#also if you want to comment on janus looking horrifying he could be much much worse

[expolikestoart]

someone take my laptop away from me

[hannahdra-ws]

and now (you’re hyper paranoid)

Summary: 

hypochondria; n; abnormal anxiety about one's health, especially with an unwarranted fear that one has a serious disease.

(or: Janus has a very bad time.)

Romantic, established dukeceit

TWs: hypochondria, covid-19, panic attacks, unspecified eating disorder, coughing, crying

----------

Through the uneasy feeling, Janus knew he was being a little unrealistic.

He's perfectly healthy, he rarely gets sick. He hasn't even had the flu before. He's double vaccinated, and he wears his mask everywhere. He's certainly never gotten food poisoning before.

So he doesn't know why he's freaking out so much.

read on ao3

Janus stared at the plate in front of him, heart thumping so loudly he was almost sure the others at the table could hear it. It wasn't anything major, it was just meatloaf with a side of mashed potatoes and corn, and Patton and Logan (mostly Logan) spent a lot of time on it, so there's no reason he shouldn't eat it.

The others are enjoying it too, bantering and joking across the table without a care in the world. Roman was basically sitting in Logan's lap, and Four Idiots (as Janus and Remus dubbed them as) kept sending each other equally besotted expressions. Remus was next to him, gesturing animatedly while he talked with one hand and the other hand tightly gripped in Janus's own.

He felt off kilter and shaky, watching everyone eat their food. Janus knows he should be eating too, and logically he knows that there is a very small chance of him getting food poisoning. But that doesn't make the debilitating anxiety welling up inside him go away.

Oh God, he's going to get sick, somethings wrong with the meat he'll get sick and vo-

Ugh. Virgil's the one that has the anxiety problem, not him. Why did his brother have to give him his mental illness? Bitch.

Suddenly, a loud noise happened, forcefully dragging Janus out of his mind. It was Roman, coughing loudly. He kept hacking, and hacking, and Janus abruptly felt faint. 

The others were watching with concern, and Logan was patting Roman on the back to get whatever had lodged in his throat out. Eventually, he did clear his airways, after a long breath in and a particularly violent cough. 

Patton inquired if he was okay, and Roman nodded, face red and tears streaming down his face from coughing so much. "Sorry, I choked." His voice was scratchy from coughing. But he was smiling, and that should have been an indicator that he was okay, he just choked, he's fine-

Remus made some comment, and Virgil flipped him off while still looking worriedly in Roman's direction, but Janus suddenly couldn't hear through the ringing in his ears. Remus must have noticed either the way he abruptly went still, or the fact that he had barely eaten anything, because he squeezed his hand in question. Janus abruptly stood up from the table, almost knocking his chair down in the process.

Remus frowned, a small, confused thing, "Jaybird? You alright?"

"I'm sorry, if you'll excuse me," Janus managed to choke out, before quickly ripping his hand from Remus's and stumbling away, ignoring the protests and calls from the table behind him. 

He hopes no one noticed that he didn't finish his meal.

----

Janus stumbled to his room, heart beating out of his chest, thump, thump, thump. He quickly locked the door and slid his back down to the floor, digging his gloved hands in his hair and pulling.

Roman's dry hacking wouldn't leave his head, oh God he sounded sick, but he's not he just choked he's fine, he doesn't have covid none of you do you're all vaccinated, fuck-

Janus was acutely aware that he was crying, now, his chest tight and his throat sore from the tears. He was trembling, small and terrified against the back of his door, and he couldn't stop thinking.

Janus had to go back to school in a week. School, with its crowded areas and unvaccinated people and possible removal of masks. The very thought of it makes his heart jump into his throat, dizzy with terror.

What if one of them had covid, and we just didn't have any symptoms, what if the vaccine doesn't work against the variant, fuck, he's going to get it, maybe he already has it, he's going to die he's going to die he can't breathe-

He suddenly had the image of his own funeral in his head, his boyfriend and his friends and his brother at his own funeral, crying softly and holding each other. He envisioned himself in the afterlife, waiting for them, watching Remus suffer alone because he wasn't there-

And that horrifying image in his head is what turned his soft crying into desperate sobs, shaking and pulling his hair so tight it stung. 

And that's also when he finally registered the frantic knocking on the door, how long has that been going on? and Remus's panicked voice coming from the other side.

"Jan? Baby, I can hear you crying, fuck, are you hurt? If you want me to fuck off, tell me, but- Oh, Jay, please answer, even a knock, just let me know if you're alright-"

Janus reached with trembling hands to unlock the door, even as his mind went no don't he could be sick, and he quickly moved away from the door a little so Remus wouldn't smack him in the face with the door when he came bursting in.

And burst in he did. In a flurry of motion, Remus quickly came in and shut the door behind him, then sat on the floor with panicked, worried eyes looking at Janus.

"Janus? Can you- fuck, I'm not good at this- can I touch you?"

Somewhere, in the back behind the panic, Janus found his stumbling endearing.

Janus debated for half a second, social distance 6 feet apart you'll die you'll die you'll die, before crumbling to his desire to be held.

"Pl- Please, hold me, I- I can't-" Janus's voice came out absolutely pathetic, broken up in sobs and small and trembling, but Remus paid it no mind. He quickly scooped up Janus in his arms, and Janus held onto him for dear life, like he'll be swept away if he doesn't. He cries so hard he's almost heaving, shaking like a leaf in Remus's strong, tattooed arms.

Oh, Remus, make it go away, He thought, and then cried harder because what a childish thing to think.

"Shh, shh, you're alright, I've got you. Can you breathe with me, darling? In and out, you're okay," Remus's voice was calm and soothing, the panic deliberately gone from his voice, probably to not make him feel worse. He breathed in deeply, over exaggerating his breaths so that Janus could follow along.

Janus tried to follow the rhythm, hiccupping through his tears. He stumbled a few times, and it took a bit, but he eventually was able to settle his breathing. His tears had started to slow, and he suddenly felt overwhelmingly childish. 

He just had a breakdown over something so stupid. It's not like he's the only one affected by covid, they're in a fucking pandemic, and he has no right to panic when he's not even sick. He's fine. 

Janus and Remus had only been together for a few months, so Remus hadn't seen this side of Janus yet. This was sure to make him leave. Fuck, he's so stupid.

"There you are, baby," Remus crooned with a soothing voice, and Janus flushed despite himself. Remus wiped away one of his lingering tears, his palm cupping Janus's cheek, and Janus leaned into the warmth, suddenly exhausted. He felt boneless and hollowed out inside of Remus's arms, like his limbs were made of lead.

"I'm sorry," Janus croaked, and Remus was shushing him before he could get more words out.

"No, shut up, you're not allowed to apologize for having a panic attack. You have nothing to apologize for." Remus was strong and steady, and Janus opened his eyes that he didn't mean to close. For some reason, he wanted to deny that what just happened was a panic attack. "You're okay, love, we're okay."

Janus gave a small laugh in spite of himself, and Remus huffed, indignant. "What?"

"Nothing, just- you use a l- lot more cutesy nicknames when you're calming me down." Janus noted, and Remus puffed up like a peacock, but he was smiling. 

"Would you rather I use my normal names? J-anus? Two Dicks? Hot ass? Da-"

Janus cut him off with laughter and a smack to the arm, "Shut up, you awful man, that wasn't an invitation-" 

Remus was laughing too, grin blinding. When they both stopped laughing, they just sat there for a while in comfortable silence. Remus traced the vitiligo patches on Janus's back through the clothes (Janus flushed at the fact that Remus just knew where they were) and Janus traced the tattoos on Remus's brown skin.

After several long, quiet moments, Remus's quiet voice broke the silence. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Instantly, Janus went tense, before shaking his head no. He couldn't explain it without sounding stupid, and he didn't want Remus to leave.

Besides, there was nothing Remus could truly say that he hasn't heard before. 

Nothing will make it go away.

Remus nodded, content with not pushing. "Well, I say we move the cuddling to the bed and not the floor, how does that sound?"

Before Janus could respond, Remus just scooped him up, effortlessly in the air. Janus squeaked and held onto Remus before Remus just dumped him down unceremoniously onto the bed, bouncing a little on the springs. 

Remus laid down on his back, and Janus immediately crawled to him and curled up next to him, laying his head on Remus's chest and Remus wrapping an arm around him.

"Nap time," Janus mumbled into Remus's shirt. Janus felt more than heard him chuckle.

"Well, if the king says it's nap time, then I have no choice but to obey." Janus swatted at him lazily, and he couldn't see it, but he bet Remus grinned. Remus laid a quick kiss to his temple and his heart swelled.

The worry still pricked in the back of Janus's mind. He was sure that later, he was going to freak out over this moment, that the sudden contact made him contract an illness.

But right now, at this moment, he's fine. He's with his boyfriend, and his other friends and his brother are in the house somewhere too, no doubt worried about Janus. They're all vaccinated, healthy, and safe. 

I'm okay, he thought, the thought not panic induced this time, and fell asleep next to Remus, and dreamt of nothing but warmth.

[carouselofrats]

Nothing at All and I Resent the Question

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32359684

———————————————————————

Pairing: Platonic Loceit (could be seen as romantic if you wanted to)

Word Count: 1120

Summary:

Deceit stood up, bringing out his hook and pulling Logan off of the screen. The logical side landed a bit roughly in his room, mirroring his usual position in Thomas’ living room.

“My apologies, Logan. I’m afraid my summoning abilities are a bit rusty and… unusual. Lovely room you have, by the way.”

aka my interpretation of what happened between Logan and Janus during POF when he was dragged off screen.

———————————————————————

Deceit waited patiently. The day of reckoning had finally come: April “lucky number” 13th. He snorted. Lucky. That was one of the bigger lies that Thomas had told recently.

When the reception had been less than ideal and yielded none of Patton’s treasured “good feelings'' (sigh), Deceit had expected to feel a rush of self-righteousness, an urge to say “I told you so”. He’d been right about the whole thing all this time, after all.

Instead, he’d been hit with a feeling of… emptiness. Thomas had gotten nowhere. Deceit’s own plans had only led to more damage. The fact that he’d had no other options didn’t seem to soften the blow, no matter how much he wished to remain unaffected.

All of this pontificating had brought him here, sitting on the couch in Logan’s room. He would be damned if he let all of his work be for nothing. So far, the wedding aftermath had been a bit disastrous, given what he could grasp from inside the Mindpalace. So disastrous, in fact, that he felt his mission might already be doomed before it even started. Logan, the poor thing, had been trying to contribute some much-needed reasoning to the conversation and been thoroughly and utterly ignored again. Still, there were a few things that gave Deceit hope. Thomas had at least considered his argument a bit more, going by his “made a decision with a blindfold on” comment.

So, with more determination than he’d ever felt before, Deceit had set up the skip button and waited; hoping that maybe Thomas had at least considered his argument, that the others wouldn’t immediately dismiss his words because he was a dark side, that even if they didn’t dismiss him they wouldn’t hold too much bias, that Thomas would actually just fucking listen to him for once and understand that the world wasn’t black and white. If Patton, Roman, or Thomas had actually gotten to the point of skipping logic, then he would know that things were dire. He was torn between hoping it would happen just to give him the opportunity and being horrified by what the circumstances of said opportunity mea-

It just so happened that at that exact moment his train of thought was broken by none other than the aforementioned “skip button” being pressed. By Patton. Hm, interesting. He’d expected that it would be Roman, if anyone. Deceit stood up, bringing out his hook (he definitely didn’t feel giddy about finally getting to use it) and pulling Logan off of the screen. The logical side landed a bit roughly in his room, mirroring his usual position in Thomas’ living room. Deceit winced a bit as the other stumbled.

“My apologies, Logan. I’m afraid my summoning abilities are a bit rusty and… unusual. Lovely room you have, by the way,” he said, eyeing his hook as he pushed it back up into its spot in his capelet, ready to be summoned again at any time.

Logan, who had been adjusting his tie a bit dejectedly and looking hurt, quickly straightened up at the sound of the other side’s voice. Deceit didn’t comment.

“Deceit,” the logical side spoke, his normal speaking volume a welcome contrast to the yell that typically accompanied the statement, “what are you doing here?” His eyes narrowed, quickly putting everything together. “It was you who placed the skip button, wasn’t it?”

“Indeed. Again, my apologies. I would’ve loved to devise a gentler option but, alas, it appears we’re in pretty dire straits at this point,” he replied.

“It’s no matter.” Lie. “I’m assuming you have a reason for dragging me down here?”

“I need a favor.” He hesitated for a second. “Well, less of a favor and more your permission.”

Logan’s eyebrows had progressively raised higher and higher. “Permission?” Janus nodded. “For what?”

“I wish to impersonate you.” Logan’s eyebrows were at his hairline at this point. It took him a few seconds of silence to gather his response.

“You’ve never asked for permission in the past, I’m confused as to why you feel you need to do so now.”

Deceit looked away, sighing, he hated being emotionally vulnerable. “Well, last time I impersonated you without permission it went--How do I say this?--It was a bit of a disaster. One that, if i’m not mistaken, hurt you in the process.” Logan attempted to speak but Deceit kept going, “Yes, yes, I know you ‘can’t feel’ and whatnot. That’s unfortunately a debate for another day; right now I'm requesting your permission. I’m… unsure if I'll ever get another opportunity like this.” He finished, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice.

Logan stared at him for a second. “Why?”

“Pardon?” He looked back at Logan.

“Why do you believe you’ll not get another opportunity? Why choose to ask me? Why do you need an opportunity in the first place? To do what?”

Well… that wasn’t exactly what Deceit had been expecting but, then again, this was Logan he was dealing with.

“You’re the least biased out of all of them. I have the best chance with you. As for the opportunity… I feel that this little discussion that Thomas is having quite closely pertains to me.”

“How so?”

Janus glanced his eyes away again. “‘Deceit’ is an oversimplification of my purpose, just as ‘Logic’ is an oversimplification of yours. I’m also Thomas’ self-preservation. His selfishness. And well… he could use some selfishness right now.” Silence rang out for a few seconds.

“I see. Then you have my permission.”

“...”

“Wow, you put up such a fight, Logan. I’m exhausted.” Deceit snarked out, surprised by the ease of the other’s agreement.

Logan smirked a bit, adjusting his glasses. “I believe I now have a greater understanding of your presence here, Deceit. If Thomas won’t listen to me on the matter, perhaps he will listen to you.”

Logan stepped out of his spot next to the staircase, coming to stand next to the couch. He looked at Deceit, gesturing to the vacated space.

“Go ahead,” he said. Deceit saw no bitterness in his eyes.

He walked over to the spot and let his disguise wash over him. There were now two versions of Logan in the room. He turned back to Logan.

“Thank you.” He spoke with more genuineness than he’d spoken in years.

Logan simply gave him a small smile and shook his head. “No need. For your sake and Thomas’, I hope you succeed.”

Deceit began to sink down, the two sides each giving each other a mutual nod of respect as he went. If all else failed, Janus at least felt that he might have an ally in one of the light sides.

[doomstypewriter]

Excuse me while I panic

Hello, and welcome back to the sh1tshow. Today's chapter is about betrayal. Actually yes but no, it's about misunderstandings and Roman and Janus kind of talking about the issues between them. Does anything get fully resolved? Of course not. But it's a start.

Also, some quality Janus for all of you moceit shippers.

Word count: 1194 | AO3 | <<Previous

Summary: After seeing Virgil so distraught, Roman decides to confront Janus.

CW: Angst, angry crying, Roman and Janus' issues, screaming, arguing, unsympathetic Janus (from Roman's point of view though, and just at the beginning), unsympathetic Roman (same as before, this is from Janus' point of view), swearing.

Let's accuse the snake of committing heinous crimes

Like a very organised opera dressing room.

That’s how Roman would describe Janus’ room once he rose inside.

“It’d be a pity if you knocked, Roman” Janus acknowledged him without bothering to look.

He was applying some heavy moisturizer to his reptile side. The creme made his scales looked kind of fuzzy and dull. Odd choice.

Janus went still.

“Okay, guess you won’t be leaving”, he said. “What can I be so pleased to help you with, Roman?” Janus finally stared at him.

“Ew, what’s up with your eye?”

His left eye looked glazed over. The pupil a hazy shade of blue, just like the iris. It was as if a semi-opaque layer of greyish blue had been laid onto the cornea.

“I’m shedding. Thanks for asking. I love to show it off. That’s exactly why I keep to myself when it happens. But enough about me, what do you want?”

Roman frowned.

“What are you playing at?”

“I AM shedding. It happens every now and then”.

“No. With Virgil”.

“Ah. Well, you see, I am actually trying to murder him. He spends so much time at those stairs that it’s almost like he’s asking for it”.

For a microsecond, Roman had the nerve to be horrified. Janus rolled his eyes at it.

“I know I’m an excellent liar Roman, but even someone as dim as you cannot believe that I honestly intend to kill Virgil. Among other things, we cannot be killed. Remember how much Remus tries? If it were possible I’d say, by this time, you’d be dead”.

“Then what are you plotting?”

Roman wanted to punch Janus when he heard him laugh. Still, he had sort of promised Virgil not to, so he had to make do by glaring at him and hoping he would magically be set on fire.

“My, my… one wouldn’t tell if you hold me to a high standard or a really low one” Janus wiped the tears from his eyes theatrically. After that, his tone darkened. “Being me, I guess the bar must be on the floor. You make it so easy to step over it to taunt you, dear”.

His fists tightened.

‘Do not punch him’, Roman had to mentally repeat to himself.

He felt mortified when he realised that a part of him felt so angry it made him want to cry. In an attempt to maintain his barely convincing menacing aura, Roman sucked up the tears and tried to sound detached.

“How--How can you be…” so much for keeping his tone unaffected.

The reaction from Janus was hardly distinguishable from surprise, amusement or… yes, guilt, not too much, but present.

“So evil?”

“I’m not” Janus replied categorically, his mocking tone gone.

“Really? Then why do you always have to play with everyone? Why do you always have some secret agenda?”

“I do--”

“Yes you do!” Roman interrupted him, finally tearing up. “Have you any idea what you’re making him go through? Why are you so selfish?!”

Janus tensed up, letting some of the hurt show on his face.

“Being selfish isn’t bad and--”

“It IS bad when you use it as an excuse to ignore that you’re hurting people. Which is exactly what you’re doing right now! No one is asking you to stop thinking about yourself”, Roman began to laugh bitterly, “I don’t even know if you can!

“Oh, right! That’s exactly why I helped you in the first place, Roman! Because I only care about myself! Have you forgotten who was the one who tried to convince everyone to choose the… what was it? Oh, the callback you desperately wanted to go to. After wasting away in a wedding anyone would think you’d see who had your best interests in mind. But I guess--”

“Shut up! I don’t care about the callback! Not… not anymore. At least this isn’t why I came here”.

“Then what do you want from me, Roman? Did you just want to feel morally superior and gloat?”

“I want you to tell me the truth. I’m so tired. Why did you even tell me to pursue Virgil if you hate me? Why are you being so nice all of a sudden?”

After one exasperated sigh, Janus put the creme down.

Meanwhile, Roman massaged his temples.

Seeing Virgil turning into a ball because of how confused and terrified he felt had gotten to him like no other thing.

The circling motions of his fingers came to a sudden halt.

“Patton. Does he know what you’re doing? I-- he trusts you! It’s one thing to have it out for me or be all weird with Virge, but if you even think about hurting him--”

Janus smashed his hands on the dresser.

“I’d never hurt Patton!”

“How can anyone believe what you would or wouldn’t do?!” he mirrored Virgil’s earlier words.

“Let me ask you this instead, how can you be so fucking stupid to think I’d ever do something to harm him?!”

“Because Virgil thought you cared about him and you stabbed him in the back, because I thought you liked me and then you used me! You’re using me right now and I don’t know what for, how can I put it past you to have Patton--”

“I’m not using you! I’m trying to be better because I want Patton to be happy!”

Roman quieted, fully taken aback.

“Wha...what?”

Janus huffed.

“Do you need me to also spell it out for you? I love him”.

His head lowered. Janus clasped his hands together, squeezing, as he brought them to his chest in a gesture that looked almost vulnerable, as if he was trying to push every feeling out of sight.

“He wanted me to apologise. But I don’t feel like I owe you that. After mocking me as you did, I think we’re even. Still… I understood that he wanted us to get along, so I decided I could do something nice for you. But I suppose wanting to fix one of your many oversights”, Janus looked up, “is my most diabolical plan yet. Right?”

“Umm… but you could just use it to get to Virgil…” Roman began to lose his resolve.

“Or I could be using it to also do something for him”, Janus began to say as if talking to a child, “because I never stopped caring about him, and things aren’t black or white as you seem to think, and I want to make Virgil happy too. I know, groundbreaking”.

The prince froze in place.

“But why would it make Virgil happy?”

Janus half-sighed, half-laughed in disbelief.

“For fuck’s sake, Roman. Why do you think?”

“Emm… oh”.

“Why are you still here? Go and talk to him”.

Roman started to head for the door, feeling like bursting at the seams.

“Before you leave, don’t get up to any of your usual nonsense. Use your pretty mouth and talk like an actual human being”.

“Will do!”

The door bashed against the frame as Roman ran out like a headless chicken. Janus ran his hands over his face.

“Now what?” he looked at Roman peeking in again.

“Hmm… thank you, Janus”.

“Love to help, now leave!”

<<Previous | Next>>

Taglist: @itsjust-la-me , @bard-in-blue , @simplestoryteller , @winterwynd , @some-fander , @extraintrovertedalien , @the-sad-strawberry

If anyone wants to be tagged, let it be known, I'd love to tag them, so tell me in the comments.

[baka-monarch]

What The Fuck!?

(A.N: before we start with the story I just wanna say that this is based off of this post by @lance-alt​ . Also, alot of creators on here got mentioned in the story, like actual mentions so if you got mentioned just know that I love what you create and wanted to include you because I love your interpretations of the sides, and you do not have to read this at all if you don’t want to and if you want me to take you out of the story please DM me and tell me so that I can)

TRIGGER WARNINGS: SLIGHT MENTION OF VORE FOR LIKE TWO SECONDS, MENTION OF USYEMPETHETIC SIDES, SHITTING N SOME HEADCANONS EVEN THOUGH I MYSELF LOVE THEM

The Sides are lost. They find themselves in a familiar and yet unknown place.

They will soon find someone dark. And someone far too shiny and bright… Too innocent.

The Sides meet…

their fanon-selves.

 ...

 It had started like any normal day. The sides existing as a part of Thomas, helping him with his daily dilemmas, the usual things. Until Thomas took a nap. Then the sides suddenly found themselves in a white void. It wasn’t a dream, they could confirm that much from the other dreams that Thomas had. Also from the confused looks on the twin’s faces who were in charge of dreams, like how Remus had caused Thomas’ nightmare that they had disgusted in Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts.

“Where are we?” Logan spoke up, voicing everyone’s concerns.

“Wherever it is, Thomas has never thought about it before.” Roman muttered as he glanced around.

“Yeah, I know his brains can be scooped out at times, but not even he can have a mind this empty.” At Remus’ comment, most of the others cringed in varying degrees, with Logan being the only one unaffected, only rolling his eyes in annoyance.

“Although your metaphor usage could use some work, you are correct. This place is too empty to be a part of Thomas.” Logan conceded.

“If this isn’t Thomas...then where are we?” Virgil gleaned around wearily, trying to come up with his own explanation for this situation.

“It’s really blank here...maybe Thomas is in a coma?” Roman tried, to which Virgil’s eyes widened.

“Impossible, how would we be active if he is not?” Logan debated.

“I don’t know! Do you have any ideas, Sherlock Drones?” Roman rebutted, causing Logan to roll his eyes and fix his glasses.

“Unfortunately, no. There is not enough evidence...anywhere to make a proper inference on the situation.” Logan finished adjusting his glasses by the time he finished, gaining an annoyed huff from Roman.

“Heya, kiddos? Maybe we shouldn’t argue. We’re all confused right now, and getting upset isn’t going to get us anywhere.” Patton butted in to make sure things didn’t escalate.

“Thank you, Patton.” Logan gave a curt nod of agreement.

“Fiiiine!” Roman whined after a bit.

“It would be wise to explore, to see if we can find any clues as to where we are.”

“I’ll do it!” Remus jumped in. “Who knows, maybe we all died a gruesome death!” He cackled.

“No need.” Janus approached the group from behind, having already explored himself. “Look behind us.” When turning the sides were surprised to find the area behind them was not all whit. On it there were words like what one would find in a google doc currently describing their situation as they lived through it. 

“What the fuck?” Virgil muttered. He had a Tumb.lr so he knew what fanfiction was, and this looked like it. “This can’t be happening…” He groaned, knowing it was happening.

“Aw, they’re writing about us Virge! Like the people on that one app you use.” Patton cooed, only knowing of the fluff part of fanon.

“Pat, you don’t understand. This isn’t good.”

“Oh nonsense kiddo.” Patton dismissed. “Have you guys seen the art they draw of us? It’s so cute!” Virgil internally cringed knowing that not all of it was like that.

“Either way,”-Janus cut off their small conversation.-“We need to find a way out of here.” Janus focused slightly more on Virgil for his next comment. “Whether this is real or not.” Virgil shivered at the thought of them not being real, or even acting like they do in the things that people create. 

Everyone agreed, and soon they were on their way to explore this strange new environment.

 …

 Soon enough, however, the sides are lost. Which brings us back to where this story began. As they searched for their original location, or even the mysterious floating words, they come upon a familiar and yet unknown place. It looks strikingly like a Disney movie kingdom. With one half, filled with bright colors, lush fields, enchanting forests, and a large white castle with a red roof. The other half being dark and dangerous, the colors fading, plants rotting, instead of animals there only creatures of unknown origin, and in the middle, a black, crumbling, castle, with striking green roofing. It was almost as if...it were made for the twins.

In fact, as they got closer they could hear two far off shouts, with simultaneous silhouettes, motioning towards them, as if pointing them out to someone...or something, else.

“Uh...guys?” Virgil trailed off wondering if the others had noticed.

“On it.” Romas was quick to pull out his sword, Remus quickly following suit with his morning star.

It was unnecessary however, as once the silhouettes were in view, they looked exactly like the twins. 

“Wha…” Roman lowered his sword as he saw this. As they got closer more figures came into view. All of which looked like the sides to varying degrees. There were thousands. Some were small, some were even giants, and there were alot that weren’t even human.

“Oh! Hi there kiddos!” A Patton(?) came running past the twin’s doppelgangers. “You’re probably really confused right now, I know alot of us were when we appeared!” The sides just looked at the Patton look-alike  dumbfounded. The first to break out of it was Logan.

“I do not wish to appear rude, but, who are you and where are we?” Logan queried.

“Oh, I’m Patton by @baka-monarch !” Patton chirped. “And you’re in The Imagination!”

“The what now-?” “How did you-?” Both Roman and Virgil asked at the same time.

“Hm?” The other Patton tilted his head confused.

“One at a time now kiddos…” Their Patton silently reminded them. Roman nodded to Virgil to let him go first.

Virgil inhaled, taking his cue. “How did you say a mention? That only works when typed in social medias.” Virgil wondered confused.

“Oh! That’s just my fander creator kiddo!” This Patton didn’t miss a beat as he answered happily. Virgil stared at him blankly as he came to a horrifying conclusion.

“We’re in a f*****g fanfiction.” He jumped slightly at his bleep out. “What was that?”

“Oh, Jan Jan did that I wouldn’t have to hear any vulgar language.” All of them looked back at Janus who looked forward, uninterested, definitely trying not to hide his embarrassment at what this other him did, definitely not. 

“...Okay… My turn!” Roman exclaimed. “What is “the Imagination”?” He used air quotes.

“Yeah, I was wondering that too, Mr. The 6th Day clone.” Remus added.

“Oh! Don’t you know? It’s the place you and Roman can go to to summon anything.You can even change the entire world around you!” Patclone chirped.

“What.” They all said in unison with worry, apart from the twins who were excited.

“Yeah! Isn’t it cool!” Patclone said oblivious to the consequences of the twins having this power could cause. “Oh yeah, do you want me to introduce you to everyone?”

“Please, I am intrigued about how our counterparts might act.” Logan conceded.

“Okie dokie then! Follow me!”

 …

 It had been a few hours at this point and they still weren’t even an eighth of the way through yet. There were so many headcanons, variations, AUs, OCs, OOCs, designs, everything. It was almost too much to handle.

“-this is @tscampfireau ‘s sides from their au-” The Virgil hissed and bit towards them as they almost walked on their pentagram that they were making out of… was that blood? The Patton and Logan were helping them by t-posing as a barrier against the other sides. “-yeah they can be a...fun bunch to hang out with. Oh, and here’s @bleepblopbloop56 ‘s sides.”

“How, and why are they hotter than us..?” Roman mumbled to Virgil, only getting a weird look in response.

“Then there’s @mango-shpango ‘s and @rondoel ‘s ones, he’s got a lot-” Patclone shrugged it off, but King caught all of their eyes. He didn’t have to look like the one they knew for them to know who it was… “Oh, hey there @that-prey-lounge and @tiny-peter-rabbit ‘s sides!” He greeted them. As they turned a corner there was a group of sides that were made of metal like robots. “Oh, there’s @burnadolt ‘s fnaf au!” He waved. As they approached a tavern the last group greeted was, “Heya @nommy-thoughts ‘ sides, how are you adjusting?” there were several positive responses from many of them, and as the sides looked closer they could see that a few were smaller than a human hand not only that but nearby (possibly made by someone else), were the sides they’d seen from afar earlier that were giants.. They hadn't noticed them yet here because of how closely compact the buildings were and how their size made what was visible from their perspective look like buildings.

As they all entered the tavern, they saw that there was only one group of sides here. “Hiya guys! New sides I’d like you to meet @baka-monarch ‘s group.” There were several different hellos. “And my friends, I’d like you to meet… to meet..? I’m sorry but who’s your creator?” Virgil was the one to answer.

“@thatstha-MMPH!” Virgil was only part of the way through before the other’s Janus made him slap his hand over his mouth as the other sides in the room went pale. “What was that for?” Virgil asked, his voice muffled by his hand.

“You can’t say his name. Not here.” Patclone explained cryptid. They all fell into an awkward silence, until Roman changed the subject.

“Why are there...two of you?” Roman observed.

“Oh!” Patclone chirped. “I was created just for this au! Just so I could be your guide!” He paused for a moment thinking before continuing. “I guess I’m like the Monika of this world.” Again, everyone paled, some not understanding, others...understanding too well. “Welp, I guess you want to go explore now! Jan Jan, do you and Patty wanna go have fun while they look around?” Both mentioned sides blushed.

“I told you not to call me that…” Janus mumbled as he took Patclone’s hand and the other Patton stood up to quickly join them as they went off to a separate room.

 …

 Only an hour had passed and the sides had already split off into groups with their counterparts. The Roman’s comforting each other while being completely random, some of them being sad little puffballs that the strong egotistic Roman’s had decided to protect, while others were a mix or just completely unsympathetic and degrading anyone the came in contact with, especially the Virgils. Virgil had kind of separated himself from the other Virgils since 90% of them were cowering away from everything and just having constant anxiety attacks, while the few who were different either had power that they abused, or were fawning over the other sides. The Logans had formed an army of science lead by the Logan from @askdarksidelogan and the other dark sides from his au, this Logan was very robotic looking, cruel, and unfeeling...well, almost unfeeling as the Deceit from his au was his boyfriend and the Remus was really close friends with him. Janus was busy trying to coral in all his different counterparts as some of them made plans to kill everyone around them and end the government, while others were hiding due to PTSD about the angst they have been through. The Remuses just vibed in their corner, killing, being gross, and annoying the other aspects. Finally the Pattons. Patton had basically adopted the ones that were child-like and too innocent for their own good while avoiding the unsympathetics that were teaming up with other unsympathetics and the ones who were...horny… Actually everyone was avoiding the horny ones.

But that was just the simplified version of the chaos. Logans were capturing people to test, Deceits were arguing over their name even though one was already canon, Romans were either being complete idiots or crying silently to themselves, while they were targeted by the unsympathetics along with the Virgils, everyone too scared to even try to tussle with the army of Logans.

Virgil sat back on a hill and watched it all unfold. How had the community gotten this far without this much chaos? He had no idea. A few other counterparts were up there with him but he didn’t mind since they mostly seemed chill. A Virgil approached and sat down next to him exhausted, and judging by the paint he was covered in he had just come from the Romans’ corner.

“Romans a little too much?” Virgil tried making conversation.

“Yeah…” He breathed. “It was getting a little too rowdy and I wanted to get my Roman out of there so he wouldn’t get hurt.” With no Roman in sight, Virgil assumed that he had been unsuccessful.

“So, which Roman is yours?” Virgil wondered.

“Hm?” The counterpart tilted his head confused until it clicked. “Oh, no, he’s not down there right now.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny Roman. “See.”

“Oh…” Virgil was at a loss of words. What does a person say to that? After that they just sat there in silence as Virgil’s counterpart and the Roman snuggled slightly through a hand to body contact. 

“So…” Virgil decided to try again. “What’s it like, y’know, being shipped?” Virgil wondered, seeing how it seemed these two were in some kind of relationship. Virgil had always found it kind of weird, but, maybe there was more to it…

“I mean, it’s like any other relationship I guess… falling in love and deciding to be together.” The counterpart mumbled as the tiny Roman rubbed his hand to comfort him.

“But isn’t it weird how it isn’t real? How, you’re literally just playing out your creator’s fantasies because they enjoy the idea of you being together?” Virgil wondered.

The counterpart just shrugged. “I try not to think about it… but, it really isn’t that weird, even if we’re fictional characters we have memories, motives, morals, opinions, feelings. Those are real. Even if they aren’t created by us, they are real. Every thought, every motion, every breath. That is us. Just because it was written, drawn, or even just imagined, it happened and that makes it real. Makes this feeling real.” He explained as he rubbed the little head of his Roman.

“Huh I… I guess you’re right, I never thought of it that way.” Virgil shrugged.

“No one does. Why do you think people are told not to cry over fictional deaths when they actually had feelings for a character, platonic or not?” The counterpart said. “It’s just a story on the outside, something thought to not affect people even though when our memories are shared with them, it can change them.” Virgil looked at his counterpart, curiosity growing about how he had so much knowledge.

“Who’s your creator?” Virgil finally asked.

“Why do I have to have one?”

“Touche.” 

They went back to a comfortable silence. It was nice. Until this one Janus came.

“Hey, Virgil, does Roman mind if I had him for a bit?” They asked.

“I don’t mind at all!” The tiny side exclaimed as he got on Janus’ hand. They soon left, but when that Janus vired the Roman they weren’t far enough away from Virgil for him not to catch a glimpse. He shivered. 

“Is that normal?” He wondered.

“Depends on the part of the community, but pretty normal and usually safe, so don’t worry.” The counterpart comforted him. It barely helped but at last Virgil knew that that Roman was safe… probably.

“Can I try!” Remus came brelling up the his, straight (heh) to the counterpart.

“Only if you want to.” They replied.

“I do!” Remus wriggled with excitement.

“Alright, let's go find you one of the groups of sides either with the power to shrink you or are giants.” Virgil led Remus off the hill as Remus kept talking about everything that could go wrong but probably wouldn’t.

Weird. Was all Virgil could think as he watched them leave.

 …

 He saw a lot that day but never saw that Virgil again, as if he had vanished mysteriously. It didn’t matter to him right now though as he had been stuck with babysitting duty over all the little kid sides.

“F*** this.”

 …

 Virgil looked over the story he just read one more time. It was written by a small creator called @baka-monarch , who focussed more on reblogging than they did their own content.

“That was trash.”

…

…

…

“Reblog.”

[elmswritinghouse]

You wanted submissions on discord soooo Little Jan hiding his regression during a video and Patton and Logan picking up the signs that he might be regressing, but they have never seen Jan regress before

Thank you for requesting something! Here you go!

TW!: Slightly unsympathetic Virgil, he's not really bad just slightly mean at the moment

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Words: 1.562

Characters: 8,298

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Janus was tired. He was unbelievably tired, and he so badly just wanted to go to his room and take a damned nap but knew that for the sake of the video he couldn't. They were in the middle of a big video, the first video with every single side making an appearance. He was standing next to Patton his eyes tired as Virgil and Roman bantered, Patton and Logan tried their best to break up the fight while Remus made crude commentary.

Janus tried to speak up, to be heard and to silence them so they could come to a good conclusion but no one seemed to be listening. Why weren't they listening? He closed his eyes shut tightly and fiddled with the hem of his caplet trying his best not to regress despite his frustration he sighed and opened his mouth to try and speak, try to defuse whatever was going on.

"Virgil you can't-"

He started simply trying to keep his voice level until Virgil turned to him, a fire in his eyes that almost made him flinch. Logan noticed the flinch and looked at Patton who glanced back at him with a concerned expression, Janus was never one to flinch at anything much.

Patton gently brushed his knuckle against the snake's glove but the other man didn't seem to notice his full attention on Virgil and Roman as Virgil stared at the snake in frustration. Patton tried to give a father-like glare but Virgil didn't seem to be listening he was frustrated and his voice was echoing around the room. Remus had stopped making comments to stare.

"I can't what? I can't what Janus? I can't state my opinion because you oh so hate me so much?"

He spat in the snakes face making the boy tremble just a bit. Everyone was watching Janus now, waiting for his reaction and what he'd say. The deceitful side took a deep breath closing his eyes with a small exhale before opening them again and trying to reason with Virgil, taking Romans side.

"You cannot expect Roman to not want to do this. He is our dreamer and what Roman is trying to do for Thomas is the most beneficial to him overall I know yours scared-"

"No shit Deceit, I'm Anxiety"

He full-on flinched at that, shuffling his feet and trying to come up with something to say that wouldn't upset Virgil more. He wanted to talk but he was so scared he'd be yelled at. He knew Virgil didn't mean it and that he was just frustrated but it hurt.

"What Janus? Got nothing to say anymore?"

Janus' lower lip trembled just slightly and he shifted his feet trying his best not to cry. Patton tried to take the boys hand but the snake flinched away quickly he was regressing in the middle of a video if this was just normal regression he could wait and try to push it down but he was upset and he was dropping fast. He bit down on his lip gently and opened it to speak again but the only thing that came out was a shaky sob.

The entire room froze at the broken noise and Janus just collapsed onto the floor in tears. Logan quickly moved to snap away from the cameras and go to the deceitful side's side along with Patton who were trying their best to figure out what was wrong with the boy.

Virgil's heart dropped at the sight and he took a step back looking horrified. He didn't mean to make the other boy cry but that's what ended up happening. He tried to come up with something to say but just ending up opening and closing his mouth multiple times looking like a mortified fish. Janus sobbed loudly and clung to Patton's shirt as soon as the other man squared down to try and calm down the boy. That's when things clicked for Patton and he immediately looked at Logan who took a second to get it but once he did his eyes widened and he wrapped the boy in his arms. Patton stood up quickly after Janus focused his interest on holding onto Logan.

"Thomas? I'm super sorry about this kiddo, but is it okay if we record this video another time?"

Thomas nodded and went to his computer to delete the footage they had of what just happened while Logan and Patton quickly sunk out with a baby in their arms. He glanced at Remus who had been oddly quiet and was staring at Janus with concern. It wasn't like his intrusive thoughts to be quiet and when he noticed Thomas he flushed a bit before speaking

"I-... I need to go feed my dismembered frogs"

He said simply before sinking out, he had known of Janus' regression but wasn't his caregiver. Sure he could help the boy when he needed it and such but he wasn't a good caregiver and could probably never be one. Roman and Virgil stared at his sunken out spot in concern and nodded at each other.

"Thomas I'm so sorry my dear fellow but I'm afraid I and Virgil will have to sink out."

He said his voice full of concern for his brother Virgil shifting slightly wanting to sink out and check on his boyfriend as soon as possible. Thomas nodded at the two and gave a sigh.

"I'm just gonna take a nap upstairs"

He said as he moved to go upstairs to his room. Where he promptly sat down on his bed and looked at his phone for a bit before laying down and taking a nap.

Logan and Patton came up in Logan's room a sobbing baby in their arms. Logan holding the kiddo tightly as he sobbed loudly.

"Janus?"

Logan asked softly watching as the teary eyes boy looked up at him with a small sob and questioning look up at the other boy before he sobbed louder again when he saw the look the other man had in his eyes. They had found out.

Patton shushed the baby quickly and quickly summoned a wet cloth to wash off the boys sticky and tear-stained face, he hushed the baby quickly and kissed all over his face

"It's an okay baby it's okay. Everything's okay Janus"

He said gently as he carded a hand through the regressors hair. The boy's lip trembled slightly but most of his tears had stopped slow fat droplet falling out of his eyes every so often that Logan wiped away with his thumb

"How old are you, honey?"

He asked gently watching as Janus bit his lip and stick up a single finger making Patton give an exaggerated gasp

"That's so big!"

He said, a large smile making its way into the face when the baby giggled before he squinted slightly in Logan's lap making the logical man give a look of confusion

"What's the wrong Janus?"

He said confused before Janus started taking off his hat and trying to get off his gloves. Logan's eyes widened before they softened and he smiled softly.

"Do you wish to change into comfier clothes, Janus?"

He asked the baby who looked up at him for a few seconds before giving a small nod. Logan smiled at the boy and nodded glancing at Patton who was already making his way towards Logan's closet. You would be confused at how well they knew regression if you didn't know their dynamic. Patton and Logan were both regressors but also caregivers. They were switches simply. Patton didn't regress often or for long but he did regress and Logan regressors often for a few hours up to a few days.

He quickly pulled out a space onesie from the other boys closet watching as Janus' eyes quickly lit up and he leaned forward to try and grab at it. Luckily Logan had a tight hold on the babies torso and the baby didn't fall out of his grasp

"Janus, be careful "

He reprimanded though he only earned absolutely adorable babbles in response. Logan blushed slightly at just how cute the boy was and tried his best to keep his composer despite himself. Patton took the baby from Logan's arms and quickly set him into the bed taking off his clothes one by one till he reached his pants.

"Hey, Janus?"

He asked earning a confused look and a head tilt from the baby before he tried his best to respond

"Yeth?"

He askes back his voice high and his speech broken. Patton smiled and kissed the snakes head gently.

"Do you think you'll be able to go to the potty or do you need diapers?"

The baby flushed and squirmed slightly seemingly against the idea before looking up at the other boy and nodding slightly. Patton gave a soft sigh his eyes holding a tender fondness as he gently took off the boys pants and got a pull-up from the closet. He took off the boys underwear and quickly slide the pull-up on before getting him dressed in the onesie. The boy babbled happily and immediately hugged the other man's torso happily. Patton laughed and glanced at Logan who rolled his eyes slightly and shook his head with a small chuckle. Logan could feel deep down this was going to a be a good day overall.

[sanders-sides-fic]

I (don’t) do best on my own! [TINND!R? prequel]

AU-masterpost: here

“Run!”

Virgil didn’t need to be told twice before complying. It didn’t even matter that the terrified shout had in no way been addressed to him. Janus, on the other hand, only smiled his brightest smile.

“Well, isn’t this nice?”, he asked the aliens all around him. No one was able to react to him, before suddenly a new alien in uniform came to a slithering halt in front of him and pointed a strange weapon at his chest. Chances where it wouldn’t hurt him, but then again, there had been some weapons which had proved to have an even stronger effect on humans. Besides, a bullet-like projectile inside a vital organ generally tended to end badly for any species, and he had no idea what this particular weapon was or what it would do.

All around him the aliens looked at him with expressions nothing short of disgust, horror and distain. It was strange and yet fascinating to him, how the varying expressions were all too different and yet obvious once you’d gotten used to it. Sometimes, he would try and remember them, just in case it would be needed to communicate something. Like with the angry alien in front of him. He really wished he’d know what was hidden behind the mask. Was this a bohver? A photynêsc? Perhaps a flastrae? Something with an anatomy somewhat similar to a human’s at least. But what exactly this alien was, he did not know.

“Look, I don’t want to hurt anyone here.”, he started, smile unfaltering. He knew that expression didn’t translate well, but since they had escaped from that ship, it had become somewhat famous. He hoped that would be enough. “My intentions are not violent. I only want to have my…” Uh, what was that word again? He suppressed a sigh - something most aliens thought to be a sign of anger rather than frustration, apparently - and pointed to his bag the horrified laesk still clutched to his - or… her? It’s? he wasn’t quite sure… To their chest. “I want to have that back and then we can all go our own way. Sound good, yes?”

The alien shook their head vehemently. “There is no way a-” Okay, Janus did not know that word. Did that mean police man? He assumed so, but wasn’t sure. “-would let a deathworlder go! And that scar is enough to-” Why did this alien use such difficult words? This time, Janus had no idea what it meant. He didn’t even hold the sigh back anymore. But what he did understand, was his name: “Janus Viper!”

And so did the other aliens. All of them repeated his name, now even more terrified than before. The ones that were still present were too scared to run, so they only took a few cautious steps back.

“Yes. That is in fact me. And Virgil just ran away, you kind of scared him. Very rude, by the way. Now, why can’t you let me go? And please use simple words, I’m not… what’s it… I am still bad with common.”, Janus clarified. Something he hated to admit, actually. Of cause he was better than Virgil as he’d had longer to practice and less… obstacles to overcome. Still, he was far from fluent and specific words or technical jargon were basically impossible for him.

The policeman said something, but Janus didn’t understand even a single word. Was that even common? He sighed again, a bit more annoyed how. “I do not understand you. Will you use simpler words?”, he asked, now clearly agitated. The policeman shied away a bit at his words, but didn’t even think about lowering that obnoxious weapon. Well, at least Virgil was safe.

“I said you are a wanted-” Person? Criminal? Probably criminal. -”and I have to take you with me.”

Janus sighed. “Great. He stole from me, and I’m the… criminal was it?”

“Yes!”, came the answer from all around him. He chuckled, shaking his head. “Fine. Fine! I tried to be nice, don’t forget that. Thank you.”, he said. The aliens around him exchanged confused, unsettled glances. So far so good. He didn’t want to hurt anyone, not really. But he would use their prejudges and their fear to his advantage without question. What else was being an infamous ‘deathworlder’ good for, after all? It really didn’t have much advantages.

Janus was just about to continue, lie his way out of this situation, preferably with their bag of supplies, and go find Virgil, wherever he’d run off to, when…

“Argh!”

Suddenly, a flash of black and purple fell from atop the roof, right onto the policemen. Janus winced as a sickening crunch filled the semi-silence. Virgil slowly stood up, taking the weapon in his hands. It seemed to be heavy or at least hard to handle, judging from the way he had to hold it in both his hands. Everyone just watched silently, as he pointed the weapon right at the thief, his eyes cold and his hand shaking only slightly.

“Oops.”, Janus chuckled from behind Virgil, relief mixing with a slight sense of hysteria. “Looks like you should give that back now.”

And then, mayhem broke loose. Screams sounded from around them as the aliens either ran or hid wherever they could, the thief threw the bag at the duo and scrambled to get away from them, and there was the sound of approaching reinforcements for the now dead officer. Fortunately, they weren’t able to get through the other aliens running around aimlessly with their only apparent goal being to just get away.

Virgil and Janus looked at each other for a second. “Roofs?”, Virgil signed, obviously still too shaken up to speak. Janus, without commenting on it, smirked, answering out loud: “Roofs.”

Virgil gripped the bag tightly, before providing a leg up to Janus, who in turn didn’t waste a second in using it to get on top of the very roof Virgil had just jumped off of. Virgil, being the more experience one when it came to accessing the top of seemingly smooth walls, climbed after him effortlessly. Or at least effortless enough to reach the top the same moment Janus managed to pull himself up completely. “You’ve gotten better at this.”, Virgil remarked with a smirk before motioning with his head which way to go. Janus was about to retort something smooth and witty, but the first shots were fired in their general direction so he started to run with a curse under his breath.

Roofs in most cultural diverse alien towns were as flat as the one they were on right now, but sadly also extremely slippery and wide away from each other. Every jump was scarier than the last to Janus, but he could see the delighted face of the more anxious boy next to him, a rare grin on his lips. The faster they went and the longer they catapulted themselves from one roof to the next, dodging bullets and sometimes using routes simply to avoid getting caught in the fire, slithering to a stop on the next roof and sometimes gripping each other for support, the less afraid and the more free Virgil seemed. At some point he even let out a few cheers or a short, breathed laugh when they avoided a fall.

Janus never understood why this, of all things, made Virgil feel so very free.

Way too late they reached their space ship and with way too little time they slipped inside, closed the door and ran to their posts. “Ready?”, Janus asked as soon as he sat in front of the steering wheel, looking towards Virgil above his shoulder. Virgil ran around for a few more seconds, checking some lights and pushing a few buttons, before he gave a short nod. So Janus started the ship and flew away as fast as he could manage. Not quite fast enough, judging from the sound of a projectile hitting the ship, but no warning blared, so it was fine. Probably. Hopefully.

He’d best keep that a secret from Virgil.

About half an hour passed in silence before Janus switched to auto pilot, leaving the cockpit. He found Virgil curled up in the kitchen, absentmindedly watching as the stars and planets passed by the window. Janus could actually see him doing that in a train or a car or something.

“Why didn’t you just run? You almost gave me a heart attack when I realized you were still back there!”, Virgil muttered under his breath. So he hadn’t been too absent minded to notice Janus.

Janus sighed. “Well, I would have just loved to loose all our supplies, because we have so much money to spare, don’t we?”

Virgil let out a little growl. A habit he’d developed through being stuck in situations where that was all he could do to voice his distain lately. “You could have died there!”, he hissed angry, still not looking at Janus.

“Oh, relax, dear storm cloud! I totally had that covered.” They both knew that was a lie. A complete and utter lie. He’d been close to being shot. Again. That was why Virgil didn’t let him leave alone anymore, a little voice in his head reminded him. The lie was enough to earn a glare from the younger man. He opened his mouth, but closed it again after a few voiceless moments with a soft blush. Instead of saying anything, Virgil stalked out of the room and towards the sleeping quarters.

Janus sat down, face buried in his still gloved hands. He messed up. If Virgil hadn’t been able to talk even though they were alone, if his selective mutism had been triggered by his emotions, then Janus really fucked up. And that hurt more than anything Virgil could have said, if he was being honest.

“Fuck.”, he whispered.

But it was okay, actually. They may be friends, but honestly, it was a friendship born solely out of their need. A pathological liar and an overly anxious teen didn’t really fit as friends, did they? And both of them had been alone all their lives before shit went down. They could both take it.

Still hurt like a bitch, though.

❧✾☙❦❧✾☙

“Virgil, diner’s ready!”, Janus called out. He hadn’t heard anything from his ship mate since their earlier almost-argument, so he hoped that Virgil would answer his call. He knew that he could do little to none until Virgil left his room on his own, though. They had traveled together long enough for him to know how Virgil dealt with things like this and when he had to leave him alone to cool down.

A long silence followed and Janus sighed. Looked as though the teen wouldn’t come today. He just hoped Virgil would get himself something when the light circle would simulate night.

Without warning, however, Virgil appeared behind Janus and definitely did not make him flinch by surprise. Virgil snorted in amusement, but left Janus’… lack of reaction alone other than that.

“What’s for dinner? Alien soup or alien slop?”, the younger one asked sarcastically. Janus grinned. “Neither! You know how they took some plant samples from home together with us? Well, I may or may not have found a little something. It was being sold as potent poison, of cause, but…”

As he gave Virgil his portion, the confusion shifted to disbelieving surprise. “Is that…?” Janus nodded. “Sure is. Today, we have garlic bread. Oh, and tomato soup. But, I mean, garlic bread!”

Virgil chuckled, as he took a bite, humming happily. “God! I used to hate eating garlic bread.”, he confessed, “Because of the smell and all. But right now this is the best ting that could happen.” Janus laughed, but agreed in his head. It was funny how little things could lift your spirit once everything you knew and trusted was taken away from you.

“Oh, I also found a pineapple.”, Janus mentioned. “They got really suspicious because I wanted the entire thing. Asked if I wanted to poison an entire army or something.” They both laughed at the thought.

They continued to chat through dinner, both of them avoiding what had happened earlier. Maybe it was bad to just leave it untouched, but they would come around to that when it was time.

After dinner, they watched the stars for a bit longer. “What do you think, which one is the sun?”, Janus asked long after the lights had dimmed as they ignored that they should probably go to sleep. Virgil sighed. He was too tired to have his defenses up right now. As per usual, he hadn’t slept a wink before they had docked to stock up their supplies. “Don’t know, don’t care.”, he mumbled, “’s not like we’ll find our way back there anyways. And I don’t really wanna go back.”

That surprised Janus a bit. It was the first time he heard about it. “You don’t? But… What about your family? Your father? And your friends?”

“Nah. You’re my only friend anyways. They don’t like me much better than the aliens. You can go though, I do better on my own, I just don’t like being alone. But you wanna go back, so don’t tell, m’kay? Don’t wanna make you upset.”

Janus’ heart broke a little at his words, but warmed at the last statement. “You need to sleep.”

“Fine. Just don’t die or s’m’thin’.” A common fear of Virgil’s. Ever since they had escaped, he had started to get paranoid of loosing Janus. Of cause that alone was enough to make sure Janus would never be able to leave.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be here when you wake up. We’re together in this. Always.”

And then Virgil’s breathing became more even than the anxious teen would ever breath when he was awake. Teen? No, adult by now. But he’d been a teen when they had captured him. About sixteen or so. How old was he now? Twenty? Twenty-two? How old did that make Janus? He sighed.

Whatever, he had to sleep, too. Thinking dreadful thoughts was more Virgil’s thing anyways. But just as he dosed off, Janus was woken up suddenly and harshly by a loud alarm blaring through the ship. Huh? What could possibly be wrong all of a sudden? He carefully put down Virgil’s head and went to operation control.

What he saw shocked him at first. One of their boosters had a hole inside it. They would crash helplessly in about thirty minutes if he didn’t do anything, floating around space without anyone willing to rescue them. He knew they had the necessary things to replace the destroyed rotor blade, but they would have to land first - and fast. But how…

He cursed. Of cause. They had been short when they had made their escape. Well, fuck! He started to check for any inhabitable planets close enough to make it.

“Janus? What’s going on?”, Virgil’s panicked voice suddenly filled the air.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! How did he best tell him without sending him into a panic attack?!

“We have a little problem. But I can fix it! We only have to land first. And… We’re lucky, there’s a planet in close proximity, XY-3. We’ll have to filter the air and be quick about it, but it’ll do.”

Silence. Janus looked over towards Virgil, who signed something with shaky hands: “Isn’t that the one with the storms? The one we were told to never land on, ever?” Janus gave him a wry smile. “Uh, yes. But it’ll be fine, promise. We’re a good team, we’ll make it in time. Everything is going to be fine, okay?”

And as Janus turned back towards the controls, he bit his lip and avoiding seeing Virgil’s expression, he desperately hoped that this one time his words would be the truth…

Uhm, everyone who read the prologue… I’m very sorry? Anyways…

Taglist!

@the-ultimate-a @bunny222 @elvis-has-been-dug @what-is-love-babey-dont-hurt-me @gattonero17 @selenechris

[akozuheiwa]

What do you think would be angstier: Trollhunter!Aja and Changeling!Krel or Changeling!Aja and Trollhunter!Krel? (This assumes that Fialkov and Coranda are normal humans, btw)

Bold of you to assume, first of all, that I couldn't make both of them equally, horribly, beautifully angsty. There are SO MANY WAYS both of these could be played. Both of these will be assuming that the changeling sibling is aware that they're a changeling and an active part of the Janus Order. It got hella long so it’s under a read more to hopefully save your dashes.

I'll start with Trollhunter Aja and changeling Krel. Aja is, in true Aja fashion, thrilled to have been selected for this awesome, sacred duty, and if Krel wasn’t there for the finding of the amulet he’s immediately told. Krel, meanwhile, is quite horrified, because like it or not he's gotten quite attached to his familiar's sister. He'd had this whole plan; get far enough into Gunmar's good graces that he could get Aja and the parents spared. No amount of being in Gunmar's good graces is going to get her spared if she's the Trollhunter, though. No, now he needs a back-up plan and fast, before Aja figures out about changelings and before anyone figures out that Aja's the Trollhunter. That goes about as well as expected, because Bular sees them together and then it's all over.

So, obviously Bular's like, well, you're in the perfect spot to kill her and take the amulet. There are a couple of problems here. First of all, Krel knows that, changeling or not, he could not take on Aja in a fight. Problem two – the main one, the one preventing him from killing her in her sleep or something – Krel likes Aja. Krel doesn't want to kill Aja. He's broken all the rules in the changeling book and gotten woefully attached to his familiar's family. As far as he’s concerned, she’s his sister and he can’t kill her.

So he starts fabricating all sorts of failed “attempts” to kill Aja, which makes him look incredibly useless but keeps her alive. He also does his best to get in the way of Bular and his fellow changelings. He claims most of the time that he’s trying to keep his cover, and all of that, and he’s smart enough to be able to have believable excuses most of the time – and then his cover is blown. Like in canon with Strickler, when Gunmar doubts his loyalties, Bular finds a way to reveal him to Aja.

The fall-out is – bad. Aja is crushed by the fact that the person who she thought was her brother is actually a changeling and betrayed her. Krel’s stuck with a choice – tell Aja he’s been on her side this whole time or let her believe he’s a traitor. If he wants to keep protecting her, he has to let her believe they’re on opposite sides. He can only protect her in secret, because in his mind he’s not strong enough to do so out in the open. So he runs away, lets her think he’s one of the bad guys, lets the bad guys think he’s one of them.

Of course, since it’d be me writing, it would all go terribly horribly wrong. Krel wouldn’t be able to keep his double-crossing a secret for too long. I think Gunmar might end up giving him a task that there’s no way he could fail – not sure what – so he’d be forced to give up his charade. Or maybe Bular, upon finding out, would simply try to kill him. In that case, I think Strickler, maybe, would get him out under Bular’s nose and bring him to Aja.

Aja is initially wary, and maybe she thinks it’s a trick, but ultimately this is still the Krel she grew up with and now she’s hearing that he’s been protecting her all this time. She’s tried to kill him and he’s been protecting her. Once he gets better, Krel will rejoin Team Trollhunters (which at the moment may… just be Aja and Blinky and Aaarrrgghh!!! to be honest) and instead of working from the shadows, he’ll use his intelligence to help. Trollmarket is wary to trust him, so that’s rough, but Aaarrrgghh!!! and Blinky trust him if Aja does.

Now since that’s gotten long I’m gonna switch to Trollhunter Krel and changeling Aja. I had a lot of fun thinking of this one especially. To, you know, up the angst in this one, Krel does not immediately tell Aja. Because it’s me, we’re going to go ahead and say that a Krel raised on Earth has been friends with Seamus for a while, so it’s actually Seamus who’s with him when he finds the amulet. Krel decides pretty quickly not to tell Aja and makes Seamus swear not to tell her also.

Aja, meanwhile, finds out that the amulet has chosen a human. She does not know which human. She does notice Krel and Seamus acting strangely, but after some careful thought she determines the obvious explanation: they’re dating and don’t want it getting out to Seamus’s father. That settles her mind, because there’s no way Krel could be the Trollhunter. It’s Krel! So she keeps an eye on the rest of her classmates even though she kind of doubts it’s a teenager.

So Aja’s busy being convinced Krel can’t possibly be the Trollhunter, and Krel’s busy actually being the Trollhunter with Seamus’s help. It goes… surprisingly smoothly. Krel’s able to use his tech skills and intelligence to his advantage. Now, of course, you might be wondering about the whole Not-Enrique plot that I forgot to think about in the Trollhunter Aja part. Well, the way I’ve envisioned this AU, Coach and Steve’s mom got together a good it earlier. And Steve just became a big brother. So baby Palchuk-Lawrence gets taken and replaced with a changeling.

Krel, like Jim in canon, catches them taking the baby and finds a little stuffed bear and brings it to school. Seamus immediately recognises it, and he’s like, “Oh, yeah, that was Steve’s when he was little but he gave it to – oh, no.” So, much like Claire, Steve gets dragged into the Trollhunter business because of his little brother. We’d probably get a beautifully ironic comment from Krel about how he can’t imagine finding out his sibling was secretly a changeling.

Okay, so, anyway! Cut to that fun battle of Killahead! Aja still doesn’t know about Krel, but she obviously is supposed to be there to open the bridge and welcome Gunmar. She knows the Trollhunter will be showing up. Krel knows it’s a trap, and much like in canon, he has his backup ready to join him. So Krel gets there. And Aja is in human form. So that’s how they both find out, Aja that Krel is the Trollhunter, Krel that his sister is actually a changeling. He’s understandably shaken and betrayed. Aja is incredibly alarmed to find out her brother is her enemy.

The fight… happens. Similar to in canon. Aja probably really doesn’t want to hurt Krel, but Krel – I mean, we saw Krel after it came out that Varvatos betrayed him. He doesn’t take to kindly to betrayal. Anyway, the Trollhunters win. But, instead of Nomura getting sucked into the Darklands, it’s Aja. Krel is understandably cut up about this. They have to find an excuse for his parents, and Krel’s really not sure what to say. I’m thinking Steve gets the war-hammer and Seamus gets the shadow-staff, so that would also be really fun when we get to the Morgana stuff. But, anyway, ultimately, when it comes to the season one finale, a lot of Krel’s motivation to go into the Darklands is to save Aja.

This got really long but I love both of these ideas so I got carried anyway. Hope this is the sort of answer you were hoping for, and sorry it took so long to get to! <3

[tvserieshub]

Mapmakers of old had a specific warning of known dangerous areas. They would annotate either unknown or proven dangerous territory on maps with the phrase "Here there be dragons." Eros DEFINITELY would have warranted this, if it hadn't been flung into Venus. And, now maybe they need that sign on Venus. Episode 11, in many respects, is about loss. We find out that Naomi had and lost a child. Bobbie loses her faith in Mars. Holden continues to lose his balance between two competing "honor interests."

I’ve generally done detailed recaps BUT, I am reminded that the Syfy website has a lovely recap of its own, so instead I’m going to comment on significant events. Go here for the syfy.com recap: http://www.syfy.com/theexpanse/episodes/season/2/episode/11/here-there-be-dragons.

During the flashback, it’s interesting that Mei (Leah Jung) seems to like Dr. Strickland (Ted Atherton) and also that he grabbed milkweed. More importantly, it has a chrysalis attached to it. Amos (Wes Chatham) recognizes that not only did Holden (Steven Strait) not stop him from killing “Chicken Boy” but might have liked to do it himself. Holden justifies that behavior by what he thinks he is preventing.

It’s a critical plot point that Naomi (Dominique Tipper) actually has a baby boy that she lost.

We get a hint of Bobbie’s (Frankie Adams) complex backstory in her dialog with Martens (Peter Outerbridge), where he discusses how wonderful Bobbie has been (until now) and how proud Bobbie’s father was. But, the generational gap is displayed in Martens disdain for Bobbie’s concern over Mars’ actions and even her appreciation of Earth’s ocean. It’s worth wondering about what is “eating” the probes that the Arboghast is launching into Venus. Doctor Iturbi (Ted Whittall) knows that to simply launch the last two probes will not get them any results. He also notes that SOMETHING is happening on Venus. The structures around the impact crater can’t be natural. Colonel Janus (Conrad Pla) notes what sailors of old said, and he clearly is worried about what they might find OR stir up. Avasarala’s (Shoreh Agdashloo) discussion with Errinwright (Shawn Doyle) is crucial. Because she still likes Errinwright, she gives him a head’s up. This is a risky action and perhaps a rare misstep in Avasarala’s assessment of people. It clearly bugs Sadavir more than he lets on, that Avasarala won’t “stand up” for him, but she’s horrified at his actions connected to the protomolecule weapons program. We see that Avasarala is making a play to keep Bobbie by interfering with the shuttle. When they left that platform, I wanted to punch Martens in the face for his dissing of Bobbie.

Sometimes Alex’s (Cas Anvar) character, although integral, doesn’t seem quite as significant as the others. This episode allows us to truly appreciate his intuitiveness and his actual brainpower. He figures out that there’s something significant about the ship Karakum, which is being allowed “unmolested” access to Ganymede that no other ship is being granted, and he reasons out quite a clever little  plan to allow him to get to Ganymede to rescue the team. (Note that because the show is extremely concerned with science realism, they actually devoted a blog entry by Naren Shankar, the showrunner, to explaining why the science involved in Alex’s maneuver can’t work within the confines of the timeline. That’s dedication!). Regardless of pure accuracy, the trajectory plotting is graphically awesome.

Dr. Strickland is in many respects one of the most creepy characters, because he seems kind and utterly rational, but what he is discussing with Mei about the Chrysalis is HORRIFYING, especially since he asks Mei “doesn’t she want to change?” And, we know what the protomolecule is capable of.

I love Amos’ ability to cut through the bullshit: “It means the station is fucked. It just doesn’t know it yet.”

Bobbie demonstrates that SHE isn’t the one that is “weak.” Ultimately, she points out that Martens clearly didn’t know her father or her family that well, because the story he relayed wasn’t about her, it was actually her father. And, this means that Bobbie’s father clearly wasn’t all that proud of her. This conversation is critical, because it demonstrates the depth of loss of Bobbie’s faith in what the Martian Congressional Republic actually stands when she sees its willingness to sacrifice her team for the sake of a deadly weapons system. There are critical areas in the book series which show the risk of Nationalism, and in some cases, Worldism (to include the OPA) and Species-ism. Martens demonstrates the influence of the HATE he still carries based on the war that Mars and Earth carried out.

One of my favorite scenes is Bobbie hitting Martens in time to her “What (smack) killed (smack) my (smack) team (smack)!?” That was viscerally satisfying. She gets to the root of the actual circumstances of the Ganymede attack. Martens doesn’t realize how easy he made it for Bobbie to go to the UN, because he strips her of her soldier identity, as well as her faith in the Martian vision. What does Mars hold for Bobbie? She’s disillusioned. I love that the UN building looks like it was built in the 1970s. Love that cement bunker style.

Cotyar (Nick Tarabay) meeting Bobbie for the first time and sizing her up is hilarious. Bobbie: “What the fuck are YOU looking at?” “I’m not entirely sure.” It’s interesting that while Bobbie is horrified at this weapons transaction, Avarsarala doesn’t seem to have the same level of disgust at the UN’s sickening actions, even though they are equally appalling. Bobbie hands over Martens data unit – I liked how it was see through. I love that when Alex arrives, he notices that poor Amos got shot again. This is another area in which I which I respect the show, because Amos is not instantly “better” or able to operate magically at 100%. Note that we found out more about JP Mao’s (Francois Chau) family, in particular that he has another daughter, Clarissa.

It took a lot of courage for Prax (Terry Chen) to open the container in the incinerator, knowing it might have been his daughter, Mei. And, it was lucky that the energy of incinerating the hybrid child didn’t create a protomolecule creature! And, the thought of a child in an INCINERATOR! ACK. So, yes, I’m glad that Holden let that doctor die, although the loss of any information that she might have been compelled to give up is regrettable. Naomi was forced for her own piece of mind to stay behind. She has a point about how much more of the protomolecule there could be, but Holden is locked on target about destroying what he KNOWS exists. And, the look on Holden’s face when he watches P-man look at them and run away is sheer determination.

Grade: A-

Next episode: “The Monster and the Rocket” airs on April 12, 2017 at 10pm on Syfy

The Expanse (S02E11) “Here There Be Dragons” Mapmakers of old had a specific warning of known dangerous areas. They would annotate either unknown or proven dangerous territory on maps with the phrase "Here there be dragons." Eros DEFINITELY would have warranted this, if it hadn't been flung into Venus.