Gaining Our Colors (Part 1/4)
(Had this in the drafts for some time, finally decided to finish it!)
The sides didn’t gain their colors until they made a name for themself, chose a trait. Those were simpler times. In the beginning, he was white, with chalk-like hair, a snow-colored crop top, and cloud-like jeans. He glowed brightly when he walked into every room, but he wasn’t really sure what he was, back then. Every time Thomas’s parents taught him a lesson or Thomas learned something about right and wrong, though, he felt something in him that felt like home. Thomas’s parents couldn’t see him, and so he became Thomas’s imaginary friend. Thomas called him Patton. He wasn’t quite sure what his purpose was, or what he was doing here. Thomas was still small, around five years old. But the man loved Thomas like a father. And while it was fun sitting alone with white trees and rustling frosty grass, the glowing loner wanted something more.
One day, another person wandered into the wide, empty space he inhabited. He must have existed before they met, but Patton had never seen him before. This newcomer was gray.
“Hello!” Patton said happily. “It’s nice to meet you! Who are you?”
“I’m... not sure.” The gray man replied. He wore a gray T-shirt, along with some slate colored slacks. His hair was perfectly gelled back and styled. He looked like he was made of stone. “Who are you?”
Patton thought about it for a moment. “I don’t exactly know yet either.” He smiled. “I guess we’ll find out together, huh?”
“How do we find out?” The gray man tilted his head. “Do we ask a series of questions? Do we analyze the data around us, however small it may be?” He gestured to the landscape and the gray grass and leaves of the trees, contrasting the white trunks and sky they were set against. As he continued to talk, a pair of gray glasses materialized on his face, and his T-shirt changed to a suit and tie. “Do we continue to gather data? Do we simply wait? That would follow logic, would it not?” As soon as he said the word logic, he turned blue. Dark blue. Just for a moment though, and then he was back to white and gray.
“You turned blue for a second!” His glowing companion told him excitedly. “When you said logic!” Patton looked down at himself, but the same did not happen to him. “Hm.”
“When I said logic?” The gray man asked, turning blue once more. The glowing man nodded eagerly. “Interesting. Maybe our colors correspond to our purpose. Perhaps mine is to be Logical. I wonder why it is only temporary.”
“I don’t know.” Patton frowned. “...Should I call you Logic, then?”
“Hm... no. I think I’d better choose a proper name for myself. How about... London?” He frowns.
“Hm... no I don’t think so.”
“Lance?”
Patton shook his head.
“How about Logan?” He asked
“Huh. It does have a nice ring to it.” The chalk like man smiled. “Logan Logic.”
“Logan Logic. Yes, that will be my name.” He smiled, and suddenly the gray of his features melted away into a navy blue. The pond nearby changed too, the only color in a sea of white and gray. “Oh, I see. We need a name and a purpose.”
“I wonder what my purpose is.” Patton asked. “Maybe it’s to be creative! Or to be tricky and mischievous. Or to be happy and kind!” He laughed, but seeing as his color did not change, he gave up on trying to guess. “I’ll figure it out eventually, I guess. I’ve known my name for a while though. Thomas calls me Patton.”
“You interact with him?” Logan frowned. “I only hover over his shoulder and correct his spelling every once in a while.”
“I wonder why we’ve never seen eachother before.” Patton frowned. “Maybe now that we know eachother’s names, we can see each other when we watch over Thomas!”
“Hello? Is anyone there?” Someone yelled in the distance. Another gray man wearing a T-shirt and a crop top walked up to the pair. “Finally! I feel like I’ve been wandering alone forever. How long have you two been here? And why is he blue?”
Why did these people start meeting each other all of a sudden after five years of loneliness? Perhaps it was because at five years old, Thomas was going to kindergarten, starting to really develop. He was getting friends, a personality, and he was learning. So it was finally time for the aspects that would shape him to meet.
“We’ve been here since Thomas grew into being.” Logan said, adjusting his glasses. “I am blue because I have figured out my function and my name. Logan Logic, nice to meet you.” He stuck out a hand.
The gray man smiled. “Nice to meet you too! Man, I always thought there was something more than watching Thomas by day and coming to a gray and white world by night. But then I saw some dark blue flowers and decided to go look for whatever had caused this color to appear!” He laughed. “You know, I’ve always fancied the name Roman.” He flashed red. “Or maybe Remus.” He flashed green. “I haven’t decided yet.”
“Woah.” Patton’s eyes widened. “You said two names and flashed two different colors!”
“Opposite colors as well, as it would seem.” Logan frowned. “Is he going to fulfill two functions, or can he only pick one?”
The gray man shrugged. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see!”
Patton nodded. “I’m waiting, too! I don’t really know where to start though.”
“Well I always found any logical action Thomas took to be pleasing to me. Are there any undertakings that intrigue you whenever Thomas decides to effectuate them?”
“English, Logan.” The slate colored man rolled his eyes.
“Are there any actions that interest you whenever Thomas decides to do them?” Logan asked huffily, crossing his arms.
“Potty humor!” The slate colored man grinned. “Oh, and drawing and coloring! And sticking a fork in an electrical socket! And singing!”
“He’s stuck a fork in an electrical socket?!” Patton asked. “When did this happen?!?!”
“When you guys weren’t looking, I guess. I thought it was a good idea at the time.” The smoky man shrugged.
“You could have hurt him!” Patton exclaimed. “You could have killed him! That’s just wrong!”
The lead colored man clutched his head in agony, staggering backward a pace. He clutched his chest in agony as the rock colored skin there split in two. The other two called out to him, making sure he was ok. Eventually his breathing slowed, the crack in his chest mended, and his head stopped feeling like it was splitting in two.
Patton kneeled down next to the man in pain. “Are you ok? Was it something I said?! I am so so sorry!!!”
“I don’t know why that hurt so much.” The fallen man said with tears in his eyes. “But I guess you’re right, those thoughts were wrong. But they were also so right! But they were wrong.” He shook his head, conflicted. “Golly gee this is confusing.”
“I’m so sorry for any distress either of us may have caused, Roman.” Logan said apologetically. The gray man winced again, flashing red briefly. “Or sorry, Remus?” Logan amended, and was confused when the man winced again and flashed green.
“It’s alright, nerd. It’s just like I’m... torn between what to be.”
“Well singing, drawing, and writing sounds like some sort of creative function to me.”
“Hm. But what about the other things?”
Patton shrugged. “I don’t know, but they seem like they could put Thomas in danger! If I were you, I’d stick with the creative one.”
“Well... I don’t want to hurt Thomas...” The slate colored man frowned. “But those other thoughts seem more fun to me than singing and drawing or whatever. What if I can be both?”
“When you tried before it seemed to put you in a state of major discomfort.” Logan frowned. “Are you willing to put yourself through that again?”
“I’ll only have to go through it once... right?” Roman-Remus smiled. “Then I can be more colorful than both of you nerds! But what’s the function of my other half...?”
“It seems like bad thoughts to me!” Patton said.
“But it doesn’t feel bad! In the moment...” The gray man frowned, faintly pulsing green.
“Perhaps ‘intrusive’ is a kinder word.” Logan suggested.
“Sure!” The man grinned, slightly devilishly. “I hereby and henceforth decree that I am Roman Creativity and Remus Intrusive Thoughts!”
He barely had time to register that he had flashed red and green before a splitting headache overtook him. Literally. His head felt like (and was) splitting in two. Before too long, two people who looked identical were lying on the floor, unconscious. One was red. One was green. The ground around them seemed to draw color from Roman and Remus, making the gray grass slowly turn green and red flowers sprout up across the landscape. Logan frowned. “Well that can’t be good.”
Patton frowned. “Why not? Now we have two new friends!”
“Well, now we have Creativity and Intrusive Thoughts. Separately. If you didn’t like when he would have Intrusive Thoughts when they were together, why would you like Remus as a person?” Logan frowned.
“Oh. You’re right.” The other frowned. “Well... maybe he’s just morally grey, that’s all!” He gasped. When he had said ‘morally’, he had flashed a light blue. “Wait, Logan, that’s it! I must be morality, right?” He flashed bright blue again.
“It would appear so, Patton.” Logan smiled slightly.
“I am Patton Morality!” He giggled, and his glowing and pure whiteness faded to a light blue. Morality may not always be right and perfectly pure like he was back then, but he still tries to be as kind and pure as he can be. As if a symbol of his fading purity, but the beauty of development, the sky turned a brilliant blue.
Roman and Remus stirred on the ground. “Woah... what happened?” They said in unison, sitting up.
“You split in two.” Logan informed them.
“Into a butthole?” They both grinned before Roman winced in pain, while Remus looked perfectly fine. “Ow...” Roman grimaced.
“You’re two separate people, you two don’t have to speak in unison.” Logan said, confused.
They both drew a breath, preparing to speak, then stopped to let the other speak first. They both said together, defeated, “It doesn’t feel like we’re two separate people. It just feels like I lost part of myself. Like...”
“My arm was brutally cut off and is now waving at me!” Remus said, cackling.
“Looking through a fun house mirror.” Roman said over top of Remus.
They looked at each other. “We... we are different.” Roman frowned.
“I... I guess we are.” Remus furrowed his eyebrows.
Logan nodded. “Well, if that’s in order, I believe it is almost time to take care of Thomas again.”
Patton frowned. “Remus, try to keep Thomas out of trouble, ok? I don’t want him getting hurt...”
Remus giggled. “No promises.”
When they went to watch over Thomas during the day, the personalities found they could all see each other. Thomas was delighted to see that Patton was colorful, and was happy to let Roman help him color and Logan help him do some simple math. But when Remus tried to play with Thomas, he was silenced by glares coming from Patton. There were still questions that resided in the glances between them. Were there more of them? Would they be (by Morality’s standards) ‘bad’ like Remus? When the day was over, Logan comforted a crying Roman when they showed up in the dreamscape after the long day of keeping Remus at bay. For some reason, Remus was nowhere to be found, and didn’t seem to be coming back. He might have simply disappeared because he was being repressed all day, but more likely he had run away from the influence of Patton. One thing was certain, Logan thought to himself. Whatever happened, someday this was all going to come to a head.
