Hidden Strength

Virgil wouldn't exactly say that putting up with the Dark Side of Thomas's mind for so long did him any good, but he would summon Deceit if he said that there's at least one thing he's gained from it that he's proud of. One of the things he was proud of was the fact that he was determined to protect everyone else from the other Dark Sides (as well as other potential dangers) and the other was the physical strength he had developed from a combination of self defense from his past and Thomas's heightened worries overall. The emo's need to protect his family was something he wouldn't hesitate to show as long as it's in a way that won't alter his reputation, but he didn't really bring up his physical strength. He was worried about the possibility that everyone else would associate his strength with the potential to hurt them. That being said, as much as he wanted to put an end to Roman constantly arguing with Logan on which of them was stronger (even though they were evenly matched and Patton was too polite to remind them he was stronger than both of them), he'd rather keep his mouth shut.

One day, Patton convinced the rest of the family to go on a nature walk and he wasn't too surprised by the reactions: Roman wanted to sing to the animals, Logan wanted to take observations and look for inspiration for poetry, and Virgil would prefer listening his music, but was just glad to be included deep down. They went to a forest in the Imagination, thus giving Roman the idea for Thomas to do a forest photo shoot like a cutie. Virgil had his hood up so that the sun would stay out of his eyes and so he wouldn't feel the need to pick at his hair after glancing at his shadow multiple times. Midway through the walk, Virgil could barely hear his music past the sound of Roman and Logan over whether or not they should make the Imagination look like Jumanji. He felt his blood boil more so than before they all turned into puppets.

"Enough!" Virgil suddenly shouted in his demonic voice, startling everyone.

The arguing pair looked shocked at Virgil and Patton just looked concerned for his best friend.

"Look, Roman, I know watching Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was exciting, but there's a difference between watching something and actually experiencing it firsthand! Logan, as dangerous as experiencing the jungle would be, we can go through with it without as much of the struggles as the players had to deal with since we're not human! So, kiss, make-up, and shut up!" Virgil shouted before pushing Roman and Logan into each other with ease.

Roman and Logan were surprised by the kiss being an outcome and by how easily Virgil pushed the two into each other. Before any of the three could question Virgil's actions, he walked ahead of them into the forest.

Patton walked next to Virgil to calm him down while Roman and Logan walked at the back of the group awkwardly sharing glances every now and then. As they continued walking, there was a giant boulder blocking their path. Logan observed the area and noticed it was between two trees, each on steep grass and Patton took the opportunity to joke that it was a rock, not a boulder. Virgil chuckled to support Patton's intentions before looking between the rest of the group and the boulder. When Virgil thought everyone else was too distracted amongst themselves, Virgil lifted the boulder with ease and carried it to the middle of an upcoming creek. After setting it down, he returned to the group and whistled claiming the boulder's change of location was due to the emo snapping his fingers to make it happen. Little did the adult edgy teenager (who does a better job at playing the role than Rick Owens) know that Logan saw everything out the corner of his eye while writing observations in his notebook.

They walked over the creek by stepping on the boulder and the Crofters fans were still lingering in the back of the group sharing glances with each other. When he wasn't sharing glances with Roman, Logan was thinking about the massive amount of strength that Virgil demonstrated and had his own ideas on what strength Virgil might possess if what he saw with the boulder wasn't just a fluke. He looked at a big tree before looking at Roman's sword.

"Roman, do you think your sword can cut a tree down?" Logan whispered.

"Um, yea, why do you ask?" the prep whispered back.

"I know it would be a struggle for us to lift, but I need you to cut that tree down," he pointed to a big tree that was near them.

"Umm, why?" Roman asked with concern.

"I want to try something," Logan simply stated.

Roman sighed and went to the big tree to cut it with his sword. A massive portion of it came falling down and Logan snapped his fingers so he would end up in its path and he was crushed without reacting. Patton and Virgil heard the fall and Virgil saw an arm stick out from under the tree and ran toward it not caring who was under it. Patton and Roman were worried, but their expression turned to shock as Virgil lifted the tree off of Logan while barely struggling and tossed the tree to a nearby meadow. Logan got up and did some stretches before muttering, "I knew it." He looked at Virgil while holding back a smirk. Virgil looked around at everyone and tried shrinking into his sweater as he realized what everyone saw.

"Well, part of your role of anxiety is an increase of adrenaline due to your 'fight or flight' response," he explained to everyone, "and a spike of adrenaline can occur during a period of hysterical strength, which is the kind of legendary spark of strength associated with lifting a car off of a loved one. Since Virgil functions as anxiety, I wouldn't be surprised if this is something Virgil demonstrates all the time."

Virgil wasn't sure if he should glare at Logan or feel grateful that he explained Virgil's strength in a way where it didn't sound threatening, so he just poked out of his sweater.

"So... I guess he's the strongest out of all of us?" Roman nervously asked.

"Adding in the fact that he functions as heightened anxiety, I'd have to say yes," Logan answered.

Patton looked over at Virgil to see he was more confident, but still shy. Patton hugged Virgil for reassurance and Virgil hugged back tightly before loosening his grip.

"If I have to track us down, I guess that means we're both right behind Virgil when it comes to strength," Logan concluded.

Upon hearing this, Patton pulled away from the hug and chuckled nervously.

"Um... there's a perk to functioning as the heart that you guys don't know," Patton answered before taking a slightly smaller tree than what Virgil lifted and lifted it out of the ground and over his head.