Xephina The Eleven

Later, he’ll be thankful it happened while he was in the common area this time.

His book and knees hit the floor at the same time.  He doesn’t hear Morality’s worried “Logan?!” from the kitchen, doesn’t see Prince’s wide-eyed lunge to catch him, doesn’t notice the world at all beyond cold cold coldcoldcold! socoldsocoldpleasemakeitstop!

He curls in on himself, shaking so hard he’s certain he’s about to fly apart.  Ice crystals freeze his veins, his breath, his mind, and all he can see is a pale blinding blue.  A brand touches his shoulder, as hot as the sun, and he lets out a whine that would be a scream had he the breath.  The heat vanishes as quickly as it appeared, and with it what little consciousness he had left.  Blue fades to black.

~*~*~

Anxiety is all of two steps behind Logic, “pestered” into dinner by Morality (every day he tries to avoid it, every day Morality tracks him down, and every day he’s secretly grateful), so he sees the whole thing.

He sees Logic’s skin turn paler than his own in the space of a second.  He sees the trait hit the floor, shaking like a leaf in a windstorm.

He sees Prince’s automatic lunge to catch Logic and sees him miss.  He sees Prince lay a hesitant hand in Logic’s shoulder.  He sees Logic arch away from it as if in pain, sees him collapse the rest of the way.  He sees his body go limp, still shaking.

Brain freeze.  Bad one.

Heart pounding, he sprints for his room–and his favorite blanket.

~*~*~

It takes a while, but they finally get Logic warm enough to stop trembling.  Wrapped in Anxiety’s heating blanket and stretched out on the couch, he looks.. well, awful, bluntly.

Anxiety is sitting with Logic’s head in his lap, absently carding his fingers through the teacher’s hair.  “At least his lips aren’t blue anymore,” he says quietly.  (Tonight, he’ll crawl into Prince’s bed and shake, crying and gasping for air, because these things never get any easier.  But that’s tonight.)

Prince is pacing the room like a caged tiger.  When something is wrong, his first instinct is to attack it.  But how can you attack something like this?  So he paces, struggling to get rid of the feelings of helplessness and frustration.  (Tonight, he’ll hold Anxiety together even as the darker trait’s mind tries to tear him apart, and he can’t fight that either, but at least he’ll be useful.  But that’s tonight.)

Morality is curled up on the floor, fist clenched around Logic’s hand and head on his side like it’s a pillow.  Later, later he’ll lay his head on Logic’s chest and listen to his heartbeat, but for now this will do.  (Tonight, Logic will act exasperated, but allow the cuddling without even a token fuss, just like he always does when Morality feels shaky and needs to know someone is there.  But that’s tonight.)

Eyes watchful, they wait for Logic to wake up.

(Phew.  Okay.  I’m done, at least for now.  [hesitates]  This may be a mistake and I really hope I’m not about to step on anyone’s toes and if I do I’m sorry in advance.)

They all woke up expecting to smell breakfast, the one that Morality would make every morning for them to make sure they ate. But that wasn’t there, so Prince was the first to check the kitchen to see what was going on. He wasn’t in the kitchen. So they start to look around, only to find him in his room.

Morality’s forehead was sweaty, and he was almost shivering. he was awake at least, but he really didn’t’ have the energy to move. He just frowned when he saw Prince appear in the doorway, who ran over worriedly as soon as he took in the sight. “Dad! What’s wrong?”

Morality shook his head. He didn’t want to to be taken care of. He was supposed to be the one taking care of them. But he was overheating, and he didn’t even have a blanket over him.

Prince put his hand on his forehead, and then frowned even more. “I’m getting water, and a wet cloth.” And with the same amount of worry and hurry that he’d put into saving any princess, he was out of the room to get something to help keep Morality cool.

He only stopped for a second to tell Logic what was happening when he nearly ran him over in his rush. And Logic was quick to decide he was not leaving Morality alone right now.

By the time the royal figure had gotten back to Morality, Logic had opened a window and turned on a fan in his room, doing anything he could to cool the sick trait down. He was almost hesitant about making the room so cold after his own, opposite incident, but he had to take care of Morality’s fever.

Morality fought them a bit on being taken care of, but did so weakly, and thus was left with a cold wet cloth on his forehead and being told to drink water.

The first time it happened, it was in third grade and the teacher wanted them to write a short story. Thomas couldn’t think find anything to write and it was showing. He was tapping and doodling, trying (yet failing) to dig up an idea.

During this time, Prince dropped the cup of juice he was holding, making the glass shatter, before following behind it and screaming at the pain he was feeling. Prince curled up in the glass, cutting into his flesh and making him bleed, yet he didn’t notice the pain.

He noticed the sharp, /stabbing/ and /burning/ pain in his head. It felt like someone decided to try and scramble his brain with a hot and serrated spork. Like someone decided to /slam his head repeatedly into sharp rocks/.

He screamed, not noticing that he bit his lip, not noticing the blood spilling out of various cuts, not noticing Morality, Logic and Anxiety panic. Not noticing the tears streaming down his eyes, blood trickling out of his ears. Not noticing that Imaj was suffering too. Not noticing as he started to seize up. Not noticing that Logic panicked, shoving a rag in his mouth, so he won’t bite his tongue through.

Morality was sobbing, trying to comfort a screaming Imaj as he stared in horror as Prince choked and screamed, as he rolled his eyes back and started to convulse, started to seize and shake.

Anxiety started to panic because there was so much /blood/. Prince stopped moving and Anxiety launched himself towards Prince. He checked Prince’s heart and started yelling on how Prince wasn’t /breathing!/ His heart /stopped/. He moved the rag out of Prince’s mouth and started CPR, trying to get Prince to breath again.

Logic took over when Anxiety couldn’t breath properly. Missy grabbed Anxiety and tried to calm him down, watching ask Logic did CPR.

Prince gasped, coughing, only to start screaming again, grabbing and pulling his hair. Logic sobbed out a sorry before pinching a pressure-point to knock Prince out, hoping this will help.

Prince didn’t wake up for 3 weeks. Logic freaked out, thinking he did something wrong, only to realize that Prince is in a coma. They all stayed next to Prince, only going out to fulfill their job, to eat or to use the bathroom.

Whenever Thomas has a writer’s block, Logic knocks him out and they wait for him to wake back up. Hoping that he doesn’t stop breathing. Watching as his chest rises and falls, waiting for the moment that they have to perform CPR.

They only had to do it that once, but the fear is always there. Always at the edge of the small group.

Whenever Thomas eats ice-cream too fast, Logic freezes. His skin turns paler than Anxiety’s before it gets a bluish shade to it. His glasses frosts over and his hair started to crystalize ice at the tips.  His lips turns blue and cracks. Patches of frost litters his skin and freezes his clothes. His breath was so cold that you can see it, see the tiny flecks of ice float out with a swirl of fog.

He was so cold. It hurt to breath, it hurt to move. He can hear his skin crack and snap as he moved. It felt like there was freezing water from the Artic ocean rushing through his veins. He swore there was bits of ice swimming through his veins and floating in his lungs. It felt like needles kept on piercing his skin, over and over again, getting hotter and hotter every time he moved. He couldn’t take it anymore.

He screamed, ripping his throat and cracking the ice on his face. He fell down on his hands and knees, screaming even louder at the /pain/ of /feeling his skin crack and shatter/.

Anxiety, Morality and Prince ran in, seeing blood seeping out underneath Logic’s hands. Ice covering the aspect’s skin. His skin was cracked and shattered where he moved. His skin a faded blue and bluer veins popped out against the skin. Ice was forming in the spilled blood and frost spread where he touched the ground.

Logic was still screaming. Morality threw his cardigan on Logic, hoping it would help, only it froze. Prince shakenly set his hands on Logic’s arm, ignoring the frost crawling up his arms.

Logic screamed louder at the feel of heat touching his skin. Prince choked and picked up the screaming trait and ran to Logic’s room. Anxiety and Morality ran behind him, sobbing and crying at the sound of Logic’s heart-wrenching screaming.

Morality ran past Prince and threw Logic’s door open and threw back the covers of the aspect’s bed. Prince ran in and proceed to strip Logic of his clothes. Morality stripped of his until he hit his underwear and took Logic, who was now free of all clothes, and pulling him under the covers. It was the only time that Morality was okay for running a bit hotter than others and okay to be surrounded by so much heat. Prince and Anxiety soon followed suit, trying to warm Logic up as best as they could.

Logic screamed himself hoarse, and curled into himself because he was in /so much pain/. He tried to move away from the /pain/ but /he couldn’t/ he was /surrounded/.

MAKE. IT. STOP. PLEASE.

Whenever Thomas gets a brain freeze, it hurts Logic and the others. The frost will spread, slowly covering the blankets with the ice, making the people around him turn red as frost tries to cover them. It’ll last for 10 minutes, but those ten minutes are the worst 10 minutes that they all will experience.

Thomas doesn’t get brain freeze often, but when he does, he won’t hear from Logic until Logic gains his voice back.

When Thomas gets a brain freeze, Logic will shake for weeks, buried under sweaters and hoodies. Logic will burrow in blankets and the nearest warm person, trying to get warm again.

When Thomas gets nightmares, Anxiety wakes up with a scream, watching as the inky darkness of fear and horror crawl up his body, sinking into his skin, making him feel cold and sick. He watches as his body fights it, flickering in and out, veins black against paper white skin. He shakes and sways, watching as the darkness starts to change his body. Chokes back a sob as he feels Pitch trying to take over.

He hears a bang and snaps his head to it noise, flicker in and out, to see the others at the door. Tears starts to fall and a sob slips through his lips. A stabbing pain pierced his his body, making it glow bright before he falls on his knees, screaming and clawing his chest with Pitch’s claws. Dark and slowly getting darker with blood. Anxiety’s shirt is in shreds and darkening with blood. His chest is filled with deep gashes.

Anxiety screams when his hands are yanked from his chest. He starts thrashing around, trying to free himself from the /burning/, trying to /make the darkness stop/.

Someone wraps their arms around him, /burning/ him with their brightness. He arches his body and starts kicking the brightness that was holding his hands, to /free them from the burning/.

Someone grabs his legs and it /burns even worse/. It feels like someone threw him in acid because /it hurts so much/.

His eyes shift from deep chocolate to Mercury. His skin turns starts to get a greyish tint to it, veins still a dark contrast between his skin. His curly brown​ hair starts to bleed black. He screams louder when the cold pain races through his body, making the brightness /scorch his skin/

MAKE IT STOP!! MAKE IT STOP!! IM SORRY PLEASE STOP PLEASESTOPITPLEASESTOPITSTOPSTOPSTOP

Someone starts to sing, ripping through his thoughts. They’re singing and the /cold, cold pain/ grips deeper in his skin, making him scream louder, shredding his throat, making him sound hoarse and animalistic.

/You’re a monssster, come join usssss. Monssssterssss ssssticksss together. It'sss where you belong. With usssss/

More singing from more people trickle in. The darkness's​ claws deeper into him as it’s being dragged away. The singing becomes louder and /louder/ ignoring the crying and the wimpers, ignoring the harsh and demonic screaming coming out of him.

The flickers slow down and he slowly starts to see through the darkness. Starts to feel the warmth from the others, starts to hear the sobbing from his mouth and from the others.

When Thomas gets nightmares, a demon tries to claw out through Anxiety, forcing the other into a cage.

When Thomas gets a nightmare, no one sleeps that night, as they’re huddled together trying to calm down and reassure that Anxiety is there and safe. That the demon didn’t break through.

Thomas bad begun to notice however, that he wouldn’t hear from each of them sometimes, it was as if they had left but their presence was still within him. He would call upon the other three and try to get them to explain, but they would either lie or give vague explanations. He worried that something was very wrong, and worse that it was his doing, but he couldn’t amend these things if he didn’t know what they were.

Thomas was kept away from this knowledge until one day while they were filming the Sanders Sides. Each of them stood in their places while Thomas sipped happily from a milkshake. The four traits were bickering like normal, as he took a rather large gulp of the cold drink. His head burned slightly with the cold, but he didn’t think much of it.

Logan was in the middle of one of his rants, but as the brain freeze began to subside, he stopped in the middle of his sentence. A scream ripped through the air as the color drained from Logic’s face, his lips turned blue and he swayed on his feet. A moment later he lost his balance, Virgil lunged forward and caught him moments before his head hit the floor. He wreathed in agony, and it seemed to get worse when Anxiety caught him.

The other two jumped to help, each of them wearing scared expressions. Thomas sat terrified at the sudden change of events, the rational aspect now lay on the ground shaking and his skin cracked with what looked like frost. A chill ran down his own spine as he saw the blood well up from the fissures in his frozen body.

Morality leaped for the blanket the hung on the back of the couch, throwing it over the screaming side. Virgil removed his jacket and placed it over him as well. Despite the pain it seemed to cause Roman took his arm and the two of them synced back into the mind palace.

The moral and anxious sides looked as if they were going to follow in close pursuit but Thomas managed to gasp out a few words. “Wh-What’s going on?!”

The two looked at each other in dismay but Patton spoke up, “Brain freeze…”

Virgil looked even more scared than usual, “It’s in the name, brain freeze. It’s not your fault but, Logan is basically your mind…when you get brain freeze…he becomes frozen. Cold beyond frost bite…it can affect him for days-”

Morality cut him off obvious he didn’t want the younger side to say any more, “We need to go take care of him.” The other trait present nodded in agreement.

Before they could leave, Thomas asked one more question. “Does this happen to all of you…with different things I mean?” They looked at him sadly, but they didn’t answer, instead syncing back into the mindscape to help their friend.

Romance novels are seen as being “feminine,” and romcoms are often derogatorily called “chick-flics,” for example. Women are expected to want flowers and chocolates and care about things like anniversaries and marriage to a greater extent than is expected of men. Even many of the things women are expected to do to conform to female gender roles are centered around looking attractive: having long well-styled hair, wearing makeup, shaving, wearing skirts and dresses, etc.

So shoutout to aro women and girls who want to be feminine but feel like their aromanticism makes them feel like an outsider to womanhood. Shout out to women and girls who feel left out of “girl talk” because they don’t have a crush or significant other to tell their friends about, or because they don’t think any of their classmates/coworkers/etc. are “cute.” Shout out to aro girls who are sick of being asked “who you’re dressing up for” any time they want to wear a bit of eyeliner and a pretty skirt. Your femininity is not made any less real or valid by your aromanticism.

Sherman Brothers: Chitty Bang Bang Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Chitty Bang Bang Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Chitty Bang Bang Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Me:

Especially musicals. He liked Marry poppins and chitty chitty bang bang especially.

When Molly has the twins, his lullaby to them is ‘You two’

He’s caught Percy absentmindedly humming the bank song

Charlie and Bill used to skip around the house yelling supercalifragilisticexpialidocious at the top of their lungs. Percy hates it now.

Molly would sing ‘stay awake’ and ‘feed the birds’ whenever arthur was away.

Arthur got the idea to enchant his car from Chitty Chitty. Molly was not amused but he calmed her down by singing ‘truly scrumptious’

Ron never got super into it but occasionally he’ll hum chim chim chery with Harry cause it was the only song he liked.