When Virgil had first met Deceit, it was in the darkness of Thomas' subconscious.
He had been alone, content to allow all of Thomas' thoughts, positive and negative, to swirl around him in whispers, half-thoughts that had the potential to become something more but probably never would. Virgil liked the subconscious. It comforted him, being around other useless things that were unnecessary to Thomas but were there all the same.
Virgil had not been part of Thomas for long, though. Thomas was nearly finished high school now, and Anxiety had only been here for a few years. None of the other sides had noticed him, though he'd noticed them. There were the three main sides, Patton, Roman and Logan, who were the embodiment of Thomas' Morality, Creativity and Logic, respectively. Those three were important; they were the core of who Thomas was, and all the good in him came from them.
Virgil was Thomas' Anxiety. He was the bad thing.
When Virgil had first come into being, he had almost tried to make contact with the main three. He had ventured into the mindscape where they lived and had observed them for a little bit, trying to work out how to introduce himself, but the longer he looked, the more he had worried. What if they didn't like him? What if he messed everything up? What if his anxiety ruined all the fun they seemed to have on their own? What if they hated him? He didn't want them to hate him. He scared himself so much that he ran away without ever actually introducing himself. Somehow, he found himself in the subconscious, and he had stayed there. He had stayed there alone, and for a very, very long time.
He didn't really know how long he'd been alone there when suddenly he wasn't.
The moment another Side entered the subconscious, his senses went on red alert. He immediately stood, his head whipping around to try and find whoever it was that had entered, but, more importantly, to find a place to hide from the intruder. His mind began to race. No one had ever come here before! What were they doing here? Who were they? Was it Morality? Creativity? Logic?
His thoughts came to a sudden halt when the mysterious side finally got close enough for him to see, and he realised it was not any of the main three. This side wasn't wearing a tie or a cardigan or a sash, but rather, this side wore a bowler hat, a black suit with yellow accents, and a black cape that sat over his shoulders and was clasped at the front. As jarring as it was to Virgil to realise that there was a fourth side he didn't know about, nothing shocked him as much as when this unknown side stopped in front of him, and Virgil could see his face.
Snake scales covered almost the entire left side of the Side's face, and his left eye was yellow, with a slitted pupil. He also had a strangely highlighted jawline. His entire face left Virgil slightly terrified, especially when those lips curled into a lopsided grin. Virgil shrank back a few steps, but the side followed.
"Hello there, how wonderful to meet you." The Side said. He had a low, sultry voice that set Virgil on edge.
"H-hi." Virgil stammered, edging back a little more. He didn't know what to do or what to say. This was the first time he'd ever interacted with another Side before.
"My name is Deceit." The side said, holding his hand out expectantly. After a moment, Virgil realised that Deceit wanted to shake his hand.
"Oh, uh," Virgil awkwardly clasped Deceit's hand, and once his brain stopped screaming at him that he was actually touching another side, he was surprised by how strong the other side's grip was. "A-anxiety." He said.
"That's your function, but what is your actual name? Surely you have one."
"Uh…what's yours?" He asked instead of answering. He didn't know why, but the idea of telling this side, Deceit, what his name was just made him feel all sorts of anxiousness. There was something about reveal his name that Virgil just didn't like.
"I don't have a name." Deceit said.
"But…the others do?" Virgil was confused, and he shrank back a little.
"Well, yes, but they are main sides." Deceit shrugged a shoulder, angling his head slightly so that his snake scales were in Virgil's direct line of sight. "I'm not part of Thomas' core personality, so I don't have a name. Do you?" He pressed.
"N-no." Virgil lied, glad to have found a reason not to reveal his name. If Deceit didn't have one, maybe he could pretend that he didn't have one either.
Something squeezed his hand, almost painfully, and Virgil realised that Deceit still had his hand in his grip. Feeling awkward, he tried to pull his hand back, but the serpentine Side didn't let go.
"So, where is it that you live?" He asked instead.
"Where do I…live?" Virgil was once again left confused. Was he supposed to live somewhere other than the subconscious? He knew the main three lived in a house in the mindscape, but they were…the main three. They were at Thomas' core, of course they had somewhere specific that they resided, but Virgil was just…Thomas' anxiety. Her wasn't important enough to actually have a residence in the mind, was he?
"Yes," Deceit said exasperatedly. "Where do you live?"
"H-here." Virgil responded meekly, gesturing his hand at the dark expanse of empty space all around them.
"Well, that won't do at all." Deceit proclaimed, tugging Virgil's hand and pulling the anxious side closer to him. "You shall come with me, to my residence."
"W-hat?" Panic suddenly gripped Virgil, and he tried to pull away, to no avail. "N-no, I-I live h-here, you don't n-need to t-take me anyw-where." God, he wished he would stop stuttering and talk like a normal person, but his mind was moving too fast for his mouth, and he couldn't slow it down because he was hyper fixating on the fact that Deceit wouldn't let go of his hand!
"Easy now, clam down." Deceit was saying, but Virgil couldn't stop trying to yank his hand away, but God, Deceit had such a strong grip and he couldn't get free and he was trapped, he was trapped he was trapped he was trapped and-
"Hey!" Deceit rose his voice, snapping his fingers in front of Virgil's face, and the anxious side froze; his fight or flight reflexes abandoned, giving way to the less commonly known freeze instinct. He stood stock still, his eyes wide and his entire body shaking.
"Easy now," Deceit repeated. "Calm. Down. You don't need to panic, but you can't stay here, either. I have a house nearby. You can come live with me. A Side can't just live out here in the subconscious; eventually you'll fade away, and fading is just like dying. You don't want to die, do you?"
Virgil shook his head violently, not breaking eye contact with Deceit, purely because he didn't seem physically capable of doing so. "N-no." He stuttered. "I don't want to d-die."
"Then come with me." Deceit said, his voice softer now. "I promise I won't hurt you." He positioned himself beside Virgil and let go of the anxious Side's hand, and Virgil was relieved the contact had ended, as his hand felt like it was burning after being touched for the first time in his life and then having been held for so long. The reprieve was short, though, as Deceit then placed a hand at the small of Virgil's back, and began to ease the smaller side forward. As his mind once again began to hyper-fixate on the pressure of Deceit's hand pressing through the hoodie on his back, he didn't really notice that Deceit was once again talking. He didn't really notice anything until suddenly they had stopped outside of a house that was situated seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
The house was a simple two-storey building, an almost exact replica of the home Thomas currently shared with his family, except this version had a much darker palette of paint. Virgil didn't have a whole lot of time to gawk, however, because Deceit quickly ushered him inside, shutting and locking the door behind him.
The snake-eyed side didn't bother showing him around the house, instead choosing to take him straight up the staircase into the second level of the house. The hallway contained a few doors, and Deceit chose a door at the very end of the hall and opened it, gesturing for Virgil to go inside. He did so, and when he was in the room Deceit joined him inside and shut the door. For some reason, the sound of the door closing made him flinch, ever so slightly.
"Now, this will be your room, Anxiety." Deceit said. "It's right opposite mine." Virgil noted that the room was small, containing only a single bed in the corner, and a closet on the opposite wall. Deceit opened the aforementioned closet door and, with a wave of his hand, a few sets of clothing appeared on the hangers. Virgil didn't get a good look before the door was shut again, but it appeared that Deceit had simply conjured some simple variations of what Virgil was already wearing – a dark grey and black hoodie, a black shirt and a dark grey pair of ripped jeans. "There, now you have clothes." Deceit said.
"Th-thank you." Virgil responded timidly.
"You're welcome." Was Deceit's simple response. For an awkward second, Virgil didn't know what to say. He was spared having to find something to say when a deep rumbling noise sounded from his stomach.
"It would appear that you are hungry." Deceit observed.
"But I…I've never been hungry before?" Virgil didn't understand why he was suddenly hungry now after never having been before.
"That's because you've been living in the subconscious for all these years." Deceit explained. "When you're in there, you don't need food or water or anything like that, but when you're in the mindscape, you're basically a human, with all the same bodily needs and functions."
"Oh."
"Now, shall we get you something to eat?" Deceit clapped his hands together and then opened the door, exiting the small room that was now Virgil's and gesturing for the anxious side to follow. Virgil complied, keeping a few paces behind the other side as he led him back down the staircase and into the kitchen.
Virgil stood in the kitchen awkwardly as Deceit grabbed something from the pantry and put it in the microwave.
"So, Anxiety." Deceit said as he grabbed a small plate from the cupboard and set it on the bench. "How old are you?"
"You mean…how long have I been with Thomas?" Virgil asked tentatively, wanting to make certain he knew exactly what Deceit was asking before he answered.
"Precisely."
"Uh…a few years now, I think." He responded, wringing his hands together. "I was never really keeping track." He paused for a moment. "Wh-what about you? Are you…older than me?"
"Obviously." Deceit said, raising an eyebrow. "I've been around since Thomas was a child."
"Oh." Virgil looked at his feet, not really sure what to do. They stood in awkward silence – well, at least it was awkward to Virgil – for another minute or so, until the microwave went off and Deceit told him to sit down at the table. Nervously, Virgil pulled out a chair and sat, and then Deceit handed him a plate, with a steaming hot meat pie perched atop it.
"Go on." Deceit encouraged. Virgil looked around for a knife or a fork – he was pretty sure you were supposed to eat food with utensils, right? – but there were none. After a few moments, Deceit chuckled. "You eat meat pies with your hands, dummy." He said.
"Oh." Virgil repeated. Carefully, he picked the pie up with his hands. The pie was hot and burned his skin, but Virgil thought that it was probably supposed to be this way. Why would Deceit have given him the pie so hot if it wasn't intended to be eaten at that temperature? Tentatively, he took a bite, and had to restrain himself from spitting the hot meat back out. It was so hot that he almost could not taste the meat. Tears welled in his eyes, but he forced himself to swallow the scorching food. Glancing up, he saw Deceit, still standing, smiling down at him.
"Th-thank you." He managed, before taking another bite of the pie, and again, and again until he was done. It burned him the entire way through.