All 14.2 - The Life and Times of Virgil Erzebet, Part 1

Victor held the note he was playing on his violin as Virgil entered the room, carrying his toy drum. “I’ma play too,” he announced.
Victor smiled, “Alright.”
The young child began to strike the drum with a reasonable semblance of rhythm. *whop whop whop whop* Victor continued playing the song. It was one he often played, and both he and his son knew it well; Virgil began to hum along with the violin, still tapping on the drum. As he became more focused on his singing, he began to beat more slowly, and Victor slowed the notes down accordingly. Virgil got an offended look and stopped, “Wha are you doing? Tha’s not how its supposta go!”
Victor smiled, “You were drumming slower so I slowed down.” Virgil looked confused, as Victor continued, “That’s what drums do. They tell everyone else how fast to go. If drums are slow, everyone else is slow. If they’re fast, everyone else goes fast.”
Virgil blinked a few times, and looked at the drum, considering. He began hitting it again, and Victor did his best to follow the beat he was provided. After a minute, Virgil grinned and began testing it, alternating rhythms and going as fast and slow as possible, endlessly entertained by the results. Victor smiled patiently, and played along with the rapidly-changing pace.
After a while, Virgil stopped and put down his drumstick. Standing up, he moved closer to the chair his father sat in and held out his hand. “I wanna play the violin now,” he declared. “....Pwease,” he appended.
Victor raised an eyebrow. “This is a hard instrument to play,” he said, “It’s for adults, and takes lots of practice.”
“I can pwactice!” he said firmly, still holding out his hand. “I can do it.”
“...Alright,” Victor relented. He slid down to the floor, “This one is big for you, so let me help, alright? It will break if it falls.”
“Kay.” Virgil stepped forward, and his father knelt behind him, supporting the instrument to Virgil’s shoulder and guiding his hands. He showed him how to press down on the strings, and with his guidance, drew the bow across, producing a scratchy, off-key note. Virgil frowned.
“I told you, it takes a lot of practice.”
“I’ma do it!” He replied with defiance. Victor smiled at his young determination, and the two continued, Virgil slowly learning how to properly coax a note out of the violin.
A long while later, Virgil, with assistance, managed to produce a long, proper sound. He smiled and jumped a little, “See see? I can do it!”
Victor smiled as well, “Of course you can. It just takes practice. You can do anything if you practice enough.”
Virgil stood up proper with a serious look, “I’ma play all of ‘em.”
“All of the notes?”
“All of the instuments.”
“You’re going to play every instrument?” he said with genial disbelief.
“Yahuh.”
“Well, that’s going to take a lot of practice.”
“Ya...I’ma do it anyway.”
Victor laughed a little, “Alright, well, why don’t you start with one?”
“Kay.”
----
"LUCCA LUCCA LUCCA LUCCA," The young boy yelled across the field as he tore over to where the druid was, his hands cupped together. "Look look look!" He held up his hands towards Lucca's face, still clasped together. "Lookit my bug!"
The look of mild alarm that had initially coloured the druid's expression at the sound of Virgil yelling his name quickly turned to one of amusement. "Take it easy, dude!", chuckling he dropped to one knee, and beckoned for the boy to come closer, "Lemme see whatcha got."
Virgil opened up his hands a bit, revealing a rather large millipede that had curled itself up out of stress. "I poked it and it pretendeded it died, but I think its jus pretending like that frog did when I poked it."
Peering in at the creature, Lucca's expression took on a tinge of pity. "That's pretty badass bug, dude! Can I hold him?" Holding his hands out, he continued, somewhat earnestly, "That was a toad, not a frog, remember? And I guess it's sorta like that...but do you remember why the toad pretended to be dead when you poked it?"
Virgil looked a bit wary, "...I wan him back..." He dropped the millipede into Lucca's palm. "And...umm...cause it didn't like bein poked," he added with a bit of a downcast look.
"Mmhmm. When you did that, it got really scared that you were a big hungry monster gonna eat it. That's the same with this guy; you made him real scared and he thinks that if he curls up all tight his armor will keep him safe." While he talked, he kept his hand flat and very still beneath the frightened creature, "It's not so much fun being scared though, is it? Which is why we need to be gentle with little dudes like this, right?" As he spoke, the insect slowly began to uncurl itself.
"Thas dumb," he said, watching closely as the insect unraveled and began crawling down Lucca's wrist. "How's curlin up in armor supposta help gainst monsters? Gotta fight back, bug! Like spiders. Or manises! How are you gonna stop the manises if you're hiding in a ball? They've got scissor arms. They're the best bug." He looked up at Lucca, "Could a manis break his armor?" 
This elicited a laugh from the druid, "I honestly dunno, I don't think so though. The whole point of the armor is to keep things from breaking in, it's pretty darn tough, especially when he's all rolled up; that makes it even stronger. It actually works out pretty well for these guys; they don't have to waste energy fighting, they just wait till the predators get bored and give up." He moved his other hand in front of the creature, letting it crawl back onto his hand, "Mantises don't generally wanna eat these sorta bugs anyway though, they like other things. Here, gimme your hand." Holding his hand out next to the boy's, he let the millipede crawl from his palm onto Virgil's, gently admonishing him as it did so, "Go easy, kay? Try not to scare him again."
"Kay." He watched it crawl up his arm some before he picked it up, not too carelessly, and placed it nicely on a tall, nearby plant. "Don't get stepped on," he told it seriously. He looked to Lucca and pointed to the millipede, "You watch him, an' I'ma find a manis." Before Lucca could reply, Virgil turned and ran off again.
----
"An' it was a huge spider made of wood, an' he jumped up and was all 'woosh woosh'," Virgil mimed spinning and swinging enthusiastically, "an' the spider fell apart, an' he saved the princess! But then the whole building fell apart, an' he had to run an' run an' run, an' just when the whole thing was about to fall over, he runs out the front door, and the castle disappears!" Virgil finished his excited retelling of the story to Lucca. "So you gotsta hide the treasure, an' I'll find it, an' you be the ghost tha's protectin it," he said with an air of young authority.
"Is that so? Wow!" The druid feigned amazement at the boy's story, his expression deeply amused, "So what's the treasure, and how scary of a ghost do I gotta be?"
Virgil rolled his eyes, "I don't know what it is, I gotta find it first. How am I supposta know what it is if I haven't found it? You're the ghost, you have the treasure. And you gotta be a super scary ghost. Treasure ghosts are supposed to be scary. Not like the kitchen ghosts. They couldn't protect any treasure at all."
"Alright, Alright," with a chuckle, he held up his hands in mock defeat, his tone slightly teasing, "Stupid me, duh! Super duper scary, no kitchen ghost nonsense up in here. Got it." Looking thoughtful, he added, "Kay, so how long of a count do I get?"
"I unno? Twenty. I can count to twenty," Virgil said with a bit of pride. He stood up and walked towards the door. "I'll go downstairs, an' come back." He left without really looking further. Lucca could hear the childs footsteps go downstairs.
Virgil walked into the sitting room, where his father was reading a book. He walked into the center of the room and began counting aloud. By the time he got to 8, Victor looked up over his page and asked, "What are you up to?"
"Ghosts an...rrrgh, you made me lose count!" Virgil interrupted himself to answer, and interrupted himself again just as quickly.
"I'm sorry, I'll leave you to it," Victor replied, turning back to his book.
"I'm starting again, Dad interrupted!" Virgil yelled upstairs.
"Indoor voice," Victor said, not looking up.
"Sorry," he replied before counting again. When he got to twenty, he climbed the stairs and went back to his room where he had left Lucca. There was no sign of either the druid or anything that might count as 'treasure'. It took some searching before he spied something shiny nestled amongst some of his toys.
As he reached for it, a strange voice rang out from behind him, eerie in spite of its playful tone, "Who said you could touch my treasure?"
Virgil slowly turned around to see, indeed, a very ghostly individual, with skin and eyes of pure white and incredibly long pitch black hair. The child blinked a few times, his face blank, before all of a sudden shutting his eyes tight. Yelling at the top of his lungs, he ran full-tilt past Lucca to the door. Tearing out of the room, still screaming, Lucca could hear Virgil's heavy footsteps run down the hall to the training room. It only took a few seconds before he heard them returning, all accompanied by the same unbroken holler. Without pause for warning or breath, Virgil lept back into the bedroom, now wielding his small wooden training sword. He swang it with all of the strength of his young arms, hitting a somewhat confused and unprepared Lucca rather hard in the side. Lucca gave a yelp of pain; Virgil immediately dropped the sword, looking confused and upset.
"You're supposed to be a ghost!" he hissed out at Lucca. "Ghosts aren't supposed to get hit!" Virgil's eyes darted towards the door behind him.
"Virgil..." Victor's voice echoed from downstairs, drawing out the name. His tone was displeased at best. "What are you doing?"
"I didn't think it would hit you an' it wouldn't be hitting if it went through an' I know I'm not supposed'a but I thought you were a ghost and now I'm gonna get yelled at," Virgil looked increasingly upset.
"You'd best not have taken that sword out of that room, Virgil..." Victor's voice was stern. "And you certainly better not be swinging it at anyone."
"M'sorry m'sorry m'sorry," Virgil looked up at Lucca, nearly crying.
Rubbing at his side, Lucca's rather bewildered gaze whipped between the frantic child and the door, "Aww sh-" he cut the curse off with a grimace. He turned back to Virgil with a look of gentle concern, shaking his head, "No no no, it's okay, bud; I'm not mad, promise!" Dropping down to the boy's level, he held his arms out and beckoned him, "Come here, it's alright, dude, you're not gonna get in trouble."
Virgil accepted the hug, burying his face in Lucca's shirt.
After a moment's hesitation and a reluctant sigh, he looked over his shoulder, projecting his voice, "Sorry, man; was my bad! Got a little carried away, was a little too convincing."
"There are rules," Victor replied. "If Virgil wants to keep using his sword, he will follow them. Both of you know, so don't make me come up there and enforce them."
"Yes boss, it wont happen again." His words held the singsong impatience of an oft-repeated phrase, and he rolled his eyes slightly as he spoke.
"See that it doesn't," Victor finished.
"You're a real everyfing else," Virgil mumbled from the shirt. "Fought you were a real ghost too."
With a soft sigh he turned his attention back to the boy, "I'm sorry...I can't be a real ghost. I'd have to be dead first, like anyone else. I can only be a pretend ghost. But you're right, I should have said so before, that wasn't really fair, was it?"
Virgil pulled away, shaking his head, and wiped his face with the back of his hand. He sniffed and added, "...Well, you're a good fake ghost." He picked up the wooden sword. "I'm gonna put this back real quiet." With exaggerated caution, the child tip-toed back down the hall. He returned, "Kay." Looking at Lucca, he seemed thoughtful. "How do you beat ghosts wifout swords?" he eventually asked.
The question elicited a series of blinks, followed by a bemused chuckle from the druid, "Mmmmmh...jeeze dude, that's a hard question." he pursed his lips, brows slightly furrowed as he tried to come up with a reasonable answer for the child. Eventually, he offered with a shrug, "I guess you need special ghost-fighting magic, really."
The two stood quietly for a beat as Virgil considered this.
"Fake ghosts are weak to being poked in the stomach," Victor offered from downstairs, apparently now listening more closely.
Virgil grinned and lept forward, "Special fake-ghost-fighting magic attack!" 
With an indignant squawk that turned into a tittering laugh, Lucca dodged the boy's first attempt, chiding, "You're a cheater, old man! Not fair!" His words were punctuated by a playful yelp as the younger Erzebet took advantage of his distraction to hit his mark. The two tusseled about playfully, until eventually they fell over, giggling and out-of-breath, Virgil needing to be extricated from Lucca's 'ghostly' hair.
"Are you supposed'a be a girl-ghost or a boy-ghost?" he asked as Lucca tried to pull out his hair from around Virgil without yanking any out of his head.
At this the druid froze mid-motion, looking at the boy uncertainly for a long moment before offering a faint crooked smile, "I dunno...which do you think I am?"
"I unno." He thought for a minute. "Prol'ly a boy-ghost. You don't sound much like a girl-ghost. An' you're still in boy clothes. You just kinda look like a girl-ghost," he shrugged. Suddenly he perked up, "But I beat you, so I gets the treasure now!' He jumped up, taking some of Lucca's hair along with him.
This earned a pained hiss from the man, as his scalp received a rough tug, "Wait, wait! Augh, you're still stuck! Hang on..." Rather than try and untangle the impatient child, Lucca opted instead to shift back to his usual appearance, the problem resolving itself as a good five feet of hair disappeared. "You gotta take it easy, kid...ow..." rubbing at his head with one hand, he looked wistfully at the few long strands still wrapped around the boy, shaking his head, "Anyway, you're free now, go get it!" With a yip of excitement, Virgil scooted back to where he had spied the mysterious shiny object earlier.
----
Victor stood leaning against the sill, idly looking out the window of his room. The view didn’t go anywhere, just across an alley towards the wall of the adjacent building, but he wasn’t really looking at the view at all anyways. His thoughts meandered around aimlessly, as they sometimes did; he vaguely wanted to smoke, but wouldn’t do so with Virgil in the house.
Suddenly, a sharp pain in his leg snapped his focus back. He whipped around to see the source: Virgil standing behind him, who had apparently kicked him above the ankle. “Virgil!...” he started to scold him, but stopped when he saw that the young boy was about to cry. “What is it?” he asked more softly, kneeling down.
Virgil rubbed his face and explained, “You were lookin’ out the window, an’ you didn’t hear me, an’, an’,” he was fighting back tears as he spoke, “an’ Lucca said that if you look out the window you could stand there forever, an’ I should kick you, but I didn’t wanna, but you were standing there an’ I didn’t want you to stand there forever an’ I dunno know what to do…” He sniffed piteously.
“Oh, oh Virgil,” he hugged the crying child tightly. “I’m not going to stand anywhere forever, ok? If I don’t hear you, come and grab my hand, alright? Don’t kick anyone.” Virgil sniffed and nodded his head, buried in Victor’s shirt. “Come on, let’s go downstairs, ok?” Victor picked up his son and left the room.
Category:Advent of the All