An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 7/?
Fandom: Sanders Sides (Web Series), Thomas Sanders Shorts
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Sleep | Remy Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Sleep | Remy Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders
Characters: Sleep | Remy Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, October | Toby Sanders, OFC, OMC, The Critic (Sanders Sides)
Additional Tags: Past Relationship(s), Blood, Violence, monster au, Vampire Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Vampire Sleep | Remy Sanders, mid ninetys fashion, Casual Sex, Scars, we respect sexworkers here sir, 90s goth Virgil is a gift, Horror Elements, Sex Work, Sort Of, Pizza, Claustrophobia, Buried Alive, Temporary Amnesia, Casual Drug Use, Gaslighting, prolonged flashback, Dehumanizing Language, Genderfluid Character, in the 90s economy?
Series: Part 4 of Before they were Roommates, Part 24 of Monstrous Roommates
Summary:
Remy is back in New York after some time away, and gets to introduce two of his favorite people to each other.
Neither Virgil nor Roman is particularly pleased about this, at least at first.
Prompt: Take a traditional scary tale (”The Headless Horseman”, “Frankenstein”, “Dracula”) and portray a plot point or poke fun at a character or characters from the story in the form of a MEME!
I really don’t know any scary stories, so I picked one of the examples Xb It’s a rough sketch, but eh, I’ve got another 3 days to catch up to.
oct 1st: Take your profile pic in the past and create a spooky version!
hi everyone i’m participating in sanderstober! really excited to see what i can do this year. this was my old pfp for this account in 2018 and this is the 2020 version that’s a little spookier!!
Warnings: death of major characters, food/battery poisoning (it's unclear). Tell me to put more warnings if needed.
Pairings: Eventual Prinxiety and Intrulogical
Summary: upcoming band, sunset curve, are about to make their debut at the orpheum when a serious tragedy occurs on the night of their performance. (Set in 1995)
A/n: here is my crappy writing bringing to you my Julie and the Phantoms au- er, Roman and Phantoms in this case? Haha, sorry! Besides that, there is are going to be links right before a performance/singing scene and it's highly recommended that you give it a listen before continuing on!
It was a loud and busy night in sunset boulevard, there were crowds of people lined up right outside the orpheum, a line that was so long that it almost surpassed the width of the building. There was excited chatter amongst people- fans of the band that had yet to play in the building.
Up on the Marquee read: Sunset Curve - Sold out.
The sound of a distant guitar riff from inside the building seemed to rile up the excitement in the crowd.
(Listen to the song before proceeding)
There were three clacks of drumsticks hitting, "One! Two! Three!"
"Take off, Last stop! Countdown till' we blast open the top!"
A man in his late teens with purple-dyed tips and ripped jeans sung with a playful smirk. he seemed to be the lead singer of the band Sunset curve.
"Face first! full charge! Electric hammer to the heart-"
He looked in his element, effortlessly playing the guitar while singing. Three other voices joined the lead in harmony.
"Clocks move faster 'cause it's all we're after now, oh"
The lead looked over to a guy with a baby blue leather jacket a bass and he cocked his head to the side as if to say 'come over'. The bassist jumped over and sung in the same mic.
"Won't stop climbing, 'cause this is our time! yeah!"
The singer pushed him away playfully and the bassist went back to his own mic. They quickly moved to the prechorus
"When all the days felt black and white, Those were the best shades of my life!"
The singer belted with a grin, swiftly moving to the chorus, the other band members joining in every shout
"Don't look down!"
" 'Cause we're still rising-"
" Up right now!"
"And even if we-"
"Hit the ground!"
"We'll still fly- Keep dreaming like we'll live forever But live it like it's now or never!"
The singer turned away from the mic and to the drummer as if passing it off to him with a shine in his eyes and an almost never-gone grin.
"We ain't searching for tomorrow," The drummer sung, "Tomorrow" The bassist repeated
" 'Cause we got all we need today," "Today!"
The lead took over momentarily
"Living on a feeling that's been running through our veins,"
The bassist smirked as he took in a deep breath, running his and through his hair,
"We're the revolution that's been singing in the rain"
Each band members stopped playing their instruments, clapping and clacking their sticks together to a beat as they repeated the start of the chorus
"Don't look down! 'cause we're still rising up right- now!"
They picked their instruments back up, a fire and smoke effect errupted around them as they played their instruments once again and delved into the final chorus
"And even if we hit the ground we'll still fly- Keep dreaming like we'll live forever but live it like it's now or never!"
There were more effects blowing around and lights shining on them as they harmonized at final part of the song
"It's now or never!" "Now or never"
Both guitarists and the bassist turned to the drummer as they strummed their last chords. They panted, catching their breaths as sweat fell down their faces and yet they had wide grins. They soon turned around and did their bows.
There was applause and cheers from the orpheum employees as the band members stood straight, "Whoo! Excellent!" A Girl cheered from the table she was wiping down, clapping alongside the employees,
The bassist chuckled, it sounded bubbly and sweet, and grabbed the mic, "Thank you, we're sunset curve," he said with a small wave before turning to the other bands members, who were immediately going on about that performance as the put away their instruments.
The lead and the second guitarist bumped their fists together with a smile, "Too bad we wasted that om a sound check," the second guitarist said, "that was the tightest we've ever played!"
The lead singer just smiled as he turned to the empty spot where the crowd would have been, "Just wait until tonight, when this place is packed with record execs," he said, his eyes lighting up at the mere thought. It was almost hard to believe and yet there they stood on the stage.
"Logan, you were smoking!" The bassist said to the drummer- Logan- who just huffed, pulling out his glasses from his shirt and sliding them back onto his face
"I oppose that, Pat, I was just warming up... In fact, you guys were the ones on fire," he said with a small smile and a faint blush on his light brown skin.
The bassist- Pat- pouted, "Aw, c'mon, lo! Can you, just this once, own up to your awesomeness? Hm?" He huffed, grabbing a few of their t-shirts and CD cases. The lead, who had been listening in, looked at Logan with a knowing smirk and an eyebrow raised.
Logan relented, biting his lip as he looked to his band members, "Fine, I was... 'Killing' it," he said, offering a small smile.
The lead smiled and went to lightly tap Logan's Shoulder, "ok, well, I'm thinking that we fuel up before the show," he took in a deep breath, "I'm thinking street dogs?" He suggested
Logan and Pat made sounds of affirmation. It had been a pretty high-energy performance, so having some hotdogs wasn't such a bad idea. At the time.
A female employee watched with a fond smile as she wiped down a table, and it seemed that she had captured the second guitarist's attention and interest
He went to walk off the stage and approach her.
"Hey Toby-" the lead saw him jump off the ledge of the stage and followed after, "Where you going?" He asked, the other two members right behind.
Toby turned to them, "I'm good," he said waving his hand dismissively and turned to the girl, smiling as he leaned against the table she was wiping.
"Vegetarian. Could never hurt an animal," he said, as if explaining. The others stood next to him, the three of them holding unimpressed and fond looks, seeming that they knew it was a lie.
"You guys are really good," she said with an impressed look on her face, a small spanish accent to her as she spoke. She had tan skin, shoulder-length voluminous curly hair, and a sleeveless sequin shirt.
"Thank you," pat chirped, resting his arm on Logan's Shoulder, to which said man didn't mind.
"I see a lot of bands," she continued, "Been in a few, myself," she smiled, "I was really feeling it,"
The lead smiled, "Well, uh, that's what we do this for," he said with a small awkward laugh before realizing something: "I- uh, I'm Virgil, by the way," he introduced then gesturing to Pat.
"Hi, I'm Patton,"
"Logan,"
"Toby,"
"Nice meeting you guys," she said with a curt nod, "I'm Rose,"
Patton seemed to perk up, "Oh! Uh-" he held out a CD, "Here's our demo," he said, sliding it over to her, then grabbing a T-shirt, "and a T-shirt, size: beautiful," he said with a grin. Logan groaned at that. Patton had the tendency to flirt as a joke and not meaning any of it.
Rose just smiled, talking the T-shirt, unfolding it and holding it up to he body, looking down at the design, before looking to the band, "Thanks," she said with a smile. She went to fold it in half and put it on her shoulder, looking to the table, "I'll make sure not to wipe tables down with this one," she said a little awkwardly.
"Oh, good decision," Logan said with a nod, "whenever they get wet, they tend to- uh, fall apart in your hands," he provided with a small smile.
Toby huffed, "Don't you guys have to get hot dogs?" He asked.
Virgil just smirked, "Yeah," he said then leaning close to Rose, "He had a hamburger for lunch," he said, cocking his head to Toby's direction before going to push himself away from the table and walk towards the exit, leaving an exasperated and disappointed Toby alone with Rose.
Virgil, Logan, and Patton grabbed their jackets before they went, shrugging them on as they went out the backstage exit.
Virgil hummed looking around, rolling on the balls of his feet "That's what I'm talking about," He said with an almost giddy shine to his eyes
"The smell of sunset boulevard?" Logan asked with a raised eyebrow, readjusting his ripped denim jacket.
Virgil rolled his eyes and lightly punched Logan's arm, "No, smartass," he said with a small laugh, "It's what that girl said back there-" he said, walking in front of the others and kicking a puddle in his adrenaline-induced happiness.
"-about out music Alright?" He turned to look to the others, making a vague gesture with his hands, "It- It's like an energy," he said, slowing down a bit and walking beside them with a hum.
"It connects us with people- they can feel us when we play," Virgil hummed, walking behind them then hooking his arms around their shoulders, "I want that with everybody tonight,"
"Well then, we'll need a lot more shirts," Patton said, looking to the two ones in his hands. Virgil could help but let out a small laugh at that, "C'mon, let's go," he said.
They walked by a line of people- the people lined up for their show. Patton noticed two girls who were excitedly talking to each other and he went to diverge from the other two.
"Ladies," he smiled, giving them the last two shirts he had on hands before going back to the other two.
The two girls seemed confused, unfurling the shirt. Their eyes lit up as they realized who gave them the shirts
"Patton, wait!" One of them shouted, "oh my God, Patton!" The other one shouted. They both jumped in excitement, "oh my God, hi! It's me!"
As they walked away, they felt a little bit of pride bloom inside. They saw just how long the line was and it blew their minds. So many people lined up to see them and hear them play. This truly was a night none of them would ever forget.
They soon found a hotdog spot in an alleyway about a street down from the orpheum. They quickly got their hotdogs and went to putting on their toppings and condiments
Logan grimaced as he looked to where the condiments were stored- the trunk of a car along with a car battery.
"Virgil, there should be better places in Hollywood than this," he huffed, going to reach for the tongs to grab his topping of choice
Virgil didn't exactly look that crazed about it Either but he shrugged, "It's the closest spot to the orpheum and we cannot- for the life of us and our future- miss this gig,"
Logan just took on a deep breath, going to take a pickle to put on his hotdog, a slice slipped through the tongs and fell on the battery's cables. Great, just great, "I can't wait to eat someplace where the condiments aren't served in the back of an Oldsmobile," he grumbled.
Virgil just huffed and leaned against the trunk, waiting for Logan. This was going to be the one and only time they're eating at this spot. After tonight, they'll eat anywhere they want.
Logan finished with assembling his hotdog and turned to the vendor who was grilling hotdogs and patties, "Excuse me, uh... I got some pickle juice on your battery cables. Sorry," he said.
"No problem, it'll help with the rust," the vendor responded, giving Logan a pat on the back and a laugh
Logan looked dumbfounded, "That can't-" the vendor only chuckled and turned back to grilling. Logan looked to Virgil, who cocked his head over to a couch.
"Ok.." Logan sighed as he shook his head, defeated.
Patton let out a small sigh and he plopped on to the couch, followed by Virgil then Logan, they all leaned against the ratty and patched-up couch that was in the "dining area" of this pop-up shop.
Virgil hummed as he looked up to the sky, a small smile appearing on his face. Tonight was the biggest night ever and he could barely believe it, "This is awesome, you guys," he said, looking to his friends. "We are playing the freaking orpheum- I can't even count how many bands have played here and then ended up being huge!" He exclaimed
Patton chuckled lightly and smiled wide while Logan tried to suppress one. Virgil let out a small laugh of disbelief, "We are going to be legends," he smiled. He looked to the hotdog in his hands and lifted it up.
"Eat up, Boys," he said, the other two lifting their dogs as well, " 'Cause after Tonight... Everything changes,"
They all brought their dogs together as if a toast and bit in. As soon as Logan bit down, he tasted something metallic and ashy, "That's an odd flavor," he mumbled. Something felt very wrong.
"I'm sure It'll be fine," Patton mumbled. There was sudden sense of dread, "street dogs haven't killed us yet," he tried to joke.
They looked to the sandwich in their hands and reluctantly took another bite.
Only a few moments later, the siren of an ambulance wailed, driving towards sunset boulevard.
I’m doing some world building for a space au, and figured I could get some fun questions to answer on here after bugging my housemates. I made a species of basically squirrel-dragons and roughly fleshed out their society. I’d love to expand on a few more details and soundboard off of anyone interested!
These are most of my written/drawn notes, and I should be capable of explaining everything here. They don’t have a set name yet, but I’m still working on language stuff. For fandom specific info: I’d be casting Toby and Remy as this species (remy as a Pygmy version because it’s hilarious). The general Au is also open for questions, but I may take a hot sec to flesh out some details.
I think there will be one more part after this, hopefully tonight! No Patton in this section but don’t worry, we’ll get to him ;)
Starts a few days after part 3
Warnings: swearing, angst, conflict, fighting over a love interest
***
“I can’t believe you! After all our hard work you just.. what? Feel bad and give up?!” Toby berated his friend, talking over Remus’s miserable groaning from the couch. “You like this guy! No, you really like him, and you’re just giving up on getting the guy of your literal dreams because Dexter O’Reilly looked a little bit fuckin’ sad?!”
Well, yeah. It wasn’t exactly easy to explain. Remus had tried four different times but Toby had only got more and more irate in the end, and he’d given in.
His phone buzzed on his chest and Toby huffed. “That’s probably Patton again, wondering why the hell you took off without saying yes to dinner. Bro! Just call him and say you were low on protein or something! Please!”
“Dude, I can’t just lie to him like that. And I don’t know why I- huh.”
“What? What is it?”
“It wasn’t Patton.”
On his phone was a text from an unknown number. All it said was, ‘you win’.
***
Dexter was keeping his head down in the aftermath of his humiliating defeat at the hands of Jocky McJockface. It wasn’t that he thought Remus had somehow beaten him (although that childish thought persisted unpleasantly) but that Patton had chosen him. Patton, sweet Patton, who’d sat with him while he’d worked for most of Winter break. Who’d laughed with him and smiled at him and been gentle and soft and quiet and kind with him.
But Patton didn’t want him, and that was what smarted most of all. Because you couldn’t fight that kind of harsh fact. You couldn’t (and shouldn’t try to) change it.
Admittedly sending that text had been a bad idea, but he was feeling sorry for himself and he’d had a gin and tonic or three so… Why not? Fuck it, basically.
And yet.
He’d not heard anything since about the two of them dating now. Dex ran the goddamn gossip mill; he’d know instantly once they went steady, but there was nothing. No news, no changes, no updates- nothing. It was, quite frankly, weird.
There was weirder to come though, when Remus texted back an invitation to meet at an address he knew to be on Greek Row, that night after football practice…
***
Remus was furtive when he opened the door later on, peering around to see Dexter stood on the doorstop looking very impatient and unimpressed. He stared at him for a moment, clocking the perfectly tailored shirt and slacks combo under Dexter’s wool coat. So different from anything he’d ever wear…
“Are you going to let me in or do I have to stand here and watch my social cred disappear the more people see me in front of a frat house?” Dex asked archly, and Remus hurriedly let him in, ushering him through the building to his room.
He locked the door behind them and turned to see Dexter examining the decor with his nose in the air. Remus forced his hackles down again, and sat on the bed, gesturing to the recently cleared chair in the corner he’d pulled out for this meeting.
“So.”
“So,” Dex replied, tone slightly mocking. Remus sighed. “I assume you didn’t invite me here to gloat?”
If it hadn’t been a genuine question Remus would’ve rolled his eyes. But there was a hint of emotion shaking Dex’s words and he took it seriously instead. “No, not to gloat. Truth is- truth is I felt pretty shitty when I saw you in the corridor. Until then it was sorta… fun. You know, a little healthy competition to heat the blood or whatever. But then, like, bro you looked fuckin’ gutted. That’s not fun anymore. And I get it, ‘cause I could’a been there where you were easy as anything, and you could be the one he was looking at and that would’ve hurt real bad.”
Dexter’s shoulders were high and tense and he refused to look at Remus.
“So I figured, why do I deserve this and you don’t?”
“Yes why indeed?!” Dexter snapped at last, folding his arms tight across his chest and glaring at the jock. “He’s not just a cheerleader for you to have on your arm so you can win prom king, Duke. You don’t get dibs because you’re into sports.”
Well actually, according to his and Toby’s research, that did give Remus an edge… but no, not important right now. Probably not what Dexter meant, either.
“Hey, that’s not fair. That’s not why I like him at all, okay?” He said instead, with a frown but a calmness that would’ve impressed his parents beyond belief. “It’s Patton, I dunno how anyone could not be in love with him. It’s been almost two years for me, anyway. What about you?” His eyes pleaded with Dexter to get on board with him here and stop being so antagonistic.
As it happened something Remus had said had already done the trick.
“… Did you say two years?!” Dexter stared at him in shock. “You’ve like Patton Sanders for two years, and you’re… what, not dating him now you have the chance?! Are you really that noble?”
“Uh, yes? Is that weird? Why is that weird?!”
“Because it is! People aren’t like that! People aren’t nice-”
“I can be nice! Patton is the nicest though.”
“Oh, agreed, he’s super nice.”
“And kind.”
“And clever.”
“And pretty…” They both sighed, lost in thought.
“God, so pretty,” Dexter agreed in a lovesick sigh. He shook himself back to reality. “But so not the point. What the fuck are you doing here, talking to me, when you could have him? Didn’t he choose you?”
Remus shifted uncomfortably on the bed. “Well uh, I guess? But I mean, he- we didn’t explore every option, really, and- and he only offered to make me dinner, that’s not such a big deal, and- I would feel bad. Patton seemed to like you too- I heard about Winter break- and he seemed so happy whenever you two were together I just felt bad. For both of you.”
Dexter was still staring and Remus upgraded to a full on squirm. “Bro, why are you looking at me like that? What did I do? Should I not have backed off?”
Dexter was still staring, but his eyes betrayed how fast his mind was working. A slow smile spread over his face and he leaned back more comfortably in the chair, crossing his legs and steepling his fingers together under his chin.
“Um, Dexter? What’s- what’s that look for dude?”
“Remus Duke, my dear meathead. I have had a fantastic idea. I think you’re going to love it.”
Oct. 1st - Take your profile pic or a favorite profile pic in the past and create a spooky version! Double dog dare you to use it as your actual profile pic.
