AN//: Currently still on a trip. We literally spent the whole day in Mangrove mud, mosquitoes, rain and algae. All my classmates are drinking and smoking weed in the room next door and I'm stuck in here alone. I don't smoke, good thing too, idk, it may kill me or smth cause y'know, asthma and I don't drink either. We don't leave this patch of dirt until Monday afternoon, and tomorrow is more trekking through slop... None of this bothers me much except for the fact that I got five tests back to back when I get back. Freaking halp.

__

Patton stood aside and watched, as the tornado that was Roman, tore through the room. The Prince was grabbing, opening and then throwing, scrolls and folders behind him left and right.

The two were currently in Roman's room, apparently searching for a paper file about Ex-Steward, Ericson's machine.

"I swear I brought it back!...or I think I did?! I don't-"

"Roman, when did you last have the file?"

"Before the trial, on Wednesday, it was written up for me-"

"Ok,well if you can't find it, why don't you ask the person who typed it up for you? They should have an original document right?"

The Royal pauses pensively.

"I mean...I guess I could just call- wait, wait that's it! He has all of it! The dreams, the schemes, everything!"

"What?"

Roman shakes his head, pulling out his phone and looking up the contact.

"You'll see"

----

"Ok so, hear me out here you guys, what if the new Sander Sides...is a debate?!"

"A debate? Really Joan? What are they going to debate about exactly? Can three people even debate about something? It can't be a two on one right? Wait...Thomas is the judge isn't he?"

Joan broke into a wider grin, glad their Datemate was catching on.

Talyn on the other had simply shook their head, though it was obvious that they were amused.

Thomas, blinked, "Ok, so a debate, I'm the judge and these two-", he points at Logic and Anxiety, "are the debaters. What are they debating about?"

"Good Question"

"Joan!" The incredulous and simultaneous shout came from everybody else in the room.

"Hey! I don't see you guys coming up with anything! I just though debate cause, Logan's a nerd and debates are low energy and less movement-"

"Rude", huffs Logic affronted.

Anxiety snorts, chuckling softly but Logan gave him a side eye and he shut up.

"*ehem*, But really Joan, we need something to debate on, we can't just go in there and not have a topic, or worse have a random topic and nothing makes sense, all the Veiwers would hate that and-"

Talyn cut them off.

"Woah, Anxiety, breath man. Over thinking things a bit are we?-"

"Kinda the definition of Anxiety Tal, over thinking negative things-"

"That's it!" Exclaims Joan, " Negative thinking! You can debate the ways Anxiety makes negative thoughts worse"

"Ok", starts Logan, "let's say we go with this idea, how exactly are we supposed to portray a debate while stimulating a so-so level of negative thinking and it's counteractive measures?"

"By using Thomas' everyday situations and then have Anxiety finding the negatives of the day while you counter it-"

"Oh great,''deadpans, Anxiety, " so I'm the bad guy as usual, good to know-"

"Well- wait hold on, I got a call, I need to take this", they walk to the kitchen keeping their back turned as they spoke quietly on the phone.

Logic, Talyn and Anxiety look at Joan and then to Thomas who just shrugs.

"Ok", starts Joan upon their return, a shit-eating smile a mile wide on their face, " so a friend called and they asked if I would want to help with cleaning a theater. I have the perfect idea for how the debate should be set up and we can do it right there...after we clean... but still!"

Thomas bites his lip, something seems not too right about the way Anxiety was behaving-

Speaking of.

"Well, we really don't have any other ideas, so why the hell not?"

The emo leaves his staircase and just like that everyone's pooling into Joan's car...and if double checks Thomas' seat belt while in there, no one says a thing.

----

Serenity wakes up to an odd muffled sound.

Not really registering, she looks around blearily, it takes a second but her lips curve softly as she notices Patience and Remy sleeping soundly.

Patience, as if sensing she was being watched, opened an eye, locking directly with Serenity's.

"Hey", she smiles fondly, her voice sleep heavy.

"Hey yourself"

Tency rolls her eyes, about to say something but yawn escaped instead- she shifts a little to stretch-

"...mnff..."

Patience pauses, leaning a little to get a better look at Remy's face.

Serenity quirks an eyebrow

"He ok?"

"Mhm, still out... annd, he's drooling", she deadpans.

Ser chuckles, "Isn't that your favorite blouse?"

"Yeah", sighs Tency, "but...it's fine-", she runs her fingers gently through Sleep's hair, smiling softly as he leans to the touch. "He needs the sleep anyway"

"Think he'll wake up in time for lunch?"

"Lunch? Please, he's out cold, bet he ain't gonna get up until tomorrow's breakfast"

As if hearing them, Remy grumbles something in his sleep. Huffing slightly as he turns his head to the side, still lying comfortably on Patience's chest.

The girls blink.

And then burst into giggles.

Trying her best not to further disrupt him, Tency slowly slips from under Remy, while Ser is quick to place pillows for him in replacement. One in front of him and two for weight at his back.

With that mission complete, the girls start to head out, leaving Sleep to snuggle his pillow in peace-

But before they can actually leave, the familiar hiss of Dream Sand stops them.

The Sand had crawled up the bed in a golden stream, gently gliding over to its sleeping Master and covering him up to his neck- it glistened for a second before turning into the very familiar shape of a black leather jacket. His shades had somehow appeared on the top of his head too. As for the rest of the Sand, it formed into the handbag and stationed itself at his hip.

"Looks like our Sandman's back in business Ser"

"Looks like- oh"

A stream of Sand slid up towards them and reveals a phone that it has, the muffled sound of its ringing was what Serenity realizes, as the thing that woke her.

She's quick to lay her palm out and let the Sand place the device in her hand.

Roman was calling.

----

The theater cleanup was rather quick and uneventful.

But it was apparently enough for Joan to get an idea to darken the background with a black curtain and turn all the lights off except the upper one for the scene of the debate.

"Not knowing what to do and really winging everything, Thomas get up to his assigned area and addresses his non-existent audience, unaware that a sneaky Talyn had already been filming.

"Good afternoon from the Sanders mind Palace Center, I am Thomas Sanders; your supplier of semi-humorous Tumblr posts at three in the morning-~" Thomas cuts himself off laughing, Joan is cackling somewhere in the background and even Anxiety manages a few chuckles.

"Keep going Thomas, were keeping that line!"

"Still giggling, the Manifestor steps up again and begins. "This debate is sponsored by the National Essential Reasoning Department or NERD-"

"Uh, Or-or we do not have to abbreviate it-" calls Logan from his area, already jumping into the improv scene.

Thomas still rolling, continues, " and the Public humiliation Foundation-"

"I'm a monthly donor", smirks Anxiety and the gang collectively loses it.

----

"Good morning your highness, its Ser"

/"Oh, well good morning to you as well Serenity, can I please speak to-"/

Tency jumps in and places the phone on speaker, not really liking the prospect of possibly having to wake Remy.

"Good Mornin' Prince Roman-"

/"Ah, hello Patience-"/

"If you're looking for Remy, that's a no-go, boss's out cold. He's still recovering and I'm not up for waking him"

/"Oh...ok, completely understandable. I'll come check on him a bit later, let him get his rest. Can you girls do me a favor?"/

"Sure", they chime.

/"I need records from when the Ex-Steward Ericsson had made his Machine and where its located. I'm also gonna need a track record of all the dreams Thomas has had since then and up until yesterday. Think you two can handle it?"/

"That's a tall order, but we'll manage"

/"Ok good, I'm heading down to Civics records get the blue-prints for this thing, I'll come up to help you guys when I'm done, four heads are better than two after all-"/

"Yeah, sure, wait...four?"

/"Oh! Yes, my Prominent, Morality, is with me. I just realized that no one in the Dream Tower has met him yet-"/

"Nope, nor have we met the others-"

/"Well then, were definitely changing that soon, I'll see you guys in a bit"/

"Alright, we'll see what we can find!"

----

Roman hangs up, a giddy smile on his face.

"So, Padre, what say you to meeting a few of my friends?"

The Prince's excitement was obviously contagious and the Fatherly Persona finds himself with a smile as big as the Royal's. Chuckling softly Patton shrugs, "well, it's always nice to meet new faces and even better if you can make them smile, right?"

"But of course! Now then, if you haven't met the Dream Tower crew, then certainly others haven't either. I'm thinking, we should have a day where we can all meet up here in my Kingdom and I can show you guys around, there's plenty of new faces for you to see and I'm pretty sure Anxiety has never set foot in my side of the Kingdom before-"

"That's a great idea Roman! A tour around sounds fun and...wait Anxiety has never been here?"

"Well... no, as a matter of fact, all anyone here knows about him is that he's the youngest. No one but us Personalities knows his face. I mean, have you ever seen him leave his room for anything when he's not with us or Thomas?"

The Prominent personality frowned, "huh, come to think of it, I don't think that he has bud, not since his room popped in our section of the mindscape...by the way, how did he come up to our side if he was with-"

"Remus and I have a 'truce zone' it's like a really long hallway that connects from My side to the Dream Tower and the Dream Tower to His; and from there the commons which connects to Thomas"

Pat quirked a brow, his head tilting slightly to the left as he pondered the information he was given, "but if he walked that long hallway, wouldn't he have seen at least some of your castle and Kingdom?"

"Oh, right! But, no, he wouldn't have. See, that hall thing was really long and we were really lazy, so on our ends we have a door that leads from our rooms to our respective sections, which already connects to the Dream Tower but also connects to each other's sections-"

"Um...-"

"Basically if Anxiety went through that door in my brother's room he could appear in our common area and vice versa if you went through that door in my room, you would end up over there"

Patton grew quiet, brows pinched together in thought.

How did Anxiety's room get to their Side?

The door had appeared out of nowhere.

Pitch black with nothing but a simple silver handle and a silent but cold under draft flowing from it.

He had stared at it, confused and extremely wary for some reason. All the hair at the back of his neck stood up-

BANG!

A black blur ran from out the door and into the wall.

It fell with a 'THUD!'

Patton jumped.

It took him a second to realize that that black blur was in fact not a blur but a person... a new personality.

Slowly the Prominent made his way to the figure curled up and shaking on the floor.

"Hey, you ok? That looked liked hurt"

Even though he had whispered it, the new personality still jumped. The hoodie they were wearing covered all of their features but when startled the hood fell back and revealed the other's face.

They were young, very young, younger than Roman. They looked tired and scared and pale...and they were crying.

Patton's heart broke. He knelt next to the newcomer, but did not reach out to touch, afraid they'd run off.

"Hey, it's ok, if you're hurt I can help! My name's Patton, I'm the Prominent, what's your name?"

The other said nothing.

Still looking at Patton like a terrified fawn in headlights.

And then...

"...my name's Virgil..."

Patton beamed.

"It's nice to meet you Virgil, are you hurt?"

Virgil shook his head, "m'not hurt...lost...I shouldn't be here...my room, it just moved..."

He cut himself off with a ragged gasp and ducked his head between his arms, with his knees drawn up that way it made him look smaller. To make it worse, his body began to shake.

"Deep breaths Virgil, can you follow mine? In and out. Innn, now outt, good! Good! You're doing good! That's it, Innn, and breathe out. There ya go, you're ok"

"...thanks..."

"It's no biggie Kiddo, just take it easy alright?"

"...I'll try..."

"Good enough sport, though I do have to ask, what do you represent Virgil? I'm Morality and you are?"

"I...i'm...", Virgil shakes his head, face still a blotchy red, "call me Anxiety...um...please?"

"Anxiety it is then! And for what it's worth, I don't think you're lost, your room popped up but maybe it's for a good reason? Where was it before?-"

Before Anxiety could answer, his stomach grumbled, noisily.

The new Personality blushed bright.

Morality laughed, holding a hand out for the other. "Oh dear! Well how bout' we get some food in you before we get to big questions, hmm?"

Virgil grabbed it and allowed himself to be helped up.

"Um, yeah, sure Patton"

"Patton. Patton!"

The Prominent personality snapped back into reality- Roman was waving a hand in front of his face.

"What's got you so lost in thought Pat?"

"Oh! I was thinking that I've only ever seen that Gold door that leads to your castle, I've never seen the door that goes to the Dream Tower. I didn't even know there were Figments and Emotions living in there! I thought the tower was just cogs and Dream Machinery"

"Lots of things have changed since you last been in here Pat, which is why I think the tour would be a great idea. Oh and the door to the Tower? It's a White one, I can change the door to my palace to the Tower door at will and so can Remus. Same rule applies for the commons"

"Ohh, that makes sense, what color is the Commons door then?"

"That's the thing, I don't know what color Remus has it as but since I can just walk down the stairs from my room, I don't have a door for the commons? But I have for my brother's side, it's green, I walk through that and i'm in their common area, not that i;ve ever gone through it, who knows what disturbing things are over there?"

"Hmm, I wonder if his door for our commons is red. It would be nice to see you two still having some similarities-"

"I'm gonna stop you there Pops, our similarities don't go far and neither is this train of thought, it's gonna derail into some not so pretty images. You know the way Remus thinks, and it upsets you, remember?"

Patton winces, "right, let's just move on then shall we? You said something about civics?"

"Yep! It's a room where we have pretty much all our copies for our building designs, the contractors and architects and whatnot have their own but we keep spares in case of updates or if buildings get destroyed. It also lets us keep count of how many times a particular building was damaged as well"

"Oh, that's a pretty neat system!"

"I know right? It also includes inventions, so I'm checking for that Ex-Steward, Ericsson's infernal machine, for some reason, I've forgotten where it was placed. It's like that one detail it completely vanished out of my mind"

"Well that does happen when you're sleep deprived Roman, and we've been there for quite a bit these past few days"

"You're telling me, it was just one thing to the next and now we gotta find this machine-"

"You, know Roman, you never told me what this machine does, or who this Ericsson guy was, but I can take a guess that since he's now an "Ex-Steward", he was the one on trial?"

"Yes?" motioned Roman incredulously, " wait...I didn't tell you?!"

"Nope, we were kinda busy with Anxiety at that time remember? I don't even know what that trial was about-"

"Ohh, boy, well have I got a story for you then"

"Do tell"

------

Having most of the lines being improv'ed and the facts quickly google search the actual script writing was going slowly. Talyn kept filming while Thomas and his Sides practically goofed off and came up with occasional good lines.

One such moment was after a long winded explanation from Logan.

"...and for some unknown reason the conversation ended, does this individual dislike you? That's TBD-"

Only to be cut off by Anxiety, "Totally Believable Dude"

Thomas choked, laughing at the unexpected phrase and the Youngest personality's smug smirk was not helping at all.

"Wow, someone's catty today", teases Talyn.

"Yeah man", Joins Joan, "You gon' hiss for us, emo kitty?"

Anxiety rolls his eyes, but says nothing.

....

It's Logan's turn again in their debate.

Of course this was after a series of interrupting each other for the sake of comedic effect and because Joan wanted to see what a disorganised debate would look like.

"Aww, what's the matter Anxiety? Are you worried that you're silver tongue will land you in second place?"

"*HISS*"

Talyn nearly dropped the camera, Joan lay wheezing somewhere and Thomas had his head in his hand.

As smug as ever Anxiety shrugged. "Hey, you asked"

----

Filming took all day, but was finished in that day.

After the many, many...many, improv sessions, they left the theater and worked from the top with the script Joan had created on the fly. The Scenes shot in the theater would simply be edited and arranged in an order the beanie-lover had deemed appropriate.

Unfortunately for them, Ro and Pat rise up in time for the end credits, they didn't know the cameras were rolling.

"I'm back! Did you miss me?" calls Roman as he does his go to 'fanciful pose'

On the spot Logan counter with, "Your mom misses you!"

Absolutely surprised, the Prince can't help but burst into laughter.

Joan calls to keep that scene in.

Roman, who of course, doesn't want to miss out on an improv scene, turns to Anxiety.

"What did you do to him?"

The Emo in question tries his best not to laugh, just barely managing a scoff instead.

Patton jumps to see if he could get Logan to laugh as well. "Logic!" he admonishes in his best faux serious voice, "now, where did you learn such childish humor?"

He shakes his head for good measure and tuts at the Teacher and that's it, they're gone, the room is flooded with laughter.

A sound they're all thankful for after these past few days.

-----

Joan and Talyn decide to start early and edit the video while all but forcing Thomas to get some rest.

The Sides, seeing as their work is done, all sink down and the next morning after breakfast, Roman proposes an important trip to his kingdom.

------

AN//: I'm tired!!!!! Lol, so i'm legit stealing wifi so if this uploaded late, blame the net.

I got absolutely devoured by mosquitoes today, and currently am being eaten as i type, yay... this island does not like me you guys, it doesn't. But that's a story for when mosquitoes arent eating me, maybe next update? If yall wanna hear the story of my Marine Bio field trips. I got one more trip left for first semester and that leaves the 15th of Nov XP

Anyway, Big thanks to Blu, who was awesome and helped cheer me up in the most unconventional way, "u da realess fam lol"

Shout out to Maya for being an inspiration and that one person that i can go an yell out my fangirl soul with lol.

To David for always being there with lots of love and support. It means a lot bro!

Comment of the Week:

DavidtheTraveler

"Aww, poor Remy, and poor Thomas. I know it's important to make sure there's no real lasting damage, but still...

And come on, Thomas, you interrupted! They were just about to have the heart to heart talk they really needed. But at least you're keeping yourself busy.

And it's too bad that Roman and Patton won't be able to help with the script, but considering the fact that we know what script they're about to make, I can't say it's a total loss.

I'm still worried, though. Thomas is clearly not out of the woods yet with the complications from his treatment. Considering what you've mentioned previously, I'm still very worried. Please, just please, take care of my boys.

In any case, that trip sounded pretty fun (except for the jellyfish, the mosquitos, the excess of sun, etc.), and I'm glad you had a good time. But please do try to get some decent sleep this week, Z. You need your rest more than we need the chapter. So please, get your sleep. Take care of yourself. Don't make me sic Blue on you.

But seriously though, love you and wish you the best."

Remy got to sleep, Thomas and Friends got to laugh, no one was hurt. I took care of the boys...this time...;)

Anyway, I gotta get up early tomorrow, so for I'mma go for a morning swim at like 5am, cause like why not right?

Lol see ya in the comments section you guys!