#it was haed to remember moralitys name is patton

[dead-inside-demiboy]

I still enjoy Sander sides a fuck ton, but I've been out of the fandom for years now. That being said, I've been rewatching it recently and here's a really cool thing I've noticed!

So while they are characters and all of the sides feel fully fleshed out and realistic, they are also aspects personified and it was done SO WELL

Like of course Logan would get very stuck up and controlling with certain stuff, that's how logic operates. Especially with adhd, logic is usually the voice of guilt in the back of your head when you do things wrong. On the other end, logic is also silly, you sometimes remember something random for no reason. And of course Logan gets ignored a lot! How often do you listen to your logic 100%?

Of course Roman is grand and has large ambitions too big for his boots, that's what creativity feels like. Yes, Roman will be self centered, because if you're an artist (like Thomas) creativity is a big source of pride for you, especially if you post online. Roman being insecure makes sense when you think of imposter syndrome and how popular Thomas is. Obviously Roman loves Disney and cartoons, they actively spur on creative juices.

Of course Patton is pushy and controlling with his beliefs, that's what morality does! Growing up religious would only make that more extreme. Of course he's commonly listened to and taken at face value, your ethics/morals are some of the heaviest driving forces when they kick in, and it takes a lot to shift them. Obviously he's the least mature, your morals are instilled when you're young and you never really grow out of them. But he's also a dad because older male figures are stereotypically the ones that teach you morals in the first place!

Of course Virgil is so rude in the beginning but gets an acceptance arc, anxiety is a bitch to live with that fucks with everything else, but you need to learn to work with it, not against it, similar to any other emotion. He used to be part of the dark sides cause when you don't know what to do with feelings like that, you end up pushing them down or hurting yourself. He hates not being taken seriously because when you completely ignore and blow off your alarm bells it puts you in active danger!

Speaking of, Dark sides tangent! First of all, they aren't really the "bad" parts, they're just the parts of Thomas that he bottled up or tried to hide from himself. And the name "dark sides" is so good, cause it's like the dark side of the moon! Just as important as the light side, just different, harder to see if you aren't actively looking, and often ignored or viewed as "worse"

Tangent over. So!

Of course Janus's main role is to hide the other dark sides! He's representation of what happens when somebody hides parts of themselves. He has a villian and snake persona cause of religious reasons and because deceit is viewed as one of those bad things that need to be bottled up! He is at the core of a lot of self preservation and caring of others because for Thomas, that is the only time he's used Deceit so it's all that he can do.

Of course Remus is equally as prideful as Roman, he has the same issues with imposter syndrome! Of course he has a bunch of gore and sex jokes/ideas, he's the creative parts that morals state are "bad". Unlike Roman who's usually on topic, Remus goes constantly off tangent because that is what your wilder/more experimental side of creativity does! It just spits shit out and you figure out what sticks!

Its very similar to Greek mythology and idk! I just love when personification is done super well while making the characters still feel human!

[ask-the-t-sanders-sides]

{To Thomas, Virgil, and Patton Mor Pax}

*they all hear Viva's voice*

Okay, Mor, now he has changed his name to Pax, remember Thomas. This is really good. Thomas try to call him, okay?

{Viva <333}

Thomas nods and sends his hand towards Patton's spot, "Mora- Pax!" He called, doing the usual summoning gesture.

Pax rose up in Patton's spot.

Virgil turned to face Pax, but he couldn't speak, something stopped him.

"hey.. i-im Pax, or Morality-"

"YOU REPRESENT NO MORAL SIDE YOU LIAR."

[gamequeenanya]

Tickletober Day 22: Vampire - (ler Patton, ler Logan, lee Virgil)

Summary: Virgil has always been a little quirky - he’s named his dog after a vampire after all. Perhaps he even thinks he is one when he playfully attacks Logan! Is this the end or does Logan know how to handle a scary vampire...?

...

"Ugh..." Logan said, holding his head. "Forget it. I'll never figure out this lore."

He got up from his desk and put his laptop down, done with the FNAF lore. Not that it mattered anyways, as his favourite character was irrelevant to it.

Walking outside, he heard Thomas having a debate with the others. It was about dealing with his phobia of going into the bank and becoming an accomplice to a robbery. And discussing the morality of whether if someone holds a gun to your head and forces you to commit crimes, are you still guilty?

The other sides tried to encourage him that he'd be innocent. Thomas may have a guilt complex, but the criminal would be the true guilty party. He tried to convince himself it was true...

Logan popped up with a smile.

"I see I have taught you well."

"Logan!" Everyone said with a smile.

The only side who was currently missing was Virgil.

"Hey, where is-" Logan started, but was cut off by Patton.

"In his room, with his stress animal."

Nodding, Logan went to Virgil's room.

To his surprise, Virgil was playing with a little white Terrier. Seeing them look so happy, Logan smiled.

Looking up, Virgil jumped.

"Hey!"

Stepping back, Logan stuttered and gathered his words.

"Forgive me Virgil. I simply had to know what was "up."" He held up a vocab card for the expression. [Up; what's going on.]

Virgil nodded.

"Well... Here he is. My new dog."

The dog looked up at Logan, going up to him boldly and sniffing his pant leg. It then barked.

Logan kneeled down and let him sniff his hand.

"Patton got him for you?"

"Yeah. He remembered those stress dogs they had for us in college. Monday was dog day, and Thomas got to pet all the dogs! Patton thought one of those might help me."

The dog sniffed Logan's hand and licked it. Logan petted his head and scratched behind his ears. Then Logan sat on a chair, giving the dog time to get used to him. The dog paced all around him, sniffing, growling, pulling back, and looking up curiously. Logan petted him some more, hoping it would please him.

"His name's Drac."

"Like Dracula...?" Logan said in wonder. "I didn't know you enjoyed that book."

"Yep. Halloween's comin' up!"

Nodding, Logan petted the dog, who relaxed, absorbing the pets. Then he licked Logan's hand.

"Haha, hey!"

Virgil grinned.

"He loves doing that!"

Logan smiled and rubbed Drac's belly. The dog made little excited growls. Then he nipped at his hand. Logan let him go and Drac got up, clawing at the door. Virgil opened it and let him run through the mind palace.

Virgil grinned at Logan.

"As for being a vampire..."

Stepping back, Logan dodged Virgil's lunge. He grabbed him around the waist.

"Not this time, V!" And he started tickling, getting the spaces inbetween his ribs.

"AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAHAHHHAAHAHAAA!"

Patton had come back, holding Drac in his arms. The dog was relatively calmer now, just panting and looking happy.

"What's all the commotion? Oh!" He chuckled. Setting the dog down, he came over to Virgil. "Can I help?"

"PLEHEHEHEEHEHEHEHEEHEHEASE!"

"Okay!" And Patton joined in Logan tickling him, getting his armpits. "Hey, I never said WHO I was going to help!"

"AHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAA! TRAHAHAHAHAAHAHAITOR!!" Virgil cried, his eyeshadow running.

Finally, they pulled away and let Virgil breathe. Drac was hopping around, barking at the others and at Virgil, worried something was wrong. Taking long deep breaths, Virgil pushed himself up and petted him.

“It’s alright... I’m fine.” He courtesy smiled. The dog seemed to relax at this. “Anyways... It seems like I’ve got two humans to catch.” Dark smoke clouds erupted in the room followed by the sound of thunder. It was Logan and Patton’s cue to run.

Laughing evilly, Virgil’s eyes promised revenge would come sooner rather than later. For now, he let them run. It would be all the more sweet if his attack was a surprise!

[intrulogical]

Unpopular opinion(??): I think Janus was in the wrong at the end of POF, when he made fun of Roman back.

And not in a "they both were in the wrong!!" way, I fully support Roman's actions. Obviously, don't make fun of a guy's name, but Janus literally manipulated Roman throughout SVS. Of course Roman is going to attack him???? You MANIPULTED. HIM. What did you THINK was gonna happen?

Plus, the thing he said wasn't even BAD. He called him a LIBRARIAN.

I just... it hurts me because Janus prides himself on being smart & correct, but cannot think for two seconds why Roman would be upset? Does he think he has no consequences to his actions? Does he think he's allowed to do things and not have people be upset? Like, Janus should know the inner moral fight that Roman is having with himself (he agreed with Janus at first & then patton was like "hey! Hes bad!!" & now is being told that janus is GOOD & that he was wrong even though he agreed with him in the beginning AND THE GUY HE AGREED WITH MANIPULATED HIM AND THEN ADMITTED TO IT IN POF)

I know Janus was having an emotional reaction, just like how Roman was, but it feels like a ... petty response to someone who is hurting.

NOT THE SAME. NOT COMPARRING but it HAS THE VIBES as like... defending yourself againsr your abuser & having ppl say you "abused each other". AGAIN. Not saying Janus is abusing anyone ot whatever, it just feels similar.

Janus hurt Roman & Roman defended himself & everyone is upset at Roman? What is this.

- @transfemlogan

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

this ask made me really think hard, because the dynamic janus and roman share is incredibly... fickle. seemingly blatant but definitely more complex for what it's worth. so, i'll try to break it all down, from everything i remembered.

1.) was janus wrong at the end of SVS.R for making fun of roman?

for a simple answer, yes— like, it is petty. you mentioned it was an emotional response to roman's seemingly lighter insult. but i don't necessarily agree with it being... hollow pettiness. sometimes people are petty for pettiness' sake, but janus, from my understanding, came into SVS.R fed up. mostly tired of being ignored for a long time despite having valuable insight on thomas' morality issues and mental health issues.

of course, i think janus could have introduced himself more kindly when he first appeared, but from my understanding of the dark sides, they are provocative for a reason. while there are multiple perspectives on what being a "dark" side means, my perspective is that these sides are usually secondary functions, usually pushed down even further by thomas' catholic upbringing. because of this, i view their provocativeness as a means of grabbing thomas' attention, ESPECIALLY knowing how easy it is for thomas to do something out of fear. but they don't intend to hurt thomas, at least not intentionally. all sides, even remus, intend the best for thomas in a way they deem fits best, even when we can disagree.

now, long ramble i know, but i needed to kind of explain the semantics of sides to dig into the idea that janus is, arguably and validly, fed up. yes, his insult was awful, that i cannot excuse, but to think his frustration came out of nowhere (at least, from what i'm getting out of your ask) is not true. it may noy seem as obvious as other sides, but janus has been fighting for the best decisions in thomas, but in his own machiavellian way.

machiavellian beliefs go many ways (i for one have not read the prince in full) but usually, machiavellian perspectives are very "the ends justify the means" kind of mindsets. and that's how janus operates. he believed provocativeness was key for thomas to listen, which is why he did all he did in SVS. it's definitely hurtful, and definitely very philosophical in a way that screams you're overthinking this, bud, but that is how he shows he cares. he fights hard in his deep, scary philosophy because that's what he thought operates well with thomas (even if he realizes it's wrong to do so, in the end). so, tldr because i think i'm just rambling— the insult was uncalled for but the buildup for janus to make an insult was definitely there.

2.) janus manipulating roman

now this, this one i had to think. because, yes, janus constantly complimented roman during SVS in an attempt to get his favor. but janus "not reading how hurt roman was" still feels very off. to me, janus had one goal in mind here: to prove to thomas that "selfishness" was not as evil as he thought it to be. the main problem that opposed this is patton and roman's Purity Culture of viewing morality too much as black and white + very catholic sense of selflessness.

janus has been frustrated ever since SVS about how his stance, although correct and the most considerate of thomas, was merely dismissed, roman and patton implying janus' perspective was "bad". that is the underlying issue janus had against patton and roman. it's not just a matter of pettiness, but there is some gravity to roman and patton labeling janus' perspective as "evil". while it doesn't seem much, the fact that thomas' mental health dipped THAT much post-SVS, even BEFORE the wedding showed how much roman and patton's purity culture was affecting thomas negatively. and janus— janus obviously took that personally. roman and patton, again, did not directly attack janus, but claiming thomas' mental state was good when it obviously Wasn't most likely weighed heavy on janus' shoulders to fix.

yes, janus manipulated roman (although most manipulation cases itself is far more deliberate than what janus has done), but janus can also be impacted in more subtle ways, like having your perspective ridiculed and watered down when it could've saved thomas.

and last,

3.) did janus not realize that roman is hurting?

nah, he did. people can realize someone is hurting AND also snap at them for something they thought was frustrating. it's not good, but it is incredibly human for it to happen (which is why i dislike moral analyses of characters in sanders sides because it just Doesn't Matter). him manipulating roman via compliments was recognition of roman's low self-esteem.

but i have to mention this: roman's self-hate issues are intrinsically connected to his black and white perspective on morality. to be a hero is to do good things, which is why he clings on to patton. he wants to ensure that he does good, even if the ways he does good really... isn't good or healthy, as proven in SVS.R.

janus' insult was genuinely awful, but roman and patton implicating him as evil was definitely heavy as well. i think janus' general frustration with roman can also be justified because, well, if thomas does pursue this new viewpoint of "being selfish is good sometimes," it... causes roman's perspective on goodness to become null. a complete paradigm shift, a change of perspective. and so in the end, no matter if janus insulted roman or not, he would end up wounded.

this ended up longer than i intended and probably rambled on for too long outside of the main question, but tldr; i think roman and patton's heavy influence of implicating janus as evil negatively impacted thomas' wellbeing, and it should be considered a heavy enough insult for janus to justify his frustrations. his insult and manipulation towards roman was 100% awful, but to say he was the only one in the wront is false, especially since there are many instances in the same episode where he proves himself a good influence and beneficial to thomas.

thank you for the ask!

[vulgarvixxen]

cervical penetration with Patton. We need some morality pussy every once in a while.

I tried a different style but it doesn’t translate well on tumblr so check it out on AO3

Tw: non traditional genitalia, mild degrading, biting

There was a reason Patton wanted to be considered the fatherly side but the reason was lost on the dark sides who hadn’t grown up with him, see each side of the Mindscape evolved as Thomas grew in a mirrored way in ways that reflected Thomas’s thinking. As a kid he was told that there needed to be a mommy and a daddy, his mind decided that each half of the mind needed a girl to be the mom. On the light side Patton had originally been formed as “Patty” but she never felt like a girl, when Thomas got older and met more people his ideas and understandings grew too. “Patty” became Patton almost overnight with Logan and Roman being happy to accept their friend for who he is, they even helped him get top surgery when Thomas was in college and was studying biology.

On the dark side of the mind a similar situation occurred with the edgy trio, Virgil had once been called “Melinno” or “Mel” after the Greek poet. He hated being different and he changed his name and wore baggy clothes as soon as Thomas learned what being trans was. It did help that his monstrous(animal) form made him feel manly with his ovipositor. Of course Remus and Janus playfully teased him (at least they thought it was playful, Virgil didn’t get the memo) until he left for the light side. The GG trio never brought up Patton’s transition and Virgil never brought up his own, to their knowledge the other was a CIS man like the rest of the sides.

As Janus and Remus messed with their “rivals” the two remaining sides were hanging out in Pat’s room, casually cuddling and watching a blooper reel from a muppet movie. It was during a video with Kermit and Fazzy that a familiar and hot sensation washes over Virgil, he curses under his breath as he checks his phone’s calendar. His seasonal heat shouldn’t start until the end of the week, what was it doing here so early?! There was no time to go to the imagination and find a cave to hide in for a few days, Patton would be concerned if he just rushed off without explanation too.

“H-hey Pat?”

“Hmm?”

“Imtransandaspidermonsterandmyheatjustcameearlycanwefuck?!”

“Uhhh, Virgy, can you say that again but slower?”

“I’m, um, trans. I also ha-have weird genitalia. My heat cycle came early. C-can I, would you…can I deposit into you? I promise it won’t hurt! They’re all duds anyway!”

After a few beats of silence Patton tosses the bowl of popcorn to a side table and hugs Virgil close.

“Thank you for telling me, I meant to tell you forever ago that I’m a trans man! I’d love to help you out with your problem. And after we can talk to Logie about anything you might want done, he and Roman created a doctor to give me top surgery! Best Father’s Day present ever!”

The amount of information was dizzying…or that could be the hormones fogging up Virgil’s brain, he catches the gist of it and nods. Next thing he remembers is kissing, Patton kissing him breathless as they both groped and grinded with a feverish need. Pat pulls off his shirt easily and then starts on Virgil’s, revealed is the pink and purple galaxy binder,

“That’s so pretty, mine was real with palm leaves. Well…it was more of a sports bra than a binder, it was always too constricting for my taste.”

He tosses away the shirt and helps Virgil out of his binder, the emo is too horny to be bothered by his body being so not masculine. The skin looks irritated so Patton is sure to be gentle when he roams his hands down Virgil’s sides, the poor thing whimpering in need and relief.

“Pat, pl-please, need to be in you so bad!”

“Shhh, soon. Let’s get rid of some more clothing and then you can have me.”

Khakis are flung over to the rest of the clothing pile, boxers a second later, the zipper to skinny jeans followed after some shimmying. “Aww, your boxers match!”

“Patton!”

The galaxy boxers get tugged off and Virgil sighs in relief as Patton gasps in joy, Virgil’s ovipositor was thick and glistening as it waited for a warm place to be buried into. It twitches when a curious hand strokes it causing Virgil to moan, low and animalistic. In a split second decision Patton hops on top of Virgil, sinking down part way before stopping. The natural elasticity of frogs let him stretch around the girth without a problem, the combination of their slick making it even easier as he rose and sank at a quick pace.

“Fuck, fuck, you whore, should have been fucking you for years! You take me better than even Remus and he’s a good slut.” Virgil growls out, hands on Patton’s hips to pull him down with a harsher snap. The mild insult makes Patton unexpectedly more wet, “You like being my whore? Good, then you should know whores stay on their backs!”

With a movement so fast that it should have left them dizzy, Virgil flips their positions, he pounds into Patton at an unrelenting speed until he gets to resistance. “Shit, bet no one has ever fucked you this deep, huh whore. Don’t worry we’ll get used to it soon.” He pushes against the muscles blocking him from his goal for a short time then stops, the process repeats as Patton struggles to figure out if this is painful or pleasing. Just as he thinks that he’s going to have to tap out the pressure inside him gives and Virgil is inside his womb!

“Virgil! Fuck me, breed me, I’m your little whore! Please please, pretty please breed me!” The others could probably hear him but the thought didn’t cross his mind, actually the only thing he can think of is how knows that the pressure he wasn’t sure about is definitely pleasure. His heart jumps into his throat as he feels Virgil’s thumb circle his clitoris, a thrilled croak leaves his mouth followed by a breathy moan. Teeth are on his throat a second later, sucking and biting marking as Virgil plays with him. So much is happening that Patton cums without a chance to say anything.

Virgil bites him hard as he climaxes, “Now you can take all of them.” He purrs into Patton’s ear, venom making the other lax and pliable. The last few inches of his ovipositor pushes in and Patton whimpers, “Oh honey, it’s only going to get better. You’re going to feel so full soon, whore, and then we can have fun pushing them all out.” It sounds like a threat from a predator but it’s really a promise of my pleasure. Patton moans as he feels the first egg press through the ovi and deposit inside his womb, Virgil grins and nuzzles the bite mark.

Half an hour later Patton is the size of a beach ball and Virgil is cooing at the image, “Virgie, c-can you take pictures? I want to remember this for forever.” He can’t see which phone Virgil is using but he hears the click of the camera app. Patton actually liked this, he had always thought that being trans meant that he had to hate everything that came with what body he was made with but maybe he could indulge and still be dad.

[tscritical]

Hello there 👋🏻

I left the sanders sides fandom and blocked every tag just short of four years ago, just after the release of DWIT. Now, there is no obligation for you to answer this ask, but if you feel up to it, think you could fill me in on everything that’s gone down? Has there really not been another ‘proper’ episode since then? Like I said, you aren’t obligated to answer. It just, seems like there’s been a lot. Thought it would be easier to ask someone. Thanks for your time.

im putting this under a read more cos. shit gets extensive

ok so here’s the shitty rundown:

if you remember, at the end of dwit virgil confessed to having been a “dark side” in the past, and thomas didn’t seem to take it well

the next episode was a sanders asides, which is basically,, shorter videos that were promised to give us more content (lie)

in this asides, thomas found out his friend was like. an ex homophobe. and somehow that’s a parallel to virgil having been a dark side??? ok

basically thomas realized he needed to accept virgil for everything he was, including his past. but they couldn’t come up with a better allegory. so it’s apparently canon that thomas thinks of dark sides as being the same as. ex bigots. idfk

about a year later, the svs redux came out. oh boy

thomas got back from the wedding, sang a song with patton and roman about how it sucked because lee and mary lee didn’t drop everything to spend time with him instead of. celebrating their fucking wedding. thomas basically said “wahhh why won’t lee and mary lee talk to me instead of focusing on themselves at their own wedding 😡😡😡😡” which like. whatever i guess

they debated on whether it would’ve been better to discuss the wedding vs callback decision with lee and mary lee beforehand and patton was like “but they may have been sad if you picked the wedding, and they would’ve been sad if you picked the callback” blah blah

logan came in as a pixelated pop up (called “logans lowdowns”) and was like “im gonna give helpful information via text box” and no one bothered to read them cos they’re jerks (I DID. MY REACT VIDEO PROVES IT. real logan stans read the text and then had to rewind the video to hear the other dorks jshdjdjfjf)

ultimately patton ended up suggesting that thomas should sacrifice himself for others. and also he should only take care of himself in emergency situations. and he turned into a frog

oh yeah and then deceit popped in and was like “patton you’re being a little extra” and explained that if you only take care of yourself in emergency situations, you won’t be nearly as equipped to handle it as you would be if you. you know. utilized self care a more reasonable amount

then roman was like “shut up deceit” and deceit was like “my name is janus” and roman was like “shut up janus, also that name is stupid” and janus was like “well you’re the evil twin so suck on that”

im doing a bad job of explaining the tension but holy SHIT this video…

anyway, after the redux was flirting with social anxiety, which is another asides. it’s an animatic because covid prevented thomas from actually going to the mall but anyway

thomas went to the mall having one mini moral crisis after another, until he saw a cute guy he wanted to talk to. but virgil was like “hell no” and roman was like “hell yes” and they basically spent the entire video arguing over whether it was a good idea to approach a stranger (regardless of how cute said stranger was)

ultimately, thomas and the stranger, nico flores, managed to get to talking, and they really seemed to hit it off! thus followed a really cute end credit scene back at the apartment, i really recommend watching that part on its own i fucking love it

the next episode was the third and final (so far) asides, in which thomas has sought help from logan in basically getting his life together, starting with cleaning his apartment

throughout the endeavor, thomas tries to follow the plan logan helped him get together in order to get it done, but remus has plans of his own. with every step thomas takes, remus puts a bear trap in his path. you know. metaphorically

oh yeah and the subplot is that thomas texted nico something stupid and he hasn’t responded and thomas is like “pls god why” probably because he’s worried he scared nico off (i can’t remember what the text said but i think it was cringe? idk hsjdhdj)

logan is trying to help thomas work through his intrusive thoughts… hence the title of the video jsjdjfkfk but remus is pretty relentless. finally, logan approaches remus and is like “what the fuck dude” and remus is like. well y’all know what remus is like akdjkdjfkf

remus starts ignoring logan and logans eyes glow orange and he’s like “STOP IGNORING ME” and remus is turned on or something and he’s like “but who do you really wanna scream that at?”

nico calls thomas and is like “wanna look at art?” and thomas is like “hell yeah” and leaves in the middle of cleaning which makes logan sad and ill kill thomas for making logan sad /j (there was also ominous vague foreshadowing from janus eating an apple in a tree or some shit idk)

then there’s the five year anniversary shit. which is like. pointless skhddkjf it’s basically thomas asking the sides shit about the series and it’s mostly fluff until you look into it. pretty much on the surface level kahdjdfjfk

i don’t remember it well i only watched it a couple times so

im not gonna talk about can plushies improve our health it makes me too mad

then the last video in the sanders sides playlist is the over the garden wall cover which i recommend simply because thomas/janus’s voice is so good and the vibes are so soft i cant

and there ya have it. you’re caught up now. now i have a question for you; what the FUCK do you mean, “four years ago, just after the release of dwit”. that was two years ago you are lying to me /j

[eyeexe]

When talking about misconceptions about Patton’s character I was more so referring to the fandom’s interpretations of him but holy shit now that you brought it up I’m gonna allow myself to talk about about how everyone (and by everyone I mean Roman Im specifically bitching about Roman in this) led to POF as a consequence of Roman choosing moral superiority over his desires for Thomas.

I’ve seen a concerning amount of people who talk critically about Patton and Roman’s relationship push this idea that Patton has been repressing Roman, shutting down anything he finds offensive while Roman doesn’t hesitate to conform, which just isn’t true. Roman is not opposed to arguing against Patton, he hasn’t ever been.

First of all, Growing Up as a whole exists, and is just 14 minutes of Roman, Logan, and Virgil completely disregarding Patton’s positive contributions in favor of talking about how he hinders Thomas’ strive for maturity.

In LNTAO he’s dismissing over Patton’s puppets idea until Thomas expresses enthusiasm over it

And in the beginning of SvS he argues “What about us” with Janus against Patton’s disapproval of lying to Lee and Mary Lee to avoid going to their wedding and instead go to the callback.

Now that we’ve established that Roman hasn’t been catering to Patton’s every whim for his entire life, why is he so willing to follow along with Patton despite instinctually wanting to go against him all of a sudden?

He does it for Thomas’s approval. I remember a while ago someone on here said it was impressive how both of Roman’s functions, creativity and the ego, are easily able to coexist, and I honestly have no idea where that came from because Roman’s entire existence as the less taboo part of creativity is dependent on Thomas’s ideals, and he suppressed himself to meet these standards for validation. He exists to cater to Thomas’s sensitivities, how could he possibly not listen to the side with the most effect on him if his goal is to submit himself to Thomas.

It’s why Janus’s plan in SvS fails. In the three episodes we’ve seen Janus appear and stay in, he’s formed a plan with him or someone who lines up with his goals in charge. In CLBG, he took the position of director away from Roman, in PoF, he bombarded Patton with more questions on his stance on complex moral situations until he broke so he could see the detriment of pretending he had all the answers, and in SvS he made himself the prosecutor, made Patton the lawyer because he’s so uneducated in the legal process, and made Roman the judge because he honestly believed that Roman would be able to put aside Patton’s wants for Thomas and focus on his own.

There is genuine shock on his face when Roman slams the gavel down and sentences Thomas to the wedding, and anger follows that for a good reason.

I’m getting more into headcannon territory, (with a headcannon I stole from @/beauty-and-passion because it just makes too much sense), but we all know Janus is named after the Roman god of beginning and ends, with the ability to see into both the past and the future. I like to think Janus posses an ability akin to that of the Roman god’s.

It would make sense based on the events in the series. when he first chose to introduce himself prior to the event that caused such inner turmoil in Thomas and eventually made a huge change in his thinking. It was better that way because when he had to actually join in and and make a statement, half of his time wouldn’t be spent on Thomas accepting the fact that he had a side dedicated to lying and selfishness. He wouldn’t have made that choice unless he had some sense that an event like that would be coming up in Thomas’s life.

His entire plan for SvS and POF was dependent on Roman choosing the wedding over the callback, and his refusal to threw a huge ten-ton wrench in it. I honestly think POF could’ve ended with all of the three fine and dandy (after Patton’s decision to turn into a furry, with biblical significance as a bonus) had Roman been able to push aside his struggle for the moral high ground.

Roman choosing to play such a huge role in the moral aspect of the situation in that episode (especially with his reaction to Janus’s name reveal and Patton’s acceptance of it) despite him not ever really being interested in that subject prior doesn’t make sense unless you take into account the fact that Roman’s whole existence is dependent on Thomas’s black and white mentality. It makes sense that he’s so hesitant to accept Janus as a positive influence because Janus is consistently touting the idea of gray areas in morality, something that redefines his function as a side.

POF is a direct result of Roman’s actions, and he’s painfully aware of it. I understand why he so quickly undermined Janus’s show of trust with his name reveal, and I understand why Janus acted with such hostility in return, but my god is it so annoying to see them both refuse to be the bigger person for once in their pathetic lives and admit to being wrong while not insulting everybody with every word they spit out of their mouths. And it doesn’t help that people constantly push the notion that one of them is in the right and the others are wrong when they all made mistakes across both SvS and POF.

A Really Stupid Pet Peeve of Mine

One random thing that annoys me sometimes for some reason is when people refer to Patton solely as Thomas’ “moral side.” Like, when someone is introducing all the sides, they say the Logan is logic, Virgil is anxiety, Roman is creativity and passion, and Patton is morality.

The series may have recently been leaning into the moral aspect of Patton more, but he has previously been established to be a lot more broad than that. He preserves all of Thomas’ more nostalgic memories (as shown in Moving On Parts 1 & 2). He encourages Thomas to do the little things that make him happy (Mind vs. Heart and Growing Up show this especially well). He often says that he is Thomas’ emotions, or at least holds them.

Patton is fun and playful and sometimes ignores doing these more “ethics” centric duties in order to just enjoy life. In fact, most of the time, it seems like being Thomas’ moral compass is kind of a side gig rather than his main job.

His sense of morality is also shown to be both firm and loose at the same time. He has his core central values, and definitely has some of the more simplistic stuff down, but most of his more complex moral decisions are pretty in the moment and it feels like those more intense ones are more…shaky? If that’s the right word? His moral compass gets very confused and mixed up quite easily, and while that can happen to us all, it seems odd for a side whose whole thing is morality.

I was thinking about his almost contradictory nature a bit ago, as the title wasn’t adding up to me. How can he be Morality but also be the one in charge of the majority of Thomas’ emotions? That doesn’t make any sense. He seems more like just Thomas’ emotions who strongly affects his morals. So what does he have to do with morality? Then I remembered something that was right in front of my face: they don’t always refer to him as morality. Sometimes, they would call him Thomas’ “heart.”

And that makes so much more sense than him being morality specifically. Him being the heart explains everything about him and his actions. Metaphorically, we say that our feelings are stored in the heart, and that our heart is where some of our more instinctual morals are. The heart is often carefree and sometimes a bit fickle, often changing course in the moment.

It also explains why Patton’s moral dilemmas felt so weird to me. Because he isn’t morality specifically. He is more the instinctual and emotion driven side of morality. You could argue that ethics are always driven by emotion, but ethics also do sometimes have a sense of “logic” to them. Ethics are complicated, which is likely why Patton has such a hard time with his morality. It’s because it’s only a part of his job, and it isn’t his job alone.

So everything made sense. Patton isn’t Morality, he is Heart. He is Thomas’  sadness, happiness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust. He is the most simplistic and yet most complex side. His job is probably one of the hardest, in a way, as he carries many of the most all consuming and overwhelming emotions, like sadness and grief.

Now, there are other sides like Virgil and perhaps the Orange side (if people’s theories are correct) who are in charge of certain emotions. But Patton is in charge of the basic ones specifically. Thomas has a fear of spiders, and therefore Patton has a fear of spiders, whereas Virgil doesn’t. If we are going with the theory that Orange is something like Wrath or Rage, that is still slightly different from anger. And we rarely associate anger with the heart either way, unless it is very deeply rooted. On top of this, Rage and Wrath are much more festering, something that doesn’t seem to fit with what Patton is about.

All in all, this is my probably completely pointless post about why Patton is Thomas’ Heart, not his Morality. This is a really dumb thing to get annoyed over, but I just needed to let it out. It can lead to so many misconceptions about him as a character if we go with the mindset that his entire title is Morality rather than Thomas’ Heart. I’m pretty sure that everyone will read this post and say “well yeah, duh, we already know that. Way to state the obvious and get worked up over nothing.” But in my defense, I am neurodivergent and particular about everything.

So yeah, those are my thoughts on that.

[deafinatlyafan]

Sometimes Forgiving Is Hard

(contains spoilers from Thomas’s new video’s including Morality’s new name. I know some people haven’t watched it yet for various reasons *cough* one reason was closed captions*cough**cough* so I’m just going to leave this warning here.) @killerfangirl3 @starrykid @nebulastep @prinxietyhell @dan-yuna @analogically-prinxiety @obviouslyelementary @lekawaiimelon @whatevermate1234 (i cant remember everyone i was supost to tag i apologize)

Tw: Morality angst, bullying, doubt

Patton was frowning. He had managed to keep a smile on his face, most of the time, but… he still felt torn inside.

_

"Morality! YOU are the issue here!" Logan said. He knew how bad Logan was at  expressing emotions so he just assumed that he was just saying something and meaning another thing. Besides, he was his best friend, he couldn’t possibly be being mean.

"Aww, Logan, I love this teasing lil back-and-forth we have here!" Morality said, not understanding it completely.

"No. I'm serious. And I always have been. And forever will be." Logan snapped.

_

He closed his eyes. Logan had said nice things at the end, he was fine.

_

"YOU are holding Thomas back" Prince said.

_

He winced and took a sharp breath in. During the video, Roman had praised him for thinking of giving the others their rooms.

_

"His heart's just not in the right place." Anxiety said.

_

Patton bit his lips. Anxiety was just trying to lead him back to where he should be, and that was taking care of Thomas. _

"I am always a proponent of following one's heart... but, if it is not helping on the quest to fulfill one's longing then what is the gosh darn ding dang point?" Prince glanced over at Patton as he spoke. _

Patton let out a sob as he remembered the pain he felt when Prince looking at him. _

"B-But, kiddo--" Morality was interrupted, "That's just it! I'm not a 'kiddo' anymore!" Thomas snapped. _

Morality whimpered. ‘Thomas was just tired of being referred to a kid. He just wanted to be seen as a grown up.’ _

"We need actual contributions from you every now and then" Prince said. _

Morality clenched tighter to his bed, trying to hold back sobs (and failed.) _

"You stand there making your... puns... and are just... needlessly silly. All the time. Logic said. _

Why did this hurt?

_

"Perhaps it's best you just stick to knowing the difference between right and wrong and leaving the rest to us." Prince. _

He sobbed, letting the words rush around his head. They all apologized, he shouldn’t be feeling this way. He let it happen anyways, it felt so good to get it out.

He hated it.

‘But it’s good to let emotions out! Healthy even!’ he told himself

‘Yeah, but you shouldn’t be feeling this way at all. What they said stung. and why did it sting? becase they don’t care. They should be fixing it and making things better.’ another part of him said.

‘But they are already trying to make it better! They caught their mistake and now they’re trying to fix it!’ he tried to reassure himself.

‘Not really. They’re not here now are they?’ Morlaity felt a sharp pain as he inhaled. That thought hurt.

But… but they were his friends how could they do that to him?

‘They’re human, they all make mistakes.’

But why did it hurt so much?

Morality sobbed clinging to the bed. His thoughts confusing him. Why couldn’t he just forget about it. He’s probably said a few hurtful things to the others once or twice and they forgave him.

“Patton?” he could hear a voice. He tried holding back a sob.

“Y-y-yeah.” He cursed himself for not keeping a straight voice.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he still couldn’t recognize the voice. “I-I don’t kn-ow” Patton let out a sob. Why couldn’t he just forgive them? They probably felt guilty enough, he didn’t have to make it worse. He hated himself for not moving on.

He felt a dubious arm around him. Morality wanted contact so bad so he turned towards the owners chest and grabbed their jacket, sobbing.

“I’m here,” they said. It sounded awkward, but he could tell they meant it.

Patton kept sobbing letting his emotions have control. He felt their arms hesitantly move up and down his back as if it was foreign to him. Patton kept crying, as the owner got more comfortable hugging him. A little while after Patton calmed down he was surprised to hear  Anxiety speaking to him;

“Do you want a patt-on the back?” he asked. Patton giggled.

“Th-a-t was funny” Patton sniffled.

“Yeah, you used it on me once, except you literally jumped on me.” Anxiety answered.

“Yeah, I’m-I’m sorry about that.” Paton said, feeling guilty about that day.

“It’s alright, it could have been worse.” Anxiety hugged Patton closer.

They stayed quiet for a minute. Patton enjoyed the silence, sniffling once in awhile.

“Do-” Anxiety hesitated before continuing, “do you want to talk about it?”

Patton thought about it for a minute. It was a good idea to talk about his feelings.

“I just-i hate myself for feeling bad about the things you guys said, you already apologized, but I can’t seem to get over it.” “Hey, take it easy on yourself. I’ve been holding onto what people say for years and I’m still not over it. Its barely been a day for you.” Anxiety said.

“Y-yeah, but-” He hiccupped, “but I’m-I’m the heart, I’m sup-post to forgive people easily.”

“You can still take your time. You have feelings after all. Sometimes it’s good to take your time. It lets others know that what they did wasn’t okay.” Anxiety answered. Patton sniffled, but smiled.

“When-when did you grow up to be so-so smart?” Patton asked.

“Since i was born.” Anxiety answered. Patton laughed. “If you say so k-kido.” Patton smiled and looked up at Anxiety.

“Thanks for-for being here.” Patton said. Anxiety shrugged and continued rubbing Patton’s back. Patton sniffled for a while and leaned closer to Anxiety.

“Would you like to play with some goo?” Anxiety offered after a while. Morality lit up and nodded. “I have some in my room- or do you want to stay in here?” Anxiety sounded a little hesitant. “Can we stay in here?” Patton was nervous, he didn’t want to ruin the moment with Anxiety. “It’s fine, but if you dare tell anyone i did this i will not be held accountable for the things i do.” Anxiety snarled.

“Aw you tease!” Patton answered before getting up to find his Goo, and Anxiety’s grey sand. He found them in his desk and brought it over to the little table he had set up in his room. He beckoned Anxiety over pointed at the sand he had brought and opened the can of his goo. Anxiety sighed but walked up to the table and sat text to him, rolling his eyes when Morality showing Anxiety his colorful goo, Morality pulled the goo and squeezed it together, smiling at the sticky feeling. Anxiety rolled his eyes a few times, but he seemed to be enjoying his sand.

They didn’t do much talking, but they did enjoy each other’s presence.

[jokingmisfit]

Yandere Platonic Patton Hc’s

WARNINGS- Murder, Abuse, Unhealthy relationships, Kidnapping, Things related to that.

THIS ISN’T FOR KIDS READ AT YOUR OWN RISK (18+ Please)

Remember when I said he was clingy before, well now if you aren’t doing something where you can’t be held onto for you’re being held. Patton will always be touching you, or hugging you, or having you sit in his lap.

Patton is delusional and a bit clueless. He isn’t quite aware that his emotions shouldn’t be this intense. It’s best not to shatter this reality because he can become very unstable very quickly which will only make him more dangerous to others and you.

He makes you call him Dad, Papa, Dada, or even Father.(Not daddy, no, he learned his lessons with that)

You aren’t allowed to help much with baking with yandere Patton. You can stir food and help shape things, but you are NOT allowed anywhere near the oven or utensils because, “What if you hurt yourself!?”

Yandere Patton is way too over protective. He makes you use little kids utensils, hand feeds you, blows on your food, he’ll help bathe and dress you (it takes a LOT of convincing for him not to, and it’ll only work every once in a while), and he would’ve helped you with going to the bathroom but you fought really hard and had to give up other freedoms for him not to.

The other sides either won’t help because they’re also yandere, or because they don’t have to deal with the over delirious Patton, or because Patton threatened them, or because their convincing did nothing and it’s not like he’s hurting anyone. (pick your favorite reason why)

You aren’t allowed to watch anything too “grownup” or too mature.

Patton will get very upset and confused if you fight him or disobey or do something he doesn’t like. He eventually gets over it and starts giving out punishments.

Patton’s punishments usually involve being spanked, having your favorite items or activities taken away, being scolded (for very small things), or being “grounded” (being locked in a room with nothing but a bed).

Beg enough and be sweet and he’ll give you almost anything you want. He’ll even take you outside, though he’ll have a hold on you the whole time. Patton may even carry you, “so you don’t trip”.

Nicknames are given more often you’ll be called kiddo (obv.), sweetie, sweetheart, my dear girl/boy/child, sunflower, buttercup, little rascal, dreamchild, and other random names that pop into his head

He loves you so very much. Patton is somehow more scary and least scary of the sides as yanderes. Your best option is to let him do what he wants. Too much challenging will make him go crazy, so just let him love you.

If You Escape

If you do possibly find a way to escape he will literally lose his mind. He WILL find you and your escaping causes a huge lapse in his moral compass. Patton lost all self control after you’re taken. He WILL kill the person who helped (unless it was a side because then they’ll just be punished). His morals have crumbled and left a mess of obsession in its wake. 

He’ll regret killing them but he has you back an that’s all that matters.

Patton will punish you severely for leaving him. Your best bet is to lie and act your ass off telling him they took you unwillingly. If you convince him Patton won’t punish you, however he has practically lost his mind. He is 10x more overbearing. You aren’t even allowed to sleep alone anymore.

You’ll want to act nicer and be more careful because this “new” Patton is unstable and very dangerous.

Punishments with him after getting you back may include breaking your bones, killing people you love, starving you, and chaining you to bedposts or walls. He hates hurting you but he won’t risk you leaving him again. Even small slip ups can cause him to lose it and punish you.

[xandriagreat]

“Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” “Still just… sitting on this couch...”

Author’s note: This is for @anotsomysticalnight (also beta read by me 😎 -Myst). To make sure that no one is confused with the past characters and the ones in the video, the video will refer to them by their names while their past versions are called their functions. Example: Past!Patton is Morality, and Past!Roman is Princey/Creativity.

Notice/warnings: Coma mentioned, Crying, Wine, censored cursing (because there’s cursing in the video), caps, Remus being Remus, Remus is a rat man, Janus is a sass queen, Virgil is a mood, and Thomas is a hot mess

▪▪▪

Thomas was up late, as was quickly becoming his usual, working on 'Taking on Anxiety with Lily Singh', the newest addition to the Sander Sides series he hoped would do well.

After Thomas saved his progress, he sent a quick message to Joan about finishing his part of the editing, and exited out of the software so he could, finally, rest for the day. He was about to close his file explorer, he noticed a new video saved in the drafts.

"What’s this? 'Have I Grown? - Five Years Later | A Sander Sides Special'… What?" Thomas exclaimed in confusion. His habit of talking aloud to himself persisted.

He... doesn't remember recording anything about a five year anniversary of the Sanders Sides series... because it only started a mere few months ago...

After a moment in which he sat, baffled beyond belief, he summoned Logic, Morality, and Princey to his side.

"Hey guys." He greeted the three, who were all looking concerned at the summoning. 

"What's wrong? Where’s the danger?” Princey demanded, brandishing his samurai sword in determination. Thomas was going to ask why Princey has a samurai sword when he saw it but maybe now wasn’t the time. 

Instead he swivelled the laptop towards them, giving them a chance to look at his folders. "Oh! Maybe it's an opportunity for an audition!" Princey exclaimed, already posing as though he was being photographed for a magazine.

"Or maybe it's an invitation-" Logic and Morality began, the chaotic excitement building before it was, of course, interrupted by Anxiety, who shot up behind them all with a loud voice echoing off the walls of Thomas’s living room.

"What if we're HACKED?!”

All four screamed at the intense cry. "Oh… Anxiety… It's you." Thomas said, frowning at the dark clad side that just disrupted his, relatively, peaceful day.

"What? I got a feeling of… anxiousness here. Decided to pop in, see what’s up, y’know?"

“No, I don’t know!” Princey squawked at him. “Why don’t you go grow mushrooms in some corner somewhere, huh, you no-fungus?”

“Nah. I'm good right now.”

Thomas sighed in defeat, resigned. “He can stay…”

“I’m sorry, what?!” Anxiety and Princey chorused. Logic looked at Thomas thoughtfully while Morality clapped excitedly at this development.

“He's going to stay for this and no one’s going to complain about it, alright?” Thomas shot a warning look that broke no argument.

“What exactly is ‘this’ anyway?” Anxiety asked, trying to look above everyone's heads to get a look. Thomas shrugged, nudging the laptop closer to his sides in answer.

"Is this a new video that you're planning to upload?" Logic asked, looking at Thomas and pointing at the laptop.

Thomas shook his head.

"I just saw it in my drafts."

Princey shot Anxiety an ‘I don't believe this’ look while this was happening.

“Well, let's see what it’s all about then.” Princey announced, plopping down next to Thomas on the couch. Logic nodded in agreement with this course of action, and sat down on the other side of Creativity. “Oh boy this sounds like fun!” Morality squealed at the bonding opportunity, skipping over and sitting down next to Thomas on the youtuber’s right.

Anxiety debated on whether to sit down and join the group, or flee to the safety of his ‘room’. After a solid minute of this, Morality chimed in, “Come on, Anxiety.” The Dad patted the seat beside him, smiling at the emo while everyone else looked at the parental side in various states of confusion, disgust and apprehension. Anxiety, slowly and cautiously, walked over to them and sat down next to Morality, the only one who seemed to want him there.

“Are we ready?” Thomas asked, looking at his sides. All four of the sides nodded, some more enthusiastic than others.

Thomas smiled and pressed play on the video.

It started out with a pitch black screen, a set of white text stood out amidst the darkness. It read: ´Stay Tuned til the End For a Trailer Of a New Series…´

The scene cut to Thomas, waking up from his phone alarm in a manner identical to his first video. This detail was not lost on the bewildered audience. “AH! Youtube time!” Thomas on the screen said, grabbing his phone off the side table. “I've been asleep for… Five years?!”

Thomas looked at the sides in confusion at the sudden change. Aside from the initial announcement, it had seemed to be his first video. 

Anxiety sat, tense as a guitar string, as Logic pulled out his phone with a critical eye. “It's still 2016.”

“Wait…” the video Thomas said, turning to the camera with distress.

“What if, in that very first Sanders Sides episode I went to sleep, and never woke up? Have all my memories with the sides these past five years… been a dream?” 

Thomas rocked back, unnerved at this potential revelation. All, except Logic, began to fret. “What if I'm in a coma right now!” Thomas cried, panicked. “And I'm still stuck!”

“Probably!” Anxiety yelled, barely keeping a handle on his tempest tongue. “Maybe that's why you said that in the video!” 

Princey and Mortality screamed, ringing Logic’s ears.

Then, after a harrowing, tense moment of silence, Video Thomas smiles cheekily.

“Naah! But that would be wild, right?”

The group collectively relaxed at that, glad that Thomas was not in a coma. Anxiety taking an extra second to work through his breathing exercises before they all turned their focus back to the screen. Mortality checked on Anxiety, ensuring he’s fully okay, before chuckling at this on-screen Thomas’s antics.

It would seem that five years hadn’t changed Thomas that much.

The intro was... different. Each side flashed briefly on the screen. There was Princey, handsome as ever, with the word ‘Creativity’ beneath to explain his role. A title which changed too fast for any of them to process before being replaced with Logic, then Morality, then... Anxiety, who appeared, smiling, and dressed in... purple?

Thomas pauses it as the Sides talk amongst themselves. Princey looked at the designs in amazement. "These look incredible!" he exclaimed. “Why, my shoulders look so boring in comparison!” Morality eyed the Disney prince for a brief second.

“Your shoulders look great! How dare you say otherwise!” The father figure asserted passionately, defending his princely son even against his own observation. 

Logic, for his part, considered his current attire. “I have to say I do like the different colours that Morality and I are wearing in this video. The darker blue is very… sophisticated on me.”

Anxiety’s face lost its already pale pallor, turning gaunt. “How’d they know purple’s my colour?” he whispered.

“What was that?”

“Nothing!”

Princey raised an eyebrow at Anxiety, mistrustful as ever. “Hmmm, you’re still oh so ‘mysterious’, aren’t you?”  

Anxiety scowled at the creative trait, hating that his words still hurt. “And you’re still a dramatic drama-in-distress, but you don’t see me complaining, do you?”

Princey reared back in offence, but before a fight could break out, Morality and Logic planted their hands on each side’s shoulder, holding them firmly in their seats.

“I suggest that we continue before there is risk of an… incident, Thomas.” Logic said. Morality nodded in agreement.

Thomas, for his part, was more than happy to move on as his Logic suggested, reaching for the keyboard in silence.

Thomas tapped ‘play’ once more, and the four circles on screen, each of his sides on display, began to combine, morphing together to present Thomas, clad in his Steven Universe shirt and smiling into the camera.

Thomas noticed the blue background actually featured different symbols, all gliding across the screen, and wondered why they were there. Finally, as Thomas’s circle disappeared, the title slid into place: “Sanders Sides”

Thomas is very impressed by this introduction to the video. Why hadn’t he, Talyn, and Joan considered an intro like this before? Well, he supposed they would in the future. Within the next five years, at most.

"What is up everybody?!" the video edition of Thomas exclaimed excitedly, with an ever-familiar grin on his face.

Thomas noticed Morality, sat to his right, waving energetically at the screen as though the recording could see him. The host chuckled at his Morality's antics and continued to watch.

“We have recently rounded the corner of making these Sanders Sides videos, for five years!”

Logic, Princey, and Thomas sat to attention. "Oh!" The three had an epiphany of what's going on, while Morality and Anxiety looked confused between the others, completely out of the loop. Logic decided to take pity on the two, and explained,

"This video is clearly from the future, though how a piece of digital media travelled through spacetime eludes me at present." Morality and Anxiety blinked as comprehension dawned.

“Ooooh!”

Once Thomas was sure all of his sides were on the same page, he hit play.

Video Thomas explains, genuine and earnest, that he's grateful about all the experiences he's had over the course of 5 years. His understanding of his Anxiety, and realising his capacity for Deceit.

Thomas locked his gaze on the side that appeared on the corner of the screen, he looked like a strange fusion of Thomas and a reptile, maybe a snake or lizard, and Thomas had barely a second to take in the stranger’s scales and hat before the image was gone. Video Thomas pressed on, mentioning something strange about a courtroom scene with footage in the corner playing of his sides, in suits, sitting in a wooden courthouse. Before Thomas had time to digest that, he continued to watch. 

"-went to the mall! Don't underplay that, it was a big thing for me."

"What happens at the mall? Why’d I have to mention something mundane like going to a mall? I go there all the time!" Thomas asked in indignation, hastily pausing the video to look at his Sides, as though one of them would have an explanation. They shrugged amongst each other, equally as confused as their host and unable to provide an answer.

Logic fixed his glasses with dignity, straightening his tie as he gathered his thoughts, "Maybe you got exceedingly busy with work and other responsibilities, or your friends became unable to meet with you for whatever reason. Or you had gotten so sick that you had not been in a fit enough state to visit the store for a long while? But that is unlikely as you seem perfectly healthy in this video."

Thomas nodded, accepting that his sides didn’t know either, and after a moment unpaused the video. 

"And, lord, we ate a lot of jam!" Video Thomas remarked as various clips of the sides, primarily Logic and Princey, stuffing their faces with jam appeared. “Not quite sure how that played such a huge part in this series, but it did!”

Logic grimaced at the sight of his future self being so… uncouth with consuming the jam, but added the spread to his mental ‘to-try’ list, right below Bullet Journaling. His future self couldn’t be entirely without consideration after all.

“And these talks have meant a lot to me, like, every facet of me.” 

Thomas smiled at his Video counterpart’s words. His sides did mean a lot to him, after all. 

“You know, in television five years is about that time that they would make one of those really self-indulgent interviews with the cast where they'd laugh and talk about their favourite moments on and off screen.” Video Thomas chuckled heartily.

Thomas nodded with his sides, knowing some amazing shows they have watched have pulled that type of stunt. 

They all jumped, however, when Video Thomas turned. The angle of the scene changes with a sharp cut, altering Thomas’s outfit along with it.

“And that's exactly what we're gonna do.”

The group felt excited at what future Thomas was doing, leaning in eagerly to see what their future selves were like.

Video Thomas then turned around again, facing to the right, presumably talking to someone who sat off screen. 

“Wow, we have sure had some wild times huh? And I know there are those out there that wanna know what your thoughts are on five years of Sanders' Sides!”

It then cut to Logic sat in front of some plain white blinds, clad in a professional looking indigo tie. The small image of a brain with glasses printed on his black polo shirt is stark white in contrast.

“It is hard to believe it’s been five years of these discussions, mainly due to the fact that we’ve only had a little over nine and a half hours on screen together; if you don’t count our interactions that are not considered canonical to the core series, but, even then. My Point is I don’t think we deserve this celebration. Cheers.”

“Well, he rambles just as much as our Logic does. Clearly not much changes there huh?” Princey quipped as Thomas paused the video to stare at the bespectacled side on screen. He looked at him and back at Logic. Then Thomas noticed some text on the bottom left corner of the screen.

‘Logan Sanders - Thomas’ Logic’

‘AKA Microsoft Nerd’

Thomas once again trailed his gaze over to Logic. “Logic? Why does this say ‘Logan Sanders’?“

Logic went speechless, jaw working soundlessly for a moment before finally finding his voice. “I-it’s my name.”

“Your what?!”

“My name. We all have names, Thomas.”

Thomas flickered his eyes between the others. Princey and Morality nodded, pensive.

“Our names are a private thing Thomas. We only give them when we feel you are ready…”

“Which I am SO not ready for.” Anxiety groaned. “Is this video gonna expose all our names? Oh my- no…” He was going into panic attack mode again. Morality comforts Anxiety and helps him calm down.

Thomas nodded, concerned. “Understandable. Should we stop watching then?”

“No!” All four yelled together, startling their host with their volume.

“Okay, okay, I get it!” Thomas pressed play, also eager to see more. 

It showed Morality with a different background. It was still the same white blinds, but they were adorned with a happy birthday banner hanging across the blades. 

Morality has his same style, much like Logan did, only his cardigan had been traded for a grey hoodie with white paw prints visible on the sleeves. A white heart symbol, wearing glasses much like Logan’s symbol did, was etched into his blue shirt.

*TOOOOOOOT*

“PAPPY BIRTHDAY! Sanders’ Sides would be in kindergarten now! Oh my gosh, it would be going off to its first day of school, making its first friends, eating the chalk-! Oh, my gosh, I- guh- I'm making myself cry again!” The Fatherly side took a sip of Logan’s wine, only to spit it out nary a second later. “Oh gosh, who left this juice out?”

Thomas paused the video again to compare to Morality that he has now and to the video’s. Again, he noticed the text on the bottom left corner.

‘Patton Sanders - Thomas’ Morality & Heart’

‘AKA Pop Star’

“Morality? That's your name?”

Morality nodded and gave a chuckle filled with nervous energy. “Surprise?”

Thomas looked at him and smiled. “I like it. It fits you.”

Morality smiled big as Thomas pressed play to see what was next. 

The next scene showed Princey, sitting before the same ‘Happy Birthday’ banner as Patton had been. 

His prince outfit looked fancier, with golden accents and two shield symbols set proudly on his arms. He looked like a true prince charming.

“Hello, I'm Roman. Chronically single, I'm a Gemini, and I like long duels on the Beach-”

“Roman!”

“-I'm sorry, what is this again?”

Then the screen did the static of lost connection, startling the five viewers.

Princey, Roman, looked like he was having makeup applied to his cheeks.

“Alright, just be sure to get the best side of this best side, right? Haha, that one’s for the promos! Five years and we’re still going strong with the wordplay right fellas?” He started to laugh.

“Roman!”

The screen did the static of lost connection, again.

Now they saw a sobbing Princey on screen, dabbing at his eyes with a tissue.

*Sniff* “I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I'm just, so woefully unprepared for this. Our anniversary! Thomas' viewers amazingly graced with five years... of me!!” he sniffed again, dabbing his nose with the tissue, before waving his hand dismissively. “...And the others, sure.”

Thomas paused the video again to compare the two Princes. He read the text on screen with less hesitation than before.

´Roman Sanders - Thomas´ Creativity, Ego & Passion´

´Aka Sir Sing-A-Lot´

“So Princey's name is Roman?” Thomas looked at Princey. The royal side nodded regally with a smirk.

Thomas smiled. “Huh, Roman. ‘Romance’. It suits you.”

The Prince gasped, happily and dramatically, as Thomas continued the video.

Anxiety was next. He was wearing a full on black hoodie, the familiar dark shade of the clothing was disrupted by the bright purple patches and white stitches all over the fabric. His eyeshadow, they all noticed, was much darker and thicker in the video compared to the present.

Video Anxiety held himself with a confidence that seemed almost alien to him, smiling at off-screen Thomas as he spoke casually.

“Hey yeah congrats guys, five years of putting up with me! It has felt... much longer than that! Mostly ‘coz I've had to deal with him too but, y'know I guess all that stormy weather got us to this miserable point, huh?”

Video Thomas eyed his Anxiety in concern, only for the scene to cut back to Anxiety, whose smile melted to a frown.

“Can I go?” The emo on the screen asked, desperate to escape the awkward atmosphere he’d just created.

Thomas paused the video to compare Anxiety to the video version, after cataloguing the differences he read bottom left text.

‘Virgil Sanders - Thomas’ Anxiety’

‘AKA My Chemically Imbalanced Romance’

Thomas looked at Anxiety. “That's your name? Virgil?”

Anxiety was hesitant, breathing deeply, but instead of panicking further he nodded. “It… it is…” the emo admitted, looking down. He knew, after seeing the others, that his name would come up whether he liked it or not, and he could only hope Thomas liked it.

Thomas started to smile at him, taking the emo by surprise. “It's... different, from the others, but I like that it’s different.”

Anxiety looked up at him, wide eyed at Thomas’ response. “Really? You do?”

Thomas nodded kindly, ignoring the stares he was getting from the other sides who sat watching the exchange. “Shall we continue?” 

Anxiety nodded, wanting to move on from being in the spotlight. 

The video resumed once more.

The next side shown was the strange fusion of Thomas and a reptile he’d only gotten a glimpse of earlier. He dressed with class, a fashion that wouldn’t be too out of place for the late 1800s or early 1900s era. His outfit was black with yellow buttons, a small black caplt draped on his shoulders, and a bowler hat sat on his head with charm.

When this new side spoke, his tone was dripping with sarcasm and irony.

“Mmmm, yes happy five years, five drama free years. It really is astounding how these little 'meetings of the mind' lead to clear, and concise conclusions that leave everyone so happy, and angst free-”

Thomas read the text on the bottom left hand corner to find out who this strange side is.

‘Janus Sanders - Thomas’ Deceit’

‘AKA Bannaconda’

“Janus?” Thomas mumbled as the video kept playing.

“Okay Janus!” Video Thomas interrupted. “I know that this is your thing, but this is a positive look back on how far we have come. So your recent appearances on screen have been… fun additions.” Video Thomas smiled awkwardly at his own words before asking, “Uuum… do you feel you’re-… jelling... with... the cast?” He spoke with halted familiarity. As though talking to Janus was a common occurrence for him, yet still unpracticed and new.

The scene cuts back to Janus. "Oh, yes! Let's see. There's my new bestie, Patton, who's so good at keeping you in check. I'm sure that you would be totally lost without a man child who ties a cat hoodie around his neck."

Then it cut to Patton pointing at Video Thomas who was offscreen. "Ah!" Patton chuckled, lowering his hand down. "Jan’ said that, huh? Oh, that jokester! He knows how easily cold my shoulders get. Call them my  colders!"

Thomas looked at the Sides. All three were looking at Morality, who had his head tilted to the side. "I've never thought about calling him something like that." Morality frowned, struggling to reconcile that, in the future, Deceit was going to be someone he grew close to. Close enough for nicknames.

The video cut back to Janus. "And Logan… ah! You can totally see how he's your sense of reason. Especially when he makes mistakes."

Cut to Logan, who held a small full wine glass aloft as he responded. "Okay, it's just... very interesting that Janus would be so quick to bring up that point, when the odds of a mistake happening again are… infinitesimale. Eh?"

Logic hummed. "Infinitesimale." He spoke slowly, rolling his tongue around the word. "What mistake could I possibly be referring to ‘very big’?"

Morality opens his mouth to correct him, but the video continued before he had the chance.

Janus continued, "Roman… you know…" he sighed wistfully. "Despite our differences, I personally see ourselves in this lovely friendship, akin to me being the Voltaire to his Rousseau."

Roman jerked forward with an intense look at Video Thomas. "He said that about me?! I...I don't have enough information to decide how I  feel about that…"

Princey looked confused. "Is that a compliment?" he asked, looking at the others. All four could only shrugged, equally as lost.

Janus smiles wistfully as he gives his thoughts on the fourth and final side. "And Virgil… well, there's not much to say there.” The serpentine side raised the same wineglass Logan had earlier, bringing it close to sip before halting the motion, looking thoughtful.

“Except I do so love the consistency of his make-up." The snake chuckled, dark and ominous, as he sipped the wine.

None of the group were surprised at this point when Virgil appeared on screen, looking red in the face and seething.

"That! Futher! Mucker!"

Thomas pauses the video and looks at the Sides. Anxiety looked confused and a bit upset. "Still not friends?" Anxiety whispered feebly. "What?" Logic asked, not able to make out what Anxiety had uttered. This drew the others' attention. 

"Anxiety? What's wrong?" Thomas asked. Anxiety shot his host a look and frantically shook his head. When he answers, his voice is tense and defensive, "Nothing…"

"...Want to talk about it-?" Princey began, unsure if he should ask. 

Anxiety shook his head in refusal before the creative side’s question could finish. "I'm not ready to tell any of you yet."

Morality looked at him, then the screen, and back to him. "Is it about Him?" He asked, putting a hand on his shoulder. Anxiety pulled his hoodie up, trying to hide from the attention. 

"Who?" Thomas frowned at the vagueness of his sides, wanting to know more.

"An ex-friend..." Anxiety mumbled. "That's all I'm gonna say."

Thomas nodded, knowing better than to push. "Okay." He said, and unpaused the video to prevent the others from pressing the subject.

The next thing that was on screen was shocking and unexpected. The screen was taken up by a black clad rear bouncing and wiggling inappropriately. A small green sword emblem was designed on it.

"Hey! Check it out, I'm Roman!" the side cackled. “Get my best side, am I right?”

"Oh. I can't believe this is how I'm finding out where your emblem is" Video Thomas sighed, pleading for strength. "Um, Remus? Can we sit correctly, buddy?"

The new side twizzled around to sit properly on the chair. He looked remarkably similar to Roman, only he was wearing a fancy black outfit as opposed to Roman’s pure white, and green sash across his torso instead of a red one. He also has a moustache and grey stripe in his hair. He certainly looked unique.

"Who says that there's a correct way to sit? Have you ever thought about that, man?" This new side, apparently named Remus said. Video Thomas was thinking of an answer and started "Remus-" but was interrupted by Remus saying, "Expand your f***ing mind, bro!"

Thomas paused the video, just to clear his mind and look at the bottom text.

‘Remus Sanders - Thomas’ Forbidden Creativity’

‘AKA The Duke’

"Remus? Forbidden Creativity?" Thomas reads. He looked at the sides "Who is Remus or Forbidden Creativity?" 

"No one." Princey injected before Logic had a chance to answer, quick and tense. "He’s no one."

“He sure looks like someone…” Thomas said, looking at the screen. He didn't notice that Princey glared at Anxiety, like ‘You better not tell him’ look. Anxiety gave him an ‘I’m not going to’ look in response. 

Logic sighed as he looked at Princey and Anxiety. “Remus is your ‘Forbidden Creativity’. He is, for lack of a better term, Princey´s twin.” Logic said, fixing his glasses. “Teach!” Princey and Anxiety yelled at Logic but the smart side didn't pay them any mind.

“Princey has a twin?” Thomas asked, wide eyed. 

Logic nodded, pleased that Thomas was listening. “As a child, your creativity split in two as you began to understand what constitutes ‘good’ and ‘bad’, as taught by your parents, resulting in two different creativities.”

Thomas hummed, taking in this new information silently for a moment as he examined the moustached side on the screen.

“Is there a reason why that happened?” asked Thomas, getting interested. Logic shrugged. “It just happened, that's all we know.”

Thomas nodded, knowing that's as good as he was going to get. He pressed play on the video, curious about this ‘other Creativity’. This Duke.

Video Thomas sighed again. “Everyone has given their thoughts on the past five years of the series. Do you have any thoughts you'd like to add, he asked knowing he’d regret it?”

Remus nodded. “Oh, you mean the three episodes that I was in? Oh they were fine.” Remus replied. “Nothing like what’s coming up...”

“Uh, what?” Thomas and Video Thomas echoed at the same time.

“Oh honey!” Remus chuckled. A yellow gloved hand appeared onscreen with a squirt bottle, labelled ‘Anti Spoiler Spray’. It seemed to be Janus about to intervene. “You've got a big storm coming-!” Remus started to continue but was interrupted by the squirt bottle spraying a clear liquid onto him. "AH! SOAP!" Remus yelled in pain, wiping the substance off of his face. “Sheesh! You couldn’t just tell me to stop?! Kill a guy for being excited, why don't you?!” Remus’s grimace morphed into an unhinged grin. “Really, why don’t you?” He brandished a knife.

Thomas accidentally hit pause when he jumped and yelled, “Knife!” 

Anxiety didn’t look as surprising or panicked as the others. “That’s a normal thing.” he said, his arms crossed. Everyone looked at him like he said something strange or said a dead language. “What? I’ve lived with him for years.”

“Are you okay?” Thomas asked, concerned.  Anxiety nodded and leaned back. “I’m good. We can continue if you guys want.”

Thomas nodded and hit play.

The next scene was Roman, who was reading a book titled 'What Voltaire Did to Rousseau'. "Mhm. Okay. Alright, so he was insulting me." Roman said, lowering his book. “That’s just, that, why- hmhmhmhm,” He chuckled without humour, "I hate that guy."

Patton came up on the screen, he seemed to be trying to think of something. "A favourite memory from the show? That-that is just so hard! There have been so! many! wonderful moments with everyone!” Patton gushed, grinning. “Sure, even Janus and I have been getting closer. The other day, he gave me half his sandwich!”

Janus appeared and said, “I mistook him for a garbage can...” He gave a guilty grimace.

Thomas paused the video to look at Morality with a raised eyebrow.

“If he’s saying that I ate a food that was just left out, that's something that I do.” Morality stated factually. “Even if it’s thrown at me.”

With nothing more to say to that, the video continued.

Logan appeared holding a larger wine glass. "Quite a lot has changed these past years. Not only with you learning about Janus's and Remus's existence but also in how we conduct our day to day. Some examples being us, generally, talking to each other more respectfully, and leaving behind past toxic behaviours." 

Video Thomas nodded in agreement.

When the shot returned to Logan, he continued, "'Course there's still work to be done on that front. The talking may be there but the listening is another story." He ends his statement with a sip of his drink.

“I am listened to, right?” Logic asked worriedly, looking at Thomas. 

The host nodded. “Sure you are.” Thomas smiled at him reassuringly. 

Their heads turned back to the screen.

Remus was pouting as he mimicked, probably the fanders, "Oh boo hoo! The others used to be mean to each other!" He was quick to drop the act. "Do you know how bored I was before you decided to confront me?!" Remus exclaimed, pointing at himself. “All I did was walk around and look for stuff in your head to f*** with!”

Video Thomas just sighed with resignation, clearly used to or expecting Remus to behave like this.

Remus smirked as he told Video Thomas that he found a place called ‘Mind Palace’ while waiting for his turn to be confronted. Remus exclaimed, “Big echoey place! I can’t believe that you decided to ditch it after one episode! So wasteful!”

There was a clip on the side of a room. It was a big room that didn't have padding, so Remus’ claims that it echoed made sense.

Video Thomas Looked offended like he was going to say something back at him, but failed to find words to counter Remus’s claim before the scene cut to Janus.

“There actually was one amazing perk to not being in the spotlight for a while." Janus smirked mischievously. "Any time they all left to deal with a stubbed emotional toe, Remus and I had the opportunity to indulge ourselves in something truly devious." He put his finger tips together in a villainous pose, grinning menacingly.

Thomas paused with a frown, concerned. "Like… bad?" he asked the others.  Logic, Princey, and Morality looked nervous as Anxiety sighed, repressing an unwanted smile, "Just watch."

The next scene showed two pairs of black shoes, one smart dress shoes with yellow socks, while the other wore black belted booties. Both were enthusiastically playing DDR.

Thomas and the Sides laughed loudly when they realised what they were seeing.

The two side’s game was halted when Patton’s disembodied voice cut in off screen, yelling “Heading back to my room for a sec guys, forgot my pants!” They ran off with harsh hisses of “Get out! Get out!”

“My DDR?!” Morality exclaimed. “And- my pants?”

The video cut to Patton. “That’s who was using my DDR?” He exclaimed, clearly shocked. "I thought it was a ghost!"

Morality was still in shock as well. “I thought so as well! And why didn’t I have pants on?” Morality asked, looking at the others. Everyone shrugged, lacking the context for that, and continued to watch.

Remus was on screen now and is looking towards the bottom corner, the area with text. “Oh hell yeah! You got my nickname down there?!” Remus yelled excitedly. 

Thomas looked at where Remus was looking at.

‘Remus Sanders’

‘AKA Dukey’

“-like Princey!” Remus laughed and did a hand flick. “Classic!”

Thomas was confused by what he missed from what Remus said, but he continued to watch, not wanting to rewind and disrupt.

Roman was looking in the corner that displayed his name. “W-What is that?!” he shouted, enraged.

Thomas peered at what the on-screen Creativity was looking at.

‘Roman Sanders’

‘AKA Pissy’

“Pfft, That, uh, that was Remus.” Video Thomas said, trying and failing to hold in a laugh.

Roman looked mad as he seethed, “That, mother loving moustachioed mudbug!” 

Roman regained his composure before addressing Video Thomas. “Excuse me a moment, I have to go healthily communicate my feelings with my brother!”

Roman brandished his sword and, in the process, broke the vase of flowers that was on the table with the back of the handle as he left.

Video Thomas gaped in shock. “O- Wha-”

Thomas was in shock along with the sides as he paused it. “I- What happened?” Thomas tried to process the events the video just showed. 

“I’m not sure but I’m going to find my brother!” Princey announced, getting off his seat in preparation to leave. Morality and Logic grabbed their fellow side’s arms and forced him to sit back down, shooting him reprimanding looks.

Thomas looked worried at them while Anxiety was trying to stay calm. “Let’s keep watching.” Anxiety interjected. ‘Before something happens.’ 

The host nodded and hit play, drawing the others' attention.

Virgil appeared on screen. He had just finished thinking deep and said, “I'd say communication for me is uh, better. Totally 100% able to communicate my feelings now like a champ! No problemo!”

Video Thomas didn’t look remotely convinced by what Virgil was trying to sell. “Uh-huh, uh-huh.”

Virgil’s expression changed to look like he was admitting something. "Th-uh, the abstract stuff helped a lot though, y'know? Like those puppets? Yea. Surprisingly didn't hate how those were used to handle an issue"

"Oh, yeah?" Video Thomas asked, pleasantly surprised.

"Yeah."

Video Thomas leaned in, eager yet hesitant. “I was wondering… do you ever… still… ”

Virgil turns into a soft puppet form, a small felt figure, probably a sock, with two mismatched button eyes and black marker ink under the buttons. “Sometimes.”

Everyone had their jaws dropped as Thomas hit pause.

"Aw!" Morality exclaimed, putting hands over his mouth.

"How did you-?" Princey tried to get the words out.

"I don't know." Anxiety whispered, processing his future self’s behaviour. 

"Can you all… do that?" Thomas asked, pointing at the puppet.

Logic shrugged. "Of course we can, we are figments of your imagination. Though we cannot take on those puppet forms yet. We cannot shift into something that doesn’t exist without due preparation."

Thomas hummed at the answer and pressed continue. 

“I couldn’t find him!” Roman exclaimed, exasperated, as he reclaimed his seat. "Might have gone back to hiding in the walls." Whatever brother-based rant he’d been about to go on came to a halt when he peered down at the shattered remains of the red vase. Large glass pieces cleaned up and resting in a dustpan.

“...Who broke this vase?” Roman exclaimed, looking around to find who broke the vase that he himself had unknowingly broken.

“Hey! Nice callback-!” started Video Thomas as he smiled at him, but that was interrupted by Roman’s loud cutoff.

“DON’T use the word “Callback” around me!”

Video Thomas nodded with an understanding expression.

Thomas was very confused as he paused the video. The Sides were all just as baffled. “What happened?” he asked, worriedly.

“I have no clue.” Princey said, lips puckered as he tried to think of an explanation. “Bad audition maybe and still trying to get over it?”

“That could be it.” Logic said, nodding. 

‘That would make sense.’ Thomas thought as he pressed play.

When Roman stopped being overly dramatic, he returned to himself and faced the camera.

“But since we’re on the topic of performing, ” Roman said. “One thing I would like to see more of. Songs!” Then Roman started to clap. “WE! NEED! MORE! MUSICAL NUMBERS!”

Roman did jazz hands as some clips of the music numbers showed up, which got Pincey excited. “Musical numbers!” He exclaimed happily.

"As a theatre kid-"

"Theater man. I'm an adult man."

"I feel musically constipated! I mean, you know how hard it is to talk about the last five years and not make a Jason Robert Brown reference?" Roman explained and then laughed. "That's for the fellow theatre kids out there!"

"The songs are fine." Virgil said as he appeared on screen. Then he smirked. "If you don't count the Twelve Days of Christmas rewrite."

Janus was looking at his glove covered nails before turning back to Video Thomas. "Oh, yes. The songs. The musical numbers that you all break into." Janus said. "Emphasis on you all, because I have been absent from every one. I couldn't be more happy about that." Despite his words, all five of them could tell how false they were.

Virgil smirked. "Ask Janus about our song ‘Lies’." He requested.

The next scene made Thomas and the Sides jump when they saw a red faced Janus on screen. 

“IT WAS A SONG ABOUT LIES!” Janus yelled, his human side red of anger. Everyone jumped again as he continued to shout, “AND I WASN’T THERE FOR IT!”

Thomas pauses the video and everyone stares at the mad reptile character.

“Well, he looks upset.” Thomas said, surprised.

The emo was in shock. “I thought that he would be fine with it…”

“I thought that he was evil!” Creativity exclaimed.  “He’s not…” Anxiety said. “He’s just not a good friend.”

Logic was about to ask Anxiety what he meant, but the dark side put up his hoodie and curled up into a ball. Clearly not wanting to talk about it.

“Hmm! Well, I think we should move on.” Logic said.

Thomas nodded and pressed play, hoping that things wouldn't get worse.

Roman was on the screen. “Wai- hold on shut up, what did Virgil say about my Twelve Days Of Christmas rewrite?” Roman asked angrily. "This is about the Bubblegum Shrimp thing, isn't it? Look, the muse doesn't always come to visit." He explains. "I can't be expected to pump out metaphors and similes like some... simile making... thing!" Roman pointed at his mouth “SEE?!” before he continued,  "The shrimp line was a last minute addition, and I have no clue where it came from!"

Remus looks like he just remembered something. “Oh yeah, I whispered that to him in his sleep.”

“Wait- WHAT!?” Princey shouts, pointing at the screen. “Is that how I got the Dark Side Of Disney?!”

Thomas looks over to him, “Oh! That sounds interesting.”

Roman waved his hands to cool himself. “I need to cool off!” Roman said, calming down a bit. “Switching topics! If this is our little ‘cast special’, shouldn’t we talk about the newest addition to our cast?”

"Newest addition?" Video Thomas asked.

“Thomas...” Roman whispered but then he got louder as he continued, "I'm talking about Nicooooooo~!!!!"

"Nico?" Thomas and the Sides jinxed, looking at each other. They looked back at the screen in hopes of an explanation.

"Oh gosh! Roman!" Video Thomas blushes hard, covering his face with his hands. 

There were a few animated clips of a man with glasses alongside Video Thomas. A handsome man to be exact. 

Thomas stares for a second, but he reminds himself that he’s already with someone.

Roman smiles at Video Thomas. "Ey, come on Thomas!" He exclaimed. "Hey, I know I'm getting along a little better with Scareamore, but he needs to let me speed things up a bit, alright? We should be on, like, a millionth base with Nico already!"

Virgil looked so done and confused. "Yea pff, a millionth base, ok what is that?" He asked, exasperated. "Space marriage officiated by Gandolf and ****ing Dumbledore?”

“That’s exactly what it is.” Roman said, amazed and unexpected. “Wow! He got like, right on the money.”

“That’s true.” Princey said, surprised. He looked at Anxiety. “How did you know?” 

Anxiety shrugged. “I have no clue,” he answered. “Really, I don’t.”

They looked back at the screen.

Patton looked like he remembered someone as he giggled. “Oh yeah, Nico!” Patton exclaimed then he trailed off. "He, he seems… nice… looking forward to getting to know him!"

"Why do I sound so unsure?" Morality asked. "And who IS this Nico?"

Thomas nodded, trying to remember if he knows a Nico. 

He got nothing. 

"Yeah. I don't know who this Nico is." Thomas said after a moment. "Also! I'm already with someone."

All the sides nodded.

Logan appears to be considering the new topic.

"I am intrigued to know what his interests may consist of.” Logan explained. "Maybe math, sports, Metal Viking- sorry! Viking Metal.”

“Isn’t that what Talyin enjoys?” Logic asked.

Thomas nodded. “They do enjoy that,” he said. “Maybe they showed us a song that they enjoy and we end up liking it.”

Logic hummed and nodded.

Virgil adjusted in his seat, looking uncomfortable. "Okay. You know, can I be honest about something?" Virgil said, uncomfortable. "I know that we've all moved past it, but that time we were still pretending to be straight, and you all were flirting with a fake Valerie? Still haunts me..."

Thomas paused the video and looked at Anxiety.

“What, does Valerie make you uncomfortable?”  Thomas asked, worriedly.

The emo shook his head. “No… it's just us not being…” Anxiety didn’t finish that sentence because everyone knew the answer. 

Thomas noticed that Anxiety didn't like this topic. 

“That’s understandable.” he said, pressing to continue.

They saw a clip of everyone talking, possibly flirting, to Valerie appears in the corner.

Video Thomas chuckled. 

"Well, I think that I was going for more like a sexually ambiguous, uh, it wasn't that bad." Video Thomas said. He started to laugh but then stopped short at the lack of reaction from off screen. "...Right?"

Patton appears, grimacing in distaste.

Logan, who is holding a GIGANTIC wine glass, sighs. "Not our most feminist moment." He said before taking a sip.

"I thought about it every day." Virgil said, very tense.

"Okay well, we'll make better memories and we'll forget about it eventually, hopefully.” Video Thomas said.

Virgil shakes his head, clearly not believing Video Thomas.

Thomas hums and pauses the video to hear the others' response. 

Logic and Morality are too uncomfortable to speak.

"Were they talking about the few Vines that we did with Valerie? Or will that be in the future?" Princey asked. "Because we’ve done a few Vines with girls before and didn’t Thomas date one-"

“PRINCEY! I’M GOING TO STOP YOU RIGHT THERE!” Anxiety shouted, his voice booming off the walls and causing everyone to jump. “IF YOU KEEP GOING, I’LL GET YOUR BROTHER’S MACE AND-!” 

A soft saxophone playing a creepy tune interrupts him. All the sides’ eyes widen at the tune growing louder, louder, louder.

“I MEAN MORNING STAR!” Anxiety shouted over the tune. Then he cleared his throat, his voice going back to normal, “I mean your brother’s morning star, Princey.”

Then the saxophone playing the creepy tune faded away, which calmed the room as it left. 

Princey smiled nervously and said, “I’ll not talk about it then.” He looked at Thomas. “May we continue, please?”

Thomas nodded and pressed play, ‘What just happened?’ he thought, concernedly.

Patton smiled and pointed offscreen at Video Thomas.

“If we are talking new memories, then maybe when you get a puppy? Like a real puppy? That will be my favourite moment!” Patton exclaimed happily.

A clip of Patton holding a puppy in his hoodie and Roman holding two of the adorable things pops up in the corner, both sides clearly happy to hold them.

The seated Patton looked like he’s on the verge of tears. “Ooh… I miss having a pet.”

It then cuts to Janus who is looking decidedly annoyed.

“Why does everyone care so much about what happened to Sacagawea the Hamster?!” Janus exclaimed angrily. Then he looked at the camera and said, “Folks, she’s gone. She mysteriously disappeared and no one has a clue where she went.”

Then he points at the top of his head with his left pointer finger and his other finger over his mouth. “Shh.”

Video Thomas looked at Janus and at his hat. “Are you implying that she’s under your hat?” he asked.

“No, I’m implying that you all use your brains.” Janus explained, still pointing at the top of his head. “She’s gone!” Then Janus tries not to smile.

Thomas started to notice something. “Wait, where is Sacagawea the Hamster?” Thomas asked, his eyes widened as he pressed pause. Anxiety smiled. “Should I go after Deceit and see if she’s under his hat?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Maybe later.” Thomas said as he unpaused the video.

Video Thomas leaned back a bit as he said, “I know that we had a lot of successes in the past five years,” then he leaned forward, “but do you have any regrets?” Video Thomas almost slipped when he leaned too forward.

Virgil was looking up as he was thinking.

“Do I have any regrets? Hmm?” Virgil asked himself. Then he got a scroll out and let the bottom part out to show a LONG list. “Do you want me to go alphabetically or-”

Roman looked surprised. 

“What? Me? Regret?” he asked, putting a hand on himself. Then he started to laugh but then stopped as he picked up a photo. 

It was a wedding cake.

“I have one regret…” Roman said, putting a hand on the photo.

Video Thomas looked at the photo, confused. 

“Wait, that doesn’t look like Lee and Mary Lee’s wedding.” Video Thomas said.  “Did you print out a stock image?”

Everyone jumped when an angry Roman shouted, “You didn’t take any photos!” Then Roman points at the photo as he continues, “I needed something to look upon whilst I lament!”

“Is that the reason for the ‘Don’t use the call back’ thing?” Princey asked, confused. “A wedding?”

Everyone shrugged. 

“Could be.” Logic replied. “We don’t know until it happens.”

Logan appeared onscreen.

“I do regret throwing that paper at puppet Roman.” Logan said after a moment. 

A clip of Logan throwing a piece of paper at a puppet Roman and the puppet covered his eye that the paper hit.

“It was immature of me.” Logan continued, looking not so proud of himself.

The scene cuts back to Roman. 

“Oh! I wish that I had thrown paper at Logan first!” Roman said excitedly. “That would have been sweet!”

Patton had a questionable look on his face.

“Regrets? Oh, I have a few,” Patton said, admitting, “like not sharing my feelings with the others, especially when I was sad.”

A clip of the sides in the living room but it was lighter and the clip of Patton, looking sad, at his spot, that showed bed curtains instead of white blinds.

“We could have had so many boys' nights.” Patton said, almost sad. Then he gasped, “With ice cream!”

Mortality nodded. “Yeah… That is true…” he said quietly. Anxiety looked at him and gave an awkward hug. Mortality smiled softly at him and hugged him back. “I’m okay, kiddo.” he reassured him.

They continued to watch after the hug.

Virgil was reading off of the list, “I also regret starting Logan off on that whole falsehood bit.”

A clip of Logan shouting, “FALSEHOOD!!!”

That made everyone jump.

Remus was drinking the ‘Anti Spoiler Spray’. When he was done, he was having an allergic reaction.

“Regrets?” he asked horsley, scratching at his neck fast.

“Yeah, I don’t know why I asked you that question,” Video Thomas said, “my bad.”

Then the screen cut back to Virgil, who was still reading off of the list.

Virgil started, “Also the-” then he started to gag but continued, “boiled carrots.”

A clip of Nico holding a fast food bag that has the name King Karrots and giving it to Video Thomas. 

Maybe that’s how they will meet or it’s a date?

Patton appeared on the screen again. Excpt with the cardigan on his shoulders instead of the cat hoodie.

“Gosh, one huge regret I have is,” Patton started, but then his voice changed to the voice of Janus, “a lack of attention… to detail.”

Video Thomas was almost caught off guard.

“Oh, Janus!” Video Thomas said with a smile. “Don’t be so tough on yourself.”

Janus, who was still disguised as Patton, changed the cardigan to the cat hoodie on his shoulders.

“No, it’s alright.” Janus said reassuringly, a smile on his face. “I’ve grown.”

Video Thomas’ smile faded away as he said, “Oh… great…”

Anxiety pointing at the screen, smiling.

“I called it!” Anxiety shouted. “I knew that it was Deceit!” 

Everyone looked at him. “What?” Anxiety asked. “I’ve known him for years too.”

Thomas nodded. “Okay.” he said.

Everyone was quiet as they looked back at the screen as the video continued.

Then it was Virgil's turn, who was still on the list. 

"And lastly, yeah, yeah. Achieving consciousness." Virgil said, putting the scroll away. "That was a big one."

Everyone looked at Anxiety as he said, “It's a long story. Let’s just watch the video.”

Roman sighed.

“It’s amazing how much has changed in five years. I’d like to think that I’ve grown…” the prince on screen said, almost sounding sad. “It’s been nice getting to know each other better, at least. Like Patton… and Logan… and Virgil.” Roman sounded happier when he said Virgil’s name.

Patton looked like a proud dad.

“Virgil has come a long way.” the fatherly side said proudly, smiling. “I hope he knows how much we love him.”

Logan looked somewhat proud of Virgil.

“We couldn’t function without him,” the teacher on the screen said, "as we saw."

The next scene showed Logan yelling “Think fast!” and throwing a laptop at Video Thomas, who had a gray hoodie up and was unbothered by the hit. Patton and Roman were shocked by Video Thomas not being bothered with being hit. “That really hurt.” Video Thomas said, smiling.

“Can that happen?” Anxiety asked, surprised. “I guess it can.” Logic replied, sounding shocked. 

'I guess Anxiety is good.' Thomas said, humming. 'And without Anxiety, I would be just chill that I wouldn't know what would hurt me or not. Like in the video.'

Virgil looked a bit uncomfortable. 

“Oh. Gross.” the emo on the screen said. “I don’t know what I'm supposed to say to that," Then Virgil looked away as he continued, "I guess it's nice to know that they think they feel that way."

Thomas was taken back and looked at Anxiety. 

The emo looked confused.

Thomas looked back at the screen when he heard Patton awning something.

“We’re like a big family!” Patton exclaimed happily and then he pointed at himself. "And I'm the dad! And Logan's the mom!"

Then Logan appeared on the screen with a wine bottle with glass on top of it. "Why am I the mom?" Logan asked confusedly. "What gender roles are we pushing here?"

Thomas noticed that there were words on the bottle. It reads "Finally a wine glass that fits my needs."

Then he hears Logic asking Morality, "Do you really see me as the mom?"

Morality explained, "You act like a mom who sometimes likes juice." 

Virgil looked not convinced.

"I know they're probably thinking I'm like the son, but I'm not." Virgil said, pointing at Video Thomas. Then he points to the side. "I'll be the gay emo cousin."

Then Roman appeared, pointing at himself.

"I'll be the son!" Roman exclaimed. "The hotshot, whose dream is to be… a star…" Roman sounded sad at the end.

Thomas looked at the sides.

Princy had a sad face and Anxiety looked mortified. 

“I’m not going to ask,” Thomas said, “because the looks on both of your faces say it all.”

Remus was shrugging as he said, "I feel like I'd be a fresh outta jail uncle."

Janus had a wine glass. 

"And I'm the sassy aunt, who talks **** about everyone." He said before sipping his glass.

Thomas hummed as he pressed pause to hear what the side's commitments were going to be.

Anxiety hummed. "Deceit and Duke sound like them." 

Everyone nodded.

Thomas pressed continue.

Video Thomas laughed for a moment. "I know this is a pretty intense question to ask," he started. Then he leaned forward with a serious look on his face. "What do you think will be next for us?"

Thomas and his Sides were on the edge of their seats as they watched the screen.

Logan had his arms crossed his chest. "You tell me."

Roman looked like it was a joke.

"We seal the deal with Nico and we live happily ever after." He said, laughing softly. "It's simple."

Patton had a lot on his mind.

"I think things are just going to keep getting better, right? " Patton said, looking at Video Thomas. "If we keep communicating."

Virgil shrugged and smiled a smug smile.

"Probably something that I'm going to hate." Virgil said openly.

"Oh, who's to say, heartbreak, betrayal." Janus said, listing the things that can happen. "You won't be bored, I can tell you that."

‘I don't know if I should be excited or worried.’ Thomas thought nervously.

Remus had a comforting and softer look.

"And I shall be learning to better receive acceptance and praise.” Remus said, sounding innocent.

That touched Thomas and his video self.

“Wow, Remus.” Video Thomas said, putting both hands over his heart. He was smiling at him like proud.  “That sounds healthy and productive.” 

“Thank you.” Remus said, nodding to him. But then the feeling of uncomfort and his voice changed back to his normal tone and said, “Excpt Acceptance and Praise are the names of my-”

An air horn blares loudly, causing Thomas and the others to scream. Thomas pressed pause and looked around to see what made the sound. 

Anxiety was holding the air horn. “You don’t want to know, Sanders.” he said threatenly. 

The host nodded slowly and pressed play.

For a moment, Remus was holding two things that were censored.

"Okay!" Video Thomas exclaimed, probably to stop Remus saying anymore. 

Then he looked at the camera. "And that's my cue to wrap this up." he said, smiling before looking offscreen. "Thank you for talking with me, guys. I seriously don't know where I'd be without you."

Thomas felt happy from his future self saying those words.

"There's not much else to say except," Video Thomas continued, smiling and opened his arms out to the Sides, "Happy 5th anniversary!"

"Happy 5th anniversary!" The Sides on the screen exclaimed while Remus said something else. 

All that Thomas heard that Remus said was "-ick surgeries!"

The others looked confused and looked at Remus as The dark creativity on screen  asked, "What did everyone else say?"

"I guess I should not know, right?" Thomas chuckled confusedly.

The four sides nodded. “It’s best not to.” Anxiety said somewhat happily.

The camera was in front of Video Thomas, smiling big. 

"So yeah, a special might look a little something like that!" Video Thomas explains. "A walk down memory lane, saturated with too many self-referential jokes and anecdotes that would surely ostracise any non-fan watching." 

Thomas chuckled softly. He knew that not everyone would like the series but he wanted to share this series. He hoped that his Sides knew that too. 

Video Thomas sighed, "But we really have gone through so many changes. I mean, heck, compare Logan's behaviour at the start of the series to now-" then he stopped himself. "Sorry, nope. Done with the self-referential anecdotes."

"Yeah. I'm wondering what happened to everyone." Logic said. He sounded concerned.

Everyone nodded. 

"Well, we do change and learn." Thomas said softly.

Video Thomas continued, "I guess what it's got me thinking is how will they change in the years to come? How will they grow? How will I grow? How will any of us grow?" Video Thomas paused for a moment. "Of course there's no knowing how we're growing. All we can do is keep an open mind and open heart. And keep on checking in with ourselves.”

Thomas and the sides leaned in because of the expense of the pause.

Video Thomas smiled softly as he continued, "Because we still might not know if we know ourselves as well as we could."

That left an imprint in Thomas and the Sides. 'That’s good to know.' Thomas thought happily.

"Aw!" Morality cooed softly. 

"He does have a point." Anxiety and Logic said union, pointing at the screen.

"We'll be ready for it!" Princey said, raising his sword. Logic moved his arm, so it didn't get cut. 

Video Thomas smiled at the camera as he said, "Take it easy guys, gals, and non-binary pals!"

"Peace out!" Thomas said with Video Thomas. The Sides chuckled softly as he did that.

Thomas couldn't help himself, he just enjoys saying it.

The screen on the computer was black for a moment before it showed a sky full of stars appeared on screen along with a few words.

"Would you like to escape to a wonderful world?" An announcer, who almost sounded like Roman, said, reading the words on screen.

Soft magical music played as an animation played and a boot appeared on screen. Then it shows a man in a red vest, who's probably being played by Thomas, walking through the woods. 

"With heros, villains, and more to unfurl?"

It showed a different character with purple hair, who was NOT being played by Thomas, was singing a tune before looking at the character while the character looked back at him.

"Ridiculous battles and super cool magic. Perhaps dare I say something angsty and tragic?"

The two characters looked at each other and raised their swords.

"Prepare yourself for" the narrator said and paused supper effects.

Both characters were on top of a some sort of monster as they slay it with their swords. A burst of light flashed on screen when they slayed and the title appeared:

“Roleslaying with Roman”

The next shot showed a paper character of the red vest person on a board game. Then a 12-sided dice rolled on screen as the scene ended. 

Princey gave a fangirl scream, making everyone in the room cover their own ears. “I get my own series!” he yelled excitedly. 

“Yes… You do.” everyone said, staring at him in surprise. The Sides talked about what they saw. One of the things was, “I like the purple guy’s hair.”

Thomas couldn’t help but think about the purple hair character. ‘Why does that character remind me of Terrance?’

They all look back at the screen when Video Thomas, who was wearing a different shirt, popped up on screen.

“Hope that you all enjoyed that trailer, ‘cause I’m excited. ” Video Thomas said, smiling big. “I don’t know why I added that, but I was excited!” he laughed with some people offscreen.

The end card came up as Video  Thomas continued, “And I hope that you enjoyed this video!” Then he talked about the writer’s room about the script of this with the jokes and stuff. 

He asked if anyone was interested in joining the writer’s room to check it out at Patreon. He also mentions a calendar based on the Sander Sides.

A hand did pop up a few when Video Thomas said ‘hand’, which was funny.

Thomas and the sides were very confused about this Patreon thing.

“What is Patreon?” Thomas asked. The sides shrugged.

“Alright, that’s enough announcements.” Video Thomas said, happily. “I’ll let you go. Thank you again for every bit of support that you have provided these past five years. I love you all so much! I’ve said ‘goodbye’ enough. Bye” 

Video Thomas sank out of screen.

Then he popped back up again and said, “and that last ‘goodbye’ doesn’t count.” and then he went back down again.

“Well, that was interesting.” Thomas chuckled softly. 

The sides nodded. “Agreed.”

Thomas was about to close the laptop but stopped when he heard scary music being played from it. 

He opened it back up again.

Thomas looked at the screen with the Sides as the screen showed an unremarkable orange sitting on the chair. 

‘What-?’ Thomas thought confusedly but it was interrupted by Anxiety screaming. 

And the next thing Thomas knew was that Anxiety was running from Princey, who had his sword out.

"WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!" Princey shouted at Anxiety while the emo ran, screaming more.

Mortality ran after them. Thomas was very confused as Logic continued to sit next to him, rubbing his forehead. "...I need a drink." Thomas and Logic bemoaned.

○

In the morning, Joan and Talyn walked into the apartment to find Thomas on the couch, passed out. They went to make sure that he's okay and not dead. 

He's good and alive, but far from sober.

Joan and Talyn looked at each other. “You take him to his room and I look at the laptop to see if anything is messed up.” Talyn said quickly before Joan said anything. “Why me?” Joan asked, looking at them as they walked to the couch. 

“Have you seen how BIG he is compared to me?” Talyn asked with some sass, picking up the laptop. 

“Good point.” Joan replied, pointing at them. They picked Thomas up and started to get an arm around their shoulder. "I got you buddy."  They said as they walked him up the stairs.

“More than four sides...” Thomas mumbled as they walked up the stairs. “For what? Sanders sides?” Joan asked, looking at him. Thomas nodded with a smile. “YEAH!” he shouted. Joan winched at that, which made Thomas frowned.

“Sorry…”

“It’s okay, Thomas.” Joan reassured him as they got into Thomas’ room. Thomas listed some things for the show while Joan listened to him as they got him to bed.

Joan got Thomas to bed and went to get water and medicine for him. Joan puts the objects on the bedside table, Thomas smiles at them.

“You’re a good friend.” Thomas said before going to sleep.

Joan chuckled and smiled softly. ”You’re a good friend too.” they said, as they left the room.

Joan started to think about what Thomas said as they walked back to Talyn. ‘Maybe. We could do that.’ they thought, a smile growing on their face.

▪▪▪

Author's note: Happy Anniversary of Sanders Sides!

[typically-untypical]

Echoes of the Past - Day 4

Prompt:  “Imagination, of course, can open any door - turn the key and let terror walk right in.”

CW: Morally grey leaning dark Patton

There was a part of Janus that knew this was a bad idea; part of him was aware that opening this door would cause chaos that couldn't be undone, horrors that couldn't be reigned in. He hesitated, fingers hanging over the doorknob. It would be better if there were literally any other way, but he was out of options. Everything he had tried thus far had failed. No one was listening. Every path he wanted to take was shut down, no matter how sound his logic was. He needed an ally. He needed someone who would be listened too, who would scream so loudly that no one could ignore it.

Janus turned the knob. He needed...

"Remus?"

"Ohhh...." He heard a sinister voice from the back of the room, a shifting sound coming towards him. The noises sounding anything but human. "So you've decided to open the cage and let the monster out." Remus laughed a dark deep chuckle. His face suddenly appeared out of the darkness staring Janus down. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

Self-preservation looked at him, swallowing hard and nodding. He wasn't afraid of Remus, no, with the right promises and right lies, Remus could be contained. Beyond that, Remus was a necessary force. He had been hidden for so long because Thomas wasn't willing or ready to know. Janus was going to take that choice away.

He knew he was doing the right thing, but he was still concerned about the aftermath. He had no idea what might happen if he opened the door and let the storm consume everything. Fires can be used in a forest's ecosystem, but unchecked, they consume everything. Janus could only hope he could keep Remus in check.

Without a word, he nodded. He knew what he was doing. He was as prepared for the consequences as he would ever be.

"Well then buddy. Let's have some fun," Remus cackled, slipping out of the room and leaving destruction in his wake. 

It only took a few minutes for the common room to become unrecognizable, couch over turned, rug shredded, pictures broken and hanging sidways. Janus was going to miss the precise order he had had things in. He would miss the shadows he had specifically arranged to make certain that things were hidden, but watching as Remus shot up the stairs towards the light, making his way into the other's domain, he couldn't find it in himself to care. For so long Patton had sequestered them to the basement, giving them nothing but scraps to live on. For so long, Janus had to claw and fight to be heard. It was time he took his revenge, time he finally let himself and the others be seen.

He began to straighten up the living room, even if it was a useless effort it made him feel better. He knew what he was doing, but that didn't mean the nagging concern didn't sit in the back of his mind. He was self-preservation, he didn't let Remus out of his cage lightly. Still, knowing that the chaos Remus brought might actually help them, all of them, removed a weight from Janus' shoulders. He had never wanted to be anyone's keeper. He had never wanted to drown in the secrets.

"I see you saw fit to release intrusive thoughts." The voice was sickly sweet with a hint of hidden anger; Janus did his best to keep his cool.

"He has a name." They all did, and it was important, and respectful to remember that. 

Setting down a broken picture frame he had been picking up. He turned to watch the baby blue clad figure walking towards him. Janus was still surprised by how much he had changed over the years. He had taken on a weight he shouldn't have carried either, but it had made Patton cold and cruel.

"Does he now." Patton stopped at the bottom of the stairs, looking Janus over. "Either way, he doesn't belong up there." Patton's voice was cold but Janus was no stranger to weeding out lies. He could see the strain and stress in the way he shifted and moved. "Neither of you belong up there."

"Aren't you tired?" Janus asked. "Aren't you tired of always fighting, always trying to be perfect." He took a step closer, Patton's hand held the banister tightly. "I am not saying you have to relinquish complete control, but you should let go, even just a little bit. I think you will feel better when you do."

"I can't," Patton responded immediately, not even thinking about Janus' words, and that was the problem wasn't it.

"If I'm not perfect, Thomas won't be perfect."

"So what if he isn't?" Janus asked, taking another step forward, and Patton looked at him for the first time in years, actually looked at him. "Thomas is allowed to not be perfect. If he keeps trying to reach that goal it will always be out of reach." Janus held out his hand. "Please Patton, Let go," He said softly.

There was a moment between them, just a few breaths where neither of them spoke.

"I can't," Patton finally whispered, turning around to walk back up the stairs. "Gather him back up before I have to do something I will regret." His fingers turned white as he gripped the banister, holding it tightly. 

"Please Jay... I'm really trying to do what's best for Thomas here. Why can't you see that?"

And Janus knew that was what Patton believed, but he didn't see the destruction he was leaving behind. 

"That's what caused our fracture in the first place, isn't it?" Janus asked. "We both have very different views about what we believe is best for Thomas."

Patton went quiet again, and then he began walking away, leaving Janus behind. "I guess we do," He muttered, still loud enough that Janus could hear him before the door was closed between them.

This was the aftermath Janus hadn't been looking forward to, but this was also exactly what was needed.

Patton was crumbling, the others would follow, maybe then they would notice the harm they were all doing to themselves.

@simplestoryteller @fantasticfangirl21 @joylessnightsky @melaniidarling @tsshipmonth2020

[irishspringsoap]

TDLR; I'm trying to find this fic I read ages ago (TW: Abuse, Unsympathetic Patton)

I never post anything but shit is driving me absolutely insane. I read this fic maybe a year ago and it was unfinished/discontinued but I still liked reading it. Now I can't find it (don't remember the name to use the way back machine) so I'm just gonna describe it and hope someone knows what I'm talking about.

Unsympathetic Patton but Sympathetic everyone else. Virgil was a light side but the drama between the dark/light sides was somewhat made up for show, the only person who truly disliked them was Patton.

Patton's like super manipulative and controlling and is always watching Logan, Roman, and Virgil. It gets to the point where physical punishments/abuse is involved so Virgil tries to get Patton to focus it all on just him because "One hurt side is better than three hurt sides" (only quote I remember).

It gets super bad for Virgil to the point where he doesn't even fully realize that what's happening is wrong anymore, Patton has fully convinced him that he's doing it to make him "good". He even cuts off Janus and Remus because Patton convinced him they were "bad". He's also constantly concussed and bruised with broken bones.

Logan and Roman start plotting to get help from the other sides who are completely unaware that Patton is like this. I think Roman hides a code in a poem and gives it to Remus and he and Deciet figure it out.

The fic left off with them defeating Patton and finding out that he wasn't actually Morality. I can't remember what his function actually was (maybe rage?), but he kept actual morality (the orange side) locked up in the subconscious.

At the end there's also Virgil covered in casts and fighting being treated by Emile (I think, it could've been Remy??) because Patton had taught him that he needed his injuries to stay unhealed because he was still "bad". They all end up having to restrain and sedate him when Janus and Remus walk in/he realizes they won't let him see Patton.

If anyone knows the name of this fic, please lmk! I've been looking for it for ages

[ask-the-t-sanders-sides]

{For Logan, Virgil, Roman, Remus, and OJ}

*they hear a voice*

GUYSSSSSSSSSS. PATTON HAS LOST HIS MEMORY. HE THINKS HE'S JUST MORALITY AND THAT HE DOESN'T HAVE A NAME! I DON'T THINK HE'S EVIL ANYMORE EITHER. . . . . . . . .

*the voice pauses for a bit*

And I may have caused it. . . .

*the voice seems proud but also sad*

Sooooo. . . yeah. . . .

{Viva <333}

"oh good!" Cronus exclaimed sarcastically. He still hates Patton

"is he like.. alive? Is he okay? I kinda of feel bad for what I did..." Roman confessed, looking down at himself, remembering how he stabbed Patton and Janus blindly. He was angry, he was furious, he.. wait hang on he's standing right next to Rage, what the- "wait hold on- Cronus did you know I was gonna do that??" Roman questioned

"uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......... Maybe" Rage responded, smiling 'innocently' like a little kid hiding the fact they drew all of the walls of that same room they're standing in. What I mean is, Cronus obviously knew, and tried to cover it up without really lying.

[i-am-bitterly-jittery]

Consider this:

Logan only knows things that Thomas knows. Everything that Logan says is a repetition of things that Thomas learned at some point or another, even if he doesn’t actively remember it anymore

Now that isn’t a hot take, we all know that Logan contains things Thomas has learned

But what I want to stress is that he ONLY knows things that Thomas has learned. Logan can not retain information on the other Sides unless Thomas knows it too.

Logan could be told that Morality’s name is Patton, but that information would never stick until Thomas himself learned that Morality’s name is Patton. He could have been told time and time again, and he’d forget as soon as it was said

That’s why Patton first said Logan’s name instead of Logan himself, because Logan didn’t know his own name until Thomas did, but Patton could know because Patton is Morality, not Logic, he runs emotion, not knowledge

So now imagine the other Sides trying to tell Logan something, but he can’t remember it cuz Thomas doesn’t know it, so they eventually get so frustrated that they appear to Thomas and just randomly tell him what they were trying to tell Logan, but without any context, and then they sink out without explaining any of this to Thomas so he’s just really confused

Virgil: my spider’s name is Shadow

Logan: what?

Virgil: Shadow

Logan: what?

Virgil: Sha-dow

Logan: what?

Virgil: *suddenly appears in Thomas’s living room*

Virgil: MY SPIDER’S NAME IS SHADOW!

An unsuspecting Thomas: w-what?

Virgil: *sinks out*

Logan: ah yes, Shadow, go on

[annaizscribbling]

I WANT TO KNOW!!! ABOUT ELLIE!!! i wanna know about the pink girl!!! shes very cute and sweet (and reminds me a lot of patton kinda) and i want to know more about her.

first of all, when i think of her i kinda think of jules from euphoria, but like in her pastel stages when she wasnt fucked up (/pos). shes so bubblegum. like, hubba bubba girl, yknow?

can i learn a little about her home life? what inspired her to be the way she is? shes been very fluffy since she was a child, clearly, but why? why not be angry at the world?

also you may already have talked about this but i havent scrolled through ur entire calypsokimm tag so i dont know, how did she meet the other girls?

I love Ellie so very much and will happily talk about her <3 fair warning I don't have quite as much backstory laid out for her like I do for Calypso (Cal has the most complex story by far, for obvious reasons, but the other's all have stories, most are just not as detailed/still in development) but there is still going to be so much.

I haven't watched euphoria do idk Jules outside of like, pretty pictures, but I can confirm that Ellie is very hubba bubba bubblegum girl

As I've mentioned in passing, my OCs were originally going to my own sides, but I very quickly decided I could do more with them as their own people. Ellie was set to be the bulk of my emotions, my vulnerability, and my more childish tendencies. I did not want one side to be morality, because I would have given that job to Logic/Athena, which probably tells you something about me as a person lol.

But she would have taken on Patton's character type, as bubbly, oblivious, honest, childish, and angelic in terms of virtue.

Most of the girls have names that fit them perfectly because of like origins and meanings and even what countries they came from, but not Ellie. I looked it up just now, and it means 'light' which is surprisingly fitting for her.

The reason I named her Ellie was simply after my childhood dog. She (the dog) is very old now, but still with us and deeply loved. We first got her when I was around seven or so, and at the time, I adored the name, and always loved to play pretend using it as my character. When we got the dog, my brother suggested it and here we are 11 years later.

All of my girls embody different parts of me, quite literally, because that was the original plan. Ellie literally has the name I used to play pretend with as a kid, and is the name of my oldest pet.

She's unique in that way, as well as her color scheme even. She's color coded with light blue (nod to pat) and pink. Her hair is dyed blue save the ends, which are still her natural brown for some reason.

As for her personality, Ellie is incredibly sunny. She lights up the room as soon as she walks in, she's so good at charming people with earnest conversation and an easy going excitable nature that draws people in. She's lighthearted, funny, giggly, and has a special knack for understanding people. She can be impulsive, wild, and high energy at all times. Sometimes she's reckless, filled with a deep wonder and adoration for the world around her and the things within it. She feels like she's bubbling over with a profound joy for everything around her.

The world is beautiful, to Ellie. It's gorgeous and overwhelming, but so so worth it.

She can be observant, but only when it comes to a person's character, how they work, what they like, and the things that make them special. She won't notice the new curtains or remember what she had breakfast or lots of other basic things that drive Athena to the brink of insanity, but she knows Athena's tells for when she's especially upset, or the sweater she wears when she's thinking about her boyfriend, or even the food she makes when she didn't sleep well the night before. Ellie is good at people, she understands them on a deep and empathic level, she just doesn't notice that she ran another red light by mistake.

Her emotional intelligence comes across as older than she is. In her late twenties, she manages to carry both her almost innocent giddy personality and her very calm, mature, almost ancient understanding of anyone she comes across. She cares, in an honest and loving way that's so genuine it's nearly startling. She almost effortlessly knows how to comfort people, whatever your love language is when you need it, or even what type of person you need. She can be tender and motherly, she can be playful like a sibling, supportive like a friend, or just a loving figure who'll listen to you when you have nobody else.

She's the closest with Bree, but Ellie is good friends with all of her roommates. She makes a point of coaxing Athena and Luna especially into being more open, and she's managed to get them to open up more, so they're able to have friendships where they can all be vulnerable, even where they hate it.

Ellie really is a special person, on some level she knows it. It isn't through grand gestures or a global impact. She doesn't really care too much about leaving her mark on the world or being infamous. Ellie is just different, she understands people. She loves them. She is unique

Alright I'll give some actual background now. It'll explain some of that.

Ellie grew up pretty middle class, her parents had a rocky relationship even before she came along, but they kept their struggling relationship under wraps and just stewed. Ellie was an only child, as her parents quickly realized that having a child didn't fix anything for them, and having another would just be more difficult.

Ellie would never grow up feeling loved by her mother and father.

She was always provided basic necessities as well as entertainment, but was never close or even wanted around her parents, not unless they were in public.

Her parents weren't rich, but were well established in their social circles. They came from a very large extended family with high expectations for how well a family should get along. From neighborhoods, coworkers, friends, and family, it was important to Ellie's family that they looked like the ideal family.

From as young as six years old, Ellie knew when to smile, when it was okay to hug her parents, and when she was expected to sit in her father's lap or hide behind her mom's leg. It never felt real to her, it just felt right. Mom and Dad smiled and laughed with her in public, dad would scoop her up, bouncing her and saying something silly whenever grandma was watching them. Mom would nod when Ellie made a cute comment to Mom's friend. They never said it explicitly, Ellie just learned what was expected of her, what made Mom and Dad happy.

And Ellie really wanted them to be happy.

They fought and screamed at home. They hated eating dinner together, it always ended up so tense and snappy when they did. Ellie didn't understand the numbers and names they were talking about but they made everything scarier. She never knew when the air would break and it would become a true fight. Ellie would be tersely sent to the other room, and Ellie would sit far back on the couch with her hands in her lap, fists around her dress, and her eyes locked straight ahead. She tried desperately not to hear it, or think about it. It was too scary to listen to the yelling.

She wasn't sure if she loved how they seemed to love her when they weren't fighting, or if she just feared the anxiety that rose and bubbled in her chest when they fought.

So she learned. She learned to do good things. if she cleaned the kitchen, Daddy wasn't as annoyed when he came home. If she complimented Mom's body a whole bunch, she'd be lighter, and less likely to start snapping at Dad. She memorized all of their favorite movies and books, so she could always bring them up or play them on TV. It was a quick way to distract them after dinner, if they made it through dinner at all.

They liked when she was cute and quiet. They liked when she made simple friends and did easy activities with them. They liked when she did arts and crafts to put on the fridge. They liked when she was curious about all the right parts of their jobs. They liked when she made safe lighthearted jokes, but only when the mood was correct.

Ellie learned all of the subjects that set Dad off. Ellie learned what tones lead Mom down an angrier path. She learned when and where to interrupt before either parent upset the other.

When she was ten, her father ended up getting a hefty promotion. It changed their dynamic, for the better at first, but everything quickly came back to the stressful everyday life she was so accustomed to.

Then she met Bree, one of her new neighbors.

Ellie had always worked hard to keep herself under control. Make sure all of her qualities were kept under wraps and easy to digest. She kept her positivity dialed all the way up, kept herself as quiet as possible, and never pursued anything impulsive, loud, adventurous, or unpredictable. There was a deep longing inside of her, that wanted nothing more than to throw on her favorite neon blue cardigan and run barefoot through the park, play with other kids, die laughing at a schoolmate, get messy in the mud on a rainy day, finally listen to loud music and scream it without caring who hears, and do things at the drop of a hat.

As desperately as she wanted it, none of that was an option, not in her family. She wasn't sure if she was angry, even as an adult reflecting on it, she's not sure. Adult Ellie might be angry on her younger self's behalf, but little Ellie wasn't angry, just very very scared, and very sad. Her little body was nearly in tatters trying to keep so much love held back, but there was no one to receive or give her the love she craved.

So she spend her days fantasizing about the person she wished she was, but could never be.

But Bree was like that. Bree was very much like that person she wished she was.

Bree was loud. She loved attention as much as she loved giving it. She liked shiny things and singing at the top of her lungs to songs in a language Ellie doesn't know. She loves swooshy dresses and glitter, and is constantly affectionate with her family and friends. She did fun things, she climbed trees, helped her mom cook, ran down the street to meet with her friends, laughed without monitoring her volume, made messes she begrudgingly cleaned. She could be whiny or pouty, but it never stuck and she was always ready to pull herself up. She was feisty maybe petty, and fun. Bree was so fun and Bree's parents didn't dislike the way she had fun. They reigned her in if she got too wild, but they loved her, even when she was difficult or loud.

It shocked Ellie.

Because it was everything Ellie had every dreamed of, living just three doors down.

Somehow they became friends after meeting a few times at block parties and the local pool, and Ellie was introduced to a brand new world. It was like the planet turned upside down. For the first time in her life, Ellie could be herself.

They could be loud, spontaneous, wild, silly, childish, messy, and everything else a 10 year old child was supposed to be. Bree's house was a safe place, with a family who was charmed by her gentle soul and sweet friendship with their youngest daughter. It was a friendship that saved Ellie from the brink of giving up, even as young as she was.

And life went on.

Ellie had neither the desire or the ability to articulate what her homelife was like, so her friendship with Bree was a simply a solace from it all, and the two grew and remained almost impossibly close. The two even ended up at the same school after the next summer, and their days were filled with each other. Endless memories and shrieks of laughter filling their days.

It was the happiest few years of her entire life thus far.

Then her parents took her out of that school to switch her to another. She silently lamented the loss of seeing Bree daily, but still spent copious amounts of time with her outside of school. Things were still okay, things were still happy. She was okay. Everything was okay. Her parents were difficult, but there was peace, life was worth it, and her love for the world had a place to go. She just had to smile

Then Calypso happened.

Ellie loved Cal. She was accepting another person into her life, almost to the same extent that she trusted Bree. Cal was soft and kind, good and pure and gentle. Calypso was not, and the pain of that betrayal nearly broke her.

She spiraled for weeks, barely sleeping, eating, or even getting out of bed for anything but school. Her parents paid little attention, but Bree's family did express some concern that Ellie's own parents pretended to care about. The fighting had been infinitely worse lately, with nonstop screaming, breaking things, kicking each other out of the house. She wasn't sure if it ever got physical, and she was terrified of finding out. Ellie barely saw them, but when she did, she'd just smile. She was so good at smiling. Smile. Smile. Just smile.

She hated Calypso, missed her, loved her, grieved her, despised her.

But Calypso revealed the truth to her, in a terrible, cruel way that ached just to think about.

Ellie lied in order to survive, and it hurt.

It was that simple.

Good thing Ellie liked a challenge

[imcrushedbyarainbowoffical]

Ok ok ok, I think I kinda, sorta have my thoughts in order. So, here's what I'm thinking.

A) Janus isn't evil and just likes the aesthetic because it's fun. But he's also watching over Thomas and knows something bad is going to happen and things are going to come to a head (I mean, he bit into an apple in a tree, meaning that there's going to be a "downfall" in some way, like in the Garden of Eden). If we remember, Janus is named after a god who can see in the past and future, so he probably has an inclining or some sort of premonition of what may or may not happen with Thomas, Nico, and the Sides. He's also opening the figurative door to letting the Sides deal with their issues. He opened the door with Patton, first in can Lying Be Good with questioning what morality is and how it can be applied to certain situations and he finished Patton's arc with POF and showing Patton he had too much control over what Thomas does and think. Now? He's opening the door for Logan (using Remus and possibly Orange as the key), and pushing him to open up to the other Sides about his emotions and the feeling of being ignored. I think he also opened a door for Roman and getting him to think about who he is in regards to his black and white thinking and his self-esteem. So, why? Why is Janus doing this? Because he's trying to bring balance to the Sides and bring order and peace. He's self-preservation after all, and shouldn't it be self preservations job to keep things balanced?

B) Logan, my smart cookie, you are seriously becoming one of my favorites. I was so proud of him in this episode and I REALLY want to give him a hug. Like, he really needs some hugs, cuddles, and a good cup of coffee or tea.

C) I love the "Logan is the orange side" theory as much as everyone else. But logically, I don't think it will happen (but that's just me of course!) What I think happened, was the Orange side had some temporary influence over Logan. We know that the sides can be influenced or affected by each other, especially in regards to their rooms, but we also know the dark sides have "special powers" that can affect another Side. So, perhaps the Orange Side is going to be the devil on Logan's shoulder.

D) Remus isn't dumb, he's actually really cunning and is blunt in his message. Thomas is afraid of being alone, of dying alone, of never having anyone there to protect him or love him. Thomas is anxious about starting a relationship with Nico and isn't sure if Nico wants to be friends or something more. Thomas is also focusing way to much on Nico and not enough on his needs like cleaning his house, (and side note, is way too hard on himself for his mistakes, which oh same). And Remus is pushing Logan to express himself more, to get angry, to show he's upset. He's basically saying "You upset? You getting ignored? Well, make it so they can't ignore you anymore"

F) The way Thomas rolled himself out of bed is the biggest mood, I can't even explain the energy I felt when he did that.