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the-static-silence-of-pastels · 5 years

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I need a Disney song for one of the chapter names and need this space to brainstorm but you don’t have to read or go through with this because this is completely self indulgent and you might not like where it ends.

Just need a song for the title. No need to look any further than that or even read this. I just need this out here as a reminder to myself to find a song to match the feel of the chapter. Like really, this is just super self indulgent logince and you really don’t need to read or see this. Just trust me on that. And if I write this, it will not become public. Just a little thing for me. Unless you want it. You won’t, but if you do you’re welcome to it. But you won’t want it. ‘Cause it’s self indulgent as heck.

“I See the Light”/“Kiss the Girl”: during a brutal fight with one another, Logan and Roman are interrupted by all the other sides telling them to shut up. Angry more at their friend group the duo head off to their seperate rooms and try to fight off the feelings they’ve been hiding. The go back to the neutral space to take a breather from sorting through their thoughts and Roman runs into Logan putting on The Little Mermaid because he just wants some mindless time right now. They end up sitting down together for a tiny marathon, both having small and silly arguments over things like: who would win in a fight; Merida or Mulan? But in the end they make up and while very sleepy Roman asks if Logan likes anyone and Logan says he does, they both agree to say the name of the person they like on the count of three and blink wide when they say each others name. After a moment of silence they somewhat agree that they should work things out and so Roman takes them both back to his room to sit under the stars. Logan points out a few inconsistencies and Roman tells him that because he’s creativity he just wanted what looked nice, so Logan asks if he had stories behind the stars and Roman excitedly tells him them while Logan ends up telling him about the real stars and stories. They fall asleep together under the stars and wake up their separation.

“Evermore”: After waking up the duo learn that Virgil, Patton, Deceit and Remus declared Logan a dark side now and so he’s part of their group while Roman is stuck being on the opposite team. Virgil and Patton fought but were convinced by Deceit and Remus on that one, but they both agree that he’s a “good” dark side and not a “bad” dark side like Remus and Deceit. Roman argues that Logan isn’t one of the dark sides, he’s like Roman is which catches all of them off guard but Logan. But this only starts Deceit up again that he’s just trying to get Logan back and then they’d be uneven again, Logan is the least they can do after Virgil betrayed them and both Patton and Virgil were in agreeance that two creativities would be uneven for the dark sides, so Roman was staying and Virgil wasn’t going back and Logan wasn’t there so now he’s a dark side. So Logan is forced to follow them away from Roman, separated from one another after they’d just found out they were in love. But Roman is determined to see Logan again and makes a promise that he will find a way to enter that side, knowing they’ll lock Logan up so he doesn’t try to change back.

“????”: Unfortunately for all of them Patton and Virgil quickly decide they want Logan back and declare it to Deceit and Remus who don’t want to comply. Both groups want Logan and thus their dispute breaks into all out war after Remus launches daggers at the duo, Roman having left to find a way to get to Logan and learning that a “light” side can’t enter, so he tries disguising himself as Virgil and it works. He gets to Logan, shows him that he’s Roman but can’t change back or he’ll be kicked out, so they hug and have a wonderful reunited moment before the whole room turns red and Logan makes Roman leave. Roman returns to his usual self outside the rooms and comes across Virgil and Patton planning in his room — connected to Remus’ room — and trying to find a good way to exterminate the other sides. Roman is forced into making an army for them and hopes that Logan will be okay.

“Savages”: Roman makes the army for them and, seeing how very into the idea of hurting the dark sides they are, slips out disguised as Virgil and changes one of his knights to look like him. He sneaks into the other camp to meet up with a distraught Logan who has no idea what’s going on, they hug and then Roman is thrown off Logan by Remus who thinks Virgil came to get Logan back, pinning Roman to the floor with his morning star, ready to hurt him further while Logan rushes to plead Roman’s case but is stopped by Deceit who tells Logan that he isn’t one of them anymore and they can’t be trusted. They aren’t like “them” and Virgil is a traitor who needs to be dealt with. Roman is forced to his knees and chained up for decapitation. On the field of battle atop a cliff, Roman is made to kneel with his head on a rock ready to get it chopped off by Deceit who takes over axeman duties from Remus. The others arrive and right as Deceit swings he realises there are two Virgil’s one who is melting atop the block to reveal Roman and now Logan is in his way and he’s cut from shoulder diagonally to his chest and he’s not he ground and bleeding out and everyone’s crying out because he wasn’t supposed to get hurt.

“The Mob Song”/“Hellfire”/“Be Prepared”: Roman turns to see his beloved lying still and having taken the blow for him, chains evaporating as the world swivels to a halt and Roman picks Logan up, rubbing his face against the still chest, barely breathing from the pain. He takes Logan, vanishes off the cliff to a table to the side of the battlefield and turns on the group behind him, donning his lips and face with Logan’s blood and going full on maniac on them for harming his love. He is able to draw all of the armies to his side and becomes a sole leader, intent on hunting the group down and disposing of them for their crimes. He changes for the worse, black cape lined with red fluttering behind him now as he chases them down in a fit of mania and fury. They hide together under an overhang as he looks for them, well over a thousand people at his command and searching for the four. Deceit asks if they’re on the same side now and they all agree, but fittingly they decide that if Roman is this enraged there must be something truly wrong that they’ve done and they must all be “dark” sides if they did something that bad and harmed Logan. They figure it out after hearing how Roman talks about Logan and work out that the pair were in love and in a relationship, but after Roman was captured and about to be executed looking like Virgil, Logan stepped in to take the fall and now Roman is feeling immense guilt over allowing that to happen, along with the growing feelings of fury for the other four for making this happen. It was them who took Logan, them who made him sad, them who separated the pair, them who started this war, and them who hurt Logan. So Roman’s going to find them and hurt them back.

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the-static-silence-of-pastels · 5 years

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A completely self indulgent WIP

Completely self indulgent. I mean it.

Might call this “Barker” or something along those lines. So far it’s “It’s off to the circus we go”, but “The Barker” has a nice ring to it.

Downtime is interrupted when a different side comes to play. Mysterious but fun with a carnival barker twist, he lulls Virgil, Patton, and Roman to a world of wonder and joy. But all is not as it seems when their fun becomes tiresome and they desire to leave.

Each becomes trapped in their own amusements: a hall of mirrors for Roman, a carnival for Virgil, and a petting zoo that turns into a nightmare for Patton. After taunting each of them with the idea of sweet release and torturing doubles of their companions in front of them, the trio finally reunite for the final act and to find out how and why they were able to get there and why the side has so much power.

It’s revealed he stole both Deceit and Remus powers, leaving them haggard and near comatose, and slowly took over until he got close enough to Logan to force him into an insulin coma. So with the three held hostage he reveals that all he wants is attention and the force of their life. He will live off their happiness and drain them like a vampire until they are at their lowest of low. They try to rush him but are tossed back with a wave of his hand and the force of an invisible car hitting them. They’re unable to get up and wonder if their end is nigh until they realise the side can be brought down with logic, if the side hadn’t already taken care of him. They attempt to distract him long enough to get to Logan and get him out of the coma but end up having to steal his power in order to be logical enough to defeat the side and force him to return the other sides powers.

They lock him up, give Logan his power back, and nurse the three back to health over a few weeks, promising never to take power from another side again after seeing how badly it damaged the other sides, damaging Logan further after the insulin coma.

The Barker doesn’t obey any laws of any known world. He can do what he likes, when he likes, to whom he likes at any point in time during the reign of the mind scape. He limits himself to always being the same age; an adult around their early thirties. Along with limiting his involvement in any moments in time that may alter or change the future or present in any meaningful way. He’s able to move from moment to moment with ease and is more of an observer in the early years of Thomas life, not needing attention and happy to take the back seat. But seeing his future, he both knows and wants that attention to be on him, no matter the cost. From conception he knew what he would become and was thrilled by it. His only purpose is to observe and play out his role when needed. He did, at one point, resent what he was to be, but grew to want it, yearn for it, long for the power and admiration he’d achieve if only to have it for a brief moment.

He’s the only side to hold colours of other sides. Not like Deceit being yellow and Roman having gold on him, or multiple sides having black clothing. After taking their powers he is given their colours; Deceit’s yellow and Remus’ green. But because of this addition he can dip into the spectrums that come with this, being able to change the hue and opacity of his yellow and green outfit. Remus’ lime becomes a dense emerald, Deceit’s bright yellow becomes a pale near white. And it’s forever changing along with his original dull and burnt orange. Much of his suit is black, the lining of his hat is Deceit’s pale yellow while the band around it is deep pumpkin orange, the lining of his coat is emerald green, his vest is burnt orange, and his shirt is white. Apart from these changes nothing else exhibits colour.

His coat is so long it touches the ground and if he spins too fast he can trip over it by stepping on the lining. It has happened before and will happen again.

He once had a cane with a single crystal atop it for his hand to rest on, but he resented that no other carried such an object and “disposed” of it. (He keeps it in his Mary Poppins hat. The hat is forever deep and his talent with it allows him to pull anything he desires from it.)

He wants the powers of the other sides so he can be the only one and Thomas will notice him at long last. But if he takes Logan’s powers early without taking the others powers, they will negate his own since logically he can only have one power that is wholly his own. So he needs both creative powers to overwrite Logan’s and without Logan exhibiting his power and doing his job he can freely push out the clash of chaos and hypnotic hallucination that comes with having both lies and horrific creative power on his side. He’s able to get the others into his world with Deceit’s talents, keep them there with Remus’ hallucinations, and begin to scare them and drain their energy with his own. Since he’s the keeper of the illusion he can suspend their time with his powers and make them unable to truly escape.

The only one able to properly defeat him is Logan with that special brand of “that’s against the laws of the universe” power.

He’s basically IT but a time traveling IT that doesn’t eat children and instead draws power from the helpless fear of the others and keeping them in his own world out of space and time. If they try to escape they’ll wind up killing themselves and they can’t even try since there’s no way out except to depower the Barker.

He knows he’ll be stopped and it makes him try harder to get things right, but he’s stuck in his loop of time and can’t ever win, no matter what he does. So in the end he gives up, he wishes with all his heart that maybe this time he’ll be able to get away with it and he’ll get all of Thomas’ attention, but knows he won’t. It doesn’t discourage him. He still wants, but wants less passionately than before and in this loop he doesn’t kill Logan, instead hoping that by not killing him the group will include him since he didn’t harm someone they adored this time through.

He doesn’t interact with his other selves, but they lend a helping hand once and a while by leaving messages for him. He really only talks to his past and future self, so this version of him knows what not to do and what to do and can pass that on to his past self to help his soon to be present self. He can stop the loop at any time and just sit in an endless void, but he wants their attention and craves being around people, even if those people hate him for what he’s doing. But he doesn’t know any different. He can’t stop what he’d built himself into and thinks he needs to be like this in order to get their attention since nothing else will work, in his mind.

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the-static-silence-of-pastels · 5 years

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Can a Heart Still Love, Even If It’s Stopped Beating?

Word Count: 5900+ (written in 4hrs from 1-4 AM, have mercy on my grammar and mistakes.)

Warnings: Gore for a bit, then just a lot of angst with a sort of happy ending (depends on who you ask). Not sure if there are any other things I need to flag, so I’ll let you be the judge of that.

There’s an unscratchable itch within him. A little left of his spine, underneath the skin of his pectoral. It’s been there since that morning, but the build has been going on for months. The itch has reached what he assumes is its peak, but he knew he’d never be sure of that. God, he hopes this is the peak. This stupid itch, so hard to scratch and get rid of, that’s been leaving him frustrated for months. But it’s something he can’t reach, something buried under skin and bone.

He feels like screaming some days. Letting out all the fury trapped within that bides its time alongside the itch. And if the fury and frustration alone didn’t drive him to the brink of insanity, the feeling sure would. He can just imagine, though it’s not his forte, what is causing the itch. Maybe it’s some kind of abnormal vessel but going on for this long would mean his death. Perhaps it’s just a stupid prank that’s been left to simmer under his skin and drive him to the foulest of moods. Better yet it could be what it feels like; thousands of tiny insects crawling around, burrowing towards the skin as if they were…

He allows that thought to trail off. Such horrid conceptions are not his field, nor will they ever be. He is resolute in such things. And yet the feeling has only been building. It’s as if he’s dipping a toe, no, his torso into the river of madness that must flood Remus’ mind.

And right on cue the tinnitus appears. He never realised it before, but it seems to appear when his thoughts fade into that direction. The direction of seemingly inescapable insanity looped around mindless madness, entangling themselves like a series of knotted snakes. Twisting, writhing, slithering to escape, and yet unable to.

He feels a little lightheaded. Maybe death has finally come for him and will spare him of this horrid itching. Or maybe it’s just his imagination. Either way he would welcome a death right now. It’s as if he can see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing, and yet the ringing intensifies tenfold and the itching, oh the itching, the scraping of whatever inside is causing such discomfort-

‘Hey, Mensa dropout! Your line.’

Right, that’s right. The video.

‘You can’t…you can’t drop out of Mensa. Mensa isn’t a school or a college, you can’t drop out of it. Are you talking about that album by MC Motyčka?’

‘At least we got you back, cicada three-three-oh-snore. And no, I wasn’t. Just read the damn lines.’

Yeah, like that isn’t a chore right now. Where are we, where-are-we, wherearewe? Ah, there. Now I just have to make the words stop swimming. Line up, line up. Damn it. And he’s tapping his foot, of course. Look if you think you’ve got troubles, try being me prince bull-

‘Are you sure these are my lines?’

He looks so angry. Oh, like you’re such a peach to work with.

‘Yes. They are your lines.’

Lots of emphasis. Must be pretty pissed off. I don’t think I can do this right now. Let’s see if Patton’s pity card will get me out of this.

‘I don’t exactly feel up to par. Could we perhaps-’

‘Oh teach, what’s wrong? What’s got you feeling so bad? Are you sick? What’s up?’

Nice, now here come the questions. I can do this, just get them off the trail.

‘I’m in perfect health. I just think that, especially at this time, it may be a good point for us to turn in. It’s far past when we usually stop, and we can pick up perfectly well tomorrow morning. I don’t see why we must record so much tonight. And as the prince of perfectionism, I thought it a good point to bring up.’

God, he looks so infuriated. Serves you right for cutting my lines, bastard.

‘Fine, fine! We’ll pick it up tomorrow, but you better be on your game, Logan.’

‘Will do, Roman.’

Ah tension, how I have missed you. Didn’t feel like a real day until you showed your ugly, repulsive, disgusting face.

He lets his shoulders drop minutely, all the better to seem like he’s actually tired. He won’t be able to sleep though. The itch is too bad today, if he tried there’d be absolutely no way, he’d get further than laying on his bed in a mass of writhing agony.

But agony would be the right word, wouldn’t it? The itch has grown, quickly and unlike any of the other days. Now the itch has manifested itself as a burning, but that’s growing and evolving from a burning to an intense jabbing, like something is poking the inside of his skin and tracing the tip of a dagger over something so incredibly sensitive that he can’t quite quantify how painful it’s becoming and that’s a problem because emotions aren’t his forte and he can’t show pain and he can’t show weakness and-

Enough. He needs to get out before they notice something is amiss. Clean up this mess, turn off the camera and make sure everything is neat and tidy before running away from this like all his other problems. He doesn’t need their pity, their worry, all of that will only morph into concern over his position. He’ll become redundant in a heartbeat if they find out he’s imagining pains and itching under his skin. It can’t be right because imagination isn’t his forte, and none of this lines up with who he is.

But it could go the other way. They’d coddle him – Patton and Virgil – and he’d get nothing done. Not like he’d been getting anything done anyway; but that’s for him to know, not for them to know. He’d never tell them though; they’d find out over his dead body. Or whatever happens when the pain stops. Death. Maybe he’ll live, but that’s not so likely. Pain is usually fatal. At least in most cases, but he has justifiable reasons to be worried for himself.

No use being morbid. Remus would be just as upset as Roman if he knew you were stepping on his turf.

‘L?’ Was he too quiet? Virgil doesn’t speak up often and when he does, and with that sort of accusation in his eyes, it’s usually important. And if anyone else hears they might pay attention. But what clues would he have to accuse him of something being amiss. No, Virgil had nothing. No proof of anything.

‘You good? You’ve been staring at that camera for, like, a full minute. Mind somewhere else?’ thank whatever God they prayed to.

‘Fine, sorry, got a little lost in thought. Something I can help you with?’ please say no, please say no. Let me off this one time so I can get over this pain and be ready for tomorrow and this stupid script.

Virgil shook his head just a little, but it was enough of a wary gesture to warrant a head tilt before he had turned around and sunk out. He felt like sighing for that.

Camera, away. Good my part all done. Let’s motor.

God that’s painful.

He’d never really been big on praying, but right about now felt like a good time to make amends as the pain ascended quickly from pricking and burning to an almighty searing. It wasn’t quite to the level of him wanting to rip his skin off, but it was getting close. Not quite screaming to the high heavens, but around the stage of tugging at his hair with no end in sight.

Maybe it’s something on my chest. Just get it off and take a look. That was what he’d tell himself and then never have the courage to do. He couldn’t really blame himself, but then again, he could. It was his mind after all. He could do whatever he wanted.

God, he sounded crazy.

Okay, yeah no. That was not good. The pain had intensified tenfold in the space of a few seconds and he was at that stage of ripping out his own hair and allowing tears to slip down his face. His breathing grew heavy, the ringing came back, everything fading out to black though he was still conscious.

The torturous pain was synonymous with nothing else he’d ever felt before. Greater than breaking a bone and enough to make him loose and not be able to regain his breath. How anyone was able to survive this was beyond him. It was like someone had taken a metal sea urchin to his chest and was pressing it into his skin from within, rolling it around inside that cavity that housed his heart and lungs. Burning, ripping, blinding pain. At least they got one part right in songs and stories, it was blinding. Blacked out vision aside, he could still feel the ground beneath him, feel his shirt and tie and clothing. Time to find out what was making it so damn hard to breathe. If it wasn’t something on his chest, maybe he could see something within his chest.

After ripping his tie away and bunching his shirt up and over his head he had a moment of clarity as his glasses fell off, able to pick them up with precisely no spots in his line of sight. For a moment he felt relief, but that quickly faded as he summoned a mirror, heard a loud gagging behind him and saw straight through the heart shaped hole in his chest as behind him Roman doubled over in shock and horror.

That would explain the lack of breath.

Yeah, the bleeding, still wet hole shaped like a heart symbol that cut right through his chest and out the back, taking out a few pieces of his ribs and moving his left lung over. Yeah, that would definitely explain the lack of breath.

They did always call me heartless. Guess they were right. But he wasn’t heartless, wasn’t supposed to be at least. People need hearts, they do a lot of things. That’s right, isn’t it? People need hearts. Those organs that are about a handful and oxygenate the blood and keep it all flowing. Yeah, they’re needed. So why was his missing? Why couldn’t he see straight, or breathe anymore? He needed to breathe, but he couldn’t. What was stopping…oh, right. He was missing his heart.

It took less than a minute for Logan to crumple to the floor. Dead and missing one of his more important organs for living. Blood leeched out of the hole, staining the carpet a deep and wet crimson as hollow breathing grew shallow and the only witness was left pale and shaking against the wall.

He’d come to yell at Logan, tell him off for stopping their progress. He hadn’t imagined their last words to be that of a tiff not a few minutes prior. Nor did he imagine he’d be holding the now bloodied corpse of someone he’d be willing to call friend on a good day, which were most days but that was beside the point.

He didn’t even notice the tears streaming down his cheeks, noticing only when one dropped onto the pale chest, stained with blood and now stained with tears. But even with all that blood he couldn’t bring himself to care as he lay his forehead against the carcass of what used to be a living, breathing Logan. He could hardly breathe, hardly do anything but sob and cry as eventually he raised his head and began his pleas. It would always come down to this, to the pleading of life. No bargain would ever be struck to bring someone back form the dead, but he had hope. And even if he didn’t, he’d plead; because he couldn’t handle going on with this as the last memory he had of their logic.

Worry and fear brought Virgil, love and concern brought Patton. The pleading for life brought an idea.

‘Remus,’ choked and tearful, less filled with the venom it usually had and more filled with a kind of hopeless desire, ‘Remus, get out here.’

It wasn’t a plea that needed to be made twice. Once was enough to bring the usually sickly smiling side out with a sombre and emotionless gaze that lingered too long on the body for the brother’s liking. But he wasn’t about to leave his position. His post, his protective stance in the matter, lest Logan fade away or suddenly vanish; however stupid that may sound to another.

‘You’re good at this, aren’t you? You twisted little bastard. Make him a heart.’ It was a command. One none of them could refuse the call for.

With a nod, four steps and a single sweep into a crouch the tedious night began. A night that brought with it many retries, many close calls for violence between brothers, much blood lost, but finally a result came.

Pulsing in place, gently covered by the left lung and ribs, flesh restitching itself back together, they found what they so desired.

And so, they waited. Night turned to dawn, to day, to afternoon, to dusk, to night again. Whether it was out of love for the other or hatred for himself, the prince kept by the teacher’s side whilst the others worked around him. Cleaning, fixing, making it new and better. Logan would hate to wake up to a mess. Hate it.

Night became dawn again and still the vigil, a hollowed-out man, kept watch as breath was pushed and pulled from the newly repaired body. The hollow man, the tear stained prince, the ever-watchful protector of a cherished friend; no one dared to move him. No one dared to speak to him. He didn’t eat, speak, move. He barely moved his eyes from the sight before him, and yet they knew he could keep it up for as long as he cared to. They weren’t human, after all. They could survive on nothing and still thrive if their being wasn’t set in…logic.

It was a touchy and uncomfortable few days before the stirrings of a lighter sleep brought them cheer. How wonderful, how enticing, how enchanting to see some life, any life, stir from the sleeping side. No longer comatose, or not for long at least. And finally they were able to drag him away, teary and crying with an expression near ecstasy on his face, they were able to pull the last vestige of Roman from the body and get him back to where there was no death for him to be reminded of what had happened.

The subject would be one of discomfort for all of them, no side had ever come so close to vanishing form their lives before, figures the one so steeped in curious nature would be the first to try it out. How it happened, they didn’t know. Did they care? Absolutely not. Logan was on the verge of waking, of being alive once more, and they couldn’t think of the details of his close quarters encounter with whatever psychopomp that lured him to the edge right now.

Death had been a touchy subject before, taboo nearly, but now it would remain taboo for all of them forever. It wasn’t a word that conjured kind images anymore. No lifeless bodies looking serene in caskets ready to be buried six feet under. They’d be haunted by this death until they died themselves. As if that couldn’t happen soon enough now.

Sleeping would be just as bad. To know that he could very well have died in his sleep just after they’d figured out how to give him a heart back, well, sleep would always be a reminder of what could have been lost. Sleep for them seemed too still, too lifeless, too comatose for their liking. Sure, Logan hadn’t been sleeping when he die- had his close encounter. But the days following, where he could still be considered on the brink, where he still looked dead despite not having the hole and lack of a beating heart. Sleep was just too close to that. For all of them.

This wouldn’t be an issue they took lightly. And despite not having seen or heard from Remus or Deceit since they got Logan back online, they knew well and truly neither of them would dig too deep or go too far after this. Before this Remus took death too lightly in the case of friends and family, but it was uncertain how he would deal with those intrusive thoughts now, having seen and been in charge of bringing back someone so clearly dead to the world. Deceit was a different matter, not having shown up until a little after Remus. How he’d reacted was a mystery, leaving the second he saw the body. But they’d find out eventually, it would all come out eventually.

Logan woke up properly a day later, coming to while under Virgil’s care. It made the usually surly side light up for once, seeing the same set of gentle oak hues shine once more with life and awareness, in some aspect. Watching them close was no longer so heartbreaking, rather the peace that resumed was steadily making it up to the top of his list as one of his favourite things to see on the other sides. And with that he deemed it necessary to call on the others and tell them the good news, others including those who weren’t there along with those who helped out.

And that was how his gratitude towards Remus turned to despair at what news awaited the three still caring for Logan. Each allowing it to sink in as the weight it came with snagged their hearts and dragged them down to the depths of despair. How they were supposed to function was beyond them. Lacking one side they’d grown to adore and love in the way they had would be nearly enough to break each of them wide open.

The news, heartbreaking that is was, was brought to them by a regretful and mournful Deceit. Something they’d never seen and hoped to never see again. Remus, fearful and tired, kept quiet as Deceit explained their situation. As Remus was the one to create the heart, were he to forget it Logan would inevitably end up with the same fate as before. Therefore, Logan was tied to Remus in a way none of them had foreseen. Without around the clock reminding, Remus could forget, and Logan would die again, possibly to be resurrected again, but only if they could get to him in time as they had done this time. It was only, and Deceit had hesitated at that point, logical for Logan to come with them and remain in a place where Remus would always remember the act of creation he had approved.

Logan would move into Remus’ room, or he would die.

It was an idea that shocked them to the core. Froze their blood in place and chilled their bodies like frostbite. To have such a weight tied around his neck, to send Logan off without giving him a chance, it was something they had never wanted. He’d be cared for, yes, but he’d become a part of the little group that formed in rebellion of what they’d come together as. And he had no choice in the matter.

It was entirely unfair. Roman pleaded hopelessly against it, wishing he could take on Remus’ burden but knowing he couldn’t. Patton didn’t try to plead his case; he could barely talk let alone make an argument against their rock-solid logic. Virgil, well, grief will do things to a person and the five stages were not something meant to be passed through in the space of ten seconds, only for one to become stuck in place. The rage pouring off the surly side was enough to make those able to comprehend it back up, knowing he could go off at any second as Roman shed tears and Patton sat still and strangely emotionless on the couch. To gain him back only to lose him again, what cruel karma was this that had become their lives and pursued them to the point of madness.

When at last they parted ways, it was decided and over. Logan would know in due time, but they still had a few days until then. He needed strength, to stand up to the horrors that would await him.

They bid farewell in their own ways when he finally regained consciousness. After telling him of his death and their plight to bring him back they spent a few hours consoling him. Coddling what had become a shell so quickly they could barely blink between the phases. And yet they continued, they stayed. They’d seen it all in each other and couldn’t bring themselves to do much more than stay by his side as memories flashed through his eyes like a car speeding down a highway, images of the outside flashing through windows and leaving as quickly as they’d come.

It was all they could do. Sit and wait until he was in the right mindset to talk to them about it. Between themselves they’d taken to dubbing it as ‘The Incident’. A catchy name, for sure, but one that would forever haunt the insides of their eyelids.

And when at last he seemed to have brought himself to sense, to have realised he had a new lease on life, to know he was free from what bound him; then they told him of his new bonds, new shackles, new chains that would drag him away from them and to a world new and unfamiliar to him. A world that would take from him and ask for more eternally, a world that was like theirs but with no comfort, a world without them.

‘So, it would be as if I’d truly died, then?’

Those words made them choke. Spoken so casually with so little care for those around him and the trials he’d been through. Greif may have been a somewhat selfish process, but it was their process that had involved him. But they didn’t have the strength to yell or scream at him; because he was right. As he’d always been.

‘My condolences on your loss, I suppose.’

It was supposed to be humorous, but it only brought watery laughs that were too fake in all the right ways. How he was able to process this so well was beyond them, perhaps he’d seen what lay beyond the mortal realm, what he’d been forced to give up to come back. Maybe there was comfort there, but his eyes were haunted, ghostly. Whatever he’d seen had not been paradise.

‘What was there?’ came the question, courtesy of Patton, but it was something they all wished to know.

Wry was his smile when he answered, dark and gaunt, ‘nothing.’

With the waking came the chains. Not physical or literal, but they were chains, nonetheless. Remus and Deceit came to escort Logan not three days after he awoke, dubbing that a suitable amount of time for the three to bid their farewells to their fourth. They allowed a moment of tears and anguish, Logan trapped within the embrace of three sides as the heart he’d been given pulsed with life and grief. Today he’d lose something great and wonderful and gain something horrid and abominable.

They waved him off, each half chasing after him before being reigned in with the knowledge it was for his own good. A sacrifice of his life for which he was given life. A twist in their tale together that would render their friendship null and void. He’d never be able to leave, and they’d never be able to gain entry. Though perhaps Remus could be persuaded, if not by them than by Roman. Regardless of future plans to sneak into a world not their own, the trio waved off Logan and Logan was led into the darkness.

He closed his eyes against it, not wanting to let it in at first. But as it became apparent, he wouldn’t be able to move forward without his eyes being open, he decided to allow that to happen. It was his hope he could withstand what was thrown at him, what horrors awaited him within Remus’ room.

As they continued on their walk, both sides used to the walk ahead of the one not used to it, the one not used to it noticed something peculiar. A large blot of white light that only grew as they advanced, a doorway of some sort or cave entrance that called them forward. And, stupid as he was, he stepped through it after his guides.

And he blinked back against the harsh light that blinded him. The sun was warm and bright, the world around him the same. So bright was it that he began to think they’d walked into Roman’s room by mistake, that the gentle breezes and sunshine soft and warm, was the work of the creativity he knew and not the one he’d followed. And yet his guides seemed comfortable here, turning to him as if expecting something of him.

He merely blinked back at them, hoping they would say something before he made both fool and ass of himself.

‘Do you like it?’ came the first of many questions to come, a gentle one offered by Remus. And unsure of how to respond, Logan nodded. Not quite following what they meant.

‘He spent hours in here making it right for you. This will be your lobby as a sort, but a more picturesque room awaits you yonder,’ murmured the mellowed tones of Deceit, far from what he was used to but a side to the half-faced side he would not forget seeing.

As promised to him he found his room. From a door carved into a tree he emerged into a field of flowers and mirror glazed ponds. Each echoing a similar sentiment of beauty and belonging. This room, so far reserved from Remus’ usual creations, must have taken many hours to be crafted by himself. Perhaps help was offered and taken from Deceit, but by the sound of it the room was made for him by Remus alone. A great effort if the multicoloured flowers and even temperance of the sun was to be taken into account.

‘For you. If you must stay close and here, I would have it no other way,’ came gently spoken words. Words that echoed and radiated with a calm that was unheard of and nary seen from such a mass producer of madness as Remus, ‘a new start, for a new side.’

It certainly felt like it. A brand-new room decorated like a perfect world where nothing could harm or cause him pain. This world was his own to explore and take note of, and it would take a while to do so. But his heart yearned for the others, and he voiced as such with a simple longing look to the ground. They could not visit this place. This was his and his alone and as such no one could enter; truly, he’d left Remus and Deceit at the door.

But this was still within Remus’ room. He was to be a permanent guest. No longer given the freedoms he once had and secluded to a room he could exit from but never truly leave. A home as beautiful as it was lonely.

‘I know they cannot come here, but Roman can come to my room and as such you could see him in the lobby. That is, if you so wish it.’

Who had spoken such words of wonder was beyond Logan, all that mattered was the words and the meaning they held. To be able to see just one of them again would be heaven, to know he was not so truly alone as to be secluded for eternity before death. Tension would be long gone between them. Lifetimes apart, to be sure. And if they fought it would be hard to break what had been set in place by the departure of his life from the mortal realm.

Roman may not have been his first choice, but he was still a friend, still someone he cared for and loved. It was something he could agree to wholeheartedly.

‘Please,’ a whispered plea that didn’t fall on deaf ears. It would be their pleasure to do what he asked of them, after all they’d just barely brought him back to life. Remus was the djinn in his pocket now, whatever he asked for, Remus would provide without hesitation.

The first meeting went about as well as one would expect. With a shout from royalty and a cry of joy from a usually composed scholar. Their reunion brought tears to their eyes along with a great deal of smiling. They didn’t fight or argue and kept everything happy and civil. This was where Logan could connect to the world outside his room, and the only place Roman could get just and wise advice. Their meeting ended with tears and the promise that Roman would return every week with as best a report as he could give, offering a single hug before vanishing from the room and leaving Logan alone once more.

The second of their meetings was less civil. With work piling up and no way for Logan to help them, the group had become rather swamped, but with a little planning done during their meeting, Roman returned both saddened and with a schedule that was sure to work all of their needs into it. It only made them yearn to see him greater.

Third. The supposed unlucky encounter was just that. The schedule was being overwritten for their needs and wants, and they’d not a judge to fairly decide who would get what time. Roman complained their entire meeting, and later recalled that Logan listened with a tender smile and saddened eyes. Any contact with them would be good contact for him, and Roman supposed Logan had begun to miss their antics and arguing by now.

So, their fourth visit together he brought a present. A recording of them rehearsing the new video and them working in bits they hoped would make him happy. They did. Roman spent much of their time together holding the resurrected side with one arm, holding him close as he wept tears of joy and sadness into the white coat.

The meetings continued on in a similar fashion and pattern. Every few days Roman would enter Remus’ room with permission and meet up with Logan to go over what he could of what went on outside the room before leaving with a hug and a promise to return. Every time the prince returned to his room near tears, frustrated and in emotional turmoil over the fact he couldn’t help Logan more than he was. He admitted that the visits were good for them both, but the tension between himself and the other sides only seemed to grow the closer he became with Logan.

The more he vanished off to speak with the logical side, the more they grew jealous of this opportunity he’d been given. The wedge driven between them had left a small mark at first, but that was growing rapidly with no hope of getting smaller. He needed Logan to be there with him, needed Patton and Virgil to come to Remus’ room with him. Being the messenger was only good for so long before war broke out between them and with no logic in sight they’d tear each other apart at the seams.

With a heavy heart he concluded it was Logan or Patton and Virgil. So, in his hour of need, he came to the one he knew would be impartial. And Logan chose for Roman to remain with the other sides. It would be torture not seeing one another, but it was better than knowing they were the cause of the imminent collapse of Thomas psyche.

Patton and Virgil found him, teary and unresponsive to them on the couch and watching a movie they’d all decided never to watch ever again. It took no less than turning off the player and shaking Roman a good seven times for him to finally show signs of noticing their appearance in his personal space. It took much less for him to spill the beans and tell them what had brought him to such a low. And it took them all of five seconds to realise there was no winning. They wanted to see Logan, Roman could at will. They grew jealous easily, Roman felt the burden of this upon him and thus passed it to Logan. If they agree to let him see Logan again the cycle would return and continue. And then Roman told them of a meeting that sparked their interest.

A few days later Roman came to them with a soft smile and a recording on his phone. The message played on a loop for them, a familiar face echoing back sentiments of sadness and love before Roman’s shaky camerawork came to the forefront and became an opportunity to see something all rarely saw; a laugh. Unfiltered, unedited, unchanged. A loud, proud, joyful laugh with nothing in the way. A sign out and then repeat.

That became their way of communication; recorded video. In a way it was a long-distance relationship, but instead of a computer or phone, they had Roman and a phone. The messages were saved to a hard drive, there was no way either party was letting go of those memories.

With Roman as courier they knew they were getting the truth, neither Remus nor Deceit saw to stop them and in each they began to notice he gradual changes. The more emotive side of an unemotional robot. The darker mourning side of a happy-go-lucky sunflower. The loving side of someone who swore off breaking down his barriers. And a gentle and soft side to the brash and loud prince. It was a new time, a new life for them. As if on that day they’d died with Logan and been resurrected with him. This was their chance at a new life, and they took it.

Time rolled on, each day passing like the last until something came to them; a spark unlike anything they’d encountered in their little world. A spark that burned a passionate red and understanding blue. And how could they not agree to it when confessions were sprouted, and once broken bridges were mended. They could see one another; they had fallen for one another. And it was good. It was approved, adored, accepted. And slowly they drifted away, two sides unable to see the last of their group as he moved, slowly but surely, pulled towards the one he loved. How could they stand against that? Who could stand against that?

When at last their third was no longer with them it was as if he’d become a distant memory, foggy and unrecognisable. What he’d once been and what he now was, were two things so different it was hard to imagine they’d been the same person at all. But they were and they were attached to another.

In their minds they questioned it, but they knew the answer to their question. Can a heart still love, even if it’s stopped beating? Yes, it can.

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the-static-silence-of-pastels · 5 years

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Happy Birthday Dearest :)

I hope you enjoy your birthday and that the start of your new year is excellent. Have an amazing day love and I wish you all the best.

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the-static-silence-of-pastels · 5 years

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The Teacher and the Ronin: Golden Lantern II

Roman and Logan’s adventures and squabbling leads to them being captured and Logan losing some of his eyesight in order to free Roman from his bonds.

The two heading back to Logan’s first home that was taken by Patton’s father and the two wandering through the ruins of Logan’s home. Roman sharing his own history of his dishonoured name, coming from a clan of ninja when his grandfather refused to commit harakiri and fled with his father and mother, whereupon they changed their last name and Roman is all that is left of them. The last person in his family able to bring honour back to them.

After visiting Logan’s ruined home they head to the coast and back to Logan’s first village where all that is left is burnt out husks and broken homes. Logan collects flowers and Roman stands watch as the teacher lights incense for their spirits and prays for them. They move on from the village quickly and settle down by the river once more, dipping into it with Roman keeping a keen eye on Logan despite the teacher’s claims he is perfectly capable of standing in a shallow river. They spend a night under the summer stars and then take off back to the coast.

They collect shells and Roman discretely has a bracelet made of the shells and wooden beads he has collected/bought, a token of appreciation to Logan as he feels their journey drawing to a close.

Travelling back to Patton’s village they are set upon by raiders once more and Logan’s book falls out, Roman finding out he’d been documented by Logan and becoming enraged that the techniques he’d worked so hard to keep secret had been written and drawn into the book. He’s so angered he tears the pages out before realising what he’s done. He tries to apologise, knowing how much the book meant to Logan, but Logan shakes his head, gathers his things and runs towards Patton’s village, leaving Roman by the side of the road with nothing other than a clear and direct order that he is no longer in need of Roman’s services as his guard for his journey.

Roman completes his journey back at Patton’s village but finds out from Virgil that after Logan dropped by he vanished. He came to the castle, dropped off his things and the next morning all that was left of him was what had been left in his room. Roman, growing desperate to know that Logan is alright and with Virgil’s own worries of what may have happened on top of his own, finds himself buried up to his waist in river water with a reed in one hand and three crushed lotus blossoms in the other, panting like an overheated dog. He shakes off paranoia as the tears come and sits on the bank with the remnants of what could have been a crown before someone knocks him over and he’s sent tumbling onto the grass. He finds Virgil behind him panting and trying to talk but after many failed attempts he gets out a few words that tell Roman that Logan left and was captured by raiders who know what Patton offered him and want Patton to give them that as Logan’s ransom.

The two race off, sneak into the hideout, before noticing that Logan is sitting there with Virgil’s old tanto discretely sawing away at his bindings and watching the raiders with a look of utter boredom. They let him saw the ropes off himself and watch as he creeps away from the raiders, out of the hideout and follow him back to the village where he walks into the castle and is consequently engulfed in a hug by a worried Patton who then starts looking him over to see if he is injured in any way.

Finding Logan isn’t injured, Patton hosts a dinner and later that night Roman offers his apologies to Logan which Logan accepts and then apologises to Roman for taking notes without Roman’s knowing, explains he hadn’t meant to upset the ronin and merely wanted to preserve the knowledge he’d gained along with having a reference should he need to learn to defend himself. Roman sly asks why he couldn’t just defend Logan and Logan tilts his head mentioning their arrangement that Roman would be his guard until he found a job and settled down, thereby releasing Roman from his contract. He would need to defend himself when Roman left and had thought it best to have a guide. Roman sly asks if Logan would be willing to keep him on and, as payment for destroying his hard work, would remain Logan’s guard until Logan was happy and safe. Logan reminds Roman that he’s supposed to have no master and be a wanderer with a code to help the innocent, Roman has no comeback to that so merely shrugs and gives Logan a small hesitant smile.

Roman stays on as Logan settles into his new life as Patton’s helper and tutor to the children he’s adopted. Most mistake them for a couple and though they say they harbour no feelings of that sort towards one another they appear to share a deep connection, strengthened when a year after Roman promises to stay on with Logan in the village, he offers up the bracelet of shells and wooden beads which Logan ends up never taking off. They are seen every few days of spring sitting on the bank of the river either weaving together lotus blossoms, or Roman picking off cherry blossom flowers from a tree whilst Logan intricately weaves together wiry cherry blossom tree branches to make crowns. The crowns are often placed on one of them or three are made and given to the three children of lord Patton as gifts.

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the-static-silence-of-pastels · 5 years

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The Teacher and the Ronin: Golden Lantern I

Logan, waking up the third day after his village was burned to the ground, heads out for food and is accosted by a local who’s child had been slain. Logan comforts them as best he can and walks past the school where he taught, moving past after stopping briefly to look at the flowers left out for the dead. He stops to get food and sees a newcomer buying the next cart over, choosing to ignore the fact he carries a sword as he moves to the small river, taking a seat and beginning to read before finding himself unable and going to collect some of the lotus blossoms that dot the river bed. He trips, sandal getting caught in the rocks as the band around his toes snaps and he careens into the river, saved from drowning by the newcomer who pulls him from the river. Logan passes out but wakes to the stranger watching the sun as his head rests in the newcomer’s lap. Not sure of the other man’s intentions, Logan sits up slowly and asks for the man’s name, getting the name Roman in response. Logan offers his own name up before asking where Roman is coming from and for what purpose. Roman says he will answer that if Logan tells him why he was in the river in the first place. Logan flushes and stubbornly tells Roman what happened; that he was going to get the lotus flowers, tripped and landed in the river. Roman chuckles but ultimately tells Logan that he’s a ronin, a wandering samurai with no master and his own code to do right by the innocent. He asks what happened to the village, Logan remorsefully tells him and Roman changes the subject after a second of silence, asking what Logan was doing with the flowers. Logan offers to show him, taking a small number of the lotus flowers after Roman collects them — refusing to allow Logan near the water after such an experience — and Logan asks for a single reed, quite long and flexible. Roman returns with it and Logan pierces the stems of the lotus flowers, threading the reed through it and tying it off to make a crown of the blossoms before setting it in his lap and musing about how he used to make them with the students he taught during the spring months, allowing a little downtime and some fun along with letting the students bring something home to their parents and offer to their mothers and fathers. Roman asks softly if he can learn and Logan nods, the ronin setting off to collect the flowers and reed needed to make the crown, later that night placing the one he made atop Logan’s head as the teacher sleeps in his lap.

The next morning Logan offers up his house for Roman to stay in whilst he’s in the village and Roman agrees, the pair beginning to squabble over small things as Roman grows increasingly annoyed by Logan’s stubbornness and knowledge that he shares freely with the other. This annoyance grows as their squabbling becomes full on arguing when Logan offers up his own room as he has only one and Roman is his guest which Roman stoutly refuses to take. They go their separate ways but later Logan cooks for the two of them and leaves the peace offering of a bowl of miso at the door of his home, knowing Roman is outside on the grass looking over a map he’d made and some books he’d borrowed from Logan’s home. Roman seemingly accepts the food as the next day a small token is left at his bedroom door, the empty bowl with a small piece of gold. Logan makes their next meal whilst Roman is out and passes the piece back to him over their silent meal, Roman leaving it on the table after eating and seemingly refusing to take it back. This begins a silent fight over the next few days of Logan trying to make Roman take the gold back in increasingly more devious ways, whilst Roman tries to make Logan take it and keep it at every turn. Their fight is cut off one night after Logan, angry and devious enough to think of it, adds the gold to Roman’s miso and the ronin nearly chokes on it, spitting it out into his bowl before giving Logan a look of utter disbelief whilst Logan calmly eats and leaves the room, Roman left with the gold in his bowl and stuck looking where Logan had once been. Roman finally accepts the gold back when raiders once again come to the village whilst he is out conducting business, the raiders knowing that there are few people left in the village choosing to take on the small settlement during the day. Logan’s house is ransacked and he is found near unconscious by Roman, the teacher pushing the piece of gold into the ronin’s hands before passing out for pain and stress. Roman takes the gold, picks up his sword and returns to the house later that night with a small sack of gold and some medicinal herbs to heal Logan’s wounds. They don’t talk to one another until the candle has gone out and they are left alone in the dark. Logan asks to come with Roman and Roman refuses, stating that he can’t have Logan putting himself in harms way as Roman does, so Logan turns over and goes to sleep as Roman keeps watch that night. The next morning he’s awoken by Logan, the teacher pushing towards him a book and a few pieces of gold, offering them to Roman in exchange for him becoming Logan’s guard on the road as he can no longer stand to stay in the village and needs a job to survive. Roman, not seeing a way out of this and not wanting Logan to be left alone where the raiders could get to him, agrees to the offer and Logan packs up what he has left — a few books for teaching, one blank, a brush and ink for writing, a few pieces of gold, some dried herbs and plants for food, and a spare robe for colder climates — and they set out for another village, Roman promising to stick with Logan until he settles down somewhere else.

They travel for a week before Roman finds work and shelter for them. Logan agrees to work in the fields whilst Roman heads out to defend the village from raiders, needing a few days to stalk them and learn their tricks. They sleep in a small house with Roman making sure Logan has much of the bedding, stubbornly refusing to admit he’s cold or tired in favour of helping the teacher and making sure he has comfort and warmth over all of Roman’s needs. The ronin finally dispatches of the raiders, they buy a little extra food for the road with what Logan earned even if Roman disagrees with Logan spending money on him, and then head off on their way. They stop one night and are set upon by bandits who Roman easily defeats, but Logan catalogues every move he makes and asks Roman about his fighting style later on, though the ronin refuses to tell him anything about it. Logan writes a little about Roman in the last book he has, taking up attempting to draw Roman in full so the motions can be shown to the reader if they can’t fully comprehend the words on the page. He becomes steadily more talented with each new addition to the book, though he uses the dirt and a stick to practice with first, refusing to allow Roman to look in the book when all the others are free for his perusal.

Their next stop is Virgil’s village where Logan had thought they had no school, though by the time they arrive one is up and running. They stay with Virgil’s neighbour for their time there and as Logan cannot find a job he ends up at the small lake they have not far from the entrance to a forest. He meets Virgil whilst documenting the flora and fauna of the village, the pair getting to know one another well during Logan’s stay and Virgil offering up advice, knowing that Roman is a ronin, that Logan be on his guard as every ronin has a weakness and whilst Roman’s may not be money it may be more directed at the flesh. Logan has node what Virgil is referring to and waves away his concerns after figuring it out as the pair have been alone before for long periods of time and never has Roman been as forward as that towards him or anyone else. He has, on occasion, bore witness to the ronin becoming flirtatious with the help of alcohol or with the haze of sleep, but his flirtations are never completely directed at Logan and even then they are toned down in comparison to those he willingly sends to others. Though Virgil is a little hesitant to allow Logan to return to the ronin knowing about this, asking when they plan to leave and getting his answer as Roman walks over the hill towards them, holding up a small sack of money and a large self-satisfied smile plastered on his face. Virgil asks Logan to wait as he wants to gift the teacher something for his travels and Logan spends another night in the village with Roman, the ronin not happy and wanting to leave but not willing to upset his “charge” over his own desires. The next morning they are greeted to a packed up Virgil, ready to head to the next village with them and all the while he talks to Logan eyeing Roman up warily as if the ronin could attack at any moment. Roman notes his concealed weaponry and asks later that night whilst Logan is sleeping if Virgil plans to use it, the other biting out that he will have no need to if he does not feel threatened — leaving out that he won’t use his weaponry if Logan isn’t threatened — and making Roman suspicious of him by default. The pair thinking that the other may attack at any second and silently vowing that if the other does attack or tries to attack Logan, they will slay the other without mercy, though they are unknowingly on the same side.

Finally, they reach Patton’s village, one that Logan had heard from Roman that they had no school, even though a lord lives in the village and therefore should have some sort of education that even a tiny village like Logan’s had access to. But they arrive and Roman tells them he has to talk with the lord as they need to know of his presence, leaving the pair at an inn and paying upfront for the three of them to stay there. Logan heads out with Virgil to look around and notices that they do have a school there so he must be too late to this village as well. He ends up at the river telling Virgil about his previous life and Virgil seemingly opens up as well; telling Logan he comes from a line of framers, true, before telling Logan he ran away, also true, and then finishing up with him running all the way to the coastal village and becoming a fisherman there, a lie but a good one. Logan doesn’t accept it though and murmurs that he knows Virgil has weapons and has known since Virgil approached them the origin they left, and judging by how he walks and how he moves so silently at times he must have training, from the fact he lives in a coastal village most likely training done on a ship and due to the fact he leads a modest life with nary a moment of financial trouble he must have been trained under pirates. Virgil is floored at Logan’s deduction of him but Logan just steps into the river and gathers the last few flowers of the lotus along with a reed and makes the last crown of spring, holding it in his lap silently before placing it on the current and watching it float downstream.

Roman informs them later he had business with the lord and asks if Logan and Virgil would like to go to the dinner the lord is hosting with him. They agree and dress in their best, Roman offering up one of his smaller kimonos for Logan to wear as he has nothing as formal as is expected. Entering the dinner makes them all feel rather underdressed, but they are immediately found by Patton himself and he begins asking them everything about themselves. He finally seems to notice something and whisks Logan away from Virgil and Roman right as dinner begins with the lord and one guest missing. When the dinner finally wraps up the pair find Logan back at the inn with a glassy look to his eyes, finally told by Logan that Patton’s father was the warlord that killed his grandparents and sent his father fleeing to Logan’s village, where they began a new life, and somehow — he’s unsure how — Patton found out who he was and offered a large sum of money to him along with a large house, a job as a private tutor to Patton and his heirs, and to top it off free food and water for the rest of his natural life along with the same for any children or spouse he may have. It’s all a bit much for the once teacher and he leaves in the night, found the next morning by a distraught Roman who’d been searching for him from the moment he found Logan gone early that morning. They sit together on the river bank as the sun comes up and finally Roman wheedles out of Logan that he’s not ungrateful for the attention and care Patton has offered him, but after everything his father did to Logan’s family and life and the repercussions of that choice, Logan is having a hard time just forgiving the son of the man that slaughtered his entire family apart from his father who died too late to see what Patton could offer them. Roman offers up Patton’s view of things, though Logan already knows Patton’s side of this as he spent the entire night thinking it over and figuring everything out. He tells Roman that he can’t accept Patton’s offer, not fully. He wants to earn what he can, he needs that control over his own life after having so much taken from him by others, but he’s willing to take up Patton’s offer of money as he could use that on his trip. Roman asks what trip Logan is thinking of taking and Logan smiles, reminding Roman that he’s supposed to be Logan’s guard until Logan settles down once more and finds a job, therefore not only is Roman coming along with him on the trip but he’s not supposed to leave Logan’s side until the trip is over and Logan has found a job and place to call home. Roman groans at that but knows he has to agree to it.

They return to the inn and find Virgil and Patton talking, the lord noticing their presence and asking them to join them. Logan declines much of Patton’s offer, stating his reasons though Patton disagrees with Logan leaving with only some money and not all that Patton can offer him. Virgil tells them he’s decided to stay on and earn his keep in the village, offering up his tanto — the one he survived his shipwreck with — to Logan as a promise that Logan will eventually return it to him. They part ways, Roman and Logan heading off to their next village whilst Virgil and Patton remain on in that village.

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the-static-silence-of-pastels · 5 years

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Feudal Japan AU - 2 Part (The Teacher and the Ronin)

Roman is a ronin. Yeah not confusing in the slightest. He wanders from village to village, provenance to provenance, working for the people as a sword for hire. He never actually harms people though, using a blunted blade gifted to him by his father to deliver blows that are supposed to stun but not harm. With his blade on one side, known as the Ronin of Left due to the unorthodox way he handles his weapon, and a damaged family crest on the other, a family name meant to be forgotten after all the damage it’s had done to it, he roams the country to help those in need.

Logan is a teacher. His family name is unrecognisable after a warlord decimated his grandparents, his father fleeing with only his life and a young Logan at his heels. His father taught him well but he wanted to learn more and found studying the environment a good way to. Later he became a teacher to pass on what he knew as his father did to him. The children are a worrying bunch but they love their somewhat harsh sensei and his mannerisms. But during a large raid on the village the school is demolished, many of the villagers slaughtered, and only two children left. Then in comes Roman after the attack, and with nothing left to his name but the knowledge he has Logan offers his last money up to Roman in exchange for Roman becoming his guard on his way to another village where he can resume teaching once more.

Virgil is your average villager. Once the disciple of a trader, he found his safe haven after being persecuted by a band of pirates in a harbour village. Running from that village to another he laid low as a rice farmer for a few months before taking off again to another village, learning from that village that the pirates had ransacked every village along the coastline and figuring they wouldn’t be back for another year, he left for the coast and was caught by another pirate group which allowed him to join them after witnessing him fight back against them. They taught him and when their ship was sunk close to the coast, Virgil swam from the wreckage with a small purse of gold and a single tanto on his person. He bought a house and used his abilities to search the reef for more money and weaponry, looting what he wanted and selling what was left before leaving to live a quiet life as a villager with a backstory no one knew.

Patton was the son of a lord, much like Logan, but unlike Logan, he continued to be the son of a lord and the son of a warlord who wiped out Logan’s grandparents to boot. After his father’s death, he became the lord and took matters into his own hands. His father’s reign of terror was now recognised as a strategy to see that Patton would be able to have the life he did and be able to be softer than his father had been, so he was. He made sure his workers were paid fairly, that food was plentiful, that cloth for blankets in winter came cheap to the poor. He was a good lord, but he was a sad lord. And then he was notified of Roman, taking the ronin into his castle to ask him to find Logan and bring him to Patton so he could offer what he could to the once lord of another provenance.

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the-static-silence-of-pastels · 5 years

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Prompt: ‘Oh, would you stand down!’

‘Oh, would you stand down!’ came the yell, accent heavy yet commanding, as the heavily armoured soldier in front of Roman was nudged aside.

Behind the soldier came a man in heavy decoration — he wore no medals nor badges though. The man, reaching just shy of Roman’s shoulder, glared at the soldier who retreated from his position, though his firearm was still held in a loose grip halfway between his side and the position it had once been in — staring Roman down, point blank to his face. With the suspense of whether he would be killed or not lifted, Roman allowed himself to give a short sigh of relief before looking over the one who had made the purple haired soldier lower his weapon.

From the look of him, he appeared no older than twenty, maybe even just shy of nineteen, yet the way he held himself made him appear closer to forty or even fifty. Experience and confidence in the way he stood, hands calloused as he brushed off imaginary dirt from his blue and silver lined uniform, hair held in place under a midnight dark cap. Not a single thing about him whispered “out of place” or “too young”, but his face seemed far too smooth, too fresh and clean, too free of the pains of war and baggage of time. He was just too young to be a commanding officer, and yet here he was.

‘State your business, if you would’, the commanding officer asked, switching his gaze — oh heavens, such sweet grey eyes — from his soldier to Roman, taking in the ragged brown cloak he wore over his once pristine white uniform. For a second Roman cringed back, just in his mind, at seeing the way the man looked over him with such calculating eyes. A second later the brows above them furrowed gently and those eyes sparked alive with the colour of a peafowl’s tail, trails of the same rich azure spiralling out from the corners of his eyes, creeping out towards the very edges of his forehead and vanishing all at once as they reached their destination.

Because of course, he had to be a witch, Roman thought bitterly, mouth twitching but remaining in the same line it had formed into when he was first found and brought to gunpoint, I can never meet anyone normal.

‘Sir, he was trespassing. I cannot allow him to walk…’

‘Did I say anything about letting him go? No, I do not believe I did’, the man paused, one hand dipping into a breast pocket under his navy cape that Roman assumed was given as part of his magic skill. The next second Roman saw the hand it was pressing a pair of black spectacles onto the witch’s nose, eyes closed as the metal met the bridge of his nose. With that the man gave a short glance to the soldier, who’s hand now dropped the firearm back into the holster on his leg, motioning his head towards Roman as he looked pointedly at the soldier.

The man looked back at Roman, soft grey back where it belonged before the sun caught the grey and banished it to blue in one fell swoop. A lump formed in the courier's throat. ‘I deeply apologise, but as commander of this encampment, I cannot allow trespassing to go unpunished. I must ask you to follow me to my personal tent, Virgil will take up behind you and will be quick to remind you of your position should you attempt to escape.’ The soldier, seemingly not thrilled his name had been announced to the trespasser, walked to stand behind Roman, ‘right then. I will investigate your case and we will quickly determine whether you are a threat or not.’

And with that, Roman was being marched off behind the commanding officer as he felt the metal holes of two handgun barrels pressing into his back gently. He would have to send word to Patton he’d be late for tea.

Logan is the prince of a small country on the brink of war with another small country. Though his paternal figure forbids it, he disguises himself as a soldier before Virgil recognises him and quickly outs him for it. Since he’s so far from the capital, their majesty allows Logan to remain on as a commander in the tiny military camp.

Virgil was a guard at the palace but was drafted into the army by their majesty. His training in the palace guard accelerated him to the highest rank he could earn without being a leader of any kind. He was stationed at a camp and saw Logan training. He knew his duty to the crown, outed Logan as being the prince, and for his loyalty to the crown was bestowed the “coveted” role as the prince’s bodyguard. Only a slight downgrade to his former position as a soldier, but an upgrade to his living conditions that was highly welcome.

Roman is a courier for Patton to his cousin Anwir. The two live separate from one another with Patton stuck in Logan’s kingdom and Anwir in the opposing kingdom and country. Due to being fast and knowledgeable of the terrain and places in both countries, Roman was drafted into being Patton’s personal page boy, of a sort. They’re good friends, but once the war began Roman was found trespassing on the encampment Logan was a part of and was interrogated for information. Not believed when he told them who he worked for until Patton physically made the trek to get Roman out of his predicament.

Both Patton and Anwir share middle-class titles. While Anwir works as a public defence lawyer in the opposing kingdom, Patton works as a therapist in Logan’s. They used to send money back and forth for when times got rough in each other’s countries. After contracting Roman to send the money to either of them and their ultimate befriending of the courier, they began sending less money and more letters. Then the war hit and they became worried for the courier, knowing that both could possibly be detained for contacting someone in the enemy kingdom. But they needed one another enough to keep sending letters with Roman until Roman was detained and Patton forced to come to his aid.

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the-static-silence-of-pastels · 5 years

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Dancing High On A Cloud With(out) You

Roman is meant to help people, and he does. He’s been a fairy for over a millennium now, offering up peoples most intimate desires and handing down blessings for all. He saw a princess born and raised, turned comatose and given freedom after a hundred-year slumber. He helped a prince locate a princess in the forest after keeping her alive in her glass coffin for the first kiss of her true love. He’s been all over the world, seen many kinds of magic, walked among mortals and seen the sins of human nature, but none of that could compare to his current feelings. Standing in front of a lonely boy, barely a man, soft tears cascading down his cheeks as the rags of his father’s best suit hang off him with a despondent feel. He feels for the boy, the young man who had merely wanted one night of freedom and had his hopes dashed by his family. But he has Roman now, and gosh darn it is Roman going to give him the night of his life — if only he hadn’t fallen in love watching the boy grow through the years, hadn’t allowed himself to hope that a mortal could love his immortal soul. If only he’d listened to his head instead of his heart. The boy was destined to be with the prince, not the fairy godfather, not the immortal, not the magical wish granter who’d seen him through his toughest times. No, because that wasn’t how the story went.

Summary:

Roman is Logan’s fairy godfather. He’s been everywhere, granting wishes, and he finally was able to move up in his world to having a child to look after. During his time taking care of the young boy who had lost his father and birth mother early on, he began to wander about, losing track of the boy he was supposed to keep safe. He wandered back into Logan’s life the night he was at his lowest and helped him once more, feeling pity and guilt over leaving him alone. But talking to Logan on the way to the castle, reminding him of his manners and such, he felt the stirrings of a crush which quickly evolved as they talked more outside the doors, Roman posing as his chaperone to the ball. However, Roman was told not to meddle and to leave Logan’s fate to the mortals. To let him find love with the prince and have his happily ever after. Heartbroken over the issue, Roman kept watch over the boy before noticing some things about the prince. There was an eagerness to him, a lustful need that swam in his eyes above all else, touches bordering on sexual, and, well, Roman couldn’t just sit by and let that happen, could he? Finding Logan during a couples dance and stealing him away into the night, the pair retreat to the gardens for a little one on one where Logan confesses his budding attraction for the prince and Roman is, of course, heartbroken hearing the confession. He’s not supposed to interfere, but he can’t let Logan make a mistake when it comes to love, and so, in a moment Roman knows he’ll regret, tells Logan everything he saw. They argue, fight, and Logan storms off into the arms of his prince. Roman keeps watching, even though he wants to leave Logan to his own devices, and sure enough, the prince pulls him away with obviously sexual intentions. Logan manages to escape without Roman’s help right as the clock chimes, and Roman helps him flee further with his magic, making sure he can slow down the soldiers who run after Logan on horseback. Back in the safety of his home Logan mourns what could have been with Roman, the immortal knowing that the misfortune of his charge will resume as soon as his family come home and, having used up his wish for Logan for that year, decides to pull up his sleeves and help Logan out of his situation once more. They steal a horse, Roman taking the lead and pushing the horse through the night until he finds the cottage in the forest he’d once inhabited hundreds of years ago. The pair shack up in the cottage, tending to it as Logan grows older and older. When he nears his late twenties Roman refuses to allow him to pass along any longer and asks for help from the highest of the immortals — Patton — who he threatens gently; either he gives up his immortality or Patton must grant immortality to Logan.

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the-static-silence-of-pastels · 5 years

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Indebted and Protected

Mmmmhmmm it’s 3AM again. The title is a work in progress and it’s 3AM so it won’t matter in like 7 hours when I wake up again. (lots of mistakes i cant be bothered to fix rn)

“Two warring cultures — the Nerava and the Berini — find themselves in a tumultuous state after yet another war.”

Logan, once a nobleman of one of the many Berini prefectures and the wife and Moon of Thomas Laursen, is captured during the war with his Shield — Virgil Maron, another Moon, wife to Patton Maron and highly regarded protector of the noble Moon child. The pair are sold into slavery to become servants and affection slaves of the Nerava. Both are picked out by a nobleman intent on becoming a knight for the capital of Nerava, the two to be given to him as a gift from his family on his work into becoming a knight. He picks both, the pair renamed Star Sapphire and Charoite due to the colours that would look best on them — a deep blue for Logan and a purple and black for Virgil.

Roman Balmas never thought he’d ever own Gems; the name given to the enslaved Carriers of Berini and Nerava. He never thought he’d have a Carrier, period. But here he is standing in the line and looking at each Gem with a modicum of heavily concealed guilt. And then he spots the most beautiful Gem he’s ever seen and of course, his family gifted him two, so now he’s whispering to the Gem and asking if they have a friend he could take with him. They pick a lowly looking Gem, a charoite that is nonetheless pretty in their own way, and now Roman has two people to care for. It’s just his luck he decides to marry Star so he doesn’t look like a bachelor joining the guard, more for selfish reasons than he intends since now the poor thing will have to mourn him if he dies in battle, but it was a requirement he take a wife before and there are no laws preventing him wedding a Gem. It’s even more his luck he talks to the pair in secret and slowly begins to realise he’s falling in love with his wife, with the Carrier of his next of kin, and he doesn’t care one bit.

Synopsis:

The war that threatened the previous prefecture threatens Logan’s and he is able to escape with Virgil via horseback. Thomas is killed before his eyes and he weeps for the loss whilst Virgil barely keeps his emotions in check, knowing Patton is most likely lost as well. They are jumped by bandits, subdued and then sold into the Nerava slave trade. Given their new names and forced into submission before Roman picks Logan out and asks him privately who else to pick. Logan picks Virgil and the pair are carted off to Roman’s estate, Logan is wed once more to a man he doesn’t know that well, but is half relieved when Roman refuses to consummate with him on their wedding night.

Later he talks to them and asks for their native tongue names, which they give up slowly — though Virgil refuses to tell Roman his true name — and Logan tells Roman about his life before, when Virgil, “Anxiety”, was his shield and sworn protector and he was a nobleman, which confuses Roman until he learns that Carriers — Moons in Logan’s tongue — are not stripped of their rights at birth, they are equal to all others and have been for years. Roman feels terrible and promises never to do anything to them that could harm them, laying down the sword he was gifted to become a knight and promising on it he will never do them harm.

A day later they are all transported to the capital, stopping along the way even though the journey is less than two days by horse at a slow speed. They are welcomed, settle in, and later come together for a feast in which Virgil is not invited but Roman equips him with a small knife he can keep hidden at all times and allow him to follow Logan around as a second set of eyes, knowing full well that Logan will be the target of mass scrutiny over his previous status as a Gem, having to still go by that name rather than Logan. Virgil follows, is never told off as he is Roman’s Gem, and only has to look people over with a glance to make them run away in fear. Logan fares well, Roman does as he can for them, finding out that the capital captured a few people from Logan’s prefecture. He later finds out what Patton looks like and heads to the dungeons to scout for him, returning with no good news for the disheartened Virgil.

A few nights later the castle is set upon by a group of rebels and Logan is carted away from Roman while Virgil sees and has a touching reunion with Patton before Patton finds out about Roman and Roman tells him that the group took Logan right before Patton is captured. Roman vouches for Patton, Patton takes them to the hideout, Logan is released, and he has a somewhat touching reunion with Roman. Roman is initiated and becomes a knight, Patton keeps to the shadows and the streets but sleeps in Virgil’s room with him, Virgil continues to keep in step with Logan to keep him safe, and Logan asks for some books so he can learn about the culture of the Nerava people.

Roman is sent onto the field of battle at one point but when facing down an opponent that is far stronger than he is, Roman’s necklace — one he had made with Logan’s help that had Logan’s gem engraved with his real name on it — is revealed and he is questioned quickly about if he’d seen a Moon with eyes as blue as the stone. Roman replies that his wife has such eyes and he is relinquished of the stone with a single swipe of the sword in his opponent’s hand. They inspect it, determine that he is Logan’s new husband, and say they cannot kill him knowing that. They reveal themselves to be Thomas, heavily wounded from the past fight he’d survived barely with the help of some friends and ran off to find his wife. Now that Roman has taken claim to the title of Logan’s husband though, Thomas feels no claim to it and leaves the battlefield after giving the stone back to Roman and making sure he knows that the stone in his hand is far less precious than the one he has wed. Thomas leaves with one last thing to say, that Roman had better treat Logan right before he is gone. Roman returns, is greeted warmly by all before he comes to Logan, presents him with the stone and — in private — is given many a token of appreciation for his safe return (lots of hugs and soft kisses). The pair formally admit to their romantic feelings for one another and cement their bond with a touching kiss in the moonlight, Roman softly remarking that Logan’s eyes shine brighter than his gem or the stars it was named after.

Moons (Berini) = Carriers (Nerava)

Shield: a person who is trained to be a personal guard, usually of a lower class to those they serve but always loyal to whoever they protect.

Gem: a person who is taken into the slave trade and then sold to the highest bidder.

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the-static-silence-of-pastels · 5 years

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The Silent Prince

I watched “The Shape of Water”, and then this happened. Just a short little romp, nothing too extreme or extravagant.

Mer AU where Logan is a prince who is mute, Roman is a peasant living off what he scavenges from shipwrecks, Virgil is the king (either older brother or father to Logan), Patton is the dead father figure, and Deceit was a previous king who was also mute.

Logan lives well off, but Virgil won’t allow him to go outside the castle or be seen. He sneaks out one day and meets Roman, not telling the other boy he’s the prince and starting to teach him sign language so he can communicate more easily with Logan (when they first met he had to write in the sand, and he the quickly swished his tail over it so it vanished). When he gets back Virgil seems to know exactly where he went and, after a fight where Patton is mentioned — which Virgil points out is an unfair tactic to use —, he tells Logan the truth. Virgil’s (brother/uncle) was also mute, but they figured out a spell later on that would give him speech. Unfortunately, the spell shortened his life to two years, when he should have reigned for decades, and had the very unfortunate effect of only bestowing him the ability to spout lies. He couldn’t tell the truth, could barely talk to people, and before his untimely death, he was criticised over and over again. The people he wanted to cherish hated him and Virgil feels that he must do everything in his power to make sure Logan doesn’t end up the same way. Since the people have only had one recorded case of being mute aside from Logan’s — King Anwir’s — they will most likely assume Logan will end up the same as the previous king, a liar with a short lifespan. Logan argues that Roman didn’t judge him, Virgil argues back that it was probably because Roman is still young and doesn’t know what Anwir did. This causes outrage in the prince along with despair, and he flees to his room under the watchful eye of two guards now sworn to keep him inside the castle at all times.

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the-static-silence-of-pastels · 5 years

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because I cannot be trusted at 3am

“Marry Me, Rebecca” but with Logan being super stoic as Rebecca, Virgil being the dorky Sir Jeffers, and Deceit playing along as Chad just because they can. it started out with Virgil jokingly saying that Logan was “the prettiest girl in all of Brooklyn” and then Logan, literally out of the blue, quotes word for word “thank you sir Jeffers”, so now Virgil has to go along whilst Logan reads his book and helps out here and there with a very bored voice. Then Deceit comes in followed by Roman and Patton and Thomas, and then, of course, he decides to play Chad because this is getting really good. Roman and Patton are kind of stuck like “wtf guys?”, and Thomas is just standing there all teary-eyed because “Rebecca!”

Virgil: You know, if it weren’t for your glasses you’d be pretty hot.

Logan: *silence*

Virgil: Like, “prettiest girl in Brooklyn” hot.

Logan: *silence, then in a monotone voice* Thank you Sir Jeffers.

Virgil: *Stunned for a second before smirking* Will you accompany me to- the- mysterious wedding today?

Logan: *still monotone* No.

Virgil: But, but Rebecca, I love you.

Logan: I love you too.

Roman walks in with Patton and Thomas ready for a video and stop. They watch ,confused yet intrigued over what Logan will say next.

Logan: I loooooove you.

All flush except Virgil and Logan over Logan’s words.

Virgil: Marry me, Rebecca.

Logan: No.

Deceit walks in. All four are really confused but Deceit instantly know what is going on and smirks whilst thinking up a plan.

Virgil: Why?!

Logan: I-I don’t love you. Whoopsie.

Thomas looks ready to leap into the play and strangle Logan, Patton is near tears and Roman is still so confused.

Virgil: Rebecca!

Logan: I am in love with another.

Virgil: Who is this man?!

Thomas: Yeah who?!

Logan: He. Is. *Pulls book down and stares at Virgil with no emotion* You. I love you.

Patton and Thomas gasp and smile broadly, so happy and invested. Roman is still really confused.

Virgil: Marry me, Rebecca.

Logan: No.

Virgil: Rebecca!

Logan: I am in love with your brother.

Thomas and Patton gasp again in dismay. Patton stopping for a second because none of them technically have brothers, but Thomas does so he isn’t distracted by the addition of the brother. Roman is so confused.

Roman: You don’t have a brother. None of us do. Why are you calling Logan Rebecca?

Virgil: Chad?! I’ll kill ‘em when I find ‘em.

Thomas and Patton quickly getting invested again, agreeing loudly to this proclamation.

Deceit: *steps up to Virgil and taps him on the shoulder so he has to turn around to see who is tapping him* Or, he will find you.

Thomas and Patton gasp loudly again, Roman finally deciding not to nit pick like he could and let the fun wash over him.

Logan & Virgil: Chad?!

Deceit: The mysterious wedding has been our wedding all along. *Stepping around Virgil and taking one of Logan’s hands so he can still hold the book he’s reading but is also engaged in holding Deceit’s hand* Rebecca and I are getting wed at the wedding today. *Look Virgil down* You. Are not invited. *Smiles at Virgil with near genuine happiness* Will you be my best man?

Thomas quietly boos at the thought, Patton silences him with a look and Roman just sits there trying to get reinvested in the play.

Virgil: *clasping one hand in a fist with eyes closed* Of course brother. I hate you so much.

Deceit: Goodbye brother. I’ll see you at the bachelor party.

Logan: Goodbye Sir Jeffers. I will always love you.

Thomas and Patton outright crying now. So invested. Roman still confused but kinda into it. All sitting on the ground as if watching a play.

Virgil: *Whispers* Rebecca.

Thomas full out bawling and hugging Patton, both needing the support whilst Roman half claps the performance. Virgil laughs, Deceit smirks and Logan just goes back to reading his book.

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the-static-silence-of-pastels · 5 years

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Persephone and Hades AU

All I can say is...I was really bored and it was like 3am. Sue me.

Hades - Roman: Roman has a big dog he named Spot and loves dearly. He’s characterised as being a very angry person, but in truth, he’s just upset he doesn’t get to leave the Underworld much. He throws a lot of parties for the denizens of the Underworld and often finds himself bored stupid by them. He just wants to find love, live his life out with his three-headed dog, and not be so bored all the time.

Persephone - Logan: he wanted to be like Athena but was cast into the role as a minor deity of grain and vegetation. He’s so salty about it, but even more so knowing it was his father’s idea he takes up the mantle of being the god of such things. He doesn’t hate Patton for making him a minor deity, but he wishes he were meant for something greater than grain.

Demeter - Patton: the god of the harvest, sacred law and the cycle of life and death. He had a large fight with Roman many years ago and doesn’t really speak about him all that much. Very protective of Logan because he’s the only son Patton has ever had and he had to steal him away when his one night stand with the all-powerful Joan — god-x of thunder and the two major celestial bodies, and high ruler of all gods, goddesses, god-xs — ended with the next in line — god-x Talyn, second most high ruler and controller of lightning and the stars — found out, impeaching on their right as next in line to rule. (They were really not happy, but Patton hid Logan away and gave him a very non-threatening deific power, so now Talyn doesn’t think Logan is a threat anymore.)

Thanatos - Virgil: He hates his job, so much. He has to listen to Roman whine about not seeing the sun and the plants and other people, and he has to actually work. People hate him, which gives him a lot of anxiety over other people and his own qualifications, but Roman’s pretty cool when he’s not whining and lets Virgil play with his three-headed puppy.

This is the 3am summary, and the part below is a better summary where I wasn’t so sleep deprived.

So; Roman is finally able to sneak away for a day and sees Logan, just working with some flowers. He’s like “ey, yo, what up cute as heck peasant mortal bitch”, and Logan’s like da fuq, and walks away so Roman gives chase and tries to woo him with flowers but they all die in his hands, so Logan revives them and Roman’s all like “wait, what?”, and Logan’s like “you know who I am right?”, and Roman’s like “no, who?”, and Logan’s like “god of the harvest, pretty minor and all”, and Roman’s stoked because he’s not mortal and he can come back to the underworld with him. Long story short Roman takes Logan, they get acquainted, they comes back, everything is dying because Patton’s worried about his son, Virgil’s like “dude told you so”, and then Logan marries Roman because that’s how things go.

Okay, better story now I’m free:

Roman, being Roman, is not totally a fan of being the god of the Underworld. Call him picky or a brat, but after a thousand years of trying to find some enjoyment in the task he’s got little to nothing to show for it except for a rocky friendship/rivalship with the god of death, Virgil.

After witnessing a few couples, one too many family reunions, and a multitude of other cutesy-lovey-dovey moments, Roman takes a break and heads to earth for a little RnR away from the Underworld, Virgil agreeing to keep an eye on his kingdom so long as Roman gives him the same amount of time off later on. So Roman heads to earth and as soon as his miasmic cloud pools up from the ground and he takes a look around he sees beauty.

The world is full of flowers as far as the eye can see, tiny pink buds and large yellow buds, all flowering under a gorgeous blue sky with barely any clouds. It’s nothing short of stunning, even if his miasmic clouds are killing off the flowers under his feet. So he walks on and after making his way over a hill he sees a man, sitting on the ground and picking up flowers to work with something in his lap. From the back, the man is just as stunning as his surroundings, but that gets Roman thinking about his mortality. If he brought the man back to the Underworld he’d die without ambrosia, and Roman isn’t the one with ready access to the stuff, unlike Joan and their many friends on the Mountain.

But that’s a risk he’s willing to take, so he approaches, pushing his miasma away and straightening the crown of thorns and bones on his head whilst patting down his clothes to appear more appealing. Then he coughs, speaks up in a way he hopes the mortals speak, and is floored when the man turns his head and the sun catches his eyes. His hand is still up a little, body draped in somewhat dark clothing, eyes covered by what appears to be two small pieces of the ocean — clear as crystal and water but not moving — and held in place by what looks like golden thread. His hands are holding a crown made up of flowers, perfectly woven together in an intricate braid that makes Roman want to learn about it even more.

The man stands up and, boy, he’s just a hand shy of Roman’s height which endears him even more to the god of the underworld. And Roman’s a big gay mess because this guy is just so cute with his crown of flowers and perfectly fitted chiton that’s maybe a touch too big in all the right places and dwarfs him just a little. So he asks for a name and gets Logan in return, before declaring himself Roman. Logan just blinks, says okay and starts walking away from Roman who quickly follows after him, trying to regain his attention. He trips and this is when Logan finally notices him, going to take his hand to help him up even though he can plainly see the way the flowers and grass have wilted under his touch. Roman freezes for a second, not sure how to handle this before he feels warmth around his hand and Logan is pulling him up.

At first, Roman thinks Logan might just be a strong mortal, maybe descended from a demi-god or finally someone who Roman’s powers refuse to work on. So he’s in near tears with joy because this guy is cute, doesn’t care about his status as a god of the Underworld, isn’t scared of him, and can touch him without being drained of his life-force, a really sweet all in one package that — if Roman weren’t a god — Roman would have been certain were made just for him by the gods. Then he takes Logan’s other hand and notices that the flowers of his crown are wilting quickly so he pulls away and apologises rapidly before Logan hushes him and waves a hand over the crown, the flowers pulling up and becoming life filled once more. Now Roman is intrigued, far more than a simple mortal human then, so a demi-god maybe with those powers. So he asks and Logan answers back that he isn’t a demigod just a minor deity with powers similar to his parent's powers. So Roman asks who his parents are and Logan responds that he’s the spawn of Joan — almighty deity that they are — and Patton — god of the harvest, the cycle of life and death, and the fertility of the earth — and yeah Roman is kinda floored because he never even knew Patton had a son.

So they slowly bond a little, Roman telling Logan about his role as the god of the underworld as Logan adorns himself with the crown he’s made and don’t they look a couple — a crown of thorns and bones next to one of fresh flowers - magical. And eventually it comes down to them finally resolving to tell Logan’s father about them, and Patton takes it as well as an overprotective father can take anything.

Roman rescues Logan from the Mountain and they run away back to the underworld to talk things out and come to the decision that if Logan eats something of the dead he becomes a thing of the dead — Roman isn’t too into it since it’s permanently altering Logan and he doesn’t want to hurt his sweet summer boy, but Logan’s all for it and so, after asking Virgil many times, Virgil caves and hands over a pomegranate for Logan to eat, warning them of the effects it could have.

Logan eats it, becomes ill, and Roman takes him back to Patton to plead for Patton to help them. Patton agrees upon the condition that Roman treat his son well and resurrects Logan. From then on Logan is the co-king of the Underworld and takes a break off for six months every year to see Patton and keep the seasons in a steady, mellow warm state before returning and sending the world into winter and autumn. And maybe Roman spices up the decor a little to keep Logan happy. Adding flowers and lilies around his kingdom and domain for Logan to preen over and dote on — as stoic as he is with other people and gods he does treasure plant life.

Then the other gods find out, and both Talyn and Joan and nothing short of enraged. Yes they both like Roman, at least a little, but Logan and Roman being together is too much for them so they send Thomas — the god of the roads, travellers, trickery, commerce, sports, trade, and heraldry (among other things) — to tell Roman and Logan they’d better split up and that Logan is hereby ordered to return to earth. It doesn’t work, they go to war with Virgil, Roman, Logan and Patton over it and finally Roman almost dies but Logan uses the life forces of some of his flowers to keep Roman from dying at the cost of his own life force being drained away a little to keep the flowers alive — so basically he gives his life force to Roman but a lot less than he would have if he hadn’t used the flowers kind of like a coin going into a bank and gaining interest over time before being taken out.

Roman exchanges the dark and dreary vibes for something a little lighter, Logan decides to keep up with his usual vibes, Virgil complains that the Underworld should be dark and scary, and Patton just keeps putting plants all over the place to drive Virgil insane (not really, he thinks he’s too cute to actually drive the god of death insane, but it’s funny to see him so up in arms about the Underworld turning into earth with all the new additions)

Roman, Patton and Virgil’s entire deal with Logan pretty much boils down to “touch my sweet spring husband/child/boss and you die”, Logan’s his own fair share of protective but to less of an extent with the others around, alone he cracking knuckles over anyone who so much as says Roman is a terrible god or Virgil is scary or Patton’s too emotional for his own good, he takes no shit from no one and that includes Joan and Talyn — they are scared, help them.

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the-static-silence-of-pastels · 5 years

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The Feral Virus (previously titled Animalism, but we’ll get to that)

(Real talk, I seriously need to stop reading Stephen King novels and taking ideas from them.)

Okay, so this is the retconned version of the original idea, not fully fleshed out but yeah.

So the basic rundown of this is that there’s a virus that attacks certain parts of the brain and reverts humans to their prime animal instincts. No gore or anything like that listed, but it might be good to steer clear if even imagining the effects of the virus has some bad effects on you.

Dubbed by many previously as the Shadows Plague, the Ferality Virus takes over a host once the infection has incubated — transmitted orally, via bodily fluids, and in rare cases via the air as an airborne disease (mainly in more humid and hot climates where the virus had to adapt and evolve). It is not known how the virus first came about, speculations to its origin include but are not limited to; militaristic and government invention, acts of the divine, acts of nature, and biological terrorism. Those first infected were found in the late 1980s and the disease was written off as merely rabies, those infected incubating the virus as it began to attack both their central nervous system and cerebrum to turn it’s hosts feral and thus spread the virus further through violent and often times animalistic ways. But the virus was restricted to Lithuania and did not arise any panic as it was quickly shut down, most thinking that the very small amount of people infected — and their being family in some sense of the word — a connection and, by eliminating the entire family, the virus would cease to exist. The virus reared its head once more in the early 1990s in a small town a little west of a major city in Australia. The virus was quickly cancelled out as those infected died from the virus as the virus was killed by the extreme heat of that summer. Years later in 2019 the virus finally became a truly recognised threat as within the span of three weeks a near half the population of the Earth became infected, beginning with a tourist from Portugal who entered and wandered around the many countries of Africa, slowly distributing the virus without knowing, before the returned home with a stopover in the Americas. With the disease having already manifested in many places around the world and becoming a global threat, many countries that had not yet been infected closed their borders to all and those that had the disease begged for help from foreign governments and countries. The virus spread rapidly even as many fought to control the outbreak, this time there was no stopping it, and slowly the infected outnumbered those not infected.

Among these few was a man named Thomas Sanders, corralled by friends and family to a safe haven miles away from home. This was not to last, however, as very quickly the safe haven became a mess of panic and anxiety over what was to come. It was thanks to the military that at long last they were able to return to some semblance of the life they once had. With no cure in sight, many were told to be wary of others who could bear the virus that had wiped out over half of the world’s population. Unfortunately, Thomas was never a very lucky man. With home life and his old reality back on track, as best it could be, a single act of charity changed his life for the worse and with the knowledge he now carried the virus he set out on a journey to live and die in solitude so no one may ever bear the brunt of his actions again.

Life was never to be simple though, and he soon realises that he is loosing much more than his mind as he carries on. Internally he begins to lose parts of himself he once held in such high regard, his morals and ability to be human drifting away with every day as the Feral Virus takes over.

When they first knew they’d been infected it was within their priority to think of others first. That’s how it had always been and how it would always be, at least until the virus took full control and reverted them to the base desires and actions of what they inherently were. Animal. Long had they thought that human and animal were separate, different, but the virus was giving all of them a chance to see that they truly were just an animal without much else to their name.

Sitting down together they made the decision in silence; others before ourselves. This time there was no argument from Deceit, nor from Roman, nor from Logan, or Patton, or Virgil. No, this time they all agreed and with that, they separated. They had little time left — a single month of thirty 24 hour cycles with perhaps a few more hours if they were lucky (though they knew they were not), Logan had calculated — and with that time they wished to set their affairs in order. Patton had to see that the memories were cleaned once more, Logan had to see that the books he’d kept were still pristine and perfect, Roman had to see that his worlds were in peace, Virgil had to see that his room could no longer corrupt, Deceit had to say his farewells to the other Dark Sides one final time. It was to be a long and arduous journey, one Logan had determined the destination of, Roman had packed with interesting stories to tell, Patton had filled with nostalgic memories, Virgil had seen to there being no other life forms, and Deceit had given false information on to their relatives and friends. No one would know, no one would come looking.

The first to be struck with the virus was Patton. Unlike what they had imagined might happen it was not a slow rotting of the mind, rather soothing actually. It began as webbing, thick and a motley grey to the look, soft like fairy floss to the touch but ever so sticky. Patton had let it be, there was no way to fight so for once they would allow it to take hold. It slowly grew, covering patches of the walls in Patton’s room, entangling the fan that stood in the corner for hot days, spreading over every memory until Patton could no longer see them under the now heavy substance. He had once tried to pry it off but found it tougher to peel away than the layers they all had in place to protect themselves. So he allowed it to fester. And it did, so very much. Encasing the light above and creeping over the switches until the room became as dark as a sealed tomb. Then one day came when the webbing encased his door. And so he was left alone in the dark with only the voices of the other sides for comfort.

Their second to fall was Logan. It was a mere day after Patton’s room became completely sealed off, he had grown dizzy and fallen asleep on their shared couch — no one wanted to return to their rooms after Patton’s experience — waking to the same thick grey webbing that had once appeared in Patton’s room all over his chest and torso. He’d felt fear, icy cold around his heart and burning hot in his stomach as he struggled to remove it, giving up as it only stuck further to his hands. In the momentary lapse of his own core function, he searched out the most comforting presence he could and found their first to fall. It took a good three minutes of sobbing and ramming a thoroughly bruised shoulder into the door, but with the sound of Patton’s own scratching and his quiet sobs, he finally opened the door, the door immediately closing and the webbing following soon after. He was cradled as the webbing spread over the remainder of his body, not fully seeing that Patton’s own was nearly fully covered save his now bloodied nails and tearful face. Their combined weeping was finally silenced by a tender kiss to the logical side’s forehead, the webbing finally taking them.

It was a full day later, that Roman, Deceit and Virgil grew worried enough to venture for Logan, coming across his open room now enveloped by the webbing they’d seen slowly creeping from the cracks of Patton’s door. It was as if a gigantic arachnid had chosen Logan’s room for a new nest, the thought sending shivers down their spines as they moved from one side’s room the next. Patton’s door taunted them with the promise of answers, the promise of two sides they cared about. And so with Roman’s strength, Virgil’s determination, and Deceit’s resolve, they were able to break the door down and find their way in. It was confronting, seeing that the virus had taken over Patton’s room as it had Logan’s, even more so when they found the shells of what appeared at first glance to be cocoons made of the same cloud coloured webbing as was decorating the room of both their most emotional and least emotional sides.

The soft sounds of sniffling and scratching were what alerted them to the fact they may not be alone in Patton’s room, at least as not alone as they thought. And true to their thoughts a rumbling began, growing from a soft purr into a menacing growl that sent them racing for Patton’s door, and their only exit.

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the-static-silence-of-pastels · 5 years

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Married At First Blood — Play on Married At First Sight,

Other names may include: The Internet Ordained Minister Virgil, Minister Virgil, “I Do” Not, How Virgil Became an Ordained Minister Online and What Came of it, The Wedding of The Century (That Didn’t Really Happen), Why Roman and Logan Don’t Trust Virgil When He Asks Them to Do Things Anymore, Married Before Bloodshed. (Other title ideas may be added when thought of)

Virgil becomes an ordained minister online, thinking nothing of it and just having watched a video about someone who did. This becomes almost comically convenient as the next week Logan and Roman break out into the worst fight they’ve ever had. With little time to spare, Virgil mumbles out what he knows of the wedding pledges, then asks Logan and Roman to both say “I do”, pronouncing it an experiment to calm his nerves as they’re rapidly rising. Both feeling a little bad they both say it and Virgil just smirks, pronouncing them husband and husband, “you may now kiss the groom”. It’s at that point two bands wrap around Logan and Roman’s ring fingers and where once they thought Virgil was just acting silly to keep calm, they now know he was serious. Logan immediately files for a divorce, slightly offending Roman to a degree, but Roman seconds it. Virgil says he won’t allow it until they stop arguing and gives them a sentence of six months married before he even thinks about allowing a divorce to be filed with him — the only ordained minister in the room, and the only one even remotely willing to go through with divorcing Logan and Roman since Patton is so happy and trying to find rice or something to throw (honestly he gave up and is now showering Logan and Roman in cookie crumbs and dry fusilli), Deceit and Thomas are just happy they’re not arguing.

Their marriage goes just…just swimmingly. For about two hours. Then Logan leaves to go to his room and finds his room is now also Roman’s room and has a fit over it, blaming Roman for merging their rooms which kicks off another bout of arguing. While they do that Virgil and Patton calmly sip at hot chocolate and gently contemplate whether it needs more milk or more marshmallows, they decide on both.

After their argument is somewhat over, Logan having lost his voice and Roman wheezing so bad he’s had to drop to his knees to breathe properly, Logan strips to pyjamas and hops into bed, calling out hoarsely that he was there first and therefore Roman is sleeping either on the floor or on the couch, Logan doesn’t care where so long as they’re not in the same bed together. Roman agrees but wants the bed to himself, they fight again, each trying to get the bed until Virgil yells at them to be quiet and go to sleep and they come to the consensus of a pillow barrier, broken down halfway through the night when Roman can’t sleep because of slight insomnia and decides to get up and watch movies in the living room with a pile of pillows. He gets back just in time to see Deceit gently hushing Logan back to sleep, and is concerned for his fellow side. Deceit is able to convey that Logan has nightmares often, though he refuses to admit it, and Deceit is the only one he’s been able to trust with that information, since it is extremely hard for him to convey the truth at times, leading to Deceit being the one to wake him up and calm him down before hushing him back to sleep. Roman asks softly if Deceit would like him to do it, not really wanting Logan to go to the other side when he could have leaned on Roman all those years he had nightmares, Deceit accepts and tells Roman that without his glasses Logan won’t know who is with him — a blessing and a curse — so he could get lashed out at for trying to help, or he could get Logan crying into the pillow for hours on end.

As it turns out Roman talks to Logan later when he’s awake, asking if he’d like Roman to help with his nightmares, promising to protect him from them. Logan is a little hesitant, but agrees seeing Roman so adamant about helping him and it comes back around when Roman is watching a movie and gets scared that night, needing Logan to hold his hand before he starts to calm down and stop imagining monsters in every corner or that he heard a creak outside the door. The pair sleep soundly that night, Roman waking only once to hold Logan through a nightmare.

A week passes and they’re getting along surprisingly well, Roman keeping Logan’s nightmares a secret and Logan staying up with Roman to watch horror films and help him through them. Their arguments are less about who is better and more about if Mulan could beat a grown Merida in a fight and who would win what events. Of course, their arguments always come around, but the build is slow and the tension is never there anymore, both refusing to partake in it for the entertainment of their audience when it’s asked for in a script. And while this is happening Roman writes stories for Logan as bedtime stories, reading them out dramatically to help ease Logan’s nightmares. Logan, meanwhile, offers an idea — they watch the horror movie Roman wants to watch earlier on and then finish up with a Disney film to get Roman’s mind off the movie and then finish the night up with pictures of cats before Roman reads the story and they turn in for the night.

Things seem to be getting better before a script they’d planned months ago goes through and ends up giving both of them nightmares — one where Deceit takes over Logan’s position for a few minutes in order to try and gain favour by suggesting that he’s a better logic than Logan is, which is something Roman (acting) agrees with but Virgil and Patton voice concerns and are able to show Roman that they are all needed — but it brings up concerns that Logan is inadequate, and, on Roman’s side, that Roman thinks Logan can be replaced which he knows isn’t true and makes him feel like a villain. They split up awkwardly, Roman saying that Logan can take the bed while he takes the couch. It ends with both unable to sleep and eventually Logan enters the living room, gets a drink of water, downs it in one go, and slips onto the tiny patch of cushions, bumping his head against Roman’s. They make eye contact and silently agree that they’ll never leave one another like that again, choosing to clasp their hands together and fall into sleep together. (Found later that morning by Virgil and Patton who take a few photos and decide not to bring it up, but Virgil takes some really aesthetically pleasing pictures of their left hands clasped together with their rings on show which Patton makes his home screen background.)

A day or so passes and they don’t really talk, just have silent conversations with their eyes and body language. But for once Roman makes Logan laugh and it makes his whole day hearing that, even if it was due to Roman slipping down the last two stairs while in socks and bumping down the rest to the floor with a soft moan of pain, he isn’t hurt too bad (minus his ego but that gets a huge boost when he sees Logan actually smiling and laughing). Logan asks if he’s okay and Roman says only his ego is a bit bruised, and Logan says without thinking too much that it’s a pity he can’t kiss Roman’s ego better. Roman says he can and they both blush before Logan pecks him on the cheek and leaves to go do some work. Roman stands in the kitchen for around half an hour, just gently rubbing his cheek with a small smile. Then Virgil walks in and reenacts an old video with him —

“The heck is that? What the heck is that a hecking smiling Roman? Eh, don’t hecking smile like that, that’s a weird looking hecking smile. Pat, yo there’s a weird looking Roman in the kitchen! I don’t want it starting a fight with Logan! Logan it’s okay” *kissing noises* “It’s okay Logan don’t worry about it. Pat! Pat, there’s a weird hecking smiling Roman in the kitchen it looks- it looks like Roman but smiling the hecking thing. Oh, hey get the heck out of here, I don’t even know if that’s hecking Roman. Blink, mothertrucker.”

“Virge what in good Athena?” *moves and looks at Virgil*

“Ahhhhh!”

(for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuC-y-SYqi8 )

This reference goes over both Logan’s and Patton’s heads, but Roman gets it and chases after Virgil for making him Wilfred Warrior, “This Stray Cat Looks Like Grandma”, when he clearly is not. But it’s enough to get a little laugh out of Logan which makes Roman stop in his tracks completely like the roadrunner — running, running, running, complete stop in naught-point-one seconds.

About a day passes and, honestly, things are just like normal except there’s not as many arguments and disagreements. Logan and Roman just have a genuinely lovely relationship and it’s wonderful, marvellous really. But then someone has to throw a wrench in the gears and that someone isn’t Deceit or Virgil or Thomas, but Patton. See now, Patton didn’t mean to, but he was talking to a very sleep deprived Roman and Roman mentioned Logan’s nightmares, so Patton got concerned because “my child is having nightmares and didn’t tell me” so he gets into a weird emotion spiral of sad and concerned because “does he not trust me? What did I do wrong? How can I rectify this?” and ends up asking Logan the next morning if he had a good night and then asks how his nightmares are and if there’s anything he can do to help, unbeknownst to him Roman had been sworn to secrecy about it and wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. This revelation that Patton knows about his nightmares points Logan to Roman and he is so angry that Roman told Patton about something so secret and private because Patton said it in front of Virgil so not only does Patton know but Virgil too. Logan doesn’t leave their room for the entire day and locks it to spite Roman who just wants to talk things over but is getting less patient by the minute. In the end, Logan decides to reconcile but Roman has moved past it and doesn’t want to, not thinking about it and calling Logan a child for not confronting his fears, regretting it immediately because now Logan looks betrayed, hurt and sad, not even angry at him just so done with him. Roman admits he was wrong, but the damage is done and Logan refuses once again to come out of their room until Roman is at the door begging on his hands and knees (though Logan didn’t open the door for him but for Virgil who said he needed to talk to Logan about something). He tells Logan everything, Patton apologises for taking in the information and spreading it without asking Logan about it in private first, and Logan apologises for not hearing Roman out before then.

Though they say they trust each other and forgive one another, Logan seems to not fully trust Roman as he once did, and while it may not be completely Roman’s fault he understands that Logan needs time and is happy to allow that. But it takes its toll on both of them, Roman wanting Logan to trust him but not being able to gain that back through any means, and Logan not being able to tell Roman when something is wrong or when he has a nightmare. And that blows up in their faces when Logan has a particularly nasty nightmare, Roman watched a long line of horror movies, and neither can get to the other when they’re needed most — both paralysed by fear even though they can feel the fear that the other is putting off. But they manage to overcome it and both meet at the top of the stairs, each nearly in tears but so thankful the other is there and okay that they forget the tears and just hug it out. Before they support one another back to the bed and curl up against one another close enough they’re sharing breathing space, which is usually something they don’t do because personal space, but right then and there they don’t care and just need the comfort the other side presents.

There are a few slip-ups eventually, when things settle back down once more — a moment where Deceit and Logan are looking over pictures of the “wedding” (they might have stolen an album from Patton to have a look at weddings they’d been to and what the ideal one for them would be) and Roman maybe gets a little jealous and defensive, but it’s sorted out extremely quickly when Logan confronts him and tells Roman that he’s jealous, Roman accepts he might have been and they discuss why he was and how to remedy the problem. Something similar happens with Logan a week later where Roman promised to take Logan with him on an adventure, but ended up taking Virgil instead which angered Logan because “you promised and yes I know I couldn’t make it but why did you have to go with anyone anyway, questing is stupid, you’re stupid, no you’re not but I’m emotionally unstable in here”. Roman helps him work through it by showing him that there is no “extra special” relationship between himself and Virgil, rather he needed someone and Logan couldn’t go because of his duties and while Roman would have preferred not to go along with the closest thing to the bane of his existence since before they learned Virgil’s name and had his arc, he still prefers Virgil over Deceit. To make up for both feeling so jealous they have a night out in Roman’s second room, a picnic under the stars that is followed by several comedy movies and a few romcoms.

There is the idea buzzing around that things will get really awkward when Thomas begins dating again, but when eventually they find someone Thomas likes it turns out to not be that big of a deal. Since their relationship is mainly platonic, they have no problem with one another mooning slightly over another male in the vicinity and when eventually said male turns them down and breaks their collective hearts, this ends up strengthening the relationship between Roman and Logan since they have one another to go to for comfort and this works splendidly for Thomas’ mental and emotional health (about the same for physical though). It does bring up old memories and after looking through the man’s Instagram they see he’s recently gotten together with a very handsome man who at present appears to be studying astrophysics, which kind of crushes both Roman and Logan. Roman due to the sheer looks department and the fact the two look so happy together, and Logan due to the fact the other man is studying astrophysics, so — according to him at least — the other man is much smarter than they are which is supposed to be Logan’s forte. They comfort one another, Logan assuring Roman that looks don’t truly matter in the grand scheme of things and that, eventually, they’ll find someone they want to be with too, and Roman comforting Logan and assuring him that he’s plenty smart. It begins to escalate a little though, before they flashback to a time when they thought their issues were more important than the others; when Roman thought not being handsome enough for someone was more important than Logan’s worries over not being smart enough, and vice versa. That calms them down and they’re able to get a grip and come together over the issues they face, chiding themselves for thinking they’re not who they want to be.

At some point, they have to go to a real wedding and Logan’s eyes light up at the same time as Roman’s, they turn to one another and they share the same train of thought - “I want that.” So they plan a proper wedding from the flowers and napkins down to what they want to wear and, surprise among surprises, Logan decides to wear a wedding dress - “I’ll never get to wear one again, they’re unprofessional to work in, so I might as well try it out at least” - and Roman plans to do up his normal outfit with some other touches that make him look a lot like a naval officer in formal getup, even though he was going more for a fairytale prince aesthetic. It upsets him a little to he asks Logan whether he can wear a half cape in red, Logan really doesn’t care all that much but does ask Roman for advice on what material he should make his dress out of. Yes, they are imaginary so yes they can make their own outfits from scratch. They’re actually surprised by the skill and competency of one another when they finally have to do their vows in front of a very grumpy, but still happy, Virgil whilst Patton waits on the sidelines with rice like an assassin who just wants to throw rice over people. They do their vows and as part of their schtick Roman stops the wedding for just a moment to offer up a small bouquet of blue roses to go with the “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” - the other items are; the ring from when they first married (old), the dress Logan made (new), and three “borrowed” items from the other sides (Virgil made his shoes, Patton made his veil, and Deceit embroidered gold into the train he made for Logan - not exactly borrowed but they don’t really care). In the end, Logan does throw the bouquet but before the other three can quarrel over who is catching it, Roman grabs it and smirks. The bouquet is taken apart and the flowers are dried and pressed to go into an album of the wedding - made mainly by Deceit and Patton with Virgil doing much of the photography. They gift it to Roman and Logan after their “honeymoon” phase (they spend a few days in their bedroom just sleeping in and eating whatever they want before binge watching movies they both want to see). The album goes up on a special shelf above their bed with a framed photo of all of the sides at the wedding and the last of the bouquet sitting inside a glass bell jar with a white ribbon around the handle. A nice little reminder that this time they consented to getting married and had fun with the concept.

(I had way too much fun googling wedding dresses so imagine a white dress - long, with either an A-line or a princess/ballgown skirt - backless with a few pieces of lace (either alençon or venise) around the edges of the opening, sleeveless (sweetheart neckline with the possibility of an illusion neckline) with a defined but lowered waistline, and a few golden leaves and branches decorating one side of the waist and one side of the top of the dress, along with a few around the bottom of the dress. Either radzmir, mikado or tulle as the skirt with the traditional three layers and an underskirt made of satin, but this would be an optional part of the dress. For the bodice; either pure white radzmir or mikado, perhaps satin, either something that’s a depature from the tulle or somehting that connects seamlessly from the bodice to the skirt. The train would have to be either be between a court train and a chapel train, or practically non-existent (he could pull off a watteau train but he’d need to add sleeves, possible cap sleeves, but sleeves nonetheless. The veil would be either an Elbow Wedding Veil (roughly 32″) or a Fingertip Wedding Veil (roughly 38-40″) with gold flowers and leave embroidered around the bottom (because Deceit can be extra like that) and held in place with either a nude/brown headband or a crown of gold leaves and flowers (because we like gold very much, it is pleasing to the eye). A pair of 3″ white heels with some gold lace covering the white (if he’s feeling up to it) or a pair of 3″ white heels with white lace and fake diamond studded flowers. If we’re going less gold and more silver/white/diamond-y change all the gold to white with a few fake diamonds.)

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the-static-silence-of-pastels · 5 years

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Ouroboros: Curse of the Snake (Curse of the Alchemical Snake)

I think I’d like to come back to this and add more on, but for now, it’ll do. I put a “keep reading” in so if this pops up on your dash it doesn’t take up too much space. I know it’s not a great idea, but while I’m working on that one-shot I thought I’d think about some more ideas to do later on. Hope you like it Tor :)

When something goes wrong and Thomas cuts his hand, the first person the sides blame is Logan. He’s their logic, he should have warned them not to touch the knife. It’s not Virgil’s fault — he was busy making sure they were safe. It’s not Roman’s fault — he was busy keeping Thomas’ enthralled with a fantasy world. It’s not Patton’s fault — he was busy making sure Thomas was happy. It’s not Deceit’s fault — because he wasn’t there. So it must have been Logan’s fault, right?

This gets them in trouble when something bad happens again, and again they blame Logan. It’s just too easy when you can’t hear the argument against you. But this new pattern emerging of blaming Logan when Thomas gets hurt, or when he fails an audition, or when his friends say they can’t hang out with him, gets to be too much.

It appears in the worst possible way though — for Logan, the idea that he’d failed, the thoughts of not being good enough with no one to lean on, manifests as a snake much darker than anything else in the mind palace. A permanent reminder of his failures becomes a dark serpent, curled up on his left collar bone, an ouroboros eating its tail. In the night it comes alive, a snake under his skin slithering over bone and muscle as the tight flesh attempts to give it enough room to breathe. It’s grotesque, horrid, unpleasant, disgusting and so many more things he wishes he could say but has no words for. His crying at night a haunting memory as his soft tears turn to quiet screams as pain builds with each night, worse on nights when he was blamed for something and less on nights when he has been able to stay in his room, alone.

Deceit is the one to notice first, finding Logan unable to sleep but half catatonic in the living room at three in the morning. It was supposed to be him that would awaken Logan, but before he can even move he sees the snake under Logan’s skin, coiling tight under the flesh of his neck and slipping down under his shirt to stop for a moment, moving again to his arm and coiling tight around it, form fully visible but colour and eyes gone under near translucent skin. It’s terrifying. He may look part snake, but seeing that is enough to make him want to vomit because no matter what he tells himself — no matter what the other sides tell themselves — that isn’t natural and that is so far from natural it’s unorthodox and beyond.

But being Deceit he isn’t sure how to approach the subject, with something that needs the utmost and only truth, he’s out of his depth. Going to any of the others would be fruitless; Virgil wouldn’t hear him out, Patton wouldn’t believe him and think him just being naturally horrible, and Roman doesn’t (appear) care enough about Logan to think Deceit is telling the truth. So that leaves Thomas himself — someone who most likely won’t believe him — but it's talking to Thomas or to Logan, and Deceit has a feeling that Logan would not be up for talking about this strange experience he’s undergoing. Thomas it is then.

Finally getting to talk to Thomas proves both helpful and unhelpful. Thomas is willing to hear him out, which is good, great even. But that’s as far as it goes since he doesn’t — as Deceit had predicted — believe Deceit is telling the truth. After brushing off their conversation, Deceit comes to the realisation that the only person left he can confront about this possibly being bad, is Logan.

So, after amping himself up, Deceit attempts to talk to Logan which ends with a screaming match that draws the others in like moths to a lamp. But as soon as they get there Logan clams up and leaves, Deceit is too upset to think about anything too much and (accidentally) snaps at Patton when he attempts to talk to him, still on a rage high from the fight. He later realises that was the wrong response after slumping into the couch and muttering for an hour.

When at last he’s off the couch, he ends up pacing the room and finally is stopped by Virgil — wonder of wonders — and he is the one to ask why Deceit is so uptight and angry. Deceit explains everything, going into as much detail as he can about Logan’s predicament. At first, he thinks Virgil doesn’t believe him, but after a sigh, Virgil asks if he has proof. Deceit offers to wake Virgil the next time he sees something and Virgil waves him off as he leaves, not really believing Deceit is telling the truth.

But, unfortunately for Virgil’s case and fortunately for Logan and Deceit’s sanity, Logan takes a break on the couch one night and Deceit comes in and sees the snake in his skin. He calls on Virgil and it scares Virgil as much as it did Deceit, but instead of being too scared to move and wondering how he can stop this, he tries to wake Logan up, so scared of the snake in his body that he panics. But Deceit holds him back and makes sure he knows that this isn’t something can just try to get rid of, it’s in Logan’s body so it must be a manifestation of something and that means it’s something Logan has to get rid of himself.

So with Virgil’s help, Deceit convinces the other sides that something is wrong with Logan. Though there’s uncertainty over their accusations — and Roman isn’t too into believing that Logan needs help, because why would that “nerd” ever need his help — they’re able to show them the same proof after a month or so of waiting for Logan to slip up and take a nap on the couch in the early hours of morning. This sparks a lot of panic, mainly from Patton, but Roman isn’t too far behind even if he continues to deny with ever increasing uncertainty that Logan is fine and doesn’t need help.

With the proof out of the way, it’s time for an intervention. But of course even when they do get all in the same place and have Logan right where they want him, he doesn’t give up any information all too willingly. For a man who spouts exposition 60% of the time, he suddenly becomes very quiet and secretive. At least until Roman riles him up enough — partially because he knows Logan won’t be able to stop himself from reacting, partially because he can’t stand how out of character Logan has been acting, (partially because he doesn’t like that Logan is getting all the attention) — and this argument does end with some answers, just not in a way they wished they would have gotten them. The afternoon ends with Logan not trusting them, Roman with a hoarse voice, Patton with teary eyes, Virgil not knowing what to do and very overwhelmed, and Deceit just thankful he isn’t shouldering the burden of knowing Logan’s secret alone.

It takes a week for them to reconvene, if just for a video, but it finally happens and tension is the most prominent thing in the air. Their lines are delivered with little other dialogue between one another, and as soon as the filming process is over Logan is out. The sudden departure puts everyone in a poor mood for the rest of the day, the day after that not much better with the lack of one of their number.

The resolution to their problem ends up being both stupidly simple and incredibly complicated at the same time. Roman. That’s their solution. After a month of not really seeing or hearing from Logan, Deceit finds him on the couch in the wee hours of the morning and — utterly fed up with being a caring presence and having to weight lift his emotional burdens — he calls on the last side he truly believes would let Logan get away. Surprisingly it works. While Roman isn’t the most tactful of the sides — nor is Logan or Deceit for that matter — but when he’s finally able to yell and argue his way past Logan’s barriers and make the side collapse into the couch, he takes his time listening to Logan explain everything with a stilted, somewhat robotic voice, cracking from sleep deprivation and anguish. It takes about five minutes for Roman to fully break down his walls and it is then that all of the fight leaves Logan at once.

When morning comes they part ways, Roman now knowing far more than any of the other sides about Logan’s affliction, and a promise on his tongue to not only keep that information a secret but to help Logan through his curse and work out what is truly afflicting him.

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the-static-silence-of-pastels · 5 years

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The Warmonger’s Sword (Possible Summary*, WIP**)

Possibility of typos and grammar mistakes. This got really weird really quickly...enjoy

*Possibly because the summary may change depending on how the work goes and if ideas are added in during the writing process. Also, this is a full summary, from beginning and backstory to the very end of the story. If you want to steer clear of spoilers I’ve added the “read more” thing in where it should be safe to stop before it gets too in depth.

**Most likely starting to write and come out between July and August this year (2019), will be multi-chapter, probably around the 8 chapter mark but could be longer, dates and chapters not set in stone.

One hundred years ago a prince was named a warmonger, a slayer of all his enemies and unbeatable with his sword in hand and best friend/warlock by his side. Disaster struck them one night when Roman returned after having slain many in an unwieldy village to the north, after his return, a feast was hosted and during that feast, a great wind blew the doors in to reveal a warlock of great power and full of hate towards the prince. The warlock declared that if the prince was so reliant on his sword and so protective of his people, then perhaps he should become the slayer of his own kind. That night Roman’s soul was transferred into his sword and his people, including his best friend/royal warlock Logan, were turned into monsters with their true selves lurking underneath.

With one hundred years passed, a duo emerges from the rubble of society. After having been given a sword that his father once held onto, Patton took off with Virgil to make a name for themselves and find a place to call home. Unbeknownst to them, the sword given to Patton is the one containing Roman’s soul, and lo and behold when it is unsheathed Roman yawns and starts talking right away. His soul is slowly formed into a shadow that moves behind in Patton’s. But he also has control of the sword and where it will go when held, such as an upward or sideways slice.

That’s the limit of his prowess, but with Roman’s guidance Patton is able to “kill” three smoke goblins. Roman has no idea what they are and Virgil explains that the goblins are made of dark magic and have been around for about a hundred years now.

They continue onward, laying down the dark magic creatures in their path until they hear tell of a monster that isn’t made of dark magic in a cave high above them. They enter and when roman starts rearing and getting ready to take the monster on he spots something that makes him go silent for once and when Patton goes to take a step forward to slay the monster Roman yells at him not too, sounding like he’s crying. They collect into their group of three again and head out of the cave to talk to Roman who tells them about his past, the curse that put him in the sword, and how even if they see a monster he sees a civilian from his kingdom and castle grounds. They have no way to defeat the monster without killing it though so, with heavy hearts, they work together to slay the monster. The curse vanishing as it dies and its body turns into a human’s. They say a quick thank you to the three and die in Virgil’s arms.

The next monster they deal with is much the same, but after killing eleven creatures they come to the twelfth and Roman goes silent again, this time outright refusing to work with Patton and trying to pull the sword away from him whenever he goes to try and use it. This monster is different, however, made of shadows and circled by small smoking spheres that burst into navy flames when the monster spots them, it raises a hand made of ink like mist and sends the spheres into the ground at their feet, not intending to hurt them, just scare them away. They’d heard the monster only really seemed to want to be left alone, not endangering people or animals but only becoming active when people approached it.

When Patton backs up and asks Roman what the deal is, Virgil shouting at Roman to get his act together, he tells them he can’t because that monster was his best friend and he refuses to lay a hand on them with the intent of harm. The monster begins walking further into the cave and Roman reasons that the monster isn’t hurting anyone and they should leave it be, but Virgil is adamant about slaying it, saying that it may have been his friend once but it isn’t anymore. He goes to move in with his own powers (a black fire that cannot be extinguished with water or dirt) but finds himself unable to move. Below in the shadows Patton and Virgil see that Roman’s shadow is holding Virgil’s hands to his sides so he can’t use his powers on Roman’s once best friend.

After trying to talk to Roman, Patton accidentally brings to the forefront of his mind that Roman can move around with his shadow very easily and perhaps he could stop the monster from using his powers so the could try to figure out a cure to the curse. With that Roman is practically lost to them, reaching the monster in a very short span of time and trying to talk to it, but he can’t get within a few feet of the monster on all sides. So he slinks up and over what appears to be a barrier, curling around it before leaving quickly as it collapses. It takes two seconds for him to completely capture the shadow of their opponent and before anything else can happen he starts crying and kisses the other shadow, pulling back when it crumples to the ground and light begins to emanate from the monster. Patton and Virgil race over, slowing up when they see the black mist has receded and the figure before them is a man in worn and very torn blue robes.

Roman calls him Logan, and tearfully touches the shadow of his friend’s face before Virgil asks about the robes and Roman tells them Logan was a warlock. That sets Virgil on the warpath once more and he pulls out a dagger to kill Logan, but Roman pulls him away with Patton and they all freeze when Logan begins to wake up, looking around the cave and then taking a handful of pebbles to get a better look at them. Roman chuckles softly about how blind Logan was just before the warlock pulls out a pair of glasses and looks around again, freezing when he sees the pair of humans. He asks who they are and why they’re there, and Patton responds saying that Roman saved him from a curse to which Logan sees the sword and then looks around, seeing a shadow, waving a little, in front of him. He reaches out and hooks a hand into the shadow, hand vanishing into black mist where the ground should be, smiling a little and saying that Roman really got them into a bind this time as a few strands of hair appear as he drags his fingers from the floor as if the shadow had been a real person and he was playing with their hair.

The three are astounded by the act but Roman says that Logan was always good at magic and tells him that they need to break the curse. Logan agrees to help them since they helped him and Roman is still technically his prince so he has to go along with it.

Their trek from then on becomes a journey of “what is this?” questions courtesy of Logan with Roman sometimes answering, having only just learned and never being the one who was thought of as smarter. He lords it over Logan a little, knowing things about the world around them that have changed from their previous time alive and with knowledge of living, and Virgil and Patton often correct Roman’s answers later on when the prince isn’t listening, usually Virgil and he quickly finds out that not all warlocks are as bad as the one that cursed him to have fire powers since Logan is very good at what he does and makes their journey from town to town much easier and ten times quicker than usual.

They soon find out though that Virgil’s sentiment that warlocks are inherently bad, is something that most believe in. Entering a town they are greeted by a group that demands of them to hand Logan over and he goes quite willingly, thinking nothing of it while the others squabble with the leaders about what is going on and only realise Logan is gone when the leaders turn around and offer them somewhere to stay the night. The next day they learn that Logan is to be executed and, even though he originally wanted to kill him, Virgil is the one who saves him with his fire powers which after the display of dark fire, Logan helps tone down, saying the curse is amateur at best before asking if he wants it entirely removed or just toned down to a more bearable level. Virgil keeps his powers but finds it easier to use them and has no problem swiftly delivering fiery justice to others.

After a while they come across the remains of Roman’s kingdom, mostly ruins with a few scorched houses here and there. The find a group of monsters in the kingdom and Logan reasons that if they destroy the source all should revert to normal, so they head off in the direction of the warlock’s village. They find a castle where it once stood and the warlock outside seemingly tired but pleased as he beckons them forward and into the castle. As soon as they enter Virgil and Logan faint, their magic growing wildly out of control with the new warlock’s presence and causing them to faint with the overbearing weight.

Patton is left to defeat the warlock with Roman’s sword as best he can whilst Roman is incapacitated, making the sword ten times heavier to wield. But after the warlock is knocked down he summons for Logan to come to him and fight for him, which he does while incapacitated, pretty much a marionette on strings. Roman refuses to fight Logan again and this time Patton agrees wholeheartedly, refusing to do battle with a friend and when the warlock tells Logan to finish them and he seems about to he whips around and uses an exhaustive magic spell to kill the warlock and free the civilians from the curse.

The four return to the kingdom, Logan practically being carried by Virgil as he’s unconscious from the spell’s usage, much to Roman’s chagrin and worry, and as soon as they step into the castle a group swarms them and thanks them before they lift Logan out of Virgil’s arms and drop him off at a pool containing large strains of magic in the middle of the courtyard which quickly refuels him to peak health. From there they take the sword and hand it over to a newly revived Logan and once he receives it he breaks into pieces with a flash of golden light. The light reforms into a human shape and as soon as it dies down there is laughter and joy, a fully human Roman hugging and lifting the warlock up in his arms as life it once again restored to the kingdom.

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