"You wanna tell me why you thought taking Patton's place was a good idea?" Virgil asked. While he usually hated confrontation with what passed for a passion in his mind, he couldn't countenance a slight so severe.
Deceit looked his former friend up and down. "Surely you don't expect me to answer truthfully?"
"No, but there are two kinds of people in the world. Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data." Anxiety left the rest to Deceit.
Deceit rolled his eyes and turned his snake side away. "Fine. I had better things to do, you know."
"Liar," Anxiety deadpanned.
"Already devolving to name-calling? And I once thought so highly of you," Deceit cooed.
Virgil looked around, not that there was much to see. Dark curtains hung around them, obscuring photos and paintings on the walls behind them. Occasionally, the curtains would billow and the images would flash. Thomas in pain. Thomas crying. Stern faces.
"Why does your room have to be so creepy?" Virgil asked.
Deceit folded his arms defensively. "Oh yeah, and your room is just the pinnacle of warmth. What with the spiderwebs and spider curtains, and all that Hot Topic garbage."
"Whatever. Patton. I'm warning you now, Dee, leave him alone," Virgil said, pointing a finger at the bowler-hat wearing villain.
"I enjoy our little chats." Deceit turned around, summoning a tea tray. "Care for a drink?"
Virgil narrowed his eyes, instantly suspicious. "If you drank anything other than something sickeningly sweet, I might take you up on that. Honestly, you're worse than Patton when it comes to sweets. And he would at least have cookies."
Deceit set the tray down and lifted a cup and saucer. Taking a sip, he grinned. "Is that why you joined the Sappy Sides? For the cookies?"
"Those saps are at least honest." Virgil countered.
Deceit set the cup and saucer down a little harder than necessary. His look was full of contempt. "And what has honesty ever done but cause misery?"
"That's all you got?" Virgil asked, turning away.
"At least I'm happy doing what I do. Can you say the same? No, of course not. Anxiety is misery." Deceit taunted.
Virgil turned half-back, smiling. "The fact you can even say that means it's not true."
"You think I can't tell the truth if I want to?" Deceit took a step forward. "Thomas used to wet the bed."
A curtain fluttered open to reveal a young Thomas with wet pajamas, looking away as his mother they both stood next to his wet bed. The painting came to life, and little Thomas spoke. "I didn't! I just spilled my glass of water!"
"Kids wet the bed. Lying about it was stupid. His mom wasn't even mad." Anxiety replied.
Deceit took another step forward, his foot dragging along the carpet. "Thomas got sick at a party and blamed the dog."
Another curtain blew aside to reveal the scene in question.
Anxiety looked away from that one. "That was really bad. He had a chocolate muffin and so they took the dog to the vet to make sure it would be alright. If he'd just owned up to it, he would have saved them that vet bill. Lying definitely made that worse."
Deceit took another step, wincing as his foot made contact with the floor. He stood in Anxiety's space, his face contorted in pain. "You used to be my friend."
A curtain blew aside to reveal younger versions of Virgil and Dee. Dee's arm wrapped around Virgil's shoulders as a smile grew on Virgil's face. Dee keeping Virgil on his 'good' side to not gross him out with the scales.
Deceit looked triumphant for a split second as Virgil realized how much pain Dee was in. Then he crumpled to the ground, knees giving out as the painful truths sank into every fiber of his being like millions of tiny knives.
Anxiety wanted to believe it was all theatrics. But then he knew the one thing that hurt Deceit most was Deceit himself telling the truth. He'd been too distracted by those truths to see what Deceit was doing to himself.
Angry as much at himself as he was Deceit, Virgil knelt beside Dee. "Hey, tell some lies. Say something untrue, you idiot. It's the only way you'll feel better."
Deceit whispered something, and stirred a bit.
Nudging Dee's chest, Virge's eyes got misty for a moment. "Dee! Say something false."
"I hate you." Deceit said, the color returning to both sides of his face. "I don't care what happens to you. You don't care about me!" Deceit flinched, obviously expecting to get hurt again.
But the words hung between them. A lie. One that gave hope to one and reminded the other that he did care. Not just about Thomas and the 'Bright Sides.' He cared about this side too. The side that would say anything to make Thomas feel better. No matter how outlandish the lie.
"You're almost as much of a defense mechanism as I am." Virgil noted as Dee sat up.
Deceit looked away, his scaled side facing Virgil. "You don't care about me."
"In the words of Logan. 'Falsehood.'" Virgil replied.