, um…” Fuck it. “It’s how I see you.”

“How you what?”

“You—you always talk about spiders being at the center of their webs so they can feel everything and I guess it just reminded me of you. Of how you, you know, you keep an eye on literally everything so you can warn us if there’s danger. I thought it was cool so I…”

Virgil mutters a curse under his breath. “Damn you, Princey, we were even.”

“We were what?”

“We were even.” Virgil smacks his shoulder again. “You go and do something this fucking incredible now? This—you made a fucking masterpiece for me and now I gotta deal with this? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Do you like it or not,” Roman asks weakly, “Virgil, I don’t—I don’t understand.”

“Of course I fucking like it, it’s fucking amazing.”

“Then why are you mad at me?”

“Oh, shit, Princey, I’m not—I’m not actually mad.” He knocks their elbows together. “I’m just—you know I’m bad with…stuff like this.”

“Like accepting things people give you?”

“Yeah.”

“Shit, I forgot about that. I’m sorry, I—“

“Don’t you fucking dare. This is great, I’m keeping it, you’re incredible, and now I’m gonna figure out some way to pay you back because I want to and you deserve it.”

Roman has absolutely no idea what’s going on anymore but Virgil seems to be happy with it so he’ll take it as a win.

“Do you want help moving it to your room?”

“Absolutely I do.”

———

Janus is up next and Roman is seriously considering getting one of those voice-activated light systems so he doesn’t have to keep getting up to turn the lights on and off.

He goes to knock on Janus’s door and fully startles when the door swings open unprompted.

“Roman,” Janus says smoothy, raising an eyebrow when he stumbles back, “to what do I owe the pleasure?”

He takes a moment to catch his breath and looks back up. “I wanted to see if you were free.”

“Perhaps I am, what is it you wanted?”

“I wanted to show you something.”

The eyebrow just ticks higher.

“In my room.”

Now both eyebrows are raised.

“Not like that, Janus, I just—please?”

“Oh, alright,” he sighs, shutting the door and looking way too much like some aristocrat who’s been terribly put out, “but this better be worth it.”

I hope so too.

He opens the door to let Janus in and hovers by it, watching anxiously as Janus’s eyes land on the painting.

“…Roman, just you do this?”

He nods, then realizes Janus is currently facing away from him and so can’t see. “Yes. Yeah, I…I did it. It’s for you.”

“For me, you say?”

“Yeah, um…hold on.”

He flicks off the lights and Janus doesn’t have time to stifle his gasp.

What had once been a simple pair of hands reaching out into the vastness of an abstract cityscape now has glowing lines leading from each finger down to various corners of the canvas. Glistening knots tie around each finger and behind them all, lurking off in the shadows, is a single yellow eye with a slit pupil.

“I tried to pick out the paint so it would glow but it wouldn’t be too bright in the dark,” Roman explains, “and I tried to make it so it looks good in the dark or the light.”

Janus turns to look at him, barely visible in the dim light. Just by the intensity of it, Roman can tell he’s narrowed his eyes. “What do you want, Roman?”

“Wh-what?”

“You heard me,” Janus says, voice firm, “what is it that you want from me?”

“Nothing, I—ah!”

For Janus had reached out and taken his chin in the dark, jerking his head up, the grip startling him terribly as he fumbles for the light switch again. He turns it back on to see Janus staring hard at him.

“I don’t want anything,” he mumbles around the hand, “I just wanted to give it to you.”

“Why?”

“Because I—it’s how I see you, you should have it.”

“Some puppet master, pulling strings behind the scenes?”

“No!” Fuck, this went really badly. Shit. Shit, shit, shit. “I—you can see through things in ways that I can’t and you want—you want what you want and you know how to get it and I think that’s really cool and so I—Janus, I can’t breathe—“

He gasps as the hand leaves his chin, rubbing his neck a bit as Janus turns back to the painting. He’s quiet.

“…I think you’re cool,” he mumbles lamely, “so I…made it.”

“And this is…for me?”

“Yes.”

“No strings attached?”

“No, no strings.”

Janus turns to him again, hand raised to brush his chin and Roman does his best to stifle the flinch. He doesn’t grab him this time, just lifts it slightly so they can look each other in the eye.

“Thank you, Roman,” Janus says after what feels like ages, “I like it.”

“Can you just say that next time?”

“Now where’s the fun in that?”

———

Remus. Remus, Remus, Remus.

There’s really only one thing he can do.

When he’s finished, he doesn’t bother to clean the paint from himself or snap himself back into his prince costume. He just sinks out to Remus’s room and tackles his brother to the bed.

“What—Ro!” Remus shrieks in delight and tries to roll on top of him. “Ro-bro!”

“Hey, Re.” Roman doesn’t let him roll them, burying his head in Remus’s neck to make him laugh. “Got something to show you.”

“Imagination?”

“Nope. My room.”

“Ooh!”

Remus doesn’t bother to get up, just sinks them both back to Roman’s bed, almost crushing Roman into the mattress before he scrabbles up to hit him with a pillow.

“Whoa, hey, hey, careful! You’ll knock it over!”

“Knock what—oh.”

Remus goes still. Roman pushes himself up carefully to see Remus staring in shock at the painting.

A black and white landscape that looks like it’s black lines on paper, only for there to be a figure in the center with its hands dug into it. Out of the points of contact, wild colors spill out with reckless abandon, flooding the nearby whiteness until it almost hurts to look at.

“R-ro?”

“Yeah?”

“’S that—that me?”

Roman smiles and sits up, hugging his brother as Remus clings to him. “Yeah, Re. That’s you. That’s how I see you.”

“‘M not just a mess?”

“You’re a mess and it’s glorious.” Roman glances back at the painting. “I think I just missed you.”

“Aw, Ro, I missed you too!”

Roman laughs as Remus tackles him back to the bed. “So you like it?”

“Yes, yes, yes, yes! If I could eat it, I would!”

“That’s the best compliment I could ever ask for.” He tries to move but Remus growls. “So you’re staying for a while, huh?”

“Yep. Put on a movie, we’re not going anywhere. My Ro-bro.”

Roman smiles and waves his hand to start a movie on his computer. Being Creativity with his brother is something he’ll never get tired of.

———

“I must say,” Logan remarks as he steps back, “they all look as though they fit.”

“Yeah, right?” Virgil leans against the couch. “I’m never doubting Princey again, jeez.”

“They do look really good.” Patton shakes his head and takes a drink of water. “Do you think he planned it that way?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me.”

“I dunno, he said he did them kinda one after the other. Maybe he just sees us in a way that fits.”

They turn as Janus and Remus appear, each carrying their own paintings. Janus pauses as he lays his down to be hung up next.

“…magnificent,” Logan murmurs, “aren’t they?”

Janus hums, eyes still roving over the paintings. “Why isn’t Thomas a painter if Roman can do this?”

“I presume it’s easier in the Mindscape than it would be to translate to Thomas’s hands.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Holy shit, J, that’s cool as fuck.”

“I know,” Janus preens, “it glows in the dark too.”

“Wait, for real? Lemme see!”

Patton flicks the light off and they all coo over the way Janus’s changes in the dark.

“Oh my god, that’s so cool.”

“Thank you.”

“Can it go next to mine? Spiders, strings, all that.”

“I don’t see why not.”

They quickly hoist Janus’s into place next to Virgil’s. Remus motions to the empty space next to Logan’s. “Can we put mine there?”

“I don’t see why not.”

“Wait, let’s put it in between mine and yours, Logan,” Patton says, “the colors—“

“Yes, the colors.” Logan quickly shifts the two around. “Alright, Remus, let’s just—there.”

“These look so cool!” Patton claps his hands. “So, so, so cool!”

“What does?”

They all turn to look at Roman as he comes down the stairs, beaming and gesturing to their wall of paintings. Roman’s eyes widen as he sees all of their paintings hung up next to each other along one of the walls in the living room.

“…whoa.”

“Be proud of yourself,” Logan says softly, “you did an incredible job.”

“They look great together,” Virgil agrees, “you’re a wizard.”

“Now all we need is yours,” Patton says as he throws an arm around Roman’s shoulders, “and we’ll be all done?”

Something in Roman’s chest grows cold. “…mine?”

“Well, yeah, you silly, how else are we going to have a complete set?”

“O-oh.” Roman shifts out from under his arm. “You don’t…you don’t want mine up there.”

Janus frowns. “Why not?”

“It’s, um, it doesn’t go.”

“Wait, you did one for yourself already?” Virgil perks up. “Can we see it?”

“It won’t go with the rest of them, it’s okay, I’ll just keep that one in my room—“

“Roman,” Logan interrupts gently, “can we see it?”

“I, um—“ he looks around to see everyone staring at him hopefully— “yeah, yeah, you can see it.”

He isn’t expecting all of them to hop up and gather like a gaggle of ducklings, but he turns and trudges wearily back up the stairs to his room.

Don’t, a voice inside warns, don’t do this. You’ll ruin it. You’ll just ruin it. You said you weren’t going to do anything big and this is big. It’s selfish. Don’t make them look at it. Just lie and say you were wrong, say something, just don’t let them see.

But he’s already at his door and Janus is looking at him strangely.

“…what?”

“You were thinking about lying.”

“No, I wasn’t! Besides, you can’t hear that anyway.”

“No, I can’t, but you did just lie about not thinking about it.”

Fuck. Roman bites his lip and turns away, shame at being caught and tricked flushing his cheeks. He pushes open the door slightly harder than necessary and winces as it bangs against the wall.

“Roman,” Patton says slowly, “if you really don’t want to show us—“

“No, no, it’s fine. I don’t mind.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I just—“

“Well, just because it seems like you—“

“He’s being vulnerable,” Remus growls suddenly, “give him a second to figure out what that means.”

Roman closes his eyes and thanks every single hope and dream he’s ever had for Remus.

When he’s gathered himself a bit more, he crosses the room to a canvas covered with a sheet and rests his hand on it. The fabric rubs against his fingers and he debates leaving it covered. He could say no. He could make something up. He could do a lot of things that aren’t showing them this painting.

Aren’t showing them him.

But then he looks back over to see all their expectant faces and he takes a deep breath.

The sheet swishes as he pulls it free.

———

A white canvas appears with an easel and Roman reaches for a brush.

Because really, what has he done lately? He just causes problems. He shuts Logan out so he can’t say a damn thing when he’s the closest hope they have to actually getting somewhere. He pokes at Virgil just to make him snap back so he has an excuse for ebbing as sassy as he wants. He shores Patton up like he’s some great paragon of virtue and then throws a tantrum when he scolds him for doing so. He’s like a child throwing a hissy fit with Janus, always jumping and climbing the walls to try and get away from him like he doesn’t deserve the scorn and ridicule.

And he treats Remus like he’s the worst thing to ever exist.

The brush flies across the canvas and he splatters paint across himself.

Why is he doing this, anyway? Is he doing this because he cares about them or only to make himself feel better? If he’s doing it for the latter, he might as well not do it at all.

He reaches for another brush and red drips off the bristles.

He shouldn’t be doing this, then, he should be doing something less selfish. Something better. Something that isn’t him. Or something that is him but is…better.

Maybe he just needs to get it out. Get all the him out so that there won’t be anything left when he goes to paint the others.

So he does.

He paints and he paints and he paints.

And when he steps back to see what he’s done, he falls to his knees and buries his face in his hands.

———

Roman turns away as soon as the painting is unveiled, folding the sheet to be put back in its place as the others let out little noises.

He knows what they’re looking at.

A crown, broken and mangled next to a rusted and bloodied blade. A hand lying limply next to it, fingertips rubbed red and raw, scratched and bruised with calluses split open. Fingers that reach toward the objects because they don’t know how to do anything else. Unlike the others, which veer much closer to abstract shapes and fantastical colors, this one is rendered faithfully to the grim tones of the possible.

He doesn’t want them to see him and yet he’s never been more exposed.

“Roman,” Logan says, softly, softly, too softly, “may I give you a hug?”

May he…what?

“Me too,” Patton says and oh, no, it sounds like he’s crying, “oh, sweetheart…”

“Come here, Roman,” Janus is bidding now and he feels himself begin to move before he stops and curls his arms closer to himself, “Roman, come here.”

“You’re scaring him, J,” comes Virgil’s voice, “you gotta let him have a second.”

Roman squeezes his eyes shut.

“Ro,” Remus says from much closer, “I’m gonna put my arms around you now.”

Remus leans against him, warm and solid, and his arms wrap around his waist. He rests his forehead against the back of Roman’s neck and breathes in deeply.

“Ro,” he mumbles, “you gotta…you gotta let me hug you more often.”

No. No, he doesn’t.

“Don’t lie, sweetie,” Janus murmurs and he’s closer now too, “don’t lie and say you don’t need it. Let us hug you, please?”

Selfish. Selfish and stupid and needy.

“You’re not,” he says, voice growing sharper, “you are not selfish for wanting to be comforted.”

“Oh, sweetheart—“ no, he’s made Patton upset— “come—come here, sweetheart, come here.”

“Don’t overwhelm him,” Virgil mumbles and oh, he’s closer too, “Princey, can you open your eyes?”

He shakes his head.

“Okay. Can you listen to me?”

He nods.

“You’re panicking. Let Remus just hold you, okay? We’re not going anywhere, we’re not gonna hurt you, but you gotta calm down.”

Remus is holding him. Remus is right here. Remus isn’t leaving. Remus squeezes him around the waist and tugs him down to the bed. Remus is here. Remus isn’t mad.

Janus takes his hands in his gloved ones and starts to squeeze gently. Janus isn’t hurting him. Janus doesn’t seem mad either. Janus is here.

Virgil is helping him breathe. Virgil told him to calm down. Virgil said they aren’t leaving. Virgil doesn’t seem to be mad.

Logan has a hand on his back. Logan is warm. Logan isn’t mad either. Logan is talking softly to him and calling him dear one. Logan doesn’t do that when he’s mad.

Patton must have turned off the lights. Patton cups his face and wipes away his tears. Patton is calling him sweetheart and Patton can’t be mad at him. Patton’s here.

Roman opens his eyes slowly and realizes oh, I am panicking.

Of course, as soon as he realizes it, he starts to hyperventilate in Patton’s hold and Remus quickly rolls them over so he can lean his whole weight on Roman’s chest. The deep pressure cuts through the worst of the haze until he can breathe again, gasping out that he’s sorry, he didn’t mean to be so dramatic, he really didn’t mean to—

“None of that, now,” Logan chides gently, “you’re upset and that’s alright. Take your time.”

Roman swallows painfully and Remus rubs his chest.

“You’re going great, Ro-bro, you really are.”

“I’m—I’m sorry, I just—I didn’t realize you’d—that you’d want to see and I—I—“

“Hey, Princey, it’s okay.” Virgil runs a hand through his hair. “You’re just kinda fragile right now and that’s okay.”

“B-but you don’t like me fragile, I’m not supposed to be—“

“We like you,” Janus interrupts, squeezing his hand again, “and that means you get to be a bit of a mess about it.”

“Janus,” Patton scolds, “be nice.”

“That is him being nice, unfortunately.”

Remus just hunkers down so Roman can breathe easier again. “You’re doing great. You don’t have to figure everything out right now.”

“We can figure everything out with the paintings later,” Logan agrees, “for now, let us be here for you.”

Roman has no idea what’s going on anymore but Remus is warm and solid and heavy and Logan is being nice and soft and Janus is still holding his hands and Virgil is telling him how to breathe and Patton is drawing the curtains so some of the soft light of the sunset comes in and maybe—

Maybe this is okay for right now.

———

(Later, Remus will quietly ask if that’s really how he sees himself. Roman might say nothing, but he might say yes.)

(Remus might politely call him a fucking idiot and tell him he looks like an explosion right when it’s happening and all you can see is light and feel the rush of energy through your body.)

(Logan might say that Roman is the whirl of electricity when you understand something for the first time and how it feels to see the dots connect in front of you.)

(Janus might say that Roman is the way you know your bed is going to be soft and warm at the end of a long cold day and you can’t wait to crawl into it.)

(Virgil might say that Roman is the buzz and bubble of excitement when you do something you thought you couldn’t for the first time.)

(Patton might say that Roman is the safety you feel when you’re out in a new place you don’t know and you find one friend that hovers by you the whole time in case you want someone to hug.)

(Roman might cry. Again.)

(And maybe he’ll be able to paint something that does finish the set with the others.)

General Taglist: @frxgprince@potereregina@gattonero17@iamhereforthegayshit@thefingergunsgirl@awkwardandanxiousfander@creative-lampd-liberties@djpurple3@winterswrandomness@sanders-sides-uncorrect-quotes@iminyourfandom@bullet-tothefeels@full-of-roman-angst-trash @ask-elsalvador @ramdomthingsfrommymind@demoniccheese83@pattonsandershugs @el-does-photography @princeanxious@firefinch-ember@fandomssaremysoul@im-an-anxious-wreck@crazy-multifandomfangirl @punk-academian-witch@enby-ralsei@unicornssunflowersandstuff@wildhorsewolf @thetruthaboutthesun @stubbornness-and-spite @princedarkandstormv @your-local-fookin-deadmeme @angels-and-dreams@averykedavra @a-ghostlight-for-roman @treasurechestininterweb @cricketanne @queerly-fluid-fan @compactdiscdraws@cecil-but-gayer@i-am-overly-complicated@annytheseal@alias290@tranquil-space-ninja @arxticandy @mychemically-imbalanced-romance @whyiask@crows-ace @emilythezeldafan@frida0043 @ieatspinalcords @snowyfires@cyanide-violence@oonagh2@xxpanic-at-the-everywherexx@rabbitsartcorner @percy-07734@triflingassailantofmyemotions @virgil-sanders-the-gay-emo@cerulean-watermelon@puffed-up-bees@meltheromanstan@joyrose-fandomer@insanitori@mavenmush@justablah65@10paradox10@uhhh-hi-there-i-am-nervous@cutebisexualmess@bella-bugatti-frogetti-baguetti

If you want to be added/taken off the taglist, let me know!

#sanders sides #dragonbabbles #fic #roman sanders #roman angst #roman sanders angst #logan sanders #patton sanders #virgil sanders #remus sanders #sympathetic remus #deceit sanders #sympathetic deceit #janus sanders

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dino-fart · 2 years

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Hi!! Hiw are u??🥰

I saw your Strange Supreme as a dragon and as a basilisk and think about him being a Hydra.

The Lernaean Hydra or Hydra of Lerna more often known simply as the Hydra, is a serpentine water monster in Greek and Roman mythology.

I think that it could be funny seeing him with five or six heads and hear him talking with all his heads jijiji.

@azu21

Ooooooooooooooooo!!! Lmao it would be funny, what if each head was a different variant? XD

“Alright Stephen....This one takes the cake.” You stood there in awe.

“Is it that scary?” The five heads said in unison.

“Scary? No. Concerning? Yes.”

“You liked our others forms!” One head said coming down to your eye level.

“I-”

“Don’t be mean to her!” The second head came down to tell the other off.

“Stop fighting!!” A third head said.

“Let her speak!” The fourth one chimed in.

“I am so sorry...” The fifth one shook its’ head.

You felt like your brain stopped functioning and you stood there mouth open but no words coming out.

“Oh great, look at what you all did!” The fifth one shouted.

The two heads moved away from you to give you space.

“Okay...So I’m gonna go and take a nap...And when I wake up I will be back to reality.” You rubbed your head and the fourth head came down to you.

“Sleep here, darling, we’ll be quiet.” It nuzzled it’s head on your torso.

You nearly stumbled back but kept your balance. “Well...I suppose so, after all, you’re all still my Stephen.” You smiled and kissed the fourth’s head.

The fifth one breathed fire toward the floor and a couch appeared for you to lay in.

“Wow, not wasting any time, huh?” You laughed softly and walked over the the couch.

The heads came down to you and you smirked realizing what they were silently asking for. You placed a kissed on each of the heads and nuzzled onto the couch. “Good night...This is the weirdest pleasant dream I’ve had.” You mumbled and close your eyes.

“Who’s gonna tell her?” One head whispered to the others.

Dividers By: @firefly-graphics

Tagging: @strangeswife, @strangelockd, @thealleydog, @wolfie-west, @k1mikoz, @fizzybubbletea, @pinkthick, @silver-shadow, @strangesthirdeye, @mynamehasbeentakenbysomeperson, @azu21

#azu21 #strange supreme x reader #strange supreme #doctor strange x reader #doctor strange #stephen strange x reader #stephen strange #requests

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kdramaratings · 13 days

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My roman empire: 20th Century Girl

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ / 5

This movie is my literal roman empire . I went through three different emotions throughout the movie: happiness, hatred, depression. (The only reason I'm giving it a 4 stars out of 5 is because of the ending.) Like the beginning is fine. It's so cute and wholesome, just teenage love with the most handsome guy that's 190 cm tall ! Like man if my highschool had someone like Poong Woon-ho, I would flip. Flip and fold . Like until then, it's fine. And then Bora's friend, Yeondu comes back from America and that's where all hell breaks loose. Oh and also, just additional info that u prob didn't know, Bora is purple in Korean and Yeondu is like yellowish green. I thought that was cute as both their names were colors. Anywayss yea so all hell breaks loose after the friend returns because what in the plot twist was that . And tbh if I was Bora, I would not have given up my man just for her happiness. Like Bora is an AMAZING friend if u think about it because she distanced herself from the only boy she liked like GIRL WHAT R U DOING. That gave me a stroke I literally fainted. I'm sorry but I genuinely hated the bsf, yeondu bc she forced bora and woon-ho apart like NOO girl NO. Ok and then comes the most depressing part that made me give a 4 stars out of 5. The freaking train station. The damn train station that appears again in Lovely Runner. ANYWAYS I can't believe that the directors made that the last scene for them to ever meet cus like wdym he's gone now. WDYM. I refuse to believe that the ending actually happened so like yk let's just say they got married and had kids and grew old together !! Also a bit off topic but the filter / vibe in the movie is like blurry / vision-y which makes it SO pretty. Can we all agree that the mountain scene where the two were filming their surroundings and the ocean scene was SO PRETTY ?!? Ok but anyways I really loved the movie and you will too so go watch it now on netflix 🫵

#20th century girl #byeon woo seok #kdrama

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dogcodedcatboy · 3 months

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5. What’s their height difference? Age difference?

6. What’s their relationship with each other’s families?

8. Who gets jealous easier?

(from the Ship Questions post)

For Aaron and Roman!! :3 (sorry this is so late, if you don't wanna do this one, absolutely no worries!)

hope you're doing well!! :D

HI EZRA <3 sorry this marinated in the ol inbox for a few days but thank u for sending these !!! <3 <3

5. What’s their height difference? Age difference?

aaron is 6'0 and roman is 5'6 so...beautiful height difference action. aaron can just kinda. rest his chin right on top of roman's head. like theyre evil gay nesting dolls. also aaron is 29 when they first meet and roman is canonically 37 or 38? (theres a line in the script that confirms his age in s1 but i forgor)

6. What’s their relationship with each other’s families?

logan obviously would sink aaron into the hudson river if he could. but he cant. so he just pretends he doesnt exist as much as possible. the feeling is mutual. aaron and ken have weird relationship but they both play niceys for appearances sake. aaron and shiv are cool he thinks she is very cool! she is unsure what to make of aaron but he'll smoke cigs w her and lightly gossip abt roman. aaron is obsessed with connor (#conhead) and genuinely prefers to socialize w him and willa than any of the other siblings.

discussing romans relationship w aarons family requires DLC (me to explain all 8 of aarons friends and their histories which i will prolly do someday but) roman gets along Really well with them. after they get over wanting to guillotine him they find him irritatingly charming.

8. Who gets jealous easier?

easily aaron. hes the devil from hell when it comes 2 being jealous.

#asks #ezra 🌟

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thecrowslullaby · 2 years

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28 U 6 with Virgil and Janus

strayed from what was expected (probably), but I managed to write a tiny snippet for @its-the-cat-queen au, as lumberjack!Virgil, still lives rent free in my mind.

ships: platonic roceit, romantic prinxiety

“Janus”

“No”

“Janus.”

“I said no.”

“Janus pleeeease.”

“Quit whining.” Janus punctuated the order with a pillow to roman’s face. “I’m not the one who got my leg twisted.

“You kinda are.” The glare he shot Roman’s way finally shut the smaller man up.

“Yes, because it was my idea to chase Remus and Virgil through the woods with me on your back.”

“You never said no.”

“Excuse me, if me screaming ‘Roman stop’ at full volume was not an indication of me wanting you to stop.”

Roman smiled sheepishly at him.

“Sorry?” Janus raise a brow, knowing Roman would continue. “I still think it’s kinda your fault. You kept pulling my hair.”

Janus groaned, swinging the pillow over his eyes. This. This is why he didn’t want to go camping in the first place with the twins. All the bugs, and smell, and of course the twins, using him as a personal weightlifting set.

And if all that wasn’t enough, Roman was now standing over him, whining that Janus will get to share a cabin, ‘better’ yet bed with Roman’s summer crush-Virgil-for the night. Though there was a tiny detail Roman didn’t know (and Janus certainly didn’t intend on telling him after the ‘race’). The lumberjack graciously offered to sleep on the ground and leave the bed to Janus in the few words he managed to spare.

Janus certainly wasn’t about to complaint over having a bed to his own. Nor about the fact that his new roommate wasn’t particularly chatty. He did spend the last 7 days sharing a tent with the twins after all. At one point the twins recited half of Hamlet's play. Janus still wasn’t convinced the two had not merely made a fool of him and were awake.

Nonetheless, a change in roommates would certainly be welcomed. He would still prefer to go home of course. Or stay with the cute forester. But apperently that was out of the question so Janus settled on torturing Roman instead.

“You could say your ankle got better.”

“And the wound magically transferred onto your foot?”

Roman grinned.

“Thanks. I’ll pass.” Janus huffed. “This still beats sleeping outdoors with wild animals.” He smirked. “And all the other forest creatures outside my tent.

This earned him a pillow to the face.

“Hey, I’m sophisticated.”

“Clearly.” Janus smirked. “Judging by the piggy back ride I clearly have not met a more distinguishable gentleman. Even Remys couldn’t compare.”

“Watch it, beanpole.”

“Or what-”

Roman evilly stole the pillow again, raising it over his head. Janus braced himself, but the blow never came. He cracked an eyelid open, curious what had happened to suddenly change Roman’s mind about the unjust attack, only to see Virgil standing just inches away from the shorter man. The pillow effortlessly stopped with one hand as he stared Roman down with a raised brow.

Roman in turn, looked about ready to combust.

“I wasn’t-” His voice cracked a little as he spoke and Janus swore he saw a smirk appearing on Virgils’s lips, a little red dusting his cheeks as well. Well wouldn’t you know?

“Don’t.” He warned, though it hardly came out as a threat. “Janus doesn’t need more broken bones.”

That, he could certainly agree on.

#ts janus #ts roman #ts virgil #cawtent #prinxiety #sanders sides #ficlets

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kidflashimpulse · 2 years

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Any yj fanfic recs, it doesn’t have to be just Bart or zetaflash. It can be anything! I’m just trying not to think about the cancellation lmao

im glad im answering this now instead of when I first saw it cause all this time I thought u were asking about fics in general and ive been trying to come up with some since and WHEW I have zero idea on where to start id be at it for hours.

apologies for only replying now, ik this might've been more helpful in the moment but I was hoping my post on YJ status was somewhat helpful on the matter ! still imma give some reccs in case u need it in the future

though warning... I get the impression its entirely possible (very likely) u might have read them all already? im gonna try my best with variety but I can't promise u haven't read it already

for YJ, I have to confess....... I have tunnel vision for bart, I don't recall reading much outside/beyond him and those that I have, well since I don't archive what I read (one of my worst traits if u ask me), its not coming to me rn, but next time I read smn I wanna recc Im gonna try to remember to add it to this post as an edit lol

but for now...

Sunshine. Falling by @/radioactive-earthshine

ok...so ik im gonna mostly be giving the stuff that ive bookmarked on ao3 (which isn't at all a comprehensive list, theres sooo much more that ive loved but I don't use my acc to read at all so I usually just free-ball it when trying to remember fics, and yes, its a habit I very much hate lol) and in fact, I wish I could mention them all here but I would be writing a novel if I spoke about each and every one of the so ur best bet is to just check that list out honestly

and also, yeah its not a YJ fic, but I enjoy how it follows his comic characters run and builds on it. I find his characterisation in this fic rlly interesting and authentic (also Max being Native American there is everything, I actually have this whole theory/HC in YJ that Max is a Native American “God” (like the ancient greek/roman gods) i.e commonly known as Mercury, that just kinda roams about but is mostly in New Genesis (no idea where that thread/post is rn but I read someone connecting Lightray to Hermes/Mercury and since then that idea has been stuck in my head lol))

okay I have gone totally off track (im so sorry omg) im gonna try to keep it concise from here lol, anyway supper recc sunshine falling, the writing is gorgeous and the plot is rlly interesting!

After the fall of Olympus by @/greycappedjester

okay, im obsessed with this series, the world building is INSANE, the first fic in the series is basically a YJA AU where failsafe actually happened (whole flashfam except jay dies, but YJA bart still makes it to that TL cause he actually ended up dimension hopping rather than time travelling, or smn like that). To keep it short, his characterisation here is AMAZING, I love it sm, the second fic, flash facts is one of my all time favourites (if u ask me its the only canon take of his interaction with the rogues, cause don't get me started on how foul his comics history with them is (and not in a gd way)) so personally, this series, particularly flash facts, is just fantastic. it also very much explores other YJ/DC characters, (Dick is the central figure in AFTO and bart appears relatively later on and when the YJ Invasion plot passes, the plot focuses alot on other characters, especially considering its largely about Dicks evolution).

For zetaflash, I mean it quite literally when I say I think ive read almost all the fics under the tag... we are very much at that stage in the fandom, so yeah lol, quite a few of my faves are in my bookmarks but I haven't updated it in a while

Sooner than later, a Wally and bart oneshot on their YJ bond, its quite sweet, ft spitfire

Waking up to Ash and Dust its incomplete (just one chapter) and quite an old fic, its also been super long since I last read it so I can't remember it clearly, gotta give it a reread but I remember it being a rlly interesting take on things so it stuck with me, basically an outsider POV of bart with OCs

ill try to update this list when I can! and my bookmarks at some point too whilst im at it lol, hope u can enjoy these (if u haven't read them already lol) and im so sorry for the totally unwarranted random essay lmfao

#YJ asks #bart allen #Bart Allen fics #young justice #young justice fics #impulse #kid flash #max mercury #conner kent #dick grayson #Wally West #eduardo dorado jr #artemis crock #spitfire #the rogues

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twoheadedsam · 4 months

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anon bc im shy buuut ive been absolutely DEVOURING your brotherson au i came from ao3 and hooooly shit everything about it!!! UGH!!

i was wondering if u had any headcanons about shiv's pov? in my head the Loganification(TM) would probably make her also see roman as her brotherson while still having a sense of self awarness kendall decidedly doesnt have. if shiv isnt in ur au id love to hear any other headcanons sorry if im being annoying lol but youve lead me into the most delectable brain rot ever!!!!! i would be so so pleased if you ever wrote any more fics dude im half considering writing a drabble myself

Hi!! Thank you so much!! I have actually thought a lot about Shiv’s pov, I have a wip set earlier than the fox I posted in which she appears! And yeah, she pretty much sees Roman as incapable of taking care of himself but she sees that Kendall’s way of dealing with him is making it worse. I have a thing set wayy into the future that centers on Shiv’s daughter trying to figure out what happened and Shiv’s reaction to the whole thing defines a lot of her character and motivations, but it’s not my first priority atm since it functionally centers around an OC lol. In the meantime, I’ll leave the tag for the AU below if you want to see more about it!

And it would be awesome if you wrote something inspired by it omg!! I developed a lot of it with my friend Kitsy (disabusement on twt) so it was a collaborative thing from the start. Thank you so much for the ask, you’re very sweet <3

#makedamnsure verse #mailbox

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thef1nalb0ss · 10 months

Text

Faction Rankings: Week of July 24, 2023- July 30, 2023

10. Chase U

Thea tried her best, and in her submission match against Tiffany for the NXT Women's Championship, she never tapped out. She did end up losing due to Andre throwing in the towel for her. She seemed upset afterwards, but it remains to be seen whether she was upset because of the loss or upset with Andre for quitting for her (or maybe both).

9. Alpha Academy

Maxxine will have her first singles match this week. Continuing their feud with The Viking Raiders, Maxxine challenged Valhalla to a match, and it was accepted.

8. The Bloodline

Roman was at Smackdown for the second week in a row, and he and Jey had a face-to-face. Later in the night, him and Solo sat ringside during Jey's match against Grayson, and they attacked him afterwards.

Paul's also not carrying around the other two belts anymore. That probably doesn't mean anything, but I wanted to point it out anyway.

7. Imperium

The face-to-face between Gunther and Drew resulted in a match between Drew and Kaiser. Drew ended up getting the win, but when Imperium tried to do a post-match attack, Matt came to help.

6. Meta-Four

So Noam's kind of back to normal...but now he's carrying around a Hertiage Cup that Lash gave him that may or may not be fake. Maybe we can get somebody to test it. Anyway, they had an eight-person tag match at Great American Bash against the other Hertiage Cup Champion Nathan, Dragon, Yulisa and Valentina, which they lost. But hey, at least Noam seems okay now.

5. Diamond Mine

We can pretend all we want but those guys in Schism masks that caused them to lose the six-man tag last week? That's The Creeds. Maybe somebody should tell Ivy.

So, they got some revenge on Schism, and now there's going to be an interrogation of all The Schism members this week where they'll have to take off their masks so they can find out who's the traitor. Ava insists it's not them, but Jagger thinks otherwise. Sorry Ava, I'm on Jagger's side here. It's definitely them.

4. Damage CTRL

Shotzi's still after them, so that's not great. What is great, though, is that Summerslam is coming up, and the Women's Championship Triple Threat could be a good time for Iyo to cash-in. Asuka warned her against it, but I'm not sure that deterred her much, if at all.

3. The Brawling Brutes

So there's a battle royal at Summerslam now, and Sheamus is officially in it. This week, on the Smackdown before Summerslam, Sheamus has a match with the other confirmed battle royal competitor, LA Knight.

2. LWO

Well, Santos is the winner of the United States Championship Invitational and will face Austin for the Championship next week. Unfortunately, the end of the match wasn't really a celebration. Rey appeared to have suffered a concussion during the match, and was deemed unable to compete, making Santos the winner.

1. The Judgement Day

Dominik and Damian both won on Monday, against Sami and Apollo, respectively. The match against Sami was for the North American Championship, which Dominik also successfully defended against Wes and Ali at Great American Bash. Finn and Seth signed their contract for their title match at Summerslam, and afterwards, The Judgement Day attacked Seth and stood tall. Rhea also was scheduled to have a match with Liv, but attacked her before the bell and injured her arm. She also won a match against Lyra in NXT, and afterwards told Lyra to beat Jacy to prove to Rhea that she's right about her. Lyra will get that match this week. If she wins, they may be looking to add another member to The Judgement Day.

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death-himself · 3 years

Note

Saw your monsyer au on ao3

Great work

Anyway, probably an angsty prompt but I was wondering if you think that any of our monster bois have had nightmares where they go on a hunt and then accidental chomp Virgil. Bonus points if in the moment they actually enjoy his flavor

I feel like the left brain boys (Janus and Logan) would be the most likely to have a nightmare scenario like that, especially Logan since he DID almost munch Virgil, and they'd also be the most likely to pretend everything's fine the next morning even tho they're absolutely miserable and terrified of taking a crunch munch out of their human bf in real life

Great work, don't know if o said that already

Happy holidays Nico

It’s been over a month since you sent this so sorry about that .-. Anyway here’s the fic, some good ol’ hurt/comfort with Loceit and Logicality because Logan deserves it

Warnings: Death (in a dream sequence), cannibalism, nightmares, blood

Logan went down his usual route to hunt. He and his other nonhuman boyfriends often hunted at the same time, spread all across the city and countryside to make their home less easy for the police to find. He found a good place on the rooftop to sit as he watched the humans pass by, waiting patiently for his prey.

One with dark purple hair walked down the alleyway. A pleased smile pulled at Logan’s lips. He dropped down silently in front of them, and before they could even scream he had them pinned to the ground, a hand over their mouth as he sunk his teeth into their arm.

The taste was heavenly. He ripped away at the tender flesh, sweet as candy and melting in his mouth. He ignored the human’s cries as he savored his meal, biting away until rose red pooled around them both. It was the most beautiful shade of blood he had ever seen. Logan felt bile hit his hand as the human attempted to vomit, before all the muscles beneath him loosened, and he heard their heart slow into silence.

Finally Logan pulled away with a sigh, having eaten his fill. He normally refrained from looking at his victims, in fear that he would feel guilty for killing them, but for whatever reason his eyes drifted over, looking over the dead man’s face. Purple hair, blank, empty black eyes, black eyeshadow.

Virgil.

Logan’s eyes snapped open, his body drenched in sweat. He looked to his side, relieved to see Virgil alive and well, sleeping as peacefully as ever. He listened closely to his boyfriend’s steady heartbeat, staring up at the ceiling as he waited for his own heart to come closer to matching.

He hated thinking about how he and Virgil met. He hated what had been going through his mind while he attacked him. He hated the fact that Virgil was the most delicious human he had ever tasted.

It had been something that had always been at the back of his mind, something he refused to acknowledge. Virgil tasted fucking incredible and there was nothing any of them could do about it. If Patton hadn’t been there to stop him, what had happened in his dream would have been reality.

He looked over Virgil at Patton, hugging the end of Janus’s tail like a teddy bear. He was the only one out of the four of them that hadn’t actually tried to kill Virgil, wasn’t he? No, he had saved Virgil from Logan’s own bloodlust. Wow, what a great boyfriend he was.

He sighed, turning over to stare at the clock. It was three AM, that was only three hours earlier than he would usually wake up. Might as well get up then.

Virgil had gone off to work and Roman had decided to visit his brother. The moment both of them left, Janus pulled Logan aside, wrapping his tail around him and almost pulling him close enough to touch noses. “Is something bothering you, love?” Janus spoke softly.

“Of course not.” Even Logan could tell he responded too quickly. Janus smiled.

“Well there has to be a reason why you kept staring at Virgil this morning. I know he’s absolutely gorgeous but there has to be a reason other than that.” Logan sighed. He knew how Janus was; he refused to give up until whoever he was talking to admitted what they were struggling with. It was something he both hated and loved about him.

“...You came close to killing him too, didn’t you?” The question threw off the naga for a moment, yellow and brown eyes widening. Janus hummed, nodding.

“So that’s the issue.” He sighed. “Well yes, I did. If I had held him for maybe five more seconds he would’ve passed out, and if I didn’t notice by then I likely would’ve eaten him alive. It’s in the past though, all is forgiven.”

“What if we realized afterward that he was our soulmate? What if you had looked at your tail and seen that Virgil’s mark was gone after he was dead and eaten?” Janus looked him up and down, concern flooding his eyes.

“Did you have a nightmare like that, darling?” Logan nodded hesitantly. Janus paused, arms hooked around Logan’s neck, his hand drifting up to run his fingers through Logan’s hair.

“I’ve gotten those, too. They’re tough to see, aren’t they?” Logan closed his eyes, allowing himself to go limp in Janus’s arms and coils as the naga pulled him even closer, holding him with all the care in the world.

“We’ve been around him long enough to not harm him. I know with how annoying he can be at times it’s hard to restrain yourself, but it seems like we still manage.” He chuckled. “And our first meetings are in the past now. They were awful first impressions, sure, and we’ll always remember what it was like to nearly kill him, but we know that they won’t happen again.”

Logan hummed, nose nuzzled into Janus’s shoulder. Janus killed through suffocation, though. Logan was the one who actually bit him and tasted his blood. And the taste and scent of that blood was what constantly hung in his mind, something he would always crave but could never get. At least not without consequences.

Janus unwrapped himself a bit, delivering a soft kiss on Logan’s lips and looking him over to make sure he was alright. Logan heard humming from the doorway, smelling Patton waiting just outside. Knowing him he had probably walked in and saw what was going on, opting to wait until they were done rather than joining in.

The vampire peeked his head in to check, before deeming them done and smiling happily. “You two having a cuddle party without me?” He gave Logan a kiss on the cheek before moving over to do the same to Janus.

“We were simply talking about an issue Logan had.” Patton immediately turned back to Logan, eyes full of concern, and Logan wished Janus had just spun one of his lies to get him out of this.

“It was nothing serious, I’m fine.”

“You sure, Logi Bear?” Logan hesitated. Patton was a vampire, he would understand something like this better than Janus or Roman would. But how the hell was he supposed to word it?

“...Virgil tastes incredible.”

“He does!” Patton giggled, a wide smile on his lips. “He let me drink his blood once, it was so good! I was scared I would kill him though, so I didn’t get much of it.”

“It’s very sweet, isn’t it?”

“Like candy!” Patton agreed. Janus looked between the two, accepting in his mind that this was really where the conversation was turning.

“Is there a way that you, ah...” Logan cleared his throat, “a way that you’ve learned to cope with that?” Patton’s brows scrunched in confusion, and he quickly rushed to explain. “Being around him all the time must be rather difficult, as he always...smells like our form of candy, I suppose you could word it.”

“Oh!” Patton’s eyes widened, before his cheeks went red. “Yeah, sometimes I just really wanna bite him. It’s an annoying thing to deal with, huh?” Logan nodded silently. “But like I overheard Jan tell you, we’ve been around him too long to actually hurt him. And I know you especially have a lot of self-control when it matters, so...try not to worry too much about it. You’re probably the least likely out of all of us to hurt him.”

“You were the one that stopped me when we first met him.” Logan spoke quietly. Patton shrugged, floating a few inches above the ground as he thought.

“But you were the one who got to him first. If I was the one that had tackled him, you probably would’ve had to pull me off! You have enough self-control to stop yourself with just a bit of help from us.” Patton took Logan’s hand, running his thumb across his knuckles. “I think that kinda proves that you won’t lose control and hurt him.”

Janus sighed, itching at an old bit of shed snakeskin. “We’ve all worried about what would happen if we lost control. And the truth is that it’s possible, probably more than likely, that we’ll end up hurting him at some point.”

The thought made them all go silent as it weighed down on their psyches. Hurting each other, especially their weaker human boyfriend, was the last thing they wanted to do, and they were all sure they would rather die than harm any of the others.

“But, it hasn’t happened yet, and we’re doing all we can right now to make sure it’s as least likely as possible.” Janus curled his tail around his boyfriends’ legs, snapping them out of the worried, distant blurriness in their eyes. “Let’s not worry too much about a future we can’t see yet, okay?”

They nodded, a weight feeling as though it had been lifted off Logan’s chest, as he for once didn’t plan out the rest of his day, instead opting to join Janus and Patton in what the two had dubbed self-care time, lying on the couch watching cartoons as the future grew blurry and distant.

#sanders sides #dlamp #loceit #logicality #virgil sanders #janus sanders #logan sanders #patton sanders #ghoul!logan #naga!janus #vampire!patton #blood tw #cannibalism tw #nightmares tw #dream death tw #idk if that needs a tw but just in case #sorry roman no appearance for u

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heleizition · 4 years

Photo

ok ok so core four redesigns. here they are . pls excuse the mess i legit cannot draw cleanly. BUT let me tell u about the identities stuff :

SO as ive said in another ask, core four changing for other identities in this AU would happen after a big fight with their mentors as a whole which is mostly triggered by cassie being angry at batman and superman for how they treat tim and conner seFJSFEJOFSEJ anyway .

they do not want a visual connection to their respective hero families, and they’re growing up from the kid/boy/girl/robin stuff.

• BART ALLEN becomes Mercury . This is both in reference to Max Mercury who was his mentor and is, not here anymore, and a reference to the roman god (hermed in greek) who was the god messenger and was known to be fast.

• CONNER KENT becomes Atlas. this is in reference to the Titan with the same name, said to be the titan of endurance. he’s supposed to be holding the actual Earth on his shoulders, which i thought was a nice symbol that wasnt just, hope and strenght ? there is more to this titan’s story, but this is the bit that i’m keeping.

• TIM DRAKE becomes Strix. a strix in mythology was a bird of ill omen. in its first appearance in texts, it could be both an owl or a bat which i think is really cool for tim !!! there are a lot of stories about strix being vampires, but there is another one in russia about them being ghosts that are still visible after their death. which i think is interresting bc in this AU tim stays a long time in mr oz’s/jor-el’s prisons and he’s mostly left alone and he kind of goes crazy bc he’s alone with his thoughts and at some point he’s not sure he’s alive :D !

• CASSANDRA SANDSMARK becomes Alekto. Alekto (the unceasing/the implacable anger in ancient greek) was a figure of greek mythos, one of the erinyes (or furies). they were deities of vengeance, alekto dealing with moral “crimes” (crimes of anger is the one ive seen quoted the most). she also has a link with war, as one of the stories in the aneid by virigil tells how she causes the trojan’s downfall through war. which is especially interesting for cassie as she is ares’s champion on earth, whos the god of war hehe.

SO YEAH h hh HHH im sorry the designs aren’t that good and polished but ill work on it !!! i jst rly wanted to get this out @ckbookish for making me research strix and @batfam-chaos for atlas !!!!!!

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a-small-batch-of-dragons · 1 year

Text

Connection: Patton

Read on Ao3

Warnings: mention of childhood neglect/abandonment/implied abuse

Pairings: royality

Word Count: 2370

You can do this. You can do this. You can do this.

Patton bounces on the balls of his feet as he watches the other end of the road, waiting for Roman to appear. This was it! The festival was this weekend, he'd made sure his schedule was clear, and he had enough motivation to finally ask out Roman. Roman just needed to show up.

There!

Patton waves as he sees Roman turn onto the street, his red jacket slung over his shoulders and his phone in his hand. He puts it in his pocket and looks up to see him, smiling and waving back. He jogs the rest of the way to the bus stop and knocks his elbow lightly against Patton's.

"Morning. You look chipper."

"Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, that's me!"

Roman chuckles, shaking his head. "You're adorable."

"Aw, thanks! So are you!" Patton grins when he sees Roman turn away a bit to try and hide the way he blushes—it fails, but that's okay. "Hey, u, do you have any plans for this weekend?"

"Other than homework and keeping my brother out of trouble? Nah, not really, why?"

This is it. You can do it. "Well, there's this fall festival that's opening up this weekend on the other side of campus and there's a student discount and I was, um, I was wondering if you wanted to go with me?"

"A festival?"

"Yeah! Pumpkins, corn mazes, apple cider…fall stuff. They're doing a few things for Halloween but it's meant to last until—well, until it's too cold to be outside anymore, so I think, like, late November? So there's not that much stuff out right now."

"How much is it? Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, I'm just…kind of on a budget right now."

"Oh, that's okay! I think the general pass is around fifteen but I can pay for you if you want."

Roman startles a bit. "No, no, that's okay, I didn't mean that. I just wanted to know how much it was."

Patton frowns. "I didn't—sorry, I didn't want to make it sound like I didn't think you could pay for it, I just—gosh. Sorry. I, um, I really like spending time with you and I wanted to spend more time with you, and…yeah. Just wanted to make it clear that was an option."

Roman scratches the back of his head, smiling sheepishly. "Kinda jumped all over you on that, huh? Sorry."

"It's okay! I get it. I could've said it a little better."

"You said it fine, Patton, I'm just—money's a bit of a thing for me, that's all."

"Noted. I'll keep that in mind."

"You're too sweet, you know that?" He adjusts his backpack. "Can I think about it? I want to ask my brother if it's okay too—he's got some stuff going on at the moment and I don't—I wanna get a feel for that too."

"Of course! Yeah, no, I completely understand. Let me know."

"Thanks."

Sure enough, that evening, he gets a text from Roman saying: i'm free! i can come this sunday for a few hours. remus is gonna go visit a friend for lunch so i'm all yours.

'All yours.' Patton can't help a little squee at that.

Me: OH that's so great!!!! I'm so excited!!!! It's really close so we can walk over if you want.

Roman <3: sure that sounds great

Me: Cool!! Do you want to aim for like 11?

Roman <3: i can do 11. you said it was 15?

Me: Yeah, $15 for the general pass. I wasn't making it up when I said I could pay for you, just as a reminder. I asked, let me treat you.

Roman <3: u sure? i can pay you back

Me: You're paying me back by letting me spend time with you <3

Roman <3: jfc you're too cute

He squees again, clutching his phone. This Sunday can't come soon enough.

As it turns out, once Sunday comes, 11:00 can't come soon enough. But eventually, Roman shows up with a different jacket slung over his shoulders; a big, black cargo jacket with a bunch of pockets that makes him look even more like a movie star and Patton tells him that as soon as he's close enough not to shout.

"Aw, thanks. I like this coat too." He winks and gestures to the road. "After you."

It really isn't that far from campus—it's actually closer to their houses than the actual campus is. They talk about nothing in particular as they go, favorite Halloween candy—candy corn for Patton, M&M's for Roman—whether or not candy corn is gross—"I prefer those candy pumpkins, honestly, just 'cause there's more of it."—and how much sugar is appropriate to eat before it's too much— "if your head starts hurting, Pat, I think it's too much."

They politely disagree on that last one until they come to the festival grounds. There are more pumpkins than they could ever hope to count, streamers flying from the top of booths and tents, and a corn maze that stretches far into the distance. A few kids shriek as they run past, going toward some of the bigger rides. One has a giant stuffed bear in their arms that they keep tripping over.

"The entrance is over there, I think." Patton starts walking toward it but stops when he realizes Roman isn't following him. "Roman?"

Roman snaps out of whatever daze he was in, looking over apologetically. "Sorry, got distracted. What did you say?"

"The entrance is right over there."

"You sure you're okay with paying?"

"Yes, I'm sure." Patton happily hands over the money required for two general passes and they strap on their wristbands, heading through the archway to the festival proper. He claps his hands. "What do we want to do first?"

"What does this get us again?"

"It gets us the corn maze, the pumpkin patch, and then the art barn."

"The what?"

Patton points at a large red barn that looks like it's been taken from a cartoon and placed in the real world. "In there. I think if you want to decorate or carve whatever pumpkins you end up picking, you go in there."

"Gotcha." He stuffs his hands in his pockets. "Well, I think I've learned better than to bring home smashable gooey things, so I don't think I'll be getting a pumpkin, but I like looking at all the weird gourds, so should we start there?"

"Yeah, that sounds like fun!" They weave their way around cotton candy stalls and hot pretzel stands until they reach the entrance to the barn. Rows upon rows of gourds greet them, sectioned first by color and then by shape. Patton picks up a squat round white one and holds it up. "It looks like someone squished a pumpkin and then painted it white, doesn't it?"

"And this one looks like it was made of chewing gum and they stretched it too far." Roman holds up an off-white one that's almost the length of his forearm. "You know when you accidentally miss the trash and it goes this color?"

"Oh my gosh, you're right. Wait, no!" He smacks Roman's arm when Roman jokingly goes to chomp on it. "Don't do that!"

"I won't, I won't," he laughs, setting it back down. "Whoa, look at this. This looks like some kind of messed up trombone."

"Wait, wait, let me join you with my horrible saxophone." They each pick up long twisted gourds. "Or is this more of a wonky trumpet?"

"It's a mess, that's what it is. Here, use this one, they kind of look like drumsticks."

Patton mimes out a drum sting. "Wait, wait, tell a joke."

"Uh—what do you call a round orange thing that's a bit bigger than the others?"

"What?"

"A plump-kin!"

"Ba-dum tss."

Roman snorts, holding a hand to his mouth. "How was you doing that funnier than my joke? Wait, wait, don't answer that."

"I thought it was good."

"That's 'cause you like dad jokes."

"There's nothing wrong with a good dad joke! They grow on you." Roman narrows his eyes as Patton mimes the sting again. "Ba-dum tss!"

"You're lucky you're adorable."

Patton giggles, putting the gourds back as they keep walking. There are ones with lumps, ones with bumps, ones that are more lumps and bumps than gourds, and ones that are so smooth they almost drop them trying to pick them up. They get all the way to the end of one row when Roman stops suddenly and Patton almost runs into him.

"Whoa!"

"Sorry, sorry, there's just—traffic!"

Patton peeks over his shoulder and watches two little kids run right past them. Each carries their own little gourd and they proudly hold them up to two women who must be their mothers. They bend down and ruffle their hair, each saying how perfect it is. Patton smiles as they bundle the kids off toward the other part of the barn where the register must be.

"They're so cute," he mumbles, "aren't they?"

Roman doesn't say anything. When he looks up, Roman's face is…a bit sad?

"You okay?"

Just like at the entrance, Roman snaps himself out of it. "Yeah, sorry. I'm here. Are you all good in here?"

"Yeah, I think I'm done. I'm kinda hungry, are you?"

"A bit." But before he can suggest going to find something to eat, Roman reaches into an inside pocket of his coat and pulls out a bag of trail mix. "Do you want some?"

"Um, sure." Roman shakes a bit of it into his hand. "Hey, there's candy in here!"

"I know how to trick myself into eating my protein, thank you."

They walk back outside, snacking on the trail mix. The sun starts to beat down, having reached its zenith while they were inside. Patton shields his eyes and looks around.

"Do any of the booths look fun?"

"Oh, I'm no good at the games."

"Me neither. There are some that look more like just stuff, though, it could be fun to walk through those."

Roman eyes the crowds swarming around them. "Maybe we should come back when they're less…populated."

"Fair enough. Wait about the corn maze?"

"Sure. Are you any good at mazes?"

"I'm fine when I can see all of them. So…probably not that good at these."

Roman chuckles. "That's fine. We've got cell service, I'm sure someone will come and rescue us if we get too lost. Besides, I know the trick."

"You do?" They show their wristbands to the attendant and head in, the breeze making the stalks crackle lightly as they walk. "Wait, what's the trick?"

"You're always supposed to turn left. That way, you eventually cover all the ground in the maze and you'll find the exit. Whoa!"

They both screech to a halt again as an entire gaggle of children race by, just narrowly avoiding them. A few harried-looking parents follow after them, apologizing to them both as they make it out of the maze. Patton lets out a breath, letting go from where he'd clutched Roman's arm.

"Sorry, didn't mean to grab you like that." He looks up. Roman's got that faraway look on his face again. "Hey, are you okay? You've…you keep zoning out."

"Sorry. I'm probably not being very good company, am I?" He offers his arm but doesn't answer.

"You're fine." Patton laces his arm through Roman's as they walk, slowly moving through the corn. "I just…you know, you're my friend. If there's anything I can do…"

"You're perfect." He tries not to swoon at that. "I'm just…I don't want to bring down the mood."

"You won't."

Roman huffs a laugh, but it's not happy. "I…hm. No, it's not fair to you if I don't tell you."

He draws himself up a bit, refusing to make eye contact.

"My parents…weren't very good parents. I won't burden you with details but basically, as soon as I was eighteen, I got custody of Remus and we moved out on our own. It's just been the two of us for so long and I wouldn't trade him for the world but we…I told you money was kind of a thing for me?"

Patton nods, unwilling to speak.

"We've not really had the opportunity to do a lot of stuff like this." He gestures around. "So seeing all the kids…I dunno, makes me feel some type of way."

Patton chest hurts for a moment and he squeezes Roman's arm. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault." He looks over, smiling ruefully. "If anything, I should be apologizing to you. One for being so depressing and two for waiting until we're lost in a maze to tell you all of that."

"One, we're not lost, we're just getting started, and two, that's fine. You're having feelings!" He squeezes his arm again. "I'd rather you tell me about them if you're comfy than if you didn't."

"Thank you, Patton. Really. That means a lot to me."

"Well, you mean a lot to me. I mean…I know we don't know each other all that well, but…" Now it's his turn to find it hard to make eye contact. "I'd like to get to know you better. That's partly why I asked if you would come today."

"I'm glad I did."

"Really?"

"Really." He looks down at the hand on his arm. "Feels a bit like I'm getting some of those missed opportunities back."

He just manages to restrain himself from squeeing again but he can't stop the massive grin on his face. Roman looks up, sees it, and laughs. It's happy this time.

"So," he says as they keep walking, "anything else I should know?"

"Um…like what?"

"Well…are you seeing anyone at the moment?"

Roman sighs. "I think…three people at this point have asked me out to dinner, but I've not—I'm not currently in a relationship with any of them."

"Can I make it four?"

"What, dad jokes and corn mazes not enough for you?" But he's smiling as he says it. "Let's see how we handle being lost in here first, then we'll see."

"Sounds good!"

"Hey, hey!" Roman stumbles as Patton almost drags him forward. "Slow down!"

"Oops, sorry."

#dragonbabbles #roman sanders #patton sanders #sanders sides #fic

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the-panmixxia · 3 years

Text

(maybe don't) kill your friends

Rating: Teen and Up

Warnings: Violence, abuse, moderate abelist language, cursing, insults to physical appearance, murder, dead animals (no deaths "on screen") U!Janus. U!Remus, Killer!Virgil

Characters: DRLAMP (all platonic) and a cat

Summary: On a long distance road trip, Patton, Logan, and Roman accidently avoid becoming victims of an unusually gentle killer.

A submission for my @sandersidesbigbang

Incredible Artists @vianadraws with art [here]

and @purplecrayonismine with art [here]

Beta by @iamtheogizzy

Thank you so much for reading! It's rather different to my usual style, and I may come back to properly explore this idea in a rewrite or sequel. My team has been so Lovely and patient, even though I'm posting late and completely changed fic half way through ^^;

"Not to be a drag, but I think we're pretty lost right now."

"We're not lost, I followed the map perfectly!"

"Oh, don't be upset, Lo, your driving is great! Though I agree, we might be a little…um, turned around, so to speak."

Logan bit his lip in frustration, though knew his friends may be accurate on this particular instance even if it was immensely frustrating. The car hit a pothole so harshly they were all jerked to the side, only increasing their ire.

"Dear Zeus, we're almost out of steam." Roman complained from the passenger seat, gesturing to the empty tank symbol.

"The car may be old, but it isn't steam powered. It runs on gas." Logan explained - Roman couldn't drive yet, but surely ce knew that?

"Yeah, Ro, if you want your car to be steam powered you gotta…train it." Patton chirped from the back, giggling to themselves. Roman laughed, while Logan took a deep breath.

"...Thank you for that, Patton, but I don't think train puns are going to help our situation here."

"You're right, I'll get back on track."

Roman laughed, leaning back in cer seat and studying Logan. "Carefully Patty, you keep stressing Lo out and they'll choo-choo the steering wheel off."

"You're right, I need to switchback and conduct myself accordingly."

Logan made a pained sound, so Patton reached around to squeeze his shoulder. "Sorry I'm making you loco with my motives, you just keep chugging along kiddo."

"Patton, you are vastly increasing the chance of me intentionally swerving into a ditch." Logan warned, trying to make their seriousness clear, but Patton merely seemed amused.

"No time for train-themed murder attempts, there's a gas station up ahead!"

Roman was right, along the horizon at the end of the long dirt road, the start of a small town was coming into sight - an extremely old and sun-worn gas station was currently the most appealing feature. Patton's cat meowed curiously from her position on their lap, inquisitive as ever. Patton lifted her up to the window, beaming.

"Look, Mitts! Gas station! That means I can get you some treats!"

Mittens meowed once more, tilting her head back to touch noses with her owner. Patton squeaked oddly and cuddled her close.

"There's a lot of roadkill." Roman commented grimly, eyeing the side of the road, absolutely littered with birds, rabbits, mice, and what he was fairly certain was a deer.

"Yes. I can smell it." Logan commented dryly, rolling their window up with a grimace. The combination of heat and corpse was leaving quite the scent.

As they drove, the car began straining, spluttering and coughing along.

"Gods, please don't -" Roman whined as they rolled to a stop, the car completely unresponsive. Logan mournfully returned the clutch to neutral "-die"

"Well, it's only a little walk to the station!" Patton smiled, trying to be optimistic.

"You're right, puffball, let's just walk and ask if anyone can tow it over."

Logan nodded, unbuckling his seat belt and sliding out. Roman followed suit, then Patton once they'd scooped up Mittens and their duffle bag.

"All set, kiddos, let's go!"

"Certainly." Logan hummed, taking the lead, desperate to be out of the unbearable heat.

Roman lagged behind with Patton, despite cer long legs itching cer to go faster. As they both walked, ce had ample time to inspect the 'roadkill'.

They'd all been killed by humans no doubt, bullet holes and blade-type slashes too precise to be talons. Knowing that Patton certainly wouldn't be down to examine dead animals, ce called ahead for Logan.

"Specs! Look at the side of the road. Isn't it weird?"

Logan followed the instruction, stopping in their tracks.

"This isn't roadkill at all…"

"Perhaps an avid hunting community?"

Logan nodded once, firm, before walking on towards the gas station. Roman felt a tugging urge to go back to the car and retrieve cer bag, which amongst other things contained cer pepper spray and taser. But still, ce kept walking, since the heat was becoming horrid.

Inside the gas station it was entirely unventilated with no cooler, but the two people sitting behind the counter didn't seem the slightest bit warm.

One was standing next to a bead-covered doorway, hair coiffed and meticulous, wearing a yellow polo-shirt with black slacks and suspenders. He was leaning on a cane with a very grumpy expression, mismatched eyes flicking over to the small group.

The other was on top of the counter, legs on either side and grinning playfully. He looked much more manic, ratted, greasy hair and what could only be described as an impractical amount of belts and buckles.

"Ah, customers. Welcome." The one standing hummed, staring at them all, as though sizing them up. The other slowly rose to a stand, limbs moving around eerily like a stop-motion puppet.

Logan, mouth pressed thin in an almost-grimace, decided to speak before the atmosphere could get anymore uncomfortable.

"Salutations. I'm afraid our car ran out of gas just down the road, do you have any towing equipment we could use to bring it to a pump?"

The two shared a glance, before the one standing tapped his cane. The other stood to attention, still vibrating somewhat manically.

"Certainly. Remus, go get him. And be quick about it."

Remus, apparently, nodded once and hopped over the counter gracefully, before sprinting towards the group with a grin. At the last moment he swerved, giggling at their spooked expression as he shoved the door open to leave.

"Forgive him, there's not much to do out here, Remus likes to itch his boredom by messing with our occasional guests. Would you like to sit in the back? Much cooler there."

Though following a relative stranger into the back wasn't advisable, the promise of a cooler room enticed the three to follow.

"Oh, thank you, very much. We were really in a pickle back there!" Patton smiled, cradling Mittens close as they passed through the beaded doorway.

"No trouble at all," the stranger purred, suave and completely out of place in such a rural, southern town. "What brings you three gentlemen into such a small town?"

Logan glanced at Patton, who gave a slight head shake, so Logan continued.

"Just visiting family. It is quite the trip, but driving worked out cheaper than a domestic flight, considering it is currently the summer holiday and there's an increase of passengers."

"Your family, are they close?" the stranger asked, staring at all three of them, rather intense.

"Oh, no, the next state over." Roman answered, shifting slightly, and the stranger relaxed and nodded.

"Fantastic. Please, sit down, I'll bring a lemonade pitcher."

The three sat down where prompted, Patton holding tightly onto Mittens, who herself looked rather reluctant to get down off her owner's lap. The stranger eyed the cat, before shrugging, wandering off through yet another door.

"Well that was uncomfortable." Roman huffed, leaning back with a sigh. Patton stroked a hand over cer knee, tutting.

"They're helping us out, kiddo, don't be mean. I'm sure they just don't have much experience with customers."

"I agree." Logan cut in, pushing up their glasses. "It is common for most retail workers to be expected to use a social script, one that an employee in such a small town wouldn't bother with. Not everyone will have the exact hospitality expected in Los Angeles."

Roman huffed slightly, absently giving Mittens some well deserved scratches. "I know that. I just get the feeling that they're hiding something. I don't know. Pretty snakey."

Logan nodded and shrugged, unwilling to state that they also felt the strange - with two rather emotional friends, he should be the one to soothe them fears, not add to them.

"I'm certain they have no ill intent." Logan said, hopefully with enough conviction to make it absolute.

"Here we are, gentlemen, fresh lemonade for the weary travellers."

Eyeing the lemonade critically, Logan pursed their lips, unhappy with how cloudy it was.

"Made it myself, fresh lemon." the same suave voice chimed, seemingly amused by Logan’s suspicion.

"It sure is yummy!" Patton smiled, after drinking most of their cup without a second thought. Logan sighed heavily and slowly took a sip.

It didn't taste too overly bitter, or tampered with, but the nervousness prevented Logan from wanting to drink anymore, placing it on the side table.

"I'm afraid we didn't catch your name."

"I didn't offer it." The stranger responded with a smirk. "But since the curiosity is clearly chewing you up, and hindering your ability to even drink, I suppose I'll indulge you. My name is Dee, and the idiot from earlier is Remus."

"I see, thank you. My name is Logan, and this is Roman and Patton."

Dee nodded at both of them, examining his nails without comment, as though he didn't care at all.

Time passed slowly, none of the friends were brave enough to break the uncomfortable silence, and Dee seemed to be enjoying the discomfort on their faces. A fly had entered the room a little while back, catching the attention of Mittens and buzzing around rather obnoxiously. Mittens had just begun to rise from her resting position - that Patton and Roman both referred to as a ‘loaf’ - with an eagerness to chase the insect around, when a sharp clap rang out, startling all three of them rather harshly.

The fly dropped onto the coffee table between them, dead, from Dee’s clapping hands squishing it. The amusement hadn’t wiped from his face, seemingly happy to have startled them all.

"Always satisfying to be rid of the pests." Dee said, without being prompted, or losing his smile.

"Is that the reason there are a multitude of dead animals on the roadside?" Roman interjected, before snapping cer mouth shut audibly.

Dee glanced over, blinking, before snickering.

"A few dead bunnies turning your appetite, dear?"

Roman merely gritted cer teeth, so Dee continued. "I'm afraid the animals are a symptom. We've been suffering from something of a culling in this town."

"What do you mean by that?" Logan asked, sitting up straighter, alert.

"Just a string of murders by an unknown suspect, dear, nothing too troublesome."

All three of them tensed, stiff as boards and nervously glancing at each other.

Dee simply smiled and sipped at his lemonade, content to watch the discomfort on their face.

After a few, tense moments, the shop door swung open energetically, the man as earlier - Remus - entering.

"Your fuck-wagon is full of fuel and ready for a pegging!" He announced, proud.

"The car is ready for your departure." Dee translated, sighing and glancing at Remus with an almost-fondness.

Logan nodded and stood quickly, fixing their tie. "Excellent. Thank you for the assistance, how much do we owe you for the gas?"

"We'll call it a hundred all in"

Robotically, Logan grabbed his wallet, pulling the needed cash out and handing it over. They were simply eager to get moving, and both Patton and Roman seemed to share the same sentiment.

"Thank you for the help, kiddo, very kind" Patton smiled at Remus, trying to be friendly. Remus laughed in their face, gripping his sides and bowing slightly at the ferocity of the laughter.

Roman tugged Patton along, angling cerself between the two as though afraid Remus would lunge - even Logan wasn't taking their chances, speed walking past the manic man.

"Does Mittens need her food before we set off?" Roman asked, trying to take Patton's mind off that particular interaction.

Said cat perked up at the talk of food, pushing herself upright with paws on Patton's shoulder, meowing inquisitively. They smiled and gave the fluff ball some chin scratches before glancing back at the gas station once more.

"Soon, but I'd like to set off first…" they trailed off, trying to find an excuse that didn't come across as mean. Both Roman and Logan nodded in understanding, not needed to verbally confirm that they were all uncomfortable.

Patton climbed inside first, seat belt on and cat held securely in the back. Logan and Roman took their place in the driver and passengers seats, respectively.

Janus and Remus were watching from the doorframe of the station, the latter waving energetically. Patton waved back politely, quietly convincing themselves that, perhaps, Remus didn't mean any harm.

Something caught Logan's eye, a large figure going round the side of the building. He decided they'd rather not know, keys in the ignition and turning.

////

A loud bang came from the car, bonnet dinting upwards from the small explosion. Black smoke crawled out the exposed side, and alarmed yelling could be heard from inside. Beside him, Remus was practically vibrating with the urge to laugh, so Janus jabbed with his elbow, as a warning.

"Compose yourself, they'll be out in a minute."

He was met with more wheezing, rolling his eyes with a smile of his own.

All three travellers scrambled out the car, Janus tilted his head in mock concern, as though he wasn't aware of the issue. The nerdy one with glasses turned to him, looking uncharacteristically disheveled.

"I have reason to believe," he began, before steadying himself "That my vehicle has been filled with diesel instead of the gas it runs on."

Janus gasped for affect, turning to Remus who feigned a sheepish expression.

"Remus, you've put the wrong fuel in! That's dangerous."

Boney fingers dug into his arm, Remus butting his face Janus' shoulder. He may have looked repentant to the other three, but Janus knew he was scarcely holding back more explosive laughter.

"Forgive him, it's an honest mistake." He purred, watching the one with the cat instantly believe him, the other two reluctantly nodding. Good. "I will call for a mechanic, in the meantime, there's a motel just up the street, I'll tell them to allow you in for free since it was a blunder on our part."

"That is…the most logical course of action. Thank you."

Janus nodded, turning to the telephone with only mild dramatic flair.

"Remus will take you to your motel, run along now." he made a shooing gesture, giving Remus one last smirk.

The energetic man gave a double thumbs up before ushering them all away, excited to set their plans into motion. Once their guests had left, Janus turned to the back room, tutting at the large figure he saw there.

“I’ve warned you about lurking near the guests.” Janus glanced at his nails but kept his tone threatening, smirking as the figure shrunk back and dipped its head submissively. It never stopped being amusing to watch the hulking presence shrink away at the slightest scorn. “Well, you’ll make it up to me, won’t you? Get rid of all three before morning, now that’s not so difficult is it?”

Shifting, and rubbing its arm nervously, the figure nodded with a disturbed groan. Janus cooed in a feigned sympathy and made a shushing noise. The ugly noises stopped, so Janus smiled encouragingly.

“What a good thing you are. Now go and put that mask on, my stomach is turning just looking at you.”

The figure moved obediently, fumbling for a moment to secure the thick, prosthetic mask in place which made it look marginally better. It approached him slowly, eager for a little praise, so Janus gently stroked the edges of its disgustingly matted hair. “You’ll need a haircut soon, dear. I’ll tell Remus.”

That certainly lit a metaphorical fire under its butt, jerking back with another disturbing scream, half moan and half pig-squeal. Janus raised an unimpressed brow as though he couldn’t understand what was wrong, before it was backing out the room, hands tugging its hair as though yanking itself bald would be the lesser of two evils. And it may be correct about that.

It scuttled back like a crab, and Janus had to hold back a snicker as it hit the door frame with a fierce amount of force.

Once it was gone, Janus allowed himself to laugh.

Roman had a really bad feeling about the guy they were following, he was way too manic for Roman to get a read of, and it made ce extremely uncomfortable. He was babbling about the town, and Logan was the only one actually paying attention.

“And what can you tell us about the recent murders?” The nerd asked, causing their tour guide to stop instantly, grinning wide at them.

“Oooohhh, you wanna know about the juicy stuff?” Remus rolled his shoulders enticingly at Logan, who failed to notice the flirty connotations.

“I wish to know about the recent murders, it is only logical if we are to be staying here, that we are aware of the pattern of crimes to best avoid any perpetrator.”

“If it wants to kill you, it will.” Remus said, looking rather dreamily into the distance before snapping back to present. “The town has been dealing with this for over three years, caused about thirty one folks to bite the dust. Only description of the killer is that he's big, built, and wears a mask. Never a consistent killing but we all know it’s the same guy. One gal’s head split open, another dudes choked to death, whoever is killing sure is inventive! But mostly they’re killed by what’s around.”

“A convenience killer.” Logan nodded wisely, stroking their chin as if they had an impressive beard. Remus snapped his fingers, the double jointed digits snapping unnaturally backwards, before continuing.

“You got it, sexy nerdy wolverine, a convenience killer! So cops are having a real bad time putting these murders together. Instead, they imposed a curfew for nine pm to keep us all indoors while they try and track ‘im down.”

Roman frowned, glancing around at the eerie knowledge. So many killings so near by.

“Anyway, we’ve been calling the killer ‘The Anxiety’ or just ‘Anxiety’ cause, man, has it been causing a panic. Folks are leaving, or you know, ‘leaving’ “ He mimed a gun to the head , chucking darkly as Patton squeaked sadly. Roman wrapped an arm around them, scowling at Remus.

"I think that's enough detail." Roman tried to speak with authority, but the man was just amused, picking his nose crudely.

"Whatever you say."

Remus agreed way too quickly to be genuine, in Roman's opinion, and ce suddenly remembered the self defence set in his bag. None of the friends carried firearms or blades, but pepper spray and a taser should help any unsavoury business. Unfortunately, all their bags - except Patton's since it held their medication - were left in the car. Roman stopped walking, and the others did too once they noticed cer stop.

"We'll need our essentials bags from the car if we're to stay the night, I'll go and retrieve them."

Logan frowned but handed the keys over, tilting their head softly to read his expression. "We could all go later, if you'd rather."

"It's alright, I'll save you the trip."

"Ohh, could you get Mitten's food as well?" Patton asked, snuggling their dear friend close. Roman's resolve hardened at the thought of the kitty going hungry, nodding once again.

"I shall, sweet Patton."

Patton smiled at cer, giving a gentle squeeze to cer hand before ce parted, back where they came from towards the car.

"Hehe, come back soon, and be safe out there!" Remus called out, and when Roman glanced back, the man was staring directly at him, smiling the widest cer had ever seen it.

The look sent a shiver down cer spine, sweat turning cold despite the glaring sun. Once ce felt safe, out of hearing distance, Roman mumbled an exasperated "Creepy cookie!" before continuing.

The walk back was simple, considering the whole town seemed to be on one long road, and rather soon ce was back at the car. 'Dee' was back inside the gas station, and seemed to be sweeping something up, not even noticing Roman. Good, the less interaction ce had with these creeps the better.

Roman unlocked the car, momentarily distracted by all the key chains. Ce didn't think Logan would be a keychain kind of person, but they'd attached various decorations. On closer inspection, they all seemed to relate to, or was gifted by, either cerself or Patton. The Space Mountain keyring from Disney World, a resin-encased image of them all at Mittens' adoption-day party, and a worn out friendship bracelet, each of their favourite colours intertwined.

"Aww," Ce mused to himself. "Specs has a soft spot."

Fondness for cer friend was overshadowed - quite literally - by a figure appearing behind cer , blocking the sun with how large it was. Roman had time to register the masked figure staring at cer in the car's reflection before ce was grabbed by the shoulders and forcefully spun around, back hitting the car door rather painfully. Ce had just enough time to notice the rock in the figure's hand before ce pulled up cer arms defensively, flinching away as terrifying thoughts crossed cer mind.

No strike came however, and Roman could only hear somewhat laboured breathing, no aggression or hatred that might suggest he was going to be murdered. As ce cracked an eye open, Roman saw the masked figure uncomfortably close, so close ce could see the bloodshot eyes behind the thick prosthetic, and a slight hint of scarred skin surrounding it.

It was strange, however, that the figure was not attempting to strike cer. One large hand was pushed up against cer collar bone, pinning Roman to the car in an uncomfortable but not painful position, while the other was by the waist, still holding the rock but giving no indication of using it. Roman swallowed thickly, rightfully nervous.

"Um, he-hello there," ce began tediously, trying to not flinch when the eyes flicked towards cer. "Gave me quite the scare, heh. What are- what are you doing?"

The eyes slowly drifted to Roman's hands, and it took cer a moment to realise that the other's attention was on the set of keys in cer hands. Was it the car that the obviously-the-murderer wanted? Could Roman give up the car that Logan worked so tirelessly for, that contained all of their belongings, just to save cer own skin?

A dull thump jerked Roman out of cer thoughts, the rock intended to kill him dropped to the floor, the same hand raising slowly with the other for the keys. Despite the internal dilemma, Roman handed the keys over embarrassingly easily, trembling and purely on instinct. Ce didn't want to know what would happen if ce denied the figure.

Ce played with his hands nervously, ready to scamper away once the other stopped paying attention to cer. Strangely, though, the masked man was simply inspecting the keys and each decoration. After a moment, in which Roman simply stared blankly, the figure looked up and mumbled something incomprehensible.

"What?" he asked, thoroughly confused.

The other mumbled yet again before stepping rather close to Roman. On instinct, ce jerked back, and the other mirrored cer reaction before looking downright wounded at Roman. In an act of bravery, Roman decided to step forward a little, not wanting to offend the other. Ce wasn't sure if it was out of fear from how he'd react, or the slight guilt that cer had upset the other with cer reaction.

The masked man - well, the body was definitely male, extremely tall and ridiculously muscular, but Roman was simply referring to the figure as male until told otherwise - tilted the keys closer to Roman, kneeling down slightly so he could see what was being shown.

It was the group photograph, Patton in the middle, holding Mittens in their arms - before they'd left home and were able to dye their hair that fantastic shade of blue without fear of their parents. Logan was still in their turtleneck phase, dangling a toy over Patton's shoulder for Mittens to play with while smiling gently. Roman cerself was a bit blurry as ce was mid-walk, on the phone with the cord trailing behind, though cer had turned to give the camera a smile - ce looked startlingly different despite the image only being four years old.

"Oh, um, yes that's a picture of me and my friends." Roman explained, before trying to backtrack. "They aren't here, though, no it's just me. Ha." Ce smiled nervously, hoping that Patton and Logan would be safe from this curious killer.

Fingers gently traced the image, handling it with care, despite how rough the hands looked - covered in calluses and filth, and the same scarred, bumpy texture as the skin around his eyes. Cer nails were almost completely ripped off, an unappealing green across the exposed nail bed. Roman was so busy staring at the hand ce almost failed to notice what the other was indicating at.

The masked man was pointing at Mittens, a kitten at the time, stroking the image like he was trying to pet her.

"That's Mittens, she belongs to Patton, the one holding her." Ce explained, still incredibly confused but slightly less nervous, since the wasn't the behaviour of someone who was going to murder you.

The man grunted once more, pointing more adamantly at the cat. Brows scrunched in confusion, Roman stared at Mittens before answering.

"Yes, that's Mittens, she's a cat. A very nice cat, she likes to have her head stroked."

That seemed to satiate the other, who stared at the image for a few more moments, before nodding and holding the keys out. Roman stared at them, making no move to take them, so the other simply dropped the keys on the floor and shuffled back.

Was this it? What if the killer was waiting for him to kneel down, then club cer on the head? Why was he so interested in the cat? If this guy was responsible for the dead animals, did he want Mittens dead?

Roman crouched down to pick the keys up, bracing cerself, before shooting back up as quickly as possible, ready to run if needed.

However, when ce stood back up, the masked man was gone.

Completely confused, ce glanced around, even lapping the car twice and checking underneath it - as if such a large person could have rolled under there without cer noticing. After cer had concluded that the man was gone, ce began gathering the bags they needed, making sure ce had the cat food before locking up again.

Outside the gas station, Dee was sat rather comfortably, reading a rather large book. He had a black blanket draped over his lap, with a new lemonade pitcher next to him. Roman waddled over awkwardly, clearing cer throat to get the other's attention. Dee glanced up at cer, raising a brow.

"Aren't you supposed to be at the hotel with your little friends?"

Roman huffed, shaking off the demeaning comment to point at the car.

"You can't tell me you didn't see that?"

"See what?" Dee responded, seemingly unamused. Roman flapped cer arms incredulously, making a small noise of frustration.

"The killer! The dude in the mask! Big guy that was there then disappeared!"

"I've been sitting here the whole time, dear, haven't seen a thing." Dee responded, rather plainly.

"Haven't seen a - it happened right there!" Ce was rather close to yelling, unable to comprehend how the other could have not seen it.

Dee held his hands up as though Roman was a tantruming horse, brow arched.

"Calm down, dear, you're making a scene. I assure you that nothing of the sort happened. I suggest you run along to your friends, before something does decide to come along."

Roman simply frowned, gripping the bags tighter, and stomped off back towards the motel, trying to brush off the humiliating feeling that Dee's condescension brought.

Ce knew what he saw.

///

Patton gently looped their arm around Logan's as they waited in the motel lobby. They hummed in appreciation as Logan squeezed them gently. Mittens was standing up on their lap, gently batting at the frayed arms of the chair. Patton scritched behind her ears before stroking down her spine with gentle firmness, encouraging her to lie down, which she did.

A few more minutes passed, and Remus - who had obnoxiously stomped up stairs in search for the motel owner and told them to wait there - was nowhere to be found. Patton glanced around for a topic of discussion, smiling softly as they nudged Logan.

"Lo, look, there's newspaper articles and books over there!"

Logan's head whipped around and they stood, making Patton giggle kindly and follow. Mittens jumped off their lap, but Patton wasn't concerned about her wandering off - the kitty never really left their sights.

"There's a remarkable quantity of town history here." Logan commented, flipping through a book, "This motel was partially burnt down nearly forty years ago. Intriguing, I'll have to see if I can determine which areas were rebuilt."

Logan began staring at the ceiling beams to see if anything seemed newer than the rest, while Patton read some framed articles.

'Mister Arnell's prize winning squash' and 'Little Bessy Terrier has an astounding seventeen pups - all healthy' were both headlines that made them smile, old photos of the town seemed much more radiant and full of life. Another headline catches their attention, and they tugged Logan's arm before taking the frame off the wall and begging to read.

"Troublesome death of a teenage boy, cruel prank gone wrong at the old Quarry." Patton began, glancing up at Logan with a frown. Logan simply looked intrigued, so they continued reading. "Saturday the fourteenth saw a most horrid death near the historic Snake Quarry, a young boy known to the locals by his first name only, Virgil was a physically defective child described as 'dim but very well mannered' by those who knew him."

Logan made a soft tut at the dated terms, and Patton chose to skip over the rude descriptions of the poor kid's appearance.

"Two school boys, three years his senior, made clear their prank the day before while at school, and many of their peers showed up to watch and assist. One boy, who is a minor and can not be named, lured the other over by inviting Virgil to play kickball. As he explained the rules, his accomplice, also unnamed, sat above in a tree to tip hot tar on to Virgil. Witnesses described the way that the boy flailed around, as the boys laughed and tipped out a bag of feathers that they'd plucked from chickens at the Kurk Farm (a separate crime, in which most of the poultry were left bare and three died of stress. The boys were sentenced to twenty days in prison and had to pay a compensation for the lost eggs.) "

"Thank goodness they were punished for the chickens." Logan sniped, rather bitter. Patton skimmed the rest of the article before summarising.

"He fell down a steep cliff down into the Quarry as he was struggling around. Then a few statements from people saying how upsetting it was."

"But they were complicit!" Logan huffed, and Patton dropped their head on his shoulder to try and soothe them. Logan sighed loudly before nodding silently, running a hand through their hair. "The abuse of a child, I just can not comprehend how it could be remotely amusing."

"It isn't, Lo, it's horrible and vile." Patton assured, while softly sniffling, empathetic tears in their eyes.

Whatever Logan planned to say next was cut off as the screen door swung open, an old woman shuffling inside, flipping through a log book as she went. When she glanced up, the woman startled just as much as they did, gripping the book tightly.

"Heavens! You two gave me quite the spook. What brings you in?"

Logan cleared their throat awkwardly, gesturing vaguely at the stairs. "Apologies for startling you, we were under the impression you are upstairs talking to Remus."

The woman gripped the book tighter, frowning at them. "Are you two friends with that man?"

"Hardly even know him, ma'am, he brought us here since our car was damaged."

"Oh." She blinked, shaking her head in an almost remorseful expression. "Yeah, the mechanics take a while getting here. I'll book you in, honey, do you want two rooms or one?"

Logan glanced at Patton, already knowing they'd be spending the night huddled together. "One room, please, that's all we need. There'll be a third person joining us, ce went to grab some bags out of our car."

Scribbling something down in the book, she nodded, before sliding over a large, heavy key with a '7' attached. After a moment she looked up and smiled softly.

"You're in room seven, up that flight of stairs, there, then down the hall on the left side. If you need anything, come down here and you ask me, okay? I'm Miss Felton, I'll be down here all day, then my nephew will be up for the night."

"Thank you, Miss Felton." Logan said, and Patton repeated with a beaming smile.

Miss Felton smiled right back, charmed, before glancing over at Mittens, who was trying to catch a fly.

"We can't have pets in the hotel rooms. At least not at night."

Logan frowned and glanced at the cat, and how harmless she was being. "A strange rule. Why's that?"

"The floors here are easily moppable, and can get rid of fur and stuff. If the cat pisses on the carpet in your room, it'll never come out."

"I understand, Miss Felton, will she be secure in here? I don't want her running off…"

"Oh, yes, don't worry, we lock up tight at night." The woman said, tone rather tense, and Logan detected the double meaning.

He decided it wasn't best to pry into the town murders. For now, at least, they planned to do so while Patton was distracted so they didn't have to listen to surely gruesome tales.

The two made their way upstairs, quickly finding their room - and they began to unpack, letting Mittens meander about. A gentle knock was tapped out on the door, before a familiar voice called out.

"Esteemed friends! Do I have the right room?"

"Oh, Roman!" Patton smiled, a slight coo in their voice as they happily pulled the door open.

Their friend looked slightly sweaty, but that was understandable in the hot weather. Patton happily pulled cer into a hug, though it took a bit longer than usual for cer to reciprocate. "Are you alright, kiddo?"

Roman glanced away, biting cer lip for a moment before nodding. "Uh, yeah, just um. Had to deal with Dee being weird."

Patton nodded, gently cupping cer’s cheek to examine cer’s expression. "Okay, kiddo, he didn't put his hands on you, did he?"

Roman took the hands off cer cheek to squeeze them gently, smiling. "No, Pat, but thank you."

"You're welcome! Did you get the kitty food? I think Mittens is getting meowling mad with hunger."

"I sure did, puffball! One serving of chicken and rabbit in scrumptious preservative jelly!"

"Yay! Look, Mittens, Roman has saved you!"

The cat in question trotted over to Roman, purring and headbutting her food sachet. She meowed impatiently as Roman simply laughed, fumbling around to find her bowl.

"With that," Logan pushed up their glasses. "I will be taking my leave. I plan to remain in the reception, and talk to Miss Felton, if she isn't preoccupied with other work."

"Why are you going?" Roman asked, a little too snappy and nervous to be normal. Remembering the, apparently unpleasant, interaction ce had had with Dee, Logan softened their expression to ease Roman's concern.

"I wish to find out more of the town's history, there were newspaper articles on the wall that sparked a curiosity." After a brief pause, they added. "And Mittens' food genuinely reeks."

"Aww, Lo, she doesn't mean to be stinky." Patton assured, squeezing the packaged food into the cat's bowl.

"Be safe, Logan." Roman added, patting their shoulders gently with a strange look. Logan planned to discuss with ce later, to determine what had shook Roman so harshly.

"I will. I will also inquire on where it would be best to have some dinner - if the motel offers it or if there's a diner in this town."

Patton cheered Logan’s 'good thinking' while Roman simply watched them go.

Trying to shake off his friend's weirdness, Logan shook their head and continued down the hallway. A small, illogical part of him continued to eye the opened windows with suspicion. The windows had every right to be open, of course, but Logan could only consider the infinitesimal chance of someone being outside, looking at them through said window.

Downstairs, Miss Felton was sweeping dust onto the porch, humming as she went. Recalling how easily startled she could be, Logan deliberately made their footsteps heavier so she was aware of his presence.

"Oh, hey there honey, do you need something?"

"No thank you Miss Felton, I was actually hoping if you knew anything about the town history on that table over there."

"Of course I know the town history, dear, I lived through most of it!" she laughed, placing her broom down to take a seat. Logan did the same, leaning forward in intrigue, eager to learn more.

"I saw the newspaper article about the Quarry." They began, watching her face drop "I believe a young boy died."

"Virgil." She nodded, looking rather somber. "Sweet kid, weird looking and didn’t talk - dunno if he couldn’t or just didn’t want to.”

“With all due respect, Miss Felton, I wasn’t inquiring about his character, I wish to know about the circumstances surrounding his death.”

Miss Felton nodded, fiddling with her wedding ring and looking down.

“Yeah, well, like I said, he was a sweet kid. Though he was teased a lot, and other kids liked to spook him for a reaction - he was very anxious, despite how he looked.”

“How he looked?” Logan inquired.

“Big kid, abnormally big, I think it was whatever made him look...like he did. He was ducking to enter rooms by the time he was thirteen, who’s to say how big he’d have gotten if that cruel prank didn’t happen.”

“How old was Virgil when he was attacked?”

“Fourteen, had his birthday the week before, that was a prank too. Told Virgil they were going to have a party in the old barn, when he showed up they locked him in. He panicked and ended up busting a hole through the barn wall. The owners gave him a good yelling at.”

Logan frowned at that, scratching their legs, grounding himself with the texture. “Did no one attempt to intervene in the bullying?”

Miss Felton shook her head, shrugging. “We’d try and stop whatever they were planning to do, but the Deacon - he took Virgil in since there was no one else and the town's not big enough to need an orphanage - believed that some teasing amongst the peers could toughen him up. Did the opposite, though, kid was a nervous wreck.”

“Where is the Deacon now?” Logan asked, clenching his jaw to bite back anger.

“Victim of The Anxiety, one of the first actually. Garden shears through the throat, right in his own home, creepy isn’t it?”

Logan simply nodded, mulling it over. “What happened to individuals that partook in the bullying?”

“Went on with their lives, I suppose, what else is there to do?”

“Perhaps face retribution and consequence for what they caused.” They couldn’t help but spit, crossing their arms grumpily. “And learn from their errors, preferably.”

“Well some people are gossiping that this new killer is Virgil’s ghost, back for revenge. But that’s mean-spirited chatter from people trying to ruin his image.”

“What about the boys convicted of murder? They weren’t named, do you know who did it?”

Miss Felton made a face. “I do. Disgusting boys that grew into disgusting men. They’re still here, normally capturing poor bunnies and stuff. Nearly had my goat once, had to get my rifle, but his horn was still hacked into.”

“I was under the impression the killer was responsible for the killings, that is what Dee told me.”

“Well that Dee is nothing but a lying - ugh, excuse me, I believe we’re done discussing this now. I’m willing to talk about any other event...”

///

Virgil waited patiently for the person to stop talking and leave Miss Felton alone so he could kill them quietly. It was taking a while, all Virgil could do was wait awkwardly in the linen closet, meat cleaver from the kitchen in its hand ready to strike.

A noise distracted him, peaking out to spy Remus hard at work. The other seemed to be fiddling with something on the floor, it took Virgil a moment to realise it was razor wire - so thin it was hard to spot, yet easily slicing all the way to bone. Virgil knew, because it had experienced the razor wire personally, and knew it was incredibly hard to unwrap and often cut open one's fingers.

Apparently Virgil had been staring too long at Remus, because the man snapped his head up to stare into its soul. Instead of speaking, Remus simply grinned and made a 'lips sealed' gesture before creeping backwards into an empty guest room to watch.

After a while, the person had finished the chat, standing to head back to their room. This is when Virgil was supposed to kill them. Virgil knew they were talking about him, but they weren't being mean at all - it made Virgil a little warm knowing that they weren't calling him names.

In a few more steps they'd be walking into the wire and that will hurt a lot. Without thinking, Virgil stepped out early, startling its would-be victim and prompting Remus to whisper mean things about him 'ruining it'

Virgil understood how scary he was. Janus said it was because Virgil is so ugly that people are horrified by it. This person looked awfully scared, arms up defensively like it would stop Virgil if it wanted to strike. Instead of getting closer to take a hit, Virgil crouched in front of the wire, pointing at it.

"Trip wire…" They breathed heavily, blinking rather rapidly. "I don't understand, if you intended to trip me…why make me aware of it."

Virgil didn't leave the trap! Virgil pointed at himself, before slowly shaking his head.

"You didn't leave the wire trap?"

Virgil shook his head once more, poking at the sharp wire. It couldn't leave the trap here, even if they're aware of it, so Virgil braced himself and grabbed it. Twist and pull off the door frame, it could feel the wire in his muscle until it popped off the door frame, wetly. The pain was horrid, but nothing he hadn't experienced beforehand, so little more than a whimper escaped.

"O-oh, you shouldn't - oh dear." Logan frowned at the state of the strangers hands, squeezing his own palms as a dull phantom pain tingled their palm just watching it.

The figure glanced around, before awkwardly folding the wire up to tuck into his worn boiler suit.

"...Are you going to kill me?" Logan asked, trying to steady their voice. All the circumstantial evidence pointed to this person being the known murderer, but Logan couldn't understand why nothing was happening.

The masked man stared at them, pupils behind the prosthetic trailed down their body and Logan had to fight the urge to not cower away under such intense scrutiny. The eyes flicked over to a closed door, contemplating.

Eventually, the figure shook his head, no.

Logan wasn't sure what caused that conclusion to be reached, or if he wanted to look a proverbial gift horse in the mouth, but it was rather unnerving that it took so long for a definitive answer.

"Well, thank you, I believe it is appropriate. Are you going to clean your hands? Open wounds are liable to infection."

The stranger inspected their hands, holding them up and allowing blood to puddle onto the peach carpet. Logan cringed, glancing around the hallway before stealing their nerves.

"Okay wait here. I'll ask Miss Felton for a first aid kit, it would be irresponsible to leave you like that, especially after the injury occurred because you were preventing me from being injured. I, uh, thank you for that, by the way. One moment."

Turning tail, Logan quickly rushed down the hall, half hurried to provide medical attention, half since he really did not want to leave their back exposed.

"Miss Felton? Miss Felton, could you point me in the direction of the closest first aid-" Logan had called out as they walked into the reception, before noticing how empty it was. Not a single person was in sight, so Logan sighed, and began searching for it himself.

The kit was almost missed by Logan, dark leather with 'FIRST AID' printed in black lettering and lacking the usual, identifiable red cross most first aid kits included. Logan tutted slightly at the basic aid that was stocked. There wasn't enough to properly bandage the area, but they could sanitise and at least wrap with gauze.

"I believe we have a much more adequate medical aid kit in the car, if I can convince them to come with…" He mumbled to himself as they trotted back up the stairs.

They still weren't certain what to do about the stranger. On appearance alone one would immediately say that it was the killer, but why would the, allegedly brutal and infamous, killer be so mild mannered and nonviolent? Should he call the authorities? What if they were simply a resident that had to wear a prosthetic mask, wouldn't that be unbearably humiliating?

"Alright, we should sit -"

Logan blinked in surprise, finding the hallway completely empty, a puddle of blood on the floor being the only sign that the events from previous had actually occurred. In hindsight, it was not the best idea to leave someone you suspect to be a dangerous killer in an environment they can easily escape.

"This certainly isn't ideal." They mumbled to absolutely no one "I need to ensure that Patton and -"

"Specs! There you are, we were getting worried!" Roman's strong voice called, grinning, though with an underlying tension.

"What took you so long, kiddo?" Patton asked, fiddling with the bottom of their shirt nervously. Mittens stood next to them, obedient as a dog.

Logan swallowed rather nervously, wondering if it was worth notifying his friends. On one hand, knowledge was an immensely powerful tool and knowing of the figure would ensure they're both adequately alert should trouble strike… On the other, was inciting terror amongst both of them really productive? They were in a situation that they couldn't easily escape with not many people around, both Patton and Roman would be liable to panic. Roman would likely become overly on guard and frantic with the urge to act, while Patton would likely and quite literally break down.

Logan could ensure they no longer split up, and alert Miss Felton next time he saw her. Surely that would be sufficient, and there was always the possibility that there was another guest in the hotel who happened to require a facial prosthetic - and it wouldn't be ethical to villanise them, Logan could already imagine some poor guest being threatened by a frightened Roman, or the self esteem loss if they happened upon Patton and they just started crying in fear.

"Just talking with Miss Felton." They finally answered, in-eloquent and not precisely an answer to the question that Patton asked, so Logan blinked awkwardly and spoke again. "We simply sat in the reception, I lost track of time and became engrossed. Apologies."

Patton smiled and threw their arms up for a hug. Logan reciprocated, purely for Patton, of course. "Aww, Lo, it's okay. We're on our way to find something to eat, either here or out."

"Everywhere needs a McDonald's, right? It's like, state law." Roman piped up cheerfully.

"No such law exists, I'm not sure implementing a mandatory restraint chain would be legal -"

"Well it's legal when the government makes it law. That's how laws work."

"It isn't, besides, a law that requires an establishment 'everywhere' is too abstract to be definitively enforced."

"Well that's what you think, calculator watch, until -"

"Kiddos!" Patton interrupted, already weary from the playful bicker. "We were going to find dinner?"

"Ah, yes, apologies. Let's go."

"Why are you carrying that box around?" Roman asked, eyeing the first aid kit Logan was still holding.

"Oh. It's a first aid kit. I was just…returning it. To. To this room." Logan ducked into a storage cupboard, placing it on the shelf with false confidence before awkwardly shutting the door.

"Riiiiiight. Let's get going!"

“You stupid pig!” Remus barked, confidently punching at the back of its mask. Predictably it didn’t do much but whine. “You were supposed to bash the little nerd, not ruin my prank! Ohh, Janus is going to be soooo pissed at you”

The figure whined and shook its head, as though begging Remus not to tell. Tough shit.

“Uh-uh, we’re going right now.” He decided, grabbing the front of its boiler suit. It remained still, which took Remus by surprise. It was infinitely stronger than him, but it normally moved instantly. “Move. You don’t want Janus having to come find you. He’ll be much angrier.”

That worked, watching the oaf hunch over and begin to shuffle was always amusing, leading it over back to the gas station. Janus was cleaning up the store like a little maid, preparing for the morning. Remus made sure to slam the door open fiercely just to startle him, it didn’t work, but Remus still grinned wide.

“This little fuckwit decided to ruin everything after I set up a kill for it perfectly.”

“Oh dear.” Janus responded, still calm. “Is that why there’s blood dripping all over my pristine floor?”

Remus glanced down and, sure enough, a small puddle had dripped on the floor.

“Whoops. Don’t worry Janny McButtface - I have just the solution. One sec~” Skipping over to the counter, he jumped on top before dramatically bending down the otherside to grab a bottle from the hidden shelves. “This ought to do it!” He exclaimed, skipping back over and grabbing the large hands.

Without another thought, Remus twisted off the cap and poured the vodka all over the wound. It screamed and jolted backwards, smacking a shelf with tins hitting its head. Remus laughed loudly, while Janus slapped his arm.

“Really? All over my store! And wasting perfectly good alcohol at that.”

Predictably, Remus didn’t care about the scolding, laughing a pitch higher. Janus sighed and turned to the other, who was shaking its hands around stupidly .

“And You! I really think Remus should give you a little hair cut, huh?”

Remus squealed in excitement, banging his foot loudly to cause further distress. “Yeah yeah yeah! I’ll get my claw hammer~”

It whined once more and shook its head, gesturing to the door and ducking downwards in a bow, rather frantic. Janus allowed it to panic a moment longer.

“But if you’re going to be busy doing what I asked, then Remus really won’t have time to cut your hair.”

It took little more to have the massive figure run off, back to the motel. It was getting dark, which was admittedly the killer’s element. Janus watched it go.

“They grow up so fast.” Janus remarked sarcastically, dabbing a bone-dry eye. Remus snorted.

“It’s getting a little defiant. I like some fight back, but I’m not fond of disobedience.”

“Don’t you worry, Remus, our petit poulet will be fine. You know that new people are confusing for such a dumb little thing.”

“Shouldn’t be long. The guests were going to dinner when we left. There’s fuck all to do in this town so they’re probably gonna go to bed early.”

“They may retire to bed, but the three little lambs were so nervous, I doubt they’ll be snoozing for a while.”

“It’ll manage.”

“I know. Better watch them, though, we don't need any stray vermin causing a ruckus."

"I can't wait to get that fluffy pile of shit once they're all dead - what would it go well in? Pie, lasagna?"

"A nice broth, to soothe your throat after a long day of talking absolute nonsense." Janus said with a smile, wiping imaginary dust off his clothes. "Perhaps use the pelt to clean my floors."

Remus laughed once more, as Janus tutted fondly.

Patton tossed and turned, feeling all sorts of wrong. Roman and Logan seemed to be keeping something from them, and not having Mittens in bed was very strange - normally she'd be curled up on their chest, but the motel lady was very clear she had to be downstairs.

Being out of the loop wasn't uncommon for Pat, they very quickly became lost whenever Logan and Roman decided to talk about classic literature - a mutual topic for the two - and all they could really do was chime in with occasional puns. That was fine, because Patton didn't feel the need to know what was happening in these books - this time, however, the secret was uncomfortable and made Patton feel rather vulnerable.

Sitting up, Patton decided they needed to see their kitty downstairs, so as quietly as possible they were out of the twin bed they'd been sharing with Roman. As they fumbled for their glasses, a thump from downstairs made them jolt slightly, thoughts of the spooky man coming for them. It certainly wouldn't be pleasant.

It was probably Mittens getting restless, though, running around. They should go settle her. Yeah.

Sadly Patton hadn't packed their cat slippers, to go with the cat pyjamas Roman had bought for their last birthday, but they did have ones with the cookie monster on, so it wasn't all bad.

"Oh fiddlesticks," Patton whined, glancing down the darkened hallway. "Maybe I should wake Roman up… Or Logan. Though I'll probably be told to go back to bed."

With that in mind, Patton made their way downstairs, holding the banister as they went. It was all but pitch black in the reception area, the only light coming in from the outside lamps.

It was all the light Patton needed to see the concerningly large figure in the room, sitting casually on the couch. They barely had time to gasp in shock when Mittens was mewling gently, Patton catching the shine of her eyes.

She was on the figure's lap, not at all restrained but making herself quite comfortable. The figure was focusing on her, but not doing anything, glancing up at Patton with a head tilt.

Shifting a little closer, they could see Mittens scratching fiercely into the figure's thighs. It must've been the material, she was always scratching denim or corduroy, which was one reason why Patton preferred wools and soft cotton - it didn't make a fun scratch post.

"Oh, jeeze, sorry kiddo. She can be a little too friendly." They babbled nervously, coming closer. "I'll uh, I'll lift her up and no harm done -"

They stretched out to take their overly confident kitty back, when a hand was suddenly gripping their wrist with a fierce intensity - the hand was large and calloused, grabbing a large portion of the forearm as it went.

"Oh!" Patton gasped, flinching back, but the eyes behind the mask simply blinked at them before tugging the hand forward towards Mittens.

Incredibly, the hand was forcing Patton to give their own cat some awkward head patts, ensuring a gentleness. Mittens accepted it willingly, always soaking up contact with her owner, nuzzling their hand.

"Head patts…" Patton mumbled, perching on the couch once their wrist had been returned. "Are you giving her head patts?"

Instead of responding, the calloused hand began petting Mittens itself, impossibly gentle though trembling slightly. Patton couldn't hold back the 'cute' noise they made at such a scene.

"Aww you're petting kitty! That's so cute, kiddo."

The figure stiffened slightly but didn't respond, focusing entirely on the cat - luckily Patton couldn't catch the blush on his cheeks.

Relaxed, Patton loosened up in their seat, reaching across to pet Mittens.

"She's soft, isn't she? Oh, she really likes you, listen to that purr."

Mittens' purrs hit the peak pitch as her chin was scratched, dropping like a puddle of contentment.

"You don't have to sneak in at night to pet Mittens, kiddo, you're welcome to have breakfast with us in the morning and give her more cuddles!"

The hands stopped as the figure went still, only small and beady eyes moving behind the mask before suddenly he was standing, taking Mittens with. Patton stood up on instinct, only to have an armful of kitty dropped on them. The person was shooing them away, grunting softly, Patton shifted awkwardly.

"Miss Felton said I need to keep her down here…"

The masked kiddo shook their head, pointing and stomping a heavy foot once. Patton decided not to push, scurrying off up the steps with a dejected Mittens. When they toppled into the room, they almost ran chest first into Logan and Roman. They were caught before they fell on their butt, being pestered with a barrage of concerned comments.

"Patton, where on earth -"

"We were certain you'd disappeared-"

"How irresponsible-"

"To leave Mittens a poor orphan -"

"Kiddos! Enough, let me in, I'll answer your questions."

Awkwardly the three friends shuffled in, plopping on Logan's bed.

"Apologies, that reaction was rather extreme." Logan apologised. "It's just, in truth, Roman and I had talked once we both awoke and noticed you were gone. It seems we'd both independently had an encounter with an individual we assumed to be the active killer in the area-"

"Uh-huh, that's what I was doing, kiddo!" Patton chimed in, holding Mittens up. "Lil Missy here decided to go greet the other kiddo downstairs, and got some head patts!"

The two stared at them in disbelief, so with a sheepish smile Patton recounted their last twenty minutes.

"And then the kiddo really wanted me to go upstairs, and then here we are!"

"Odd. On all occasions they remained perfectly harmless, besides the initial incident with Roman when ce was pushed against the vehicle. Though we know little about motives, perhaps we don’t meet a certain criteria?”

“Maybe the kiddo has stopped-”

A clammer and ruckus downstairs drew all their attention, staring at the door with slight fear. Mittens’ loud mewl made them jump, quickly deciding the best option was to investigate, together. Roman grabbed a side lamp, holding it like a baseball bat, while Logan shook their head at the dramatics, choosing a much more practical fire stoker.

“You stupid, weak little freak! You had one job and you sit here mauling the fucking animal!”

Roman leading the charge, the three crept downstairs, eavesdropping unashamedly. In the reception stood a familiar, towering figure - and behind it, two very angered people; Dee and Remus. The three intruders stared at the three friends, Logan speaking before his mouth entirely caught up.

“You two. You’ve been complicit this whole time, the diesel, the motel, it was entirely intentional. Why?”

Dee shifted, before standing straight to appear composed. “If you must know, I suppose I can indulge. You see, when a whole town suspects a supernatural killer slaughtering the residents, they’re less likely to point fingers at members of the public. A golden opportunity, really -”

“Ugh, you sound like a scooby doo villain.” Roman cut in, unimpressed by the proud man.

Dee scowled, before twirling his cane to hit the masked man. “Virgil. Get rid of these, and you can relinquish your punishments; and might I say, you’ve earned a good few.”

He pointed at the trio, blaisenly ordering their deaths. A wave of terror washed over them as Virgil staggered forward.

Remus made a noise much like a chicken, pushing up against the masked - against Virgil - to make it shy away. “Cluck cluck, Vergie-Poo, before I pluck-pluck your goddamn eyes out!” He turned to Logan, Roman, and Patton, winking dramatically. Logan’s eyes widened, realising why Remus was referencing chickens to Virgil. “I suggest you stand still, much quicker that way. Then again, I love a good chase, and every exit is blocked for the night.”

“You’re… the boys from the Quarry.” Logan mumbled, standing stock still, before glancing at Virgil. “And you...you did survive.��

Virgil shied away from the attention, but nodded, while Dee groaned and stood forward. “Hurry it up, I’ve got a stew to make.”

Virgil didn’t move.

“Move it.”

Still no movement.

“I’m warning you, dear, not listening to me has never worked out before.”

Virgil turned slightly to Dee, silent as ever.

“What are you looking at me for? They’re standing right there, just do it now!”

Surprising to all, Virgil slowly shook his head, defiant.

“You insolent -! Go with Remus to get sorted out, I’ll deal with these myse-”

Swinging fiercely, a single hit from Virgil sent the man flying like a rag doll, hitting a pillar and instantly slumping to the floor.

Remus hopped back, scowling and reaching for his pocket. “Big mistake, Virgin, I’m going to fucking gut-”

A decorative vase cut the threat short, slamming into the man's head before jagged porcelain was thrust into his neck. Patton squeaked at the gore, and surprisingly, Virgil shifted to block the view from the staircase. It was better that way, even from the silhouette looked violent, repeatedly thrusting the weapon in.

“That may be enough, kiddo...” Patton mumbled, once again Virgil heard, dropping the body bluntly.

Virgil stood and made its way over, body dipped submissively. Patton accepted him openly, arms wide for a hug, getting their pyjamas a little dirty.

“Ohh, hey there, kiddo, have a hug. Maybe in a bit you could have a nice wash and relax…”

Virgil pulled back, making a stroking gesture. It took Patton a moment, before nodding. “Oh! Mittens. She’s still upstairs, kiddo.”

Undeterred, Virgil just nodded, and wandered off calmly up the stairs. Patton hoped three times over that Virgil was planning to just pet her. They’d never recover if they just let a dangerous person get her.

“What do we do now?” Roman asked, once they’d all absorbed the shock.

“Well. I say we wait for the mechanic at the gas station.” Logan answered professionally, though could not get their eyes off the body of Remus.

“And just leave Virgil?” Patton whined, hugging themselves. “But the poor kiddo…”

“I suppose...It wouldn’t be an awful idea to allow them a way out of this area. As much as I value the legal system, I believe that we can consider the violence here as...credible.”

Across the room, Janus began to stir, groaning and shifting. Roman bounced on the balls of cer feet excitedly. “Oh, I’ve been waiting for this!” Fumbling in his pockets, Roman eventually produced cer taser, proudly sending the wired prongs into the man’s torso. “Eat zaps you slippery snake!”

A moment later, Janus was limp once more, and Virgil thumped loudly downstairs, cradling Mittens like precious cargo. All three turned to it, oddly relaxed despite the imposing figure.

“Hi Virgil. I realised we’ve never been properly introduced. I’m Patton, this is Roman, and this is Logan! Oh, and your new buddy is called Mittens!” After Virgil seemed to have digested that, Roman stepped in. “Great, we all know each other, how about a road trip?”

“Roman you can’t just ask out the blue-”

“I’m sure uncle Thomas would love to meet you! He’s got other kitties too~”

That’s all it took for Virgil to nod, hiking Mittens up higher onto his chest and striding out the door, intent to reach the car. Patton smiled and hurried after it, while Logan and Roman remained.

“Well this was a scarring pit stop.”

“I never thought we’d acquire a known murderer as a friend.”

“Does it bother you?”

“...It probably should”

“Well. The town will be happy, they’re been rid of the killer ghost.”

“Yeah. Where did Miss Felton go? And her son that’s supposed to be here working…”

“I have no clue, specs.”

“Well. I suggest we gather our things and head for the gas station.”

“...Yeah, sounds like a plan.”

“It does. You can stop holding that lamp like sports equipment now.”

“Heh, yeah, I’ll just put it on this relatively unstained table..”

“That would be sufficient”

END

#sanders side fic #sanders sides virgil #sanders sides #thomas sanders #big bang #big bang submission #oneshot #killer au #but with none of the good stuff #sanders sides logan #sanders sides patton #sanders sides roman #sander sides janus #sanders sides remus #physical violence #abelism #abuse #dead animals tw #not actually that dark

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deadweight-if · 2 years

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I'm an artist and I've been wondering if u could give a detailed description of the ro's faces? Like what kinda nose they have (straight nose, Roman nose, button nose, high nose bridge, flat nose bridge, wide nostrils etc.), their eyes (almond shaped, mono lidded, long lashes, slanted etc.), their mouth (bigger upper lip, wide, round, if it's more of a straight line or if it's shaped like an M etc.), their eyebrows (triangular, straight, arched, full, high etc.), their overall head shape (big forehead, wide jaw, sharp jawline, pointy chin, high cheekbones, flat, asymmetric etc.), their skin (matte, dry, oily or shiny), other things (birthmarks, freckles, wrinkles, eye bags, scars), their teeth (yaeba teeth, slightly crooked, chipped tooth, missing a tooth, very white, yellow etc.) and if there is any obvious asymmetry on their face (like one eyebrow being higher than the other, one eye with a monolid and another one with a double lid, the corners of the mouth being different etc.)

I saw the artbreeder pictures but artbreeder often makes everyone look like almost the same, conventionally attractive person, just with different skin tones (small, round face, small nose, big eyes) which is totally fine if u want it that way, pretty people are great!

Sorry if this is too long, I wanted to include a lotta examples cause I myself can work better if I have many and sorry if something sounds weird, English isn't my first language

I have to say that I don't really have detailed descriptions of everybody's faces. I have a general idea of how they look to me, but I'm not so good with details like that. I do really appreciate all the options you gave me because for some reason when people ask me questions my mind goes blank.

I'll do my best to describe what I'm thinking, but I do like the openness of this kind of thing and that people can imagine the ros to look the way they want.

Jamie: thick eyebrows, single dimple on their right side (it just rarely makes an appearance)

Lucy: freckles, button nose

Ren: high cheekbones, monolid eyes

Also! All the ros are hot! I don't make the rules, they just are!

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sharkneto · 2 years

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hi sharkneto... i was wondering if you could briefly describe rob and sarah's appearances because i have short memory span hahah and i wanna draw them :) thank u

You want to draw them?!?! <3 <3 <3 I would die. Per HIT, descriptions are -- Rob: He’s bundled up against the cold, so she can’t see much of him, just some brown hair poking out from under his knitted hat and warm, brown eyes peering over the scarf wrapped around his face. [...] Rob has pulled off his hat and scarf and Allison can get a good look at him for the first time. Her first thought is of the many male leads she’s shared the screen with. He’s objectively and generically handsome: short brown hair mussed from his hat, strong, clean-shaven jaw, long nose. He’s at least a couple years older than she is. There’s a kindness to him that just sort of permeates everything about him. It makes him instantly likeable, like someone she can trust. Sarah: Sarah is Allison’s height, her long, brown hair piled into a messy bun on the top of her head, giving her a couple extra inches in height and a very absent-minded professor vibe. Her sharp gaze belies that first impression. She drops her marker to warmly greet Allison and then launches directly into complex questions about time travel that Allison can’t answer. Allison immediately understands why this timeline’s Five likes her; she’s warm and friendly but direct in a slightly off-putting manner. (rip I just constantly gave Sarah the short end of the stick in HIT I'm so sorry, Sarah. She has hazel eyes, rounder face with strong cheekbones, slightly roman nose.)

Every once and a while I go on a little journey to look at actors and stock images to find face claims for them but I haven't found the right ones yet. Other details is Rob is 6'1", Sarah is 5'6". They're both white, in case that wasn't painfully clear. Neither of them is fit but they're both about average weight, Sarah a little heavier. Depending on if you're in HIT or JT, they're in their mid-to-late-thirties. Both tend to dress business-casual because of their jobs; Sarah in slacks and blouses rather than dresses, usually, Rob does a lot of button-up and sweater combos because 1) cold in Minnesota and 2) keeps him approachable for his patients. (to defend myself a little that none of these extra details were in HIT, some of them do come up in JT rip. The weakness of writing fanfic -- most of our characters are already known so we don't have to spend any time describing them) Hope this is helpful! If you do draw them I would love to see!!!! <3

#i'm going to go on a faceclaim search now so i'll put any i find in the comments of this #i should have a rob tag #sarah #shark ocs #holding it together #joining together #ficblogging

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wish-i-wasnt-a-coward · 3 years

Text

I’d run into a burning building for you... you’d run in for a stranger!

a/n: Ahh, Intruloceit my beloved! So of course we put them through as much shit as possible. this is a pretty angsty one but it had a happy ending, don’t worry. hope you enjoy and thank you @songbirdss26 for the request

Pairings: inruloceit and platonic anxeit/analogical

Warnings: fire, perceived character death, lying, talking about death, curseing, burns, hospitals, crying, panic, burning building, and unsympathetic!Roman (I usually don’t like U!characters but it worked for the story, sorry),

Word count: 2,393

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

Logan leaned his head back into his partner’s lap, he knew this could very well be the last time he woke up with them.

But that was just a part of the superhero gig.

Logan had a mission today, one he was not excited about. So he resolved to hide in the comfort of his partner’s arms until the very last minute.

Janus ran their fingers through Logan’s hair sleepily responding to whatever their boyfriend was going on about now.

Remus’ most recent hyper-fixation was toddler skulls so it was likely that was what they were mumbling about. (Yes, google it, it’s terrifying)

Logan yawned, the room quieted. “mornin” Logan slurred blinking up at Janus who smiled, “good morning sleepy head”.

The bed dipped around the two as Remus joined the cuddle pile sighing deeply. “You ok ‘mus?” Logan asked as Remus wrapped his arms around his boyfriend. “Never better” he mumbled quietly.

Logan hummed, not wanting to press, and closed his eyes again.

He wasn’t needed for a while, the fight was to take place at exactly 1 am.

Princey, one of the heroes Logan worked with, had organized the ambush. If they got this right they would be neutralizing two of the most dangerous super-villains, Deceit and the Duke.

They had certainly been problems, terrorizing people and being general nuisances.

Logan didn’t think they were actually threats, but the people were afraid of them and Princey never was one to shy away from the hero role.

The day flew by, everyone seemed to be in a somber mood.

The sky was grey and the air had the unshakable chill of late February. The three partners spent the day cuddling and watching stupid movies, Logan could honestly say that there was no other way he would rather spend the day. Especially if it ended up being his last.

It wasn’t likely that Logan was going to die; he just… didn’t trust the plan. Despite his best efforts, it had a lot of holes which could easily result in some bad things.

The day flew by in a blink of an eye and the mission was upon him. “Come one, come oon, you’re gonna be late. '' Remus wined, throwing Logan’s hat at him.

Logan laughed, “I am not going to be late, I’m never late. You should know that by now”. Janus laughed, “True, but it would serve no one for you to lose your job”.

“it’s like you want me gone” Logan grumbled affectionately, he kissed both of them goodbye, lingering a bit longer than usual, and left the house.

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

Princey, clad in his red and white super suit, was there to greet him.

He clapped Logan on the back excitedly. “Are you ready to take down the evil plaguing our city, once and for all?”, he cried dramatically. Logan shrugged, “I suppose” he sighed and adjusted his mask.

He stepped onto the balcony. The bright lights of the party downstairs, a necessary distraction according to princey, illuminating the small square of blue where he stood.

Janus and Remus would be asleep by now. Logan glanced behind him, the clock read 12:52. 8 minutes to go. God, Logan wished he was with them instead of here.

Anxiety appeared behind him, “you alright Lo?” Logan nodded, “yes, I’m just a bit worried about the mission, I have people to go back to”

Anxiety smiled sadly, “I know, I’ll do my best to keep you safe”

Logan put his hand on Anxiety’s shoulder, “I know, I trust you”.

A bang sounded off in the distance, Logan turned towards it, “think that’s your cue man, good luck” with that Anxiety slipped back into the tower.

Logan steeled himself and pushed on the air molecules lifting himself up and propelling forward.

Logan touched down into a fight scene not far from the tower. Princey was fighting the duke and Deceit was... “your 2 o’clock” Anxiety’s voice sounded through the earpiece.

Oh, Deceit was right next to him, “You’re late, Logic,” the villain snarled. Logan laughed, “I’m never late. You should know that by now”.

For some reason this seemed to throw Deceit for a loop, creating the perfect opportunity to get in the first attack.

Logan yanked out his dual guns, shooting a bullet at Deceit who dodged it expertly. He grabbed onto the molecules of the bullet and brought it back around.

As it was flying back towards them Deceit took a swing with their shepherd’s hook, Logan ducked and lost control of the bullet.

Logan put his hand to the floor and concentrated on the molecules beneath them. The pavement came to life, tripping Deceit.

The villain snarled and threw a snake at Logan from the ground. Logan brought his hand up to slap the snake away.

The pavement stilled. Deceit pulled themself up swinging their shepherd’s crook. Logan grabbed a broken pipe from the ground and blocked it.

He drew upon his knowledge from the sword fighting classes Princey put him through, thank god for those. The two expertly fought, dancing around the rubble.

Logan suspected the Princey had blown something up to attract the attention of the villains and perhaps made a larger explosion than necessary. No matter, he would clean it up later.

In his momentary distraction, Deceit took the opportunity to hook his ankle and sent Logan tumbling to the ground.

Logan looked up at the villain holding the shepherd’s crook over his neck. “Well, well not so strong now Logic ar-” a yell from the other side of the debris distracted him for a second.

Logan rolled onto his feet, using the pipe to hit Deceit in the back of the legs.The villain fell with a yelp. Logan used his last bit of energy to move bits of rubble to hold Deceit down.

The villain frantically yelled and struggled, fighting to get towards the building instead of at Logan, something was wrong.

The building exploded.

Logan’s eyes widened and he raced towards Princey. “Is everyone safe” he cried, Princy nodded happily. “Yes I emptied that building before, now where’s Deceit, I want to finish this,”

Logan paled. “The deal was incarceration” Princy shrugged, “Looks better if they’re gone for good.” Logan looked at him in horror, “Oh come on Logic,'' he whined, “it’s just a villain”.

Deceit ran over to them, in his anger Logan must have let him go.

“No, no, no” he yelled and ran past the heroes. Logan shot one last glare at Princey before moving the pavement to hold him in place. The hero gasped struggling against the binds but Logan ignored him.

Logan raced after deceit, “wait!” he cried. Deceit turned back, “I have some resistance to fire. I’ll get him. Do you have communication?”

Deceit looked shocked, “uh-yes he should be on the third floor.”

Logan nodded and in a split second decision handed Deceit his mask. The villain turned white. “If you need assistance or Princey breaks free Anxiety, my tech support, should be able to help”.

Deceit stood shaking, “Logan” they mumbled but it was too late, Logan was already inside the building.

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

Everything was burning, Logan’s molecule manipulation allowed him to move the smoke and debri out of the way but he couldn’t actively control the fire.

He fought his way up the stairs, walls crumbled, Logan didn’t have the energy to hold them all but the building stayed upright.

He made it to the third floor. The unconscious body of the Duke lay a few feet from a shattered window, as though he had been thrown through it.

Logan rushed forwards and checked for a pulse. When he found it he placed both hands on the man’s chest, clearing out the smoke and filling them with clean air.

The Duke sputtered awake, “ugg” he groaned barely opening his eyes, “Logan?” he mumbled.

Logan inhaled sharply, “That is my name and as distressing as it is that you know it, I am here to help. Do you think you can stand?” the Duke nodded.

Logan pulled the villain up, carefully helping him towards the stairs. The two made their way through the burning building, rubble rained around them. Logan couldn’t hold things together for much longer.

The hero looked up, one of the support beams was about to burn through. The entire building would collapse. He lifted Remus off the ground, breaking into a sprint.

Just a few more steps.

He could see the exit.

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

Janus let out a sob as the building collapsed. Virgil, who was on the line, made a pained noise as well.

Neither could see what exactly was going on. Law enforcement had arrived and Janus’ had needed to take cover but the building collapsing was not a good sign.

Princey, a few yards behind the villain, fell free of his restraints. He raced towards the policemen, as he ran past Deceit snarled at him,

Virgil laughed wetly. “I’m sorry” he croaked.

Janus shook their head, “not your fault. It’s Princey’s”. Janus’ face was sticky with tears and blood, their body shook but they needed to know what happened to their boyfriends.

The villain changed out of their suit. Hopefully, they could get close to the wreckage. The press hadn’t arrived yet but there was no doubt they were on their way.

Janus managed to fight through to Princey, “are they ok'' they painted.

Princey looked down on him, “what?” he asked. Janus glared at the hero, “Logic and the duke, are they ok?”

Princey nodded, “yes, the evil villain Deceit trapped them both inside but they managed to get out” Janus made a face but continued, “and will the duke face imprisonment?” the hero nodded again, “as soon as he is healed he’ll be going to the county jail, where he belongs.”

Janus nodded and speed walked away before they accidently killed the hero. As soon they were out of sight they broke into a run.

“they’re ok” they yelled into the earpiece as they ran, “They’re ok, I’m going towards hospital now” Virgil’s sob of relief echoed through the mic.

Janus wiped their face, happy tears stained their cheeks. “Hold on Jan, let me get you something,” Viril said.

A god damn hovercraft floated down from the sky, “are you fucking kidding me” Janus cried gesturing twards the craft.

“Just get on it” Virgil scoffed. Janus obliged, with high levels of irritation, but it got them to the hospital.

Logan, beautiful, wonderful, brilliant Logan was there.

He was fighting some doctor, adamantly denying their request to take him to a room for his burns and trying to get to Remus.

Janus couldn’t stop themself from sprinting towards their boyfriend.

Logan turned towards them with a wonderfully relieved expression. “Janus” he breathed, wrapping the smaller figure into a hug.

They held each other, Logan was ok, Janus was ok, things would be ok.

Virgil made a noise and turned off the earpiece. Logan looked down at it, then back up at Janus. He opened his mouth, “you-”.

“I’m sorry” Janus sobbed before Logan could finish the sentence, “I should have told you, I didn’t know you were Logic. Remus and I weren’t even sure you were ok with superhumans and we didn’t want to lose you. It was stupid, I’m so sorry”

They tried to catch their breath and wiped their eyes. Once they were calm enough they looked up at Logan, his mouth was still open and his eyes filled with tears.

Janus’ braced themselves for the worst.

“I hurt you” Logan finally croaked, reaching up and touching Janus’ bruised face. Janus looked affronted, they grabbed Logan’s hand on the cheek, holding it tightly.

“Oh sweetheart, no, I hurt you too. It’s ok, you didn’t know” Logan’s eyes somehow welled with more tears, “I hurt both of you” Janus hugged him again.

“oh honey” Janus mumbled, “I’m so, so sorry”.

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

They weren’t allowed in Remus’ room, with him being a supervillain and all that. But Logan and Janus both had powers and absolutely nothing would stop them from seeing their boyfriend.

At 2 am the next night Logan and Janus stood underneath Remus’ hospital room’s window. “Ya know this kind of reminds me of a play” Janus smirked, “Oh Romeo, Romeo”

Logan made a face, “I’m fairly sure this is nothing like Romeo and Juliet, and neither of you are allowed to die.” Janus shrugged. “Fair enough. Now, how are we gonna get up there”

Logan smirked evilly, “hold on”.

Without warning Logan scooped Janus into his arms and floated up toward the window. Janus squeaked, gripping Logan’s shoulders tightly. “A little warning next time” they yelped. Their boyfriend just grinned.

The two climbed through and were met with a thoroughly trashed hospital room. The machinery was broken on the floor, IV cord stabbed into the wall. The bed had been ripped up, feathers and springs coated the floor.

Lying in a pile of bandages and sheets was Remus. The soot had been cleaned off his face and arms. His burs were not bandaged but it seemed like Remus had riped them off himself.

Logan moved towards Remus, carefully running his hands over the burns. Thankfuly they were mostaly second-degree but they still looked exedingly painful.

Logan carefully gathered some non ripped bandages, brushed them off and tucked them into his backpack. Janus went through the cabinets stealing the burn cream and antiseptic as well as a couple medical things that Logan couldn’t get a good look at.

After all the supplies were tucked in the bag Logan gently shook Remus awake. “Hey, darling could yo- aAaaAAaa”.

Logan was cut off by Remus tackling him into a hug. “You idiot, I thought you were dead” Remus cried against Logan’s shoulder.

Janus crouched beside them and was yanked into the hug by a thoroughly distressed Remus.

The three sat for a moment before Logan broke the silence, “This is very nice and I would like to have conversations about this later but we have to get out of here.”

His partners nodded and they made their way out of the building.

The car was parked not far behind the hospital, the three partners crammed into the front seat. Ignoring Logan’s car safety rant, Remus curled up on Janus like a cat, but Logan couldn't find it in him to care.

They were gonna be ok.

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