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Title in my Word Document: Alright Roman You Got You're Dramatic Entrance and Cool Powers. Let's GO (He is the most frustrating sides for me to write. He would give me nothing until I gave him a tragic backstory and so many powers. So many.)
Technical Writing Facts:
This story took me forever to write. Like, if you’ve been following me on Tumblr or are in my Discord, I’ve been talking about the sequel forever. The amount of time it took had to do with Roman being a little bitch about what he’ll show up for (I have trouble writing Roman for some reason lol.) and irl health problems.
I have a (not so) secret tag on my Tumblr for illusions to Labeled spoilers. It’s a lot less active since Roman’s in verse reveal, but it’s still fun. It is at https://snowdice.tumblr.com/tagged/;)
Best Laid Plans is the mark of what I call Stage 4 of Labeled. There are tentatively about 10-11 stages. However, the stages are inequal in how much content each holds. They’re more of a way for me to sort out what’s going on than hard and fast divisions. The stages so far are:
- Stage 1: Sometimes Labeled Fail and stories published before Gaps in His Files in any subseries.
- Stage 2: Starts with Gaps in His Files. Ends with the introduction of Roman in Barbeque Stressing.
- Stage 3: Things between Barbeque Stressing and Best Laid Plans.
- Stage 4: Starts with Best Laid Plans ends with ??? (Stages 4 is pretty short compared to things like 1 and 2 as it is currently planned.)
- Technically Illusions of Grandeur is supposed to go in Stage 5 which is why it’s still not finished lol. I just got too excited and jumped the gun. Which is also why it takes place so far in the future compared to everything else. It’s a few years after Roman and Remus graduate college. Virgil is about to graduate college in it. XD
Character Facts:
Virgil:
Virgil is currently majoring in biology and minoring chemistry in preparation to go to medical school. That would very much surprise past Virgil who was not good at science or math (or school in general), but at this point, Virgil is confident in his academic abilities. He’s going to be a pediatrician!
Virgil has absorbed some of Logan’s organizational system at least when it comes to college work. He is a very organized boy. (However, his room is still a mess. Or more… he uses chaotic organization.)
Virgil has slowly started liking exercise more than when he first came to live with Logan and Patton. He still isn’t the biggest fan of running. However, he takes great advantage of the university rec center with the rock-climbing wall. He’s even gone to a few of the workout classes, though he tries to go on off times when there are less people. He wants to use the pool more but is still a bit bashful about it. He doesn’t like to show off his scars and still isn’t great at swimming. Luckily, the rec center is open pretty late, so he sometimes convinces himself to go when not many people are around.
He is not in band at college, but he does attend private clarinet lessons to keep up the skill.
Roman:
Roman is double majoring in Theater Arts and Library Studies. (And he calls Logan a nerd.) Rhea and Minnie are silently glad he’s taking after Minnie more when it comes to careers and isn’t preparing to throw himself into danger like his twin.
Roman is currently living off campus in an apartment with a guy he was in a theater performance with. He’s stressed about his roommate catching him doing Prince things even with his powers.
Virgil is the first person Roman ever told he was Prince. Remus managed to figure him out because they’re twins, but other than that, no one knew before Best Laid Plans.
Logan:
Once his son decided that he wanted to minor in chemistry, Logan started side-eyeing getting another bachelor’s degree. (He has a PhD in math and physics and a bachelor’s in biology already *cough* totally not Patton related *cough*.) Virgil threatened to be unadopted if he found his father in any of his chemistry classes. Logan may be secretly doing some online schooling in the future. Maybe.
Logan definitely fucked himself up more by his little stunt at the end of Best Laid Plans. It didn’t hurt him more physically (though it certainly did not help). His powers are going to be a bit wonky for a while though which is frustrating because they’re usually so precise.
Also, the power Logan exhibited was the power known as mind warping. We have heard of two characters with mind warping before. One of these was Blight and the other was Kiri (the little girl Deceit saved after Gaps in His Files. She was, notably, the person used to make the memory ray used on Bluebird.)
Mind warping is not a very common power in this verse and is kind of a mystery to the people in universe. However, out of universe, I’ll just go ahead and tell you. It usually develops when you get someone who already has telekinesis and stress them the fuck out. Telekinesis usually develops in a child who feels a need to control their environment for whatever reason. If you take that kid and put them in a mentally stressful situation moving objects can’t solve, they might just figure out a way to move not physical objects. Then you perish.
Patton:
Patton’s not doing too hot during Best Laid Plans. He’s pretty much in Doctor Patton mode the whole time or full-on dissociating. It’s kind of hard to tell when not in his perspective because he’s very good at hiding shutdowns. He pretty much acts like a normal person… not a normal Patton though.
Remy:
Remy and Emile also went into hiding together when Patton called them about Logan missing.
If Remy had superpowers, he’d probably have pulled a Virgil. Emile’s better at reigning him in than Patton is at reigning in Virgil though.
Emile:
Emile is about to have a lot more work to do…
Remus:
Remus is majoring in Criminal Justice with a focus on Superhero Studies. It’s his last official semester of school because he’s got an internship lined up for the spring. That internship will quickly turn into a high-profile job. He’s going to be an undercover superhero! Basically, he’s going to pretend to be a supervillain while actually helping bring them down. Well, Rhea and Minnie figured at least one of their kids would follow in Rhea’s footsteps. At least he’s doing it legally…
Remus is completely oblivious to what’s going on. He is asleep in his own apartment during Best Laid Plans.
Deceit:
Deceit and Bluebird don’t like each other, but Deceit still does really care that Bluebird is missing. Frenemies or not, Bluebird is the only hero he trusts.
He was doing his best in Best Laid Plans. However, Virgil and Roman had a head start on him since Virgil knows Logan personally.
He eventually would have found Bluebird. (And he would have obviously learned Logan’s identity which would be a whole other AU.)
Deceit… has opinions on Prince. They are mostly positive and exasperated.
Deceit didn’t mind Shadow Caster when he was on the scene, but they didn’t really interact.
Deceit and Remus have not yet met in Best Laid Plans. (At least not in a professional capacity.)