Chapter Text
Everything in Thomas’s life was going perfectly when it happened. It started with the three original core sides having less influence over Thomas. Then, the next day, it progressed to them not having access to the real world at all. They could influence Thomas some, but they couldn’t speak to him at all. Virgil was the only light side left with direct access to Thomas. And he had more influence than normal. Quite a bit more. And Thomas was acting weird. Something was wrong...
They were all hoping this would stop on its own. That this would go away, it would all go back to normal, and Thomas would act like his normal self again. It did not stop on its own. It progressed.
They knew something was very wrong with Thomas when one of his friends asked if he was okay and he replied with a fake smile and a quick, “Yeah, I’m great! Just… tired, I guess…” Afterwards he’d escaped the situation and gone back home, only to stare blankly at the floor for the next few hours. The three of them had tried to influence him in every way they could, and that’s when they discovered that they’d completely lost the ability to influence Thomas. But that became the least of their worries when they woke the next morning.
Patton yawned and stretched, rolling over in bed. He felt around as he sat up. Hm. He must have kicked the blankets off during the night. His eyes opened, and instantly he froze, letting his eyes drift across the room momentarily before settling on the pillow he was on. The pillow that was almost twice the size of a regular bed right now.
He rolled over onto hands and knees and craned his neck to see the rest of his bed, and his stomach lurched at the size. Patton let himself look at the rest of the room. Okay, so… he was tiny? This was not good… No, no, he had to think positive! Maybe this is a good thing! Maybe this meant Thomas was feeling better! Somehow… No, that wasn’t working. Maybe someone else would know more! Yeah, except…
Patton carefully crawled to the edge of the bed and looked over, and his heart leaped, limbs feeling a little weak at the size of the drop. “Okay… Let’s just… find another way down! And then we’ll go check on the others!” He took a deep breath and looked around the room. There had to be something on the bed that he could… Oh, wait! There! He crawled down the bed, almost to the other end, and looked over the end. It didn’t reach the floor, but it would probably do. He took one more deep breath, closed his eyes for a moment, and laid on his stomach. His heart raced as he gripped the blanket tight and slid carefully over the edge. Hands shaking, he let go with one hand and grabbed the blanket again lower, then did the same with the other hand, and so on and so forth, until he was hanging off the edge of the blanket, partways off the floor. His feet couldn’t touch the floor, but looking down it didn’t look like that much of a drop, and he wasn’t sure his sore arms would let him hold on much longer.
So he squeezed his eyes shut and let go. Thump! He hit the floor hard a second later, dull pain throbbing through his legs for a moment. He… he did it. Slowly Patton opened his eyes and stood up. He found himself on the floor of his very, very large bedroom. Well, that was the goal, so… Okay, now to get into the hall.
He looked up at the massive door and started over to it. He got there quickly and was more grateful than ever that he didn’t usually latch his door. Pushing his full weight against it, he pushed it open just enough further that he could slip through. There. He was in the hall.
He looked around for a moment, trying not to feel any more vulnerable than he already did. The nearest door to his was Logan’s, but his door was always closed and latched, and there was no way he could even get to the door handle at this size, so… the next closest door was Roman’s. He turned and walked to it, letting out a sigh of relief when he realized the door was already open a crack.
Patton slipped inside, eyes immediately finding the bed. Well, it looked empty from this angle… “Roman?” He took a deep breath and called again, louder, and this time he got a small gasp and there was a rustling, then Roman’s miniaturized face peered down at him from on the bed.
“Oh, Patton! It’s happened to you too! I-I’ve just woken up like this…”
“Is there any way you can get down?”
He shook his head. “I’m not sure. How did you do it yourself?”
“My blanket was half off the bed, so I climbed… Not much help for you.”
Roman help up a finger for a moment, thinking. “Actually, I think that just gave me an idea!”
“Oh?”
“Yeah! I’m gonna try and shove one of these pillows off and then I can jump!”
“What?! No! That’s way too high, a pillow wouldn’t be enough!”
Roman sighed dramatically. “Well, what else would you suggest I do?”
Patton sat in thought for a moment. “Maybe someone else is awake and they’ll know what to do. I’m gonna go see if I can find help!”
“Just be careful! In case everyone isn’t…” Roman sighed. Patton was already gone, nearing the door, slipping around the corner. “Small…”
Patton walked down the hallway to Logan’s door, just to be sure it really was closed. It was. Sighing, he looked down the hallway, at the long space ahead of him, and started towards the last door.
When he finally got there he had to lean against the doorframe to catch his breath. It wasn’t exactly a short walk at this size… He panted for a few moments, and then turned to see if the door was closed all the way, but just when he was turned the door swung open and a foot bigger than his whole body slammed down a mere sliver from him.
He screamed at the top of his lungs and scrambled backward, falling over onto his back in his haste. Before he had even recovered enough to stand again, the giant foot moved, and he squeezed his eyes shut against the nauseating blur of movement. “Patton?!”
The booming voice was surprisingly not as jarring as he’d assumed it would be. If anything it was comforting. Slowly, he looked up and opened his eyes and the ginormous eyes of Virgil met his. After a while of staring, he stood up. “H-Hi. You’re… huge.”
“You’re tiny. Wh-What happened?! Have you seen the others?! Are they like this too?! Oh no, they aren’t in the hall too, are they?! Was anyone over here?!” He half-rose and looked around himself quickly, then his eyes settled on his feet and a hand shot to his mouth. “Oh god, I can’t look…”
“Hey, hey! No one else was out here. It’s just me.”
Virgil sighed heavily and his hand dropped as he crouched back down. Oh, yeah, was it mentioned that as Virgil got more powerful, he had been getting more and more anxious and on edge? Because he had been, but this was worse than he’d been yet. “Oh, thank goodness. And the others? Are they like this too?!”
“Well, Roman is. But I couldn’t get into Logan’s room to check. He keeps his door closed.”
Virgil nodded. “Right. Right. Oh, this is bad. This is really bad. And y-you just woke up like this?”
“Yeah. Me and Roman both.”
“Okay…”
Patton stared up at him. He was definitely acting way more on edge than yesterday. “Hey, Virgil?” Virgil looked back down at him. “Are you okay?”
“Um… yeah. Yeah, I’m… I’m fine… Just, this… getting paranoid thing that’s been going on so bad lately, is… really not good… right now. It’s nothing compared to what you’ve got going on, anyway.”
“Hey, now! Don’t you ever assume that just because someone else has bigger- or, a lot smaller in this case- problems that that means your problems are any less valid! Your trouble is still a serious problem, even if my problem may be a little more serious! Alright?!”
Virgil smirked and shook his head. “Yeah, okay. Whatever you say.”
Patton nodded firmly. “But, um… On the topic of problems… I kinda need your help. Or I guess Roman’s the one that needs help. Because I had my blankets falling off the bed so I climbed down on those, right? Well, Roman doesn’t any way down. And I came to get you because he was gonna try and jump off onto a pillow, but it was just still too high! So he said he wouldn’t if I could get help! You can get him down! So, please? Help?”
“Um… I mean, I… I don’t know what exactly I could do…”
“There’s a ton you could do! You could pull the blanket down and he could climb down like I did for starters!”
“Uh, no. Not happening. Not with him on the bed. If I pull that blanket down, at his size, he might go flying.”
“Hm, okay. Then you could just set him down yourself!”
“Set him… what, you mean just pick him up?! Uh, no!”
“Well, why not?”
“Why not?! I cannot tell you how many things could go wrong with that! If he’s the same size as you, I so much as step wrong and he’s gonna drop!”
Patton looked up at him with the most pathetic expression he could muster. “Please? Could you try? I know you could do it!”
Virgil sighed. “And if something did go wrong?”
“It won’t! I know it! Trust me, I know you can do it! So… maybe I could get a ride?”
Virgil groaned. “Okay, okay, this… this could go so wrong…”
“Or it could be perfectly fine. Please? Just try?”