XXX Chapter 2: The Disappearance
Okay, so here's the next chapter. I'm not going to update every day (I update when I feel like it, and I don't always feel like doing the editing every day before I post), but I wanted to post the next chapter today because the last chapter ended on a literal cliffhanger.
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Remus wasn't usually one to keep very good track of the time. He pretty much did whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. After all, why did it really matter if he painted the walls at 3 in the afternoon or 3 in the morning? They had lights, so it wasn't like he had to depend on the sun to see what he was doing. And even if he did, he could just make it daytime in their side of the mindscape, assuming he wouldn't just decide to do whatever he was up to in the dark. It really didn't matter to him.
The point, however, was that time is a construct, and Remus saw little point in keeping close track of it.
Janus, however, was usually a stickler for keeping things on schedule. Usually, at least. Or perhaps 'used to be' would be more accurate. Ever since the court fiasco, followed by the wedding, things had been different in the mindscape, and different with Janus. All the sides were moping more than usual, and all of them were spending more time alone in their rooms than before. Logan was forcing himself to be more robotic than ever, Virgil was angsting up a storm, Patton was desperately trying to scotch tape everything together, and Roman was switching between insecurity, guilt, and a faked pridefulness to overcompensate for the former. Remus himself wasn't exactly happy about what happened, but he wasn't falling apart like the others. Weddings are stupid, and the callback was for some boring role that Remus wouldn't have been allowed to help with anyway, so things weren't too different for him. It was just a little bit suckier than usual.
As far as Remus could tell, though, Janus was probably the one who was the most affected by what happened. The others were sad, upset, guilty, and angry, but Janus just… shut down. He stopped doing anything, not even leaving his room for a few weeks (or at least, long enough that Remus could tell it had been weeks, even with his lack of time-keeping). Remus knew that Janus wasn't doing his job properly, and he suspected that the deceitful side wasn't doing it at all. He didn't think Janus was eating or anything, either, so it was a good thing that they were all imaginary, or else Janus probably would have starved.
And then, seemingly suddenly, Janus started leaving his room again, and Remus could tell that he was trying to pretend that everything had gone back to normal. He tried to pretend, because he was Deceit, and pretending was what he did, but the fact that he had been doing such a poor job of it was probably more distressing than the signs themselves.
Janus tried to hide it, but even though he was wearing his usual outfit, the fabric was crinkled and creased in a way that the man had never allowed before. Remus suspected that Janus hadn't been bothering with changing his clothes that often and had been sleeping in them. Either that or he was putting dirty clothes back on. He also had dark bags under his eyes, and a sunkenness in one cheek that was mirrored by dull scales on the other. It gave him a sickly appearance, one that made terrible thoughts fill Remus's brain. On top of that, his movements were slow, and he would sometimes pause and seem to just stare off into nothingness for a long time, usually only coming back to himself once Remus caught his attention.
Remus would have to have been pretty oblivious not to notice that something was wrong. And maybe he got lost in his own thoughts sometimes, but he'd have to be ignoring Janus entirely not to notice. And as the man's best (only) friend, he most certainly took note of the changes.
But what was he supposed to do? Janus brushed him off every time he tried to say anything about it, and if he pushed too much, Janus would yell and storm off, and he wouldn't see him again for another day or two (which always made Remus's heart beat with a squeezing anxiousness until he emerged, not knowing how long Janus would be locked away for this time). So, in the end, Remus figured that Janus might just need some more time to recover from what happened. After all, the others were recovering (?), and Janus was already a lot better than he had been a few weeks ago. At least he was leaving his room and occasionally eating. So, surely, Janus just needed a little extra time, and eventually, he'd be back to his old snakey self.
That's what Remus had been thinking for a long time now, and even though Janus didn't seem to be getting much better anymore, Remus was still hopeful that it just hadn't been long enough yet. The stagnation would be temporary. Janus would continue getting better at some point, and before long, he'd be okay again. He would (he had to).
There was, however, an increasingly concerning nagging feeling in his chest, and it just wasn't in Remus's nature to ignore such things for very long. So, Remus paused the construction of a new creature as that nagging feeling reared its head again.
When was the last time he had seen Janus?
He knew he'd been working for at least a day at this point, based on how many times he'd gotten hungry. But he hadn't seen Janus for a while before that either, had he? The last time he saw the man, Janus had been pouring himself a glass of wine (and taking the bottle with him as he went back to his room). When was that? Yesterday? The day before? Last week? He'd spent quite a long time in the Imagination after that, but he wasn't sure how long.
Abandoning the half-formed monster in front of him, Remus wandered out into the hall and into the Dark Side's kitchen. There was still a calendar on the fridge, but as Remus went to check the date, he quickly realized that it hadn't even been switched to the correct month.
"Huh."
Of course, the calendar was more for Janus than anyone else, and the man had always been the one to change the pages. But, with things as they had been lately, perhaps Remus should have expected that the calendar likely hadn't been high on Janus's list of priorities.
So, how long had it been since he'd seen Janus? Probably a few days, at least, and that… that wasn't good, now was it?
His frown deepening, Remus spun around and left the kitchen before speed-walking down the halls. It didn't take long for him to reach his destination: Janus's bedroom.
Standing in front of the golden yellow door, Remus felt the nagging feeling grow stronger again. There wasn't anything different about it- same painted wood, same frame, same sculpted door knob, everything looked the same- and yet, he could already tell that something was off.
The door was closed, but even though Remus would typically try to break the door open (almost always unsuccessfully, since Janus could control who could sink/break into his room while he was in it), he raised a fist and knocked normally this time.
No answer.
A second knock resulted in no more of a response, and sure, Janus didn't always (or ever) respond when he knocked nowadays, but Remus just knew that something was off. A thousand different scenarios flew through his head- Janus sick, bloody, torn apart, dead eyes staring into nothing forever, cold flesh turning stiff and rotting off the bones, leaving nothing but a skeleton behind that slowly crumbles away to dust, the dust getting blown away with every breeze until there's nothing left and nothing, nothing, nothing-
And then Remus grabbed the doorknob and twisted it open, overestimating the force needed because the door was, surprisingly, unlocked. The door swung open, and behind it…
Nothing.
Janus wasn't there.
His bed looked slept in, but Janus wasn't in it, nor was he at his desk or anywhere else.
He wasn't there.
So, where was he?
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Roman was startled awake by his bedroom door slamming open, the knob crashing into the wall hard enough that he would probably have a dent to fix later.
"What the fuck are you doing?"
"Hey, uh, Roman's still asleep, Kiddo!"
"I CAN'T FIND HIM!"
He jolted upright in his bed, almost falling out of it, and found his brother rapidly approaching him, a terrifying expression on his face.
"Remus, if you calm down-"
"I CAN'T FIND HIM!"
"Huh?" Roman let out, not knowing what was going on.
In that moment, Remus looked like he was going to murder him, and he didn't even know why. Not that Remus ever really needed a reason to be violent, but he didn't usually look like this in violent situations- no, violence amused him, but right now, he looked livid (or was he actually afraid for once?). And Roman was the one in his line of sight. So, without making it too obvious, the princely side trained his eyes onto his sword, still resting beside his bed, only slightly out of reach. He could grab it in a split second if he needed to.
Then, Roman shot his gaze over to the door and saw the other three standing there, With Virgil looking like he was about to storm into the room himself and Patton trying to hold him back. Logan looked like he wanted to say something, but he was standing behind the others and was more or less being ignored.
Roman still didn't know what was going on. He'd been asleep, and now his brother was suddenly in his room and screaming and everyone else was agitated. His best guess was that Remus charged into their half of the mindscape for some reason, but that reason still eluded him. Hopefully it wasn't related to some random, grotesque idea or something.
Remus let out a loud growl before repeating himself yet again, clearly noticing Roman's lack of understanding.
"I said I can't find him!" Remus huffed, exasperation combining with the murderous expression he already wore.
At this, Roman rolled his eyes. Remus must have lost one of his monsters again, and now he wanted to make it everyone else's problem. What were the chances that whatever it was was off destroying his hard work in the Imagination?
"Go ask Snakes and Ladders to help you find whatever beast you've lost track of this time," Roman sighed.
Really, he didn't know why he had to be woken up for something like this in the first place. If Remus really wanted to, he could just summon the creature back to him, and the problem would be solved almost instantly. Had Remus just felt like annoying them?
As soon as Roman spoke, however, Remus's face twisted into a rage that made his previous expression seem gentle in comparison.
"ARE YOU A FUCKING IDIOT?!" Remus screamed. "THIS ISN'T ABOUT A RANDOM FUCKING MONSTER! I CAN'T FIND DECEIT!"
He saw Virgil roll his eyes, the man having stopped struggling against Patton.
"Dude, he's probably just off doing whatever sketchy bullshit he always does," Virgil told him, crossing his arms. "He'll pop back up at some point. Hell, he might just be in his room."
At this, Remus spun around to direct his wrath at the anxious side, who was clearly scared but putting on a face of bravery (combined with annoyance).
"Don't you think I checked his room, Emo?" Remus spat. "I'm not a fucking idiot! He wasn't there! I checked the entire Dark Side- not there! I checked my side of the Imagination- not there! And I checked here, and I don't know if you noticed, but he's not here either! I even popped into the real world for a bit to check just in case Thomas actually summoned him, and nope! So, guess where the only other fucking place he could be is?"
It was obvious that Remus was referring to Roman's side of the Imagination. What was less obvious, however, was why Remus was suddenly so concerned about Deceit's whereabouts. This was Deceit they were talking about. It's not like a walk in the Imagination, especially Roman's side, would be a reason to flip out like this. Granted, Roman wasn't exactly happy about the liar slithering around in his domain, but there wasn't really a justification for Remus to be acting like this over it.
Now that most of Remus's attention was on the sides standing in the doorway, Roman took the opportunity to stand and grab the hilt of his sword, getting prepared in case things went south. But he didn't lift it yet, knowing that there was every chance the situation would prematurely escalate if he did.
"Is… something wrong here, Kiddo?" Patton spoke up, his voice shaky and awkward but concerned. "I mean, Deceit can take care of himself, and there shouldn't be anything too dangerous in Roman's side of the Imagination."
"Yeah, I'd be more worried about your side," Virgil mumbled.
In voicing Roman's own thoughts, the two of them pointed out what should have been obvious. And yet, Remus appeared to disagree. In fact, he could see Remus's jaw move as he gritted his teeth.
"I haven't seen Deceit in at least a few days, and I mean, he's been locking himself in his room lately, but he started coming back out again, so I should have seen him at some point. But I haven't!" Remus explained, his voice being forced into a state of false calm. "So I went to his room, and he isn't there, and he isn't anywhere else! So the last place to look is the other half of the Imagination, but that half is too fucking big for me to look everywhere without my brother's help!"
Roman did have to admit, within his own mind, at least, that Remus was probably right about needing help to search on his side of the Imagination. The Imagination, both halves, was huge, but it was typically easy for them to find things on their own halves. It was pretty much a matter of willing the world around them to get them where they needed to go or direct them to what they needed to find. But on the other's half, things were much more difficult. If he went to search Roman's half, Remus would have little less difficulty searching for Deceit than any of the others would, barely better than searching manually.
"Why does it matter if the Snake's on my side of the Imagination or not?" Roman asked. "Not that I want him there, but I'd think you'd be glad that he's messing with my stuff."
Remus turned back to him, and now, Roman could see (recognize) the traces of distress on his face. He wasn't just angry- actually, he looked worried, which wasn't an expression that he'd seen on his brother's face in a long time.
"Oh for fuck's sake!" Remus cursed. "Something's wrong! I don't know what, but Deceit's been acting fucking weird for weeks, and now he fucking disappeared! And I don't- I don't know what's going on, but it's something!"
It was becoming increasingly obvious that Remus was, for once, being completely serious about something. And that, honestly, was a lot more worrying than 'Deceit's been moping and now I don't know his exact location.'
"Remus, when was the last time you saw him?" Logan finally questioned, his voice collected.
"I don't know- a few days? Maybe?" the man replied, roughly tugging his own hair.
"Wait, you don't even know?" Virgil asked.
"You know I don't really keep track of time, Virgil!" Remus exclaimed. "But it's been at least a few days since I last saw him, and I have a bad feeling!"
"A 'bad feeling'?"
"You know what I mean Anxiety!"
Roman sighed. Why couldn't he have just been allowed to sleep?
"Oh, for Pete's sake- if I help you find the snake, will you leave us alone?" Roman offered, cutting off the argument with Virgil before it could go any farther.
Surprisingly, Remus paused for a second, his shoulders dropping just the tiniest bit (in relief?), and he rapidly nodded his head.
"Alright, fine then. Give me a second to get dressed," Roman sighed, snapping his fingers to change his clothes into his adventuring outfit. "Let's just get this over with."
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I… think this is also a cliffhanger? Oops.
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