@anxiouslyfred
When Roman had whipped that family tree out as just another prop to help him prove his point against Logan, he hadn't thought anything about it. Just a bunch of pretty people; throwing himself in as Thomas' royal ancestor and making Patton Thomas' dad was just for fun. Of course they couldn't realistically be Thomas' ancestors but Roman was all about imagination.
He had thrown the family tree away somewhere among other used props afterwards and forgotten all about it.
Until a few years later, when the thing decided to come back and haunt him.
Okay, so technically the prop family tree wasn't haunting him - but Remus, who had found it after going through Roman's things like the gremlin he is, was. Because the family tree had made Remus spiral into dna, and specifically their dna.
Roman had never thought much about his existence beyond being a part of Thomas, being one of many that represent an exaggerated aspect of Thomas' being. Yes, Patton was their dad, but not really. Yes, Roman and Remus were twins, but only because they both could be boiled down to creativity. Of course they had bodily fluids, but only because they chose to. Roman frequently bled gold, inspired by ichor from greek mythology. Anything Remus excreted was toxic and/or radioactive, unless he wanted otherwise. Janus had venom! There was never a need to look to deep into the science of their existence, no need to care about dna if they even had any.
He honestly shouldn't be surprised that Remus had taken the idea and run with it.
With minor input from a frustrated Logan, and maximum input from gory crime shows, Remus had set up a medical lab in the Imagination. Dna samples were taken directly from the source - Roman couldn't count the amount of times that Remus had plucked a hair from him, or pushed a cotton swab into his mouth. But that had been fine! Roman had suffered through a lot worse.
And then Remus got his hands on Janus' dna and whatever peace was left in the mindscape dissapeared.
Roman was almost thankful that Patton had gotten the prop family tree from Remus; it had given him an excuse to take Patton on a quest through the Imagination to find the made-up people from years ago.
For now, Roman only had to worry about how to tell Patton the truth. But rather an impossible quest than Remus (and Logan, and Virgil) trying to get answers about Janus' dna results.
Hopefully Thomas would still be able to get work done.
