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Knowledge is power.
As unusual and out of character as it might sound, Logan happened to like that particular saying.
He was the keeper of much of Thomas’ knowledge, retaining more facts and figures than any of the others could hope to comprehend.
Therefore, it was only logical that he had literal power.
It had taken awhile for Logan to notice, actually, as much as he would not wish to admit that fact. He had simply assumed his levels of strength were common among the sides, as anyone might. They were, at their cores, simply figments of Thomas’ imagination, so it made some form of round-about sense that they might be stronger than their host.
So the logical side was surprised when he came into the shared mindscape lounge and kitchen area and the other sides were struggling to move the couch.
Patton was straining at one end, pushing the sofa with what appeared to be all of his might, and Virgil (who was usually still very much in bed at this time of the morning) was pulling, looking ready to give up. The large piece of furniture was barely budging, though they had clearly already pushed it across the room at some point, deep indents in the carpet proving where the legs used to be.
Roman wasn’t doing anything but standing in front of the others, musing dramatically over what to do.
“Perhaps it would be better in the other corner…” he muttered, squinting.
“Are you kidding me? That’s where it started!”
“Uh… yeah, kiddo, we might need to stop for a second,” Patton added, biting his lip. “We’ve been at this for a little while…”
“Besides, you haven’t helped, and you’re always saying that you’re the the strongest out of all of us!” Virgil protested, flopping over the arm of the sofa in what was likely mock or exaggerated exhaustion.
“Oh, morning Lo!” Patton called, finally stopping his attempts at moving the sofa and spying the stoic side lurking on the stairs.
“Greetings. What are you doing?”
“Moving the sofa! What does it look like we are doing?” Roman cried.
“ ‘We’ ? It looks like you’re doing nothing…” Virgil muttered darkly. Based off of their many previous interactions, it was highly probable that he was thinking of various insults to get back at the creative side.
“No, I understood that. Instead, I meant why haven’t you simply picked it up? Wouldn’t that be much simpler than dragging it over the carpet, what with its added friction?”
Roman burst out in melodramatic laughter, and even Patton had to look sideways to stop himself from smiling.
“Pick it up? Logan, if you can do that then be my guest.” Roman rolled his eyes, obviously not believing Logan, which had the logical side perplexed.
“I am not your guest, we all live here together.”
But Roman had already burst into some song (presumably from a Disney film) about ‘being his guest’, so Logan knew from past experiences that it was near impossible to have an engaging conversation with him until he had finished.
So he went over to the sofa, getting a good grip on where the centre of its gravity was, ignoring Virgil’s sceptical smirk, and lifted the sofa up.
It was slightly heavy, especially with Virgil still sprawled in the corner messing with the centre of gravity, but manageable. He’d had to lift it in the past when he had dropped a pen underneath the seat anyway, so Logan had been expecting it.
“Be our guest, be our guest! Put our service to the-“ Roman’s singing cut off abruptly as the creative side stared, wide eyed, at the scene in front of him.
Patton was watching, mouth open in silent awe.
Virgil looked very alarmed indeed, clinging to the side of the sofa as if it were the only thing stopping him from tumbling head first to the floor (which it was) and muttering quiet, disbelieving curse words repeatedly.
“Where do you want this?” Logan asked, tiring of their silent stares. It may not have been too heavy, but the couch was a little awkward to hold.
“Logan! You didn’t tell us you were so strong! You lifted it sofa off of the ground!”
“Put it down!” Virgil demanded, still clinging to the sides.
Roman looked quite annoyed, but Logan couldn’t come up with a reasonable hypothesis as for why… That was, until he spoke.
“But-but I’m the strongest side! Thomas has a strong imagination! I’m the strongest!” It was a nonsensical reason to be upset, so Logan ignored him.
“No one answered my question.”
“Oh! Could you put it back in the corner Lo?” Patton asked finally, still looking oddly excited. “Yep, right there! Sofa so good…”
Logan did as the moral side requested, ignoring both his pun and Roman’s protests of “but-but-but-“ as he quietly set it down.
“What’s all this talk of butts? Without me?” A voice suddenly asked, and the other sides jumped at how abruptly Remus had appeared. “Woah! You all look like you’ve seen a ghost! Of a loved one! I can make that happen you know. I think Roman would look the best as a ghoul!”
“I always look the best full stop.” Roman muttered, still looking resentfully at Logan.
“Oh Remus, you should have seen what Logan just did! He lifted the whole sofa! No one else can do that! He’s no couch potato, I’ll tell you that…”
“That’s not even a pun, it’s simply an observation. No one is literally a ‘potato’ as you have implied, and there is no such thing as-“
“ Record scratch! Roman, I thought you were the strongest side!” Remus teased, pouncing on his brother and laughing maniacally when he wasn’t strong enough to shove him off. “With that kind of strength you could kill someone just by hugging them! Ohh that’s a juicy idea!” Virgil groaned in annoyance at his wording. “Hey daddy~, wanna hug?”
Usually Patton was all for physical affection, but this time he quickly shook his head, backing away from the struggling pair of twins with an awkward smile. Logan knew he was trying to be more accepting of Remus, but found it difficult due to their rather opposite natures.
“I’d hate to, uh crush your dreams, but I’m all good kiddo.”
“Is this really a surprise to you all?” Asked Logan, attempting to bring their conversation back to his apparently irregular levels of strength.
“Not at all. I always knew Roman wasn’t the strongest,” Janus said, suddenly appearing in the same manner Remus had. Roman looked put off at the sight of him, but said nothing.
“Hm… perhaps we ought to investigate this further…” Logan mused. How strong was he then? Usually, a person struggled to lift something equal to their body weight without training. If the other sides had ‘regular’ levels of strength…
Logan squinted slightly, looking closely at the side closest to him.
Hm…
Janus.
Logan easily swept the side off of his feet in what was commonly referred to as a ‘bridal-style’ hold, (despite the fact Logan was certain none of them would ever dream of have brides) knocking Janus’ hat right off of his head in the process.
It wasn’t at all difficult, as he had hypothesised. Interesting … perhaps…
“What ! I mean, uh, I was totally expecting this…”
“Ok, now fu-“
“Language!” Patton called, covering Virgil’s ears, though he swore almost as much as Logan and Remus did when the fatherly side was out of earshot.
“…I was gonna say make out.” Remus claimed, though Logan didn’t have to be Janus to detect it was a lie.
“Hm…” Logan looked around. How many of them could he carry? He shifted Janus so he was just on one arm.
“Logan. Logan, no.” Virgil cried, scooting backwards in vain as the Logical side scooped him up too. “Logan!”
By now, the other sides had caught onto what he was doing.
Patton allowed himself to be picked up with an excited squeal, Remus made some suggestive comment before jumping on Logan to create a ‘piggy back’, but Roman seemed hesitant.
He wasn’t struggling to hold any of their weights, so Logan wasn’t certain what the issue was.
Hm… possibly not a physical issue, then that only left… emotional?
Was he scared of being lifted?
Perhaps he still held some sort of resentment towards him?
“Hah. He’s chicken.” Virgil commented.
“It is a little fowl that he’s not jointing in…” (Logan groaned, weighing the benefits of dropping them all to prevent further inane wordplay from Patton) “Come one Roman! It’s fun! Besides, he’s like Mr Incredible! Or-or Superman!”
“Falsehood. Just as Roman bears no resemblance to a bird, I am not at all like either-“
But Roman was apparently very easily swayed by a movie reference (and possibly the suggestion that he was a bird, something Logan didn’t quite understand and made a mental note to add to his vocabulary cards).
“Oh, alright!” He said, suddenly leaping at the pile of sides.
“Agh!”
Unfortunately, that was perhaps one side too many, or Logan was simply not prepared to catch someone in mid air, and they all ended up collapsed on the couch, giggling and struggling to not get crushed by all of the other sides.
“I’d bet that was a weight off your chest Lo!” Patton giggled, causing the side to groan.
“It really is ‘Brain over brawn’, I suppose…” he commented, fighting hard to keep a smile off his face. “And this means that my limit is likely around four times my weight..”
“Or it means you shouldn’t leap at someone who’s holding all of your friends hostage high in the air!” Virgil countered.
“On the contrary, it sounds like a perfect idea.”
“Knowledge is power! And with great power comes great responsibility…” Roman declared. “Logan is on moving things duty!
“Hah. You said duty… ” Roman elected to ignore his brother.
“I have so many plans !”
Logan then sighed with frustration as he realised that he was going to be quite busy these next few days…
But somehow, lying squished under far too many bodies on their comfortable sofa in a very uncomfortable position, he couldn’t find it in himself to protest.
(An action which he was certain he was going to regret later)
(He did.)