----

"I'm telling ya DeeDee! It's full proof! If those three get a place for them, then why can't we get a place of our own? Just the three of us, y'know?"

Janus sighed "how many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?"

"Every time I call you it!", grins the Duke cheekily.

Deceit rolls his eyes, "anyway, I don't find myself particularly concerned with the daily lives of those three but I have to admit, a place for ourselves does sound nice-"

"Yess!" Fist pumped Remus, "Choke on a chode Roman! In your moustache-less, goodie-goodie face!"

Janus snorted, stifling a giggle behind his hand. "I have to admit Remus, taking walks with you is always amusing"

Remus grins maniacally, and then mock bows, "I am a man of my people after all"

"Pfft! Sure, you are!"

The two of them kept walking down the clearing.

The forests of the Subconscious were lush but wild...

A place of both nature and mischief.

The Duke struts in without a care in the world and with Deceit following right behind him to ensure that they'd both survive the little outing.

----

Two things happened at once.

The siren for new emotions went off.

It also immediately began to rain.

Janus and Remus take cover under the branches of a sturdy tree-

"H-hello?!...Can- can you help me, please?"

Janus frowned, the voice was so not far from them, but it was, oh so, familiar.

Remus and Janus walked around for a solid twenty minutes, wondering just how bad their collective hearing was.

"I'm over here! Please help me!"

They eventually found the new emotion, stuck to the forest floor, too weak to move and liable to drown in the muddy ground as the rain beat harder around them.

"Vigilance?" Asks Janus dumbfounded, when he and Remus finally come a cross the newly formed emotion.

The newcomer on the ground gasps and his eyes widened for a fraction of a second, before the expression is immediately replaced by a grimace of pain. He shakes his head and sucks in a sharp inhale; he bites his tongue to stop any pained sounds from leaving his lips. "My- my name's Virgil"

Remus quickly scoops up the newly formed Personality and practically cradles him in his arms.

"Holy fuck, you're so small! Why are you so tiny? Shouldn't you be our size and age kid?-"

Janus easily cut the Duke off, focusing instead on the extremely thin and pale form of the new Personality in front of him. "What do you represent Virgil?"

Virgil for the most part, barley looked conscious, every other odd second his eyes would flutter and his head lolled against Remus's chest.

"Mhm..." he mumbles tiredly, steadily losing his battle with staying conscious, "m Anxiety..."

With that, his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he went limp in the Duke's hold.

----

Janus woke to Remus shouting for him.

"Yo D.J! Your brat face planted again!"

Immediately he got up and went to Virgil's room, only to find him sprawled yet shivering on the cold floor. His Shadows were along the wall, uselessly furling and unfurling in distress.

Deceit sighs, picking up the prone personality and placing him on his bed and tucking him in.

"Honestly Virgil, this is the third time this week."

------

"Yo Snake without the plane!" called the Duke. "He ate dirt again! His body hit the floor like a bag of soggy whole potatoes!

Janus pinched the bridge of his nose, exasperatedly.

He sighed, putting down his book, before making his way to Anxiety's room.

Inside here was Remus, holding up Anxiety by the scruff of the gray sweat shirt.

"Put me down! Put me down!" he squeaked, squirming and kicking in attempt to free himself from his captor. "I'm fine now, so put me down! I'm ok, I promise!"

"Hah! Not on your life brat! You blacked out and ate tile! You're lucky that faceplant didn't break your nose off or y'know, knocked out all your teeth!

Anxiety, growled. "Let Go!"

Immediately the atmosphere in the room changed.

A cold chill wrapped itself around Janus's very core, compelling him to let go of something, despite having nothing physical in his hands.

Remus on the other hand, immediately dropped Virgil.

Virgil screamed and swore, beating his fists weakly against the Duke's calves. "Are you crazy?! That hurt! Why didn't you just drop me on my bed, you freaking tree!"

Remus and Janus shared a look, knowing very well that the Younger's abilities were coming in.

Deceit then took a breath to prepare himself to deal with the Virgil that was throwing a tantrum. He knelt on one knee. "You know your energy levels are still too low. Why don't you get some more sleep, hmm?"

The Youngest Personality sighed dejectedly, as he stood up and trudged to his bed. "I only wanted to get my own glass of water".

Janus tsk'ed and gently fixed Virgil's mussed up hair as he helped tuck the younger one in for his nap. "It hasn't been long enough and you've been fainting since you got here. You need to wait until the week's done for you to be fully formed and even then, it could take longer. You don't have the energy yet to be wasting walking all the way to the kitchen"

"It's not fair!" Protested Anxiety, "I didn't ask to be sick! It's not my fault I formed in the rain! And- and formation pain sucks!" Despite his protests, Virgil went down easily when Deceit nudged him to lay down.

"I'm aware, trust me" said Janus calmly, " but you must be patient, you need to rest for at least a few more days, ok? Try not to burn out before then, alright?"

"...alright...", mumbles the youngest Personality, he was already drifting off, seemingly exhausted from the entire ordeal.

Deceit turned and headed for the door.

"Thanks Janus"

----

"...Janus.."

Janus!"

Said Serpent jumped, automatically turning to his Host who called him by name.

"Hmm?" He intoned absent-mindedly. For some reason his entire form felt hazy, his throat felt unbelievable dry and his mind was cloudy with far too many incoherent thoughts to grasp.

He'd call it a daze, if he could put a label on it.

His eyes glance at Anxiety, who's form was sitting beside Thomas. The Youngest Personality's brow was quirked in a silent, semi-questioning concern.

A young red faced, Anxiety sits up in bed, with Janus' cape draped over his thin shoulders.

Even with his bulky gray hoodie, the silky black and yellow material practically drowned him with its full length. It might as well have been a blanket.

Still, the young one was looking somewhat miserable, especially with the green ice bag on his head. He sniffled, scrunching up his reddened nose before yawning. Blinking, his glassy gaze finally landed on the Personality in front of him and he opened his mouth to speak.

"What are you looking at Snakeface? Don't tell me you're getting sick?"

Janus blinked rapidly, the odd polyphonic overlap of both the past and present Anxiety gave him a migraine. Wincing, he pressed a gloved hand to his forehead and hissed softly.

Not liking the fact that he could feel the sheer weight of everyone else's stares, Deceit shook his head and stood up.

"Migraine", he mutters, sounding way terser than he intended. Clearing his throat, he back-pedals slightly and continues with his default debonair tone. "Now that we finished storytelling, I do believe it's high time we put together what we know about Her Majesty and come up with a decent plan to defeat her...permanently this time of course."

It's then that Fairy Godmother walks in.

This seemingly caused everyone but Remus to jump at her unexpected arrival. The Duke was apparently the only one who had noticed that the Fae had left the dining room... if the fact that she brought out a large tome and placed it specifically in front of the darker half of Creativity, was anything to go by.

She also slid five Mielcabez flowers in front of Deceit.

"Well then", she said as Remus then slammed the book open on the table. The pages open to form a large map. Smirking, the Fae lifts her hand in a 'come-hither-' motion and the image of the map peeled upwards into a 3D hologram. An entire realm in the form of pink magic, practically floating, just off the page. "Shall we begin?"

-----

AN//: Soo...how we doin? Lol.

I really tried to delay this chapter because I wanted to find out what the actual backstory was for Janus and Virgil buuut it's taking Ol' Tommy Salami a bit of time to do so.

(Which y'know, given the circumstances, is pretty understandable)

Let's hope my predictions weren't too off 😅

Also, I got a purple/blue reversible octopus! What should I name them?

See y'all in the comments section and on the Discord Chat!