#sbdcsbhcsj

I know that might sound odd, but follow with me here.

Consider: Heart-attacks. Not actual, physical, gonna-die heart-attacks. But the metaphorical ones, where you get frightened by a jump-scare or something, and you say ‘that gave me a heart-attack’ or such.

Imagine if the side who had to deal with these wasn’t Virgil, for the anxiety of the fright (he does deal with that, just on a more internal level), or Roman, or anyone else. imagine if it was the actual heart.

Imagine if it was Patton.

Jump-scares and the sort of things that prompt the ‘metaphorical heart-attack’ cause an increase in the heart rate. Imagine if this, in the mindscape, came about as shadow figures that just... pop up around Patton. Thomas gets startled by a horror movie, and suddenly a murky black figure has popped up behind Patton, some odd formation meant to represent that instinctual fear.

Patton’s response to these shadows of primal fear?

To deck ‘em.

He’ll punch them without a second thought. One good hit is normally enough to get them to vanish away. Sometimes it isn’t, but that’s also alright. Patton’s gotten insanely good at ducking and dodging them while he continues doing whatever he was doing. One time three of them popped up while he was making dinner, and the kitchen was no more messier after he fought them then it had been before. He even managed to cut the bread while he was at it.

Sometimes they pop up around the others, but that’s alright too. Patton’s quick with pushing the other side(s) out of the way before he deals with the issue. In one rather memorable incident, in which the beast of shadows appeared while he was chatting with Roman, Patton unsheathed Roman’s sword from where it had been against his waist, pushed Roman behind him, and cut the figure down, all in one fluid movement.