( semi-open ) though it may hurt today

[gradenine]

WHO: Roland (gradenine) & some of you guys
WHAT: July catchall + event
WHERE: Vaults, then some formalwear shop (get in losers we're going shopping)
WHEN: The rest of July
WARNINGS: Major Ruina and Leviathan spoilers in the first prompt. Death, murder, the usual Project Moon warnings apply, probably. Please refer to his opt-out for more info.




art credit | plotting comment | event log
hmu if you want a starter!

Comments

[gradenine]

What's wrong with looking like me...?

[ like come on. he got immaculate drip, just admit it. anyway he easily finds a crisp red undershirt and pushes it into junpei's awaiting hands. ]

Now go. Lemme know if you need help in tying that tie.

[ please tell him junpei knows how to do it, ]

[coolerjunpei]

[hm...........

Well anyway, thanks for the shirt. Junpei doesn't think it's weird to not know how to tie a tie - what is he, a grandpa?? - so he'll just shuffle off to put on the shirt and pants in the nearest changing room.

And then, like a child, he will come back out in his socks with his tie piteously not tied. Unabashed.]

I need help with the tie.

[gradenine]

[ that didn't even take long... dude...

roland bites the inside of his cheek to keep himself from grinning, but that didn't help much when he's still kinda holding back from smiling anyway. ]

All right, come here.

[ he makes quick work of the tie around junpei's collar and, after stepping back for a moment to check if the guy looks passable -- ]

Your hair needs to be, uhh...

[ hold still, let him just comb your hair back with his fingers like so........ ]

[coolerjunpei]

[Go ahead and laugh, he didn't even try. On purpose, because he's too lazy to actively embarrass himself trying to tie it when he already knows he can't... His embarrassment points can be spent much better somewhere else.

So: thanks bestie, now he's all fancied up besides the jacket, which he would go back and put on if Roland wasn't doing a wack thing to his head right now? Hi?]

What's wrong with my hair? [this as he sort of tilts to try and escape without getting poked in the eye,] It's suit-ready! I combed it this morning.

[probably....]

[gradenine]

No, you did not.

[ be for real here, man. as if junpei actually went here prepared. but yeah, roland's stepping back and gives bestie another Look as he strokes his chin. hmmm. ]

All right, not too shabby. Now you can surprise your girlfriend with flowers and a candlelit dinner.

[ that's. that's what normie guys like junpei do in normal worlds, right. ]

[coolerjunpei]

[Rude, to call him out like this. He has no words in his own defense, so maybe he didn't comb his hair, but whatever, who is he trying to impress in this place...]

I feel like a dipshit going to prom by himself. Uh, not a true story.

[Junpei did not go to prom at all, but moving on. He looks down at himself, dubiously lifting the end of the tie. A thought experiment about what it's like to go on dates, huh--]

Anyway, I don't think— ["my girlfriend"?? well, she isn't--] —it's that simple.

[gradenine]

Hey, at least you're not going there alone.

[ maybe. junpei's got peers here now! but nah, roland just thinks he's also kind of a lone wolf, but junpei's reaction to his other statement is making him raise a brow. ]

And why not? Don't tell me she's dead too.

[ not him going for that conclusion right away ]

[coolerjunpei]

[He does indeed have more homies here... He doesn't think he could stand in front of half of them in this dorky suit without feeling like a dipshit, but that's not the point. Homies...is the point.

Anyway, what the fuck dude. She's not dead in every timeline, but forgive him for merely sputtering instead of saying that.]

Not—no! What the hell... [grumble mumble he's pulling at the tie again, ugh,] Can I put my t-shirt back on if we're going to talk about this?

[gradenine]

Huh? Yeah, sure, go ahead.

[ he waves his hand over at the fitting rooms, gogogo. maybe junpei doesn't have bitches after all? well, that beats having one in this day and age, he guesses. ]

[coolerjunpei]

[Grumble mumble he's going to put his normal guy clothes back on... he doesn't know what to do with this suit and he's definitely not classy enough to do something like put clothes back on hangers, so it's all bunched up and draped over his arm as one mass of cloth when he comes back. Hi. So about his bitchless status. It's quantum, actually.]

Okay. ...This is weird. There is a usually-not-dead girl, but...

[...maybe this would be easier with the visual aid? He digs in his jeans pocket for a moment before producing the cracker jack box engagement ring, which he does indeed carry around with him at all times. He holds it up. Roland has earned the Junpei's Romantic Backstory experience, so here goes.]

I asked her to marry me, [not in. so many words. no one said "marry me," never MIND,] but only in a different history...?

[gradenine]

[ how junpei really speedran getting his normie clothes back on... but that's not important here. he's already raising his brow at the mention of a girl who's not usually?? dead??? but the toy ring made him pause. he was actually kidding, bro? he didn't think you had a girl too??? help ]

A... different history? How does that work?

[ tfw he hasn't heard of this thing called an AU before. damn. ]

[coolerjunpei]

[Oh, yet again, Junpei forgets who all he's mentioned The Histories to. He should just make another crazy paranoid guy post, but about time travel...

There's a beat before he, uh, lowers that hand holding the ring, so he's not just waving it in Roland's face this whole time.]

Uh, well, you know about quantum mechanics? The many-worlds interpretation, certain observations can't exist absolutely, blah blah? That's all real. That's what I mean by a different history. Like...

[He glances down at the messy suit pile on his arm,] There's another history where you thought this tie was cool, even if it was just to humor me. You following?

Anyway, in some histories, me and Akane—uh, that's her—aren't alive anymore. That's all.

["that's all"]

[gradenine]

[ another world where he thinks junpei's tie was cool? damn. couldn't be him. roland's just raising his brows as junpei as the guy explains, and... ngl, he still can't wrap his head around the intricacies of it, but: ]

Wait. I think I'm getting it now, but...

[ ... ]

You had already died before?

[ DON'T JUST STOP THERE??? ]

[coolerjunpei]

[What, what is this problem, is this not Quantum Basics?? But no, okay, Junpei sees the problem. He's merely been studiously trying for the past however many weeks not to think about dying in a bunch of awful ways.]

Ah, uh... A version of me, yeah. Although for other seriously too quantum reasons, I do remember it. Guess it was to give us context.

[But the point isn't the quantum antics or the mastermind's complex motives; he thought they were gonna talk about his confused rizz...]

Look, if you want to be technical, it's the consciousness that moves around the other histories, not the body. [does that help????]

[gradenine]

Look, I never went to a proper school, okay? So gimme some time to wrap my head around this...

[ rip roland he'll never survive uchikoshi's nonsense ]

But okay. There are multiple versions of you and your girlfriend in different worlds out there, and some of them are dead. [ ... ] How did you know they're even dead in the first place?

[coolerjunpei]

Huh, really? I wouldn't have guessed.

[Roland seems like a Smart Guy who Finished School... learning new bestie facts every day. Sorry that Junpei's return facts suck so bad.]

And... it's the consciousness-moving part. It's like—damn, you definitely haven't seen this movie, never mind.

[it was back to the future ftr]

I guess I'll just be my own example. So, let's call me Junpei A, right? In Timeline A, I get my skull cracked open, or whatever. But in Timeline B, Junpei B is just fine and doesn't have to deal with any skull problems. My—Junpei A's—consciousness just has to move from Timeline A to Timeline B right before I get whacked, and then I'm fine. Junpei B isn't fine, but we're only following one of me around. Get it?

[gradenine]

[ his face scrunches up as he gets his braincells working. okay... okay. ]

So your brain just... jumps from one timeline to another. Okay, I think I get that. Hopefully.

[ help ]

But our circumstances aside, why can't you just marry her in this timeline anyway? Unless she like, doesn't love you back in this one. Now that'd be complicated as hell.

[coolerjunpei]

[give this man 10 INT points... good work king.]

Well it's not like I'm not going to ask again... you know, eventually. When we get out of here. But, uh...

["she stabbed me in the stomach last time and it was semi-related"]

It is kind of complicated. She's kind of intense about... doing her own thing with the timelines, without me. Maybe I'll get put on hold, or something.

[gradenine]

[ oh thank the wings he's not gonna get quizzed for this ]

...Well. I dunno the scope of your relationship with her, but if you guys are meant to be in most timelines, then you gotta go for it anyway. It'll probably work out, even if the method of getting there isn't what you wanted. The most important thing is that you're able to tell her how you feel.

[ which is kind of surreal to hear from roland but LISTEN. HE WAS A MARRIED GUY he would know these things. ]

[coolerjunpei]

[junpei will jus assume he understands everything forever, it's fine.]

That's... deep.

[Is Roland, like, a Real Cool Guy? With life advice? Junpei already thought he was cool, but wow, it's like he understands interpersonal relationships.]

I guess you're right. [...,] And, uh, sorry for dumping all of that on you, too.