Left-Brained Lifestyle

Logan grabbed his glasses as he was getting out of bed. He did his usual stretches before going to the bathroom to continue on with his routine. He, eventually, went to the kitchen to grab some breakfast, and was startled by the sudden appearance of Virgil.

"Ah, good morning, Vi-"

"What are you slacking for? Thomas has two conferences today, a deadline for documents tomorrow, and he has to stay after work on Friday because Quil from accounting is expected to use his vacation days during the weekend!" Virgil declared in a demonic voice.

Logan was surprised, not only because Virgil was so stressed so early in the morning, but he didn't recall Thomas working somewhere that involved making documents or a colleague working in accounting. He just ate his breakfast and helped Thomas go through his routines before noticing some things that he knew were different according to his memory files: when he tried looking for Thomas's office, all he could find was an image of a small cubical. He also saw memories of him being awkward at a water cooler, shaking his hands before going back to typing, and Lee and Mary Lee showing concern towards a clearly exhausted Thomas. He saw more images like that in the files and started to chuckle.

"Okay, very amusing, guys. I get what your intentions are! Now, let's restore the memories where he has his YouTube influencer career, shall we?" he shouted.

Logan didn't get a response, so he decided it would be a good idea to search for everyone else himself. He went to Roman's door, but noticed that the door was dark and grey. He carefully opened the door and saw that Roman's room wasn't like he remembered: the trash was filled with posters from musicals Thomas enjoyed and that he knew for sure Thomas was a part of, Disney memorabilia was shoved into drawers in an attempt to be out of sight and out of mind, and there was even a card on his bare dresser. Logan opened the card and saw that it read, 'I'm sorry your motivation is decreasing, and I know everyone else won't take your ideas to heart, but if you ever want to ramble or vent, I will always be here. Love, Dragon Witch'.

Logan turned his attention to the lump on Roman's bed and gently removed the blanket to reveal a miserable Roman in bland clothing. Roman looked at him with slight surprise.

"Am I needed for marketing yet?" he asked.

"What? Roman, what happened to you?" Logan questioned with concern.

"I guess with all Thomas's work, I don't expect you to remember; I didn't even think you remembered my name. You wanted Thomas to focus more on his desk job, so you put a barrier on my door so that I couldn't get out and contribute unless you said so."

Roman turned around to face away from Logan and teared up.

"Not that it would matter now, but he had an idea for a musical."

As Roman rambled on about the old idea Thomas had for a musical, Logan recognized it as "Ultimate Storytime" and was surprised that, as far as everyone else knew, it never happened.

He quickly ran out of the room to see what happened to Patton. He barged into the room only to find more hoarded memories, but no Patton. He looked around the mind to find Patton only to find him at the entrance of a bar looking around. Logan took it as another red flag since he knew it wasn't the right place for Patton, and upon approaching him saw his shirt is bare, and he's wearing his old cardigan like an ordinary person.

"Patton?" Logan asked.

He looked in Logan's direction with surprise.

"Wait, you know my name? I didn't think you cared," he muttered.

"What are you doing here?"

"This is my work station. I was sent here ever since Thomas decided against entertainment. And, in case you've forgotten, I've been persuaded to only function as his sense of right and wrong."

Patton said the last sentence while rubbing his unusually red neck. He sat down against the wall and Logan sat next to him.

"You know, Thomas has wanted me to stop beating every once in a while, but there are reminders of tasks that need to be done by certain times, colleagues to please, a promised promotion, no real reason to stop beating," he rambled with the familiar fake smile on his face.

Logan couldn't help but do some thinking. He knew he wanted Thomas to go through a more serious occupation, but he had no idea how much it would really impact him if he got his way.

"So, who's getting things done if you and Roman are doing so little?" the nerd asked not knowing if he even wanted to know.

"Well, there's you, Virgil, and Deceit," Patton answered.

"Wait, why is Deceit lingering in the mind palace?" Logan looked like he was prepared to fight.

Patton looked around to make sure no one would hear him.

"Morality can only do so much to tell Thomas that he's happy," he whispered like it was some scandalous secret.

Logan saw the despair on Patton's face as if he felt he was letting everyone else down.

"Have you seen Virgil?"

"Yea, he shouted deadlines and assignments at me that Thomas allegedly had to focus on."

"Well, not that you'd notice, but he's got eczema flares under that outfit of his. Deceit suggested using cream or some relaxation techniques, but Virgil claimed he can't do his job without stress and that the flares are progress."

By the time he went back to the mind palace, he noticed a sense of emptiness inhabiting the place that he hadn't that morning. He never would've thought he'd miss Patton's jokes or Roman and Virgil bantering or even all of their attempts to tolerate Deceit. He locked himself in his room without ducking out. As he drifted off, he did nothing to block out the demonic shouting since he felt it was a reminder that he screwed things up for everyone.

By the time Logan woke up, he saw Patton kneeling next to the bed.

"Patton... I thought you were at..." he muttered while still out of it.

"Lo, whatever caused you to cry in your sleep, it's all over," he assured Logan while rubbing his back.

Logan focused more and saw that his clock said six AM, Patton had his logo on his shirt, and he was wearing the cat hoodie the way he usually wore it. Once he was more awake, he leapt out of bed and noticed that Patton's room had the same hoarded memories as before, Roman's room was still decorated, and everyone else having breakfast was just like they were before. Virgil approached Logan when he saw how worked up he looked.

"Woah, remember to breathe, Logan. Getting worked up is MY job," Virgil stated in his normal voice.

Logan chuckled before complying.

"I think he had a rough dream," Patton explained when he walked over to everyone else.

Logan suggested letting Thomas know that he is doing adequately in his current profession and Patton agreed as long as Logan had breakfast first.