Chapter Text
“Uh…. Logan..? Where exactly are we?” Patton asked hesitantly. The logical side looked around the rainbow colored room in confusion, alongside the others.
“In all honesty, I do not know where we are. It appears that we are in a modern setting - if the giant television is anything to go off of- and yet this doesn't seem to be Thomas’ apartment?” Logan walked into the room as he spoke, curiosity clear in his voice.
The others looked around hesitantly but walked inside as well.
“I don't remember this place?” Thomas thought out loud. He looked down at the fluffy white carpet and furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
“Do you seriously think that entering a mysterious room while we’re literally traveling through time is a good idea?” Virgil asked with what could be interpreted as aggression, but had long since been acknowledged as anxiousness.
He suddenly jumped as a black and purple fidgeting cube hit him in the head. He looked down at the cube, which appeared to be a sharp contrast against the white fluff, and picked it up silently. Virgil began to press the purple buttons and payed no mind to the fact that the cube had appeared from seemingly thin air.
“Cheer up Virgil! What better time for an adventure than on a journey of love!” Roman cheered and jumped onto a silk red bean bag. “Oh, how nice.” He mumbled as he rubbed his hands against the fabric.
Janus stared at the passionate man before choosing to inspect the room. As he looked at the colorful walls, he saw a hint of green in the corner of his eye.
He turned towards the mysterious figure and jumped backwards once he realised that it was Remus running towards him. “Where didn't you come from?” He exclaimed. “Not like you scared me or anything like that.” He muttered as he patted down his yellow beanie.
Remus grinned maniacally and shrugged. “I have no clue J-anus!” Janus looked at him and silently asked for clarification with a nod of his head.. “One moment I was in my room and then next thing I know-” He raised his arms “-Here I am!” Remus turned his head to stare at an oddly slimy green bean bag which was located besides Roman. Without another word he jumped onto the bag and let out a harsh screech.
Roman startled at the noise. “Holy Hera! Why are you here!” He looked at his brother in annoyance.
Remus’ grin widened even bigger in response. Without another word, he simply shrugged and began biting the oddly textured bean bag.
Meanwhile Patton, who hadn't moved much since entering the room, noticed something odd. “Uh, guys?”
The twins started bickering loudly, easily drowning out Patton’s voice.
“Guys?” He called out louder.
Thomas tripped on the carpet whilst Logan ran his hand over a smooth wooden table.
“Guys!” Patton yelled, finally catching the attention of the others.
“Is something troubling you, Patton?” Logan asked.
“Yeah actually, where's the door we used to get here?” Patton began fidgeting as he eyed the wall that no longer had the door that they came from.
The others went completely silent at his words.
“What do you mean by that, Padre?” Roman spoke cautiously as he began to lift his head from where he laid while reaching for his sword.
Rather than answering, Patton chose to simply nod his head towards the direction of the blank wall.
Everyone turned their attention to the wall and true to morality’s words, there appeared to be no exit.
“Well isn't that just swell.” Janus mumbled and jumped when he saw everyone's attention turn to him.
“Uh, Snakeface? Why is your voice so loud?” Roman looked stunned as his own words echoed across the room. “Why is my voice so loud?!”
Virgil gripped onto the cube as he felt the anxiety in the room begin to rise. “Who cares about your stupid voice volume! We need to focus on the missing door.” He had to force himself to keep his voice the way that it was, however even without the vocal distortion, his voice was still louder than normal.
“Do not fret, Virgil. I have the device with me, anyway.” Logan waved his right hand at the anxious side while using his left to rummage through his pockets . “We can leave at any moment-” He abruptly cut himself off.
The others stared at him as he continued to pat down his pockets with increasing urgency.
“Uh, Logan?” Roman called out.
“You lost the remote, didn't ya." Remus finished his brother's train of thought.
Everyone stared at the logical side, silently praying for the twins to be incorrect in their assumptions.
“I did not lose it! I'm simply not aware of it's current whereabouts…” Logan trailed off awkwardly. He looked up and held eye contact with Virgil, whose appearance seemed not unlike one of a raccoon.
“Please don't tell me that we're currently stuck in αη υηкησωη ℓσ¢αтιση, with ησ α¢¢єѕѕ to the outside world!” The other sides winced as his distorted voice rang throughout the room and bounced off the walls.
“I highly doubt that we’re stuck here, especially considering that this is all imaginary.” Janus and Virgil shared a glance as Logan spoke.
Remus snorted. “Imaginary, sure.”
Janus was suddenly very glad that no one pays the intrusive side any sort of attention. Especially considering the fact that similarly to everyone else, his voice also echoed louder than he actually spoke.
“I don't know, Logan. This definitely feels real…" Thomas spoke, sounding very unsure of himself. He silently began to rub his hands against the carpet in order to ground himself.
“Yes, well, no matter. We'll simply reappear in your closet, Thomas. You just have to enlighten yourself and snap out of your current mindset.” Logan explained to their host.
Despite the reassurance from his logic, Thomas continued to feel conflicted. He knew that the room itself must be a figment of his imagination, but it didn't feel like it was.
He tried to ignore his doubts and began to imagine his closet. Thomas tried his best to envision it but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't convince himself that it was all in his head.
“I'm sorry Logan, but I just don't think I can persuade myself into thinking rationally." Thomas sighed in disappointment.
“Of course Thomas, you should definitely blame yourself. Especially since this isn't the fault of your creativity. Or anything like that…” As he spoke, Janus made sure to eye Roman in a particularly judgmental way.
“Hey!” The two sides of creativity cried out. Roman glared at his brother and attempted to scoot away, but similarly to magnets, his seat instead flew closer to Remus.
Both twins stared at each other in a stunned silence. “What the heckity heck? Five abs and one peck.." With that, Remus began cackling uncontrollably.
“What the f*** does that mean?” Remus asked. His face then became completely void of any emotion. “F***, sh**,b****, sl**, a**,wh***, f**” His skin became paler. “S*x! C**k! T**!”
“Well on the bright side, at least Remus is censored now.” Virgil smirked for a brief second before his eyeshadow grew darker and his smile turned into an anxious grimace. He began muttering something about ‘loss of control’ which soon became background noise as chaos continued to erupt throughout the room.
“Janyyyyyyy! I can’t talk about s*x or anything else that’s interesting!” Remus began to whine. “It’s probably just because the author wants this to be for teen audiences, which is even worse!”
“I totally understand everything that you just said.” Janus deadpanned. “Also as much as I love to agree with Virgil, we really shouldn’t prioritize escaping.”
“How are we supposed to escape this treacherous -oddly comfortable- room?” Roman exclaimed. “Thomas already tried to imagine us back home, and that didn’t exactly work.” He huffed and continued to rub the red silk to calm himself.
Logan began to squint at the creative sides before he asked them, “What are the two of you sitting on?”
“Your d**k.” Remus grumbled, clearly still upset over not being able to swear.
“Eugh, ignore him.” Roman flicked his wrist towards the direction of his twin. “There’s a bunch of bean bags over here in front of the TV.” He explained. “They’re actually quite comfortable, if you wanna join us. There’s even an indigo one, perfect for you!”
Logan walked towards them cautiously. “It looks as though seven of these are color coded. Coincidentally, they all seem to align with the colors that we are associated with - if you choose to consider Thomas as rainbow.” He sat down on the indigo colored bean bag located next to a sky blue one.
“Okay, and? Just because they’re in our colors doesn’t mean we should sit in them! We don’t even know where we are right now!” Virgil started to fidget with the collar of his shirt as he spoke. “Thomas!” He yelled. Thomas turned towards him like a deer caught in headlights. “Don’t tell me you’re actually going to sit down and relax while we could literally be held hostage currently!”
“Virgil, kiddo, maybe we should try taking some deep breaths?” Patton attempted to ease the purple clad side. “What was the thing you showed us? Uhm, Seven-four-three? Or was it four-seven-three?” Patton began muttering as he reached out to grab Virgil’s hands.
Virgil grumbled but complied with the fatherly side's request.
After a few minutes he began to feel calmer and thanked Patton with a gentle pat on the back.
“Are the two of you planning on sitting down or what?” Janus called out. The pair turned to the snake and saw that most of the others were seated except for themselves and Thomas, who was still staring out into the abyss.
“Yeah, sure!” Patton shrugged and walked over to the fluffy bean bag that was in between Logan and a purple bag.
Without another word Virgil sat down next to Patton and Roman.
Thomas continued to blankly stare in front of him. “Right, yeah sure.” He mumbled and continued his walk towards the sides. “Cool, cool, cool.” He squeezed the soft rainbow bean bag and slowly sat down.
They all sat there in silence for an uncomfortable amount of time.
“Huh, for a moment I genuinely thought that something would hap-“
A loud noise came from behind the group which made all the sides -and Thomas- to tense up.
“What the hell?” A voice exclaimed from behind them.
“Oh, come on! So they can swear, but I can’t!?” Remus turned around and yelled. His eyes widened at what he saw. “Oh sh**, I didn’t expect that!” He started to cackle with a crazed expression on his face.
Curiosity consumed the others and soon they all chose to look behind them.
“Well, isn’t this just completely normal..” No one paid much attention to the deceitful side as they were all stuck in a stunned silence.
The small group of people looked at the sides in varying degrees of shock and confusion.
“Thomas?” One of the figures hesitately said.
Thomas paused before he spoke. “Heyyyy, Nico…” He toyed with his white jacket. “What are you guys doing in my daydream?” His friends (and his new boyfriend) continued to look at him in confusion.
“Thomas, what the fuck are you talking about?” Joan tilted their head as they spoke. “Also why are there so many of you..?” They reached out and started poking at the sides.
“Please don’t do that!” Patton squeaked, sounding as though he ran out of oxygen.
Joan simply nodded and slowly walked backwards, in the opposite direction of the sides. However, before they could get much further away, they were dragged by an invisible force to sit in front of Thomas.
“Okay, what the actual fuck is going on!” They yanked down on their beanie as they yelled.
“I have a feeling that we all want the answer to that.” Talyn said. Similarly to Joan, they were pulled ahead by an invisible string. Although, unlike Joan they managed to appear relatively calm, besides from the quiet panic slowly creeping up on them.
Within the following seconds, all the remaining residents in the room that were still standing were dragged towards the others against their will. These other residents consisted of Valerie, Terrence, and Nico - who chose to sit directly next to Thomas despite not being aware of their surroundings.
“So… Is someone gonna explain what the hell is going on?” Terrence asked as he looked at the group, particularly the hoard of Thomases (Thomasi?).
“Well, I guess first things first, can all of you see the sides?” At the blank stares he got from his friends, Thomas chose to clarify, “The people who look like me.”
His friends continued to look at him in confusion, but still managed to nod their heads in confirmation.
“Okay so, how many of you have seen Inside Out? Or are at least aware of the concept?” Everyone in the room raised their hands including the sides, even though Thomas wasn’t asking them. “It’s like that but instead of emotions, they represent the different aspects of my personality. I mainly talk to them to figure out solutions to my everyday problems.” Thomas tried to gauge the reactions of his friends and was met with mixtures of confusion, curiosity, and concern.
“Thomas, are you feeling okay?” Valerie cautiously reached her hand out to check her friend’s temperature for a fever. Faintly in the background, an exaggerated gasp was heard from the crimson clad prince.
“Are you suggesting Thomas is being delusional?” Roman sounded affronted as he stood up to speak. “We’ve been with him for most of his life! I’m pretty gosh darn sure that we at least know what we are.” Virgil and Janus share another glance as Remus begins to grin like the Cheshire Cat.
“I can’t believe that I’m the one saying this, but you need to calm down Princey.” Virgil pulled at Roman’s ankle from where he was sprawled across his purple bean bag.
Roman tilted his head downwards to look at his purple clothed friend. For a moment he almost debated with the anxious side’s words, but ultimately chose otherwise as Virgil’s eyes bore into his soul. He reluctantly sighed and let out a meekly apology that was along the lines of, “Sorry for the overreaction.” As he sat back down he tried his best to ignore the harsh poking coming from his left side, where Remus was seated.
Valerie looked at him and tilted her head as she placed her arm back down at her side. “It’s alright,” She mumbled, almost seeming ashamed of herself. “Sorry for implying that you were being delusional, Thomas. It’s not that I don’t believe you, it’s just hard to believe. You know?”
Thomas looked at her with understanding reflected in his eyes. “Of course I know. It didn’t really take me long to realize that most people don’t talk to figments of their imagination, or at least not as long as I have.”
“Well, it’s not a bad thing though.” Nico told him as he tapped on Thomas’ leg. “It just means that there’s more of you to love.” A small grin began to spread across his face. “It also explains why you talk to yourself so much.”
Thomas began to splutter in an awkward manner. “I don’t talk to myself THAT much!” Everyone in the room, including the sides, appeared to disagree.
“Dude, you talk to yourself so much to the point that I genuinely almost thought you were haunted.” Joan deadpanned.
“Honestly, same” Talyn added.
Thomas continued to stare at his friends. “That’s crazy, there’s no way I’d ever get haunted!”
Terrence laughed in a friendly manner. “Riiight, ‘cause clearly talking to the aspects of your personality makes soooo much more sense.”
Thomas tried to come up with a reply before realizing that he had no valid argument. “Dang.”
“Thomas, I mean this with all the respect in my soul, but you almost had me go onto REDDIT of all places. I genuinely considered posting something under r/ghost.” Nico leaned on Thomas’ bean bag as he ranted affectionately.
Thomas looked embarrassed after listening to his friends’ words, which was a feeling clearly shared by all of his sides (except for Remus, but Thomas is almost certain that the intrusive man is incapable of feeling shame or anything even remotely close to it).
Another loud bang rang throughout the room in a deafening tone.
“What the f***!” Remus screeched, subconsciously digging his nails into the nearest person.
“REMUS! GET YOUR GRIMY NAILS OFF OF MY ATTIRE!” The nearest person just so happened to be Roman.
To the surprise of absolutely none of the other sides, the twins began to bicker again. All of Thomas’ friends just watched as the two sides argued in an almost familial manner.
However, the moment didn’t last very long as a certain logical side felt a weight in one of his pockets. In fact, he was almost convinced that it was the remote that he ‘misplaced’ earlier. Unfortunately, that theory was quickly debunked as he instead pulled out an oddly heavy piece of paper.
On the outside of the folded page, it read “Gather everyone’s attention before reading.”
Despite not being one for indulging in such nonsense, Logan decided to comply to the page’s instructions
“If I may, I would like if everyone could listen-“ He tried to speak but was soon cut off before he could finish his sentence.
“Not right now, Logan!” Roman waved him off before continuing his argument with his brother.
“I understand that you’re in the middle of something, but-“ Yet again Logan soon found himself being cut off by another side.
“Kiddo, maybe try waiting until after they’re done with their little squabble. Okay?” Logan ignored the feelings of hurt (and anger) that welled up when he heard Patton’s voice overlap with his own.
“You know them, Patton. You must realize that they won’t stop until an outside force manages to separate or distract them long enough for them to forget what they were arguing about.” Logan tried to reason with the parental side but found that it was of no use.
Fortunately for him, a loud staticky noise came from the television and successfully distracted the residents of the room.
The screen showed the word, “READ” in bold letters.
“Read? After that whole display, the only advice we get is to read? That’s definitely not complete bull.” Janus grumbled bitterly.
Logan saw this as the perfect opportunity to speak, “Well actually-“
“Honestly, this whole situation is bulls*** , Jay.” Remus bit down on his seat, barely even noticing Logan’s attempts at talking.
“OKAY!” Logan’s eyes glowed a bright orange color for just a moment before they returned to their usual brown. “Please just listen for the duration of time that it takes me to read this letter.” Everyone’s attention was already facing him so he felt no need to wait for a response. “Okay, good.” He took a moment to clear his throat. “Dear sides, and those close to Thomas, please turn your attention to the screen in front of you. This situation may be odd at first, but please understand that I lack the motivation to give you an explanation directly. All that I shall say is that you will be watching a few videos and you will be expressing your opinions and feelings as they play on. Please also note that whenever you speak, the video will automatically pause and your voice will project louder than usual. If you wish for the video to rewind simply say, ‘rewind’. The video will now play in one minute after this letter is complete.”
Just as the letter claimed, the TV had a countdown going down from “1:00”.
“Okay so I’m not the only one who thinks this is crazy, right?” Virgil exclaimed. “I mean, we get summoned to some random room to watch a bunch of videos? This is absolutely insane!” He quickly became annoyed at his current outfit and chose to snap his usual one back on. “I hate this alreadyyy.” He groaned as he tugged on his hoodie.
“Hush! I think the video is about to begin.” Roman shushed him, and just as he finished his sentence, the countdown was completed.
Everyone watched in anticipation as the screen began to load the video.
Soon a bold text appeared on the screen.
My True Identity