randomslasher:

prinxietys:

very-virgil:

Villains (A prologue to Taking on Anxiety)

A prologue to Taking on Anxiety that is meant to explain why Virgil is so much more “extra” than he is in any other video. I hope any of you who bother to read enjoy!!

=====

They called them The Others– the facets of Thomas’ personality that weren’t quite as… popular… as the Main Three. The ones that weren’t as optimistic as Moraility or level-headed as Logic or prideful as Creativity. In other words, they were the parts of himself Thomas hated.

And Virgil knew this. He had known it since Thomas was a kid. The moments when he became nervous for a presentation or his legs shook when he climbed on stage for an audition or his words slipped from him when he finally worked up the courage to talk to the cute older boy he’d passed by in the hallway since seventh grade. Virgil knew Thomas hated the way he made his stomach turn at random times in the day, yet for whatever reason he could never press himself to stop.

For the longest time he ignored the way Thomas and his friends made jokes about who had him worse or said the word “anxiety” like it was some sort of disease. But as it went on it became harder and harder to just let go of. He found himself becoming bitter the more Thomas talked bad about him, and even more so when the other sides reacted accordingly. Even The Others, who had always been willing to treat him like family, began to turn away. As the whispers around him grew more and more common, he found himself becoming quieter and quieter.

Virgil sunk deeper into the couch in his room as he turned up the volume on his phone, as if the music could drown out the sound of his own thoughts. He clenched his jaw as he looked around the empty room, but he couldn’t ignore the turning feeling in the pit of his stomach as he lifted one of his headphones from his ear, allowing the eerie silence the room held to envelope him.

Once upon a time the room would’ve been filled with friendly chattering of him and the other Others relaxing and talking happily about how they may have actually helped Thomas that day or even go on about how much they hated Thomas’ Mains (Roman was a popular point of topic). But it had been years since that had been the case. More often than not now a days he sat alone in the quiet room, occupying the silence with music and whatever movies he could find around the place.

He would never admit it, but the one thing he hated more than the Mains was the loneliness.

Virgil was thinking about just that when he heard three pairs of footsteps just outside his room.

“Honestly, Logan, it’s infuriating! Thomas and I have both been losing our beauty sleep over this video and you know very well that that can’t be the case…”

Virgil was about to replace his headphone at the sound of Romans voice when Patton spoke– the only one of the three Mains Virgil could bear to stand.

“Now, come on. It can’t be that bad!”

“Oh, but it is my positive friend!”

“Positive friend?” Logan repeated slowly, a hint of incredulity in his voice.

Roman sighed. “Look, I am under a lot of stress and coming up with clever names isn’t easy!”

“Perhaps if you actually indulged in what the project is about rather than just announcing your stress levels–”

“Fine! Thomas is doing a collab with Superwoman! There, are you happy?”

Virgil heard Patton squeal. “Oh, I love Lilly!”

“As do the twelve million other members of YouTube who have subscribed to her,” Logan said, “So how is this a problem?”

“I have no ideas for the video,” Roman admitted.

There was silence for a moment. “Oh,” came Logan’s voice. “I do see how that would be a problem… Well, one of Lilly’s specialities is helping solve problems, is it not? Why doesn’t Thomas just go to her with one of his many delemas–”

“That’s just the thing! Thomas has been doing splendid lately! No self-doubts, no inner conflicts!” Roman, lowered his voice, “It’s almost as if You Know Who is on vacation.”

Patton gasped. “Voldemort??”

“There has to be something the two of them can do for this video.”

“What if…” Patton began, his voice eager. Virgil could almost see the bright grin that undoubtedly lit up his face. “…the Superwoman fought a supervillian??”

“That would never work…” Logan said, “Where could Thomas possibly–”

“It’s brilliant!” Roman interrupted, and Virgil grinned as he imagined the annoyed look on Logans face. “One of the two of you could pose as a villain– not myself, obviously, considering my history of destroying evil– and then Thomas and Lilly (and maybe even yours truly) could work to defeat you! Fantastic fun for the full family!”

“Oo, oo! I’ll do it! I can be the villain!” Patton cheered.

“No, no,” Logan stopped him, “No one is posing as anything. This is a ridiculous idea, Princey. For a start neither of us would make believable villains considering that we aren’t. We’ll just have to speculate further… Draw up more ideas.”

“Or we could get one of The Others to do it.”

The two others were silent for a moment. Even Virgil, who had been listening in a comfortable position, had gone suddenly stiff. For the first time in what felt like decades Virgil felt a rush of excitement.

“No,” Logan said at last, his voice cold. “Patton, you know we don’t associate with them.”

“But why not?” He argued. “They can’t possibly be as bad as you two say–”

“They’re not,” Roman said stiffly, “They’re far worse.”

“Then aren’t they exactly what we’re looking for?”

Logan sighed. “Precisely. Which is the exact reason we won’t bring any of them to meet Thomas face to face. The effect on any stress Thomas is facing already could be abiding…”

The sound of footsteps returned once more as Romans voice began to fade. “Honestly, Patton. Of all the insane ideas you’ve had this has got to be your worse…”

Princey’s voice faded more and more until all that was left in Virgils room was the sound of silence once again. He deflated back against the couch.

He had been a fool to let himself hope like he had. To believe for even a moment that he would get the opportunity to go to the surface with the Mains– to talk to Thomas face to face at last. To explain that all these years he had only be trying to help. He growled a bit as he snapped his headphone back over his ear. How had he been so stupid…?

But then he realized…

The chances of Prince Arrogance, even working himself as hard as he was, coming up with an idea before the videos deadline were very small. But Patton’s idea– that could work.

He threw off his headphones, ignoring his phone as it clattered to the floor as well, and swept up his black jacket. He could help this time. He could show Thomas that he could be useful, that he was more than just an unspeakable disease. He threw his jacket around himself and heading for the door.

If it was a villain they wanted, it was a villain they would get.

Dude, I really like- love- this. This is incredible, and love the way everything happened. Especially Virgil’s speculations and view points, and what happened with him years prior. This is a really genius lead up to the video 😄

This is EPIC. I was literally just today talking to someone about how off Verge was in that first vid with Lilly. Brilliant!!!!!!!