concept: darkside roman is daydreaming, lost in a fantasy world an unable to interact with the real one.
Blue I made a wholeass au in my head because of this ask I HOPE YOURE HAPPY
(Seriously tho, this wasnāt meant to be so longāit just kindaĀ grew)
I think Iāve seen a Maladaptive Daydreaming! Roman Ā somewhere, tho I canāt remember who made it. I think, if I made my own version of that, his theme song would be āOh No!ā by Marina (ātv taught me how to feel, now real life has no appealā) and he would just kinda... sleep all day and stay in bed, and if anyone tried to get him out and make him do stuff, heād snap at them and be grumpy the whole time, and sooner or later, he just locks his door so he can daydream in peace, and be stuck in his own little world.
Soon enough, his room starts changing to match what heās dreaming about, and he canāt tell the difference between being awake or asleep or daydreaming, but he doesnāt care anymore.
The others get worriedābecause are those plants coming from underneath the door?ā but ultimately they decide he needs space, because they donāt want him to be uncomfortable as he obviously was any time he came out. And they canāt actually open the door, and he doesnāt want them in there.... so they donāt do anything, just knocking when they think no one else is there and asking when heās gonna come out (they expect a joke of āim gayā or something, but he never replies)
And now Roman is in sort of a Sleeping Beauty situation, trapped in his own mind, not that he cares. Things are much more exciting in here, and heās a hero, a prince! People love him in his dreams! Other times, heās an actor in broadway, with a crowd roaring in front of him, or maybe heās fighting a dragon, or he has fire powers!
But... the other sides are never there in his dreams, and the faces in front of him are always blurry and indistinct, and he has to fight to stay happy, because the moment you get scared or upset in a dream, you lose control, and you become trapped in a nightmare, but with no one to talk to... no family to support him... he canāt stay happy all the time!
and BAM, the moment he stops trying to smile, heās trapped in a seemingly eternal nightmare and everythingās confusing and weird and when people hit him it actually hurts, and heās losing battles and heās forgetting his lines and his flames get of control and they hurt everyone, heās hurting everyoneā
And Thomas, who throughout this time has been lazier, less passionate, increasingly sleepy and keeps getting lost in his thoughts, suddenly canāt sleep at night because of nightmares, heās stressed because of how behind heās gotten on work, and heās even MORE stressed because he knew he SHOULD work but heās so tired but every time he sleeps he has a nightmare, and by now he and the sides know something is wrong, especially because the plants crawling out from Romanās door are now gnarled and black instead of green and lush, and they have thorns now. And theyāre so worried for Roman but the stupid door wonāt open and so they get Remus to bash a holeĀ into the doorāthe plants seem to be trying to keep them outā and when they get in their jaws just drop in pure amazement because holy SHIT there is an entire castle in Romanās room and the thorns are so thick and thereās ominous clouds and lightning and rain coming down in sheets. The place looks like it couldāve once been beautiful, but now it looks similar to Pink Diamondās garden after thousands and thousands of years of neglect.
And they know, by sheer nature of Roman, what they have to doāand by sheer nature of gravity, it is going to be very, very hard to do that, because of course they have to find their way through the dilapidated castle, and of course Roman is in the tallest tower. Oh, and the gigantic red dragon flitting around in the clouds isnāt really going to make things any easier.
At least thereās stairs.
But in the castle, thereās traps, too. Remus makes his way through most of them with ease, and Virgil is paranoid enough to expect any trap, but they have to stay behind for the others. They have to fight, too, like theyāre in the final level of a video game. Weird beasts, bats with cat heads that breath fire (bcats? Cat bats?) and alligators with freakishly long tongues that try to wrap around you (alligatoads? Frogidiles?), and lion-bears, that even Remus has trouble defeating, and heās the best fighter besides Roman.
Theyāre almost to the base of the tallest tower when the dragon above them decides to make an appearance.
Sheās tall, big, and red. Like Clifford, If he had scales and claws and breathed fire. She blocks their way to the tower stairs, hissing and blowing warning fireballs in the torrents of rain.
But...she never directly attacks, only defense. Sheās trying to keep them from the door.
Sheās protecting Roman.
In the end, all it takes is some soft words, an entreatyāand a couple apologies for trying to hurt herā to get her to move so they can pass. Patton approves.
Past the stairs, the thorns are back, this time crawling and writhing along the ground like living beings, but instead of seeming like they attacking like the monsters in the lower castle defending like the dragon, they seem... trained towards the main room, set in an almost strategic manner, every thorn pointed inwards.
They get to the top, hacking and moving tendrils away to clear the stairs, and then, laying almost peacefully in bed... is Roman. Heās in all black, his sash pale, making Roman look ashen and grey. Thorns caress his face, and it looks like it could have once been loving, but the thorns are digging into his skin now, making bright beads of red pop up on his par skin. It almost seems like Romanās dead, if it werenāt for the uneven rise and fall of his chest, the little whimpers escaping his mouth, the way his face twitches and twists as if he is in paināor like heāsĀ terrified.
When Roman wakes up, the thorns are completely cleared away from his bed, and the sides have fallen asleep around his roomāsome sitting on his bed, others on the armchair in the corner, Remus is just laying spread-eagle on the rugā and Roman isnāt quite sure whatās happening, only that heās not having a nightmare anymore, and that his family is here.
And Thomas sleeps better than he has in months.