The Melting Pot Complex

Chapter Twenty-One ~ Virgil

{listen this book has 80 chapters and it's a Wednesday so have another chapter}

{Possible trigger warnings: yelling, arguing, cursing (censored in my manner and at my discretion), angry outbursts

If I miss something, I apologize and please let me know}

"Ugh- Patton, what are you wearing?"

Virgil looked up from the couch at Romans question, then glanced at his friend. He frowned.

Patton looked down at his shirt. "Uh, merch?"

"I see that, but why that merch?" Roman wrinkled his nose in distaste.

"What's wrong with it?" Virgil butted in, sitting up and shoving his phone in his hoodie pocket.

Usually he wouldn't get involved, Patton could hold his own against Roman just fine, but there was a little problem that made this different.

The merch in question just happened to be his own. Patton was wearing one of the signature black t-shirts that had been part of Virgil's 4 million subscriber special collection, the one that had  'Amethyst and the Geodes' his own bright purple handwriting (slightly stylized) sprawled across the chest.

Virgil was pretty sure it was the only black shirt in his wardrobe. He had a couple other shirts from Virgil's site but usually he bought them in purple or grey.

"Why do you care, Robert Downer Jr?" Roman rolled his eyes, leaning against the wall.

"First of all, I'm taking that as a compliment. RDJ is gorgeous and talented as hell."

The other man tipped his head a little, conceding the point. Virgil crossed his arms.

"Second, there's nothing wrong with the shirt Patton's wearing."

"It's not the shirt, it's whose shirt it is."

Virgil raised his eyebrows. "I wear Amethyst stuff all the time."

"You have questionable fashion sense anyway." Roman retorted.

Patton opened his mouth to ask a question, but Virgil caught his eye quickly and gave him the tiniest shake of the head. 

"I don't see any hurt in supporting other creators, even if I don't know them." Patton said quickly. Virgil breathed a silent sigh of relief.

"I don't either!" Roman said quickly. "It's just... him specifically."

"What is your issue with AmethystHailstorm?" 

All three men in the living room turned to the hallway quickly. Logan adjusted his glasses and put his hands behind his back, watching Roman evenly.

"He just- he's a jerk! A big, jerky jerk!"

"Mature." Virgil rolled his eyes.

"I am censoring myself to comply with Patton's request that we swear as little as possible." Roman gestured towards the vlogger. "I could be very clear about exactly why I hate Hailstorm, but it's rather aggressive."

"I would like to hear it, if Patton is alright with that." Logan walked farther into the room, pausing in front of the couch.

Patton immediately clapped his hands over his ears. "Go ahead, Roman."

Clearly he didn't need to tell the man twice. Virgil physically flinched backwards as the metaphorical dam burst.

"AmethystHailstorm is a little b*tch who hides behind a screen because he knows no one can come back at him. He keeps his information so close to his chest because he's always talking sh*t and he doesn't want it to come back to bite him in the a**."

"You're not exactly the most inviting person either, Doctor Do-The-Most." Virgil shot back, glaring at him. "You can be a real trashbag sometimes."

"I have done nothing but try to spread light and positivity to the world."

"You're constantly starting sh*t, with Amethyst especially! Do explain how your rants about his 'high level toxicity' are spreading light and positivity."

"I am just relieving others of the burden of learning about it!" Roman slapped a hand down on the back of the armchair.

Virgil didn't want to hear anymore. He turned and headed for his room.

"Where are you going?" Roman called after him.

"Amethyst happens to be a friend of mine, I'm not gonna just stand around and listen to you talk sh*t about him."

"But you won't defend him?" Logan seemed curious. Virgil shot him a look before answering.

"Why should I? Roman's clearly made up his mind regardless."

Logan shrugged and Virgil waited a moment for someone else to say something before turning and marching down the hallway.

He slammed his door closed and grabbed whatever was nearest, hurling it across the room.

Thank god it was just a shoe. It slammed into the wall above his bed, leaving a dusty print on the wall, and dropped onto his bed.

Virgil barely stopped himself from just full on screaming in rage. He would have thought that almost four years would have at least calmed the feud between their channels down a bit.

He hadn't even started it, but Roman was insistent every time it had been brought up since the original fight that he did. The hate comments rolled in freely every time Virgil uploaded, even though the topic hadn't been brought up on their channels for months, maybe even a year.

Not knowing what else to do, Virgil grabbed his phone and pulled up Google.

There was a gym down the block that had what he was looking for, so he changed into a black t-shirt and basketball shorts and tugged his hoodie on again.

"Virge- oh, sorry!" Patton bumped into Virgil as he stepped into the hallway. "Where are you going?"

"The gym." Virgil responded flatly. Patton frowned at him and he lowered his voice. "Look, I don't want to talk about it right now but I might later okay?"

His friend nodded after a moment and Virgil slipped past him.

~~~Twenty Minutes Later~~~

"If you don't mind..."

Virgil paused and glanced up at the guy who had approached him. He got a raised eyebrow and a smirk in response.

"What?" He snapped, adjusting his glove.

"I'm not saying your stance is totally wrong, but..." The kid leaned back a little, shoving his hands in his pockets, letting the sentence trail off.

Virgil shrugged. "I'm not really trying to practice accurately, I just need something to hit."

"Even more of a reason to fix your stance. You don't want to hurt yourself too badly when you're taking your anger out on the acceptable target."

Virgil paused for a moment, then gave him a once over. "How old are you?"

The kid paused and raised a half-silver eyebrow. "Twenty-two?"

"Oh okay, at least I'm not being schooled by a teenager."

"Well you can't be much older than me."

"I'm twenty-four." Virgil shook his head and made a vague gesture at himself. "Virgil."

"Dorrian Drake. Let's start with your feet."

{Everyone in the apartment knows Virgil is Amethyst... EXCEPT Roman

AND ROBERT DOWNER JR IS A GREAT VIRGIL NICKNAME}