Don’t Hurt Ray...Or Else
TW: Morally Grey/Unsympathetic Patton, Outing Someone, not Accepting someone, Transphobia?, mentions of fighting someone
For most sides, the mindpalace was divided into light and dark and that was it. Once you were officially one or the other, you didn’t cross sides, even if you had family on the other side.
Virgil took one look at that rule and said fuck that. Just because the three lights had accepted him didn’t mean he was going to abandon the rest of his family.
I mean sure, he fought with Dee...a lot, and Virgil wouldn’t hesitate to punch him if he thought he deserved it, but it wasn’t like he really hated him. And sure Remus could be overwhelming, but that’s literally no way he was going to leave his prank war buddy behind.
And of course, there was nothing any of the lights could do to make him leave his sister behind. Ray was already stressed enough being Paranoia without having to worry about the fact that he wouldn’t be there for her.
It did take a bit of adjusting once he was accepted, but every chance he got he headed back over to the dark side to hang out with everyone. It wasn’t until Ray had to start showing up in videos that things started getting complicated.
Virgil popped into the dark side one day to see Ray groaning, her head on a table, Dee rubbing her back, and Remus cackling.
“....Did I miss something,” Virgil asked.
Remus was the one who responded. “Roro decided when writing the script that it was about time for Paranoia to start showing up, he said it would give the viewers more backstory or smthg like that.”
Virgil decided to ignore how Remus somehow said smthg, knowing the video was more important. “And Ray’s going to have to shapeshift so the others don’t find out,” he realized.
Both Remus and Janus nodded as a muffled “I don’t wanna shapeshift,” came from Ray, making Virgil chuckle and walk over.
“How you doing Ray?”
With that, Ray looked up at her brother. “Anyway you can convince Roman that Paranoia doesn’t need to show up in the videos so I don’t have to do this?”
“Sorry Ray, however I can promise that considering my utter hatred of the dark sides I’m going to show up whenever Paranoia does to make sure he doesn’t overwhelm Thomas.”
That caused all of the three to start snickering. “All right, I trust you V.”
Fortunately, until the incident, Virgil hadn’t needed to step in for anything. Ray left before everything got to be too much and all the darks hung out after to make sure she was okay.
Until the day Patton decided to follow Paranoia, apparently planning to keep yelling at them even as they tried to head back to the darks.
Virgil didn’t know how he knew but he had this weird sense that something was wrong. So the second Logan and Roman were distracted, which wasn’t too hard as they arguing with each other again.
Upon sinking out, Virgil popped back in to see Ray, back in her normal phone and Patton yelling at her.
“What exactly is going on here,” Virgil growled. Ray glanced over to Virgil and Patton looked over and both looked relieved.
Oh, so Patton thought he was here to help him did he?
“Oh, you didn’t need to worry about Virgil. I’m just dealing with Paranoia here real quick, I’ll be back as soon as I get through his head that this is just some silly delusion.”
Even before Ray flinched, that made Virgil glare at Patton. “And what makes you think I’m here for you Patton?”
That made Patton look over in surprise as Virgil stalked over and pushed Ray behind him. “After all that’s my sister you’re threatening.”
Patton’s eyes shot between Virgil and Ray, clearly starting to compare the two of them.
“Patton I don’t care what you were trying to do, but you’re going to leave now,” Virgil said, still glaring.
Patton glanced between the two again before sinking out. The second Patton was gone, Ray collapsed slightly but Virgil made sure he had her.
“He’s gonna tell the others,” Ray muttered, starting to spiral slightly, “They’re all gonna hate me and make me go back to how I was and-”
“Alright enough of that,” Virgil said, placing his hands on Ray’s shoulders to ground her. “Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to have a movie night with Dee and Remus to calm you down. I’ll deal with the others later, and I’m making sure Patton isn’t allowed near you until he apologizes.”
Ray nodded as they went to do just that. They thought they would be fine for the night but Logan showing up changed everything.
They all heard the footsteps before Logan got there, making Ray huddle deeper in the couch and others glance back, all ready to attack if needed.
None of them expected it to be Logan who showed up. “..Lo what are you doing here,” Virgil asked.
“I needed to let you know something,” Logan said, panting slightly. It almost seemed like he had run. “Patton told us about Paranoia.”
Ray immediately froze. Virgil could sense her starting to shake. “And how does everyone feel about that,” he asked Logan, ready to fight if needed.
“Well, Roman is currently chewing Patton out for doing so, especially considering we both know he wouldn’t have done this if it was one of Thomas’ friends and not a side who had come out. I figured you’d want to know so I headed this way but I did tell Roman you’d probably want to fight him too so to wait to do that,” Logan explained, during which Ray peeked from her spot on the couch.
“You guys aren’t mad,” she asked quietly.
“Why would be bad, just because we’re a part of Thomas doesn’t mean that we have to be exactly like him, I know for a fact that Roman is aro, when Thomas clearly isn’t. Why should you being a girl be any different than that.”
“Alright I’m going to be back,” Virgil said getting up, “Lo it might be better for you to stay here cause I’m not going to go easy on Patton for outing my sister. Remus, I’m borrowing your mace.”
“Don’t break it,” Remus called back, seemingly not bothered. Virgil nodded, scruffling Ray’s hair as he passed. Maybe eventually he’d forgive Patton, but tonight was not that night. Tonight he was getting revenge for him hurting his sister.
