a happy place to dream about (slice of life horror, multi-chaptered)
Dean's rudderless when he limps ashore in West Cibola. 23, with nobody and nothing but a couple bucks and a broken-down old car to his name. It's October. Nothing's been right for a long time.
He turns 24 in a rundown long-stay motel room with an under the table turned actual job at an washed-up dive bar— the only place that'd take him without a real job history or a permanent address. It’s way off the tourist strip and the money’s terrible, but it’s steady.
Two years and some change later, just as the restlessness really starts to seep in, he meets Chuck Shurley for the first time.
That he knows of.
[Read on AO3]
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CHP 1 UP!
They end up back in Chuck’s usual booth, sitting on opposite sides. Chuck studies him as Dean intently crafts paper footballs out of a torn page, generously donated from the back of Chuck’s composition book. Dean shows him how to shape the goalpost with his hands, tsking as he adjusts him. Chuck looks from Dean’s hands, to his face.
“So. What are we playing for?”
“What? Oh, I dunno. Does it matter?” Dean asks, pausing where he was lining up a shot.
“We need something, or it doesn’t… doesn’t matter,” Chuck slurs, just a little. “C’mon, like— if you can land it, I’ll—” He abruptly holds up a finger like a lightbulb, before very deliberately pointing it at Dean.
“If you can get it in one shot, I’ll let Jess live.”
“Jess?” Dean squints at him blankly, then “Wait— ceiling girlfriend, right? Seriously? You can just… change things like that?”
“I mean, I’ll take it into consideration. Writing’s kind of ephemeral. Sometimes you’ve gotta let fate decide.”
“Sure,” Dean says, “And I’m fate?”
Chuck smiles warmly across the table at him.
“You know, you could kinda say that.”
