I’m Gonna Be Nice To Myself For A Second. I Started Doodling And Drawing A Lot Back In Mid-summer (I

I made an edit for the song Death, Thrice Drawn by ‘the scary jokes’!!! and its roCEIT WOOOOO (well sort of one-sided but wegruweiriuwehr whatever)

i hope you like it bc it took me so long omg... i mean, not as long as the last one i made but still long 

If Deceit doesn’t get a redemption arc, or the sides don’t start at least /trying/ to listening to him, I will be so pissed off. Mainly because Deceit is in the exact same position that Virgil was in when he was first introduced to the series, and Virgil is the one giving him the /least/ amount of respect. 

Right, let me paint a picture in your head. You are known by those around you as someone who hurts others, brings them down, and makes them unsure of themselves. You finally decide to reveal yourself to an audience of people, your entrance less than grateful. The ones who know you as ‘horrible’ continue to be rude to you, and though you find a lot of enjoyment in making them mad, a small part of you wants to be accepted. 

Who does that description apply to? Virgil and Deceit? Well, it’s BOTH.  

Right now, Deceit’s in the spot Virgil was in when the others still didn’t trust him much, like in “A New Year of Lying to Myself... In Song!!” Both giving advice to help Thomas and make him more truthful to himself, having one person hate them more than the others (for Virgil that was Roman, for Deceit it was Virgil). Deceit’s in the same boat Virgil was in. So, if they follow the same pattern, Deceit should start being trusted more in the next few episodes... right?

Well, the main difference that might stop that is that fact that Deceit doesn’t have a ‘Patton’; the one person that even though they might not fully agree with what you are doing stills treats you nicely and with respect (the first time Patton speaks directly to Virgil is in “I’M IN A DISNEY SHOW!!!!,” saying, “Anxiety, leave him alone...” but he doesn’t /yell/ at Virgil; he says it with a smile and politely raises his hand) (Also, the others don’t treat Deceit nicely either. When Patton is up to the stand with Deceit as witness, he says he needs to “Just get this over with.”). 

VIRGIL should be Deceit’s ‘Patton’; saying things like, “Come on guys, just listen to him. You guys listened to me when I first came around, we should do the same for him.” But NO. Virgil treats Deceit with such rudeness that it appalls me. 

“But Deceit probably hurt Virgil! The others knew about how bad Deceit was and not Virgil!”

That’s untrue. Virgil’s first video, the second Roman notices Virgil, he says, “Oooh, okay, I can’t stand that guy.” Roman, Patton, and Logan are all aware of both Virgil and Deceit’s existence, and the three know that they are ‘bad’.

If nobody even bothers to attempt to listen to him, clocking out might not even work because nobody would even care. 

Sorry, this got overly long. I’m just kind of mad at the ‘Light Sides’ atm. Feel free to debate about this with me.

Selfishness VS Selflessness was good and all but

The final decision was so, so, so wrong.

Thomas should’ve gone to do the callback. He should’ve gone to try to get the role.

And they should’ve listened more to Deceit.

I understand.

Believe me: I understand that the wedding was important, it is one of the most important moments of one’s life.

But the thing is? Thomas shouldn’t have gone.

1) Deceit was right since the beginning. Thomas didn’t want to go to the wedding from the very first moment.

“Admit it! What am I doing here right now, Thomas? Am I the snake coming to trick you into sinning? Or have you had your mind made up since the moment you receveid the news about the callback? You didn’t even forget about the wedding, did you? IT WAS ALL AN ACT!” (Deceit, 34:26 - 34:43)

“FINE! I WANT TO GO TO THE CALLBACK!” (Thomas, the moment after)

And why is that? Well, Thomas made it perfectly clear.

He didn’t want to go because he would’ve been playing games on his phone for the whole time (and no shade, that’s pretty disrepectful?) because he didn’t want to be shoven in his own face the fact that he is still single while his friends are getting married. He said he’s afraid to go.

He’s so romantic, as Roman shows us, and so affectionate, as Patton displays. And in Moving On, he made clear that his breakup was a massive, heartcrushing thing for him. And the fact that he hasn’t been able to find love again makes him almost miserable.

“And on top of that, a dream come true falling into my lap scheduled on the same day! ANYONE would want to go to the callback!” (Thomas, 34:55)

He’s destroyed by the whole situation.

2) “So yeah! I tried to force myself to forget about the wedding, and now I wanna lie to my friends so they don’t HATE ME for not supporting them!” (Thomas, following the line above)

That’s bad. That’s really bad.

Thomas didn’t have to lie. Lying was something that Roman brought up. Lying was something that Thomas thought about.

Lying was never anything that Deceit proposed throughout the whole video.

Why is that bad?

Because that’s not Selflessness. That’s self-destruction.

Thomas has to learn that he CAN’T always put others first.

Sure! His friends will be upset about the fact that he isn’t able to come to their special day! But Guess What?? If they truly support him, they will encourage him to go to the callback and follow his drams! They would push him to do what’s best for himself!!

Because if they don’t do that, they are not good friends. Thomas is not skipping the wedding because he doesn’t feel like it, but because he has a life-changing opportunity going on! And if they don’t at least try to understand and don’t get mad because they know how much acting means to Thomas, they are selfish. They are not good friends.

3) “How would you feel about that?” (Patton, telling Roman that Imaginary!Eliza wouldn’t go to his imaginary wedding because she had others things to do, 25:39)

“It wouldn’t bother me. Her not being there doesn’t change the fact that it’s MY big day.” (Roman, in response.)

“You wouldn’t miss ‘Liza May Manelly?” (Patton)

“SOOOOO? I would be devasted! But you know what?? She is her own person, and she has her own life, I can’t take that from her. Her being at the wedding is for me. And if I forced her to be there, when she didn’t want to go, then I would be the selfish one.” (Roman)

Thomas wouldn’t be selfish. Their friends would be.

If you always, always put others first, you’ll never take care of yourself. You can’t always be the best person for others, sometimes you have to be a good person for yourself, if it for a good reason.

About Deceit:

¾) Thomas and the ‘Light Sides’ stopped listening to Deceit after a bit. When was that? When Thomas acknowledged that Deceit had been right the whole time, and ROMAN NEEDS TO GET HIMSELF TOGETHER.

And they never let him explain the actual point of what he was trying to do.

“It’s my sworn duty to help Thomas achieve his hopes and dreams. But Thomas wouldn’t dream of attaining his hopes through deceitful means.” (Roman right after the sentence, 34:25)

“BUT THAT’S NOT TRUE!” (Deceit)

Look at his face as he says “That’s not true.” He’s helpless. They stopped listening to his point of view and are back on the fact that he is Deceit, and deceit only. He doesn’t know what to do to be heard anymore.

Roman??? Sweetie??? You were the first one to suggest to lie and say Aunt Patty was at the ospital?? In ‘Can LYING Be Good?’ he was the one that supported lying to Joan???

He shouldn’t have said that phrase while blaming Deceit for it, since HE was the one that suggested deceitful means in the first place.

“I don’t understand. You got what you wanted. You proved that I’m not as honest as I’d like to believe.” (Thomas, 36:40)

“But you’re STILL missing the point!” (Deceit)

He’s struggling because they won’t listen. They don’t want to listen.

“Okay, let me put it this way! Life is like a piñata!” (Deceit)

He’s trying to make it as simple as possible so they will listen and understand like Roman did about the compromising thing.

Deceit explains that if you take the blindfond off, it will be easier to get the piñata. And what do they get out of it?

That he suggesting of beating up someone and rob their unconcious body.

“NO!!”

He’s literally chocked. They are twisting his every word AGAINST him.

“I’m trying to teach you a lesson, but it’s literally impossible!”

He looses all the cool and the calm that he had during the entire video. He can’t do it anymore. He fought against them the whole time to be heard and understood, but when he is proven correct, at the very last moment, they stop listening definitely.

And then Logan definitely shuts him up, and that’s it.

“I’m sure that Thomas’ friends would love to know that he is forcing himself to attend their wedding. It’s clear that you all don’t want to listen to reason.” (Deceit, 37:43, before sinking out.)

5) They never asked him his purposes. Sorry if at this point of the post I’m too tired to look it up, but he asked Logan and Roman if their sole purposes were to be Logic and Creativity, and both said no.

Maybe, if they had asked Deceit the same thing, he would’ve been able to be understood better.

6) When popping up, he keeps changing himself into someone Thomas will listen to (first Patton, now Logan) in hope to be listened to.

-

So, I don’t know.

I loved the episode! There were many funny moments and I love every second when Deceit was on screen, but honestly?

If he doesn’t get reedemed, it might not be his fault. If he wants to be part of the conversation and they cut him off, it’s theirs and Thomas’ lost.

Deceit is trying his best.

hey so i know this has 100000% been seen already, but i just noticed this so im going to mention it but

in svsr in the mario-parody/au scene the purple text “time limited” (virgil, obvs) keeps changing: It changes to: “time limited” “time being lost” “time poorly spent” “time wasted”

so theory: maybe this (and the 80085) are virgil and remus’ ways to be a part of the episode and say what they’re thinking? with remus not caring and virgil thinking they are wasting time... my only question here is to what regards? roman speaking? them rambling and not getting to the point of the conversation? the whole conversation in general? i noticed that the text changes sort of after things that roman says, like it switches to “time poorly spent” directly after roman says ‘even if someone rescued the kingdom for the reward, i don’t know, i-’ but then again, the text changes every 7 seconds, so probs not that but we should keep this in mind

but anyway, something to keep in mind theorists? lol

Razzle Dazzle as performed by Janus

Do your science homework!

ahhhhhhh i know i should but its so fricking boring D:

it’s about the big bang and the doppler effect blah blah whatever, ahhhhh

but for you, i shall make an effort! ahaha... oh god im gonna be up till 3am again arent i

oh this is cool ummmm oh dear there is a lot uuuHhhh okay

Alive - Jekyll & Hyde

Godspeed - Shayfer James

I’m Not Falling For That - Drew Gasparini

Recipe for Me - Thomas Sanders

Lysergide Daydream - Will Wood & The Tapeworms

World Burn - Mean Girls

Hourglass - Set It Off

On Accident - Nico Collins

Will Power - Something Rotten!

Rude - MAGIC!

I Am Your Leader - Tikkle Me

The Quittin’ Kind - Eleisha Eagle

Emotional Vagrant - The Scary Jokes

Sports - Beach Bunny

Foolishly Wrong - Autoheart

Agoraphobia - Autoheart

Nerves - Icon For Hire

Found/Tonight - Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ben Platt

I’m in Love with an E-Girl - Wilbur Soot

Candy Store - Heathers

Tongues & Teeth - The Crane Wives

I Love Play Rehearsal - Be More Chill

On Monday - 35MM A Musical Exhibition

No Disrespect - Set It Off

this took so long lol

won’t tag anybody whoops

tag game?!?!

alright, i’ve been tagged by @aegir-emblem to do a thing!!

rules: spell out your url with song titles, then tag as many people as there are letters in your url!!

so, let’s get on with it, shall we???

S ong For A Friend - Jason Mraz

T ake Me Or Leave Me - RENT

A aron Burr, Sir - Hamilton

G enghis Khan - Miike Snow

–

O ne - Sleeping At Last

F eelings - Lauv

–

A frica - Toto

L iability - Lorde

M eant To Be Yours - Heathers

Y ou Are Enough - Sleeping At Last

R ubik’s Cube - Athlete

A goraphobia - Autoheart

aaand i’m not sure if i can think of twelve people to tag, so i’ll just tag a few: @princessazuraofnohr, @nannexrunner, @the-chaotic-lesbian, @duskwitch, @hopeful-blue-wanderer, and @arlithenerd!!  and please don’t feel like you have to do it; some of you have insanely long urls, and one of you has the letter “x” to work with, so i understand if you don’t want to :)

WARNING! SPOILERS FOR THE NEWEST ASIDES EPISODE.

I think Remus is going to be a huge part of Logan's arc. When he enrages Logan to the point of him yelling I think he unlocks something within the logical side. Making Logan speak up and tell Remus to stop ignoring him is a huge step for Logan.

In his backwards way I think Remus is on Logan's side 24/7. He knew that making Logan speak up for himself would be vital. Him also saying the words "Who do you really want to say those words to Logan~?" makes Logan aware of the fact that Remus knows his struggles.

Logan's eyes; more specifically the color they turned when yelling. Along with the ending where it showed only the orange eyes. That is exactly what Remus unlocked within him. Logan needed that final push.

hi

prediction for the new asides episode :D

I was sitting in my room eating a slice of pizza when all of a sudden…

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Word Count: 5207

Warnings: Deceit, Near Death (nobody dies I’m not that mean lol), Falling, Kidnapping, Snakes, and uh I think that’s it

Who are you?! What is this?!: Hi! So this was a creative writing prompt for school and I just thought ‘hmmm, i’m new to tumblr what do I post to show what I can do...how about this one!’ I hope that this was the correct story to choose to introduce myself! <3 I’m kind of on a creative block right now, however, I’ll still post stories I have written in the past before. Hope you enjoy!

I was sitting in my room eating a slice of pizza when all of a sudden, a dizzy feeling hit me. It was slight a first, and I continued on eating, but soon it was full on nausea. I dropped the slice on my plate and put down my pencil as I gripped my forehead. I watched my pencil roll off my table and slowly travel across the floor of my bedroom. As it traveled, a figure entered my peripheral vision, and I quickly glanced upward as I felt myself fall to the floor. The figure smirked and waved at me as everything went dark.

"Patton, could you pass me a napkin?"

"Sure thing, kiddo!"

It was about 6:30 pm, and me, Virgil, and Patton were eating dinner. On the table were plates upon plates of pizza, garlic knots, and breadsticks. Usually, I did not partake in such unhealthy meals, but Patton had convinced me to join him and Virgil after we finished our most recent video. Roman had declined and traveled to his bedroom.

You see, me, Virgil, Patton, and Roman are not human. We are aspects of one human; Thomas Sanders. I am Logan; Thomas' logical side. I usually am the one who makes sure Thomas is up to date with information, and I keep him on task. Patton is Thomas' morality; he helps Thomas make the best choices in life, and he also is the Thomas' heart. He encompasses' all of Thomas' feelings. Roman is Thomas' creativity; he gives Thomas' new ideas on videos to make. He also is Thomas' self-esteem, and he frequently helps Thomas out with romance. Then there is Virgil; Thomas' anxiety, the fight-or-flight reflex. There is more of us, but I'd prefer not to mention them. Especially...

Anyway, all of us make up Thomas Sanders; famous Youtube and Vine star. After Vine 'died' (as Virgil said, but it doesn't make sense since a phone app cannot physically die), Thomas moved onto Youtube, where he compiled a following of approximately 2,800,000 subscribers.  After that, he introduced us in a series called "Sanders Sides" (per Roman), and his channel grew from there.

"I wish Roman ate with us more often! He's been so stressed out recently with all of the videos we’ve been doing..." Patton mumbled, pouring me another glass of water.

"That prep needs a rest," Virgil said as he picked at his pizza with a fork, "He's going to break soon if he doesn't stop."

"I agree. Perhaps we should check on him?" I asked. Normally, I wouldn't have tried to encourage such a task, but recently I had seen Roman's mental state deteriorating. He seemed more tired, his smiles seemed faker, and he lied much more often. He tried to pretend he wasn't, but it was very obvious.

Patton gasped, "We should! Oh, I feel bad for the poor kiddo! He has seemed so sad!" He leaped out of his seat and quickly started towards Roman's room. Virgil and I stood up and fled after him.

"Roman? Kiddo?"

Once Virgil and I got to Roman's room, Patton was already there, knocking on his door, "We just came to check on you! Hello?"

"Is he not responding?" I asked, walking up beside him. I cringed looking at Roman door. Ugh, so many Disney stickers. Who even needs that many?

"Yo, Romano! Open the door!" Virgil exclaimed, walking on the other side of Patton.

Nothing.

"That's... strange," I said, "Normally, he would have opened the door by now."

“This so isn’t fun to watch.”

The three of us jumped, and turned, “Deceit.”

“Oh, you know my name. Such an accomplishment.” He said, walking up to us. In the words of Roman, Deceit is a “snake.” He represents the part of Thomas that lies; he makes Thomas lie to himself. He first appeared in the “Sander Sides” series when he pretended to be Patton for the whole episode, and I feel ashamed to admit I didn’t realize it until the very end.

“What are you doing here?” Virgil snarled, his eyes glaring.

“I’m simply strolling by. Is there a problem?” Deceit said with a sly smirk as he leaned up against the wall.

“What did you do?!”

“Tisk tisk, Virgil, don’t always expect me to do something wrong. I’m not all bad.” Deceit said. Of course, that’s a lie; everything he says is a lie. I don’t even think he is physically unable to lie. I sighed, ignoring him. I quickly summoned a hair clip and put it into the keyhole. After a few moments, the lock clicked and the door swung open.

“When the heck did you learn how to pick a lock?” Virgil asked in wonder as I made my way into Roman’s bedroom; nobody.

“It seems like Roman is not here. This is odd…” I mused as I walked further into Roman’s room. I spotted the slice of pizza he took before he left for his room on his desk. I also saw a pencil in the middle of the floor. Patton, Virgil, and Deceit were still talking behind me, but I ignored them. Perhaps Roman is in the dreamscape, where all of Thomas’ dream take place? No, it’s only 7:00 pm, Thomas would not be in bed by now… Maybe he is with Thomas right now?

“What did you do with Roman?!” I turned around at the sudden shout to see Virgil pinning Deceit up against the hallway wall. Patton looked conflicted on what he should do.

“W-We can solve this without violence, kiddos!” Patton stuttered.

“What do you mean, ‘What did you do with Roman’? What did he say?” I asked, walking up to the two of them. Virgil turned to me.

“This disgusting piece of trash told me, ‘Oh, I didn’t do anything with Roman.’” He said with a grimace, and my eyes widened.

“I didn’t say that.” Deceit said, and I’m pretty sure Virgil would have punched him in the face if Patton hadn’t taken hold of Virgil’s hand. “Don’t be so aggressive, Virgil,” Deceit smirked, “I won’t tell you anything.”

Virgil glared, “Spit it.”

“I’m not the part of Thomas that makes him lie to himself. I’m not the one who lies to him and gives him negative thoughts. I don’t give Roman negative thoughts since he is not Thomas’ self-esteem. I didn’t decide to get rid of him altogether.” Patton gasped and Virgil strengthened his grip on Deceit, “What did you do to him?!”

“I didn’t trap him in the dreamscape.” Immediately, Patton and Virgil started running towards the direction of the dreamscape, and I blinked. As I started running after the two of them, I swear I heard a voice behind me say, “Bad luck.”

Usually, during the day, the dreamscape was empty. When Thomas is not currently dreaming, the dreamscape is simply an empty white void. However, once the three of us got there, it wasn’t an empty void. Instead, it was a lush forest; the latticework of branches creating a myriad of shadows on the leafy forest floor. A large castle loomed in the distance atop a dark hill. On one of the plethora of trees, a note was attached; ‘I didn’t tell Thomas to retire for the night early. You don’t have until the morning.’

“We have to save Roman in a world that looks it came out of a Disney movie with a cliche conflict that looks like it came out of a Disney movie. Great.” Virgil grumbled as he started along the gravel path that paved a section of the forest floor. Patton and I followed after him.

“How did Deceit even take Roman?” I asked after a while of silence (and the occasional, “Roman? Kiddo? Where are you?” from Patton) and the others looked at me. Suddenly, Patton gasped.

“What if it was the pizza?!” He worrying exclaimed, and I was tempted to roll my eyes before I stopped to think about it.

“It could be possible that Deceit somehow poisoned or drugged it,” I said, and Patton gasped, but Virgil just rolled his eyes.

“Seriously? How would he even do that?”

“He could have sprinkled some crushed up Flunitrazepam, an intermediate-acting benzodiazepine, onto his pizza, which may have caused him to grow weak and unable to move. You may also know Flunitrazepam as C16H12FN3O3, or the better-known slang term, ‘roofie’.”

“No!!” Patton said, covering his mouth.

“Stop scaring Patton!” Virgil said to me, and I raised an eyebrow. “I was simply supplying the information you asked for. Is there a problem?” I asked, and Virgil sighed, not saying anything. After a moment, he spoke,

“Even though Roman is a dramatic jerk, I still hope he’s okay.” Patton and I’s eyes widened in surprise. Normally, Virgil never said things like that, especially about Roman. Virgil turned around and glared, “Don’t you ever tell him I said that.” “Wouldn’t dream of it, kiddo!” Patton said happily, skipping ahead. After a while of us walking, I was starting to think nothing was going to happen, but then we came upon a chest of sorts.

“Oh! A box!” Patton exclaimed happily, running over to it. I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose.

“Wait! Don’t open it!” Virgil said, and the two of us made our way beside Patton. I took a better look at the chest and it looked like it needed a key.

“Seriously? We need to find a key? Where the heck will we find a key? Oh, let me guess, it’ll be on top of a magical rainbow guarded by unicorns-!” Virgil spoke, but before he could finish, I had already picked the lock and opened the chest. Virgil sighed and Patton jumped excitedly as we all looked to see a… bottle?

I confusedly took the bottle out of the crate and held it in my hands. It was clear, and inside was a blue liquid I could not identify. On the side of the bottle was the words ‘DRINK ME’ in bold letters.

“Seriously? Now we’re in Alice in Wonderland?” Virgil said as I took the cork out of the top. The liquid smelled strangely similar to blueberries.  

“...Should we drink it?” Patton asked.

“No!”

“Yes!”

Virgil and I looked at one another and he glared, “We’re not drinking it. It could be a trap.” He snatched the bottle out of my hands and put the cork back on the top, “How could you possibly think we should drink it?”

“It says ‘DRINK ME’ on it. Plus, we don’t know if it is a trap. It could possibly be something that could help us.”

“Why the heck would Deceit leave something to help us?”

“It could be that he assumed us to think it was a trap, so he assumed we would not drink it. For that reason, he could have made this drink good.”

“But Logan, we don’t know that!”

“Well, I think we should at least try it.”

“What if it’s a trick, and it does nothing?”

Virgil and I turned to look at Patton, “That… is actually a good suggestion, Patton. Thank you.”

Patton laughed, “No problem, kiddo! I just think we shouldn’t get worked up over it. Now come on, let’s go!” Then, he started skipping down the path, and Virgil and I followed.

“Ugh, how long have we been walking? We found that bottle like, ten hours ago!”

“It was two hours, forty-three minutes, and-”

“I didn’t mean it literally.”

“Oops. My apologies.”

“Roman?! Kiddo? Where are you?!”

By this point in our journey, I was growing tired, Virgil was beginning to become more stressed, and Patton was getting more anxious by the minute. There was still no sign of Roman anywhere, and we hadn’t even gotten to any major obstacles yet (besides a spider web which I quickly got rid of). Like before, I was starting to think nothing was going to happen.

That was until we heard a roar.

“What was that?” Virgil asked, and we all spun around, trying to find where the sound came from. I thought I would be able to recognize the sound, but unfortunately, I was unable to. I continued to glance around, trying to find the sound, when my eyes landed on the castle.

“U-Uh..” Patton and Virgil followed my gaze and their jaws dropped. There, perched on the topmost tower of the castle sat a dragon. A dragon. It’s purple scales glistened in the faint moonlight, it’s claws holding onto the tower in between its bricks. It’s glowing green eyes glanced around the forest, it’s wings adjusting to its position, trying to keep itself upright. The dragon also had a purple ‘witches’ hat on its head. After a moment more of the dragon looking around, it tilted its head, and it a flash, it was gone.

The three of us stood, shocked for a moment.

“Welp, that’s it, I’m done. Roman can save himself.”

“Virgil, no!” Patton grabbed Virgil’s arm before he could turn and walk away. I still stared at the castle, my mind reeling.

“Dragon witch...”

“What?” Patton and Virgil turned to me.

“It’s a dragon-witch. Roman spoke of it once before,” I looked at them, “It’s a combination of a dragon and a witch, to my understanding.” I sighed, looking at the castle again.

“And I think it’s guarding the castle.”

It was silent for another moment, “No!”

Virgil and I jumped, looking at Patton, “No! We’re not giving up! Just because some mean dragon is here doesn’t mean I’ll stop fighting! We’ll get Roman back! Now, come on!” Patton started forward again, and Virgil and I followed. There is no stopping Patton when he is determined.

The gravel and dirt shifted under our feet as we continued forward. It was nearing midnight, and I have to admit I was growing tired.

“Should we rest?” I asked the group.

“No. We need to get the Roman as fast as possible.”

“But, Virgil-” Before I could continue, we suddenly heard a… hissing? Suddenly, before we could react, a snake jumped from out of a bush near us, and Virgil barley missed being bitten. I immediately recognized it as a king cobra, the world's longest venomous snake. My eyes widened, and I took a step back. I spun around again as I heard more hissing behind me. We were surrounded.

“W-What do we do?!” Patton asked frantically.

“I-I am unsure. King cobras normally aren’t so aggressive.” Suddenly, one of the cobras started at us. Slowly, at first, but then it leaped right at me. I knew I didn’t have time to move, and I suddenly knew that would be the death of me. I’d die being bitten by a snake, and Thomas would never be logical ever again. I thought when people said your life flashed before your eyes, they were lying, but at the moment, all of my past memories flashed back to me. Of when I was first formed in Thomas’ mind, when Thomas graduated high school when Virgil first told us his name. I shut my eyes, and I heard Patton’s scream-

What?

I slowed opened my eyes when I realized I was, in fact, not dead and very much alive. I spotted Virgil in front of me, and in his hand was the uncorked bottle filled with the blue liquid. About a third of it was gone, and on the ground was a dead king cobra covered in blue. The other snakes quickly scurried off, seemingly afraid. I realized then that, whatever was in the bottle, was some kind of snake repellent. Virgil turned around to me, “Are you okay?”

“I-I’m s-satisfactory…” I said, still shocked by what happened. Patton seemed shocked as well, not having moved yet. Virgil nodded and turned around, and he continued walking.

“Why would Deceit give us a snake repellent?” I wondered, catching up to him.

Virgil shrugged, “Honestly, I have no idea. Stupid move if you ask me.”

“Maybe he was hoping we would drink it and die...” Patton mumbled. We were all silent for a moment,

“Now, should we rest?”

“I still think it’s a bad idea.”

“I don’t think we’ll even be able too…” Virgil and I tilted our heads and looked to where Patton was.

We had reached the castle.

The huge, wooden doors for the entrance looked old, the lock on them broken and nearly falling off. The grey bricks making up the castle held a multitude of scratches, and the tall towers at the top of the castle looked destroyed. I took a deep breath, and I opened the castle doors. It was a lot… quieter, then I was expecting. My footsteps echoed throughout the castle as I looked around. We seemed to be in some kind of lobby area, a staircase going off in two directions on the back wall and long hallways on the sides walls.

“You know, I was kind of expecting there to be a big dragon in here or something,”  Virgil said, and I nodded my head, agreeing.

“Should we split up?” Patton asked, and before I could say anything, Virgil shook his head.

“No. People who split up in horror movies always die. We have to stick together.” I found that reasoning quite silly, however, he still made a good point.

“I agree. We should explore the first floor first.” I said, and the other two nodded. The three of us turned to the left and traveled into the long hallway. When we got to the end of the hallway, we found ourselves in what looked liked to be a dining room. There was a long table, with maybe thirty or forty chairs, and on the back wall, there was a door with the word, “KITCHEN” on it. I suddenly had an idea and I quicked headed into the kitchen. When I entered, I saw the old pots and pans on an old probably not sturdy shelf. I saw some knives in a holder and I collected three. I turned around to see Virgil and Patton in front of me and I held out two knives to them, “Weapons. Even though the obstacles that we have faced up to the point have been absolutely ridiculous, that doesn’t mean Deceit is stupid. We need to be ready just in case something happens, and we also need to be wary of that dragon. There is probably an armory in here somewhere, but for the time being, take these.”

“Wow. Okay.” Virgil and Patton took the knives and we headed out of the kitchen and dining room.

I assumed correctly in thinking there would be an armory, so the three of us collected swords (for some reason there was no armor and exactly three swords). We explored the whole castle, and by the time we were in the last room, it was nearing 4 AM. I remembered Thomas told us that for the week he was going to wake up early to get more work done, so we only had around one hour left.

“Please be here, Roman…” Patton said under his breath as he opened the door.

And there he was.

“ROMAN!”

Roman spun around from inside of the locked cage he was in and his face brightened, “Oh thank goodness, you found me! Why did it take you three so long?”

“Wow, we save your life, and you’re asking why it took us so long. Thanks, Princey, We really appreciate the sentiment!” Virgil grumbled, but I could tell he was thankful we found him. I quickly rushed over to the cage and summoned another hairclip and I started to pick the lock.

“Wow, I didn’t know you could pick locks,” Roman said.

“How did you get captured?” I asked, ignoring what he said (I didn’t even know I could summon things until a few weeks ago, but here we are).

“Ugh, it was dreadful, I have to tell you!” Roman said as I opened the cell door and he stepped out, “That snake snuck into my bedroom and did something to my pizza! Pizza! Who would even do such a thing? Anyway, I collapsed and he brought me here. It’s so boring up here! I only have one window, and I can’t even open it! All I can do is look at these cell bars! It’s the worst! Anyway, how did you three find me?”

“Well, Logan nearly died, but overall it was pretty boring.”

“He what?”

I sighed, “What happened was the three of noticed your usual absence at dinner, so we went to your room. Deceit was there, and he told us he trapped you there. When we got there, we found a bottle that had the words, “DRINK ME” on it. Later, we encountered some venomous snakes, and one nearly bit me. Thankfully, Virgil threw some of the liquid from the bottle on it and it died, causing the others to scatter. We got to the castle, and then we found you.”

“Oh, that makes sense!”

Patton suddenly perked up, “Oh, Logan forget to tell you that we saw this really scary drago-”

RRRRRROOOOOAAAAARRRRR!!!!!

“What was that?!” Roman frantically asked, and suddenly the roof of the room crashed down on us. We all ducked, and thankfully nothing hit us. After the roof fell, we all looked up. Now, I forgot to mention earlier that the room we were in was actually at the top of the castle in one of the towers. The very top. So, that’s how the dragon-witch flew down and tore the roof right off. It started back down at us, and we screamed. Patton, Virgil and I held up our swords while Roman cowered behind us, him not having his.

“RUN!” Virgil screamed, and Roman did not hesitate to run to the door and head down the stairs of the tower. The three of us started to run after him, but before we could, the dragon-witch flew in front of us, making us unable to leave. All of us didn’t really know what to do. Roman was the only one out of all of us who could fight with a sword, and we had just told him to flee.

“We’re going to die, aren’t we?” Virgil asked, and at that moment I couldn’t help but agree with him. Suddenly, Virgil's eyes widened, and he spun around and faced the window. I had completely forgotten about it. I followed him and we managed to bust the window open with our swords. We looked out of it, and we knew that if we jumped we would instantly die if we hit the bottom.

“HEY!” Virgil and I turned around and we gasped. Patton was still staring up at the dragon, his sword still tightly grasped in his hand, “I won’t let you hurt my family! If you try, you’ll have to get through me first!”

“Patton, no!” Virgil shouted, but Patton didn’t listen. The dragon witch looked down at him and stared for a moment.

Then, it attacked.

It swung its claw, and Patton managed to get away with only a small cut on his cheek. Instead, it’s claw swung and hit the wall, destroying the side of the tower. Patton quickly lunged forward again, and he stabbed it in the stomach. The dragon witch screamed and Patton dropped his sword and ran towards us. The dragon witch swung again, taking a step forward, and Virgil managed to nick it’s claw slightly. I looked around the dragon and I saw there was enough room for us to get to the door. Virgil and Patton noticed too, and we all made a run for it. Virgil and Patton raced through the door, and I ran after them-

But then the door slammed shut before I could get through.

I immediately panicked and pulled at the doorknob, but I couldn’t open the door. My eyes widened and I spun around. The dragon witch was staring at me, looking ready to attack.

“Having fun, Logan?”

I glanced behind the dragon-witch and see Deceit, casually sitting on the broken wall. I realized he must have been the one to shut the door; I don’t know how, but he did.

“Let me go, Deceit.” I snapped at him, and the dragon-witch growled. I took a step back, and I bumped against the door.

“Sure.” He said, and he hopped down from the wall and strode over to me. He smirked, and he raised up his hand. The dragon witch growled again, and I then realized that he must have control over it. I looked back at him.

“Deceit, please let me go. We can resolve this if you just opened the door and let me leave.” I said, trying to convince him, but to no avail. I thought I may have heard faint yelling of my name, but I couldn’t tell with how loudly I was breathing.

Deceit laughed, “I’ll totally let you go, Logan.” Then, he walked past me, and with the flick of his hand, the door opened. I stared for a moment, This has to be a trap. Deceit only lies.

“Come on, Logan. The door is open. Just walk through.” He said, and I stood for a moment before walking to the door.

I felt a force pushing into my side, and I felt myself fly for a moment.

A-Am I falling?

I blinked, and I saw the top of the tower slowly become farther and farther away.

Yes, I am indeed falling.

I wasn’t too surprised, really. Deceit always lied, and there was a big gap in the wall just a few feet away from me. I should have known I would have been pushed off. The situation felt sort of familiar, very much like when the king cobra almost bit me. This time, however, I had a few seconds before impact. Time seemed slow, one second felt like an hour. I tried to think of something to do, but I knew I couldn’t do anything. I could summon a hair clip, but barely, so I wouldn’t be able to do anything bigger than that. Roman could of since he is creativity, but he probably was too weak. I was done for. I heard screaming under me, probably the others. I knew I’d miss them. I shut my eyes, and suddenly, I saw a flash of bright white light.

After a moment, I opened my eyes. A-Am I dead?

“OH MY GOSH, LOGAN!”

I saw three figures above me. I couldn’t really tell since my vision was quite blurred. Wait… Roman? Patton? Virgil?

It suddenly came to me, and if I was standing, I would have stumbled back from the realization: Thomas woke up.

When Thomas woke up, the whole dreamscape reset, and our positions did, too.

“Oh my goodness, Logan! Are you okay!? Please tell me you’re okay!!”

“W-What?”

“Oh thank goodness!” I slowly sat up, Virgil and Roman helping me. I vision finally cleared, and I could see the three of them clearly. They all looked terrified.

“Heavens, Logan, you nearly died! It was horrible!” Roman exclaimed, and Virgil glared.

“I think he knew that, Sir-Sing-A-Lot.” Virgil spat.

“I’m satisfactory, ” I said, standing up. I was still in quite a state of shock, so I didn’t bother to say anything further. I turned my head, and I saw the door to exit the dreamscape. Deceit was nowhere in sight (I didn’t know if I should be thankful or not at this fact). Patton saw where I was looking, “Come on, kiddo. Let’s get going.”

“You feeling any better?” Patton asked, and I took another sip of my water. We were back at the dining table, the food long since becoming cold. Once we exited the dreamscape, Virgil sunk down to tell Thomas what happened and the three of us went back to the common room.

“I’m fine,” I said as Virgil rose back up.

“What did Thomas say?” Roman asked.

“To say the least, he kind of freaked out. Because we were in the dreamscape, Thomas saw everything that happened. He told me that his dream ended right as Logan fell. I told him you and Logan were okay. He wants to talk to us all later.”

“Okay. I feel so bad for him! He must have felt so powerless!” Patton exclaimed, and the rest of us nodded, Virgil taking a seat at the table.

I turned to Roman, “How are you doing?” Roman blinked in surprise, slightly shocked to be addressed.

“I’m fine, nerd! I’m not hurt! Don’t worry about me.” He said, smiling. I suddenly remembered what Deceit told us before we went to the dreamscape; “I don’t give Roman negative thoughts since he is not Thomas’ self-esteem.”

“Roman, are you okay?” I asked, and Roman snorted.

“I just said that I was!”

“No. Tell me honestly. Are you okay? Because Deceit told us earlier that he gives you negative thoughts.” I knew I had struck some kind of nerve since Roman flinched and looked down. I could tell by Virgil and Patton’s that they remembered what Deceit had said.

“I-I..” Roman stuttered, and he finally sighed, “No. No, I’m not.” The three of us waited for him to continue. He sighed again.

“Once we started making videos for “Sander Sides,” we had to do a lot more work. I had to plan out things for us to say, I had to help Thomas design props and filming a video every month or two is draining. I was feeling really bad about myself, and once Deceit came along, it just got worse. It was harder to pretend to be happy, and I even considered ducking out a few times like Virgil did when he thought we didn’t need him anymore. I really thought about just not being creativity and self-esteem anymore, because if I left,” He laughed, “Well, what difference would it have made?”

I nearly screamed when Patton leaped across the table and tackled Roman in a hug, sending them both to the floor, “Oh my goodness, kiddo! I never knew! I’m sorry I never noticed! We love you so much!!” Virgil and I stood up and we walked over to the two of them once we stood up.

“Yes, Roman. Even if it doesn’t seem like it, we care. We think your ideas are amazing, and you do so much for Thomas.” Roman smiled a real smile for what looked like the first time in ages and he looked and Virgil.

He sighed, “You’re good… I guess.” Roman shrugged.

“Well, that’s the best I’ll get.” He looked at all of us, “Thank you. It means so much to hear that.”

After that, we all finally went to bed. The next day, we talked to Thomas about what happened and made sure to cut down on the work for Roman's sake. Once we got to the mindscape, we saw Deceit again, and we tried to talk to him. He didn’t listen, but Patton said he would come around sometime. That’s where we are now, really. We’re all doing better, we’ve all recovered from the incident, and as cliche as it sounds….

We are happy, and for now, that’s the only thing that matters.