#symp Virgil | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

brandstifter-sys · 4 years

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Molting

Word Count: 2479 (Ao3)

Rating: T+

Characters: Virgil, Remus, all other sides as of PoF mentioned

Pairing: Dukexiety (platonic but could be not platonic if you want)

Warnings: Body Horror, Spider!Virgil, knife, sex mention, grossness, Gore, swearing, physical strain, exhaustion

Virgil is a spider boy, and spiders need to molt. It’s not a pretty sight and it’s an ordeal Virgil hates. Lucky him, he has a best friend who is willing and able to help, even if it drives him nuts.

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"Hey Princey, where's Virge?—Whoa are you okay, you look like you need to sit down, kiddo!"

"Patton, Virgil won't be joining us for a few days, surely his eating habits and sudden baldness have been a sign of the time of year for him." Logan commented from his seat on the couch. Roman was curled up and shaking, pallid and horrified.

"You mean?" Patton squeaked and shuddered.

"Yes. I will be joining Janus and Remus during the clean up. I suggest you try to avoid his room for the next few days. Molting is a delicate process."

-------

Virgil felt like jello, trapped in a hard shell. He was on his back spread and nude, unable to move without the sickening feeling that came with it. His chelicerae and extra limbs were out and just as rigid, making his position more awkward. He couldn’t breathe and he desperately tried to force his gelatinous form to shift and expand where his head was. He was dizzy, just trying to crack the eggshell-thin casing like a chick about to hatch, only without anything solid to chip at the barrier.

Pop!

The casing around his head split in half, with a sickening crack, leaving him gasping for air. Oh that sweet, sweet oxygen was tainted by the taste of his own skin-flavored goo falling into his open mouth. His eyes were sealed shut, but not out of fear for what he would see, since they didn't do a great job at blocking the light. No they were closed until he was sure none of his shell got in his eyes, trapped in the gelatinous muck that would cause his eyelids to tear if he dared open them.

"I thought I might have to cut you out of there if you took much longer," someone, Janus he assumed based on the tone, hummed softly nearby, "Time to cut off the area around your shoulders. Do try and wiggle out of it once it's done. And yes, you have to get yourself out."

Virgil tried to calm his breathing, waiting for one of the worst parts. He was too fragile and squishy to be nicked by a blade, let alone a full cut. But he trusted Janus more than the others, except maybe Remus, especially with his mouth wide open.

Virgil could feel the vibrations through the floor. The steady gait and heavier footfalls were different from what he expected, but he could chalk it up to Janus being tired, he and Remus did carry him here and set up when his outer layer went rigid and his bones melted into this disgusting jelly.

He heard the blade gliding over his shell just above his shoulders with such a slight amount of pressure. It was far too smooth to be Janus's work, and Remus wasn't there, so it had to be Janus, but something about the stiff meticulous nature was throwing him off.

"Now you have to go up towards the ears on both sides and then to the crown. Once that's done you can carefully lift those pieces away." Janus said to the person cutting his head free. Virgil's heart pounded in his ears, at least his soft organs were still intact, as intact as the situation allowed. He struggled to keep his breathing even, unsure where the blade was.

"Would it be more efficient to cut along the fault?" That was Logan. That was okay, he was not easily disturbed. His suggestion, however, was not okay.

"Do you want to risk slitting his throat?" Janus asked with an edge to his voice, "He is vulnerable and having that scalpel near his throat will make his anxiety worse."

"I understand. In that case—" Logan trailed off and continued his task. Janus hissed under his breath, in a way that only Virgil would understand, but he didn’t, which was concerning. For the smart side, Logan had his stupid moments and this Janus was regretting bringing him in so soon.

"And to be clear, I am not supposed to peel the exoskeleton."

"Correct. And once you remove the upper half, will you have a suitable specimen?" this Janus responded curtly. He was done sharing this vulnerable moment with the nerd.

"Yes," Logan said as the tips of his fingers brush Virgil's new skin, making him wince, "Remus has already called 'dib'—is that the correct phrase?"

"Yes."

"He has already called dib on the lower half."

Virgil winced as cool air hit his tender form. He could feel the slime stretching and pulling away from him with a soft, sickening snap, with the tendrils falling back into the near liquid of his body. Logan was quick to set that piece aside and remove the other with as much dexterity and grace as before.

"Shall I tell Remus his presence is requested at this time?" Logan asked as he gathered his samples.

"No. I suggest you sink out to your room before he bursts in like the unhinged maniac he becomes when told to sit still and wait." this Janus droned. Logan nodded and sank out. And not a moment too soon. But it felt like the other presence changed rapidly.

"Virgil, I’m the only one here with you. I'm going to clear your nose before I wipe your eyes," Remus hummed, after dropping his disguise, and knelt down beside him on the old sheet he was laying on. The bulb syringe entering his nostril was a strange sensation when his nose was basically formless, as was the goo exiting his nose, but it was a relief.

"Stay focused on breathing, Virgil, 3/4 time—that's it. One more time."

The second his nose was cleared, Virgil closed his mouth. Remus giggled and conjured a clean rag.

"Whatsamatter, Soft-skull? Don't like the taste of your own mucus? It's like a giant loogie!" Remus cackled and carefully wiped down his face.

"I thought you said you weren't gonna pull that stunt," Virgil wheezed.

"Nerd wanted samples more than I want my dick sucked. I had to pretend to be Jan to keep things calm in here—you think the nerd would listen to me? Besides, Janus isn't good at anything but the first cuts. He thinks it's nasty!" Remus laughed, "It is but that's not the real issue—it's the mess that you leave behind that's the problem!"

Virgil rolled his eyes and focused on wiggling out of his shell instead of the duke's rant. It was the same one every season. Whether it was Janus's scales or the molting, Remus would bitch about the mess.

"... and I know what you're thinking—what everyone thinks! 'Why are you so bent out of shape? You like grossness and garbage and mess!'" Remus rambled, "There's a difference between a messy aesthetic and a mess! Organized chaos, Harlot's Web, I know exactly where everything is and where it's supposed to be even if it looks like shit! It's mine to manipulate! Your body cast is not in the design plan!"

"Talk cryptids, dammit!" Virgil hissed as he tried to squeeze his way out of his exoskeleton, weakly curling his toes, or attempting to, "I hate this shit too!"

"Cryptids and cursed objects?" Remus cooed.

"Fine!" Virgil grunted, feeling the goo on his skin shifting and stretching with the slightest movement, peeling him away from his old skin slowly. He was going to take hours to get out.

"Okay so I know you don't usually watch the videos of Dybbuk box openings and you should, gets the blood pumping, but you know those are fake, right? They're all a sham!" Remus started ranting. His rage was actually quite helpful as a motivator to move.

"...and don't get me started on the bullshit wax! It's so hard to clean! You know I have a design aesthetic and wax is not a part of it! Especially when there's no restless spook involved! It's a lot of crap with no real payout! If I wanted to have a creepy old box covered in wax I could make one myself!"

“Fill it with spider exoskeleton,” Virgil huffed and wheezed at the exertion, “It’ll make a good snack!”

“Just like you!” Remus giggled, “But seriously, those things don’t hold any angry ghosties, and they seem problematic in other ways too, which usually isn’t a problem for me, but no spooks? That’s crossing a line! I could create better cursed objects!” Remus paused as a wicked grin split his face. Oh no.

“Get me out of here and you can see something really cursed!” Virgil spat, venom shooting from his mouth, literally, and landing on the sheet under him. He broke into a fit of coughing, his form sloshing and molding in the shape of his exoskeleton.

"Easy there, Swamp Thing!" Remus jeered, "If no one helps Bolt, Nimby, Cirrus, Cyoomy, Hansel, or Gretel when they molt, you don't get much more help either."

"Swamp Thing? More like the Blob!" Virgil retorted bitterly. Remus clapped his hands and grinned.

"You are so right!" he cheered, "That's a better nickname when you're like this! Like an alien creeping out of a meteor all gelatinous and prone to leaving slime trails! Emo Jello! How you still have lungs is a mystery to me! You don't even have a digestive tract!"

"Great reminder, jackass!"

"It is! All your fluids and organs are blended up—except for your heart, blood, brain, and lungs!"

Virgil tried to ignore the glee in his voice and focused on moving. He didn't feel like telling him that his blood was traveling through his body through osmosis, always finding a way back to the heart and lungs, he would see it eventually. The rubbery slick kept him stuck to his exoskeleton, bending and stretching, but always pulling him back.

"You look like a jaundiced Hellboy cosplayer in a deflated Paleman blow-up suit who's gonna eat a crap ton when he gets back to normal! And then there's the whole hair growth thing! Like throwing straw on a potato sack filled with rotten meat! Do you even have eyelashes now?"

"You. Tell. Me." Virgil grunted and grit his teeth, which were far too soft to actually bite anything or grind. Remus squatted next to him and leaned in close.

"They're coming in!" Remus grinned and stood up. Virgil groaned and flexed his chelicerae. Some movement was better than none. He was trapped, like swimming in tar, and he had to fight to escape his full-body restraint.

"Do you want some music? I can do a striptease!" Remus asked and wiggled his eyebrows.

"Does this get you hot and bothered, sicko?" Virgil scoffed and tried to focus on curling his fingers with what energy and strength he had. Remus pouted and wiggled his mustache in thought.

"No, not really. But just standing here is boring! Besides, it's just incentive for you to burst out of your shell!"

"Not. Interested."

"You and I both know you would do anything to stop me from getting naked for no reason!" Remus teased. He was right of course, but it was still irksome.

"Shut up," Virgil hissed, still not getting anywhere, "Put on some music and keep your fucking pants on!"

"Fine!" Remus groaned and rolled his eyes. He snapped his fingers, filling the room with some sick emo jams. At least they made Virgil more at ease!

Two Days Later…

"Remus, c'mon!" Virgil panted as he fruitlessly clawed at the soft carpet trying to remove himself from his exoskeleton, smearing goo all over. He was weak and exhausted from the endless strain. His body was still akin to a gummy bear with a dark cherry filling, but at least his bangs were back.

"Nope! I already cut out your—"

"Please! I'm not even stuck!" Virgil cried, "Pull me out of here!" He was so close to bursting into tears. Two days straight of wiggling just to get back to normal took its toll on him. Two days straight of moving two inches forward and one inch back with no food or water left him weak. There was no time for sleep and no time to rest. Remus didn't sleep the entire time either and it showed.

"I could tear you in half, and then your guts'll spill all over the floor and there'd be a huge stain and you'd be pissed off while you bleed out!" he said with a bright grin that bordered on maniacal.

"It's just my legs! Please!" he begged, "I don't have the strength!" He was actually crying at that point. Remus ceded and carefully looped his arms under Virgil's. The goo stuck to his shirt as he carefully pulled the emo from his old skin and scooped him up into his arms.

"Easy there, Raggedy Anx, you're free to crawl on the ceiling and scare those losers like some fleshy horror movie creature bent on devouring them, starting with the eyes," Remus said and stood up. He could have easily snapped Virgil's spine over his knee, watched him writhe in agony and scream until he couldn't manage it anymore. He could watch his fluids pool under his translucent skin and ooze out of the puncture wound from the snapped vertebrae.

He did the smart thing and placed the fragile blob of emo on the bed and stepped back. Molting meant growing and that meant he needed space as everything took shape again. Remus could already see what changes happened under that shell as Virge gasped, forcing air in to help his expansion.

"Stress workouts?" Remus asked and stretched his arms above his head.

"Mostly."

"You fixed your—"

"Yeah and that was your fault!"

"No no no, I didn't mess up the piercing—you let it get infected and tried to rip it off!"

"I'll rip yours off if you don't shut up!"

"I can regrow it, without going all rigor mortis alien!" Remus laughed, "But I can't make it any bigger, so you have me beat!"

"Go to bed," Virgil huffed, "You're losing it." He kept up his hyperventilating style of breathing and closed his eyes. Just a few more hours of this and he could finally get some rest.

"But you're not sleeping!" Remus argued, "And I vowed to watch over you while you're weak and nasty!"

"You sound like Roman," Virgil scoffed.

"You take that back!"

"'I vowed' c'mon that's a Princey line!" Virgil huffed, “You need to get out of this room. Come after you get some rest and food. You did your part.” Remus pouted and snapped his fingers. The exoskeleton and sheet on the floor vanished. That was the last thing he had to do before Janus could take over.

“Fine, but I’ll be back and there’s nothing you can do to stop me!” Remus laughed and sank out. Virgil rolled his eyes, like he could ever stop Remus from doing anything! This time he didn’t want to.

Reblogs > Likes

#sanders sides #spider!virgil #virgil sanders #remus sanders #dukexiety #platonic dukexiety #logan sanders #sex mention tw #spider tw #body horror tw #gore mention tw #knife tw #exhaustion tw #molting tw #sandyscribed #i wrote most of this back in Nov/Dec 2019 before i got wise and stopped writing symp!logan for mental health reasons

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i-lov-them-beans · 4 years

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Tired: Deceit missing Virgil and Virgil not caring

Wired: Virgil missing Deceit and Deceit not caring

#rat's posts #virgil sanders #deceit sanders #ts sides #sanders sides #anxceit #idk if this is symp deceit or not tbh #sympathetic virgil #ts deceit #ts virgil

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team-free-squiggle · 6 years

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I have a sanders side idea. Sorry if it sounds bad. But what if the other sides were making Virgil feel bad. And like they didn’t mean to but they were planning something for him or they were just trying to keep a secret that would make him happy. That they wanted to surprise him with. And he thinks they’re upset with him or that they hated him so he leaves and goes back to living with the dark sides So the others go to find him and convince him to go back home.Prince/Anxiety if you need a ship.

This is actually perfect, oh my goodness, thank you so much for sending me this prompt! @damienswifeolicitydallysgirl! Sorry it’s taken me so long to get to it, though!

A Present Different From the Past

~~Fandom: Sanders Sides

Prompt: above

Characters: Patton Sanders, Roman Sanders, Logan Sanders, Virgil Sanders, (sympathetic) Deceit Sanders, Thomas Sanders, OC Disinterest Sanders, OC Pride Sanders, OC Greed Sanders

Relationships: None, just platonic super good friendships!

Warnings: Deceit as a character (sympathetic though), Virgil thinking self-depricating thoughts, Anxiety (both as a character and as an emotion), Virgil angst because he misinterpreted stuff

~~Virgil loved his FamILY. He and the others were long past the point of considering Anxiety as a villain, were long past the point of making Virgil the outcast.

He was at every dinner (Patton’s cooking was amazing), did every adventure he could with Roman (the Prince was so reckless and needed someone to look out for him, I mean honestly. Virgil did enjoy the time they spent together, though). He always helped Logan when the logical side would study the stars, finding out that mapping constellations never failed to calm him down.

Even Deceit was a good guy, in Virgil’s book. And in the other’s. They had originally bonded over being the only two Sides to wear any form of Black, and their friendship had evolved ever since. Deceit was Deceit; Virgil knew that; but he also knew that Dee, like himself, was there for self-preservation. The two of them would often sit down in comfy beds, put on Netflix or some music, and would knit (or in Deceit’s case, crochet) or something similar.

Virgil loved all of his FamILY. All the Sides.

They were all good to each other, and all cared about each other.

Then things started to change.

First, it was Deceit.

Virgil was always the latest down to breakfast, to most meals in fact; he had never once, in his life, not been last to the breakfast table.

Then, all of a sudden, Deceit came last. Every day, for about a week.

At first, Virgil had chalked it up to the snake staying up later to talk with the Figments more and more. Then Roman acted differently.

Whenever Virgil walked into the room, he looked like he had just shoved something behind his back. He would smile, make a grand gesture, and Virgil would always forget about it until later.

Next came Patton.

Patton could often be seen whispering with Deceit, and the two of them sitting with Roman, clearly hunched over something and talking secretivly.

Virgil knew something was wrong. There were almost questioning glances thrown his way, as if asking what he was still doing there. There was hunched over whispering that abruptly ended when he walked into his room.

By the next week, even Logan had joined in. No one invited him to anything anymore.

Virgil still came down for meals, but was told that the other four needed movie nights for something. They needed Virgil to not be there.

Logan was the one who told him that. He said he was sorry.

Virgil didn’t believe him.

That wasn’t what broke him, however.

No, it was when Virgil came down one time. He was fully intending to ask them what exactly was going on, what had made them all change their ways so suddenly around him.

He went into the living room, and paused. The four others were on the couch. And then suddenly, Patton and Deceit were cowering together, with Roman and Logan standing in front of them.

“Guys…? What’s going on?” Virgil was worried, for them, for himself.

“Go away, Virgil! You can’t be down here!” At first, Virgil thought it was Roman who spoke. Then his heart broke.

It was Patton. Patton wanted him away, didn’t want to be near him.

“Deceit, what - Patton, please - guys, what is happening?!” Virgil desperately tried not to cry out, confused and terrified. Terrified that they didn’t want to be with him anymore.

Deceit spoke up. “We don’t want you around, Virgil.”

The problem is, Virgil didn’t hear that it was Deceit. No, he thought it was Patton saying it again. So he ran.

He ran to his room, conjured a bag, and grabbed all of his stuff. He made sure his door was locked, so that he could make his escape without any of the others seeing him.

He walked over to his window, quickly crawling out of it. He had made it so his window was on the first floor of the house (even if the room itself was on the second floor), just in case of emergency. He was grateful for his foresight now, as he ran.

Thomas noticed it when Anxiety ran. He felt his Anxiety dripping away, running.

Virgil was gone.

Thomas sunk down. “Guys, where the hell is Virgil?”

Deceit, Patton, Logan, and Roman looked up. “He ran to his room, why?”

“Because I don’t fear Death.” Thomas smiled, looking around. He saw something on the coffee table.

“Oooo, were you guys doing a thing? Those look cool!” He pointed at the object.

Roman smiled. “Yeah, we were working on a present for Virgil actually. But he was always around, and it’s a surprise, so we had to send him away.”

Patton glared at Deceit. “Still, it was cruel to pretend to be me and say that ‘I’ wanted him gone.”

Deceit sighed. “I don’t know what you mean, I just wanted Virgil’s surprise to be ruined.” Logan sighed.

“Nonetheless, I think Virgil might have taken it the wrong way. Why else would he have ducked out again?”

“Quack.” Patton said. Roman’s eyes widened.

“Oh no, he would have - oh Roman, you dunce…” the Prince began to mutter to himself.

“Let’s go find Anxiety!” Patton declared, and Thomas tried to transport them all to Virgil’s room.

No one moved anywhere.

“It’s unlocked, clearly.” Deceit murmured. Logan looked at the yellow side in surprise.

“How would you know that?” The logical side was confused.

“Because I totally don’t keep mine locked all the time.” The Side pointed out.

Logan was still confused. “But Thomas is the Host, he has to be able to go anywhere. He has to be able to find all of his Sides, to have them all.”

“But only if the Side is there.” Patton spoke up, looking up at Thomas with widened eyes.

“He has to be able to find all of his sides - so the room is only gonna be unlocked if the side in question is in there.”

Deceit shook his head, showing that he agreed.

“Thomas, focus on Virgil. Take us to him, you are the only one of us who can find him.” Logan was saying.

‘Thomas took a deep breath, trying to remember exactly what he felt like whenever he was around Virgil. He found that feeling, and tried to throw it through his mind, to see if he felt anything similar anywhere in the mindscape. And he did.

He focused on the small response, that felt like Virgil, and sent himself and the others there. Lo and behold, Virgil was there. But there were others there too. Others that Thomas had never met.

Deceit stepped in front of Thomas protectively.

“Disinterest, Pride, Greed. What the fuck do you think you are doing.” The Lying Side’s voice was low and dangerous, and sent shivers down everyone’s spine.

Anxiety was back in working order.

“He was running, crying! How could we not bring him back here, to care for him!” Greed smirked. Deceit glared.

“Lying is my department. You just want to collect another little toy, don’t you, Greed?”

The green side stepped back indignantly.

Roman stepped up by Deceit, surveying the situation.

Virgil was surrounded by the Dark Sides. Disinterest, Anxiety’s opposite, was in a corner standing lazily. Not a threat.

Greed - Roman’s own opposite - had just been taken care of by Dee.

Pride was Logan’s opposite, the only one left.

Roman decided to take charge, literally.

Pride opened his mouth, but he never got a word in edgewise.

The Prince ran up to the orange side, pulling out his sword, and hit him on the head with the hilt of the sword.

Disinterest still watched casually from the corner, staring at his nails halfheartedly.

Roman helped Virgil, who had been on the floor, up.

“Anxiety. Come with us.” Deceit’s voice had a hard edge to it that made them all shiver, because they knew that he was telling the truth for once.

Thomas transported them, wide-eyed, back to the Light Side’s house.

Virgil was shaking, and though Patton tried to hug him, the Anxious Side shied away.

“Virgil, what happened?” Thomas’ voice was soft, sad. Virgil flinched.

“I ran to them. They crowded around me, asking me to tell them how they could take you over. Greed, remember. But then you came in and saved me. Thanks for nothing, by the way.” Virgil glared at them, taking the other Light Sides aback.

“Virgil… what? Why would you go… to them?” Patton’s voice was soft, saddened. Virgil whirled on him, fight starting to kick in now that flight hadn’t worked.

“Because of you! Because for the last month you all have been acting weirder and weirder around me! Because you’re my FamILY and I love you and I don’t think you love me anymore! Because I came down to ask you what I had done to make you all hate me and I couldn’t get a word in, even, because you - you, Patton! My Best Friend! - said you didn’t want me here!”

Virgil wasn’t crying like he had been when he left. Flight was gone. Fight was in.

Until Thomas stepped in.

“Virgil… I can’t speak for what they did or did not do… but what I do know is that there is a very good reason for their behavior. And it’s not my story to tell, so I shall leave. Just don’t duck out again?”

Virgil saluted Thomas, who nodded and smiled back as he ducked out.

“Quack.” Said Patton.

Logan decided to speak up.

“Virgil. First off, I must apologize. For whatever we might have made you think or feel. We just… we wanted to do something for you.”

“For me?” The anxious side repeated, stunned.

“Yes!” Patton spoke up eagerly. “Can we give it to him, guys?!” The others nodded, so Patton bounded up and handed a wrapped package to Virgil.

“Oh, and Virgil?” Deceit spoke up as Virgil sat on the couch.

“Yeah?” He paused before opening the present, looking up at Deceit.

“Patton didn’t say those things - it was me. We really really don’t want you here.”

Virgil smiled, still confused. And then he realized - they had made something for him.

That’s why they had been avoiding him - not because they hated him, but because they were doing something for him to show that they truly cared about him!

Virgil felt more than slightly stupid.

“I’m sorry guys, I didn’t think, I… I’m sorry I assumed the worst.” He finished quietly.

Roman grabbed Virgil’s wrists, letting the Anxious side look at him as he smiled.

“Why, Panic! at the Everywhere, we love you for that. You are what keeps Thomas - and therefore us - safe. You are supposed to assume the worst, and hey, we know your fight - or - flight reflexes work!” Roman smiled.

Virgil giggled, Roman somehow managing to cheer him up with those few words alone.

He nodded, finally opening the present. He pulled out the handmade cat ear wireless headphones, smiling widely.

They were black, with purple accents, and each side of the actual headphone had a handmade version of Virgil’s logo on it.

He slipped them on his head, smiling.

“I love them so much, thank you!” Virgil was happy. The others were glad he liked it, and were admittedly slightly upset that they hadn’t thought of the potential of Virgil having an adverse reaction to a surprise.

But as they all cuddled that night happily watching Tim Burton movies together, they knew that they wouldn’t trade each other for the world.

They were a FamILY. And they would always be there for each other, no matter what.

Fight or Flight, am i right?

I hope you enjoyed!

Tag List

(Sanders Sides)

@astraastro

@madly-handsome

@amber1594

@lie-lie-birdy

@thebaagelboy

@justanotherpurplebutterfly

@ravenclawunicorn1

@ako1209

@princessbelix

@water13girl

@romanasanders

@deathshadowrules

@virgils-jacket

@fandomsofrandom

@cochroachkappa-blog

@zoeyheys

@chipminkle

@6tick6tock6

@maizieandbirds

@panic-at-theeverywhere

@not-my-patton

@cookieturtleart123

@confinesofpersonalknowledge

@generalfandomfabulousness

@thegirlofwolvesandfangs

@toujours-fidele

@light-it-on-fire

@ghostmaster83

(All)

@birdybabybird

@awesomelissawho

@funsizedgremlin

@surviving-an-ocean-of-fandoms

@teacupfulofstarshine

@am-i-heaven-or-am-i-hell

#prompt #virgil centered #lamp sanders #symp. dee #angel writes #thomas sanders #sanders sides #sanders sides fics

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dmitri-writes · 3 years

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Little Monsters

INFO -requested by anon -im SO SORRY this took so long, so much happened and i have a lot of wips and an adhd brain -u!virgil, symp!janus and remus -virgil is janus and remus’ dad/older brother (its not super clear) -its implied that logan is roman’s dad/older brother (again, not super clear) -takes place in the mindscape -everyone has an animal form -virgils is a spider and logans is a bird

WARNINGS -u!virgil -abuse -religion -comparing child to demons and monsters

Remus tugs on his little brother’s arm as the two run from the heavy footsteps behind them. “You two little monsters can’t hide,” a loud, echoing voice says as Remus shuts the closet door. He holds Janus close and listens close. The footsteps pass, “You’ve exhausted all your little rat holes,” The voice says a room away, and Remus lets out a shaky breath. He rubs circles into Janus’ back to try and calm the younger, but he knows it won’t help much. “God, why do mistakes like you two even exist? Just to turn people into evil little monsters just like you.” Remus shakes his head at the words, it’s not true its not true itsnottrue- The door to the closet is ripped open and Virgil yanks hard on Janus’ arm. Remus didn’t even notice he had been muttering. It’s his fault then, that his brother is being dragged down the hall, screaming and crying, begging for Virgil to let him go. It’s his fault. His fault. He tries to grab Janus back but Virgil pushed him back by the throat and he’s down, coughing and gasping for air. Janus is dragged into Virgil’s room and the door slams. Remus bangs on it, trying to get it open, but it’s locked. His fault. He’s a monster. He ruined Janus. Was a bad example. His fault. “Hello?” Remus jumps at the new voice. His head snaps to look at the stranger, who wears a back polo and blue tie and is about Virgil’s age. Behind him is a boy in a white and red shirt that looks strangely a lot like Remus. “Who are you?” The boy says, and Remus tries. Tries to say his name, but he can’t. “I’m a monster. You shouldn’t be talking to me.” The older one frowns, “You look like an ordinary person to me. Monsters aren’t real. Remus is taken aback by this, he can’t think of any response. “Where’s Virgil?” The younger boy says, and Remus is plunged back into anxiety. “He- he- he’s in there with my brother. Janus. He’s hurting him! Help us!” Remus starts babbling about what had happened moments earlier but the other two can’t understand him. “Roman, you help him calm down, okay? I’ll go in and see what’s happening.” Roman nods and kneels next to Remus, “I need you to look at my chest and copy my breathing, okay? Logan is going to help your brother but we need to get you to calm down.” Remus tries his hardest, and Logan tries the door. It’s still locked. He knocks three times, “Virgil? It’s Logan. Let me in please.” The door opens, and Logan enters, giving one last glance to the two kids that look so alike.

“Logan. What can I help you with?” The logical side looks around the room quickly but carefully. Blankets half off the bed, scuff marks on the floor, desk clutter knocked over and on the ground. It looks like there was a fight. “I just met one of the other dark sides. You didn’t tell us they were kids. You said they were monsters, even as I told you monsters weren’t real.” Virgil sneers, “Those little shits are definitely monsters. Evil little failures, both of them.” “Where is the other one?” Logan says, getting to the point. He has an idea of what happened here. Virgil frowns, “He’s currently being punished. Shouldn’t be disturbed, he might hurt you.” Logan angrily frowns, “I don’t think that’s the case. I know you hurt him. The boy in the hall is covered in bruises. Where is he.” Virgil hisses as his spider form starts showing, “The little demon deserved it. You don’t get to tell me how to raise my kids.” Logan threatens right back, allowing his wings and talons to show through, “Where. Is he?” Virgil takes in Logan’s taller and more powerful form, and scowls, “In the closet. You can have them, but don’t come crawling back to me when they turn out to be hellspawn.” Logan relaxes again, then races over to the closet. Sure enough, inside is a small boy with scales littered on one side of his face. “Janus, yes? Your brother is waiting outside for you. Virgil won’t bother you anymore.” Logan leads Janus out of the room, glaring daggers at Virgil all the way, who glares back.

Remus races to hug his brother as they come out of the room. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” He sobs at Logan, who sadly smiles. “We should get the two of you away from Virgil. Let’s go back to the light side, okay?” Janus sniffles, “Will we be safe there?” Roman nods, “Of course! You’ll have me there to protect you!” The boys giggle and Logan smiles, and leads them to sink out.

#dmitri-writes #dmitri writes requests #janus sanders #u!virgil #unsympathetic virgil #unsymp virgil #remus sanders #virgil sanders #ts remus #ts janus #ts virgil #logan sanders #ts logan #roman sanders #ts roman #child roman #child remus #child janus

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abused-virgil-oneshots · 3 years

Note

"Lets make a deal, shall we?" With unsymp Logan and symp Deceit.

TW: Unsympathetic Logan, sympathetic Janus and Virgil, kidnapping, talk of tests

Virgil opened his eyes to a bright white room. It smelled like disinfectant. "Where...?" A door creaked open and a man stepped through.

"Hello, I'm Logan. I'm here to study the two of you." Only then did Virgil notice Janus in the corner.

"Where's here?"

"Somewhere, that's not the point. Anyway-"

"It very much is the point! what the fuck is wrong with you?!"

"Nothing is-"

"Really? because this-" Janus twisted around in the chair he was tied to "-tells a different story.

The man- Logan rolled his eyes, turning to Virgil instead, "Let's make a deal, shall we?"

"I'll let," his hand swiveled around before it landed on Janus, "him go, if," it twisted again, landing on Virgil this time, "If you stay and let me run the tests on you instead."

Janus' eyes widened, "Vee, don't you-"

"Deal." Virgil interrupted mid sentence. There was no way he was being talked out of this. The less Janus had to deal with, the better. Not to mention if Janus wasn't here, he could help look for him.

Logan smirked, "Perfect." He snapped his fingers and Janus was gone, the ropes were wrapped up on the chair he was in. "You two were rather annoying together. Let's get started, shall we?"

///222 words

#unsympathetic logan #sympathetic janus #sympathetic virgil

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findingtheperfectcharacter · 4 years

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Lighten Up Kiddo

I can't believe how close we are to the end of October! I also can't believe it hecking snowed :(.

Before I start this one I want to thank everyone who's commented on my work so far, you guys are the best and it'snice to get encouragement that my work makes people Feel Things and isn't just shouted into a cold unfeeling void lol.

Unsymp Patton, Symp Virgil, manipulative behavior, gaslighting, memory erasing

@unsympathetic-october-2020

It wasn't easy, taming a Dark Side. Virgil had been full of rough edges, he didn't trust the Light Sides, didn't know how much they all cared for him behind their scorn. Patton sighed as he put down the last image in his scrapbook, Virgil smiling along with the group as he realized he was finally with his real family.

He couldn't help but think about the first time they'd really bonded.

Patton had woken up to the sound of a fist slamming against the door of a room. He wondered the long narrow hallway until he nearly ran up to Virgil, curled in a ball outside of his room. Shaking with rage.

He moved to sit down next to him, "What's wrong kiddo?"

He rocked a bit, "My door, it's here now. I know what..." His hand moved towards his mouth, a movement that was nearly instinctual for sides before they mentioned an unknown side, "The Others said happens when your door moves. It means..." He bit the sides of his index finger, Patton could tell he was trying to hold back tears. His poor kiddo had so much pain just thinking about the others for too long. "It means I can never go back. I-I don't want this-"

Patton shook his head, "I know it's rough right now Virgil, but I promise this is for the best." He moved closer to Virgil to hold him and rock along side him. "You were never like The Others. Not really. All they wanted was to hurt Thomas and make him a bad person. You may have seemed like Anxiety, but really." He kissed Virgil's cheek, "You're Thomas's Vigilance."

Virgil shook his head, "You're wrong you just don't know them like I do-" His face brightened, "Maybe we could let them in like how you let me in." He sat up and started messing with his fingers as he planned, "And you could see they're not who you think they are, and maybe we could finally be..." He took a deep breath, in and out.

Patton pet his hair, "maybe one day. But for tonight, you should get some rest."

Virgil nodded through a yawn standing up, "Yeah, you're probably right. Night pops."

Patton gave a small wave as he went back to bed.

Of course, it wasn't that easy. Virgil was adamant about seeing the others again, Patton even heard him cry in his room some nights. He whimpered about how much he missed them. Even after Patton faked a letter from Remus talking about how much he always hated him, the anxious side still insisted that he get a chance to prove that he wasn't evil.

It would be admirable if it weren't for the wrong people.

So what was a father to do with such a stubborn kiddo?

The next time he heard Virgil crying he moved close to him. "I never told you this before, but I have healing abilities."

Virgil growled, his eyeshadow turning darker and more intense, "I don't need healing."

Patton hummed, "But I think you do. This entire... Ordeal has been traumatic for you. You're split in half between two people you think you love and it's tearing you apart." He shook his head, "If you don't get help, you might Split." He slowly moved his hand towards him as if approaching a feral animal. "Please trust me. Let me help you."

There was a second of hesitation before Virgil leaned in and let Patton press his thumb against his forehead, allowing him to access his memories as he collapsed into his arms.

Patton adjusted things in his mind like a professional metal worker, adding and erasing scenarios until a new vision of the world appeared in the side's eyes. A simple one of reformation, villains and the heroes who worked to save him.

Sometimes he was still difficult, he'd cry without knowing why or say something felt familiar and made him happy when it shouldn't. But Patton was always there to clarify or fix things. By the time Deceit made his first appearance Virgil only felt scorn and hatred for his former friend.

And Patton couldn't be prouder.

#Unsympathetic Patton #Sympathetic Virgil #Manipulation #Mind wiping

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nachosforfree · 4 years

Note

hello sorry to bother you but do you have any symp dee headcanons

im so sorry my first thought upon reading "symp dee" was... Simp like.... A niceguy...

FNEJFJS ANYWAYS

Literally all of my headcanons involving dee have him sympathetic, I don't do unsympathetic dee

He used to make breakfast for the dark sides, despite them not exactly needing to eat. He mostly did it to get Remus and Virgil actually awake. He doesn't do it as often now that Virgil is gone but sometimes Remus wakes up to the smell of food being cooked.

He has a bazillion snakes, each has their own name and he somehow never gets them mixed up

He likes puns but will never let Patton know this fact. Patton secretly knows it anyways

He's colorblind (not FULLY colorblind but if you asked him to name whether something was red or blue he's clueless)

He has very bad eyesight in his snake eye. Remus tried to make him wear a monocle but Deceit insisted that he isn't extra enough for one

He has several different capelets. Some of them have interesting patterns on them but a lot of them are just copies of the one he wears to work (i.e.: appearing to talk to Thomas)

#asks #deceit sanders

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sidescraft · 5 years

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Kay while I'm working on art for the next ask by an anon named K (can I PLEASE call you Potassium Anon) I want you guys to draw what you think Virgil and Remus are going to look like and I'll tell you in your DMs how close you are

I'm trusting you guys NOT TO SPREAD THE ANSWERS

Send art through submissions or tag me!

#Sidescraft #Sanders Sides #Sanders Sides AU #Minecraft #Minecraft AU #Remus Sanders #Virgil Sanders #Enderman Virgil #Creeper Remus #not plot relevant #FangirlOP #she speks #she speks originale #Symp Virgil #Remy I do this for you #dlamptrsandersstuff I love you and respect your opinion on tagging Symp Virgil

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candied-peach · 4 years

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ao3: “hush little baby” rating: T warnings: sympathetic deceit, (unsym! dee mentioned like...meta? i guess? he’s sympathetic in the fic though), analoceit genre: hurt/comfort description: Virgil shouldn’t have read that. (anon prompt: "So bc ur my fav symp!D writer and one of my fav ts agere writers; V has a tendency to read things that he knows will trigger him if they aren't blocked (in particular unsym!D which people don't tag a lot of the time) and then it makes him smol n sad n he needs big hugs from Dee (and Lo if u dont mind bc Im an analoceit fiend) bc deedee isn mean n bad lik they say n its no fair to b mean to him like that")

The sound of a barely muffled sob reaches Deceit's ears and he frowns, looking around the corridor. Roman and Patton are downstairs making cookies. As far as he's aware, Logan is in his room, but he planned to work on Thomas's schedule until dinner. Remus is on an Imagination quest.

That leaves...Virgil.

Another hastily muffled sniffle confirms his suspicions and he carefully eases open Virgil's door, mismatched eyes straining to see the anxious side. Virgil's huddled on his bed, wrapped up in all his blankets, and his pacifier dangles from its bat-printed clip.

Oh, Deceit thinks, and eases his way back out. Virgil doesn't notice as he slips down the hallway to Logan's room. If Virgil is upset and regressed, Deceit thinks he needs both boyfriends.

"Logan," he says quietly, startling the other side. Logan looks up with wide, slightly annoyed eyes.

"It's Virgil," Deceit murmurs, before Logan can issue a word of protest. "He's regressed and from the sounds of it, quite upset. I thought it prudent to-"

"Oh yes, of course," Logan says, rising as he speaks and accidentally interrupting Deceit. "I apologize," he says at once. "I didn't mean to interrupt you. Please continue."

"It's fine," Deceit says, stroking the back of Logan's hand. "Let's go."

This time, Deceit is more obvious opening the door, but Virgil still doesn't notice, too wrapped up in his own misery, and that concerns Deceit. And Logan, judging by the worried frown on his face. Virgil always notices when someone comes in. It's part of being Anxiety.

"Virgil?" Deceit speaks softly. Virgil looks up, startled, and Deceit can see that his eye shadow has smeared all down his cheeks. "Sweetheart, what's wrong?"

"You'll be mad," Virgil hiccups, his hand coming up and fidgeting with his pacifier. Deceit sits down next to the blanket-wrapped bundle of Anxiety, while Logan takes Virgil's other side.

"No, I won't," Deceit says. "You're upset, baby bat. I want to help you. I can't help you if I get all mad, can I?"

"No," Virgil admits. His voice is still tear-choked. "But you told me- told not to look up stuff that upsets me and- and I did, but I didn't mean to, I didn't read the tags good enough, and-" He sniffles, fresh tears welling to the surface.

Ah. Deceit exchanges a look with Logan over Virgil's bowed head. Now he can fill in the blanks, at least somewhat. Virgil has a bad habit of looking up what's been dubbed "unsympathetic sides" on Tumblr. It always upsets him and both Deceit and Logan asked him not to, or at least to talk to them first. But it's not always tagged properly, or perhaps the 'unsympathetic' portion had inadvertently been buried.

In any case, Deceit can guess who Virgil had accidentally read about. He's always the most upset when it comes to Deceit himself. You aren't like that at all! He remembers Virgil's impassioned, blubbering plea on another occasion. You won't hurt me. I know you won't.

"It's all right," Deceit soothes, smoothing down the unruly strands of Virgil's hair with one freshly ungloved hand. "I'm not mad at you, storm cloud. Logan isn't either."

"Dee is right," Logan confirms. "Neither of us are mad. Accidents happen."

"You wouldn't do that stuff," Virgil mumbles into Deceit's chest as he turns and burrows into the front of Deceit's outfit. Deceit's arms automatically come around him, rubbing soothing circles on his back. "Never ever. It's not fair. You're not mean."

"Never," Deceit affirms. "But other people have the right to write what they want, too. Do you want me to go through and see if there are any new tags I can block for you?" Virgil nods.

"Yes, please," he says in a small voice.

"Storm cloud," Logan says, attracting his attention. "Is there anything you'd like to do now? Coloring or watching a movie, perhaps?"

"Movie?" Virgil requests shyly. "You- you both stay, right?"

"Of course," Deceit says, as Logan nods. "We won't leave you, baby bat. I promise." He presses a kiss to the top of Virgil's head, making the other side giggle weakly.

"Thank you," he says as Logan fiddles with the TV, trying to find an appropriate movie for them all to watch.

"It's no trouble at all," Deceit murmurs, settling the blankets around them both. "It will be okay, Virgil. I promise."

"Okay," Virgil says, and rests his head against Deceit's chest.

#🍬 txt #sanders sides #analoceit #ts agere #sympathetic deceit #deceit sanders #virgil sanders #logan sanders #deceit #logan #virgil #the others are mentioned #sanders sides fic #sanders sides fanfiction #sanders sides fanfic #📚#ok to rb #peach writes #janus

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remusthedukeofdeodorant · 4 years

Text

Okay so I've noticed recent discourse over certain sides and whether or not to add TW before them.

Patton, Roman, and Logan were the original sides. Then came Virgil. Deceit and Remus were last.

Some blogs primarily post content for the main "light" sides, some "dark" sides content, and others like me are a mix of both.

Some of the earlier fanders may not like Remus, as he represents intrusive thoughts and is a disturbing man in general. He is why I entered the fandom, so of course my blog is centered around him. I do not expect people who do not like him to follow me, that's a given. I understand why people may not like him. You can apply this to any of the sides. Examples 👇

Patton: Lovable dad guy soft morality man

Reminds some people of ways they have been manipulated and they can't like him

Virgil: Emo anxious bean sarcastic dude

Can be aggressive to the other sides and isn't always the best admit it please

Deceit: Elegant man of snakes

Represents lies and lying and some people are uncomfortable with that

Now these aren't all the reasons why but are some I know of.

Solution blocking character tags right? Nope doesn't work because people will tag all the sides for any thing. This is usually more common with newer fanders as I was like this. So people came up with stuff like tw (insert side) and dukedontlook

Now for the most part I find these reasonable, but people are getting distraught over them. Those who relate to dark sides such as myself, feel a little hurt to see tw I'm front of deceit or Remus, as do people who love light sides and see tw Patton or something. This is mostly because we project onto the characters. I am a compulsive liar, and even though I am mostly honest I have a hard time being direct. This is why I am sympathetic towards deceit and love him, I have similar reasons for remus. I have blocked the unsympathetic tag for him.

Tagging Unsymp vs Symp sides correctly is important too. Just because you see one as a villain doesn't mean someone else does. Don't follow a Patton (or Remus) stanning blog and demand they tw him because you don't like him. This person will post about that side a lot, and if you don't like the side don't follow. Now Patton (or Remus) Stan please tag this character correctly so people can block the tag and not some how see him in the Virgil (or Logan or Roman or whoever dammit) tag and need to block everything.

If we tag correctly these problems won't happen.

I don't know if anything I said made sense but please add on and make it more coherent.

#sanders sides discourse #ts sides discourse #ts sides #sanders sides

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princeanxious · 5 years

Text

A Serpent’s Tongue-(symp)Deceit Centric fic

Warnings: (sympathetic) Deceit, unsympathetic/abusive Wrath(oc?), brief hints at gorish imagery(at the beginning, skippable), short term loss of an important body part, angst, abiguos/unresolved ending, food mentions. (Let me know if i need to tag anything else!!)

Ships: mostly platonic DLAMPR but there are hints of romantic Roceit as well

Word count: 3.8k words

Authours note: this was inspired by a joke pic i saw and idk whether to be sorry that i wrote this or not so uh. Yep. Have some angst.

Wrath and Deceit can never really get along. Wrath is more interested in keeping Thomas’s friends safe, and Deceit just wants Thomas to take care of himself once in a while. Little to the other sides know, Wrath has a horrific way of dealing with Deceit when he’s sick and tired of hearing him speak.

[[MORE]]

It would not have been the first time Wrath had lost his temper, far from it, in fact. It was commonplace, really. Though, he rarely got physical in his anger, he simply broke stuff in the dark palace that, when his fit was over, he’d mend back together.

However, it was also not the first time that Deceit and Wrath had gotten into an argument, a loud one at that. Both light and dark sides alike knew when such an argument was alight, due to the sheer volume of Wrath’s tone. They rarely saw eye to eye, due to their friction of views between Thomas taking primary care of himself(Deceit) and taking primary care of his friends(Wrath).

And again, it was not the first time that Wrath had ended such an intense argument by silencing Deceit the only way he knew would last.

“You can’t poison Thomas’s thoughts if you can’t talk without your serpent’s tongue, you Liar.” Wrath would growl, summoning scissors and stalking towards the cornered deceitful side. Threats and begs and struggle would fall on deaf ears until they stopped altogether. With a flick of Wrath’s hand, any mess from his deed as well as the room that had been thrashed with mess all tidied up without a trace of damage as he left. The only lingering remnants of damage lay in Deceit’s dulling eyes, blinking away tears as his face retained it’s upset scowl.

This was, however, the first time Wrath had decided to enact this awful treatment since the light sides had begun to accept Deceit, or, better known now as Dorian. With his room moved right next to Virgil’s and across from Remus’s at the very back of the hall, it was inevitable that this treatment would bare a heavily negative outcome now that he could not interact with the others accordingly and unsuspiciously.

None of them knew of what Wrath’s punishment was, or that Wrath could even stoop so low to do such a thing, not even Remus or Virgil had a clue. It had been going on for so long now though that Dorian knew just how to deal with it.

Except, now, sitting in his room for two weeks without leaving was not a viable option anymore. The others were bound to get suspicious, and he would definitely be needed for his little white lies. Even as he sunk down into his room before he could be seen, and hid under his heated covers for even just a few hours of solitude, he knew it was going to be a rough two weeks of hiding it from them.

——

“Dori!!”

Dorian’s eyes blinked open blearily, and he peaked out from under the covers just in time for Remus to open his door and excitedly shuffle in before closing the door. His excited face faltered for a moment at seeing his best friend tucked up tightly underneath his heating blankets mid-day, but fondness overswept his concern immediately at how cute and ruffled Dori’s hair was.

He didn’t question how Dorian only answered his questions and random outbursts with hums and snorts, with not a word to be heard. Dorian had periods of time where he got like this often back before their acceptance, it didn’t surprise him that they still sometimes occurred now. Especially after Dorian and Wrath had one of their arguments. Dori was often in such a sour mood for weeks!

After a while, Remus had saw fit to leave Dori be, the first few days after these arguments seemed to be the worst for his scaled friend, and he ought to let the others know to leave him be. He knew that this would be a relief for Dorian, but in his jumbled head he just couldn’t quite remember why.

It took three days for the next side to bother him, though it was welcomed at least slightly when he glanced up and was met with the blue-eyed serious side. They’d become fast friends in the past few months, truly. They’d often talk philosophy and history and space together, and stay up till 3 am with Virgil discussing conspiracy theories and watching documentaries as a group. It was still a friendship that was new and fresh, but there was a silent understanding between them that solidified that friendship just a tad bit quicker.

“Good afternoon, Dorian. I hope you are doing.. well..?” Logan tapered off, finally looking up from his book to be met with a casually dressed, if still a good bit ruffled and unkempt Dorian. He was still sitting on his bed, though he’d never admit he hadn’t really moved much in the past few days, and was scratching at his scales irritatedly.

“I had assumed three days was a more than sufficient period to leave you to ‘cool off’ after Remus came to inform us of your bad mood, but it would appear that that had been a very temporary solution to a much bigger problem.” Dorian gave a sheepish shrug, before coming to itch at the scales on his neck. The book vanished as Logan’s attention fully focused on Dorian’s unkempt state, a very rare sight on such a composed side. He came to sit at the foot of Dorian’s bed with tacit permission, eyes wandering over the self-preservative side until they landed on the others face which wore an uncomfortable expression in reaction to being analyzed.

“I apologize. How are you.. uh.. feeling.. at the moment, Dorian?” The logical side adjusted his tie, looking rather worried for his obviously stressed friend. He frowned when all he received was another shrug.

“Look. I.. I know that arguing with Wrath is truly exhausting, and being around him can negatively affect all parties, but you can’t just stop taking care of yourself after every argument. No matter what he says about you or any of us, it isn’t okay to let it take over you. I know I can’t possibly know what he said to you, or ever says to you, but I won’t stand to let it hurt you.” Dorian chuffed bitterly at those last words. ‘A little too late, Berry.’ He thought.

Logan only seemed to frown more, eyes searching Dorian’s for some answer, anything that would help him understand where this conversation needed to go. Dorian’s dull eyes met Logan’s strong searching gaze with a look of appreciation. A silent thank you amongst the fray. He closed his eyes and sighed, holding his bare hand out in a silent gesture. When Logan’s hand rested in his own, he pulled it to his chest in a pseudo hug, then pulled it back to link their pointer fingers. This was one of their silent gestures, one that said ‘Not now, but soon,’ when either one of them was feeling overwhelmed or unheard. It was a gesture to let the other know that they would be stopping by later to talk when it was just them to hear their conversation. Except right now, they were alone, which only seemed to puzzle Logan. But still, he understood the meaning calm and clear. ‘I will tell you, but not now.’

With a nod, both of them fell into a small but comfortable silence, enjoying the small grounding contact of their linked fingers. After a while though, Logan spoke up.

“I will say this though, with the utmost kindness I can.. You should take a shower and change into fresh clothing. It will do you some good, both for your mood and for your scales. I also suggest, once you've finished with that task, if it is not too much, to come downstairs and eat something. Think of it as a.. comfort meal, as it were. I could even ask Patton or Roman to make that soup you like so much.”

Dorian chuckled at his friends worrying, leaning against the other’s shoulder with a nod. Warm food sounded nice, he hadn’t really eaten anything since the night of the incident, and though the sides didn’t need to eat, it still was a pleasure they could enjoy. It would certainly comfort Dorian, though he’d have to evade eating solid food items around the others, as eating those both were weird to eat and looked just as weird to watch him eat while he was missing his tongue.

Soon after showering, he dressed in something more casual yet still color fitting due to lack of care at keeping up his dark image at the current moment. He came downstairs wearing an oversized black and yellow sweater that Remus had gifted him and comfortable black skinny jeans, with dark socks and a neutral expression to match.

Thankfully the only side downstairs at the moment was Logan who seemed to be trying to pick out a puzzle from their gaming shelf. He turned for a brief moment to greet the deceitful side, beckoning the other over to help him with his decision.

“Patton will be down in a moment, he and Virgil were discussing something when I made the soup request. Remus and Roman are in the imagination sparring, so for now I thought it’d be nice to simply relax and put together a puzzle while we wait.” Dorian nodded in agreement, and helped Logan pick out one of the few puzzles they hadn’t yet done, knowing that Logan would likely be a bit more focused on the puzzle than on the fact that Dorian still had yet to utter any sarcastic or backwards responses to anything he’d say. Still, the puzzle was a nice distraction, especially once they’d turned on a documentary in the background to combat the silence.

He hardly noticed the time passing until he zoned back in to an almost half-finished puzzle and the kitchen light flicking on. Patton sent out a cheery greeting to the two focused sides in the living room and then set to work on making his famous ‘feel better’ soup. It didn’t take long before Virgil came down as well, spending a couple minutes chatting with Patton about some topic or another before migrating into the livingroom and flopping onto the floor in between Logan and Dorian.

Headphones on and music already seeping out of the device, Virgil barely acknowledged the fact that he was now laying on D’s legs in an uncomfortable position, though he did spare a glance up at the deceitful side to make sure he had permission. With Dorian’s nod, Virgil stuck his tongue out at the other playfully and received a scrunched nose and an affectionate eyeroll in return. Virge then sat himself up and leaned against the other, one arm wrapping around the others middle to tap three times on Dorian’s leg. ‘Are you okay?’ Is what it meant.

Dorian hesitated before tapping twice on Virgil’s arm, ‘sort of’ it said, ‘not really’ is what it implied. Virgil frowned before situating himself behind the other to wrap both arms around him, laying his head on the others shoulder to watch the documentary like they used to do when they were younger. It pulled at his heart a bit, knowing that things had been tense between the two since their rift happened, though recently they’d both been trying to mend the scar in their friendship. Shame that he couldn’t playfully bicker with the other due to his predicament.

Instead he chose to settle against the taller side’s chest and relax in the other’s protective embrace, temporarily forgetting about doing the puzzle with Logan as Virgil began purring. It was a quiet, comforting rumble that had Dorian zoning out rather quickly.

He was only roused from his stupor when a warm thermos was gently placed into his hands, and a nice smell wafted from the container. He grinned lazily and looked up to find Patton standing there pensively, looking worried. He beckoned the other to kneel down to his level before gently pulling Patton’s head to his, pressing their foreheads together in a comforting gesture.

“Uh, Dorian..?” “That gesture means he’s okay, Popstar. He and I know you're worried but it really does just happen to be this way sometimes, even if I don’t like it. He’s pretty non-vebal when like this, so maybe stick to yes or no questions.” Dorian sighed softly, thankful that Virgil was fluent in his body language.

When Patton responded with a nod and settled down on the couch, Dorian finally relaxed enough to sip from the thermos. One good thing, Dorian had learned, about being a side was that he thankfully did not need his tongue to taste things. Sure it was a much duller taste than if he did have it, and the same went for smell for him, but he could still taste food. So, despite his dampened senses, Dorian still enjoyed his warm soup nonetheless.

He barely protested when Virgil moved him to the couch, placing him in his arms and scooting over so that Patton could drag Logan onto the couch as well to finish watching the documentary. Within half an hour, Dorian was out like a light with a warm full belly and a warm body to cuddle up against.

When he awoke about an hour later, Patton and Logan were gone from the couch, and instead sat on the floor with Roman and Remus. Roman and Remus were each working on their own kind of crafts while Logan worked on finishing the puzzle and Patton colored in a coloring book, all of them chatting amicably between one another. He didn’t dare move much, knowing his awakening would upset the balance between the group.

On his neck where Virgil’s left hand rested, he receives three small taps. ‘Are you okay?’ With a long pause, Dorian responds with a small frown. One tap against Virgil’s chest, ‘No.’

Virgil sighs deeply, silently as he pulls the other closer so Dee can hide against Virgil’s neck, fingers threading through messy curls in an attempt to sooth the deceitful side.

Thankfully no one takes notice, and the day ends quietly. Dorian almost thinks he can get away with being in his room for another three days, except, Dorian awakes the next day with Roman knocking on his door and excitedly asking if Dorian would come duet with him and knows theres no use in holding his breath.

It hurts Dorian, the sad expression the fanciful side makes, when Dorian opens the door with a sheepish look. Still, Roman understands, and instead offers to let Dorian be his audience and companion into the imagination. He even gifts Dorian a long thick, weightier cape that resembles a weighted blanket with the outfit style they appear in. It soothes Dorian plenty, and he's as obvious as he can be about being thankful for it to make up for his lack of voice.

They spend the morning strolling through Roman’s kingdom, Dorian occasionally letting Roman pull him into a waltz or a twirl as he sung to the deceitful side. Despite Dorian’s temporary muted state, he was anything but quiet. He couldn’t help it really, Roman was a loveable dork and could be so cheesy at times, his giggles were justified, damn it!

There was also the lucky factor that Dorian could still hum along with Roman whenever the other got close enough to hear him, and knew that the compromise was highly appreciated. Roman could speak for two, and was still generally versed in enough sign language and Dorian’s own facial expressions to keep up a conversation.

Thankfully, Roman steered clear of asking Dorian about his silence, being respectful and instead choosing to use the silence to his advantage to flirt with the scaled side, knowing he’d get less resistance. And if Dorian ended up in his arms at the end of their trip to hide his blushing face against the fanciful side’s chest? That was just fine by him.

When they returned to the common room in the mind palace, they were greeted by the lovely smell of baked goods. It didn’t take long before Patton appeared with a plate of still warm cookies, who seemed to get even more excited when he spotted the duo entering the living room.

“Hey kiddos! You two are in luck, I just finished some chip-tastic chocolate chip cookies! Want one??” Patton said excitedly, holding out the tray. Immediately, Dorian’s stomach dropped at the offering of solid food, and gritted his teeth as he smiled and took one, thankful that it was still warm and mushy. Roman happily too two and munched on one as he chatted with Patton about their lovely trip, neither of them any wiser to Dorian’s issue.

He nibbled on the cookie as he listened to the two and nodded along when necessary, mentally warring with himself on how to tackle this issue. Thankfully it was still warm and mushy, but shoving it into his mouth in front of the two would be suspicious. He really had no other option though, as chewing small bites would make his issue fairly obvious. Internally sighing, he gave into the first option.

In one swift movement, he’d shoved the whole cookie into his mouth to chew, hand covering his mouth sheepishly. Both Roman and Patton took a moment to notice, but both of them just kinda paused in realization and Dee stared back, daring them to question him with a stare.

“Dor, why..?” Roman grinned, more confused and amused than concerned. Dorian just huffed and swallowed, then signed ‘snake instinct’ to them with a fake embarrassed expression.

Confusion turned to understanding as both right-brain sides echoed a soft “ohhh, right.” Crisis averted, at least for the time being. Eventually the trio split, and Roman and Dorian ended up on the couch watching Tangled to wind down from their eventful day.

Eventually Remus and Logan joined them, and they ended up putting on Wall-E next, if only to please their resident nerd and trash-child. However, Remus was feeling particularly bratty today and getting rather frustrated with his best friend when Dee wouldn’t back him up on any of his ideas or thoughts.

“C’mon, Dee, work with me! They’re literally eating themselves! Back me up here double D! It’s like a cat cut your tongue out!” He growled, pouting in Logan’s lap. Swiftly, though, Remus’s attention returned to the movie without a thought of what he’d said to the lying side, unaware of just how right he’d been. The only side to notice his shift in demeanor was the fanciful side who’s lap he was sat on, who had felt him stiffen up considerably at that last sentence. Gently, Roman pulled him closer and soothed a hand over the other’s scales, scratching gently in an attempt to distract the other from his brother’s rude remark. Eventually, Dorian settled down and let the remark go, and that was the end of that.

Despite that close call, everything was going great, all things considered. By the time the first week had passed, everything had gone back to normal, aside from the few extra visits he had received from the others simply checking in on him, everything had been fine. His tongue was even beginning to regenerate! He’d been keeping a close eye on it when he could, trying to keep the checkups at a minimum and doing them late at night to avoid possibly getting found out. It was a foolproof plan!

Until it wasn’t.

He should’ve realized that Virgil would eventually start back up with his late night visits, just like he used to do before their split. Dorian had told him that his door was still open if Virgil ever wanted to come bother him late at night, knowing that both of them were still night owls. Perhaps he should’ve kept his guard up, not gotten too relaxed while his tongue was healing. He’d only had a week to go before he’d have his tongue back and then all would go back to normal.

But life was never that kind to him.

Leave it to tired stupid Dorian to leave his door unlocked and cracked at midnight while he sat on the floor infront of his mirror, inspecting his open mouth without much thought. The regeneration had only just begun, so his lack of tongue was still absolutely present.

Then, in a moment of brilliance, Dorian looked up at his door, only just realizing it hadn’t been fully closed. Staring back at him instead was Virgil, wide eyed and white as a sheet. The anxious side was frozen, staring right at Dorian’s mouth in disbelief.

“...D-Dee?” His shaky voice had been barely above a whisper. Dorian had long since shut his jaw tight, eyes wide in terror.

Eventually, Virgil gathered enough of his barings to slowly walk over to where Dorian was seated, and kneeled down. Shaking hands reached out and cupped Dorian’s jaw, his eyes wide and flicking between Dorian’s lips and Dorian’s distant expression.

“Dee, please.. please tell me this isn’t the reason why you haven’t been talking..” his voice sounded desperate, his eyes searching for any sign of illusion or trickery and only finding pain and shame. Tears were already pricking at Dorian’s eyes and shame was curling in his gut, making him sick to his stomach.

Virgil’s horror quickly began to morph into anger, “that cruel fucker did this to you, didn’t he?” He gently pulled Dorian closer, resting his forehead against the other’s in an attempt to comfort the other. “Dee, please. Answer me.” Virgil cursed, his voice distorting more with every passing minute. He huffed, wanting to snarl the moment Dee nodded his head meekly.

He wanted to kill him, Wrath would be a dead man the moment he saw him. But right now, that could wait. Despite his overwhelming anger and anxiety, Dorian needed help, he needed to be in a safe place. They needed safe company, and Virgil desperately needed someone to stop him from going full feral.

With little idea on what to do, he picked Dorian up carefully and brought him into the commons’ living room. This would at least be a neutral space to give him some time to think. He absolutely refused to put Dorian down now, his protective instinct going haywire with the deceitful side trembling and quietly hiccuping in his arms.

Despite his best efforts, it did eventually get to the point where his heightening anxiety was starting to affect the whole palace, and within minutes the rest of the sides came stumbling down the stairs.

It was an odd sight, a highly anxious Virgil sporting a look of near-feral level of murderous on his face as he carried Dorian bridal style, the lying side having his face tucked up and hidden away while his shoulders were shaking with silent sobs. Before much could be said, Virgil’s heavily distorted voice rang out chillingly into the room.

“We need to talk.”

#sanders sides #sympathetic deceit #sympathetic remus #DLAMPR #roceit #wrath sanders #tw hinted gore #tw abuse mention #tw lost body part

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sometimes-love-is-enough · 4 years

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do you have any spicy hot takes you wanna drop 👀👀?? i will drop one as well, i think that everyone got carried away with the whole sympathetic and unsympathetic stuff -💫

okay so i read the first sentence and i was like ‘fuck yes time to talk about the sympathetic/unsympathetic thing’ and then i read the rest of it and yeah okay so we’re on the same page here. i have a feeling this is going to get extensive so if you don’t want to hear me complaining about stuff that you may or may not like don’t go reading under the cut. Also it's not going to be very coherent

disclaimer: i am not trying to police the fandom or trying to tell anyone that they can’t write stuff. i do my best to stay in my lane and read/consume content that i want to. these are just. feelings i have.

so on the one hand i sort of understand where the whole concept sprung from. it’s hard to write interesting longform stories without a villain of some sort, it’s not as if there’s all that many characters in the first place, and sometimes using the Dragon Witch doesn’t quite cut it. and honestly if you take away the whole ‘they’re all part of the same person’ thing it would’ve been pretty easy to assume that Deceit was the bad guy when he first showed up. he went the whole ‘ominous smirking, evil laughter’ route because he’s a dramatic little bastard, and some people were like 'my son, I love him' and others went 'evil man! Evil! He's planning bad things' and on a purely mechanical level having tags that distinguish people who think a character is good vs people who think a character is evil is a good thing, it helps you distinguish content you want to look at from the content that you don't!

HOWEVER. I think the idea of characters being 'sympathetic' or 'unsympathetic' in the way that this fandom uses those terms is innately flawed. It's black-and-white thinking and it veers close to the whole puritan thing that tumblr is so fond of. And in most cases 'unsympathetic' is just an excuse to write characters as toxic, abusive, and just downright cruel without having to explain yourself. Which is. Hm. And also just lazy writing.

This bit might be tmi but: Patton actually used to be my favorite Sanders Sides character. But back when i initially got into the fandom, I hadn't quite worked out how to filter the content I looked through yet, and I just kept seeing this... constant stream of stuff involving him being abusive to the others in a way that was hm how shall i say this. Uncomfortably familiar. especially with a lot of religious guilt themes. It's not anyone's fault, precisely, but it did tinge a lot of my fandom experience, and it maaaay be why i'm not great at writing him. Doesn't matter. The point is... There wasn't a point. I'm just still bitter about that and wanted to mention it. Maybe i'm angrier about this than i thought i was. Let's not talk about that. Let's move on with this discussion.

You'll notice that i used Janus as an example up there at the top. I can't be sure (and actually it grimly fascinates me so if anybody who's been around here longer than I have has any info on this send it over, I'd love to know) but I think that Deceit's appearance in CLBG may have marked the beginning of this whole unsympathetic/sympathetic split in the fandom. It seems a safe enough bet, anyway, especially since the earliest example I can find of any fic being tagged 'unsympathetic' in the AO3 archive is from 4th February 2018, literally the day after CLBG went up. (damn, guys, moving fast).

The first occurrences of the 'sympathetic' tag crop up about a month later. Tumblr is impossible to search so I don't know if there was any discussion about terms, or if it was just a kind of snowball effect with people seeing the tags and tagging their own fics as appropriate (and this is a fascinating phenomena in itself!) but either way - i have absolutely no idea what happened to make people go from 'we're divided on whether this character who presents himself a villain is actually doing bad and detrimental things to the other sides/thomas/the world as a whole/innocent puppies' to 'hang on what if the other sides were kicking puppies also?'

So now this has turned from a rant about terminology into me being genuinely curious about this whole thing. I will put the rant on pause while I go scour AO3 to see when the first occurrences of the tags popped up. Please hold.

Okay. I'm going to ignore the unsympathetic tags for anyone who's not a side because i don't hate myself nearly that much (but uh for the record. There is a part of this fandom that thinks the LITERAL CONCEPT OF SLEEP IS EVIL and i'm not sure if i should be impressed or horrified. What? What???)

All of these numbers are up-to-date as of 17/06/2020, which is when I'm posting this. I'm probably not going to update that, so keep that in mind if you're reading this in the future.

In order of chronological appearance:

Unsympathetic Janus ('Deceit' at the time, of course) - first appears 12 March 2018, 191 works Unsympathetic Roman - first appears 10 February 2019, 102 works Unsympathetic Logan - first appears 24 June 2019, 59 works Unsympathetic Patton - first appears 2 July 2019, 228 works Unsympathetic Remus - first appears 17 July, 2019, 121 works Unsympathetic Virgil - first appears 31 July 2019, 71 works

...I genuinely don't know what I expected.

The fandom was much slower to spark with Unsympathetic Remus content after he first showed up, which is kind of interesting. Unless they just didn't bother to tag it? Like, I'm working with the assumption that everyone's tagging all of their content, which might not always be the case

I thought there'd be so much more Janus and Remus-tagged fics than there actually are.

It does not surprise me that Patton has the most in this category. It makes me sad but it doesn't surprise me. Why are you guys so intent on making him evil

And on the opposite side of the sympathy spectrum (similarly chronological):

Sympathetic Janus - first appears 7 March 2018, 1920 works Sympathetic Remus - first appears 2 July 2019, 965 works Sympathetic Patton - first appears 31 July 2019, 71 works Sympathetic Virgil - first appears 1 August 2019, 69 works (nice) Sympathetic Logan - first appears 8 August 2019, 41 works Sympathetic Roman - first appears 20 August, 56 works

It's actually wild that 'Sympathetic [Janus]' seems to have appeared several days between Unsympathetic Jan made any appearance.

There were several Remus fics that were backtagged to before DWIT was released. I ignored them because it was throwing this off a bit. there may be other problems to this effect in any of the other stats, but i’m too lazy to go back and check those all one-by-one

Sympathetic tags in general seem to be used as, hm, there's a word here i can't quite think of. Basically, 'Sympathetic' seems to be the default setting for characters like Virgil, Patton, Roman, Logan (the 'Light Sides', although i take issue with that terms as well. This isn't the time for that, though. Statistics!!) which 'Unsympathetic' used to be the default for Janus and Remus. That's become slightly more elastic of late, though. Basically if you're using the Sympathetic tag for anyone who's not a 'Dark Side' you're usually doing it to make a point of something. e.g. if you have other sides who aren't usually unsympathetic as such and you're trying to clarify that yes, these specific ones are Okay. Or if you're just being thorough. Anyway that's why LAMP seem to have less works tagged as Symp than the other two.

All the sympathetic tags for non-Janus characters seem to have sprung up in quick succession over a short period of months! I have no idea what this means but it's strange and cool to look at

If you're wondering about the discrepancy between this information and my earlier note that the first appearance of 'unsympathetic' as an AO3 tag was the day after CLBG came out - that fic in question had a general 'unsympathetic dark sides' tag, no specific tags mentioned.

Okay statistics segue over. The only point of that apart from scientific curiosity was to try to puzzle out where the fuck this all stemmed from. I still have no answers.

I need you all to understand that 'Sympathetic' no longer looks like a real word to me.

So. Remember how i mentioned how this fandom managed to make unsympathetic!Remy/Sleep a thing? Yeah. That baffles me. I haven't seen unsympathetic Dr Picani anywhere yet but I know it's only a matter of time and that lowkey horrifies me. But that's not really the most baffling thing because, uh

Well. earlier this week I accidentally stumbled into a corner of tumblr that's dedicated to unsympathetic character Thomas content. If you're a fan of that, i'd advise you to click away from this post now because i'm about to get very angry about that and i don't want to make you upset. Thank you.

What the fuck. literally all of the posts in this corner of tumblr are about c!thomas abusing the sides and being a terrible person??? ??????? ????? WHAT? can we just take a step back and. WHY? WHY are you doing this? Are we watching the same show? from a psychological standpoint, that's self-abuse and self-harm and i suppose it might be interesting if you explored it as such but APPARENTLY NO. apparently that's not what this is about. This is just about writing about someone being abusive to other people for the sake of it. there were so many posts about him 'abusing the sides by telling them they're not real people' and. OKAY so a) he wouldn't do that b) THEY AREN'T. THEY LITERALLY AREN'T REAL PEOPLE WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT

[deep breath]

so actually i think that kind of leads me back to the point of this whole thing. I had a point, what? It surprises me too, don't worry. The point is (roughly) that writing characters as 'unsympathetic' isn't something that i have an objection to at all. Everybody has the capacity to be cruel! Nobody's perfect!! But with the sympathetic/un labels it seems to enforce this strict dichotomy of good vs bad. Either Logan is an abusive monster OR he's a perfect angel. Guys. That's not how it works. And it's not INTERESTING if you do that sort of thing because then you've got people being unnecessarily cruel and evil for the sake of it. They turn into 2-dimensional caricatures that only exist to be bad people.

People make mistakes! I write about characters making mistakes all the time! Janus and Remus pulling the whole trolley problem thing in Pick A Side definitely wasn't a great thing for them to do, but I didn't tag them as unsympathetic at the time and i have no plan to do so because i don't want to write them as two-dimensional caricatures who are only capable of one of two settings on the morality meter. (same goes for the next chapter, whenever that comes up but... let’s talk about that when i post it, maybe)That's boring. If you're going to take characters and make them into antagonists just because you can't think of anyone else to fit the role, and you're doing it by stripping away everything that makes them Them, then you might as well just stuff a paper bag with straw and cast a scarecrow as the villain instead because buddy. You're making a strawman. That's what you're doing. You can't have Patton without kindness and well-meaningness, just as you can't have Patton without the mistakes caused by those two things. Same goes for the other sides and their flaws and strengths.

And then there's the other thing that's definitely more specific to this fandom, which I think was best summarized with something i said in the comments section of Pick A Side with len at like ten minutes past midnight that one time:

(...) and not necessarily related to anything you said, but - this fandom is kind of unique in that... there's no actual bad guys or villains. (at least that's how i perceive it.) The Real Villain Is Your Poor Mental Health. people are always like 'unsympathetic deceit' or 'unsympathetic patton' and point to different points in the videos as evidence, ('i give you permission to think those thoughts' patton's being controlling - that's abuse) but like. it's all the same guy. he's giving himself permission. he's doing it to himself. imagine if we tagged other fandom characters with like 'Unsympathetic Harry Potter' when he was being mean or critical to himself. wild.

So yeah. In conclusion: obviously people should write what they like. If they see characters one way and they want to write about them being two-dimensional monsters that's fine. I kind of wish you'd put more thought into it and make it at least interesting if you're going to do that sort of thing, but you do you i guess.

That being said. If I see any more unsympathetic!Patton content I will start crying. i want to love Goofy Dad Man the same way i used to

#asks #min goes off the rails #this turned into an essay. apology for incoherence and my tendency to jump around wildly!#Anonymous

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