And here I am, back with another chapter.

I just really like Janus, even though I'm actually absolutely awful at lying and kinda hate doing it, lol… Sorry snek boi…

XXX

It was Patton who called a meeting in the commons living room, and of course, he wanted to discuss what had just happened with Janus. Currently, the discussion was split between Patton, and surprisingly, Logan, who thought that they should maybe try to include Janus more, and Roman and Virgil, the latter of which wasn't actually very sure about what to do and mostly just wanted to avoid conflict with the snake (and his own guilt and bitterness), and the former of which wasn't on board.

"I do believe that it makes sense to include him," Logan added to the conversation. "He was right about Thomas needing to be selfish sometimes, and he is open to the idea of moderation. It might help offset Patton's tendency to want Thomas to always act selflessly, which just ends up making Thomas feel bad when he cannot live up to those expectations. It might help even to just have a more opposing viewpoint now that Virgil has settled down a bit."

Virgil gave Logan a glare for that last comment, but he was prevented from responding by Roman arguing loudly.

"But then Thomas will become a liar!" Roman protested. "How can that be good for Thomas? Isn't being a liar bad, Patton?"

Patton tried to give the boisterous angry side a calming smile.

"I do think lying is wrong…," Patton acquiesced. "But I also think it's wrong to exclude people, and I think he is trying to help Thomas, even if he is a little… misguided…"

"I think he's a bit more than misguided, Patton-"

"And besides," Patton continued. "Including him won't turn Thomas into a liar, I don't think… When we started including Virgil, Thomas didn't suddenly become an anxious mess…"

Virgil gave Patton a deadpan stare, not quite glaring but clearly not happy about what Patton just said either.

"Oh, sorry Virgil!" he apologized quickly. "I just mean that, if anything, listening to Virgil and his input actually made Thomas less anxious. Maybe that will happen with Janus, too?"

"Indeed. It's quite likely that Janus is so antagonistic in the first place because he wants attention, and giving him that attention may very well decrease the antagonism," Logan agreed. "And he does represent more than just lying, so his input will likely be beneficial so long as he doesn't overdo it with the falsehoods."

Roman crossed his arms and huffed, annoyed, as he flopped onto the couch. Logan sighed, letting just a slight bit of his own frustration with the conversation show.

"And what about you, Virgil? You have been rather quiet this whole time, yet you seem to be against including Deceit in our discussions," Logan directed toward the other side as he shifted his glasses.

Virgil mentally cursed that the focus had shifted to him now. He hated all of this, and he just didn't want to think about it. Granted, Anxiety couldn't ever really just 'not think about' something, but if he had to think about it, he would like to pretend he wasn't thinking about it, at least.

He leaned back into the couch and threw his head back to look at the ceiling.

"I don't know," he responded testily.

"You don't know what, Virgil?"

Virgil remained quiet for a moment, trying to decide whether he should actually respond or try to sink into his room. The others were waiting for his answer, though, and if he didn't provide it, they would surely get on his case about it later.

"I don't know what to think about this situation!" he exclaimed finally, throwing his arms outward. "I"m not exactly the most unbiased side here… It's like… I do get what he said, and I know how it feels to not be listened to. You guys know that… But I just can't deal with him."

"So, you are saying that your emotions are unduly influencing your judgment?"

Virgil shrugged moodily.

"I don't know," he answered with a huff. "Our fall-out was about Thomas's well-being, but there was a lot of other stuff said in that argument."

"Well, then talking it out will probably help with that, too!" Patton chimed in, his dad-mode conflict-resolution skills finally kicking in. "If you two are fighting over things you said, then maybe it'll help to say other things!"

Virgil shifted his head to look back at Patton.

"I don't know, Dad. Our fight was years ago at this point, and some of the things we said…," Virgil trailed off. "Look, I just don't know if it'll do any good. It might just be too late, you know…?"

"It's not too late!" Patton disagreed. "It's never too late!"

Virgil resisted the sudden urge to sing the next line of the song that Patton probably didn't even realize he had quoted. Now wasn't exactly the time. Still… maybe Patton was right. It wasn't like Virgil liked feeling this conflicted, and if he was being honest, there was a part of him that missed Janus, missed his friend. Maybe it would take some time, but maybe it would work out.

Somewhat surprising himself with his now oddly-optimistic thoughts, Virgil came to a decision. If he had hope like this, maybe he missed Janus even more than he realized- enough to overrule his anxiety about the whole thing.

"Alright. Fine. We should talk to Janus," he agreed.

"What?!" Roman exclaimed. "You too?!"

"Come on Roman… Why not give it a try?" Patton soothed. "You like when he compliments you, remember? So, you know he's not all bad, right?"

Logan had great difficulty in not correcting Patton about how the compliments had been lies, but he knew that pointing that out would set the conversation back, and he didn't want to waste any more time on this back-and-forth arguing. Roman was quiet for a while, tapping his foot and looking around the room as if it would give him the answer he wanted.

"Oh, alright!" Roman gave in. "But I will not tolerate any evil schemes!"

Patton smiled.

XXX

I decided to break this discussion and the one with Deceit into two parts, so sorry that this one's a bit short lol.