#mind palace arcade

[too-attached-to-fiction]

The Mind Palace Arcade - 22.0

Summary:          

This is the last chapter. Wow. I love you all. More at the final end chapter notes.

Goodbye, Mind Palace.

Notes:          

(See the end of the chapter for  notes.)

~~~

 Roman was the first to leave out of all of them. And yet, it felt like they’d been saying good-bye for ages.

 “It isn’t goodbye. I’m getting you all seats at the premiere.” Roman repeated for the umpteenth time that morning. He’d gone to the arcade before opening hours, and the others just couldn’t seem to let him go.

 “You’ve been here since the beginning. In a way, you are the arcade.” Patton sniffled, trying not to cry. “You’re our prince.”

 Logan gave Roman a small smile. “You did do a lot to bring us together.” The manager tugged Patton closer, just a little, the other man leaning into his touch instantly. “And we’ll be there.”

 The others said their goodbyes quickly, with Virgil standing off to the side. “Ready?” He asked when Roman glanced back at his boyfriend.

 “Y-yeah.”

 The car ride was longer than either of them expected. They’d talked for most of the night before. Now, it was actually going that was difficult.

 Virgil turned the car off the freeway, rolling up to the airport drop-off zone quietly. When he finally put the car in park, he looked at Roman.

 Roman had cried the minute they left the arcade, and Virgil knew he was going to be a mess until he got onto the plane.

 “So this is it.” Virgil said in disbelief. They’d spent the last week trying to avoid thinking of the inevitable, but instead, it only came faster. “You’re going.”

 “I am.”

 “Right.” Virgil took a deep breath. “Well, text me when you get on the plane, and when you land, and call me when you get to the hotel. Duke has your keys and Dylan should be moving in later on this week, so I hope you have everything packed away. I don’t exactly expect much from your brother.”

 Dylan and Duke had announced they were becoming roommates earlier that week, to the surprise of the others. When asked why, Dylan had only shrugged and joked that someone needed to keep Duke from blowing up the apartment. They’d be moving into Roman’s apartment in the next week or so.

 “Help me with my bags?”

 Virgil nodded, unlocking the car doors and getting out.

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~~~ Final taglist: @rememberfateau-nowoffical @thelowlysatsuma @bucketsofclams @sleepless-in-starbucks @sanders-sides-crofters @thgjclw @amazing-creepyfloof @max-is-tired

[too-attached-to-fiction]

The Mind Palace Arcade - 21.3

Summary:          

The story of dylan and remus

Notes:          

Hi everyone - If you're reading this you might have noticed that I put this story on private for a few days. Recently I discovered that an app on the app store has been profiting off of my work and many others' without consent. Seeing as this fic has taken months of my time, suffice to say I was quite frustrated. If you use any app that allows you to read AO3 fics, please delete it. Ao3 allows you to download fics as PDFs. That isn't something that you can do often with fanfic, and I'm hoping no one misuses the feature, but please know that I pour my heart into these fics and it hurts so much to know someone else is taking credit for them. Love, Nox

~~~

 Duke wasn’t disruptive.

 Sure, he’d acted out a lot as a child, but so had Roman, so had Anton. When three little boys who are all the exact same age learn that the easiest way to stress out their parents is to create absolute chaos, that’s what they do. As opposed to, you know, reading.

 While Roman had focused that into his acting and Anton turned into a famous, constantly-traveling, pretentious critic, Duke remained, left to his own devices.

 And when left to his own devices, he could do marvelous things.

 Beyond the Thanksgiving incident, Duke had managed to take down a group of ten teenagers in laser tag by himself, mark the high score on most of the game consoles, and that was only at the arcade. He excelled in science in school, not because he was particularly good at math or memorization, but because he was determined to try everything that the rest of the class didn’t want to do. In first grade, he was the first to create a bubblegum ice cream that not only matched the flavor, but the chewy consistency as well. By sixth grade he had managed to fit his remote control car so that it could shoot the little Nerf gun while driving with the press of a button.

 Not to mention the fact that he nearly set off the smoke alarm every time he microwaved things, but that was beside the point.

 For some reason that Dylan couldn’t quite fathom, Duke had a particular interest in the security camera man.

 Dylan was the only employee Duke could not immediately reach. He never came out when Duke was doing something. Virgil wasn’t too isolated now, and Logan had a tendency to race out quickly if something chaotic was happening. Thomas generally just liked to watch things go down, leaving Logan as the authoritarian.

 Unlike the others, Dylan didn’t try to control Duke. He knew to let Duke ride out whatever hyperactivity he had in his system instead of interrupting it. Unless the two were in a staff meeting, Dylan was in his control room, voices from podcasts flowing gently from the tiny speaker on his desk. If Virgil wasn’t available to talk (which was increasingly becoming the case), Dylan tried to keep his distance from the others. He just wasn’t the social type.

 Which made it all the more exciting for Duke.

 One morning, Duke skipped into the security control room. Dylan didn’t bother to look before lazily asking, “What are you doing in here? You’re supposed to be watching the arcade from the ground.”

 “How did you know it was me?”

 “I set up a camera near the door. Don’t tell Logan - it’s not one of the authorized cameras.” Dylan mumbled, switching camera displays on the main screen. “You’re supposed to be on the ground.” He repeated.

 “What’s the point if you’re watching the cameras?” Duke leaned over Dylan’s shoulder.

 “So I can tell you to run after whoever’s trying to climb the machines instead of doing it myself and letting the rest of the arcade go unwatched.” Dylan rolled his eyes. He seemed to have this conversation with Duke quite often.

 “Hmm. Makes sense.”

 “You’re getting paid by the hour, you know.” Dylan grumbled.

 “And what if I’m on my break?”

 “Your break is exactly at noon, and you know how strict Logan is about schedules.” Dylan shrugged, making Duke move his chin from Dylan’s shoulder.

 “Don’t you ever get lonely up here?” Duke asked, poking the Freddy Fazbear hat that was on Dylan’s desk. Aside from the hat and a few personal items, Dylan’s desk was mostly barren.

 “I’m an introvert. Greetings are enough for me.”

 “Jeez, didn’t your parents teach you anything about manners?” Duke complained, sitting on the desk. Dylan glanced up briefly at the triplet before his eyes returned to the screens.

 “Don’t recall yours did either.”

 “I’m offended.”

 “Are you?”

 Duke looked down at Dylan. “How can you not pay attention to me?”

 Dylan sighed, closing his eyes. “I figure you’ll wear yourself out in attempts to annoy me, so I’m just waiting for that to happen. Now, get off my desk and go back to work.”

 “Meanie.” Duke pouted, but granted the other man’s wishes. If he wanted to be boring and not talk, then that was that.

 He’d find another way to get Dylan to talk to him. He just needed time.

 ~~~

 When Roman had returned to the arcade to finish off his last few weeks as a security guard, Duke decided to remain in his position. The only problem was that Roman didn’t particularly like working with his brother, and while Logan argued that they needed to be professional, he’d taken one look at the chaos they caused at Thanksgiving and closed his mouth.

 So Duke agreed to change positions.

 Although, Logan’s idea of changing positions was placing Duke in the back, with Dylan. Out of all the employees, Dylan was one of the few that stayed level-headed even when things got bad. If anyone could handle Duke, Dylan was the one.

 Dylan didn’t bother protesting the change in placement. Maybe Duke was disruptive, but Dylan had met kids, people, who craved attention. He supposed that when you were a triplet everything needed to be equal: equal food, equal attention, equal love.

 “You’re not going to say anything?” Duke asked as the two of them walked into the security room after the morning meeting. “Not even complain?”

 “Why would I do that?” Dylan responded with a monotonous tone. He unlocked the room for the day and slipped into the darkness with ease.

 “Well, ‘cause whenever I get paired up with someone, the first thing they do is complain.” Duke shrugged, sitting on top of a spare cabinet that Dylan hardly used.  

 “Oh.” Dylan wasn’t sure what to say. Being friends with Virgil had made Dylan assume everyone was closed off, but Duke was actually giving him clear answers. “Well, uh, I don’t… I don’t think that’s fair.”

 “It’s just the way it is.”

 From that moment forward, Dylan decided he wouldn’t mind Duke hanging around. After all, outcasts needed to stick together.

~~~

Taglist

@rememberfateau-nowoffical @thelowlysatsuma @bucketsofclams @sleepless-in-starbucks @sanders-sides-crofters @thgjclw @amazing-creepyfloof @max-is-tired

[too-attached-to-fiction]

The Mind Palace Arcade - 20.0

         Summary:          

Time for logicality to talk about feelings for fuck's sake

                     Notes:          

Hi everyone, Sorry for the late update, senior year has been crazy busy and I actually haven't been able to write much. Nevertheless, here's a short chapter to tide you all over for next week. Unbelievably, this is the last chapter before we start to wrap things up here at the Mind Palace Arcade, but don't worry! Clam and I will have a project launching shortly after involving Analogical and found family, so stick around for that! I'm so proud of this story and I thank you all for reading this far.

Nox

~~~~

 Operation Smooch

     [Emile]: so we have a situation.  

     [Dylan]: Oh ffs what’s happening now?  

     [Remy]: IS IT LOGAN AND PATTON  

     [Virgil]: ...who else could it be?  

     [Thomas]: Do they need a dose of laser tag?  

     [Emile is typing]  

     [Dylan is typing]  

     [Remy is typing]  

     [Virgil is typing]  

     [Emile]: NO  

     [Dylan]: I thought it was proved last time that it didn’t work  

     [Roman]: well it kind of did??  

     [Virgil]: no it didn’t.  

     [Roman]: no it didn’t  

     [Remy]: ^ but we still need to get them to talk…  

     [Thomas]: Well, Logan’s too stubborn to ask for help OR to reveal any feelings so we need to do something.  

     [Emile]: … can we turn the breakdown closet into our new problem solving room? That way they won’t have so many eyes on them.  

     [Remy has added August to the chat.]  

     [August]: what are you even doing 

Read more

~~~

@rememberfateau-nowoffical @midnight-personal @thelowlysatsuma @bucketsofclams @sleepless-in-starbucks @sanders-sides-crofters @thgjclw @amazing-creepyfloof @max-is-tired

[too-attached-to-fiction]

The Mind Palace Arcade - 19.5

Summary:

finally some good fucking f l u f f

Notes:

Hi everybody,

It's been an interesting week, but I do have one note to start on!

I've noticed a lot of people have been commenting that they don't usually ship logicality/prinxiety but this fic makes them ship it and honestly that's the highest amount of praise for me~

I hope you all had a good day and enjoy the chapter! Shout out to the one person who binge read and commented as they did so, that was really fucking funny and I loved all of the spam.

Nox

~~~

Roman stood at the entrance of Cineplex, checking his watch every 5 seconds. There were red roses in his other hand, and he’d been waiting for only a minute or two before Virgil appeared.

Virgil had insisted that Roman meet him there, preferring to avoid the awkwardness of Roman coming over for the first time. Still, Roman wanted to set this date off on the right foot, and he figured flowers were the best to start.

“For me?” Virgil asked, gesturing to himself.

“It’s only fair.” Roman said with a nervous smile, handing him the flowers. “I have the tickets already, so we can just walk right in.”

“Full of surprises tonight, are we?” Virgil smirked in attempt to hide his smile. “Come on, let’s get some popcorn.”

He held out his hand, which Roman nervously but quickly accepted, and together they walked inside. Virgil seemed nonchalant, but inside, he was practically squealing.

“So, what did you pick for us to watch?” He asked, stopping abruptly in order to wait in line. His hand dropped, and Roman nearly whined at the loss of contact.

“I was hoping you’d be interested in the new George Hitchcopalucas film.” Roman said, fumbling with the tickets in his hands. “I don’t know, I can get a refund-”

“It’s perfect.” Virgil flashed him a smile. “I’ve been waiting for this movie to come out.”

“O-oh, really? I’m glad.”

Virgil had never seen Roman this nervous. Still, it was comforting to know that he was not the only one who was anxious about this date. He reached for Roman’s hand, carefully taking it in his and squeezing it gently.

“Don’t be nervous. It’s only me.”

Read more

~~~

Taglist: 

@rememberfateau-nowoffical @midnight-personal @thelowlysatsuma @bucketsofclams @sleepless-in-starbucks @sanders-sides-crofters @thgjclw @amazing-creepyfloof @max-is-tired

[too-attached-to-fiction]

The Mind Palace Arcade - 6.0

Author’s Notes:

Hello everybody! Once again, we didn’t quite reach our goal this time, so maybe if this happens more we’ll tone down the updates to once a week. Anywho, I recognize that it is August but considering the timeline of the story, it is now Christmas in their world.

Fun fact of the chapter: I actually had a really difficult time writing this. It was so difficult getting in the holiday spirit (especially when it’s 6 months away!)

Thank you to Clam for being my amazing beta reader, comment goal is 10 and if you have any art/one-shots/extra stuff you want us to see of this fanfic you can show us by tagging #mindpalacearcadefic on tumblr!

Nox

~~~

On December first, Patton skipped into the arcade, arms filled with a box of what appeared to be Christmas decorations.

“IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME!” He yelled into the nearly empty arcade, oblivious to the blank stares he was receiving from his coworkers. “It’s time to get into the holiday spirit!”

“What… er.. Whatcha got there, Patton?” Roman asked awkwardly, breaking the silence.

“I got decorations and things for an added part of the uniform! There’s something in here for everyone!” Patton sang, skipping over to the prize counter and setting the box down. The others shared looks between each other before following him, curious to see what he had in store.

Logan and Thomas appeared from the office, wondering what all the commotion was about. “What on earth…” Logan said, looking at the box. “Patton, we can’t have Christmas specific decorations, that will alienate the customers who don’t celebrate it.”

“Oh, I know that!” Patton waved his hand at Logan, digging through the box with his other hand. “The only specific decorations are the uniform things.”

“I… uh, uniform?” Logan yelped, trying to process what exactly was going on.

“Like we can hang up these snowflake lights around the counter!” Patton pulled out a tangled mess of lights from the box, multiple sets with different light bulb colors and shapes. Virgil snickered as he watched Logan get more and more frustrated as the conversation continued.

“Patton, we’re in Florida . It doesn’t even get cold enough to snow here-” Logan pointed out, but Roman cut him off.

“Oh, Logan, don’t be a Scrooge!” Roman said. “My dear, Patton, you said you had something for everyone?”

“Here we go.” Virgil mumbled sarcastically, as Dylan stepped closer, appearing curious with hands clasped behind his back.

“Yeah! We can wear these for the month!” Patton pulled out a number of differently colored Santa hats. He passed them out, saving Logan’s for last. Logan didn’t look too excited as Patton pulled down a dark blue Santa hat on the manager’s head, holding the edges of the hat a few seconds too long, his cheeks appearing to be tinted a light pink afterwards. “Here, I got your favorite colors! Well, except for Thomas, his is just black.”

“That’s really thoughtful of you, Patton.” Thomas complimented as Logan shot him a tired look.

“Hey, Patton, you happen to have any mistletoe?” Dylan asked, smirking as panic set into Virgil’s eyes.

“Yeah, maybe I can hang them up after laser tag! And we can do a staff Secret Santa too! Maybe we could hang mistletoe in laser tag!” Patton suggested, and Logan’s face paled.

“This should be interesting.” Thomas teased, nudging Logan.

Read more

~~~

Tag list

@rememberfateau-nowoffical @vampy-personal @thelowlysatsuma @bucketsofclams @sleepless-in-starbucks @sanders-sides-crofters @thgjclw

[too-attached-to-fiction]

Berry Bear

Part One of The Mind Palace Ficlets

Summary:

When a little girl approaches Roman with a broken toy, Virgil swoops in to save the day.

Takes place between chapters 11.0 and 12.0.

Author’s Notes:

Hi everybody!

This is the first of many in this series Clam and I like to call the Mind Palace Ficlets! These are chapters/moments/scenes that we couldn't fit into the fic for whatever reason. You don't need to read these to understand the Mind Palace Arcade, but it's probably a good idea to read the main fic before you come over here.

I would like to note that these fics are mostly going to be written by Clam (our roles switch, as I edit). I'm extremely proud of them and so happy that we get to share these little things with you all.

We won't have a comment goal for these but they are greatly appreciated! Thank you for all of your support and happy reading!

Nox

~~~

Virgil sat in the control room, looking at the arena below. There were some days that he loved his job; well, the laser tag part of it. He got to see the preteens let out their inner nihilists.

But the mechanic part of his job description? That was straight up weird.  

The first time he got a customer request, he was watching some kid get caught by someone on the opposite team and spreading his arms in a “kill me” fashion. His radio crackled before Roman’s voice rang out.

They tried not to use their radios too much. The arcade was small enough that Logan and Thomas were always around somewhere, but still, every employee (sans Emile) had a walkie-talkie.

“Hey, small, dark, and handsome? How good are you at fixing voice-boxes for toys?” Ever since the fight, Roman’s insults had turned into embarrassing compliments. Virgil wasn’t sure which one was worse.

“What’s the code?”

“Code? Oh! Yes, the code! It’s, uh… code broken toy?”

Idiot. Virgil thought to himself. “Close enough. I can do that, run it up here and I’ll take a look.”

Before the radio could cut out, he heard a loud “Never fear! Your grea-!” and Virgil smiled in fondness. Roman was an idiot but (sometimes) he was a lovable idiot.

—

“What is that?”

“No idea! However! It was vital to the happiness of the young princess it belongs to so we must be-”

“Yeah okay Princey, I’ll do my best.” And the door was promptly shut in Roman’s (not-at-all-attractive-to-Virgil) face.

The toy in question was a blue.... thing. It had two little nubby legs with attempted bean toes just slightly off center. There were giant eyes placed on the side of the barely-defined head, with tiny pin-prick pupils and 2 inch, red irises. there were ear holes , but no ears. Honestly, it almost looked like an off-brand furby with no endoskeleton.

On the chest sat a small, purple heart speaker that doubled as a button for said speaker. If Virgil wanted to find out the problem, he needed to hear it. Maybe the problem was as simple as a block or a broken wire.

Okay, so the sound was horrible and ear grating, but probably fixable. He flipped the back and found the Velcro to open it situated between a pair of floppy wings. Inside was a voice box with... a couple frayed wires. How had it broken anyways? Nevertheless, it seemed easy enough for Virgil to replace that in a few minutes.

Read more

~~~

Taglist: @rememberfateau-nowoffical @vampy-personal @thelowlysatsuma @bucketsofclams @sleepless-in-starbucks @sanders-sides-crofters @thgjclw @amazing-creepyfloof @max-is-tired

[too-attached-to-fiction]

The Mind Palace Arcade - 16.3

Summary:

sometimes laser tag doesn't fix everything.

Notes:

Hello readers! God, Clam and I have been waiting to post this chapter ALL MONTH. We're so excited for you to see this!

As most of you in the comments of the last chapter may have guessed, there is laser tag involved. But... sometimes, it isn't enough.

Fun fact of the chapter: I'm pretty sure I screamed while writing this. Also, protective Emile is my favorite Emile.

Please remember our comment goal and if you see this on tumblr, PLEASE reblog! I'd love to get this circulating more. There's also a ficlet that's supposed to be in between this chapter and the last so check that out on my AO3 page under 'Mind Palace Ficlets'. Clam mostly wrote that one, so shout out to them for writing that and being my awesome co-writer/beta-reader.

See you next week!

Nox

~~~

Mind Palace Arcade Staff

[Logan]: we have another… issue, concerning two of our employees.

[Emile]: ha, you can say that again.

[Dylan]: I know what you’re going to say and I’m going to tell you right now that it’s a terrible idea and I think Virgil is going to kill you if he finds out

[Thomas]: It’s a fun way!

[Emile]: Logan you don’t get it this could push Virgil out of the arcade FOR GOOD.

[Emile]: I know that everything is correct until proven otherwise but just trust me on this one. It can’t be solved that way.

[Patton]: It definitely seems bigger than they’re letting on.

[Remy]: is playing laser tag on the same team the equivalent of shoving two people in a closet and forcing them to make up for the arcade???

[Thomas]: yep!

[Emile]: you can’t do this to Virgil.

[Logan]: Emile, Virgil’s a fully grown adult, I’m sure he can handle it.

[Dylan]: you know it’s not that simple.

[Logan]: what else are we supposed to do?

[Dylan]: NOT INTERFERE.

[Logan]: Roman asked me to help. I fail to see why this wouldn’t.

[Patton]: wait first before you do it. Maybe they’ll sort it out on their own.

[Remy]: i agree with that.

~~~

The following week, a staff day was planned. Emile went to school (although he had protested very much against Logan’s idea) and the others, including Remy, went to work.

Remy burst into the control room minutes before Virgil entered the arena. “We’re a go.” He said, locking the door quickly. The others crowded around the console, watching a defeated Roman looking down at his feet.

“I hope this works.” Patton said, raising a hand to cover his mouth.

“It has to.” Logan said.

Read more

~~~

Taglist: 

@rememberfateau-nowoffical @midnight-personal @thelowlysatsuma @bucketsofclams @sleepless-in-starbucks @sanders-sides-crofters @thgjclw @amazing-creepyfloof @max-is-tired

[too-attached-to-fiction]

The Mind Palace Arcade - 16.1

I’m uploading this from my phone before I go to work so pardon the format if it’s a little weird!

Fun fact of the chapter: progress on both ships makes me cry because with them comes ANGST...

Also, I noticed you all stopped commenting! I don’t know if it’s because we started uploading at random times on Sunday or what but just a reminder that our comment goal is 10 and I’d really love it if you all would keep it up!

Thank you for your support and hopefully a new ficlet will be up this Wednesday!

Nox

~~~~

Logan and Patton sat on Roman’s tiny balcony, away from all of the music. It could still be heard, muffled through the walls.

“Your costume… I’m assuming it’s from simulation day?” Logan asked, awkwardly clutching the neck of his beer bottle. He wasn’t good at small talk, but if Patton wanted to talk, he’d talk almost anything.

“Yeah. Watson. Emile mentioned I should wear it tonight.” Patton said. “I don’t know why, it’s really just a scarf and cardigan and the hat-”

“It’s good.” Logan blurted out. “I mean, you make a good Watson.” He corrected himself, grateful that the patio lights were dim.

“Thanks.”

A moment of silence.

Read more

~~~

Tag list:

@rememberfateau-nowoffical @thelowlysatsuma @bucketsofclams @sleepless-in-starbucks @sanders-sides-crofters @thgjclw @amazing-creepyfloof @max-is-tired