#logicalfallacy

"Well Janus, to what do I owe the pleasure." He didn't pose it as a question, watching the man walk up from down the hall. He threw off the jacket, and beanie into the void while moving to toy with and tease his hair before one of the arms from his back offered him his hat back. Maybe he should have left the side in the early 1920's like he had wanted after all…

"Long time no see, I was practically dying to know where you had scurried off to." Janus' voice always carried an air of condescension, like he knew more than he was letting on from the start, and just refused to share. Oh how it would be so much more helpful if he did.

"Scurried off to," Logan remarked, his voice slightly muffled by the fact one of Janus' disembodied hands were gripping his cheek like a disapproving aunt. "What a colorful use of words when we just saw one another not even five minutes ago."

"Oh have we now?" He barely gave Logan a chance to finish his statement. Janus was now upon him, staring down at him. While his usual level of smugness was there, Logan noticed, oddly, that there was apprehension hanging in his smile, almost… fear. But why?

Had he and the other emotional sides not gotten what they'd wanted?

Logan huffed.

"If you are upset about my remark to Roman, know I have nothing against you personally, I simply know that Roman does and had to-" An invisible hand came up and covered his mouth.

"Can I tell you a secret?" Once again, ignoring everything Logan said, Janus continued to talk at him, or more accurately, through him. "Trying to deceive the side who monitors deceit will not end well."

Once again, Logan glared up and tried to shift against the hand gripping his cheeks. Janus' floating hand had gone from covering his mouth to squishing the man's cheek. What was he even talking about? Slithering? Lieing?

"Whhu re yu tkin abut." Logan hated how Janus' hand made him sound unprofessional. Janus smirked, knowingly.

"I'm not talking to you. Im talking to him." Janus clarified without clarifying a single thing at all. "Hiding it won’t help you, you know?"

"Logan what is going ON with you?!" the brighter side snapped, trying to force the door open, but Logan was resolute in pushing it shut. Keep them out, keep them out! If they find out your credibility is through!

"I'm telling you, I am fine. The sign says NO ENTRY for a reason, Roman. I do NOT recommend coming in here!"

As if that would ever discourage him.

It was like watching the world in slow motion, an almost out of body experience as he was slammed against the floor, which quickly caved and cracked under the force. The moment the impact shattered the dark blue space themed tile, the bright orange grout began to be exposed. The door had flown off the hinges from the force, tossed to the side like a forgotten toy.

Logan groaned but didn't get a chance to even sit up as he felt something wrap around his neck. The floor was moving once more, something writhing, pressing against his skin like a collar. *You can't hold me forever, not like this. They've already exposed themselves, let's see if they like fighting off home turf!*

Roman stepped into the room, immediately annoyed that his sword and shield vanished from his hands. "Ack, this is why I never go in here. It immediately kills all of my beloved whimsy." He huffed. "Now, finally Logan can you please explain what the hell has gotten you in such a tis…. sweet severed star shards what happened to your room!?"

"You cave in the side's door with your shield, and you ask 'What happened'?" Janus walked in behind him, annoyed as he felt ripples into his scales, his extra hands retracting. The logic of Logans room was still heavily in tact. "Though that does beg the question, I thought your little imaginary toys couldn't effect Logan's room."

"Oh, it can't. That's why this place entirely harshens my vibe, I can't even get near it."

"And yet, here you are."

The two glanced down, seeing Logan face down in cracked tiles not two inches from Roman's shoes. Janus covered his mouth to laugh at the sides expense.

"Ah! What are you doing down there?" Roman asked.

*Logan please he's driving me mad, he broke the rules. He broke the rules just give me a chance. * "No." Logan sighed, trying to sit up but, again that citrine liquid hiding just under the surface gripped with all its strength, pressing against him.

"No?" Roman was confused. He had never seen Logan's room be damaged before. If it was, it would normally correct itself within seconds. It's what made his room impossible to be imaginative in, nothing had permanence here. It was weakened every side, object impermanence.

Except for now apparently?

Logan tried again to sit up, something pulled his head back down into the tile by his neck. *No, I am not letting you leave until you let me teach them a lesson.*

"I thought I was the teacher among us." Logan muttered, bitterly.

*You would be, if you weren't letting them walk all over you again. We had rules, I don't go out there, but I can do as I wish in here. That was your exact wording. Are you going back on your word? *

"Logan, as much as it appeals to Roman to have you grovelling, do you plan to stay on the floor?" He had to play it cool, as much as he could, anyway. Roman was looking around the room, wondering who Logan was talking to or if he was talking to him because nothing he said was making sense. But Janus knew. He knew exactly who he was talking to.

"Or perhaps, you'd prefer if I—"

Janus didn't get to finish, as he looked down he heard the crack of more tile, this time coming from a piece of it located in Logan's palm. He was breaking thick tiles with his bare fingers. It was so.. illogical.

He looked down and one of Logan's eyes was locked onto him, or it felt like it. He couldn't see them, his bangs were covering it, but Janus froze under the intense sudden feeling of surveillance. The feeling eyes were on him, at all sides. It felt like something was just out of frame, twitching, writhing for a chance to get its hands on him. His face was three shades lighter as he grabbed Roman's hand.

"We need to go."

Roman pulled away, "Don't touch me, snake! I'm not just going to leave Logan in a puddle of his own … whatever that gunk on the floor is. Seriously Logan what happened to your room?"

"You happened."

The first time Logan had even acknowledged them at all.

Roman seemed offended at the idea. "Oh come on, I may have brought your door down, but it's your fault for barricading yourself in there for a week. Do you know how impossible it is to work when we can't even keep a schedule? It'd be easier to steal the Declaration of Independence."

"Roman, I am telling you we need to go, now." Janus once again tried and failed to get through to him, retracing his steps back exactly as to hopefully not set up whatever trap the two had found.

"If you want to slither off you are welcome to." Roman chastised the man before getting down on one knee to look at Logan better. "What do you mean by "I happened"?"

"you , *both of you,** all of you.***" Logan practically growled, it was a tone Roman had only heard maybe once, twice even. "I set very very specific rules in place. I maintain them meticulously. And what do you do? You get in the way, you tarnish, you trample. **You break them**."

He pushed enough to get into almost a planked position. That was when the two could see it. Chains. The orange in the floor had likened itself to chains around Logan's limbs, pulling him down into the tile. With every tug that rattled and yanked back in opposition.

"What the fuchsia??" Roman huffed, moving to try and yank the one on Logan's neck off him. He barely got his fingers wrapped around it before it burned his precious writing fingers, singing the hairs on his forearm for daring to even come close to it and Logan.

"Ow!" He scrambled back a few paces.

Logan blinked he was somewhere else, he could see through a hole in the wall out his own eyes before once again that grip in his neck grabbed him, yanking him back and off his feet. He found himself falling into a very familiar pair of arms. Familiar both in the sense that they were his own, as all sides were built off of Thomas and thus they had the exact same physique, but also familiar as he had been in the before, for better or worse.

*He touched me, that backwater prince touched me. Sorry teach, The gloves are off. *

The growling from the orange side within made his chest rumble, he felt the grip on his shoulders, on his waist- an angry, possessive grip.

*And Janus knows, he knows I'm here. If I don't make sure this is just a little silly blip for them then what happens to you, to us?*

Orange always had a way of making things that didn't involve him deeply personal, in a way Logan never understood. He shook his head, knowing he couldn't speak lest the others here. Even like this, as he was in control he was the voice. But not for long. He felt his fingertips and joints starting to burn.

*This isn't something you just get to deny me Lo. We have rules, what's the point of rules without someone to enforce them? If you won't I sure will. *

The tingling numbness of rage was dulling his senses, Orange was going to force himself into frame, whether Logan liked it or not. He was clawing at his mind, pounding his chest. Every vein in Logan's body screeched in a violent attempt for the removal of the citric presence but he only pushed further.

*Let me out Lo, let me be the punishment, the retribution, I'll show them, I'll show them what happens. I promise, they won't remember a thing, but they won't forget this, this moment. Please Logan please, we work so well together~ Chaos and Order, Justice and Law, Judge… and Executioner. *

He sighed in defeat, closing his eyes.

"*Do as you wish.*" A growl, not unlike Logan's frustrated one, Roman locked eyes. Orange. Logan's eyes were orange, since when had they ever been orange. Roman barely had time to duck away as a hand grabbed for his head, crushing the drywall it came into contact with. Orange chains rattled on Logan's joints, every single one of them, he posed like a predator hunting prey.

Janus went to cross the threshold out of Logan's room, but a hallway of unfamiliar origin met him instead. he turned back and saw exactly what he was hoping not to see. The labyrinth he had took meticulous time to build with Logan, the very core of it all. And now the two of them were in it. The belly of the beast.

"Fun fact," Logan's voiced growled out as Roman backed through the frame entirely, at least giving him his shield back. "Did you know, the heart of Thomas' subconscious is right below my room."

"Instead of through, you went up." Janus' voice sounded afraid, which made Roman even more on edge. Something enough to scare the snake would be something not good at all. Remus' didn't even scare Janus so who in the citric was this orange mess?

"What have you done with Logan?"

"Nothing at all, and I resent the question." Logan responded back. He took a heavy step toward the two, then another. Every step shook the walls. "See, there are rules in this place. Rules everyone has to follow. Rules that you, you have broken."

Janus felt a deep sense of deja vu. This motherfucker.

Logan hunched over, laughing; first at a trickle, then a roar— an absolutely mad cackle that rattled the tile under their feet.

"Orange. It's orange." Janus glared, Roman, whipped between Janus and Logan and back again.

"What!? How!?"

"I don't know, but I know the longer we stay here the worse it will get. Run. Now."

As Janus went to turn Logan lunged at him, He felt hot hands singe through his caplet and knock his hat to the ground. But he didn't stop, he kept moving, with or without Roman. This place had been a bitch to make and now he was going to have to active unwind his own net. What a fucking pain. Of course he was making him do this.

"Logan what the fuck have you done…" The snake groaned before looking behind him and seeing Roman follow after, his cape equally singed.

"What the hell was that!?" Roman screamed at his back. "Did you know about this!?"

"Logan and Orange!? Not on your life!" He shrieked, actually being honest for once. "We buried him for a reason, he cannot control himself what do you think he's down here for!? You think I would ever imagine of all people, LOGAN, would be the one to decide to make nice with one of the strongest emotional cores Thomas has!?"

"Well then what the hell-" Roman didn't get to finish as he hit the ground as something crashed into his back from behind, making him cry out in pain. Janus sighed, stopped and pulled the thing out of him while helping him to his feet. It was one of Logan's cards.

retribution /rĕt″rə-byoo͞′shən/

noun

Punishment administered in return for a wrong committed.

Punishment or reward distributed in a future life based on performance in this one.

The act of retributing; repayment

"Do you get it now?" He practically heard Logan… wait, no, Orange… for once Janus couldn't hear a difference They were layering ontop of one another in some kind of distorted harmony. "You will not forget this lesson, if I have to use brute force to beat it into you, so be it. But you WILL learn, you will listen to me."

Roman hissed, gripping his stomach before watching a two more cards fly into Janus instead.

listen /lĭs′ən/

intransitive verb

To make an effort to hear something."listen to the radio; listen for the bell that ends class."

To pay attention; heed.

To give close attention with the purpose of hearing; to give ear; to hearken; to attend.

respect /rĭ-spĕkt′/

transitive verb

To feel or show deferential regard for; esteem or admire."All the other scholars respect him."

To avoid interfering with or intruding upon."Please respect my privacy."

To avoid violating."I respected the speed limit throughout the trip."

Logan didn't run, but he kept pace. he watched them scramble as he walked behind them. A card would flick out, piercing straight through, then another and another. Orange tear tracks burned down his cheeks, it was always hard to see like this, but he would make due, as he always had. He always did love puzzles, and while he had no memory to how this lock box functioned he was sure Janus remembered. If he didn't he was fine with leaving the two to wander for a while and solve it himself.

The only downside with dragging his room down here was now he had no way to get back topside. But oh Logan did love a puzzle, so it shouldn't take long.

*It'll be fun, once were out of here. Now come on, you should use air-headed next for the prince. Maybe if we're lucky it'll turn his head into clouds. *

Logan barely had to think, a new experience, as his limbs took off without him, speeding up, throwing more, jumping and running in a show of extraneous energy he would usually never bother with.

"Special Logan Lowdown, what happens when you repress something!? Do you remember?"

"Son of a bitch-!" Janus barely was able to move before something nicked his cheek. Roman glared at Janus,

"What did you do to piss him off so badly?"

Janus sighed in defeat, tempted to leave him here, if not for the stress it would cause.

"Shut up, keep moving or I'll let Logan flay you for science."