Alien Virgil and Remus and their "service human" Janus, who was assigned to them for reasons but only ends up making them panic a bit more because humans are so squishy- STOP GETTING HURT! What are you doing! GET DOWN FROM THERE! You don't have any exterior plating you could get hurt!
While Janus is just like What? I'm not even doing anything bad? It's just a minor cut from making dinner. Well excuse me for being short and having to climb the counters! Not all of us are 7 feet tall!
But if you even DARE insinuate they need a better human and that Janus isn't doing a good enough job for them. They will fight you.
Roman, a teenage fairy, was curious about the human that kept showing up in his forest. And, more importantly, he was curious about their devices. Perhaps going into their bag on an impulse wasn’t the best idea...
--
Deep in the forest, where most didn’t go, there was a magical town, filled with fairies. It was hidden from human eyes using magic, and it was usually bustling with activity
Roman walked around the small town. He was bored. He was so bored. He had done everything there was to do anywhere nearby a million times already.
He groaned, sitting on the very edge of the town border, careful not to go past the runes that protected them all from non-magical eyes. Perhaps just watching the wildlife would help?
He watched animals skitter along the tree roots and fidgeted with the cuffs of his sleeves. He heard heavier footfalls, and immediately became more alert. A human made themselves known less than a minute later, completely oblivious to the town right next to them
Roman just watched them.
Humans were... interesting, though he’d never admit as much to anyone else.
Humans were, above all else, dangerous
But this one, with their strange clothes and weird make-up and purple hair (he didn’t think humans could have purple hair; usually they only had boring colours like brown and blond) was just sitting on the forest floor, strange wires in their ears that almost sounded like they were producing a song
Roman wondered how humans worked without magic.
How did they cook, clean, keep predators away, travel- do basically anything- without magic? Like sure, they were phenomenally large, and that would probably help with predators and maybe travel, but the rest was confusing to him.
He flew upwards to sit on a branch, still within the town boundaries. He kicked his feet, and fluttered his wings, quietly watching the human scroll on one of their strange devices.
He could hear some of the music, and he danced slightly from his branch
The human came back every day for a week.
Roman concluded that they had used some sort of artificial colouring on their hair. It was starting to fade into a more brown-ish colour
He wanted to know more about the small device they always had. It seemed to show the human things, and let them communicate through it and let them read, and Roman figured that something like that would probably cure his permanent boredom.
He watched the human more and more. The human, he was gonna try figure out their name, seemed to never notice the town just to the side of them, which meant that the magic was working exactly as it was supposed to
Though, Roman was told by some elders that he needed to tell people when a human was nearby, even though the human literally just sat there and did nothing
Either way, he did alert them and then went to ‘keep watch’.
Roman had seen very few humans in his time; most didn’t come this far into the forest.
He watched as the human got ready to leave like they always did, and he couldn’t help the disappointment he felt. The strange giant was the most interesting part of his day, and now he’d have to be bored for the rest of the day
He watched them put their small device in the bag they usually carried, and he lamented his inability to try it out. Except, the human’s focus drifted elsewhere, towards where a twig snapped as a rabbit had hopped onto it, before they distractedly left.
They left without their bag.
Roman slowly left the safety of the town, making sure no one was watching him, before flying into the bag. He knew that he would need to leave before the human inevitably came back for their belongings, but this was likely the only chance he would get. Never let it be said that he didn’t evaluate risk, he just did the risky thing anyway
He tapped the screen on the device like he had seen the human do, and it lit up. Roman grinned, trying to make it go onto the other screen
All the human had to do was look at it and it would change, what was he doing wrong? Was it because he wasn’t human? Because that was discriminatory, thank you very much
He huffed, trying again and again, and, in his distracted state, he didn’t notice human footsteps until the bag was moving. He stumbled, falling over as the bag moved. He tried to move into a position where his wings would be safe, but the constant shifting of the bag and the bags contents were making it impossible
Horror slowly found it’s way into his feelings. The human was going to see him. The human was fascinating, but Roman was made of magic. The human would not be able to understand him, and what humans don’t understand, they get rid of
That had been drilled into his mind longer than he could talk.
Curse his own impulsivity and curiosity.
The human walked for a while, with Roman trying not to get hit by various objects, and feeling something hit into his back. Eventually, they must’ve arrived at their destination, because the bag was set down, and Roman tumbled out
The human stared at him, and Roman got up from sitting on the ground, and moved backwards, trying his hardest not to tremble.
He surveyed his surroundings. He was pretty sure he was in a human house.
A hand started reaching for him, and he conjured a clear magical dome around himself as protection. The human had retracted their hand, but didn’t stop staring
“... I’m Virgil. What’s your name?” Their voice was softer when talking to him than it was when they talked through their device
Roman said his name, wary of the obvious trap, and forgetting that humans couldn’t understand him.
The human (’Virgil’) stared blankly, and Roman kept as far away as possible from them.
“I’m sorry, I can’t understand you”
Roman knew that, he wasn’t dumb.
“Can you understand me?”
Roman nodded, looking at a window out of the corner of his eye. Virgil seemed to be looking at something behind him. Roman followed their gaze to his wings, which were looking different than usual. He felt the, now jagged, edges lightly and winced
Now that his panic had mostly subsided, he could feel pain. He mustn’t have noticed, because he was too busy worrying about what Virgil was gonna do to him, but it turned out Virgil wouldn’t even need to do anything to keep him there.
His wings would heal, but it would take months at best, years at worst. He couldn’t help the tears that were welling up in his eyes, and he couldn’t stop them from falling.
Great, he looked even more weak in front of a potentially bad human.
Roman messily wiped his eyes, and glared at the giant. Virgil put their hands up
“Hey, I didn’t do that to your wings! I haven’t even touched you!”
Roman sat down, bringing his knees to his chest, and half-heartedly observing the human
Virgil sighed
“Okay, I’m sorry for accidentally kidnapping you, but I didn’t know you were in my bag, and I’m sorry that you broke your wings in the process. I would have been more careful if I knew you were there. But, you can stay here with me until your wings heal, and I’ll help you with anything you need, yeah?”
‘Can’. Like Roman would want to stay in a human house for however long. Roman glared again.
Virgil looked a little lost at his reaction
“I know it probably won’t make up for breaking your wings, but I am really sorry”
Roman turned away, and noticed that his shield had fallen at some point whilst he was distracted. He got up and looked around at the house. He knew Virgil was watching him, but he understood the curiosity aspect.
That was what had gotten him into this whole predicament after all. He was curious about everything in this house as well. He wanted to explore
-----
Virgil was having a major freak out.
He had found a nice clearing in the woods, where he could just escape reality and be on his own. There was no one watching him, no one judging and no one to tell him what to do.
So of course, it only took a week for things to go to shit. He had left his bag in the clearing, and somehow a fairy had managed to find their way into it. He hadn’t even known that fairies existed previously
He didn’t know if they had willingly got in, or if they had fallen in or something, but from the way they seemed terrified of him when they fell out, the second one was more likely
Their skin was a pale reddish-pink, with large, wide eyes and red hair. They had (comparatively) large wings that almost looked like they were made of glass.
They seemed to put up some kind of forcefield to protect themselves from him, and he tried to diffuse the tension by introducing himself. The fairy seemed to introduce themselves as well, though whatever language they spoke sounded more like a melody than it did words
He noticed something was wrong with their wings after a few seconds of staring; they were an odd shape, almost reminding him of a broken window.
They followed his gaze, and stared at their own wings, and reaching a hand out to touch the edges, all but cementing in his mind that they were broken. They turned to glare at him, with glowing eyes and tears running down their cheeks
Virgil had a feeling they blamed him for the damage caused, and honestly, he didn’t blame them for thinking that. But he didn’t mean to.
They sat down, crying for a while, before doing something that he figured was probably a way to distract themselves
They started looking around, seemingly inspecting things. Virgil figured they probably didn’t have a lot of the things he had. He had no doubt they had substitutes that worked just as well, or probably better, considering they had magic and based on the exceptionally high quality of their clothes, they obviously had some sort of tools
He let them explore the countertop for a while, discreetly videoing them. He wouldn’t show the video to anyone without their permission, of course, but... just having the videos wouldn’t hurt.
They refused to go near him. They seemed to be feigning stubbornness, but Virgil could see the way they trembled when he spoke, or moved too fast or got too close. He could tell they were scared. They were scared of getting hurt again.
Virgil didn’t know how to feel about that. He understood the fear, but he would never hurt them on purpose.
They wouldn’t let him take them somewhere else to sleep, since he’d have to carry them, and just sat down when he asked, stubbornly glaring at him.
Virgil just sighed and brought them a blanket. They were still there in the morning, wrapped up in the almost comically large blanket, and still asleep. Virgil wondered what they would eat, and simply waited for them to awake (maybe snapping a few pictures here and there)
They eventually woke up, though visibly deflated when they saw him. He offered to get them some food, and they (after a while of what seemed like mental debating) nodded. They didn’t let him take the blanket away.
Virgil figured he couldn’t let anyone else know about the little guy, seeing as they seemed scared of people, and he wondered what he was going to tell his friends as for why they suddenly couldn’t come over anymore
He felt so wrong, next to the fairy. Virgil was usually short, and now... now, he was tall enough to accidentally kill someone. He could trip and crush them. And they knew it.
The next few days were tense, but the fairy had started letting him a bit closer, though they wouldn’t stop glaring. He had dubbed them Little Red, as a sort of nickname until they could communicate their actual name.
Little Red didn’t mind the nickname too much, he didn’t think so, anyway. They had been interested in his phone when they saw it, and Virgil had shown them different apps, pretending not to notice their tense, trembling posture when he moved too suddenly.
They played games on his phone every day, and they had started letting Virgil help them get to other places in the house than the countertop. They were still undoubtedly somewhat scared, and they still very obviously held a grudge of some kind against him, but they were getting somewhere.
They were very vocal, even though Virgil couldn’t understand them.
Virgil was careful every time he carried them into the living room or into the blanket nest they’d claimed as their own. He didn’t want to cause another accident at their expense
They were curious about a lot of things, he noticed.
It made him a little calmer, to know that Little Red seemed just as clueless about humans, as he was about fairies.
He noticed what they liked and disliked in terms of movies and tv shows.
They didn’t seem to like horror movies, but they were fine with things like The Addams Family. They liked animated films quite a bit, particularly disney, and would watch with rapt attention. Virgil didn’t usually watch animated movies, but he was willing if it kept Little Red a little happier
He waited for a while for them to wake up as he made food. Surprisingly, they didn’t seem to have a very big sweet tooth.
Their blanket nest was in a corner of the spare bedroom, and Little Red had decided to claim the entire room as their own, despite being far too small to need all of that space. Not to mention only being able to use part of it with their broken wings. Either way, they didn’t need an entire room, but Virgil certainly wasn’t using it, and he kind of owed it to them, after kidnapping them and breaking their wings.
Virgil’s only problem with them claiming the room, was that now he’d have no where to hang out with his friends
Virgil brought them breakfast and carefully avoided getting too close. They seemed to notice his phone in his other hand and stared at it. Virgil chuckled
“Sorry, not right now, Little Red, I have to go somewhere, maybe when I get back”
Little Red pouted at him, but ate their food. Virgil left them alone, leaving the door open in case they wanted to traverse the house, though he wasn’t too comfortable with that idea.
He didn’t want to think about how easy it would be to crush them underfoot. They knew where to and not to go, so there wasn’t that much risk, but any risk was too much, in Virgil’s eyes
Their wings hadn’t made any progress, as far as he could see, but then again, it had only been a few days.
He got ready to go out and meet his friends
Remus and Janus were already at the movie theatre before him, annoyingly.
“How’d we get here before you? You’ve never relaxed on the idea that you might be late, and yet, here you are, a whole-” Remus checked his watch gleefully “- two minutes late!”
The movie lasted a while, and Virgil almost forgot the fact that he had an injured fairy to take care of back home. He hung with his friends, talking about everything and nothing, carefully avoiding any mention of what he had been doing the last few days
He wondered what Little Red was doing.
-----
Roman wanted to go home.
Virgil wasn’t bad, per se, but he didn’t like that he needed to be carried places because everything was too big and his wings were broken. And, he missed his friends.
He looked around at the room he was in. It was too big, it was too expansive. He looked around at the blankets he had nested in. They were too thick.
He finally got to try out the strange device, however, and he had found so many things to do. The ‘phone’ had games and it played ‘videos’ and ‘movies’
The movies that Virgil had showed him were interesting, but he only liked some of them. The ones that looked not-real, they were really cool, despite their inaccurate depiction of fairies and magic in general.
They did get one key aspect of fairy culture correct, though; the blessings and gifts bestowed on children. Roman was gifted with an adventurous spirit and, like with most gifts, it came with an unfortunate downside
His sense of fear was rather dulled, whereas his impulsivity skyrocketed when there was some sort adventure to be found. Which explained why he was sat on the floor of a human house with broken wings.
His friends’ gifts were also a bit of a mixed bag.
His friend Patton for example! He was gifted with a kind and pure spirit. This also meant that he trusted far too easily and got himself hurt by people with not-so-kind intentions in the past.
His friend Logan was gifted with a logical mind. It made him great at a lot of things, including stopping Roman from getting killed due to impulsivities. But it made it harder for him to understand his own feelings, and harder to make friends when viewing it through a logical lens
Great, now Roman missed his friends even more. He sighed, looking out of the window. He knew this situation was his fault, but, he really wished it wasn’t. He wished he could completely blame it on someone else, but, Virgil hadn’t done anything really wrong other than not letting him go. Roman was the one who flew into their bag on impulse
He groaned, pushing his head into his hands, and trying not to cry. Virgil was out of the house at that moment in time, and Roman knew he should be trying to escape
But a voice in his head reminded him that he had no way home when he didn’t know which way home was. Besides, he’d probably just get found by a different human, he noted bitterly
When Virgil eventually returned, what had to be hours later, Roman had not gotten any better at dealing with boredom. It would’ve been better if he had someone to talk to
Except, no. It wouldn’t. His sense of fear might’ve been dulled enough that he felt pretty much none after only a few days, but others didn’t have that. They’d still be scared
Roman scowled at the blanket that made up half of the nest. He wanted his bed, he wanted his house, he wanted his blanket.
There was a knock on his door. His stupidly oversized door that he couldn’t even open himself. He supposed that was probably why it was almost always left ajar.
Roman sighed
“Come in” He shouted. The door opened, scraping against the carpet with a uncomfortable sound
Virgil was bringing him food, he realised. He almost didn’t want to eat. He hadn’t been outside in days. He hadn’t seen his friends in days. He hadn’t properly held a conversation in days. He just wanted to go home...
He didn’t care how boring it was, at least he had friends back there
Virgil placed the food down in front of him, seemingly watching him. Roman gave a half-hearted glare and started eating. Human food wasn’t as nice as the food back home, nor was it very flavourful.
He noticed that Virgil was staying in Roman’s room more than they usually did. Roman looked at them quizzically, wondering why they weren’t in their own, strangely decorated, room.
He verbalised his thought, and Virgil looked at him
“Hm? Oh, sorry.. Uh, I was gonna watch a movie in the living room, do you wanna come?”
They always guessed what he was trying to say.
Virgil was awkward most of the time. Perhaps that’s why they kept going into the woods for hours at a time every day, instead of partaking in social activities with other humans.
Roman knew that Virgil did have friends, having seen pictures of them, but also...
Actually, no he wasn’t going to finish that train of thought, it was rude. It didn’t matter how much he personally thought the human was strange, anyone could have friends
Roman wordlessly nodded to the offer and Virgil placed their hand on the ground next to him. Roman walked onto it, sitting on the palm, and drawing his knees up to his chest
He hated being carried. He hated feeling helpless. He was supposed to be an adventurer, he was supposed to be strong. Virgil placed him on the arm of the couch and started looking through movies on their tv
Roman wondered how the tv worked. Logan would probably be able to figure it out.
He watched the tv with full attention as it showed him a story of a princess who fell in love with a thief, and it was full of genies and tigers and magic.
It was horribly inaccurate, but with how separated human and magical societies were, it was almost a miracle that they got any of it right. He yawned, but he didn’t want to leave to sleep before the movie ended. He had to see how it would end
He carried on watching, though he could feel himself begin to lose focus as he yawned again
“Are you sure you don’t want me to turn this off for now, and you can watch it tomorrow?”
Roman shook his head, still watching the screen intently. Virgil sounded like they were supressing a laugh next to him, but Roman didn’t care. He could feel his eyes drooping, and he laid on his stomach, watching the screen still
He didn’t exactly know when he fell asleep, but Virgil wasn’t in the room anymore when he woke up. Roman groggily stood up, to peer out of the window
…Sunrise. Huh. Usually if he woke up this early, he’d go to sit somewhere high up to watch the sunrise and see the way the hills and trees would be dusted pinks, purples, oranges and reds.
What if his wings never healed? Would he be stuck with Virgil forever and not ever be able to sit on a hill or tree branch and watch the sunset, or ever fly around? Would he be cursed to forever live a life of pain and longing?
This was the part that Logan would usually tell him he was being overdramatic. But Logan wasn’t here, and Roman wasn’t even sure if he was being overdramatic anymore
He really didn’t know if he’d ever be able to go home
Virgil had told him that he could go when his wings were healed, but when would that be?
Roman just sat on the arm of the couch and thought about his friends until Virgil came into the living room, about an hour later. They looked exactly how he would expect them to look after just waking up
“Mornin’, Little Red,” They yawned “Sorry I didn’t take you to your room last night, it felt rude to pick you up when you were sleeping”
Roman considered the apology for a few moments, before giving them a thumbs up. He wouldn’t want to be picked up when he was sleeping, honestly. He was most vulnerable when he was asleep, especially since he was a deep sleeper
They watched the end of the movie together.
-----
Virgil felt bad for Little Red. He had seen them staring out of windows, and he knew they probably wanted to go home.
But...
He was so worried that they’d get hurt even more, or found by someone not as kind as him, or- or something else even worse, that he couldn’t let them go. Not until they could fly at least
He could at least be more certain of their survival chances if they could fly out of reach of predators.
He watched them with almost as much attention as they watched Aladdin. They seemed completely enamoured by the film’s story, reacting quite dramatically with every twist and turn of it.
Virgil had to admit, their dramatic tendencies reminded him of Remus, although Remus openly hated wearing red unless it was fake (or sometimes real) blood
Little Red kept yawning, still watching the movie, but very obviously starting to drift off
“Are you sure you don’t want me to turn this off for now, and you can watch it tomorrow?” He asked, trying to hide the amusement in his voice
They immediately shook their head, eyes still locked firmly on the screen. Virgil stifled a laugh, watching as they slowly succumbed to sleep.
He turned the tv off, and turned towards them.
How was he gonna get them to their room? He carefully reached a hand out, but retracted it. He would probably lose any type of trust they had in him if he grabbed them whilst they were sleeping
Besides, they looked so adorably peaceful, in a way that he hadn’t seen them be very often. They had fallen asleep in front of him before, but this was the first time they seemed completely relaxed.
He stared at them a few moments, before deciding to leave them be until morning
He left them for a while, letting them sleep, and went to his own bedroom
He laid in bed with his thoughts, as he stared up at his ceiling.
Why did he feel so guilty about this? He was protecting them!
They might’ve seemed upset, but it was better than letting them get eaten by a bird or something. As far as he knew, they had fallen into his bag. If they were clumsy enough to fall into his bag, then he didn’t trust their survival skills without their wings
After about a month and a half, he didn’t feel as guilty. He knew he was protecting them.
Their wings had started to slowly heal, the edges slightly bigger and smoother than the jagged edges they were when they had first tumbled out of his bag.
And that was because Virgil was keeping them safe. Lord knows they weren’t the best at keeping themself safe, Virgil thought, remembering the time he found them trying to fight a house spider.
He had started keeping a more careful watch over them after that, deciding not to let them out of their room without his supervision. Who knew what danger they would idiotically get themselves into without him there? Besides, they had more than enough space in there, even with the door closed
He knew that they didn’t see it that way, but Virgil was fine with playing the villain if it meant keeping Little Red safer.
They weren’t as vocal anymore, and Virgil missed the melodic tones of their voice. They ignored him a lot. They still watched movies, but they declined more often than not.
It was fine. He was fine with that. They’d thank him eventually, he told himself. They always watched his every move when he was nearby, as if they were scared he’d hurt them. But he wouldn’t. He would never.
There was a camera in their room now, so he could help them if they got hurt without him there.
He knocked on their door, though didn’t wait on a response before opening it and closing it just as fast. They had tried to run out of their room quite a few times before, hiding from him. And as much as it was amusing the first few times, it had become annoying quickly. Besides, it was dangerous for them
They stared up at him with those wide eyes, and he crouched down and gave them their food. Little Red didn’t speak, and just grabbed a few pieces of food and started eating.
Virgil stayed crouched there for a moment. What could help them see he wasn’t a bad guy?
“I’m going to go watch a movie in the living room, if you wanna come,” He asked, before adding “Aladdin, your favourite”
They thought for only a moment before shaking their head
Virgil bit back his annoyance at the refusal, and just sighed. Why were they being so difficult recently?
He left, making sure to close the door behind him. He sighed, they needed to see that he was helping. They were sure to get hurt if he let them go, what was he going to do? Let them walk straight to their death whilst doing nothing to help?
He groaned, giving the door a glare.
-----
Roman wasn’t sure what had changed. Virgil had become more paranoid, more protective. Roman was well and truly trapped now.
They wouldn’t let him out of his room now, and Roman supposed it was only a matter of time before he was in a cage for maximum security. He looked at the door, now closed and wondered when it would next open. He suppressed a sob and curled up on the blanket
Nothing he could do would ever sway Virgil's protectiveness. They wouldn’t let him out of his room, or out of their sight. Roman glared at the camera in his room. He hadn’t even known what a camera was, until Virgil. Now the knowledge of what it was just hurt him even more
He would never get a moments privacy.
The lack of anything to do was genuinely hurting him, a lot worse than back home. At least then, he could climb to the top of the tree tops and dive down, only catching himself at the last moment. The lack of adventure was hurting him worse than his wings were
Roman curled up more. He had the spirit of adventure, he needed to be doing something mildly dangerous! He wasn’t even allowed to sit on the couch when they watched a movie anymore. Virgil would just hold him the entire time, so they’d ‘know for sure where he was’.
And they wondered why he didn’t like them anymore. Sometimes they’d come into his room whilst he was sleeping, and he’d wake up in their hands. He missed when they were concerned with being rude. Now they told him how simply adorable he was
He glared at the camera again, knowing that the lens probably couldn’t get an accurate reading on his face. Roman had thought about doing some magic, to destroy the camera, but he could already picture the condescending ‘this is for your own good’ disappointed stare, and stopped.
Nothing was going right for him.
He sighed, letting the tears fall. There was a knock on his door, but he didn’t get a chance to respond before the door was opened. He supposed that was because of his escape attempts. If you could call them that, anyway
All he did was run out of his room and try to hide. Anywhere was better than being trapped in his room forever. His attempts annoyed the human. They would sigh, telling him that the ‘game’ would have to stop. But it wasn’t a game.
None of this was a game. This was Roman’s real life, this was his nightmare, this was all too serious.
Roman wondered what they wanted now. They had already given him his food, he’d already declined to watch a movie, what could they possibly want? He weakly glared at them, as they crouched down
“Hey, Little Red. I know you already said no to watching a movie, but there’s a movie you haven’t seen, that I think you’ll like”
Roman ignored that they were using the same tone people would to entice a child, or dog, to do something and thought on the offer.
There was no point disagreeing. He nodded his head.
Virgil didn’t set their hand down anymore and let him climb on. Now, they just grabbed him. He didn’t like it. He wondered what the movie was.
They took him to the living room, where the movie was already set up. Tangled, it was called.
Roman attempted to get slightly more comfortable in their grip, but the hand tightened around him just enough that he wouldn’t dare
The movie was interesting he supposed, but he kept being distracted, as Virgil kept fidgeting with him during the movie. He tried to stop them, but they didn’t notice. He didn’t even know if they realised they were fidgeting
They kept gently grabbing his arms, moving them around slightly, rolling his torso between two hands, not enough that he couldn’t see the screen, but enough that it was completely distracting. When scenes got intense, the fidgeting increased.
He could barely concentrate when the ending was happening. He quietly grumbled about Virgil’s rude behaviour, and attempted to watch the screen. He was lucky that the fidgeting didn’t hurt.
The only thing he could properly remember about the movie was that Mother Gothel was trapping Rapunzel under the guise of keeping her safe, but it was actually a ploy to use her magic for herself.
Roman looked up at Virgil’s face from where he was in their hands. He wondered where he had heard that story before. Oh wait.
He (very stupidly, may the narrator add) tapped the giant hand to get Virgil’s attention, before pointing at the picture of Mother Gothel on the title screen, and back to Virgil with a stubborn glare on his face.
They looked down at him for a few moments in which Roman had just enough time to evaluate the idiotic decision before they actually reacted
His heart stopped for a single beat as they shifted their grip on him with an annoyed expression on their face
“I am keeping you safe. You should be grateful, not comparing me to fictional villains” They grumbled.
Roman, still feeling mutinous apparently, tried to move in the grip, and muttered his counter argument
“Well, maybe if you weren’t acting so villainous..”
They didn’t justify him with a response. Though, whether it was due to the language barrier, or their annoyance, was hard to say.
Roman did notice that their grip was now uncomfortably tight, almost bruising. So much for safety, he thought, before the grip tightened even more
He let out a pained gasp, as the pressure increased on his wings for a few seconds. He could hear them breaking even more. The grip loosened, and Roman watched a few shards of wing fall onto the floor
He could hear frantic apologies from Virgil, but it was soon drowned out by the blood rushing in his ears. He stared at the shards, until Virgil touched his shoulder, dragging him out of his thoughts.
Roman flinched back, shaking, almost instinctively raising his forcefield, like he hadn’t since that first day. It hurt, and- and he was still shaking, and Virgil was still there, still holding him
His forcefield had pushed away their fingers a bit, but he was still in their hand. He ran his hands through his hair. He was crying, he realised hysterically.
He almost started laughing, no matter how much he knew this wasn’t a joke. You know, for how much danger he was in, it still wasn’t an adventure. It was just a bad situation. A really fucking bad situation, that was entirely his fault, and the reason he’d probably never see his friends again
He tried to steady his breathing for a simple moment, but nothing was helping.
Virgil was still talking, still too big. Of course they were, humans couldn’t shrink (could they?)
Eventually, though Roman didn’t realise it as it was happening, he was left back in his room, alone. He never thought that he’d be so relieved to be trapped again, but it was better than being in Virgil’s hands.
Roman gingerly touched his wings, wincing.
What were his friends doing, he wondered. Why couldn’t he go see them? Why did Virgil get to decide what Roman could and couldn’t do? Why did Roman have to be so stupid as to go into their bag? Why did any of this stupid situation have to happen?
He sobbed, pulling his knees up to his chest. Everything hurt, and- and he was still trapped and nothing he could do would ever be able to fix it.
-----
Logan had been searching for his friend for almost two months. Roman didn’t seem to be anywhere.
Logan knew that there was somewhere he could be, though he sincerely hoped not. It was the logical conclusion, however, to assume that Roman was taken by the human that he had been watching. The only reason they hadn’t already assumed so was that they wanted to make sure that Roman hadn’t just gotten lost before rushing into potential danger
The human never came back after Roman disappeared, after all. Perhaps they only came to steal a fairy and leave. Perhaps their peaceful demeanour had been a ploy to get trusted. Or perhaps Roman had done something impulsive and gotten himself captured.
No matter why the human had him, it was a very unideal situation. Especially given the nature of Roman’s wings. As much as a human could harm any type of fairy, very easily, they could harm fairies with crystal wings much, much easier.
Crystal fairies’ wings were fragile, thin, and almost glass-like. Easy to break, easy to make the fairy in question much more trapped.
It was a miracle that Roman’s wings had never been broken before, with the reckless stunts he pulled. Not that Logan could completely blame him, of course, no more than he could blame Patton for being too trusting. But it was incredibly unlucky for Roman’s gift to directly contrast his wing type
Logan was a stone fairy, so his wings were, as the name suggested, stone. The stone spread across his entire body the more he aged. At the moment, he was stone across his entire back, and down to his forearms. It was hard to fly with stone wings, so he could only keep low, and he could only really glide. It was hard to walk with the heavy weight on his back, so he, like the majority of stone fairies, used a walking stick so he would be able to balance. His own walking stick doubled as a staff to do complicated spells
There were accommodations for fairies who couldn’t fly well, but not as many as there should have been. With most buildings strung up in trees, only a few had ladders, and even less had ladders that were easy to climb with stone wings; a problem he had complained about many a time.
Roman was helping him figure out a plan of better accessibility to present to the council, before he disappeared. Roman was helping with the design and aesthetics, and the visual appeal, and Logan was helping with the accessibility, having experienced the issues first-hand, and having an idea of it should work logically.
Roman was the youngest of their little trio, about one and a half years younger than Patton, and two years younger than Logan. He was kind, he wanted everyone to be safe, he wanted to protect people, he had wanted to be a knight when he was a little older. Roman wanted everyone to be happy.
And now, for the past few months, there had been no Roman. Logan and Patton were very worried. Logan tried to figure out how to find the human that he was certain had his friend, but was coming up short. There were hundreds of human homes outside of the woods, and not to mention, humans had those devices. Logan believed they were called cars? With a car, they could go pretty much anywhere. Roman could be anywhere
He sighed, looking for a spell that could help track his friend. Patton was looking as well, and they weren’t having very much luck.
Patton was a butterfly fairy, and so was able to fly a lot easier than Roman and Logan, not having to worry about fragility, or weight. Though he was eager to help wherever he could.
Now, that eager, cheerful face with creased with worry, and tear streaks. Logan knew that Roman’s unfortunate disappearance was the cause. Logan was never the best at comforting people, usually Roman would help him.
Logan gently patted Patton’s back, and weakly tried to comfort
“There, there. We’ll find him,”
His words were clunky, he wasn’t used to comforting people, and that’s not to mention the lie he told. He had no idea if they would find him or not, and statistically, it was improbable, given how many human houses there were in the area alone. Logan attempted to remember how the particular human looked, from the few glimpses he had gotten
Purple hair, he could remember, but that wasn’t definite. Besides, there had been an increase in numbers of humans with coloured hair in recent years. Dark clothes, purple patches on them. That might have been a bigger lead. Not many humans wore patched clothing. What else could he remember?
They were pale, he remembered, and they had strange makeup under their eyes. He was pretty sure that was unusual for humans.
And now, if he could simply find a way to figure out where this human lived, he could be reunited with his his friend. Roman would’ve figured an out-of-the-box, crazy idea that would’ve worked perfectly by now.
Logan couldn’t do that.
He sighed, closing the book he had been reading for hours, and resting his head on the library table. There was nothing that could help. They could potentially track Roman, if they had an object that belonged to Roman and Roman been near recently.
And there lied the problem. They had only found the spell after a month and a half of the disappearance. He hadn’t been near anything recently enough.
He groaned, prompting Patton to gently pat his back. Logan knew that, logically, the chances of finding Roman were low, but he forced those thoughts out of his mind. He would find his friend, dead or alive (though preferably alive), whether or not it took months or years.
He carried on reading.
This routine carried on for weeks more, until they finally figured out a way of tracking. Logan looked at the glowing blue trail on the ground, and started walking, his staff in one hand, Patton’s hand in the other. Like Logan had hypothesised, it led into the human town.
Only he could see the trail, so that wouldn’t raise suspicion, however, two fairies walking into human territory probably would raise a fair bit of suspicion.
He waved his staff and casted the invisibility spell, before starting to walk. Patton let him lead him. The walk was slow, and they had to avoid several humans, so as to not get hurt. But, after several hours, they had found the human house where their friend was being kept
Logan looked at the window that the trail led up to. He couldn’t get up there, but Patton could.
“He’s in there, but so’s the human,” Patton whispered down. Logan was glad that they both still were invisible
Patton reported back to him, when the human finally left. Patton looked upset at whatever he could see, and Logan was glad that he couldn’t see the state that Roman was in.
Patton used a quick unlocking charm to help with the opening of the window. Logan used a little magic from his staff to make it lighter, and he watched Patton go in to the room
He couldn’t hear most of the conversation
-----
Roman had been right. Everything got worse. With his newly re-broken wings, he absolutely refused to let Virgil touch him, at all.
Virgil didn’t argue as much as Roman thought they would. He could see the guilt on their face when they looked at his wings, but he didn’t feel any sympathy for them.
The first time, it truly had been an accident, but this time, they had been squeezing him, as a warning. That wasn’t as much of an accident as they claimed it was. He made sure not to speak anymore, not wanting them to hurt him again. He still had the bruises from where they squeezed him.
He was starting to get ill, he thought. He was starting to grow ill from captivity, and Virgil didn’t even notice. His wings were still in the early stages of healing, and he had no chance of getting home on his own. His magic was weakening as he sat here, as he stayed in the corner, never moving
Everything that happened after the second breaking was a blur, he thought. All it was was a blur of scaredness, anger, and exhaustion. He hadn’t stood up in two days. All he did was sit down, watch the wall, and occasionally he would quietly sing to himself, though he hadn’t done that recently.
Virgil barely bothered talking to him anymore. He could hear their hesitation when they knocked on his door. They didn’t check the camera as much anymore. It was like they were trying to make it up to him. It wasn’t enough. Nothing would ever be enough, until they let him go. And even then, it had taken months.
He was in pain every time he moved, because of them. He was away from his friends, because of them. He was unable to adventure, because of them. He was exactly in the wrong place, because of them.
They brought him some food in, and they told him that they’d be leaving the house for a while. Visiting friends, Roman thought bitterly.
Once the human had left, Roman heard the noise of a window opening, and he turned towards it in alarm. No one..?
An invisibility spell, he realised, feeling the distinct presence of Logan’s magic. Finally, he thought, seeing Patton fade into view, as he was approaching. Roman placed a hand on the wall and tried to lift himself up, but failed, falling back onto his knees. He looked up at Patton, who smiled down at him
“Hi, Pat,” He said, though his voice was raspy and unused “Did you miss me?”
Patton nodded with tears in his eyes, pulling Roman in for a hug. Roman accepted immediately, so glad to finally have someone to talk to, so glad to finally be going home, so glad that his friends were here
“What happened to your wings?” Patton asked quietly, and Roman looked away
“I... I don’t want to talk about it,” he mumbled, trying not to think about it. He shuddered, remembering how Virgil’s hand had slowly tightened until he was bruised and broken. He closed his eyes, trying to shake the phantom feeling
Patton wiped away a tear that Roman didn’t realise had fallen
“That’s okay, I’m gonna help you up to your feet, and I’m gonna carry you up to the window, is that okay, kiddo?”
Roman nodded
He was finally, finally going home. He was finally getting away from the human. He found himself back on solid ground, the grass under his feet. He stumbled slightly, but Patton steadied him. Logan was out there, looking almost the same as when Roman went missing. The only noticeable difference was that Logan’s wings had become almost overcome with moss, the way they did when he was stressed.
Logan pulled him in for a hug, and Roman complied. The hug was clumsy, Logan didn’t usually hug people. Roman cherished this moment more than any of his swords or daggers
It took a while, but soon he was home. His bed was how he left it, people welcomed him back, though the people at the medbay were not all pleased at the state he was in.
Neither was he, honestly.
It took a year and a half for his wings to completely heal. It took a lot longer for the emotional scars to heal
Sometimes, he did wonder about Virgil, though he tried everything not to.
And Virgil wondered about him. Wondered if he was still living. The human did, in fact, severely regret his actions, though knew better to try seek out the terrified fairy. He would look at the woods sometimes, wonder why they ever ended up in his bag to begin with
Life carried on, despite the events of this story.
An AU Where Logan and Roman are the two Impostors, but both Ro and Re are part aliens do to their parents being different species. [Human/Alien]
•Janus is Virgil's parent, either biological or adoptive, doesn't matter tbh
•Janus and Patton are together (Mom and Dad full set because kid Virge deserves the finest and best)
•Janus is a human and has burnt marks instead of scales (And also long strawberry blonde hair tied in a bun)
•Roman and Remus work together and even If Remus is not counted as one of the Impostors do to being only 25% Alien, he is still included in the murder strikes and helps his brother out during the emergency meetings.
•Logan is concidered the Protagonist I suppose.
•I suppose there could be either some one-sided Loceit (for the drama) but maybe then also Intrulogical instead?
•For some reason Roman can eat normal human food without gagging (which makes him less suspicious since the alien race usually only eats meat, rarely has some other food likings if possible) Remus on the other hand, even if being only 1/4 alien gags every time he eats normal human foods.
•Remus has human fingerprints and believable enough DNA, so he can actually do tasks without faking them unlike Roman.
•Logan is a Pro Impostor
•Orange is here! Yet he doesn't show his face off for obvious reasons. (We don't know how he looks like yet duh)
•Thomas is the Captain on the Skeld!
•Patton is the Medic
•Janus is the Technician/Electric Mechanic
•Virgil usually helps Jan out, sometimes Patton as they are the only ones he trusts
•Remus works with Weaponary
•Roman supposedly is a Navigator
•Orange is the Engineer
•Logan is mainly in the duty of Sheilds, at least pretends to do so
•Remy is working with the Reactor and O2
•Emile is a Psychiatrist (they need one with the number of killing) Security guard and Food provider.
•Remy always somehow getshis way to bring coffee on for the ship...No one ad figured yet how he does so.
•Emile is quite a nerd, he loves reading comics and has a lot of plushies and stickers around. Ironically enough, he brough Transformers IDW comics on board...
Janus, Remus and Logan were (very happily) in a polyamorous relationship. However, to most of the world, Janus and Remus were just a couple. You see, Logan was a borrower; a tiny person that lives in the walls of human houses and steals from those humans in order to survive. And, he’s a secret.
Here’s three close calls and the one time everyone found out about Logan.
1. The time Remus’ brother showed up unannounced
Logan was sitting on the arm of the couch, having a movie date with his boyfriends, when the door slammed open. He quickly gestured to Janus’ pocket, hoping he would understand. Luckily, he nodded and quickly scooped up the borrower and deposited him in the fairly large (to Logan at least) pocket.
“good evening, Roman. Is there a reason you showed up unannounced, or did you just want to ruin our date?” Janus spoke coldly
“oh- I- uh.. I didn’t know you two had a date tonight..” Roman rubbed his neck sheepishly
“us three” Logan corrected under his breath, shifting his position slightly. Unfortunately, Roman seemed to notice the movement from the pocket.
“What’s in your pocket?” He asked hesitantly
Logan stilled and held his breath as Janus answered “why do you want to know?”
Remus was staying silent, not trusting himself to not accidentally let something slip.
“I want to know beca-” he was cut off by Remus
“why are you here Roman?”
That quickly distracted the human “oh! I was just-” he explained why he was there, Logan still forcing himself to be still.
Once the dramatic man had left, the borrower let out an annoyed sigh “you really need to take away his key, so he can’t do this again. It is rather annoying to have to hide every two seconds that Roman shows up unexpectedly”
Remus giggled “and what would we tell him? ‘oh yeah our secret tiny boyfriend doesn’t like it when you burst in randomly so we’re gonna take your key’ I don’t think that would work very well, tiny nerd”
2. Janus’ brother shows up slightly less unannounced than Roman
Janus, Remus and Logan were watching random Youtube videos, with Logan sat on Remus’ shoulder. They heard the door open at the same time as Janus got a text message from his brother, Virgil
Was on a walk and saw your house. Am now in your house :)
Luckily, there was an entrance to the walls right next to where they were sat and Logan practically ran into it, the entrance closing just as Virgil entered the room.
“Virgil, do you have a reason to be here other than being an annoyance?” Janus raised an eyebrow at his younger sibling
“Nope!” Virgil replied with fake cheerfulness, before sitting cross-legged on the floor staring at the other humans. Remus just stared back, but with a slightly more eerie tone to his actions.
Janus just sighed at his boyfriend and his brother. He had no doubt that Logan was watching with an annoyed face that he would deny ever making. Almost everything they tried to do together was interrupted by someone bursting in uninvited, and it was getting tiresome. He heard a faint noise from the walls and by the looks of it Virgil and Remus heard it too.
Logan had gotten into a fight with a (luckily non-venomous) spider, and had just killed it, when he tripped. The impact made him hiss with pain and, unfortunately, made a semi-loud sound on its own. “... what was that?” He heard Virgil ask
Janus and Remus looked at each other for a split second, before Janus shrugged and said that it was probably nothing
“Anyway, emo, if you’re scared and you didnt come here for a reason, you can leave” Remus said, slightly too bluntly.
Virgil, thankfully for Logan, did in fact leave. It was at exactly that moment that the borrower decided that Virgil was better (if only slightly) than Roman
3. The time with Patton
Logan was wandering around the house (its his house and he can do that now that the humans knew about him) when a knock at the door sounded. Suddenly really glad that he stayed near the walls on his walk, he rushed into the closest entrance.
He knew that this would be Patton (he was the only person who ever bothered to knock) but he still couldn’t decide whether this particular human was as good as Virgil or not. He was better than Roman, not as loud (though still pretty loud), and not as keen on staying somewhere that he didn’t own. However, he wasn’t as quiet as Virgil, and had accidentally hurt his ears quite a few times, but at least he knocked instead of bursting in randomly with little to no warning.
He watched from a vent as Remus opened the door
“Heya Remus! Can i come in?” Patton greeted with obviously fake happiness and Logan could see a smile that seemed just a little too forced
“of course, do you want to sit down? I’ll go get Janus” Remus genuinely had no clue what to do, but Janus was slightly better at comforting people. Logan was better at it as well, because he’d bring up facts about why you’re good, but it wasn’t like Logan could comfort Patton..
Janus quickly rushed to the living room, where his best friend was obviously trying to hold back tears.
Logan watched Patton rant about both everything and nothing at the same time, obviously just needing someone to talk to. As much as he hated to admit it, he was still annoyed at the interruption that had forced him into the walls. He couldn’t control what annoyed him, and that in itself was an annoyance. He wanted to sympathise with the human, but did he have to show up right as Logan was finally relaxing? He decided to just randomly do things on the phone his boyfriends had given him. It had been hard to drag to his house in the walls but it made it easier to not get bored and to contact the two humans
4. When everyone (finally) finds out
Logan had had enough. The three humans that didn’t live in the house had all shown up unexpectedly, together. Whilst Logan, Remus and Janus were trying to finally have uninterrupted time together. Of course that’s when they show up Logan thought bitterly. They had showed up for, as they put it, a ‘surprise sleepover’
He glanced at his phone leaning on the wall next to his bed and a thought popped into his head. The humans were bound to find out anyway, if they were to keep bursting in unexpectedly, so why not just tell them?
Logan unlocked his phone, opening Whatsapp and typing out a message
‘tel VIrgl patan and romun to stay were they are. im reveeling mysellf to them. im going throo the enterance on the bukshelf. see yoo soon’
He probably spelt most of it wrong, but he hadn’t exactly gotten taught spelling. All he was taught in regards to reading, was just barely enough to figure out what he was taking and if it was dangerous or not. And he was making a life-changing decision, so he thought that meant he could make as many spelling mistakes as he did, and play it off to nervousness.
Janus and Remus both looked at their phones and paled. What was Logan thinking?! It seemed that the other humans had noticed their uneasiness “what’s wrong? What’s on your phones that is making you react like this??” Virgil asked, worry lacing his tone
“Don’t worry, Vee. It’s nothing bad, it’s just.. unexpected. ...You’ll see, just stay there” Janus soothed his brother
“you two stay there as well” Remus added , getting up and walking towards the bookshelf, Janus soon joining him. They looked at where they knew the entrance was, waiting for it to open.
Roman piped up “uh, care to tell us what is going on?”
“we will, but not yet. We need to wait”
“well, that was ominous..” Virgil commented, seeming slightly nervous
Then, the entrance opened and Logan walked out glaring softly at the shocked humans
“uh, Remus, what the fuck is that?!” Roman practically shouted, reminding Logan just why he was on the bottom of his list of favourites.
“He is our boyfriend, and I expect you to treat him with respect” Janus said, his voice venomous. Remus held out a hand for Logan to climb onto, which the borrower did, still glaring at the other humans (mostly Roman).
“Salutations. I am Logan, do not introduce yourselves, I already know who you are” He spoke before muttering an “unfortunately”
Remus, being the only person close enough to hear the mutter, let out a chuckle “Lo, if you revealed yourself just to complain about them to their faces, this will be hilarious”
The three humans were staring in shock, until Roman snapped out of it “Wait- why would he be complaining? I don’t know about those two, but I am positively amazing!”
Logan scoffed “yeah, amazing. You’re too loud, burst in randomly, and it’s always for the stupidest reasons. You have hurt my ears far too many times to count, and almost every time me, Janus and Remus try to do something together, you show up, and I have to hide or go back to the walls. So, yeah, amazing” He spoke, voice dripping with sarcasm.
He turned to the other two “you two aren’t as bad, but you still manage to show up at some of the worst possible times. Patton, you are quite loud, but not as loud as Roman, so that makes you slightly better. Also, you don’t burst in, and you knock so that’s something good. Virgil, you’re not as loud as these two, which is good, and you always send a text message when you show up, so I have at least a little bit of warning before going into the walls, so you’re both better than Roman” not that that’s saying much he added mentally.
Summary: Virgil, a small and anxious pixie, goes out alone to scavenge for food only to find himself in the hands of a tall and not-so-gentle human intent on bringing him home as a gift to his boyfriends.
Words: 2670
(Warnings: Anxiety, treating people as pets, kidnapping, Character blacking out and other person thinking they died)
-
I stretch my arms as I yawn out, popping my back in the presses. I lean back and use my hands to rub out my sore wings, having slept on them weird. They flutter a bit as I try to wake up, the morning light shining through one of the small windows in my tree home hits them causing flashes of rainbow light to bounce off the walls.
A small smile crosses my face as I pull off the thick gray long sleeved shirt I wear to bed and change into a simple black tunic, the tunic itself being a little loose around the sleeves and neck, not that I really cared.
I walk across my dark hollow I call home, the whole room only being about a foot long and a half in human measurements. Sure it’s small, but I’ve never really liked large spaces, they make me feel overwhelmed.
There is a shard of broken mirror resting against the dark oaken wall, and I glance at myself in its reflection, taking specific notice in my hair that I try to tame with my fingers, not being very successful. I had given my brush to my cousin a few days ago for him to fix, and am yet to get it back from the forest fairy.
“Damn Emile…” I mutter to myself, cursing the kind fairy as I continue to struggle with my hair. The handle had been broken a small while ago, but it still worked its purpose. Which unfortunately wasn’t good enough for my green winged friend.
I don’t have great luck in flattening it down, and only seem to tame it a small amount. A few stray black strands continue to stick out, causing me to let out an annoyed sigh. I also notice a small amount of dark purple peeking out from my roots, reminding me that I need to get Emile to cut and re-dye it for me. I’ve never been too great at things like that, and last time I tried I almost cut my ear off and also left my arms up to my elbows dyed black. It didn’t wash out for a full month, and I got quite the earful from my older cousin, who acts more like my parent.
Always telling me to be careful, avoid humans, elves and other large creatures, never fly into Fae circles, stay out of the rain, remember to eat, and blah blah blah.
He’s way too protective of me, but I guess he has a reason to be, him being a fairy and me being a pixie. It’s easy to tell the difference, since fairies are two inches taller then pixies and it’s a well known fact that pixies are much more fragile than fairies. And much more rare, which is why I live in the middle of a dense forest, while Emile lives a little ways away and has to fly to see me.
I give up on trying to fix my hair and it’s not like anyone is going to see me. But thinking of my older cousin did remind me that I’m almost out of food and water. It rained a few days ago, but almost nothing ever reaches the mossy forest floor through the trees, and whatever did has dried up by now, meaning I have to go out to get supplies.
“Uuuugghhh….” I groan out as I rub my face. I hate leaving my house, I wish I could just stay here forever. But a main reason I picked my home to be here is it’s not too far from a small pond, hidden between some trees. But an even bigger plus is what’s right across the pond, where large berry bushes sprout. They hold all types of berries, making it the perfect spot to get food all year round.
It's secluded enough that no real predators are able to get to it, but just in-secluded enough for me to be able to walk there in about 20-30 minutes. I could fly but that draws too much attention to me, and I prefer walking over flying anyways.
I wish I was a fairy if I’m being honest, like Emile. His wings and body are much larger than mine, as I stand at a small 4 inches while he stands at a whopping 6. His wings are a light green color, looking like butterflies and they allow him to glide through the air instead of mine, which are thin, almost completely see through. They shimmer when light touches them, and they hold thin silver highlights that seem to emphasize their fragility. I always try to tuck them away, knowing of the horror stories of pixies who had gotten caught by humans, their wings torn off and used for jewelry or a collectors item, while they get thrown into a cage to live out the rest of their lives.
Another thing I happen to be jealous of is Emile’s skin tone. He holds a nice peach color that often ends up tanned due to him spending so much of his free time outside with the other creatures of his small section of forest. Pixies are known to be on the paler side, but I am almost sickly pale due to almost never getting sunlight, along with the patches of light and dark purple littering my skin, the most prominent ones being on my forearms and on both sides of my face.
I sigh again, putting on some platform shoes Emile had made me, grabbing a large bag I can throw over my shoulder, along with another bag stuffed inside to hold the water as I get ready to leave the house.
I put a small cloak on as well, using the hood to cover my hair, and to make it easier to camouflage, since I happen to pop out against the brown and lush green environment of the forest.
I use my feet to push up and leap my way up and out of the small room, my wings being open and fluttering slightly to help my balance.
There is one thing that Emile was jealous of me for, and that was the fact that even though pixies aren’t great or fast fliers like fairies, we can jump significantly higher than almost all fairies and on ground we are incredibly fast on our feet, which is another reason I prefer walking to flying.
I jump over the wall of my room and use my wings to lower myself onto the mossy forest floor. I stretch out my wings again before looking up and rubbing my eyes, trying to get used to the bright light coming from above the tree line high above. The sun feels warm against my skin, and it’s only slightly humid.
“I really need to get out more.” I say to myself as I adjust my bag and begin the trek towards the pond. I stick to walking near the trees instead of the few natural open paths, making it easy to leap up incase of any dangerous animals came towards me, and partially because I’m paranoid.
Wouldn’t be the first time somethings tried to eat me….
I continue walking, humming a quiet tune to ease my mind, as I always feel anxious walking outside by myself. I end up being alert the whole time, feeling as though I’m being watched. Of course I’m not being watched and I know that. No sane person would ever just walk into an enchanted forest, everyone knew that. Not to mention where I live is a good way into the forest, miles away from any human or elf towns.
I stop my humming abruptly as I hear a ruffle of leaves above me to the right, and my eyes shoot over to the area immediately. My breath stops as I try to stay as quiet and still as physically possible. After a few minutes of nothing happening, I let out a shaky sigh, allowing my muscles to relax.
It was probably the wind. Or a bird.
I shiver at the thought. Birds are the worst and one of the only predators a pixie can’t just fly away from.
I start speed walking towards the pond. Being by the large open water always calmed my nerves. There were no fish or kelpies and thank god there aren’t any mermaids or any type of aquatic animals living in the deep water for that matter. But I have seen a deer or two around the area, along with the water spirits that inhabit the clear waters. They let me take water as long as I give them something in return, which is normally a berry or two extra I grab from the bush on the other side of the lake. It’s not a lot, but I think they know I can’t carry much as it is.
I see the pond behind some long grass and my face lights up, as my anxiety seems to melt away. I always was at my calmest at the pond and my paranoid nature would be put on hold until I got home.
I smile as I walk towards the body of fresh water coming towards the edge, easily seeing my reflection in the clear surface.
Pixies and fairies can’t exactly swim, and if even a little water gets on our wings we become temporarily grounded and unable to fly. I don’t really worry about that when coming here, I mean, now anyways…
I slowly got over that fear a year or so ago,
I had been giving the water spirits berries in exchange for water for a while at that point, until one day I had gotten frightened and lost my footing causing me to fall straight into the depth below. I thought I was going to drown….
That was until I heard soft, echoing voices and the light above the water became brighter, the next thing I knew I woke up on the grass next to the pond and my satchel filled with fresh water. I made sure to put double the amount of berries into the pond that day…
I pull out my spare bag and unscrew the lid near the top before lowering it into the water and waiting for it to fill.
A few stray ripples in the blue water come towards me, causing small waves against my bag. I smile at it, making small talk. From anyone else’s view it would seem like I’m crazy and talking to myself, but I know that the water spirits appreciate conversation.
Once my bag is full I pull it away from the water and screw on the lid, while thanking the spirits.
I use my cloak to dry off the outside of the pouch before placing my water bag inside my larger bag. Sure it’s heavy, but I don’t have anywhere to be at the moment, so I’ll take my time.
I sigh and begin the tiring trek around the pond. It takes longer than I would like to get to the berry bushes, but the sound of the soft water makes for a quiet and calming walk. Around this time of year, the path to the other side of the pond is extended. While the rain might not make it through the forest where I live, it does here, making the edges of the pond muddy and dangerous.
I walk deeper into the forest, making a big semi circle around the muddy area. I decide to walk deeper, enjoying the fresh air and the small breeze that causes my hood to almost fly off, but I fortunately catch it and pull it back onto my face.
I walk a straight line between a few of the trees, a content smile on my face, while starting to hum quietly to myself again. I close my eyes for a second as I walk, a hand crossing over on the strap of my bag, but when I open them slightly I notice a large dark shadow covering me. I look up quickly to see a large hand coming towards me.
Out of instinct I immediately drop my bag and jump backwards just in time for another hand to rush at me and I barely make it out of the way. I use the hand to push myself into the air, my wings immediately getting to work as I go to fly upwards, trying to put as much distance between me and the stranger.
‘Crap!-’
I don’t get more than a few feet before I narrowly avoid another hand, this one coming at me so quickly that instead of grabbing me, it barely manages to snag my cloak with it’s nail, but it lets out a loud ‘riiiiiiiiiiiip’ that seems to echo out into the otherwise quiet forest.
That momentary distraction is all it takes for the two large hands to harshly cup around me, shadowing me into darkness. Once it grips on I start to struggle, thrashing and screeching in it’s hold, my feet kicking against its palms. This only seems to anger it as its grip tightens to an almost suffocating hold, I whimper as the grip pushes my arms together, my chest feeling like it’s going to explode as tear prick the corners of my eyes.
My wings sting against the calloused hands and I can feel him start to move quickly causing me to bump around against the mini prison, murmurs of someone's voice heard somewhere outside as my vision starts to swim, so I do the only reasonable thing I could think of.
I bite down. Hard.
I draw blood easily and the second the hand opens I launch myself out towards the light ahead of me, adrenaline and fear fueling my movements as I see the hand try to reach out to me before I see it pushing down, taking me with it.
All I see is the hand and the forest floor rushing up to greet me before I’m slammed onto it, the weight of the hand crushing me and knocking the wind out of my chest before everything in sight is covered in black pools and eventually nothing….
-
I groan from my place on the ground, having tripped over my own feet when reaching for the winged mini-person. My boyfriend Logan was always fascinated with fairies so when I saw it just walking around I figured it would make a great ‘I’m-Sorry-I-Accidentally-Lit-The-Bathroom-On-Fire’ gift.
I hadn't expected the thing to bite me though. Or sting me, I don’t know which one it was but it hurts like a bitch. I hope they're not poisonous…. But then again if they are, my boyfriends will have to take care of me….. I shake my head to get rid of the thought, looking around for the little thing that has caused me so much trouble.
I look to where my hand is planted on the ground, and I try to keep it steady as I wipe a bit of dirt that had gotten on my green throw over that Patton had made me bring incase it got cold.
I scoop up the little being with both of my hands in a little pocket, making sure not to crush it and bring it up to my eyes before slowly opening my hands, allowing me to look at it.
I can see it’s pale skin, dark messy hair and clearly ripped cloak, along with some patches of purple throughout their body. But the most striking part are its wings, not like any fairies I’d ever heard of, and once the light catches them they seem to burst with colors…
“Logan is going to love this!” I mutter to myself.
But then I notice something else strange. The once feisty and screeching fairy wasn’t struggling, heck it wasn’t moving at all!
My body jumps when I realize this, and I nearly drop the little person, my eyes widen in panic as I end up blurting out,
Not on the list but you said that's fine so, can it be g/t Anxciet if that's cool with you? And maybe this dialogue prompt? "It's okay, i've got you, you're safe." Its totally cool if you don't want to though, sooo yeah! Thanks for your time :)
Virgil was having a panic attack. Except his attacks were very different than most people's. For Virgil going through an attack meant his body becoming cramped and tight, compressing in on itself to make himself smaller and smaller. Literally. You see, Virgil is a sizeshifter and his size is usually connected to his emotions, primarily, fight or flight, and right not-so always with his attacks-he was experiencing flight, making him shrink down to no bigger than two inches tall. He hated it. It made everything around him so much bigger, louder, scarier... it didn't help with his fear at all.
Usually, Virgil planned to sit in his room and wait until it was all over. Except today was different. Today his attack had come at the worst of times. Virgil and his friends were at a party when it happened, it was so unexpected as well. One minute Virgil was bantering with Roman at the punch bowl, and the next he was rushing into the bathroom before anyone could see him getting smaller.
So here Virgil was, two inches tall on a bathroom sink and hiding behind a soap dispenser. It was humiliating, not that he was focusing on that right now. No, instead Virgil was trying to calm down, but with the loud music, people yelling, and the stomping of dancing feet, Virgil was not getting very far.
Then the door opened.
Hadn't he locked it? As he thought back to how he rushed in here, he was struck with the terrible realization, that no, no he hadn't locked the door. Virgil gulped down his emotions as he pressed his back against the the soap dispenser as much as he could, praying that whoever it was didn't stay long.
"Virgil..?" A familiar voice suddenly whispered, causing Virgil to let out a small sigh of relief. It was only Janus, of course he still didn't want Jan to see him like this but at least it wasn't some stranger that might use him for... well Remus was more of the type to finish that thought. "Virgil, I know you're in here. Please, we're all worried about you." Virgil stiffened, he couldn't let anyone see him, not right now. "Well, they're more worried than I am, but can you blame them?" Jan paused. "C'mon, just say something at least."
Virgil hesitated, but, he could trust Janus... right? "S-something." Virgil finally croaked out. His voice was hoarse from crying and his voice cracked, but at least he spoke.
Janus let out an undignified snort at his response. "All right. Do you want me to lock this?" They motioned towards the door.
Virgil nodded before he remembered that Jan couldn't see him. "Y-ye-es." He stammered out. After he spoke, there was some shuffling before the click of a lock could be heard.
"Alright, we're alone now." Jan shrugged. "You can come out I guess."
"No!" Virgil blurted without thinking, pulling a confused look from Jan. "I-I mean, it's... it's not that easy..." Virgil chewed on his lip.
Jan thought for a few moments before getting an idea. "Okay, you don't wanna come out. Would it be okay for me to find you?"
Virgil thought over it. It wouldn't be that bad if Jan didn't get too close... "A-alright, but no touching."
"Gotcha, wasn't planning to anyways." Jan shrugged before they began the search.
With Janus making small noises ar6the bathroom Virgil was able to focus on something other than the booming of the house around him, allowing him a moment to calm down at least a little bit. That is until the soap dispenser disappeared from behind him and he fell backwards with an indignant little shout.
"Oh honey..." Although Jan said it worth sympathy it still scared Virgil as he backpedaled into the wall the mirror was on. He hadn't ever been around another person while like this, and he was more than ready to admit that it was terrifying. His breathing and heart rate picked up as he looked up at his now giant friend looming over him. "Sh, shh, hey, it's okay it's okay..." Jan mumbled out his words afraid to talk to loudly, and got down on his knees to be eye level with the little emo. Janus just wanted to pick him up and transfer all of their love and comfort into the little body before them, but they knew that they couldn't. They promised Virgil no touching, and they were sure that it wouldn't help the obvious panic attack that Virgil was having. "Hey," Jan made sure to keep Virgil's attention to ground him. "can you tell me five things you can see?"
"U-uhm." Virgil hesitated. He knew this from somewhere... "The-the mirror. The... the soap thing, uh, you-you're shaddow. The sink, a-and you." He stuttered out through hiccups.
"Good." Jan appraised. "Now, four things you can touch."
"Th-e sink, my jacket... uh, my-my pants, a-and" He reached up and touched his head. "my hair."
"Alright, three things you can hear?"
"The music, my-my voice..." Virgil swallowed. "Your breathing."
"Okay, focus, you're almost there. Two things you can smell."
"Mint toothpaste, and..." Virgil inhaled but gagged. "Alcohol, blegh." Janus chuckled silently at that.
"Last one, Virge, you're doing so good! What's one thing you can taste?"
"Emptiness." Virgil actually giggled a little at his own response to which Jan giggled with him.
"You feeling any better?"
"Yeah, I-I actually am." Virgil was surprised.
"Good, just don't feel afraid to ask for help next time." Jan smiled warmly down at him. Virgil nodded, but, surprisingly he wasn't ready to grow back yet.
"Hey Jan..." He hesitated.
"Hm?"
"Could-could you? Could I-uhm, can I stay in your pocket..." As Jan's eyes widened Virgil attempted to amend. "Just-just until the end of the party that is!" He rushed out, to which Janus chuckled making Virgil blush.
"Of course you can my little blackberry." Janus teased making Virgil blush even harder. Jan slowly let his hand down next to the little emo for him to climb on. Virgil hesitated, but scrambled onto the hand shaking a little from fear. "It's okay, I've got you, you're safe." Jan appraised. Virgil held onto Jan's thumb and gaped at the feeling of being in someone's hand. It was so weird. He didn't think of it much before Janus gently set him down in their pocket.
