early deathday post, open to his cr from anywhere, game or psl

[goatsongs]

[Starting around the 15th of October, until the 22nd, Chuuya starts acting weirdly.

He doesn't want to be alone, ever. He won't go as far as physically clinging to you, but he'll make up excuses for joining you in whatever you're doing, even if it's as boring as watching grass grow. He's not as argumentative or bristly as he usually is.

He overeats, to the point of being bloated, and if he's questioned on it he gives a pained expression and changes the subject.

He doesn't drink alcohol. Not even one drop.

Whether you're in the National Library, or the City, or Yokohama, or anywhere - this is all alarming behavior for Chuuya. It might be time to ask him if something's going on.

Or you could just yell at him for bothering you for the third time in as many days, that's fine too, but don't be too surprised if you bring him to extremely uncharacteristic tears.]

Comments

[aquaticrush]

[Retasu hasn't been at the library in a while, which is probably because Chuuya lectured her about crushing on his coworkers and she's trying to listen to him. Even so, she didn't expect him to look upset when she walks in today.]

Um, hello...?

[goatsongs]

[At least it's not her fault that he's upset, this time.]

Hey.

[He raises a hand to greet her. His movements are more sluggish than usual.]

Looking for something?

[aquaticrush]

I just, um, I wanted to stop by and look again. This place always has a lot of interesting books, I mean, I suppose you know that already, and, um... Nakahara-san, are you tired?

[goatsongs]

[He makes a noncommittal sound to 'are you tired'. Yes, but he can't just sleep it off.]

Do you want to see the new arrivals? They're not on the shelves yet.

[aquaticrush]

Is that okay? I can help you get them labelled if you need. I don't mind.

[goatsongs]

It's not your job. You don't have to do work here.

[aquaticrush]

But I like being useful.

[goatsongs]

...I'm not going to stop you, but you know people get paid to do that, right?

[aquaticrush]

So I'm causing trouble? I'm sorry. Um, is there anything I can do to help you out?

[goatsongs]

You're not - it's fine. Things are fine. Do you just want to check out books?

[He doesn't want her to think she's being a pain and try to leave.]

[aquaticrush]

[Blinks. He's not yelling?]

Um, okay. I'm... glad things are going well? Has all your work been okay?

[goatsongs]

[Not yelling. Quieter than usual, actually.]

It's been normal. Nothing interesting to report there.

[chazukefang]

[Atsushi can't help noticing Chuuya being around him more than usual. It's normal for Chuuya to want him to stay in bed a little while longer, not stay in bed with him all day. He knows that Chuuya likes his food, but he didn't think he would overeat so much. Chuuya would stay with him sometimes while he stacked books before going off to do his own things for the day, not stay with him all day that he hasn't written one poem that day.

The most noticeable thing is the unopened bottles of alcohol in their fridge. There are new bottles there that hasn't been opened yet! He hasn't even messed with the other Dazai. Atsushi knows something is up, but he doesn't know how to approach it. He thought Chuuya had a bit of an off day so he didn't bring it up. However, after the third morning Atsushi can't put it off anymore.]

Chuuya? I'm going to take a day off today cause um I have something to ask you.

[He gave up trying to get dressed after seeing the look on Chuuya's face.]

Are you okay? Did something happen during a book delve?

[goatsongs]

[Atsushi knows him better than almost anyone else does - better than anyone else living here does, for sure. And Chuuya doesn't want to hide things from him... but hiding is the recourse he always falls back on.]

Nothing happened. You don't have to take off work for a silly reason like that.

[Never mind that Chuuya's been trying to get this same button on his cape done for two minutes.]

[ghostfromthemachine]

[ it is strange. not entirely unwelcome, admittedly, at least as far as his determination to stick close goes; as fluent as she is in both tsundere and the self-denial that comes with self-loathing, it can get tiring to deal with. the rest, though... by the 18th she's started getting the gut feeling that something is wrong, and the feeling comes along with a tug that takes her an embarrassingly long time to place as that recognition she sometimes gets. like calling to like.

but— she doesn't bother asking. not when she finally makes the connection between the sudden sense of familiarity and her own reactions to certain times of the year; not when it only takes a little bit of research to find a more in-depth biography than the one she's got in her head and check dates on her own. if she's right... no use in prodding already open wounds just to confirm her suspicions.

and because she is right, she continues not to say anything about it: not about the date, and not about his behavior. she allows him to stick close with hardly any of her usual poking, almost uncharacteristically quiet herself, and it's only near the end of the workday that she huffs and shakes herself out of her thoughts. ]

Mm— hey, Chuuya. Are you doing anything tonight?

[goatsongs]

I've got no plans.

[Not unless 'go to sleep as early as possible and get up as late as possible to just spend less time being awake' counts as a plan.]

What about you?

[ghostfromthemachine]

Well, I finally got around to buying a proper television, so I was thinking about having a proper movie night to break it in, so to speak.

[goatsongs]

Sounds fun.

[Or at least, distracting.]

Should I bring anything? Movies, snacks?

[ghostfromthemachine]

[ fOOD ]

Both? There's nothing saying we have to stop at just one movie; that way we could trade off.

[goatsongs]

Sounds good. I know what you like by now, or at least I've got an idea, but any allergies?

[He's going to eat so much.]

[ghostfromthemachine]

[ not if she steals most of the food :) ]

No allergies. ...I don't like eggplant, but somehow I doubt that's a concern in this case.

[goatsongs]

[she can't

he has to eat so much, and he knows why and it sucks]

Maybe I was going to bring nothing but eggplant chips, you don't know.

[ghostfromthemachine]

[ friend :(

giving him a mildly horrified look ]

I'm sure eggplant chips are perfectly fine if you like that sort of thing, but they aren't movie food.

[goatsongs]

I was just joking, I'm going to get actual movie food.

[ghostfromthemachine]

Good. Mm... If you bring snacks, then I'll make an actual dinner of some sort.