[ it's not that easy, of course. charles very deliberately doesn't think what he might do, if the situations were reversed, if edwin was well and truly gone — would he keep going?

the answer comes to him like it's ingrained into his soul: fuck no. if edwin was taken back to hell, charles would follow. if edwin was sent to oblivion, the endless darkness of nothing, charles would follow — because endless nothingness would be preferrable to an afterlife without edwin in it.

he can only keep going, now, with the knowledge edwin's back home, safe. but saying all this out loud? bloody counterproductive, that. which is why he latches on to scott's question for something to distract him with, offering him a sheepish smile. ]

Oh, yeah, sorry about that. [ and also, uh, now that he thinks about this — maybe this isn't a great topic to talk with someone who's in mourning. but no way out but through, is there? ] The coldness, it's, uh, a ghost thing. Living people can't really feel us, not the same way, anyway, but we feel real cold to them. You.