Sanders Sides one shots

The Other Side

This was tense. Most of the sides were there. Logan. Roman. Patton. Virgil. And Janus. Even Thomas was present. The negotiations had begun. The large, curved table they sat at glistened it the fearful air. Thomas began speaking. “Right here, right now, I’ll put the offer out.” Roman smiled, trying his best to please both Thomas and Janus. “I don’t wanna chase you down I know you see it. You run with me and I can cut you free, out of the drudgery and walls you keep in.”

Janus did not look convinced, even if he had a soft spot for the royal. Patton panicked briefly, before blurting out, “So trade your typical for something colourful and if it’s crazy, then live a little crazy!” Still nothing from the deceitful one. Logan could see that they were struggling to keep the snake at the table. “You can play it sensible, a king of conventional.” He simply stated. With a gasp, Roman shot the brains of the operation a glare. “Or you can risk it all and see…” He interjected rashly. When there wasn’t even an eyebrow raise in response, Princey pulled a desperate card from the bag. “Don't you wanna get away from the same old part you gotta play?” Thomas nodded encouragingly, even throwing in a “I got what you need.” Spurred on by the positive reaction, Roman declared, “Come with me and take the ride.” There was a short silence, only a couple of seconds. Then Virgil spoke up for the first time. “It'll take you to the other side.” There was none of his usual sarcasm, just an openness that unsettled Janus.

The self-proclaimed Lord of the Lies noted that it was Creativity appeared to be taking the lead, though he couldn’t work out why. Said side chirped in a sickening sing song tone, “‘Cause you can do like you do…Or you can do like me.” The last clause was said with a fancy display of jazz hands and glitter shooting from his fingertips.

At this point, even Logan seemed comfortable to run with all the nonsense metaphors. “Stay in the cage, or you finally take the key.” He gave the two options as if they were very literal, his face the usual ghost of a grimace. For a quick second, Janus was taken back to when Logic was nearly always smiling and ready to have a good time. He felt something shift inside of him, right as Roman decided to throw in a, “Oh, damn! Suddenly you're free to fly! It'll take you to the other side!”

With a sudden realisation he had been silent, the Reptilian Rapscallion spoke up – making direct eye contact with Roman. “Okay, my friend, you wanna cut me in? Well, I hate to tell you, but it just won't happen. So thanks, but no,” he pushed back his chair, a clear indication that he was done here, but continued speaking, “I think I'm good to go because I quite enjoy the life you say I'm trapped in.” He paused, wanting to see if the sides were truly wanting him – or if they were lying for Thomas’ sake. “Now I admire you, and that whole show you do. You're on to something, really it's something.” He held back a smile as Logan and Roman both stiffened and quite obviously bit down some remark or other. “But I live among the swells, and we don't pick up peanut shells. I'll have to leave that up to you.”

Janus stood, his small, black cape dramatically swinging out behind him as he turned. “Don't you know that I'm OK with this uptown part I get to play?” That was a lie. It was rather obvious that Janus was not OK with the current situation. “Because I got what I need and I don't wanna take the ride. I don't need to see the other side. So, go and do like you do; I'm good to do like me. Ain't in a cage, so I don't need to take the key. Can't you see I'm doing fine? I don't need to see the other side.” He stalked around the table, testing boundaries and wills. He wanted to know that the sides wanted him to be a part of them. A core side.

Virgil locked eyes. With a bold, determined stare that Jack the Fibber couldn’t meet. “Now is this really how you'd like to spend your days? Whiskey and misery, and parties and plays?”
“If I were mixed up with you, I'd be the talk of the town; disgraced and disowned, another one of the clowns.” He pointed down to Logan, who was ever so slightly quivering whilst being leaned over. It was Thomas who spoke next. “But you would finally live a little, finally laugh a little.”
“ Just let me give you the freedom to dream and it'll wake you up and cure your aching,” the Mean Spleen Stabbing Machine put in. “Take your walls and start 'em breaking,” Patton added. Logan was pretty much useless in the predicament that Janus had put him in. “Now that's a deal that seems worth taking… But I guess I'll leave that up to you,” Thomas finished. The Evil Snake Boy began to walk away, only pausing when his hand touched the brass handle of the door.

“Well, it's intriguing, but to go would cost me greatly. So what percentage of the show would I be taking?” he asked, hoping the others would realise that he only wanted to have a spot that he could stand in, plus a little extra screen time in the vlogs.  Thomas breathed in relief before taking charge of completely convincing Bananaconda to stay. “Fair enough, you'd want a piece of all the action. I'd give you seven, we could shake and make it happen.” Seven minutes was quite a lot of extra time. 

“I wasn't born this morning, eighteen would be just fine.”

“Why not just go ahead and ask for nickels on the dime?”
“Fifteen.”
“I'd do eight.”

“Twelve?”

“Maybe nine.”
“Ten!”

Janus confidently strode towards Thomathy to shake his hand. They grinned at each other, both pleased by the result. The table faded away and everyone appeared back in the mind palace. Logan, Roman, Virgil and Patton automatically settling into their assigned places. Thomas and Janus appeared in the middle of the room. “Romano? Could ya do a lil’ finger snap and maybe add our friend here a corner, and decorate it real comfy?” Within seconds, a small black hole opened close to Roman’s spot and from it, a perfect space formed.

The corner was black, with golden paint elegantly dripping from the tops of the walls. There was a multitude of different plants and mosses on one half, and other side, there was skin creams and glasses of water, everything needed to take care of oneself. The plants hung from the celling and were perfectly placed, so that they wouldn’t block out Janus when he stood there. The small, clear jars that lined the wall cultivated small mosses, let of a thin smoke as the microbiomes lived. Janus stared in awe. He loved it. “D-do you like it?” Sir Sings-a-lot asked, quite obviously nervous. 

The Snake Boy smiled, and for the first time his form shifted, swirled and distorted. Roman would not have believed his eyes. It was like looking in a mirror! Janus had impersonated the one and lonely. And was now screaming “LIKE ITTT??!!” just like Wroammin did about Crofters.