Chapter Text
Patton doesn't know when he formed exactly. His early exsitence was a blur of too big emotions and lonliness. However, he can remember pushing back against the wave of emotions in any way he knew how, unhindered by any sense of right and wrong. Patton was every single feeling, and each was all encompassing. It was enough to make Patton kick, scream, and cry—too helpless to do anything else. Patton needed somebody there to help him understand what he was feeling, why he was feeling.
That is why Logan formed.
Logan's formation was gradual. Patton first heard him as a vague whisper that cut through his emotion muddled mind. Calm down. The voice would say. It will be okay. When Patton first heard the voice, he paused. It was unlike anything he was used to. Patton was used to those comforting words coming from outside Thomas, not in a voice that whispered for his ears and his ears alone. It was a strange break from the lonliness that made up Patton's exsistence.
Baby Thomas, who had been about to burst into tears of frustration from flinging his favorite ring toy out of reach also paused.
Patton spoke to the air around him with a pouted lip, "Its not okay! My toy gone!"
Thomas babbled his agreement as he laid on his stomach. Unaware of the internal debate their son was having, Thomas' parents cooed at the adorable noise. Honestly, they were simply grateful that Thomas wasn't crying. He was a rather fussy baby.
The voice said nothing. As the silence stretched, Patton felt his pouted lip begin to quiver and tears prick his eyes. 'There is no need to cry. Go grab it,' the voice said with a gentle urgency. Thomas responded to the voice, reaching out his hand as far as his little fingers could stretch. He grabbed only open air. 'You need to reach farther,' the voice instructed. To Patton's surprise, Thomas tried.
He stretched his arms out, kicked his legs, and wiggled his body, managing to scootch forward slightly. When he stretched out his hand this time, Thomas' chubby fingers wrapped around the ring. He qucikly brought it to his mouth and chewed. Mission succesful
Patton giggled with glee, and even the voice laughed softly in delight.
As time went on, Logan's voice got louder and more defined. He was the calm to Patton's storm, because Patton was a force of nature in his own right back then. Even Patton's positive emotions were overhelming for the far too small Patton. As he would one day do with Virgil, Logan was there to tell Patton what was really going on when his emotions began to blind him. There were flashes where Logan appeared to hug Patton comfortingly or to pull him back from a bad idea, but he would always disapear again after mere seconds.
Logan said that he was always there, he was simply a bit more floaty sometimes. Even with limiting their games to talking and singing since they couldn't see each other, Patton and Logan both grew close. They only had each other after all. Even Thomas was difficult to reach, let alone influence, most of the time.
Logan claims that the day he appeared and got to stay was nothing special.
Patton says that day was everything.
Somehow, they are both right.
It was a typical night. Thomas wasn't falling asleep, so Patton felt overwhelming frustration and disapointment. The longer Thomas was awake, the worse Patton felt and the harder it was for Thomas to fall asleep. Patton couldn't help but start crying, too helpless to change anything in his current state.
Except he wasn't helpless, because Patton wasn't alone. Logan began singing a lullaby to the crying Patton. 'Hush little baby don't say a word. Momma's gonna buy you a mocking bird,' Logan sung in a smooth, soft voice.
As Logan sang, he felt his very being begin to consalidate and solidify. "And if that mocking bird don't sing, momma's gonna buy you a diamond ring." Patton began to softly sing, joined with two other voices neither Logan or Patton had heard before.
They didn't care. Logan appeared next to Patton, wrapping his arms around the emotional side as they both lay down. All the voices sang together, "And if that diamond ring turns brass, mamma's gonna buy you a looking glass…" Patton and Logan felt like they were each other's entire worlds, taking no heed to any voice except each others.
Both sides drifted off to sleep, not noticing the cloud of shifting colors and shape creating images of flying birds, cradling arms, and Thomas's mother plain gold wedding band.
.....
In the morning, the color cloud (or whatever that thing was) refused to be ignored. As Patton sat up with bleary eyes, the cloud circled his head while shifting between the colors of the rainbow. Patton giggled as rubbed his eyes, no longer remembering the exausten from the night before. Patton looked to his left and noticed Logan sleeping soundly, right beside him. Still there.
The shifting blob ruffled Patton's hair by zooming around his head. "Hello there!" Patton said cheerily as he put on his glasses.
The colors seemed to grow more vibrant at Patton's words.
"Whats your name?" Patton asked, but there was no response. Unperturbed, Patton started to ramble. "My name is Patton and thats Logan. We are bestest of friends because he stays calm when I feel upset, but I can share my happy with Logan when I have too much of it too. And he normally would be gone by now, but not really because his voice is still there. I like seeing him here and and now your here too so now we can all play fun games together!"
The cloud of colors seemed to expand until a vibrant garden was all Patton could see. Patton's eyes went wide as he took in the beautiful view. Behind him, Patton heard a voice. It was energetic, mischevious, and oh so loud.
"Hiya Patton! I'm Romulus. Do you want to play a game?" Of course, Patton said yes.
Patton and Romulus played together all morning as Logan slept. Romulus would summon and deconstruct their surrounding and their games at random, everything was in flux. Patton had a hard time keeping up with Romulus' sheer energy. Sometimes that energy became too much for even Romulus to keep a human form, so he would shift into the colorful cloud he was before he dragged them both into the imagination.
When Patton started to worry about how long Logan was sleeping, Romulus started brainstorming while sitting cross legged in the grass, occasionally jumping up when an idea seemed particularly exciting. Some of his ideas were nonsensical. Others were down right horrifying. In the end, Patton and Romulus decided that gaining a physical form took a lot of energy, so Logan needed to gain it back by sleeping. It made sense to the two sides. Patton always had a lot of energy because Thomas always had a lot of emotions, that was why he could stay formed. Romulus also had a lot of energy, but he had to conciouslly direct it in order to keep his physical form.
Whether that was true or not didn't matter. The theory soothed Patton's fears and so Romulus and Patton began playing once again.
Undeniably, they both had fun. When Logan awoke, Romulus eagerly showed off the hundreds of different bugs he could create. "I was saving this trick for you, Logan!" Romulus said, getting in Logan's face as soon as he opened his eyes. Patton told him to give Logan some space, so Romulus shifted his attention. Romulus enjoyed Patton's startled shriek as he set a beetle in his palm just as much as Logan's childish wonder at the beauty of a dragon fly's iridescent wings.
Of course, Romulus' love for fun did not always transfer well to the real world. He got Thomas into trouble by getting him to create potions out of his mom's makeup and crayon drawings on the living room wall. Some of Romulus work was praised though, like when Thomas made his parents a drawing of their family holding hands or when he made his mother a necklace during craft time at preschool.
Patton quickly learned that he liked when Thomas was praised and he didn't like it when Thomas was scolded. Logan was often good at predicting when a certain activity would get them in trouble, but even he got caught up in Romulus' schemes.
That is where Janus came in. When Logan and Patton first met Janus, they loved him. Janus gave the answer of what to do to avoid the awful feeling of being in trouble, even if they decided to indulge one of Romulus' more risky ideas. Patton was hesitant about lying, but he had to admit that he was nice to be around when he was feeling bad about something Thomas did. Janus' voice would fill in the gaps to their story using scraps of Logan's words and portions of Romulus' imaginations, as long is it lead to the others, and therefore Thomas. happier.
Of course, Janus wasn't fool proof. No matter how much the others lauded Janus' intelligence for his schemes, the adults in Thomas life were able to see through his childish attempts at lying much easier than the other children that inhabited Thomas' mind. Every time they caught Thomas in a lie, Thomas' parents would launch into a lecture about how lying was sinful.
Patton was able to brush off the times Janus lies got Thomas in even more trouble for a while. Logan said that lying was logical at the time, so that made it okay. But every lie has its breaking point.
………
Thomas just got home from school. In his hands, was a color changing pencil he had gotten from the treasure box for turning in his homework every day for a week. Thomas sat down on his mom's large grey exercise ball. He bounced up and down, entranced by the pencil.
He held his hand against the purple pencil. When he moved his hand, it was red from the heat of his fingers. He rubbed the pencil watching where he briefly touched turn yellow. It turned orange when he kept rubbing. Finally, it got to red. Then he sat and stared, watching it cool back down to the purple color.
Logan was entranced by watching the color changes. He went into an entertained stupor. Playing with the pencil was also calming to Patton. Janus was watching the others and enjoying the calm Thomas felt from his fidgeting.
Romulus was entertained too, but then he had an idea. "What if I poked the exercise ball?" Romulus wondered out loud. Logan and Patton, the ones who normally someone would jump forward to shut the idea down, didn't hear Romulus' musings because of their trance. Janus sat up, staring at Romulus in shock. Romulus stared back, a mischievous grin splitting his face.
Thomas shifted his gaze from his color changing pencil to the grey exercise ball he sat on. His mind was empty except for the single question of what would happen if he would simply poke it.
Thomas gripped his color changing pencil tightly. Janus shook his head in a silent no, but he didn't interfere. It wasn't his job to stop messes from being made, so he didn't step up to stop Romulus' idea from taking hold. It didn't help that Janus was pulled in by Romulus question. What would happen?
After a few seconds of silent staring, Thomas stabbed the pencil downwards. The grey exercise ball gave way with a pop, and Patton and Logan broke out of their trances, but were still stunned by shock. Thomas jumped off the exercise ball and watched it quickly deflate.
As the hiss of escaping air filled the room, Romulus shrugged and retreated to the back of Thomas' mind, leaving the others to deal with the repercussions. Logan and Patton could only stare slack jawed as the popped exercise ball continued leaking air. Logan cleared his throught at whispered, "I… I didn't expect that it would pop."
Patton felt like crying. He turned to Janus, "Why didn't you stop him Jan Jan? I- I thought you didn't like us getting in trouble?" Patton's lip began to quiver.
Janus was about to explain, but then Thomas' mom walked into the room. "Thomas! What did you do?"
Thomas froze. Logan and Patton still felt confused, so that left Janus to step up to deal with the situation. It was his job to handle the fall out after all. Janus commanded Thomas to hide the offending pencil behind his back, but then he paused. Janus knew that lying wouldn't help this time.
So Janus had Thomas tell the truth. In a shellshocked voice, Thomas confessed, "I d-didn't know that it would pop!"
Logan and Patton turned to Janus in shock.
Thomas' mother sighed. Muttering almost to herself, she said, "How could you not know that it would pop?" She shook her head and held out her hand. Her face now stern, she commanded, "Thomas, give me that pencil. And go to your room. We are going to talk about this later."
Thomas gave up his beloved pencil and trudged his way to the room, still somewhat shocked that the exercise ball would pop that easily. Inside Thomas' head, the sides were in turmoil.
Logan still was as shell shocked as Thomas, so he was unable to help.
Patton managed to shake off his stupor, and all that was there was a biting anger. "How could you let this happen?" Patton accused.
Janus defensively replied, "I didn't just let it happen! It was Romulus' idea after all, so it makes perfect sense that you are yelling at me right now. But no, you were too busy doing the super important job of staring at a pencil to do anything yourself." Janus wanted to tell the truth but couldn't help fall back to sarcasm as he defended himself, but Patton didn't care to parse the truth from the lies.
Patton's gaze was venomous, "You told Thomas to say he had no idea that it would pop."
Janus glared back with just as much ferocity, "Perhaps I did."
Patton's angry face was interrupted by the flash of betrayal. Patton whispered, "All you ever do is lie. You claim to protect Thomas, but all you ever do is lie!" Hurt in his eyes, Patton's voice gained volume, "So, Deceit, why didn't you do anything?"
Janus sucked in a breath. He had never been called Deceit before. He had always been someone the others turned to when they needed help cleaning up their messes, but now all he was to them was Deceit apparently. Janus felt the left side of his face start to itch.
"What gives you the morale high ground, Patton? You don't think you are really morality, do you? With all your worries and fears, I'd say you are just as selfish as me! Also, I WASN'T LIEING!"
Janus turned around and stomped off. Patton crossed his arms with a huff, his bottom lip quivering as he stared at the deceitful side's retreating back.
Maybe Ja-Deceit is right, Patton thought, I need to be better if I am going to be the Morality Thomas needs.
When Logan tried to get Janus and Patton to reconcile later that day, Logan was given a cold shoulder by Janus while Patton became a crying mess that fell into Logan's arms. Logan didn't try to mediate for them again since it was illogical to upset them further. Really, he was afraid of making things worse. Either way, he kept his words to himself.
When Logan noticed the scales appearing on Janus face, he once again chose to say nothing. Any time he tried to indulge his curiosities with Romulus, things would go wrong. Why would this be any different?
.....
Since Patton and Janus were now estranged, Romulus took up Janus newly found free time with schemes, pranks, and adventures. Sometimes they were good natured, other times they weren't. Romulus was simply desperate to let out his energy that bursting at the seams, begging him to create.
Romulus made gifts for the others and monstrous beasts that he would defeat (most of the time. Some of them would escape and terrorize the others until Romulus could find them again). He switched between telling stories about grand adventures full of peril and singing childish songs. Romulus, desperate to not lose his shape to the creative cloud, stopped caring about judging his creations on helpful or hurtful. He needed an outlet, any outlet, so his creative energy wouldn't tear him apart to fill the entire room.
Patton and Logan both were getting frustrated with how unpredictable Romulus' nature was, but Patton in particular was taking it badly. Patton also felt like his role involved holding together then more emotions then he could handle. When Romulus used creative bursts to cope, the results would often lead to Patton getting overwhelmed by his own feelings and throwing a crying fit that would bleed into the real world.
Both Patton and Romulus became more and more frantic to get themselves under control in their own ways, but it wasn't working.
One day during a family snack time meeting, Logan mused about if both of their functions would be made easier if they could share their responsibilities more permanently with another side. Afterall, Patton was able to be more in control during highly emotional times thanks to Logan's help. Likewise, Janus helped guide Romulus to do productive things with all of his power.
While munching on goldfish and drinking from juice boxes, the sides all agreed to help each other do their jobs more often. Honestly, even Janus was tired of everyone being so high strung. And he missed Patton being his friend. If everyone was going to follow Logan's plan, that would mean they could go back to being friends… Right?
Over the next couple of weeks, Janus and Logan tried even harder to help Patton and Romulus handle their roles, but they soon found the endeavor futile. It helped a little bit, but there were still days that Patton threw a tantrum over seemingly small things adding up until Patton was trying to hold back a tidal wave of emotion. There were still times when Romulus couldn't find a way to expend enough energy to keep himself small and contained, leading to him falling away from his physical form and sweeping all of the others into elaborate fantasy worlds they couldn't escape from until Romulus' energy was burned through.
As time went on, Patton's fear grew, no matter how much he tried to stuff it down. Patton was scared of being in trouble. He was scared that their ideas weren't working. When Patton got the idea of splitting Romulus into good and bad creativity? He felt scared of it.
Still, Patton brought the idea up. Patton and Romulus were the only ones that understand what it was like to be too much, so of course the others felt uneasy about the idea. Patton just wanted to give Romulus the option to make his responsibilities more manageable.
Thankfully, Patton saw that Romulus was intrigued by the idea. Romulus could sense the different types of swirling energy inside of him. He could imagine how satisfying it would be to split that energy in two. Would that finally make it so Romulus wouldn't have to try to contain and tamper his energy in order to have a normal life?
Patton and Romulus claimed to not be scared of the idea of Romulus splitting, but Janus could sense the lie in both of their words. Logan was unwilling to proceed with the idea out of fear of Romulus regretting the decision.
One day, their words were suddenly no longer lies, and it was all thanks to Patton.
.....
Patton was tired of being afraid. He constantly had to handle Thomas' fear of messing up or hurting other people's feelings. Patton had to hide his own fears about not being in control of himself. Patton was afraid, and he hated it.
One particularly bad night, Patton was being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of anxieties roiling inside of him, so he reached inside himself. He tightened his grip on the suffocating fears and tore that part out of himself. It looked like a squirming purple cloud, desperate to escape his grip to return to his core. Patton didn't let it.
As Patton held his fears away from himself, he smiled at the feeling of lightness in his chest. It was so amazing to not be afraid, why wouldn't he give this gift to the others?
'NO!' The cloud tried to scream, but the sound was so small Patton easily ignored it. The squirming purple form tried to warn of all the things that could go wrong, but it's voice was too weak, too young. Patton only had to hum a song to himself and he could no longer hear the cries warning of the potential danger.
Patton's steps were silent as he crept up to where Logan slept. He looked so much peaceful when he was asleep nowadays. The worries that stole his smile in the day were unable to reach the sleepy side. Patton reached into Logan's core and took his fear too.
It didn't come out as easily as Patton's own had, but Patton managed it, or so he thought. Patton could feel something else in Logan's core breaking as he tore the horrid fear away from Logan. The removal wasn't as complete as Patton's own had been either. No matter, Logan would be happier this way—even if Patton didn't do a perfect job.
Patton went over to Romulus next. Taking the fear out of Romulus was difficult since he was in the form of a dream cloud. Concentrating on keeping his form during the day was already difficult. Being unconscious while managing Thomas' dreams made it impossible. But Patton used his power as Thomas' center of emotions to call Romulus' fear forward. He didn't realize how that power was coming externally at that point, being channeled through the bundle of anxieties that he held in a tight grip.
Since Romulus' energy was so large and spread out, it took a great deal of concentration to gather all of the anxious energy within Romulus. Patton had been working for only five minutes when Janus walked in on the scene.
"What are you doing?" Janus said in the calm but chilling voice Thomas' father used when he caught Thomas staying up late reading.
Patton squeaked with fear and whipped around to face him. Patton's face was flushed with guilt. "Wh-what are you doing up kiddo?"
Janus stared at the squirming purple in Patton's hands. "Patton, what on earth are you holding?"
Patton looked down at his torn out fears, looked back up at Janus, and was reminded of why he wanted all of these anxieties out of him in the first place as a cold fear ran through Patton's veins once again. How is it still there? Patton wondered, but he didn't have time to ponder the question. Patton needed to finish his task.
Janus started walking towards Patton, so Patton turned towards Romulus once again and clawed out what he could. Patton knew that there was still so much left, but there was nothing more he could do before Janus tackled Patton to the ground.
Patton landed on the purple cloud, effectively smooshing Romulus' anxieties into the amalgamation.
Janus tried to grab the purple cloud out of Patton's hands, but Patton held on tightly with a growl. He wasn't going to go back to feeling anxious all the time, he couldn't live like that!
Patton knew this was a battle he was going to lose, so he decided to switch tactics. If Janus understood, he wouldn't be fighting Patton on this!
"I'm trying to help!" Patton pleaded, only to get an elbow to the face.
"I don't care if you are trying to help, Romulus didn't ask for this," Janus growled.
Janus managed to wrench the squirming purple thing from Patton's grasp, but he wasn't ready for how desperately the squirming amalgamation of anxieties wanted to escape.
It broke free, racing to Patton once again, but Patton concentrated on shielding his core. When it bounced off Patton's chest, Patton took the chance to catch it. He carefully squished the fragmented pieces together so it was a cohesive whole.
"Your making a mistake, this wasn't your decision to make," Janus said, his voice once again unnervingly calm and even.
Patton ignored him, intent on his task. When Patton released it again, Patton and Janus saw the anxieties disappear into the air, doomed to be nothing more than whispered words of caution until it could grow strong enough that nothing would be able to drown out his worries again.
Patton grinned tiredly, simply happy that it was gone. Not understanding the gravity of what he had done.
Janus glared at him. "I hope your happy with yourself." He turned on his heels and walked away to his own room, knowing that there was nothing more he could do but accept his failure. Patton didn't bother watching Janus' retreating back this time.
.....
In the morning, Patton brought up splitting Romulus once again. Patton had thought about the idea all night, excitement at being able to help growing where his fear once sat. He cited how much easier it would be on creativity if he didn't have to deal with so much at once. It was necessary, and it was nothing to be scared of.
He didn't bring up that he knew this since splitting his own self made him feel so much better, but the others could all tell how sincere Patton was being, even without Janus' lie detection.
Janus himself was shocked that none of Patton's words were lies this time, making him wonder exactly what Patton had done to the others last night. Logan was willing to entertain the idea this time. Romulus picked up on Patton's excitement. He woke up feeling strange, so he desperately latched onto the hope Patton gave him. Janus was hesitant, but he agreed upon seeing the others expectant gazes. It was for the best, wasn't it? (Besides, liars can lie to themselves just as well as they can to others).
Despite Romulus eagerness to proceed with the split immediately, Logan insisted that they come up with a plan. If they even were going to do it, they would do it right.
"What would we do with the split creativities?" Logan asked.
"Separate them," Romulus replied immediately, "I'm tired of trying to make myself smaller to fit into a space. I want room to create everything I want to!"
"The bad one needs to be hidden from Thomas," Patton said seriously.
"Where could we hide a creativity from Thomas?" Janus asked with a facade of calm. He did his best to ignore why everyone seemed so enthusiastic about Patton's idea. Could Romulus really consent to the split with a piece of himself already missing? Why was no one else afraid of all that could go wrong?
Romulus, uncaring for Janus internal dilemma, was eager to contribute, "I can go make a place! It can be a replica of the mind palace and then you could have a home away from home!"
Janus sighed as he examined his nails. "And of course a separate living space would mean that the side is hidden from Thomas. That makes so much sense," Janus drawled.
Logan pushed up his glasses as he thought. Then his face lit up with a smile. "The subconscious!" Romulus summoned a lit lightbulb above Logan's head and snickered. Unperturbed, Logan continued his explanation, "If we separate this new 'hidden mindpalace' with a path through the subconscious, then Thomas would have a hard time accessing it without us dealing with the danger of living in the subconscious itself!"
Patton quickly nodded in agreement, happy that Logan and Romulus were on board with his idea of separating the bad from Thomas' psyche in the name of making Thomas a better person. Compartmentalization was great.
"Ooo," Romulus said with glee, "I can include all sorts of fun tunnels and hidden passages between the mind palaces that wind their way through the subconscious. I love hanging out there there is so many fun things I can mess with, so it shouldn't be too dangerous-"
Logan interrupted Romulus with concern, "The subconscious volatile nature makes it dangerous, Romulus. You will need to be careful."
Romulus smile shifted his smile into the Cheshire cat's sharp toothy grin, "I am Romulus, King of Creativity. I thrive on volatile. Anyways, I can create the hidden passages that travel through the subconscious. It'll be so much fun!" All to happy to use up some of his overpowering energy, Romulus skipped off to create the Hidden side of the Mindpalace before any one else could protest.
In a bid to look professional and in control, Logan summoned a blank clipboard and made a very official check mark before he began to speak again, "With that resolved, we need to decide who will stay with the half of creativity that is being hidden. It would be unwise to allow a creativity to develop without supervision."
They all thought back to the exercise ball incident, a prime example of what happens when a creativity was allowed to follow through on all of his ideas.
Janus, you should stay with him!" Patton cheerily stated, his warm smile not meeting his eyes.
"Since I am such an enthusiastic ssupporter of your plan to sseparate the halves of creativities, I wonder how you could possibly come to that conclusion," hissed Janus. His forked tounge flicked out of his mouth in annoyance.
Logan looked at Janus in sympathy, the drawn out 's' sounds reminding him of Janus' newly snake like features. Noticing the look, Janus glared at Logan too.
Over the next couple of days, they all argued about who would stay on the hidden side of the mind palace. Slowly, Patton's jabs wore Janus down and he finally agreed to be the hidden creativity's caretaker.
Besides, lying was bad. He deserved to be hidden from Thomas. It was the only way to keep Thomas happy and safe.
It was all... necessary. He would simply have to do his work in the background instead of in the fore front of the mind. It would be interesting to see how Patton and Logan managed to deal with crisises on their own without Janus swooping in to save the day every time.
.....
When the day finally came, Romulus gave his goodbyes in the courtyard between the two nearly identical halves of the mind palace.
Patton tried to hide his sniffles. Janus' hug lasted a little to long. Logan couldn't meet Romulus eyes.
Romulus backed up from the others and took a deep breath. He released his physical form, allowing all of his energy to be fully released for the first time. His power filled the room.
Soon, the onlooking sides could see one half turn red and the other green. Like a cell undergoing mitosis, the segments drew farther and farther apart.
A scream pierced the air as the two halves fully separated. There was a bright flash of light, and on the ground were two toddlers holding each other's hands.
.....
The first thing Roman and Remus saw was their other half's mismatched eyes. Each had a singular forest green eye and the other a muted red eye. They felt their twin's hand in their own, and their worlds felt complete. In mere moments they both imagined thousands of lifetimes at each other sides.
Then they were pulled apart.
Roman felt helpless and numb as his hand was pulled from Remus' tight grip. Logan tugged their hand apart despite the angry red scratches Remus' nails left on Roman's hand. He let himself be pulled away from his twin like a lamb going to its slaughter.
Although all Roman knew was the desire to create and his love for his brother when he first formed, the crippling need to not disappoint soon overwhelmed all other desires. If Roman resisted' Patton's touch as he was scooped up and carried away, then he would be bad.
Roman didn't want to be bad. He knew that he couldn't be bad, but separating from his twin felt so wrong. Roman's tears drenched Patton's shirt as he watched his brother's form disappear.
Remus had no such qualms about being "bad." He loved his brother, so he screamed, bit, and clawed—anything that would make it so he could stay. He created swarms of spiders and beetles that got in between him and Janus, but it was for naught. Remus held his ground, but it didn't matter.
Remus froze when he saw Roman get picked up by Patton without Roman giving any fight further than sobbing pathetically. It hurt Remus to see his brother's distress, but a feeling of betrayal also welled up inside of him. He stared in shock as his brother's tear filled eyes recede in the distance.
His fight now pointless, Remus gave into his own desire to sob defeatedly. The swarms of bugs didn't disappear into thin air, but they all scattered to different crevices. Remus figured that without their original purpose to protect, those bugs would need to find a new purpose, or die trying. Remus cried even harder at thinking of not only his brother being gone, but his bugs dying by being smooshed, drowned, or set on fire.
Janus offered the crying child a lollipop, not knowing what else to do. Remus took it and put the entire lollipop in his mouth, stick included. Janus wasn't willing to correct Remus on the right way of eating a lollipop, but he did use the chance to carefully pick up the now still Remus.
Janus began walking to the freshly created hidden portion of the mind palace by traveling through twisted and warped hallways. It was Romulus' last act to create a place where all the bad things in Thomas' mind could be hidden, so Janus would make sure to treasure the gift.
Remus chewed up the lollipop stick for several minutes, but when he spit it out he began to whimper. The lollipop was yummy, but now that the stick was mushy it wasn't a very good distraction from the crushing wrongness of being separated from his twin.
"Hush now, little one. This is how it must be," Janus soothed, unsure if his own words were lies or truth. His original conviction prompted by Patton's insistence did not factor in how separating the halves of creativity would hurt them.
Janus only wanted to help.
No matter. Janus had a job to do. He would raise Remus separate from the others, separate from Thomas. Even Janus himself was dangerous since he got Thomas in trouble so often. Hiding things was Janus specialty, even if he wasn't very good at it in practice. Yet this was different. Keeping all undesirable sides hidden was important work.
Janus would make sure that this con was his most successful one yet.
Despite Virgil starting out as nothing more than a whispered caution that crept into the others minds, Janus would soon find that Virgil demanded to be heard. Janus would really have his work cut out for him if he was going to properly oversee and silence the Hidden Sides.