( OPEN 💀 case of the glitching city )

[incorrigibles]

Who: charles rowland + you
Where: in vague places around aldrip
What: glitches for you, and you, and also you —
Warnings: mentions of death and dying, mr. rowland's a+ parenting (abuse, racism, homophobia)

STARTERS IN COMMENTS.

❯ OPEN — the ghost-to-human au nobody asked for
❯ OPEN — the wet kitten option, with a dash of hypothermia
❯ CLOSED TO EXISTING CR — what do you mean his horrible death wasn't the worst of it?

❯ want something else? feel free to wildcard it or hmu @ celen
❯ your soundtrack for this: ♫ ♫

Comments

[coolerjunpei]

[It's almost funny; Junpei has had plenty of long days before that ended much more terribly than this one, sitting in the dark in the emptiness of his shitty apartment, forcing himself to rally for the next day only to avoid more of the same. Hell, even the bunker was one long day iterated over and over again, and somehow this is the first long day in ages that feels like it's not ending on more of the same.

Maybe it's bittersweet-funny? Chuckle-adjacent? He'll workshop it. What's important is not ending a long day feeling like the next one is going to be even longer, and that's thanks to Charles being there— to listen, to understand, to give a damn. It's been a long and weird and exhausting day, and somehow, he feels better for it.]

Yeah. But hey, tomorrow's, uh, brand new or something, right? [This is why he needs the inspirational phrase-a-day desk calendar,] You know what I mean.

[A beat. They've probably earned a break from dealing with their respective pasts today, all things considered, so,]

You want to just... zone out for a while? I could zone out—with company.

[incorrigibles]

I know, [ he repeats, because he does know — it's words he's said every time a case has ended up somewhat botched, something he had always wanted to believe in when he'd been alive and never quite had, not until he was dead and had figured out that one bad day was usually followed by a better one.

here, he believes it, too, and most of that is thanks to junpei being here. ]

Sounds brills. [ both the zoning out part, because yeah, he kind of really does feel like not thinking about anything for a while, possibly a long while; and the with company part, because the idea of letting go of junpei's hand and leaving is suddenly almost enough to cause him physical pain. so if this is giving him an excuse to not do that... yeah.

and then, with a light squeeze to his hand, ]

... Thanks. [ for earlier? yeah, that too. but also for this, letting him stay, not kicking him out just yet. because really, charles doesn't think he could handle being alone right now. ]