Moceit

Moceit is the slash ship between Patton "Morality" Sanders and Janus "Deceit" Sanders from the Sanders Sides fandom.

Canon
Deceit is introduced while impersonating Patton in "Can Lying Be Good?", where he was trying to goad Thomas into thinking that it's okay to lie while disguised as the actual moral center of Thomas' being. After trying to gaslight Thomas into thinking that he has no morality, Patton quickly pops up and proves him wrong, showing that while Deceit is a slime, he cares enough about Patton to not actually hurt him.

Later in "Selfishness vs. Selflessness", Deceit tries the same trick by impersonating Logan, only for the Sides to quickly catch on and unmask him. He offers Thomas his help by imagining a courtroom scenario in Thomas' mindpalace, claiming that it would help him in his latest interpersonal dilemma of choosing to advance his career or trying to be there for the wedding of his friends. Notably, he puts Patton in the role of Thomas' defense attorney while imagining himself as Thomas' prosecutor. The episode plays up that dynamic by having the two of them exchange passive-aggressive remarks, like having Patton push up a glass of water "for" Deceit or having Deceit try distracting Patton with a magic trick. Ultimately, Deceit is defeated by having Judge Roman "punish" Thomas by forcing him to go to his friends' wedding. Though Deceit is disappointed in Thomas, he reminds him that he will always be a part of him and proves his status as one of his Sides by showing his sigil: A two headed-snake. Patton ruins the moment for him by cooing over how "cute" it is.

Later in "Putting Others First" (the direct sequel to SvS), Thomas ends up coming back from the wedding disappointed and discusses his issues with Patton and Roman. The whole discussion escalates as all parties realize that Patton is just as fallible as the rest of them and not nearly as morally superior as everyone believed him to be. This causes Patton to have a breakdown that transforms him into a giant frog monster (a call-back to him using "Frogger" as an example earlier) and Deceit has to swoop in and save Thomas to the surprise of everyone. Patton manages to calm down and Deceit properly enters the scene. Patton shows his respect for Deceit, but Thomas and Roman still don't trust him, leaving Deceit with no option but to reveal his name "Janus" to prove that he only has Thomas' best interest at heart. Roman callously makes fun of him for his name, but Thomas and Patton finally accepted Janus as a part of Thomas, leaving Roman quite shaken. The episode ends with Patton leaving to try and comfort Roman after Janus promises that he can take care of Thomas by himself.

The epilogue further shows how they get along, as they have a pleasant conversation with each other, leaving their former animosity behind (seemingly) for good.

Quotes

 * Patton: "Janus?"
 * Janus: "I'll take care of [Thomas]"

Fanon
Though it had shippers from the moment Deceit was introduced, the fanbase were very divided on the subject of shipping Deceit with any of the other Sides, as he represents "lying" and relationships built on lies are bound to become toxic eventually. In general, only fans of the character actually wanted to ship him with the other Sides, while the rest of the fandom simply ignored all his ships, the fandom had a pre-existing goal to avoid ship-shaming as much as possible.

The ship received a small popularity boost after "Selfishness vs. Selflessness" which clearly focused on their fun hate-filled interactions, which caused many people to compare the ship to NaruMitsu, but most of the fandom was focusing on Anxceit or Roceit instead, simply finding the teasing of Virgil's backstory with Deceit and the flirting between him and Roman to be far more appealing.

And then the name reveal in "Putting Others First" happened, causing Moceit to explode in popularity as it gave a clear indication what a relationship between the two would look like. Many have commented that, if Patton is "The Dad" of the group, that makes Janus "The Wine Mom" (which actually received a brief nod in "Have I Changed?", as Janus calls himself a "wine aunt"). Just mere hours after the episode was released, the fandom already compared the ship to Ineffable Husbands as that ship similarly pairs an awkward angelic archetype with a more suave snakeperson. Though it isn't in the Top 10 of the Sanders Sides tag on AO3, it quickly became the second most popular Deceit ship in the fandom (after Dukeceit) and the fifth-most popular ship for Patton.

Moceit is often shipped alongside Prinxiety and Intrulogical, and fanwork focusing on one of the others often have Patton and Janus dating in the background.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TUMBLR

Variations

 * DAMP — the ship between Patton, Janus, Virgil and Roman
 * DAMR — the ship between Patton, Janus, Virgil and Remus
 * DLAM — the ship between Patton, Janus, Logan and Virgil
 * DLAMP — the ship between Patton, Janus, Logan, Virgil and Roman
 * DLAMR — the ship between Patton, Janus, Logan, Virgil and Remus
 * DLMP — the ship between Patton, Janus, Logan and Roman
 * DLMR — the ship between Patton, Janus, Logan and Remus
 * DRLAMP — the ship between Patton, Janus, Logan, Virgil, Roman and Remus
 * Intrumoceit — the ship between Patton Janus and Remus
 * Moxceit — the ship between Patton, Janus and Virgil
 * Royaliceit — the ship between Patton, Janus and Roman