AN: Hey guys! Currently on the trip and heading back home as I type! Thank goodness, because I don't think I can donate any more blood to the mosquitoes lmao. It's a 4 hour boat ride and a 2hr bus ride back so I'm writing the chapter on the way~

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"So that's what happened. Ericsson was tried, judged and is now a maid under the head of domestic, Ms. Grigori Tilda, and he's-" Roman cuts himself off, leaning away from Patton to cough. His throat was suddenly beyond dry and it burned as if he swallowed dirt...or a pike. Clearing his throat, he does his best to swallow around the burning, rubbing his neck as he did so. "...ehem-sorry, bout that Pat, my throat felt weird all of a sudden, probably the dust, just ignore that, where were we?"

The Prominent Personality shook his head, "it's fine Roman, things just happen, I know the feeling"

The Prince shrugs, returning to his objective in finding the blue-prints, unknowingly missing the way Patton winced and presses a hand to the center of his chest.

It takes them quite a while but the moment they find the sought scroll-

Roman's phone rang.

"Hello?....What?!...wait, how is that possible?...No, I know Thomas was having dreams this past week-... um, no?...er right...think you can manage to find them by tomorrow?...of course...no, let him rest...yes, it makes no sense to wake him, when he could probably find it in seconds tomorrow...Exactly, knowing him he won't go back to sleep afterwards, he'll just head straight for the gate...right...right...ok, call me if you find anything else...alright, thank you ladies!"

The Royal frowns, his brows pinched together.

Patton queries the expression but Roman shakes his head.

"It's fine Pat, the girls are just having a hard time finding what I was asking for, I should get it by tomorrow anyway, so it's no big deal. Besides we've already got one thing, what's a couple hours to get the rest?"

"Oh, ok, if you say so Roman-"

"Mm, how bout we head back and check to see how our Host and friends are holding up with just those two?"

"Sure, I'm kinda interested to see what Joan came up with-"

"Then off we go!"

...

"I'm back! Did you miss me?!"

"Your Mom misses you!"

The Prince burst out laughing, not expecting that from Logan of all Sides. "Ohh, my God!"

With a faux serious voice, ready for improv, he turns to Anxiety, who was trying really hard not to laugh. "What did you do to him?"

He gets a barely hidden scoff from the Emo instead, but Roman counts it as a win.

It's not 'till Patton jumps in and pretend to scold Logan that it's all over, "now, where did you learn such childish humor?"

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

Anxiety and Logic got to leave a bit earlier, they sunk down while the Primary and Tertiary Personalities stayed behind for a bit to do one or two voice lines as per request by Joan. After that, they sunk down as well, leaving the editing to the Date-mates and their Host to get a well deserved nap.

----

When Anxiety sank down, he went straight into his room. Not an unusual occurrence but the moment he left the vicinity of his Host, his entire form felt overwhelmed.

The youngest Personality fell flat on his behind and hardly registered it. The room was spinning and his mind was racing with thoughts he couldn't possibly hope to grasp.

Everything bombarded him at once.

The dream.

They all died.

Thomas was in the hospital.

Now they were here, making a video as if nothing happened.

Nothing happened.

Nothing happened.

Nothing Happened.

Everyone was ok.

Thomas was fine...tired but fine.

Then why did everything feel like the world was ending?

...plip...plip...

Two black dots...black as ink splashed and joined onto the floor.

His heart lurched and adrenaline white heat shot up his spine...there was no way-

...plip...plip...

Oh.

His eye liner was running.

He placed a hand to his face, feeling the black slippery liquid ...yeah, that's what it was.

Anxiety honestly didn't know when he had even started to cry, he didn't realize, but more tears kept silently falling. His chest ached and it was hard to breathe, as if his ribs were breaking apart and his lungs were being torn with them.

He was fine, happy even just moments ago.

His Host was safe.

His counterparts were safe and alive.

He didn't understand, was it...a late reaction?

Feeling sick but not enough to do anything about it, he rose up from his pathetic position on the floor, using the door to brace himself; he pushed himself towards the bathroom, still not making a sound.

The Emo numbly moved to the sink where he only wet his face, simply cupping the water from the faucet and splashing it on. He didn't bother rubbing the stuff properly of his face, he couldn't muster the energy. After watching most of the black liquid run down the drain he dragged himself towards his bed. His vision was getting hazy around the edges.

He moved slowly; zombie-like, holding his body that was now firing off all kinds of neural-warnings, nerves jittering as if it would be ripped apart. Shaking he crawled into bed, not knowing if he had fallen asleep or simply passed out.

-----

Logic sank down straight into his room.

The moment he left the vicinity of his Host, his entire Mind felt overwhelmed.

He grasps the center of his forehead, where the pain unfurls and he's hit with a major migraine that sends him to his knees.

The Secondary Personality pants, eyes squeezing shut as he tries his best to center himself.

He doesn't know why he's experiencing such pain.

All he knows is that he wants it to stop.

Taking deep breaths, he forces his eyes open and pulls himself to his feet.

He exhales through his nose and un-clenches his jaw.

He's had migraines before, just ... not of this magnitude.

His phone beeps making it worse. He checks it anyway.

Various emails from his students and the most recent, one from the Principal...right, he collapsed in class didn't he?

Sighing, he replied to the Principal, explaining that his Manifestor had been in an accident and that had resulted in his subsequent loss of consciousness. Logan had also asked for a week off, to ensure that his Host wasn't straining himself.

Not two minutes after the Secondary sent the email, the Principal replied back.

Logan's eyes widened. "Two weeks off? Hmm, I can work with that"

Putting phone to charge, Logic placed his glasses on his nightstand, removed his shoes and tie and crawled into bed. He threw his covers over his head instantly dropped off to sleep.

-------

Remy wakes up slowly, eyes taking their time to unstick.

His mind is thick with the fog of sleep, no real coherent thoughts passing through his head at the moment. As he just begins to actually wake up, his Dream Sand is there to greet him.

A thick tendril of a stream rises up, the brown handbag it came from, losing its form, spilling all glittering across the bed. In seconds the Sand covered-no coated the bed, looking so much like shiny silken gold. Speaking of, the rest of Sand had covered its Master up to his neck, in the form of a golden bed sheet; tucking him in proper and lightly pinning him to the bed.

Remy yawned, this was a usual occurrence. He was warm and comfortable, enough so that he could fall right back to sleep- except his stomach rumbled, painfully.

Groaning a bit he pulled his sheet back and sat up rubbing his eyes. The Sand sheet dispersed and returned into stream form where slid around and up to nuzzle against Sleep's cheek.

One would think that Dream Sand would be rough, when it wasn't in another form, and gritty on the count of it being...well sand. Now that would be the case and often is sometimes, though only when it was angry or agitated.

Dream Sand is surprisingly soft, but not in the way that a bunny is soft. It's more of that light but dull hazy yet, silky smooth watery feeling that you get as a dream slips away from your just waking memory.

Remy gently ran his fingers down the Sand stream, allowing it to curl up around his hand and arms. The Aspect smiled, it felt good to be back at 100%. He stretched, noting the way his Jacket moved seamlessly upwards with his T-shirt; it truly looked like leather.

"You know,'' he said to the Dream Sand-the Jacket really. " I was pretty worried that I'd have to remake you, wasn't much fun the first time, glad I don't have to relive that"

The Sand seemed to shrug, still content with happily flowing and winding around its Master.

Sighing a little, Remy tapped his chest where the Jacket was covering him. "Alright as much as it's fun to lay around in bed, I need a proper shower-"

The Sand squeezed him, just for a second and not to do harm but to show its displeasure.

The Aspect huffed, "I need to get up sometime y'know, besides, I'm hungry. I haven't eaten since-", he looked at his alarm clock, the date made him blink, "...yesterday...wow no wonder I feel starved.

The Sand gave a light crooning his, winding itself gently around Remy's stomach. The Sand flinched when it grumbled again.

Chuckling a bit, Remy baps the main stream of Sand, "alright tell you what, I take a shower, and make some breakfast, then we can go find the girls, hmm? See what they're up to...", he glanced at his clock again, "if they're even awake yet, jeez, it's like really early-"

The Sand crooned again, pointing at one of his pillows.

"No, I'm not going back to sleep-"

If Sand could pout, this would be the equivalent, it curled up around its Master nuzzling at his neck, making a concerned, low rumbling sound as it did so.

"I'm fine, I promise, FG's potions 'n stuff really do the trick, I'm good as new! Look, I can actually stand up"

He did, rising easily from the bed and upright in a fluid motion.

The Sand made a relenting huff like sound and squeezed him softly before dramatically "melting" off of him. Glittering gold trickling down from various sections and merged into one center point that led back to the bed; it turned back into the bag.

Rolling his eyes, Sleep headed to the bathroom and took a shower. The moment he finished and walked out fully dressed in his usual white shirt and jeans, his Sand immediately covered him, forming his Jacket, Shades and bag.

"Clingy today, aren't we?"

The Dream Sand simply squeezed him lightly in answer.

------

Roman wakes up the next day with a gasp.

He jolts up out of bed and scrambles to his phone, frantically he dials a number and calls-

Only to belatedly realize what he was doing and how early it was-

The person picks up...

The Prince clears his throat, rubbing his neck as he spoke.

"Well, good morning! I'm surprised your up and about this early! Right....well I'll need another favour...yes can you check on that for me? I want to give my counterparts a tour of the Kingdom- ah well sure, I think they'd love to meet you...Ha! In your dreams Remy!"

The Prince chuckles, shaking his head at the Aspect's insinuation. Taking a breath, he prepares himself for the day and thinks up a proper plan regarding the tour of his Kingdom, trying to forget his dream.

------

The Teacher and the Emo appear in the commons just in time to hear Roman's discussion with Patton about how he wants to introduce the crew to someone.

Of course when Creativity gets his hopes up, it's always Anxiety's job to bring said hopes back down to earth. So with an almost casual shrug, the Youngest Personality clears his throat and saunters in.

"Not to burst your bubble Princey, but I'm not exactly a fan on meeting new people"

"Yes, well, this is important, and I don't think you've met the Guardian of the Subconscious yet, have you? Atleast thank him for helping save us Thomas"

Anxiety paused for a second.

"Subconscious?...We were in...how- how didn't we reintegrate?"

"Because we weren't far enough inside to reach that area-"

"We were running around like chickens without heads, how did we not run far enough?"

"We got lucky, the portal lead us towards the gate instead of away-"

"I'm guessing this Guardian was the one who made the portal? Was he also the one with the gold-"

"Yep! Now let's go!

"Wah?! Hey wait!"

And with a snap they were pulled into Roman's Kingdom.

------

They appear before a Tower and the two left-brain sides gawk.

Paton smiles at Anxiety who's looking around in awe but tried to hide it.

Patience and Serenity come up to greet them, they introduce themselves before whispering to Roman.

"He found the record your looking for but we couldn't find the dreams, he's at the Gate"

Anxiety leans and whispers to Morality and Logic gesturing- with a head- tilt to Serenity, "She looks like Brittney Kelly"

Logan nods in agreement, gesturing as well to Patience "and she looks like Derionna-"

Patton beams, "Yep! Just like fairy Godmother looks like Quil! I wonder how many of Thomas' friends are also figments...well other than the Royals we know I mean"

Before they could theorize, the two figments tell the Sides to follow them.

They're led into the tower through a long hallway and up an elevator.

The Youngest Personality quirked a brow.

"An elevator in a castle?"

Brittney-er Serenity, places a hand to her lips failing to hide her chuckles. Derriona-Patience shakes her head with a smile. "The boss doesn't always like walking", she then shrugs, "plus it's faster"

"Fair enough"

At the very Top, the elevator stops in front of a Gold Door.

Serenity turns the knob and it opens up onto a white platform that lead them to a huge Golden Gate- actually scratch that, the white had formed stairs that melded into gold, they were on the Gate.

Anxiety tried his best not to gape. Despite not liking how high up he was, he had to admit the view was stunning. The Gate itself was nothing to sneeze at either, the whole thing reminded him of the great wall of China, just Gold and y'know stylized in gate form.

The girls lead on and the Sides followed, Anxiety trailing carefully behind.

He wasn't scared, he wasn't! Still, it was rather high up, so the Dark Personality stayed his steps in the center of the Gate's walkway, no risk of accidentally falling over that way- on instinct he turned around, only to pause and blink.

The Dream Tower was not connected to the Gate and the white platform thing that had brought them up there had disappeared...and so did the door.

A sound of distress unintentionally left his lips.

Everyone else turned to look at him and he froze, words stuck in his throat and terror slowly encroaching in his veins.

Patton moved slowly but went to stand beside his youngest counterpart, not touching but close. He turned to look at what Anxiety was possibly watching...and then it clicked.

"Um, where's the door?"

Anxiety snapped his fingers and pointed at Morality, his expression the universal gesture for 'what he said!'

"Oh!" Started Patience, but before she could speak, Roman cut in, "this is his entry way, isn't it?"

"Yeah it is-"

Anxiety at this point seemed to have regained his bearings and with it, his voice.

"...anyone want to explain?" He gestured to everything around them, " who's entry way is this and why does it involve the door up and disappearing?"

The Girls share a glance with each other.

Patience steps a bit closer to the distressed Side. "Ok so, there's two entryways to the Gate, the main one that is usually guarded, and highly populated. We figured you wouldn't want to deal with the crowds",she gave him a small an understanding smile. "usually you would just walk forward and through a hallway and you'd be at the base of the inside of the Gate and there's an elevator to the Top"

"Ok, and the other one?"

"Well it's this one, usually only about six people are allowed to us this entry way, our Boss's room is at the top of the tower so he just walks through the door we came through and boom, on the Gate, the elevator down leads to the outside of the gate.

The Youngest personality crosses his arms, expression perplexed. "What about the inside of the Gate? Is there another Elevator? How does he get back to his room if the door disappears? Wouldn't he have to go down the elevator and walk around?"

Serenity falls in step with Tency.

"Well, it's easier just to see for yourself than trying to explain it,'' she shrugs, "besides he's close, I can hear his big mouth from here"

Roman snickered.

The group moved forward and true to Ser's words, the Sides could hear a voice the closer they moved to the center of the Gate.

"Look, I have guests coming, so I expect you to be on your best behavior"

"No buts, head with your troops I want another perimeter check"

"...yes, my lord..."

"Good. Now go, and don't do anything stupid, I'm not up for taking any risks right now. Goddess knows I've had more than enough these past few days. The first sign of anything, I want to know, got it? "

"...of-of course, my lord"

The sound of metal armor clinking, faded as they got closer.

At the center of the highest point of the Gate stood a lone figure. He was wearing a leather jacket, dark shades with a brown handbag thrown across his shoulder. The most notable thing about him, however, was the large Starbucks drink in his hand.

"Sup"

____

AN:// Well I did say they were going to meet him XD. How many of you guessed Derriona and Brittney? Funny thing, I had their names in the tags since they were first introduced idk if you picked up on that.

Don't worry next chap we meet Remy for reals. Things are going to get a whole lot interesting.

Most of you noticed the angst leaking back in...heh. This is my last trip for my first semester so I'll have a lot more time to really go dark and deep with this fic. When the angst hits y'all won't be ready ;)

Can we get a round of applause for Vigilant_Insomniac Who caught on really quickly (about Anxiety's condition at least) they were very suspicious of me and their instincts served them well!

COMMENT OF THE WEEK:

By Vigilant_Insomniac

"I still don't trust that Virgil is okay

The majority of the story he is so sick that at the end it becomes life threatening.... And then he just magically better... Literally?

Jup I definitely have trust issues

(It's not like I want Virgil to suffer....... But then again, I am here for the Virgil angst lmao)

The filming made me laugh tho, I really liked the meta jokes xD"

Heh trust issues are a mood fam lol.

I will say this tho, our train has gotten bigger, lots more peeps have joined on and I'm so grateful for it! My dear silent readers, just pop in with a "hi" or something so I know your there k? It means a lot!

It's going to get a bit action-y soon, grab your swords and shields, who's up for some fast paced angst?

All coming soon!

The 2 week Sunday updates have been working super well so I'm just going to leave it like that, meaning that the next update Sunday is the 1st of December.

Stay tuned you guys and see y'all in the comment section!

EDIT: guys there's a freaking dolphins circling our boat and jumping out of water for the fun of it!

There's a baby one!!!!!

Ok. ok

we're taking videos, I'll post it on my insta (prplzorua) when I get home

See ya later y'all!