citylogs | ( semi-open ) though it may hurt today

[Thanks king, he doesn't want to talk about murder for once. It's becoming a real overarching theme in this place, so on the one hand: he's been right all along, he knows it!! But on the other: god. Exhausting.

So, first:] You're the one who picked out the dots in the first place...

[Picky! Junpei squints very intently at these other ties; he can see the slighter, subtler patterns, make no mistake - but those don't make them "different ties" to him, because he's a schlub who can't dress. He shrugs, like, okay, sure? If Roland says they're different, they're probably different in a way that matters.

To other people, anyway.]

Well, I saw you were in here, so... [so he came for the friendship time, don't perceive him for this. Ahem. Pivoting,] I don't really do suits.

[ aww, bestie. roland grins. ]

You don't? Not even for a special occasion or even a job interview? I remember you mentioning that you used to work at a detective agency, and those guys usually have a suit and tie on for field work.

[ not even for prom, junpei? come on, now. in any case, roland puts down the swatches and ruffles through the selection for another one, still in black and white. it's so dire, dude. ]

Not this kind of detective agency... [He shrugs; they accepted his cool leather jacket as detective wear, he supposes. Anyway, Junpei was definitely paid under the table in cash at a shady office that didn't care that he showed up one day and asked for a job with zero experience, soooo.

So no, he's never worn a suit. Or been to prom, probably... But he knows Roland's fashion sense is boring the hell out of him, speaking as a guy who is also always dressed in monochrome, so after a beat of watching him go back to the black and white ties, Junpei turns to the nearest tie rack with some color on it and selects a cool red one.]

Here. What about this one?

[ whaddahell... it may be boring but at least he looks really snappy in a suit? but what does a millenial like junpei would know, anyway.

roland considers the tie the other guy picked out for him, taking it out of junpei's hands and quickly fixes it on his person. hmm. hmmmmmmm.

... ]

Too dated. Come on, Junpei, I'm not that old. What the hell.

[ only grandpas would wear a design like this, damn ]

[worse: junpei is a zoomer

Anyway, what's wrong with the tie... Junpei considers a super cool "could have fooled me" joke, but actually:]

I thought it looked like a nice tie.

[What's wrong with it!! It's hip! Some people like patterns they can see, unlike those other ties he still doesn't think are actually different.]

What about a bow tie? [lmao]

[ STOP it just looks so old-fashioned... it's totally something his older coworkers would've worn too. roland doesn't want to reminisce about it.

that suggestion only earns junpei a completely flat look. ]

Do I look like I'm preparing for a wedding here?

[ duh ]

You look like a guy who wears a suit every day. Didn't you get the memo? We're all unemployed here.

[Put on some goddamn sweatpants, Roland, damn. But Junpei can play along with Roland's compulsive suit-wearing behavior, looking again at the ties. Stop him before he finds a bolo tie and ages 40 years instantly...]

I guess if you don't like the dots or my red one, pick the boring plain one.

...Yeah. Yeah, I did get the memo. But despite how good it sounds on paper, the idea of not doing any sort of job doesn't sit right with me. Weird, right?

[ then again, he was supposed to be retired from the fixer business with his wife until Shit Happened. he could always make up for lost time in his retirement, but he can't exactly lay back and relax now that he dropped the bomb about the killing and stuff...

he hums in deep thought. hmm. hmmmmmm. the he looks at junpei like, ]

Okay. But how about this - why don't we try putting you in one of these for once? Just so you know how it's like.

Hey, you're preaching to the choir here about being restless. Still, it's not like I'd want my old job back. Uh, either of them.

[Seeing the horrors of human depravity or working part-time night shifts in retail, wowza... yeah, he's fine as far as being unemployed goes. It's the existential restlessness that's getting to him now, but maybe he's just bored! It's fine.

So, since he is probably just bored,] I guess I could try on a suit, but you have to let me keep the red tie. How do I pick out the rest...?

[ at least being a detective is a lot more exciting than retail?? but it could be that junpei is that painfully normal in every way, who just wanted to live a normal life. damn. couldn't be him. ]

Sure, you can keep the old-man tie. But uhh.

[ hmm. what goes well with red? roland looks through the nearby racks for inspiration, pulling out a random black ensemble because of fucking course he chooses black like an emo weirdo. ]

Here, try this one. But you gotta go with either a red undershirt or a black one to make the tie stand out. [ he's just making shit up but what if...... ]

[He wanted to have ambitions but it turns out those suck just as much as not having them, oops... Doesn't matter, he's going to wear this old man tie and look only kind of awkward in it.

He trusts Roland to do the rest of the actual choosing for him, since Roland is a suits guy, and so he simply shrugs about the shirt once he has the rest of this Black Suit. Not even blue or something, homie? Okay...]

Red, I guess, before I look too much like you.

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, ]

[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.

[ 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........ ]

[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....]

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. ]

[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.

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 ]

[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?

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. ]

[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...?

[ 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. ]

[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"]

[ 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??? ]

[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????]

( semi-open ) though it may hurt today

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