A Lesson in Practicality

Slipping

Virgil marched into the apartment with Roman trailing behind before pacing around the kitchen. Roman looked over at Thomas and Roman sitting on the couch before shrugging, not really sure what to say. "I told him and he practically ran here."

Patton arrived a bit late, having troubles getting out of work early. Not due to his boss, he let him go fairly quickly once he mentioned it was an emergency, but people don't care if you're in a rush when they need things. He had to call his boss over just to be able to get out of the library. He watched Virgil pacing and watched on in a bit of a panic himself before pulling him into a hug and getting him to breathe.

They all sat quietly around the table in the living room as Patton passed out cups to everyone. Tea, hot cocoa, coffee, even water if they declined the offer for a drink. Patton kept himself distracted before he sat down, joining Virgil on the floor and holding his hot cocoa close.

Logan's eyes were glowing slightly as he stared at the table. Everyone watched him in silence until it faded and he blinked, looking around. "As far as I can tell, it's not near us and doesn't know where we are." A chorus of relieved sighs ran out and everyone relaxed just a bit more. "I have a bit of unfortunate news to start off first." Logan looked up at Roman before turning to Virgil. "I can't quite tell since I've no idea what I'm looking for. Still, it seems it has been changing hosts at an incredible rate. Each person claims to not remember the experience more than a blackout."

Patton nodded and pulled himself in closer. "Yeah, Three doesn't remember anything at all except for that white noise it makes."

"Yeah, I remember that," Thomas spoke up. "I was trying to figure out where it was coming from before it, uh..." He made a motion towards his mouth much like he did when first explaining it to Logan. He dropped his hand, not really wanting to finish his sentence.

"It seems like it's searching for information. Thomas doesn't recognize the person who appeared at his door but that doesn't mean it didn't inhabit someone he did know who knew where he lived."

Thomas froze at the news, looking at Logan with panic. "I didn't think of that. One of my friends could have been..." He covered his mouth with his hands at the thought.

"What about the people it grabbed before it started hopping around?" Virgil asked with concern.

Logan and Roman exchanged a look before Roman huffed and crossed his arms, looking off. "Unfortunately, it dug a bit too deep and most of the hosts from before have not made it."

"So it just took what it wanted and left behind a string of bodies?" Virgil spat out in anger. "Were you ever planning on telling me this?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, we were. Perhaps in a more delicate way but we did not want to withhold this information." Logan adjusted his glasses, using it as an excuse to shoot Roman another look.

"I thought about it," Roman muttered, still facing away from the group. "At first I didn't want to but Logan had a point. Keeping it from you would have only upset you when you did find out." He looked over at Virgil before quickly looking away. "I will blame myself for it as much as you blame yourself, so don't blame yourself and we won't have a problem!"

Patton reached over and placed his hand on Virgil's shoulder, who was watching Roman rather confused but with an evergrowing smile. He looked over at Patton and jumped, pretending to cough and hiding the smile behind his hand as if it weren't there. "Whatever."

"So, what do we do now?" Patton looked up at the others. "It's already found Thomas and he can't stay here forever."

"There's only one thing I can think of." Logan leaned back in his chair and placing his hands together. "Wait for it to come to us."