Janggunite's alarm went off at 7:30. He was awake, watching his darkened phone screen, just waiting for it to flicker to life with a chiming of bells and a warning of the time. He'd not gotten up so early in... a while.

But there were things that needed doing. He had to get them done.

He wished he could say that there was some event that sparked the newfound motivation. Maybe it had something to do with his burgeoning friendship with Lavendulan or Weissite. It was nice to have someone to talk to and do "normal" activities with. Maybe it happened after the battle during the fall. Feeling adrenaline and awake and alive made him want to feel more of that. Maybe it was seeing his little brother in the condo January Bloom owned and not feeling ready to not exist yet.

It was simultaneously all of those things (to have feelings after months of dreary apathy) and none of those things (they weren't triggers like Jan thought they might feel like). More than anything else, his mind just insisted that it was time.

It was time to stop behaving this way. There was nothing in the way of progress, of feeling better, of being active besides himself, just as it always had been.

When he'd been young and asthmatic and so scared of having an attack that he would quite literally nearly panic himself to death. When he'd been a teenager, desperately going to school and working and still caring for his dozen younger siblings because he was too afraid to do anything for himself because it might burden his family. ...When he moved back to Destiny City after finding actual success in California because, as he'd feared, his family fell to pieces without him. Now, they were largely gone.

It wasn't his fault. He had a right to be an individual, to make decisions that were important and beneficial to himself and to not feel guilty about it. If he would stop sabotaging himself with excuses for why he couldn't succeed or be happy, he'd be better off.

Things had always been shitty, so why was this so much different? Things had always been shitty, and he'd never just moped for nearly an entire year. January had always worked hard; he'd always given everything he possibly could and didn't pause to think if it was too much. Laying around, being pitiful and worthless and sad and alone and trapped-

It wasn't good for him.

He knew it wasn't good for him. He'd lost count of how many people had said as much. He'd failed at convincing himself to just do anything.

But it was time now. It just was.

Janggunite had woken early because this was when businesses in Destiny City started becoming active. He could've waited until later in the afternoon, but given his extremely limited time with which to maintain his civilian glamor, he couldn't afford to risk places getting busier later in the day. He needed to go to the DMV to renew his license and get new plates for his little Leaf. He needed to go to the bank, manage his debts and credit after a year of no work and automatic payments still coming out of his account. He needed to go to the realtor, arrange an estate sale, sell his condo, find a cheap apartment that would serve as January's address where he could keep a few of his things and park his car while he was in Negaspace. He needed to visit the office he'd leased for work and see if there was anything he needed to do there.

...He needed to call his base in California. What excuse for his prolonged absence could he possibly give them? For all his tasks in Destiny City, he was sure any excuse could work, 'I remember being in a bar...' Which was true. 'And then just flashes of dark rooms and monsters. It's all so blurry and surreal... And then I just woke up on the street! I set up a doctor's appointment to make sure I have all my organs still!' This city was so used to disappearances, he was sure anything could work. If it didn't, he could ask that the Negaverse have it arranged to be taken care of.

It was just his Californian job that would be harder to convince.

Even once all of that was done, there were still arrangements to be made in Negaspace. Janggunite would absolutely not be spending one moment longer in his tiny, cramped bunk in the barracks. He was a grown man who was accustomed to living in a house with all the comforts he expected. There was no way that was changing now.

A request to take over and renovate one of the destroyed houses in the area would have to be filed. Like Laven had done. He expected actual electricity and internet, because he expected to still have a real, paying civilian job. His job. The one he'd wanted since he was a child and had worked to get and was not prepared to give up. The house and the job. Those were his goals. That was all he wanted. Everything else was secondary.

Janggunite dressed, showered, readied for the day like a self-serving grown man should, then took his escort to Destiny City.

He wasn't dead, wasn't missing, and he wanted his god damned life back.