#the Imagination as Remus and Roman's playground

[edupunkn00b]

The Vulture Masterpost

Photo of a vulture sitting on a dead tree branch by Abhishek Singh via Unsplash, colored by edupunkn00b

Death encounters the Musician, badly injured. Instead of collecting his soul, he seeks help to save the future King's life.

~

Remus carries a bloodied and unconscious Roman back home to the Mindscape, looking for anyone who can help.

Parallel tales set in the Imagination and the Mindscape, Roman's life hangs in the balance.

AO3 - Playlist - Inspired by @sanderssidesfanfiction's art as part of the @xts-reverse-bangx. Special thanks to @anxious-mess19 for early beta reading and much-needed encouragement!

Chapter List - updates every two days

Death

The Hermit

The Star

The Hierophant

Justice

Info about the Vulture inspiration below:

The title, Lucas' Imagination character, and the imagery for Death's discovery of the Musician were deeply inspired by this image of the Five of Swords I came across on Pinterest while researching Tarot. It's from a deck called The Spacious Tarot. If you have the means, consider patronizing them.

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Too Young, Too Late

I have a lot of Thoughts about the literal “bruised ego” headcanon and one of them is that it only started happening to Roman when Thomas learned that phrase. When the bruising gets particularly bad, Roman regresses into a young child who doesn’t know the phrase, and it gives him time to heal. He always finds Remus because he’s the one side Roman feels safe around, and Remus gets concerned when Roman starts showing up younger and younger, because it means Roman’s getting more and more hurt. …Ideally with a happy ending? – anon

Read on Ao3

Warnings: none

Pairings: none

Word Count: 2887

The first time it happens, Remus almost doesn't notice.

 

Tee first time it happens, Remus almost doesn't notice.

Granted, they're at that stage of being children where differentiating between one year and the next is more an arbitrary celebration of time passing rather than any concrete and meaningful differences, but still. One year older is one year! That's one more year of messing around in the Imagination, one more year of getting all their ideas out in the vast playground that never stops growing, one year closer to getting to play with the monsters and all the really fun stuff.

But when Roman shows up one day and he looks…shinier than Remus, well, Remus has a few questions.

"I'm fine," Roman says quickly, shoving his way past Remus into the Imagination. "Let's just play! Come on, I want to do things today that aren't stand around like a—a—"

"Moping moor fox?"

"Yeah! Like that!" Roman stops short a few paces away. "What's a moor fox?"

"Let's go find out!"

As the twins dash forward, the Imagination grows darker, denser, a thick blanket of fog rolling in from over the hills. The ground grows vivid in contrast, almost a vibrant green—Remus's favorite—and small pools of water wink from the fading sunlight. Soon they have to conjure boots and coats for themselves—well, Roman does, Remus just shrieks in joy and barrels through the mud. They come to a stop at the edge of a larger hill, peering over as the moor takes shape around them.

"Where are we?"

"We're on a moor! Now we just have to find a fox!"

"Do foxes live on moors?"

"I dunno, let's see if we can find one!"

And they're off again, racing over the grass. Remus quickly pulls ahead, which is…surprising, to say the least. Roman was beating him handily as recently as yesterday, maybe he's planning a trick? But when he glances behind, he sees Roman stumbling—stumbling—to try and keep up with him. He slows to a halt, waiting.

"Sorry, sorry!" Roman says with his bright smile when he eventually catches up with Remus. "I'm coming, I swear!"

Remus takes a good, hard look at him. "Where's the scar?"

"The what?"

"The scar." Remus points to his own hairline where, up until today, apparently, Roman had a thin white line where he'd fallen from his dragon. "Where'd it go?"

"Oh." Roman shuffles, kicking a stone over. "I'm younger today."

"You're what?"

"Younger. I'm not—I'm not as old as you today."

Remus blinks. "Oh. Uh, why?"

Roman stares at him for a long moment. Then he shoves him into a mud puddle and takes off, shrieking. Remus shakes himself off and dashes after him, cackling like mad.

2.

The second time, he definitely knows something's wrong.

For one, they're a lot older. They're now pretty firmly in high school, where age is a lot more important and appearances are…well, to everyone else, they apparently mean a whole lot. Which is why when Roman turns up as a child to their weekly meetings in Remus's room, he's not quite sure what to make of it.

"I don't wanna talk about it," Roman says, cuddling Remus's plush octopus to his chest, "I just wanna do what we normally do."

"I don't know if you're tall enough to ride the cyclone right now, squirt."

Roman scowls, which just looks like the most adorable pout in the world and Remus just has to pounce on his brother to tickle the snot out of him. Roman shrieks and wriggles and isn't anywhere near strong enough to fight Remus off like this, so he lets him up after a few minutes, but he's still got his little frowny face on under there and that, well, that just won't do.

"Talk to me, Roro," Remus says quietly, opening his arms to let Roman crawl into them. "What's going on? Why're you all sad sack today?"

Roman fiddles with the buttons on his chest. "I just find it easier this way."

"Squirt-sized?"

"Yeah."

Now, see, that's the second thing. Remus is, and he's very proud of this, exactly one inch taller than Roman. And yes, he does hold this fact over his head any chance he gets, which is quite often, and often quite literally. So when he pokes fun at Roman's height and Roman just agrees? Something's wrong.

"You gotta tell me what it is that's bothering you, Roro. That's how I can help."

"No."

Remus raises an eyebrow. "No? What do you mean, 'no?'"

"I don't wanna tell you."

"Okay. Why don't you wanna tell me?"

Roman shrugs, looking resolutely away from Remus. He frowns, pulling Roman close enough to tuck his chin over his shoulder. He rubs his back a few times, hoping that the comfort will help break through whatever wall Roman's made to keep this from Remus, but there's nothing for it. Roman just sighs and melts into a little princely puddle over Remus's shoulder and snuffles into the octopus.

"Well," Remus mumbles, "if you think of a way I can help, will you tell me?"

"You help like this."

"I do?"

"Yeah. You're my brother. You're Creativity too. You know everything."

"I don't know about that, squirt."

"You do," Roman says, quieter now, and it's pinging even more of Remus's danger sense, "you do, though."

That's a conversation they're gonna revisit when Roman is big again, because it's just worrying enough for it to not be teasing material. For now, though, he's got an upset baby brother in his arms and he needs to take care of him, so he squeezes his sides until Roman giggles and then throws on their favorite movies so they can rest and relax for the rest of the day.

Even if the thing itching at the back of his mind keeps whispering that he's missing something really important.

3.

It takes until the third time for him to figure out what's actually going on.

He wasn't there the moment Roman changed, but he was there to see the massive fucking bruise blooming over the side of Roman's ribs. Granted, he didn't see the bruise itself, because Roman was clothed, thank the Kraken, but he'd be a neglectful older brother if he didn't recognize the way Roman flinched, hissed, and went to put his hand to his side before realizing that hey, you know, they're not alone right now and signaling that he was hurt wasn't the smartest thing to do right now.

The thing that caused Roman to get a really bad bruise? Oh, just Virgil.

Yeah. You heard him.

Virgil.

Virgil, who wouldn't stop calling him dumb. Wouldn't stop saying he's stupid. Wouldn't stop making comments like not a thought in that big head of yours and you think Princey's over there thinking of things? and he's never met a brain cell in his life. Virgil, who saw Roman getting frustrated and told him to stop trying to think, it's painful to watch.

Roman is many things. Roman is not dumb. Roman is really fucking smart, and Remus is damn fucking sure that none of the others have any idea how smart Roman actually is because they never take the fucking time to actually listen to him when he talks.

So when Roman shows up to his room later, a little squirt again, Remus just scoops him into his arms and carries him into the Imagination.

The Imagination blooms around them, creating a massive sprawling garden out behind Remus's castle. The dark sky ripples with the promise of thunder, bruised purple clouds mixing with the soft grays of coming rain as the flowers bloom vivid and violent against bright green grass. Roman's little fingers wind into his collar, his other hand reaching out to brush the branches of the flowering trees as they walk by. Sweet-smelling blossoms greet them as they make their way toward the hedge maze, small creatures darting about underfoot as the brush rustles.

"They're wrong," Remus murmurs as Roman trails his fingers along the hedge, "you're not dumb, Roro. You're not stupid. They're the stupid ones who don't know what the hell they're talking about."

"But Logan agreed."

"Logan can be wrong too. Remember how he was sure he got that math question right and then he didn't? Logan isn't right all the time."

"But Logan's smarter than me."

Remus bites his tongue. "Logan is better at some things than you are, yeah, sure. But Logan can't do what you do either. Logan isn't smart the way you are, but that doesn't mean you're not smart."

"Patton doesn't think I'm smart either," Roman says in a small voice, "neither does—I don't think Thomas thinks I'm smart too."

"Well, they're all wrong. I think you're smart and I know everything."

Roman giggles. "You don't know everything, Re."

"Oh? You sure? Tell me something I don't know, then."

Roman hums and thinks to himself as they keep walking through the maze. Which gives Remus plenty of time to figure out how to get back at those assholes who keep hurting his brother.

4.

Logan's the one who says the phrase first.

Bruised Ego.

Remus has to bite his tongue and shove his hands behind his back to keep from reacting super obviously when all he wants to do is scream and jump and throw something. Because that's it. That's why Roman keeps getting beat all to hell when the others are mean to him—which is often, because these people are assholes—and why he keeps trying to hide it. Which pisses Remus off to no end, but he can't fault Roman for doing it.

Because why the fuck would he reveal how easy it is to hurt him to people who seem to really enjoy hurting him?

He keeps his room open to Roman for as long as he can when he goes into the Imagination. He knows Roman will come to him eventually, even if that means a portal opens up right above his head and he's dropped a wonderful squirming pile of baby Ro.

Wait.

Baby Ro?

Roman's not even the age he was when they first learned that phrase. He's tiny. Kraken egg sack tiny. Remus can hold him with one arm tiny. And you know what, the razor-sharp rocks he's walking over right now are not the place for this precious little anomaly, so he quickly poofs himself over to the glow stone bushes and plops down with his baby bro in his lap.

"Hey, squirt," he says softly, smiling as Roman giggles and coos at him, "you had a bad day today, huh?"

Roman's smile dims a little. He nods, shuffling forward until he can bury his cold little nose in Remus's neck. Remus wraps his arms around him and holds him tight, rocking him back a forth. A soft chime comes from overhead and several pixies flutter over to see what the new creatures are doing. He feels Roman lift a hand up, burbling in awe as the pixies dart about his chubby little fingers.

"That's it, Roro," he murmurs, still rocking him, "you just sit with me and be all happy, okay? I'm not gonna let anything hurt you right now, you hear me? Not a damn thing."

His brother is hurt. His brother is hurting. Something hurt Roman so bad that he felt the need to become a baby again, just so that he could be cared for, and Remus is going to kill something.

(He doesn't find out what it was that made Ro so hurt. That's probably for the best.)

5.

Sometimes he doesn't find Roman in time.

Sometimes he ends up finding little pockets of the Imagination that are too cleverly hidden for anyone but him and Roman to spot. A wall that isn't entirely solid, a convenient patch of foliage that's just a little too dense. A rippling pool that ripples just too perfectly in time with a duck swimming over the surface.

He doesn't always get to Roman when he needs him most, and so the Imagination hides him.

He wishes it didn't have to, but he's grateful for it anyway.

+1.

Remus opens the door and blinks.

"…Ro?"

"Will you help me?" Roman asks in a quiet voice, as though Remus would do anything but drop everything to help his brother when he shows up beaten to shit and bleeding.

"Get the fuck in here," Remus growls, quickly making sure no nosy snakes are lingering in the hall. "Sit on the desk."

Roman winces as he sits, one hand holding his side, the other resting shakily on the wood. Remus snaps out a first-aid kit and starts gently moving Roman's shirt out of the way so he can see everything. Shit, it's really fucking bad right now. Purples and yellows bloom all over his ribs—probably just because those are the colors that bruises go, but Remus has a sneaking suspicion he knows which Sides caused these ones—and there's an angry red scrape all along one side. He rests his hand just near it and Roman's breath hitches.

"What happened, Roro?"

Roman swallows heavily as Remus starts in with bruise cream and soft hands. "We were talking about the project. I wanted to bring some stuff up but Logan—Logan kept on talking over me and acting like I wasn't giving anything useful."

"Want me to hit him?"

"No."

"Mm. Then what?"

"Then Janus and Virgil started calling me stupid again, and they kept bringing stuff up that I did when we were younger when I didn't—when we weren't—" he swallows— "when it wasn't all just work and I could play in the Imagination too."

"That's really fucking shitty of them."

"I didn't know what to do," Roman whispers, "every time I try to defend myself they just—they laugh at me or they make fun of me and I don't—I don't want to just be their punching bag, but I don't know how to tell them that without making it worse."

"Is that why you still haven't told them about this?" He runs his thumb lightly over one of the smaller bruises.

"Why the hell would I want to tell them how easy it is to hurt me?"

"Maybe they'll stop," but even as he says it, he doesn't believe it. Roman just scoffs.

"You know I tried to tell Logan and Patton once."

Remus does not, in fact, know that. He doesn't know that to such an extent that he actually stops and looks up at Roman. Roman isn't looking at him, he's looking off into space, but he's taken his bottom lip between his teeth.

"I tried to explain that it was hurting," he mumbles, "and Patton—Patton acted like he also got hurt when people were mean and I tried to say it wasn't the same, that he didn't understand, and then he got mad at me for saying that."

Remus has to grit his teeth to keep himself from launching into another rant about how Patton could say things with the best of intentions and fuck it up real bad.

"And Logan—Logan just told me I shouldn't take things so literally. Which is—"

"Ironic as fuck coming from his literal ass?"

"Yeah. But I went to show him how bad it was and he rolled his eyes and told me I could dress up all I wanted, he wasn't going to be swayed by it."

Remus takes one look at his beat-to-hell brother and has to remind himself that this is his priority right now, not kicking all the collective Mindscape ass over to Oliver's pond and letting the Kraken play with his new toys. He makes himself take a deep breath and lets it out slow, leaning forward to rest his forehead against Roman's. Roman's breath puffs warmly over his chin and he knocks their noses together.

"I'm glad you came to me," he whispers, "I'm really glad you're here, Roro."

"…you don't mind, right?"

"I didn't mind when you were a squirt, Ro-Bro, I sure as hell don't mind now."

"You're always safe, Re," Roman mumbles, his cheeks getting damp as he starts to cry, these fuckers made his brother cry— "I don't care what they say. You're—you're the only one here I can trust."

"Roro, I swear to god if you weren't fifty different shades of blue and purple right now I'd be trying to break your ribs."

"…in a good way, right?"

Remus just knocks their noses together again, kissing his forehead. "Of course in a good way, Roro. Now tell me all about the idea that you had so I can tell you how awesome you are."

Roman lights up with a little grin and Remus can and will fight to protect his little brother's happiness.

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[myapathyhaspeaked]

Platonic Sides Week Day 2: Vacations

“For the last time, we’re not, and will never, swim on your side!” Roman yelled, but Remus kept poking him as he rambled on and on about the various benefits of the beaches on his side of the Imagination, like Lovecraftian monsters and seaweed that tangled around your leg and pulled you down, down, down into the watery abyss until you floated to the surface, gasses from decomposition escaping your blue-tinged lips. Roman failed to see anything beneficial about any of that, but had long accepted that trying to figure out how Remus found joy in any of his interests was like trying to get a true ant’s eye perspective by smooshing his face into the ground. Uncomfortable, and would never actually work.

“Oh come on, what’s even in the water!?” Remus complained, like he couldn’t imagine an ocean not filled to the brim with creatures that yearned for blood and bone.

“Fish! And seals and sea otters and starfish!”

“Mermaids?” Remus asked, and really Roman should know better than to treat his brother’s questions as anything but a potential trap.

“I could make some,” he replied, taking the bait. Remus grinned.

“Can they drown me?” Roman groaned and sped up to put some distance between them. Virgil looked up from his phone at the sound of quickening footsteps in the sand and decided to match his pace so he wouldn’t have to walk alone just because his brother was annoying.

The Prince had invited the other Sides to a relaxing day at the beach in the Imagination. This wasn’t a unique occurrence; Roman had been inviting the others to the Imagination since they were children. He’d created bouncy castles, jungle expeditions, magical playgrounds, petting zoos, and a myriad of other things for them to play in and explore. What was new, however…

Roman looked back to see Remus talking about something with Patton. Whatever it was, it was causing Patton to cover his ears and turn pale. He only stopped when a way-too-long arm snaked around to poke him on the back, and realizing he could bug someone else, turned to Janus to continue the conversation. If the snake happened to start walking slower than the rest, well Remus didn’t seem to notice. Their differing speeds caused them to walk less as a group and more as a line, like a roller coaster instead of a car.

“It would be rude to not include them,” Patton had insisted. And look, what fun he’s having now. It wasn’t like they hadn’t excluded them before. Excluding them used to be the standard.

They finally reached the shore. It was perfectly picturesque, gentle waves crashing into white sand dotted with shells ready for the taking. An ice cream shop, one eerily familiar to the one Thomas’ family used to go to when they went to the beach when he was a kid, sat a ways away, playing music just loud enough to hear but not so loud that it became annoying like mall music. The seagulls squawked in the distance, and unlike the real ones, they’d stay in the distance. Logan breathed in the lovely sea air, letting his shoulders slump as he felt the tension leave his body.

He then started searching his tote bag for something. After a few seconds of grabbing around, he pulled out an orange tube. He popped open the blue cap.

“Everyone needs to apply sunscreen. I expect you to return in two hours to reapply.”

“Oh come on, we’re not going to get mesothelioma from a fake sun!” Virgil protested. He hated applying sunscreen, there was always the chance of accidentally rubbing his eyes before he rinsed his hands off. 

“The term you’re looking for is melanoma, and it has been shown time and time again that the environment of the Imagination has the ability to affect us.” While developing cancer was unlikely (that wouldn’t happen in Roman’s fantasyland), they had gotten sunburn on previous excursions. It was, unfortunately, too intrinsic to the beach experience to leave out.

Logan finished rubbing the lotion on the spots his wetsuit left uncovered and passed the tube to Virgil. He cringed, but begrudgingly took it. Being sticky was at least marginally better than getting lobsterback. 

Patton took his bag off his shoulders and began to set out the beach chairs. Roman joined him to stick the umbrellas in the sand. After applying sunscreen, the two of them grabbed some plastic buckets and shovels and made their way towards the water. They had plans.

The teacher sighed and laid down on one of the chairs, making sure the umbrella properly shaded him before reaching into his bag and pulling out his book about echinoderms. 

“What’s the point of the wetsuit if you’re not going to swim?” Janus questioned hypocritically, because he was also sitting in a beach chair despite wearing a bathing suit, piña colada in the hand that wasn’t propping his head up. Logan wasn’t sure where the drink had come from. The snake had explicitly refused to carry anything.

He wondered if he had another glass. Hydration is very important. That’s why.

“I might later. It’s just that this chapter on starfish is so fascinating. Did you know that they don’t have a brain?”

Janus hummed, a noise that acknowledged what he said but didn’t give the impression that he cared all that much. “Reminds me of some people I know.”

Meanwhile, Remus was sneaking up on Virgil, who was busy watching a crab scuttle around a small hill. It had blades of grass poking through the sand, and it cut off suddenly to create a mini cliff into the ocean. The crustacean danced between clumps of grass, snapping its claws like castanets.

The anxious Side knew how to swim. He even liked to swim. He just had to warm himself up to it, remind himself that shark attacks were rare and Roman didn’t know how riptides work and wouldn’t make them even if he did and that he wouldn’t get the bends from diving just a few feet. So he was sitting off to the side, waiting for his nerves to stand down.

Remus snickered impishly, the only warning Virgil had before he was shoved over the edge and into the salty water. He spit the nastiness out before glaring up at the Duke, who was peering down at him in turn, grinning.

“You’re an asshole.”

“Thanks, I try.” He then disappeared, giving Virgil a few fleeting moments of hope that he had left to pester someone else. That hope was soon dashed by the huge splash of Remus cannonballing recklessly close to him. 

Janus took a long sip as he watched Virgil flick water at the Duke’s face, only to scream shrilly when Remus gave chase. He tugged his floppy sun hat over his eyes and leaned back.

Patton and Roman had been busy creating a sand castle for the past fifteen minutes, and they were making remarkable progress, probably because they were in a fantasy where wet sand doesn’t collapse at the slightest disturbance. Their goal was a tiny palace fit for tiny royalty. They had completed the main tower, with a strand of seaweed hanging from a carved out window like the locks of a trapped princess. They were now working on the battlements and the moat.

Roman took a scallop shell from the pile they had accumulated and pressed it over where the gateway would be if he was working with a more stable material. He’d need to see if popsicle sticks would work, once they ate them (the popsicle, not the stick). Patton was next to him, poking crenels into the sandy curtain wall. Once that was done, he took some pebbles and lined them up against the edge of the moat that probably didn’t actually add any structural integrity, while Roman took some twigs and poked them into the sand to act as the castle residents. He also placed a cone-shaped shell (not a cone snail, Remus could have all the venomous creatures on his side, he didn’t need to share) outside the wall to serve as a cannon. 

“I don’t know, it’s missing a certain je ne sais quoi,” he concluded after staring at their creation for a moment, rubbing his chin in thought.

“Jenny said what now?” Patton asked cheerily. He knew full well what je ne sais quoi meant, but he was here to have fun. The Prince rolled his eyes, wanting to groan but finding that he wasn’t upset enough to do so.

The fatherly Side scanned the beach for whatever could complete their masterpiece. There was sand, more sand, a shell, even more sand, some washed up kelp, a lot more sand someone should get around to vacuuming, and ooh, score!

He plucked it up from where it was buried in the sand, only visible by how it caught the light at a certain angle, then held it up to present it to Roman. He beamed proudly when his friend’s face immediately became one of excitement.

“Great horseshoe huffing heffalumps, sea glass! Good find, Padre, it’s perfect,” he said as he took it from his hands to admire it better. It was a glittering white, and upon closer inspection, slightly translucent. He spent a while twirling it in his fingers, observing how it looked at all angles.

Now they just needed to find the right place for it.

Atop the tower was the obvious choice, right where everyone could see it. But that was too obvious, and furthermore might cause the structure to collapse. If only there was an interior for the castle, because it would have made a fantastic disco ball.

While they sat there pondering, Remus crawled onto shore like he was reenacting the late Devonian Period, creeping up to the beach chairs. Unaware of his presence, Logan continued spilling sea creature facts.

“Did you know that when threatened, sea cucumbers will eject their internal organs in a process called evisceration.”

“Doesn’t sound like an overreaction at all.”

“Sounds sexy!” Remus popped up, between them, causing them to both jump in surprise. How such a loud Side managed to sneak up on anyone was a mystery, one that Logan was planning to study and one that Janus had long given up on solving.

“The sea cucumber?”

“Anything can be a—”

“No, no they can’t!” Janus interrupted. He’d use his hand-slapping-over-the-mouth trick, but that never seemed to last long with Remus.

“See, Chamber of Sea Kraits agrees with me!”

“You are deliberately misinterpreting me,” he complained like he didn’t purposely speak in a way that made it difficult to tell when he was being sincere.

“Why are you here, Remus? Last I checked you were occupied swimming.” Swimming was a generous word for it. The Duke had spent the last five minutes pretending to be a drowned corpse. He was so close to getting that stiffness of a body that was only halfway into rigor mortis just right.

“Got bored.” It turned out letting yourself drift was a good way of constantly washing up on shore like a piece of driftwood. “Say, how do you feel about burying me?”

“Six feet under buried or make you into a mermaid buried?”

“I’d prefer a kraken but that works too.”

Virgil saw Patton and Roman waving to him and walked onto shore to see what was up. And what was up seemed to be a kickass sandcastle.

“How the hell did you guys make that?” he asked, because he was pretty sure sand couldn’t do that. He’d know it could actually do a lot more than he thought if he fell down an internet rabbit hole about sand sculpting. 

“Blood, sweat, and tears, my frightful friend.”

“And buckets!” Patton added before motioning for him to take a closer look. Peering down into the bailey, he saw a small mandala design made of shells radiating from a piece of white sea glass.

“Woah, neat,” he said as he took in the details. Several of the twig people seemed to be dueling. “So, what are you gonna do now?”

Grabbing the closest item nearby, Patton held up a beach ball and answered, “Volleyball?”

“With three people?” Roman asked. It would be odd, but if the moral Side wished for it, he was perfectly happy to make a quick volleyball court. 

“We could do three on three if we invited the others.”

“They seem a bit…busy,” Virgil pointed out, nodding over to where Janus and Logan were packing sand on top of Remus, steadfastly ignoring his suggestions to add a certain anatomical feature.

“Well how about a good ol’ game of catch with your old man,” Patton suggested, and that received nods all around. Since two of them had yet to enjoy the waters, they decided to play in the ocean, wading until waist deep and standing in a triangle formation. Despite only being ten or so feet away from each other, they spent half their time chasing after fumbled balls as they drifted away, the waves pulling the beach ball away every time they reached like the fruit branches above Tantalus.

The Sides stayed at the beach until the sun began to dip into the water, lighting it up gold as the sky was painted in peaches and tangerines. They then made their way back to the door to the Mindscape, ice cream from the shop in hand.

---

@platonicsidesweek

[calethelettuce]

Sanders Sides Brainrot: The Sides' Rooms, Electric Boogaloo

LISTEN, HEAR ME OUT: You've heard of the sides having rooms based on where Thomas is currently in the house..

But what if each of the Sides just- had their own separate houses? And they lived in a cute little Neighborhood in the Mind Palace :O There's a little park and a library, plus a gateway to The Imagination!

*MORE RAMBLING BELOW CUT!*

It's a cutesy little neighborhood, the houses are set along one side of the road, while the library, park, and whatever else the sides want is on the other side (Patton makes a look of chicken crossing the road jokes about this part)! The actual Mind Palace common area is in the library and is now often used as a lounge for reading and other things. Once a side is introduced, their house is moved over to the neighborhood.

The sides' houses are identical to Thomas', but have their own aesthetics (except Roman is extra af and he has an entire castle in his backyard but still).

There's a scrapyard somewhere for Remus to do his thing (he'll get banned from the neighborhood if he does anything out of said scrapyard, but he doesn't care), though Logan sometimes visits to do some slightly more dangerous experiments.

Logan and Janus take care of the library. Patton, Virgil and Roman tend to hang out more at the park:

Virgil chills under trees (or in them, depends on the day)

Patton sits on the swings at the playground while he does things like doodle or sew (I headcanon that he's trying to learn to sew to help Roman fix his outfit after adventures)

Roman wanders in fields and likes to summon random, fun things (like a bouncy castle, that's his favorite).

There's a neighboring town where the other characters Thomas creates are located. Sleep and Picani often visit the Sides' neighborhood. It's a lengthy walk, and Roman has no control over that area.

Remus is banned from going over there. Janus takes occasional trips over there to "observe", although we all know he just likes visiting the OG foir (The Prince, Dad, Anxiety and Teacher characters).

Roman and The Prince character have a friendly rivalry going and they often meet in between the towns to battle it out (mostly at Twister). Remus likes to interrupt and confuse Prince.

Logan just thinks The Teacher Character is kinda dumb. That is all.

Patton and The Dad Character are literally besties. They also talk a lot about their kiddos! :D

Virgil and The Anxiety Character don't talk. They're too anxious.

The Sides treat Picani and Sleep kind of similar to Sides, although they aren't considered sides in the slightest by Thomas. They have their own, small area for when they visit since they come so often.

They're just a big happy community your honor 🥺

[candied-peach]

ao3: “behind the door” rating: T warnings: kid sides, some remus typical thoughts, food mention genre: hurt/comfort description: Remus can’t sleep. Anything could come get him. Anything. (day 4:  “Imagination, of course, can open any door - turn the key and let terror walk right in.” — Truman Capote, In Cold Blood @tsshipmonth2020) 

Remus isn't afraid of the dark.

He's not.

He's not afraid of the Imagination, either. That would be stupid. The Imagination is his playground! His much cooler playground, since his brother's is lame. All fluffy clouds and stupid little castles and dumb villagers. The only cool thing is the dragon witch, and Remus helped create that. She lives on his side and occasionally visits Roman's kingdom to wreak mayhem. He giggles to himself a little, tucked up in his bed.

Roman shifts in the bunk bed above him, and he nearly shouts to wake him up, nearly lifts his lower body and kicks the mattress as hard as he can. His head feels like it's about to explode, like a rotting pumpkin. There's so many thoughts running through his skull, he feels like a runaway train. Blood and bone and viscera. Remus scrunches his freckled nose with a frown. He- he's not supposed to deal with these alone. That's what Patton said.

Of course, Patton is stupid, and Remus hates listening to him, but maybe he has a point this time.

The door to the Imagination seems to creak, like it's about to swing open and swallow him whole, and that's it.

"Roman!" Remus howls, kicking the bunk bed above him for good measure. Tears spurt down both cheeks like a runaway fire hydrant. He doesn't even realize his brother has woken up and jumped down until there are arms circling him and a sleepy, confused voice asking him what's wrong.

"I-" Remus hiccups, looking into the sleep-fuzzed eyes of his twin. "I'm scared," he admits, bursting into fresh tears. The light clicks on, and over Roman's shoulder, he can see Logan standing there in his pajamas, glasses sitting crooked on his nose.

"Remus?" Logan asks. "Are you all right?"

"No!" Remus blurts out, like an open wound. "I'm not."

Patton and Virgil crowd into the room next, Patton even more hesitant than the nervous side, who's carrying a stuffed bat in both arms, his eyes wide and fearful. Janus sidles in last, a sleep mask pushed up on his hair. His eyes zero in on Remus and he frowns, but not in a mad way. In a concerned way.

Roman sighs and snaps his fingers, creating a giant pillow fort on the floor.

"There," he says. "Since I think it's sleepover time in our room." Remus winces and Roman hugs him tighter.

"Shush," Roman says. "I don't mind. No one minds."

"I'm sorry," Remus says in a tearful voice. "I just-" His eyes drift over to the door leading into the Imagination. Roman snaps his fingers again and an enormous padlock drapes itself over the knob.

"Nothing can get out," Roman tells Remus softly. "It's okay. Nothing can get out of the Imagination without our permission."

"Thank you," Remus says. His nose is clogged and his eyes hurt, but he finds himself smiling a little sheepishly anyway.

"Ooh, I'll get snacks!" Patton suggests.

"We could watch a movie," Virgil mumbles into his lap, his hair falling into his eyes. "You know. If you wanted."

"I see no harm in watching a movie," Logan says, adjusting his glasses. "It is still relatively early."

"Self care," drawls Janus, edging closer and grabbing Remus's hand, giving it a soft squeeze. "Very important." He still looks half asleep.

Remus sniffles, giving the others a watery smile.

"You guys are better than butts," he says, making his brother groan. Virgil smiles tentatively at him and offers his stuffed bat.

The door to the Imagination remains shut tight.

[iclaimedtobethebetterbard]

it seemed the better way - chapter 7

Fandom: Sanders Sides Characters: Janus, Romulus, Patton, Logan, c!Thomas mentions, Remus, Roman Rating: General audiences Relationships: Platonic everyone Warnings: Major character kind-of-death (the Split), arguing, breaking promises, nightmares, Logan is silenced, crying Word count: 3808 Note: Ty to @anxious-logic for betaing!!

Read on AO3!

My writing masterpost

start - previous - here - next - masterpost

–

Chapter 7

For a few weeks after that, everything was… fine. It was fine. Romulus was noticeably cautious with the ideas he pitched to the group, his eyes flitting hesitantly to Patton every once in a while, and the ideas were just… nice. They were very nice. Patton liked them. And while Janus had to admit that Romulus’s ideas weren’t actually missing their usual flair, it still itched annoying under his skin that Romulus was so clearly changing them somehow for Patton’s benefit. That didn’t seem fair. All because Patton had gone and gotten so upset over something that really, Janus didn’t think mattered at all.

“Well—I hurt his feelings,” Romulus said, when Janus challenged him about it. “So I just, I guess I can be extra nice for a bit, to make it better, you know?”

“For a bit, though,” Janus pressed, seizing at once on this phrasing. “Not forever, right?”

“Oh. No, of course not forever,” Romulus agreed, making Janus relax. “Thomas needs me to make lots of things for him,” he went on with a worldly air. “I wouldn’t skip anything forever. But just for a bit it won’t hurt, I figured. And then Patton will feel better, and everything will be good again.”

“He’d get over it,” Janus said, rolling his eyes.

“Well, but he’ll get over it faster this way,” Romulus argued. “See? I know what I’m doing. And he’s our friend, anyway.”

“I know. But he’s being so dumb lately,” Janus whined. “He worries way too much about what the grownups think. Grownups are boring.”

“Yeah, but he’s nice too. He makes good cookies.” Romulus counted reasons off on his fingers. “And he gives good hugs. And he always is nice to us when we’re sad. And he plays with me when you’re all overwhelmed and need to be alone and nap.”

“He does?” Janus asked, feeling vaguely threatened, even though this made sense. He’d hardly have expected Romulus to just wait for him, or to play with Logan, who was rarely interested in imagination games.

“You don’t do it that much,” Romulus reassured him. “But sometimes yeah. Anyway, my point is, he’s our friend, so I’m helping him feel better.”

“Fine.” Janus shrugged. “Just as long as you’re okay.”

“I am!” Romulus assured him.

Sure enough, only a few days later, Romulus had Thomas go on a spree of fart jokes on the playground during recess. While Patton fidgeted and shot Romulus uneasy glances, he let this slide without actually raising any objections. Which was good. Patton hadn’t complained about a single idea Romulus had in ages, busying himself with other things he thought Thomas could do better; maybe he was just done with bothering himself about what Romulus did.

Maybe things really were getting better. If this kept up, all Janus would need to do would be convince Patton to drop his silly ideas about lies being bad for Thomas, and then everything would be back to how it ought to be.

And the pattern held. For a while, anyway. Romulus flitted back and forth between more of the safe ideas Patton liked, and ones with more and more of the sorts of things that made Patton wince and send him disapproving looks (which both Romulus and Janus ignored). But Patton didn’t challenge Romulus aloud, which Janus counted as a win.

It didn’t last.

Thomas, in a fit of daring, had gone along with it when one of his friends had snuck a scary movie from their parents’ DVD collection and offered to play it during a visit. Though the two had been caught only a third of the way into the movie, and scolded by both sets of parents, the imagery of the monster and the dead people had stuck with Romulus.

Thomas was asleep now, and nearing the state where he could dream, which was prime creative time for Romulus.

“Monsters,” Romulus was mumbling, sitting on the floor of the Mindscape living room and molding gory creations out of imaginary clay, which took on disturbingly lifelike forms under his hands. “Monsters and monsters and dead people. And blood.” He smeared gooey red all about one creature’s mouth. “Lots of blood.” He looked up at Janus. “They eat people up. I think—” He frowned. “I think I’m gonna make them eat Mom and Dad up, and then that’s the scariest thing that could happen, so the monsters will be less scary after.”

“That’s awful,” Patton put in, horrified, from the kitchen table.

“The movie was too scary!” Romulus said. “I’ve gotta make it less scary. This’ll do the trick.”

“We should just stop thinking about it.” Patton shook his head. “He shouldn’t have watched that movie at all. The faster we all forget about it, the better.”

“How about you leave Romulus alone and let him do his job?” Janus snapped. Perhaps he was being overly hostile, but he’d been shaken by the movie too and it had left him in a particularly irritable mood all day.

“His job shouldn’t hurt Thomas,” Patton said. He frowned at Janus. “Hurting people is bad.”

“It’s helping,” Romulus said vaguely, seeming more absorbed in his clay creations, which were beginning to make sluggish movements about the rug and come to life under his supervision.

“Yeah,” Janus backed him up hotly, “weren’t you listening? It’s going to help Thomas be less scared.” Admittedly, he had not entirely followed Romulus’s line of thinking, but he trusted him.

“It’s going to be a nightmare!” Patton protested. “Nightmares make him more scared!”

“Yeah, well, maybe you’d get it if you were smarter,” Janus retorted. “Just let him take care of it and stop being so pushy.”

“I help take care of Thomas too, you know,” Patton said after a long silence, a wounded look on his face.

Janus almost wavered, but that would mean nobody was there to back up Romulus. He squashed the spark of compassion for Patton inside himself and rolled his eyes. “Take care of making him boring, maybe.” He scoffed. “How’s it taking care of him to try and make everyone else here do things your way? Isn’t the point that we all do different things for him?”

“Can you both shut up?” Romulus asked. “I need to concentrate.” He put his hands together, then slowly pulled them apart, a glittery pink-and-yellow cotton-candy substance forming in the space between them. A dream; Janus had seen them often enough. Romulus trailed the substance over the tiny models of monsters and people, chasing each other around the carpet at his knees, and as it made contact with the subjects it was to absorb, the dark and bloody colors leached into the cotton candy glitter. It didn’t lose its sparkle, but the pastel sugary appearance was quickly subsumed by darker, more vivid colors, swirling together in a threatening mishmash of blood-red and shadow-dark and gooey-monster-skin green.

“Romulus, please—” Patton begged, fright pitching his voice high. “Stop it! Just stop it!”

“Can’t,” Romulus said, sounding distracted as he focused on the dream-substance, which had now grown into a whole cloud surrounding him. Like shaping bubbles in a bath, he carefully pushed it into a smaller area, heaping it upon itself and slowly climbing to his feet as he went.

“Stop!” Patton repeated.

Romulus shook his head, pinching at the very tip-top of the mound of dream, which was almost as big as he was. A trailing strand formed in his hand, connected to the rest and drawing from it as he lengthened it out. He rose up, vanishing from the Mindscape—he had to connect the thread of the dream to Thomas for it to work, and it would ravel itself out until the end once he did.

“Janus, please,” Patton said, rounding on him now that Romulus was gone. “You can’t possibly want Thomas to have a nightmare! You hate it when he’s unhappy.”

This was true. Janus fidgeted, not wanting to admit it under present circumstances.

“Romulus listens to you,” Patton went on. “You can make him change it, I know you can! This is bad. Why would you want him to just do something like this to Thomas?”

“Well, I figure he knows more than me about creativity,” Janus said, scrambling to come up with a good reason to explain why he’d side with Romulus over Patton here. “So I don’t try and take over his job just because of some little thing I made up.” He glared at Patton, crossing his arms, as Romulus sank back into the room.

“What are we fighting about?” Romulus asked, taking in Janus and Patton’s faces. “I was busy, I didn’t pay attention.”

“Oh, Patton just thinks you’re a loser and you shouldn’t be in charge of dreams anymore,” Janus said.

Romulus’s jaw dropped. “What?”

“No I don’t!” Patton looked just as shocked as Romulus. “I would never say that!”

“It’s basically what you meant, though,” Janus said coldly.

“No, I—well—not like that—I just—” Patton faltered under Janus’s glare, grasping for words.

“What’s wrong with my dreams?” Romulus asked, sending Patton a confused, hurt look.

“I just…” Patton took a deep breath and set his shoulders. “You made a nightmare, Romulus. A really scary one. I don’t think that’s good for Thomas. I—I think you should—um. Change it. And make it stop.”

Romulus frowned. “No. He needs it.” He shook his head. “He’ll just get more and more scared otherwise. He’ll keep thinking about it.”

“Not if we all try and make him think about other things,” Patton protested, which Janus found to be a very weak argument at best. ”And—and anyway, won’t he just think about the scary dream?”

“No, because the dream is gonna be fake,” Romulus explained. “When he wakes up, Mom and Dad will help him feel better, because that’s what happens after bad dreams. And they won’t be eaten by monsters, because that’s fake. So it’ll make the rest of it more fake, too. And then he’ll feel more better after.” He nodded, seeming satisfied.

Alright. That made sense to Janus. He was more on board with this plan, now that he understood it properly.

But Patton seemed more distressed than ever. “I don’t want to think about Mom and Dad getting eaten!”

Romulus heaved a beleaguered sigh. “Patton.” He stepped forward and put a hand on Patton’s shoulder. “It’s. Pretend. You don’t have to worry about it! Mom and Dad are going to be fine.”

“I don’t think this will fix it, Romulus,” Patton insisted. “It’s going to make it worse. You should stop.”

“You should stop telling him what to do,” Janus snapped. “He doesn’t tell you how to make Thomas decide what’s good and bad. Or how he should feel. Why do you think you should just run everyone’s jobs so much lately?”

“Why are you being so mean?” Patton asked, open hurt written across his face.

“I’m being mean?” Janus asked. He laughed, not caring that it did indeed sound mean. “I’m not the one trying to change everything Romulus does until he’s scared to even say his real ideas!”

“I’m not scared,” Romulus protested.

“Shh.” Janus waved him off, eyes fixed on Patton. “I’m not the one saying it’s bad for me to do my job and take care of Thomas and protect him! I’m not the one who only cares what Logan says when it matches up with what you want!”

“Patton doesn’t do that,” Logan said.

“Shut up, Logan.” Janus shot him a look. Couldn’t he see that Janus was trying to help all of them?

“Well, your argument doesn’t make sense if it’s false,” Logan said. “And Patton cares what I say usually. And he’s right, you are being kind of mean to him right now.”

“I said shut up,” Janus snarled. “You’re good at that. Always sitting there reading, ignoring us all until you’re tired of us just existing and you tell us to keep it down.”

Logan frowned, then inhaled and cleared his face. “I am going to ignore that, because you’re just yelling now,” he said, and picked his book back up.

“Go ahead,” Janus said nastily, “just ignore the things you don’t like. You’re good at that. Just like Patton. I’m sure that’s the most logical way to deal with things. Just ignore the parts that are inconvenient for you. Great job.”

Logan’s knuckles tightened on the sides of the book, and he held it up closer to his face to hide his expression from view.

“Janus, I think maybe we should all take a break,” Patton suggested.

“No,” Janus snapped. “You just want me to get tired of arguing and be quiet so you can pretend everything is all how you want. Pretend there’s no problems. Pretend you aren’t trying to tell Romulus what to do all the time. You pretend so many things! And they’re all fake!” He stamped his foot.

“Janus,” Logan said, lowering the book from his face and not making eye contact, “you are making things worse. Patton is right, we—”

“Shut up,” Janus snapped. “Patton is not right. Shut up and stop talking now!”

“But you—”

Almost without meaning to, Janus twisted one of his extra arms and slapped Logan’s own hand over his mouth.

“Janus!” Patton cried as Logan’s eyes went wide with disbelief that quickly shifted to rage and panic. “Janus, stop it!”

Logan tugged frantically at his hand, his book falling off his lap and landing on the floor with a loud thud.

Janus just watched Logan with cold satisfaction, holding his hand in place.

Patton took a deep, shaky breath, his hands balled into fists at his sides. “Everyone is too upset right now,” he said, struggling to keep his voice even. “We need to take a break. Janus, let Logan go, and Romulus, just—just stop the dream, and we can talk about it later when we’re all calmed down, okay?”

Romulus frowned. “Why should I stop it? You’ve never made me do that before.” He stepped closer to Janus and crossed his arms.

“I—I’m not making you—” Patton faltered. “Well—well, but maybe I should.” He frowned and set his shoulders. “We shouldn’t be hurting Thomas. And that’s what nightmares do.”

“Hey!” Romulus seemed alarmed now. “I’m not hurting him—you weren’t listening!”

“How is this not hurting him?” Patton gestured at the pile of slowly diminishing nightmare on the ground, trickling out into Thomas’s mind.

“I dunno, maybe if you’d listened to him explain it you’d understand,” Janus said, crossing his arms to match Romulus’s.

“Listen—” Patton let out a frustrated noise. “Can we just stop it for a minute?” He reached for the dream.

“No!” Romulus gasped and darted forward, trying to push Patton away. “Don’t touch it!”

But Patton had already grabbed the dream in his hands, trying to pull the thread and break it off.

It didn’t break; instead, his pulling disturbed the heap of dream-material not yet spun out into thread, and sent the pile toppling. Cotton-candy glitter spread out across the living room, pooling and hovering about all the Sides’ knees like a cloud.

“Leave it alone!” Romulus snatched the dream away from Patton protectively. “You can’t stop dreams. You’re just changing it!” He gestured down at the dream where it lapped against Patton’s knees.

Pale blue tendrils were seeping into it everywhere it touched Patton—and the pale blue was mixing with the darker colors already there, getting mostly overwhelmed but turning them even nastier, more sickly shades.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Romulus said, hands on his hips. “Now your feelings are getting into it. And it’s going to feel way bigger and scarier and more real for Thomas. Because you are feelings. I only put the idea of feelings into dreams, never real ones. They’re too strong for dreams. You’re not supposed to touch these!”

Sure enough, if Janus paid attention, in the back of his head he could feel Thomas’s dream-fright intensifying.

“Why didn’t you say that before?” Patton wailed, staring down at the dream-substance all around him in terror.

“You weren’t listening, it wouldn’t’ve mattered if I did!” Romulus yelled right back.

Janus crouched and poked cautiously at the dream-substance. Yellow spooled out of his finger, mingling briefly with the colors before disappearing and being subsumed—but where it had been, the dream-colors grew brighter and more vivid. “Romulus?” he asked, nervous in spite of himself. “What do I do to it?”

“You’re fine,” Romulus said, not looking. “You just make dreams seem more real and exciting, since they’re not true and you’re best at that.” His eyes widened. “Wait, but if Patton’s got into it, that’s bad. I’m wrong. Normally you’re okay. Um, but not right this minute. Um, um um um. That’s bad. Oh no.” He looked back and forth between Patton and Janus. “This wasn’t supposed to be a big deal!” he said helplessly. “It was just supposed to be a regular dream!”

“See, Patton?” Janus snapped. “If you’d just let him do it his way, everything would be fine.”

“No it wouldn’t, though!” Patton shook his head. “It was still a really scary nightmare. It was going to make him cry!”

“You really weren’t listening, were you?” Romulus mumbled, kneeling and beginning to carefully collect the dream back into its heap. It seemed to be much more difficult for him to handle now, the material grown slippery and sliding off itself each time he piled some on top. “Well, it’s going to be worse now, because you didn’t believe me.” He glared up at Patton. “He’s going to be so scared.” He pointed at the bright blue still leaching outward from Patton into the dream. “And I can’t change it now. So none of us are having a fun time.” He shook his head and resumed trying to gather up the dream.

“Wow, Patton,” Janus said. “Looks like you trying to make Romulus do what you want made everything bad. Almost like you being so fussy about Romulus’s ideas was a problem. Isn’t that funny?”

Patton shook his head. “If he’d listened to me, none of this would have happened,” he insisted. “If you hadn’t encouraged him to keep making creepy bad things in his ideas, everything would be fine right now!”

“If I hadn’t—I never made him do anything! You did!” Janus retorted, indignant that Patton still couldn’t see that he was wrong.

“Well, I guess I didn’t do enough,” Patton responded stubbornly. “Since we still have to deal with this now.” He shook his head again. “I should’ve been better at helping him pick the right things.”

“Why do you think you know better than him what the right things are?” Janus snapped.

“Because it’s my job, Janus!” Patton shouted. “You keep saying I’m messing up everyone else’s jobs, but you don’t ever care about mine!”

“You two are making this a lot harder to get under control!” Romulus cried, still struggling with the mutating dream. Streams of rainbow color were spilling into it everywhere he touched it, and weren’t even getting mixed into the dream like Janus and Patton’s colors had, just staying and mingling with the other colors.

“Let me fix it, then,” Patton said, wading over towards Romulus. “Let’s change it so it’s not a scary dream!”

“No!” Romulus grabbed armfuls of the material and scooted backwards, away from Patton. “Changing dreams in the middle sucks and is so hard! It doesn’t even go right most of the time. That could make it much worse!”

“But it’s scaring Thomas!” Patton tried to grab some of the dream Romulus was holding. “You have to stop!”

Romulus gasped at the words, reeling backwards as if struck. He regained himself before he lost his balance, but his grip on the armfuls of dream slackened, and he was panting like he was winded. “Patton—”

“Patton, leave him alone!” Janus said, hurrying over and trying to pull Patton’s hands off the dream. “Just let him fix it back to how it was supposed to be, and stop trying to make him do it your way.” He yanked roughly at Patton’s arm.

“No!” Patton yanked right back. “He’s not going to fix it, he’s just going to make it still be scary! He needs to stop!”

“You need to stop,” Janus snarled.

“Guys—” Romulus began, sounding scared.

“Just let me fix it,” Patton repeated, stamping his foot.

“Guys, something’s wrong,” Romulus gasped out, sounding downright panicked now. “Put it down! Please.”

“Do it,” Janus snapped at Patton. “What’s wrong?” he asked Romulus.

“It’s all messed up, it has too much of me in it now!” Romulus gestured to the puddle of rainbow now surrounding him. “But I can fix it. Just let me put it back how it was—”

“No,” Patton repeated. “Not how it was! That was bad for Thomas!”

“Just do what Romulus says!” Janus snapped, grabbing the armful of dream from Patton in order to pass it back over to Romulus.

“No!” Patton grabbed at it again and pulled. Janus pulled right back, digging in his heels and refusing to let go.

“Romulus, you need to stop!” Patton shouted, and the dream material he and Janus were struggling with ripped in half, sending them both falling on their backsides.

Romulus shrieked. Bright white light, like when he shapeshifted, flared outward from him. It splintered, breaking apart into rainbow streaks.

“Romulus?” Janus cried.

“Romulus!” Patton scrambled up, reaching towards Romulus, so obscured by the light that they couldn’t even see him anymore.

The light flared brighter, rainbow colors flashing around and around. Two colors grew brighter than the rest, seeming to pull from the dream-colors on the floor, until the rainbow light was all red or green, flashing back and forth so bright and painful. Janus covered his eyes, the light too overwhelming, and he could still see the flashes through his eyelids and the cracks between his fingers.

“Romulus!” Patton screamed again, sounding panicked.

There was a final flash of light and a crack like thunder. Janus forced his hands away from his eyes just in time to see Romulus stagger and fall—

Something happened, and there were suddenly too many arms and legs, and they were breaking apart in ways that no one person should—

By the time Romulus hit the floor, he wasn’t Romulus.

Two boys, one dressed all in white with a red sun on his chest and the other all in black with a cluster of green stars, fell apart from each other where Romulus ought to be, and neither of them was Romulus even a little bit.

“Romulus!” Janus and Patton screamed in panicked unison.

Thomas woke up from his nightmare with a gasp and burst into tears.

[jadienjaystoriesandart]

Sander Sides - Coraline AU

So when scrolling through one of my favorite channels on here I saw someone mention Janus as Other Father, and this got my creativity going. I’ll hash out the characters and ideas, then give you a basic idea of what is cooking in my head. However, I’m not sure on how I want things to go in terms of plot. But I do have a general idea of the characters and their roles as well as background.

Other Mother: Logan Sanders

In this idea the Other Mother would have been Patton, but given there are so many sides, I thought he’d fit another role better. Then my sister suggested Logan as Other Mother, and it fits for the basic plot I have in mind. He goes by Logic by the others in the Other World, or as they call it the Alternate World or Pocket World. 

Logan says he’s the eldest one here along with Patton and Janus, and seems to be the head of the ‘family’. He’s a very stoic mother, pushing his kids, which in this case is Roman, Remus, and Virgil, to be smart. Not in a bad way, he’s a silently content mother, and you can tell when he’s proud of you. He cleans mostly and makes sure everything is in place, and enjoys gardening. Mostly he stays in the study or outside. 

In terms of power, Logan is the most powerful of them due to being the oldest person there. And no, he doesn’t turn into a spider being, he actually is a type of bird. Looking alot like harpy when you really tick him off. His buttons are dark blue with silver thread and his skin is warm but overly smooth. 

Other Fathers: Patton and Janus Sanders No one is really sure who is older, they’ve always been with each other. Janus enjoys making music and Patton enjoys cooking for the family. Both are very fatherly and enjoy doting on their kids. Going by the names of Morality and Deceit/Self. When mother dear isn’t around, it’s up to the one of the fathers to sort things out.  Janus is strange, as in he’s the one who gives the hints something isn’t quiet right. Though it’s unknown if these are his actions or not. He seems to like challenging kids that come to the Pocket World to think about what they are seeing and why. Yet does it a very coy way. Then there are days he’ll do a 180 and ask you not to question anything and actively lie about things. His buttons are dark gold with black thread, and he does have scales on his face still. Though, to a kid that’s nothing. Patton is cheerful and bubbly, his dinners are always the best as is his sweets. He’s the one that mostly sticks to Logan the most, and enjoys gardening also. He’s the first to make sure one doesn’t question, easily deflecting odd things, and is great at distracting people. He is Nostalgia after all, his areas when your near him make you feel so happy and get you lost in happy moments. His buttons are light blue with dark blue tread.  Both take on forms of a Frog and Snake when angry, which are terrifying. Their skin is also very rubbery feeling. Other Brother: Virgil Sanders  Virgil here is the youngest, looking like he’s only 15 or 16. He’s been here the shortest... and looks oddly like a kid that went missing back in the early 2000′s. The Family calls his Anxiety, and he’s rather withdrawn. But does enjoy playing video games or board games with Patton, Janus, and Logan.  Soft spoken, sarcastic, and a little emo spiderling, he’s adored by Patton mostly. Who calls him the ‘Dark Strange Son’ alot. Virgil seems rather happy in the Other World. Stating to little Thomas that this world is much better than anything he could dream of. He’s however hesitant to answer questions about things not inside the Other World. Telling Thomas to not think about that, and just be happy. He enjoys his room/the attic, and outside in the front yard. When angry, Virgil is the one with the spider form, taking on a more glass like look and his skin is cold to the touch. His buttons are dark purple with light purple thread. 

Other Twins: Roman and Remus Sanders The two Creativity Rascals, they are slightly older then Virgil, but much younger than Janus and Patton. They can warp reality around them when in their favorite spots, be it the Basement for Remus, or the Woods for Roman. Their rooms are actually in the basement in the door near the left side of the house. While Virgil's is in the attic. They serve as the entertainment, coming up with ideas on the fly to go on adventures, play dragons and knights, or kings and castles. The forest, quiet literally, is their playground. Having their own fort and castle there, and a while bunch of land to cover.  The twins play fight alot, but they get along very well and are rather close to one another. And are like the cool older brothers who have alot of fun, but are happy to let the youngers join them.  Both have tentacles in this one, though Remus is more slimy than his brother. And when they open their extra mouths on their body when angry, it’s very scary. Roman’s buttons are red with green thread, while Remus is green with red thread. And their skin is like plastic almost.  Coraline: Thomas Anderson  He’s about 12 in this one, just moved to the country side in a little blue house on the back dirt roads. This town is dreadfully boring, with dull, muted colors, always over cast and rainy. It’s like all the happiness has been sucked out of it and left to decay.  Thomas is not upset about the move, as he never had many friends, if any, from his old home. He’s mostly upset with the fact he’s just dull, he’s not allowed to be colorful. And to top it off, his parents aren’t always there emotionally for him. Leaving him completely isolated, even more so when he’s a closeted gay in a very religious family.  So when he finds a world where everything is colorful, with three dads, well two and a mom, a family who cares about him, he’s excited. Maybe this move won’t be so bad.

Plot: The idea in my head is that Thomas has moved with his parents to a rather nice when hie father got a promotion. But, like most typical rich families, he’s not really paid attention to. And Thomas feels mostly left out, having no friends to call his own, and just his imagination and books to keep him busy.  When exploring his new house, finding the attic and basement locked, and a small golden key, he finds a little door. It’s been walled off, which is a bummer. That is until the middle of the night, when Thomas follows a shadow to the door. Finding it leads to a world that is perfect. The world represents everything Thomas wants, brothers, Roman, Remus, and Virgil. Fathers, Patton and Janus, and a mother, Logan, who actually cares about him. He isn’t sure if this is some very real dream or not. But he’s not complaining, he feels welcomed instantly byt he family.  Taken on adventures with Roman and Remus, playing games with Virgil and learning knew things from Logan, helping Patton cook, and Janus teaches him music and among other things. But when after a week of this, Thomas starts to see strange cracks in their personalities. And when they one day ask if he wants to stay forever and be part of their family, it meets getting this pink buttons in his eyes. He’s terrified, and now wonders if he’ll ever escape... or even if he wants to. Notes:

So I’m not sure how I want it to be played out. If the Others are truly evil in just that they want to kidnap Thomas just because they are selfish and/or turn him into a doll.  OR if I want it to be well meaning sinister, where they think they are doing Thomas a favor by taking him away from his neglectful family. 

One thing to note is they do really like Thomas, regardless of intentions, they do like him. And either way, they want him to stay forever.

Now, I’m not sure if I want with the Other Father for Patton to be controlling Janus or Janus to be controlling Patton. One of them is well aware of what they are doing, but can’t go against the wishes of their controller or Logan. While they are happy, the idea of luring kids tends to hurt them inside.

The Other World is bigger than Thomas things, he’s just in a small area that belongs to Logan. There are MANY others out there. Who lure people away into their realm, for better or worse. It’s like it’s own reality, only everything is just perfect. It’s like a nostalgic trap, much like Patton’s room only worse.

Logan is the main guy, he’s been at this for a long time, and either Patton or Janus is their partner depending on who is controlling who. He mainly lures kids as he likes the taste of their humanity. It’s what he feeds off of, draining them of their everything, and making them like dolls, only with a semi soul. Any who does this too becomes his kid or helper. Logan is fine with this, he enjoys having a family. And he only has to feed every few decades or so. He’s been around for a long time. Most of his ‘kids’ have grown up, and become true Others who have their own areas. Virgil, Roman, and Remus though are still MUCH too young for such a thing.  Others are NOT human, nor are they ‘aliens’ either. Best thing I can think of are like Fae, only... less magical as we know it. They are creatures who feed off of emotions and the essences that make people human. Which is why they all feel like dolls. 

Others are near immortal should they feed properly, and Others areas tend to just attract people to them. Some go after teens, others kids, some adults, taste is everything. Adults tend to be more fulling, but can be bitter and sour tasting, Teens are half and half depending on situation, and are often spicy tasting. While kids are very sweet, and typically are fulling also depending on how well you’ve gained their trust. If you can get them to agree to being an other, even better.  It’s harder than it sounds though.

Each Other does have a specific power that they use. Which I am still hashing out in my head. 

They rarely get angry, but boy is it scary when they do. 

The key only is Thomas’s interpretation of the entrance way, it can be anything to get into the Other World. It’s all up to the person in how THEY think to get in. It could be walking through two trees making a hole in them, opening a door that is only unlocked on certain days, or even just crawling under your bed. It’s up to the seeker how they wish to get in, which is why the Other World can stay in one spot, no matter the house or thing built on it. 

There is no real moral code for Others, their world is very well hidden. But they are very protective of their charges when they find the right type of feed off of. Logan gets extremely possessive of Thomas when he shows up, not as in he punishes the others, but if Thomas ever thinks about leaving or tries too, Logan would lock him up until Thomas gives into despair. 

If they are being unruly or try to escape, one way to get them ot agree is by isolating them, and cutting them off from happiness. Which makes kids and teens want to stay once they leave their isolation. Logan dislikes doing this, but going without a food source is rather painful, and he’d rather not put himself or his partner through that. So if he must, he will make sure the target stays. Even if it won’t be as filling as if they agreed willingly. 

Also, their areas is often where their power is the strongest.

-0-0-0-0-0-

So Yeah, there it is, if you guys have any question just let me know. And this goes to @fangirltothefullest who when I mentioned this idea to her really wanted to see this.  I still need more for it, but I like the concept of it, it’s much different from the books, but that’s what makes it interesting. Could easily be Angst with Happy Ending. Could even get more sinister than this. We’ll see. Might post more about this later. And fanart is well loved, I can draw, but not well enough in my mind lol. 

[foreverfangirlalways]

Sander Sides High School Host Club

Sanders Sides OHSHC-

This is simply a bullet fic for a Sanders Sides version of Ouran High School Host Club. Everyone is Supernatural except for Virgil, and if y’all like it enough, I will turn it into a full fledged fic. Just let me know!!

-_-_-_-

Original Character= Sander Side -supernatural identity- tattoo that shows supernatural identity Haruhi=Virgil -human- ??? Tamaki=Janus -shapeshifter- dice surrounded by various shapes Kyouya=Logan -vampire- fangs with a moon and cross Hikaru=Patton -Cupid- bow&arrow w/ heart Kaoru=Emile -Siren- musical notes with emoji Hunny=Roman -fae- willow tree and red mushrooms Mori=Remy -sandman- hourglass combines with a sandstorm Renge=Remus -fae- willow tree and green mushrooms

-_-_-_-

~A bunch of freaking people talking loudly in a freaking library!~

Virgil – [Sigh] ~This place has four library rooms. You'd think one of them would be quiet.~

~How are things in heaven Andy? I can't believe it's been ten years already. I'm beginning to think that rich kids only come to school to have a good time.~

~An abandoned living room. I guess this is the only place I'll be able to study in peace and quiet.~

[Gets buried in an avalanche of petals]

Sides Host Club – "Welcome!"

Virgil– ~When I opened the door, I found the Host Club.~

Janus *background/narration/janus answer to Virgil’s ‘whaaa???’*– "Only those with excellent social standing, filthy rich families, and are supernatural creatures are lucky enough to spend their time here at the elite private school, Sides Academy. The Sides Host Club is where the school's handsomest boys, with too much time on their hands, entertain other handsome boys who also have way too much time on their hands. Just think of it as Sides Academy's elegant playground for the super-rich, supernatural, and beautiful."

Virgil – "This is a cult?"

Patton– "Oh wow, it's a new boy!"

Logan – "Patton, Emile, I believe this young man is in the same class as you, isn't he?"

Emile– "Yeah, but he's so shy and quite! He doesn't act very sociably, so we don't know much about him."

Logan – "Hm. Well, that wasn't very polite." "Welcome to the Sides Host Club, Mr. Honor Student."

Janus – "What? You must be Virgil Storm! You're the exceptional honor student we've heard about."

Virgil – "How did you know my name?"

Roman– "Why, you're infamous. It's not every day that a commoner gains entrance into our academy. You must have a lot of nerve to work hard enough to fight your way into this school as an honor student cutie."

Virgil– "Boi, excuse me?"

Janus – "You're excused. You're a hero to other poor people, Storm. You've shown the world that even a poor person can excel at an elite private academy. It must be hard for you to constantly be looked down upon by others."

Virgil– "Ahhh, you’re that type of asshole. I think you're taking this "poor" thing too far."

Janus – "Spurned. Neglected. But that doesn't matter now. Long live the poor! We welcome you poor man, to our world of beauty."

Virgil– "Bitch, bye. I'm outta here."

Patton– "Hey! Come back here BFF Virgil! You must be like a superhero or something. That's so cool!"

Virgil– "I'm not a hero. I'm an honor student. And who are you calling "BFF Virgil!?"

Janus – "I never would've imagined the famous scholar would be so openly gay."

Virgil – "Openly what? BITCH WE’RE ALL GAY! There are no girls at this school! It’s like, a requirement or something!"

Janus *not listening*– "So tell me what kind of guys you're into. Do you like the strong, silent type? Because we don’t have that. We have Remy instead.

Remy- “You got that right babes. Silence is weakness. That’s why I always be slurping Starbees! *siiiippppp*”

Janus- Then there’s the boy Lolita? That’s Pat and Em! How about the princely type, Roman, or the cool nerd type, Logan?"

Virgil– "None! I was just looking for a quiet place to study."

Janus – "Or maybe... You're into a guy like me. *winky winky nudge nudge* What do you say?"

Virgil– "I will slap you. Back away!"

~Joan enters to see what the club was up too, and hears a ‘crackboom’. He turns to the noise, and sees the club standing over his broken vase.

Joan- “BROOOOOOOO! No effin' way, dude! Who broke this vase? Who broke this vase? Seriously, guys. Everyone who's here at my awesome party... this huge crowd of people that's definitely here right now...”

Virgil- *Mumbling* “Oh my go- wait, are they drunk? Why are they talking like that?”

Joan- “Somebody broke my grandma's vase. And that was the last thing she gave to me... to sell for about 75 thousand dollars! I swear to all things football and/or skateboarding that I will find you. Don't make me cry these incredibly manly tears! Anyone can speak up here and be a part of this scene. Especially those of us who aren't imagined and are actually here on the stage.”

Janus, Logan, Patton, Emile, Roman, and Remy all facepalm.

Joan- “Like, not the people who are imagined to be here through means of suspension of disbelief.”

Logan- I do not understand theatre. Joan, you don’t have to practice your script right now! Besides, you literally watched Virgil break it.”

Joan- “True, but I was very convincing! Now, ima go, but y’all should have the new guy do indentured servitude or something, because that’s the typically way a teenager pays for breaking a vase. Bye!”

All- “Bye Joan!”

Virgil- *gulping and looking around the room*"Uh, I'm gonna have to pay you back."

Remy – "With what money? Babes, you can't even afford a school uniform."

Roman – "What's with that grubby outfit you've got on anyway?"

Virgil- “Hmm, don’t like you either asshat.”

Logan – "Well, what do you think we should do Janus?"

Janus– "There's a famous saying you may have heard Virgil, "When in Rome, you should do as the Romans do." Since you have no money, you can pay with your body!”

Virgil- *raises an eyebrow, flips him off, and moves to leave*

Logan- *grabbing Virgil’s arm and pulling him back* “He doesn’t mean like that! He means-“

Janus- * interrupting* “That means starting today, you're the Host Club's errand boi!"

(Scene change)

Virgil– ~I don't know if I can handle this Andy. I've been captured by a bunch of boys that are calling themselves a host club.~ [Indistinct chattering] Brian– "Um, Janus, what's your favorite song?"

Janus– "What song? The one that reminds me of you, of course."

Steve (the stove) – "I baked you a cake today. Would you like to taste it?"

Janus– "Only if you'll feed it to me darling."

Bill (the drill) – "Oh wow. You're so dreamy."

Chad – "May I have a word with you Janus?"

Janus and Bill – "Huh?"

Chad– "I've recently heard the Host Club is keeping a little kitten without a pedigree."

Janus– "I don't know if I'd call him that. Speak of the devil! Thanks for doing the shopping Count Woe-laf! Did you get everything on our list?"

Virgil– "What? If Roman can’t call me that neither can you. Now here’s your food."

Remy– "Hey, wait a minute, what is this?"

Virgil– "Just what it looks like. It's coffee."

Remy – "I've never seen this kind before. Is this Dunkin Donuts?"

Virgil – *rolling his eyes* "Holy fucking shit. It's just Krueger coffee pods. I even got Starbucks brand!”

Everyone– "It's coffee pods?"

Remy – "Whoa! I've heard of this before. It's commoners' coffee. You just place it into a machine."

Steve – "I didn't know there was such a thing."

Brian – "So it's true then. Poor people don't even have enough money to buy Starbucks from Starbucks!"

Chad – "Mm hmm!"

Virgil- “No, it’s just Starbucks coffee pods. For home. It’s convenient you preppy asshats.”

Logan– *winks* "Commoners are pretty smart and convenient."

Roman – "68 cents per pod?"

Patton – "That's a lot less than we normally pay!"

Virgil – "I'll go back and get regular Starbucks. Excuse me for not knowing y’all orders."

Remy – "No, I'll keep it."

Crowd – [Gasp]

Remy– "I'm going to give it a try."

Crowd – [Gasp]

Remy – "I will drink this coffee!"

Crowd – [Applause]

Remy – "Alright Virgil, get over here and make me some of this commoners' coffee."

Virgil– ~I hate all these damn rich people.~

Chad– "Oh Janus, Logan, now they’re taking the joke too far. His palate won't be able to stomach that crap. Y’all don't have to drink it just because he bought it."

Virgil- "With all do respect, what?"

Chad*verychadlike* – "I'm sorry. I was talking to myself."

Virgil– "Bitc-"

Emile– "Virgil!"

Virgil – "Eh, I'm comin'" "Here."

Remy – "Let the tasting begin."

Brian – "I'm a little scared to drink this stuff."

Jon – "I'm afraid if I drink this my father will yell at me."

Roman– "What if I let you drink it from my mouth?"

Jon – "Well then I would drink it."

Guys – [Squealing]

Virgil – ~This is ridiculous.~

(Scene change)

Emile– [Giggle] "So he had a cookie jar hidden in our room."

Patton– "Emile! Don't tell them that story. I asked you not to tell anyone that. Why are you so mean to me?"

Emile– "I'm sorry Patton."

Guys – [Gasp]

Emile – "I didn't mean to upset you, but you were so adorable when it happened, I had to tell them. I'm sorry."

Patton– "I forgive you."

Guys – [Squeal] "I've never seen roommate love quite like that."

Virgil– "What are they so excited about? I just don't get it."

Roman – [dramatic entrance] "Sorry, we're running late."

Jon – "Hello Roman. Hey Remy."

Apollo – "We've been waiting here for you guys, hi"

Roman– "I'm sorry. I was waiting for Remy to finish his party plans and I simply couldn’t leave a man behind! *wrapping his arms around Remy* especially not the handsomest prince in the world!"

Guys – [Gasp] "So cute!" [Giggling]

Virgil– "Is Roman really a prince?"

Logan – "Roman may seem dramatic, but he is a fae prince."

Virgil – "Really? Damn."

Logan– "And then Remy allure is he’s a sassy, coffee-addicted sandman."

Virgil- "Interesting... tell me more?"

Logan- “Well, Emile is a siren. Patton is a Cupid.”

Virgil-*suprised Pikachu face* “seriously?”

Patton– "Vergie!"

Virgil– [Yelp]

Patton– "Hey Virgie, do you want to go have some cookies with me?"

Virgil– "Thanks, but I don't really like cookies."

Emile– "Then how would you like to hold my Stitch?"

Virgil– "I'm not into stuffed animals."

Emile– "Don’t worry! Stitch isn’t a mere stuffed animal! You look stressed. Stitch is enchanted, he brings luck and happiness to the holder.”

Virgil– [Gasp] "Well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt?"

Emile and Patton– [Gasp] *REALIZATION!* "Take good care of him, okay?" [Laugh]

Logan– "You'll notice that our club utilizes each man's unique characteristics to cater to the desires of our guests. Just so you know, Janus is number one around here. He's the king. Just don’t tell Roman. Janus’s request rate is 70%."

Virgil- "What's this world coming to? So, what is he?"

Logan- “Janus is a shapeshifter.”

Virgil- “Figures”

Logan– "And in order for you to pay off your 75 thousand dollar debt with us, you will act as the Sides Host Club's errand boy until you graduate. You can try to run away if you want to Virgil, but just so you know, I can find you anywhere you go. By the way, do you have a passport?"

Virgil – "Huh? What does that matter? And how could you find me? You never told me what you are."

Logan: “oh, of course. *smiles slowly, showing fangs.* “I’m a vampire.”

Virgil~eyes widened. Crap. Why does the one I like best have to be the most dangerous?~

Janus – "You're going to have to work hard to pay off that debt, my little emo." [Blow]

Virgil– [Hyperventilating] "Please don't do that again. Fight or flight, I will punch you."

Janus– "You need a makeover or no guys going to look twice at you."

Virgil – "You seem to be looking at me just fine. Besides, I’m not trying to get guys to look at me."

Janus– "Are you kidding me? That's the most important thing. You have to learn to be a gentleman and please the masses, like me."

Virgil– "I just don't think it's all that important."

Janus– "Hm?"

Virgil– "Why should I care about appearances and labels anyway? I mean, all that really matters is what's on the inside right? I don't understand why you even have a host club like this."

Janus– "It's a cruel reality, isn't it?

Virgil– [Grunt]

Janus– "It's not often that God creates a perfect person like moi, beautiful both inside and out."

Virgil– "And vein all around?"

Janus– "I understand how you feel since not everyone is blessed as I am, but you must console yourself. Otherwise how would you go on living? And think about this Virgil. Why do you think they put works of art in museums? Because beauty should be shared with the world, and those born beautiful should-“

Virgil-(~There's a word to describe people like him.~)

Janus- “promote other beautiful things. That's why I started this club in the first place. I did it for those who are-“

Virgil-(~Hmm. What is it?~)

Janus- “starved for beauty. For those working day and night, pursuing beauty. And although

Virgil-(~Aw man, I wish I could remember that word. Hmmm~)

Janus-“your looks may be average, and you have a few negative characteristics, I've chosen to share my expertise with you. Here's a tip. When setting down your glass, extend your pinky finger as a cushion, and that way when you set it down you won't be making a lot of noise. Gentlemen do not make loud sounds. Besides,” Virgil-(~"a pain in the neck"?~)

Janus-“a gentleman looks much more refined”

Virgil-(~No, there's something that fits him perfectly, better than that~)

Janus-“that way. I like to check my reflection.., but above all else ? Virgil, you must remember, how effective a glance to the side can be.”

Virgil- “Ha. I got it!”

Janus-“Oh, did I strike a chord?”

Virgil- You’re Obnoxious!"

Janus*sulking*

Virgil – "Uh, I'm sorry Janus. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings."

Roman and Remy– [Laugh]

Roman– "You're a hero alright."

Remy – "Uh-huh."

Virgil– ~But he is a pain in the neck.~ "I'm sorry Jan, but your lesson did strike a small chord with me."

Janus– "Really? It did? Let me teach you more, my friend."

Virgil– "Well, he got over that quick."

Janus- “Emile!”

Emile – "Boss?"

Janus– "Call me King."

Roman- “Nope, that’s me! Try again.”

Janus- “Fine. Call me Emperor Now where was I?”

Emile– “I think you were wanting to make Virgil a host. You can teach him all the basics of hosting..."

Patton– "But he's not going to get very far with the fellas if he doesn't look the part you know. HE NEEDS A MAKEOVER!!!"

Virgil– "I thought I already vetoed that?"

Roman– "Yes! Maybe if we moved his bangs out of his eyes it could help."

Virgil– "Hey! I happen to like bangs in my eyes! STEP AWAY FROM THE BRUSH! NO!!!"

Remy Attack Virgil with a hairbrush

Remy realization*

Logan– [Gasp] "Remy."

Remy – "Got it!"

Virgil– "Huh? Bitch what the hell is going on??" [Yell]

Roman– "Emile, what’s the number to my hairstylist?“

Patton – "What about me Lolo?"

Logan– "Patton."

Patton– "Yes sir!"

Logan– "You... go make some cookies."

Patton – "Ok! Virgil, what’s your favorite type of cookie?? You know what, I’ll just make them all!"

Remy – "Here! Change into this uniform."

Virgil– "What? Why?"

Remy– "Don't ask questions!"

Virgil– "No way! Screw you! You know what, I'll change, but you have to GET OUT!"

Remy – [Yell] [Stutter] "Huh?"

Logan– [Sigh]

(Scene change)

Virgil– "Um, guys?"

Janus– "Aren't you done changing yet?"

Logan– "Hmmm?"

Virgil– "You sure it's really okay for me to keep this uniform?"

Patton– "Cute! You're super pretty! Adorable!"

Emile– "Verge, you look so cute!"

Roman– "If we had known that's how you really look..."

Remy– "We would've helped you out sooner. You’re actually pretty hot..."

Logan– "Who knows? Maybe he'll draw in some customers. And I agree, he is extremely aesthetically appeasing."

Janus – "You know, that's just what I was thinking. Our errand boy is moving up the ranks. Starting today, you are an official member of the Host Club. I will personally train you to be a first-rate host. If you can get 100 customers to request your service, we will completely forget about your $75,000 debt."

Virgil – "A host? You people are fucking crazy. And I don’t want you to train me. You are an asshole."

Logan- “Janus? Do you mind if I train him? It could be educational.”

Janus- *slightly offended snake sounds* “If you can get the ungrateful, sassy, mean emo to agree, you can train him.”

Logan- “Virgil, can~”

Virgil- “I’ll let the hot nerd train me. I like him.”

Everyone looks between an extremely pleased Logan and a smug Virgil. ‘Interesting’

(Insert fluffy, flirty Analogical scene of Virgil learning how to be a ‘proper host’ and the others spying)

(Scene change)

Alfredo– "So, tell me Virgil. Do you have any hobbies? What do you like to do?"

Herbert– "I'm curious, what kind of products do you use on your skin?"

Boy(I’m running out of Thomas’s male character names)– "Yes, it's so pretty."

Virgil– ~I can't do this anymore. I’m sorry Logan, but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. And these people are staring to get annoying. And invasive...~

Boys – "So why did you join the Host Club Virgil?" [Giggle]

Virgil– "Uh." ~All I have to do is get 100 customers to request me, and they'll forget about my $75,000 debt. I just have to seem interesting. Oh! I know just the story.~

(Words)

Alfredo – "I see, your brother was sick and passed away two years ago. Who do you bond with now?"

Virgil– "Oh, I‘m just kind of by myself now. My brother was my best friend and confidante, so I found it hard to make friends since he passed. Now all I have is my Uncle, but he is pretty great, and I have managed to make it through okay."

Herbert – "So uh..."

Boy – "Is it okay if tomorrow..."

Alfredo – "We request to sit with you again?"

Virgil– "Yeah, I'd really appreciate that guys. Y’all are great listeners, and I am interested to hear about y’all next time." *smirk*

Boys- [stifled shrieking]

Roman – "Why is he so popular?"

Logan– "He's a natural."

Janus– "Apparently he didn’t even need training."

Chad– "Have you forgotten about me?"

Janus – "Oh, no. Sorry prince. I'm just a little concerned about our newest host."

Chad – "Well that's obvious Jan. You and Logan sure have been keeping an eye on him."

Janus – "Of course. I have to. I need to make sure he a good host, and Logan is training him to be a gentleman."

Boys – [Giggling]

Janus – "Virgil! Come here for a minute."

Virgil– "What's up?"

Janus– "I'd like you to meet someone. This is my regular guest, Prince Chad."

Virgil– [Gasp] ~It's that asshole from earlier~ "Sir, it's a ‘absolute’ pleasure to meet you."

Janus – "That was so cute! That air of bashfulness was very good! Super good! Amazingly good!"

Chad – "Uh, Logan, what is happening?"

Logan– "Virgil is adorable, so Janus is trying to show affection and make Virgil like him better than me."

Virgil– "Roman! Save me!"

Janus – "Nope, mine now!"

Roman– *Whacks Janus with his sword and grabs Virgil bridal style* [Realization Gasp]

Janus– "Damn it Roman, you didn’t have to go that far. Come on little emo, let your best friend give you a big hug."

Virgil– "Ok. Patton! Janus says I need a hug."

Laughing and offended noises, then Patton jumping in Virgil arms for a giant hug. Guests are very amused, and Chad is very pissed

(Scene change)

Virgil-"Hey, what happened to my bag? [looks out window and sees bag in fountain] Uh, are you kidding me? How did that happen? I didn't think there were bullies at this school. I guess those asshats are everywhere. They’re like McDonalds."

Virgil runs towards the fountain

Chad – "Oh! It's you again. I bet you love having Janus and Logan making you over and fawning over you. It's useless though. You're always going to be a second-class citizen.”

Virgil – ~I bet my Tim Burton posters that he is the bastard that threw my bag in the fountain. I can't be bothered with him right now though. I've gotta find my wallet or I won't have any money for food this week.~

Remy– "Hey, tiny emo! You've got some nerve skipping out on the club like that. Why is your bag all wet?"

Virgil– "It's no big deal. I got it. I just can't find my food money."

Remy– "Hm?"

[jumps into the fountain after taking off his sunglasses]

Virgil– "Hey, you don't have to do that. You'll get wet. And why the hell did you only take off your sunglasses? That does nothing!"

Remy – "A little water never hurt anyone. Besides, people are always telling me that I'm dripping with good looks. Oh, hang on a second. This what you're looking for? What's the matter, you're staring off into space. Ooo! Please tell me your falling for me. Because Logan is gonna be pissed! "

Virgil– "No way!"

Remy– "How did your bag end up in the fountain anyway?"

Virgil– "Well uh, I guess I accidentally dropped it out the window at some point."

(Scene change)

Chad – "Oh really? That must've been terrible. I can't imagine what I'd do if my bag fell into the fountain."

Virgil – ~Why did he request me when it's obvious he doesn't like me? He has a plan. Ima end up decking this guy...~

Chad– "And you actually made Remy search that dirty old thing with you. How astonishing! You do realize he's a blueblood and not a commoner, right? The only reason any of them are paying attention to you is because they’re trying to turn you into a gentleman."

Virgil– [Gasp] ~Dis bitch wanna get punched ~

Chad– "Don't start thinking he cares about you just because he's doting on you."

Virgil– "Now I understand. You're jealous of me."

[grabs Virgil’s arm and yanks to where Virgil knocks the table over and lands on top of Chad]

Chad – [Scream] "No, Virgil! Leave me alone! Somebody help, he just attacked me!"

Virgil– "Bitch please."

Chad– "Somebody do something! Teach this commoner a lesson!"

[Emile and Patton dump water on the two]

Virgil– "Honestly, what the fuck is with you guys?"

Chad – "Why did you do that? Do something, Janus. Virgil just assaulted me."

Janus – "I'm disappointed in you. You threw his bag into the fountain, didn't you?"

Chad – "You don't know that. Do you have any proof that I did?"

Remy- “Yeah, babes, we got proof. It’s called we’re not fucking stupid. Or blind.”

Logan– "You know, you're a handsome guy, but you aren't classy enough to be our guest. If there's one thing I know, Virgil is not that kind of a man."

Chad– "But, why? You are all idiots!" [Cry]

Janus– "Hmmm... Now how am I going to punish you? Because it is your fault after all. Your quota is now 1000!"

Virgil– "Huh? 1000? My fault? Why yo-"

Patton– "Come on. I got high expectations for you, kiddo!"

Virgil– "Really?"

Emile– "Yep! This is the only spare uniform we have. Sorry, but it's better than a wet one, right?"

Virgil– "Thanks a lot you guys. I'm gonna go change."

(Scene change)

Janus – "Virgil, here you go. I brought you some towels."

Virgil– [Gasp] “Please get the hell out!”

Janus blanches and leaves

Virgil walks out in the uniform that shows ones supernatural identity tattoo. It shows off storm clouds and lightning, a rare tattoo but one that’s signifies humanity.

Janus– "Virgil."

Virgil– "Yeah?"

Janus– "So, you're a human?"

Virgil– "No shit Sherlock, yeah. Is there anything wrong with that?"

Janus– “No! I think you are awesome even if you’re human. Who else knows?”

Logan, Patton, Emile, Remy, and Roman all raise their hands

Janus-[Scream]

Virgil– "Listen guys, I don't really care whether you recognize me as a human or not. In my opinion, it's more important for a person to be recognized for who they are rather than for what supernatural identity you have."

Everyone nods

Virgil– ([Stammering]) "Uh, you know, I have to say Logan, I thought you were pretty cool earlier."

Logan– [Stammering]

Virgil *blushing*- “Logan, I know that you figured it out as soon as you saw me. Thank you for not saying anything, that was very cool of you.”

Logan *also blushing* -“Ah, umm, ehh, it is no problem. You’re welcome.”

Emile, nudging Patton and both giggling– "Well isn't this an interesting development?"

Roman and Remy – "Oh, yeah."

Janus – "Now, I could be wrong but I think we may be witnessing the beginnings of love here. Can’t believe that nerd stole the hot emo right out from under me with words. Ssssssssuck up!"

Patton- “Janus, kiddo, your name isn’t Jealous.”

Remy- “Yeah! Calm thy snaktitties.”

Roman- “Snake tits. Snake titties. Snitties.”

Roman and Remy- “OH MY GOSH SNITTIES!”

Emile- “Common guys. We are not a love to hate tumblr post.”

Roman and Remy- *chanting* “SNITTIES, SNITTIES, SNITTIES, SNITT-“

Janus- *chasing Roman and Remy around with a broom* “SAY IT ONE MORE DAMN TIME!”

Virgil- “You know, this might be fun, I actually enjoy being a Host...”

Taglist-

@dragonwithproblems

@five-falseh00ds-ph0nated

@thefingergunsgirl

@kawaiikat54

@sanders-sides-with-quinn

@007ardra

@yikesdodson

@nerdycupcake559

@softestvirgil

@teacupfulofstarshine

@impatentpending

@star-crossed-shipper

@ravenivy2079

@rainbowemonightmare

@ladyartemisia28

@mushroom-dance-mushroom-dance

@resident-trash-goblin

@parx-boiiz

@ninathepancake

@kuroyurishion

@spideythenewkid

@funkyfreshfatherfigure

@pattoncake-and-eyeshadow 

@drewwwbydoobydoo

@sure-i-exist

@sophiexteresa

@glitched-cookie

@wellhellothere09

@seraphlies

[romantichopelessly]

Not a Cinderella Story

This is my contribution to @dukexietyweek 2020! The prompt was Fairytales and I followed it... very loosely. This is also a bullet fic because I scrapped my plot no less than three times over the course of writing this.

Pairing: Romantic Dukexiety, Implied/Background Mociet

Words: 2072

Warnings: jealousy, misunderstandings, toxic behavior

Synopsis: When Remus, Roman and Virgil were young, they were inseparable. They always played pretend--castles and princesses and dragons. But everyone has to grow up. Things change.

----

Remus Sanders and his twin brother Roman have always been close. “Attached at the hip” some would say. Specifically, their mother, neighbors, and preschool teachers.

They always do the same things. They like the same juice. The same snacks. They play with the same toys, and they always laugh at the same things.

Their bond is unbreakable. They are the perfect duo. They never need anyone else.

Until they meet Virgil Storm.

They meet him early in their second grade year. Virgil is… a weird kid. He wears a purple jacket with cat ears on the hood in the middle of August. He doesn’t try to talk to anyone at lunchtime. He wears different colored socks and carries a lunchbox with cartoon spiders on it that says “Happy Halloween” even when it isn’t October.

He’s odd.

Remus loves him. And because Remus loves him, so does Roman.

The three of them make quick friends, underneath the tree on the playground, sitting in the grass and sharing easy smiles, as children do.

Roman suggests that they play a game that he and Remus invented all on their own--Knights and Dragons.

Virgil is quick to agree, because young children don’t have anything to worry about beyond silly games with their peers.

Remus believes that Knights and Dragons is a much more fun experience with three people. Sometimes Virgil is a knight, with Roman, and they both chase Remus around the school yard, giggling and waving sticks like they’re swords. And other times, Virgil is a dragon with Remus, and the two of them roar and yell and flap their arms like wings.

Virgil makes Remus laugh in ways that he thought only his brother could. Virgil laughs with him, not at him.

Of course, all good things come to an end, and soon, for the imaginative boy that was Roman Sanders, Knights and Dragons is not enough.

Knights and Dragons are boring in the eyes of a third grader.

Roman suggests one day that they add a princess to their game of Knights and Dragons.

Remus (rightfully) thinks that this is a very stupid idea. Princesses are for Disney movies and fairytales. Remus Sanders most definitely does not live in a fairytale.

But Roman loves fairytales. And Roman loves Disney. And, unfortunately, so does Virgil.

So they add a princess to their game. Oftentimes, this princess is played by Virgil, but sometimes Roman steps into the role. Remus is just glad that he gets to stay a big scary dragon.

That is… Until just a princess being kidnapped by a dragon and saved by a courageous knight is not enough for young Roman Sanders.

No, Roman wants more. Roman wants to emulate his favorite movies and his new favorite theme of said movies--

Romance.

So Knights and Dragons and Princesses turns into… Playing Cinderella.

There definitely wasn’t a dragon in Cinderella.

Remus is quickly shoved into the roles of the ugly stepsisters and stepmother. Don’t get it wrong! He loves playing the villain. He loves laughing maniacally and calling his brother funny names and getting away with it without punishment, because it was just pretend.

He doesn’t so much like sitting in the grass of his own backyard, watching while Roman and Virgil twirl around, holding hands and “dancing” to imaginary music while they “fall in love.”

It’s boring.

He’s almost glad when Roman’s phase of playing pretend Disney princesses ends.

Except that he can’t be. Because it ends with the three of them turning twelve and entering the dreaded halls of middle school. It ends with Roman joining the school theater club and making a whole bunch of new friends.

It ends with Virgil and Remus suddenly being left to walk home from school alone one day.

Despite his brother’s popularity, both Remus and Virgil are… outcasts of a sort. And since they just downgraded from a trio to a duo, their friendship is a bit more… strained. They still have the closeness of five years of best friendship, but there’s something… missing.

Cue Janus Duncan.

Janus is also an outcast. Janus is like a fairy godmother who comes in to save the poor outcasts at the last second, turning bleak days into wishes come true (if eating school lunch under the bleachers and snorting with laughter as they mix all the slushie options at 7-11 into one cup can be considered wishes come true), and wearing a super cool leather jacket that was two sizes too big, but definitely influenced Remus’s punk phase.

Because, oh yeah. They definitely both start their punk phases after meeting Janus Duncan.

Honestly meeting Janus really is a wish come true for Remus. A miracle among the comedy of errors that was his teenage years.

Because after about a year of Virgil, Janus and Remus being the perfect trio 2.0, Remus starts to… notice some things.

One thing is the way that his heart seems to inflate like a little balloon in Remus’s chest when Virgil smiles at him. The way that his guts squirm when Virgil laughs at one of his jokes, true and bright. The way that Remus catches himself staring at Virgil’s crooked smile, or his chipped nail polish as his fingers twirl around in his hoodie strings.

The second thing has… a lot of the same signs honestly.

Because Remus starts to notice how Virgil always watches Roman when he’s over at Remus’s house. The way that Virgil always smiles and waves at Remus’s twin brother when they pass one another in the hallway at school, his pale cheeks flushing a soft pink.

It makes a terrible, sickly green emotion curl in Remus’s stomach.

Jealousy.

So when Virgil tentatively brings up trying out for the school play, and asks Remus if Roman would mind running some lines with him, Remus does something he isn’t proud of.

He snaps. He tells Virgil that he shouldn’t try. That he won’t even make it. That he isn’t popular kid material. That Roman isn’t his friend anymore, god, Virgil, can’t you take a hint?

He watches it happen like he isn’t the one controlling his own body. He sees the shock take over Virgil’s features. The years of easy trust crumble before his very eyes as Virgil reels back in horror. He can taste the jealousy on his tongue.

As Virgil leaves, Remus knows that he is the villain of this story.

He can see it as plainly as if he had shattered Virgil’s dreams right in front of him, like so much of a shattered glass shoe on the palace steps.

That night, Janus comes over and lets Remus have it.

For about five minutes, before Remus breaks down and tells the truth to his now one and only best friend and lecturing quickly turns to comforting.

By the time that they start high school, the original trio has withered down to just Remus. The other two thirds are nearly distant memories. One a locked door down the hall, and the other three lockers down, speaking to new friends.

Anyone would choose the prince over the ugly stepsister. He couldn’t blame them.

The spring of their sophomore year, the school announces that they will be putting on a production of none other than Cinderella.

Roman auditions, of course. He gets the role of the Prince.

Virgil doesn’t audition, but he offers himself up for the role of stage manager.

Virgil and Roman’s friends Patton and Logan audition. They get the roles of mice, but they don’t seem at all upset by that fact.

Janus auditions. He gets the role of the fairy godmother.

Janus asks Remus to audition.

Remus refuses. He doesn’t want to play a campy version of the ugly stepsisters in front of the entire school. He may not care about this hell hole, but he isn’t going to make his remaining two years any worse than they have to be.

Janus drags Remus to rehearsals anyway. Kicking and screaming.

By some miraculous happenstance, Remus suddenly becomes the set designer for the show.

He may be imagining things, but he is pretty sure that that has something to do with what Janus, Roman and the director were whisper-arguing about in the first week of rehearsals.

Remus is grateful for it. Not that he plans on saying so. He still can’t bring himself to apologize to Virgil, but watching him from afar still brings those butterflies to Remus’s stomach.

One night, after rehearsal, Remus is putting the finishing touches on the carriage prop, which has quickly gone from inconsequential to him to his very own magnum opus. He’s just testing out its mobility when he hears soft laughter.

Naturally, he follows the sounds.

Stage left, hidden in the wings, Remus sees his brother, in full costume, standing across from Virgil, who is chuckling and gently smoothing his hands across the front of Roman’s costume.

Remus sees green. His old friend Jealousy curls around him like the dragon that he used to love to play.

He barely restrains himself from breaking the very set that he worked so hard on.

Funnily enough, that is progress.

The night before the play opens, there is a house party. Remus isn’t quite sure who is hosting, but the cast and company are the only people invited.

Remus doesn’t want to go.

Janus makes Remus go.

Begrudgingly, Remus has a good time. He has a good time drinking soda and watching the other stage hands tell stories about past productions. He has a good time laughing at Janus as he unsuccessfully tries to flirt with the boy in the bright blue sweater who plays a mouse.

He is still having a good time when the girl who plays Cinderella herself caps a plastic bottle and places it on the ground, calling for everyone to gather around for a game of spin the bottle.

Remus finds himself sitting between Janus and his giggly mouse boy, and some other techie who wears sunglasses indoors.

There are a few fun rounds. Roman has to kiss the girl playing the stepmother. One of the mice has to kiss Cinderella. It’s all in good fun.

That is, until Remus isn’t really paying attention and the mouth of the bottle is suddenly facing him. He blinks.

From across the circle, the studious looking mouse speaks up. “Janus clearly touched the bo-” The hand of one of the set designers covers the mouse’s mouth.

Remus blinks again. “So who’s the lucky bastard I’m making out with?”

All eyes turn to Virgil, who looks like a startled mouse himself.

Shit.

Virgil is up before anyone can say anything, backing away from the circle and spinning on his heel before making a beeline for the kitchen. Remus follows, standing up before his mind even catches up with his body. He sees Roman making to stand up too, but he holds out a hand.

Even after years of not being close, Roman can tell what he means without a word.

Remus follows Virgil into the kitchen and finds him leaning against the counter.

“Didn’t want to kiss the ugly stepsister that badly, huh?”

“What?”

“You… You know, Emo, like that stupid game Roman always made us play when we were ankle biters.”

“Wh- First of all, you and Roman are identical twins. You look exactly the same. That was just a game.”

Remus shrugs, as if he hasn’t carried that game and all it implied with him for the entirety of his teenage years.

“And… No. It wasn’t- I just didn’t want to kiss you in front of everyone.”

Remus pretends like that doesn’t make his heart shatter into a hundred tiny pieces.

Virgil seems to see it anyway. “I mean that I don’t want to… have my first kiss in front of all of them. It’s nothing against you, they just- they just all know about my crush.”

Virgil says it like it’s something stupid. Like being in love is something shameful. Like liking Roman Sanders isn’t something that literally everyone in that room except for Remus has in common.

“Your crush on my brother?”

Virgil looks at him like he’s the biggest idiot on the face of the earth.

He probably is.

Because he doesn’t see it coming for a second when Virgil steps closer, cups Remus’s cheek in his hand like he is made of something precious and priceless, and closes the gap to kiss him.

[edupunkn00b]

The Vulture, Chapter 4: The Hierophant

Photo of a vulture sitting on a dead tree branch by Abhishek Singh via Unsplash, colored by edupunkn00b

Prev - The Hierophant - Next - Masterpost - [ AO3 ]

WC: 1214 - CW: mild description of wounds - The Hierophant (and Janus) arrive. -

Death could not turn without jostling the Musician so he watched the Star’s face instead. 

The Star set down the vessel and smiled broadly at the newcomer, calm and relaxed. He bowed his head. “Welcome to my glade, Your Grace.” He beckoned the figure closer. “I suppose neither of you need to be introduced.”

A rustle of silk and leather announced the Hierophant's proximity as he stepped in front of Death. “Never did I think I would see the day when Death might seek healing for one of his collection.”

“The Musician belongs to your world,” Death replied. “Not mine.” Emboldened by the Hierophant’s presence, the Vulture swooped low overhead, each beat of his wings rustling the sweat-dampened hair on the Musician’s head. “Not yet,” he said as much to the taunting scavenger as he did to the Hierophant.

Standing tall, the Hierophant kept his distance as he peered intently at the Musician’s healing wounds. “And what makes you so certain I am not the one who allowed the Musician to be so injured?”

The Star began to speak but was silenced with a look from the Hierophant.

Death remained seated and glared up at him, arms tightly curled around the still-vulnerable Musician. “The Star’s readiness to heal him was my first clue,” he said dryly. What was he playing at?

“And you didn’t bring him here simply to grant yourself access to the healing powers of the Star’s waters?” the Hierophant asked, eyeing the patch of pale flesh growing on the back of Death’s skeletal hand.

Death laughed without humor. “So I can watch my form decay as time takes back anything your realm can offer me?” He shook his head. “No. I know what the Court’s musician means to this kingdom. Where would you be without your heir apparent?” The Star and Hierophant exchanged a glance and even the Vulture stilled at his words.

“You cannot know that.”

“But I do.” He combed bony fingers through the Musician’s hair, revealing his features. “No-one else holds the King’s attention such as he does.” Death didn’t smile. “No-one else might take up the throne when at last the King is mine.”

The Hierophant stared at Death. “And when will that be?” he asked, not quite disguising the quaver in his voice.

“Soon.” The Vulture’s cry punctuated Death’s pronouncement and the Star covered his face, his glow dimming briefly as golden tears streamed down his cheeks.

The Hierophant remained silent for a long while. Finally, he nodded. “The Musician was on a quest. To prove his mettle against the threats beyond the Kingdom of Light. To prove his worthiness of the throne.”

Death frowned. “Surely you don’t mean…”

“The Kingdom of Light lives in fear of the dark.” His pronouncement bore no judgement, a simple statement of fact. 

“Light and Dark… They’re all just words. You know that better than most, Your Grace.” The Hierophant ignored the bite of Death’s sarcasm behind his title. “The Musician has nothing to prove as long as he has the people’s devotion.” Fire sparked from Death’s eyes. “And he does.”

The Hierophant waved a hand, dismissing Death’s argument. “He was uncertain.”

“Then rather than demanding reckless attempts to demonstrate his worth,” Death’s voice grew low and the spring water stilled. “Perhap it’s time your kingdom demonstrated its devotion to him.”

“He still must pass judgement.”

Death swore under his breath when the Vulture drew nearer. But the Hierophant raised one eyebrow at the Star and inclined his head. “You may not be King, but as the Star, your intentions carry weight beyond my words.” 

Cheeks still damp with golden tears, the Star lifted his chin, eyes narrowed as he waited for the Hierophant’s request.

“Perhaps there is something you can do to demonstrate your estimation of the Musician’s heart?”

The Star nodded and knelt beside them, Death and the Musician. “If I claim him, I can look into his heart, but it…” He shimmered and dodged Death’s gaze before taking a deep breath and inching closer. “It may hurt. Will you hold him?” he asked Death, thumb hovering over the Musician’s brow.

There was only one other living being the Star had claimed and though the Hermit hid the symbol beneath his hooded cloak, the mark allowed him free passage through all the kingdoms without fear or question of his loyalty.

Braced against the ground, Death tightened his grip on the Musician. “Continue,” he said and held on, gaze unwavering, as the Star touched him and the Musician screamed.

And then it was over. 

The Star stepped back, hands shaking. “It’s true,” he whispered. “He doesn’t know he’s already the King’s favored heir.”

The Musician lay limp in Death’s embrace, but still he breathed, his warmth a beacon. The Vulture flew overhead, low enough for Death to hear the beat of his wings, the clack of his beak. “He doesn’t look much like an heir, does he?” Death muttered, gently turning his face this way and that. 

He was dirty, muck and blood sticking to his hands and face and hair. His wounds had finally stopped bleeding, but their evidence clung to his tunic and his skin. 

~

“What lie?” Hands moving faster than he could think, Remus grabbed Roman’s tunic, staring down at the healing gashes. The skin was healed, the wounds gone. “He’s fine, look at him!”

Janus didn’t know what he was talking about.

Remus waited for Roman to open his eyes. And waited. His bleeding had stopped. There was color in his cheeks again. But his eyes remained closed and he lay still on Patton’s bed, limp, lifeless. Remus poked at his brother. Nothing.

Fuck this noise. Remus curled his arms under Roman’s back and under his knees. He’d just take him back to his side of the Imagination, he’d find someone, build something, create something, anything, and he’d just figure it out. He didn’t know what the fuck Ro thought he’d do traipsing around by himself on his side, but he’d gotten hurt alone and fuck all if Remus was going to let him stay hurt. Not if he could do anything to help him.

“Muse,” Janus murmured, ungloved hands gently prying his fingers from Roman’s sash. “You did well to bring him back. But your brother has greater hurts than just these wounds.” Remus followed Janus’ gaze down at the gashes in Roman’s tunic. Slowly, he settled back onto the bed.

Janus knelt beside him and took Roman’s hand, turning it over to examine the nails bitten to the quick, the bony wrist. “More hurts than any of us have cared to see.” 

Patton sat on the other side and dabbed at Roman’s face with a washcloth. Eyes still closed, he finally moved, leaning in to the touch. The hint of a smile played at his lips. “I know that, Jay,” Patton replied, almost too quiet for Remus to hear. Maybe he wasn’t meant to.

And since when did Patton call him Jay? Fuck secrets.

Janus sat beside him and wiped away the blood on Roman’s hands. “His injuries look familiar,” he murmured. 

Remus leaned close to sniff at the healed wounds and the bits of tar-like blood on Roman’s scabbard. He nodded. “One of my orcs. Well…” His voice faded, mustache twitching. It had clearly been more than one. “We were gonna go together.”

“Perhaps your brother was trying to prove something to you just as much as he was to the rest of us.” Logan stood in the doorway, eyes dark and glossy with concern. Lucas peered over his shoulder, matching worry in his eyes.

[codevassie]

i've got a request! prinxiety fantasy au. roman became a prince after making a deal with a magical creature (that can be a side but also can remain unnamed, whatever works for you). the deal was: roman would become prince but in exchange, the creature would take his true love when roman would meet them. so roman was always careful not to fall in love with anyone. that worked until he met virgil. aaand i leave the rest up to you! i hope this makes sense lol

CV: Sorry it’s so long and also not long enough and also really late. Thank you so much for your patience! My mind would not stop coming up with ideas for this fic but I wrangled it in enough to get this out. Hope you like it, An!

CW: Weapons, Trauma, Injury [Edit: Angst, Unhappy Ending]

On Ao3 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Prince Roman was kind and fair to all who knew him. It was uncanny to his citizens how Disney their prince was. He glowed in all ways–always smiling, exceedingly handsome, eyes gleaming with pride. 

He was also a bachelor, sworn to it almost like a monk. He loved to flirt and would dance with many a handsome man; Roman was no stranger to romance and collected kisses like precious stones. He was not one for staying with one person, sweetly turning down those who came back, wanted more. There was guilt in his eyes, but the prince never wavered.

He was determined to rule on his own, with only advisors to lean on and citizens to give his love. This was something that had never happened before, but their kingdom had also never had a prince like Roman before.

Since the day their prince had been crowned heir to the throne by the childless king and queen, things had been very different in their kingdom. Royalty did not have to be blood, and a king did not need a queen, or any spouse at all. 

Roman did not want to marry. And no one would have batted an eye at this–but the prince did not seem to want anything at all. Full of love, he had no one to give it. Friendly, but lacked friends. It was a constant source of gossip around the castle–why their beloved prince insisted on being alone.

But the prince knew what he was doing. Roman knew well the dangers of growing close to others.

He didn’t regret the decision he made. As prince, he could make a difference; he had somewhere he belonged. A mother and father who cared. Citizens he adored, and adored him in turn. People to care for, to fight for. Roman now had more than he ever hoped in his once hopeless life.

Most importantly, Roman had his brother back. That was worth more than anything Roman could have gained or given. Worth more than his very life.

So, no. He didn’t regret it. If he had the choice, he’d always go back and face those wild eyes, those scales and wicked lies for the chance to have this.

Whoever he’d meant to love one day would have to find someone else.

-/-

“How are you today, Remus?“ 

Remus hummed. Roman knew that translated to ‘not very well.’

“Okay,” he said calmly. He moved over into the brightly lit room to where his brother sat at the window. Roman sat across from Remus and said nothing else. Today wasn’t a talking day.

So Roman sat and let his nerves calm, his mind wander like his brother’s must have been. He couldn’t imagine what sort of things Remus saw–flashbacks from the hills and the caves and the fear. Roman grew restless, and he couldn’t imagine how Remus did it for days on end, jolted into another reality that existed in his head, in the past.

He passed a lot of his days like this, sitting quietly by his brother’s side. Probably not enough though. Never enough to help. But it was hard to balance his time now that he was prince, always something more to do, something he could do to help, to plan, to sign, to consider. It was a lot.

But at least they weren’t terrified every day would be their last.

At least Remus was with him again, safe. 

“I miss Dee,” Remus surprised Roman by speaking up. Roman looked over, but his brother hadn’t moved. His gaze was towards the hills.

There was nothing Roman could say to that. He stood reluctantly, taking a glance towards the horizon himself, before stepping back. “Sorry I can’t stay very long today.” It had only been twenty minutes Roman noted by the clock on the mantle, but Remus didn’t seem phased. “I’ll come eat dinner with you tonight, though,” Roman offered. Still, nothing. “Alright. Bye, Remus.”

Roman stepped out, careful to not make any loud noises as he shut the door. Days like this were the reason Remus’ room was far away from the hustle and bustle of the castle. The noise was too much for him. There were still plenty of people around to attend to him though, to make sure he didn’t get up to too much trouble during the times he was lucid.

That didn’t stop Roman from stepping away and quietly knocking his head on the opposite wall. Forehead supporting him, Roman sighed, trying to piece himself back together. Once he had built himself up, able to give a winning smile and a confident gait, Roman picked himself up and squared his shoulders.

A prince had very little time to spare already, and he had used what he had to visit with his brother.

Winding through the halls, Roman made his way back to the front study, where his advisor and a handful of guards waited. When he opened the doors, he shot them all his winning smile. “Are we all ready?”

It took them no time at all to get to town, then just a little further to the square, which was under construction. It was a smaller project, but one that Roman loved: a park, with room for community gardening, a playground with outdoor instruments, a couple pieces of exercise equipment, and a small stage for community theater. 

It was important to him, but it was something he rarely had the time to see into fruition. There was more pressing matters in the kingdom that Roman had to oversee.: discussions to meditate, economic policies to study, corruption to dig into. When Roman became a prince, he’d known it would be a tough job, but he had never expected what seemed like such a nice kingdom on the outside to have so much else on the inside.

It was exhausting, but this park was where Roman hoped to make a positive influence. He barely had the time for it, but he made the time for it. It was usually what kept him awake at night in his office, going over budgets and blueprints.

He hadn’t been to the site for a month.

When the carriage pulled up, Roman jumped out, guards already on his tail. He didn’t wait for them, though, striding straight towards the ring of architects and construction crew at one side. A quick glance around told Roman they were making decent headway on the tiny amphitheater. 

Looking back, he took stock in what he would be dealing with. The kind architect was there, so he’d have to do his best to steer clear. Roman was a sucker for nice guys. The smart one was there too. Damn it; double the threat. 

“Hello, Shelby, Logan, David, Patton, Christie,” he greeted the ones he knew by name. “How is everything going?”

Shelby, the team leader, stepped forward, giving a kind smile. “Moving forward at a considerable pace, my prince,” she said, and, from there, they dived in. The architects pointed to blueprints and talked about estimated times for finishing different aspects, as well as possible obstacles and needed materials. They talked for half an hour before they were talking in circles again, and Roman knew he needed to draw a line and make a retreat.

“It sounds like you all are doing splendidly and have things well under control. I would say continue forward with how you’re doing. I trust you to make the right calls.” His smile was wide, and he was beginning to feel the line of business and friendly failing. 

All Roman wanted to do was share jokes with Patton. Listen to Logan tell him about the book he was reading. Even hear about Shelby’s family–though she was hardly a threat to the curse inside Roman. Still, Roman felt wrong for staying around, for getting near anyone with the danger he posed.

Roman needed to get somewhere safe. He needed just a breath of fresh air–somewhere without pretense, where he wasn’t constantly tottling between unnecessary rudeness and letting his traitorous heart do what it does and fall far too quickly.

He had always fallen fast and hard, always one for all or nothing. Never at a mere glance, no. He may be a romantic, but love at first sight simply wasn’t real. Deep longing at first sight was something Roman was prone to, though.

But Roman was careful. Never would he let an innocent soul pay for his deeds. If the price he had to pay was his love, then he would simply never fall in love. 

And, since love at first sight wasn’t a thing, Roman could simply stay away from anyone he might have liked. If Logan’s smart words made him blush, if Patton’s puns made him giggle-

Off Roman went. If he didn’t stay around them, he couldn’t fall in love with them. Easy enough.

That may have been a reason Roman rarely made his way to the park construction or spent too much time at any of his projects. He cycled through advisors. He exchanged polite greetings with guards and nothing else. He was an amiable prince, who reached out to his citizens, but he couldn’t afford to be too friendly, to get attached.

He knew he could be better. Without this fear, he could be so much better. He’d be friends with everyone he knew, not acquaintances. He’d be a personal ruler, not a distant one. 

He couldn’t risk the lives of his citizens though.

So, at the nearest chance, Roman ducked away. The others invited him to coffee, but he declined. 

Instead, he went somewhere he’d normally never go. He marched into the library, waltzed straight up to the most infuriating person he knew.

Not even Roman was hopeless enough to fall for Virgil.

“My prince,” the librarian greeted lazily, not even standing from his slumped position across the desk. “What can I do for you today?“ 

He picked up a pen and scrawled across a paper, deigning to not even look Roman in the eye. Whatever pleasantness Roman had felt upon seeing a familiar, unexpectant face, soured at the blatant rudeness.

This callousness was what had sealed the deal for Roman in the first place though. The absolute zero percent chance that Roman could like, much less love, this man. Roman never thought he could hate one of his own citizens, but this guy… He was the worst. 

Roman could have never fallen in love with someone so… Virgil. So condescending and sarcastic and pessimistic. Virgil brought with him a stormy cloud of hatred everywhere he went. The mere thought of being around him was deplorable.

Which made him perfect.

“I just came to see your lovely face, my chemical woe-mance,” Roman said breezily. He had taken to maliciously flirting with the library assistant. It satisfied both his need to flirt with someone and his abhorrence of the man’s face.

And tone.

And personality.

And the way he pointed out every security detail his guards had missed by walking in there. 

And how he always pointed out the measures Roman was slow to take with his policies, and ones that he missed, redirecting Roman’s attention to needed areas. 

And when his hair fell in his eyes because, damn it, Roman wasn’t blind.

And when he laughed at something because he wasn’t horrible all the time and those were the times Roman panicked the most because shit did he mess up by letting himself talk to Virgil so much-

And his fashion sense was also horrible, so there.

But, of course, Roman was above such things. If the gloomy broody wanted to stoop, Roman would not-

“Forget how to say your own name again?” Virgil asked, and Roman stopped in his tracks, shooting him a confused look. “Hate to break it to you, but Roman doesn’t have a W.”

Roman’s face lit up red and he straightened faster than a cat struck by lightning. 

“I am your prince,” Roman said, hands curling into fists. The guards behind him didn’t react, however. By this point, they were all used to Roman and Virgil’s arguing. 

They thought it was ‘banter.’ Roman often reminded them it was a verbal battle of wits. They asked why he kept coming back.

He never answered that.

“I don’t need reminding every time you’re here, my prince,” Virgil rolled his eyes. It was ironic how the honorific fit in his mouth, like a bad taste. 

“Don’t call me that,” Roman snapped. Virgil raised a brow.

“What do you expect me to call you then?” he asked. “Your excellency? Your highness? General pain in my ass?”

“You make all of those sound like ‘general pain in my ass.’” Roman shot back with fire. 

“Then what?” Virgil crossed his arms.

Roman spoke without thinking. “My name.”

One of the guards coughed behind him. Virgil looked stunned.

“You want me to call you…” he said, and all anger had dissipated. If Roman had known this was all it would take to knock Virgil off his high horse, he would have done it so much sooner.

“Yes,” Roman said, feeling awfully proud of himself. “Call me Roman.”

Another cough behind him. What was it with the guards today? He hoped no one was coming down with anything.

“Roman?” Virgil asked, and it was said quickly, like he was still shocked at everything going on. This, however, is where Roman realized his mistake.

His name on Virgil’s tongue did not, in fact, sound like ‘general pain in my ass.‘ 

His name sounded….

Softer.

Sweeter.

Like a melody he’d never heard,

And one he’d kill to hear again.

Roman was suddenly hit with a sadness so unmistakable it was as if it had always lived in him. Something that felt lonely, something that felt like… goodbye.

Goodbye to this. Goodbye to the only person he had left that saw him as something that wasn’t a prince, or a stranger.

Oh gods, not Virgil too.

Roman straightened up, clearing his throat suddenly. “Um, yes?” he said, voice coming out squeaky. He cleared it again. “I mean, yes. Yes. Of course. If you’re going to insist on butchering everything else…”

“Might as well butcher the real thing?” Virgil asked, and he finally broke out of his shock to snicker. Roman’s heart thumped.

Fuck.

“Yeah, well. I actually have to go now, but it was nice seeing you and-”

“Nice seeing me?” Virgil asked, thrown off guard by Roman’s sudden departure. Roman hadn’t been there five minutes, but he had to get out of there.

“As ever. Terrible to see you as always, hot topic, and, if you’d just excuse me-” Roman was backing away, making his way to the door. He assumed the guards would follow.

“Hot topic…” Virgil seemed to be asking, but Roman didn’t give an answer.

“See ya!” were his final words before he ducked out.

Roman paid no mind to the knowing glances his guards shared behind him as he rushed off to the carriage.

He could only think of the heart in his chest.

And the noose it could lasso around Virgil.

-/-

“It’s not Virgil, right?” Roman asked pacing around his brother’s room. “Anyone but Virgil, surely.”

Remus continued to look out the window, mind probably elsewhere.

“It wouldn’t be. Virgil is… Virgil.” Roman shook his head. “He’s Virgil.”

“Virgil?” Remus spoke up, but he didn’t look at Roman. Maybe he was present, just a bit.

Roman nodded, pacing again to the other side of the room. “I can’t see him again. That’s it. It’s too dangerous. Even if there’s absolutely no way I’d fall for that guy, I can’t risk it.”

Remus turned Roman’s way, eyes looking troubled. Roman’s mind was spinning out of control.

“But it couldn’t be Virgil. I wouldn’t fall for him. I can still talk to him. It’ll be fine, right?”

Roman paused, thinking through his words before groaning.

“Oh my gods, I want to talk to him!” he lamented, then sat down heavily on his brother’s bed. Remus continued to watch him, looking for all the world like there was a puzzle in front of him, very close to being solved. 

“Remus, what am I going to do?” Roman asked, covering his face. “I like Virgil.”

“Virgil,” Remus mumbled.

“I can’t ever see him again. This is the end. We were never even friends! He was the asshole in the library. That’s it. That’s all he’ll ever be. And, somehow, I like him. What the fuck, heart? What the actual fuck?”

“Virgil,” Remus repeated, brows furrowing. Something was there, but Roman was too distracted to consider it.

“Gosh, but I can see it now. He’s got the warmest brown eyes to go with his shit personality. He’s so sarcastic. He actually makes me laugh. How dare he?! How dare he make me like him and all his assholeness?”

Roman stood from the bed. One look Remus’ way and he immediately regretted everything. 

“Rem? What’s wrong?” he rushed to his brother, who had the most distressed look on his face, fingers sparking green. Roman folded his hands over them, not minding the slight sting. It was better than someone walking in and seeing the magic. “Remus?” Roman asked again, kneeling before his brother. 

Remus blinked. Looked down at his hands and frowned. “Sorry, Ro,” he said, then looked back at the window. Whatever he’d been thinking, it was gone. Roman couldn’t help the sigh that escaped him.

One second of lucidity and Roman was glad it was gone. What kind of brother was he? Watching Remus look out the window again, lost to everything but the hills past the kingdom, Roman felt a deep sinking loss in his chest.

But, with that look that’d been on Remus’ face… how could he not be relieved? 

He sighed again. Roman did that a lot in this room. He wished he could help it, for Remus’ sake.

But Remus probably didn’t hear it anyway.

“You’ve got nothing to be sorry for,” he breathed, words lost to his brother. “I’m the one who should be sorry.”

Roman retracted his hands, absently noting the singe marks across his palms. He’d wear some gloves to cover them.

“Sorry,” he repeated. The word rang in his head, begging to be said again and again, until his sins were carried off with them, somewhere far away in the wind of those words. “Sorry.”

-/-

The next time Roman visited the park, he didn’t go to the library. However, it seemed he didn’t have to.

“Thank you so much, kiddo!” Roman absently heard from Patton as he scanned over some of the construction plans. “I can’t believe I forgot this.”

Roman heard one of his guards cough, stifling what sounded suspiciously like a laugh. Funny, they usually only did that when-

“No problem, Pat,” a deep, vaguely uncomfortable sounding voice replied, and Roman shot straight up. There was another noise that was definitely a laugh this time, but he didn’t pay mind to it. His eyes shot to the interaction happening not five feet from him.

Virgil.

He was standing a bit slouched, hands stuffed into his pockets and nodding along to Patton’s excited gibbering. It was sort of adorable, how patient Virgil was, the way he hid his smile when Patton punned, how out of place he seemed to feel, but comfortable around his friend.

Roman hadn’t known Virgil and Patton were friends. That was adorable.

Okay, Roman should really stop thinking of Virgil as adorable. Soon. Now.

But his eyeshadow was slightly smudged–probably from wiping it on accident–and that was adorable too.

No. Stopping now.

Roman dipped his head back down, boring his eyes into the blueprints. He absorbed none of it, but he acted the part like a champ. Looking busy sure came handy when a prince wanted to avoid people. You couldn’t argue that a prince wasn’t doing important work.

Well, perhaps a lesser prince. But everyone knew how seriously Roman took his job (whether he lived up to expectation or not. Virgil saw past that. Virgil pointed out exactly where Roman lacked…. but he also commented on the good things too. He’d said how much safer it was to walk home lately–how the children were excited about the park–how some patrons of the library complained about the tax increases, but Virgil argued with them about the necessities of the kingdom; all the community works, roads paved, safety measures).

“Ro?” Patton asked, and, even if it weren’t for his voice and bubbly nature, Roman would have known it was him. Patton was the only one on the construction crew that had taken him up on his offer to not use ‘my prince’ every time they referred to him.

“Hm?” Roman asked, pretending to be busy. He saw Patton from the corner of his eye, dragging another person by his side–no doubt Virgil. Roman swallowed harshly.

“This is my friend Virgil. Sorry to interrupt work and all, but I try to introduce him to everyone around here. He doesn’t get around too often and-”

“Pat!” Virgil hissed beside him, and Roman couldn’t help it. He looked up.

And they locked eyes.

Virgil’s cheeks were a dull pink, furiously trying to escape the bounds of the pale foundation he’d applied. For a moment, they were suspended there, Virgil and Roman just looking at each other.

Then, Virgil looked away. “Patton, you can’t just drag me around everywhere.”

Patton, the dear, had the good grace to look sheepish. “I just thought you’d want to meet the prince is all.”

“We’ve already met,” Roman said, against the wishes of his panicked nerves. It felt like something he wanted to keep for himself, something he could hold secret and close to his chest. He forced the words out though. Surely there was no valid reason to keep it secret.

Virgil flinched as Patton whipped around to face him. “Really?!”

He shifted a bit on his feet, and Roman noticed how considerably less confident he was outside the library. Maybe it was the new space, or the unknown gazes, but it worried Roman how much smaller Virgil appeared outside his familiar walls.

While Patton excitedly talked to Virgil about this new development, Roman was able to take a second to himself. It was Roman’s first time around him knowing how he felt about Virgil–without the panic of last time, mind spinning with Do I like him? Do I like him? Do I like him? Roman could examine those feelings up close here, scrutinizing them for what they were. He definitely liked Virgil, that much was definite by then, but how much? Roman fell quickly, but, as long as he was even still a bit afloat, it was fine. Virgil was safe.

And Roman understood with relief that this was indeed the case. He wasn’t in love with Virgil. It was still frightening how easily he’d fallen in deep like with the man, but Roman could remedy the situation. It just… took a bit of… severing of their relationship. Just a dash of distancing, a pinch of avoidance and rigid politeness. 

It was less than a minute that Roman had to think on this, Patton and Virgil’s conversation ending abruptly when Virgil started to get visibly overwhelmed. That worried Roman too, but it only seemed to embarrass Virgil.

“Virge? Buddy?” Patton asked, but Virgil’s red face shook back and forth.

“It’s fine, Pat. Let’s just moveonrightnow,” Virgil spoke without a lot of breath, words coming out quick. He was different outside the library, like he was constantly afraid of… something. He was jumpy, and Roman was sure that if someone were to sneak up on him right now, purposefully or not, they would be socked in the jaw.

“Yes,” Roman spoke up, seeing his opportunity. “I’m afraid I’ve actually ran out of time here, but we got a lot done here today. Great job, all of you.”

“You’re leaving?” Patton asked, looking disappointed. 

And Roman realized what he’d tried to avoid for so long. Patton was cute. He was funny and kind and made Roman feel like the world had light. But Roman really had nothing to be scared of. He looked at Logan too, clever and full of passion for his work and interests, and thought the same. He’d been avoiding all the wrong people–people who could’ve been his friends.

So to Patton Roman gave a sad smile of his own. He gave his excuses–the many duties of a prince, how busy things have been lately, that he really should let them get back to work instead of hovering over their shoulders so often–he was just a prince, after all.

It all paled to the real reason, nestled deep in his chest where he hoped no one would look, see his obvious lie.

Roman couldn’t be near Virgil.

Too risky.

-/-

The thing with falling for someone–it doesn’t stop when you don’t see them.

What was the saying? Distance makes the heart grow fonder?

That saying existed because days without those you’re infatuated with just make you think about them more. And Roman, the chronic dreamer he was, could not stop thinking about Virgil. He dreamed in his sleep about pushing the hair from Virgil’s face, curling it around his ears and leaning down for a gentle kiss. He day-dreamed about Virgil in his library, slouched over his desk, waiting for patrons and passing the day in boredom.

Roman thought of his snarky quips, eyerolls, insistent gestures when he was trying to tell Roman something. Those milliseconds of a softer look that Roman would ignore, trying to convince himself he loathed Virgil, so he wouldn’t have to go away.

He realized now how too late it was.

Virgil’s laugh was stuck in his ears–Virgil’s nervous voice outside the library–Virgil’s stories of friends he’d never see again, growing up in a distant place. 

And Roman hadn’t realized how much of himself he’d given as well. Virgil had been an ear to Roman’s rants, a backboard to spring off horrible ideas. Virgil could be ruthless, and Roman could be idyllic, but, somewhere in there, it actually worked. He’d told Virgil about spreading himself thin, about the demands of a prince he hadn’t expected when the king and queen had adopted him. He told him about how much he cared, cared so much, about the people of this kingdom, even while he’d only been there for three years himself. 

There was so much, now that Roman considered it. And still so much he wanted to share. He’d never told Virgil about his brother–no one knew about Remus. He wasn’t fit to be in the public eye. That much scrutiny and pressure, after everything he’d been through, would destroy him.

But he found himself wanting to tell Virgil. Found that he trusted him with the information.

And he wanted to tell Virgil about where he and his brother grew up, about the night he woke up and Remus wasn’t by his side, and it took two years of searching and loneliness to find him and save him. Roman wanted to tell Virgil his favorite color was red, that his favorite stories as a kid were about knights, not princes, that he spent his free time–or what freetime he used to have–writing poetry, and he had a secret love for theater that he’d never had the opportunity to explore. 

Roman felt his heart pulling pulling pulling. It wouldn’t rest, wouldn’t relinquish the hold it had over him, would not forget him- him- 

Virgil. 

His heart was a selfish thing. It stuck like glue to those who didn’t want it. It kept its love in a cage, never to let go.

But Roman had to stop thinking of him. It would only lead to heartbreak. It would only lead to Virgil’s doom.

That should make it easier on his heart–knowing the person it longed for was at risk for its choice–but nothing did sway it. It was up to Roman to wrangle it in, suppress, push it down down down.

A sound at the door of his office snapped Roman out of his thoughts–spiralling, an hourly occurrence at this rate, sending him straight to a world far away, spinning in purple irises. The door creaked open, and there stood an odd sight.

“Remus?” Roman asked, concerned. He was already standing, walking around the desk and across the room. “Is everything alright? Why are you on this side of the castle?”

Remus was very far from his room, and the castle was pretty confusing. It was a surprise his brother had found him at all.

“Virgil,” was all Remus said, like it held all the answers he’d ever been looking for. Roman paused, eyebrows furrowing.

“What about him?”

“It’s him.”

“What?” Roman asked, and Remus reached out, grabbed his hand. Before he knew it, Roman was being pulled along. Remus was leading them down the corridor, looking more sure of himself than Roman had seen since they were kids. “Remus, what are you doing? Where are we going?”

Remus didn’t answer him. In fact, Roman was thrown into even more confusion when he was steered into a random room at the end of the corridor, his brother huffing as he shut the door behind them. “Walking takes too long,” he seemed to be realizing. His hand was glowing and, when he reached out for Roman again, it was a blink of an eye before they were standing somewhere completely new.

“Remus, what the hell?” Roman asked, retracting his hand. “You shouldn’t use your magic like that! Anyone could see you.”

But Remus wasn’t listening. Was he ever? Instead, he was looking around. “Not where I would have picked.” He was sounding… like himself. Roman stared, wide-eyed. If he wasn’t so confused, he’d be elated. He’d long since thought getting his brother back to any normalcy–or whatever was normalcy for Remus–was impossible. 

“Who’s there?” a voice interrupted his thoughts, carrying across the library stacks. Roman recognized it and cursed internally. Why had Remus taken them there?

Slowly, Roman put up his hands and crept out of the small alcove Remus had taken them to, ready to come up with an explanation for their sudden appearance on the fly. “Do not be afraid,” Roman said, as any prince would. He stood in the open and found Virgil’s gaze. All Virgil had to protect him were his own fists–not the best tactic, Roman thought. Then again, it was only the other day that Roman had been afraid Virgil would sock the nearest person.

Still, just his fists didn’t seem like a great defense against swords or knives or any number of weapons a burglar could have. There was a pang in Roman’s heart as he thought of what might have happened if it wasn’t just him and Remus in there. Virgil would have been defenseless.

As realization dawned on Virgil’s face, they stood at a stand still, both almost afraid to move. When Virgil’s eyes drifted to his raised fists–loose, not really fists at all, who had taught Virgil to fight?–he dropped them like hot coals, stuffing them in his pockets. 

“Fuck, Roman, you nearly gave me a heart attack,” Virgil said, and Roman knew he shouldn’t be focusing on this–but Virgil had said his name again, and his heart was singing.

“My dearest apologies,” Roman bowed, and, going by the weirded out look on Virgil’s face, that was not of norm between them. He supposed they had never been quite civil with each other–even at the beginning. “I wanted to show my brother the library and you weren’t at the front desk, so we just came in.”

“I’ve been at the front desk this whole time,” Virgil said, not defensive, but confused. Well, at least Virgil wasn’t in a bad mood.

“Funny. We didn’t see you.”

“Wait wait wait,” Virgil said, backing up a second. “You said brother?”

Shit.

Looked like Roman would have to explain that sooner than he’d thought. Or, really, at all. Wanting to tell Virgil and telling him had been on two separate lists entirely. Roman wasn’t actually supposed to be talking to Virgil at all. 

“Okay, so-” Roman went to start, but he was caught off by a twin set of gasps, one shortly after the other. The first had come from behind him, so that’s where he looked.

“It is you,” Remus said. Roman’s eyes widened, finally catching on to what his brother had been trying to tell him.

“Wait, do you know each other?”

“Remus?” Virgil’s reply answered that question well enough. Roman turned back to him, eyes darting between the two. Virgil sputtered, “What- How-”

“It’s too late,” Remus mumbled. It sounded a bit more like he had over the past year–less like himself, but his eyes were present; he looked to be considering something–something he didn’t seem to favor. “It was a trap.”

“A trap?” Roman asked. “What do you mean? A trap for who? Who’s trapping?”

“Remus, what the fuck? How are you here? How did you get away?” Virgil asked, walking closer, but not too close, like there was still a part of him that couldn’t believe what was in front of him. 

“Get away?” Roman said, pieces further slipping into place. He didn’t like where this was going.

“What about Dee?”

“Dee…” Roman mumbled, the name familiar in his ears. I miss Dee, Remus had said. I miss Dee I miss Dee I miss Dee…

“It’s too late,” Remus repeated. “Of course it was you.”

Then, the room erupted into chaos.

-/-

Books flew, shelves rocked, windows clattered. From the corners of his eyes, Roman could see flashes of purple and green. Past the wind in his ears, he heard vague shouts from Virgil and a round of fuckfuckfuckfuckfucks from Remus. He couldn’t recall if he was saying anything himself, but he knew what he was feeling. Scared.

Roman had no idea what was happening, but, from the flashes of light, he deduced it must have been magic. This made him turn toward his brother, suddenly scared that all of this had gotten to him. Being outside the castle, some place unfamiliar, not to mention Remus had always been kind of a loose cannon with his magic–it could have caused Remus to panic.

But one look at him and Roman knew his brother wasn’t the one doing it. He turned to Virgil, remembering what he’d been saying, how he’d known Remus, how he’d raised his hands in a stance that made no sense in traditional fighting–but, with magic?

Purple sparks flew across Virgil’s skin, like they were doing on Remus too, but his eyes weren’t aglow. He wasn’t doing it either.

What was happening?

Then, abruptly, it stopped.

Shelves balanced back to their places and books dropped to the floor, lifeless. It was all they could do to just stand there before movement caught Roman’s eye at the top of one of the shelves.

Someone sat there, legs folded elegantly over one another where they balanced precariously. Roman recognized the one glowing eye peering down at them, the scaly hands, the knowing smirk.

“What a lovely reunion,” she purred. Roman was stricken, fear clenching his gut. Instinctively, however, he stepped forward in front of Remus and Virgil. He watched as her eyes traveled over each of them, finally landing behind Roman’s left shoulder, lips curling further into her face. “I was hoping it would be you.”

“How- How did you-” Virgil stuttered, but his voice died out. Roman narrowed his eyes, something protective overpowering his fear.

“You should not be here,” Roman stated. 

“But, my prince,” she said, “We made a deal.”

“A deal that hasn’t come to fruition,” he said. 

“I see someone’s still in denial,” the woman leered. “A witch’s curse knows all, though. You can’t scam the Dragon Witch of her hoard, my prince.” The way she said ‘my prince’ infuriated him, but nothing like Virgil’s had. The Dragon Witch said it like it was nothing, like it was delectable and sweet and hers to keep. 

“What is she talking about?” Virgil asked, and Roman turned. Instead of scared, he now looked confused. He was watching the two of them, apprehensive, but ready to fight. His hands were up again in those loose fists, purple sparking off of them. Magic. Virgil had magic. “You made a deal with the witch?”

“Not that he had much choice.” The witch shrugged. It seemed casual, despite the manic glee in her eyes. “I was going to kill him and keep Remus. But he wanted his brother, and he got to be prince of a kingdom! Fair trade, if you ask me.”

“It’s not fair,” Remus said, and the witch seemed to remember he was there. “You can’t take him-”

“Shut up, Remus,” she said offhandedly and Remus flinched. Rage filled Roman, and he stomped further toward the witch.

“Don’t you dare-”

“Don’t I dare what, sweetie?” she asked, folding her legs up onto the bookshelf with her, where Roman couldn’t reach. He was ready to topple the whole shelf when her words caught him. “I’m only here for what I’m due. I was hoping you’d choose Virgil.”

“What?” he asked, and his voice echoed. He turned around and saw Virgil’s ghostly face, mouth open, having spoken at the same time.

“There’s so many possibilities, you know,” she said and sighed like she was bored. “There’s some realities where you fall for the architects, but there were quite a few where we’d end up here and that was certainly a risk I was willing to take. So glad it paid off.”

“But I’m not-” Roman protested, and when he was cut off again he felt ready to pull his sword. It would do nothing against her magic–something he knew well–but she was really getting to him.

“Not in love? Please,” the Dragon Witch scoffed. “It’s not my problem you haven’t realized it yet.”

“Wait!” a voice suddenly tore through their conversation, and Roman looked back at Virgil, something tightening his gut. Virgil looked simultaneously angry and afraid and lost. “Hold on for a second. What the fuck is going on?”

With a grace that shouldn’t have belonged to someone so wicked, the witch floated down from the bookshelf, jumping right over Roman and landing in front of Virgil. Virgil seemed to have masked everything in those few seconds, standing defiant and tall before the woman. It mystified Roman. It was nothing he had ever seen before–nothing like Virgil’s comfortable confidence in the library. Virgil lowered his hands, appearing defenseless and unafraid under her manic gaze. 

“Long story,” she said, tossing her head side to side. “But I’ll tell you the ending if you want. My little happily ever after… minus dear Remus over there. I’d rather have all three of you but Remus turned weak. This. This was the outcome I was betting on.”

She leaned in, centimeters from Virgil’s face and anyone else might have missed the minute flinch in the man’s body, but Roman saw–tuned into it. Virgil’s eyes were hard. He said nothing.

Even as he was sentenced to his doom–to a doom brought to him because of Roman–because of a heart he couldn’t control–because Roman had signed away another’s life–a life that wasn’t Roman’s to give–a life Roman hadn’t yet met–that he was destined to love and hate and damn forever.

And it’d been a trap.

“Virgil, my long lost terror, you belong to me again. The End.”

[doomstypewriter]

Warmth

I’m back with some Moceit because, god, the new video shook me. 

AO3

Summary: 

Patton wants to say something very important to Janus.

What anyone can get from that in the end is that he is very gay and in panic and should probably just talk things out with Roman.

It would have made it easy if Patton had clearly taken a side in his and Roman’s vicious back-and-forth. But he’d mostly maintained himself neutral. Not to mention how laughably good it had felt to hear him imply he was right. And now that. No implications. Outright appreciation. Why did warmth feel so unbecoming? “What?” he answered in a tiny voice shoved in the middle of an exhalation. His face puckered ever-so-slightly. Yearning. It would have been more useful to keep it as a thought

.

Word count:

1690

TW: 

Maybe unsympathetic Roman, but this is all from Janus' point of view (the general posture is neutral), Janus being a sarcastic bitch, a mention of Remus doing some whacky stuff but nothing mayor, mild arguing but gets sorted out. (Nothing more I can think of, still, if you do find something, please tell me).

Warmth

“So, Janus…” Patton began to speak feeling his way around.

He saw a change coming, on Thomas’ position regarding the dark sides and how that would affect them all. He had already taken a chance with Virgil at the time. He’d never regret that choice. Maybe that was the reason why he had gone there. 

“Yes, that’s my name, don’t wear it out so soon, you just found out about it” answered Janus, leaning his elbow on the back of his left hand, while the right one bent in a dramatic gesture, almost touching his shoulder.

Janus looked everywhere except at him. In all honesty, he found everything about that situation perfectly comfortable and, no, the interaction was not at all forced nor the silence awkward. 

“By all means, do stay there just standing” after hearing this Patton made a sound of confusion, as if he was frowning with his voice. Because, heaven knows he’d sooner pass out than frown in public. As amusing as that mental image was, he had to clarify it, otherwise Mr. Nice over there would never cut to the chase. “By that I mean that we both got stuff to do, and, even though I enjoy your company so, so much, I have complots to plan and Remus won’t get unburied by himself; I imagine you’ll have cookies to bake, camp songs to sing or something equally vital for this world”. 

Patton took a breath. For a moment it seemed as it a confession was about to happen, something trascendental, information of a caliber that changes lives, ideas. Not yet. 

A small, apparently unrelated, laugh escaped him. 

“I didn’t mean to make you nervous”. 

This time, Janus did look at him straight in the eye. Patton felt he had been shoved under the bus of his gaze, it was not painful, but quite intimidating. Which was weird because, if Virgil was anything to go by, Janus had the tendency to shove people down a flight of stairs, not busses. Still, he played dumb and kept his goofy facade on.  

“Nervous?” the eyebrow of Janus’ human side raised to a height that could have been a mile, in a road trip straight to an expression of dubiousness. What a time on the cat-bus, or, well, snake-bus. 

He could have explained he’d come to realise that Janus had the pesky habit of deflecting with sass and not-so-subtle melodrama when confronted with something he did not like or when he got nervous. After all, his way of acting centered around getting what he disliked out of sight. Patton knew this first hand. Not because he knew Janus well, rather, due to the fact that he knew himself well enough. There are things one prefers to ignore. 

Patton had preferred to ignore the familiarity in Janus’ purpose and his, their personalities and motivations; which wasn’t exactly neat, being a dad and all. 

Perhaps it was time to step forward. 

To grow up. 

“I didn’t say it before and I think it’s not right for me to not let you know--”. 

Pursing his lips in an almost duckface, the reptile looked done with everything, and he hadn’t even heard the entire sentence. He rolled his eyes and raised his eyebrows, surprisingly proving that more of a bitch-face was indeed possible. 

“The entire interaction has been a delight and all, but let’s cut it here. If this is about Royal Pains then you don’t need to ‘let me know’ anything, he made himself clear, contrary to popular belief snakes are not deaf”. 

“That was not what I wanted to say” and, in all honesty, he would have rather not have Janus mention it. Now he was morally compelled to address the elephant in the room. He placed his hands on his hips to give himself an air of authority. “But both Roman and you said pretty nasty things and should go apologise each other”. 

“What a pity, there’s something in all of that jazz about talking to playground bullies that does not appeal to me. If I wanted to speak to children I’d just sit with Remus all day”. 

Patton frowned. 

That didn’t throw Janus off, and, by no means it made him want to comfort him to stop him from being upset. To suggest that would be ridiculous. But, if, let’s say, he did want to provide him with some degree of support, and this is one hundred percent hypothetical, he would hug him. Not that he’d ever  wondered about how that would feel like. 

“Do you think it is okay to just leave Roman feeling awful because you feel awful too?” Patton’s tone was kind as always, but his words did not tell the same story. “It might seem ‘fair’ but it’s not right. Using some other people’s vulnerabilities just because you’re angry, it is not even making you feel better. It only makes everyone more angry and sad. You too. Specially since you need to hear an apology as badly as Roman does--” 

“What would you know about me? I have told you my name, that’s about it. And.what.a.party.that.was. I am so thrilled that when I am at my most vulnerable, when I let my guard low cause I think: come on Janus, maybe it’s worth it, you could finally be heard and actually do your job… sorry, NO!” as if to further his point, or, most likely, his anger, he added a single fake laugh. “Someone has to barge in and make me feel like an absolute idiot for not hiding something for once. How is it that when Roman repeatedly uses others people’s vulnerabilities against people, for the sake of satiating his own need for self-importance, you turn a blind eye on it; but, when I do it I must be reprimanded? You’re all so self-righteous. Let me be the villain if needed be. I don’t need no apologies because neglecting the validation of the importance of my role is something I have always been able to handle. I don’t want your praise. Telling you my name is the last thing--” 

“Thank you”. 

The air left his lungs in a rush. All determination carried within his words deflated like a soufflè that had had the oven door opened too soon. A part of him bent to the gut punch of that sentence. He wanted to pry the mask of his eye caps. Cry. Always thinking that hearing it would leave him satisfied, proud, not disgruntled. Nevermind that quiet voice in the back of his head, screaming: yes! Finally! Finally. 

It would have made it easy if Patton had clearly taken a side in his and Roman’s vicious back-and-forth. But he’d mostly maintained himself neutral. Not to mention how laughably good it had felt to hear him imply he was right. And now that. No implications. Outright appreciation. Why did warmth feel so unbecoming? 

“What?” he answered in a tiny voice shoved in the middle of an exhalation. His face puckered ever-so-slightly. Yearning. It would have been more useful to keep it as a thought.

“That is what I came here to tell you. I forgot to say so before, with all fuzz, taking care of Roman and Thomas… I’m a busy dad, but I have to give an example, and when someone does something nice for you, you say thank you. I apologised so many times I forgot to say it more”. 

“You don’t need to thank me. I didn’t do it for you. Caring for Thomas… I was just doing my job”. 

“Yeah, but you did one snek of a job,” Patton laughed in a poor effort to break the tension between them. Only to fall back into the saccharine section of his disgustingly and not-at-all-endearing registre.“Janus, and it’s not okay to ignore that. Also… you kinda saved me”. 

Validation was something, huh. 

“You’re welcome, I guess”. 

It seemed that almost giving him a heart-attack was not enough. Patton had zero self-control and simply threw himself at Janus to capture him in a constraining hug. Who was the albino boa constrictor here? 

Not only did Patton smell like vanilla, cinnamon and a taint of chocolate, he was also oven-level of warm. The pillow-like feeling to his embrace would have made anyone sink in like a baby. 

Holy shit. 

If it hadn’t been so sudden Janus would have lost any shred of dignity and poise he’d hope to keep. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you nervous again” Patton disentangled himself from the other, seeing no reciprocation occuring. Maybe he should just change the subject and leave.

That had been horrible. Janus would forever deny the impulse to just melt Patton had so thoughtfully gifted him with. 

“I know Roman isn’t always... the kindest, but he really doesn’t mean it. He’ll change his mind about you eventually. I hope you can forgive each other then”. 

Janus looked at him with intensity. 

“I… need time”. 

“That is okay” he paused, considering. He might as well just take the second cookie. Fingers extended, because crossing them would make it really hard for him to grab the cookie, heh. “I’m not the smartest one, but if you ever need anything, I make really good muffins and always listen. You don’t even have to talk if you don’t want to, you can say you came over because it’s warm”. 

“Only in for white lies. Lacks style, but it might make you slightly tolerable”. 

It was a bit sad to hear. Patton had hoped for a different kind of answer, but if Janus didn’t want to confide in him that couldn’t be forced. He’d have to give him some space and prove his good intentions one little step at a time. 

“Well, this frog is getting back to his pond. I’ll let you get back--” 

“I won’t consider your offer”. 

Oh? 

Oh!

Patton’s face lit up in the brightest of smiles. 

‘Great timing’ thought Janus. So opportune to just keep on nagging him towards a heart-attack. Wonderful.

“Oh, Janus” said Patton, just before he left. 

“What?” he asked, yet again. 

“It is a lovely name”. 

Taglist: 

@girl-with-many-fandoms , @what-is-love-babey-dont-hurt-me  , @snek-snacc , @oddpopsicle , @your-boi-leon  ,  @many-fandoms-trash , @rubixn , @theantisocialghost

[treeni]

Sanders Side Theory: Creativity’s Name and Roman’s Struggles

Theories Masterpost

Well, apparently some people were interested in my Orange side theory and stuff.

So let’s talk about “King Creativity” and why I disagree with every name theory I’ve seen so far and what I think instead. I’m not certain “King Creativity” is ever going to be named in the show, just knowing he existed is probably enough, but wouldn’t it be fantastic if there was a backstory episode? Or even aside episode?

First! Let’s start with the fact that I actually think it’s really interesting that everyone’s defaulting to Creativity being “King” when it is in fact Emperors who ruled Rome. Not a criticize, just interesting thought. Second, Kings were supposed to sit back and let their knights and armies basically do all of the physical work (Unless your Arthur, but it usually got him into trouble so! Moving on!) while you lead them as whatever supreme ruler title you take. However, a Crowned Prince was often at the head of said adventures and battles, in the thick of it all, but was basically indisputably the accepted next in line. (Approved by the courts and all that jazz, I mean historically it didn’t always go that way, but that was the intention). However, a regular Prince and a Duke could absolutely have a power struggle, especially in the situation where the Duke was previously “next in line” before the Prince’s birth. So if Roman and Remus ever did duke it out (also mini theory that Remus chose Duke for the fighting reference) I think one of them could/would become King, but I don’t think that’s who creativity was before the split.

Now I have a particular crowned prince in mind that creativity is named after, but lets not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s start by talking about some of the most popular theories and why I disagree with them.

CW: for before the “Keep Reading” section. There is mention of metaphorical and fictional murder, war, lgbt theory (not that, that should surprise anyone). Roman backstory (aka things he might regret now.)

Romulus: While I suppose it’s convenient in the fact that its sort of the names combined, Romulus is already the role that Roman is filling in his relationship with Remus. Twins that supposedly found Rome, but Romulus killed his brother Remus to do so and become the ruler. Romulus literally named Rome after himself. This isn’t a hint, this isn’t something that’s upcoming or anything, this is backstory. Roman is literally just a modernized version of the name Romulus. Remus’ banishment to the darkside was his metaphorical murder. It also suggests that Roman took an active role in sending Remus away, which also helps explain a lot of Roman’s current struggle with Janus. Can you imagine the kind of guilt he might be feeling if he was the one who decided his brother was evil and he was good and then he passed judgement? If the darksides aren’t evil, then Roman and he metaphorically murdered Remus, then he wasn’t the hero slaying the beast anymore. Instead, he’s suddenly the bad guy.

Buuuut Treeni, what about Patton??? I hear you say. It would have had to have been morality right?

And to that I say you’re WRONG! And also right. Patton’s kinda been shown to be the most accepting bean of the whole lot, he doesn’t really try to force the others away the way some of the other sides do. Instead, he puts his foot down on his own convictions and refuses to listen to reason. (I didn’t say he was perfect.) Still, he doesn’t try to physically push the others away, not Virgil when he tried scaring Thomas, not Janus when they argued and Patton was clearly distressed by the courtroom situation, and not even Remus when Patton was clearly scared of him (also defensive of Roman). He doesn’t need to, he’s self-assured in his own place and convictions that he doesn’t worry about Thomas pushing him out. Instead, Patton kinda takes the family holiday party route and will do his best to put out the emotional fires and stand his ground on his opinion to Thomas when he needs to. (The ONLY time I could find Patton sort of pushing someone away was when they were in his room and Patton asked Logan to stop. While that could weaken my argument about Patton, I think it strengthens it because it shows how big of a deal it was at the time that Patton tried shutting him down. Logan reacted the way he did by immediately storming off because it’s not something Patton does.) While it could absolutely be Patton’s influence that caused the split, it would be out of character (as he’s currently defined) for Patton to actively push a side away. (I’ll get into some of his more negative aspects in another post if ya’ll wanna hear about it.)

Remember, Roman was the one who tried shutting down Virgil with bullying tactics, Logan too sometimes. Then he tried to use the same tactics on Janus when he tried putting his foot down on maintaining a black and white view point of the world after Remus’ appearance. Keep in mind that Remus actively told us that he blames Roman for his banishment. He compared himself and Roman to Cain and Able. While c!Thomas and even the audience as a whole were sort of led to think of Remus as Cain because of the “dark and evil” association, Remus is telling us that he is Abel. Roman is his destroyer. (Before you feel too bad for Remus, that misconception was also on purpose because while Remus isn’t a liar, he can manipulate a situation with honesty. Again, another post if you wanna hear about why.)

So now there is some general understanding of the twins backstory, you’ll see why Romulus would be a terrible fit for their combined name because Roman is already Romulus. Period. He’s the one who betrayed his brother by “murdering” him and taking over.

Making Romulus the name of who creativity was before because the names kinda morph together would lazy writing compared to very carefully woven details the show has had thus far (particularly in season 2). Okay, that went on a bit of a tangent, so next!

Caesar: This is a person who brought about the destruction of Rome, not the creation of it. (With Rome basically being the metaphorical state c!Thomas is living in now with clear lines between good/bad, right/wrong etc.) While it’s not a horrible ideology, it would be moving forward in a historical timeline instead of backwards. If you subscribe to the idea that Roman and Remus cannot go back to who they were (even with some kind of theoretical re-morphing) Caesar might be who they become, but it seems unlikely that is who they were. Remember that both sides are individuals now and those individual traits they’ve gained since splitting may not re-mesh cleanly back into who they once were. I personally don’t think there’s any “going back” for Creativity.

If they show him as he once was, it would likely only be in either a backstory bit or in a temporary situation where the re-combining doesn’t hold. However, if Creativity ever did become one thing again, I think it would be something completely new and I think Caesar would be a good fit for that in particular.

Aeneas: Again, it would be kinda lazy writing comparatively. Instead of using a sorta combination of the names that had some historical basis, this theory is based entirely on the idea of a convenient ancestor who quested and failed over and over to create Rome. I could have bought this had it been from lesser writers, but Thomas, Joan and the whole team do not mess around in story crafting and really carefully woven in references. I am literally degreed in writing and analysis and I keep finding myself impressed at the layers.

The name Aeneas also implies that the character Creativity was specifically questing for a change and that seems doubtful given the resentment between the brothers. Aeneas was essentially a left-over scavenger trying to scrape together a new home from what he could from already broken pieces and that does not sound like what Creativity is implied to be.

If we look at child development, I would theorize that Creativity is the oldest side. In the creative process, there are two major steps, first is information absorption, then second is application. The first thing any child must do is learn, anything and everything. The world is a limitless and imaginative playground. New material is around every corner and there it takes a while before the distinction between reality and fiction to be understood. It was probably just c!Thomas and Creativity for a while and as the others emerged, they looked up to him. It could even be potentially argued that Creativity was literally their creators.

This would imply that Aeneas would be a pretty terrible fit for him in that case because there’s nothing broken that he’s trying to salvage. The kingdom is his and c!Thomas’ to preside over with the other sides as his subjects. (c!Thomas being the distant “King” and Creativity being the “Crowned Prince”).

So, with all of that out of the way on why some of these theories are probably wrong, what do I think?

I think Creativity’s name is Hector.

Now, hear me out on this. For those of you who have read the Iliad you probably know exactly who I am referencing. You just may not know why. So stay with me here.

1. First, for those of you who don’t know, Hector was the Crowned Prince of Troy, the leader of the army that the Greeks (the perspective we’re getting) are facing off against. He’s also cousin to Aeneas, but actually accomplished things during the war beyond being saved by Aphrodite. This means he’s also an ancestor to both Romulus and Remus (albeit technically less direct). However, Hector’s family is where the royal lineage of Aeneas comes from. Though we follow the story mainly from the perspective of the Greeks (and the gods because they’re TROLLS), the Greek’s are pretty villainous in a lot of their actions throughout the story and they are most definitely the invaders. In this case, I would liken the Greek army to “outside opinion” for c!Thomas. Others interjecting their views on to someone and breaking his own beliefs. In this situation, Creativity would have been his biggest defender and hero, retreating into magical imaginary worlds to escape judgement.

2. So lets get onto the character and why him, shall we? Hector will literally do anything for his family. The war takes place because his little brother, Paris (one of a whopping 49 brothers mind you) either kidnaps, has Aphrodite kidnap or runs away with the Spartan Queen Helen because he fell in love with her. (It varies on the version and she was forced into her previous marriage at about 13 anyway, so Helen leaving willingly for the guy who the gods deem is the most attractive man alive is a popular modern reading.) It would have been so easy for the Trojans to yeet Helen back to Greece, but they don’t and Hector’s defense of her and his brother is a big reason why. Hector even chastises his brother for the mess he’s caused, but still stands by him and defends him. He also defends the hell out of Helen and refuses to blame her for their problems. Then in Troilus and Criseyde (Basically published Iliad perspective shift fanfiction with OCs) he defends the hell out of Criseyde when even Troilus, (apparently one of the 50 brothers) the person who claims to be in love with her, wont. Hector’s truly an all around good guy, great leader and has a very distinctive and personal moral compass that doesn’t always align with what’s being told to him is right. You want a character representation for someone who led the sides despite their clear struggles? Someone with Roman’s charm and heroism, and Remus’ understanding and drive? Hector is probably it.

3. Hector’s death is both a huge symbol for the end of Troy, but also isn’t? Let me explain, narratively speaking, Hector’s death is the point you know that Troy is basically doomed. His end is the representation of the end of it all. His corpse was literally paraded around as Achilles’s dragged it on the back of a chariot for days to show their doom. There was a distinct “aura” shift from Hector’s death as all of Troy mourned his death. We as an audience know Troy is basically doomed from Hector’s death alone. Hector was a person that even the enemy Greeks hella respected as a warrior and leader. Essentially, this was the point that the war that had been raging for about a decade became serious. At the same time, it just simply isn’t the end of the war. There’s the whole horse thing still to come and all that jazz. Still though, Hector’s death is very much a symbol of “everything changes, but nothing does.” Which is the perfect symbol for the twins split to me. Just because they split doesn’t mean that all of the sides did immediately, yet it was still probably the turning point that drove a wedge between the “dark” and “light” sides.

4. The character Hector arguably died in the name of gay love. Okay, story time. So in the Iliad, Achilles is being a little bitch and refusing to fight anymore because drama between him and the king of Athens, but he’s their best fighter and the Greek’s are basically sorta loosing because of him not helping. His boyf- I mean best friend Patroclus goes out in Achilles armor and leads his army in his place because Achilles is a whiny baby. Except Hector kinda immediately kills Patroclus, thinking he’s Achilles with reinforcements.(This was full body armor baby and distinctive cause baby of a god and all that mocha frappe.) Of course, Achilles has to immediately get angry revenge for his boyf- BEST friend and ends up killing Hector. This would make the character Hector a great metaphor for Creativity if his split had anything to do with sexuality or even acceptance as a whole. (Though we know acceptance is definitely a part of it considering Remus.) We know that Remus wants c!Thomas to explore darker themes and the struggle of sexuality and acceptance could be a possibility in what is to come as a previously “off-limits” theme.

5. A big one is that the destruction of Troy is what eventually brought about the creation of Rome. Essentially Troy would be the metaphor of c!Thomas’ existence/mentality before the sides split into dark/light factions. Then Rome would be the metaphor of c!Thomas’ existence/mentality after the sides split into factions.

6.Finally, the name Hector literally means “to restrain” which would work well for Creativity as he was likely trying to reign in the others from infighting (and you can see how well that went with him being gone). 

Cheers to another rant into the void. Huzzah! God this is nearly as long as some of my seminar papers. Do what you will with this information.

Please keep in mind that I adore Roman as a character. This post isn’t meant to hate on him. It’s meant to bring awareness of the layers of his character. Every Prince Charming was a villain to someone, every hero that slays the beast is a murderer from a different light. 

I don’t bring these things to light to cause pain, I bring them to light to help bring awareness of what’s probably going through his head.

(Yes, in regards to the Creativity being made first thing, I DO even have a theory about existence order, I promise you I have theories about everything. My mind does not stop with this crap. I have theories on everything from what animal association Roman and Logan have to Virgil’s key role in Roman’s backstory. I’ve ranted about a bunch of these things to a few specific people so if you ever want me to go on a rant about anything in particular let me know. I didn’t expect anyone to actually look at the other theory post tbh. Inbox me if you want me to go to unnecessary lengths on something else.)

(Also, correct me on the Patton thing if I’m wrong. I took notes on a recent watch through, but I wasn’t specifically looking for his rejection sooo, if there are other moments of it you can find that didn’t jump out at me I totally accept criticism.)

[heavenly-roman]

Nothing But Love For You

Plot: “Deceit hates surprises. He does, however, love Roman, and that’s all that matters.”

Warnings: one (1) swear word, crying but its happy tears, sympathetic deceit

Pairing(s): roceit

Word Count: 1173

if you liked this, consider buying me a coffee?

Taglist:  @emo-disaster @shitpost-sides @gattonero17 @lightenian @yalltookmyurlideas @acanvasofabillionsuns

(ao3 link!!!)

+++

Deceit hates surprises, so it’s no wonder he’s wary on the morning of valentines day - dating the embodiment of romance will do that to you. He smiles softly as Patton sets a plate of pancakes in front of him, the moral side gripping a mug of black coffee as well, due to his insistence that Dee should sit down and, quote, “let me handle it.”

He thanks Patton and starts eating, barely acknowledging the other sides as they trickle in. Roman sits beside him, bumping their leg against his in a small act of affection. Roman patiently awaits for their boyfriend to finish eating, pouncing as soon as the empty plate is taken away by Patton.

“So, my pretty little liar, I have a surprise for you,” Roman says, pulling Dee out of his chair and towards the stairs.

Deceit groans, albeit affectionately, and allows himself to be dragged. “Roman, my love, you’re aware that I just love surprises, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am,” they answer. They stop at the door to the imagination. Roman lets go of Deceit’s hand and turns to face him. “I know you’ll love this one though. Do you trust me?”

“Of course I do, sugar.”

“Perfect,” Roman says, a shit-eating grin crossing their lips. “Close your eyes.”

Dee does, extending his hand for his partner to take. Roman opens the door and pulls Dee in, snapping to shut the door behind them. Dee feels wind blow on his face as they walk, and slowly realizes the light shifting behind his eyelids. “Darling?”

“Patience, Dee, we’re almost there.”

The lights behind his eyelids shift again, and Roman stops, grabbing onto Dee’s shoulders to prevent bumping into each other. “Alright,” Roman announces, and Dee can hear the smile in their voice. “Open your eyes, dear.”

Deceit blinks open his eyes, and gasps at the breathtaking sight before him. It’s an archway entrance to a park, fairy lights twisted around the arch and the metal fencing in the pathway beside the playground. It’s then that he notices that Roman changed the sky to fit the date’s aesthetic - what was once a brilliant blue (described by Roman themself), was now a stunning royal purple, with pink clouds elegantly dotting the sky.

“Roman, I-”

“No need to thank me yet, love,” they loop their arm around Dee’s. “Our date has only just begun.”

Leading their boyfriend through the lit path, Roman grins as Dee marvels at the illuminated flowers and the starry sky. The stroll is brief, despite being prolonged by Dee’s fascinations. Roman smiles at the vulnerability Dee shows them. Roman leads them slightly off the path, into the shallow forest.

Roman pushes some branches out of the way to reveal a beautifully decorated clearing - the same lights from before hung on branches, illuminating the single table in the centre. A rose sat atop the table, along with two sets of dinnerware.

Dee releases Roman to inspect their dining area. He distantly acknowledges Roman letting go of the branches, secluding their space once more. With love in his eyes, Dee turns to Roman and softly asks, “You did all this for me?”

“Of course I did, sugarplum,” Roman sings. They stand behind Deceit, resting their chin on their lover’s shoulder. They wrap their arms around his torso and whisper, “I’d do anything for you.”

Dee flushes and spins in Roman’s grasp, placing a quick kiss on their lips. “Shall we sit?”

“In a minute,” Roman murmurs. “Wanna hold you a little longer.”

Distantly, Deceit hears soft piano music play, and he and Roman begin to sway gently, humming along with the tune. The hands on his waist tighten their grip and pull him closer to his dancing partner. Resting his head on Roman’s chest, Dee matches his breathing to the steady beat of their heart.

The music ends and, reluctantly, the pair separates. Roman leads Deceit to the table, pulling his chair out for him. Roman snaps and a brownie topped with ice cream appears between them, along with two spoons.

“Sharing a dessert?” Dee smiles softly. “How romantic.”

The two chat idly as they eat, and Deceit finds himself disappointed when the dessert is finished, and not particularly because of the taste - he honestly just doesn’t want their date to end.

Dee doesn’t realize he zones out until Roman calls his name. “Hmm?” he asks, bringing his eyes from Roman’s lips to their gorgeous eyes.

“I have one more thing I wanted to do - or rather, ask - before we went back,” Roman says, a nervous lilt to their voice. They reached across the table and grabbed Deceit’s hand, as the latter nodded for them to continue. They took an anxious breath before speaking, “Deceit, from the moment I laid eyes on you, you commandeered my heart and I couldn’t be more grateful. From your sly smile to the late night giggles only I can see, I’ve fallen harder for you than I ever knew possible.”

“I love everything about you, Dee. I love your snark and sarcasm, I love your stunning scales, and I love how protective you are over the people you love. I love your passion and drive, your clever wit and your stupid jokes,” Roman laughs breathlessly, and it’s then that Deceit realizes he’s crying.

“All of this is to say that I will love you until the end of time, Deceit.” Roman releases their boyfriend’s hand and, before Deceit can be upset at the loss of contact, Roman drops to one knee beside the table.

Roman pulls a ring from their pocket, holding it up to Deceit, and asks, “Deceit Sanders, will you do me the honour of marrying me?”

Deceit gasps, any words he was thinking dying on his tongue. The tears from before come back full force, and Dee nods, smiling through his sobs. He drops to the ground to meet Roman, and cups his fiance’s face, kissing them with all the passion Deceit has in his body. He pulls away and leans his forehead against Roman’s.

“Of course I will marry you, Roman,” says Deceit between sobs. He laughs at Roman’s awestruck expression, before tugging his left glove off and making grabby hands at the ring in Roman’s hand.

Roman slides it onto Deceit’s ring finger, and Dee takes a moment to examine it. Made from a large gold band and three smaller, diamond encrusted bands, the ring forms a diamond snake that wraps around the finger. “It’s perfect,” Dee breathes.

“I made it just for you,” Roman smiles. “Just like you were made for me, my love.”

Later, Roman and Deceit would return to the mindscape and retell the story, sappy speech and all. Later, Patton would cry, Logan would congratulate them, Virgil would fist bump both of them, and Remus would threaten each of them to not hurt his best friend and sibling, respectively. For now, though, they were content to just sit there with each other.

Deceit hates surprises. He does, however, love Roman, and that’s all that matters.

[vanilla-bean-buttercream]

Don't hate me but why don't you talk about Imagination in this house? For the EPCOT thing?

I don’t hate you, but I hope you’re ready for some heavy salt XD

Alright, so the Imagination Pavillion at EPCOT was all about... well, the imagination XD There’s a waterfall that shoots from the ground up like a salmon swimming upstream, jumping fountains that shoot over pathways, and some really neat shows and attractions. It was hosted by Kodak, which is a photography company that was super big back before pictures could be printed at home from your phone.

While I wasn’t around for Magic Journeys, I still know the music fairly well thanks to the EPCOT CD my nanny had. Making Memories gets stuck in my head so quickly because it’s so upbeat and puts a smile on my face. The point of the whole show was to see the world through a child’s eyes. 

Once Magic Journeys left, a 3-D movie (now dubbed 4-D) named Captain EO entered the theater. This one I have seen, even though it left when I was only 2 or so years old, thanks to it coming back in 2010 for a small tribute run. It was a sci-fi adventure show with Michael Jackson as the protagonist, Captain EO, and written by George Lucas. It reeks of 80s effects, but my dad said it was pretty cool at the time. Basically, this crew that was known for messing up all the time is trying to give the gift of music to this badass evil machine lady.  It was one of the first films to use 4-D effects inside the theater, which means when that little fuzzy alien with butterfly wings sneezed... yeah >w>

Eventually, this was replaced by “Honey I Shrunk the Audience” which is the one I remember most fondly. It was based off the movie series “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” which was a television show when I was little and went on to make two sequels (as far as I’m aware). Like Captain EO, it was also 4-D, and I remember the theater going dark as mice ran over your feet, and the whole theater floor shaking (like not through loud bass or anything; actually shaking) when the machine was shrinking everyone and the larger characters were walking around. I also remember almost getting eaten by a giant snake, which is why my mom didn’t like it :D

But, the absolute piece of resistance and one of my personal favorite attractions of EPCOT back in the day was Journey into Imagination. This ride was just *chef kiss* the perfect thing. It was steampunk. It had dragons. It had this delightful dude named The Dreamfinder who I once attempted to draw Remus and Roman as but never finished, and it was amazing. It covered several different types of genres, it was off the walls bonkers (like you thought the backward fountain was fun, it had bird cages with music notes, a box of applauding hands, plasma balls, and other cool stuff. It went into how science can help us shape our imagination, and it had stuff from Egar Allen Poe and laser light shows. It was just so amazingly fun and fantastic and I never left without feeling inspired.

Not only that, but attached to the Imagination building was an upstairs room called Image Works (I sadly can’t find any videos of it on YouTube without the haunting remains of what once was), which was a playground for kids. There was a bluescreen where you could dress up and put on a play from like the west and science fiction and stuff, a projection coloring map where you could create 3D images with a paintbrush gun, and stepping stones where you could make music by jumping on different colored spots. And don’t get me started on the sensory maze they had there. There was a mirage room where you could practically play tag with Figment and a whole ass hallway that was nothing but dancing lights that followed you around with a specific color. You could even conduct an orchestra with sensors and stuff. It was so much fun!

Then... it happened.

For some hecking reason (I’ll give you two guesses but you won’t need the second one), the higher-ups had no clue what was going on with their fanbase and went “hey, we should probably promote the money-making thing more than the cool imagination thing in the Imagination Pavillion” and they took away Image Works and Journey into Imagination.

Fans. Were. LIVID. The new ride, Journey into YOUR imagination (the name change wasn’t even creative) only lasted 2 years the backlash was that bad. And it was deserved, let me tell you. I mean, it wasn’t Superstar Limo backlash (which isn’t even in Disney World but it’s reputation precedes it if you google it), but it was pretty darn close. It was harsh and gritty and got rid of all the childlike wonder of the first one. The Dreamfinder and Figment were totally taken away, only for Figment to show up in the end like “hey remember, I’m still here.” It basically dumbed down everything, including the ride time, and I felt like I was being patronized on what imagination should be. 

Also, you know that cool play area I told you about? Gone. Totally gone. The worst part was, they just left it there. There are videos of people walking through the remains of it like a goddamn haunted house, and I can’t help but cry when watching it, because it hurts my heart that bad.

From there, we got a less-than-great-but-not-as-horrible attraction called Journey into your Imagination with Figment. It basically took the awful ride and threw an overly energetic Figment into it to spark some joy in a much-needed environment. It’s... kinda the laughing stock of EPCOT still. the wait time is usually never over 10 minutes (though there was one time I went and it was 25 minutes and we laughed into eternity) and it’s basically somewhere to go if you want to get out of the heat for a bit. The play area came back, somewhat, but now it was downstairs, and nothing was left the same.

Not only that, but the theater where Captain EO and Honey I Shrunk the Audience is? Totally gone. Nothing is there. It’s just a shell of what once was. I remember there was a time when Pixar shorts would play and they would bounce you around a bit, but it was just another place to go to cool off.

The only good thing that ever came out of this was in 2015 or 16 (I can’t remember which) the upstairs area was to be converted into a Disney Vacation Club lounge. Once again, I was allowed to go upstairs, because I’m a DVC member, and chill under the glass roof with endless soda and some Disney cartoons. I would’ve rathered Image Works come back, but I’ll take what I can get.

My heart absolutely hurts thinking about the Imagination Pavilion and what it once was. It truly embraced what it was designed to be: a celebration of the human imagination and creativity. To see it be destroyed by money is the biggest slap in the face my EPCOT has ever gotten.

[dragonsaphirareads]

The Power of Imagination

Day 16 of @tsshipmonth2020 Fluffuary

Ship: Dukeceit

AU: Kid/School

Word Count: 1883

Summary: Remus goes to school one day and meets the new kid in his class. A quiet, shy boy with scars running along half of his face. With a little imagination, he helps him come out of his shell.

(Like listening to podfics? You can listen to this oneshot on my YT channel here!)

Remus hated school. He hated riding the bus, he hated sitting at a desk for hours and hours, and he hated homework.

The only part of school that he liked was recess. The playground area at school was small, but it was bordered by a line of trees that made for the perfect area to play. Every day he would race to the same spot, waiting for his brother and friends to join him from the other class.

One day, Remus was walking down the hallway towards his classroom when he saw his teacher standing outside the door speaking to another woman. Beside her, there was a kid that had scars running across the entire left side of his face and neck.

He ducked behind the teacher to get into the classroom, and he overheard the kid’s mother mention something about “bullies” and “making friends” as he passed them. Was this kid new to their class? It was the middle of the school year though, why would he come now rather than at the beginning of the year?

Remus took a seat at his desk at the front of the class, trying to lean forward and peek around the doorframe as the rest of his classmates wandered around the classroom, talking to their friends.

Then the bell rang, and there was a mad rush as everyone ran to their chairs and sat down as their teacher walked into the classroom with the kid in tow. The students started to whisper before he hushed them, raising a hand to get their attention.

“Good morning everyone! We have a new student joining us today. This is Ernest, and I hope everyone will welcome him into our class with open arms and help him catch up with his schoolwork. Can we do that?”

“Yes Mr. Thomas!” chorused the class, and Ernest kept his eyes down the entire time. He shuffled to the only open desk in the class, which happened to be the one right next to Remus.

“Hi, I’m Remus!” he whispered loudly as Mr. Thomas started to hand out a worksheet. “I think your face looks really cool!”

Ernest ducked his head, staring at his hands. Remus opened his mouth to whisper again.

“Remus, we’re in class now.” Mr. Thomas scolded lightly as he came around, tapping his finger to his lips in a hush gesture, and Remus pouted. He kept his mouth shut though, especially since Ernest hadn’t even reacted to his whispers. Was he deaf, or just ignoring him?

He kept looking over at the new kid the entire morning, studying his face carefully. The scars on his face looked a lot like when Remus scraped his knees playing and healed over, but there was also a long, deep line that ran from the corner of his mouth to the edge of his jaw that looked like it was more of a cut. Remus wondered what happened to cause it. Was Ernest actually a secret spy and he’d gotten hurt on a mission? Or was he from another world and he’d been attacked by a vicious monster that he’d only barely escaped from?

His eyes were different as well. The one on the left was cloudy and unfocused, and not the same color as his right eye. Was that so he could see into another dimension? Or did it contain magical power that he could only use when he said the magic words?

By the time the bell rang for recess, Remus was practically bouncing in his seat from excitement. He couldn’t wait to tell the others about the new kid in his class, so when that bell rang he raced out of the classroom and to their spot under the biggest tree, waiting for Roman, Patton and Valentine to join him.

It took a couple minutes for the other class to come out into the yard, and every second was torture for the impatient kid.

“You guys are late!” He shouted at the three of them as they approached. “I’ve been waiting forever!”

Roman stuck his tongue out at him, shoving him back. “It’s not our fault, we were playing a game and we had to put everything away!”

Remus rolled his eyes, waving his hand. “Whatever, I don’t care. Something exciting happened today! There’s a new kid in my class and he’s super cool!”

“Really?” Valentine tilted his head, and Remus nodded.

“Yeah! He’s totally from another world, I just know it!”

Patton furrowed an eyebrow. “What do you mean, from another world?”

“I mean that he’s totally got magic! One of his eyes is different, and he’s got all kinds of marks on his face, and it just has to be because he’s a hero from a different world who was sent here on a mission!”

Roman looked excited, but Patton and Valentine didn’t seem to understand what Remus was talking about, because they both had worried looks on their faces.

“Remus... can you show us who you’re talking about?” Valentine asked, looking out over the playground. Remus raised an eyebrow but he turned and started searching for his new classmate.

“I don’t see him...” Remus mumbled, running over to the slides and climbing up one of them to get a better view of the yard. His friends followed him, though Patton and Valentine climbed up the ladder rather than scrambling up the slide. “Oh, wait, I found him!”

He pointed, and the other three piled on themselves to see where he was looking. Ernest was sitting up against the brick wall of the school, his head down as he read a book. Patton gasped and he grabbed Remus’s arm, yanking him back and down so they were crouching.

“Remus! You didn’t say any of those things to his face, did you?!”

“H-Huh? Well, I told him his face looked cool!” He told them, and Valentine facepalmed as Patton shook his head. “What? What’s wrong!?”

Remus felt a smack on the back of his head and he whined as he looked up at his brother. “What was that for!?”

“Because you’re dumb!” Roman told him, crouching down with the rest of them. “Remus, you’re so stupid sometimes!”

“What did I do?!”

“Remus... I don’t think he’s from a different world, like you said.” Valentine ventured slowly.

“Those scars are probably from an accident he was in. He probably thought that you were making fun of him when you said that!” Patton explained, and Remus blinked.

“But... I wasn’t! I really think it looks cool!”

Roman dragged a hand down his face, huffing in frustration. Valentine crawled forward, pushing him towards the slide. “You should go apologize to him.”

“But I didn’t--”

His brother rolled his eyes and forcefully pulled him down the slides and then to his feet when Remus landed awkwardly. “C’mon, let’s go tell him that you’re dumb and then see if he wants to play with us.”

Remus grumbled, but he followed his brother over to where Ernest was sitting. The kid didn’t look up when they approached, although he did notice that his shoulders seemed to tighten as Roman cast a shadow over him.

“Hi! You’re Ernest, right? My brother said something mean earlier to you and he wanted to apologize!”

Remus growled as Roman elbowed him in the ribs, then he looked down at his classmate and saw that he had curled up tightly, avoiding looking at either of them. Remus blinked, crouching down so he was more on level with him.

“I have a question... are you secretly from another world?”

“Remus!” Roman exclaimed, but Ernest actually raised his head and stared at Remus curiously.

“W-What?”

“I told my friends that you’re totally a hero sent to our world to save us ‘cause you’ve got a special eye and scars from fighting monsters, but they didn’t believe me! So you gotta tell them that I’m right!”

Roman was glowering down at his brother, reeling back to kick him in the side. How stupid was he, saying all those things to Ernest’s face? Why, he looked like he was about to cry!

Ernest’s face twisted, and he ducked his head to hide his face with his knees. He started shaking, and Roman reached down to pull his brother away and yell at him. Then Ernest raised his head again, and they both realized he wasn’t crying at all.

“Hahaha... You’ve-You’ve got me! I’m actually a... haha... a time traveler sent from the future! I... haha... I have to change the past so the world can be saved!”

“I knew it!” Remus cheered, pumping his fists in the air. Roman chewed his lip, watching his brother lean even further into Ernest’s personal space. “You’ve gotta show us your tricks!”

Ernest blinked for a moment, then he shook his head with the faintest grin. “Sorry, I can’t. I shouldn’t have even told you who I was, anything could fail my mission.”

Remus pouted, sitting back on his feet. “Aww...”

“Do you wanna come play with us?” Roman spoke up, and both Ernest and Remus glanced up at him. “It’s more fun than just sitting by yourself, right? Or you can just read your book under the tree, if you want!”

Ernest stared at him disbelieving, then he shrugged and closed his book, getting to his feet. “I guess so.”

“Yes!” Remus jumped up and ran back over to Patton and Valentine, who were watching them from their vantage point at the top of the slides.

“I’m sorry about him...” Roman mumbled to Ernest as they started walking over. “He’s kinda stupid sometimes.”

“It’s ok... It’s better than what most people say when they see me.” Ernest smiled slightly, tucking his book under his arm and following Roman to the line of trees. They spent the rest of the recess play pretending they were valiant knights fighting against dragons and witches while Ernest sat against the tree, watching them all with a curious look in his eye.

~

“Remus?”

“Yeah?”

“You know that I’m not really a spy from the future, right?”

Remus sighed, absently drawing circles in the dirt next to him. The other class had been held in for recess that day, so Remus had taken a seat next to Ernest and they’d just talked for their outside time.

“Yeah, I know.”

“But... you’re still friends with me? Even though I lied?”

Remus nodded. “Of course! Mom told me that I was being “in-sen-si-tive” by talking about your scars, and that I should have not said anything unless you said something first.”

Ernest hummed, watching the other kids playing on the playground. “Well, I probably wouldn’t have then. It’s not something I like to talk about. Kids at my last school made fun of me for how I looked.”

“They’re idiots!” Remus insisted.

“Maybe. But... I wanted to thank you, Remus.”

“Huh? Thank me for what?”

Ernest smiled, leaning over and pressing a quick kiss to Remus’s cheek. “Just... for being yourself.”

Then the bell rang and Ernest stood up to go back inside. Remus lagged behind, touching his cheek lightly with his fingertips and grinning like a maniac.

Maybe Ernest wasn’t from the future like he’d said. But as far as Remus was concerned, he was definitely an angel sent straight from heaven.