Virgil crawled down from his bunk and put away the IT book. He still kind of wanted to burn it. Why was his instinct to burn things he hated? Maybe he needed to look into that. Either way, he was glad he was finally done with reading ahead in the chapters. Virgil breathed a sigh of relief and walked over to his mini-fridge while Roman played with the new camera's settings at his desk.
"Oh, is it lunchtime?" Roman asked as he watched Virgil through the lens.
"Yeah, I have class soon," Virgil said distractedly as he squatted down and grabbed a bag from the Fridge. Roman watched with interest as he loaded it into the warmer and leaned back in his chair while it heated. Virgil heard a click as he shifted to wait and looked to Roman.
"You show up in photos," Roman said, sounding slightly surprised, still clicking around on his camera and focusing on the little digital screen.
"Nobody uses the Daguerreotype anymore, it's all digital," Virgil said, rolling his eyes. "You'll find you can see me in modern mirrors, too,"
"What the hell is the Daguerreotype?" Roman asked curiously and Virgil heard another click of a photo being taken.
"It's the old style of camera that used silver. I won't show up in any technologies that use silver. You think I'd risk coming to college where any idiot could out me by taking a photo?" Virgil explained acerbically, looking irritably at Roman for implying Virgil would be so reckless.
"Geez, you're moody just before feeding," Roman responded hotly and rolled his eyes right back at Virgil. Roman returned to pushing buttons on the camera.
The bag warmer clicked and Virgil reached down to 'enjoy' his lunch. It was a little hard having O-positive with AB-negative sitting right next to him. He bought whatever was in stock last time. Virgil needed to consider buying rarer blood types so it wouldn't be like eating sand while sniffing ambrosia. He only had about 3 days left and should probably contact that Remy guy.
Roman watched Virgil drain the bag, enraptured again. It was probably his compulsion. Or Roman was just more gothically inclined than he let on. Or Roman just has gotten into the habit of staring at Virgil. Other than watching Virgil feed, Roman has done nothing weird yet. If the bond is weaker than Deceit's then it should take much longer for him to get weird. Virgil gladly put that hurdle put off. Not that he had any inkling what was going through Roman's head right now. The compulsion plus the bond would probably be hard to handle if it was stronger.
After Virgil pulled himself out of the bagged daze, he tossed the empty bag and pulled out his phone to contact Remy. He needed the rares; the cost be damned. He had an entire slightly stale and gross tasting bag and would still give anything for some of Roman's blood. Virgil briefly missed the business professional attire and his closed office where he didn't have to be smelling blood all day long and drinking so much. It was a shit situation if he got nostalgic for business hell. He would not put Roman in that position if he could help it, while Virgil still had his sense. Deceit would let Virgil use his account for this.
'This is V, GL' Virgil sent to him. GL was code for asking if it was safe to talk on the number. It was easy to remember as 'good line', but was supposed to be innocuous text abbreviation. You could send good luck to any number under little suspicion.
'GL,' with a checkmark emoji came. 'Who refereed you, babe?' Remy sent back.
'Thomas. You got rares? I'm in a situation.' Virgil sent.
'Ugh, what a piece of cake, right? I'd eat him any day.' Remy sent with an eggplant emoji, a few rainbows, an umbrella, the water droplets, the wrench, and a blushing face. 'Not a lot of rares. There's a premium on those right now,'
'I'll take them. I need 14 units if you have them,' Virgil replied.
'Not all of rares,' Remy replied with a dancing girl emoji, a crab, an angry face, the pirate flag, an overheated face, and a few different hands for some reason. What the fuck?
'idc, like I said, I'm in a situation. Anything is better than nothing. Inv my crypto.' Virgil sent and added a link to Deceit's secure account for Remy to charge him.
'Somebody's a serious sam' Remy sent with an eye roll emoji, some eyes, a grandma, and the money flying away. 'When do you need them by?' Remy sent with hang ten and some eyes more eyes and the footprint emoji.
'I'm out in 3 days, most times before then is fine,' Virgil sent his address over.
'Babe, that's a college dorm,' Remy replied with 3 fire emojis and a rainbow emoji, along with chains and a siren.
'As I said, a situation,' Virgil sent. 'Roommate is itk and daytime visits aren't logged,' He added for Remy to be less concerned about trouble. If that's what the emojis meant. Not that Virgil could fit the rainbow to make sense for that theory.
'Itk? sup?' Remy sent with a dork emoji and various supernatural creature emojis with an excited face. Sup was short for supernatural. Virgil wasn't fond of it, but the name stuck since it was also ambiguous.
'It's complicated. You'll get it when you see him,' Virgil sent with a sigh, carefully eying Roman on his laptop across the room.
'Oh, you saucy slut, you've whetted my curiosity, you free at 7? I gotta see,' Remy sent back with an eyeglasses emoji, a crown, the water droplets, a fire emoji, and a microscope emoji. What in the world was he trying to communicate with these?
'Sure,' He sent with a sunset emoji, just to see if he'd react.
'See you then, you thirsty bitch,' He sent with a winking emoji, a fire extinguisher emoji, 3 dancing girls, the gay groomsmen emoji, 2 fire emojis, and a lighting strike. What the fuck?
"Roman, is there some kind of special emoji language I missed? Because this guy is speaking in picture tongues," Virgil said and held up his phone. Roman walked over and looked at the texts.
"Well, I think I get the gist of the last set being excited, but I have absolutely no idea what everything else is supposed to mean," He said and handed back the phone. "Who was that anyway?"
"New hookup that Thomas uses. Hauling blood from two towns over where Deceit can get orders is too much of a pain in the ass," Virgil said with a dissatisfied grunt and shoved his phone back in his pocket. "He's coming at around 7 with a week's worth of food for me today," Virgil would figure out what those emojis meant, damnit. Virgil reread them carefully.
"Okay, so units are your capri suns, but what are rares?" Roman asked curiously, distracting Virgil from the forbidden emoji knowledge.
"Rarer blood types, stuff under 10% availability. U-rares are B-negative and AB-negative, but most hookups don't buy them since vampires can get a little… feral… just smelling the bag,"
"So, the situation that you need rares for is?" Roman asked tentatively. Virgil just raised his eyebrow at Roman, but he seemed to want a real answer after a moment of silence.
"After tasting you, common types taste like dirt," Virgil said a bit bitterly. Roman flushed slightly. "As I said, it's addictive. You're safe and all, but if I don't have to eat dirt, then I don't want to. It'll probably be a week or two until it's fully out of my system," Virgil said and sighed, flopping his head back.
"Should I leave before this Remy guy comes?" Roman asked with concern tinging his voice.
"You're safe, he'll smell my venom over the smell of your blood, even if you're buck naked," Virgil offered in reassurance and Roman flushed again, this time with embarrassment.
"Why in the world would I be naked?" Roman demanded, aghast. He crossed his arms and looked very concerned at Virgil.
"You wouldn't. But blood-typing is harder through the smell of your clothes and the environment. Not every vampire can do it, either, it's sort of an acquired skill. Anyway, Remy's a seller, he carries blood all the time. I don't think you'd have to worry about him. What made you think he was a vampire, anyway?" Virgil asked curiously.
"Wouldn't all sellers be vampires?" Roman asked, confused, his arms slacking from their defensive state slightly.
"No, most of them are humans. Usually nurses or something who steal bags to supplement their income. Most vampires aren't inclined to share their dinner. We're very territorial bastards, honestly," Virgil explained. Roman's eyes widened for a moment, but he nodded in understanding.
"I guess glad I'm part of your territory, then," Roman said detachedly, dropping his arms and looking away.
"You're not my territory, you're my friend," Virgil said, rolling his eyes. "I don't do the territory thing. It's a bloody nightmare. It's not that common anymore, anyway. Deceit thinks that clan activity is dwindling because there are fewer Alphas than Betas and Omegas out there," Virgil said.
"What, wait? Like wolves? I've heard you mention that you're an Alpha before, but the rest is news to me," Roman asked.
"Pack hierarchy maybe, but it has nothing to do with breeding. Betas are turned by Alphas, Omegas are turned by Betas. Omegas can't turn anybody," Virgil explained. "It's just the easiest naming system. The whole 'turned' and 'turned by turned' thing is confusing. Plus, the old phrase for Alphas was 'originals' or 'children of Hecate' and that was completely insufferable," The bitterness slipped through Virgil's tone by the end of the explanation.
"Geez, there's lots of freaking vampire terminology," Roman said, annoyed. Roman mirrored the sentiment. "There should be a college course in that," Roman added glibly.
"Oh man, that's a professor you wouldn't want to cross. Every time a college professor wants some kid to jump off a bridge, he could actually make them do it," Virgil said with a dark laugh. "Oh, I've got to get to class," Virgil interrupted the train of thought suddenly when he looked at the time on his laptop.
"I thought it doesn't start for another 20 minutes?" Roman asked, perplexed.
"I get there early to sit near an exit. I'm afraid of crowds," Virgil said casually and shoved his laptop into his bag and got up to slip on his shoes.
"You can really take all the fun out of being powerful immortal, can't you? Go have fun in your stupid computer illiteracy class," Roman said sardonically and waved him off.
"Gee, thanks," Virgil groaned sarcastically and headed downstairs to get to class.
After the harrowing trek in the sun, Virgil made it to his regular spot in the aisle. He loaded up his notes program and some poetry and leaned back to listen to his music until the lecture started. He closed his eyes and tried to relax before having his brain bored into by the impending droll lecture.
"So, you're acquainted with my roommate," He heard Logan say. Virgil opened his eyes to see Logan sit down next to him. "They were crying earlier today because of you," He added evenly.
"Oh, shit, I'm sorry! What did I do?" Virgil asked, suddenly sitting upright and upset.
"You bought them a laptop," Logan replied impassively.
"Oh, fuck, I'm bad with boundaries sometimes… I'll let Pat know they don't have to accept it or anything," Virgil blurted out quickly and pulled out his phone in a panic.
"No, I believe they were 'happy tears'. Patton is very emotional. They were crying at a cartoon yesterday. Thank you for the noise-canceling headphones. I will be utilizing them frequently," Logan was as controlled as ever, but there was a hint of humor in his tone at the end. Virgil exhaled his panic and settled back down instantly. Hopefully, he didn't spook Roman.
"Oh, sounds like it. Feel free to let me know if you want anything else. I didn't realize you were Pat's roommate," Virgil said, the relief extremely evident in his voice.
"I am. I apologize for the assumption, but you don't seem like the type of person who gravitates towards high-energy people like Patton," Logan said, looking to Virgil curiously.
"Oh, Patton started it. They make me feel supported and accepted just being around them. Otherwise, their intense optimism would probably wear on me. It's very nice to be around for a change, though. You're right in that I'm used to more even-keeled interactions," Virgil explained. Though remaining impassive was likely just professionalism and not just the type of people he was around. His old team was relatively introverted, though. They never wanted those goal parties, they just enjoyed getting free pizza and sitting at their own desks. Virgil didn't go to those parties himself outside of a little face time before ducking out.
"Yes, Patton does seem to have that effect. They are very kind and considerate towards my needs. That is not very common in the people I have met," Logan said as he pulled out his laptop and booted up his programs. "They are rather eccentric, but it doesn't distract me as much as it normally does in other people. I perhaps have grown fond of their idiosyncrasies,"
"Pat has that power," Virgil said with a small smile and a nod in agreement. "Did you open the simple version of snake I made yet?" Virgil inquired hopefully. He hadn't gotten a response e-mail yet.
"Yes, you seem to have a very good grasp of Java in a short period of time. I am surprised you have the time to work so diligently with 5 classes," Logan said with respect.
"I'm a bit of an insomniac. I'd rather be productive in my downtime," Virgil said and stretched his arms briefly. "Things will get busier later in the term and I'll be pulled away with other things, so I wanted to get the basics quickly,"
"I am surprised your lack of sleep doesn't affect your absorption of the material. Sleep-deprivation typically entails impaired thinking and judgment," Logan mused in interest.
"I've just had insomnia for a long time," Virgil lied dismissively.
"Do you often disturb your roommate while you are working late?" Logan asked after a short pause. "Patton has complained about my late-night studying in the past. I would like to circumvent those kinds of issues and would not mind advice,"
"We don't have that problem. Roman sleeps pretty soundly after going to bed. I put blackout curtains on my loft and it stops the light from my laptop bothering him. Plus, I'm always using headphones. That could be part of it, but I'm not positive," Virgil said and pointed to the pair on his head.
"I will take note of the blackout curtains. I have not installed any linens on the rod. Patton mentioned that you almost never take the headphones off. Do those headphones have a talk-through feature?" Logan asked and eyed them studiously.
"Yeah, it's this button on the center. You'll be able to hear Patton easily, it works well," Virgil replied, pointing at the button on the earphone.
"I see. I was curious about that. I have seen you take them off for a lecture before and was not positive the headphones could function that way," Logan explained placidly.
"I was worried about getting in trouble or looking weird. Patton lectured me about it," Virgil said with a sigh. "I will try it their way and leave them on unless something bad happens," Virgil added, half-way between defeat and relief.
"Do you struggle with lights and smells as well? I've seen you on campus with sunglasses and a mask," Logan asked inquisitively.
"Um, yeah, smells and sounds can upset me," Virgil muttered quietly. He wasn't aware that Logan had seen him around. Well, sensory overload wasn't really that far off from what Virgil struggled with. Virgil wasn't sure how it worked for humans, honestly, but it seemed like a reasonable enough excuse.
"Then why do you remove the mask indoors?" Logan asked, but he didn't sound accusatory.
"I get weird looks and that makes me nervous. I can handle smells up to a certain point, and that's when I put up with the weird looks and put the mask on," Virgil explained. He didn't even need to lie about this.
"That sounds like a reasonable course of action," Logan said and nodded. For some reason, Virgil didn't mind being interviewed by Logan, even though normally he would hate fielding these questions. Logan was just curious, not trying to incriminate Virgil.
Patton said they thought Logan also had sensory overload. Perhaps Logan just wanted to know more about how Virgil experienced it. Logan was curious about everything in the world. That was refreshing and interesting to be around. Logan could make anything sound interesting. Even headphones and face masks. The teacher walked into class, and Logan focused towards the front. Virgil followed suit and paid attention to the teacher. Ugh, Virgil liked Logan even more now, and he didn't know if there was anything to even do about it. Logan seemed really focused on school, and Virgil didn't want to be considered a distraction.
Virgil returned to his dorm and returned his laptop to the desk lethargically. It was nice chatting with Logan, but the class had beaten him down again. The material was repetitive and it let Virgil's mind wander and it kept going places he didn't want it to.
"What's got you down, stormcloud?" Roman said, looking up from his desk. It looked like he was doing his psychology homework from this morning, though his face was strained.
"I'm just a little overwhelmed," Virgil said dismissively and kicked off his shoes.
"Just a little overwhelmed? My psychology homework is 3 short-answer questions and review, and I feel like I'm going to pull out my hair. This can't be me," Roman groaned. "Play your drums, doctor's orders," Virgil rolled his eyes. Roman was feeling very demanding today. Virgil felt bad about upsetting him, but it was a kind of silly. "I mean it Virgil, hit things with sticks before I start beating my face on the desk. Maybe buy me something, that always seems to make you happy," Roman said angrily. That made Virgil laugh. What a turnaround.
"Yes, sir," He said sarcastically, with extra emphasis on sir. Virgil took his synth off the desk and propped it against the wall to set up the pads. He hadn't played with the new pads and second base pedal yet. He'd need to plug in his phone and program them. "What do you want for dinner?" He asked and pulled up the delivery app first.
"I don't know, something expensive and bougie so you can feel better," Roman said in frustration, rubbing his face.
"You okay with sushi?" Virgil asked. He had sorted by expense on the app, and this restaurant was on the top of the list.
"Sure," Roman said with a bitter laugh. After a moment, he breathed deeply. "Oh, thank god, I'm calming down, I was really worried about the future state of my face," Roman chuckled nervously.
"Sorry. It'll get easier the more you can identify them as my emotions as separate from yours," Virgil offered in solace. "I'm going to order you some bougie shit. Then I'm going to put on some tits and hit things with sticks," Virgil said and stood up to head over to her dresser.
"Sounds fantastic. I'll be finally doing my homework after 30 minutes of nervously avoiding it,"
"Sorry, again. Yesterday was a lot," Virgil said with a nervous sigh. It also brought up a lot she didn't like thinking about.
"Still don't regret getting superpowers," Roman proclaimed proudly, facing down to his desk to work. "Let's hit the track or something after dark,"
"Sure," She chuckled as she rummaged through her drawers. She yanked Roman's curtains closed and put on her bust and a girl's cut shirt, leaving her hoodie off. After a quick stop in the bathroom to change her makeup, she opened his curtain back and sat down at her desk to finish setting up her drums.
Learning to double pedal was a fun challenge. Pedaling for one base was like tapping your foot to the beat with intention. Pedaling for two was like trying to run horizontally with one foot while playing drums. Which is a pretty great image, even if it wasn't a totally accurate analogy. She was really enjoying it, her garbage analogies aside. Roman even burst out in laughter at one point, which made her laugh, too. He really laughed easily.
"Okay, those seem to be fun as hell. Can I try?" Roman asked and stood up from the desk. Virgil raised her eyebrow. "I finished my homework, mom, I told you it was short,"
"Okay. Let me show you how to hold the sticks," She said, unplugging her headphones from the kit and pulled a second pair of sticks out of the open storage bin on the floor.
"There's a stick-holding technique? I can't just hit the pads?" Roman asked. Virgil rolled her eyes.
"Maybe if you want to be shit at it. It's not that hard, you big baby," She said and handed him the sticks, placing his hands in the right position. "The thumb and forefinger are what's holding the stick. The others are loose. Don't play from your wrist, play from your arms. See how I'm holding it?" She said and held her sticks and played in the air. "Loosey-Goosey. Now, you may hit them with sticks," She said with a bemused smile. Roman sat down at the kit and eyed it suspiciously. "It's not going to bite. Just hit each thing once and you'll figure out what they are. And try to show some restraint with your new strength so you don't break my pads,"
"Okay, got it," Roman said and started hitting the pads in order from left to right. He looked back up to her expectantly after running through the sounds twice.
"Great. Hit around and use the pedals until you like the sounds and your hands start to learn how it works. You don't have to make a song or anything, just get a feel for it," Roman just eyed her warily. "I'm serious. There doesn't have to be a wrong way to play it while you're learning. I can teach you more about techniques and stringing together the sounds later,"
"You're the easiest music teacher I've ever had," Roman said with relief.
"Oh, don't get me started on music teachers and classical training or you'll go berserk," Virgil said, tinged with annoyance. Virgil had some baggage there, as somebody who lived a few life times as an orchestra member.
"I get the message loud and clear," Roman said with a solemn nod and started smacking the pads. Virgil grabbed her laptop and walked up the ladder, squatting down as she reached the apex to sit on her loft.
"Holy shit, Virge, warn a dude!" Roman said crossly from under the loft.
"What?" She asked with faux-innocence.
"You know! When you're going to bend the fucking laws of physics and walk right up god damn walls!" Roman shouted sharply.
"It's more fun to climb things this way," Virgil shrugged. "If you could do it, you'd want to use it, too," She said defiantly and opened up her laptop to read while Roman was playing on her drum kit.
"Okay, fair," Roman said, seemingly mollified with that answer, and went back to playing with her kit. It was only a few minutes later she got the notification that the food order was down in the lobby.
"I'm going to go grab your sushi," Virgil said and hopped down from the bed. She put her hoodie back on and slipped on her shoes.
"Alright, try not to get in trouble for being in the boy's dorm," He said impishly and continued playing drums.
"It's not after 8 yet, dad, I'm allowed to 'visit'," Virgil responded sarcastically.
Virgil slid down the bars on the stairs for a few flights until she jogged the rest of the way down to get Roman's sushi. She saw the guy in a service logo polo holding her delivery at the front desk and jogged up.
"Thanks," She said with a big smile and took the bag, handing him his tip. He also had a big smile after that.
"Thanks yourself! Have a nice evening, ma'am," He said and turned around to leave. Virgil went back to the stairwell and enjoyed the fresh air on the way back up to her floor.
"Honey, I'm home and I have expensive fish," Virgil said enthusiastically as she reentered the dorm.
"Thanks, Virge," Roman called over his shoulder while he was playing with the pad. Virgil set the delivery bag on the window desk and watched Roman play around for another minute or two. After a few failed attempts to play the bass and high hat at the same time, he hit all the pads randomly. Roman laughed at the incongruous noise as he put the sticks down on the desk. He got up and pulled her into a hug on the way to the window desk. She sunk into it with a soft breath and hugged him back. Virgil appreciated the heat from him for a moment.
"Hey, before you eat and throw it back up, you want to stand on the ceiling?" Virgil asked enthusiastically. He did agree that he'd use the powers if he had them earlier, and she wanted to thank him for the hug.
"Hell yeah, I do!" Roman said and let her go, looking up at the ceiling.
"Nope, you'll want to hold on for this one," Virgil said and grabbed him again, jumping and flipping to land on the ceiling. She felt Roman's shirt sag up his back, snickered at his hair flopping to the floor. He held on tightly and looked around.
"You'd make a killer roller coaster," Roman said, laughing. "You can just swap mid-air?"
"I can swap from the floor. It's less disorienting if I jump," Virgil clarified, humor evident in her voice.
"It was disorienting either way. Can I try the horizontal one?" Roman asked excitedly, bouncing slightly. Virgil jumped again and landed sideways on the wall next to the closet.
"We're totally going to have to fix our hair after this," Roman said, looking from the floor to the ceiling. Virgil smiled and ruffled his hair. "Okay, to the floor before I'm too dizzy for my expensive raw fish," Roman directed with a chuckle. Virgil jumped and landed in the middle of the floor and let him go.
"You wouldn't believe how tempting it is to walk down the wall of the stairwell," Virgil said, brushing down her hair with her hand. "I'm almost always alone in there, but people could walk in at any time,"
"Probably a good call to resist temptation," Roman agreed as he sat down and wheeled himself over to the window desk to eat. Virgil walked over to turn on the kettle for tea, then sat on the wall next to him with a toothy grin. Roman looked eagerly at the various things she ordered for him. He cracked open the bottle of lemon-lime soda and took a swig while Virgil reached out and poured herself a mug of tea.
"I have no idea how you intend to drink that sideways," Roman said and cracked apart his chopsticks. "But if you make a mess, you're cleaning up," Roman added and popped a nigiri in his mouth.
"I'm just steeping it, dork for brains," Virgil said with a catty smirk. "How's the sushi?" She asked, watching him reach for a roll.
"A godsend," He said, downing another piece. "I don't think I've ever eaten sushi this good," Virgil smiled and watched him eat for a while until he had decimated the roll and pieces of nigiri she had ordered for him. He seemed to really enjoy it, but it just smelled like fish to her. Human tongues are so weird. Or maybe hers is what's so weird. Maybe that's too existential a train of thought. Then there was a knock at the door with a terrifying smell she hadn't noticed before. Virgil fell to the ceiling in the sudden panic of being caught off guard.
